All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer.

A/N: So this story was intended to be a one-shot, but I toyed with the idea of developing it into a full-length story and I just had to go with out. The first chapter therefore gives like a summary of what happens from start to finish, but each chapter will go in depth with what exactly happened. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 1

Leah Clearwater

Lunch

It had been a couple of weeks since the arrival of the Volturi in Forks. All the mounting tension and excitement had culminated in a single, peaceful discussion between the two covens of vampires and once again, everyone spent an unnecessary amount of time crooning and cooing over little Reneesme Cullen.

This had gotten old ages ago. I mean, yeah sure, the kid was unique and special but, for Christ's sake, we were shape shifters and vampires… everyone should have gotten used to it by now. She was… quite pleasant, as far as half-vampire half-human babies go… but still, her very existence made my skin crawl and I was still trying to wrap my head around everything. As soon as the imminent threat of vampires invading our lands was gone and settled, the two Alphas ordered the younger wolves – the ones who had phased due to the little confrontation we'd had – to stop phasing immediately. It was only fair – we wanted them to have as normal a life as possible. And, they were also meant to be our beacon of hope.

If the young kids could do it, then so could we. And some of us – mostly Sam – desperately needed them to succeed. For Emily's sake. And for his own.

Something in my heart still wrenched when I thought of them together – I guess that pain could not be dulled so easily; but I was getting better, I swear. Whilst part of me still hurt, another part, a more determined one, was starting to accept them together. I had to, after all. A few days after the Volturi had left, Sam and Emily had announced their engagement. I guess all that fear of losing the one you love to a bunch of ancient, vindictive vampires puts things into perspective. Everyone was happy for them, and even I was, to some extent. They were an example of how we could have normal lives… if we tried hard enough.

After the whole battle-that-never-was, the younger wolves, like my brother and the others who were still in school, focused on their studies. We all wanted them to do well… it wasn't fair that their lives had to be ruined because of this mess. The older ones got jobs, and started focusing on settling down… and then there was me.

I'd thrown logic out the window when I'd joined Jacob's pack, but now I had to find something productive to do with myself for the rest of my life. I did have forever after all.

I sat in the kitchen, nursing a cup of coffee, staring intently at a small speck of dust beneath my mother's refrigerator. What could I, the only female shape shifter in history, devote my life to?

"If you're going to keep staring at that any longer, your head's gonna explode," an annoying voice piped in.

I didn't look away. My wolf knew fully well who it was – almighty leader and Alpha, Jacob Black. He'd made a habit of waltzing into our kitchen at all hours of the day to steal our food and annoy my brother.

"Go away, Jacob."

"Aww, come on Leah. Aren't you happy to see me?" he asked, grinning as he opened the damn refrigerator and started sifting through the food.

"I'm busy."

"Look, I know we explode into giant, furry wolves but developing telekinesis is highly improbable at this stage, Clearwater."

"I'm not… nevermind. What do you want?" Ever since Jacob Black had imprinted on little Reneesme Cullen, he was perpetually in a good mood: always smiling, laughing, making jokes, trying to brighten up someone else's day… not even the fact that Paul was his soon-to-be brother-in-law could get him down. Most of the times it was sickening to be around him, but today I couldn't even bring myself to be irritated. This was, after all, the decision of a lifetime.

"Nothing. I was just passing by, thought I'd check up on you."

"Why?" I asked suspiciously. I knew full well I wasn't Jacob Black's favorite person in the world.

I could see the thoughts flickering across his features – he was going to lie, but then thought better of it and decided to tell me the truth. "The Cullens were complaining I spend too much time there… they said they don't get enough of Nessie for themselves. I guess they're jealous I'm too awesome to compete with and they're scared Nessie will realize how dull they really are. Anyway, I decided I needed a break from them too… their smell doesn't get better with time. So I came back to La Push, but then I realized everyone is either at school or working … except you…"

Jake had this special ability to ramble on about everything – it was useful in situations where we wanted to avoid awkward silences, but sometimes he just did my head right in. I zoned him out as he started to describe, in excruciating detail, what Nessie had learned yesterday, going on and on about how smart and amazing she was. I stared at him, pretending to listen, when in reality, I was a whole world away, imagining myself behind cheese counters and reception desks, forced to smile painfully for the rest of my life.

Could I do that? Was I willing to subject myself to that sort of torture for eternity?

"Leah? Leah are you listening to me?"

I snapped out of it and brought the cup to my lips – the coffee was barely warm enough now, but I gulped it down anyways. "What?"

"I said, do you wanna go get a job?"

This question spiked my curiosity. I raised my eyebrows, at first totally surprised, but then I glared at him in suspicion. "What the hell are you on, Jacob? What did those vampires give you?"

"Come on, Leah. You don't have a job, I don't have a job… we need the cash. We could go looking for a job together. It's not like you have anything better to do."

"Actually… you know what? Okay. I call dibs on the first decent job we find, though."

Jacob grinned and fished a bag of Doritos out of one of my mother's cupboards. "Sure, sure, ladies first, Clearwater."

