Into the Fire

A/N—The title comes from the expression "out of the frying pan (and) into the fire". I picked it because the god Bella picks out is Pan. Get it? Good.

Disclaimer—I don't own the plot/characters for Twilight, duh.

"Bella? . . . Bel—la . . . " Edward waved his hand lightly in front of her dazed face.

Bella's eyes at first didn't flinch at Edward's hand, which made him pout slightly and lean towards her, his interest piqued by her odd behavior. He examined her face more closely. She looked beautiful, as per usual, but her face held a certain blankness and her eyes a certain glossiness that was off.

"Bella?" his voice was not as lighthearted as before but was instead laced with slight over-protective apprehension.

Bella blinked her eyes twice in rapid succession and shifted in the seat she was sitting on. Slightly furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, she focused in on her surroundings: a coffee cup held in her hands was hovering near her parted lips without actually touching them, and Edward was to her left, leaning against the table's counter with a concentrated gaze which she noticed was centered on her. Had she been daydreaming?

"Ah—did you say something?" she squeaked out before ducking her head and taking a sip out of her mug in an attempt to hide the blush she felt beginning to spread on her cheeks.

"I asked you how your art class went today and then you stared off into space instead of responding."

Her face heated up more and she tilted the mug closer so that it covered more of her face, again in an attempt to conceal her expression. The move backfired, however, when the increased flow of steamy coffee filled her mouth when she wasn't paying proper attention. In a very unlady-like manner, she started choking when the liquid caffeine went down the wrong pipe. She churlishly spit out the excess liquid, setting down the cup to at least cover her mouth while she attempted to cough the fluid out of her lungs.

Edward scooted closer to her and began rubbing her back in soothing circles as she hunched over the side of her seat that was facing away from him. This kind gesture did not help Bella's embarrassment any, she dully noted, after her coughing fit subsided and she was left with the rushing sensation of blood flowing to her head. Taking a moment to collect herself as best she could while her hair was still covering her bent head, she tried to calm her racing heart and put on as much of a normal face as she could muster after what just happened. Then, in a move that she hoped was half as graceful as Edward's movements on a daily basis, she lifted her head while at the same time pushing her loose hair back with both her hands and turned to face Edward.

She cleared her throat one last time for good measure before speaking. "Art class was fine. . . Hah . . . " Her fake smile struggled to stay in place after she heard her words escape her mouth; they sounded so bogus.

To her chagrin, Edward did not buy her poor excuse. His eyebrows knit together in his classic worried face. "Then, it was so bad that you want to lie about it?" he asked. His voice held an unintentional edge of harshness in it.

Bella cringed at the sound of his voice. "No, really—it wasn't bad." She put her hands in front of her in a defensive stance. "It's just . . . " She looked down at the floor for a moment before her eyes returned to Edward's face. "I got an assignment."

In silence, he let her words sink in for a moment, all the while noticing Bella's cheeks becoming increasingly red again.

"An assignment," he repeated slowly.

She shook her head stiffly and then put her face in her hands to hide her blush. She figured her face must look like a stop sign by the rate at which blood was flowing to her head.

Edward's worry over her abnormal behavior turned into amusement. He tried to suppress a smile from forming on his lips. "So it was an . . . embarrassing assignment?" He placed his hands over hers and delicately pulled them away from their position shielding her face. "Hmm?" he implored.

"You're enjoying this," Bella said with mock indignation after viewing his expression. His mouth was drawn into a tight, thin line in his efforts not to smile or laugh at her predicament.

At this, Edward guffawed, confirming her suspicions. His laugh eventually quieted down and melded into a smile. Bella silently noted the way his canine teeth rubbed against his bottom lip and licked her lips in response.

"So, what was it?"

"What was what?" Bella absently asked, still staring at his bottom lip.

He chuckled again and gave Bella a quick kiss on the cheek before repeating his question.

"Oh, right. I don't want to think about it." She turned to face forward again and picked up her coffee mug. She titled it toward her lips only to be reminded that there was little left after having all but chugged it down earlier. Deciding that she didn't want to taste her own backwash, she set down the cup without drinking out of it.

"Bella," he said in what he hoped sounded like a stern voice.

"Yes?" she said innocently. She sneaked a glance at him.

"Tell me."

"Maybe later," she replied lightly.

Edward growled low in his throat and placed his hands on his girlfriend's hips. In one swift movement, he rotated her position on the chair so she was facing him and brought his face down to hers. They shared a searing kiss that consisted mainly of Edward maneuvering his expert mouth over Bella's in a way that left her seeing stars and feeling little bursts of electricity emanating from her lips. All too soon for her, he pulled away and rested his forehead against hers. She was the only one of the two who had difficulty breathing afterward but Edward didn't seem to mind that she was left panting.

"You were saying?" he said in a low voice before she had time to get acclimated again.

