#thread: jackson + celestia

[gvldntrbl]

Jackson + Celestia (ft. Evren's body) @theartofruling

Gerard Estate, Northland Falls

-🧸-

The removal of the veil brought forth new changes for many in Lume. Even Evren. A part of the guardian nymph quietly hoped to hear from her twin again. To have some way to reconnect, however brief, with the other soul that arrived with her into the world. And while Evren had yet to hear from Ruslan, she did reconnect with an old close friend. Celestia D'Amati. And although Celestia returned wearing a completely different face and form, Evren knew that it was her. She'd missed the fellow nymph. It was why the Acting Monarch whole-heartedly agreed to help Celestia reunite with her loved ones. First had been her husband and mate, Lorenzo.

And now, Celestia stood, awaiting to meet Jackson as she wore Evren's form. She arrived to the estate unexpected and Evren Can certainly wasn't listed in the Count's appointment book for today. Quiet nerves thrummed through her and she felt Evren's chest lower and rise more noticeably with each breath she took. It had been far too long since she'd laid eyes on Jackson Gerard. He'd been her second mate and a complete surprise. Albeit, a truly beautiful one. Without him, their sweet baby girl Geneva would not exist. Her face flushed with unspoken emotion when Jackson finally appeared. Like the first intake of crisp air after reaching the summit of a mountain. "Anima gemella," She greeted him around an exhale, the corners of her lips upturned into a smile. It was a nickname for Jackson that Celestia always called him. One of the several she had for him. Especially after he stopped fighting their mate bond. Her soulmate. "Hi." She whispered, voice rich with emotion. A visual vulnerability was noticeable in Evren's form, something that the former Valkyrie turned Monarch wouldn't have done. Unless she was either completely comfortable with Jackson or was someone else entirely. Dark brown eyes scanned Jackson's face for any hint of familiarity. "Please tell me that you know who I am." She said in a rushed murmur, as if praying to Mother Nature to grant her this one favor.

[gvldntrbl]

-🧸-

Tan hands, instead of Celestia's usual paler ones, moved from holding Jackson's head to lovingly thumb away tears that streaked down the swell of his cheeks as she raised his face from the crook of her neck. "Always," She confessed, conviction firm in her tone and the dark brown eyes gazing back at him resolute in the emotion. "I will always come back for you. I wouldn't leave you," Celestia swore, her tears rolling down the cheeks of the new face she temporarily wore. Her heart ached again at the rare sight of Jackson openly weeping. Celestia's gaze hardened in the face of the truth that he'd avenged her murder. Evren's nostrils flared with Celestia's emotion, deep seeded anger coursed through her. "...Good," She murmured, the new dark eyes hard as flint. And then, Celestia's voice softened as she continued holding Jackson's face in her hands. "Thank you," Normally, she would've never thanked him for ending her murderers. But then again, Celestia hadn't experienced being murdered before.

"Not what I wanted? Maybe a minute before they killed me, yes, I would've disagreed. But knowing what I know now. After experiencing their glee, their excitement as they... killed me. Knowing how they took pleasure in ending my life and taking me away from my life. Our family. Geneva. ...You." Celestia listed before sighing. "The Celestia they took and the one I am now..." A thumb swiped again, over Jackson's cheek, to dry away his tears. "I understand that side of you, so much more, now." She shared. A fact that a former part of her hated - having such viciousness revealed to her behind the veil. Celestia smiled, a soft, partial one, upturned her lips when he caressed her cheek. She'd missed him. Deeply. A light chuckle, one near empty but still genuine, left her when he mentioned the obvious change in her eye color. Her partial smile easily spread into a full one. "Yours, always yours." She murmured as their foreheads pressed together. "Thank you, my love, for seeing me."

Celestia paused, her face crumpling at the harsh realization that neither mate could no longer feel each other. Not as they'd grown accustomed to in the decades since their bond revealed itself. "I can't feel you either," She whispered, forehead wrinkling at the lack they both felt because of it. A tanned hand moved again to press against the top of Jackson's chest, right above his heart. "But I know you." She replied, her forehead still to his as she continued. "I know your heart. And it will be okay. We'll find new ways to make the best of what we have now. Half a heart is still a heart. It still beats, still calls out to me. And I am still here. No matter who I am now, my heart will always sing back the refrain of yours. Our hearts will beat to melody of our love." The former nymph was a ghost but she would stay for as long as possible." For a brief series of moments, after Jackson requested she stay, Celestia seemed visibly distracted as she internally spoke with Evren. After all, she did appear to Jackson's home wearing Evren's literal body. The distant expression left her eyes and, moments later, Celestia leaned up and closed the short distance between her and Jackson with a kiss before sending him another smile. "I'm not going anywhere. You have me, all night, I promise."

She paused. "But first, Evren needs five minutes back in control and then I'm yours for the rest of the night."

The wait between the moment he asked if it was her and the moment Celestia confirmed was mere seconds, but for Jackson, it was a lifetime in those seconds. He breathed out a relieved sigh. Although nothing about her was the same physically, he didn’t care right now. She was here. How many days had he spoken to the air, believing maybe she heard him? How many days had he wished it was all a bad dream that she was taken from him? The reinforced dam of emotions he kept locked down burst open. “You have nothing to apologize for. You’re here. You came back to me.” Tears that no one ever saw him shed prior fell down his cheeks. “They took you and I devoted every waking moment to finding who took you. I ended them all.” There hadn’t been a corner or shadow safe from Jackson Gerard. He lived up to the joke of a nickname of being the second coming of Jack the Ripper. 

