WOW that was a long hiatus. But I return to raise the curtain on Act II of No Simple Thing.

If you recall, we left with two very confused teenagers (well, one teenager and one eternal teenager) who have just fallen in love with someone they are not allowed to be with. As you can imagine, Edward and Jacob will not take this well at all

For the record, this will combine Scene I and Scene II, since Scene I is so short it's almost negligible.

Take your places, actors. Return to your seats, audience! Act II is beginning…

Act II, Scene I

Enter ALEX BLACK, QUENTIN ATEARA, and DAVE ULEY, three young werewolves who can't figure out what to do next…

"What the hell," Dave muttered under his breath. "This is just great. A vampire? Really, Alex, could this get any more screwed up?" Quentin rolled his eyes. "Dave, stop being a drama queen," he ordered, but looked at Alex sympathetically. "I don't know what we're gonna do, man. Edward's gonna dismember you as soon as he finds out. I don't even wanna think about the hissy fit your mom's gonna throw."

Alex nodded miserably. They had left the party and were walking down the Cullens' long driveway. Every few seconds, Alex would glance over his shoulder in a desperate hope of seeing Ellie.

"I wish she wasn't a vampire," he said sadly. "I wish we could just be together." Alex felt Quentin's hand on his shoulder and heard a muffled, "I'm sorry, dude." He looked over his shoulder back at the last place he had seen her, and froze. Were his eyes playing tricks on him, or was a pale figure standing on the Cullen porch?

He squinted. No, his senses didn't lie. As if in confirmation, the figure raised a pale hand and waved.

Alex wheeled around while his friends yelled his name, and sprinted full tilt back towards the house.

Enter ELLIE CULLEN, her mind still on that Black boy…

Ellie had been gagging down birthday cake and trying very hard not to think of Alex around Edward. She had plastered a brilliant smile to her face – if her family thought it seemed forced, they would assume it was from the food.

But she couldn't get him out of her head. She recalled his face in small details – the warm, melted-dark-chocolate brown of his eyes, the tawny redness of his skin, the way his mouth had quirked at the corner when he smiled at her. What was this? How could she be drawn into this bizarre love so quickly? She remembered a faint human memory of freshman English class, of reading Romeo and Juliet. There, too, the main characters had fallen into a deep love that could never be in an instant. And how did they end up? she thought darkly, pushing her chair back from the table.

She needed to see him before he went back to La Push and was out of her reach.

Ellie leaned over and tugged on Alice's sleeve. "I need an oxygen break," she whispered, knowing the tiny vampire would hear her. Alice gave an imperceptible nod, and Ellie rose from the table with a smile. Weaving through well-wishers, she burst through the front door and ran to the steps.

Ellie could see three large figures walking down the driveway. One looked back, and she waved in earnest. Could he see her? She hoped so.

Her hope was rewarded as the one boy turned barreled towards her. She gestured up, towards the roof of the Cullen residence, where hopefully she could remain out of earshot of her family. With a smile and a warm glow in her heart, she darted inside to come up with a good excuse.

Act II, Scene II

Enter ALEX BLACK, who is pretty much dying to see Ellie at this point…

Alex saw her gesturing towards the roof before she slipped inside, presumably to talk to her family and get them sufficiently reassured. Behind him, he heard Dave and Quentin yelling at him to come back. He ignored them. His mind was focused on one thing and one thing alone: Ellie.

He took a sharp left into the woods, undergrowth snapping as he ran towards a tree whose branches extended towards the Cullen home. His plan wasn't complicated- use werewolf strength to climb tree, use werewolf strength to jump from tree to roof and hope the other vampires weren't paying attention.

Needless to say, he wasn't brimming with confidence, but it was the fact that he was going to see the suddenly all-important object of his affection that made him decide to go through with it.

With a grunt, he hurled himself at the tree trunk and began to climb. "I must be nuts," he muttered. "Completely nuts. Imprinting on a vampire, Mom will have a conniption fit…"

But then he saw a flash of white on the now all-too-far roof.

Enter ELLIE CULLEN, said object of Alex's affections…

She didn't move or call out to him. Apparently, she preferred subtly to instant gratification. The same couldn't be said for him.

"So freakin' fabulous. The most beautiful girl I've ever met, the girl I'm ninety percent sure I'm in love with, a vampire," he continued, muttering as he climbed. "It's like a screwed up version of Romeo and Juliet, except I don't think Juliet's dad could poison Romeo with a bite…"

He heard a noise. Looking up, Ellie had begun to talk to herself.