She gave him one last look of despair once her breathing had normalized before starting her explanation. "Mr. Cantanzzo is combining the study of ancient Greek sculpture with anatomy," she squeaked out. Bella closed her eyes in anticipation of his reaction but he remained silent. Hesitantly, she reopened her eyes, thinking that Edward might be speechless but oddly enough he just looked at her blankly. Edward still didn't get it yet, she thought with horror. She was sure he would pick up her meaning right away without her having to spell it out for him.

She continued on with even more nervousness. "He put a bunch of names of Greek gods in two separate hats—one for the guys in the class and one for the girls—and we each took turns picking out the name of the god or goddess we will have to draw . . . " She again broke off to look at him. He still wore the same face of not understanding.

"Naked, Edward." Her voice cracked.

His expression finally showed the recognition she had been dreading and his mouth formed a perfectly stunned 'O'.

"Well," his voice cracked as well and he abruptly coughed to clear his throat before continuing, "that's per-perfectly normal in art, Bella." He gave a small, hesitant smile that didn't reach his eyes. "And the deity you chose was . . . ?"

"Pan," she said in a small voice. As she expected, his less than thrilled reaction led to a very awkward atmosphere between them.

"A male god," Edward said, more to himself than to her. Although he couldn't blush, Bella could tell he was feeling as embarrassed as she had been earlier by the way he avoided eye contact with her and how he alternated between wringing his hands and tousling his own hair.

"A-All the girls in the class were given gods . . . and all the guys were given goddesses," she stuttered out. "I forgot to mention that, I guess." She gave a small, hollow laugh. "Actually, all the guys were pretty excited," she added as an afterthought.

"I'm sure," he said with a smile. He turned and pulled up a chair on the other side of Bella so that they were both seated. "I'm not that familiar with Greek mythology now that I think about it," he tried to say this casually. "Pan is the god of . . ."

"Fertility."

He was silent for a moment thinking of what to say. "Oh," he said lamely after coming up with nothing.

"A-and pastures."

"Pastures, that's nice."

Bella groaned. "Edward."

Edward seemed to snap out of his trance when he noticed her apparent discomfort. He gave a genuine laugh, albeit a short one for the first time since she announced her assignment. "I'm sorry, love." He lifted her a little and set her on his lap so that he could rest his chin against her shoulder and breathe in the scent of her hair. "I'll be fine, you'll be fine. Is this one of those art things where they bring in male and female nude models? Is that why you're nervous?" he tried to ask lightly.

She shook her head slightly, bringing more of her scent toward his nose. He angled his head closer so it rested against the crook of her neck and he could feel the vibrations from her vocal chords when she spoke.

"Not exactly. It's an outside assignment, meaning we have to do it on our own time."

Edward frowned against her neck. "So you don't need a model?"

"I can't hear you, you're mumbling against my neck."

"Sorry," he sheepishly pulled away and repeated himself.

His question brought back the blush that she seemed to be fighting since their conversation started. "It just means he's not providing a model."

"And I'm guessing basing . . . you know, basing it on the Statue of David, or the like, would be out of the question?"

"Wait here," Bella instructed as she silently left the kitchen.

"Isn't he supposed to know all this already?" Bella muttered to herself in dismay as she entered her room and picked up her bag. She grabbed the folded pages containing information on Pan that she had printed out in the library earlier that day and, with scuffling feet, she returned to Edward's side. Without any further words she handed the sheets to him.

"Pan, in Greek religion and mythology, is the companion of the nymphs, god of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat. He was worshiped by shepherds as the protector of their flocks against wolves, and at the same time as the promoter of the fertility among sheep," Edward read aloud and smiled slightly. "Oh, so he guarded against wolves, did he? He doesn't sound too bad." He looked up at Bella.

She did not return the smile. "That's not the important part," she replied quietly. "It's the part on the next page." With shaky fingers, she pointed to the second paragraph. "Don't read it out loud," she warned.

He read the next part silently to himself:

Erotic aspects

Pan is famous for his sexual powers, and is often depicted with an erect phallus. Diogenes of Sinope, speaking in jest, related a myth of Pan learning masturbation from his father, Hermes, and teaching the habit to shepherds.

He was believed by the Greeks to have plied his charms primarily on maidens and shepherds. Though he failed with Syrinx and Pitys, Pan didn't fail with the Maenads—he had every one of them, in one orgiastic riot or another.

"Oh, well—I see why he's the fertility god now."

"I don't think the Statue of David fits that description," Bella commented mirthlessly. She tried to be more direct with Edward, figuring that getting everything out in the open would end the current topic of conversation faster, and as a result, end the tension between them faster. "I–I have no idea what that looks like, of course," she quickly peeked at him before looking away again. "It's okay, though. I guess. I can j-just make conjectures, use my imagination. Or look on the internet or something," she quickly threw out the last part of her sentence.

