In all of her 200 years plus of 'living' on this earth, Katerina Hale still couldn't seem to catch a break.
It'd been a few years since the Olympic coven had moved back to Forks, and Katerina was still equally as disappointed as she was the last time they were here. She didn't know what she'd expected, honestly. It was a dismal town, with a meagre population of 3000, and Katerina swore she'd felt her soul wither as soon as her feet had touched its wet damp ground.
If Forks - and who the hell came up with such a stupid name as Forks - wasn't bad enough, Carlisle had been adamant on the 'kids' returning to school, to fit in.
Right, because nothing says fitting in like seven extraordinarily beautiful children all starting at the same time, and never socialising outside their own group.
Katerina often questioned the ignorance of human beings - and whether she was once so stupid, too - as they went about their day, blind to the danger that sat right next to them.
Edward had once told her what most of the kids at Forks High School thought about in regard to their family, and Katerina wondered if teenagers let anything but hormones rule their minds. It may have been over 200 years, but she was certain she hadn't been nearly as lascivious when she'd been human.
Rosalie had felt the same as Katerina, although mostly because she felt it indecent and lewd to think of a woman so blatantly.
'Of course, they think that, Kat. They're weak and we're inhumanly beautiful women, what do you expect?' she'd said. Katerina honestly loved Rosalie's sense of humour.
Katerina knew it was a remnant of Rosalie's upbringing as a human, all those manners of the '20s were ingrained into her very personality. Although Katerina suspected her sarcasm and dry wit were a product of the more modern era.
Emmett and her twin, Aleksandr had found the whole affair hilarious, although Katerina had burst Alex's bubble when she'd innocently wondered aloud what the boys of Forks High thought of Alice. Aleksandr's face had gone blank and Katerina had sworn she'd heard him growling.
Katerina thoroughly believed her twin was an idiot and she'd tell anybody who listened that she'd absorbed all the brain cells whilst in the womb, leaving none left for him.
Jasper had chuckled under his breath while wrapping his arm around her shoulders, telling her to stop teasing her brother. Katerina had given him an innocent look, but Jasper had smirked, knowing by her mischievous emotions that she was enjoying herself.
Katerina sighed. It was only halfway through the day and she was already fed up. Katerina was playing the part of a Junior whilst at school, alongside Alex, Alice and Edward. Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett were all Senior's, looking noticeably older than the others.
They'd all been changed after reaching 18, meaning they'd grown into their adult features more, compared to the twins and Edward, who were all eternally 17, and Alice who, despite being 19 physically, looked no older than 17.
Katerina wished she'd pushed Carlisle more on the matter. Sure, she had her siblings with her to make enduring the lessons a little easier, but Alex spent most of his time with Alice, and Edward got way too broody for Katerina to handle sometimes.
Luckily for her, the lunch bell rang, and she packed her bag in record time. Edward let out a quiet laugh beside her, knowing she was impatient to meet up with Jasper. Katerina sent him a grin before speeding out of the room as quickly as she could while remaining 'human'.
Once out of sight, Katerina ran full speed to the history classroom, making it to the door before anybody had opened it. Students rushed out, all hungry and excited for lunch break. Katerina waited till the last student walked out, leaving a gap between himself and the other students.
Katerina linked arms with Jasper and sent him a lazy grin, "Hey you."
Jasper's tense form relaxed under Katerina's touch, and he sent her a smirk, "Well, hello to you, too."
They walked down the hallway - which was now mostly empty - towards the meeting spot the Cullen's waited so they could go to lunch together. Once reaching them, Katerina and Jasper being the last to make it, they began making their way into the full cafeteria.
Rosalie and Emmett walked in first. Rosalie's perfectly curled hair moved with the wind from outside upon opening the door. Emmett had a confident grin on his face, as always.
Katerina could hear a voice over the loud murmuring of the cafeteria and recognised it as Jessica Stanley.
"Yeah, cause they're all together. Like, together, together. The blonde girl, that's Rosalie and the big dark-haired guy, Emmett, they're like, a thing. I'm not even sure that's legal."
Katerina turned her head to the side as she laughed. The way humans viewed them always amused her, with all their rules and morals and prejudices. It was any wonder they lived so long, surrounded by so many boundaries and constrictions.
