Title - What Happens in Venice
Chapter - 4: This and That
Rating - R with a dash of NC-17 later
Pairing - Jake/Edward, Bella/Quil, all other canon couples
Disclaimer - All characters and original plots belong to Stephenie Meyer and her affiliates. No disrespect or copyright infringement is intended. Also, Duffy owns the lyrics to 'Mercy'.
Spoiler - New Moon... up until Bella shows up at Jake=s house with the motorcycles.
Warnings - Slashy goodness
Summary- Saving Edward's life was surprisingly easy. It felt good. It felt even better to make him laugh.
Author Notes- Thank you to all my lovely reviewers. I am thrilled you enjoyed the last chapter. I had a fantastic time writing it. This one was a little trickier. I hope I got it right.
Edward set the microphone on the table beside him and smirked at Jacob. "Checkmate."
Jacob opened his mouth to tell Edward that saying checkmate didn't make any sense because they'd never made any references to chess. They'd been communicating via thrown and picked up gauntlets, right? Jacob forgot to make that salient point as soon as Edward kissed him. He sat stunned with his mouth open. His mind went blank as if he was an etch-a-sketch and Edward had just shaken him. Edward's aim was slightly off-- or maybe dead on. Both of his lips slid around Jacob's top lip, which put Edward's full lower lip squarely in Jacob's mouth.
The giddy Lido patrons cheered and clinked their glasses victoriously. They celebrated the kiss as if they were the reason for it. Which was entirely true.
Edward's lips closed gently over the other's top lip. He swiped the tip of his tongue lightly over Jacob's skin before he pulled away. He stood upright, spun and bowed to his audience. He received many hand shakes and claps on his back as the crowd dispersed and turned their attention to the next karaoke performer, who had sadly chosen Piano Man. Bummer.
Jacob sat stone-still as he stared at Edward with wide eyes. He was fairly certain Edward had just kissed him full on the mouth. He was pretty sure there had been a little tongue action. He was positive that it had been too short andY kinda hot.
Edward turned back to Jacob, his infamous smirk pulling one side of his lips up. When he saw Jacob's blank expression, he tried to listen to the wolf's thoughts. All he got was static noise, like a radio set between stations. Smirk forgotten, Edward sat beside Jacob and touched his arm. "Jake?"
Jacob shook himself at the sound of Edward using his nickname. He cocked his head and looked at the vampire and saw concern in his weird golden eyes. Only his family and old friends called him Jake, but hearing it in Edward's dulcet voice felt right. Somehow, they'd become friends during their stay in Venice. It'd been three weeks since he'd convinced Edward to not die. His father and his alpha had asked him to return to La Push, but there was something holding him back. There was a heavy weight on his shoulders when he thought of going home. Home, as the expression goes, is where the responsibility is. Or maybe it was the heart. No, he was pretty sure it was responsibility.
Venice was where Edward was. So yeah, he stayed. He refused to consider why that was true. Edward was a friend, that's all. But...
"You kissed me," Jacob said matter-of-factly. "Just now, you kissed me. In a crowded bar."
"Sorry about that," Edward said with a grin. He never used to grin, but somehow, he found it a necessary facial expression when dealing with his new friend. "I got swept up in the moment. The audience would've rioted had I not followed through. Trust me; I heard their very determined thoughts."
"Are you, like... gayish?" Jacob asked, scrunching up his nose in confusion.
"Gayish?"
"Yeah," Jacob nodded. "Do you ever go gay?"
"Not really..."
"Not really?"
"Well," Edward said, and started to finger the lip of the votive candleholder on the table. "There was this one time... Why are we talking about this?"
"Because you kissed me."
"For the show," Edward said. "I'm sorry if I offended your delicate sensibilities."
"I'm not offended," Jacob replied.
"Oh," Edward hesitated before continuing. He felt obligated to ask. "Are you gay?"
"A little bit," Jacob said with a smile.
"Can you be a little gay?"
"I don't know. Can you be a little pregnant?"
"No."
"Well, there you go."
Edward blew out the little flame he'd been playing with a surprised exhale of breath. His preternatural mind stumbled. He replayed the conversation and thought Jacob had just come out to him, but he wanted to be sure. "So... you're gay?"
"Yeah."
"Oh."
"Yeah," Jacob said again. He glanced at the stage and saw The Piano Man trying to keep the camp alive... and failing. "You want to get out of here?"
Edward nodded, gathered Jacob's bag of illegally obtained absinthe and stood. He followed Jacob out of the bar and they walked back to their hotel in awkward silence. Before Edward could formulate a thought worthy of being spoken aloud, they stood in the den of their shared suite. He started to speak, but Jacob beat him to the punch, bidding him a good night as he retreated to his bedroom.
Edward stood still, his eyes fixated on Jacob's closed door. He heard the boy's thoughts as if Jacob was using a megaphone in a Carthusian monastery.
On the other side of the door, Jacob picked up his cell phone. What the hell was I thinking? I just effin' came out to him. He scrolled to Bella's name. He needed his best friend, but he hesitated, unsure if he could actually tell her what was wrong.
