Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
A/N: I do not reread what I write because I'm insanely lazy; I just write, hit spell check, correct what Word tells me to and then I post it. So there are probably lots of errors including wrong and missing words and simple grammatical issues, please excuse and ignore them.
The started off just like any other day; well, for me it did. I had noticed that Jasper and Alice were practically attached at the hip; and I noticed that Jasper had a new hat and Alice had new jewelry. I knew it was a new hat and jewelry because Rose had commented on it while I was eating breakfast and the couple had wondered through the kitchen; Alice had wanted to show off their gifts. I had also noticed that Edward seemed a bit more moody and was locked away in the music room playing his piano. Very depressing sounding songs were floating from the room. Emmett and Carlisle, at least from the two seconds I had seen Carlisle before he left for work, hadn't seemed any different. And I had originally thought, Rose and Esme didn't either. It wasn't until after breakfast that I noticed they seemed to be barely holding onto their excitement; but I wasn't entirely sure what their excitement was for.
As for me, I decided to treat Valentine's Day just like any other day. At least, I did for most of the day. Of course I had greeted my mates with a heated kiss and wished them a happy Valentine's Day, but aside from that, from when I had first woke up, I didn't do anything else. I had already decided that I was going to wait until after dinner for their gifts so that we didn't have to worry about me getting hungry. For some reason, I had found myself oddly determined to not have to eat for our date. It was what practically what all couples did on Valentine's Day, but my mates didn't eat and I wanted to show them that I realized they weren't like everyone else and that I had no problem working with their differences. I wanted to show them that I could plan a vampire appropriate date and not cater to my human tendencies.
Valentine's Day fell on the weekend this year, so I didn't have to worry about going to school and seeing every couple in school being all lovey with each other and exchanging gifts. I had opted to not get them any actual gift; that would have been too much pressure. I was hoping that they would be okay with me just giving them a really good date. I was already nervous enough about wondering if they would really like their date or not; I didn't want to add the stress of figuring out what to give them and then wondering if they actually liked their gifts or not. I would rather deal with the fear of them being really disappointed that I didn't get them any actual gift that being disappointed that I didn't know them well enough to get them a gift they would actually like. I had put so much thought and effort into their Christmas gifts that I was ready to not get them anything again until next Christmas; they had already told me that since they were vampires, they didn't celebrate their birthdays since they weren't actually aging.
We spent the whole day together, cuddling and watching movies or reading books and magazines. I was getting the impression that they were simply waiting for me to do something; to tell them 'let's go' so that we could start our date; but I wasn't nearly ready yet. I had to enlist the help of Emmett and Alice for the date, and they had it all done last night. Emmett went hunting with Rose, Esme and Jasper. It was his job to make sure that while they hunted, Rose and Esme didn't go where they weren't supposed to; Jasper was there because he just wanted to hunt and Alice told him to go with them. I was sure she did that so that Rose and Esme wouldn't try to ditch Emmett and took care of other needs… or wants. Alice was in charge of other things; things that would help so I wouldn't get lost as I lead my girlfriends on where I wanted us to go.
It wasn't until after I ate that I decided to start to let them in on what was going to happen. I didn't want to give too much up, but I did want them to at least start to get an idea of what we're going to do. I was sure they would figure it out fairly quickly, but I wanted to try and keep it a secret for as long as possible.
"We should change into some comfortable walking clothes." I said about a half hour after I was done eating dinner.
We had been sitting on the couch in the living room, so I got up and started to walk towards our room; I was sure they would follow me. Sure enough, I only took a couple steps up the stairs before I could hear them behind me.
"We are we going?" Esme asked as we ascended the stairs.
"Well, I'm not really sure." I admitted.
I couldn't really explore the forest for what I was looking for without help. I had left that to Alice. I didn't have high expectations, just a place that fit a few requirements; all of which Alice should have set up for me. I had worked a lot with Alice to get my idea set up; thankfully she was more than happy to help me. I would have done it myself, but I couldn't imagine a way to explore the forest without one or both of my girlfriends following me or giving me weird looks. I had to get someone to help me; once Alice saw that I was going to start asking for help, she volunteered because she thought what I was trying to do was very romantic and she wanted to make sure it was done perfectly for Esme and Rose.
"How long of a walk?" Rose asked when we got to our room. All three of us were already wearing clothes that would be okay for walking through the forest, it was just the proper shoes we had to put on.
"Just long enough to get where we need to go." I said with a smile at Rose; her answering glare said she didn't appreciate my answer, but the slight twitch in the corner of her mouth let me know she was also amused. I really had no idea how long our walk would be; I was honestly hoping Alice wouldn't have made it too long or I would become a burden on either of them. I didn't want them to have to carry me on our date; that wasn't fair.