With his hearing, he caught every word. "I won't let you look up erect phalluses on the internet, Bella." His tone of voice told her he was being very serious.

"I didn't really mean that," she said in a small voice. "B-but what am I supposed to do?

Edward grabbed the nearby coffee mug and slid it so that it was in front of his seated form. He then proceeded to trace the outline of the cup's rim with his fingers while his mind worked to find the best possible solution to the problem at hand.

"Bella, you—did you have any idea already of what you were going to do? I mean, specifically about that," he said with a small gesture to the internet article.

Bella glanced at the article for a moment before returning her gaze to his eyes.

"Well," she said nervously while idly twirling a stand of hair around her fingers, "besides looking it up on the internet," her sentence broke off as she noticed his body tense slightly, "and asking for your advice," she amended quickly, " . . . n-no, not really."

Edward slouched his shoulders slightly before straightening completely. "All right." He glanced at her again and in a fluid motion grabbed the small strand of hair that she had been twirling and tucked it behind her ear. "And when did you say the project is due?"

"I didn't. It's due at the end of the month," she replied.

He ran a hand through his already tousled hair and tugged at a fistful of it lightly. "That doesn't give you much time, does it?"

Bella gave a weak shrug. "It's time enough." Reciprocating his earlier gesture, she entwined her fingers with the fingers currently in Edward's hair and gently separated them, freeing enough space so she could run her own hand through his smooth hair and slip her fingers down behind his left ear. "I think we're making a bigger deal out of this than it really is."

"You're probably right." He gave a small grin. "Don't worry about it yet. I'll think about it some more and see if I can't come up with a better solution than resorting to google by the end of the week." He said the last part with a scowl.

"I didn't mean to trouble you . . . " Bella said with a thoughtful frown.

Edward grabbed her left hand and kissed the back of it.

"Don't say that, it's no problem at all," he replied while flashing his trademark, dazzling smile.

"What the hell am I going to do?" Edward questioned in anguish. He collapsed backward onto the Cullen family's living room couch with the dramatic flourish of a prototypical tortured soul.

His brothers, especially Emmett, met Edward's question with a gaggle of laughter.

"I have an idea," Emmett interjected in between his guffaw with a huge grin on his face.

Edward scowled, knowing quite well that his vampire brother's mind was swimming in some gutter. "If it has anything to do with you taking your pants off I don't want to hear it."

Emmett momentarily feigned disappointment and slumped down onto the couch. However, it didn't take long for his façade to crumple as he and Jasper again broke out in a laugh.

Edward just shook his head and ran a hand down his face in exasperation. He didn't know why he even bothered telling them anything; it was obvious they were going to be of no help.

"Oh, relax," Emmett said, flippantly waving his hand at Edward's melodramatic antics.

Edward scowled at Jasper after suddenly feeling himself become more relaxed. Once the waves of relaxation passed he was left with an even more heightened feeling of agitation, his annoyance with his family members melding together with the already present headache caused by Bella's assignment. "Just forget I said anything," he bit out acridly, turning his stone cold glare to the floorboards. He needed to start doing some serious brainstorming since he obviously had to come up with something by himself.

"Why doesn't she just . . . get her inspiration from somewhere else?" Jasper said, trying to offer some serious advice. "You know, like the internet or something," he added as a helpful afterthought.

Emmett had to physically pull Edward back down onto the couch to keep him from jumping Jasper.

"What's your problem?" Jasper yelled in surprise. He had jumped on top of the other love-seat and was crouched with his hands help up in a defensive stance, ready to counter any attack Edward could come up with.

"You guys are idiots," came the musical voice of Alice from the top of the staircase, interrupting the fight that was about to break out. She gracefully sprinted down the remaining stairs and stood with her hands at her hips. "Bella called me. She was nervous that Edward was worrying more than he should be about her art project." She shot Edward, who was still in Emmett's arms, an accusatory look.

Alice then turned and finished wrapping a scarf around her neck as she headed toward the front of the house. She grabbed and quickly put on a coat and unlocked the front door. "I'm," she emphasized the first word, "going to go help Bella finish her drawing. Remember when I went through that artsy phase back in the '60s? I took a drawing class or two back then . . ." She looked to Jasper with a cute smile. "And I have some first hand experience," she japed. With that said, she closed the door behind her and disappeared from their view with the evanescence of a pixie.

An awkward lull of a few seconds transpired whereby none of the Cullen men said anything. Edward looked down at his chest and saw that Emmett's arms seemed to be wrapped around his torso in an embrace.

"What the heck just happened?" he asked, prying himself away form Emmett's body.

A/N—The ending was pretty stupid :o Sorry it took so long to finish!

Thanks for reading all the way to the end~! :3

–staticshakedown