Edward stood in her room, watching her sleep. Some people would call it stalking, but those people didn't understand true love, the love you could only feel after being hurt so many times before. Humans often bemoaned their short lives, but they were the lucky ones. Never would they have to experience the feeling of everyone dying around them as they never aged. It was for this reason Edward distanced himself, never let anyone close.
Until she appeared, that is.
He couldn't read her like the others. She became an enigma, a puzzle he had to solve no matter what the cost, like a rubix cube. Though unlike actual rubix cubes, you couldn't just pull the stickers from this one and rearrange them. No, that would be cheating and potentially fatal. He didn't think it would work, either.
He watched her breathe deeply in her sleep as he moved across the room, closing the window behind him. He had oiled it to stop it from creaking, so as not to wake her from her peaceful dreams. He longed to be close to her, always closer, but he couldn't get too close. No, she was like any other human. Meek, oblivious and fragile. He knew if he became too attached he ran the risk of being hurt once more. He had to maintain his cold exterior for his own sake.
Not unlike a cactus.
Edward looked around the room, wondering what had spurred such a thought. There it was, perched on a desk, a single cactus plant.
When he saw it his heart ached. He knew the pain of the cactus, sitting there with its spiky exterior, preventing anyone from drawing close. He empathised with its plea for love and attention.
He strode to the table and gave the cactus a sympathetic look, the look of someone who understood. Edward liked plants. They grew so majestically, yet were so underestimated by the humans, despite never fighting or judging or killing or any of that stuff the supposed 'Superior' species so revelled in.
Edward lifted the cactus and held it to his chest, being careful not to break its spikes on his rock hard abs. He knew, at that moment, the cactus understood him too. They understood each other and they could help each other grow and love again.
When Bella woke in the morning, the cactus was gone.