TWO
Amy Winehouse played on the radio in her father's kitchen as Kylie hummed along, flipping the pancakes she was making over one last time. She raised a brow when she thought she heard the lone howl of a wolf outside in the middle of the day and in curiosity, she peered through the dingy plaid curtains hanging over Charlie's kitchen window.
"What the hell?" she wondered aloud, eyes darting around and looking outside. She didn't expect to find anything but when she saw it, she literally only could gasp. Her eyes locked on the wolf and her fingertips raked through her long dark hair slowly…
She'd seen the wolf somewhere before but she couldn't quite put her finger on it at the time. But she knew the wolf outside and she knew enough about her sister's previous years drama to know that if anyone would know what was going on, it would be her sister.
So she picked up the cordless phone and tried to get a call through to Bella and scowled when the phone went to voicemail. "Yeah, figures.. She got what she wanted, to hell with everybody else." she muttered quietly as she went to put the phone back onto it's cradle and turned, intending to turn off the stove's eye.
The wolf was standing at the back door of her father's house, peering in curiously. She took a step back at first, then for some reason, she felt compelled, drawn by some unseen force to take two or three forward, in the direction of the door that the large wolf stood on the other side of.
"Okay, what's going on now.. and which one of Sam's pack are you? I swear to Christ, if my sister's gone off and left everyone stuck in some kind of epic shit storm I'm going to kill her when she's back from her honeymoon." Kylie grumbled, in front of the door now, hand extended to the little silver handle tentatively, a spatula in the other hand, raised for whatever reason.
She had to laugh at herself.. If she was wrong and the wolf outside was not one of Sam's pack, then how the hell was a rubber spatula logically going to protect her if or when she opened the door? Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and stepped out.
The wolf nuzzled against her bare leg, it's cold and wet snout touching her warm skin. She bit her lip and tentatively, she reached out her hand, letting it gloss slowly over the thick and coarse fur of the dark wolf standing almost as tall as her when it rose to stand on all fours.
"Whoa, easy, shadow. Easy." Kylie cautioned, staring into the eyes of the wolf for a few seconds. Nudging himself against her, the shifter wondered to himself, 'You were really going to fight off a wild animal with a rubber spatula?' concerned while also finding it to be a funny thought, remembering then that she'd spent spring break with Bella when Bella discovered the existance of the pack, mostly because of events the shifter himself had been involved in, Kylie herself hadn't been there that day but...… His temper had been out of control at the time, it still mostly was but…
He was wondering if maybe he couldn't work on it. He was thinking maybe he wanted to work on it. For his imprint.
For their potential life together.
He wanted everything he'd seen when he'd imprinted on her and he'd never been a really patient guy so he wanted it right this second. Her words bought him out of his internal musings and he tilted his head to one side, looking up at her, a curious gleam in his eyes.
"So.. which one are you and how much damned trouble is my idiot of an older sister in this time, huh?" Kylie asked aloud after a few seconds. Her eyes fixed on the eyes of the wolf and she saw this brief flash of something, like shock maybe.
It had to be one of Sam's .. the eyes were too realistic and human.
She just wanted to know now, which one of Sam's was it? And what was her older sister marrying into? Was it all going to come crashing down on all their heads, Bella's one stupid decision?
The shifter debated for a few minutes, he gave it a long and hard thought.. He knew if he didn't reveal himself, she still knew, and obviously his imprint was smarter than her sister, but he also knew that if he did reveal himself, the chance was there that she might be entirely too freaked out to comprehend that he'd just taken it upon himself to patrol the woods behind her father's house this morning… Just to make sure she was alright.
He knew she'd been on the verge of tears the night before and knowing why now, damn Jacob Black, that made him all the more angrier and determined to make sure she was okay.
Something told him to go for it and so he did.
He walked towards the trees, disappearing into them, stopping as if to make sure she weren't peeking. Kylie dropped her eyes for whatever reason and then, a few minutes later, she looked up when a deep and slightly familiar voice said calmly, "Hi."
"Hey.. It's Paul, right?"
"Mhmm. So… the wolf is out of the bag." Paul chuckled, taking a seat on the stairs of the deck beside Kylie as he asked, "I figured you would've forgotten everybody, I mean.. We barely met last time you were around.. And you spent most of it chasing after Jacob Black."
