Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight characters, they all belong to Stephenie Meyer

Author's Note: this is dedicated to crimson-goth-girl…I hope your day got better! soz this is kinda delayed…

Chapter 12:Games Night

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Alice shrieked down the phone. I was taking the opportunity to call her while Edward was making dinner. For once, I was at the same level of enthusiasm as her.
"Ohmigosh, this is perfect. Okay, you, Eddie, my house, 7pm, tomorrow night. Be there," Alice ordered.
"Wait, what? Alice, what?" But she didn't hear me because she had already hung up. I sighed, knowing that there was no way we could back out of it as long as Alice was involved. I turned towards the door to see Edward, leaning on one of the door posts, taking the kitchen gloves off.
My smile opened even wider.
"Alice has us booked for tomorrow night. Apparently we're going over to her place," I said as I dropped my phone onto my bed and made my way towards the door. Edward reached out and pushed me against the adjacent wall, kissing my neck as I giggled.
"Well, then. I guess we'll have to make up for that tonight" he said against my neck. He slowly kissed his way up to my lips and we kissed for a while until I pulled back, gasping for air.
"Dinner?" I said. Edward pecked me on the lips before taking my hand to lead me down to dinner.
As we sat there that night, enjoying a meal of pesto pasta, I realised that everything seemed the same. It had always been easy between us so we laughed and talked through dinner just as we did before this eventful day. The only difference was that Edward's foot would graze my leg under the table every now and then and at one point as I took a sip of wine, he took my other hand in his and ever so delicately planted a kiss on the top of my knuckles. He placed my hand back on the table and laid his on top, continuing the conversation as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But my heart was leaping out of my skin as I came to the realisation that I, Bella Swan had got the most amazing man sitting right across from me.
That night, I slept in his arms. Well, lay there while he slept – I couldn't sleep, I was so excited. My back was pressed against him as his arms curled around my waist. His knees fitted the shape my legs made and his head was nuzzled into my neck. I could feel his deep breathing as the clock ticked one and my eyes started to droop, marking the end of the best day ever.

At 7pm sharp, Edward and I stood on Alice's doorstep. Edward squeezed my hand in encouragement, giving me a quick smile before Alice flung open the door and came bounding to hug me. I reluctantly let go of Edward's hand to return the hug.
"Come in, come in!" she said, pulling me through the door. Rosalie and her current boy, Emmett, were already there and Jasper entered with snacks, setting them down on the coffee table. I looked around, trying to get a hint at exactly what Alice had planned as she plomped me onto the couch. Edward looked quite relaxed as he sat beside me, putting his arm around and drawing me close, planting a kiss on my cheek. Alice almost blew up with excitement as she saw that but she had to get back to business.
"OK! Thank you all for coming. And now we all have even numbers, welcome to Games Night!!!!" she said excitedly. Unfortunately, her energy was not matched by the rest of us as we looked uneasily at each other. Jasper sighed and shrugged, obviously pulled into this by Alice. She saw the looks on our faces.
"Oh come on guys. It's not going to be that bad. At least pretend to be excited, please?" And so the games night began. We were in teams of our couples and as a warming up game, we played charades. Jasper guessed every single one without fail, putting them in the lead. Rosalie tried continuously to show Emmett Titanic, but he just didn't get it. He guessed the craziest things from Rosalie's actions that had Jasper, Alice, Edward and I rolling on the floor, laughing our heads off. Then it was Edward and my turn. I went up and turned to face Edward. I was never really good at charades, and to me, I found this a test to see how well Edward could get me. I took the first sheet, Wuthering Heights. I bursted out the actions I hoped would help.
"Book. Two words. Second Word. High. Height. Heights…um…Wuthering Heights!" Edward shouted out. I took the next sheet, Dracula. Again, Edward screamed out the answer almost immediately as I pretended to be a vampire. Next, Harry Potter. With so little as a wave of a 'wand', Edward got it again. We continued like this until our time was up, coming close to beating Alice and Jasper's score but not quite there. I was smiling so hard as I returned to the arms of Edward and I could tell that Alice was beaming even more.

The night went on with more games and fun, I don't think I had laughed so hard since that picnic with Edward. Towards the end of the night, the boys were outside having another drink while we girls lounged on the couch. We sat there silently, reminiscing of the night that had been. Then simultaneously, we all burst out in giggles and Rose and Alice started tickling me. I reached for a pillow and started hitting them, starting off an epic pillow fight. We fell back onto the couch in a fit of giggles.
"You know, I always wanted to do a massive paintball war," I said.
"Yeh, me too." Alice sighed.
"There's actually a paintball place near my house. Never been though, always been meaning to go." Rose said.
"Ohmigosh!" Alice gasped and started rushing upstairs. For once, Rose and I had the same idea as her and bounded up the stairs after her. We entered her room to see her chucking clothes at us already. We quickly changed into them, being better for encompassing a wide range of movement. We headed out the door to find the boys staring at us with curious faces.
"What's with the wardrobe? Need a little exercise? I have a better idea than a run," Emmett joked. Alice disregarded his raunchy humour.
"No. We're going paintballing. Boys versus girls. And we're heading out now to the place near Rose's. We'll pay for you boys but don't expect any mercy or fair play just because you're coming late. Tata." And with that we left out the door. The last thing I heard as I shut the door behind us was a mad rush for sneakers and clothes. Stepping into the elevator, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
"Wait, the place would still be open at this time right?" An evil grin spread across Rose's face.
"They'll be closing up as we arrive. But I can get the boys to let us have our personal midnight game."

