Work Text:
The Ribbon
He can still hear his mother yelling in his ears.
"No! I will not have that! You're staying! Jaime I swear to you, if you leave now you'll never be welcome in this house again!"
He hadn't cared much about it. He had just grabbed his bags, thrown them into the car and left for Kennedy Airport. He had soon forgotten his mother's warnings and threats - the thoughts of his sweet sister, waiting for him on the other side of the ocean, counting the hours until he would arrive had long taken roots in his mind.
With every second he came closer to her, waiting grew even more painful. His whole body was aching for her, he couldn't even sit still, couldn't decide what music to listen to. At some point he even got up and walked around, smiling like an idiot with his heart pounding furiously and his hands shivering.
He tried to sleep on the plane, but it was pointless.
Every time he closed his eyes he saw Cersei, lying in his bed on one of the many afternoons they had spend together when their parents where away and before their mother had found her in his bed one morning, naked and spent while he was holding his twin's hand, kissing it lovingly.
"Are you flying home to your family?" an elderly lady next to him asked after a while.
"Yes." Was his short answer and it wasn't a lie. Cersei was his family. Every day he had to spend apart from her was one day more he had lost.
"Some time apart will be good for you. You are almost 20 now; you need to learn how to live without each other." His mother's words, when she had sent his twin off to school in Paris, kept ringing in his ears. Without. Each. Other. There was no without each other. There was only together.
That night their mother had stayed up until late to read in the living room. She said she wanted to finish her book but truth was that she was guarding the room they both would have had to cross to reach the other one's chamber.
Cersei had tried to sleep that night, knowing that it would be her last chance to be with Jaime before she was to be shipped off to France. So at some point she had stolen her father's sleeping pills from the bathroom, crushed them and mixed them into a hot chocolate she then shared with her mother. She was asleep within minutes and Cersei had crossed the hall, went up the stairs to Jaime's room and had stayed there until dawn, until they were both covered in sweat from making love to another, heavily breathing and were but one instead of two.
When the first sunrays had painted beautiful pictures on his wooden walls, she had kissed him long and passionately.
"Promise me; promise me that there won't be another girl. Promise me you will not forget me while I'm gone."
He had never seen her so weak.
"I never could."
Tears only started to fall after she had closed his door. Cersei had run downstairs again and found her mother, still sound asleep, in the same armchair. Sudden rage was building up inside her. Every second she had spent apart from Jaime was a lost second and now she was going to leave him here for an indefinite period of time?
For a moment she considered strangling her, but then she turned away, leaving for her own room.
Jaime did not come to see her off when she left for the airport a few hours later. She only turned around once and looked up to his window. She caught a glimpse of him there. Their eyes met for a moment. She saw him covering his face with his hand to hide his tears and despair and turning away from the window.
But now, now he was arriving; she hadn't slept the last two nights she had even restrained from touching herself so it would be sweeter when he was be between her legs. She was filled with agony: Waiting was so painful and still so sweet.
The morning before he arrives she dresses up nicely in white silk. It's much too warm but she still wraps the red and golden scarf he has gotten her for their last birthday around her neck. He will recognize it the moment he sees it. She imagines how he comes towards her. His hair will probably be longer now, but will still be as blonde as hers.
When the plane lands on Charles-de-Gaulle he can't wait to get up. She has sent him a two lined text while he was up in the air.
I'm here already.
Waiting for you.
He grabs his bags from the luggage compartments and storms to the door before anyone else has even unplugged their seatbelts. They tell him to sit down again but he doesn't listen. He waits for eternity at the security checks, knowing that Cersei is only meters away from him. He can almost smell her now and feel her presence.
"What are your plans in the French Republic?"
"Visiting my… sister."
"Are you carrying any arms, goods or livestock?"
"No."
"Welcome to the European Union."
And then there it is. A blue stamp in his passport and he can finally leave. He picks up his luggage and then, then his steps get faster and faster until he stands in the arrival-hall. He recognizes her the moment he sees her wearing his birthday present.
She is so beautiful. Her legs are even longer and her hair is brilliantly blonde, just as his. He lets his bags fall and puts both of his arms around her tightly, relieved that she is with him again for now. He almost wants to cry.
"I've missed you so much." She whispers in his ear and buries one of her hands in his hair. She breathes in his scent, she can still smell traces of herself but wood and honey prevail.
She takes him home. It's incredibly warm in Paris even warmer than New York. They are both bathed in sweat before they even reach her flat. They hold hands all the way and for the first time, they don't feel watched or have to fear to be discovered at any second. It's just the two of them now.
They they stay awake the whole night through. It's been so long that they have been together, that they have been one. He places heated kisses on every part of her body he can reach and when she moans and breathes his name with a husky and exhausted voice, it is enough to finish him every time.
When morning dawns, they lie next to each other in silence.
"We should stay here forever."
"Mother would be furious."
"I don't care about mother or father or anybody else. Any law or priest or man who wants to tell me that the rightest thing in my life is wrong. I would never let you go." He turns towards her.
"We couldn't marry or anything."
"I'd marry you anyway."
She laughs.
"We will just go to some vicar or magistrate and be married."
"You are a fool." She smiles, but he climbs out of the bed and fumbles something out of his bag.
Grinning, he kneels before her on the other side of the bed.
"Cersei."
"Yes?" She laughs because it's just so funny how he kneels there.
"Sweet sister. Do you want to become my wife?" He laughs himself because he can't show her how serious he is about this while he is trying to make a small ribbon out of the band that he had around the grasp of his bag to be able to recognize it better at the baggage claim. Just after he succeeds, she looks at him and nods. He takes her hand into his and puts it on her ring finger. It's an engagement ring; a ribbon around her finger that will always remember her of him.
They don't go to search for a vicar to wed them. They mostly stay inside anyway and for the first week, they only leave the bed if necessary. The second week they finally leave the flat and explore Paris together. It's still so warm that they sometimes sleep during the whole day, entangled and not ever letting go until no one could ever tell where Jaime begins and Cersei ends.
He denies the day he has to leave again. He simply pretends it's not coming.
One morning he is sitting on the bed while Cersei is taking a shower, his head in his hands trying to imagine a life without her. He can't. It's impossible. Just when he feels the worst, she sits down next to him, still soaked with water. When she places her hand on his tight, he sees his ribbon again.
"Promise me; promise me that there won't be another man. Promise me you will not forget me while I'm gone."
"I never could, sweet brother. I'd rather die."
"I will marry you one day Cersei."
"I know." She says.
They both know it's a lie. They both know that they will never marry.
But Cersei will wear his ribbon around her finger and they will be together.
And that is all that matters.