"You don't know?" Esme asked as she sat down on our bed to put on some tennis shoes; Rose was already sitting on her chair she had stationed for when she worked on her hair and makeup, so I sat next to Esme to put my own shoes on.
"Well, I um, needed help." I said with a blush growing on my face. I was embarrassed that I wasn't able to get their gift set up myself; but, I simply wasn't able to. I didn't think they would mind, but I would have much preferred that I had done it myself.
"Alice?" Rose asked.
"Yeah." I answered. "She said she would be able to get everything I wanted perfect."
"So, you planned it all and she executed it?" Rose asked and I was starting to get the impression that she didn't like that I hadn't done it myself.
"Yeah; I couldn't get away from you two to be able to do what I wanted done." I told her with a bit of a pointed look so that she would definitely know that I would have done it all myself if I could, I just couldn't.
"That wasn't likely to happen." Rose said with a smirk and continued talking at my confused look because I wasn't sure exactly what she meant by that. "It took more than long enough for us to be able to get you in our arms, did you really think we would be willing to let you out of our sight so soon?" Rose asked with a raised eyebrow that was starting to have a very sexy appeal to me; which I was sure she knew.
I almost cooed at what Rose had said. I felt the same way; well, probably not as intensely because they were vampires and their instincts were greatly enhanced. That was something I was still getting used to; for how much I felt for them, any emotion at all, they felt it so much more intensely. They worked at not showing, hence why we hadn't sex yet, I wasn't comfortable with that yet, but there were still some moments that I could see their more intense emotions. Rose saying what she just did was her letting some of those intense emotions through and I really did like it; I actually couldn't wait until I had those same intense emotions as a vampire.
"Not that we want to be controlling." Esme added, but the smile she wore I could tell that she wasn't really worried about me thinking that there was a risk of them controlling me; I knew they would never do that to me.
Once we all had our shoes on, they followed me out the room and eventually out of the back door. When we had first walked out, I wasn't sure in which direction we were supposed to go, but Alice had taken care of that. She had said that I would know exactly where to go and that it would be easy for me to get to. She said I wouldn't have to worry about having them carry me because we had to walk too far or in a place that would be too difficult for me to walk.
Thankfully, Alice was right. Right in front of the door of the back door, at the tree line, was a lantern that was hanging off of a branch. I assumed it was battery operated because there weren't any chords hanging from it. So, thanks to Alice, all we had to do was follow the lights. Even though I hadn't actually seen the area we were going to, I at least had an idea of what it would look like because I had told Alice what to do. I knew she wouldn't disappoint me, but I was still nervous.
As we started to walk towards the first lantern, I took both Rose's and Esme's hands in mine since I was walking in the middle. There was just enough room on the path for the three of us to walk. It was a tight fit and we had to walk very close to each other; but we didn't mind that. Both Rose and Esme had a look of curiosity on their faces and I found my anxiety start to increase. I was still very worried about how they would react to the gift; I was hoping they would like it.
Both Esme and Rose took my hand that hand in theirs and instead wrapped it around their waists and then Rose wrapped her arm around my waist and Esme wrapped her arm around my shoulders. Apparently they had picked up on my nervousness.
"Your heart is beating so fast dear." Esme commented. Stupid heart, it always gave away what I was feeling. They both tended to use that to their advantage. Rose had started to walk out of the bathroom into our room after a shower in the nude. Not even a towel. She also made sure to walk in front of me in case I wasn't facing the bathroom, which the TV was on the same wall as the bathroom door. Every time I saw her walk naked, my heart rate immediately picked up and the moment it did, she would smirk at me and lazily walk into the closet with her hips moving far more seductively than they should. It took Rose doing that a couple times for me to realize that Esme chuckled laughed at me every time. Apparently Rose had done the same thing to Esme when they were first mated and Esme had a similar reaction… that lasted only a couple seconds before things escalated.
"I'm just nervous." I admitted. I had gotten to the point where I wasn't afraid to tell them what I was really feeling. It took a lot of work, on all our ends, but I felt so much better being able to tell them what I was feeling, and even thinking. After going so long with holding everything in, it was such a drastic change, and a huge relief, that I almost felt like an entirely different person. I loved it.
"There's nothing to be nervous about." Esme comforted.
"If we don't like it, just start kissing us and all will be forgiven." Rose said with a seductive smirk and then kissed my cheek.
