Title: The Trouble With Twins
Summary: My entry for the 'Forgotten Femmes Anonymous Contest'. Imprinting is the biological imperative to find a mate. But what happens to imprinting if you're dealing with genetically identical twins?
Pairing: Rebecca Black/Paul, Rachel Black/Paul
POV: Rebecca Black
Entry for the Forgotten Femmes Anonymous Contest
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or anything to do with it. I merely play in Stephanie Meyer's sandbox.
I was the screw-up. The black sheep. You know, that one kid that there has to be in every family with multiple children.
Jake was always the golden boy, the one who stayed behind and looked after dad. Granted he was a little young to do anything but remain at home, but that still didn't negate the fact that he had stayed and taken care of everything while the rest of us were flitting around doing whatever we wanted. Dad would never hear a bad word against him, despite the fact that he had vanished two months ago and nobody knew where he was.
Except maybe they did. Every day one of his friends from the Res, and even guys that I didn't know he was friends with, would stop by to see Dad, passing on secret messages that they were always careful not to let me hear.
Dad was acting weird too, spending all his time over at the Clearwater's. He always had a good reason for his absence as well; he needed to check on Sue now that Harry was dead, he needed to speak to her about council business, he thought he'd just take over some fish that he had caught during the weekend with Charlie Swan.
I liked the Swans. They were behaving in the normal manner that you would expect people to when a sixteen-year-old goes missing. Charlie was attempting to lead a search into Jake's whereabouts and Bella Swan was always popping over to see if there was any news. For a short while I had wondered if there was anything going on there between her and my little brother – she seemed far too worried for someone who was 'just a friend'.
She was engaged though, to one of the Cullens, and appeared to be massively in love with her fiancé. Embry, in an aside that my father didn't know about, had confessed to me that it was Bella Swan's engagement that had led to Jake running away. Apparently he was in love with her and she didn't return those feelings. Either way, she was a sweet girl and anyone who could shed some normality onto this bizarre situation was alright in my book.
So Rachel and I sat, and waited, and ate junk food and watched TV, all while waiting for our baby brother to come home.
As yes, Rachel – my clever clever twin sister. If Jake was the golden boy, then Rachel was surely the golden girl. Scholarship to the University of Washington; early graduation; several job offers from big companies that had head-hunted her. Yeah, she was really intelligent and sometimes it grated, but I could never hold on to my resentment for long. How could I? She was my twin sister and my best friend and I was so proud of her and everything that she had achieved.
I just sometimes wished that I had achieved as much during my time away from home. Instead I had returned with nothing but a failed marriage and broken dreams behind me.
I had first met Jack here at La Push, down on First Beach. He had travelled up north, seeking out the waves in the Pacific Northwest's prime surfing locations. Barely eighteen at the time it had been love at first sight, and it wasn't long before we were declaring our eternal commitment in front of family (mine) and friends (his). It was my father's wish that I have at least some security before I left to cavort after the new love of my life and marriage was a way of securing that.
I don't mean to sound clinical, or devalue the feelings I had at the time, but a part of me just wanted to tie the knot and get out of here. You didn't have to be a psychologist to understand that I no longer wanted to be confronted by my mother's ghost which haunted every corner of the Res.
So I ran - away from home and towards eternal love… or so I thought.
After a while though the constant nomadic lifestyle got to me, Jack's band of immature surfing buddies always hanging around got to me, my husband's inability to ever put me first like I did for him got to me.
I tried to make my marriage work, I really did. I looked after my husband as best I could, I followed him all over the Hawaiian Islands in search of the perfect wave, I smiled at the band of morons he surrounded himself with, plying them with drinks and ignoring the crude comments they would make.
But I really couldn't make my marriage work all by myself. Coming home late from the deadbeat job in a bar that I'd been forced to get I had strolled into our rented apartment to find Jack lying on the floor in the middle of the living room, some dumb blond with implants riding him to his heart's content.
By that point I really didn't care anymore. Stalking into our bedroom I had announced that I wanted a divorce and could his friend let herself out when she was done. Six months later it was all over and divorce papers in hand I headed home, tail truly between my legs.
Only when I got home it wasn't the same and I couldn't just back into the swing of things like I wanted to.
Luckily, having just finished college with no future plans, Rachel was in exactly the same position as I was. Which was why we were currently plodding along First Beach in the freezing cold trying to decide what we wanted to do with our lives.
