A/N: I'll have you know this is the first and likely only chapter of Twilight fanfic I have written whilst actually in Forks. Seems like I should be writing a Forks based fanfic, eh? Ah well. - LK

Oh, general note. In some LARPs, you throw a bean bag when you cast a spell. This is to see if someone is hit by it. Heheh So, to answer a frequently asked question, yes, people actually do this. Neener.

Bella was not oblivious to the fact Edward Cullen was attractive. The problem with him was that Edward Cullen knew he was attractive. She couldn't say that she blamed him for using his considerable charm. If you could grease a few wheels, why wouldn't you? As far as Bella saw, Edward was more amusing than annoying or dangerous. He had never taken advantage of his, well, advantage. He had never struck Bella as skeevy. Still, the idea of throwing him into the situation she had was just too good.

She couldn't not be impressed by the way he rolled with the punches. He hadn't protested too hard at being made subservient. Then when everything got complicated, he jumped right in, earning him newbie status with everyone else but points from her for not being a spoilsport.

Then there had been the end of the game. Bella's team and Jacob's team ended up gathered in a field, skirmishing. Edward had been a paradox. He stuck to her side like a little boy in need of protection, but it seemed to disturb him when anyone tried to hit her with anything, spell or foam sword. More than once, he'd batted away a beanbag meant to be a spell and the whole gathered group had stopped to yell at him.

When they won, when Bella had big, burly Chief Jacob on his knees and she declared victory, a whoop had gone up through the crowd. Edward grabbed her around the waist and spun her around.

That Monday at work, Bella found herself replaying the moment. When he'd put her down, she was pressed up against his body. His face was so close. His cheeks were pink with excitement. His grin was broad and stunning. Seconds passed, and Bella forgot to step away from him, but he also forgot to step away from her. His eyes darted down to her lips.

"What did you do to Edward Cullen?"

"What?" Bella sat up so fast, she knocked over her coffee cup. She scrambled to save her laptop.

"Jeez, Bella." Her co-worker, Jessica Stanley, darted over into the nearby breakroom to grab the paper towels. Together, they mopped up the mess.

"Thanks. What were you talking about?"

"Edward. Edward Cullen. Do not pretend not to know what I mean." She peered over her shoulder and back at Bella. "He's been staring at you all day," she said in a whisper.

Bella ducked her head. "You're full of crap."

"I'm not. Seriously. Did something happen?"

Oh, sure. I made him my little slave boy. I thought about having him feed me peeled grapes, but then I got distracted fighting half naked wolf boys. He tried to kill them with foam swords. "No. Nothing happened."

"Then why is he staring at you all of a sudden? He doesn't look at anyone. Not like that."

"Hey, what is this? A work party and no one invited me?" Edward leaned into her cubicle with his usual winning smile. He winked at Jessica who, of course, giggled.

Bella rolled her eyes so hard they about fell out of her head. She wondered how fast he would lose his ability to charm anyone if they'd seen him dressed as he had been that weekend, bowing and serving and running from the big nasty boys and girls shouting spells at him.

"What's so funny, Swan?"

Your face, but don't worry. Looks aren't everything. Bella didn't say it out loud, of course. Workplace decorum was always something of a problem for her. More than once, she'd said the wrong thing to the wrong person. It was far more trouble than it was worth. "Why would you think anything's funny?"

"You're smirking."

Bella forced the curl of her lip down. "Was I? How strange."

He studied her for a long moment, and Bella had to fight to keep a straight face. He made her want to smile. "Well, anyway. I came to see if you wanted to get some lunch, Bella." He glanced at Jessica and back. "There's a project I wanted to talk to you about."

Wow, Jessica mouthed over his shoulder. Edward looked over his shoulder.

Though a spark of warmth had kindled in her chest at Edward's words, she kept her expression bored. "Sure, Edward. I don't have anything better to do."

~0~

"So you abandoned me Saturday. What's up with that?" Edward asked as soon as they were in the car together.

"I'm sorry. I had Queenly things to do. I assumed you were a big boy and could find your way home again."

"What queenly things?"

"You really want to know?"

"I asked, didn't I?"

They got out of the car and settled in a booth before Bella explained. "Okay. Well, the whole LARP thing? It might have seemed random to you, and it is, to an extent, but the main storylines are carefully scripted."

"Which is why I couldn't kill the big, chief guy." He stroked his chin. "So can anyone die?"

"Sure. Anyone can die. For main characters it has to be a brought up as a possibility, but for everyone else, yeah."

"Then what happens?"

"Depends. If someone with the correct magical ability gets to you in time, you can get resurrected. If you have the right magical ability, you can do things after you die. Sometimes it means you're out of the game until you can reroll."

"Reroll?"

"Come back in as a brand new character."

Edward bowed his head. His shoulders shook with laughter.

"What?" Bella asked.

He looked up from under long eyelashes, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "You are looking at me,talking about resurrections and magical abilities with a straight face. It's surreal. We played like this when we were kids, but everyone is so serious about this."

Annoyance replaced the warmth Bella had felt previously. She crossed her arms. "Look, this isn't complicated. You toss a football around with your friends when you're a kid. That's kids stuff, but when you grow up there's rules and teams and people make millions of dollars running around playing with balls. What's the difference? Yeah, our make believe has rules just like your football games have rules. We have a good time. Why is that such an issue for some people."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Edward held up his hands. "Slow your roll, Your Highness. And thanks for the stereotype. For the record, I don't like sports. Well, I like baseball but only playing." He shook his head. "Anyway. Tell me more. So you knew what was going to happen? Like you knew you were going to win?"

"Of course not. Where's the fun in that?" She studied him for a moment, trying to gauge if he was really interested or if she had made another misstep. Were her extra curricular activities going to end up as water cooler fodder? Should that bother her? Bella didn't really care if anyone knew what she did with her spare time, but she wondered if she should. Things she had considered innocuous had come back to bite her in the ass before.

He reached out and touched her arm. "I'm honestly curious."

She softened ever so slightly and reminded herself that if he tried to make her look the fool, Mike had assured her he had taken a covert cell phone picture of Edward in peon gear. "We decide the basic setup of every scene. So for the last session, I had already extended an invitation to Jacob to meet on my turf. Neither of us could die, but beyond that, it was pretty open. He could have captured me. He could have agreed to a treaty so we could work together. He could have worked some magic on me."

Edward's eyebrow quirked. "Sessions, scenes, and working magic." He leaned forward across the table. "Now that sounds a little kinky, Swan. That's the kind of roleplay I can get into."

Bella opened her mouth to respond, but her words tangled in her mouth. She stuttered and stumbled and eventually choked. The smug bastard laughed and pushed her water toward her.

"Godammit, Edward." Bella scowled at him. Her cheeks were flame hot. "That is not workplace appropriate conversation. Fuck. I should report you for sexual harassment."

"You made me your slave."

"On the weekend. In broad daylight. With all your clothes on. It had nothing to do with sex."

Edward looked amused. "I apologize. You're right. That was out of line." He sat back as their food came. "So when do we do it again?" he asked when the waiter was gone.

"What? Sexual harassment? Never."

"No. I mean when's the next game."

"What do you care? You're not invited."

"What?"

"That was a one time thing, Edward. I thought it would be funny. I thought you would pitch a fit, but you were actually really cool about it. You're off the hook, bucko. Besides, next session is way too important. I can't be babysitting your newbie ass."

Bella felt a little bad when hurt flashed across his face.