bgrooms716: There is always a reason when it comes to Aro. Sometimes that reason only makes sense to him. He's a complex guy!
Chateau797: Trust this, I feel you! Rereading that part almost made me throw my phone, Caius is definitely rude in this story. He has no idea Kalani is his sister-in-law but thats completely Aro's fault.
TwilightCullenLove: There was a Caius x OC story I was drafting, Titanic type scenario, enemies to lovers trope, early twentieth century society, but I haven't looked at it in weeks. Historical fics are not too in right now...eh :( Lowkey there's a high that goes along with finishing a fic and it feels super good right now.
ReadingRainbow7: (Your user reminds me of this show that played when I was a kid hahaha) Aro and Lani are like a swinging pendulum refusing to stop unless someone finally puts a foot down. The most stubborn babies!
Warning for Language
Maybe Lani should have walked home, because inside this car was beyond awkward. Actually, awkward was an understatement. Nothing besides a curt hello was said between Edward and herself, thank the rain for filling the rest of the silence. Why did he pick her up instead of Bella? Edward didn't even like her in the first place, and if Bella asked him to fetch her then she was surprised he even agreed.
"I do not dislike you, Lani." He spoke out of the blue.
"Huh? I never—oh."
"I dislike him."
Him as in—
"Yes," Edward gripped the steering wheel tightly. "Aro is a hypocrite."
The scorn of a buttholeish blonde vampire popped up in her mind.
"That's not why."
"I don't get it—"
"Bella."
Lani was aware of the fact Bella was expected to turn into a vampire straight out of graduation, while she had a bit more leeway on when exactly it had to happen—Aro never specified and didn't seem eager to which she was grateful.
Edward probably had a problem with this.
"I do, because it's unfair and as I said, hypocritical," he sounded incredibly brittle.
"I'm sorry, Edward," she sighed in exasperation, "I'm sorry that you feel this way, but aren't you being just slightly a hypocrite yourself?"
"Not really."
"Actually, yes. While you're busy glaring at me every chance you get, I don't think you've noticed the fact Bella doesn't want to be human anymore. If you told her you were biting her today she'd throw a parade, so stop pretending like I'm the base of your problems, stop pretending like you care, and stop pretending as if I matter at all—just," Lani was in tears, she covered her face with her hands and sobbed freely. "Just stop."
What would someone like Aro want with her anyways? Yeah, being a sugar baby was something she was definitely on board with at the beginning, but she never expected to fall in love with the guy, and so quickly. Tyler was right, the moment Aro had to acknowledge her as something more, he dodged. Didn't even go after her when she left. Aro was ashamed of her.
"Though he might not deserve it, in his defense all he could think about was how he wanted to join you."
"But he didn't."
"He's not ready for what would happen if he did."
Lani sniffed, what the hell was there to be afraid of?
"Marcus had an idea of who you were, but Caius is very conceited," Edward shuttered. "He hates humans so much that he thinks you're nothing but Aro's...escort."
"His whore," she murmured. "What would happen if he told the truth?"
"Well, then he would have to admit to himself that the same thing which happened to me is happening to him." It was tempting to make a snarky remark about how emo and goth aren't the same thing, but she focused on the passing cars and houses instead. "That he fell in love with a human, and doesn't want to part with her humanity just yet."
"What are you talking about? That's not—the Volturi don't give second chances."
"Well, maybe he doesn't want to be in the Volturi anymore."
Lani did a double take, Edward was openly looking at her and not the road.
Groaning, "Look, Aro worked really hard to get where he is. I can't even think about that amount of time—leaving his family? You're kidding."
"Then explain why you're both still here."
"The only reason we're not in Italy is because of my…" Lani furrowed her brows, "...I don't know, actually."
"Exactly. Aro is a hypocrite, and apparently, a coward too."
Lani felt a surge of anger at his casual insults towards her boyfriend, "Don't talk about him like that."
That coward saved your girlfriend's life.
Edward laughed then, it sounded humorless and beyond fake. She wanted to know what the joke was.
"Aro doesn't care about Bella," he scoffed. "The only reason he never left us to clean up the newborns was to prevent them from coming here—"
"And killing Bella."
"Coming here, where you live."
"Which would expose your secret."
"And harm you."
What a stubborn guy.
"Okay...but he's still searching for our psycho red-head."
"Victoria keeps trying to enter Forks to kill Bella, on the same street you live."
"Okay!" Lani threw her hands up in defeat. "Fine! Let's just say Aro only did those things because of my convenient location in all this...why do you still not like him?" Edward pressed his lips together. "I mean, he's helping you out after all."
"I would do anything for Bella. Anything."
