A/N: I know… a miserable pairing isn't it? The spoiled princess and the self-loathing vampire. GAG. But I just couldn't help myself. This bastard of a child concept just became too much to bear and I just had to get it out of my head. Shame on me. One-shot fun. ; P
Spoilers for Breaking Dawn and for anybody who hasn't seen, at the very least, the Android Saga.
Bra Briefs X Edward Cullen
Blue comet
Ljv
One- shot
"Time, ain't nothin, but time. It's a verse with no rhyme, and it all comes down to you."
- Job Bon Jovi
As far as he can gather Bra Briefs is something of a genius. She is only seventeen but she already has two degrees; one in mathematics and the other in physics and is already working on her doctoral degree in metaphysics. This would alarm him, but it is rumored around campus that she is the daughter of the famous Bulma Briefs; the Capsule Corporation billionaire whose beauty was nearly as renowned as her intelligence.
Nearing one thousand years old, Edward was by all appearances is still a seventeen-year-old boy. It is accepted that like Bra Briefs, Edward is something a child prodigy. For this stint in academia, he only claims one of his degrees in physics and one other degree in Japanese.
He finds, despite himself, that he is working in the same lab and under the same professor as blue haired genius. He does not go out of his way to pay any attention to her at all, but given his enhanced senses it is the best he can do not to.
He often hears her speaking of time and the particles the make it up; how theoretically, it would be possible to go back and change events, because everything that ever was, is, or will be happens all at the same time no matter what alternate universe you happen to be caught up in.
It is also rumored that Bra Briefs inherited some of her elusive father's insanity.
oOoOoOo
Edward can't decide why it had taken him so long to notice that Bra Briefs doesn't even smell human; at least, not completely.
After four hundred years of perfect control over his blood lust he had made it a point not to notice the smell of a human more than what was absolutely necessary. He was leaning over her and her desk, helping her with a particularly tough quantum mechanics problem. It was hard enough to make him have to work to figure it out. It was an old human habit to breath slowly through his nose when he was frustrated and that was how he first noticed her particular scent.
It is only later that he assigns the word "predatory" to her smell. He can think of no other words to describe it. He remembers her scent and how she had smelt of freesia. It had been an innocent and beautiful smell, just like her. Bra's scent was muskier and untamed. He would even go as far to call it "dangerous".
She had noticed his momentary lapse in concentration and turned to look at him. When he finally notices he finds her studying him just as intensely as he was studying her.
It is then, and perhaps a moment too late, that Edward realizes that her mind is completely closed off to him when just a moment before it was open for him to read.
oOoOoOo
He has been going out of his way to avoid her, but it seems that Bra Briefs is determined otherwise.
"My oh my. You're not so fast now, are you?"
She had cornered him in one of the hallways of chemistry building. Despite himself, he is startled by her sudden appearance. He didn't even see or hear or smell or feel her coming. A very rare thing indeed.
"You'd be surprised." He responded lightly to her question working to keep the slight smile off of his face.
She raised a single eyebrow.
"You've been avoiding me." She accused, her hands on her hips, all of self-righteousness and irritation.
He has but he isn't about to admit it.
"No, I've been busy."
She doesn't believe him. He can see the overly amused glint in her eyes and the slight frown crease at her eyebrows.
"What are you?" She asks suddenly. Her eyes are probing and intense and her expression very demanding but surprisingly innocent.
Edward blinks in surprise before managing to give her a quizzical but polite stare.
"I don't believe I understand the question."
She scowls at him. Somehow the expression changes the entire look of her face making her suddenly very intimidating. Just as quickly as the scowl appeared on her face however it disappeared into a look of sardonic amusement.
"Of course you don't."
She then turned abruptly on her heel and walked quickly down the hallway leaving Edward very confused.
oOoOoOo
It was rumored in the most unreputable of the trashy tabloid magazines that the husband of Bulma Briefs was indeed an alien from outer space who originally came to the planet to destroy it. It reported things about the man that no sane being would consider to be remotely true. Despite this, Edward often caught Bra Briefs buying these magazines, her lips tilted upwards in a sardonic smile. There was even a tabloid that sported a picture on the front page of a man with hair too spiked to be natural and a tail wrapped securely around his waist dressed in clothing so tight it left very little to the imagination. He saw her buy two copies of that particular tabloid and heard her laugh loudly in amusement, making the store clerk blush furiously.
