"You're so beautiful." Seth whispered, kissing his way down the side of my neck.

I did my best to concentrate on not getting carried away. After all I did inhabit the same mindspace as a whole lot of other people. The least I could do is be considerate. "You're just saying that because you're hardwired to." I whispered back, pulling away long enough to divest him of his shirt, before allowing myself to be pulled back towards him for another kiss.

Suddenly Seth stood up, lifting me with him. In one swift move he had removed the giant old shirt I was wearing as a nightgown, leaving me in just a bra and shorts, before laying me out on my bed. He stood, gazing at me. "I'm saying it," he said as he poised himself over me, "because it's true." He was kissing his way down my chest and stomach when I put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at me, with a look in his eyes which I had never seen before, but which I had a feeling I'd be seeing a hell of a lot of in the future.

"We need to stop before this goes too far."

Seth sighed and kissed me once more, with a not insignificant amount of tongue, before repositioning me so that I was once again sitting on the bed, leaning against his chest. "I want you so much." He said, his voice just a rumble in his chest.

I entwined my fingers in his. "I know. We just need to figure out how this is going to work. There's never been a situation like ours, and until we know what the hell is going on, we can't risk it. What if I end up pregnant? Nobody knows what could happen because this has never happened before."

"If Leah's any example to go by, you won't end up pregnant. And even if you did, you know I'll always be here for you."

"I know. I'm just not willing to risk it. Maybe later, but not right now."

Seth was rubbing the back of my neck in a way which made me feel like melting. "At least you're relaxed now." He remarked.

Pretty soon, the exhaustion of the day caught up with me. I woke up the next morning when my alarm went off. Sitting up, I noticed that somehow I was wearing Seth's shirt, and he was nowhere to be seen. Smiling to myself, I hopped into the shower so that I could start getting ready for school.

As usual, Colin and Brady picked me up in the morning. "Why are you smiling like that?" asked Brady when I appeared.

"Smiling like what?" I asked. I was making an effort to have a neutral facial expression.

"Smiling like you got some last night. Please tell me you didn't get some last night." Answered Colin.

"No. For your information I did not 'get some' last night as you so charmingly put it."

"Uh-huh." He didn't sound like he completely believed me. "But I'm assuming you got pretty darn close?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Not that it's of any interest to you, but no, we did not. He didn't even get my bra off."

"Oh, god! Overshare!" they both protested.

"You asked." I responded, crossing my arms. I had a feeling there wouldn't be any more questions on that topic for a while.

"We didn't actually want to know! We were just judging you."

"Well clearly, next time you'll know better."

Brady shuddered. "Not necessary."

When we arrived at school, I headed for my locker, where Seth was waiting. Before I'd even had time to stow my books, he leaned in for a kiss. We were, however, interrupted by Andrew. "Way to go, Seth." Turning to me, he asked "You pumped for tonight's game?"

"Yes. Not only that, but I'm also all not concussed."

"Sweet. I'll see you on the field." He looked back at Seth. "Seriously, man. Nice work."

As he walked off, I turned to Seth. "Does making out with me suddenly give you extra street cred or something?"

"You are a smokin' hot babe after all."

I rolled my eyes and focussed my attention on getting my locker to open.

My first class for the day happened to be with Cass. We were watching a movie, which meant we were able to pass notes to each other with impunity.

You didn't tell me about how awesome the guys are.

Why do I get the feeling you are in fact referring to the awesomeness of one guy in particular?

True. He is kind of smokin' hot. I mean do you ever get the urge to rip someone's shirt off the moment you see them?

Thanks for that image. I'll stick with Seth, thanks.

Whatever shaves your monkey.

Gahh! Where on earth did you pick up that idiom?

It's a real peach isn't it.

I'm assuming it's some kind of euphemism, and I don't want to even start thinking what for.

What can I say. But seriously, do they spend a lot of time around your place?

Whilst I feel really weird doing this, Em had asked if I'd talk to you for him, so what say you 'come over to my place' on the weekend and I'll leave you two alone. I've got some stuff that needs doing, but I'm sure he'd be more than thrilled to show you around.

You're the best, Jimmy. Even if you are kind of pimping people out.

Please never refer to what I'm doing as 'pimping' ever again. It conjures up images of Fredo from The Godfather. And we all know what happened to him.

This is true. Point taken. On a slightly different note, why are you smiling like that?

I'm not.

Yes you are. You have the self-satisfied half-smile of those who have something to be smug about. You didn't…

No! Why is everybody jumping to that conclusion?

Because it looks like you got yourself some sweet, sweet lovin'.

Interesting turn of phrase.

It was the only one which aptly described your demeanour. So what happened?

Nothing much. He didn't even get to second. [A/N]

There was no under the shirt action and you're still smiling like that? Damn he must be a good kisser.

That he most definitely is. And technically there was under the shirt. Just no under the bra.

Was there over the bra?

Nope. I do however get the feeling that he's saving that for later.

You do realise that I'm living my nonexistent love life vicariously through yours.

OK, what was that snort meant to mean.

Nothing.

Somehow, I don't believe you.

I maintain that there was no meaning behind my snort.

Whatever.

The bell rang to signal the end of class.

"Seriously Cass, I know for a fact that Embry would love to show you around."

"I think I'll take you up on that." She sighed. "God, he's sexy."

I rolled my eyes and headed for my locker.

The rest of the day was unremarkable. I went to class, high fived the other footballers in the hallways, raised my eyebrows at the number of approving nods directed at Seth.

The whole pack turned up to watch the game. Leah had even brought John. I couldn't help but notice that Embry and Cass had somehow found each other and were having an animated discussion about something. Damn, that boy moved fast.

