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Post by Bella Swan on Dec 9, 2008 16:47:45 GMT -5
OOC: I couldn't resist...
Bella couldn’t believe it was only just past eight o’clock in the evening, her head was spinning with all the new information it had received that night. Her theory was true. Edward was dangerous by nature, but he had saved her so many times. He had followed her to Port Angeles just to keep her safe. This thought sent a pleasant shudder through her stomach as she stepped into the steaming shower. She couldn’t believe that Edward Cullen was protecting her again, he was protective of her. It didn’t make sense, but she wasn’t complaining.
As she stood under the roaring shower, she looked down at her arms, visualising the lingering sweet scent of the vampire running off them. She inhaled, her brain vaguely recalling it, how it lingered in his jacket, how concentrated it was in his breath. She closed her eyes, remembering his face, inches away from hers.
Sleep well, the best her memory could reproduce made his voice sound like it had been put over a cheese grater. Not like the cushion-soft velvet it really was. She stepped out of the shower after a good long soak, her teeth beginning to chatter immediately as the cold air surrounded her wet form. The night had continued to grow colder and windier, but it was stupid to expect more than one good half-day of sunshine in this part of the Olympic Peninsula. She skittered quickly from the bathroom to her bedroom, which held no more heat, but it did contain the old sweats and t-shirt that she slept in.
Once dressed in her almost ragged night clothes, she dived on to the bed, ignoring the fact that her long hair was still wet, and nestled into the quilt. She closed her eyes, the light still on as she was not planning to actually fall asleep yet, she still had to finish off an assignment. Her thoughts meandered through the information once more - Edward was a vampire, he could locate her by her scent, something strange happened in the sun (but it did not cause him to spontaneously combust), he survived off blood and he thirsted for hers, he was dangerous and he was perfect. From the tone of the brief phone conversation she had with Jessica, it sounded like she like she wanted all the information in the morning. Bella vaguely wondered what to tell her - not the truth, that was for sure!
As her brain continued to recycle through the recently acquired knowledge, Bella did not realise that her consciousness was slowly fading and she fell asleep, with the final conscious thought:
I am unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.
A happy smile graced her lips as she lost the final strings of consciousness, the light still on, lying on her back with her wet hair splayed around her head.
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Post by Edward Cullen on Dec 9, 2008 23:32:39 GMT -5
When Edward returned to the Swan house that evening he saw that Bella's light was still on. She's up late. He thought to himself, figuring he knew exactly why. Once the shock of everything he had confirmed tonight had set in for her she must be terrified! Too terrified to sleep even. He wondered if he should turn back. Or maybe go up there and tell her that if she wanted him to, he'd leave town, anything so that she felt safe.
As Edward scaled up the side of the house to peer into her window he saw that she wasn't up pacing as he had expected but she was laying on her bed asleep, she must have just forgotten to turn the lights off. He slowly eased the window open, being careful not to make too much noise and wake Charlie, though over the sound of his snoring that might be hard to do.
Edward went into the bedroom expecting to see Bella tossing and turning from what he could only imagine would be a nitemare after today. Instead he saw laying there, wet hair surrounding her face, and a small smile upon her lips. How could she be happy with everything she now knew? It didn't make sense to him. He was sure that by now she would have come to her senses about him.
As much as he enjoyed looking at her in the light he thought she'd sleep better with it off. Also, should Charlie get up in the night, if he saw her light still on, he may come to check on her. Edward quietly walked over and turned it off.
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Post by Bella Swan on Dec 10, 2008 23:01:15 GMT -5
Though her conscious mind was not aware of the change of lighting and company in the room, her dreams began to reflect both. Before her mind had been peacefully blank, a vague yellow halo threading through the nothingness. However, as the yellow was extinguished, the pitch black began to shift and morph into a sinisterly familiar scene.
