Previously posted as part of a Multifandom Drabble Collection.
Requester: fallenmelody
Fandom: Twilight
Pairing: Jasper/Bella
Word/Situation: together we'll survive
Approximate Timeline: Post Eclipse
Title: More Than I Should
Author: Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)
Disclaimer: Twilight © Stephanie Meyers
Rating: K+
Summary: It was easy to forget how dangerous he was. (Jasper/Bella)
Authors Notes: Done at pinkceptional's TWILIGHT UNCANON DRABBLE REQUEST MEME at LJ
It was like a promise, or the promise of a promise. Not a truce, for they had never quarreled – he had seen to that. It was just an understanding, tentatively arrived at one afternoon while Jasper took his turn 'Human Sitting.' A thing neither of them were very happy with.
Bella sat, with her arms crossed, and watched him from across the room. She tried her best to give him a malevolent stare, one that she imagined could curdle milk, and peel an orange with the depth and breath of it.
She was, of course, failing miserably. And not just because Jasper was a mythical monster, but also because he had the curious infatuation with making her feel giddy.
"Stop it." She ordered him, through a gritted smile – contorted from the effort to erase it from her face.
"Stop what?" He asked, light and breezy. And Bella was reminded, again, that they could all dazzle her, if they were so inclined.
"That." She said, as a wave of fitful giggles erupted from her, unbidden. "Stop that, I'm pissed at you."
"But it's easier this way." He commented as he leaned against the doorframe of her room. He was so much like a child sometimes; it was easy to forget how dangerous he was.
"It only seems easier. This isn't really helping at all." And with that, all the anger came flooding back to her, a deluge of indignant petulance. Bella scaled it back herself this time. "Thank you."
They sat in silence for a while, before Bella turned to him. "Is it tiring? Trying to control people's moods?"
He blinked once, then straightened out. "I don't feel fatigue." He was a little like a puppy too, they way he managed to look confused and cute and completely bewildered at her humanity.
"Are you worried you'll kill me?" She asked, off-handed. It through him. She could see it in his face. "You're surprised I asked?"
"No, I'm just surprised you asked it while still feeling at ease."
"My death isn't something I lament over, Jasper."
"Well then, yes, I suppose it's something I worry about."
"Because of Edward?" she uncrossed her arms and leaned into the plush cushions of the couch.
"Because it would mean killing you." He answered, perplexed as usual. He answered as if it confused him that he would be more concerned with Edward than her.
"Do you like me, Jasper? I know you didn't at first, but you went along with it. For Alice, for Edward. But now, do you like me?" She felt a wave of calm sweep over her, without permission.
"More than I should."
He was gone from the doorway before she could catch his eye.
They spent the rest of the day separated by several rooms of the Cullen house. But Bella wasn't concerned. As long as he was near by, she knew she'd be safe. She trusted him enough to know that, she'd seen it in his amber eyes when he said he bothered him to think of killing her. Even with the Volturi hunting her, together they would survive.