A/N: Italian Jasper ;). Bella's nickname won't come out for a few chapters yet, so you still have time to get your suggestions in (hint, hint) and the translations from the Italian are at the bottom.

Diamond Glitters

JPOV

When I followed her, I didn't know exactly what I was going to say to her. I hadn't seen her since we were both ten and back then it had all been about winding each other up and getting into trouble as much as possible. I was scared of her now, something deep inside me telling me that she was all wrong. All that power. I could practically sense it. I could also sense her agitation. She was twisting her fingers together, sitting on a rock on the banks of a river. The sunlight sparkled off her, the clouds lifting for a change.

"Belle," I whispered, without knowing it.

"What was that one, Jay?"

"Nothing," I mutter, knowing she heard it, and knowing she understood it. I sit down beside her.

"When did you find the Cullen's?" I get that the subject of her past has been firmly closed for now. If she sticks around long enough, maybe she will let me in. I like the thought of her sticking around.

"1930. I'd left Maria - been gone ten years. I was wandering. No real plan, no real destination. I walked into a diner in Philadelphia, and Alice was sitting there waiting. We came to the Cullen's and they were kind enough to adopt us both. Alice bonded with Edward - and I don't mind telling you that that was a hideous ten years of mush. Rose was already with them, and Emmett joined around ten years later. I've struggled with self-control." She knows what I mean, and she wordlessly strokes my arm gently.

"I can't empathise there, Jay," she says, honestly.

"They've been so good about it. They've moved whenever they've had to, without complaint, without bitching, either behind my back or to my face. I owe them one hell of a lot, Bella."

"Jasper, how many times have you lost control?"

"Seven, since I met the Cullen's. Seven people, seven people dead because I can't handle it." She either senses my anger or she instinctively knew it was coming. But either way she places her hands on either side of my head and suddenly I'm calm. "What -"

"Yeah, I can do it too. But only to vampires, and I have to be touching them. And I can only calm people down." She sighs dramatically. "Not one of my best powers."

"Tell me about James, Bella."

"I don't remember that much about it. I was half scared when Emmett told me he'd seen him. Half scared, half happy. At least I didn't kill him. Can we not discuss this?"

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Mud pies."

And we talk, talk for hours, sitting under the willow on the bank.

"I remember when you used to shake your head and stick your tongue out when you didn't want to do something. And then I'd kiss you on the cheek and beg you, and you'd roll your eyes like you were twenty instead of ten and then come with me." She giggles. "And you'd do that giggle - that one right there - when you knew it was all going to go wrong."

"It normally did." She flashes me the same dimpled smile she'd give me whenever I got her into trouble, just to let me know she forgave me, and we'd do the same thing all over again the next day. I'd do anything to provoke her smile, all those years ago. "And we'd get yelled at, and then we'd sneak off again. You remember that time we climbed that tree and I ripped my dress and you cut the skirt off with your knife so it was shorter and I could climb better?"

"Oh, I do indeed. You were blushing! But you didn't go home. You climbed right to the top of that tree with me, and we sat up there all day."

"And my nurse smacked you round the head when you brought me home, shook her head because you were utterly unrepentant and dragged me off, muttering that I'd have to marry you now. I kept hold of that dress for years."

"It wasn't the first dress I ruined. Do you remember the day I took you fishing at the stream?"

"That was the day I came home clean and in one piece."

"That was the day you kissed me." I recognize the expression on her face - if she could, she'd be blushing. Like her smile, I'd try and provoke it as often as possible.

"We were ten!"

"I was ecstatic. I told all my friends."

"You didn't have any friends, Jay," she smirks. "You hung around with me because nobody else would have you!" I push her off the rock. She leaps up and narrows her eyes at me.

"Oh, Jay, you are so going to get it now." She leaps at me, tackling me off the rock in a blur of speed. She goes right for my ribs. What the hell?! No fair am I the undead and I'm still ticklish! I seize her wrist and flip us so she's underneath me, pinning her to the floor. She flips us right back, kneeling on my wrists and tickling me mercilessly.

"Surrender?" she asks, her eyes dancing with mirth.

"Yes, yes, alright!" She rolls off me and lies on her back, staring at the sky. The clouds have closed in, and the thunder rumbles. I prop myself up on one elbow and watch her. "You know, for someone who claims to be over one hundred and fifty years old, you still act like a teenager."

"I am a teenager, Jay. Nobody is keeping a record."

"How come you were never ticklish, anyway?" I sound a little petulant, and she picks right up on it. She smirks and props herself up to face me.

