SPOV
"Pst! Wolf Boy!"
She had been at this game for over thirty minutes. Something about tricking my senses with her speed and scent was fun to her. I looked around as I walked through the woods. She was the one who wanted to meet here and so far all she had done was play with me. I only caught a glimpse of her once or twice.
"Come on, Lil. You realize I'm kinda at a disadvantage?" I called back at her. I looked up and saw here sitting near the top of the tree swinging her legs happily. She jumped off the limb and landed in my arms.
"I've climbed trees since I was six, you can't tell me that you never climbed a tree," she said with a content smile. Her arms were around my neck as I held her just the way I caught her; one arm under her knees, the other around her back.
"You climbed that high when you were six? Esme must have freaked out," I replied, imagining the look on Esme's face at her human child climbing twenty feet up in a tree. From what Lily had told me, Esme had lightened up some since she was changed, but she was definitely protective.
Lily giggled as she nodded. "Actually, the whole reason her and Dad met was because she fell out of a tree and broke her leg when she was sixteen. Dramatic love story actually since he didn't see her again until she was dying in a hospital ten years later."
I blinked at her. "Huh. That sounds... interesting."
That goofy grin widened. "Mom tells the story best."
I wasn't sure if I should have still been holding her or if I should have just put her down. Clearing my throat awkwardly, I gentle let her feet hit the ground, but she didn't let go of my neck and I still had my arm around her back. For a moment she just looked at me, our faces inches apart mostly due to our height difference. There was that sparkle in her eyes as she bit her lip but jumped back quickly.
"Do you like music?"
She walked on her toes, moving around the trees in a sort of dance. "Doesn't everyone like music?" I asked her as she twirled.
"Edward says that not all music is actually music. He says that about my music especially," she said with an eye roll. "Come with me!"
Suddenly we were off again. She was getting in a habit of dragging/carrying me so she could get somewhere without slowing down. Moments later we were in her foyer and I was trying to let my mind catch up with Lily's speed.
She pulled the rubber band out of her hair and it flowed over her shoulders in dark brown waves. As she shed her jacket, my eyes fell on the scar just against her shoulder. It was the bite that turned her. I could feel myself staring and I couldn't help it. I had never actually seen the scar on a vampire before. Her eyes flickered to mine and she self-consciously pushed her hair to where it would cover it, earning me a heavy whiff of her scent. I didn't understand why the others said the Cullens smelled bad. They smelled different, but not exactly bad. Lily actually smelled kinda good.
"Hey Seth," Bella greeted me, as I walked into the kitchen to see her drinking some juice and Esme working in the kitchen. "I wondered why Esme was cooking so much."
I blushed and scratched the back of my head. "I guess I can really put the food away," I mumbled offering Esme and apologetic look.
"Now, don't look at me like that. I love cooking and it's something that I don't exactly get to do every day," Esme said firmly with a big smile. Somehow her smile seemed to get even wider when the sound of the garage door closing caught our attention.
Carlisle walked in with a smile on his face and a book in his hand. The book was immediately handed to Lily who grinned and turned it around to show me. Go Ask Alice. "Huh," I muttered, giving her an odd look.
"That book is depressing, Lil. Why are you smiling like that?" Bella asked with a laugh that lived up to her name, but Lily did not look affected.
"I have to agree," Carlisle told her as he moved behind Esme and wrapped an arm around her torso. "Now that I've read it, it's not exactly a book I would peg you to read."
Lily frowned just a tiny bit, her dad's words meaning more than Bella's, and held the book to her chest. "It's a great book. It's a story of struggle and addiction and searching for yourself, even in it's in all the wrong places!" She rolled her eyes as Carlisle and Esme exchanged humored glances at Lily's sudden burst of theatrics.
"I'm a little glad that vampires can't try LSD. I just don't understand, I suppose. You've read every Jane Austin book available, you love H. G. Wells, and have been reading Shakespeare since you were ten, and somehow you add that to your list of favorite pieces of literature." Carlisle shook his head making me wonder just what this book was really about. Then his facial expression changed slightly as he looked at Esme. "By the way, hello."
He leaned in to kiss her lips and it was definitely more than a peck. Nothing that was overly awkward, but it was still a little weird. I pretty sure my parents hadn't kissed like that since before I was born, and definitely not in front of people.
Lily sighed in slight aggravation. "Please excuse them, Seth. This house lacks boundaries."
Carlisle and Esme broke apart only long enough to give Lily a teasing look before kissing one last time.
