Hello! I'm back!
Firstly, Thank you so much for all your favorites and your reviews. I am so glad this fic has had so much success! I took a while to update because my family came to visit me and after that, I had an essay to write for one of my classes so no time for fun.
Now, I had some time and I wanted to give you something!
So, this chapter basically wrote itself. It was not what I was expecting to write, but I feel like Bella and Felix needed some things cleared before fully moving on together. Here it is, enjoy!
Btw, some of you had asked that because Demetri is related to Bella and he felt that protectiveness towards her if that meant Aro was also related to her. - I played with the idea of having them being related to each other, but I also want this fic on the verge of realism and fantasy. So, I don't think they're going to be family. As I answered to you, Aro is protective of her as we could be protective of a little kid.
The Butterfly Effect.
Chapter 6: Finally on the same page.
Felix and Bella stood in a tight embrace for a few more minutes while she calmed herself. Felix would have never imagined being in this kind of situation. In what crazy universe would one have imagined that his best friend and his girlfriend were related and just recently found out about it.
When he noticed her even breath, he stroke her back and whispered "Better?" She nodded.
"It's just… I don't know what to do, or what to think" Felix nodded. "I came here resigned with the fact that I might never see my mom or my dad again, and for my whole life, they have been my only family. Even when I was with Edward, and as much as I love the Cullens, it's not the same." She sat on the sofa that had a direct view of the book that brought all the crying. Felix sat next to her on the large sofa.
"So… Are you not happy with this discovery?" He asked unsure. He tried to follow but couldn't understand if she was or wasn't happy.
"Oh no. I am happy. But I am freaking out a little bit." She managed to smile.
"Do you want me to talk to him and tell him to give you a little time to process everything?"
"No. I want to talk to him. I think it would be better having all the facts." He smiled at her nodding.
"Do you want to talk about it? Tell me what else is on your mind." He wanted to know everything about her, but he was still a little worried that she might change her mind and not want to be with him until later. He should tell her that, but for now, he would focus on her and her relationship with Demetri.
"I'm happy to know that I have another living relative…well, sort of living." Felix poked her on her ribs, and she giggled. "And he has been very welcoming since the beginning. He let me know I could trust him when he hid the note until we reached Aro. And ever since, every time he showed up he would make a joke or smile or just barge in unannounced and contrary to what some might believe, that makes me feel better. Like I wasn't a burden that you should look after. It's different to how you behave. Because with you I felt nervous and excited and scared."
"Scared?" He didn't want her scared of him.
Bella stood and started pacing the room. "Yes. But not scared for my wellbeing. I was scared of how fast I liked you. You would smile or wink and I was done." She blushed. Felix laughed hard at that. She stopped and smiled at him.
"Bella, come here" he patted the seat next to him and she sat. "What are you really freaking out about?"
She sighed. "I don't know. It's all happening too fast."
"Do you regret saying that you want us to be together? If you're doing it because of me, I don't want you to feel pressured…." He was interrupted by her kissing him.
In what universe could Bella have imagined that she would be in this situation.
"I don't regret anything that has happened between us. I told you that this decision was made after a long day of hard thinking. I want to be with you. I want to learn everything about you. You make me happy." He hugged her. Why was he so insecure? He has never been this insecure. He was the one who always initiated the physical contact and the one who ended it. He was always secure in himself.
He didn't have words to answer so he kissed her harder and more passionately than he had the previous times. They broke apart when the need to breath was too strong on her part. He was sure he was falling for her, faster than he would have ever imagined, and that scared the hell out of him as well.
"So. You're not freaking out about us. Are you freaking out because it scares you the fact that Demetri is your uncle?"
"It's not so much that." She sighed. She had promised honesty. "Remember around six months ago? When I came to save Edward because he was going to do whatever to make you kill him? " He nodded, even though he knew it was a rhetorical question. She knew they remembered everything. "Do you know why he wanted to do that?"
"He thought you were dead. And something about extreme sports."
"On my 18th birthday, Alice prepared a party with the Cullens. Cake, gifts, everything. For me, it was a dreadful experience. I didn't want to turn 18, one year older than Edward, and we had discusses so many times my transformation, always to reach the same path. Him denying it. So, at the party, I cut myself with the paper of one of the gifts. Jasper overreacts and tries to attack me. Edward pushed me out of the way too hard and I ended up falling on top of a Christal table, breaking it and cutting myself deeper." She shook her head. She had nightmares about that night for months. " Long story short. Carlisle did the stitches but a few weeks later Edward broke up with me in the forest behind my house. I tried to follow him, but I have never had a very good sense of direction, which is why I ended up lost and almost catching pneumonia."
Felix looked at her stunned. He had imagined a breakup because there was no way that Edward would have come to Volterra seeking his doom if he had thought she was dead while they were still in a relationship. "What about the extreme sports thing?"
She blushed. "Jake had been my friend since we were kids. We used to make mud pies together. I had never been a very girly girl" He had noticed. She liked to wear dresses and skirts, but she was more comfortable wearing jeans and sneakers. "So, I started hanging out with him, we fixed some bikes that I found, and we rode them." She told him about the voices and her reckless actions to hear them, she told him about werewolves and cliff jumping. "I jumped off a cliff for fun, not to kill myself as Rosalie had made it sound. Apparently, Alice saw me jump, but she never saw Jacob rescuing me and she thought I was dead." She then told him about Alice at her house, their conversation, Jake almost kissing her, answering the phone, and her trip to Volterra to save Edward.
