The next day Nahuel showed up at the lobby of Nessie's hostel around mid morning. She'd been waiting for him since the crack of dawn, but when he didn't show up she busied herself organizing the new clothes she'd bought and doing other little things like taking a bath and such. She could've gotten breakfast but she wasn't feeling any hungry since she'd eaten lunch the previous day. It usually worked like that for her, she could eat human food and feel satisfied for days, the same happened when she drank blood, but she never felt the burning thirst any of her other family members felt. Carlisle theorized that since Nessie was half human, that probably saved her the trouble of feeling any blood lust.
She thought about calling Jasper again, but decided against it because for one she wasn't sure if he'd be in class and also because she wasn't quite ready to hear her family's voices. It was beyond impossible at this point for them not to know she'd called a few weeks back, which only confused her even more. It was pretty impressive that they hadn't showed up in Brazil at this point, having somehow tracked her down.
Nahuel took her further into the city and showed her all the tourist spots he could think of, plus some of his favorites. Being around him was such a refreshing experience. He was so quiet and calm, but there were no awkward silences between them. He reminded her so much of Jasper in a way, but at the same time there were so many differences between them. She couldn't put a finger on it, but she knew something about him was telling her to stay. She couldn't keep running aimlessly anymore and he seemed genuinely interested in coming with her wherever the wind took them, so to speak.
The sun was setting again by the time they decided to call it a day. They had been able to stay out of the sunlight for the most part, but something about the time of day just made it impossible for them to stay in the public eye. They ran out to the edge of the city, seeking shade in the forest not quite ready to go back to their boring rooms just yet.
They walked through the forest side by side in comfortable silence. Nessie was burning with hundreds of questions she wanted to ask him, but she didn't want to make a single sound. Something about the way he moved, how he carried himself, made her want to just watch him. She was still trying to comprehend how this man could be like her; they were so different in every single way. He caught her looking and gave her a calm smile. She smiled back.
"You look like you want to say something." He said in his slight accent. He slowed down and eventually stopped at a small clearing. Nessie stood next to him and looked up at his eyes. "You must have a million questions."
Nessie smiled shyly. "Only a couple thousand." She joked.
"Well, let's hear them." Nahuel said.
"I don't want to scare you away." She played with her hands in a nervous gesture. He made her very self-conscious, something she wasn't exactly used to.
"Well, you will not know if you're scaring me unless you actually say something." He motioned for them to sit on the ground. They sat crossed-legged face to face.
Nessie looked down at her hands, searching for the right topic to start on. "I don't know where to start."
"How about the most embarrassing question? That should break the ice." He gave her an amused look and she giggled under her breath.
She straightened her back and took a deep breath. "Okay, you asked for it." Nahuel nodded encouragingly. "How come you're not with anyone?"
"With anyone in what way?" He asked. She blushed a little.
"I mean like romantically speaking." Nessie stammered embarrassingly.
"Ah, I see." Nahuel seemed to think for a brief second and chuckled softly to himself. "Of course that would be the most embarrassing thing you could think of. Well, it is fair for you to wonder I guess."
Nessie gave him an apologetic smile. "Too personal, right? You don't have to answer me." Nahuel shook his head.
"I don't mind. I just don't believe anyone has ever asked me something like that." He looked away, a serene expression on his face. "I am not with anybody at the current moment."
"But you have been before?" Nessie prompted. Nahuel nodded softly, still looking away.
"There have been women in my life before, but nothing permanent." His eyes locked with hers for a moment. "I suppose you want to know about that." Nessie nodded and Nahuel smiled again. "Well, I have been by Huilen's side for most of my life. The times I have been on my own, I have ended up seeking other companies. I believe the need for other relationships began sometime after I was fully grown."
"I believe the first time I encountered a woman that I was able to develop feelings for, was no more than a decade after I had stopped aging. I was in Peru at the time, after having left Huilen somewhere around Chile, I believe." He smiled at himself, remembering. His eyes seemed to be seeing an entirely different view than the clearing in form of them. "I saw her at a market and I immediately knew she was not human, her eyes were like Huilen's. She didn't notice me at first, but when she did she approached me. Out of curiosity, I suppose. We ended up spending a few years together, but I can't recall exactly how long it was until we parted ways."
Nessie was completely enthralled by the story, but she'd never heard of vampires having more than one mate. Her family had always told her that vampires would find the one person they wanted and stay with them forever.
"Why did you go separate ways?" She asked. Nahuel smirked in response.
"We wanted different things." He shrugged in a nonchalant way. He said it like it was the most natural thing in the entire world. "People evolve, Nessie, they change."
Nessie frowned at his words, still discovering just how different they really were. "I guess I never thought about It that way. I grew up around four pairs of vampires who all believe in that on true love."
"One true love." Nahuel repeated to himself, pensive. "Tell me about this "love" you speak of. Do you believe in that?"
