A/N: Originally, I wrote this for the drabble prompt contest. I ended up not submitting it for that, so now I'm just posting it here! I used one of idealskeptic's drabbles, number 9, "Police Station".
The Fight
"Would you stop glaring at me?" Jacob said, cradling his head in his hands. "I didn't mean to get arrested."
"Then what the hell did you drive drunk for?" Jasper snapped as he waited for the cop to return with forms for him to sign. "How much did you and Seth have drink to get drunk anyway?"
Jacob groaned. "I have no idea. Where is Seth?"
"He's smart and ran away. We're supposed to be staying out of the spotlight, idiot, not getting arrested. Try and remember that before I have to bail you again, will you?"
"Sure, sure. Sorry."
Jasper pursed his lips to stop himself from saying anything else. He knew Jacob wouldn't listen to him anyway. This was what Jacob always did. Every time he and Nessie got into a big fight, like they did last night, he went out and drank the town dry. Almost literally dry, considering how much it took for a werewolf to get drunk. Usually, Seth accompanied him. Jasper wasn't sure if Set went along because he thought it was fun or because he wanted to keep an eye out for Jacob. Probably, it was a little of both, though obviously, that whole "keeping an eye out" thing didn't extend as far as getting arrested for drunk driving.
"You know, I-" Jacob started but just then a police officer came out with the forms for Jacob's release. "You know, I," Jacob started again once the officer had set the forms down and walked away. "I don't even know how much I had to drink."
"I know," Jasper said. Jasper wasn't sure what exactly Jacob wanted. Did he want sympathy? He wasn't going to get any. Not after calling him and getting him out of the house at three am.
Vampires couldn't sleep, it was true. Sometimes though, after a certain point in the evening he and Alice would just sort of put on a bunch of movies one after another and lay on the couch together. Only, they wouldn't really watch the movies, they'd just sort of lay their together and enjoy each other's company in silence. This, of course, didn't happen all the time, not with a family as large and as loud as theirs was. Still, sometimes, when everybody else was occupied with their own things, when the rest of the house was silent, they managed it.
Tonight Jacob had ruined it.
"I'm sorry, man, I really," Jacob said as he filled out the forms. "I really am."
Jasper fought to keep from groaning at Jacob. "Let's just go home, alright?"
Jacob sighed a defeated little sigh. He quickly finished up the forms and handed them to the officer stationed at a desk in the front of the Police Station. The officer behind the desk, a short woman with a severe, sharp haircut that did nothing for her severe, sharp face, nodded curtly and said, "You may go now. Please don't come back."
Neither Jasper nor Jacob said anything until they got to the car. Jacob was the first to break the silence.
"You're not going to tell Nessie, are you?"
Jasper scoffed dramatically. "The question isn't if I'm going to tell Nessie, it's when she's going to find out." Jasper scoffed again as he started up the car. "Keeping a secret from that girl is just about next to impossible and you know it."
Jacob leaned his head against the window and blew out a breath, fogging up the glass. "I know. What do you think we were arguing about?"
For a full thirty seconds Jasper managed to not ask Jacob about his fight with Nessie. Eventually though, his curiosity got the better of him.
"Alright," he said with a heavy sigh. "What did you fight with Nessie about?"
Immediately, Jacob perked up. He sat straight up in his seat and he seemed more aware of his surroundings. Jasper tried not to let his annoyance at clearly being played reach out far enough that Jacob would feel it. When Jacob looked over at him with a puzzled look on his face, he wasn't sure it had worked.
Jacob was silent until Jasper finally asked, "You and Nessie were fighting about?"
"See, we were fighting because it's her birthday next week, right?" Jacob paused in his story like he expected an answer but Jasper wasn't sure what sort of an answer such a question would require. Wasn't that sort of obvious? Birthdays fell on the same day every year and Nessie had experienced around twenty-five of them by this point.
When Jasper said nothing, Jacob continued his story. "Well, I wanted to do something nice this year. Something romantic, you know? I'm not a romantic guy, that stuff doesn't come easy for me. I spent three months coming up with a plan and the details and the flowers and the food and then in one minute, one minute she touches me and sees everything and the whole surprise is ruined!"
"Wait a second... let me get this straight. You fought because you tried to surprise a visual telepath?" Jasper burst out laughing. Jacob and Nessie were known for getting into knock down drag out fights and usually over some pretty silly reasons, but that was easily one of the silliest Jasper had ever heard.
Jacob petulantly crossed his arms across his chest and pouted like a five year old. A big, drunken werewolf five year old. "That's what Seth said."
"Well, good for Seth. He was right."
Jasper's laughter slowly died off somewhere around the halfway point between the Police Station and the house. Jacob continued to pout the entire rest of the ride home.
When they reached the house, Alice was outside waiting for them.
Jacob got out of the car and less than gracefully made his way to the back of the house.
