(A/N: this is it, guys. It's been quite the ride! Thank you for taking it with me!)

OOOOO

"So," he said some time later, "the day the princess broke her leg…"

Jane, who had felt as if she were floating in a warm and sated haze, furrowed her brow, puzzled. "Yes? What about it?"

"What about it, indeed?" he countered, one corner of his mouth twitching, an unmistakably teasing light in his eyes.

She could see it because just moments ago, he'd left the bed to build her fire back up. They were already snuggled up again, though – a jumble of limbs and blankets and tumbled hair, just reveling in their closeness.

"Anything you would like to disclose?"

"Uh, no, I –"

"No life-changing revelations I should maybe know about?"

"Gunther, what –"

That teasing half-smile widened into an outright grin. "About how that was the day you knew you loved me, perhaps?"

Her eyes widened. For just a fraction of a second, confusion was writ large in her expression – then everything clicked into place.

"Oh my G – what – how did you –"

Still grinning, he dropped a kiss on her forehead. "You talk in your sleep, you know. Rather a lot, actually."

"I what!?"

"Oh, yes. All manner of topics –"

"WHAT ELSE?"

"Well, apparently you enjoyed what we did in the woods that night very much –"

"You are making that up!"

"Which part? That you enjoyed it, or that you said so? As for how much you enjoyed it, only you can truly tell, but as for whether you announced that you enjoyed it, well, that most certainly did happen – and with your mother in the room, I might add."

"NO! Gunther! No! You cannot be serious, this is a disaster –"

"Shhhh," he murmured, levering himself up on one elbow and running his thumb over her lips – they were swollen, almost bruised, from all the kissing they had done this night. "She was asleep, Jane – fast asleep. I mean, obviously. I am still alive, am I not?"

She stared up at him for a moment, looking as if she really wanted to be angry – and then burst into helpless laughter. And pulled him back down, into yet another kiss.

OOOOO

"But did you know that day?" he asked drowsily, several moments later. "Was that really… when?"

"Yes," she said. She was lying with her head cushioned on his shoulder. "Yes, that was when. Not when it started. But that was when I knew."

"You said that too. When you were… dreaming."

"You mean delirious."

His arms tightened around her, almost spasmodically. 'I do not want to think about that."

"I got through it. You got me through it."

"I put you there in the first place."

"Gunther –"

"I will never be able to make that up to you. But I will never stop trying. I love you, Jane. So much."

She sighed. Let her eyes fall closed. "When did you start?"

"Start?"

"Loving me, dung brain. When did you start?"

"Dung brain?" He gave one of her curls a sharp little yank.

"Ow!" She started to push herself up, caught between amusement and annoyance, but he dropped his lips to the hollow above her collarbone, and then he dragged them slowly, tantalizingly… lower… and then he did something that made her shudder and gasp, and forget all about being annoyed.

OOOOO

"But… when did you, though?" she asked, once she was capable of coherent speech again.

"Start loving you? That is an impossible question, Jane."

"What –"

"I cannot answer it because I do not think there was ever a time I did not love you. There was a while before I knew – just like you described. There was a while before I understood."

"Gunther, I… no, that cannot... we were not particularly nice to each other for at least the first –"

"Oh, I never said I always liked you," he broke in, flashing that devilish grin again. "That is an entirely different matter. "But Jane –" he grew serious once more. "I did not have a… a happy childhood. And the moment I saw you I think I realized – not at the front of my mind, no, but somewhere near the back – that here was… here was… what had been missing. Here was what could make everything all right again. No, not again – that would imply that things had been right before. And nothing was right before you. Here was what could make everything all right… at last. Here was –" he dropped his eyes away from hers, his voice cracking on the last word – "home."

She sucked in a deep breath. Reached out and grasped his chin, compelling him to raise his head and meet her gaze again. "Do you mean it?"

"With all my heart."

"And you will never… pull away again, like –"

"I will never stop kicking myself for that. Please believe my intentions were only to try and protect you but oh my God, I was so wrong. Worst mistake of my life – and I swear to you, Jane, I will never repeat it. I do not deserve another chance, but –"

"You do," she said fiercely, "yes, you do."

"But if you give me one," he continued, "I have a feeling things might reach a point where you will be tempted to chase me off with a stick, because that is the only way I will ever leave your side."

She laughed at this, but then sobered again. "Do you really think," she asked, "that after everything… everything we have been doing all night – " (she blushed prettily as she said this) – "I would just, what, turn you out and say, second chance denied!?"

He looked down again, for a long time, restlessly picking at a loose thread on her coverlet. Then cleared his throat and said, "if you wanted to torture me the way I know I tortured you, that would be a good way to do it."

"Gunther! I would never do that. You are completely impossible sometimes, but deliberately torture you? Never in life. I want you safe, I want you happy, I want us together. Those are my priorities, not torturing you, which you do well enough yourself. And which, by the way, you need to stop. Everyone makes mistakes. I have made plenty."

"Absolutely not," he said. "You are perfect."

"That is complete rubbish and you know it!"

"I will thank you not to speak that way about the woman I love, or we are about to have our first argument as… what are we exactly, now?"

She reached out and caught his face in both her hands. "Us," she said. "We are us. And every mistake led us here. So while I would take care not to repeat them, I am not going to waste time regretting them either. I love you, Gunther Breech. So very, very much."

"Not as much as I love you," he said, that challenging light back in his eyes.

Jane sighed. Trust him to choose this moment to go and be… difficult. Fortunately, however, she had a brand-new weapon at her disposal. And ever the dedicated knight, she had absolutely no qualms about using whatever weaponry she came by.

Would there be arguments? – Of course there would. Gunther was still Gunther and, yes, she was still Jane. Nothing in either of their essential natures had changed. There would be arguments.

But she knew, now, how to end them.

Most effectively, in fact.

Just as she intended to put an end to this one, before it ever really got off the ground in the first place.

So, still holding his face in both her hands, she pulled him down to her, sealed her lips to his, and cut off all speech for quite some time.

OOOOO

FIN

OOOOO

(A/N: I'm considering a sequel set a couple of years in the future that would plunge them back into heart-wrenching, soul-crushing angst, cause that's how I roll, lol! But it wouldn't be up for a while - I need a little breather. So for now, let them bask in their happiness! But yeah - possible continuation at some point :)