Chapter 21: The Princess Bride

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its related characters or story elements. I have simply twisted them to my own uses.

This is the last chapter! Goodbyes, thank yous, and other Academy Awards-type speechmaking at the end. I'll try to keep it under 45 seconds.

EPOV

Bella and I began looking for apartments the next day. It was slow going. She was torn most of the time between the sensible part of her brain that said we needed something small and simple and the other part of her brain that wanted to take her money out for a spin to see what it could do. We looked at some apartments even worse than the one Emmett and I had been living in, and some that would have impressed even Rosalie for sheer luxury. Finally, she enlisted the help of my mother and a real estate agent, and ultimately her financial advisor, Jane Caius, who suggested buying a house rather than renting, arguing that the market was ripe for making investments in real estate.

"Are we ready to buy a house, though?" Bella asked me that night. "I mean, that's a pretty hefty commitment."

Mentally, I had to agree with her; for us as a couple, it was probably too soon to be buying houses and putting down roots. For me, in particular, it was a near impossibility; I didn't have any kind of nest egg I could put into a property. I'd been counting on splitting rent with Bella, holding up my end of a lease, my share of the bills, et cetera. My ego would not permit me to let her foot all my bills as well as her own. My sabbatical year was almost over, and I would be going back to teaching full-time, but regardless, my income would be nothing compared with Bella's net worth. I was at a loss; I wanted to be with Bella and share in her dreams, but suddenly I was all too aware that I couldn't actually afford that kind of lifestyle.

"You can always rent it out later, you know," I said, deliberately not answering her question. "I mean, if it's an investment, it'll be something you can keep or sell or do as you please with, right?"

She tilted her head and looked at me quizzically.

"There were an awful lot of 'yous' in that sentence and not one 'we,' Mr. Masen." She frowned. "I thought we were in this together?"

"Of course we are." I smiled at her as sincerely as I could. "I just want you to be happy, baby." The man's answer to any sticky situation. It never failed.

Until now.

"That is a load of bullshit and you know it, Edward." She shook her head. "I can read you like a book, so don't try any of that 'placating the missus' crap with me. Talk to me."

I rubbed my face and dragged my hands through my hair. "It's nothing, Bella."

She stared at me and waited, eyebrows raised. Then she turned on the look. The only look she had that truly scared me. The look that said "Do as I say or there will be no sex for you!"

"Fine," I spat. "The thing is, Bella, I'm…well, the truth is I'm a bit intimidated by the money."

"Intimidated?"

"Well, yeah, babe. I mean, I want to be able to take care of you, or at least support you and share your life equally. But you really don't need me in that way anymore. I'm not equal anymore. If you want to buy a house, you can just buy a house. I can't even afford a down payment! If you wanted to take a trip across Europe, I'd have to stay behind and work."

"I'd never go on a trip without you, Edward. I'd pay your way if you couldn't."

She didn't get it.

"That's my point, Bella. I can't let you do that. I can't be the kind of man who is kept by his woman. This isn't Breakfast at Tiffany's, and you're not my patroness, covering my expenses so I can write."

"Suddenly I've gone from Holly GoLightly to Mrs. Failenson?" she asked. I was impressed she even knew the character's name. One more reason why I loved her.

"No, of course not. It's just—I don't want to hold you back, Bells. I don't want to be the baggage you have to carry around now. You're free to be whoever you want to be, do or see whatever you want, go anywhere in the world and just live. But I'm still me. I'm still just Edward Masen, film professor."

"Is that what you want to be, Edward? Is that what makes you happy?"

I thought about it. I'd been thinking about it for the past few days. With life slowly getting back to normal and Bella and I trying to figure out how we fit together in this new reality, I'd been taking stock of a lot of things in my life. I hadn't let go of the realization I'd had when she agreed to move in with me: I knew now that sometime very soon I would want to ask Bella to marry me.

"I don't know anymore," I answered honestly. "When I took my sabbatical, I was fired up about writing my book. But you came along, and all of this insanity happened, and things look different from this side, you know?"

I glanced at her, and her face was twisted in an odd expression, almost—hurt?

