Author's note: I took some liberties with this chapter so I hope y'all won't mind. I really wanted to do a juxtaposition in regards to two patriarch characters I always found interesting... Please review to tell me how I did!
Wedding is next chapter!
Day Nineteen of Forever:
Edythe and Beau laid together, kissing each other softly, whispering their love for each other, and basking in the day that was to follow. They hadn't moved at all in those precious few hours before dawn, simply soaking each other. But finally Eleanor and Jessamine swooped in, as Archie promised, just as the sun broke over the tree line. The ladies snickered as his face fell, closing the door behind them as they took Edythe hostage. She offered him one half-amused, half-apologetic smile before disappearing out of sight.
With her gone from his arms and her guard determined to keep her that way, Beau felt a quiet loneliness stealing through him. It seemed silly to miss her so strongly when he knew logically she was only a few hundred yards away; he couldn't explain why but having her so close but being unable to see her actually made it worse.
Archie must have guessed how Beau was feeling and went to him soon after, determined to keep him occupied.
The short-haired vampire should have looked ragged for as much running around as he had been doing the past few days but actually seemed to be in his element. He looked completely refreshed and practically was glowing as he dragged Beau into the foyer, already decorated with heaps of flowers and twinkling lights.
"Since you're not doing anything but moping," he said, pushing Beau from behind and steering him out the front door. "I'm going to put you to work."
"Everything looks good so far," Beau said as they head down the main entrance to the home. The pathway was clearly marked off with more of the twinkling lights. Someone had even tied large white ribbons around the trees that marked the entrance to the property. The effect was simple but dazzling.
"Like you could expect anything less from me." Archie led him far enough off property that they were out of Edythe's hearing range. "Okay so I'm going to be pretty busy here so I'm leaving you and Earnest in charge of finishing up the cottage. Royal finished painting the other day so all that's really left is furnishing it. I had a helicopter do a drop not far away and Earnest is already moving stuff in. Tanvir and his brothers will meet up with you after to take you hunting and then bring you back to get all tidied up for the wedding. Sound like a plan?"
Beau mockingly saluted. "Sir, yes, sir."
"Don't get cute. You put me in charge here."
"To be fair you kind of blackmailed me," he said, elbowing him jokingly.
"And yet you made me the best man anyway." Archie grinned, showing off all his pearly whites. "Come on, we have to hurry so I can get back here to set up the gazebo. Royal is going to get it all wrong and it'll miss the first light of day the way he aligns it."
Beau shook his head before taking off at a full sprint with Archie on his tail.
They were taking the back way to the cottage this time but Beau wasn't worried. He knew the way to the cottage now like the back of his hand despite there being no clear trail. The scent map to get there was a little convoluted but it didn't slow them down. He supposed it was thanks to their built in vampire GPS. The trees all looked the same no matter which way he turned but he thought he could find the way back to the cottage with his eyes closed despite estimating it to be about forty miles away. Earnest showed him on a map once where the cottage was, just south of the tip of the state. They were so close to the border they could literally cross over to Vancouver Island if they took the strait directly across.
Earnest was carrying in a dresser when they reached the cottage, waving to them with his free hand. They followed him in, Archie directing him to place it against the far wall of the bedroom, facing out from the imposing iron-wrought bed that took up the entirety of the west wall. It was a new addition to the space, making Beau take pause.
It looked larger than a kingsize bed should be with its tall metal posters at each end accented by the elegant headboard shaped to look like vines. The frame looked just as sturdy as Royal had promised though Beau doubted it would matter; if he ever did wrap his hand around any part of the frame with a tenth of his strength, it would be destroyed regardless. He surmised it was just supposed to look tough for his piece of mind.
Yet Beau raised his eyebrows at the furniture piece, surprised by how extravagant it looked besides being solid. "Kind of went all out for a bed for people that don't actually sleep."
"Well it's not for sleeping," Archie said obviously. "I'm not going to make you do it on the floor. We're not animals you know."
Beau groaned quietly, embarrassed by his own thoughtlessness and Archie's brashness.
"We do all the furnishing," Earnest explained, drawing attention away from the bed. "Even putting kitchens and toilets in the houses we renovate. It's more for the sake of setting up a normal home in case we should ever have the rare human guest or should need to sell the property for any reasons."
