A/N: Pointless fluff. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.


"A heartbeat is an alternating contraction and relaxation of ventricles.
The average human heartbeat is 70-80 beats per minute.
The heart pumps 10,000L of blood daily."

- My Biology Notebook

In A Heartbeat

"You can run more than ten miles in a heartbeat,"

"I can snap your neck in a heartbeat."

"You can pull a tree straight from its roots in a heartbeat,"

"I can also aim that tree at you with a zero percent chance of missing, in a heartbeat."

She was quiet. A smug smile crept upon my lips; I was winning.

"You can save me from a speeding van in a heartbeat,"

Or not.

I glared at her. I didn't need a reminder of that. "I can also drop that speeding van on top of you in a heartbeat."

"You can—" I put my hand over her mouth to stop her.

"Bella, please…"

I felt her face squirming from beneath my hand.

"You can stay wide awake for more than a century in a heartbeat."

I almost rolled my eyes. "I'm a mons—"

"Vampire,"

I paused. "I'm a vampire, Bella. It's nothing unusual."

"Hmm," she was quiet again, that same thoughtful expression plastered on her flawless face.

"You can play baseball better than any Major League baseball player in a heartbeat," she mused.

"Yes, but I can't play baseball unless there is a thunderstorm."

She paused, twisting on her spot.

"You can ace a pop quiz about something completely unknown to mankind in a heartbeat,"

"I read minds, Bella, and human educators aren't exactly programmed to keep their thoughts to themselves in order to prevent cheating by mind-reading."

Her face suddenly lit up. I must have given her an idea.

"You can read people's minds in a heartbeat," I was right. But she had still missed something.

"With one exemption," I reminded her.

"One."

I sighed. "Please let it go," I pulled her close and stuck my nose in her hair. The scent still burned the walls of my throat and venom still pooled inside my mouth, but I tried my best to ignore that. I would rather have my internal organs burnt by the scent of her than not having her with me at all. It was unbearable.

"You can…" she trailed off. "Never mind."

I pulled back to look at her.

"What is it?"

She shook her head, keeping her lips pressed tightly together, her eyes staring at the glass wall before us. I didn't need to see it, but the sudden smell of fresh sweet blood being shoved up my nostrils confirmed the fact that she was blushing.

"Tell me," I insisted as I stuck my nose back in her hair again, and started trailing butterfly kisses on her temple, her eyelids, down her red cheeks, her ear, along her jawline, her throat, her collarbone, and then back up again, repeating the process.

Her heart tripped over itself.

"Well, I…" she stammered, my nose now tracing an imaginary line along her slender neck, and my lips blowing whispers of air in her ear.

"Yes?"

She sighed and I felt her eyelids close beneath my lips.

"Mmm?"

Then I realized she'd stopped breathing.

I pulled back and saw her eyes closed on her now pale face, her chest not moving. "Bella?"

Nothing.

I turned her to face me. "Bella!"

Seconds later, her eyes fluttered open.

"Bella?"

"Yes?" She still wasn't breathing.

"You're not breathing."

She blinked. Once… twice… and then gasped a lungful of air.

I waited until her breathing and heart rate returned to normal.

"Better?" I asked after a few seconds.

She only nodded, her eyes implanted straight back ahead.

"Now," I turned back to my previous actions. "What was it you were saying? And remember to breathe this time."

"Well… I was going to say…" she paused and turned to look at me. "You can love me in a heartbeat."

I stopped for a while, and sighed. "That's not true."

There was a brief flash of understanding on her face, followed by embarrassment, hurt, and anguish. She turned away.

As gently as I could manage, I placed my finger under her chin and lifted her face. "Do you know where heartbeats lay, Bella? A heartbeat lies in a second," I kissed her forehead. "A minute," Her temple. "An hour," Her eyelids. "A day," Her cheek. "A week," The tip of her nose. "A month," Her jaw. "A year," Her throat. "A decade," Her collarbone. "A score," Her chin. "A century," Her ear. "A millennium," The corner of her lips, "A lifetime." Back to the tip of her nose.

I gazed deep into her chocolate brown orbs. "And a lifetime is too short, Bella," I whispered, moving my face only a breath away from hers. "I can't love you in a heartbeat. I will love you for every day, every hour, every minute and every second of eternity."

Those were the last words I'd spoken before I finally planted my lips firmly on hers.


A/N: See? Pointless! Eh, it's fluff, anyway. Thank you for reading. Review! :)

Happy V-Day!