The Obligatory Disclaimer can be seen in chapter 1.

My thanks to those who have read and reviewed so far (any review responses are at the bottom of chapters). Once again a split POV. R will be at the beginning of Rosalie sections, and I at the beginning of Izzy's sections.

I

Isabella looked curiously at where Edward lounged near her window. He wasn't really all that bad when he wasn't staring at her like some obsessed stalker, and had seemed to relax more and more as time went on. She didn't mind so much, him following her around, at least now that she didn't have to deal with the creepy staring. "You're still like a lost puppy though." He'd been smirking, obviously reading her train of thought, and the grin widened at her comparison. "What did you do before you started trailing around after me?"

"I read, and played music, mostly. We all develop our own little habits and hobbies." Edward arched a single eyebrow at her, and she rolled her eyes. "Emmett has his games, Jasper reads psychology and advances in war tactics... Alice has fashion... we develop hobbies and interests. Most of us are multilingual at this point."

"So what's so fascinating about me, other than my scent?" Isabella snorted, reading through the most recent addition to her mechanics books collection. "I don't do much, and you can't really stand my preoccupation with cars."

"Scent attraction isn't as simple as thirst." Edward drawled, gazing out at the dingy, clouded skyline again. "It responds on deeper, and more varied levels, than simple hunger or thirst, a desire for blood. Really we're not as crazed and monstrous as one might be led to believe by Hollywood or Rosalie's overreactions. If you were always faintly or distinctly hungry, would you become crazed at the sight and scent of your favorite dish? Not likely. However, there's a certain deeper level of pleasure and euphoria that is gained from favorite blood scents and feeding that humans do not fully experience."

She stared at him, mind mostly registering surprise and squeamishness for a full moment, her reaction odd to him. She didn't particularly like blood, and grew faint at the scent or sight of too much of it, he'd learned that already, but she'd never become disgusted by him talking about vampirism before. Finally, she smirked, an expression she'd developed during her times 'playing' with Emmett. "So blood and feeding makes vampires horny."

"Erm... well... not so crudely..." He shifted, and slowly stiffened in place, obviously uncomfortable. As his skin turned the faintest of sallow, dull shades, she shook her head. The vampire equivalent of embarrassment... and the word horny made him do that. "It does... well... create a reaction in some. I'm not used to the feeling really, and am enjoying it while it lasts." Her eyebrows rose quickly. "At first your blood, being my Singer, simply drove me to the edges of my control, made me feel absolutely starved... but as I've gotten used to it..."

"Oh my god, you're getting off on smelling me?" Her scandalized tone and abrupt fall from her bed made him shoot up, reacting to move to help her, but she scrambled back up before he could decide if the help would be welcome. "Seriously?"

"Not... not quite... I..." He stiffened further, skin shifting to that dulled shade again, and her mouth dropped. "It isn't that strong, Isabella. It simply makes me happy, like when humans take what is called an 'upper.' I've never really felt attraction to someone before, so this is the closest I know the feeling to be."

"God, just when you seem less creepy." She shivered and glared at him. "Next time just tell me something like: your scent makes me happy... or your scent just attracts me to you... or something... Read Jasper's psychology books. Creepy." He looked away, obviously too embarrassed to actually say anything, and they stood in awkward silence for several moments. "Does that mean you do? You know... that you're attracted to me? Actually attracted to me, not just want to drink my blood?" One day I will get you to say that in the cheesy, Hollywood-Dracula accent by the way.

Edward turned his gaze on her, looking halfway between scandalized and amused at her distracted thought-declaration. "I... don't know, really. I told you that I am not familiar with this sensation. Not that it matters, as you are apparently homosexual."

"Shit Edward I told you I'm not sure about that." She blushed brightly and looked quickly away. "I mean... Rosalie and Alice are gorgeous, but you guys are vampires, that comes with the territory. None of the other girls in school really... get a reaction... and this is embarrassing to talk about. How am I supposed to figure something like that out?" She shook her head, still blushing brightly, and noticed his chest stop moving. He still had to do that whenever she blushed for too long. "I mean, you're just as attractive as them, in your own creepy-stalker-scentophile way."

Edward smiled proudly before her words finally sunk in, and he gave a distinctly moody pout. "Scentophile is not a word, and should not be used to describe me." Dark golden eyes pinned her and she smiled back at him as innocently as she could manage. "And you still called me gorgeous." Izzy rolled her eyes and huffed. "You know you think I'm... er... hot."

R

This entire exercise was pointless. She growled lightly, and felt a hand gently squeeze her arm, reminding her that Jasper sat directly next to her. The human had been invited over for dinner. Dinner! How did this make sense? True, privately she enjoyed the rare opportunities to actually use that damned kitchen, but she was not this human girl's servant, and it obviously made her even more awkward than her normal human gracelessness to have to be the only one eating in the room. At least this time, unlike the first, a movie night had been scheduled to accommodate the interests of others. Jasper squeezed her arm again, this time a bit harder, and she realized that she'd been glaring angrily at the pair. They were sitting too close. Were they trying to make Edward snap?