"Hello?" a voice came out of the phone, startling Jacob. His fingers had taken charge and had dialed Bella's number. She sounded groggy, like he'd woken her up. He glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. It was early evening in Forks; no way should she be asleep. "Jake? Are you there? So help me, if you woke me up because you've pocket dialed me again, I'm going to kill you."
"Sorry, Bella," Jacob hurried to say. He smiled at the sound of her voice. "I didn't realize you're so old that you go to bed before the sun these days. Did you remember to take your blood pressure medication?"
"Shove off, you infant," Bella laughed and then yawned. "I was wondering when you'd remember I existed. How's Venice?"
"It's awesome. You'd love it," Jacob said easily. "It's so Italian. You'd love it. How's Quil?"
"He's great," she said with absolute conviction. Jacob thought he heard a double entendre in her great but chose to ignore it. She cut straight to the chase. "Let's skip the small talk, ok? International calls are not cheap. Is everything okay? How's Edward?"
He paused, international calling costs be damned. He noted that Bella's voice didn't waver or break when she said her ex's name. There was a muffled giggle from Bella, followed by a distinctly male chuckle. "Is Quil there?"
"Yeah," Bella admitted. "We were taking a nap. To Quil she said: "It's Jake. Stop it."
"I'm interrupting something very disturbing, aren't I?" he asked. He waited for Bella's laughing denial, but he got an earful of lip smacking instead. "Oh, ugh, Bella, I'm hanging up. I do not want to listen to you two breeders going at it."
"No, wait! Quil, stop distracting me," Bella cried. Her voice jarred and Jacob could picture her jogging a safe distance from her imprinted so she could concentrate. "What's up? How's Venice?"
"We already covered that, Bells."
"Right," she laughed with a touch of embarrassment. "How's Edward?"
"He's great," Jacob said, mimicking Bella's earlier response. He made his voice breathy and high pitched. Bella laughed, as he hoped she would. "Hey, Bells, are you happy?"
"You called me from Italy to ask if I'm happy?"
"Yeah, I did. So, are you?"
"Insanely happy," Bella said. The truth of her words was evident. "It should be illegal to be as happy as I am. Quil is... everything."
"Everything?"
"Yeah, everything."
"All right then," Jacob said with a chuckle. He couldn't tell her about the kiss. He couldn't ask for her advice, as he naturally wanted to do. He wanted her to tell him to go for it, like the time he'd had a crush on Mike Newton-- that hadn't worked out well, but Bella had been there to soothe his wounded pride. This time was different. This time it was Edward, for god's sake. He'd have to work it out alone. "Good night, Bella."
"'Night, Jake."
"Hey," Jacob called before she could hang up. "Kiss Quil for me."
Bella laughed and then the line went dead. He tossed his phone to the bed and pulled his shirt off. His head swirled with visions of the brief kiss with Edward. He clicked his tongue and sighed. He felt cheated. He'd been too shocked to participate, and had therefore been robbed of truly experiencing it. Edward was a sublime specimen of male beauty and Jacob had thrown away his one chance to taste him.
Three quick raps on the door stopped Jacob with his hand on the button fly of his dark jeans. It could only be Edward. Jacob belatedly remembered Edward's uncanny ability to hear his thoughts. He cursed fluently under his breath and at the same time, prayed adamantly that his suite mate had not been tuned into his particular thought frequency. If Jacob didn=t go to hell for the whole gay thing, he was definitely going for blasphemy. Dammit.
Bracing himself for humiliation, he opened the door to find Edward leaning toward him, one arm draped along each side of the doorway, his face pulled into a cat-who-ate-the-canary smile. Damn, damn, damn. That was the face of a man who knew your innermost thoughts. Diz-amn.
"You have quite a mouth on you, Jacob."
"That's what she said," Jacob said automatically with a nervous laugh. What the hell? A nervous laugh? He wondered how he could turn back the clock and get back to their easy, fun friendship. Surely there was a vampire out there who could bend the time and pop back in time and slug Jacob before he could come prancing out of the closet. Maybe he would've picked two beefy, masculine songs for them... maybe some Metallica or NSYNC or something.
Edward's smile broadened as he took in Jacob's mental quagmire.
"What's up?" Jacob asked, planting one hand on his hip and one foot on the bed in an effort to look relaxed and unaffected. Instead, he looked like a half-dressed, unmustachioed Captain Morgan.
"I don't want you to feel cheated, Jake," Edward said. He dropped his arms and stepped into the room. Jacob dropped his stance and stepped further away. Edward stepped forward. Jacob stepped back. Edward stepped forward. Jacob stepped back. "Stand still. I feel like I'm stalking you."
"You totally are stalking me."
"I wouldn't be if you held still."
"Okay then."
Jacob waited for Edward to do something, say something, but neither boy made a move. Jacob took the chance to catalog Edward's features. His skin was flawless. His cheekbones and jaw line were so chiseled that they looked like they belonged on Mt. Rushmore. His eyebrows were perfectly coiffed and his eyelashes were the length any girl would kill for. His eyes were slightly slanted and added to the air of mystery that floated around him. His hair was artfully disheveled-- and would've looked ridiculous on anyone but him. Finally, Jacob locked on his full, pink lips and thought he'd risk hell for just one good go at that mouth.