OK. Think the Greeks vs. the Trojans, Paris and Nicole (pre Madden twins), Angelina vs. Jennifer, even werewolves against the vampires, all in one epic battle and you've got the scale of our paintball war. This was the ultimate battle between good and evil except it was just the three of us, it was pitch black and, theoretically, no one would die tonight. Our game plan was to stick together so we had each other's backs at all times. The boys, apparently had decided to go with the divide and conquer attack because we kept catching the odd movement, sending paintballs firing in that direction until we saw a lone figure run off into the distance. Through super stealth and incomprehensible code signals we moved around the park, trying to find the flag and shooting at any sign of movement. Sticking together also meant that we didn't have the added risk of shooting each other and, personally, helped with the nerves of running around practically blinded by the darkness. We made steady progress, without getting hit too many times and we made it to the flag. Alice took it and hid it in her jacket and we began sprinting back to our station. The shots were firing immediately from every direction. Incomprehensible commands were being shouted between the boys but Rose and I just kept running. Alice was ahead of us, always being light on the feet and we saw her disappear into the distance. Rose was going faster, and me, not naturally athletic, fell behind more with each second that passed. Suddenly, I tripped over my feet and fell right on my face. I started to clamber up to run after Rose but I could feel the shots being fired right in my back. I fell back to the floor but I felt a hand on the small of my back, then one grab my arm, pulling me up. I got up and followed them behind one of the covers. I thought it would be either Alice or Rose, coming back to save me but then they took off their helmet and it was Edward. I took my helmet off too. He immediately crushed his lips to mine.
"Isn't this kind of defeating the purpose of the game? You're supposed to be my enemy," I said as he kissed my neck.
"Oh, all is fair in love and war. And so let's take a break from the war and explore the love instead," and he brought his lips back to mine. But then I pulled back to look in his eyes.
"Wait, did you say?" I had barely registered it but he'd used the word love. Did that mean he loved me? Already? Why? But I decided not to pursue that or it would provoke a very awkward conversation. I could almost imagine it…
Did you say love? Do you love me?

Um no…Bella…It's just a figure of speech. Oh gosh! You don't think I love you do you?

Yes, awkward in every way and to be avoided at all costs.
"Never mind," I whispered against his lips, indulging in another kiss. His hands became a little more adventurous, one hand reaching to undo my zipper. I completely forgot about the paintball war and everything around me as I brought Edward closer. His hands ventured from my stomach around to my back, crossing over and he broke the kiss, nuzzling his head into my neck so that he was now giving me a big hug. He whispered in my ear, "I'm so sorry, Bella." And then he let go and ran off shouting, I would assume, to the boys, "She's clear. It's not on her."
It was then that I realised that this little…episode was just a tactic to try and find the flag. All is fair in love and war, was it? Well, Edward better be ready because now the wrath was upon him.

I came out from behind the cover and saw Edward running across a bare expanse. I held up my gun and aimed, shooting dozens of paintballs right into his back. He turned around, stunned, seeing me with my gun still poised. I shot a dozen more, hitting his stomach and he turned and ran. I went the other way, hoping to get back to the station and warn Rose and Alice if their boys tried something on them. I kept running, with gun ready to shoot anyone in my path namely Edward and could see that the station was only about 20 metres away. With a slightly evil smile on my mouth, I turned around to see Jasper in pursuit of me, spraying him with half a dozen shots before sprinting forth. I could hear Emmett shouting off to my right and I shot a few shots in that general direction while I kept running. I could see that Alice and Rose were both safely at the station already. With less than 10 metres to go, I sprinted, faster than I had ever thought could be possible of me and reached the station with a relay of shots following me. I ran right into Alice's arms.
"What took you so long Bella?" Alice said, mock crossly.
"There was a slight complication. But that's been taken care of. You still have the flag?" I managed to say between pants.
"Well, Jasper did come to take it off me. But he doesn't realise, that I know him much better than he thinks and let's just say he won't be trying to cross me some time soon." And with that she pulled the flag out of…somewhere…and waved it high in the air as we all screamed in victory. Suddenly big stadium lights turned on all around the field, illuminating the field we had spent the last hour or so trying to navigate in the dark. The boys were scattered near our station, ripping off their masks in disappointment as we did our happy, victory dances with the flag.