A/N: Please, let me know if there's anything I got wrong in the dialogue so it can be fixed ASAP. Also, feel free to comment on how you think I'm doing with Edward's character. If there's something I have him say/think outside of SM's pre-transcribed Twilight realm that you just don't think works with his character, let me know.

This picks up where Stephenie Meyer's "Midnight Sun" leaves off- about page 227 of Twilight. Midnight Sun can be found on Stephenie's official website.


Complications Part 2

I watched her from my peripheral vision as she walked out the front door and shut it behind her. She didn't even bother to lock the deadbolt. Strange. I wondered why that was. I knew Forks was a small and relatively danger-less town, but still. If there were to be a random string of sudden home invasions, there was no doubt in my mind that the criminal would start with Chief Swan's residence.

She paused before she opened the door of my Volvo, and the curiosity burned- a sensation overshadowed the very moment her hesitation was over and she opened the door. Her sweet scent filled the car and my throat burned once more, a rabid, insatiable fire. And yet, I couldn't get enough of her. I smiled.

"Good morning. How are you today?" I searched her face for any signs of distress. I had tried to stay with her the night before, just to watch and listen to her sleep-talk, but she had a very bad night. She kept waking up. Fearing that I would be caught in her bedroom in the middle of the night, I, of course, went for a run. A different kind of run, however, from those that had lead me to Seattle just days earlier. Had it only been days since I realized she wanted to be with me? Since the hope swelled within me?

"Good, thank you." I eyed the purple circles under her eyes. Was she lying to me, or was she honestly so innocent that a little lack of sleep didn't bother her?

"You look tired."

"I couldn't sleep." It infuriated me how she moved her hair to cover her face, as if to hide the circles from me. She also blocked off her eyes- the only window I currently had to her mute soul. I smiled suddenly. We had something in common.

"Neither could I." She laughed as I started the engine, aware of the difference between my car and her truck. I wondered how she ever was satisfied, driving that decrepit old thing.

"I guess that's right. I suppose I slept just a little bit more than you did."

"I'd wager you did."

"So what did you do last night?"

"Not a chance. It's my day to ask questions." Had she forgotten?

"Oh, that's right. What do you want to know?" Everything.

"What's your favorite color?" Color seemed like a simple question to start with. Mundane, and yet revealing.

"It changes from day to day." And she complained I was an enigma. She asked me questions that revealed so much of how I felt without revealing anything she felt, and when it finally came my turn to ask questions… this.

"What's your favorite color today?"

"Probably brown."

"Brown?" As hard as I tried, the skepticism still leaked into my voice. What on earth was appealing about brown? It was an unusual color, not natural to the rainbow. I was expecting blue or pink or red, but brown…

"Sure. Brown is warm." I was suddenly struck by the truth of her words. Her hair was brown. Her eyes were brown. I contemplated this as she ranted about the viridescence of Forks.

"I miss brown. Everything that's supposed to be brown- tree trunks, rocks, dirt- is all covered up with squashy green stuff here." I looked into her eyes as she spoke. Her brown eyes. I don't think she realized the blush that crept up into her cheeks when I did this. But it made the fire within my throat burn even hotter.

"You're right. Brown is warm." I was breaking so many rules. I shouldn't be allowed to touch her, no matter how much I wanted to. Every mistake I made, every "t" I left uncrossed, every "i" I left undotted, every rule I broke was one step closer down the path that Alice saw and I feared. I was walking, slowly but ever so willingly, down the path of white marble skin and red eyes. Or the path of white skin and blank eyes. And yet, couldn't help it.

I hesitated, slowly moving my hand ever closer to her face. When she did not cringe or pull away from me, I gently swept her hair behind her shoulder so I could see her entire face once more.

"What music is in your CD player right now?" I inquired as I parked.

"Linkin Park." How strange. I suppressed the urge to laugh. That was definitely not the answer I was expecting. Then again, Bella never gave me what I expected. I flipped open the compartment where I kept the CDs as I realized I had it with me.

"Debussy to this?"

I continued to question her all day. There was so much I wanted to know, and so little that could be found out by her simple one-word answers. On rare occasions, though, my questions made her blush. These were the questions I worked off of, building a base for what I thought her character would be.