At first Edward is unsure what to make of Bra Brief's odd behavior. Her actions are reminiscent of Emmett's whenever he ran across a particularly amusing piece of vampire memorabilia. Emmett had an entire room devoted to such keepsakes. It is perhaps, Edward decides, an ongoing joke in her family. Very much like the on going joke in his.
oOoOoOo
Most of his family, with the exception of Rosalie was spread around Europe studying or working on various projects about the various countries. Alice was currently in Rome working on the preservation of artwork from the early 2000's.
"So you can't read her mind?" Alice asked, interested over the phone.
"That's not important." He snaps back.
"Well," Alice said carefully, "you have only ever encountered one person who's mind you have not been able to read."
She doesn't say her name and Edward is thankful for it. Alice continues onward quickly not permitting Edward to dwell for very long on memories that only serve to torment him.
"You have no commitments to the university or to Japan, Edward. You can leave if you wish. But I personally advise against it."
"Why?"
"I haven't had any visions if that is what you're implying, Edward. It is just for the best to finish what you start. Besides if you are dwelling on that girl now, leaving isn't going to help the situation. It didn't help you before, I doubt I would work now."
Edward is about to respond to her comment about his past actions but then reminds himself that perhaps it is for the best if history does not repeat itself.
oOoOoOo
Because they are considered to be the same age, Edward and Bra were paired together for lab work and experiments far more often than what he was comfortable with. They even shared an office.
It would be bearable if Bra didn't have the foulest language he had ever encountered. He had even gone so far as to ask her not to swear in his presence. She had politely obliged. Unfortunately her thoughts were littered with some of the most colorful expletives Edward had ever heard. Which was impressive considering he had spent a large portion of his existence living with Emmett and Rosalie.
To his dismay, Edward finds that Bra Briefs is by far the most intelligent human being he has ever met. However, he is pleased to find that nearly 1000 years of experience give him something of an edge over her. For somebody who is so use to being the best at everything she has ever done, Edward's apparent superior intelligence more than frustrates Bra Briefs; it absolutely infuriates her.
He can hear her thoughts; a furious whirlwind of thoughts that move swiftly and clearly from one objective to another. Her mind is bright and vivid; processing and producing information with far more clarity than Edward has ever encountered. Such is her clarity of thought he often forgets the projections of her mind are not reality. Everything was logical; even her emotions. Edward had never before been able to "read" anybody's emotions. But even emotions seemed to be a thought process for her.
She hates him because he should not be as smart or as good as he is. He should not be better than her; for she was, after all the descendent of not all the most brilliant woman on the planet but also the daughter of the greatest race to ever inhabit the universe.
As open and vivid as her mind was for him to read, it seemed also remarkably closed off; as if there was information she was purposely repressing. Whenever he received even the slightest hint of it, her thoughts would suddenly become blocked to him. And the brightness of her brilliant mind would suddenly become dark as if it were never there at all.
oOoOoOo
After the third world war, blue hair was an increasingly common occurrence. Radiation left in the atmosphere from atomic bombs altered the genome of nearly every species on the planet. Some changes were for the good; most changes were for the bad. It took the sequencing of the genome of every available species on the planet in order to establish order. Nearly everything undesirable about species was altered to the way it was before any bombs were dropped. Exotic coloring among other traits, such as the blue hair on Bra Brief's head, however, was kept as a desirable trait.
The appearance of naturally blue hair had never struck Edward as particularly attractive, even on a woman as beautiful as Bra Brief's. Admittedly it was beautiful, however, that her eyes were the exact shade of her hair. Her hair had been the exact shade of her eyes; a deep warm brown that was completely different the cold blue that stared up at him now.
"Who was she?"
Edward frowned, trying as hard as he could to read Bra's mind, but only finding himself blocked. He looked into her wide blue eyes that were just as innocent as they were wise. Her found her gaze disarming and all the more frustrating.
"Who?" He asked, his frown on his forehead deepening.
"They girl you're comparing me to." She said. "I want to know who she is."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." He snapped back, perhaps far more angrily than he intended.
oOoOoOo
"These old men," she said angrily, pounding her fist down her desk in frustration, "are so fucking narrow minded!"
Edward looked sharply up from the papers in front of him, startled. His eyes came to rest, not on the blue haired heiress, but the large portion of her desk that was now scattered about the floor. He moved his eyes slowly about the damage before moving them to look up at her. She was frozen still, watching him with wide eyes.
Then quite suddenly she began laughing.
"What a shit hole! This has to be the most expensive fucking university on the planet and they can't even get decent desks."
Edward looked down at the broken pieces of her desk once more before looking back up at her.
"That desk was reinforced with steel."
"The best materials in the world," she said, her voice disgusted, "won't compensate for piss-poor manufacturing."
