POV: Bella


"Rise and shine, sleepyhead."

I shot a half-hearted glare in his direction before burying my nose back in the pillow. It smelled like him. "Too early," I grumbled, even though I had no idea what the time was. "Sleep more."

I hadn't heard him move or felt the bed sink under his weight, but suddenly his lips were at my ear, brushing against the sensitive skin there. "You always say that, and yet I manage to convince you to get up every single day."

Lifting my head to blink blearily at the clock on the nightstand, I croaked, "Edward, it's five-thirty. On a Saturday. Are you out of your mind?"

"It's actually seven. Your clock is broken."

I sighed and dropped my head again. "When are you ordering a replacement?" I asked knowingly.

"An hour ago," he replied cheerfully. I rolled my eyes; he was impossible. "I messaged Alice while you were sleeping. She'll be bringing it with her later this afternoon. It's actually part CD player and radio."

I flipped over, struggling quite a bit with the heap of blankets tangled all over me. "I already have a CD player. You didn't need to do that."

"I know."

He didn't say more, and in the silence, I found myself beginning to doze off again.

"Bella…"

I groaned but didn't open my eyes. "What?"

He laughed softly. "Won't you get out of bed? You can't stay there forever."

I yawned and burrowed deeper into the blankets. "Try me."

He was silent again for a long moment. Curious, I opened my eyes to find him only inches away, kneeling on the bed next to me. His hands were resting on the mattress on either side of him. Gold eyes studied my face curiously.

"What are you thinking?" I found myself whispering.

He blinked once, then smiled his crooked smile. His head tilted to the side and he averted his eyes as if he were embarrassed. "This is the first calm morning we've had. No rushing for school, no doctor visits, no Charlie… He went fishing," he explained when he saw my confusion. "You seem so relaxed. It's very distracting."

"Right." I murmured, taken aback by the intensity of his gaze. Distracting indeed…

"Breakfast in bed?" he offered.

"No, thanks. I have to brush first anyway." And I wasn't kissing him until I did. "And I'm not that hungry. You really stuffed me up yesterday."

"It's the required amount," he said defensively, hopping back off the bed and extending his arms to pull me with him. "You need proper nourishment."

As it did every morning, his gaze focused on my face, looking for any sign of discomfort or pain when I stood.

"I'm fine, Edward," I assured him, though I couldn't help but sigh when he wrapped a supporting arm around my waist and pulled me protectively to his chest. "Carlisle wouldn't have removed the cast if he wasn't confident it healed."

"I know, but…" He glanced down at my legs, then my face, and opened his mouth.

Uh oh.

"I need a human moment," I said quickly before he suggested anything.

I'd only recently been able to convince him to stop carrying me everywhere. At least it was better inside the house than in public, but he was acting like I was dying. It was beyond embarrassing. At least the bruises were completely gone, so he had no argument.

He gave my upper arms a squeeze, then reluctantly let me go, settling in the rocking chair to wait.

I grimaced when I entered the bathroom and looked around. Due to my injury, I hadn't been in any physical condition to get around to cleaning it — or even the rest of the house.

My eyes widened at the even bigger mess I saw in the mirror.

How had Edward kept from laughing at this? My cheeks turned red as I studied my morning hair. It was crazy tangled every day, but he usually left to drive his car back here before picking me up for school, so he rarely saw me get out of bed.

I ran my comb through the tangles, wincing and hissing at particularly painful strokes. Briefly, I considered calling Alice to borrow one of her conditioner bottles, but the lengthy Bella-barbie makeover that was sure to follow wasn't worth it.

Edward was still sitting in the rocking chair when I emerged five minutes later. He grinned when I made a beeline for him and immediately lounged across his lap.

"You're being awfully lazy this morning," he observed, hugging me closer.

I nodded into his shoulder, mumbling, "Just realized that Spring cleaning has finally caught up with me. Bathroom, dusting the living room…" I looked around critically. "My room. Makes me just want to go back to bed."

"I can do it," he offered.

"Clean the house? Um, no."

"Why not?"

I flushed. "It's just weird."

"What's so weird about it?" he demanded. "I do it all the time."

I raised an eyebrow.

He rolled his eyes. "Alright, not all the time. But a little dusting here and there…" He trailed off, then narrowed his eyes when he caught my expression.