That's when we saw him. Tall, well-muscled and wearing only a ragged pair of shorts he loped across the sand heading in our direction.
Rachel squealed in my ear. "God, check him out." She slapped my arm lightly.
"Ouch, Rachel! I see him, you didn't have to hit me. I'm surprised he hasn't got pneumonia, look at him, he practically naked."
"I wish." We both giggled like schoolgirls.
We had always been like this, both of us crushing on the same guy. It was the one personality trait that we shared, our taste in men. It was almost like looking identical was as much as we could stand, in every other way we fought against being the same as each other.
Throughout high school though we had always shown interest in the same guys and it was only a question of who got there first as to who ended up with him. Once we had even both dated the same guy at the same time – he just didn't know it. We had taken turns on who went out on dates with him and who took his phone calls… Poor Brian had never worked out why his girlfriend's personality changed almost daily.
The boy was about twenty metres away from us now and I could just make out his features. His face was lean with a well-defined jaw line and I realised that I vaguely recognised him; I couldn't recall his name, but I knew that he had been at school with us at some point.
His head was down as he approached us and as he stalked past he slammed into Rachel's side, knocking her towards me. Raising my arms I managed to steady her before she fell.
We both stared incredulously at his back, Rachel struggling to catch her composure after having the wind knocked out of her. "Well, I guess gorgeous doesn't always mean nice."
I smirked humourlessly. "I could've told you that, Rach."
The guy was still storming away from us and I found myself angry at his inability to turn around and apologise. Hell, I wasn't looking for grovelling, a quick muttered 'sorry' would've done.
"Hey!" I yelled.
"Becky," Rachel hissed, grabbing my arm. "Don't."
I ignored her.
"Hey! Watch where you're going in future, you blind moron!"
"Becky." By now Rachel was tugging on my arm in earnest, trying to get me to move along. She always did hate confrontation.
To my surprise the guy stopped and turned, glaring at the two of us.
"Oh shit." He was coming back.
As he stalked towards us, glaring, I noticed that his fists were rhythmically clenching and unclenching.
Oh god, he was pissed off and he was heading right for us looking really mean. Well, nothing left to do but brazen it out. I grabbed Rachel's hand tightly in my own. As he stopped in front of us I raised my chin defiantly, daring him to say something.
But the tirade I was expecting never came. Instead his look of anger turned to one of confusion, his head frantically darting between the two of us, and then shock which rapidly melted away into pure awe.
I couldn't understand the changing emotions that crossed his face and sidling closer to Rachel for protection I quietly berated myself for shouting at someone who was quite clearly mental.
He took a step towards us and in complete tandem we took a step back. He frowned.
"I'm Paul."
Oh this was rich; he shoves into us, nearly attacks us and all of a sudden he decides to introduce himself. "We're leaving."
Still clinging to each other, me and Rachel began to walk slowly backwards towards the main road behind the beach.
"Wait!" Paul stumbled forward, reaching out a hand towards us. "Don't… You can't go. Please…. I…"
Yep, definitely mental.
He frowned and appeared to be sniffing the air around us.
While he was distracted Rachel tugged at me. "C'mon, let's go." Turning our backs, we half-ran up the slope of the beach. Reaching the car park we sighed in relief. There were other people around, so there was no way he could get to us now.
"Wait."
You gotta be kidding me. Jogging up behind us he gazed down imploringly. "Please, I didn't mean to be rude, I just… You both smell…"
Excuse me!
Our incredulous glares must have alerted him to what he had just said because he immediately held his hands up in protest.
"No, no. I don't mean that you smell bad or anything. You just… Jacob."
"Jacob," Rachel repeated.
"Yeah, that's it exactly. You both smell like Jacob." He smiled triumphantly like this would explain everything, but why the hell had this freak been sniffing up my baby brother?
"Becky?"
"Yeah, let's go."
This time we did run, but when I chanced a glance behind me he was nowhere in sight.
"God, that was weird."
"Tell me about it."
Later on that evening we found out exactly what that had been all about. Dad called us out from our cramped bedroom and making our way to the living room we saw that our tiny house was cramped full of people.
Sue Clearwater was there, with old Quil Ateara sat next to her. The strange boy from the beach was there as well and I bristled slightly to see him so comfortable in our house. On either side of him stood Sam Uley – who I could have sworn had gotten a lot taller – and a guy from school that I vaguely remembered being called Jared. Near a large vacant space on the sofa, presumably where Rach and I were supposed to sit, were two of Jake's friends, Embry and Quil.