Yeah, she was clocking out. Clearly Edward hates her by affiliation. Couldn't Emmett have picked her up, or Alice or Rosalie? Hell, even Renata could have come.
"Bella is at work. I volunteered."
Liar.
Lani stared at him, she didn't believe that for a second. "After Alice coerced me."
Bingo.
How long had they been bickering in this car? Longer than five minutes obviously which meant they weren't on the way to her house. Did his hatred for Aro drive him to kidnapping her?!
"Calm down, Lani. We're on our way to my home."
"...Why?"
Edward tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, "Bella cares about you, and you're upset." He shrugged. "The least I can do is help out with that."
Lani used her sleeve to clean up her face, "Can I ask you something?"
Edward encouraged her nonverbally.
"That day you were saved in Volterra, he found out about me...what did he think when he did?" She watched him skeptically, he didn't return her gaze.
"He never let go of that image when he saw you for the first time. Not even for a second. I think he was scared you might not even exist."
"What did I look like? Where were we? What was I doing?" She burst. He sent her an irritated glance which she ignored.
"You were in a treehouse uh...laughing," he hesitated.
"Oh," her upper cheeks burned, "With minimal clothing, I'm guessing." Then it dawned on her, that night he was waiting for the perfect moment to complete their bond, a moment already planned out apparently. What a control freak.
"Unfortunately, you are correct. Can you please control your thoughts, that's not something I particularly want to see."
"Sorry!" Lani bit her lip, "I'm not doing it on purpose." It's just super hard to control what she thinks.
"I'm used to it," Edward sighed, "That doesn't mean I enjoy it." It was silent for a moment. "You could probably write a novel detailing how much you love Aro's hands."
"Oh god, now you're making fun of me?"
"The sequel could be about his hair."
"You know, I liked you better when you silently brooded."
Edward reached out and switched on his stereo, a sunny song mellowed from his speakers making her perk up.
Lani had this record, it was an older one.
"Cher?" She commented.
"Is that a problem?"
Lani shook her head, because it wasn't, she was just surprised. "You don't really strike me as a dream baby."
"I'm going to pretend I know what that means and my response is, I enjoy a variety of music. The sixties included."
"Dark Lady is one of my favorites." Comfortably leaning back in the passenger seat with her foot on the dash, Edward made her taken them down.
"I don't like the seventies."
"What…" The actual fuck. "Final as day. It's official. The lack of taste did not stop at the khaki shirts."
There was a small smile that quickly disappeared. Edward turned up the music without responding.
"Hello to you too, Aro."
Aro leaped on his toes in a spin to see Marcus smiling with a knowing glint in his rouge eyes...a color which Aro definitely did not share at the moment.
"Marcus!" Aro clapped his hands together, averting his eyes and backing away. "I believed Caius and yourself to be with the others in Seattle?"
"You've been avoiding me."
"Avoiding—oh no! Heavens no! You see I've just been—"
Aro took off up the stream then plowed into the dense wilderness, his body maneuvering through every damp tree or bolder lying in his path. Although dormant for nearly three-thousand years, his younger brother was not too far behind. When they first crossed paths in Greece, their friendship began very similar to this, the only difference being Aro was doing the chasing and not Marcus.
Making the mistake of peeking behind him, Marcus surged forward, forced his body into the soft ground, and straddled his waist.
"Has your infatuation with Carlisle led you to consuming beasts? Or is it someone else entirely?" Marcus hinted.
"No idea what you're talking about."
No amount of struggle would cast his brother away, Marcus was stronger than him, and far more annoying when he allowed himself.
Aro yelped when his nose was squeezed tightly.
"Shouldn't your nose have grown just then?"
"Marcus."
"Pinocchio desires to have fun away from his family."
"Marcus," he warned, only leading to a harder squeeze.
"Why did you not you tell me you've found your mate? Well, technically I found her and you disappeared with my intelligence."
"Truthfully, I thought you did not care."
"Well, of course I care!" Marcus let go of his nose but remained on top of him. "With you gone I actually have to participate in those repetitive trials. The gods only know Caius would burn the castle down if I did not."
"Is the castle burnt down yet?"
Marcus gave him an unimpressed look before the heavy clunk of his palm came down on his cheek.
"It's beautiful…" Aro watched the specific memory in awe, his brother felt the same.
See what I've been trying to show you? Stubborn.
Aro ran his fingers over his own lips, touching himself to make sure that he was in fact real and held down to earth.
She is lovely.
"Beyond that."
You're beyond smitten. You love her.
"With everything in me."
Then what was that back there?
