2. Hide and Seek

The house was even more breathtaking inside, than out. Esme showed us around the 4-storey home proudly, not leaving one ounce of the place unturned. It was so large that she had mentioned a few times things being in the 'wings' of the home, I didn't realize there were houses left in this world with west wings. It seemed so surreal, even for me.

Edward his hand over my eyes, as Esme and Alice walked us to our third storey room. I guessed that he had already seen it in their heads, decorating it and everything that they do. I heard a door open and felt myself being pushed through; the air in here was crisp and smelt of fresh rain. Edward didn't say a word before taking his hand from my eyes. The sight disarmed me. There was white carpet lain down on the floor with a big soft looking bed in the centre of the room, with posts and streams of white and gold silk falling from the frame. Esme definitely had a thing for beds in the middle of the rooms, even if no one ever really needed them. The room was large enough for a white mini grand piano to fit, to the side on a small step up, surrounded by glass. There were empty bookshelves lining the other side of the room, with an opening to what I guessed was a bathroom and closet and a large picture of Edward and myself, taken on our wedding day, hanging on one of the walls.

Right across from where I was standing, and behind the bed there was a wall of glass, reminding me so much of Edward's room back in Forks, the glass door was open, and outside there was the view of lake through the trees. I walked wordlessly to stand at the window, so overwhelmed with what they had given us. Edward followed suit behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and whispering into my ear while I kept my eyes on the swaying trees.

"It's nothing compared to you…" he whispered breathily against my skin, I had to fight the urge to turn and attach my mouth to his, I simply giggled, "Welcome home Bella."

I turned and hugged him, motioning over his shoulders for Alice and Esme to join us. I embraced them into my arms, having lost my speech to thank them and let them know how happy I was to be here. I think they understood, regardless.

Renesmee and Jacob had the same expression of awe on their faces when we met up with them after they had seen their own room.

"Mom…" she ran toward me and wrapped her arms around my neck, touching her hands to my face as she did so, the picture of a beautiful room, almost bigger than ours flashed in my mind, the bed was larger than I had ever thought imaginable and the view from their window wall was almost the same as ours, just lower to the ground, "isn't it wonderful?"

"It's so cool!" Jacob's smile reached me in his words; I had turned to smile at him too, when something in my head clicked.

"You two are sharing a room?" My eyes widened and I could feel the every set of eyes in the room, which was the whole family now, on me.

Emmett laughed heartily and patted Jacob roughly on the back, walking passed him and into another room with Rosalie smirking to herself as she followed him.

Jasper walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder, feeling Jacob's sudden anxiety and Renesmee's irritation, "I think we should bring you out for a bit of a hunt, shall we?"

A wave of calm washed over me as I rolled my eyes and decided to just give up on that situation. Suddenly I felt very hungry. Jacob grinned and put his arm around my daughters' shoulders and I pretended I couldn't hear him when he whispered to her. 'See Ness, told you she'd learn to deal with it."

*

"So, what's the school like here?" I asked, in the living room sitting across from Alice and Rosalie. The boys were all still hunting, along with Ness and Esme.

Rose grinned and ran her hand through her blonde hair; I still hadn't come close to getting used to how beautiful she was, "Well, you know, same as always, filled with humans."

I had found out that Rose, Em, Alice and Jasper had only endured one year at Elkins High, opting instead for staying hidden and having Carlisle pretend he had children in an international school in Europe. Their explanation for this was they had wanted to wait for us to come to town, figuring it would make sense to work it out that way, and buy a few more years in the place.

"It's a bit bigger than Forks, almost a thousand students, so that helps with staying unnoticed," Alice explained, then added with a smirk, "you guys should have no problem fitting in… just so long as you can hold your temper for a while."

I didn't fully understand what Alice was implying, but I nodded anyway, sighing and shaking my head. Sometimes it drove me crazy how cryptic she could be.

