Promise, a twilight fanfic

A/N: Some weird pairings in this one. I liked the prompt, though.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or it's characters; Stephenie Meyer does.

Jacob/Bella – Naming

Jacob Black's name fit him for three reasons.

The first was because of the color of his eyes. They were darker and deeper than coal; the world dipped in sundown.

Jacob's eyes were not the same angry black as Edward's—those were the dark of night; Jacob's were the truest color of pain.

The second was his life. Jacob's path had strayed far from what she had promised. He was smart and beautiful and sweet and he deserved a life that was not in ashes.

The third: Jacob Black has three syllables, all in tune to the sound of Bella's heart.

Carlisle – Superman

Carlisle promised himself that after Edward there would be no more saving lives.

Then Esme came, and he felt optimistic, because this beautiful woman was made for him.

And Rosalie deserved to be saved, after everything she went through, and his Edward, his son, needed the love that he now felt.

But cold Rosalie (secretly jealous, secretly dying Rosalie) wasn't right for Edward.

And he had no choice but to save Emmett, too.

Carlisle hopes that their family won't grow anymore.

He knows that every member of it tries to hide their hate.

Because Carlisle didn't save them. They died.

Jacob/Bella – Impossible

I want you to promise, she tells him in bed one night. His face is questioning, and she rephrases the request. Promise you'll never leave me.

Jacob sighs and Bella shivers from the loss of contact when he rolls over onto his side.

You know I can't do that, he murmurs into the sheets.

She smiles sadly. I know. She wraps her thin arms around him; tries to bottle the feeling.

I wish I could, he whispers, and his voice is so achingly regretful that she can taste the salt on his lips when she kisses him, wishing.

Me, too.

Alice, Jacob – Ending

Alice tries futilely to hide the cringe when Edward makes his announcement at Bella's birthday party.

It's a promise ring, he says, sliding it onto her ring finger. Bella blushes and giggles adorably when Edward places a kiss on the tip of the shining silver band, and Alice wants to rip them both into pieces.

Her face freezes when she sees Jacob Black and his dying heart shrivel away in her head.

It's nothing new, but she feels the shock of hurt all the same.

Alice doesn't like promises.

She knows how they're going to be broken from the start.

Jacob/Bella/Edward – Hope

In her closet, buried under all her old clothes, there is a box. It's filled with pictures and letters and gifts—keys to her motorcycle; Jacob's shirt that she kept when she was cold.

It's a silly teenager thing to do, but Bella is afraid she'll forget otherwise.

(There are other things that can't be put into a box. The warmth of his skin; his low voice; strong arms with tendons running down, contracting from the whisper of her touch. His promises and his love—things that don't belong to her anymore)

She kisses Edward with her eyes closed tight and hopes…

Leah/Jasper – Trade

Leah reacts the way she always does when the bloodsucker appears at her side.

Teeth bared, growl ripping at her throat, Leah still can't deny the fact that he is beautiful.

He's holding a plate full of food, and, despite her stubborn nature, she takes it with a quiet thanks.

He watches her eat and she stares at the scars on his face—they are not like Emily's contorted promises of regret; instead they show knowledge and hurt and strength.

Just like mine, Leah says. His golden eyes don't look confused.

He places a hand over her heart.

Yours are worse.

Jacob/Bella – Strings

Jacob's promises don't seem to mean anything to Bella Swan.

She kisses him and prances off into oblivion with Edward-fucking-Cullen; Jacob is left with the taste of her on his tongue and a bleeding gash through his barely beating heart.

Jacob promises her his life, his being, his soul (take it, please, take it, it's yours already, Bells), but apparently it's not Jacob's love that she craves.

The worst part is that he can't even break the promises, even after she turns his back on him.

Jacob has never felt imprinting, but it can't possibly be any worse than this.

Leah – News

The day Leah comes back from the doctor, she doesn't go to Sam's. Or Jacob's. Or Sue's.

