Cupid's Bow
Chapter 19
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We're settling down for our sixth night of sleep – I've grown used to resting out in the open, probably because the soft is more comfortable than any bed I've slept on before – when Edward unexpectedly blurts out – "Thing."
Startled, my recently shut eyes snap open, and I stare at the darkness in front of me, heart racing.
The Thing? It's here? Now?
Tremulous, I whisper, "What?"
"Thing," Edward repeats from close behind me. "F-find thing… tomorrow."
Tomorrow, he'd said that the first night. I had wanted it to be true then, but that 'tomorrow' had never surfaced. Now, there seems to be something different about the way he says it, not that I'd have a clue how to define it. And now, I'm not sure I…
"Bel-la," Edward says softly, thankfully interrupting my fragments before they can become thoughts. I feel his hand on my shoulder, and the heat from his palm distracts me, makes me pliant to his gentle persistence. I'm rolled over from my side onto my back, and even though it's dark, the gleam from his eyes is clear. "Bel-la f…find thing… Bel-la g-go… home?"
I blink up at him, finding his words strange – too familiar. I'd been repeating that mantra in my head for a while and then I'd just… stopped. When had I stopped?
"Yes," I tell him, quietly, still blinking.
The gleam lessens – dims. "Bel-la home… n-not here?"
I blink up at him some more, wondering about his sudden insightfulness. And then, unbidden, my mind tumbles over moments – so many in such a short space of time – of exactly this. With a start I realise I'm only recognising it now because he's being so suddenly verbal with it. Guilt rears with the realisation that my prejudices had discredited him – again. His actions had always been as meaningful as my speech, and I hadn't really understood that before now.
In the end, all I can do is shake my head, no.
The gleam in his eyes disappears.
His reply is a whispered, "Oh."
A tightness forms in my stomach as he disappears from view, which steadily migrates to rough beats in my chest, packing it full of tight, insurmountable knots as I stare up at the sheltering trees above. I wonder if he'd find these little nooks of privacy to sleep in I weren't tagging along with him, I think, and then answer myself a second later, no, he probably wouldn't.
The tangled mess in my chest moves up to my throat, making it thick with feeling. Turning my head to the side, I squeeze my eyes shut and fist my hands into the soft, echoes of Thing and home and oh ricocheting around in my mind. I breathe and breathe and breathe, matching it to the other I can hear in the space.
He's near, even though I can't see him. I know this because he always sticks closer than usual in the dark.
I've never told him, but I'm glad. The night-time here is complete pitch – full in a way not present on Earth. So it's comforting to feel more keenly that I'm not completely alone in the dark, despite what my eyes see, or actually, don't.
Unexpectedly, I feel his hand on my stomach, but before I can so much as blink in surprise I'm on my side again, my face cocooned in Edward's neck and his arms around me like two securing vines.
My breathing stutters before it stops all together.
Probably feeling the sudden tenseness in my body, he makes soft shushing sounds before letting one of his hands sink into my hair, his fingers doing ridiculously good feeling things to my scalp. Breathing returns with a quiet gasp, and I let myself melt.
My body is sponge-soft in his arms.
The need to get away, to be untouched is absent. It was never a question on Earth, to be held or hugged, because there was never a need for it. We could be grouped or we could be singular, but we could never be… together – not like this.
Edward doesn't say a word as his body twines with mine, heating it in places I never knew were cold. The guilty part of me is glad for his silence, because now I can't help but think that his speech has only ever been for my sake; to communicate with me.
"I'm sorry," I whisper into his neck, tensing despite myself.
"Shh," is Edward's hushed reply, gentle as the fingers combing through my hair.
In the dark, I find my bravery. Carefully wiggling my hands out from where they'd been trapped between us, I – tentatively, at first – wind my arms around his shoulders. I let my fingers touch his skin, finding it cooler under the stars than the sun, but just as smooth; lines forming under my fingertips, firm slopes of muscle elongated by his stature.
In the dark, I do as Edward always does; I speak through touch.
OoOoOo
OoOoOoOo
OoOoOo
The morning comes, bright and hot as always.
Blinking my eyes open against the light, I find myself momentarily confused by the clammy-closeness of my skin. Bewildered, I blink multiple times, trying to clear the fog.
Light tickles on my back and shoulder. Wrinkling my nose in distaste, I shrug a little, shifting my body as I try to –
"Bel-la awake." Husky, deep, amused.
I freeze.
Oh, I mouth… into his neck. Edward's neck.
My arms are still twined about him, but my hands must have migrated north sometime during the night, as now they're sunk deep into the soft strands of his hair. I don't need to look to know the position of my body, and the position of his, because my skin is superimposed with feeling.
My legs, his legs. My chest, his chest. My hands, his hair. His hands, my back. My face, his neck. His face, my hair…
"I – I'm awake," I mumble pointlessly, not knowing whether it's an indirect: let me up! Or a lamentation over that fact.
I can feel Edward's hum; it vibrates against my cheek and makes goosebumps pop up everywhere. Rather than moving, as I expect him and me to do, his hands just slide into my hair again, making my eyes almost cross at how nice it feels.
"Gah," I gabble-moan, my hands automatically tightening in Edward's own hair.
Still bleary from sleep and touching, my mind wanders away from itself and is replaced with a warm, fuzzy sensation. My sigh is long and weighted as it drifts across his neck, my hands clammy and slipping through a different kind of soft.
"Bel-la," Edward murmurs, his lips a feather-soft brush against my ear and then we're suddenly up, and I'm weightless for a minute.
When we resurface, he's hugging me tight, a million and one different words in his touch.
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A/N: *hugs you all tightly*