Bella opened her eyes to the leafy canopy overhead, a vague shimmer of moonlight awakening her from the unplanned slumber. She sat up and looked around the forest, realising that she was just off the trail at the back of Charlie’s house. She must have fallen asleep on an unaccustomed stroll out into the greenness, it was a bit strange, but Bella’s dream self didn’t seem to think anything of it. Instead she pulled the ivory jacket further around her slender torso, the lovely sweet scent of the vampire rising up and assaulting her senses. She smiled and began to crunch through the undergrowth, leaving the well-beaten path, but again, this was not something her dream self was concerned with.
In physical reality, the only sign that Bella’s body gave that she was dreaming was a vague contented sigh, and she tossed over to her side, wrapping herself in her own lengthy hair.
However, things weren’t going so swimmingly in her dream as it began to turn into the same one that had been recurring since her visit to La Push. The night sky had darkened further, the chill had increased, but for some reason Bella’s stride was filled with purpose, her heart bursting with enthusiasm for her destination. She didn’t have to wait for long though.
“Edward!” a delighted tone erupted from her lips in both the dream world and the real one.
Standing in a clearing that inexplicably bounced with light, was Edward Cullen, a suave grin gracing his features. She was dazzled instantly, her heart rate increasing and a flush stealing over her face in both realities. Interestingly he held out an icy hand to her, tantalisingly just out of her reach. She just needed to step forward to take hold of it. However, before she could take that one step into the vampire’s waiting arms, there was a loud growl from beside her, erupting from a deep russet coloured wolf. Bella gasped, startled, watching as the wolf began to prowl around the clearing, keeping the low growl rumbling from its throat. She looked back at Edward, still standing with the arm outstretched, waiting for her, seemingly unconcerned by the impending peril heralded by the presence of the wolf.
“No,” she said softly to the giant beast, her heart aching at the thought that this creature may be tough enough to destroy the vampire she loved. She closed the gap between herself and Edward, committing herself to that side of the alliance. Her hand closed on his, the ice cold tingle running up her arm, the scent befuddling her brain and she turned back to the russet wolf, brown eyes ready for the onslaught.
Bella’s breath suddenly drew inwards in a great gasp as she sat bolt upright in her bed, her damp hair wrapped around her head in something akin to a bird nest style. She took a moment to remember how to breathe, the senses of being that close to Edward Cullen still eerily real to her. And then she saw why. The moonlight filtering in through her thin curtains illuminated the room just enough for her to make out the shapes of the familiar furniture. She couldn’t remember having a boy shaped cupboard. Adrenaline released itself into her veins, though the natural response to call for help was stopped dead by something else.
“Hello?” she called out timidly, allowing just enough time for her eyes to adjust to the light. Finally, her brain registered that there were only so many six foot tall boys, that were slender, with uniquely shaped hair and the ability to get into her room in the dead of night without alerting her father. “Edward?”
The name came out as a squeak as she simultaneously realised what she was wearing, how her hair was lying; her face stained a deep red.
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Post by Edward Cullen on Dec 11, 2008 0:08:34 GMT -5
Watching Bella dream truly fascinated Edward. He had very little memory of what it felt like to sleep, and remembered even less about dreaming. He was most aware of dreaming when he listened to people's thoughts as they remembered them. Sometimes if a person would picture their dreams he could almost see what it was like for them.
He knew that if he dreamt now, all of his dreams would be about Bella. She was the only thing that occupied his thoughts since he first took in her smell. Edward took in a deep breath now, still feeling the familiar burning pain of the thirst, but doing better at resisting it. It wasn't as if it was any less tempting to him, but he had started to feel more in control. He knew it was foolish of him to keep risking it like this and allowing himself to be alone with her. He knew it was just asking for trouble, but he had even less willpower to stop himself from coming to see her.
He stared at her face through the shadows as she dreamed, watching as her expression would change slightly ever few seconds. Occaisionally he'd see a rush of blood to her cheeks, making him smile to see that she even blushed in her dreams. There was even a smile upon her lips. This surprised him as he was sure her dream tonight would be filled with monsters and killers.
Then he heard her say his name. Her dream had been filled with at least one monster. But she still didn't have a frightened tone to her voice. She should be screaming his name in panic, running away from him in both her dreams and reality. Did this girl have no survival instinct whatsoever?