Felix sat there silent, processing everything. She suffered a lot because of her breakup with Edward. But if she did all those things to hear his voice, if she was so desperate to save him that she risked her own life, how could she break up with him and move here and start a relationship with him? She had accepted his marriage proposal. She had wanted to marry him. She would probably have if they hadn't intervened at the newborn fight.
"I can see you're thinking too hard there. Talk to me" She pleaded. He looked at her in the eyes with million questions.
"Why did you break up with Edward? Honestly." His question was a little rougher than he intended and he noticed how she blinked surprised.
"I told you I wasn't happy. There was something off. I don't know how to describe it. You could say I changed; I want different things now than I did one year ago. I loved him, but not as strong as I had one year ago."
"Why did you accepted his marriage proposal then?"
"We had made a deal. I would marry him, and he would change me. I thought I wanted to be with him forever. I loved him, so it only made sense to marry him." That piece of information made him feel a lot better at the whole situation. He had tortured himself thinking of other scenarios where she accepted a marriage proposal. Bella laughed and Felix looked at her confused. "I can see that makes you feel better. I wasn't the only one freaking out, was I?"
Felix chuckled and shook his head. "You know how strong I feel for you. I liked you when I saw you the first time, and I was extremely disappointed when you left with him. And I couldn't understand why you would come willingly with us this time when last time you were basically ready to jump out of a window to run away." He winked wanting to lessen the seriousness of the conversation. "But yes, it makes me feel better to know under what circumstances you accepted to marry him."
"Why does that situation make you feel better?"
"Because it scares me to think that you loved him so deeply that he would have proposed and you would have accepted, like in normal circumstances. Not out of a deal."
"I understand." And she did. Were she in his position she would have been scared too. And she loved the fact that they were having this very needed conversation after all. This would allow them to move forward and be on the same page. And she was excited to find out things about him. He was strong, but he was insecure in certain things. Maybe, this conversation would make him not doubt himself anymore. "Are we on the same page, finally?"
Unexpectedly he lunged forward and captured her lips on his. She laid down on the sofa while he continued to kiss her with everything he had, all the while supporting his weigh on his arms as to not crush her. Her hands were on his hair and shoulders and he loved the sensation. Normally, he wouldn't pay attention to where a girl's hands were on him, as long as he obtained what he wanted from them (sex or blood) but this time he wanted to savor the moment and the feeling.
"I would say we are." He whispered in her ear. She giggled and kissed him again.
After a few more minutes she sat with her head resting on his chest and her legs fully crossed sideways on the couch. Felix had one of his arms around her, absently running his hand up and down her arm. He was thinking of his conversation with Alec when they were on the way to visit Kieran.
"I have one more thing to tell you." He started feeling like he was about to be scolded. "I may have done something to Alec today."
She sat straight and looked at his eyes alarmed. She was mischievousness and playfulness, so she relaxed. "What did you do to him?" Poor Alec, he was so nice, she hoped he didn't kick his ass for the scene in the training room.
"I may or may not have pressured him to tell me what was all that at the training room the other day." Bella groaned feeling sorry for her friend. She thought of him as a friend already. "if it makes you feel better, the bastard didn't say a word."
Bella snorted and covered her mouth trying to prevent a full laugh to come out of her and failed miserably. "Oh god!" she laughed harder, and once she calmed herself groaned again ashamed of laughing at her friend's expenses. "Poor Alec"
"Poor Alec my ass." Said Felix smiling happily at his girlfriend's mirth.
"Well, if anything, I now know I can trust him with an outburst and a secret" She laughed harder just thinking Felix being annoyed at Alec's silence. "Did he blind you with his weird gift?" She didn't know why, but it worried her and amused her at the same time.
"No. He's not allowed to play with it. And he knows I could easily kick his ass after."
"After what? After he kicked yours without moving a hair?" She laughed at Felix's stunned expression.
"Not funny." He replied poking her at her ribs lightly making her squirm and laugh harder. She hadn't laugh this hard since the pasta party all those months ago at the Black's house. That had been the first time she had been truly happy without thinking of the past.
"Oh, I beg to differ, sir." She said between laughs.
They stayed silent for a few minutes. Felix was thinking of what Bella had said. She had shared more about her past than she had done the day they admitted having feelings for each other. He wondered if Bella's reaction to finding out about her relationship with Demetri had anything to do with Edward and the Cullens leaving her after her birthday.
"Bella. Is it possible that you're afraid of what Demetri found because of what happened after your birthday?"
"I think so, yes." She admitted softly.
"Is there anything we can do to assure you that nothing like that is going to happen to you, ever again?"
She shook her head. "Just give me time. It's hard for me to fully trust anyone after that, but I do with you. I trust the four of you. But I was also emotional with the meaning behind Demetri's finding"
"The four of us? And What meaning would that be?"
"You, Demetri, Heidi, and Alec. For now, you are the only four I trust in here" She said with a shrug. "And he was offering me family. Blindly, no questions asked, no conditions. It overwhelmed me a bit."
He kissed her temple. He understood how she felt. "Are you ready to talk to him about it?"
She nodded. "I am."
Again, a million thanks for your candid reviews, to the silent readers, to your alerts. It makes me so incredibly happy!
Keep them coming!
Love,
Paty4Hale
