The Twilight Twenty-Five

Prompt: Crave

Pen name: Mandi1

Pairing: Alice & Jasper

Rating: T


crave (v): to have an intense desire for; to need urgently.


It was a hunger like she had never felt before. All-encompassing, the very moment she had seen them. They were a perfectly matched pair – double the appeal, double the desire, double the salivation she had at the mere thought of them. Edward worried that her thoughts were much too preoccupied, Bella and Rosalie tried to distract her with promises of shopping trips, and even Jasper feared her hunger would get the best of her. Yet she couldn't help it. She watched them day after day, a hunter stalking prey, feeding on the thrill she got from seeing them, hungry for the day she might finally take hold and satiate her craving.

"Really, Alice," Edward chastised one morning, "I could hear you all the way in our room. Can't you at least try to tone down your thoughts?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Alice mused as she made one last flourishing answer on her biology worksheet.

He narrowed his amber eyes at her, pursing his mouth. "Don't play around. Just have them and get it over with. It'll save me the headache."

"As if you could possibly get a headache," she retorted.

They didn't speak of it for the rest of the day, and Alice danced off to school with blood-red thoughts encompassing her head, caring not a whit for the winces Edward kept shooting her way. She doodled pictures of her obsessions in the margins of her notebook, spent Physics daydreaming about the ultimate moment of consumption, and didn't stop salivating until Jasper tapped her shoulder during Study Hall.

"Hey, beautiful," he whispered, making her snap to the present and smile. His eyes flickered over to Mrs. Farris, the monitor on duty, before he dropped down to the seat at her side, pressing his lips to hers quickly, pulling away just in time before Mrs. Farris looked their way.

"Hi, Jazz," Alice replied as she laced her hand in his. "How was your French quiz?"

He laughed. "You tell me."

She grinned. "An A, naturally."

"So," Jasper said gently, rubbing his thumb over the skin of her hand in an obvious effort to distract her, "tell me something…when are you going to let this little 'hunger' of yours go?"

Alice arched a jet eyebrow. "Do you really think it's so silly?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm just saying. Edward's getting beyond irritated. Even Carlisle and Esme are worried it's taking up too much of your time. That it's getting a level where you might just…snap. Go entirely crazy. Cause way too much damage."

"Do you think I will?" she asked, trying very hard not to grit her teeth. He was, after all, just the messenger.

"Well, there was that time in Milan during Fashion Week –"

"That has nothing to do with this!"

Jasper shushed her with a finger to his lips, his eyes darting over to a very angry-looking Mrs. Farris.

Alice tried again, her voice lower. "That was just …a frenzy. I'll be good this time. I swear."

He sighed and looked down at his hands. "Well, if it's such a temptation…maybe you should just have them."

Her eyes flared with a sudden dark hunger, her mind filling with the knowledge of a truthful vision, and reached over to grab his hand, tugging him to his feet and behind one of the rows of books.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jasper hissed after they were out of Mrs. Farris's line of vision, safely hidden at the back of the library.

"We're skipping out," Alice said, waiting the seven seconds she knew it would take for the monitor to turn her back. With Jasper's hand firmly clenched in hers, she led him out of the library, down the hall, out the door, and to the Porsche parked just outside.

"Alice, if Carlisle finds out –"

"He won't," she cut him off as she unlocked the car.

"You sure?" Jasper asked while, ever the gentleman, he opened the driver's side door for her.

She laughed and slipped into the seat. "Aren't I always?"

He rolled his eyes, but went around the car to slide in next to her, holding her hand across the seats while she peeled out of the lot. She drove like a woman possessed, her eyes on one thing only – the lovely twins she would soon possess. She was a lioness, they her helpless gazelle – and within an hour she was pulling into a parking spot just outside the downtown area where she knew she would find them. She didn't stop to listen to the words of forewarning she knew Jasper was warming up, instead speeding from the car – stopping just long enough to lock the doors – and heading to the very center of the town square, right where they were, almost as if they were waiting for her.

They were perfect. Dazzling. Mouthwatering. A one-of-a-kind pair of marine-colored Swarovski-studded peep-toe Christian Louboutin pumps with a price tag too much to even print in the magazines. Jasper had had to have J call just to find it out, and Carlisle disapproving look had been enough to keep her from purchasing them and there. But now, now with Jasper's words, she knew approval would be easy to come by – and that her own finances would be enough for the exorbitant price tag.

There was a bodyguard at the door who, after a momentary glance, let them inside the exclusive boutique. Alice promptly marched over to a waifish clerk, requesting the Swarovski Louboutins in marine (not oxblood, those looked far too ruby-slipper-ish) in a size 4-and-a-half.

The clerk straightened her elegant black blazer and sneered down her cosmetically perfected nose. "I'm sorry, miss," she replied, spitting out the supposedly polite word, "I believe those might be more suited for a…older woman."

An older woman. It was almost laughable, given how old Alice truly was – not to mention how by 'older' the clerk had really meant 'richer.' Alice heard the near-inaudible growl coming from her husband just behind her and saw the woman's face melt a little, her stiff attitude easing to a point where she would be easier to work with.

"I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out," Alice said genially, sliding her thick black AmEx card out of her purse and holding it in the air like a peace offering.

Some ten minutes later, Jasper and Alice emerged from the boutique with one very expensive shopping bag in addition, her craving satiated and her checking account nearly emptied.

"Carlisle's going to have a conniption," Jasper murmured as they made their way back to the car.

"Yes, but Edward will be pleased that I've stopped my constant daydreams," Alice countered. "Besides, I'll make up for it."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Just how do you plan on doing that?"

Her grin spread over her face slowly. "We'll need to stop at the gas station on the way home."

"But Alice, the tank's full."

"Yes, but lottery tickets don't buy themselves."