Without a never ending stream of her thoughts to inform me, prying information out of her was all that I had to work with. I wanted to know everything- her favorite and hated movies, where she'd been, where she wanted to go, her favorite books, her favorite classes, her favorite of every random object that I could come up with.

Then I asked her what her favorite gemstone was.

"Topaz." She spat out. I was about to move on to my next question- her favorite flower. Then she blushed.

"Bella?" I asked. She looked away from me.

"Bella, you're blushing."

Her face got redder, but she didn't answer my unasked question.

"Bella, what are you not telling me? What's so special about topaz?" I tried to dazzle her, but she refused to look at me. She learned quickly. But I knew that I wasn't about to give up.

"Tell me." She sighed, as if she had given up a game of tug-o-war that she knew she could win.

"It's the color of your eyes today." Was that why she was reluctant to tell me? My memory flashed to the moment where I snapped at her- I had made her cry. Did she fear telling me how she felt about me? My un-beating heart expanded in that moment. She was thinking about my eyes. What did that mean? I quickly scanned the minds of some girls watching us speak.

He is so gorgeous-

Wonder what they're talking about?

I wish he looked at me like that!

Apparently, I had dazzled every girl within the vicinity except Bella.

And Rosalie.

You stupid jackass! If she's thinking about your eyes while-

No, I did not truly care for what Rosalie thought about Bella's gemstone preference. I continued to scan droning, mundane mind after droning, mundane mind, ignoring Alice's requests to be allowed to speak to Bella.

Why does he want her? There's nothing special about her-

I shuddered slightly as I pulled away from Jessica Stanley's venomous thoughts. For all the time she spent analyzing my relationship with Bella when I wanted her to mentally shut up, she provided me nothing but useless fluff when it came to me needing her girlish ideas. Then again, Bella did not think like normal girls.

"I suppose if you asked me in two weeks I'd say onyx." Onyx. Onyx and topaz. Had I had such an impact on her life? Was I so important that she thought of my eyes when I was not with her? The very same way I thought of hers?

"What kind of flowers do you prefer?" She sighed in relief.

Biology. I continued with my interrogations up until the point when the door opened and the TV was rolled in. I knew we'd have to watch the movie again. In truth, I feared the electricity that seemed to flow between Bella and myself when the lights were off and I knew it would be coming again. Carefully, I moved my chair away from hers, hoping she would not notice the distance I put between our bodies as the lights were turned off.

It didn't help.

The aura flowed between us, just as before, and although I knew no one could see us here in the darkness, I knew that touching Bella would be dangerous. I could not allow myself to slip. About halfway through the hour I glanced sideways at her. She had leaned forward and crossed her arms on the desk, her chin sitting peacefully there as her eyes, glazed over with obvious boredom, stared blankly at the television that was sending flickers of light across her face. She sighed when the lights were turned on and the movie turned off.

Could it be, that she felt it, too? The very sickest part of me hoped she did, although there was never a spoken word between us concerning the matter, and so I could never truly be sure. I cursed the silence of her mind now more than ever.

I stood up silently. I waited for her silently. We walked outside to her gym class silently. And again, I felt overcome by the need to touch her. It was irrational- there should be no need. But there was.

It was far worse than wanting to touch her face- which I did, as wordlessly as the day before. I wanted her in so many ways, and they were all wrong. I wanted to drink her blood- first and foremost, the demon inside of me raged. Always, the fire inside my throat burned, nearly as strong as the fires that created me. Second, I wanted her as a friend, a mortal creature with whom I could communicate about my vampire existence. She would never understand, of course, but that would not stop me from pursuing her. And Alice would not be denied what was apparently her impending, irrevocable friendship.

But there was another way.

I had not had a pulse in nearly a century. I had not felt a warm touch, loved another human woman since my mother's death. Mine followed shortly thereafter. I had no love in my short, bittersweet human life. I had wanted to join the war. I had wanted to escape my mundane life and go off to some great battle I knew nothing of in a country I had never been to. Never had I felt such an unusual attraction to a girl. I wanted to touch her. I wanted to pull her into my arms and kiss her for all eternity. And I wanted her to want me in return.

Did it make me a monster? I had no soul. We were practically two different species. Was there any hope, any at all that she would possibly find herself attracted to me, as a woman is to a man? Was there more behind my ability to dazzle her than the connection prey has towards its inevitably hypnotizing predator?