This was the part he was truly afraid of, acceptance. Aro had relished in the feeling of love, but he had yet to acknowledge the damage done by his feelings. Loving Kalani was different than solely acknowledging her as his mate, he had combined both while she was still human, everything else didn't matter.
All he wanted was her happiness, which he ruined.
Marcus rose away from him, and Aro followed suit. The image of him and his mate coiled in the most brilliant ribbons now a recurring memory.
"There is much love here," Aro leaned against a tree. "I see the way she interacts with her mother, her loved ones, and friends. It almost seems like a crime to ripe her away from all this, her humanity."
"Do you prefer this, her humanity?" Marcus wondered.
"Regardless if she is mortal or not, I have no preference:"
"Yet, you're afraid."
"As she is now shall either be amplified or erased, which means taking her away would lead to an eternity of hate. I wish to spend more time with her as she is."
"You wish to go against our law."
Aro did not respond, he focused on the gradual blooming of a lily in the distance. "I am of two minds, brother."
Marcus shook his head, "Aro commiting to domestic life. Who would have thought?"
"A little less than a year. That is all I ask."
Marcus contemplated him with no emotion, "A year?" He stressed in disbelief.
"Possibly more...that certainly is not—"
"Thank the gods!" Aro raised a brow while his brother clenched his fist, nodding towards him with approval. "Now for a moment, I thought you would say a decade. That I could not have helped you with," he continued, "A year or two? Aro, that is nothing." Marcus approached him.
"You shall manage farley in Volterra during this time?" Aro asked.
"Of course. I've never seen you so sentimental—genuinely sentimental and not that fake garbage you like to put on."
"What can I say?" Were it not obvious already, "I am a changed man."
"I understand the feeling." There was a hidden smile on his brother's face. Aro did not need to touch his brother in order to see the certain individual dancing across his mind.
"What shall you tell Caius?"
"Caius shall want Kalani changed immediately. I shall have to distract him. When he does indeed find out the truth, I can only expect he shall be very angry with me."
However, when did the anger of his eldest brother ever deter him? Especially now that his chest shook with affection for a human.
"What you are risking is much more than anger. Is it really worth it, brother?"
Nothing was worth more than her happiness, not even his title.
"It will not matter. She will agree to immortality after the summer months."
"And if she does not?"
Well, secrets were normal in any family.
Emmett held out on his promise to take her on a race track. Rosalie had joined them to essentially play the responsible one while Emmett did the exact opposite. In her Beetle she never drove over sixty-five, and in the TT she was too scared to go over that on wet road, but on the track?
On the track—thanks to someone's yelling—she pushed top speed, nearly three hundred miles per hour. Like, shit. The hardest part was trying not to lose control of the car and flipping to her death, but with the confidence Emmett placed in her, Lani screamed out in the thrill of hearing the roar of the engine each lap she took...until realizing she was the only one vulnerable in a car wreck and promptly turned over the wheel to Emmett.
"Beat it, Lani! You can't even drive!" Emmett stepped out of her car, she stuck her tongue out.
"Sit down kid. We get it. You got spunk," Rosalie grumbled with a half smile. "...Now how about that chant again?"
They wouldn't let Lani fully race against either of them, not until she was a mosquito at least. Apparently her pouting didn't work when places against Aro's certain wrath if anything fatal happened to her.
Fair enough.
What they did let her do was drive to work, and when the couple passed her they honked and she waved repeatedly in response after them.
"Young little thing like yourself should be kicking ass and taking names. Not pouring coffee after happy hour."
"Ha ha ha!" Lani threw her head back.
"See this greasy ass spatula right here? He's my best friend. Don't make that coffee pot yours, Parrish, things not even cleaned properly last time I checked."
"Okay, okay, Lynn. I hear you. I'm a colossal failure of a juvenile," Lani giggled.
"Damn right."
"So, how are my scrambled eggs holding up?"
"Who orders a damn breakfast for dinner? Does this look like an iHop? Damn customers."
"Gotta love em'!"
Lynn was a middle-aged riot who made night shift as fun as it ever could be. Each trip into the kitchen was a laugh, and this time was no different as she gathered the plates to wait her tables. Sev sat her someone else, they weren't regulaurs, apparently.
"Hi there! Welcome to The Odyssey! My name is Lani and I'll be your server this evening. What can I get for you both?"
The two males wore that same formal suit and tie Aro preferred. They both stared at her like she was a zoo animal, shocked from being so close to something they had only heard about in theory.
"Tonight's special is dusk before dawn. All breakfast is served at a discounted price! Isn't that amazing?"
"That won't be necessary. We've already eaten a delicious blonde omelette."