It was a couple of hours before everyone else came back from hunting; so I took that time to organize everything in Edward and my new room, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my cell phone, dialing a familiar number and pressing the speaker to my ear.

"Bella?" I heard Charlie's voice on the line and I couldn't help but smile.

"Hey dad," I could here him scraping a stool across the ground so he could sit near the phone, "Just wanted to let you know we got here safely, how's everything back there?"

Charlie didn't respond for a moment, I could hear the loneliness behind his toughed up voice, "Yeah great honey, it feels good to be king of the town again," he chuckled, "How's everything in the new place? How's Carlisle, Alice… you know, the whole crew?"

"Everyone is perfect dad, the house is beautiful, I can't wait to have you visit! It's right on the lake, you could just step out the door and do your fishing thing… I'll tell everyone you asked about them, I'm sure they'd love to hear about you!" I gushed, "I already miss you…"

A slight laugh, "I miss you too Bella, I'm glad you like it there" I heard someone else moving around in the background, I assumed it was Sue, "Hey honey, I'm sorry to cut you short, but I have someone over and I need to attend to some business, can I call you tomorrow?"

I felt slightly disappointed but I didn't say anything, "Sure dad, I love you, say hey to Sue for me."

"Same goes for the Cullen's, give my love to Nessie for me, will you?"

"Okay dad."

I pressed the hang up button on my phone and put it up on the edge of the bed.

The evening turned into late night without anything really eventful happening. When everyone came back from the hunt, Ness and Jacob went to bed almost straight away, Carlisle retreated to his office while Esme and Emmett, clearly excited about having food eating humans in the house, busied themselves in the kitchen, baking all sorts of cakes and casseroles and everything else. Only to throw everything out to start again, "practice makes perfect!" Esme had beamed. Alice and Jasper had gone out for a little to visit some friends that were in the next town and Rosalie sat quietly amused watching Emmett and Esme.

I walked around the house, exploring the unfamiliar stairs and carpets and rooms, when I caught Edward trying to stealthily surprise me from behind. I turned around to find him crouched, as if ready to pounce, and raised an eyebrow at him. He laughed and stood up straight, looking a little disappointed.

"You still don't realize that surprising me is virtually impossible these days," I pointed out, my hands on my hips, "You're not as smart as you think you are mister."

"Well," he said lowly, walking slowing up to me, looping his arms through mine and resting his hands firmly in the small of my back, his face was dangerously close to mine when we whispered, "Can't blame a guy for trying."

He leaned his face down so his lips were barely touching mine, and my eyes fluttered when he smiled against the sensitive skin. His arms tightened around me and he chuckled a little when I tried to kiss him and he pulled away, I would have been unreasonably frustrated by this action if I wasn't distracted by what he said next.

"Catch me if you can."

In a fraction of a moment he was gone, and running away from me, I laughed loudly and started after him, following down some stairs and into the front foyer. He sprinted out the door, and to weak human eyes the door wouldn't have been noticed opening and shutting. I ran out after him, sniffing the air and tracking his fresh, sweet scent. I ran deep into the forest surrounding the house, going around in circles and finding nothing. I could hear him whispering my name from all which directions, making me feel dizzy.

I was determined to catch him, but I had lost myself and needed a moment to regroup. I stood up against a large tree, resting my arms against the would be rough exterior and closed my eyes. The forest around me was as silent as forests can get for me these days, and I tried as hard as I could to concentrate on Edward. His scent was still strong, but scattered all over the place. With his scent brought images of him to my mind. The first time I really smelt him, it was a blur to me now… That was another life. He had lent me his jacket to keep my frail human self warm. I remembered feeling shaky when his aroma filled my head. That was the night I really fell in love with him, not even really knowing how. I remembered the way his eyes made me feel like I would almost collapse, and his smile made my stomach ache. Dreams of Edward were something I would never miss, because he was so much more than a dream could ever give him credit for. And I had him forever.

