A.N: Again it's short, but at least it's not six months after 24. That's something, right? Thanks as always to RachelleMyBell for beta-ing this. Now, here we go:

Twenty-Five. Mine

EPOV

Carlisle had married Esme almost right out of high school. He'd said that when you knew, you knew, and he just hadn't seen the point in waiting.

I had known it was right with Bella the second she'd gotten on the bike behind me. It had felt rightexactly, like coming home, when her arms had wrapped around my waist. I had just been waiting for Bella to catch up to me before we carried on with the rest of our lives. After her declarations of love, and the way she had stood by me so determinedly despite my behaviour in Chicago, I had thought she was almost there. Until I stood in her mother's kitchen doorway and heard those words.

"I don't think we'll ever get married. No worries."

Now, I realize that I have a tendency to overreact. God knows my actions in the previous two odd weeks had taught me that. Still, Bella's words were pretty hard to misinterpret, and so I felt my heart breaking.

Bella claimed to love me, but she didn't foresee a life with me. I felt a tightness in my chest and a prickling in my eyes, and coughed, trying to push back my emotions. Bella's back was to me, but I saw it stiffen at the sound.

"Here, let me take that from you, Edward," Renee said, coming towards me with her hands outstretched. I stared at her in confusion before remembering that I had to come into the kitchen with a casserole dish they had forgotten.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks," I replied absently, letting Renee take the dish. My eyes had already returned to Bella's back and I wished, not for the first time, that I could read her mind.

I saw Renee looking between the two of us from my peripheral vision, ands she began to ease toward the kitchen door, sensing the tension that now permeated the kitchen.

"I think I'll let the two of you clean up, if you don't mind," she said. Neither of us replied, so she opened the door. "Phil and I will just be out here. In the dining room. Within hearing distance."

Renee made a hasty retreat after delivering the warning that she would still be keeping an eye on us. Once the door had closed, I slowly walked up to Bella and sat on the bar stool next to hers. Her head was bent towards the counter top, her hair falling down to hide her face.

"Where do we go from here?" I asked her, the inches between us seeming more like miles.

"Edward, my boyfriend just walked in on me talking to my mother about our sex life. I need a moment to… what do you mean '"where do we go from here?'" I realize the situation is mortifying, but it's hardly something to break up over." Bella looked up at me, her face still bright red from embarrassment and her eyes confused.

I imagine my eyes mirrored her confusion. Was "married" a code word for sex between Bella and her mother? If it was, why had Bella lied about it? Surely Renee was intelligent enough to realize Bella and I had been "married" several times by now.

"I am… confused," I admitted. "I wanted to know where we go now that I know you don't see a future for the two of us, but apparently when you say "married" you actually mean "sex.""

"Uh… no. Married is married and sex is… didn't you hear me telling Renee about the… er… safety measures we've been taking?" Bella's expression began as confused, but it turned to outrage as everything I'd said began to compute. "And what do you mean I "don't see a future for the two of us"? Do you think I'd be putting so much effort into us if I thought we were going nowhere? You got a lot of- mmph!"

I muffled her rant by slanting my mouth over hers and burying my fingers in her hair. For a moment, I thought she might push me away, but then her lips softened beneath mine and her arms went around my neck to pull me closer.

We kept ourselves busy in this manner for several moments before she finally broke away and pushed me to arms length.

"Okay," she gasped. "Tthat was nice… really nice, but before you continue kissing my brains to much, we have to clear some stuff up. Why did you think I thought we had no future?"

"I'd rather keep kissing," I replied, trying to pull her close again. She refused to budge, her expression un-amused. I sighed in resignation. Sometimes communication sucked. "You said you didn't see us getting married."

"And I don't," Bella agreed. "So?"

She said it so matter of factly, as if it were obvious, that I wanted to scream.

"You see a future for us, but not marriage. So, what? I'll be your male mistress?" I asked, turning from her to stalk across the kitchen, running my fingers through my hair. "Honestly, Bella, sometimes I don't...- you're actually considering it! I can't believe you're actually considering it!"

When I turned back to Bella, she'd had a contemplative expression on her face as she watched me, which morphed into a sheepish one.