"You get used to it," Bella assured me. "Emmett and Rosalie can be a little much at times."
Lily shook her head. "Imagine growing up with them. In the second grade, Mom had to go to school and explain to my teacher by what I mean when I said my brother and sister kiss a lot."
I couldn't help but laugh at that and Bella and I exchanged looks. What were we getting ourselves into? "Well, I mean, a lotta people think it's weird that you guys pose as a family and yet you all are together. 'Foster' kids or not."
Lily just shrugged. "So?" Then she looked around seeming to just have noticed something. "Where's Edward? No offense, but usually you're a package deal."
Bella snorted. "Like you're one to talk, Lil." Her eyes went to me and I hadn't even realized I had shifted closer to Lily. I was close enough that our arms were barely brushing and I shifted awkwardly. "He's hunting. He felt better if I hung out with Esme while he was gone."
Suddenly Lily's cold hand slid into mine and I was being pulled toward the staircase. "We'll we're going to listen to music. The kind Edward doesn't like, so if you would like to join us, you can!"
BPOV
With Lily, music usually meant dancing around the room and singing. She had an absolutely beautiful voice and her dancing was almost hypnotizing, but I had a feeling that the invite wasn't completely earnest. Besides, sometimes she would try and make me dance and that was something I just didn't do. I'm pretty sure she chose her music by what would get on Edward's nerves. Typical little sister.
"Oh no, not nineties pop culture!" I mock gasped as she moved up the steps without waiting for my answer.
Esme groaned. "I swear she only even listens to it because I hate it."
I didn't argue. "I thought she did it because Edward hated it. But I didn't have a music problem with my mother. She's never been as.. um... well let's just say she may physically age, but she's still twenty-two on the inside."
Carlisle and Esme both chuckled, but Carlisle's eyes were back at the staircase as though just realizing something. "Wait... do we have a rule about boys being in Lily's room?"
Esme blinked. "I don't think so. There's never been a boy in Lily's room." The sound of music hummed through the house, muffled by soundproof walls. I couldn't even tell what kind it was due to the muffle. Esme turned toward her husband, her eyes narrowing. "We'll look into that rule in the future though it may be a little hard to enforce since the others don't have rules like that."
I tried not to laugh, but it was really funny. These people that I had always seen as super parents were stumped. Then again, it had to be hard. Edward had told me a lot about Lily and explained why the family was particularly protective of her. It wasn't hard for me to imagine a smaller Lily hanging on Esme's leg or riding on Carlisle's shoulders. Edward insisted that Lily was most definitely a Momma's girl, but definitely had her moments with her dad.
As far as I had seen, she did seem to instinctively stay close to Esme, but she always looked at Carlisle like... well I guess like every little girl looks at her father. What was hilarious though was the way she acted with her siblings. Sure, they all had their moments when they looked like a family, but it definitely turned into a full sibling brawl with Lily. It was normally good natured, but every now and then you could see the flicker of irritation that would send Lily biting her lip. Emmett was the best at pushing her buttons. Then again, apparently he always had been.
Edward told me Emmett had gotten in trouble plenty of times for things he would do around Lily or forgetting to use a filter. I still couldn't wait for him to tell me how Emmett made Lily believe in Santa again after letting it slip that he wasn't real. Plus, it was so hard for me to ever see Esme actually mad. Frustrated, yes. I have been witness to the boys destroying her house a few times, angry though?
"Well, this really doesn't help anything, but for humans loud music and bedrooms usually don't mean anything good for teenagers," I told them hesitantly.
"I trust her and Lily talks to me," Esme said with a shrug, not concerned in the least. "As of right now, Lily wants nothing more than a friend, at least as far as she knows. She doesn't exactly have experience with boys or friends really."
That surprised me. "Even when she was a human?"
Carlisle laid his hand on Esme's shoulder and I realized I said something I shouldn't have. "Lily has always been different. Even as a human she was different and people could see it," he took a breath and shrug a bit. "Lily has seen the absolute cruelest side of humanity and the kinder side of immortality."
I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but I didn't ask any more questions.
I glanced back up at Lily's room though. "So you're not going to pull the It's the boy I don't trust card like my dad does?"
Carlisle smiled and shook his head. "Lily never does anything she doesn't want to do and she's a lot tougher than she looks. Seth wouldn't stand a chance."
