I don't own these characters. They are the sole property of Stephenie Meyer. I only borrow them. No humans are permanently harmed through my actions, though I do confess to harassing, annoying, torturing, and exasperating them – just because it's fun. I make no money from my little stories, sad day. I only play in the sandbox, I didn't build it.
Author's Note: This story is going to be a little different in tone from The Bigger They Are. Emmett and Rosalie are teenagers and obviously things are going to go differently for them. I'm trying to keep them realistic as the teenagers they are, while not diminishing their very real feelings for each other. They're young, but they've both faced things that most kids their age have not, and that's changed them and matured them in many ways. Still, they haven't got the experience that adults would have and that's going to impact their relationship. Thank you for reading, as always. Your support and encouragement is constantly amazing to me.
Chapter One: Shelter
"Friendship is a sheltering tree." ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The first time he really held her was the day of her mother's funeral. Uncle Jasper had arranged for her mother to be buried in Fayetteville, so the funeral had been there. At home. Rose had a home. That one word did so much. And with her mother's death, that home was her forever home. No one would make her leave it. There would be no picking up in the middle of the night to move because they didn't have the money for rent or a guy was harassing her mother or even giving her looks that finally made her mother uncomfortable and – if Rose was honest - jealous.
No, she would stay here in her new home until graduated and went to college. That was the other gift her aunt and uncle had given her. Hope. For the first time in her young life. Rosalie Hale had hope for a meaningful future. She already knew what she wanted to do with her life. She was going to be a social worker, an advocate for the forgotten children who slipped through the cracks and didn't have an aunt or uncle to stand up for them. Rose would stand up for them; she would be their voice.
After the funeral, Emmett had been there, solid and silent and big. He hadn't said a word, just wrapped his arms around her and held on tightly.
He knew what it was like to lose a parent. And even if her mother hadn't been a particularly good parent, she was all Rose had had. Until Uncle Jasper and Aunt Alice. And Emmett. She had Emmett.
She cried on his shoulder, taking comfort in his strength and silence and understanding. That was the first time he really held her. It would not be the last.
~TAOP~
"Rose!" It was her Aunt Alice and she was yelling. Rose glanced at the clock. "Shit, shit, shit," she muttered. She was late. Again. Emmett was going to kill her. Or make her want to kill him when he wouldn't stop teasing her. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," Rosalie added for good measure as she searched frantically for her shoes. How hard could it be to find two shoes that matched?
"Rosalie! You'd better get your butt in gear!" Aunt Alice was yelling. "You get one more tardy and you're going to get detention."
"Like I don't know that," Rose grumbled. She was a senior this year, and Rosalie had faced the grouchy old Mrs. Robinson more mornings than she cared to count as she begged for a tardy slip. Emmett always charmed his way out of needing them, the prick. Still, she smiled as she thought of him. He might be a prick, but he was her prick. Her best friend, her boyfriend, her protector, her harasser, her Hulk, as she called him.
Of course, it had been Jake that started that. Jake had begged Emmett to dress up as the Hulk last year for Halloween, green skin and all. Emmett, being the big softy that he was, had done it. He had later told Rose that he just didn't want to wear the Darth Vader mask that would have been Jake's next suggestion. So the Hulk he had been and much to his chagrin, no one was willing to let him forget it either. And there were plenty of pictures to relive the moment – over and over and over again. Rose had even added them to her Facebook. Emmett had pouted about that for days, not that it had done him any good. The pictures stayed where they were.
Finally, she found an actual pair of shoes, shoved them on her feet, and ran down the stairs. She grabbed a granola bar on the way, gave Aunt Alice a quick kiss, waved to Sarah and Sophie and Adam and dashed out the door. A glance at the clock in her car confirmed her fears. She was going to be late, spectacularly late.
Her phone went off. It was Emmett texting her; she could tell by the ring tone. He kept changing the ring tone on her. She never knew what he'd come up with. This one was Lady Ga Ga. Rose gagged a little.
Far sooner than should have been possible, she was pulling into Emmett's driveway. Thank goodness they lived so close. "Get in!" she yelled as he started ambling toward the car. He did that just to annoy her and the grin on her face confirmed that. "I'll leave your ass, don't think I won't!"