"I wasn't really considering it," she replied. "But it was an interesting idea, coming home to the kids and little man after a long day at work. I bet you could pull off one of those frilly white aprons."

I felt my heart skip a beat at the mention of children, and my ire slowly began to fade.

"Kids?" I repeated slowly, making sure I hadn't heard her wrong.

"Well, obviously not in the near future. I want to get through school first, but yeah, I think I might want kids someday. Don't you?" She blinked at me, her puzzled expression so cute I couldn't resist walking up to her and kissing the tip of her nose.

"I would love kids… after the wedding. Why don't you want to get married?"

"We're eighteen, Edward. I hardly think we're mentally prepared for marriage so why are we even- mmph!" This time, she did push me away when I kissed her. "I like your kisses, but stop doing that!"

"Stop trying to change the subject. You're willing to talk kids, but you're scared by the thought of marriage. Why?"

"Do we really have to get into this? Now?" Bella leaned against me and looked at me from beneath her lashes. "I changed my mind about the kisses. Wouldn't you rather kiss me again than talk?"

"Hmmm… Rose must have taught you that look. Emmett was right, it is very good. Luckily for me, however, I had a heads up about it." I cupped Bella's face and met her eyes seriously. "When I was brooding about my past, you made me talk. You showed me that, to be with you, I would have to communicate with you. That goes both ways. Talk to me, Sweetheart."

Bella sighed and stood up. I reached out to grasp her wrist, thinking she was going to leave. The action earned me an eye roll.

"Give me a second to figure out how to answer, Edward. I don't want to leave you thinking I don't want you. Again."

I released her wrist and watched her pace from one side of the kitchen to the other. On her fourth repetition of the circuit, she stopped suddenly, turning to face me with a deep breath.

"I never had a Carlisle and Esme," she said to me. "Renee and Charlie love me, but I never had that example of a good marriage. The few memories I have of my parents as a couple aren't that good, Edward. They fought a lot. Then, once they divorced, things between them were just awkward. Renee has always been a serial monogamist; her stints as a single were short-lived. Charlie, on the other hand, has never quite gotten over her."

"Okay," I said when Bella paused. "I get that your parents had a bad marriage. But we're not them, Bella. Just, because, their relationship ended badly doesn't mean ours will."

"That's just it, Edward, you don't seem to get it. I am like Renee. I spent three years with Mike because it was easy. He was the popular guy, and it was easier to be with him than to turn him down and be alone. Why do you think Renee married Charlie? It wasn't because of some great love she felt for him, it was because it was easy."

As Bella ranted, I realized I was getting more insight into her in this moment than I had gotten on the whole of our trip so far. It also made me realize, more than anything else she'd said, that she truly loved me. She might not have had my insecurities, but Bella's past had shaped her actions over the years every bit as much as my time in the foster system had shaped mine. When Bella paused for a breath, I sat down and pulled her onto my lap, framing her face with my hands.

"You spent three years with Mike because you knew he would never hurt you like Renee did Charlie. He didn't have that power. You aren't Renee, Bella, you're Charlie. When you love, it's wholly and forever, and that's scary. I get it." I pressed my forehead against hers. "But I'm not Renee, either, and I'm not going to leave you. So we don't need to talk about marriage right now, but you need to know that you're it for me. No matter where you are, or who you're with, I'm yours."

Bella buried her face against my chest, and I felt her tears begin to fall, soaking into the material of my t-shirt.

"I'm scared, Edward," she whispered. "This has all happened so quickly, too quickly… but I think I may be yours, too."

I didn't say anything in reply, just held her tighter, but I felt a wide grin stretch across my face at her words.

Mine… I really liked the sound of that.

A.N2: Well, we dealt with Edward's insecurities, and now we're dealing with Bella's. Musical inspiration came from Taylor Swift's "Mine" which could basically be Bella's theme song in this story, especially the lines: "You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter/you are the best thing/that's ever been mine."

Remember to review, and follow me on twitter: LynyrdLionheart. I like to chat with other readers, and I always love to receive story recs. Chapter 26 is already in the beginning stages of being written, so look for that soon… hopefully, no promises though. The last time I made promises, I didn't update for six months and we don't want that happening again.