I'm back! I hope you all had a great holiday break. This chapter is a little longer than usual, though this story has shorter updates anyways, but consider it a small Christmas gift from me to you. These chapters have been getting a bit more difficult as the story goes on, especially because I have no experience with true love, but I hope that that's not too obvious. Enjoy!

With Jasper, everything changed. I thought that I was lost, that I was just some lone comet, barrelling towards the nothingness of space for eternity. But when I met him and we spent those first few days just sitting there, talking, I was no longer that one comet. I was the stars and the space and the planets and everything in between. I was everything, and so was he.

We didn't care about time. The sun flew through the sky, rising and setting routinely as we talked about everything and nothing. I asked him lots of questions - about him, about the people he's met, about the world. He didn't say too much about his recent past, but he talked about the war and his childhood and his old friends. When he talked about his human life, he changed. His smile brightened and his eyes sparkled a little. I could tell that it was the happiest time of his life.

I couldn't really tell him much about myself, as much as I wanted to. Anytime that he got lost in one of his stories as he detailed the tales of his human life, it made me long for my memories. Maybe I had a wonderful life, just like his. Or maybe I didn't. Either way, I couldn't help but laugh along with him.

"So," Jasper's tone turned slightly more serious, but a smile still played at his mouth. "What do you remember?"

"Hm…" I said, looking off into the trees absently as I remembered. I stiffened at the memory of my transformation, and I saw Jasper immediately do the same through the corner of my eye. His face became shocked and almost afraid suddenly.

"Do you remember...the transformation?" His brows creased with worry, and I could tell that he definitely remembered the pain that came with his own.

I cleared my throat and spoke on a whim, just wanting to clear the concern from his face. "Oh, no. Why?"

His shoulders released tension instantly. "Oh, ok, good. The transition from human to vampire isn't exactly pleasant."

"Oh." I said in mock surprise. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. I'm just glad that you didn't have to go through it." Jasper smiled, wide enough that it reached his eyes. I did as well.

"Well anyways, we probably shouldn't spend all of our time in this forest." I suggested with a laugh.

He chuckled, but his expression softened and he leaned towards me. It took me a moment to realize what he was doing, but I was leaning into him too before I knew it.

Our lips touched, first gently, then more firmly. He seemed tense, unsure, maybe, at first. But all of that was forgotten when I broke our lips apart for just a moment and looked into his eyes. We paused for a second, breathing softly into one another and staring, until I couldn't bear it. I swung my arms around his neck and pushed myself closer, forcing our lips to collide once again.

Jasper's mouth curved into a smile around my own and kissed me back passionately, holding my waist to steady me.

It was my first kiss. Or, at least, I think it was. Kissing someone wasn't really one of my priorities when I was first thrown into the world, lost and confused, but it definitely seemed like it should have been in that moment. The kiss seemed like a perfectly imperfect mixture of confidence and insecurity - we didn't know what we were doing, but it felt so right. Our lips only touched for seconds, minutes, maybe, but it was enough to have us both smiling like idiots afterwards.

He cleared his throat. "You have a point though. We should probably go get something to eat." His eyes studied the ground as he talked, like he was embarrassed.

"Right." I said and jumped up. "I'm starving."

Jasper grinned and flitted to my side in an instant. "I came up here from Southwest, and some of those mountains down there had plenty of hikers."

His suggestion brought the memories of my past possible future to the forefront of my mind. I shuddered as I pictured the lonely and drunken version of myself once again. "Um, I don't know. There's been a lot of deer around here recently."

He turned to me in surprise. "Deer? Seriously?"

"Yeah. They aren't ideal, but I've had some here and there."

"You turned down human blood?"

"Yeah, it was really hard. I kind of trained myself to do it though…" I trailed off, but I met his confused gaze and decided to continue. "A couple of days ago, one of my visions showed a much less pleasant version of the future. I was alone and scared, practically drunk off of blood. I killed everyone in sight, and I…" My eyes met his again. "I didn't ever find you."

"Oh." He was silent for a while as he concentrated on something. Finally, he said, "I'd like to try that too."

"Really?"

"Yes. Remember when I said that my gift was a blessing and a curse?"

"Yes."

"Well, one of the worst things about it is that when I kill people…"

My eyes widen in a mixture of shock and horror. "...you feel their emotions too."

He nods silently.

"We'll try, then. You'll get the hang of it, I know you will. I'll help you."

"You will?"

I slip my hand into his. "Of course. Now come on, those deer won't kill themselves."

I hear his laugh echo into the trees as we bolt off into the forest.

The next update is going to be very fun for me to write, and it's one of the things that I've been most looking forward to since beginning this fanfic: Jasper's relationship with hunting. We already know that he has much less control than his siblings in Twilight, which takes place over 50 years in the future, so there's obviously some sort of conflict or difference between him and Alice when it comes to their prey. I'm very excited to write about this in the next chapter and I hope you guys are excited to read it too!