A/N: Thanks for the reviews. Special shout out to Daniel White and to leydyan22, who kinda freaked me out because she was thinking exactly what I was thinking about Tanya's house.
Disclaimer:
Characters based on Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.
(Tanya POV)
I felt like a silly little girl, flitting around my room as I packed some clothes. I really didn't need to pack anything since I had most of my things left in Alaska, but packing made this vacation more real. Embry and the others finally finished Sam's house before summer officially kicked in. Emily said it was a good thing since it would be too hot to work from morning to night, and the pack would be too distracted thinking about First Beach.
"I'm starting to feel bad that we're going to Alaska," I said to Emily when she visited me in my house. She was helping me clean up around the house while Collin baby sat Salia outside; Embry, Sam and Quil were talking about the responsibilities that Quil would need to take over while Embry and I go to Alaska.
"Why is that?" Emily asked.
"Well, instead of Embry spending his time with the others in First Beach, he'll be spending it in a place that only see sun once in a blue moon," I answered. "Unless he feels like swimming in ice cold water, I don't think he's going to enjoy this vacation."
"You are planning to spend time with him there, right?" Emily asked. I looked at her and I just had to stop myself from saying 'duh.' Seriously, what kind of a question was that, but since Emily was the best girl friend I had now, I simply nodded. "He's going to have a good time. Just thinking about you makes him smile, how much more spending time with you? Besides, you both need this little vacation. He's been working with Sam for months and you guys barely had time for each other."
"You're very good at that," I smiled at her.
"At what?"
"Making me feel better. Thank you."
"You're one of us now, don't forget that," Emily patted my shoulder before we head outside to join the others.
--
"Are you sure they're okay with this?" Embry asked for the hundredth time.
"Yes, I am," I answered him again. The Cullens called a few days before we planned to leave for Alaska and said that they wouldn't be coming home this summer, something about Bella and Edward taking summer classes. I asked Carlisle if it would be fine if I borrowed his car for our drive to Alaska. I picked his car because it has the darkest windows and it was a Mercedes-Benz. I personally thought it was the best brand out there.
"And you told them that you're driving?" Embry asked. Again.
"They drive as fast as me, you know," I snarled at him. He had been eyeing the speedometer as I zoomed on the road. We left Forks in middle of the night to avoid the sun and the cars on the freeway.
"Can you at least slow down? I know we're both pretty indestructible and all, but if we crash, I'll get bruises and broken bones, you won't."
I rolled my eyes at him and dropped the speed from 150 to 120 miles per hour. "Happy?" He ignored me and closed his eyes instead.
--
It took a little over than a whole day for our trip. It was the longest trip of my life. I was so used to trekking the road from Alaska to Washington in twenty-four hours tops, but since we had some pit stops for food and stretching and what have you, the trip was a bit longer than my usual.
"Finally," Embry exclaimed when I parked the car in front of my home in Alaska. He jumped off and stretched his legs and arms.
"Stop exaggerating!"
"Because you can stay still for days don't mean I can," he said as he rotated his head in forward and back.
"Stop your bickering at each other and get in here," Kate called out from inside the house. Embry chuckled and pulled out our bags from the trunk. He effortlessly grabbed everything in his left arm and wrapped his right around my waist. If I didn't know better, I would think he was a vampire with his strength.
--
I led Embry to my bedroom. He looked around as he set the bags by the bed. He picked up the frame by lamp. "When was this taken?" he asked.
"Too long to remember," I said. I remembered the picture well. It was a picture that Sasha, our 'mother,' took a few years before the Volturi killed her. She wasn't on the picture, but knowing that she took that shot meant that she really existed. I had that picture beside the lamp so that I would see it every time I walked in my room. After Irina died, it became a memory of the two people I lost.
"Irina's pretty," Embry said and put the picture back on the side table. I couldn't agree with him more. Although Irina insisted that I was the prettiest among the three of us, she was alluring and had the best appeal towards the opposite sex. That might have been the reason why Laurent became very interested in her.
"Yeah, I know," I said shortly after he put the frame back down.
"How come I don't have a picture here?" he asked.
I chuckled and he looked at me, hurt. "Embry, the last time I went back home was because I ran away from you. I didn't exactly have a picture of you with me when that happened, and besides, I wouldn't want to put a reminder of you in my room back then." I moved towards him and wrapped my hands around his waist, "But if it bothers you that much, let's take a picture of us then we'll put one here, one in my house and you have to put one in your room, too."