"Jasper," Alice said in the excessively sing-songy voice she only used when she really wanted him to do something. "You know we have to help them." She slid a hand around one of the columns of the front porch and easily jumped over the porch railing and onto the grass. She walked over to Jasper and smiled sweetly. "Please?"
Jasper couldn't help but smile at Alice's antics. "I doon't know what you saw or what you're planning, but of course, I'm in."
Alice's smile got even brighter, if that were even possible, and she hugged him so tightly she almost lifted him off the ground. "If I were still human, this would be the part where I tell you I need air, but I'm not and I don't," Jasper said. He hugged her back with just as much force.
Moments later, when they were in their room, they sat back to back, texting each other. They'd learned long ago that text-form communication was the only way to keep anything secret in this house.
Vampires could hear anything from anywhere in the house regardless of the size of the house they were in at the time but none of the others could figure out what was being said if all they could hear was pens scratching away at paper or thumbs tapping at touchscreens.
Jasper: So what'd you see?
Over the years Alice had gotten particularly good at... not seeing Jacob exactly, more seeing around him. She could never see what he was doing but she could see what happened a few moments before and after he arrived somewhere. She couldn't see Nessie right when she was with Jacob but she could see other people's reactions to anything that happened, say for instance, Bella's or Edward's reactions. She'd started out resenting Jacob but now, years later, she grudgingly agreed that it was actually useful to have Jacob around. He'd inadvertently strengthened her powers.
Alice: I saw me making up a romantic little date night and it wasn't for us.
Jasper: So what's the date?
Alice: In the backyard, I put up some beautiful little white lights in the trees, set up some romantic music and under the trees, a blanket is spread out with a picnic basket with champagne, grapes, cheese, and bread.
Jasper: That sounds nice.
Jasper: I wish that was actually for us. Minus the food of course.
Alice: That's how I knew it wasn't for us. They're the only ones who eat human food around here.
Jasper: We should do that. A date like that, I mean.
Alice: We can have our own romantic night later.
Jasper: Really?
Alice: Why not?
Jasper turned around and grabbed Alice by the shoulder just as she was typing something out. He slid his hand down her arm and kissed the bit of her shoulder that was exposed by her top. Surprised, she nearly dropped her phone. "No distractions," she said. She continued typing. Jasper groaned but looked at his phone to see her latest message.
Alice: So we'll do it on the night before Nessie's birthday.
Jasper: I don't know how you think you'll get this past her but okay.
Alice lightly pushed against Jasper, physically showing him that she disagreed with that.
Alice: Oh, come on. She doesn't really use her power on the rest of us so much anymore. She only touches Jacob so much because they're together.
Jasper: Please don't remind me.
Jasper: I have to feel all of their emotions when they're "together", that's more than enough.
Alice: Well maybe I'll have to try harder at distracting you from that.
Jasper had just enough time to read Alice's latest message before she was knocking his phone out of his hand and trapping him on the bed. She smiled broadly like the cat that caught the canary and pressed down on top of him, covering as much of his body as she could with hers. She titled her head down to kiss him but before her lips touched his he wrapped his arms around her waist and flipped her around so he was on top of her. He smirked and she pretended to scowl but she tilted her head up to kiss him.
About a week later, the night before Nessie's birthday, Alice slipped out of the house to buy some supplies. A red and white picnic blanket, a wicker basket, a bottle of expensive champagne, two wine glasses and little white decorative lights. Jasper was in charge of getting Nessie out of the house so Alice could set everything up. A task that, as Alice meandered up the long driveway, she noticed he had failed at - his car was still in the driveway and so was Nessie's. Then she saw it. She and Nessie out shopping at the local mall, buying dresses just as the women working in the store were about to close the store for the night. She smiled and quickly made her way into the house, being careful to lock the car and leave everything for the surprise inside it.
She found Jasper in the living room, trying to convince Nessie to go see the latest blockbuster film with him. He was sitting on the couch, pretending to pay attention to the TV and Nessie was sitting in the chair across from him. Jacob, as was usual before he and Nessie made up after a fight, was nowhere to be seen. Alice made a show of sitting down in Jasper's lap and kissing him and as stealithy as was vampirically possible, slipped her car keys into his pants pocket. She pulled back and winked at him and he gave her a slightly confused look but said nothing. Nessie didn't seem to notice this, probably because she seemed very intent on making a show of just how frustrated she was, even though Jacob was nowhere to be seen.
"So, Nessie," Alice said, "I was going to go to the mall and buy a few new dresses. Wanna come?"
Nessie blew her hair out of her eyes and focused her attention on the man on the tv screen. He was kissing some tall, leggy blond and dramatic music was playing. "I thought you just went shopping?"
Alice rolled her eyes dramatically. "That's why I need to go to the mall! I couldn't find anything at any of the boutiques I just went to. I'm getting desperate here."