"So you're telling me that my being in your life has—what, ruined your life?"

"What? No! I didn't mean that, Bella, I swear." How could she think that? "I just meant that meeting you, falling in love with you, and then dealing with everything has changed my perspective on what I want from my life. I want to be with you, Bella. I want us to find the perfect place and settle down together into a normal, happy life. But…I guess I'm worried that I won't be enough for you now."

She opened her mouth to interrupt, but I kept going.

"I know what you're going to say, baby. I know you don't feel that way. I know you love me and want to be with me. Believe me, I know it in my heart. But I want to take care of you, Bella. I want to be the person you turn to for all things. And my head is having trouble wrapping itself around the idea that, financially at least, you will never need me in that way. I will never be able to give you anything you can't buy for yourself."

She studied me for a minute. I wondered and feared what words she might be composing in her mind as she pulled her lip between her teeth and narrowed her eyes.

"At the risk of sounding horribly cliché, Edward, there's a lot more to life than money. I spent most of the past year living a shell of an existence just to gain money I neither earned nor deserved. Don't you think it weighs on me as well? I haven't forgotten what you said to me the day you found out about all this, when you said the money made it seem like what Rose and I went through was no big deal as long as we got paid."

"I wasn't implying that you—" She waved me off.

"I know you didn't mean it that way, but I have to admit, it was hard to hear. And now here we are, and the money is mine, and it's tainted in more ways than I could even have imagined. Not only does it represent that horrible night in the library, but it makes me feel like a high-class prostitute as well. Add to that what I've just had to go through with James, and the reward, or revenge I suppose, that was the focus of my entire world for so long is now both monumental and inconsequential to me at the same time."

"I don't understand."

"What I'm saying is that I have this enormous wealth, and it's overwhelming and exhausting and requires more thought and attention than I could ever have expected. It's a mere fraction of what Rosalie is dealing with, yet it weighs on me because it's nothing I've ever experienced before. I'm not like Rose. I don't expect the finer things in life. I don't need designer labels and a fancy car and homes in every hemisphere. I don't have the foggiest clue what to do with it. It has no meaning for me, except as a means of securing my future while I figure myself out."

She brushed aside the clutter of printouts and booklets advertising homes and condos and apartments and straddled my lap, resting her forearms on my shoulders and looking me in the eye.

"But if my having it meant losing you, I would give it all to Rose, or to charity, or hell, even back to that prick Royce in a fucking heartbeat. I need you. The one thing you can give me that I'll never be able to buy is your love. That is the gift I'll always want and the gift no one else can give me. You've taken care of my heart, my mind, and my body in more ways than I'll ever be able to repay you, no matter how much I have in the bank. You saved my life. You gave me a life and a reason to live it."

I kissed her, long and hard. She tightened her arms around my neck. After several long minutes I pulled away, and she whimpered a little in complaint.

"I just want to be everything for you, Bella," I said. "I want us to be partners in everything."

"Well, you know, there's a simple solution for that."

I was confused. "What's that?"

She blushed and stared down at her fingers.

"Marry me," she said.

BPOV

Oh God, did I really just say that out loud?

It's not like I hadn't considered the idea of Edward and I someday getting married. I loved him. But I also knew that we'd been together only a very short time, barely a handful of months, and none of that time had been spent living any kind of normal existence. There was still so much we needed to learn about ourselves and each other. We didn't know for sure yet how the pieces of our regular, daily lives were even going to look, let alone how they would fit together.

But from the moment I drunkenly danced into Edward's arms and he stepped into my life, I'd felt whole. It had taken a long time to recognize it for what it was, because of all the noise and drama and history that had come between us, but the gaping holes in my existence that Jacob and James and Royce had left behind were healed by Edward's presence. I'd meant what I said to him—I'd been living nothing more than an imitation of life, a pantomime of what I thought life should be, even before that night in the library. I'd done my duty as a daughter and a wife and pursued professional ambitions I thought I should achieve in order to fill in the blanks on some invisible life chart.