"Who pissed in your cornflakes this morning?" he asked sweetly as he fastened his seatbelt.
"Ha ha," she grumbled. "We're going to be late." Then she sighed. "And I didn't have time for cornflakes, it was a granola bar for me."
Emmett laughed. "You'll be late," he corrected. "I'll be 'unavoidably delayed' and need to hurry to my class."
"Bite me," Rosalie said with a roll of her eyes.
"Later, hon," Emmett reminded her. "When we're alone without the little spies."
She ignored that and kept driving. She was late and was going to get a tardy. She'd end up doing an afternoon of detention. Emmett flirted with Mrs. Robinson and was sent on his merry way. He winked at her as she stood in line for that stupid slip of pink paper.
"Just awesome," Rose muttered under her breath.
"What can I do for you, Miss Hale?" Mrs. Robinson asked archly.
And so the day was off to a perfect start.
~TAOP~
Later in the lunchroom, Emmett sat down with a tray that almost bowed under the weight it held. Rose rolled her eyes at him. "One of these days that metabolism of yours is going to slow down and then you're going to be sorry," she warned him.
He snorted at her and shook his head. "I don't think so, Miss Hale." He patted his flat belly with a smirk of satisfaction.
"Mark my words, one day you're going to be fat and gross and no one will want you," Rosalie continued with a sniff.
Emmett laid his head on her shoulder and batted his eyes at her. "You'll want me, Rosie. You know you will."
She poked his forehead with her finger and he frowned as her jerked away. "There are times I don't want you now, dipshit."
He shoveled a handful fries into his mouth and shrugged. "You will," he said with certainty after her had swallowed his food. "I'm your forever guy." She knew he meant it. He knew it too. Sometimes it felt like she was fighting fate when she tried to think of a life without him.
More often, she wondered why she even tried.
"I've got to get to class," she said, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she got to her feet.
Emmett leaned in and his voice was rough and very grown up, not at all playful like it usually was. "I don't mind waiting, Rose," he said softly. "Because I know I'm right. We're going to end up together." He grinned at her, his eyes alight with laughter once more. "You can just bet your sweet ass and that you and I are going to grow old together."
"If I let you live that long," she muttered. She turned away from him, presenting him with her back.
But there was a smile on her face.
~TAOP~
Three months later…
This was it. Graduation. Rosalie tugged at the tassel she could just see from the corner of her eye. Emmett had threatened to braid it and then superglue it. Thankfully, she had hidden her graduation cap from him. He would have done it if he'd gotten the chance. He would have even paid one of his brothers to distract her while he did it too.
In a few months, she would be leaving Fayetteville to go to college. Emmett would be staying here. He a year of high school left. It would be odd to be someplace new, with no one waiting at home for her.
Home.
She had gotten used to having one. Rose enjoyed the noise and the chaos that came from having "siblings." Sarah and Sophie and Adam were her brothers and sisters. She wondered what Emmett would do when she left. She knew the odds were against a long distance relationship working, especially at their ages. She fully expected that he would eventually date someone else.
She hoped he would. She hoped he wouldn't.
When she had left her mother's house, Rosalie had been determined that she would never depend on a man to pay her bills. She had a dream and she meant to see it through. She wasn't going to let a boy, even one like Emmett James, distract her. In four years, when she had her degree, maybe then they could see if things still sparked between them.
But she needed to do this for herself. She needed the security that having a degree would give her. She would never worry about where next month's rent was coming from, or if she'd be able to eat tomorrow. No, she was willing to work hard and work smart.
Besides, Emmett deserved better, he deserved someone whole. He was one of the good guys, the kind of man a woman could depend on. He was going to be the guy who couldn't wait to settle down and make beautiful babies. He was the kind of guy who would come home right from work and play with his kids. He'd be at every soccer game, every recital. He'd change diapers and tell the kids to let Mommy take a nap. He wouldn't forget an anniversary or a birthday, or to tell his wife that she looked pretty in her new dress. He would play catch with his kids and make tents in the living room on rainy days to keep them amused.