I smiled to myself when I felt him closer, inching toward me cautiously. My eyes stayed close as I felt his body inches away from me, and I waited for the right moment to clasp my arms around him and claim victory. I stayed as still as I could, and when that moment came, I quickly reached my arms out and snapped my eyes open, only to realize my arms were stretched around my own body.

I growled playfully, and followed the fresh scent. I skidded to a stop when the trail brought me to the edge of the lake. I couldn't see the house from here so I guessed we were pretty far out. The lake rippled and shone in the moonlight, and I realized why Edwards' trail had disappeared. I eyed the surface of the water and saw where something was swimming around underneath.

"Too easy…" I spoke to myself, as I made sure nobody was around before stripping down my underwear, Alice would kill me if she knew I went in the lake with the only outfit beside my wedding dress, which she had ever approved of me wearing.

I dove into the water stealthily and swam around under and away from the open air. My eyes stayed open while I searched for him. The water was dark and felt warm against my skin, which I knew it wasn't, being in the middle of winter. I could feel the water moving around me and swam faster in the opposite direction; I was the one that had to catch him, not the other way around.

I was too slow.

All of a sudden, in the darkness in front of me, a blur of white started to make its way closer. Edwards face glistened in the newly caught streams of moon light that cut through the water.

His arms were suddenly around my bare body and his lips were on mine, kissing me with such passion, if I were standing, I would have tumbled. We were still under water when his hands trailed along my spine and gripped at me in all the right places. He pulled away from me slightly, kissing down my face and slowly around my whole body; he somehow removed the rest of the small cloth covering my most intimate spots, and before I could realize, my undergarments were floating away from us. His kisses made me feel like I wanted to scream and cry and laugh at the same time.

My body shook and I whimpered my remaining air from my lungs, silently glad we were under water, I didn't think I was ready for more of Emmett's teasing and innuendos just yet. Edward's hands were gripping my hips when he swam me upward toward the surface. When we were above the water, I took a lungful of air before attacking him with my lips. His hair was stringy and clinging to his face messily as we somehow made our way to the edge of the water, the damp ground was covered with dead leaves as he pulled me from the water, our mouths never parting, and almost roughly put me down on my back.

He placed his perfect body above mine and started to lower himself. I gasped when he was where I needed him to be. He smiled a sexy crooked smile and lowered his mouth to mine once again after speaking softly, "Oh, I love you…"

We stayed out until we noticed the sun start to make its way into its time, it was still dark enough for the colors of the surrounding world to be dulled and grayed, but we knew we wouldn't have long to get back before the light would be blaring down on our naked bodies.

I found the clothes I had left by the lake and put them on messily, not bothering to check whether or not my shirt was even the right way around. Edward found some of his clothes floating in the water and quickly and uncomfortably pulled on a wet pair of briefs.

"The window in our room is still open," I remembered when we found ourselves back at the house, wondering how to go about getting in, undetected.

"Oh, thank God… I could hear Emmett and Rose right behind that door," He laughed quietly, pulling me around the house a little.

Sure enough, the window was still open and we jumped up the nearest tree and into it without a problem.

"We look amazing." Edward chuckled as he stared at our reflection in the bathroom.

I didn't notice until he had said that, and looked up into the mirror and almost stepped back in shock. Our heads looked like a swarm of birds had tried to make their nests in our hair, leaves and dirt and twigs stuck out from every which direction, and even without those little pluses, I'm sure we would have looked just as bad.

I ran a shower and we both stepped in. We cleaned each other generously with foamy soap that smelt like vanilla and musk combined and we helped each other remove all evidence of our night by the lake.

We didn't bother dressing ourselves when we dried off, instead opting to lie down on our new bed and disappear underneath all the blankets.

"You're beautiful, you know," he said this almost every day, and it never got old.

"You're not so bad yourself there, champ."