"Sounds good to me," Embry said and kissed the top of my head as he wrapped his arms around me. I looked up to him and saw him looking down at me with smoldering eyes. I moved my arms from his waist to his neck as he leaned down to kiss me, which didn't get close to making out because there was a knock on the door.
"We are seriously not going to have an alone time, ever," I groaned. I took my arms of Embry and walked towards the door.
"Oh, good, he's still awake. We're worried that he might have fallen asleep already. Carmen prepared dinner," Eleazar said.
"Thanks," I mumbled before I closed the door. I wanted to slam the door at his face but since he didn't know what we were doing behind closed doors, he couldn't be blame for interrupting what could have been a make-out session, right?
"I should have just pretended to be sleeping," Embry chuckled when he saw how pissed I looked.
"Shut up and let's go," I grumbled as I led him down to the kitchen.
-----
(Embry POV)
"How does it feel to be back here?" Garrett asked. Tanya, Kate and Carmen hunted together, which left me with Garrett and Eleazar.
"It's different. I don't really want to remember the previous one," I said and laughed. It was not a pleasant memory to remember that I passed out in the woods while running after the love of my life then have her carry me back home, naked.
"I see that things are working out fine between you and Tanya," Eleazar said.
"The house is a good one, by the way. I still haven't figured out how to top that," Garrett said and we laughed.
"I don't think you need to, though. Tanya told me about the ring you gave Kate," I said then I looked at Eleazar. "She also told me about you leaving the Volturi to be with Carmen. With the things that you did for your women, the house was the closest thing I could do."
Eleazar patted my back, "You're doing a good job, Embry. All these years I had been with them, I've never seen Tanya this happy. She doesn't even need to smile; her eyes tell it all."
"Well, if that's the case, I can't wait for us to get back home," I said.
"Bored already?" Garrett asked.
I shook my head and smiled, "I have a surprise waiting for her."
"You're making it harder for us to top off your romantic skills," Garrett chuckled.
--
"We are so not going to have any sexy time while we're here," Tanya groaned while we were making out. It had been a week and this was the first alone time we had after that interrupted kiss when we arrived.
"What? I didn't hear anything," I said.
"You didn't, but I did," she said and pointed to her ears. "Stupid vampire hearing."
"What's going on?" I asked and finally got off her and lay down beside her.
"Kate is giggling and telling the others not to come up here because we're making out," Tanya groaned again.
"You mean they can hear us?" I asked; which made me look stupid because Tanya pointed to her ear as she made her point. "Right. This sucks."
"Tell me about it," Tanya grumbled and got up. If she knew that this vacation would just leave us this frustrated, she might have reconsidered the destination.
--
I promised Tanya that I would enjoy this vacation, but not having an alone time with her for more than five minutes was getting on both our nerves so we decided that it would just be best to go out and have some outdoor fun.
Thanks to my always warm body temperature, the cold weather didn't bother me. I even dragged her to swim on ice water, which became our daily activity for the rest of our vacation. It was the only time we were alone since none of her family thought it was a good idea for us to be out there when it was freezing. I didn't understand why they even cared when their bodies were always freezing cold. "It's not a normal thing for people to go swimming in freezing water," Kate said. I was just glad that when I told Tanya it would be our only alone time, she did not think twice and joined me.
However, even though her family was not with us, we still didn't have the sexy time that we were hoping for. How weird would it be if we started making out in blocks of ice? Just imagine two people kissing while one of them was stuck underneath and pinned down on freezing surface. That, I would have to say, was not normal.
--
When our last week rolled in, I started counting the days. We would be heading home soon and I couldn't wait to show Tanya the surprise I had planned with Sam and Quil before we left Forks. I told her that I had to check on the pack almost every night. What I didn't tell her was that I was checking on the project that they were working on.
While we were expanding Sam's house, I told the others about Tanya's acquired skills in cooking and wanted to expand her house as well. I wanted to add suitable kitchen in the house and a little dining area so that we wouldn't have to put the food in the living room anymore. Sam drew the plan and said it would only take three weeks tops to expand since the plumbing could be easily redirected from the bathroom.
Every night, Quil went to the house and showed me the progress. They covered the area that led to the living room and bedroom so that it wouldn't catch any dust. Those would remain untouched anyway so there was no need to mess those up.
The place looks good. Tell the others thanks.
Just get your butt here and make sure that Tanya cooks us a feast in her new kitchen, Quil chuckled in his head.
I'm pretty sure she'll be happy to have all of you over once she sees it.
I couldn't wait to show Tanya her house for a second surprise.