Katerina knew what it was like living in an oppressive environment and didn't understand why humans - in the modern-day where equality existed - chose to limit their happiness.
Katerina heard Rosalie chuckle under her breath from where she and Emmett walked in front.
Alex and Alice were next, and Katerina - alongside the whole Cullen clan at this point - was interested in hearing what Jessica Stanley had to say about them all to the new girl.
"And, okay, the little dark-haired girl's Alice. She's really weird. And she's with the tall guy, Alex. He's from, like, Russia or somewhere because he has this weird accent, I can't point it."
Alex span Alice around in his arms, and the two calmly danced their way across the cafeteria. They made it look effortless, and to anybody but humans, it was. Alice was grinning up at Alex and he sent her a mischievous grin back.
"Oh, oh, and there's Katerina, the red-haired one. She's twins with Alex. Same accent too, and she's with Jasper, the blonde one that looks like he's in pain all the time."
Katerina muffled her laugh at Jessica's description of Jasper. Jasper gave her a mock glare while he tried desperately to ignore the scents of everyone inside the room. Katerina intertwined their fingers, letting Jasper focus on her instead. He sent her a grateful smile.
"Dr Cullen's like this, foster Dad slash matchmaker."
Edward was last to walk in, on his own. Katerina had once brought up this fact, as she didn't like making Edward feel left out, but he'd just dismissed her worries, assuring her he was fine walking on his own. Katerina had huffed and mumbled about him moping and being too brooding for his own good.
"Who's he?" Katerina heard a new voice ask. She hadn't heard it before and she assumed it was the new student.
"That's Edward Cullen. He's totally gorgeous, obviously, but apparently, nobody here's good enough for him. Like I care, you know?"
Katerina had reached the table with her siblings, bar Edward, and turned to laugh into her hand at Jessica Stanley's comment. The other Cullen's were chuckling amusedly to the girl's description, although to an outsider, it would simply look like they were all joking around.
Rosalie and Emmett had picked up some food that was on plastic trays but they sat on the table untouched. Rosalie had an apple in her hand as she leaned gracefully back in her chair, talking to Emmett.
Alice was sitting backwards in her chair with a fond smile on her face while Alex animatedly told her a story. Katerina was leaning against Jasper as he played with her hair - something that distracted him from the scents around him and calmed her.
Edward had finally reached their table and sat down, although they could all still hear Jessica Stanley from across the room.
"Seriously, like, don't waste your time."
"I wasn't planning on it." The new girl answered back.
From her position against Jasper's chest, Katerina could see the girl turn around and peek at her family. She was trying to be discreet but vampires could see everything, and so Katerina saw the girl's gaze zero in on Edward.
Katerina raised a brow in amusement, "Huh."
After school, they'd all made it back home to the Cullen residence. Alice had mentioned Edward being missing from their last lesson which they shared, and once they'd all gotten home, they'd seen why.
Edward was pacing the living room, clearly agitated. Carlisle and Esme stood to the side with concerned expressions. Emmett spoke up, "What's going on?"
Esme continued watching her son with worry while Carlisle addressed the rest of the 'kids'. "Edward is thinking of taking some time away to visit our friends over in the Denali Coven."
Katerina and Rosalie raised a brow, Jasper stayed silent, while Alex and Emmett looked confused.
"What? Why? What happened?" Alice asked in confusion.
Edward was too agitated to answer, so Carlisle took over, "Edward found his singer in his biology lesson today. He's taking some time away to calm down and the situation to hopefully blow over."
Katerina nodded understandingly along with Alex, Emmett and Jasper. They'd all met singers that were simply too enticing to ignore.
Emmett had killed all three of his singers, while Alex had killed the one he'd come across. Katerina had managed to stop herself from killing one when she'd found out it was a child and couldn't stomach the thought of killing the tiny boy. The other had been a grown man and she'd killed him without hesitation.
Jasper already struggled with his control, especially with his empathetic abilities combined, it made it very difficult to not attack his singers, and so he'd killed three.
Rosalie and Alice had both never killed any of their singers, while Edward had simply never come across one, until now.