"I'm sure we'll love it." Esme reaffirmed, but in a comforting tone.
I didn't say anything, but decided to stay quiet and just follow the path Alice had set up for us with the lanterns. As it turned out, there were only about a dozen or so lanterns and the path we had to follow was a very easy one. So by the time we arrived to the location I had asked Alice to find for me, I wasn't nearly that tired. I was a bit winded because I really wasn't used to that much exercise, but it wasn't that bad.
We walked into a very small clearing. There was enough room for maybe a dozen or so people to comfortably stand next to each other. The meadow was filled with wild flowers and just taking a couple steps into the meadow I knew that it wouldn't be that annoying to lay on. In the middle of the meadow, per my request, was a blanket that would just fit the three of us if we were tightly cuddled; which wouldn't be a problem. There was also a small, battery operated radio that played tapes. So, it was an older radio. I knew the tape that was in there, I had to ask Edward to borrow it, but I was confident that it was perfect.
After taking just a few steps into the meadow, I let go of my girlfriends, and took a few steps forward and turned around so that I was facing them. They took a couple more seconds to look around, but had other-wise quickly moved their eyes to mine.
"So, I was thinking we could just lay here and stare at the stars." I said as I nervously scratched the back of my neck. "I um, also borrowed a tape from Edward so that we could listen to some relaxing music. I figured we could just talk, or just, you know, be together."
My goal for tonight was for the three of us to be alone. The three of us hadn't really had anytime without any of the other Cullen's around, or even without any other humans around. There were a few moments that I had been alone with them, but it never lasted long. So, I decided that it would be nice to have a few uninterrupted hours of just being with them. We didn't even have to talk, just being in their presence without anyone being able to see or hear us, just the three of us alone was enough.
"It's perfect." Esme said with a genuine smile.
"It would be amazing to cuddle with you both and not have to hear Emmett making crude comments about whatever game he was losing at." Rose added.
I knew that the house Esme was working on for us would give us the privacy I wanted to have with them; but it would still take a few more months for the house to be ready for us to move in. So, while we waited for that, I decided to give us a taste of what it would be like to just be us. I could only imagine what it was like to have our intimate moments and know that everyone else could hear it. I wouldn't even be surprised if Emmett had made a few lewd comments, or jokes, about it. In fact, I was sure he probably had but I really didn't want to know about it.
"Good, that's good." I said as I nodded my head and turned around to go to the radio to turn it on. The radio was placed at the edge of the blanket and I was just about to turn it one when Esme's hand stopped me.
"If you wouldn't mind, why don't we leave that off?" Esme asked as she started to guide me to lay next to Rose who was already lying on the edge of the blanket.
"It's not that we don't think it's a good idea." Rose said as she opened her arms to have me crawl into them.
"It was a very good idea and would be very relaxing." Esme said as she moved to lie behind me. "But, there's something much better that we like to listen to."
"Your heart beat." Rose added. "It reminds us that you're here with us and that you're alive and well. Even though it's not a permanent sound, it's still a very relaxing one for us to hear in the meantime."
"If you do want to listen to music, then by all means, we wouldn't mind having it on." Esme added when I didn't say anything.
"No, it's fine." I said as I rested my head on top of Rose's chest.
I liked that my heartbeat comforted them; it was something that I didn't have to put any work into to help them relax. I assumed that in the way my heartbeat helped them, their scents helped me. They each a distinctive scent and I practically craved to smell it. I often did my homework cuddled next to one or both of them because I was starting to stress myself out to make sure I passed everything with the highest marks possible. Just smelling their unique scent calmed me down. I imagined that my scent worked the same on them, in fact, they said it had in the past; but that was the closest thing I had to comparing my heartbeat effecting their calmness.
We laid there for hours, just staring at the sky. We didn't say one single word. Even when I moved to cuddle Esme into me because I wanted to get in a different position; we all moved in sync and without a word. We had also moved so that I was wrapped in the blanket because it was getting cold; it was February after all and neither Rose or Esme were bothered by lying directly on the ground. Eventually though, the time caught up to me. I wasn't sure how late it was, but I felt my eyes start to droop; but I really didn't want to end this. I was very relaxed and didn't want ruin that feeling. I could also feel both my girlfriends purring and that showed that they were very comfortable as well; I didn't want to ruin their relaxed state either.
"This was a very good Valentine's Day date." Esme murmured into my ear. "We'll have to give you our gift tomorrow."
"Go to sleep Bella; we wouldn't mind." Rose said as she kissed my cheek from behind. Esme kissed my forehead when Rose had moved away and that was all that was needed for me to fall asleep.