It wasn't long before she gasped and sat upright. Edward backed up quickly against the wall, hoping that in the shadows she wouldn't notice him and would go back to sleep. Deep down he knew that if he really wanted her to not see him, he could have left before she even saw the blur of his movement. But she had him drawn to her.
He heard her voice again, this time awake calling out to him. He knew he had been spotted. Maybe he had even wanted him to see her just so that he could be close to her again. He wondered if she would be afraid now. She should be afraid of a creepy stalker vampire who watches her sleep. But knowing Bella she wouldnt do the smart thing and she'd think nothing of it. He loved her for that as much as it infuriated him.
He slowly stepped out of the shadows walking towards Bella. He would have said something if he had any idea the appropriate words to say when you've been discovered watching someone sleep. He instead stayed silent trying to read her facial expression to see what she was thinking now that she had seen him.
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Post by Bella Swan on Dec 14, 2008 15:31:41 GMT -5
As the vampire slowly unfurled from the shadows, Bella felt the tension release from her muscles. She could feel them loosening up as that familiar feeling of safety came over her. What could possibly go wrong with Edward there? Unless there was a reason he was here, had something happened with those men in Port Angeles? Bella’s brain was still in the process of waking up, though, and she couldn’t quite put the worries into words.
“Edward?” she said again, as he came properly into focus. She lifted her hands to her eyes and rubbed them, as if she was trying to see what was really there. After all, why would Edward be in her room? Even if something had gone wrong in Port Angeles, she couldn’t imagine that he would come back and tell her. “What are you..?”
She trailed off as her brain became more active and she crawled towards the end of her bed, a concerned look gracing her sleepy features. She dragged the quilt along with her, not eager to flaunt the unflattering holes and threadbare seams to the vampire she admired so much. Her breath caught in her throat as she assumed the worse.
“What’s wrong?”
Of course, it could just have been that he had considered her too big a risk, now that she knew his secret. Maybe he had come to remove the evidence, but that thought didn’t even cross the girl’s mind.
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Post by Edward Cullen on Dec 14, 2008 23:20:37 GMT -5
Edward watched the questioning look that appeared on Bella's face as she was most likely trying to figure out what he was doing here. He had expected her to yell at him for intruding on her privacy, or at least to be backing away in fear of why he was here, or yelling for her father. That's what any other girl would do. But she was so unpredictable to him. Edward had started to believe that even if he knew her thoughts, she would still be unpredictable to him. She would never act the way he expected, and it excited him.
"I should go" Edward told her, though he made no movement towards the door. Instead he took another step closer to her at the end of the bed. He knew he should be going and not allowing himself to get this close to her, but he couldn't help himself.
He saw the concern as she assumed something was wrong. But he also saw that her concern was not the fact that she now knew there was a vampire in her room. He could see in her eyes she still had that trust in him that he tried desperately to talk her out of.
"Nothing is wrong. " He answered. It was the truth, but he knew it didn't answer what she really wanted to know from him.
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Post by Bella Swan on Dec 15, 2008 13:24:58 GMT -5
The fact that there was nothing wrong did wonders for Bella’s anxiety, leaving her free to worry about petty things such as her appearance and just what he was doing there in her room. She pushed herself up so that she was sat cross-legged on the end of her bed, the quilt wrapped around her middle, fanning out around her.
“Don’t go,” she told him, looking up at him from where she sat. He seemed even taller from her position, technically more threatening, yet she still couldn’t muster any feeling of danger from within. It was just absent. She tilted her head at him, a curious look in her brown eyes once she was satisfied that he wasn’t going anywhere - only closer.
“So what are you doing here, Edward?” she flinched as she heard a stutter in Charlie’s snoring next door. He would flip if he discovered she had a boy in her room at this time of night. Happily, however, the steady rumbling continued a moment later and, for once, Bella was actively pleased that her father was a heavy sleeper. She shot Edward a sarcastic look. “I’m not allowed boys in my room after midnight, you know.”
