"And when you tell me you love me,

I can actually see it.

Your breath frozen in the air,

Newborn droplets of ice.

You were the one thing I got right."

-You in January, The Wonder Years

()()()

And so, without even an argument, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's.

Jacob as much as mentioned it to Ivy and she jumped at the chance - if I told her know, she would've thought I was a witch, and not the good kind. So we sat in the car for half an hour, dancing to the radio and singing too loud. Jacob kept one hand on the wheel, the other on my thigh, and I watched Ivy in the backseat.

She wasn't wearing a seatbelt, but then again neither was I. We both trusted Jacob, maybe a little too much. Reluctantly, without her noticing, I glanced back and, using telepathy, crossed her seatbelt over her and locked it shut. Ivy didn't even glance at me, her eyes closed tightly as she sang along to Justin Bieber.

I didn't even think about clicking my own seatbelt into place, I just leaned over to turn up the radio louder, Jacob giving me an annoyed look. He looked in the rearview mirror, seeing Ivy enjoy herself, and couldn't help but smile. He didn't bother to turn it back down.

We pulled off the road into the parking lot, already packed with cars. It was 4 o'clock on a Friday, and I didn't know what I expected. Ivy was already jumping up and down with anticipation.

"Can we go in?" She shouted, running out of the car.

Jacob leaned over to kiss me on the cheek.

"Are you coming in, Rena?" He teased, pouting a little.

"You look like a damn dog," I swatted at him, trying not to laugh as he howled. "Yeah, why not."

I climbed out of the car as well, teetering in my small heels, and allowed Jacob to catch up with Ivy. He raced up behind her, plucking her off the ground and pulling her onto his shoulders, smiling as she giggled.

"Put her down before you get inside, you giant!" I called after him, worrying he might smack her against the glass doorframe. Sometimes he forgot his own height.

Even from back here, I could hear Ivy babbling on about The BFG, a story she was reading in school, who reminded her of Jacob. I tried not to laugh - Jacob was a storybook character alright, just not that kind.

I hurried to catch up with them, Jacob and Ivy already getting their hands stamped by a young, pimply boy.

He took one look at me and his eyes turned hungry.

"I'm with them," I said breathlessly, nodding towards Jacob and Ivy.

"Brothers and sisters?" He said optimistically, and I tried not to laugh.

"The blonde is my little sister, Jacob is - "

"Her boyfriend," He growled, putting an arm around me and pulling so tightly I was nearly, literally, swept off my feet. I tried not to lash out at him, angry that he'd handled me like I was an object, his own personal rag doll.

But it worked and the boy swallowed, looking at Jacob's towering figure, and held up his hands in defense.

"Just making conversation." He smiled, turning to the customers behind us.

Jacob nodded, leading Ivy and I to the play area.

"The growl was unnecessary," I mentioned as he set Ivy up with a bunch of tokens.

"You did call me a dog earlier," He reminded me, winking as Ivy ran off to play.

"C'mon, let's get a table."

Conveniently, it looked like our waiter would also be male. He avoided all eye contact with me, probably tipped off by the teenager at the door, and stared at the ground. We ordered two pizzas, knowing Jacob would likely hog at least one of them for himself.

We sat in the corner booth, his arm around me, watching Ivy play.

"Thank you for doing this," I told him. "She's never really had someone do anything like this before."

"She's had you," Jacob shrugged. "She loves you, Rena, even if she doesn't act like it."

"Please," I teased him. "You're her new favorite person. Her dad passed away when she was little, and other than that you're the only guy she's ever had around."

Jacob nodded, clenching his jaw.

"I'd like to keep it that way, you know?" He smiled, but it felt forced.

"Oh, Gods," I moaned. "This was supposed to be a fun night out, what's gone and made you pissy?"

"He keeps looking at you, Serena." Jacob sighed, nodding towards the teenager at the door again.

"Jacob, he's a kid." I shook my head, grabbing at his face. "You're the one I want, alright? Don't go pulling all of this territorial bullshit on what's supposed to be such a good night."

"He needs to know that you're mine," Jacob said. I could feel his anger radiating off him, his body heating up.

Fucking A, he was going to shift in the middle of a Chuck E. Cheese.

"Outside, Jacob." I ordered, sliding out of the booth just as our pizza came. I mumbled to the waitress to leave it on the table, and showed Jacob to the back door.

"I'm not leaving you in there with him."

"Go out and calm down before you make a scene and scare Ivy." I said, glaring at him. "I just praised you for how good you were to her, just told you how much she adored you. Turning into a fucking wolf in front of her isn't going to give you any brownie points."

As a last resort, in this deserted back hallway of Chuck E Cheese, I leaned up and kissed him, firmly and fully, like I had that night in the woods.

It still didn't work, and he continued to shake.

"I'll wait here until you're done," I opened the back door, praying an alarm wouldn't sound.

It didn't, and I shut it after Jacob was gone.

He was back within 5 minutes, noticably cooler, definitely calmer. If it wasn't for his duck jacket being zipped up all the way, I never would've realized he'd even shifted. He must've been in the middle of stripping when it happened.

Smirking a little, I realized how attractive that sentence would've been had it not ended with Jacob turning into a giant wolf.

I shook my head, feeling Jacob reach for my hand - his possessiveness was getting more than a little out of hand. It was starting to remind me of what my mother said all those weeks ago, about him being a time bomb. I tried to rid her from my thoughts. Hopefully he was done for the night.

When we got back to the table Ivy was already there, pulling a slice of cheese pizza onto her paper plate. Without even glancing over at the teenager who'd been eyeing me most of the night, Jacob rushed to sit beside Ivy.

"Did you start eating without us?" He teased, reaching for the entirety of his own meat lovers pizza.

"I didn't know where you went." She shrugged, looking over at me and producing a long string of tickets. "Look how many I got so far, Rena!"

"Woah," I smiled. "That's a lot of tickets!"

We finished eating and I took her up to exchange her tickets for prizes. She got a small purse, one she was very excited about. When we turned around Jacob was there, my purse and his car keys in hand.

"We need to go home," He said quickly, quietly ushering us out of the restaurant.

"Why?" Ivy pouted, but Jacob looked at me when he answered.

"It's starting. The Cullens say they will be here tomorrow morning." He said, his eyes dark.

That's why he was so close to changing, that's why he was so nervous the whole night. Sam had been feeding him information, little facts, and Jacob was ready to get Ivy and me out of town.

Breathlessly, I nodded. We'd be home soon, and Ivy and I would pack to go. We'd stay somewhere else for the weekend, somewhere farther North, where the army wasn't. The vampires weren't looking for us, anyway, they didn't know about us.

I could see in the way he looked at me that he wanted nothing more than to come with us, but Jacob had promised to keep La Push safe. I leaned across the center of the car, laying my head in his lap as he drove, lacing an arm around my shoulders.

Ivy was quiet in the backseat, pulling out her backpack and starting on her homework. The car was silent.