Chapter Ten

"Porch swing installed," Edward said proudly. "Check."

"Perfect sunset," Bella added as they both sat down on the newly-installed swing. "Check."

He draped his arm over her shoulder and nuzzled into her. "Woman of my dreams," he murmured. "Check, check, check." He began to graze his lips along her neck politely, but not as neatly as it could have been.

"You're gonna miss the sunset," she warned him as she carefully put her hands in his hair before he felt the need to remove them.

"Just another twilight," he said with a shrug. "I've got plenty of those."

The disagreement edged toward the tip of her tongue. You'd have more if you changed back. Instead, she held her tongue. There was no need to be hostile right here, right now.

He planted soft, warm kisses along her cheeks and neck. Since things had been heavier concerning Renesmee and Jacob, Edward and Bella had grown lighter. Too much darkness would be overwhelming for everybody.

Bella and Edward talked a little more, and touched a little more. He didn't have a huge problem with her touching him as long as she followed the golden rule: he was only allowed to do most of the touching. When she didn't move, things worked just fine. He didn't end up bruised and she didn't end up feeling shameful.

Bella, stiff as a board, had gone over the motions in her head tens of hundreds of thousands of times, and she was finally brave and mature enough to let it go a bit. Hostility had taken over her, and it was far past time to abandon it. She was a fighter and always had been one when it came to the serious things, but she knew Edward enough to know that he didn't like to lose. Way deep down, Edward hated to lose. He would fight till the death, and he would fight dirty, where it really got under her seemingly impenetrable skin. How could Bella ever compete with that? It was terrifying - absolutely treacherous - to think about, but she knew him enough. She knew him and could get under his skin just as much, but she never should have thought she was going to win.

So she let him win. Every chaste kiss to the cheek and neck was a little ribbon or trophy for him; he got to have her however he wanted, in the dosages of his choosing. What a villain.

Bella watched the late-September sunset. They only had so long until the leaves would shed from the trees to get ready for winter, and she didn't want to miss it. Living vicariously through Edward's mortality, she liked to watch the sunsets and daybreaks these days. He liked her best when she enjoyed the little human simplicities with him. He might have even loved her.

He stopped kissing her and turned to watch the sunset. It was a little hard to do because of the trees in the way, but still very possible. He continued to have his arm around her shoulder, and she snuggled her cheek up to his dark blue cotton shirt under his black windbreaker.

"When you say I'm the woman of your dreams," Bella began, "is it because you actually dream of me?"

"I do," Edward replied.

"Is that what you love the most about being human? Dreaming?"

"Yes, absolutely. It's one of my favorite parts of being human."

"Parts?" Bella asked with raised eyebrows. "You mean you haven't decided on just one thing yet?"

"As in, I haven't decided that dreaming of you is my favorite part?" Edward challenged playfully.

"You said it, not me," she said defensively. "But enlighten me. What are you favorite parts, aside from dreaming?"

"Well, there's finally feeling warm, as well as sleeping. I love being able to sit here on the porch swing during the sunset with you, and actually feel it. I feel everything now. And of course, dreaming of you. My dreams are always about you now that I can have them. Those are some of the top things."

Reasonable, since you're you. "Tell me your favorite."

"And you won't get mad?" he asked warily.

Shit, at least you still care. "I won't get mad," she promised. "I don't get mad about all that anymore, and you already know that. So tell me your favorite part of being human. Just one thing."

"I love to eat more than anything else."

They both busted out into a fit of laughter, on the porch swing, as the sun set. It was Edward's perfect dream, and Bella's now adequate reality. And it worked, even though it didn't. And that was so amazing to both of them.

Once the laughs died down along with the sky, Bella looked up and stared at Edward's profile, and she realized he wasn't plain anymore. He wasn't as gorgeous as he had been prior to last March, but he was still somewhat beautiful. With a slight tan from summer and some brown stubble along his jaw and chin, he wasn't the smooth, marble-white man she had fallen in love with; he was far from it. But he was still beautiful, just in a different way. She could accept that. Maybe she could even accept him, even though this would never, ever replace the image she had initially fallen for.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked her. At least that hadn't changed; he still didn't have the slightest clue of what was going on in her head, and for now, it was for the better.

"I'm thinking of how beautiful you are," she told him.

"Right now, when I'm human?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Back in your day, you could have had nearly anyone you wanted. Anybody in the whole world, when I think about it."

He finally turned to look at her. "Bella, my whole world is right here with me."

She made herself believe him, and she considered herself lucky.

She also considered herself loved again. She never would have thought that would happen once she let go of her malevolence, and that was a beautiful, amazing thing to her.

A/N: That was just a short, light, not-that-angsty moment to get out of the way. Also, according to my plot sheets, we're almost halfway through the story, since Act I is almost done. Bear with me. There's more to this to just angst. (There is also drama.)

Until the next update (which should be pretty soon),

HS