I lowered myself hesitantly into the spare seat and that's when the madness began.
Quiluete legends, wolves, vampires, Cullens, mates and some weird fated thing called imprinting. A giant monster appeared in the living room, only to change back into Embry a moment later who joked about how Jake wouldn't like it if he knew that Rachel and I had seen his junk. At that point I vaguely remember making some comment about how there really wasn't much to see, but the rest was a blur.
Then came more information on imprinting; it was a wolf thing, a biological imperative based on the ability of the pairing to mate and reproduce, it was the reason why when I left Sam Uley was preparing to marry his childhood sweetheart, yet when I moved back he was making those same preparations with her cousin. It was a male seeking out the most genetically compatible female he could to breed with.
I thought it sounded barbaric.
Even better, because Rachel and I were born identical twins we were genetic replicas of each other, thus Paul had imprinted upon both of us… Together… At the same time.
This was seriously fucked up.
No-one had ever foreseen this scenario happening before and while some of the gathering tried to puzzle out how exactly it would work, others - particularly the rest of the guys who were… wolves - it was absolutely hilarious.
The debates ran on and on around us and I just sat there, incapable of taking it all in, clinging to my sister – my support, my partner-in-crime – once more.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Paul gazing longingly at us, but as the argument raged above our heads his increasing distress seemed to mirror our own. I was gripping Rachel's hand with a force capable of breaking it and in return she had buried her face into my shoulder.
"I have to get out of here," I muttered, but no-one heard me.
Or at least I thought no-one did.
"Everybody quiet!" Paul's shout startled everyone out of their individual conversations. "Rebecca has something to say." They all turned to stare at me. Great.
"We need to get out of here." I repeated numbly, hauling Rachel up with me and scurrying along to our bedroom. Reaching the quiet sanctity of the place I slammed the door behind me, locking it for good measure.
Rachel threw herself onto her bed and flopped an arm across her face. Propping my back against the door I slid down it until I was slumped over.
"Holy shit, Rach. What just happened there?" I didn't get an answer and quite frankly I wasn't really expecting one.
Standing up I shuffled over to my bed where I flung myself down and pulled the covers over my head.
I don't remember drifting off to sleep, but when I woke up the sun was streaming brightly through the window indicating that the rest of the night had been and gone. Stretching out my tired muscles I grimaced when I realised that I hadn't undressed the night before and now my jeans were digging into my stomach.
Feeling distinctly grubby I decided to take a shower and grabbed a clean set of clothes to take to the bathroom. A quick glance over at the other side of the room showed a bare foot sticking out from under the duvet. Rachel was still asleep then.
Sneaking out of the room I tried to close the door as quietly as possible so I wouldn't wake her up. Stepping backwards I tripped and nearly fell over an obstacle lying in the middle of our tiny hall. Catching myself against the wall I turned to see that at some point in the evening Paul had set up shop right outside our bedroom door and was now dozing peacefully across the floor.
What was he even still doing here?
It was strange, how much his face softened when he was asleep. When he was awake, even when he wasn't angry there was always a hard edge to his features, like his jaw was permanently clenched or something. But now… I shook my head. Was I trying to see something that wasn't there? Especially after all I'd heard last night.
Tiptoeing around him I made it safely into the bathroom and heaved a sigh of relief. At least I could hold off speaking to him or Rachel until later.
Standing under the hot spray I let the water rain down on my face allowing the grit and dirt to melt away. I just wished that all of my problems were so easily washed down the drain.
Drying off I realised that I had forgotten to bring any underwear into the bathroom with me. "Shit."
Wrapping the towel tightly around me I grabbed my clothes and made my way out into the hall…
Only to stop dead upon seeing Paul now awake and pacing in front of the bedroom door. He stopped his movement abruptly at the sight of me and we stood and stared at each other.
"Good morning," I said stiffly, determined to be polite.
He didn't reply, but his gaze dropped down to bare legs and slid slowly upwards over the small towel which covered me to just above my exposed chest and shoulders. "You're beautiful."
While part of me wanted to melt at his words, the part remaining was more cynical. "Yeah, ok Romeo." I rolled my eyes. "Can I get past?" I gestured towards the door he was blocking.
"Oh yeah, sorry. Can I get you anything else while I'm up? Do you want breakfast or something?"
"No, thanks. I think we'll be fine." Dashing past him I was relieved to find myself with a door between us once more. For some reason I found it really hard to focus when he was around.