"Rose. Please." She glanced at Jasper's black eyes and shifted so that she couldn't see them directly. They had been awfully close lately- just in the past few days, but instead of Edward sitting obsessively nearby, he'd been directly next to her, usually with a hand placed innocently on her leg or back. Her dark eyes focused on the idiotic notions being portrayed on the screen. How had Alice convinced them all to watch this? Underworld?

"Their weight would drop them from the ceiling, no matter the claws hooked in to keep them up." Rosalie muttered to the other blonde vampire, and Jasper offered a tense smile. "Has she even seen the mutts at La Push? This isn't accurate at all."

"Rosalie, it's just a movie." Edward hissed, sliding his hand along the girl's shoulder. Rose realized that she'd looked back in their direction with her question, and growled lightly at him before turning back to the screen. "She knows very well that this is complete fiction."

"Why would you need something that hates you to guard you during the day? You don't burn up like they do, and that would be stupid. If the animosity is as bad as it is here... or Jacob's reaction to you even coming up in conversation... wolves would be as likely to let you burn or be hunted as kill whatever they were set to guard against." Isabella reasoned, and Rosalie stiffened lightly. "Edward, too much."

"Apologies." He murmured, just barely within human hearing, and Rosalie clenched her fists. "Better?"

"A bit." There was another long pause for the sounds of the movie to take over, and Rosalie nearly shot up when she heard the next words. "It still feels more possessive than intimate."

"Apologies again." His words were almost too quiet for the human to hear, but Rosalie's eyes were wide and dark with anger. This was not happening. They were not discussing what was appropriate as possessiveness or intimacy in front of the whole family... it was not even a subject to discuss. Next to her, Jasper growled as he struggled with her emotions.

"Why are you being possessive, Edward? She's not your pet, you've said that enough." Rose snapped finally, standing quickly and moving further away from Jasper. It wouldn't do for both of them to become overly upset. Edward growled at her, and Isabella slapped him on the back of the head. It only resulted in her cradling her hand and hissing at him to behave, but Rose's eyebrow arched. "Or are you her pet now?"

"It's an experiment." Isabella offered to her, carefully looking at her hand where it had connected with his head, not noticing Emmett pausing the movie and turning to look at them curiously. Carlisle and Esme were watching discreetly as well. The bronze-haired vampire was still glaring at her, a growl low enough for Isabella to not hear rumbling. "Edward, I know you're still growling even if I can't hear it. She's growling back." She tried to push his hand from where it had come to rest on her knee, and found his arm unmovable. "Edward."

"Fucking hell she wants you to stop touching her, understand?" Rosalie snapped, sneering at him. Edward yanked his hand away quickly, eyes wide. "I'm going upstairs. Jasper, you should as well. If he snaps you'll be just as bad from feeding off of him." She didn't hear the other vampire join her, but she did see Alice move onto the couch and slide Isabella discreetly away from Edward as she left the room.

I

"Can I play with your hair?" The question startled her, and she glanced at Alice, barely paying any mind to the movie that was once again running. Edward was sitting a good two feet away, watching her warily more than the movie itself. Likely he was silently panicking over the fact that he had not moved away when she'd tried to push his hand off. Really she'd just wanted to put space between them to calm him down, she hadn't felt frightened of him. Swallowing, and trying not to think about the confrontation, or the way that Rose had been glaring at their closeness, she nodded. Alice's cold fingers slowly threaded through her hair, and her eyes fluttered shut. "Your hair is so soft for a human's."

"Hmm..." Izzy mumbled, shivering slightly. This felt really good. If she wasn't afraid that Edward would pull by accident, or cling, she'd ask him to do it too, just to see if she enjoyed it as much. Alice said something else, but she didn't fully understanding, simply humming again. The hand stopped moving through her hair. "Wha?"

"I was asking if you were enjoying yourself." Alice giggled, amber eyes dancing as Isabella lazily looked at her, completely ignoring Edward's presence. "If you were a cat, you would have been purring." Cold fingers ran through her hair again, gently brushing her scalp, and Isabella smirked, letting out her best imitation of a purr. Alice pulled her hand away, giggling and covering her mouth in an attempt to smother it. Izzy, as a result, turned bright red. "We're sorry about Rose."

"It's alright." Isabella mumbled, glancing at where Edward was torn between pouting and smiling at her. Stop grinning like a loon.

"Jasper, why are you practically in Emmett's lap?" Edward asked, without even looking in the other two vampires' direction. Isabella glanced that way and blushed brightly again. Jasper was seated on the floor next to Emmett, leaning comfortably against him, eyes still as dark as they'd been when Rosalie had left.

Fine, I thought Rosalie getting upset was hot, and he's probably reacting to that. You're an ass. Isabella huffed and curled into herself, arms folded. A visible shiver went through her when Alice began stroking and playing with her hair again in an attempt to placate her. Edward laughed, and she clenched her jaw. Shut up. I feel like a fucking cat.

"Alice, I think you should stop, before Jazz starts rubbing against Emmett like a... erm... 'fucking cat' was it?" He laughed more, and Isabella snorted. "Was that how you thought you felt?"

"Shush." She mumbled, and smiled, unable to help herself. "You're interrupting the petting." Alice started giggling again.

TBC