From the look on her face she was much more filled with curiosity than any kind of worry. To her, if Edward had told her that there was nothing wrong, then there was no reason to fear. Although the two of them were only at the beginning of sharing a bond with each other, it already felt natural and safe for the vampire to watch over her.
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Post by Edward Cullen on Dec 15, 2008 23:42:20 GMT -5
Edward could see just how readily Bella accepted his answer that nothing was wrong. She believed in him. The trust he had seen in her eyes hadn't diminished even after what she had learned to be true about him. How was that possible. How could she still so blindly accept from him that things were okay, just because he said they were?
Her telling him not to go was enough reason for him to stop trying to convince himself to go out that window and head home. Both she and her urges were encouraging him to do the reckless thing. To stay here. "I won't leave if you want me here" He told her, knowing that as soon as she said she wanted him out, he wouldn't protest.
Edward couldn't help but smirk as she mentioned how her father wouldn't approve of him being in her bedroom. "I dont think you'd be allowed to have me in your room for more reasons than my gender if he knew what you did" He told her. He wasn't concerned about Charlie interupting them. They would both hear the change in his snoring if he was awake, and if he was going to check on Bella, Edwad would know with enough time to make himself scarce.
He knew she deserved an answer to why he was here. But he wasn't sure what to expect from telling her the truth. "I..." He hesitated as his smirk disappeared from his face. "enjoy...watching you sleep."
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Post by Bella Swan on Dec 16, 2008 10:57:54 GMT -5
Although Bella didn’t respond to Edward’s agreement to stay, her brown eyes widened and her heart stuttered as she looked directly into his face. Darn his dazzling tendencies. The added knowledge that he could hear the embarrassing stutters in her heart beat every time he looked at her caused Bella to flush hotly. She pressed her cold hands up against her cheeks, tearing her eyes from his face.
“It’s not fair when you do that, you know,” she mildly reprimanded him for having that uncanny ability to get under her skin. However, as she did not want to linger on her own human foibles, now that she knew that he didn’t have any, she swiftly changed the subject, though she found his smirk to be just as enrapturing as his eyes. It was still the better option, though, she was a whiz at sarcasm and knew just how to wield it - so long as she wasn’t distracted. Thus she tilted her head back and met his smirk with one of her own, one of her delicate brown eyebrows raised.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she teased, lightly. “I don’t think Charlie would care if you were the meanest vampire in the land or Mike Newton, he’s still give you a run for your money.”
She laughed, very quietly, over-anxious not to wake her father and cut the surprise meeting short. She had an urge to eat up this alone time with Edward, she greedily wanted to keep him there for every single minute she could. She leant back on her palms so that she could see him properly from his great height whilst she listened to his reasons for being there. A reason that made the red on her cheeks increase exponentially and her heart to stutter once more, why would he like to watch her sleep?
“Creep,” she told him, her tone light and unmistakably in jest as she tried to distract him from her bodily embarrassments. “So you were just going to stand there all night and watch me sleep? It would be stupidly boring… Besides, what about you? We have school tomorrow, you know.”
Her look turned to one of curiosity as she wondered if he did need to sleep. She had assumed that he did, whether vampire or not, there was all sorts of myths about coffins and native soil weren’t there? Then again, there seemed to be a lot about vampires that the books and movies had gotten wrong. She shifted a little, her neck growing stiff at the acute angle it was in.
“You’re awfully tall up there,” she commented, softly.
