Chapter 2 - Revelations in the Snow

"Renesmee! It's snowing!"

Nessie opened her eyes to the lavender ceiling above her. Her mother knew how much she loved snow, and waking up to find out it was snowing was the perfect start for the day. She jumped out of bad, oblivious to the chill in the room, and flew through her morning routine. She showered, brushed her teeth and blow-dried her hair in record time. Dressing up took no more than a few minutes. This is how it usually goes when ones aunt's hobby is assembling outfit sets each day and organizing them on the shelves in her closet.

Alice prepared for her three possible sets of cloths for today. Nessie glanced at the three stacks and picked the one with a blue and white, dear-patterned knitted sweater, which was perfect for a snowy day, in her opinion. Alice matched the sweater with washed out skinny jeans and a cute bobble hat. And also gloves and a coat and a scarf, but Renesmee didn't even bother to look at them before putting them on.

"Renesmee, your hot chocolate milk is ready!" her mother called again. She'd heard her get ready in her room and knew exactly when to make the chocolate, in order to have it in her hybrid daughter's preferred temperature. She is going to miss this kind of pampering once she's at college. On the other hand, she couldn't wait for the academic year to start - along with her true freedom.

Living at college meant having private thoughts, thoughts which no one could hear unless she wished them to. Renesmee winced at this thought, hoping her father won't take offense from her obvious desire to escape his hearing abilities. It was a cruel circle, one that would end only when she's finally far away from them.

Her father raised his voice and she expected to have him reprimand her or calm her down, but what he said was neither. "Nessie, Jacob'll be here any minute. Are you dressed?"

The question was ridiculous. She tied her scarf around her neck and went to the kitchen, where a steamy chocolate milk was awaiting her. She faced her father with spread out arms, gesturing to her dressed body, then rolled her eyes pointedly as she turned to drink from the red mug. Yes I am dressed! She thought sardonically. As if I would have left the room if I wasn't!

Her father chuckled softly. "I'm just making sure, sweetheart," he said. He was sitting at the table, circling newspaper ads. Apartment rentals ads. Her parents thought to move in near her college. She was glad they thought of the idea just now, in the last week before school started. That way she would have more time to settle in college before they'd start peering over her shoulder all the time.

"Don't you think I didn't hear that," her father murmured and drew a big X over another ad. Renesmee shrugged and sighed. "Well, you already know how I feel. I'm not going to apologize again."

Jacob knocked on the door and Nessie yelled before her father could say anything, "you can come in!" Bella peeked over her husband's shoulder. "This one looks nice," she pointed at an ad. He considered it and circled it too.

"Good morning to the Cullens," Jake appeared at the kitchen after a second, to Nessie's relief, with a big smile and a long sleeved shirt. Renesmee focused on the shirt and frowned.

"Is that what you're wearing?" she asked skeptically.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"I believe Renesmee refers to the fact that even though it's snowing today, and while she is dressed in three layers at least, you're not even wearing so much as a t-shirt under that blouse," Edward said in a leveled voice, glimpsing at the shape shifter. Then he returned his attention to the newspaper, as if the whole thing held no concern for him.

"Nessie can wear as much layers as she wants, but I'm not going to make myself sweat. I think we had already proven that I'm a human heater, hadn't we?"

Jake beamed at Nessie and she couldn't help but return his smile. "Wolf heater," she remarked.

"Definitely," he agreed. Then he glanced at Edward, who groaned in return. "Jacob!" he called, annoyed.

"What? What did you think?" Renesmee straightened in her sit.

"Err-" he hesitated for a minute, and then his grin was so wide it almost split his face in half. "I was thinking he should be glad I put on a shirt today at all."

Edward groaned again. "Please, can you stop talking about this? You know I'm allergic," he pleaded.

Bella huffed. "Allergic to shirtless wolves, am I right?"

Renesmee giggled her bell-like laughter, and the thought of her father coughing to a shirtless Jacob was both amusing and fascinating.

"Can you please stop that?" her father begged now.