She had figured that out by watching him with his brothers and sister. If there had ever been a man wrapped around a little girl's finger, it was Emmett. Dani could ask him for the moon and he'd be looking into getting on a space shuttle flight.
That was just one of the many reasons she had to go and she had to go now before she got sucked into it any further, before she hurt Emmett any more than she already had. There were a lot of reasons to let Emmett move on, and only one to hold onto him.
She loved him. She always would. But she loved him enough to want to see him happy, and she knew that she wasn't it.
~TAOP~
Not quite three months after graduating from high school, Rose was sitting on Emmett's bed. She was leaving tomorrow for Gainesville, Florida. She had come to say good-bye. Uncle Jasper and Aunt Alice and the kids were all driving her down early in the morning. This was the last time she'd see Emmett James for who knew how long. His family had tactfully left them alone after Rose had said her farewells to the James/Cullen clan. She would miss them all, but none of them as much as Emmett.
Emmett was her heart and she had accepted that she'd be leaving her heart behind her. He'd never know, but that was okay.
She patted the bed beside her. "Em?"
He had been pacing, as restless as a lion in a cage.
"Could you come and sit by me...please?"
He frowned for a moment but did as she asked. She reached out and touched his hair, loving the soft feel of it as it brushed his collar. It had a tendency to curl when it got too long, like it was now. His jaw was scruffy with a day's worth of beard, just the way she liked it. Rose sighed, knowing that she couldn't let him know how much leaving him was going to hurt. It would just delay his own hurt.
She linked her fingers through his. "Em?" When he remained stubbornly silent, she turned his head and waited until he met her eyes. "Em?" she repeated. "Please don't hate me."
He closed his eyes. "God, I wish I could, Rosalie." Not Rose, not Rosie, she noted. That hurt. Pain seemed to be the theme of the evening. "It'd make all of this so much easier if I could just not like you anymore." Then he shook his head. "I take that back, right now I don't like you, but I can't hate you. And I can't stop loving you either. Which is what makes this whole situation such a bitch."
She nodded, knowing she deserved all of it. He only knew that she was leaving him, without anything that even approached a good explanation. He sensed that this wasn't just about going away to college and that knowledge ate at him.
"I have to do this," Rose told him quietly. His fingers tightened around hers.
"I know," he admitted. "I don't like it. I sure as hell don't understand it, but I know."
"You know, I never would have made it through the last few years without you," she said. "You've been there for me, even when I was... Well, when I was insufferable and cranky. You never judged. You never made me feel like I was disappointing you."
He snorted with derision. "Great, our whole relationship has been summed up by making me sound like a Golden Retriever."
She cradled his face in her hands. "No, I'm just saying that you... Well, you're special, Emmett. You're special in general and you're special to me in particular. You always will be."
His blue eyes were swimming with tears she knew he wouldn't let fall. "That sounds a lot like good-bye," he said in a husky, strained voice.
She knew it was, but she couldn't say it. She loved Emmett James with every fiber of her being, but she had to let him go. Sometimes love was about doing what was best for the other person, instead of thinking only about yourself. Rose understood that because her mother hadn't.
"I'll always love you," she said instead. "Always."
He closed his eyes and shook his head, hearing what she wouldn't say. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her, his lips desperate and hard against hers. Before she knew it, they were horizontal on his bed, his big body covering hers in a way that always surprised and delighted her.
His warm hands traveled up under her shirt where he cupped her breasts and groaned. "Oh God, Rose..." His hands were shaking as he slipped them underneath her bra to pull at her nipples. His tongue caressed hers. They had learned a lot about kissing and touching in two years. He had figured out how to touch her, how to give her pleasure. She knew his body almost as well as her own.
But they hadn't had sex. They had come close, oh so close, but never had they tipped the scales completely. Something had held them back...just.
At this moment, however, Rose sensed that they were approaching a precipice, and that if they didn't retreat now, they would take an irrevocable step. Emmett leaned up. "Rose?"
She knew what he was asking; she knew what he was asking for – it was there in the tension thrumming through his big frame, in the taut lines of his face.
They were alone. She was leaving tomorrow. She wasn't sure when she would see him again.
Rose nodded and Emmett's mouth was on hers again.