All of these things filled my mind as I walked away to Spanish.

Whoa. What happened to you? Emmett's concern was apparent before I was even in my seat.

"Nothing," I hissed, quickly and quietly enough that only my brother's vampire ears would even know that something was wrong.

What did she do to you?

I ignored him.

I've never seen you like this. I swear if you still had a pulse you'd be red, kid.

What did it mean? Was there something I hadn't picked up on?

I was right.

"What?"

You do want to touch her.

The class began then, and so I tried to actually pay attention in class- something I hadn't done since I was a mortal. And not soon enough, I was out in the open, walking towards the gym building to speak with Bella, thinking furiously about music in order to avoid Emmett's cognitive taunts. I met up with her outside the building and we walked to my car. I managed to open the door for her, and soon we were speeding away towards Charlie's house. I continued my interrogations, asking safer questions- I inquired endlessly about her home in Phoenix.

I was intrigued by the way she used her hand to describe the bowl-shape of the land, the way the beauty that hid there was in the way the sun filled the valley like liquid gold, how the sunrise in the clouds turned the sky a beautiful mix of sherbert colors, and how the lack of green added to the splendor. It sounded beautiful in its own right. I demanded to know about her house in Phoenix, and she talked even more. I clung desperately to every word, eager to know more about her. We talked until the sun set, Bella explaining things in detail as I fired off question after question.

"Are you finished?"

"Not even close- but your father will be home soon." What would Charlie think of Bella dating a vampire? I almost laughed at the thought. I was bulletproof.

"Charlie!" Bella sighed. It sounded as if she wanted to stay with me. I did not want to allow my hopes to rise, but they did of their own accord.

"How late is it?"

"It's twilight," I replied quietly. I glanced to the horizon at the place where the sun should be setting - if it wasn't covered by a blanket of clouds, that is. It was such an unusual time of day- not really day, but not really night, either. The sun was gone, and so my kind was free to roam. But the light was not completely gone - it was not truly night. We did not need to be trapped in eternal midnight. During twilight, we could truly be ourselves… I turned back to Bella. Wanted her to know, to have this little piece of what I was.

"It's the safest time of day for us." I wanted her to know about me, I wanted her to know everything that I could be and not be afraid. I expected her to be, of course. But I didn't want it.

"The easiest time. But also the saddest in a way… the end of another day, the return of the night. Darkness is so predictable, don't you think?"

Darkness. It was all I had known since nineteen eighteen. I had known an eternal expanse of darkness, intermittent stars dotting the sky with their twinkling, minuscule lights. And suddenly, I found Bella. I felt as if I had found the sun, as if I could step into the slight without any form of fear, without any risk of exposure.

"I like the night. Without the dark, we'd never see the stars."

I frowned.

"Not that you see them here much."

"Charlie will be here in a few minutes. So, unless you want to tell him you'll be with me Saturday…" I hoped she would. Just as a precaution. I wanted to tell her what Alice had seen, to show her that I was ultimately more dangerous to her than she ever could have imagined.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Silly, ignorant girl. "So is it my turn then?"

"Certainly not!" I gasped, pretending to be indignant. "I told you I wasn't done, didn't I?"

"What more is there?" She seemed bewildered. Had my questioning bothered her?

"You'll find out tomorrow." I moved to open her door. As my face moved into closer proximity to hers, her pulse began to hammer. Perhaps I did have the same effect on Bella as I did on the other girls. True, she was an anomaly, but that didn't mean it was completely hopeless. My hand was on the door handle when I heard them and froze.

"Not good." Very, very bad. I could feel my jaw clench together as their thoughts came into focus.

"What is it?"

"Another complication." Billy Black and his son, Jacob, were around the corner in their truck. I flung the door open for Bella, suddenly anxious to be far away from her. What would the old timer think if he saw me this close to her? I recoiled. I shouldn't be this close. I was breaking so many rules.

Their headlights appeared from around the corner and the Blacks' car pulled into a spot on the side of the street, facing us.

"Charlie's around the corner." She immediately removed herself from my Volvo. I was aware of her looking at me, but I was more focused on Billy's thoughts. I focused on the treaty, wondering if it were possible for anything to be done if we broke it.

When we broke it.

I pulled away quickly, unable to handle the mental screams Billy Black was unknowingly sending me.