Once they were alone, Jasper scooped Katherine up and placed her on his lap. They wrapped their arms around each other and she buried her face in his neck and took a deep breath of his cologne.
"I was so worried about you. I went to your room when I heard the first gun shot, but you were already gone. I would have never forgiven myself if anything had happened to you," Jasper said as he leaned into her hair.
She squeezed him even tighter, grateful that he was safe.
Katherine and Jasper had been each other's first everything.
Before he was found and brought to the castle, Katherine had spent all of her time surrounded by other adults. She did not have any siblings, and she was not allowed any friends apart from the other princes and princesses from the other lands in Titanus, whom she barely saw.
She was lonely, but once Jasper was done with his training, it literally became his duty to be with her all of the time.
He was fifteen and she was ten, so he was a little bit older, but they quickly realized that the age difference didn't matter and that they enjoyed each other's company.
As far as what he had told Katherine, Jasper too had grown up alone and without others. They were happy to have each other, and it was not long before they became each other's very first friend.
As they got older, they found themselves wanting to spend more and more time together.
After he would be relieved of his duties for the night, he would sneak into Katherine's room and they would stay up late watching movies, playing board games, or even just talking.
They confided their deepest, darkest secrets to each other.
Katherine would cry to Jasper about her fears of having to be the next Queen. Even at a young age, the rebels had been plotting to kill her, so her whole life had been spent behind castle walls. She was terrified that one day they would succeed in taking her life, but she was even more scared about the chance that she would never get to see the world before it happened because she was always in hiding.
Jasper was honest with her about his upbringing and how his family had been too poor to even afford housing. His parents took him to the outskirts of the woods, and they lived as best they could apart from society until his mom became too weak and too ill. The day she died was the worst day of his life, he told her, because not only did he lose his mom, but he lost his dad too. His dad took their pistol and held it to his own head. Jasper had come back from hunting to find them both, and was so shocked and scared that he ran and ran until he was close to the castle grounds. That's where the royal guards found him when they brought him to live at the castle.
Although their stories were vastly different, they found comfort in the fact that they finally had someone to talk to about their struggles.
They knew each other better than anyone else knew them, and it brought a level of intimacy and trust into their friendship, which caused it to slowly blossom into something else entirely over the years.
Soon after, Katherine started to notice how he would quickly look away and blush when she caught him staring at her, and how her hand would tingle when it brushed against his. She realized that her heart would skip a beat when she saw him from across the room, and how the smell of his cologne made her head spin.
They never once talked about their budding feelings for each other, but on Katherine's nineteenth birthday, after all of the festivities had concluded, instead of saying goodnight to her when they reached her bedroom, Jasper pushed her up against the door and pressed his lips to hers.
So, they had become each other's very first kiss.
Before she even had a chance to respond, he had let go of her and walked away, and she was left breathless outside of her room.
Butterflies danced in her stomach all night, and she found herself hoping that he would come back to her room and kiss her again.
The next morning when he came to her, she expected some sort of explanation, but instead he acted as if nothing had happened, so she did the same.
Months went by, and they continued on as they typically did, but Katherine realized that she wanted more.
One night when they were laying on her bed and watching a movie, she had decided that she could not push her feelings to the side anymore, so she paused the movie and sat up quickly to turn and face him.
"You kissed me. And then you never did again, and we never talked about it. Why?" she asked with anger and frustration in her voice.
Jasper cleared his throat and used his hands to help him move along the bed to sit up straight.
He looked right at her, but hesitated before he said, "It was a spur of the moment thing, and I was so worried after that I had crossed a line. After all, you're a princess and I'm basically Little Orphan Annie. It wasn't my place to have kissed you."
"Stop it Jas, you know I don't think of you as anything less than me. And if you were worried about crossing a line, then you wouldn't be in my bed with me right now, watching a movie in the middle of the night."
He did not say anything. He just continued to stare at her.
"So you regret it then?" she asked quietly, feeling suddenly all too vulnerable. She looked down to hide her emotions.
"No," he said with confidence, "But I still don't know how you felt about it."
She looked up and found his deep ocean eyes searching hers for answers. Without giving herself a second to think about it, she leaned forward and kissed him.
Jasper grabbed a fistful of Katherine's chocolate hair and kissed her back with such force and passion that she became dizzy.
They lost themselves in their desires for a while, and when they finally pulled away from each other, she whispered to him, "I love you."
She could see the emotion swirling in his eyes, and he did not let them leave her as he told her, "I love you too."
That's how they became each other's first loves.
The weeks went on and they continued to sneak kisses in the hallway when they were alone, or they would run away to hide in parts of the castle that were unused as they would whisper sweet nothings into each other's ears.
The two of them became experts at sneaking around, and it gave them the confidence to have Jasper sleep in her room every night. As long as he woke up before dawn, he was able to get back to his quarters without anyone noticing.
One night, the kissing and cuddling just wasn't enough, and they furthered their connection in the most intimate way they could.
So they became each other's first lover.
Neither of them had ever been happier, or more in love, and they cherished each other more than can even be put into words.
They continued on like that for a couple of years until the reality of their statuses started to set it.
Katherine had just turned twenty-two, and her parents started talking with her about finally getting married to Prince Charles Lux from the western lands of Eos. As much as she fought them against it, they made it clear that it was her duty to fulfill the contract that the parents had made for the prince and princess.
Since Jasper was her personal guard, he was present for all of those heated discussions and disagreements.
At the same time, word of strengthening rebel forces and possible attacks started to spread.
Jasper became more distant as he threw himself into finding out everything he could about the rebels and their plans.
He said that he stopped staying the night in her room so that he could track the rebellion, but Katherine could feel him pulling away.
"Just say it," she pleaded with him one night when they were alone.
"This is never going to work," he admitted as he gestured between the two of them. "We are from completely different worlds, and it was stupid for us to think that we could change that."
Tears filled both their eyes and Katherine simply whispered, "I'm sorry."
"Me too."
Jasper left her alone in her room, and nothing was the same between them after that.
And they became each other's first heartbreak.
Over the last year, they slowly came to terms with how things needed to be, and they were in a better place. They knew they couldn't be together, but they also knew that they loved each other too much to stay away from each other.
The rebel attack on the castle today only reaffirmed that for them.
So Jasper held Katherine in his lap while they were alone in the shelter, and he told her how relieved he was that she was safe.
When she finally found the words to respond, she told him, "Please don't leave me again."
"I wouldn't dream of it," he whispered.