Come Saturday, mom and Kevin headed off for Seattle. This left me free to hang out with a couple of vampires, thus getting out of the way of Embry and Cass. There was no wind whatsoever, which meant that Seth and I were inside their house, tolerating the ambient scents, which were circulated around the moment any of them moved. On the plus side, I was able to hold my own. Clearly the whole acclimatising thing wasn't going to be that lengthy a process.

I couldn't help but feel for Seth, who I knew was having a hard time allowing me to go through discomfort. Jasper and I were playing chess while Seth talked to Edward in another room. I was too busy being massacred on a chess board to have the effort necessary to listen in. And I was a reasonably good chess player. Although putting it into perspective, I suppose Jasper had had a century and a half to build his skills. It was still disheartening.

After an hour though, wherein Seth had, seemingly sensing my distress, come to stand behind me, playing with my hair, and generally just giving off the vibe that he wanted nothing more than to take me away somewhere where I would never encounter any vampires ever, he called a stop to things. The moment I didn't have to deal with the vampire smell, I noticed that I had a raging headache and my eyes were starting to tear up.

Once outside, in the fresh(er) air, I noticed just how tense I was. Then Seth had an idea.

"Do you want to go cliff diving, Jimmy?"

"It's late November."

"We're wolves. We'll manage."

He had a point there. "Why not. I was always too young the last time I was here." By not heading straight back, we avoided the potential awkwardness of bumping into Embry as he worked on getting Cass used to him so that when the moment came for the 'btw, I'm a giant wolf in my spare time' conversation, she'd take it slightly better than I did. Because from what I'd picked up from the guys' heads, I was now the yardstick for how you DIDN'T want her to react.

The cliff, when we reached it, looked to be about fifty metres high. This was going to be awesome. Checking that the beach was clear – the last thing anyone needed was some tourist calling in a double suicide – Seth took my hand and we jumped.

The interesting thing about falling is that it doesn't really feel as if you're falling. If noth for the fact that you can see yourself being pulled downwards, it's like you're flying. A moment before we hit the water, I let go of Seth's hand and streamlined myself. Fifty metres is more than enough time to hit terminal velocity, and shapeshifter or not, hitting the water at the wrong angle would break a bone pretty damn immediately. The water was cold. Then again, what does one expect of the northern US in late November. Finding my bearings, I kicked for the surface, breaking a moment before Seth did.

"That was awesome!" I called over to him, pushing my hair off my face before kicking for the shore. Once we hit the sand I took off my shirt and squeezed the water out of it. I noticed Seth wearing the conflicted look of one who wants to look, but feels they oughtn't. I rolled my eyes. "Come on, Seth. You've seen me in a bikini, haven't you?"

"I'm trying to be all 'respectful' and 'evolved'," he said, signing inverted commas, "and I'm doing my best to take everything slowly, but you're really not making things easy for me."

"Inverted commas? Really?"

Seth looked me in the eyes. I was starting to detect that there were two Seths: sweet, funny, eighteen-year-old boyfriend Seth, who was a regular (enough) teenager, and generally not at all heavy company; and then there was warrior Seth, who had more or less skipped youth due to circumstances beyond his control, who had killed people (vampires anyway) and was more than ready to do it again. Right now, it was Warrior Seth talking. "Jimmy, I'm an unaging shape shifter fulfilling my ages old birthright to protect my tribe from its greatest enemies. I don't have the time or inclination for political correctness." Well damn. Warrior Seth was kind of crazy sexy.

As we ran back to the rez, I asked Seth's opinion on something which had been bugging me for a while. "Do you reckon I should cut my hair?"

"Why?" he had the baffled look of someone who was hardwired to think that everything about me was perfect. Which, oh wait, he was.

"Have you any idea how difficult it is to get all the leaves and twigs out of it at the moment? It's pretty damn hard. That and the fact that I think I look too little girlish for the guys to take me seriously."

"I personally quite like your hair as it is. It's terribly fun to play with."

I fixed Seth with a withering glare. I arrived home to a message on the answering machine telling me that mom would be home late. Seth, bless his heart, went in for a kiss. I put a hand in the way. "Not so fast. I need to get the salt out of my hair before it dries solid." Seth raised an eyebrow. I could see where he was going. "Not a chance. There is no way I'm making it that easy for you." He looked disappointed. "Anyway. I'm sure you need to get changed as well. Just pretend you're all 'evolved' and 'respectful' for half an hour."

Seth smiled a worryingly crafty smile. "Deal." Just like that he was gone. Trusting entirely that he would be half an hour exactly, I hied myself to the shower. On the way, I picked up dry clothing. And I may or may not have added to said clothing the skankiest bra I owned – red with black lace. What can I say. The mood was with me.

A/N: It came to my attention recently that there are two versions of the 'base' system. They are as follows:

Version 1:

First base – making out.

Second base – under the bra.

Third base – below the belt.

Home run – I'll let you use your imagination for that one.

This is contrasted with version 2:

First base – anything above the belt.

Second base – hands below the belt.

Third base – head below the belt.

Home run as above.

I personally subscribe to version 1, and will be using it in my writing. The proponents of version 2 advocate it as they believe that the difference between hands and head below the belt is too great to merit only one base. I advocate version 1 using the argument of social acceptance. It is, for example, reasonably accepted that v1 first base is acceptable (even if not necessarily entirely classy) at parties with a complete stranger. V2 first base on the other hand is not socially acceptable in the above situation. Likewise, v1 first base is (whilst not entirely tasteful) nonetheless within the acceptable bounds of a PDA. V2 first base is not.

So, for the sake of argument, when Jimmy says that Seth didn't get to second, it means that he didn't get under her bra. Not that he didn't get into her pants.