Jacob eyed his girl. "I didn't think of anything particularly offensive, so it must have been you. What did you think?"

Nessie couldn't stop laughing at her father's tortured face, so he finally puffed out, "Go! Just go already."

They took mercy on him this time and left the house.

"Ready for a fun day in the snow?" Jake asked as they went through the front door.

"Am I ready? Do white sharks have to swim constantly in order not to drown?"

He seemed lost, so she volunteered the answer. "The answer is yes."

"Wow, nerd. You don't have to devastate me with your nerdness, I already know you're smart."

"Jake!" she protested.

He snickered. "We're lucky you're about to start your biology studies." When she raised an eyebrow, he added, "there's no telling for how much longer I could tolerate such unintelligible comments."


"So the garage is almost ready for the opening," Jacob told her as they walked into the woods. Their destination was undetermined, since they both never cared for that kind of thing. Renesmee simply loved to walk in this white whiteness, and Jacob simply loved to walk with her. He considered rolling a snowball and throwing at her, but for now decided against the idea. Despite her vampire part, she still suffered from the cold, and her clothing choice came to prove it.

"Wow, you managed to progress awfully quickly," Renesmee reflected.

"Yeah, I suppose I wouldn't have expected anything less from a bunch of werewolves and one hybrid," Jacob remarked. The week before she came to help him and the young guys of the pack in the final preparations of the space he had bought. He believed her floor washing was probably the fastest in human history. And the most thorough too, in his opinion. The place gleamed and shined after she went over it, to the point where the boys barely dared to step on the floor afterwards.

It was amusing watching the young wolves tiptoeing around the garage, and he was sorry she didn't get to see it herself. She had to go to organize her own stuff, first payments for school and residency, and he let her go reluctantly. He had stared longingly after her car that disappeared around the corner, and only the respect that the youngsters had for him prevented them from making fun of him too much.

He was totally whipped.

"So what else is there to do?" Nessie questioned, bringing him back to the snowy path they were striding.

"You know… last arrangements, payment to the landlord, power points in all the rooms, and I haven't manned all of the jobs yet…" Opening his own garage entailed many things, but he was prepared for that. He completed his studies in Business Administration (with honors!) with opening his own garage in mind, and since Nessie went to college in the city the transition there was asked for. He couldn't be away from her. When he told her of his plans to move in to the city, near her, he knew he wasn't wrong. The spark in her eyes told him that she was glad to have him close to her.

"Oh," she muttered, disappointed. "I thought maybe I could help again. It was nice to lend you a hand on your first big project," she said, rubbing her sides. Jacob was destined for big things, she knew for sure it would happen someday. All he needed was time. And he had time.

"No, no, just some last minute stuff…" he repeated. "But I'd love for you to come to the grand opening. There will be cake and everything."

"I'd love that." She flashed him a toothy smile and he could no longer think of anything but her. Damn, he was so smitten.

They continue walking for some time in the snow, and Nessie breathed in the unsoiled scent of new snow. She loved this scent, that somehow made the world a tidier, more sensible place. It enabled her to smell the more important things, like her best friend walking beside her. She glanced sideways at him. He was busy looking around and for a moment she remembered the thought she hadn't told him, the one that involved her father's allergy to him taking off his shirt. She blushed and was glad her father wasn't there. She was sure he could hear her thoughts, but from such distance he could do nothing to embarrass her.

"What are you thinking about?" she inquired softly. He had a contemplative aura, looking at the snow with such concentration she knew only important matters were passing through his mind. She knew him so well, better than himself even. He must be going to tell her something.

Jacob turned to look at her. How did she know, he wondered. Sometimes he asked himself if she too possessed her father's ability to extract thought out of his mind, and not just the ability to plant them. Maybe she did. In any case, she had also the ability to be much more subtle about it.

"I have to tell you something," he started.

Renesmee missed a beat as she imagined the worst. Billy was sick. Jacob won't be Alpha anymore. Her parents forbade him from seeing her all throughout college. He had a girlfriend.