"How didn't I see this? Oh, Edward, I'm so sorry." Alice was visibly upset at not having seen this in one of her visions.
Katerina didn't think it was healthy to take on the responsibility of knowing everything that would happen as Alice did. It wasn't fair to the girl and Katerina felt it was an abuse of her power. If bad things happen, then they happen. That's life.
Of course, Katerina was grateful for her sister's prophetic abilities. It was what brought both her and her twin the greatest happiness in their lives to them, their mates.
Alice had foreseen the twins arriving and knew that Alex was her mate and that her mate's twin was Jasper's. She'd collected Jasper a few months prior to the meeting and promised him he'd meet his mate if he'd followed her.
All three of them were forever thankful for Alice's foresight, but that didn't make Katerina any less sad when her sister blamed herself for not seeing something.
"Alice, it's not your fault, you know this. You can't see everything, it isn't healthy."
Carlisle nodded in agreement. "Katerina is right. Don't blame yourself for this. Edward will leave for the Denali Coven tonight and will be back before we know it. Everything will be fine."
Carlisle was the leader for a reason, and it showed as his words had a soothing effect on the whole Cullen clan. As much as they all disliked Forks, none of them wanted to move again - something they'd have to do if Edward slipped and killed his singer.
Edward had stopped pacing and faced his family. Katerina and Alice gave him encouraging smiles, while Alex and Emmett just grinned. Rosalie and Jasper stayed silent.
With a short nod, Edward ran upstairs and began packing a bag. He was back downstairs within a minute, and after a short round of goodbye's, he left the house at full speed.
Katerina sighed and tugged Jasper upstairs into their room. Despite not needing sleep - or to rest at all - Katerina had bought a large, plush bed. She enjoyed simply laying on the soft covers. Vampires didn't need comfort, they could stand for hours on end without aching or needing to rest, but that didn't mean they couldn't appreciate the soft material.
Katerina liked indulging in small luxuries and so did her mate. Their room was the perfect mix of the two. They both enjoyed reading, and so three out of four walls were lined with bookshelves filled with books. Jasper loved history - as did Katerina - but she preferred Fiction, and so their library was stocked with a multitude of books of all ranges.
Katerina also loved music, like Edward. But unlike her brother, she didn't have a preference for classical music, and so instead of a stereo or piano, Katerina had a record player. A section of their bookshelf was dedicated to Katerina's album collection and she loved it.
Katerina fell onto the bed with an unnecessary sigh. Vampires didn't even need to breathe, but the Cullen's had been playing human for so long, they often forgot to stop.
Jasper sat on the edge of the bed and stared at her, the corner of his lips were tugged into a small smile.
"What?" she asked him.
"Can't I just admire you?"
Katerina knew if she were human she'd be blushing, but her porcelain skin stayed the same shade. Jasper could feel her embarrassment and happiness though and knew she was pleased with the compliment.
Katerina scoffed and leaned on her elbows, "You can admire all you want. I am, after all, a piece of art." She gave a dramatic pose and Jasper let out an amused chuckle.
"That you are, darlin. That you are."
Jasper leant forward and climbed onto the bed, hovering over Katerina's petite form. She stared into his honey eyes and smiled softly. Jasper smiled back before leaning down and kissing her.
To Katerina, his lips were warm - vampires felt a normal temperature to other vampires - and she moaned into the kiss, pushing her lips against his harder. Jasper responded and cupped her face in his hands. His large hands covered the whole of her face and Katerina lifted a hand to hold it to his own, closing her eyes and leaning into his touch.
"I love you, Kat," Jasper whispered.
Katerina looked up at Jasper from under her lashes, "I love you too, Jazz."
Jasper leant down to kiss Katerina again, this time his hands roaming her body as he did.
So, here's a story I've been writing for a while now, it's been uploaded on wattpad already but I finally decided to make the effort in publishing it here, too. There won't be any authors notes for the next 20-ish chapters because they'll be mass-uploaded.
ALSO! To make imagining the original characters easier to picture, my face-claims are as followed.
Katerina - Elizabeth Olsen
Aleksandr - Matthew Daddario
Lillian - Holland Roden
Theodore - Thomas Brodie-Sangster (young)
Hope people enjoy!