Duet

April raced with Edward down the stairs and suddenly lost her footing, luckily for her he was a quick as lightening. He caught her by the waist and held her closer than friends would be, his cold pale fingers found those of her own and he intertwined them.

"You ok?" he asked in his soft velvety voice.

"Yeah, thanks."April said as her breathing started to accelerate. "You come in handy when there's an accident." She then mentally scolded herself for coming out with something stupid.

Edward laughed lightly and released her from his grip around her waist, however he was still holding her hand as they made their way down the rest of the stairs.

"So..." he said looking at the keys "You want to be primo or secondo?"

"You think I know the technical terms for piano playing? Dream on." April scoffed, looking down to her hand again to make sure that he was really holding it.

"Well do you want to play the high notes or the low notes?"

"Erm, the high notes I suppose."

"Ok then. You know which side that is right?" Edward teased looking over to her 'I'm-not-impressed' face.

They both took a seat on the stall and Edward sat in silence wondering what he should play when an idea came to mind.

"You know what you played earlier?" he suggested.

"Yes."

"Let's try to make it a duet. Stick to what you know and I'll improvise."

"How comes I have to stick to it?" April pouted "Why don't you play the bit you made up and I'll improvise?"

"Are you trying to show off your gift to me?" Edward replied with a wily smile.

"Maybe." April blushed "come on, this piano won't play itself and you know I'm capable of starting without you."

"Suit yourself." He replied with a smile playing on his lips. He too was interested in the extent of her gift.

Edward placed his fingers on his side of the piano and started to play the melody; it echoed through the hallway and felt like a warm blanket being wrapped round them both. April closed her eyes and listened to him for a second, her mind grasping what notes would accompany it perfectly. Her fingers now came to the keys and her mind ran wild, she played a tune that sounded both different to his melody but the same, all at the same time, both melodies suited each other completely and it seemed hours before they eventually stopped playing.

"That was..." April started before she lost the word she was trying to describe it with.

"Perfect? Beautiful? Enchanting?" Edward recommended impressed with her piano playing.

"I think that all those words suit it." Suggested a voice from the doorway, both Edward and April turned around to find Esme looking at them happily. "When I came in I thought you had your music on Edward, I've never heard something so beautiful."

"Thank you." Edward replied as he turned to look at April who was just gaping at Esme.

"And you must be April." Esme greeted as she sauntered over to shake her hand. "You just keep creeping up in Edward's conversations nowadays. I'm just glad I finally get to meet you."

April's mouth had gone dry and her brain had disconnected from her voice box. Esme looked at her puzzled before she laughed.

"I'm sorry; I've caught you by surprise. No worries, I forgot to call Carlisle this morning so I'm going to do that now. Will you be staying for dinner April?"

April nodded her head still unable to talk, she was in awe at how beautiful Esme was, she'd seen Rosalie and Alice and hoped there would be a flaw in the perfect family, and to her disappointment Esme was exactly the same. April felt ugly and ordinary.

"Come on." Edward whispered in her ear "Let's get you back upstairs." He took her hand again and led her back up the stairs; they entered his room and collapsed back onto the sofa.

"Can you speak now?" he asked bringing her close to his chest.

"Yes." April answered ashamed.

"What happened? It's like you froze."

"I wasn't being rude I swear. But apart from seeing you up close I didn't realise fully how beautiful you and your family are, it just took all my words away and reminded me how normal I look."

"Esme's not offended by it, I think she understood you. And you're not ordinary looking."

She dismissed his last comment about her looks. "Oh good, because I don't want your family to hate me."

"They wouldn't hate you anyway."

"Why's that?"

"Because I told them that you're the nicest person I've met in a century."

"Hey old timer, I'm not the nicest; I'm the best person you've met ever. Period."

"Old timer?" he laughed glad that her bright side had come back.

"Yea-huh. You're old enough to be my grandfather's grandfather."

"But I bet your great grandfather can't do this..." Edward manoeuvred himself so that he was on top of her, which was a prime position for poking in-between April's ribs. She cried out in laughter and wriggled to try at get him off of her.

