Thank you ex-livreira for your help.
Part 2: Seeking other states
The baseball game was supposed to be a piece of normalcy, not a chance for Edward to bring his vulnerable human into a fight. Still, Edward was family, and his human would be too whether Rosalie approved or not.
When the nomads threatened Bella, Rosalie readied all her powers to defend. It would not be the last time she killed a monster.
The plan Edward came up with instead was messy, broadcasting his inexperience. He should have let her or Jasper decide, or anyone but the human.
Bella was both stupid and brave. She also had a saving people thing.
Edward returned from Phoenix wearing his triumph like a cloak. Bella returned from Phoenix with a scar on her arm that wouldn't fade even when Edward finally let her be reborn as one of them.
Rosalie wasn't sure if she should be glad that he'd intervened to keep her human.
It was raining on the day Bella became an adult. Rosalie pretended not to be jealous, pretended not to mourn that she'd never aged beyond her own eighteenth birthday.
The new car radio had been Emmett's idea. She basked in his carefree chatter as she installed it, even letting him help change the Chevy's oil. If there was a bit of Reparo in her hands as she worked, nobody would know.
Then Jasper lost control, and Rosalie wasn't sure if she wanted to cry or scream when Edward said, "We need to leave." Her brother had spoken, and everyone listened.
Esme tried to make the new house feel like home, but none of them wanted to be in Vancouver. Alice threw Rosalie and Emmett a wedding when she saw they'd be leaving.
They spent their honeymoon in France before returning to a flat near Esme's house. At night they took to walking hand in hand through Vancouver's streets, pointing out people and making up stories.
"He's lonely and feels like he doesn't know who he is any more," she said about a man with his family.
Emmett chose a woman in faded red. "Her mother bought her that cloak, and she'll wear it until it falls apart. It makes her feel loved."
They were sitting in a smoky bar sipping alcohol they'd have to choke up later, embracing the familiar burn. "He thinks his life is over," she said, picking a man across the room. "Everything that used to bring him joy is lost."
"She's had a long day," Emmett countered. "She feels tired, but hopeful. I bet she'd love a good heart to heart."
Rosalie watched her husband order a drink on behalf of two strangers, watched the way Mister Brooding smiled when Miss Wants-to-Talk waved. It felt warm to have someone so good beside her; she hoped Andromeda had raised her godchild to be the same. Sometimes Rosalie wondered where Teddy was now, if they thought about their godmother or questioned all the anonymous birthday gifts.
Staying away was safer for all of them, she knew that, and yet she yearned for more.
She and Emmett ended up moving to Britain for several months, visiting old sights and familiar smells. People in the alleys barely looked at them twice; shops hadn't changed beyond an occasional coat of paint. The Burrow's wards repelled them, but Grimmauld's windows were kept spotless. She watched Teddy move from one room to the next and pretended that the seventy-year-old was her child.
When Emmett said they should go knock, she whisked them back to America. Emmett always had terrible instincts, from fighting bears to loving her. Whatever he felt they should do, it was usually best to do the opposite.
She knew Teddy wouldn't even remember her name.
Edward had gone to Volterra because of an overheard phone call—it felt like a punch to the gut.
"You could have asked me," she told him afterwards, feeling Avada Kedavra for the first time in her life. "Going to them put us all in danger."
Her brother just nodded, as if only now recalling her firm stance on giving people a choice where she'd had none.
'You selfish, selfish child,' she did not scream, 'Do my fears mean so little to you?'
"Thank you," Edward said instead. "I'll remember that."
Killing Bella was his greatest nightmare. If the time came, she'd put him out of all of their misery.
The kings had apparently said nothing about Rosalie, thank Merlin. She hoped and prayed that keeping her thoughts mostly hidden from her brother had been enough to save her, and started shoring up on her Occlumency in case it hadn't.
Renegotiating treaty lines with the wolves was an insult to everything the Cullen family stood for. Coming back to Forks felt like admitting a mistake.
They voted on Bella's pending immortality as if her life was reality TV. Rosalie said no on principle. "This is not what I would have chosen for myself," she told Bella afterwards.
Then again, nobody had ever let Rose choose a life for herself, not until after she'd died.
Throwing everything away for your high school sweetheart sounded like something James Potter would have done, but he and Lily hadn't survived to bear the consequences. No, it was Petunia whom Rosalie was thinking of now, a miserable bitch who'd died wishing she hadn't married the banker's son.
She thought of the first time she'd held Teddy, the first time she'd kissed Ginny, the blossoming love she'd felt when Draco had gotten down on one knee.
'Your feelings will change,' she wanted to say, but Rosalie remembered feeling eighteen and invincible. 'What if you realise you don't want this after all, and it's too late?'
Day 8 of an update a day this December. Thank you for reading, hope to see you around :)