"Why don't you just go alone?"
"Please, Nessie?" Alice pouted in an overexaggerated fashion. "Please?"
Nessie growled. "Fine."
"Yay!" Alice bounced to her feet and immediately started heading for Nessie's car. "We'll have to take your car though, mine's out of gas."
"Fine," Nessie growled again. Alice bounced outside but paused by the front door. Quickly, before Nessie found her car keys, Alice texted Jasper.
Alice: You get that this means you have to set up the party now, right? The supplies are in my car.
A split second later, Jasper responded.
Jasper: So that's what the keys are for.
Just as Alice was about to respond, Nessie came skulking out of the house, prompting Alice to quickly and quietly stash her phone in her pocket.
"Ready to go?" Alice asked as they headed towards the car. Nessie shrugged.
"Wanna talk about it?"
For a moment, Nessie was silent. Then a torrent of words started spilling out of her mouth. "It wasn't like I wanted to ruin the surprise. He acts like I did it on purpose. Why would I do it on purpose? I like surprises! But what am I supposed to do, not touch him? That's ridiculous, right?" Nessie paused only long enough to take a breath before continuing to speak, leaving Alice no time to respond. "I do a pretty good job of controlling my powers. I do. But sometimes I slip up. Like I did last week. I couldn't help it! It was an accident!"
Alice simply smiled and put a comforting hand on Nessie's shoulder. Nessie and Jacob were always fighting. That was just their nature. This fight would pass and there would be another and it too would pass. That was just how it worked.
Nessie leaned into Alice's touch for a moment then stood up a bit straighter and sped up as she walked the rest of the way to the car. Alice followed.
They didn't talk much as they drove to the mall and they didn't talk much when they got there, either. They did, as Alice had foreseen, find a few dresses in a cute, trendy little shop a few minutes before the shop closed. After that, they went to a late night coffee shop and continued to sit in silence. It was a comfortable silence, though, as neither of them felt they had to say too much. Over the years, Alice and Nessie had become good friends, though they didn't often speak too much around one another which was more than a little odd considering how much both of them spoke to everybody else. Maybe that was why it worked. They could both just be silent with each other. So they sat there and Nessie slowly sipped at a mocha latte and Alice pretended to drink an espresso.
About three hours later they headed for home. A few minutes before they arrived, Alice texted Jasper again.
Alice: We're heading back. Is everything ready?
A moment later, Jasper replied.
Jasper: All ready to go. Jacob's in the backyard, waiting. Everything worked out perfectly.
As soon as they were parked and about to get out of the car Alice said, "You know, I think there's something you should go and see in the backyard."
Nessie gave Alice a confused look and for a second reached out her hand to show Alice what she thought was going on. Instead of doing that though she hesitated and dropped her hand to her side.
"Go on," Alice said. "I've got this." Alice grabbed all of the shopping bags out of the backseat in one hand and walked, or more like sprinted, towards the house.
Nessie, still standing by the car, called out, "The shopping was a diversion, wasn't it?"
"Yes!" Alice called back before she opened the front door and slipped inside.
Nessie took a deep breath and steadied herself before walking out around the house. She took another deep breath and for a moment closed her eyes. She wasn't sure she wanted to see what was in the backyard. She had a pretty good idea and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to forgive Jacob yet or not, regardless of whether or not he'd set this up or Alice and Jasper had in an attempt to get them to get over their latest fight.
Ultimately she decided she didn't have much choice either way. She was already half way there and she was expected to go. So with heavy feet and slow steps she walked into the backyard.
The backyard did not look like the backyard. It looked like something out of a movie. There were these beautiful little white lights twisted in and around the copse of trees just at the back of the lawn and there was some soft, beautiful romantic song that she'd never heard before playing from speakers she couldn't see. She looked around a bit and saw that under the trees sat Jacob with a blanket and a picnic basket. He was carefully taking food out of the basket and trying to decide what to do with the very delicate, very beautiful, very expensive wine glasses that only Alice could have bought.
"So this was what you had planned..." she whispered. From across the lawn, Jacob heard her and looked up. He smiled that crooked, off-angle smile of his and she couldn't help but let go of her anger at him. Not entirely, of course, but at least a little bit.
She walked slowly over to him and sighed inadvertently once she reached him. "Alright. I give. This would have been a lovely surprise."
Jacob frowned, his thick eyebrows knitting together. "You mean you weren't surprised?"
"I was." Nessie blushed. "Up until about a minute ago when Alice told me to go to the backyard."
Carefully Nessie tucked her skirt under her and sat down next to him.
"Oh," he said softly. He looked down and for a moment Nessie debated placing a hand under his chin and forcing him to look at her. "I'm sorry we fought, Ness," he said.
She sighed. Now she had to forgive him. "I'm sorry too."