Edward:
Finding a good herd of deer turned out to be harder than I had expected. We ended up running for a long time in a direction I was just barely familiar enough with to be confident there weren't any humans. When we finally found some deer, I decided to hang back while Bella got her fill. It was fascinating to watch her, though she didn't really hunt any differently from anyone else. But for some reason I couldn't look away. Watching her stalking, running, pouncing, it was all very sensual in a way.
I felt like a voyeur, and tried to turn my attention elsewhere. I decided to take down a buck of my own, and I chased one that had run off into the woods.
When I rejoined Bella, she had emptied a few deer and was looking much more relaxed and healthy than this morning.
She also had blood covering her mouth, though she had managed to keep her clothes relatively clean. I saw her wipe her lips with the back of her hand, and then struggle to try to figure out where to wipe the back of her hand. I couldn't help but smile.
"Follow me," I said, and she did. I led her to a clearing with a wide stream running between it and the woods on the other side. The only other time I had been here, there had been some animals I was stalking around, but today, it was empty. I wondered if we had scared them off from as far away as we'd been. It wasn't out of the question.
Bella went to the riverside and washed her hands and her face. I watched her do that, too, continuing to be entranced by the most mundane things, apparently. But there was something so beautiful about the way she splashed the water onto her face, and I envied the drops that rolled over her lips and off her chin.
In my continued effort to curb my voyeuristic tendencies, I crouched down by the riverside to try to use the water as a mirror, checking myself for blood from my hunt. I was vaguely aware of Bella leaving the water and moving towards me, but I was intent on ignoring her for at least a few more moments.
Suddenly, I was shoved from behind and fell into the stream. Shocked and confused, I immerged from the knee-deep water and looked to where I had been. Where Bella now was, hands over her mouth, holding in a laugh, eyes alight with mirth.
"I didn't think I'd succeed," she said, half apology half gloat.
"You're going to wish you hadn't," I growled, smirking at her.
I lunged, grabbing her around the waist and tossing her even further into the water. Her shriek was cut off by a splash. She came up, gasping unnecessarily, in the middle of the stream, where it was deep enough that the water was half way up her stomach.
She laughed, and splashed the water hard, sending a high spray towards me. I splashed back, and when she closed her eyes against the coming spray, I dove under to knock her feet out from under her.
She managed to jump away from me before I could grab her ankles, and when my head came back above water, she lunged, grabbing both of my shoulders with her hands and tackling us both into the water.
We were both under the water for a moment, and I swear, time stopped. My back was against the riverbed, and Bella was suspended an arms length in front of me, still bracing her arms against my shoulders. The surface of the water was blue and white behind her head, and beams of sunlight were filtering down unevenly around her. Her hair was splayed all around her head, and in the places where it was thinnest, the light could be seen dancing in it. But most noticeably, she was smiling wide and carelessly, playful from the game and triumphant to have the upper hand. I was glad I didn't have to breathe, because all the air in my lungs left in a burst of bubbles. This, her, the water, the sun, her hair, her face, her smile, all of it, it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I don't know how long the moment lasted. Maybe it wasn't even a second, maybe it was several, but the image burned into my retinas, and too soon she was pulling away, bringing herself back to the water's surface. I didn't even realize until I was in the air, too, that she had grabbed my hands and was pulling me with her. I tried to call my brain to attention, but suddenly she was laughing, delightful peals of loud, genuine, happy laughter, and I was stunned again. Without knowing I had started, I was suddenly laughing with her, and I could feel the tension draining from every inch of my body.
After a moment, Bella quieted, and with a content smile, trudged her way out of the river to lie on the grass in the clearing. I followed after her, and we slowly began to dry in the sun.
"It's so strange," Bella started, turning her head to look at me, "not having to breathe underwater." Her comment dangled, not needing a response, and she turned her face back to the sky, closing her eyes and letting the sun soak into her.
She took a deep breath, and I knew I had to look away. The feeling of voyeurism was bad enough when she was doing something mundane, but I couldn't in good conscious allow myself to watch her chest expand against a wet T-shirt. I refused to stoop that low in my unrequited obsession.
Looking at the sky, feeling the sun warm on my bare skin and the wind cold on my wet clothes, it was easy to pretend I wasn't thinking about her. But I was. The vision of her underwater, haloed by her hair and the sun and the rippling blue surface of the stream, was etched into my mind, and whether I looked at the sky or the trees or closed my eyes entirely, I saw her.
Still riding the one-sided longing train, apparently. But these two have less than 24 hours before the family gets home and Jasper realizes what's changed in Edward. That will be fun.