Fairy Dust

I think I almost had a heart attack when I heard Claire gasp the way she did. I sat up so quickly it almost felt like I'd just phased.

"Claire? What's the matter?"

I cursed my luck. Jacob had left only half a minute ago and already, I wished that he would help me mind her until her mum came back from town.

"Quil!" she shrieked. I ran towards the sound of her voice. She was just in the garden, right where I'd left her.

I expected to hear her crying and maybe see a bit of her blood. The first thing that had come to my mind was that she'd tripped over and cracked her head open on the stepping-stones. But when I found her squatting next to the flowerbed with an excited grin across her face, I let out a held breath and slowed down to a walk. Of course, legs as long as mine, I was at her side within a second anyway.

"Quil! Look!" she squealed, pointing at the little pink daisies in the flowerbed. I smiled and looked, knowing that if I didn't take her seriously, she was liable to go flying into one of her little temper-tantrums, three-year-old terror that she was. But on closer inspection, she actually had found something. I looked at the flower petals. They were supposed to be ordinary pink daisies, but these ones had specks of golden dust sprinkled all over them. For a moment, I was speechless – I'd never seen anything like it.

Then I felt Claire tugging on my sleeve and I looked down at her.

"Quil, what is it?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," I replied. Carefully, I reached out and brushed the tip of my fingers against the tiny, fragile petals. When I looked back at my fingers, there were little gold specks on them too.

Suddenly, Claire put her hands on her hips. Then she announced, "I think it was fairies!"

She looked up at me for approval and I raised my eyebrows at her. "Claire, don't be silly," I nearly laughed. "There's no such thing as fairies!"

She gasped again, this time in anger. That wiped the smile clean off my face.

"Quil!"

"What?" I shrugged helplessly. Ouch, made helpless by a three-year-old.

"How can you say that?"

"Um…"

"There is too such thing as fairies!" she insisted stubbornly.

"Claire, what makes you think that?"

"Werewolves are real!" she reminded me. "So are vampires! Why not fairies?"

I sighed in defeat; couldn't argue with that.

"Alright then, Claire, what are we going to do about the fairies then?" I smiled.

She grinned at me, "Let's look for them."

I had to keep her happy; that was in my nature. If that meant giving into the fact that fairies were real, then I was cool with that. So, until Claire's mum got home and called us in for dinner, I stayed in the garden with her and we searched for fairies.

I wouldn't admit it, but at some point, I gave up telling myself that I was only pretending to believe there were fairies to please Claire. Man, I really wasn't looking forward to the next time I phased; then I wouldn't have control of what thoughts I revealed. The boys would never let me live this down… and definitely not Jacob.

15 years later…

She was eighteen and beautiful with a curvaceous body and hair that cascaded halfway down her back in lush ringlets. Her skin was creamy and flawless and it tasted sweeter than sugar. Her lips were like clouds and her smile still took my breath away. She had wide eyes that were just as full of life as they had always been. Age didn't seem to be a factor to her personality at all. But I didn't mind that one bit.

Jacob had just left, his parting words, "Behave yourself!" with a sly, mischievous wink. So what if Claire was a big girl now? I imprinted on her years ago! Who was he to talk anyway? It wasn't like he kept his hands off Nessie these days.

"Quil!" I heard Claire shriek from the garden. There was excitement in her voice.

Smiling to myself, I went outside. She was kneeling next to the flowerbed, examining the little pink daisies.

"What is it, Claire?" I asked.

She gestured for me to kneel next to her. Then she pointed at the daisies and smiled. The little pink leaves were sprinkled with a vaguely familiar golden dust.

"Look what else I found," she whispered, holding out her hand. In her upturned palm, she held a tiny pink shoe, not the size of one of her fingertips. The only thing she whispered after that was, "Fairies!"

Without another word, we both smiled to each other and started searching.

Does anyone else find it extremely sad that I like the minor characters and subplots instead of the main characters and plot? I really think the books were just so painfully overrated it took a lot of enjoyment out of them for me. And the movies really do suck...

Second Twilight fic ever. Be nice :) Tell me what you think. Review! Thanks.