SPOV
She moved flawlessly and carelessly around her spacious room. It was covered with books and pictures and paintings of worldly things. My favorite was of a little girl with big blue eyes and curly hair. It wasn't hard to tell it was Lily. She was probably about nine and was hugging Carlisle around the stomach in a ton of snow. She looked beautiful when she was alive, but she was beautiful now.
I continued look around the room and smiled when I realized the entire north was a painting. It was a beautiful black silhouette of a tree. The branches reaching toward the other walls as though it could still grow taller. This girl must have really loved trees.
"It's the closest thing to flying," she told me, like she was reading my mind. "Climbing as high as possible and standing on the tallest limb. It's like you're on top of the world."
I looked at her realized our fingers were still laced. The heat much have really not bothered her anymore. Then she bounced away to the other side of the room.
She grinned at me. "So, what do you want to listen to?" she asked tossing me her iPod.
"You have one of these?" I asked her incredulously.
She nodded. "My music was starting to take up too much space so I condensed."
I didn't really know how to work it. I mean, I had seen them before but I never had one and neither did my friends. She leaned closer to me and rolled her finger around the circle. "That's how you look for songs. If you see anything you like then just plug it into my speakers."
I chose the first song that I saw and knew and plugged it into the speakers. Immediately I regretted my choice when I realized it was a slower song and I cursed under my breath. Of course I would seem like I'm setting the mood for something. Carlisle or Esme would be in here in a second.
LPOV
He was funny, but he was completely himself. Though shy sometimes, he would always eventually loosen up. I tried to cover my giggle when he realized what song he had chosen. "So, you're a Bon Jovi fan?"
He suddenly reached for the iPod and I stopped him. I caught his hand and pulled him closer, trying to show him I wanted to dance. "It's a good song. A classic really," I continued as I took his other hand and slid it around my waist until it was resting on the small of my back. I moved my free hand to his shoulder, but it seemed to have a mind of its own as it snaked it's way against Seth's neck and rested there. Slowly our bodies began to move together in a slight sway that I think I may have been leading. Honestly I couldn't really tell.
Our eyes were locked, as we swayed gently to the song, his hand tightening around my waist ever so slightly as my fingers itched to run through his hair. I bit my lip when he licked his. It could have been the perfect moment.
And I will love you, baby - Always
And I'll be there forever and a day - Always
I'll be there till the stars don't shine
Till the heavens burst and
The words don't rhyme
"You're beautiful," he said so softly it was hard for even me to catch.
He could make a dead girl blush. I glanced down at the ground to try and hide my smile. "My kind are supposed to be. That's what makes us dangerous."
"No... you are beautiful. The person. You have," he took a breath as he seemed to get a little nervous, "a beautiful heart."
I bit my lip again, wanting so badly just to kiss him. He was right there. All I would have to do was go up on my tip toes and kiss him.
"Lily?"
My eyes shot to his eyes, embarrassed I had been caught staring at his lips. "Hmm?"
"We have all the time in the world."
"I know," I replied with a smile.
It wasn't the time. Not yet. But I just wondered if I would feel like it would ever be time.
EsPOV
Lily was curled against me, her eyes closed and her head against my chest. I honestly think the only reason she even did it anymore was more for my benefit. For a few moments I could pretend like she was the little girl that used to fall asleep during movies and I would carry off to bed.
"Momma?" Lily said softly as Edward's piano hummed out a tune.
I glanced down at her, knowing she had been thinking about something for a while. "Hmm?"
She was silent for a few moments, gathering her thoughts as she tried to get even closer. Obviously she wanted to be held close and I was willing to comply.
"For the first time, I'm hating being fifteen forever," she replied softly. "I'll never be an adult. I'll always be seen as a kid."
Realizing that we were treading into territory that I was not prepared for, I proceeded with caution. "Makeup changes the way you look and you already look just a bit older than fifteen."
"But I'm not an adult. I will never grow up," she replied. As she leaned back to look at me, I saw the sadness in her eyes. Something was really hurting her and she was afraid to just come right out and say it.
"Flower, is this about Seth?" There was that nervous feeling in my throat.
Lily took a breath and if it was possible, I knew there would be tears in her eyes. "Other people who imprint grow, I don't. I'm just fifteen and all I can be is friend to him and I'm scared I'll never be more." She looked away. "I don't understand what going on with me, but I feel like running away but I couldn't imagine ever leaving."
My heart hurt as I smiled at my little girl, brushing her curls out of her face and kissing her forehead. "That's what happens when you're in love."
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