Chapter 11
Bella sat at the kitchen table, periodically glancing at the seemingly unmoving clock. It was already half-seven, and the sun had almost set, but Nami still wasn't home. Charlie had arrived home over half an hour ago, but didn't seem too worried about her baby sister. He had told her that Nami was a big girl and could take care of herself.
She jumped up when she heard the front door open, and ran out to the hallway as fast as she dared. Nami was there, her hand behind her having just closed the door, and shaking her head to get the water out like a dog. Bella hadn't even realised it was raining, but she wasn't surprised - it rained most of the time here, from what she could tell.
Nami glanced up from where her gaze was resting on the floor when a pair of feet came into her vision. She ended up looking into her sister's eyes. They were looking at her, and Nami smiled when she saw the relief in them.
"Sorry I was out so late. I fell asleep." Nami said, walking up to her sister, and wrapping her arms around the brown-haired girls waist.
Bella laughed, knowing the girl had a tendency to fall asleep outside, before a thought occurred to her and she wrapped her own arms tightly around her little sister's shoulders.
"Are you saying that you fell asleep outside in the rain?" She felt Nami shake her head against her chest.
"No, it only started raining half an hour ago, and it woke me up."
Bella sighed, resigned she wasn't going to get anything else out of her little sister.
Nami sat on her bed a few hours later, staring at Bella as she slept. Sighing, Nami crossed her legs and lent her elbow on her knee, cupping her chin with her hand. Even though she knew it was necessary, she didn't like lying to her sister.
Nami jumped when she felt a pair of cold, strong arms wrap around her shoulders, and sighed once she realised who it was. She knew that had she been paying attention, she would have been able to sense the vampire when he was outside, but she had been concentrating on her sister and her thoughts, and hadn't been paying much attention to anything else.
Jasper tightened his arms around his mate when he heard her sigh. He didn't know what she was thinking, but by the way she was looking at her sister, it was about Bella. He, himself, had doubts about the brown-haired girl, as did the rest of the family. Unlike him and Nami, Bella and Edwards mate bond was different, mostly because Bella was also Edward's blood singer, which had a big effect on the mating ritual because of the vampire having to resist the blood of his/her mate and singer. Jasper's mate wasn't his singer, so he didn't have the same problem. He was also older than Edward, and had more experience with these sort of things, having had to have dealt with them when he was still in Maria's army, and the vampires found their mate, which, whilst admittedly rare, did happen from time to time in the years he was there.
Nami smiled slightly when she felt the tightening his arms around her shoulders and leaned back into his chest, resting her head on his shoulder. Her smile widened when she felt him kiss the top of her head.
Sighing tiredly once more, she wriggled out of Jasper's grasp and lay down on her bed, Jasper reaching down to pull up the covers before she could. He then settle on top of the covers and layed his arm on top of both the duvet and her waist. She could feel his short bursts of breath fanning across her ear, and she smiled, twisting her legs until they were twisting in the duvet, nuzzled her pillow and closed her eyes to go to the land of dreams.
Bella was startled out of her sleep when she heard a quiet shout. Blinking sleepily, it took a whimper for her to sit up, and another for her to recognise where it came from.
Scrambling out of her bed, she quickly ran over to her sisters, and bit her lip when she saw her sister crying in her sleep, her small body twisted up in the blankets. Putting more pressure on her lip, Bella hesitantly reached out to shake her sisters shoulder, becoming rougher the longer that it took Nami to wake up.
Nami sat up with a gasp, her breathing coming in short, shallow gasps that had Bella sitting down next to her sister and rubbing her back.
Nami looked around, her eyes wide and a layer of tears clouding them. She stared at Bella uncomprehendingly, not really seeing her older sister sitting in front of her. Blinking rapidly, Nami took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, but it only served to make her brain give her the memories of her nightmare;
She was running. She could feel the branches of trees cutting into her skin, small cuts appearing on her face, blood running down her cheeks. She could hear it behind her, coming closer. She wasn't fast enough to out run it, not strong enough to fight it, not calm enough to manipulate it. She skidded to a stop when she reached a clearing, a group of cloaked men standing in front of her, their hoods creating enough shadows to hide their faces.
She spun around, saw them closing in on her, forming a tight circle around her. She could feel the blood mingling with her tears, could hear her heart beating, could see the men become blurry through her tears.
They came closer and closer, moving together, never breaking formation. She spun around wildly, not wanting to believe this was happening again.
She froze, eyes wide when she heard a pain-filled, gut-wrenching scream fill the air.
"Naruto!"
And then it stopped. The old memory had haunted her for weeks after it had happened, this nightmare bringing up never forgotten feelings from that time. The fear that Naruto wouldn't make it, that Sasuke wouldn't be able to live through loosing his mate, that she would be captured to, that the mission would be messed up, that the men would take over. But they had pulled through, they had won the war they had been fighting for months before that encounter, she had found Naruto, and others had found them.
But this nightmare hadn't carried on to show her that, hadn't gone on to show her that she and Naruto were fine, that they won. Instead it stopped when she was surrounded, captured, scared out of her mind for herself and Naruto, it conveyed the heart shattering fear she felt, the deep, never-ending sadness, the feeling of just wanting to give up, the feeling of hopelessness, that she was useless to help.
Bella watched as her sister started to calm down, not stopping her reassuring patting on Nami's back. Bella frowned when Nami's head rose, and she looked into her little sister's eyes. They were still slightly unfocused, and filled with horrible, soul deep sadness.
Pulling her sister to her, Bella hugged the small blond to her body, wanting nothing more than to comfort her little sister at this moment.