Kylie couldn't stop staring at him, she just… it felt like suddenly she was noticing all these little things that she hadn't before… The last time she'd been to Forks, she'd seen Paul a time or two and it was enough to know that Bella disliked him. And that girls seemed to think he went through them like water and he was arrogant and a pain in the ass mostly.
"Yeah, well.. Things change."
"Good. He wasn't worth it.. you sure it changed though? I mean last night at the wedding you looked like you were going to cry at any second." Paul gave that smirk and Kylie couldn't help but notice the dimple in his cheek or the way his eyes lit up when he did it, the smug look.
"My sister got married. It was beautiful." Kylie lied but Paul shook his head and insisted, "We both know that's not what it was."
"But...It doesn't matter now, does it? Anyway, Paul, I asked you a question. You never answered it.. how about we move this indoors. I have pancakes and orange juice.. You can tell me why you're here and how much shit Bella's about to bring down on top of all our heads again." Kylie stood and held out her hand, though she wasn't sure why she did so.
Paul stood and gave a smirk as he followed her into the house, his eyes darting around the small and dated kitchen, taking it in, familiarizing himself with everything. Because if things went his way, he thought to himself, he'd be spending a lot of his spare time here, with her.
"I came by, Kylie, because I was patrolling the woods last night, and saw how upset you were at the wedding. I wanted to make sure you were really okay.. Look, I'm an asshole but.. I have my moments when I do worry about others. Today is one of 'em. Take it for what it's worth." Paul explained as he leaned against the refridgerator, arms crossed, watching her as she moved around the kitchen.
"Do you want pancakes, Paul?"
"Yeah."
"There's syrup in the fridge.." Kylie was brushing against him seconds later, the scent of her filling his nose, making him stiffen a little at the thousand things that he felt all at once being around her. He chuckled and she raised a brow, shook her head but said nothing, instead, focusing on fixing both of them a plate with pancakes, sausages and scrambled eggs.
He took the plate and they moved into the dining room.
"So.. There's no imminent danger I've moved myself back here to be sucked into? You swear to God, right? Because all I want is to just.. Be home.. Start college and focus on getting myself together. No drama."
He eyed her.. Something about the way she spoke told him there was definitely a reason she'd come back. She sounded hurt.. It made him want to go find whoever hurt her and personally kill them but he restrained himself, instead focusing on asking her, "Everything okay?"
"Just realized that life will never go my way thats all, no matter how hard I try. My big plan fell through. Then my second big plan.. Now I am on my third big plan and damned if it's not already starting to crumble around me too." Kylie answered quietly, explained a few seconds later, "I didn't get either of the scholarships I wanted when I graduated. Now here I am.. Gonna go to college in Port Angeles and live here with Daddy."
"Maybe that's not a bad thing.. I mean this is gonna sound cliché as hell but.. things happen for a reason, Kylie."
"yeah, well, I'm just tired of everybody else getting exactly the life they want. It gets frustrating. I worked my ass off all the way through school. I was going to be the doctor that cured cancer.. Or a damn good prosecuting attorney."
"you can still do those things."
"I'm going into nursing in the fall."
"So that's still a good job." Paul said as Kylie stared at him a few seconds and then nodded, taking a bite with her sausage and using it to point at him as she said, "I kind of just got out of a really bad breakup too. I wanted to start over. Totally. And even though I didn't live here, I always feel more at home with Daddy and here in Forks than I did in Florida."
Paul silently found himself thanking God.. maybe she'd stick around long enough to get to know the guy underneath all the attitude and sarcasm, all the cockiness.. maybe he could actually make this whole damned imprint process work…
It was worth a try, right?
He thought so.
Okay, so Paul won hands down so that means this is now a complete AU twist on the series itself. And once I took you guys suggestion into consideration, the second chapter just sort of flew out and I'm so happy. I hope it's not shitty. it's not going to be this rushed romance so if you like slightly slower burn fics, this is one... I mean it won't be too slow but it won't be hyper fast either.
Wow.. 3 faves and follows! And four reviews. Ilove you guys so much right now, it made my day. Hopefully you like this chapter.
