A/N: It's been a few years since I've even thought of looking at this fic, but I was going through and labeling things discontinued/abandoned and was like. Wait. Didn't I have more written for this? So here, you guys get what I wrote of Chapter Nine and the one Bonus Scene, but I won't be continuing Sunlight. Looking back on it, I'm very proud of it because it was the longest fic I'd ever put up, but I have a lot of issues with it now.

Enjoy.

Last time on Sunlight:

Clara is on her meds, Billy disapproves of her interaction with the Cullens, and Clara and Mike got their ink done.

ooo0O-O0ooo

When Clara woke up the next morning, barely able to remember her nightmares, her body throbbed where she had tattooed herself. She could hear the birds outside the window, and the sun was only just beginning to rise. With a smile, she rolled out of bed and squinted at the light coming through the window; Charlie was just leaving, she heard his car rolling out of the driveway. She thought about waving from the porch, but decided she wouldn't make it in time for him to see.

Showering that morning was nice; amidst gently cleaning her freshly-inked body, Clara marveled at the tattoos that decorated her skin, staring into the bathroom mirror for a good ten minutes. The day after, her skin wasn't so inflamed as before, but her body was still magnanimously sore. Despite this, she already craved more ink, but she had enough experience with such reactions to not give in. Stick 'n' pokes were like an addiction in some sense.

Then she went about putting antibiotic pain relief cream on them, putting on her clothes as gently as possible. She forewent a bra with an underwire or elastic band, careful to the tattoo of eyes just under her boob, and went for a pink, lacey one that, while pretty, had no support. To counteract that, she dressed in a loose, airy sweater that hid her chest. Clara added in leggings, fuzzy socks, and her usual combat boots.

She she walked around the kitchen with her drying hair, making breakfast, she realized the placement of the feather tattoo wasn't her brightest moment. She was going to have to wear gloves, wasn't she? At least it was near the base of her finger, fingerless gloves would do. Clara internally cringed, though. Nah.

I have associated fingerless gloves with the scene phase for too long to give in now, Clara thought to herself as she wrapped the tattoo in a layer of breathable gauze from Charlie's first-aid kit.

Just as she was putting the kit away, she heard a knock at the door. Quickly abandoning her dirty plate in the sink, Clara grinned and went to meet Edward at the door. He was dressed in a cream sweater that played with the red tones of his hair over a white dress-shirt and blue jeans, a crooked grin on his lips, though his eyes were curious.

"Well you sure look snazzy," Clara smiled at him, leaning forward into his space unconsciously, taking his hand in hers. "How was hunting with Alice?"

He squeezed her hand so lightly she wondered if he'd even done it at all. "It was nice, we found some deer lurking nearby."

Clara nodded thoughtfully as she shut and locked the door behind her and let Edward lead her to his car. "Good, I'd hate to cancel because I got tattoos."

Holding the door open for her and looking even more curious than before, Edward said, "Do I get to know what you did?"

Clara smirked at him as she buckled her seatbelt and blinked; he was gone from her side of the car and sliding into his side. "Not until they're completely finished. And no snooping in Mike's mind about them, either! Poor guy, falling prey to the mind reader…"

Edward rolled his eyes, speeding down the road and onto the 101 North. "Yes, poor Mike. I take it he got a tattoo done?"

"Yes," Clara nodded, but didn't elaborate. "That one you'll probably find out regardless if he thinks about it too much, which it's hard not to. Once you have one tattoo, sometimes all you can think about is getting more…"

Her voice must have sounded incredibly wistful, or longing, because Edward turned to stare at her with deep eyes. It was still creepy to see him do that while driving, but she knew his other senses compensated for such distraction.

"You like tattoos that much?" he asked, sounding almost confused.

Clara sighed and bit her lip. "Definitely. Tattoos are art, one of the most intimate kinds; giving a tattoo and getting a tattoo creates such a bond between client and artist, not to mention the wonderful creations it brings…"

He seemed fascinated by what she said, and Clara wondered if he had previously looked at tattoos in a different light. If he had hated them.