“I don’t know if you wanted that, I couldn’t allow them to live happy lives when our world was torn apart. I tried to be better for Geneva and Lorenzo after that.” Truth be told, he just became an emotional vault locking away sadness and grief to be strong for them. He lifted his gaze from where his face was buried in the crook of her neck to meet her gaze. It was all wrong, but he still saw her. “I still see you. The way you stand, your posture, your breaths even the way your heart would flutter when I would touch you.” He reached up and caressed her cheek. “Even the eyes. Wrong color but you look at me with a recognition Evren could never achieve. My Tia,” he said, resting his forehead against hers. 

“The hardest part of this, has been that I can’t feel you. I fought so hard to not want to at the start and now it feels like half of my heart is missing.” The grief of losing a mate is more painful than anyone could imagine. He lived in agony daily. “Can you stay a while? Can I…” he heaved a frustrated sigh as tears fell again. “Can I just be with you tonight? Please I…just need you here. Please stay.” The last plea was whispered and his eyes downcast. He felt like the facade slipped away and the shell of a man lost without was there. Stripped bare of his gusto and charm, he stood desperate for time. Time with her in any way he could get it. 

[gvldntrbl]

-🧸-

Celestia felt it, the exact moment Jackson recognized her. Wrapped in hesitant hope, it was there. Returning to Lorenzo was hard enough. But Jackson Gerard was something else entirely. The journey of their love and matebond was completely different than her first with Lorenzo. For a vampire who stubbornly struggled against their bond, once he embraced it, Jackson loved her with the same intensity. A love that was as fierce and passionate as he was. But beneath that was Jackson. The sweetest, most caring soul that Celestia ever met. He was gentle and even more fragile than others thought. He was more than what met the eye. If Lorenzo was the ground that Celestia walked upon, the stability of earth beneath her feet, then Jackson was the very air in her lungs. Existence on the other side, beyond the thin veil that seperated the dead in Lume from the living, was difficult without them both. Without the life she'd known. Her children. Her family. Just as their hearts grieved and yearned for Celestia, hers did on the other side. The nymph's spirit ached with how much she missed them and longed to return, however briefly, to join them, once more.

Evren's dark brown eyes, a stark contrast to Celestia's former blue, filled with tears at the sound of Jackson's voice and his nickname for her on his lips. And when they fell, the saltwater seemed to cool Evren's heated cheeks, mere moments before Jackson ran to her at vampire speed, his form a blur before suddenly appearing tall and solid before her. "It's me," She acknowledged, glad that Jackson knew her. He felt the same. Jackson's form felt familiar in weight, size, smell, and feel. The thought settled within her as he pressed their foreheads together. Yet he fit differently. The arms that she used to hold him weren't her own. In Evren's body, she was taller than she was used to when holding Jackson. He felt familiar and she, herself, felt like a foreigner. Despite her friend's approval. In that moment, she felt a tsunami of emotions. Jackson's, Evren's empathy for them both, and her own. A mix of frustration and hurt along with bittersweet relief. Celestia wasn't the same but she wanted to be. In that exact moment as she felt emotions enough for three beings, she longed to be herself, how she was before she was taken away. "Oh, sweetheart. It's me, I promise." She swore in a rushed whisper, hands cupping the back of Jackson's head when he tucked his face into the crook of her neck. Evren's form shook in his arms as Celestia cried, experiencing Jackson's unfiltered emotions with him. "I'm so sorry." She apologized thickly, her palm running over the waves of his low caesar haircut, wanting to both reassure and soothe Jackson. Celestia wasn't sure if she meant her unexpected death or the time it took for her to somehow contact him. Likely both. "My love, I'm so sorry."

Relaxing was in short supply now that he was filling in for Markus and the vampire and his wife were finally taking a much needed break. He would happily take it on for the man any day. He worked too much, and this was a special time he needed to take lesser on to spend more time with his girls. But today was a Jackson day, one where he spent his time at home. It was one of those rare days when he wasn’t acting as River’s second skin. 

It was a day when he just needed time to himself because Celestia was on his mind. Jackson never fully let on how much he missed his other mate. He was the strong one for Geneva and hell sometimes even for Lorenzo, he chose quiet moments alone in his studio to paint it out. Today though, the muse wouldn’t come and he felt at a loss to do more than watch mindless hours of television. The task felt less thought provoking than other tasks he could be doing, but sometimes, grief left you to only exist. 

When the doorbell rang, it brought him out of his daze of simply existing and pushed him forward back into life. He wondered who could be here with no appointments, no previous calls. He knew it wasn’t his girls they both had keys. When he opened the door, confusion spread across his features. He opened his mouth to say something. To ask why Evren was there, but his observant nature got the better of him. Her posture was different. The nickname that fell from her lips was not hers to say, not to him. And she wouldn’t have said that to him. Not her. But…he didn’t want to hope. There were rumors of the veil being down and possession being a thing. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Tia?” He asked, not wanting his heart to swell with the possibility that in some way he had gotten her back. “Has to be. Evren wouldn’t fuck with me like this,” he said more to himself than her. In a rush of motion at vampire speed he closed the distance pulling her into his arms. 

She felt different. Smelled different, but it had to be. He closed the door behind them, pressing his forehead against hers. “Baby, please tell me it’s you. Please.” His heart ached and his eyes blurred with unshed tears. “Honestly, if it’s not just lie at this point because I really need it to be you, Tia.” His hold on her didn’t cease, instead he buried his face into the crook of her neck and simply closed his eyes to imagine the woman that she was. He knew he should have asked about Evren or even mentioned her but right this moment anything that wasn’t about Celestia didn’t matter.