"C'mon, Alex, we don't have much time. This is insane! Insanity! I could bite you or something… crap. I don't know what to do. This feels… right, I think? Ugh!" Ellie was very distracted by the night sky and had forgotten he was there. This was clarified as she continued into her next mini-ramble.

"This is ridiculous. If you love me, and I love you… wolves can live forever if they want, right? So we could leave, go north. If you were with me Alice couldn't track us. It could be the two of us. Forget all the stupid wolf-vampire rivals crap. I will if you will."

"I will." Ellie jumped. She hadn't been paying much attention to Alex's progress, but it was obvious now that he had heard all she said, since he had landed almost silently on the tiles of the roof. She stared down at the glittering silver rhinestones on her dress.

"You can't," she said sadly, not looking at him. "I can't let you give up your family, your friends…" She couldn't meet his eyes. She knew if she did, she would be strangely fascinated by them (as she had been before) and lose her resolve.

Alex felt his heart twinge as he saw her sadness. "They don't matter," he whispered huskily. He wrapped his warm arms around her cold body. "Ellie, I imprinted on you. You're meant to be with me, I know it."

"They'll kill you," she whispered from her place against his strong body. "I don't want you to die. I… do you know the story of my… of Bella and Edward?" Alex tightened his grip for a second, then nodded against her gold hair. "Well," she continued, "Bella smelled irresistible to Edward, right? That's what drew them together. That's how you smell to me…"

He looked down at her face, and smiled as her little nose crinkled. "Except the dog smell is helping to offset it a bit," she grumbled. "But I don't want you to die. If they see you, you're dead. I couldn't live with it, Alex."

Alex shrugged, appearing nonchalant even as his heart sang when she said his name. "If it helps, you're the first vampire that ever smelled not 100% repulsive to me." He looked into her perfect face, still half obscured by the deep blue mask. He pulled it off with one easy motion so he could see all of her snow white features. She blinked amber eyes at him. "And if I can't be with you, I'll die anyway. They can come and kill me," he whispered before kissing her gently.

It was an odd sensation, Ellie thought, having the lips of someone who burned like a flame against her icy skin. But he was such a fast healer, she couldn't hurt him. Ellie felt no regrets about wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him back.

When Alex drew back for air, she snuggled back into his chest. "Swear you love me," she murmured. "Please." She listened quietly to the sound of his heart beating inside his chest. He was so alive. She hadn't been so alive in 40 long years.

Alex smiled. "I swear by…" he looked around, then up at the night sky for inspiration, "the moon that I will love you forev-"

"No!" She gasped. He looked confused, so she explained. "Not the moon. It grows then fades. I don't want you to fade." Alex smirked at Ellie's sudden panic. So she wanted him forever, like he wanted her – unchanging and constant. "All right, what do you want me to swear by?" he asked.

"I don't care, just promise to love me as long as we exist," she whispered, eyes glittering with what would be tears. She had a sudden wish to be human so she could cry. Tears hadn't fallen from her face since the day she was found by the Cullens.

"I promise," he vowed. "Your turn." She smiled. "I swear," she said softly, "that for the rest of my existence I will love you and you alone."

He bent to kiss her again, but a yell from below made him freeze. "Ellie!" The vampire in his arms stiffened. "That's Alice," she murmured sadly. She started to draw back, then gasped. She had just remembered. Alec.

"Alex?" she asked quietly. He looked at her in confusion, noting the worry in her voice. "Something happened earlier today, and…" "ELLIE!"

She finished quickly, "And I'll tell you later gotta go bye!" She planted a lingering kiss on his cheek, and was gone.

Alex stared at the empty circle his arms made, feeling an almost irresistible pull to follow her. But he knew that would be death, and he couldn't imagine any part of existence or afterlife without Ellie now. Instead, he took a running jump into the tree and climbed down.

Dave and Quentin were gone, presumably back to La Push to wait for him. He was already walking away when he heard, "Alex!" That voice…

He turned. There she was, hanging out of her second floor window. "I have an idea, we can be together forever, just wait for my message in town at nine tomorrow!" she called. He nodded and was about to speak when her head whipped around. Apparently Alice was calling her again. "Bye Alex," she said. "I love you!" And she was gone again.

Taking her last 3 words for the road, Alex began to jog, then sprint into the woods. A smile split across his face, even when anticipating his parents' reactions to his imprint. He had an idea too, of who could help he and Ellie be together for the rest of their eternity.

Tada! The infamous balcony scene reinvented for this version of Romeo and Juliet. What will Ellie tell Alex about Alec? How can such a lovely little romance go so horribly wrong? Read and find out in the next act of No Simple Thing, Twilight's little Shakespearean tragedy.