"Would you ever get a tattoo?" she asked, curious.

Edward shook his head, and at her expression, to which she had clearly not hidden her disappointment well enough, he said, "My kind's skin can't be penetrated by a needle. The change, too, rids us of any blemishes on our skin; tattoos, scars, freckles, moles…"

Clara's forehead furrowed, and she frowned, muttering. "Blemishes. Those aren't blemishes." She didn't let herself say 'the change is stupid' because it sounded too childish, even for her.

Edward laughed, turning onto a different road. "I agree, it is sad. The change rids us of many things that we do not need to live without."

And now he sounded sad again. Clara, you dumbass.

Desperate to change the motions of his mind, Clara probed, "But if you could, would you get one?"

"Definitely," he said, nodding; Clara smiled widely at him, and he returned the grin. "After hearing you describe it, they sound amazing. I'd get one if you were the one to ink it."

Clara playfully preened and flicked her hair over her shoulder. "Lucky for you, you're speaking to a stick-n-poke master. The ones I did last night were pretty short notice, so I didn't have the best supplies, but if I could get my hands on actual tattoo needles, ink, and stencil supplies… Skin is a canvas, Edward, and I would paint the fuck out of it."

He chuckled, and she realized her grin was a little diabolical. Oops. She can't help the way she feels about tattoos, they were her kind of art. Her heroin. They pulled to a stop at the end of a gravel road, right at the edge of a forest. Clara grinned and got out of the car, unable to sit and wait for Edward's 'chivalry.' It was hot outside, hotter than it had been in months, and Clara felt a brief moment of regret at not wearing an undershirt. Sure, Mike had seen her in her bra, but that had been completely platonic. Mostly. With Edward it was different.

Edward didn't have such problems, having ditched his sweater in the car and stood in front of her wearing a sleeveless dress shirt. Sleeveless. Not to mention it was unbuttoned at the top, showing off his chest, collar bones, and neck. Day-um. She'd known before that he was toned, but to see those muscles in action - she wondered if they'd be like an uncomfortable rock for her to pillow her head on. Sad, but damn nice to look at.

It was barely even ten in the morning as they started hiking, snipping at each other with sarcastic quips all the while. Every now and then, Clara would stumble and trip, but instead of letting herself get dejected as Edward helped her up, Clara let out a laugh each time. Sometimes he would ask questions, to which Clara would answer and respond in kind.

He asked about family members in her last life. Where she'd lived, her friends growing up, and how it all transferred into her life now. She asked him about what little he could remember of his human life, about his life throughout the decades. She wanted to know so much. Had he been a hippie during the 60's and 70's? Had he been into rock during the 80's? What about the 90's? Did his family freak out at Y2K?

The forest's wide expanse, filled with the noises of birds and the shifting of leaves, not to mention our laughter, was the perfect place to be. It was only getting warmer, too, as the day went on. The hike was definitely not short, only lasting an hour or two at Clara's level of athleticism, but there was never a dull moment during it. The canopy of leaves above them hid the sunlight from view, so Clara was unsure whether or not it was becoming sunnier than before, if the clouds had disappeared or not.

"How much further is our destination?" Clara asked sarcastically as she pulled herself over a boulder. Edward smiled at her.

"Not far yet," he promised.

He was truthful, though she hadn't really doubted. Not ten minutes later Clara could see the glowing edge of the forest where light shone through brightly. Part of her wanted to run for that edge and escape the forest, but the other part of her just enjoyed the ease at which she walked with Edward and wanted it to continue. It wasn't long before they had reached the edge and Clara pushed through the last of the undergrowth and into a meadow.

It was small, round, and filled with the sunlight of a cloudless, blue sky. The green grass was high around her ankles, but filled with wildflowers of every color. Nearby a stream gurgled and flowed, and Clara felt as though she had stepped right into a fairy tale.