Edward chuckled.
Jacob swore again, and then began singing in his head. You got me begging you for mercy. Why wont you release me?
"Are you singing Duffy?"
"Yeah, Jacob scowled at the other boy. "Stop doing that."
"I can't help it," Edward said which was partially true. He heard everything, but he only tuned in on those thoughts he was interested in. He was pleased to know that Jacob's thought-singing voice was as glorious as his actual voice. "You sure do like women singers, huh? I thought classic rock was your favorite."
"Yeah, well, I lied," Jacob said petulantly. He walked forward slowly, advancing on Edward, stabbing him in the chest with two fingers. "You might as well know, now that the gay's out of the bag. I like Cher and Duffy and Indigo Girls and Jennifer Nettles and Ani DiFranco and Dolly Parton. You gotta problem with that?"
"Not even one," Edward said, craning his head to look up at Jacob. "Do you want to kiss me?"
"No." Yes, duh.
"Liar," Edward laughed and Jacob made an offended noise. "Come on, Jake, here's your chance to participate."
"Are you crazy?" Jacob demanded.
"No."
"Liar."
"Be that as it may," Edward laughed again. "Kiss me. You know you want to."
"Fine," Jacob threw his hands in the air. "But I'm only doing this under duress, to shut you up."
"Li--" Edward said, but his ar was aborted when Jacob pressed his lips to Edward's. The vampire's hands reflexively came up and gripped Jacob's arms, pinning the younger boy against him. They stood pressed intimately together in a long, uncomfortably still embrace. Finally, Jacob drew back.
"There," Jacob asked. "Satisfied?"
"No," Edward said. With inhuman speed, he pressed his mouth to Jacob's once again. Jacob tried to jerk away, but Edward trapped the other boy's face in his hands. He forced his tongue into Jacob's mouth.
"Mmph!" Jacob exclaimed.
Edward tilted his head and used every technique on kissing he'd ever read in books. He swirled, licked, lapped, laved and stabbed with his tongue, but Jacob remained unmoved. When Edward finally pulled away, frustration was etched into his features.
"Are you done?" Jacob asked him calmly.
Edward released him and turned away, defeated. He'd made himself available and Jacob had rejected him. He had mistakenly thought Jacob was interested in him. He misread Jacob's attention. Of course Jake wasn't interested. He was a soulless vampire and the werewolf's natural enemy. He felt like a douche. "Sorry again."
Jacob watched in amazement as Edward slunk away. He'd just rejected the gorgeous centenarian, but not for the reasons Edward probably assumed. He had been taken by surprise. The possibility of Edward had never crossed his mind. He had purposefully viewed Edward as a friend and nothing more. He'd assumed Edward was straight, so he put his guard up and forced himself to ignore his attraction to the delicious boy. He thought they'd been joking--goading each other to see how far the other would go. By the set of Edward's shoulders, Jacob realized he'd gotten it wrong. And he intended to fix it.
"Edward," he said softly. Edward stopped, but did not turn. Jacob approached slowly, his heart pounding in a slow, drawn out boooom-boooom-pow. He stood just behind the vampire and still Edward did not move. "E, look at me."
Edward turned to face Jacob. His pale face was smooth and controlled. He reminded Jacob of the Edward he remembered from Forks. Calm, cool and aloof. Jacob didn't like it one bit.
"Not like that," Jacob said. "Like this."
He reached out and cupped Edward's cheek briefly before sliding his hand to the back of the shorter boy's neck. His thumb brushed along Edward's hairline, feeling the cool silky skin. His other hand reached out and touched Edward's chest, just where the vampire's useless heart sat. With the smallest amount of pressure to his neck, Jacob brought their bodies into full contact. Edward inhaled sharply. With deliberate slowness, Jacob leaned down and fit his lips to Edward's.
Their mouths opened automatically against each other, but no tongues sought to dominate the kiss. Hot and cold breaths met and sizzled into steam as the pair kissed and suckled each other's lips. Jacob's fingers tensed against Edward's chest, digging in slightly before traveling up and over Edward's shoulder. He pulled Edward closer.
Edward moaned a tiny moan and threaded his fingers through Jacob's straight black hair. He understood what Jacob was telling him-- showing him with his mouth. Jacob wanted a kiss, not a battle, not a conquest. He tilted his head to deepen the kiss, keeping the unspoken parameters intact. He pulled Jacob's lower lip between his own and reveled in the undeniably masculine taste. He had never shared such an erotic kiss with anyone in his whole life-- or unlife.
The world shifted beneath Jacob's feet. Time stood still as their mouths danced together. He wondered why kissing wasn't an Olympic pairs sport, because he was damn sure he and Edward could medal in it. With great reluctance, he pulled away.
"Like that," he told Edward. "Like that."
Edward nodded. "Like that."
A/N: Review please?