Their movements were awkward and rushed. Getting their clothes off seemed an enormous task and when they were stripped down to just their underwear, they both experienced a moment of embarrassment. Emmett tried to shield the erection that jutted out in his boxers. Rose was wishing she had worn the pretty black lace panties she had purchased last week. Instead, there she was in little girl, bright yellow cotton underwear. She was only grateful that she had shaved her legs.
But then she saw Emmett's eyes and knew he could have cared less. He reached out to touch her there, pressing the cotton against her and making her gasp. She hooked his fingers at the sides of her panties and together they removed the scrap of cotton. Then she tugged at his boxers and they were soon on the floor too.
Emmett settled over her, too impatient and urgent to wait. "Rose, I have to...I need...oh fuck," he hissed when a shift of position put the head of dick right against her heat. Then he groaned and let his head hang down. "Fuck...shit..." He looked up at her. "I don't have..." He blushed bright red. "I don't have a...uh...you know...a...condom."
Rose lowered her eyes. "It's all right, I'm covered," she said. "I won't...uh, I won't get pregnant. And I've never... Well you know."
"Okay," he said with relief. "So...?"
She couldn't say the words but she shifted again and put him right where she wanted him. "Please," she finally said.
Emmett reached down and lined himself up, and then he leaned on his elbows and... "Sorry," he grunted out and then pushed.
He was inside of her in one stroke and she stiffened beneath him. It hurt more than she expected and it took him a minute to notice. He had already stroked in and out twice before he saw the tear on her cheek. "Fuck, Rose, I'm so sorry." He made a move to pull out completely and she stopped him with her hands on his ass.
"No, just...just give me a minute..." Fire licked up inside of her and not in a good way.
He went utterly still, only the heaving of his chest and the sounds of his breathing filling his little room.
"Slow," she finally whispered.
He sank all the way in with a loud groan. And stopped. He kissed her and pulled back before sinking in with another groan. Stroke in. Stroke out. Just a few minutes later, he was trembling. "Rose...I'm gonna...oh shit..."
Then he was thrusting deep inside of her and she could feel the pulsing, the warmth that spread.
And just like that, it was over.
He rolled slightly to the side, so he wasn't resting all of his considerable weight on her. He buried his face in the pillow beside her. "Well shit," he muttered.
She snuggled up close. "It's all right," she said.
He turned away from her. "That's just what a guy likes to hear, Rosalie. It was all right." She knew he was angry at himself, not her, but that didn't help much.
Rose moved so that she was on top of him and squeezed his face until he looked at her. "Em, I didn't expect to...you know...my first time..." She shook her head. "But I'm glad it was you." She kissed him deeply. "I'll always be glad it was you, and that's more important than..." She shrugged. It was still difficult to talk about these things, no matter how long she had known him.
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "You're really leaving me, aren't you?"
She started to say something but he kissed her, cutting off the words.
"We should get dressed," he said quietly. "I'm not sure how much leeway they're going to give us."
"Em, I-"
He stood up and pulled on his boxers in a simple, fluid movement. She watched the play of thick, hard muscles on his ass and back and shoulders. His body was that of a man, and he had the heart of a hero, but in many ways, he was still just a kid.
So was she. They had just played at being adults, but this moment, this awkward, messy moment only proved how wrong they were.
"Just get dressed, Rose," Emmett said, his voice cool and detached.
The silence as they found their clothes and got dressed was heavy and uncomfortable. Emmett slipped from his room as soon as he had his shirt on, making some lame excuse about getting something to drink.
Rose looked at the clock by his bed. It was time to go. A part of her wanted to stay no matter how wrong it was.
She looked up when Emmett came into the room, two cans of Coke in his hands. "Here," he offered.
"Emmett, I-"
He just smiled sadly and gave her a chaste kiss. "S'okay, Rose, I know you have to go." He offered her his free hand. "Come on, I'll walk you out."
They got to the door and she handed him back the can. He opened the door and they stepped outside. She stood there awkwardly. "I'll see you," Rose whispered. Then she closed her eyes at the unintentional cruelty of the words.
His jaw tightened. "Yeah, see you around."
Then he was slipped into the house, quietly closing the door behind him.