"Are you alright?" Rachel was awake.
"Yeah, I thought I'd just have a shower but I forgot my clothes." Dumping my stuff on the bed I scrambled to get dressed quickly.
Rachel frowned, but followed my actions, yawning as she pulled her socks on.
"He's out there, you know."
"What?" She glanced at me questioningly.
"Paul. He's out there. I practically fell over him on the way to the bathroom this morning. And even now… he's still out there. It's creepy."
Rachel stared at the door. "So do you think that what happened last night was actually… true then?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. I don't like this whole imprinting soulmate bullshit that they fed us, but as for the rest…" I blew out a huge burst of air. "I know that there was definitely a huge-ass wolf in our lounge last night and I know that that wolf then turned back into Embry Call who we've known forever. So… yeah, maybe."
"Where does leave us then?" Rachel was wringing her hands together nervously.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean the whole imprinting thing. I'm not stupid, Becky. People are only ever supposed to have one soulmate and I can understand maybe us both having the same one. You know how it always was with us and guys. But he's expecting us to accept that he has two?! That we're those two girls and just have to share him and get over it. I don't know."
"Well, would you want to?" I asked.
"Want to what?"
"Share him and get over it."
Rachel paused in the middle of brushing her hair and I briefly wished I hadn't cut mine short while I was in Hawaii. "I think – if I really cared about him, if this imprinting thing is really as strong as everyone describes – that I could, yeah." She shrugged and then grinned. "At least I would never have to worry about what the other woman was like and what she had that I didn't."
I laughed at that.
"What about you?"
"What about me?" I parroted.
"Well, do you think that you would be able to share Paul with me?"
I sighed heavily. "What I think is that I've just got divorced and am not ready to give anyone a chance just yet. I've thrown myself into one deeply committed relationship already, I'm not sure that I'm ready to plunge head-first into another one."
"Oh." Rachel looked disappointed and I realised that she had been hoping that I would go for it.
"You like him."
"What?" She was now sporting the classic deer-in-headlights look.
"You like Paul. You want to try and make this work, don't you?"
She was back to wringing her hands again, stuttering and mumbling as she tried to explain herself to me. I held up a hand to halt her protests.
"Rach, it's fine. If you want to go for it, then go for it. Don't let my pessimism hold you back."
"But what about you? Don't you want to give it a try?"
I moved across the room to hug her, suddenly glad that I had my sister to share all of this with. "Nah, I'm good. Maybe sometime in the future, but not now. I think I just need some time to get my brain sorted out first. And speaking of… I think I might go for a walk, you know, clear my head."
"Are you sure?" Rachel was now gripping my hand tightly.
"Of course I'm sure. Besides, maybe you should spend some time getting to know your new wolf."
"Our new wolf," she reminded me.
I didn't reply, grabbing my jacket and practically slamming the door as I left the room. Paul was no longer in the hall and I was glad that he hadn't eavesdropped on our conversation.
Stomping down the drive I was surprised when he suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of me and grabbed my arm, stopping me in my tracks.
"Please don't go."
Ok, maybe he had been listening after all. "Rachel's waiting for you." I gestured back towards the house. "You shouldn't keep her."
Paul had that look on his face again - that pleading, almost desperate look. "What about you, Rebecca?" He breathed my name like I was the most important woman in the world to him and for a moment I believed it… Until I realised that I just one of two important women and the other one was waiting inside the house for him.
"She's waiting," I choked out, yanking my arm out of his grasp and hurrying away.
I didn't look back.
The next few weeks were confusing.
Paul was spending every spare moment he had away from the pack at our house with Rachel and, by extension, with me. Apparently when they find their mates wolves get very territorial and protective and Paul especially didn't like letting us out of his sight.
Although I was still telling myself that I wasn't ready for another relationship the more time I spent with him, the harder I found it to convince myself of that fact.
I don't know what it was about Paul that appealed to me so much. I mean, yeah, he was hot, but he was also stubborn, had a quick temper and managed to insult and piss off everyone he came into contact with. Apparently even Jake, who was usually so easy going, hated him and dad wasn't very happy with the situation either.
Yet despite that he was always on his best behaviour around me and Rachel, constantly trying to be whatever we needed him to be. According to everyone on the Res he had definitely mellowed out since imprinting on us.
His relationship with Rachel was progressing by leaps and bounds and two days ago it had finally been consummated. I was happy for my sister, but at the same time I felt a lick of jealousy.