He stroked the skin on my face and frowned a little in thought, looking at his hand, "We have to go back to school…" he started, "You know, I never really thought of things this way, because I've never been in this position… but, four teenage couples living under the same roof… I wonder what that's going to seem like to everyone…"

"I never really thought of that," I pondered, "I know the people at Forks High were a little, judgmental…" I thought of that conversation I had with Jessica on my first day at school in Forks, I giggled a little.

Edward grinned at me, "I know."

I rolled my eyes; of course he knew what everyone thought.

"Wait… four couples?"

"Yes… You and me, Em and Rose, Jazz and Alice, Ness and…"

I cut him off, "Don't say it!" I warned.

"Bell…" he added amused, "You may as well face it sooner or later… Ness and Jake are toget…"

I stopped him before he could say anything more, of course I knew what they were, I knew from day one that this would happen; I just didn't think that it would happen so soon. A cloud of feathers flew in the air from the pillow I had just whacked in Edwards' face.

"Hey!" He didn't sound angry at all as his picked up another pillow and started hitting me with it. Soon we were standing on the opposite sides of the bed, eyeing each other carefully, with pillows in each hand, feathers in the air seemingly levitating on their own.

*

Edward held my hand as we walked down the stairs to look for sign of life later that morning. We found Jacob and Ness in the lounge room, with trays of food all around them and Emmett and Esme watching them eat, happily. Rosalie was reading a magazine on another chair looking disinterested in either watching them eat, or what she was reading. Carlisle was missing in action, I guessed at the local hospital while Jasper and Alice still hadn't returned.

We greeted them all good morning before taking a seat on a nearby love chair together. Edward groaned and I could tell he was reading someone's' mind. I looked into the faces of my family and saw they were all looking at us, with smirks on their faces.

Esme and Rosalie both had their hands over their mouths, trying to conceal their amusement, Jacob watched us, still chewing on whatever was in his mouth and Renesmee giggled openly, trying to pretend it wasn't at us.

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"Been biting pillows again, Edward?" Emmett laughed, unable to contain himself.

I looked over at Edward and saw a couple of feathers nestled in his hair, I picked them out without thinking about how much this would make for great entertainment.

"Pillow fight…" Edward mumbled.

"Sure…" Emmett was still laughing, and I looked over at Edward, his eyes suddenly wide.

In that same moment, Alice and Jasper walked into the room, and I wondered why they too look so amused, when they had just arrived.

"Actually, he's telling the truth Em…" Alice spoke with hilarity definitely evident in her voice. She turned and handed me a handful of wet undergarments, "I think these belong to you?"

I looked at them in horror, mentally murdering myself for not looking more thoroughly for this stuff. I wondered if this was Pick on Edward and Bella day.

I threw the handful of wet underwear out the closest window, barely missing Emmett's head on the way. His eyes followed the little bundle before looking back at us.

"If I knew you didn't want them, I would have left them by the lake where I found them!" Alice gasped, clearly not realizing how angry I was at her, at that moment.

I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, counting backward from 100. I could hear Edward actually laugh a little next to me, and he placed his hand on my back, I couldn't believe he was finding this funny.

Ninety-three… ninety-two… ninety one… I needed to calm myself… ninety…eighty-nine…eighty eight…I could hear Jake and Ness leave the room, understanding my body language as a time to clear out. Eighty-seven… eighty-six… eighty-five… I heard Esme leave the room too, clearing off a few trays at the same time… eighty-four… eighty-three… And then I heard him, Emmett was laughing hysterically, his voice booming and echoing around the whole house, he started punching his knees and I'm sure if he could cry, there would be tears in his eyes now.

I didn't make it to 80, before I opened my eyes and glared at him, swiftly jumping from my seat next to Edward and across the room, tackling Emmett out the window and onto the ground below. He was still laughing as I hit him over and over again, and I cursed myself for not still being stronger than him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my family, standing at the windows of the house, holding their stomachs and roaring with laughter themselves.