Immediately the one closest to her sent an exasperated look to the other, "Be quiet, Felix."
Lani was just going to pretend like he totally didn't admit to cannibalism.
"Well, if you're not hungry we do have great beverages. Coffee has a hefty discount tonight too!"
They continued to stare at her, Felix seemed to be more interested in the beverage under her skin than in that coffee pot in the kitchen. They were watching her so intently she couldn't help but jerk in a direction away.
"We're not thirsty either. We're looking for you—"
"I must apologize on behalf of my colleague here. My name is Demetri." The name did ring a bell.
"Hello Demetri! Are you interested in a hot cup of joe? We have tea and hot chocolate as well—though it's not as great as Billy's...please don't tell my boss I said that."
"We know who you are, Kalani Parrish."
She froze.
"Well, that's not all too fair. I don't know your last names."
"We don't have one," Felix said then squinted, "You're not afraid?" Lani didn't answer, she only indicated to the occupied group of tables around them and rose a single brow. "Ditto."
Demetri reclined in his side of the both with an air of relaxed comfort.
"We're sorry for interrupting your evening, Miss Parrish, it's just, Renata has said such kind things about you and we were curious so to speak."
"No, you were curious while I wanted to obey Aro like any sensible delinquent with a brain."
"You're still here are you not? Oh. Yes you are."
"Only to make sure you don't use that charm of yours to convince the poor girl into becoming your next meal."
"Me? Were you not the one who nearly scared our future queen away with your insatiable appetite?"
"Hey? Um...guys?" They immediately faced her, "I would love to sit and talk about ourselves, Aro, and...food, really, but I can't. We could after I'm off the clock though?" Lani had another table waiting on her.
"Actually, we've changed our minds," Demetri said. "We both would appreciate that warm cup of coffee, please."
"Alrighty!"
When she came back they were gone.
At home, Her mom was tiredly talking on the phone. Marleen was still wearing her brown dress suit from this morning with her thick dark hair tied up. Lani kissed her cheek before going to take a well needed shower, studying for her trig final in mind after the fact.
When she finished and entered her room in nothing but a fluffy red towel and bonnet, Lani screamed at the dark figure sitting stiffly at her desk. Her screams were cut off by a freezing cold hand over her mouth and a quiet shush.
The light was turned on to reveal a grim Aro.
"Oh Kalani, did you have fun today?" He asked hopefully.
Lani immediately remembered the conversation between him and Caius, which she was trying to forget, and raised her hand to knock the immortality out of him.
"Kalani," he caught her hand, "Let me apologize, amore mio"
"Fuck you," she hissed, rasing her other hand.
"I believe a please is in there somewhere…"
"I'll pass. Thanks!"
He caught her other hand
"Eres el amor de mi vida."
"Speaking your fancy Spanish won't work on me you goth bastard."
Aro's dark eyes began to do that twinkle thing which made her knees weak, "Mi cariño?"
She looked anywhere other than at him.
"Shut the fuck up."
"Por favor?"
A picture in the corner of her mirror caught her eye, it was of them at the library. Lani groaned, "Ugh!"
Aro brought her hands down and pulled her closer to him, he kissed both her cheeks, "Let me explain my disgraceful actions this afternoon. I wish to apologize."
Lani organized what she wanted to say to him, thinking about Edward's words. Aro intently watching as she worked through her thoughts.
Not only are you lying to your family, but you're lying to yourself.
Aro closed his eyes for a moment then looked down.
"Family is there for you when everyone else thinks you're not worth a damn. Don't hurt yourself by keeping things from them," she whispered. "Plus...some of them seem kinda nice."
"Those two were supposed to be searching for our lovely evader, not you."
"You know, it would have been nice if you gave me a heads up, 'Oh Lani lets meet the fam day', because I looked like a troll."
He had no response, so she cupped his sharp cheek. "Hey. If you need me to be your hot hoochie mama, then I'll be your hot hoochie mama," she joked. They didn't say anything for a few beats, until Aro sighed.
"He wasn't far off from the truth, you know?" Aro murmured.
"Who?"
"Young Edward."
"Who cares, you're here right now."
Lani let go of his hands and crossed her arms over the top of her towel. Aro tucked his chin, "What thoughts are swarming in that pretty little head of yours?"
"Um…" Permanent gutter mind. "I think right now would be much better if you took your clothes off and climbed in my bed."
"Oh amore," he giggled lightly to himself. "Naughty little thing you are."
"That's your apology mister. Strip it." He smiled down at her before shaking his head.
"What of a foot massage instead?"
Eres el amor de mi vida: You are the love of my life (Spanish)
Mi cariño: My darling (Spanish)