She heads straight home and falls into her bed, her long limbs scratching against the aged wood, splinters carving strange lines into her feet.

She repeats the sentence in her head, over and over: you're going to have a baby, Ms. Clearwater. You're pregnant. You're gonna be a mom.

No matter how he worded it, it meant the same damn thing.

Leah smiles.

She looks at her stomach, trying to imagine a bump filling the flat expanse of skin. I'll try, she promises.

Jasper/Bella – Opposites

Bella always thought that she was a good girl.

She never skipped school, never did drugs, never partied or stayed out late. She was a virgin and a straight-A student, and her parents couldn't deny that she was the one to take care of them.

Jasper has always been the opposite.

He fought in wars that left hundreds drained and burned, and he is not sorry about his past.

It says something when even the undead quiver in fear just by looking at you.

Bella and Jasper definitely don't make sense, but love never seems to work that way anymore.

Jacob/Rosalie – Alternative

Rosalie finds the dog disgusting.

He is rude and uninhibited and always says what he's thinking.

And he's not all that different from Rosalie.

She's surprised when she starts to daydream about him—stupid, wasted dreams where she is human and in love and it doesn't matter that she is beautiful because he sees inside of her, like he does to Bella (like he does to everyone).

She falls into the dreams more often now, and Jacob breaks her from her wishing with another dumb blonde joke.

Shut up, mutt, she snaps, before promising herself she won't let it happen again.

Jacob/Bella/Edward – Broken

Bella's bad at keeping promises.

She promised her friend Jenny from Phoenix she would come to visit on her birthday, but she forgot the date the second she arrived in Forks.

She promised Renee she would keep in touch, but her once-best-friend barely ever hears from her anymore.

She promised Charlie she wouldn't date, but she got engaged a couple months later.

She promised Edward her hand in marriage.

That one she kept, but it came with a price.

Because she had promised her heart to Jacob Black, and she split them both in two when she broke that promise.

Emmett/Rosalie – Fake

Emmett can't help but get genuinely sick of Rosalie sometimes.

He loves her, sure, but there's always that part of him that knows she would easily give up this life for another.

Emmett is okay with being damned, and he knows that this is his forever, for better or for worse.

Sometimes, he catches himself watching Edward and Bella and wondering if maybe they only work because both has something the other wants.

Emmett can't promise to give Rosalie what she wants. And she can't make him happy.

He smiles and hides the game of pretend behind his easy laugh.

Bella – Freezing

The very worst of it is that she is cold. After all, she was promised that heaven would be warm (or maybe hell?).

Not that it isn't burning—it's definitely fire that's licking at her bones. But it's a dry ice kind of flame; harsh and frozen like the beats in her heart.

She knows she's doing this for a reason, but it's hard to think of anything with this kind of pain.

The fire finally stops and she's still cold. Glacial down to the empty veins, icicles trapping her humanity in venom.

She will always be freezing from now on.

Sam/Emily/Leah – Legend

A long time ago, Sam made a promise.

I'll love you forever, he said, and he held Leah Clearwater in his arms.

That was when Leah would smile, when vampires were only in movies, when a person fell in love because of the way they fit with another, not because they were forced to.

Sometimes, when he looks beyond the myth, Sam wonders if promises really mean anything at all.

His strings pull him to Emily, but his heart is still in harmony with Leah's.

Sam doesn't make promises anymore, because he no longer takes comfort in anything but fable.

Jacob/Bella – Truthfully

Edward isn't surprised when he finds Bella, holding a big green duffle bag, walking out the door the day before the Change.

Because she does still love him, she lets out the tears that she held in for the past three months since their marriage and tells him she's sorry.

She leaves even with the lie.

The explanation and apology she planned when she arrived in La Push ends up with her tangled under the sheets with Jacob, whispering I love you into his kiss.

Bella doesn't promise him forever. But she swears that she'll be with him for good.

END