Five Times Edward Said Yes To Alice When She Was Still New, And The First Time He Didn't
Summary:
What says on the label, pretty much to a T.
Notes:
For prixetoile.
I don't even remember when this one was written, only that it was at least a year ago. (Longer maybe, as its before Part One was jossed.)
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I.
When she walks in the house he can see the marvel of her mind.
She isn't looking at the front room like it's the rare and resplendent work of marble and onyx it is. She's looking at it with the delight that comes from seeing that the picture in her mind previously is just as beautiful and promising as the reality in front of her-Esme, Carlisle, Rosalie, Emmett and himself, included.
He's mostly quiet through their explanations to Carlisle and Esme, nodding briefly when the eyes of his other family members seek him out to verify the honesty of Alice or Jasper's stories. There isn't an iota out of place. Though his version of the stories is much more resilient-the violence of Jasper's past and Alice's stunningly peerless faith in her visions, that both of them found their own way to making the conscience choices about human life-he never has cause to shake his head.
Edward's not sure whose choice mattered that time, but he gave a sharp inhale when her mind, and his with it, flooded with new images. The stairs and a certain doorway. A flicker of the game room, superimposed with what the room will look like, with it's Civil War heirlooms and the walkin closet that doesn't end. Himself, directing them through the door and asking them to excuse Emmett's mess.
He blinks, trying to clear his own mind as hers settles the image to the side, her newly adjusted thought process chiming in.
Alice's eyes are focused on him, top teeth pressed against her bottom lip, before she sets free the same kind of smile she was heralding when Emmett opened their front door on the intruders. She pushed up from her chair at the end of the table, holding a hand out to Jasper, fluid and natural, her focused never leaving Edward.
"Would you like to show me to my room-"
Brother?
II.
Edward loves and trusts his family (even Rose), but Alice is different.
With Alice Edward finds himself relaxing more than he's been in so many years they've all lost count. While Jasper is like them in being different, being more, he has an outward control and application to his powers both she and he lack. There's something in that ability to see and to mark and to watch for protection, but being unable to outwardly change, that bonds them.
At least it's the first thing.
The second is that she brings exactly what the Cullen's have need for at least a decade. Which he figured on when she made her first big declaration.
"Oh," she says with excitement suddenly, jumping out of her chair to do a twirl.
Edward hadn't been paying that close attention to her. He'd been reading an antique book on the Civil War that Jasper had advised after a nearly day long chat. It was supposed to be insightful if not always historically accurate. It ended up captivating his attention and he'd had to pause and poke Jasper a number of times on certain details. When he'd looked up this time, he watched her twirl, as Esme in her mind, befitted in a long silken purple gown twirling.
She stopped in front of him; the images shivering around her like water. "We're going to Las Vegas!"
He could see it spinning out like silk gloss, threading into a story book of hazy, collected now and thens. He was playing cards and they dancing in the hallways. Rosalie's gown was regal and ostentatious, and it set off her eyes and blonde curls magnificently. Jasper didn't like the people but he was glowing at Alice's enjoyment. Esme and Carlisle walked the strip, arm in arm, stopping to take in a show.
"Are we?" He smiled, low key, even though it was impossible to be entirely blank before Alice's undiluted glee.
"Yes." The joy on her face dimmed only briefly to look at him suspiciously. "We should be."
"Should." He mimicked, closing his book with a quiet thoughtful expression.
"You don't approve of field trips?"
"No." Edward said with a Cheshire type smile, leaned back and watching her expression darken. "I think it's just what we've needed for a long time."
The trip; and Alice.
A breath of fresh air.
III.
They're in the "Freaks Only" closet.
Edward writing a piece of piano music with finger tips in the air and Alice sketching a design for a tailor made skirt she can see herself wearing in two weeks. They've been quiet today, while outside the room a noisy life goes on as normal. Esme is playing Turandon, Carlisle was working on paperwork until his wife convince him to dance, so his laughter is in it along with an occasional whisper. Rosalie is working in the garage on the jeep, Jasper and Emmet were discussing what they should hunt tonight which turned into another arm wrestling match.
I like this.
Edward made a small affirmative noise. Her soft, high pitched voice slipping into his thoughts not even disturbing his consideration of whether the accidental is wrong. Maybe it should be F sharp.
I wonder if I had a secret hideout before.
It's only the third time they have hidden away here.
But the reference to her unknown past causes him to open his eyes.
Her voice and thoughts don't sound troubled, but he has to make sure. He needs to see the whimsical look on her face that heralds this more as an opening statement than a recrimination against the thick black wall, needs to see that moment when her expression brightens like a light turned on behind it that next hundred and sixteenth of a second.
We should have a secret language.
Edward, pointedly amused, raised his eyebrows implicatingly.
Fine. *You* should have a secret language to communicate back to me in.
His eyebrows stayed up, but the creation of just this sort of thing took up the next few hours.
VI.
Edward had only made it in the doorway of the living room.
"You aren't going to do it again," Alice said, looking up over a book.
Edward studied her with as much annoyed suspicion as surprise when the soft wave of her thoughts showed only a snippet of a conversation with Esme. A reflection of his earlier snap at Emmett and Esme's explanation about his abandonment of the family only two decades earlier that still bothered him on certain dates.
"I know."
"No, you don't." Alice's lips moved toward a blinding smile. "But I do."
She did: for at least as far as she could see in that direction, having spent the early evening looking.
"That's supposed to be good news. It would be proper to at least smile. Smile, or you'll owe me something more expensive."
Edward shook his head, amused and annoyed and chagrin, but he did smile.
He, also, felt lighter by the end of their following conversation.
V.
"No."
It's a sudden crack of sound into the silent sitting room.
Everyone looked over at him, a mix of different expression.
"But-" Alice said, with a frown curling her amused pixie features.
"No."
"You'll like it. You know it's true. You can see it."
"What are you two talking about?" Rosalie demanded.
"Noth-"
"Disco," Alice said, with a tinkling laugh.
"Make Emmet wear it then. He'll think it's a hoot. I won't."
Alice made a face at the same time as the images started rearranging in her head. "Hey! No fair."
Edward laughed as Emmett broke in demanding to know what he'd just been dragged into.
He wasn't sure if it was Emmett (in her head) in a silver jump suit making zigzag arm motions toward Rosalie, Alice and Edward's future near embarrassment and amusement or Alice's pout-frown that was warring with laughing at the image in her own head which made him laugh harder.