Logically I knew that I could be just as delirious with happiness as Rachel was, that if I just said the word I could have exactly what she and Paul did and have my very own stupid grin permanently fixed to my face.
But still I held back, and I couldn't even explain why anymore. I knew that Paul just wanted to love and take care of me and that he was nothing like Jack, but I had pushed him away for so long now that I didn't know how to let him know that I was now ready to try.
Rachel knew, of course. Only this morning she had given me a hug and told me to go for it.
So now I was on yet another long walk through the forests surrounding the Res, trying to get my thoughts and feelings under control. Humming as I followed the winding trail through the trees my voice trailed off when a flash of movement to my left suddenly caught my eyes. I stopped, turning slowly in a circle, and nearly screamed out loud when a giant wolf suddenly leapt out in front of me.
Clutching my hand to my chest I struggled to breathe again as I recovered from the shock.
"Jesus, give me some warning before you do that, you freak." Ok, so I was a bit harsh, but I'd just had the living daylights shocked out of me and wasn't in the mood for being polite.
The wolf whined at me before padding over to my side and bumping its snout against my shoulder.
It couldn't be… "Paul?"
The wolf whined again and I cautiously raised up one hand to gently scratch at the nape of its neck. I was rewarded with another bump, confirming my suspicions.
"You scared the shit out of me, you know," I accused. Amazingly it was a lot easier to speak to the wolf than it was to speak to the man. "You can't just sneak up on me like that in the future."
The wolf barked and then licked my hand. Its body seemed to shimmer lightly before Paul stood in front of me, human once more. Naked.
I blushed and tried to keep my eyes averted from certain body parts and Paul smirked at my embarrassment. "In the future?"
I blushed again and was glad that I wasn't one of those people who ended up with big red splotches all over my face. "Well, you're going to be around for a while, aren't you? So that's the future."
My excuse was lame and I knew it. While I'd been talking Paul had quietly moved closer to me and I now had to tilt my head back to see his face.
"Becky," he whispered, and I found myself unable to move as he bent down towards me.
His lips gently touched against mine and all of a sudden I was like a woman possessed. My mouth devoured his, my arms were flung around his neck, clinging tightly to him, and jumping up I wrapped my legs around his bare hips, trapping his growing erection between us.
I didn't know how to explain my actions, but luckily Paul wasn't looking for an explanation. One of his hands went around my waist, while the other supported my butt, encouraging me to grind against him. His lips and tongue met mine with desperation and we kissed, sucked, bit and licked at each other.
It was absolutely, fucking amazing.
Stumbling forward, Paul braced my back against a convenient tree and began to tear at the clothes that covered me. Throwing my head back I panted for air and Paul immediately attacked my neck and chest with his lips and teeth. My fingers scrabbled at his shoulders and I was sure that if he wasn't practically indestructible my nails would have done some serious damage.
Finally I was just as naked as he was and I let out a sigh of relief when he plunged inside me. The pace he set was frantic and I welcomed it, whining and cursing my way through the experience.
Paul rested his forehead against mine and stared at me with such amazement and worship that I almost couldn't bear it. I kissed him gently, trying to let him know without words that I wasn't going to fight against him anymore and in response he slowed his thrusts, somehow managing to bury his body even deeper within my body.
"God, Becky," he grunted, his movements becoming more erratic.
I could feel the pit of my stomach begin to tighten yet my orgasm still took me by surprise when it came. I gripped Paul's hair as I wailed out his name and he grunted mine in response, thrusting twice more into me before he stilled.
We both slumped against the tree, hands running soothingly over any exposed skin. I was happy to find that despite the chill in the air, Paul's heightened temperature protected me from the cold.
A loud crack rang out through the air and we suddenly found ourselves flying as the tree's trunk suddenly split in two.
Twisting his body impossibly fast Paul took the brunt of the fall and I landed sprawled out on top of him.
"We broke the tree," I commented idly.
"We did," Paul confirmed.
For some reason I suddenly found this to be the funniest thing ever and began giggling uncontrollably.
"Becky?"
"Sorry," I gasped. "I guess I'm just a bit hysterical right now."
Paul's hands, which had been combing through my hair, suddenly stopped moving. "But, the future, right?"
I raised my head up, propping my chin on his chest and surveyed him. I had never seen anyone with that look before, a strange mixture of fear and hope, and I realised that I didn't want to see it cross his face again.
It was time to take that leap. "Yeah, the future."