"But since this is pretty much exclusively a love shack we scrapped the unimportant stuff," Archie said, ticking off rooms on his fingers. "Open floor plan for a sitting area slash living room, two huge walk-in closets, tiny laundry room, no fake kitchen so we could have your library instead, and of course this master bedroom with the attached bath."
"It's not a bad sized space," Earnest said approvingly.
Archie nodded. "The soundproofing cut into the square footage a bit but this wasn't meant to be a palace." He clasped his hands together. "Okay, no more dawdling. I've got a wedding to make happen. You guys can figure out how to set everything up." Something flashed through his eyes. "And make sure the piano doesn't block the fireplace, Beau, so the lighting fills the space more."
Beau gave him a thumbs up.
Once Archie was gone the pair worked at a comfortable pace to set up the house, moving around each other with ease. They chatted animatedly about the wedding, occasionally Beau asking the older vampire some question he hadn't gotten around to during their boys trip a few days prior. Earnest answered these inquiries graciously as he set up the electricity, his calm tone prompting Beau to satiate his curiosity on other subjects as well.
They discussed everything from different game Earnest had enjoyed hunting, some of the places the Cullens had lived previously, the merits of the online courses Edythe was helping his prepare for, and more as they worked. The space became more filled as the day went on. Beau was mostly in charge of the heavy lifting, bringing in the sectional piece for the sitting area, the tables and such while Earnest went around after him with accent that made the cottage look like a home.
While they were bringing in Beau's sparse wardrobe after having filled a closet and a half for Edythe, Beau brought up a subject that he had been trying to leave closed unsuccessfully. He though Earnest would a good sounding board for the most difficult tougher decisions he was still reeling from: his hesitance to let his human family go completely. Royal had been gracious when Beau asked him to stop checking up on Charlie and Renee, but did warn him again that he might regret it. And though he hadn't realized it immediately, he knew Royal was right.
How was he supposed to do as Edythe had suggested and just forget about his parents, let them become just faded memories in the back of his mind? Leaving them behind would always been his biggest regret in this life but to forget them seemed criminal. He knew there were rules for a reason but he couldn't help thinking how easy it would be just to remain on the fringes of their lives, never interacting but just watching over them. Surely that couldn't endanger their lives too much, right?
It was still something he wrestled with despite knowing the danger of entertaining the thought. He figured it was a longing that wasn't just going to go away, even if it was reckless and stupid.
Earnest didn't judge and Beau didn't feel the need to justify his reasons with him, able to vent his confusion as they went around in circles discussing the merits and drawbacks. The conversation was in someways more rewarding than it had been with Edythe as Earnest's perception was not colored by any lingering guilt.
"It would be difficult for you watching over them," Earnest said heavily, his eyes kind but sad. "It might even be too much to bear for you as raw as the wound still is. You'll want to reach out to your father especially and that feeling won't go away the longer you prolong your contact. But it might do you good to see them moving on with their lives, ease some of your burden as well. In the end, only you know what you can handle and what you can't."
"What if I don't know what I can handle?" His question was more honest than he had wanted it to be, embarrassing him a little.
But Earnest gave him a warm smile that seemed to soften all his features. "Then you'll need to find out. But know I have the utmost faith in you, Beau. You're stronger than you realize in the ways that matter."
Earnest's assessment of him meant a lot to Beau, both as a father-in-law and a father figure too. Beau smiled shyly then, excusing himself to bring in Edythe's new piano.
The piano apparently had been Earnest's idea, a piece de resistance to make their home come alive. He had picked it out carefully with his daughter in mind, selecting an silvery-white baby grand that had a gold finish of entwined vibes over the key cover and matching bench. It was a beautiful piece and Beau was sure she would love it.
Because it would not fit through the front door Beau was forced to bring it in through the back of the home which, like the main house, would eventually be a large glass wall. Earnest was waiting to settle the wall in place as the final task, so Beau was able to easily bring the piece in. Remembering Archie's instructions, he placed it directly across from the fireplace, angling it towards where the glass would be set for ample lighting.