"You know," she snarks, "for someone who claims to be over one hundred and fifty -" I slap at her and she deflects me easily, laughing. "I am ticklish, I was just never stupid enough to tell you where." We lie in silence for a bit, and at length she reaches out and tucks my hair away from my face. She used to do it when we were children, and the gesture is comforting and familiar. But this time she also traces my jaw just gently, strokes my face a little.

"I always somehow wanted you to be alive. Even though it was selfish, I sort of wanted you to be like me. You were the best friend I'd ever had, and when you moved, I thought I'd lost you forever. When I was changed, I thought there was a chance. Please don't hate me for that."

"I don't hate you for it, Jay. I was almost happy when I realised what you'd become. But then I couldn't find you. I thought you had died. When I realised Maria had you - I almost wanted you to be dead." She traces a few of the scars, the ones on my neck mostly, very gently. "And then, in Volterra, when Aro said Carlisle had adopted a veteran of the Southern Wars, I asked your name. He didn't know it." She looks right at me, and I suddenly get the feeling she can see my very soul, see right through me, see everything about me. Her golden eyes are burning. "And I ran from Volterra to the airport, and I got on the first plane to the USA, ending up in New York, and ran the rest of the way. I hoped against hope it was you." She looks at me for a little longer. "Even in the man you have become, I still can recognize the cheeky ten-year-old who used to get me into trouble. You've barely changed."

"You haven't either. Still the same hair - I used to pull it down, out of all those pins, because they gave you a headache, and you didn't dare do it yourself. You used to protest, but every time you'd admit you preferred it down."

"Oh, that's what I don't miss about the 1800's. All those clothes, all that fuss."

"What do you miss about those years - those years before the war, when we were children?"

"I miss all the innocence, how simple the world was then. I could hold your hand if I wanted, and you could kiss my cheek if you wanted, and there was nothing sexual about it. You could cuddle me close, lie on the grass watching the clouds holding on to me - and it would just be us, Bella and Jay, nothing sexy about it. And I had my life all planned out. I'd grow up, I'd get married and I would have children, with a man who loved me, whom I could love back. Especially since we weren't rich or anything. I could have just married a man I fell in love with, who loved me, who would take me out to drive and court me using flowers and silly gifts. It was all so simple, so innocent back then. We could spend hours and hours together, and I knew I could trust you with me darkest secrets. That's what I miss, Jay. The easy way it was."

"I miss that too. We were so carefree. Just children. It seems like there is no childhood today. Do you remember when we camped out in your garden, and watched the stars? We made pictures with them."

"And the time you showed me that rabbit I just couldn't see, and you got so cross with me."

"It was a rabbit! Not my fault you're blind, darlin'."

"Oh, I definitely missed that when we moved away. When you were trying to coax me, when I was particularly stubborn, when Bells didn't work -"

"I used to call you darlin', and you'd crumble. Oh, I knew all the tricks."

"You did. And I knew how to get round you."

"You'd put your arms round my waist, rest your little head on my shoulder, and you'd make your eyes go huge and your lips all pouty, and you'd call me Jay, and say please, if you love me. And used to give in." I shake my head at the memory. "We knew exactly how to get round each other's defences."

Emmett suddenly crashes through the undergrowth and nearly steps on Bella.

"If you two have raked over the past enough, Esme wants to know if you're going to bother coming back tonight. Oh, hey Bella."

"Hey, Emmett. Could you get off my hand now?"

"Oh, sorry," he says, not sounding the least bit sorry. "Well?"

"We're coming back. But I'm not sure -"

"No, Jay, I think we've resurrected the ghosts of our childhood for long enough. And now I've found you, we can talk again. We have eternity, after all. Emmett, seeing as you trod on me, you can help me up." She could easily get up herself, but he helps her anyway.

EmmettPOV

"Carlisle, they were talking about the past," I begin, as soon as Bella and Jasper are safely out the way. I keep my voice low.

"Well, they were friends - it's normal they rake over their past together. They grew up as friends, and their parents probably intended for them to marry one day. Jasper's finally got someone to talk to who remembers his childhood as intimately as he does."

"No, I mean, they remember conversations, specific events, word for word. Right down to what they used to say to each other when they'd play together. Most of us can't remember being children."

"I can't explain that. Perhaps it's because they knew each other so well. I gather they were rather intimate as children?"

"Sounded like that." He smiles at me.

"I wouldn't worry Emmett."

She's still a mystery, still an enigma. But Jasper trusts her, and that's enough for me. For now.

A/N: I changed this weird thing vampires have of struggling to remember their human lives a bit. If a vampire knew their mate before they were changed, they can remember the time spent with that mate. The Cullen's don't know this. Anyway, Bella and Jasper will take numerous trips down the memories. There's a lot of build up to this story, so please let me know if it gets boring! PLEASE REVIEW!

Belle = Beautiful