What? Where did that come from? She surprised herself. Since when did she care if he had a girlfriend or not?

Jacob could see her getting upset as soon as the words left his mouth. How did he manage to screw this so fast?

"No, it's not anything bad!" he rushed to say. "I mean, I don't think it's bad," he moaned when he saw her expression turn confused. "It's not bad," he concluded eventually. Dammit, he hadn't said two words and he already sucked at this.

"Please just listen to me, before you set your opinion?" he begged in light of her rapidly changing expressions.

Renesmee raised her eyebrows and shook her head. "Opinion about what?" she waved her hands. "You hadn't told me what it is yet."

"Yes, but I can already see you preparing yourself for whatever that is, and I'm almost sure none of that is actually related to what I want to tell you."

"I hadn't told you what I was thinking too," she objected.

"Nessie, I'm trying to tell you something important, it won't work if we keep on arguing about irrelevant things…" he rubbed his forehead with frustration.

"I know what we can do," she told him, laying her hand on his arm. Her hands were gloved to protect from the cold and up until now she had them shoved deep inside her coat pockets. She took off her gloves with a couple of yanks, then shoved them inside her pocket.

"What are you?..." his words faded when she took his hands in hers, holding them at heart height.

That's better, she thought at him and he sighed with relief. It was not only her touch that helped to calm him, but also her encouraging thoughts. She was his best friend in the whole world, and she wasn't going to let him down now. This way he knew immediately what she was thinking, wouldn't have to fear the worst, and be able to answer her thoughts immediately. She opened her mind to him completely, and he nodded in gratitude for the trust she gave him.

Now, what did you want to tell me? She asked inside his head.

"I wanted…" he hesitated, but her expectant look and encouraging smile lifted his spirits, and reminded him his carefully chosen words from the day before, in front of his mirror. "Well, it concerns the tribe's traditions."

What about that? Her chocolate eyes questioned too.

"Well… first of all you have to know that until now I hadn't told you this not because I didn't want too. But because your parents asked me not to tell you."

How typical, she thought, rolling her eyes. She had a certain figure in mind.

"Yeah, well, your mom was into it too. Don't be so quick to blame Eddie."

I'm still convinced it was his idea. But what is it? She reminded him.

"Well…" he paused. "Do you know about Sam and Emily? Seth and Sarah? Quill and Claire?"

Yes, I'm familiar. She was making fun of him now, which was much better than her previous aggravation.

"Well, did you know that they are not normal couples…"

She surprised him with the thought, yeah, they're imprinted couples.

Well, so she knew about imprinting. He had never told her about it, but now assumed it was foolish to assume that she won't find about it sooner or later. The wolves' wives were good friends with her; there was no chance of them not telling her such a thing. Plus it was stupid to leave her in the dark about it when she knew by heart all the other tribe's stories, from dozens of pack's bonfires. Why hadn't she ever spoken to him of this? Maybe she figured it was considered girl talk. Whatever it was, he was glad she couldn't hear his current inner rambling, since now he was thinking – how come everybody knew not to tell her about her connection to imprinting…?

After a minute he realized he still hadn't said anything. For a fleeting moment he heard her think: then does Jacob have a-? But she interrupted the thought, recalling he could hear everything that came through her mind.

Is this the thing? Imprinting? She asked, the insecurity of the uncompleted thought rising inside of her, and he felt guilty for making her feel that way.

"Yap, this is it," he confirmed. "If you know about imprinting then you surly know how it comes to be, and why we think it happens, and what's the whole thing's bottom line."

Her mind sorted through his questions. How does it come about? One look and you're it – she thought, picturing Seth laying his eyes for the first time on his wife Sarah. She was Nessie's violin teacher, and met Seth when he came over during a lesson to give a message from Jake. She recalled his stunned look, then his trademark Seth grin, filled with joy and glee. Then he leaned flirtatiously in the doorway and managed "How you doin'?" only to slip to the floor upon missing the doorpost, since he wasn't looking where he was leaning. Sarah burst into giggles and he rest was history.