Earnest's excitement was palpable as he took in the instrument. He fluttered around the it, examining it from each angle, practically buzzing. "It looks even better in here than I had hoped it would."
"It's a really beautiful gift," Beau complimented, carefully running his hands over the smooth cover. The texture was as a flawless as marble - as flawless as Edythe.
"I'm glad you think so." He sat on the bench, lifting the key cover and lightly tapped out a few notes. "And it's in perfect tune already." Earnest looked over at Beau. "Would you like to give it a spin?"
Beau shook his head. "I played briefly when my mom insisted but quit as soon as I was able. Besides, I wouldn't want to accidentally press a key too hard and ruin it before Edythe even got a chance to see it."
"Nonsense!" Earnest scooted over on the bench, patting the spot beside him.
He felt like a giant next to the delicate piece but sat beside Earnest anyway. Focusing on being as gentle as possible, he tapped out two soft notes. They rang melodically, filling the room and echoing slightly off the wooden floors. He thought the acoustics were actually pretty good and wondered if Archie had planned the home with this piano in mind.
"It sounds great," Beau said, tapping out a few more notes.
Earnest nodded absentmindedly, smoothing over the keys. He looked a million miles away. "I wanted to give her something special and our love of music has always been something we shared."
Beau nodded, remembering how thrilled Earnest got when Edythe sat behind her piano in the main house. No sooner would she sit at the bench and he would peek his head out from wherever he was to catch her one-person concerto. It had amused Beau; it was like Earnest was a doting parent at his child's first recital.
"She enjoys playing for you," Beau said with a small laugh. "I think she likes making you proud."
He chuckled too. "Perhaps. It's also her way of expressing everything she can't verbally. Since I've known her, it has been her way. I was the first to realize it," Earnest added a little smugly. "That what she plays reflects her innermost feelings and thoughts. Edythe can be a very private person but not when she plays - when she plays she hides nothing. It's why I insist on getting her a piano for every home we live in. I always want her to be free to express herself."
"You love her very much." It was almost unnecessary to say; of course he loved Edythe. How could anyone not? But this was more than just the love she could inspire in anyone - this was the unshakable love that only a father could have. It reminded him sadly of Charlie, though Earnest's love was more overt than what his shy father could have ever mustered up.
He thought of what Edythe had told him once, how Earnest brought into this life his ability to love deeply and agreed with that wholeheartedly. If there was ever proof of that, it showed in his affection for Edythe. It touched Beau to know this wonderful man cared for her so deeply, somehow making him care for Earnest even more than he already did.
"I do. I love her so very much, Beau." Earnest's smile slowly slid from his face, however, a contemplative looking along over. "Edythe was my first daughter in this life," he said quietly, staring down at the keys. "I didn't always see her that way, focused as I was on the daughter I lost. I spent too long brooding on my pain, too long ignoring what I had gained. I regret that still."
He looked at Beau wistfully, taking stock of his unsure expression. "When Carine first brought me into her family, I had a difficult time adjusting, as most newborns do. I was... Confused. Angry still for the death of my child. And completely lost in this new world laid before me. I didn't think I was strong enough to survive what I felt, who I was now. Edythe was kind and understood my pain better than Carine then; I never suspected it was because of how deeply she herself was hurting..."
He sighed, tapping out a few notes into a melody Beau thought he recognized. "We posted as siblings in those days and we truly did feel a kinship, though she knew me better than I did her because of her gift. I tried but she was distant. Not unkind, but emotionally withdrawn. I thought she just needed time to grown more comfortable with me. So of course when she left our home and way of life, I was devastated. It was only a few years after Carine and I had married and I had worried that that had been the catalyst somehow, that she had felt abandoned... Alone." Earnest gave him a tired smile. "She has since assured me that that was not the case, that instead it was the knowledge that now Carine would not be alone that prompted her to attempt the plan she had been concocting for quite some time."
Beau shivered, remembering her plan all to well, the story unnerving enough that it stood out among his duller memories. Her idea to hunt down the truly evil humans of the world and feed on them... She had described those as her rebellious years lightly but he knew how painful it was still for her to remember all the lives she took, justified or not. He thought she might carry their deaths with her for as long as she walked the earth.