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Post by Edward Cullen on Dec 16, 2008 23:52:25 GMT -5
Edward watched as she flushed and her heart began to flutter. Such human traits that on anyone else he might find annoying he found absolutely adorable when they belonged to Bella. She quickly reprimanded him for causing these responses in her, causing him to smile. "It's not my fault you have such little control over your own body"
He gave a wider grin as she spoke of her father's reations. "Oh I don't doubt he would, but I think his motivation to run me out for putting your life in danger would be even stronger than his distaste of males in here...but I could be wrong"
Edward let out a light chuckle as she called him a creep for his nighttime habits around her. But then again she didn't know yet just how often he had done this, that it had become a habit for him. "Yes, I was going to stand here all night, no I wouldn't be bored...I find it fascinating actually, and as for school tomorrow, I was planning to come back again in the morning and offer you a ride"
He noticed her shifting positions to look up at him. She seemed uncomfortable as she mentioned how tall he looked. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable, but was afraid of getting much closer to her right now. He was slow in his movements. Talking to her this much meant he was breathing more tonight than he did most nights he spent watching her, and the pain of the venom hadn't escaped his notice. But he was determined to control himself. He slowly went and sat down at the edge of her bed, leaving some distance between them, still afraid of making her uncomfortable by being so close. "Is this better?" He asked.
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Post by Bella Swan on Dec 17, 2008 6:00:19 GMT -5
Bella wrinkled her nose at Edward, her eyes narrowing in an accusatory manner and she nodded in one definite motion. “Yes, it is your fault,” she insisted, and as if to prove it, the colour deepened on her cheeks.
She laughed again, her mouth pulling into a half-smile. She had to concede to him on that point; Charlie was used to Bella’s clumsiness, which drew an exasperated sigh every time he saw his daughter in bandages, but if anyone did actually try to hurt her, he would probably find a use for his police training. Her smile grew as Edward continued on to say that he was planning to pick her up in the morning.
“Really?” she asked him, wide eyed. Even though she had just spent the night discussing his most intimate secret and had just caught him watching her sleep, she still couldn’t understand why someone as special as Edward Cullen would care enough about someone as uninteresting as her to think of picking her up for school. It thrilled her though. She had taken in every moment of her time in the silver Volvo as if it was the last she would spend there, after all, the only reason Edward had shared with her was because she had been so stubborn in figuring him out. And now he was telling her that he would take her to school in the morning. So normal, so not-vampire! Her eyes followed his movements to the end of her bed, her hand gripping at the mattress to stop herself falling from the shift in weight.
“Much better,” she told him with a smile. She turned to face him properly, careful not to close up the space between them, despite what the butterflies in her stomach told her to do. She now knew that being this close to her was hard for him, she had no idea just how hard, but she had the common sense to know not to push a vampire’s bloodlust. With her free hand she brushed the long strands of brown hair out of her face and around her to back, she wanted to see him properly while she had him alone. She couldn’t help but think that every fleeting moment was the last.
“Wow, so a free lift to school? Jess is going to want to know all about that…” she ended a little darkly, rueing the day she made friends with such a gossipmonger.
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Post by Edward Cullen on Dec 17, 2008 22:57:36 GMT -5
Edward smiled as she insisted that her inability to restrain herself from blushing was somehow his fault. He hadn't even done anything to try to make her blush, but he couldn't deny that he enjoyed seeing the very human, and very Bella, reaction out of her. He didn't try to deny it anymore, not wanting to argue with her.
Edward enjoyed watching her smile as he spoke more on Charlie's reaction and then offered her the ride. It seemed she liked that idea and wasn't fearful of it as she should be. When would she learn?
"Yes, really" Edward told her, surprised at her surprise. Hadn't she seen by now how taken by her he was. How to the point of obsession he had gotten? Any other girl would have thought he was crazy, or the creep she had jokenly called him earlier. Instead she was surprised that he would want to spend every moment he could with her. Couldn't she see that by the fact he was spending his nights here watching her sleep? "If you'll let me drive you...I know how attached you are to the truck that's running on its last miles"
Edward was glad to see she no longer had to look so uncomfortable to look at him. She seemed instantly more relaxed (though he still thought she should be tenser around him, especially tonight with all that she knew).
"So what are you going to tell Jessica? Or are you going to make me wait and find out on my own?" He asked her with a grin, knowing that he'd find out either way.
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Post by Bella Swan on Dec 19, 2008 22:57:46 GMT -5
Bella’s smile grew, though she was determined not to allow it to turn into some stupid smitten grin as he affirmed his decision to pick her up for school the next morning. She couldn’t believe her good luck. She wriggled a little bit, driving some blood into her toes before they went numb.