His second question - why do they think it happen? Made her think about DNA and then reminisce the lesson her grandpa gave her. He demonstrated how according to genetic theory the imprint was supposed to be beneficial in creating stronger puppies. That was the word he used at first, puppies, and after correcting him she giggled over his blunder all through the rest of the lesson.

The whole thing's bottom line… she assumed he meant the stronger 'puppies' was the end game, and blushed when she pictured Rachel and Paul kissing passionately on their wedding day a year ago. Jacob blushed as well, under his brown skin. She lowered her eyes off his face but didn't leave his hands.

You mean that imprinted couples fall in love and get married, she muttered in his mind.

"Yes," he breathed, and for a moment looked at her with such intensity that she couldn't breathe herself. And then she was confused again.

So what?

"So," he replied, "do you remember the first time that we've met?"

Do I remember? Are lions in the cat family?... she thought but stopped when he snickered. "Such a nerd," he muttered.

Of course I remember, she thought in silence. It was right after I was born, when Rosalie held me, and you came to see me… her heart skipped a beat as she recreated his exact expression the moment he looked in her eyes. She always regarded this memory with warmth, the feel of his brown eyes that seemed to make her feel secured from the very first moment. She had never considered it from his perspective. But his question made her think, and she remembered how he advanced from the doorway, his expression, shall we say, less than nice, however as soon as their eyes met his harsh mask melted and vanished.

What happened there? She was almost afraid to ask.

"What happened was," he said quietly, "that I wanted to kill you, because I thought you killed Bella, my best friend. The woman I had loved," he said and she recalled her dad telling her once that Jacob used to have a crush on her mother. It never worried her, since she knew him and never detected signs of unrequited love when he looked at her mother - merely friendship. Jacob continued, "And as soon as I saw you... everything had changed."

Everything had changed, she echoed. Everything had changed for me too, she whispered in her mind, as if didn't want him to hear. But of course he did. There was no escape with her gift.

So what did you want to tell me, really? She wondered mutely. "You know the answer," he urged her. "I've told you everything you need to know." He changed his stance, draw near her, and turned his bigger hands so that thy wrapped hers and not the other way around. This way, with her palms trapped between his warming ones, she could no longer pass her thoughts to him. But this way he was warming her hands.

She pondered what he had told her. The first moment; how does the imprint happen? What does it mean? She thought of the couples she knew, all the couples who found each other with the help of the strange wolf-magic. Some were stranger than others. Quil was imprinted with Claire when she was little, that one was a well-known story in the pack. Now when she was 17 they finally started dating, and as Nessie's best friend she'd told her everything about it. She was in love with him ever since she'd realized that boys were cute, and couldn't wait for him to want to date her too, but he took longer to admit that she wasn't a little girl anymore.

I'm not a little girl anymore, Renesmee thought. I matured faster than Claire. In fact I've been a grown woman for some time now, and there wasn't a single pack member who didn't take notice. Firstly, the ones that had girlfriends treated her like protective brothers. But the younger wolfs, the pack 'newbies', they didn't bother to hold back on the catcalls and come-ons. Of course she paid them no attention, but still had fun with them just for hilarity of it, at Jacob's expense. Their alpha didn't like it, to say the least, but she has always associated it with his usual protective brotherly behavior. He didn't want any guy to touch her, not even think of her. But what if he didn't like their attention for a different reason?...

What if?.. What if?... She was so frightened by the possibility that maybe it was true, that she couldn't complete the thought. Not because she didn't want it, but because she wanted it a bit too much. Jacob lowered his mouth to his hands that were cupped around hers, and blew in through the gap between his thumbs. Warm air encompassed her hands and warmed her, and she felt the hairs on her hands stand on end from the intimacy of it.

"Jake…" she muttered.

"Yes, Nessie?" He asked softly.

"What if... you've imprinted on me?"

He smiled. Of course she figured it out eventually. He didn't think for a moment she wouldn't. But her question exposed her concern, and he could sympathies.