Edward did not comment but looked at the paper she was reading which was authored by two of the professors they currently worked under.
He read the title aloud. "The Dynamics of the Particulate Matter of Time: The Wave Formation of Irreversible Phenoma."
Edward had already read that paper and could not formulate a reason as to why Bra would become upset by reading it. The ideas presented in the paper were very controversial and it his estimation, not at all "narrow-minded".
"What has you so upset up that paper?" He asked her carefully, listening for any hint from her thoughts. But as per usual whenever he wanted to know what she was thinking, her mind was closed.
She gave him a searching look before finally speaking.
"Time isn't irreversible and it sure as shit isn't smooth and linear."
Edward did not speak for a moment but watched the blue haired woman with a new startled kind of interest.
"You're talking about time travel into the past and the existence of the multi-universe."
Bra smiled, pleased and somewhat surprised.
"Wow, you aren't just a pretty face."
Edward frowned.
"Evidently," he responded, "neither are you. Why do you believe in the existence of the multi-universe and time travel? That is a powerful notion for something that has never been proved."
Suddenly, her face became very guarded and just as impossible to read as her mind.
"I just like to think," she responded carefully, "that in some universe you aren't a miserable asshole."
oOoOoOo
"Dad!" Renésme yelled as she bulldozed herself into him.
Edward smiled without any effort as he wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her forehead before leaning away from her but keeping his grip.
"How have you been, Nessie?"
She smiled brilliantly at him, her brown eyes lighting up in a way that made his heart ache.
"Fantastic. Jake and I just finished our tour of Europe. You would not believe all…" And so it went.
Edward listened attentively to the tales of her adventures; the new and brilliant things that she never seemed to tire of.
"So," she said carefully, when they finally reached Edward's apartment, "Alice told me you have met someone."
Edward rolled his eyes.
"Your aunt is full of a lot of knowledge, Nessie. But don't believe everything that comes out of her mouth."
She smiled guiltily up at her father.
"She means well, dad. You know that… better than anyone else I should think." She finished with a smile.
He nodded without responding.
"I think is a good thing, dad. I really do. You have been alone for way too long."
"How is Jacob?" Edward asked, moving to any topic other than the one his daughter wanted to talk of.
oOoOoOo
"Why the hell are you so depressed all the time?"
Edward turned, giving her slight and questioning smile; forcing himself to be polite.
"Excuse me?"
"You are so fucking depressed? By the way you mope around one would think the world was going to end at any second."
Edward blinked. "I'm not afraid of the world ending."
She growled. A sound so feral that Edward stared at her in surprise.
"It's a figure of speech, Dum-Dum."
Edward nodded before turning back to the work on his desk.
He heard Bra huff impatiently.
"Well…", she said.
"What do you want?" He asked politely turning to face her.
"Are you gonna answer my question or not?"
"I will not."
He pretended not to notice the long and creative list of profanities that filtered through her mind at this.
oOoOoOo
"Do you fight?" She asked one day, her voice light and disarmingly conversational.
He stared at her briefly before answering.
"No."
The corner of her mouth quirked.
"I think you're lying to me."
He did not respond but continued to examine the data he had collected from his experiments the day previous.
"As a matter of fact," she continued, "I know your lying to me."
He continued to ignore her, marking a place with his pen in the data spread before him that was of a particular interest.
"Why won't you answer me?" She demanded.
"I wasn't aware you were asking any questions." He responded without looking at her as he continued to write down notes.
"Alright then," she said, her voice feral and sweet. "I'll be more direct. Why do you move as if you are a trained martial artist?"
Mentally he laughed. Predatory was the way he walked. But he supposed the mistake was easy enough to make since she walked in a very similar manner to him.
When he did not respond her voice became much harsher.
"I thought you said you would answer my questions."
"I said no such thing." Edward responded. "Besides," he continued, "I am not in the habit of answering stupid questions."
"My questions are not stupid."
He said nothing.
He could hear her fist coming towards that back of his head as he barely dodged it. He tilted his head, looking at her incredulously. Her face was as wide eyed as his own. She was fast. Incredibly so.
"What are you?" Both said at the same time.
oOoOoOo
"I don't believe in aliens." Edward responded matter-of-factly.
She shrugged.
"That's okay. I don't believe in vampires."
oOoOoOo
"Time travel is possible then?"
She nodded at him happily as she ate the ice-cream sundae that he had somehow been conned into buying her.
"Oh yeah, my mom has done it loads of times. Mostly for research purposes though."
"Mostly?"
"Well," she said casually, "my mom has a lot of very powerful friends with some very powerful enemies. We like to be prepared."
