Sorry this took so long! I wasn't happy with the first draft, so I stared at it a whole bunch before rewriting a lot of it. The result is a lot of extra fluff between the Cullens... so hopefully that's good, aha.
Also, thanks so much for your support regarding my statements in the last author's note. It means a lot that people are on board with some of my ideas regarding the series.
Anyways, enjoy!
...
Edward watched the scene in front of him with a frown, leaning against a tree. "You're sure it's going to be sturdy?"
"Don't ask stupid questions." He winced as Rosalie hit him not so accidently with a heavy wooden brace as she passed by, her golden hair tied in a bun at the back of her head. "Esme's the architect, not you." she said, joining Esme at the base of where she was working.
Rosalie had rolled her eyes when Edward had first raised the idea, but here she was, exerting her control and all but taking over the project, all while insisting that it was stupid and she was only doing so to make sure it was done properly. He wasn't at all bitter that she was contributing more than him. "No one asked you to help." he muttered.
"Ha? You think you can do better than me?" Rosalie smiled mockingly. "Come back when you have an engineering degree or two. Oh wait..."
That was low. Rosalie would never let him live down the fact that he couldn't do equations to save his life despite the years he tried to master basic mathematics. As if being able to do math was so special. The joke was on her. Her skills were being done by computers now, and her fancy degrees would soon be useless.
"Stop it, you two." Esme poked her head up from the massive pile of blueprints that were strewn out around them on the forest floor.
They both conceded, though not after shooting each other another glare.
"Someone ordered more supplies!?" Emmett announced his presence after half an hour of Edward watching Rosalie and Esme work, carrying about two tonnes of wooden planks and iron beams on his shoulders. Immediately, the frigidity around Rosalie faded as she beamed at Emmett.
"Put them there. Gently, Emmett."
"Yes, Mom."
Edward felt a twinge of something bitter as Emmett leaned down and kissed Rosalie, and how she melted against him in turn. He looked away with a sigh, used to the fact that he couldn't avoid the sappy emotions because of his ability. Emmett joined in on the construction, following Esme and Rosalie's orders attentively.
Alice distracted Edward from his musings as she hopped in front of him. "I'm positive she'd like my idea better." she pouted.
"Liar." Edward said, reading her visions at the different responses. His idea got the better response, Alice saw too and resorted to flicking him in the forehead. Wincing, he finally looked at her properly to see her outfit. "What are you wearing?"
Alice grinned, and snapped her suspenders, twirling around. "I'm going to help too!"
She was dressed in a not at all practical outfit, that he saw in her mind was supposed to resemble a construction worker. Really, it was more like an expensive version of the terrible halloween costumes with the little shorts and high heeled boots. The only indicator of it actually being a construction outfit was the little orange vest that came to her midriff over a white tank top and the hardhat she had angled carefully over her pixie cut.
Edward let out one chuckle, which grew into a full blown laugh. He couldn't stop laughing at her even as Alice began yelling in outrage. This resulted in a chase, which frankly, was in Edward's favour due to his faster speed and her heeled shoes. Still, the tree branches Alice pelted at him were hard to dodge when he was focused on running.
So focussed in fact that he hadn't noticed the presence that had snuck up on him until he was reading his mind. By then it was too late, and Jasper had him in a headlock as Alice closed in from behind. "Started the fun without me?" he asked.
Jasper's eyes were bright from the hunt he had just gone on. Jasper still struggled with the animal diet and needed to hunt more frequently than the rest of them, despite his occasional challenges to himself to see how long he could last without blood.
Edward waited for the right moment (it came when Jasper cast his attention to Alice and her outfit), and then twisted out of his grip.
"If you have time to mess around, come help!" Rosalie demanded from back at the building site. "Jasper, help with the knee braces! Alice, stay out of the way and try not to distract Jasper!"
As Alice let out an offended gasp, Jasper smiled apologetically and prepared to run off and do as Rosalie said, not before stopping to peck Alice on the cheek. "Sorry, darlin'. Her majesty's orders."
"I heard that!"
"I know!"
That left a pouting Alice and Edward to watch as the rest of them continued their work. Efficiently, to Edward's annoyance. Esme was a genius when it came to anything building related, and even he had to admit that Rosalie was somewhat competent.