"What if I've imprinted on you? Well, then, nothing has to change," he said. "I'm still just plain Jacob, your large doofus. Your best friend."

"My large doofus…" she whispered, observing their hands.

"Jacob, are you imprinted on me?" she finally inquired.

"Yes."

"Ever since I was born?"

"Ever since then."

"And you've never told me about it?"

"'Cause your folks asked me not to," he reminded her.

"That must have been dad's idea," she murmured.

"If I remember it correctly, Bella hasn't objected at all."

"Until when were they planning on you to hide this from me?" she asked.

"Until you're old enough to make your own decisions." he shrugged.

"And only now they thought me old enough-" she started, rolling her eyes, but he cut her off by saying, "the decision was theirs. I guess it has something to do with you going to college soon. They don't have a lot of control over you now."

"Jacob…"

Their eyes caught, and they weren't able to look away.

"What does this mean, Jake?" her deep brown eyes were somber and anxious, and he knew all about her fears and desires. Sometimes even her dreams.

"It means," he said softly, "that you're my other half. My search was over as soon as I found you. But it doesn't mean," he paused to emphasize the point, "That we have to be a couple just because everyone else is. We can stay just as we are right now. There is no rush for me."

He grinned smugly. "After all, with you I have forever."

She blushed at his words. It was a lot to take in at once, but for some reason… everything settled soundly inside her mind as if it was always there. Only her doubts concerning their relationship troubled her now. She took a deep breath, and turned one of her palms to touch his warm skin with her fingers. She had to ask him something that she dared not say out loud.

Jacob, do you want us to be a couple?

"Nessie…" he made sure that her eyes were on his. "I admit that I want what every couple around me has. I want it with every bone in my body. But the truth is that only recently I started to think that maybe... you and I... we could also be a pair in that way, so…"

She knew what he meant. With so many couples around them, it was hard not to wish it for yourself.

"...So I'm telling you, that if you want us to be a couple too… to try to date… I'm all for it. But if you'd prefer - if you'd prefer us to just keep on being best friends, no strings attached, then I'm totally all for it too."

I've never dated anyone… she contemplated, unconsciously considering the possibility.

"I know…" he answered distractedly, focusing on the thought she'd just passed.

I don't know if I'm ready for that kind of thing yet…

"I'll understand if you don't think of me that way," he rushed to tell her, but she could sense the hurt in his tone. Rejection was never a pleasant feeling.

No! It's not that I've never thought of you that way… she blushed when her thought from before floated again, the one that had made Edward banish them both out of her house. His eyes widened for a split second when he saw the picture in her head.

"So that's what made dear Eddie to lose his marbles…" the humor in his voice helped her blush to lessen slightly.

This and other stuff... She thought, but this time remembered to block the give-away thoughts before he saw them. Then she thought of her impending school year. How could she concentrate on her studies if she's busy trying a new relationship with Jacob? There were too many questions she needed to ask herself, and courage she needed to gather in order to search for their answers... she didn't thought she'll be capable of it just yet. There will be too many unfamiliar new things at once. He nodded to her thoughts.

She uttered, "Then would it be fine if in the meantime, we'd just... be friends?"

"Yeah," he confirmed. "It will be just fine. We have an eternity to figure out what we want to do. What we want to be."

"And if I change my mind…"

"If you figure that you cannot live another second without being my sweet Valentine…" He couldn't help but joke, and she smiled.

"Then I could just... tell you? And we will try?"

"Yes," he said. "Nessie, you know I love you anyway, and I'd gladly give you anything you want…"

She smiled at the ground. "I love you too," she said softly. And that was the case. They never shied away from saying it to each other. There was no point.

She was almost glad she took off her gloves, because the heat of his hands and breath were much more effective than the beautiful pair of gloves Alice chose for her. She beamed up at him, in warm friendship and familiarity.

"Friends?"

"Friends."


AN: Hope you liked it:)

Next up: college dorms, new friends and new decisions!

R&R and have a lovely day...