Walking forward, Clara could only careful step around flowers and feel awe. Reaching down, Clara caressed a flower. She wished desperately right then for a camera or a sketchbook, some way to capture this scene down on paper. Turning to her left to say as much to Edward, she realize that he hadn't walked into the clearing with her. Confused, Clara turned around and saw that he was still at the edge of the forest, watching her with a cautious expression and a tilted smile.

Clara cocked her head at him questioningly and held out her hands to him, beckoning him forward to take them. She could see him grounding himself, the brief close of his eyes and the deep breath, before he put a hand forward and stepped into the light.

And instantly lit up in prismic light that bounced and rolled off him as though his skin was made of thousands of diamonds, all refracting light in a slightly different way than the ones around it. Clara couldn't stop staring as he carefully walked forward, watching the way their hands met - diamond against flesh - before raking her eyes over the bits of skin that were left in the open to sparkle.

When she reached his face and saw his expression - guarded and worried - she smiled and reached up to place his hands at her cheeks, cupping her palms around them and intertwining her fingers, feeling the cool of his skin against her warm skin. She couldn't help the smile that bloomed on her face, small and soft and full of love. Edward smiled back at her, his shoulders relaxing and his thumbs caressing her face. He gently touched the gauze on my middle finger, but didn't ask.

The two of them slowly knelt until they were sitting among the flowers, facing each other. Clara didn't even try to stop herself other than to give Edward a chance to push her hands away before she let his hands simply rest on her cheeks before reaching forward and cupping his face in her hands. The sculpted, sharp features felt soft and malleable under her fingers, the sparkling of his skin near blinding in its beauty. Her hands roamed across his face, tracing his lips and the bridge of his nose, thumbs rubbing at his cheekbones and sweeping under his eyelashes.

Edward's hands weren't idle either, though, as they roamed softly across her skin the same. He seemed to find fascination among the smallest twinges of her muscles, among the dotted freckles that had survived Fork's lack of sun, tracing her eyebrows and the cupids bow above her lips.

Before she knew it, thirty minutes had passed and they were laying down in the grass, her hair flared out around her as they lay on their sides to face each other. Still, they didn't speak. Edward's lips moved softly and too quick for her to read; when she asked, he said he was singing to himself.

Clara gave a laugh as a song got stuck in her head at the mere mention of music. She hummed softly, watching as Edward paused his lips to listen. At his behest, she softly sang under her breath. Stars by Alessia Cara seemed to fit the two of them too much, she decided, as he closed his eyelids to listen.

Time passed in a way she didn't bother to keep track of, switching songs every few minutes. She never stopped her roaming hands though his had stayed at her cheek and playing with a lock of her hair. Whenever she even began to lift his arms and turn his palms, though, he did so for her at blinding speed that made her blink before returning instantly to the exploration.

Pausing amongst this, she looked at her curiously. "You can tell me to stop if you're uncomfortable, you know?"

Edward peeked open his eyes to stare at her. "Never. You can't imagine how it feels. It's so easy to be myself with you, Clara…"

With ease born of nights spent lying next to each other in her bed, the two of them melded together in the grass, legs tangling together and faces so close that they seemed to share the same air they breathed. Clara could count his eyelashes, taking great pleasure in doing so at all. Edward didn't move any further, though, so Clara didn't either.

Edward was the one who worried about boundaries. She'd let him be the one to initiate anything that he might be afraid of.

This should frighten her, she realized quite belatedly. He was a vampire. He had admitted to wanting to drain her dry. And yet, it front of this monstrously beautiful creature, all she could do was smile and love him. What kind of idiot did that make her, then?

Watching his eyes flutter closed, drinking in the pale lavender of his eyelids, she knew. A willing one.

At one point, Edward shifted the two of them until he was laying with his head on her chest, listening to the thudding of her heart, one hand entwined with hers and the other curled at her neck. The exchange of words from before started up again, with less laughter and more soft willingness to share.

ooo0O-O0ooo

Hours passed, and when Edward shuffled away to sit up from her, Clara wondered if she had unknowingly dozed off. More than once, she assumed. Throughout it, though, they spoke to each other quietly. The memory of letting Edward's voice, speaking of drugs and her blood, filter through her sleep-hazed mind was clear in her mind, and she smiled sadly but knowing that the both of them were in too deep to cut anything off now.