My lips were pressed together, suppressing giggles. "A little dusting. That's it? I bet you don't even how to make a bed."

He glared at me, then sighed. "Okay, so vampires are kind of low maintenance, but how hard could it be?"

"Not hard. Just exhausting. And only when you're human," I scowled. "You know, if you would just change me—"

"Let's get started. Think of this as another human experience for me," he interrupted quickly, standing up and lifting me in his arms so quickly that I gasped. He carried me over to the bed, carefully setting me down next to it and muttering under his breath, "don't even know how to make a bed… Just because I don't own one doesn't mean I don't know how to maintain—"

"Okay, okay, how about a deal?" I suggested.

He crossed his arms and waited, expressionless.

"You make the bed… under, um, fifteen seconds." He raised his eyebrows but didn't comment. "If you can't, I get the satisfaction of knowing there's at least one thing you're not good at."

He rolled his eyes and sat on the edge of the bed. "And if I win?"

"What do you want?"

He considered this, then looked up at me. "I get to take you out. Not tonight, but soon. Maybe next weekend."

"Out?"

"On a date," he clarified.

"Um, don't you already do that?"

"Yes, but this time you have to promise to not complain about my spending too much or spoiling you or being unreasonable—"

"But you always are unreasonable."

He ignored me. "Do we have a deal?

I gritted my teeth. "No deal. I can't sit through another makeover."

"No Alice torture, I promise," he said quickly. "I'll make sure she stays out of it. You can dress however you like."

I bit my lip as I studied his earnest face. He looked so cute. But I still had to ask… "Dancing?"

"No."

I relaxed. "Okay."

"Really?"

"Yes."

He grinned broadly, leaving me breathless. Moving so quickly it looked like a blur, he stood and pulled me in for one of our longest kisses yet which surprised me considering his silly boundaries of our intimacy. Butterflies fluttered around in my belly as his fingers went to caressing my sides. He sighed against my lips as I was melting into him. My head was starting to spin and my knees trembled before he finally pulled away and steadied me carefully.

"Fifteen seconds, hmm?"

The duration of our kiss? Funny, I'd have thought it was longer. But I always lost sense of time and space when he was kissing me. I eyed him in confusion before I realized he was talking about our bet.

"Oh, that…" I said breathlessly. "Yes."

"Are you coherent enough to count?" He asked me, amused.

"Count what?" I asked dazedly, and he chuckled softly. "Oh, right. Um, yeah. Start. One…" I began shakily.

He went to work immediately, his movements all blurry again. He appeared to be folding the blankets while tucking the sheet in the bed corners, but I couldn't really tell because my head was still spinning. The pillows were straightened, bedspread was smoothed, blankets draped neatly over the bottom of the bed…

"How many seconds am I at?" he called.

"I lost track after two," I confessed as he bounded up to me. He looked so carefree; it was adorable.

"Good thing I set my stopwatch," he laughed, extending his wrist towards me.

14.56

"I win," he announced triumphantly.

"I should've known," I sighed. I peered around him to judge. "Great job… and you even had time to accessorize." I stared at the single red rose he'd placed on my pillow and shook my head. "Where did you even get that?"

"Outside," he replied casually, gesturing behind him to the window that I just realized was open.

"You amaze me."

"You seriously underestimate me," he teased as we headed downstairs. "I was once human, you know."

"But did you make your bed as a human?"

His eyebrows furrowed. "I can't specifically remember. I'm sure I did. My mother was very strict about tidiness…" He trailed off, lost in the past for a moment, before he shook himself and smiled at me. "Maybe it's old habits coming back. Or maybe it's the natural feeling of being human whenever I'm with you. Or even otherwise. Emmett always teases me that I'm going soft."

"Sorry to drag you down."

He paused on the bottom step and stared at me. "I'm not feeling dragged down."

"Okay," I said, disconcerted by the sincerity in his eyes.

"Really," he insisted, backing me into the wall. "Bella, I love being with you, no matter what we do."

I felt the same, but it didn't the fact that there was an enormous barrier between us. He wasn't human, and I wasn't a vampire, so unless he changed me, there would never be an equal ground between us. We couldn't even do something as simple as sharing each other's meals. Well, we could, but it'd be awfully unpleasant for both of us.

It was only a matter of time before I'd finally convince him…