#I wanted to the snippet to be indented but tumblr was bring a butt about it so I'm leaving it as it (I'm so irritated)

[thatcrazycrowgirl]

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You also get a bouquet of 🌹:) love you!

*happily takes bouquet*

@havatnah, my friend, thank you so much for sending me this a while back, and I'm sorry I didn't have anything presentable to share sooner. But looking through my documents, I did manage to find something decent from my 1888!Syndicate AU idea. It does feature my OC, Magnolia, buuuut despite that, I thought you'd appreciate some soft older!Jacob spending the morning in bed - so here you go! ;) Hope you enjoy this little WIP snippet! <3

A/N: For some context, this takes place post-JTR DLC, dealing with the repercussions of the events of the Autumn of Terror. (I think I wrote this up after watching a few episodes of "Ripper Street".) Features brief (not major) mentions of scars from wounds and a tiny bit of angst mixed with fluff - a word of warning, just in case?

Magnolia sucked on her bottom lip as she continued to look over the countless letters, photographs, and newspaper clippings with exhausted frustration. She hadn't bothered to rise from bed or even get dressed, as the contents of the papers distracted her not long after she woke up. But fortunately, despite the chill of the morning kissing her bare shoulders, the bed was still warm. Lying on her stomach, she crossed her arms and rested her chin on them with a huff.

"It doesn't make any sense!" she exclaimed in a louder whisper than intended.

"What doesn't…?" Jacob's voice, groggy and rendered even deeper than usual, due to just being roused from sleep, asked softly.

"All of this!" she responded immediately without thinking. It then occurred to her that she was no longer the only one awake, and that her outburst may have pulled her lover from his peaceful sleep. She glanced over at him sheepishly. "Oh. Sorry, didn't mean to wake you."

"Mmm…don't worry about it, love," he mumbled in return, still blinking the sleep from his hooded eyes. "It's probably time I got up, anyway." He attempted to stretch his muscles, and winced a little at the dull ache that still remained in some parts of his recovering body. Then, with as much effort as he could manage, he rolled over onto his belly and half rested himself upon the young woman's bare back. "Did you sleep well?"

She lifted a hand up and cupped his cheek in acknowledgement, her thumb brushing over one of his sideburns. "Yeah, just fine," she replied, throwing a small smile over her shoulder. "You?"

"Mmm-hmm…" he hummed, the tip of his nose dancing over her warm skin. He then grinned just a little. "You just about wore me out last night," he teased.

Sir Jacob Frye, the man who had barely a reason to smile over the last year, was now teasing - no - flirting again. Who'd have thought he still had it in him?

However, his smile faded when he didn't get much of a response back from his lover, and he looked up to see she was once again engrossed in the myriad of papers and pictures sprawled out in front of her.

He sighed.

He knew realistically that despite the Ripper now being deceased, his memory and the effects of his reign of terror over London wasn't going to immediately fade from the public's recollection. But that didn't stop the tiny, idealistic part of him that remained, even after all that had happened, to hope that he could settle back down to some level of normalcy in his life - including enjoying the company of his sweetheart in bed, without anything relating to the outside world bleeding in.

He pressed a gentle kiss upon her shoulder blade.

"Why don't you put those things aside for the moment?" he tried again, his lips still pressing kisses against her skin. "It's too early."

It was then that Magnolia seemed to finally catch onto Jacob's subtly needy tone, and she glanced over her shoulder once more. Seeing his eyes, when he lifted them to meet hers, she couldn't help feeling a little guilty for letting her borderline-obsessive need to piece things together to interrupt what should be a peaceful morning.

Her own eyes flickered with a hint of sympathy. ""Oh, Jacob…I'm sorry." She then gathered everything in front of her and tossed the pile onto the nightstand, not caring when some papers fell to the floor, before turning over onto her back and wrapping her arms around her lover's neck. "Come here…come here."

She gently pulled Jacob down towards her and met his lips sweetly. She heard him sigh contently into the kiss and she smiled a bit against his mouth. Deepening it, a soft moan escaped her. She wanted to him to know that he was still more important to her than her work. He had to know.

Nevertheless, he still pulled back momentarily. He looked a tad uncertain.

"You know, you don't have to do th–"

His words were silenced with another kiss.

"Trust me; obligation is the furthest thing from my mind," she then told him with a hint of a smile, before touching her forehead to his. "Thanks for bringing me back to the here and now."

A soft and relieved look surfaced in Jacob's eyes, and he brushed the tip of his nose against Magnolia's. "Thanks for being with me here and now," he cooed.

He kissed her once more before shifting his body somewhat to lay his head upon her shoulder. His nose now nuzzled against her neck, as she began to run one of her hands through his messy hair. Her other arm wrapped around his shoulders. Under her hand, she could feel the newly-healing scars on his skin and tried to ignore it. Now wasn't the time to be remembering their origins, just as now wasn't the time to be sorting through the pages that bore the name of the monster who inflicted those wounds. Now needed to be a time of quiet, of respite, of love.

She kissed him again.