When Carlisle came to check on them later that evening after his shift at the hospital, he saw the project all but finished. "Ah, I missed it." he said ruefully. "Next time, shall we do something like this on my day off?"
"Edward waited until the last minute." Esme said, moving to him. Edward was inspecting the work from all angles, while arguing with Rosalie about the sturdiness of it all. "The poor boy was planning on doing this all by himself, if you can believe it."
"That would be a sight." Carlisle chuckled. "It's good to see them working together," he said in a lower voice, watching the group of their children laugh and bicker.
"It is, isn't it?" Esme beamed at him, threading her fingers through his to watch the sight as well. They waited patiently until Edward was fully satisfied, before leaving together for the house.
The next day, Edward left the house as soon as he heard Alia arrived. He had asked her to meet him there, after all. "Come with me." he said before she could get a word out.
After a brief drive, and dodging the questions she threw his way they found themselves in a part of the woods. Edward produced a strip of dense fabric and grinned at Alia. "Close your eyes."
She stared at him incredulously, but laughed. "Okay…"
As he secured the blindfold behind her head, he shook his head, irritated. Really, she just let him blindfold her with no questions? She trusted him far too much.
He began to lead her through the woods, with a hand on her shoulder, and a vigilant eye on where her feet were treading. Three minutes into their walk, Alia giggled. "It's kind of creepy to lead me into the woods like this, Edward. I'm not gonna lie."
"Hm. Yes, you figured it out. After all this time, now, I'm choosing to murder you. You got me."
"Ha ha. But really, where are we going?" Her brain was swimming with several possibilities. All of them wrong.
"Have some patience. You'll see."
"But I can't see with this blindfold on!"
"Shush." Edward hushed her. He stopped her as they stepped in front of yesterday's labour. He rolled his eyes as he heard the presence of several people hiding not so subtly around the area, away from human detection. There was no avoiding that with how nosy his family was.
"Okay…" he turned her so she was facing it perfectly. "And… here we are."
Edward removed the blindfold in a swift motion and watched Alia blink and adjust to the sudden light before her eyes settled on what he had prepared for her. She gasped as her mind fully registered what she was seeing. "No way. No fucking way."
He came up beside her and grinned. "Happy birthday."
"You…" she could only stare at it flabbergasted, before turning to him with wide eyes. "You actually— how did you—"
What she was sputtering over was the magnificent treehouse they were standing in front. The treehouse was built between two sturdy trees, leaving the main platform with plenty of space. Though Esme was a professional, the structure had a rustic look to it, with ivy climbing around the trunks of the tree with the ladder built into it. At the top of the treehouse, was another platform with a hatch one could stick their head out of with a rope ladder connecting that to the main platform. And of course, Esme had ensured that it was fully weatherproof as well as earthquake resistant.
Alia was still stunned as she took it all in. "It's too much. You can't have done this all by yourself?"
"Of course not." Edward said easily. "It was already here, I just fixed it up a bit with some help."
Rosalie snorted from where she was leaning against a tree. If he could read her mind from where he was standing, he knew she'd be criticizing how little he had actually contributed. Well, it technically wasn't a lie. What he neglected to mention was that what was there before was a ruined, rotted, mess that needed to be removed and rebuilt from scratch.
It wasn't a question of whether she'd like it, it was a question of whether she'd accept it. He knew her mind. He knew she had fantasised about having a treehouse ever since she was a little girl. But with parents who were always busy, and siblings who detested the outdoors, she had never even voiced the desire, let alone expect it.
Despite knowing how much she would love it, he was still surprised when Alia hugged him tightly around the middle. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is the best gift ever! You're the best!" She beamed up at him excitedly, then ran to check out the interior.
He let out a sigh of relief as he heard her squeal in excitement at the interior. "Thank you." he said quietly, to those listening, before following Alia up the ladder of the treehouse.
The treehouse became her new favorite spot, the poor oak she'd had as a sanctuary being abandoned. She brought in her own little touches that made it Edward's favorite spot too: her favorite blanket that she left there permanently, a little shelf from her room to store books when it was too rainy to move them, colourful curtains that she threw against the walls, and posters of her favorite bands.
All in all, it was a successful venture.
...
I came up with a headcanon writing this chapter: Edward is bad at math and only got through med school by being a mind reader. You can't change my mind. That boy's constitution is too weak for algebra and Rosalie will never let him live it down.
