A/N: This was started a while back before the leaking of Midnight Sun. When I wrote this, I had read the first chapter and based some of this off of that. I have since read the rest of MS (yes, I gave in.) and changed various parts, most prominently the main scene where Edward writes the song. I have also cut a lot of dialogue and basically skimmed over a lot, since this story is primarily about the lullaby. This was originally inspired by various parts of all the books, but it was a comment made in Breaking Dawn that really made the idea spark, even before reading MS. There aren't any spoilers in here – it's set near the beginning of Twilight. I don't know if I'm as fond of it now as I was before MS. Sad.
I sat on the porch watching the sun go down. Sighs escaped me as I watched the colors meld into darkness.
I was glad to be home. We had made a trip overseas during the winter vacation to do a little bit of sightseeing and such. We had only gotten home a few hours ago, but already I was running out of things to do it seemed. I'd already played Alice in a dozen games of chess and lost a few rounds of arm wrestling to Emmett (though I beat him in regular wrestling, even if he does think I cheat). I desperately needed a trip to Seattle or Olympia soon. I was almost out of reading material on advanced doctoral Physics, so I thought I'd find some updates on Astronomy – I was pretty sure my knowledge was a bit outdated. I enjoyed spending time with my family, but when the sun went down the Cullen family split off in twos leaving me the odd one out.
At least I had one thing to look forward to. High school started up again tomorrow. I would have some homework, even if it did only take an hour at the very most to finish it. It would be just that many less chess games, wrestling matches, or whatever else we had decided to do that day. School, even if it was mundane and not much different in the past couple of decades, still provided some distraction to the very monotonous routine life held otherwise.
I didn't have to wonder why the others didn't get frustrated at the usualness of the days. I heard the freshness of their existences every minute of the day and worse every minute of the night.
As the sun's last rays disappeared under the horizon, the darkness of the night took over. For the past half dozen decades or so, the night sky had begun to fascinate me. Of course, most of our abodes were rainy, cloudy cities, so my observance was limited. For awhile in the 70's, Carlisle convinced Esme, Alice, and Jasper to spend a short time up north. (Rosalie and Emmett spent this time as a married couple in London.) There we fed on polar bears and I was able to spend a majority of my time studying in detail the heavens. At the very least, my improved vampire vision could still see more than humans could through these clouds where we lived right now. On a clearer day in Forks, I could stare at the night skies.
Sometimes when the others were feeling extremely feisty I'd take a long run out a couple hundred miles until the sky really cleared up. I'd spend an entire night away from everything just looking out into nothingness.
I had been plugging out the thoughts of my family around me. After almost a century of editing, I'd gotten pretty good at filtering what I should and shouldn't listen to. And right now, I should defiantly not be listening. The rain began to pour heavily from the dark skies. I had sat here for quite awhile and it was the middle of the night.
I went back inside and quickly found my ipod. Tonight would be a night of opera. I started with La Boheme, listening to the opera in Italian. I almost had this one memorized. La Boheme slipped away into Norma. Norma disappeared into The Magic Flute. The time passed.
I was just starting a Wagner opera when Alice came bounding down the stairs with today's outfit for me. That girl was somehow obsessed with fashion. If it wasn't for the fact that she couldn't remember her human life, I'd say she was a fashion fanatic in her former existence. And that would have been what was exponentially intensified when she became a vampire.
After passing Alice's criticizing gaze, we piled into my Volvo and headed off to school. My spring schedule hadn't changed at all from the fall. Biology, English, American History, it was all the same as it usually is. I suppose Biology would be my favorite because the information grew and changed over the years. Any science was my favorite for that matter.
The beginning of the morning was uneventful until the thoughts of people around me began focusing on the new girl in town. Everybody was Bella this and Bella that.
I supposed they must mean the police chief's daughter who had moved to Forks to stay with her dad. All the boys were in a flutter over the beautiful girl from Phoenix. It was starting to get annoying.
All was fine until Biology. I sat in my usual seat by myself minding my own business. The other students naturally stayed away from my siblings and me. Their subconscious instincts warned them against us.
The new student, Bella, walked in and noticed the only available seat next to me. She came over and sat down. A slight breeze blew from the open window behind her.
Fire welled up in the back of my throat. Fire like I had never known before. Her blood called out to me; it was sweeter than anything I'd smelled before. I sat through the rest of class with my fist clenched and not breathing.
My trip to Denali was helpful. I was able to calm down and regain my composure. However, I was still slightly dreading the next day at school. I had decided to be cordial and polite. Perhaps I could be her friend without killing her.
And then, it happened. I saw it happen in Alice's mind seconds before it almost came to pass before my eyes. I rushed, too fast for human eyes, over to her and saved her from certain death. And from that point on, I realized that even if I was the most dangerous thing that threatened her, I would have to protect her from everything else. And with this determination, lying to her felt ten times worse.
The silence of her mind intrigued me like nothing else. I simple had to know what she was thinking. What did she think of me? Did she suspect what I was? But more important, how did she see me, as a person?
The next day passed, and then the next. The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into a month. Every day was a living hell for my body and its thirst, and for my mind.
And then the afternoon of blood typing I sat in my car and it came to me. Thinking of the girl sleeping there in her room, defenseless and vulnerable, the notes began running through my head. I could hear the graceful melody and hints of the harmonies forming seamlessly in my head.
About sixty or seventy years ago, I had begun playing the piano. It didn't take long to become proficient with all the practice time I had and soon, merely playing the piano bored me. I then found a love in composing music. Creating something out of nothing was so thrilling and intoxicating. It was so different from my other passion in science that it tended to consume me on occasion. I published my works from time to time, but more often than not, they stayed in my head only to be performed as Esme requested them. Sadly, I hadn't written anything, or even gone near our grand piano since Bella came to forks.
I was anxiously awaiting to get home to complete it when Mike Newton's thoughts about Bella distracted me.
The notes had all but left my mind by the time I got back to our house. And then it was torturous to wait. I never liked to compose with people around me. Consider it a secret of the artist. Never let someone see the unfinished product. Therefore, I was impatient waiting for the Cullen household to break off. The song swirled in my head, begging to be brought to life.
If I was human, I would have been fidgeting endlessly. However, I was standing perfectly still, staring out the window at the beetle crawling along the porch. Finally, everybody went off to their rooms two by two.
I immediately sat down at the piano and let the music run its course. My fingers flew across the keys in perfect harmony. Never had a song written itself so easily. Nobody's thoughts interrupted mine as everything came together. I had the piece written and notated on staff paper before the sun rose that morning.
A few hours later I was playing it making sure that every note was perfect. Esme made her way down the stairs, her thoughts enchanted by the new piece and overjoyed that I was writing again. She stood in the room and when I finished, she smiled and asked, "Does it have a title yet?"
I pondered for a millisecond realized there was only one possible title.
"Bella's Lullaby,"