Having my marriage fall apart and thus losing my home, followed weeks later by the loss of my career, my faith in people, and my overall sense of security, had severely damaged my self-image. It had left me aimless, unsure of where I fit in the world and what I was capable of. In that state I'd latched onto Rosalie and the promise of riches, and in the process I'd handed over the reins to her and allowed myself to be led down roads that neither filled the voids nor gave me any lasting happiness.

Until she led me to Edward. For which I would be grateful to her forever.

Yet marriage? Now? Already? And in my case, again? We hadn't even begun to spend the money and already it was coming between us. I had no problem taking care of him, but it was clear he would have none of that. I certainly didn't want to emasculate him. The logical solution, then, would be to split the money. Make it ours instead of mine.

The question hung between us. I was both horrified at myself for suggesting it and desperate to know his answer. Was I even serious in asking?

What if he said yes?

Was I ready to get married again? I had no idea.

Until he answered.

Then I knew both how very much I wanted to be his wife, and how very deeply he could hurt me.

"No, Bella."

I was incapable of thought or reaction or movement. My entire body locked down in preparation for the tidal wave that would no doubt drown me once my heart remembered how to function again.

If it ever remembered.

"Oh." The sound that passed my lips was really only the release of what little air was left in my lungs. It had the shape of a word, but there was no conscious thought behind it.

"Bella!" I was vaguely aware that he was talking to me. I was watching his lips move, but they made no sense. He didn't want me. Not the way I wanted him, at least. "Bella, baby, please!"

I realized that I was still straddling him. It seemed suddenly inappropriate. He didn't want me.

"I'm sorry," I said mechanically as I moved to stand. But I was still unable to lift myself off of him. I felt heavy. My arms had become leaden. My head fell forward of its own accord, as though it too had become too heavy for my neck to bear.

But a spark of something made me blink once, then twice. There was a strange stutter in my chest.
Something on my mouth.

Lips. Kisses.

Edward.

Edward.

"Bella, please baby, listen to me!" Another kiss. Another. Spark. Spark. An ignition, trying to catch. A smoldering ember trying to burst back into flame. Another fluttering movement in my chest. The taste of honey on my lips. The feel of air returning slowly to my lungs.

My eyes focused. Green. Anxious, watery, glowing green.

"Edward." A whisper.

"Oh thank God." Another kiss. Arms, holding me, pinning me to him. "Bella, please listen to me. I love you. I want to be with you. I promise."

Words, passing through my eardrum, registering in my brain. Another, more definitive thump from my heart. Another. Another. He loved me. He loved me.

"But you said no." My voice. More than a whisper, less than solid sound.

"Bella, I only said no because I don't want it to happen this way. Not as some kind of business arrangement! I love you. And when we promise to love each other forever as husband and wife, I want it to be because of that love and not because of the money."

Not because of the money.

For love. Not for the money.

My heart beat again, my lungs pulled in air, my mind processed his words.

When we promise to love each other forever.

When. Not if.

"You said when." My mouth twitched. My cheeks lifted. "You said when."

"What?"

"You said when we promise to love each other forever. Not if." I was smiling. My heart was beating. He wanted me. He loved me. He said when.

His answering smile dazzled me. "Not if, Bella. I promise. It will happen." He kissed me again. And again. And again. A long silence of mouths and lips and tongues communicating everything that words alone could not possibly express.

He pulled away and touched his forehead to mine before grasping my face in his hands and holding my eyes to his. Another small kiss. A smile.

"And call me old-fashioned, Bella, but I kinda wanna be the one who gets to ask the question."

A laugh—happiness, expectation, anticipation, joy.

EPOV

We settled on a nice apartment and an equal share of the responsibilities. We agreed that the long-term commitment of buying a house put too much pressure on us to define our relationship before we'd truly even begun. We wanted to experience the honeymoon period of getting to know each other in every way possible. I wanted to return to work and get back into the swing of teaching. Bella wanted time to develop the shelter project. We had to learn how to live with each other's quirks and bad habits. We unpacked her books and my movies and argued over which collection deserved greater prominence on our shelves. Her artwork filled the greater part of our walls, but my theater system and large plasma flat panel took the prime spot in the living room. We bought furniture together and argued over colors and fabrics and the necessity of cupholders in the armrests.