"When she came back, she was changed. I could only imagine the horrors she had seen. Inflicted. But I loved her still and knew I could not stand to lose her again." Earnest played slower now. "She was too young when her life was lost and I always felt that effected her in ways she did not understand. It felt natural to look after her as a father would, to help her mind herself and grow as a person. I am unbelievably proud of who she had become, of all she has accomplished. But the biggest changes I have seen in her are recent ones. And you were the cause." He played with one hand now, the other squeezing Beau's tightly. "It shows in her frequent smiles, in the ease in which she laughs now, and in the music she fills our home with. And so I am grateful to you, Beau, for giving her the happiness that I always wished for her. I don't know if I can ever thank you enough."
Beau's throat was tight as he gazed into Earnest's warm face. It was amazing how much his smile resembled Edythe's despite not being actually related. He wondered if maybe her smile resembled his so much because she learned the expression from him.
"I'm extremely grateful to you, Earnest," he said with some difficulty after clearing his throat. "I don't think Edythe would have become the person I love without your influence."
He hummed quietly to the song he played. Beau finally recognized it as the song Edythe had written with him in mind - Earnest's song. Earnest sighed peacefully as the last few notes dwindled out.
"Though I had always hoped she would find someone, I didn't actually think there could really be someone out there who was good enough for her. But I was wrong." He gave Beau's hand one last squeeze before getting to his feet. "I couldn't imagine someone more suited to marry my daughter than you, son."
Beau couldn't find the words to respond to that but Earnest seemed to understand. He beckoned for Beau to follow him into the room just down the short hallway.
It was his library, the one room he hadn't been in yet since the cottage had been finished. Beau had expected to see it empty except for the bookshelves he had helped Eleanor assemble for his room but was surprised to find the shelves almost completely stocked. He wandered in between the well lined wooden pillars, aligned around each wall except the one that would soon be glass, with two additional shelves cutting through the center of the room. He thought it looked like a quaint little bookstore, thought not nearly as shabby.
Earnest was watching him with a careful expression. "I wasn't sure if you would want to fill the shelves yourself," he said finally, appearing a little nervous. "But I thought it looked unfinished bare. I did leave a shelf empty, though, so that you might add to the collection. The books I picked out might not exactly suite your tastes so you're more than welcome to exchange any-"
The rest of his words were muffled by Beau pulling him into a tight hug.
"Thank you," he said emphatically. "So much, Earnest. For everything." There was so much he was grateful for, too much to say with just words. But Beau knew he would understand. When he released Earnest they were wearing matching expressions.
Earnest proceeded to show Beau how the books had been arranged - by content rather than title or author. It was a system that Beau himself normally would have arranged as well, so he was pleasantly surprised and impressed by how well he was understood already.
The moment was lightened up with the arrival of the Denali brothers a few minutes later. Earnest walked Beau out, promising to have the final touches for the cottage ready for after the reception. They exchanged another solid hug and then Beau was out the door.
The trio was waiting for him outside. They looked impressively cool together, dressed casually but still looking like extras in an American Eagle spread. They took little notice of Beau as he crossed the threshold, caught up in admiring the quality of the home with nods of approval.
Tanvir in particular looked impressed as he examined the wooden paneled exterior, taking a step back to have the full effect. "Have to hand it to you Cullens - this is a pretty amazing piece of architecture. And in just over a week? Impressive, Beau."
"Archie and Earnest really pulled through," Beau agreed. "But I just helped."
"No need to be modest," Tanvir said with a wave of his hand. "It is Edythe's wedding present is it not? And who else gives a house for a gift but a lovedrunk groom? She'll be quite pleased, I'm sure."
"But you're putting poor Ivan in a bind," Kirill added, bounding to Beau's side. "When Lauren found out you were gifting Edythe a house for your honeymoon she got all starry-eyed about it, wanting to see it for herself. You've set the bar quite high. I'm sure she'll be on Ivan to build her a testament to his love now too!"
"Yeah, thanks for that," Ivan sighed, but his smile gave him away. His eyes were bright, clearly thinking of his new mate. Beau thought the pale blonde vampire was surely already planning a grand gesture of his own now.