I dumped my cup of coffee in the kitchen sink and hightailed it out of the front door, locking it behind us. Jacob fell into a comfortable pace, walking down the road towards the town centre. I fell alongside him, hands dug deep into the pockets of my shorts, eyes downcast.

I had to admit, it was weird being with Jacob in a situation that was not pack related. We barely got along enough to decide who was going to patrol where, and we'd never had the chance to be alone together without the threat of death a couple of days away, so it was strange to be with him like this, walking down the road in comfortable silence. But Jacob managed to make any situation more bearable. I thought he was going to walk quietly, but instead, he started jabbering on about which jobs he was interested in, and any openings that Billy had mentioned during the week.

The truth was, I desperately needed some sort of motivation to walk out of my front door and go look for a purpose for my life – I couldn't just mooch off my mother for the rest of my life, and it got quite boring staring at the TV all day and bouncing tennis balls off my bedroom wall. But part of my mind was reluctant to take this new step towards my future. For such a long time, my life had fallen into a crazy, supernatural routine of patrols and training and meeting up with vampires to discuss plans of attack – I barely had time to have a life apart from that. And now, all of a sudden, my days were only marked by the patrol schedule taped to my bedroom door, and the couple of hours I spent running through the forest every couple of days. We were a large pack – I could patrol once every two days and have the rest of the time all to myself to do … God knows what.

The time leading up to the arrival of the Volturi had, in reality, tired me. I was feeling physically drained – and mentally, I was exhausted. The coming of the vamps had set us all on a mental and emotional high – the fear of dying had been great, rippling throughout the entire pack against our will. It was difficult not to think about it, and for a couple of weeks, the pack mind had become a huge burden to bear. Coming out of that high, unfortunately, was harder: I could feel myself still reeling from the intensity of the emotions from that time, and unlike the other wolves who had immediately plunged themselves into school and work, I had nothing to distract myself with. My mind had all the time in the world to go over all the thoughts and fears I'd absorbed from my pack brothers.

This had left me… strangely subdued. It wasn't normal for me to keep to myself, even at the worst of times, but I was suddenly realizing that I, Leah Clearwater, trapped in a nineteen year old's body, had to grow up now… I couldn't be a kid in the woods forever. I was starting to realize that, maybe, life could start going back to normal, that I could have a shot at a simple, plain life. And it was overwhelming, to say the least. I was still trying to come to terms with all of these new realizations.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Leah?" Jake's voice brought me out of my thoughts. I blinked rapidly and realized we were standing in front of the reservation centre. People were brushing past us, entering and leaving the building, smiling brightly at Jacob, and glowering at me.

Reputations were hard to get rid of.

"None of you business, Black," I snapped, and turned on my heel to enter the reservation centre.

"You're acting weird, even for you. What's going on? Did Sam bother you again? Are you sad about Emily's wedding? Are the boys getting on your nerves?"

"Shut the fuck up for one second, Jake. You're making me regret leaving the house with you. Do you ever stop talking?" The words fell out of my mouth in a complete rush – low enough for Jake to hear, but not high enough for the matronly reception lady to understand. She was too busy smiling brightly, trying to catch Jake's attention, to care that we were having an argument in her reception.

"Well, excuse me for caring."

"No one asked you to care," I snapped, walking over to the reception and rapping my knuckles against the cheap laminate desk. "Do you have any jobs that we can apply for?"

The receptionist, a local whose name I couldn't bother to remember, eyed me for about five seconds before turning back to smile at Jacob, who'd followed my lead and was leaning casually against the desk with a stupid grin on his face.

"Why yes, I do have some jobs," she chirped brightly as she opened a drawer and started fishing through some papers.

"Thank you, Samantha," Jacob retorted politely, nudging me with his big fat finger and motioning towards Samantha for me to do same.

I was tired, not drugged up. I couldn't be polite for the life of me. Instead, I rolled my eyes and tapped my fingers impatiently as we waited for her to resurface with the jobs.

"Cut it out," he whispered, kicking my shin slowly. I was about to shove him when Samantha planted a few papers on the desk in front of us. She started explaining how lots of people all over the reservation came to the centre to advertise vacancies and job opportunities available in the small shops and businesses that kept this town going. She encouraged us to go through the papers until we found something we liked, as she left to get herself a cup of coffee. Jacob split the stack of papers in two and gave a half to me and kept a half to himself.

I started sifting through them slowly, looking at all the cheap flyers and hand-written notes, taking in the names, the places, the requirements, the pay. Jacob did the same, for the first time in his life committing himself to doing something in silence. Eventually, I pulled a paper out of the stack and smiled.

"Did you find something?"

I nodded. It wasn't something great, but it was a start: a librarian. The library at the only school in La Push needed a librarian to do God knows what, and it seemed to be the ideal job for me: a quiet job in a quiet place where very little people could piss me off and I would get the chance to make people be quiet. And, some time long ago, Leah Clearwater had actually liked books as well, so that was also a bonus.

Jake started laughing as soon as he saw the paper I'd pulled out of the stack. I punched his arm as he started bending over his own stack, clutching his stomach.

"What the hell is your problem?"

"I'm sorry…" he breathed between each cackle, "I just got this really disturbing mental image of you in an old woman's cardigan and old skirt running after teenagers trying to have sex in your library."