"Edward NO!" she screamed and suddenly four figures appeared at Edward's doorframe looking ready to wrestle him to the ground.

"Oh..."Edward said stopping what he was doing "Hi." He greeted smiling at them all. Emmett, Jasper and Alice all looked smugly at him whilst Rosalie lifted her nose in disapproval. "April, this is Emmett, Jasper, Alice and Rosalie. Everyone, this is April."

"Hi." April said sheepishly realising why they'd all rushed up the stairs, they must've thought he'd lost his self control. She was also slightly embarrassed about the position she was in. Her arms were suspended in the air as she was trying to fight off his tiggling fingers, their hands were interlocked and his legs were by her hips.

"He's not trying to kill you then?" Emmett asked trying hard not to laugh.

"Far from it Emmett." Edward explained. "April here referred to me as an old timer so I only saw fit to punish her."

"In a rather close and intimate way." Jasper added as he felt April's embarrassment reach an all time high. He was also smirking; Edward would have a lot of explaining to do this evening.

"Jasper." Alice interjected "They were just having a bit of flirtatious fun, don't you remember what that's like?"

"Of course I do." He smiled back at her "but this gloating only seems right seeing as Edward rejected my hypothesis the other night."

"If you don't mind." Edward interrupted, "could you discuss this in another room or something? I'm not quite finished yet."

"It would be our pleasure; this is the best piece of gossip we've had to talk about since you came back from your rebellion." Emmett smiled "but try not to listen in, you'll only get 'I told you so's'."

They all left the room and Edward and April relaxed their arms.

"You've met the majority of my family now, up close and personal. Just Carlisle left."

"What's this I told you so business?" April asked getting straight to the point.

"I was doubtful about you still being my friend after I told you about being a vampire." Edward explained only half telling the truth. "They're saying I told you so because they knew that you were going to stick with me."

"Oh, I see." April said looking away from him feeling crestfallen. She wasn't entirely sure whether he was telling the truth so she decided to listen in on his siblings' conversation. "Can you tell me where the bathroom is?"

"Straight down the hall, second door to your right."

"Thank you. Won't be long."

As April walked out of his room she silently walked passed Emmett's room in which the four siblings were discussing what they had seen.

"I told you he had the hots for her." Emmett said excitedly.

"I felt it in his emotions, so you didn't figure this out on your own." Jasper argued.

"You were in Alaska sorting stuff out with Tanya; you didn't see how happy he was the day he met her."

"It was fairly obvious he was in love as soon as I walked through the door."

"Now now boys." Alice smiled "I think you're giving too much away about Edward, we have a visitor at the doorway."

Rosalie pulled the door back to reveal April standing there with a guilty look on her face.

"Can we help you?" Rosalie asked. This was the first time April had heard her speak.

"So this isn't the bathroom?" April replied knowing that she looked totally stupid.

"Next door down."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." Once she'd looked April up and down Rosalie walked away, but not before closing the door behind her.

April turned round hoping that Edward didn't hear any of that; however her brain had started screaming in embarrassment as soon as Alice had mentioned that she was visiting the doorway.

"Hear anything interesting?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No..." "Yes, I'm sorry. Is it true though?"

"It is true."

"Why weren't you going to tell me?" she asked out loud.

"It wasn't the right time."

"And you think looking inside of my head was the right time for me to tell you?"

"I didn't mean to do that. This wasn't the way I wanted you to find out in the first place."

"When were you planning to tell me? Tomorrow, next month? When I was twenty, forty, a hundred?"

Edward walked forward and took her hands into his own; she looked at him still waiting for an answer when he did something unexpected.

His hands found their way across her waist and his lips were against her own. All April could do was kiss back whilst trying to breathe at the same time. It only lasted a few seconds but it was the best moment of her life.

"Am I forgiven?" he asked with a huge grin on his face.

"What do you think?" she asked back with an even bigger grin.

Meanwhile in the room next door Alice was jumping up and down.

"He did it!" she whispered joyfully. "He kissed her! I saw it coming the day he met her."

"Showoff." Emmett smiled "At least they know where they both stand."

"Finally." Jasper added.

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