They were total opposites. No one knew how they could even get along, let alone be married for decades. He was a jokester, teasing and annoying everyone with his tricks and quips. She was an ice queen, cold and beautiful, and didn't let anyone into her family, or her heart without a tough fight. A fight she usually wound up winning.

They were yin and yang. He was Yang, light, free, and happy, and she was Yin, darker, colder, and much more pessimistic.

His jokes annoyed her, wound her up and made her narrow her eyes and raise her voice. But he kept trying. He was one of the few people in the world who could see the heart behind the cold exterior, see what she had lost and what she longed for. He couldn't give that to her - no one could. But he at least kept trying to make her laugh, even just giggle, when everyone else gave up, deterred by her harsh criticisms. And she appreciated it. He did things for her no one else could, or would, and she loved him for it.

He could cheer her up, and she could calm him down. They completed each other perfectly, made the perfect team.

Overly joking and overly serious.

There were times when she, and everyone else, wanted to give him a good whack. Not that it would do much; he was the strongest of them all. There were times when no one wanted to even try to deal with her, when she would be in a foul enough mood to break their arm. He was the one who knew she needed something to laugh about, something to make her come back and chuckle. He was the one who brought her back to the family.

And they appreciated each other for it.

No one could bring him back to reality like she could, and no one could calm her down like him. Exasperating, infuriating - no one could stop him like she could. Irate, eyes cold and livid, no one could understand her and soothe her like he could. On the rare occasions their tempers clashed (did he even have a temper?), it took Jasper or Carlisle to bring them back to themselves, but as soon as they were calm, they both regretted it, and apologies soon followed.

Her greatest wish was to be mortal. He knew that, anyone who knew that did. And it was impossible. Her next wish was ungrantable. It would be a miracle worker that would have even the ablilty to give her a chance to adopt. She couldn't have a child, couldn't resist humans for years on end, and immortal children were out of the question. He knew that. She knew that. Still... doesn't everyone want to grant their loved one a wish? He could see her only two wishes, impossible ones, and was disheartened. How could he give her those things?

He couldn't.

They both hid - her behind a mask of cold beauty and stiff disdain, him behind a humor no one else could understand. They hid behind those things, unwilling to be hurt by others or themselves.

He was unwilling to give up hope, even when times were at their worst. To give up jokes, humor, would be to give up his optimism, and that was something he would never willingly do to himself. His family, gone, would be a blow, but she was permanent. She always would be, because no one could hurt her. If she was missing, everything worth hoping for was gone.

If no one could get close enough to her to hurt her, she wouldn't be hurt. It was a fact. She wasn't worried about physical harm - she could handle that. But her emotions had suffered enough damage in her years, and they couldn't take much more. The one person who she trusted with all her heart was the one person she could let in, and the one weakness in her plan.

He could hurt her. He never would - that evil was beyond him - but that scared her. They each had a weakness, just one, and that weakness was each other.

They were total opposites.