I punched him again, for good measure, and because it was the only way to get him to stop laughing.

"Ow, damn it, Leah that hurts."

"What? The big bag Alpha can't take a punch from me?" I taunted, punching him again.

He glared at me, but he couldn't keep a straight face for long. "I'm sorry, I just can't help it."

There was a water dispenser just behind Jacob. I could smash it over his head to get him to shut the hell up…

"What do you think of this?"

I looked away from the water dispenser and eyed the piece of paper that he was pushing towards me. Mr Owens owned a garage in La Push that repaired cars for the people of La Push and even sometimes Forks and Makah – Owens was getting old now and wanted an apprentice to help him get the work done. Jacob was perfect for the job – he enjoyed cars and was great with people and… well, mostly he just enjoyed cars. He'd repaired the Rabbit up all by himself, and even though that stupid car was a safety hazard wherever it went, it still ran perfectly fine.

"Well, maybe sticking your head underneath cars would get you to shut up, finally," I said, handing the paper back to him and getting up off my seat. I planted the rest of the papers in front of Samantha and started heading for the door. I heard Jacob thanking her for her help and rushing up to meet me outside.

"Well, that was quick," he said, shoving the paper in his back pocket and smiling mischievously. I didn't like it when Jacob did that… it was never a good sign. "Why are you in such a rush? It's not like you have anything else to do."

"Look, I came with you to look for a job. I found a job. That's it. What else is there to do? I'm going home."

"How about thanking me for finding you a job?"

"What? Finding me a job?"

"Yeah, if it weren't for me, you'd still be sitting in your kitchen staring at the refrigerator trying to get it to explode."

I gave him one of my legendary glares. I did not want Jacob to think that I was indebted to him in some way… I didn't want to be indebted to anyone. I was Leah Clearwater for crying out loud. But, it seemed, my glare wasn't working on Jacob.

"I spend most of my time with Rosalie now… you don't scare me, Leah."

"Stupid vampires…" I muttered, kicking a rock with more force than I intended. The rock flew across the road and indented itself in one of the houses across the road. I just stared at it as it glared straight back at me, a reminder that I would never really be normal.

"Let's go get something to eat."

I crossed my arms over my chest and stood my ground. Jacob and I were not about to become best friends. "Don't think you're so lucky."

"Leeee-ahhh, I'm hungry."

I knew this voice: Jacob was about to become all whiny. I turned my back to him and started walking to the school, intent on getting to the library to fill in my application. Jacob followed like a lost puppy, complaining all the way.

"Please, I'm so hungry Leah, it's lunchtime."

"Damn it, Jacob, go to the Cullens, I'm sure they'll have something ready for you. Or get your sister to feed you. Or better yet, feed yourself, you idiot," I said, pushing through the doors of the school library and stalking over to old Mrs. Evans. She seemed shocked to see me there – I hadn't set foot in the library in years – and she was even more shocked when I requested an application for the librarian job.

Jacob was still lingering around, complaining while I was filling in the application about how cruel this world was to him, how difficult it was to satisfy his appetite. I tried to block him – I couldn't break his nose in front of Mrs. Evans, who didn't seem disturbed by his presence in the library. I guess being the chief's son had way too many perks in La Push. I filled in the application and pushed it towards her with a smile.

"You'll be hearing from us, Leah," she said sweetly, and I tried to smile a bit brighter – I'd almost forgotten how to do it, considering that nowadays my default setting was always set to glare.

"Thank you, Mrs. Evans," I said before I made my out of the library and started walking back home. I was quite proud of myself, as I had managed to actually get out of the house and apply for a job – something I had been meaning to do for the past few weeks. The only problem was that, in doing so, I'd inadvertently adopted a whining, clingy wolf that wouldn't fucking stop complaining.

Jacob kept bumping into me on purpose, almost knocking me over each time he did it. He was really pissing me off and testing my limits and I was really trying to do my best to stay calm and not kill him in the middle of the road. Jacob knew that he was walking a really thin line here: either I would oblige and agree to cook lunch for us myself, or I'd snap and just break his neck. The odds were never really in his favour.

"You must be really bored to be hanging around me, Jacob. How pathetic huh, kicked out by the Cullens and you have to annoy Leah for the rest of the day. Lucky me."

"Look, I'm not having fun either, I'm just trying to make the best of the situation. Now, what do you say, I know you're hungry, and so am I. Let's go get some burgers," he pleaded, his eyes shining brightly. He bumped into me again, knocking his shoulder against my cheek – he was way too tall for this.

At that point, I didn't care if we were in the middle of the road or in the middle of the forest; my hand darted out of grabbed Jacob by the balls, squeezing them hard. His eyes shot wide in shock and fear at the precarious position he'd put himself in, and I could see the pure terror in his features.

"Jacob Black, if I go to lunch with you, will you please for the love of all that is good and holy in this world, fucking shut the hell up?"

Jacob's face was fixed in a mask of terror for about ten more second, with my hands still on his balls in a death grip, before he relaxed and smiled.

"Yeah, sure."

And that is how I ended up having lunch with Jacob Black.