With that, the foursome headed east into the woods for their hunt. More than anything, the trip seemed to be a chance for the brothers to get some teasing in before the wedding. Beau was surprised by how comfortable they were around him given the circumstances around their arrival in Forks, but he supposed that was due to the bond they already had with the rest of the Cullens. They were trying to welcome Beau into the family in their own way.
Kirill was the most easy going, playful and a bit boisterous. Perhaps because of their shared training experience, he seemed the most warmed to Beau and was the first to start the bawdy jokes that in another life would have turned Beau's entire face and neck red. He seemed to pick up on Beau's unease and found it hilarious; he spent most of the trip regaling the group with stories of his past lovers in a carrying voice that reached Beau no matter where he tried to hide. As it was, all he could do was cringe visibly and try to ignore the mortification by feeding his thirst, making the trio burst out in laughter often.
"Beau is too innocent for your stories," Tanvir finally said between robust chuckles, dusting off his hands from his recently buried meal. He had added anecdotes of his own to Kirill's, but his had been significantly more tasteful. "Come now, Kirill, or you'll turn him into a good-for-nothing like yourself. Then Edythe will have your head!"
"I doubt it's possible," Ivan replied. He had been the most reserved of the three, electing to listen to Kirill's more raunchy exploits quietly with occasion thrills of laughter. "He could never have devastated the women of the old world as we did in our youth - too wide-eyed and pure."
"Perhaps, but he would have made for good bait," Kirill said with a wink. "For those more naturing types, the soft-hearted ladies who sought someone to hold. But oh, they would have eaten him up!"
"As opposed to the reverse!" Tanvir roared as his body shook with mirth.
Beau shook his head, amused despite himself. The Denali men were entertaining to be around, even if a little too brazen for his comfort. "Guess Carine wasn't exaggerating when she said you three were the origin of the Incubus myth."
"Hardly a myth when the evidence is standing right in front you," Kirill retorted, taking a small bow. His brothers smirked. "For many a-year, we three were the most talked about men the world over. We couldn't rouse too much suspicion by staying in one place too long of course - once the rumors spread of three beautiful men who wooed princesses and noblewomen circulated, fingers began to point to us, naturally. But women are perceptive and even if they hadn't heard of us quite yet in the next village, they flocked to us still, only too happy to be our partner for the night." He sighed fondly.
"We were different back then," Tanvir added. "Traveling out only at night where it was harder to see the red of our eyes, seducing the most alluring of women knowing we would feast on their blood after their bodies had their fill. We were truer to our nature, but lonelier for it. The women who warmed our beds did not survive our encounters and it did sadden us to see such lovely creatures go limp in our hands."
"Above all else, we consider ourselves lovers of women," Kirill added. "We did not seek them out to harm them. It was just a hazard of our love and nature."
"But not anymore," Beau said, taking stock of the golden-eyed men.
"Yes. Our great love for women forced us to find a new way. The women who fill our needs no longer need fear for their lives," Tanvir said confidently. "We still must be very careful, of course, and we make mistakes sometimes, but we are much better now than we were. And the women..."
"They can enjoy the pleasures of the flesh and live another day to tell the tale," Ivan finished for him.
Kirill clasped his brother's hand. "But, alas, there will go so many women unloved now that our Ivan has sworn off his bachelor days in lieu of only one woman."
"Truly, it's a crime against mankind," Ivan agreed, rolling his eyes.
"A crime against womankind," Tanvir corrected. "And against our brotherhood. Oh how you abandon us, Ivan!""
Though his words were light enough, the was something more behind his eyes that Beau could see - true pain. Tanvir truly was hurting over what must have felt like the loss of his brother because, though of course he was still physically there, he was choosing a woman over the trios continued adventures. Beau assumed, with a gut-wrenching surge of pity, that it might be reminding Tanvir too closely of how they lost their creator thousands of years ago. The man who was more than just their sire... He had been the brothers' father.
It was a story Carine had told him recently, of the father who was taken away from the Denali coven for technically breaking one of the faucets of the one rule of their kind: keep the secret. It had been long, long before she met them, but it was a story she knew well as it had been told to her as a cautionary tale during her time in Italy. The story of a male vampire whose name was lost to time who courted human women with reckless abandon until somehow he because the first of their kind to father a child with one.