"Prepared for what?" He asked incredulously.
"Oh you know…" she started vaguely, "you never know when the world needs a saving."
He still felt bewildered even when he had finally managed to obtain some of the story behind her family's history.
"Cell wasn't defeated by Hercule?"
She looked pointedly at him, pointing her spoon at him. "I know the majority of the planet is inhabited by idiots. But seriously, you too?"
Edward looked doubtfully at her as she continued to consume her fifth ice-cream sundae, which he, of course, bought.
"How are you so thin?"
She laughed loudly.
oOoOoOo
"Hit me."
"You're crazy."
"And you're a pussy."
"I could hurt you." He told her, remembering the torment of another girl with deep brown eyes and long brown hair.
To this she only raised one perfectly arched blue brow before laughing slightly, her eyes shining with a joke that he did not quite understand.
"Oh," she smiled, "I seriously doubt it."
Then quite suddenly she punched him across the face. The force was impressive enough to send him flying through the clearing in which they had chosen for their arena. He laid on the ground for a few seconds wondering what the hell just happened before he lifted himself off the ground.
As soon as he stood he could hear her giggling. Despite himself he found himself smiling back before he went in for the attack.
oOoOoOo
"So," she hedged carefully after one of their spars, "just how old are you?"
Edward stretched, feeling the scrapes she had inflicted on him already starting to heal.
"Old."
"I was hoping for a more precise number." She responded dryly.
"I'm sure you were." He said pleasantly. "But my age doesn't really matter."
She raised an eyebrow at him.
"Okay then, do you have…um… a family?"
Edward smiled.
"I have a mother and a father. Two sisters and two brothers." He paused. "I also have a daughter."
"Vampires can procreate?" She asked, alarmed.
"So you believe in vampires now, huh?"
She scowled at him and he laughed.
"Male vampires can procreate. Female vampires cannot."
Confusion furrowed her forehead.
"But then, how…"
"Her mother was human."
Bra paused, curiosity burning in her eyes, but something stopped her from pushing the topic further.
Edward breathed out slowly listening to some of her half formed thoughts.
"Her mother died giving birth to her."
Her eyes widened in alarm and then narrowed to indignation.
"Can you read my thoughts?"
He tried very hard not to laugh.
oOoOoOo
Sparring with the half-breed human became a daily occurrence.
She was just as fast and just as strong as he was if not stronger. There had never been a time in his life that Edward was so happy to have been beaten up by a girl. She was a thrilling opponent who constantly surprised him. Never once did he even come close to beating her.
He couldn't have been happier.
He hadn't been happier since Bella died.
He could think Bella's name without the misery being enough to surrender him. He could think of Bella and not feel a pain so intense he no longer wished to exist.
Instead it was the blue haired woman that filled his thoughts making him feel a pain that wasn't even remotely unpleasant.
"Lovesick." Alice would say over the phone.
Edward could not even summon the desire to deny it properly.
oOoOoOo
"What was she like?" Bra asked one day.
"Who?"
"The mother of your daughter? Did you love her?"
"Intensely." He responded honestly, "I loved her more than my own existence."
"If," Bra said slowly, "you could go back to her, would you?"
Edward's response was automatic.
"Yes."
Bra paused. Pain flashing through her eyes but her thoughts completely silent.
"Would you like to?"
"Do what?"
"Go back to her? Do you want to be with the woman you love?"
oOoOoOo
"Why are you doing this for me?"
Bra paused.
"Because, you're my friend."
"Your sending me back in time because I'm your friend? You'll never see me again if I do go."
"You have a choice." She said watching him, her hand resting on the door of the time machine. "In some universe you are happy and in another you are miserable. What do you choose to be in this universe?"
Edward looked down into her eyes. They gazed back at him, vivid and clear, two burning blue comets, far brighter than a distance stars, that were forever etched into the recesses of his mind. It was then that he realized that Bra Brief's was not a replacement for the past, she was a promise of a future.
Edward gazed into the future and gazed forward into a past allowing himself, for a brief moment, to imagine the memories of the girl he had once loved, of the girl who had died to give him his only child and what it would have been like had she lived and loved the little girl she had died for. He gazed down at Bra Briefs before placing his hand atop of hers.
"I choose," he said, his eyes never leaving hers, "to be happy."
She smiled up at him, her eyes shining with a sadness he was just only beginning to understand.
"Alight then." She said turning away from him as she began to open the door of the time machine. "I will need to set all the proper calibrations on the machine. I…
Before she could get it fully open, Edward pushed the door shut.
A/N: Reviews are eternally adored and appreciated.