"It's a sofa, not a car, Edward!" she argued. "We'll have table space for people to put their drinks down. On coasters."

We bought an enormous king-sized bed for the master bedroom. Having already spent several weeks crammed into Bella's old queen bed, fighting each other for covers and space, we agreed that bigger was definitely better.

"Think of all the fun we can have in a bed this big," I teased her. She laughed. Then her eyes twinkled and her lips pulled into an evil grin.

"Think of how much room we'll have to spare when the kids come in to sleep with us!"

The kids?

"Kids?" My face must have betrayed my shock.

"You don't want kids?" She was biting that damn lip again and eyeing me nervously.

"I…never thought about it, I guess." I watched her face fall slightly, and I reached out to lift her chin with my finger. "That doesn't mean I don't want them, Bella," I said gently. "Do you?"

"I never thought I would," she answered honestly. "With Jacob, he was such a child himself and I was busy with work and climbing the ladder and all that 'important business,' I never thought there would be a place in my life for children. But with you…" she trailed off with a wistful look. "I have visions of redheaded girls and handsome, green-eyed boys. I could be home to raise them and they'd have the best of everything. We'd go on family trips and you and I would grow old together, see them off to college and be there when they fall in love and get married…"

She was rambling, but the pictures she was painting weren't terrifying me the way I thought they would. My brain was suddenly filled with ideas I hadn't considered before. Babies. Bella, round with my child. Playing baseball with a son…or sons. Enlisting Charlie and his guns to frighten boys away from my daughters. Me…a Daddy? I had already imagined how Bella would look someday, walking with Charlie down a long aisle toward me; what if the picture were reversed? What if I were walking down the aisle, my daughter on my arm? Her long brown hair like Bella's, but with my eyes.

I noticed after a moment that Bella had stopped talking, and when I focused on her, she was blushing.

"I'm sorry, Edward. I suppose I've given this a bit of thought." She smiled hesitantly. "I just assumed, I guess, that you wanted kids…"

"How many?" I asked, surprising both of us.

"Um, I don't know, I guess. At least two, maybe more? I guess we'd have to see how we feel. What do you think?"

I pulled her to me, wrapping her tightly in my arms and imagining again her belly swollen with my child. Feeling it kick and move inside her. How beautiful she would look, sweaty and exhausted, with our baby in her arms. A life made from our love.

"I doubt we could stop at two, we'd probably have too much fun making them," I said with a grin, kissing the top of her head. "But that sounds like a perfect beginning for our family."

"And just think of all the practicing we can do until we're ready to start trying," she chuckled.

I reached down and lifted her face to mine again. She rested her chin on my chest, and her eyes were glowing with happiness.

"Can we start now?" I asked. Her fingers twisted in my hair.

"As you wish."

Since the invention of the kiss there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.

The End.

And that's a wrap, as they say! Thanks to everyone who has read and/or recommended AIoL, and especially those who've left comments. You make me all kinds of happy. To everyone else—I've tried not to be the author who begs for reviews, but if you've made it this far, please click that "Review" link and let me know! Good, bad, sweet, silly, critical—share your thoughts! And if you've enjoyed the story, please consider recommending it to your friends or sharing it on Twitter!

I'm not planning an epilogue or any additional elements for this story right now, but there are a few possible areas for outtakes and side pieces I may explore at some point, perhaps for a Fandom Gives Back auction. Put me on author alert if you're interested.

Huge thanks to ooza for prereading and commenting and making me smile with her reactions. She's an awesome writer as well, look her up! Thanks also to MsKathy and KayCannon01 for giving me notes on the early chapters.

Story Notes:

The chapter title as well as the "as you wish" quote and the last lines of the story all come from The Princess Bride (1987), which starred Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, and Mandy Patinkin and was directed by Rob Reiner.

I've already noted Breakfast at Tiffany's in an earlier chapter, but for those unfamiliar with the movie, Mrs. Failenson is the wealthy, married "sugar mommy" paying the bills for George Peppard's character, writer Paul Varjak. "Varjak. V-A-R, J-A-K."