Beau had been shocked silent at that, sure at first he had heard Carine wrong. It didn't seem possible. A child that was half vampire and half human? A dhampir, she had called the creation with equal parts fascination and horror, a creature born of a male vampire's seed and carried inside a human woman during an accelerated and highly dangerous pregnancy. This was a feat unheard of at the time for even though the father of the Denali coven and his sons took many human women as partners, there had been no survivors at that point. But somehow...
Carine thought their father had loved the woman in come capacity and somehow found the strength to leave her alive after their encounter. It was his gift to her - her life. How could he have known that that choice would eventually be his undoing? That by sparing her she would begin to grow inside her a monster that broke her from the inside, eventually killing her as its father could do nothing but watch? Carine had said evasively that he had tried to give her his venom to spare her but that it hadn't worked as he had hoped... Was this the story Earnest had eluded to during Beau's hunt with his brothers about their cousin who tried to turn a human by having her ingest venom orally? And that it paralyzed her rather than saved her...?
After she died, the father of the Denalis was distraught not only for the woman he lost but for the loss of a child he had never dreamed possible. But now that there was a chance he could have a true child of his own, he was determined. He began experimenting, testing his ability to lay with human women and spare their lives, waiting in the shadows afterwards until they began to show the same symptoms as the first - tiredness, sudden jolts of pain, rounding belly at an alarming rate, disgust in human food... After a dozen or so women were impregnated and then slaughtered from the inside by the creatures, he discovered the last trait to be the most important clue.
He feed the next woman who carried his child raw blood, pouring it down her mouth when she initially refused... She was focused to feed off of another human, essentially becoming a cannibal to sustain the dhampir child that broke her bones and sucked away her strength until she was practically a skeleton. It was a gruesome image for Beau and Carine had shared his disgust.
But the father was over the moon, thrilled at having found the key to success. He didn't care that rumors were spreading across the continent of a different kind of Incubus, one who not only seduced woman and killed them, but who now implanted in her a demon child that grew too rapidly and killed its carrier grotesquely. Eventually these rumors reached ears he should have known to fear...
This had been in the wake of an outbreak of similar breaks of the one law in the form of what Carine had referred to as the wars of the Immortal Children - human children turned into vampires before they reached a functional age. They were beautiful but uncontrollable and eventually determined by the Volturi to be a threat to the secret. They were all wiped out and the practice was forbidden. A dhampir was not the same as these children as they would conceived naturally, but the Volturi was still recovering in the wake of the Immortal Children and could not allow notoriety.
They followed the rumors east until they led them to the father who now proudly toted around a beautiful but swift growing young daughter following her mother's death during childbirth. They witnessed for themselves the speed in which she grew, saw how she could learn as the Immortal Children did not - but still found her existence dangerous. They predicted that once their kind found this loophole it would be exploited. Could they risk having other male vampires trying this themselves, leaving more strings of broken and half pregnant humans in their wake, too?
No, they decided, they couldn't. Too much at stake. The practice was outlawed as well, an addendum to the original taboo. And the father of the Denalis was to be dealt with properly as well. Luckily for Tanvir and his brothers their father had kept them in the dark about his experiments - this is what saved them.
The Volturi wanted to study the child, see how long she would continue to grow for themselves and planned to take her with them. Naturally, the father resisted the idea, eventually growing so enraged that he tried to attack the leader of the Volturi herself. His death was quicker this way than it might have been, so maybe it had been a merciful ending for him. With the father gone and Tanvir and his brothers properly instilled with new fear for the law of their world, the half-human half-vampire girl was whisked away to Italy where Carine met her a century later. She had called the dhampir heartbreakingly lovely but had found her unsettling still, knowing how many had had to die for her so that she might exist in the first place. She remains there still today, locked away in a tower under guard like a precious jewel, her existence known but talked about only behind closed doors.
The brothers were lost without their father, hurt to know the extent in which he had been willing to go to have the child, and feeling abandoned by his actions. They did not speak of him willingly anymore. Carine told Beau that even now, more than three thousand years later, they still felt like orphans. That had bothered him deeply.