And then Edward's face was slowly leaning down, into her space, she felt her breath hitch as he came within millimeters of her. He didn't move there, looking deep into her eyes, arms not framing her or trapping her, one hand still lightly holding her hand. He was waiting.

"May I?" he whispered, cool breath brushing against her skin.

In lieu of an answer, Clara lean her chin up and brushed their lips together, the barest of a touch, before he leaned down further to press their lips together. It was a closed kiss, soft as the flower petals she had caressed earlier, but all the more beautiful for it.

Edward was everywhere, it seemed. She could smell him all around her, that floral fragrance that mixed with the smell of real flowers surrounding them, and she reached up to tangle her fingers in his hair, infinitely softer than she had ever thought it could be. One of his hands caressed the curve of her cheek, and every now and then he would pull back before diving right back in.

However long they kissed, it was enough to leave her breathless when he finally pulled pulled away. Kissing Edward was akin to tattooing herself, the adrenaline it gave her and the endorphins it pushed into her brain. She remembered vaguely a study that said that kissing and eating chocolate released the same amount of endorphins.

"We should go," he murmured softly, staring at her from his position above. Gently, he brushed a curl of her hair away from her face. "We'll need to get ready for the dance."

Dance.

Oh, yeah.

Clara let out a soft laugh. "I'd forgotten. Wow. Do we have enough time?"

He helped her up with a soft grin as they stood in the clearing; the sun had moved farther away, leaving Edward simply glowing in the light. "I'll make sure of it. We'll travel my way through the forest."

Curious, brushing grass out of her hair, she watched as he turned and crouched.

"Hop on," he said with a laugh, and with a confused snort, Clara let herself be piggybacked.

When her hair fanned forward into his face, he simply breathed deeply and pushed it back over his shoulder, mumbling to himself. She didn't bother to wonder what it was.

And then he ran.

And ran.

Holy fuck, yes! Clara thought to herself as she let out a cackle, wind whipping her hair back as Edward leaped and danced through the forest like a superhuman ballet dancer. His answering laugh spoke volumes of his own enjoyment.

Clara had rode shotgun in a drag race, once, with her brother, as Molly. This was the same rush, multiplied by hundreds. It was over too soon, though, and suddenly they were at his Volvo. What had been a two-hour-long hike that morning was only a three minute return.

"Exhilarating, isn't it?" Edward questioned, and Clara could hear the giddiness in his voice as she let out breathless laughter.

"Literally the best thing ever," she climbed off his back and stumbled to the car, as if drunk. Her legs shook. Adrenaline throbbed in her veins. "Damn, boy. Talk about a need for speed."

He chuckled at her. Now it was only time for a drive home full of giggles, she knew. Adrenaline wouldn't wear off for a while.

ooo0O-O0ooo

Edward dropped Clara off at her house, insisting that he take his car with him to go back to the Cullen's to change. It was an old-timey sense of romance that Edward seemed to favor in these situations, wanting to pick his date up and be surprised about how they would look. Clara wasn't arguing, though, and simply kissed him softly before racing back into the house with a grin. She needed to shower again.

Charlie was waiting inside for her, packing fish away into the freezer from his trip.

"So, what time is this dance of yours?" he asked as Clara got a last-minute glass of water.

"Around eight, ends at 11," she answered, before downing the glass in a few gulps. "Which means that I have three hours to get ready before Edward's back to pick me up."
Charlie's brow furrowed, but Clara couldn't tell if it was irritation at the mention of her boyfriend, or confusion. He simply shrugged and let her carry on.

A/N: Bonus chapter next. It's almost harder for me to post this on FFN because it was quite a bit more popular on this site than AO3, but I hope you all enjoyed the ride. If you want more content, I've got much more on my AO3 account. My url there is polyxena_chatoyant. Or you can go bug me on my tumblr, apvrodite.