“You really are a gentleman, aren’t you?” she commented, glancing up at him from where she sat. She noticed the space between them even more now and had to consciously stop herself from scooting closer to him, especially when they were talking so normally like this. She had almost forgotten it was the middle of the night. She scowled at him once more as he teased her truck.
“Nobody mocks my truck and gets away with it,” she growled at him, though she couldn’t stop a half-grin escaping at the corner of her mouth. “It’s great. And you know it. Maybe you should get one - then you would be forced to keep to the sensible speed limits! It‘ll be going for longer than your shiny Volvo, that‘s for sure.”
She shrugged a little in response to his question to Jessica, she had absolutely no idea, but she did know that nothing would satiate the girl’s lust for gossip. If she didn’t tell her something then she would just invent something worse, but what? She shot him another unimpressed look.
“I have absolutely no idea,” she paused. “You know, you are just as involved as I am… obviously. What do you think I should tell her?”
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Post by Edward Cullen on Dec 19, 2008 23:10:09 GMT -5
Edward loved seeing her smile grow in his presence. Seeing her this happy made him feel a little less guilty about acting so selfish by being here. She seemed very pleased by the idea of him driving her to school the next day and it didn’t seem like he’d have to fight her to agree to it. Excellent.
“I try to be” Edward commented as she called him a gentleman. “I had a good upbringing” He told her, referring to both manners taught to him when he was still a man by his human parents, and then those taught to him by his new father after the change. Both had molded him into the man before her; the one who was able to impress her with gentlemanly ways.
Edward laughed as she pretended to be upset at him for mocking his car. “Oh yeah, what are you going to do about it?” He asked her with a grin, knowing he shouldn’t be challenging her like this, but not able to help himself from feeling a certain ease in her presence that made him lower his guard like this. “I will never be getting a truck like that, and I have no desire to drive at a snail’s pace” He told her, stopping himself from telling her he could get her a nicer car. He would keep that in mind for the future, but he knew he’d have to work up to getting her to accept a gift like that.
Edward smiled again as he watched her try to think of what to tell Jessica. “I am just as involved, but I’d much rather here what you would tell her. You can practice on me if you want, to help you figure out what to say”
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Post by Bella Swan on Dec 21, 2008 13:42:54 GMT -5
The wide smile that had appeared on Bella’s face as Edward had mentioned his upbringing shifted into a rather pathetic little scowl as he challenged her. It was a little strange, really, that for the few hours since she had found out that he was a vampire, that was all she had been able to think about - not in a negative way, but it was a major development in their relationship. And that now she kept finding herself almost forgetting what he was. She pushed herself up so that she was on her knees, adding a few inches to her height so that she could tower over him on her knees. She shuffled towards him in an attempt to look imposing, closing up the safe distance they had between them.
“You shouldn’t take me so lightly, you know,” she glowered down at him, well, more across really, but it was the best she could muster. Her eyes narrowed as he continued to poke fun at her beloved truck regardless. “My truck has character!”
She crossed her arms over her chest and continued to glare at him in a challenging manner. Unfortunately the action was far too taxing for someone with the balance and propensity for accidents as Bella. The sudden shift of balance by the movement of her arms altered the pressure on the mattress and sent her sprawling down. She gasped and put her arms out to stop her fall, managing to have enough self-consciousness to blush as she did so. So much for looking imposing.
Once she had scrambled herself back to safety and firmly placed herself back on to the mattress in a way that she could not fall and make a fool out of herself again, she settled herself into thinking about the problem of Jessica. She raised her eyebrows at him and looked to the side in thought.
“Okay,” she said, her brown eyes flicking back to his face. “How’s this? Hi Jessica - you’re probably wondering what happened between me and Edward last night. Well, we bumped into each other in Port Angeles and kinda lost track of time - you know how it is. Then he came into the restaurant and watched me eat and then he came to mine and spent the night.”
She frowned a little. “I’m not very good at lying… But considering that I don’t really know what’s going on, I suppose I’ll be fine.”
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