She had also told him that while the brothers were not keen to repeat their father's mistake, the Volturi continued to watch them closely, even more now that they can spare the lives of their human lovers. Though they need not worry as the lesson was well learned. The brothers were careful to keep from creating a life, pulling away before their bedfellows might take the seed that would result in a death sentence for all. Beau still wondered why they would continue such a dangerous practice, knowing what they know, but realized now it might be the only way they could comfort themselves after what they lost. It was how they coped.
Ivan met Tanvir's eye carefully, his thoughts perhaps aligned with Beau's at the moment, thinking of their great loss. "I do not abandon you, brother. Never. My love for our family does not wane for my love of Lauren."
Tanvir grunted sullenly, his face oddly blank, perhaps to cover his hurt still.
Kirill perhaps saw this too and searched for a way to lighten the mood. He slid over to Beau's side then, a half-forced smile on his mouth. "You know, Beau with just the two of us on our misadventures now it'll be so lonely! We need a third musketeer, dear cousin, someone to fill this ache in our hearts..." He pretended to size him up. "And you're not hopeless looking. Perhaps a bit too withdrawn but we could cure that."
Beau could only shake his head at the his antics, going along with them if only to put everyone back at ease. "Oh gee I'd love to but you seem to forget that I'm getting married tomorrow."
"Ah, but you haven't yet truly lived, my friend! How can you marry when there is still so much life to live as a young man?" Kirill threw his around around Beau's shoulder, no small feat as he was at least four inches shorter. "Do you not have any urge to sow your wild oats? To love exotic women the world over? Hundreds, thousands, millions of women?"
"There's only one woman I'm interested in loving and I wouldn't trade her for the millions more out there," Beau promised.
"But how can you know if you've never tried to love the other as we do?" Tanvir looked at him expectantly, his features still not quiet fully recovered.
"Simple - there's never going to be anyone I could possibly love more. She has always been the only one I've seen."
"You mean there have been no others?" Kirill looked aghast. "At all?"
Beau shrugged through his embarrassment. "I didn't need any other."
"He is even more pure than I thought," Ivan whispered almost reverently. "Has there ever in history been a more pure man than this one?"
"I almost feel bad now for dirtying him with my stories," Kirill mumbled in return, releasing Beau almost apologetically.
Tanvir looked Beau up and down, clearly in shock but maybe a little concerned as well. At least he seemed to have forgotten his melancholy. "You are unlike any we have met before - except perhaps your bride. Maybe you are more perfect for each other than I thought."
"It's actually pretty cute," Kirill said kindly. "Like they were waiting for each other."
"But to give up an entire world of women - for just one?" Tanvir still didn't seem able to comprehend.
Ivan reached out to Beau then, surprising him with a firm handshake. "It's because he understands what you two do not yet: how one woman can be the entire world."
Kirill made a face. "He has been so insufferable since falling for Lauren. I hardly recognize him."
"That's because they have never known me to be in love," Ivan explained to Beau. To his brothers: "I only hope you two will soon find what I have for yourselves."
"Insufferable," Kirill repeated in a singsong voice, but Beau thought he saw a twinge of envy in his pale features.
Tanvir kept his face blank still but it didn't seem to be to hide pain anymore. Maybe it was to hide his longing. "Ah, well, we shall see in time, I suppose. Maybe soon our days of fun shall come to an end too. And maybe we shall become as insufferable as our Ivan at that time as well."
"I sure hope not." Kirill looked up towards the sky then. "But look at the sky, gentlemen. We have taken our time and night has settled around us. We should be off now."
"Yes, it would hardly do if we made the groom late for his own wedding," Ivan said jokingly.
"Archie might actually kill me," Beau agreed. He knew he wasn't exaggerating either; his brother was more invested in the wedding than either of the parties to be married by a long shot.
"And Edythe too, if she thought you were standing her up," Tanvir laughed. "She might think you had the cold feet!"
"Or that we had turned him onto our depraved way of life." Kirill rolled his eyes. "Then she would be more focused on killing us."
"Then let's get me back there quickly so no one is on a hitlist," Beau suggested.
The trio of blondes nodded and they were off again with the brunette in tow, back towards Forks where Beau's future - and his entire world - awaited him.
