"Oh, come on, this is hardly mature," Alice was saying, her thin arms folded across her granite chest in annoyance, but she didn't look away. Emmett laughed, his deep voice restrained in a small chuckle and his eyes trained on hers as they engaged in the otherwise silent competition. I smiled a little bit at how intense the staring match seemed to be getting, it reminded me of how Renée acted around my Uncle Bill when they were together.
Edward's ice-cold arm tightened around my waist as he realized I was no longer paying attention to the television. "I can change the channel, if you want," he murmured, ignoring Jasper's strangled protestations at the suggestion. I shook my head, ripping my eyes away from the contrast between the giant, hulking form of his brother and Alice's dainty, waifish one.
"No, it's okay. I was just wondering what it would be like to have siblings," I replied, leaning back into the crook of his elbow as I realized my body had tensed from the invisible friction of the two vampires' altercation. Edward scoffed and pulled my hand from my lap almost unconsciously to twine his fingers with my own.
"Really not all it's cracked up to be," he said, louder than necessary. Emmett's face cracked a grin at the comment, but still did not look away.
"Well, Eddie-boy, you can't choose your family," I smirked at the irony of that, and Edward rolled his eyes, turning back to the overindulgently large screen of their family room.
"What are you two fighting over, anyway?" I nearly jumped as Rosalie's voice floated in from the kitchen as if she were involved in the conversation the entire time. It was hard to remember sometimes just how good the Cullens' hearing was.
"Emmett seems to think it's funny to take people's yellow Porsches out to play without asking," Alice spat, Emmett grinned at the accusation, holding his hands up in mock innocence.
"I'm not admitting anything," he hummed. I realized that I hadn't blinked since the entire thing started and rubbed my eyes surreptitiously.
"Edward?" he turned his head toward me, lifting my chin with a bent finger so he could see my face better. He said being able to see my expressions was essentially like being able to read my mind, since I was so much of an open book with my emotions. I wasn't sure I liked that fact very much.
"Hm?" he asked, real curiosity playing across his perfect features. I pursed my lips together, wondering if I was going to have to suffer a series of Emmett's patronizing guffaws if this wound up being a dumb question.
"Do vampires have to blink?" I cringed, but didn't hear any snorting denigrations from my bear-like, brother-in-law-to-be's half of the room, so I figured it was a valid query. Edward smiled patiently, like he always did when explaining some minute aspect of their existence.
"Air still dries out our eyes, so yes. While our bodies do not manufacture tears anymore, the natural oils in them remain intact to some degree, otherwise, our vision would be severely impaired," I leaned my head back against his stone neck, listening to him relay decades of medical knowledge. "Anyway," he regained some control over his rambling with a sheepish smile, "we can stop blinking for longer periods of time than normal humans, because our eyes don't water. But, like breathing, it gets uncomfortable." I rolled my watery, "normal human" eyes.
"Yet another thing you're designed to win at," his breath brushed my cheek as he let out a light chuckle.
"That may be, but I highly doubt most humans would attempt to engage one of us in a staring match before we killed them." When he smiled this time I was almost hyperactively aware of his snow-white, venom-coated teeth.
"I might've," I muttered, "if I didn't know I was genetically destined to lose." He laughed and pressed his lips to my cheek.
"I don't doubt that, my Bella." I turned my face to his to try and make him kiss my lips this time, but as luck would have it, Emmett's eyes betrayed him at that minute.
"DAMMIT!" he thundered, and Alice's laughter lent his outburst a tinkling, yet maniacal undertone.
"Don't worry," she cooed, taking the key ring from his clenched hands and jingling them in front of his face, "I'll have the truck back by midnight." With that, she danced out of the room, blowing a kiss to Jasper as she went. Emmett groaned, plunking himself down on the couch next to us and pulling a pillow onto his stomach.
"Hardly fair," he grumbled.
"An eye for an eye," Jasper replied, his eyes still trained on the television screen. Emmett growled.
"Eye for an entire leg's more like it, my truck's three times the size of her teensy, little car," Edward laughed, a deep rumbling in his chest that made his torso shake.
"Regardless, if you shred that pillow, Esme'll pitch a fit," Emmett rolled his eyes and shrugged, but glanced down at his stony fingers, digging deep into the velvet of the tan pillow, and tossed it away quickly.
"Better not have two women swearing revenge on me tonight," he muttered, pulling himself up from the couch and clunking down the hall, presumably to sulk by Rosalie. I glanced up when Edward ran his fingers through my hair gently, and he smiled softly, obviously with something on his mind.
"Having siblings is… not all it's cracked up to be," he murmured, repeating his earlier words, "but without them, I believe eternity would be much more boring." I felt the corners of my lips pull up as he pressed his own to them, ignoring Emmett's snort from the kitchen.
"Damn right," my brother called.