Nessie blinked at him, surprised. The way he said it was like it was some sort of foreign concept to him. "Well... Carlisle has a theory about how it all works." She evaded the question in what she hoped was a subtle way. Nahuel raised his eyebrows in response, so she kept going. "He thinks that since vampires are frozen in time, seemingly unchanging, when that one person comes along and makes the smallest impact, just enough to generate change, then it means that a vampire has found their true mate. He thinks that's how love works for them, unlike humans who suffer a chemical reaction in their brains because they're alive and they do change constantly."
Nahuel had a look in his face that Nessie couldn't quite understand. It was like he was both questioning and extremely impressed. "That is a very interesting theory, indeed. However, in that same mindset, if vampires are unchanging and they are able to have this reaction towards a certain someone, wouldn't the same principle apply to those who do change? You and I, for example, we have a part of ourselves that is unchanging which is why we eventually stop aging, but at the same time we have another part of us that is human. Our human side does change, constantly, we are able to have those chemical reactions you mentioned happen to us. Meaning Carlisle's theory could be plausible, but also it would mean that love is not as permanent to us as it is to a vampire."
Nessie thought about it and for a moment, it did make sense that it would be possible for her to experience love in a similar fashion to a human. She had felt attracted to more than one person before, and she wasn't sure if that was the case for the other members of her family. She had never talked about it with them because she never felt comfortable enough to say anything, specially in front of Jacob.
"Are you alright?" Nahuel said, pulling her away from her thoughts.
"I'm sorry, I was just thinking about what you said." She gave him an apologetic smile and looked down at her hands again.
"Are you in love, Nessie?" He asked softly.
Nahuel's question took her by surprise. "Uh... No, I-I'm definitely not." She stammered, her face getting hotter by the second.
"Your face is a completely different color." He said with an amused expression. Nessie couldn't help but laugh.
"I wasn't exactly expecting you to ask me that." She admitted. "I thought it would be obvious to you."
"Why would it be obvious?" His eyebrows pulled together, making him look confused.
"I don't know, the fact that I'm asking you all this? I have no idea what being in love even feels like." She scratched the back of her neck while she spoke. It was a nervous habit she'd developed recently.
Nahuel looked even more confused than before. "That is a funny thing for you to say, with you being promised to someone." It was Nessie's turn to be confused. Promised?
"What do you mean? I'm not promised to anyone." She said. Nahuel laughed once, mocking her.
"Are you sure about that?" He asked her, tentatively. Nessie shook her head and laughed.
"Yes, I'm sure." She scoffed at him. "I think I would know if I was promised to someone, Nahuel. Why are you even asking me this?"
He looked at her for a moment, the same tentative expression on his face. Next thing she knew, his hand was on her wrist, inspecting something. She looked down and saw he was holding the bracelet Jacob had woven for her when she was younger between his fingers. He held up her wrist so she could look at it, too.
"I happen to know a little bit about tribe fashion." He said with a smirk. "You seem to be misinformed about what this means on your wrist." He let go and her hand fell back down on her lap.
Nessie looked down at Jake's gift and couldn't help but wonder if Nahuel was right. She knew imprints tended to fall for each other and she'd always known that her father was always a bit reluctant towards Jake. She didn't think he would give her a gift like that and not tell her why she had it, though.
"You think my bracelet is some sort of promise ring?" She asked. "Jake gave this to me years ago, it was just a Christmas gift and nothing more."
Nahuel smiled at her defensiveness. "Sure, if you say so." He winked at her and stood up in one swift motion. He offered her his hand to help her up. She took it and once on her feet, she started walking away.
"No if. I know it's just a bracelet." She said, looking at him over her shoulder. His chuckle made his chest tremble and it made her smile. She started making her way out of the clearing.
"I will take your word for it." She heard Nahuel say from behind her. "You know, if you continue going that way, you will eventually fall off the edge of a cliff. Not that it matters, but you would have to climb back up." Nessie stopped and turned around. Nahuel was smiling brightly at her. His energy was contagious.
"Okay lead the way then, jungle boy." He barked a single laugh and motioned for her to join him back in the clearing.
A few moments passed as they walked together, the right way this time. Nessie was still thinking about what he'd said earlier, but decided to continue the conversation from before. "So, you're single." She commented, just trying to break the silence.
Nahuel looked her way for a split second. "Yeah." He said and added: "Why? Are you asking me out?"
Nessie felt her eyes widen in shock and immediately backtracked. "What? No!" She stumbled.
He grave her a serious look. "So you don't find me attractive." He said matter-of-factly. He had stopped walking and Nessie did the same in return.
She gasped. "Nahuel! Are you serious?" She was sure her mouth was hanging open in a pretty embarrassing way and her face felt hot.
Nahuel looked at her seriously for a couple of long seconds and just when Nessie was about to say something else, he chuckled at her and kept walking. "Hey!" Nessie called and jogged up to catch up with him.
"What?" Nahuel asked innocently as soon as she was back by his side.
"That's not funny." She reprimanded him.
"Then why are you laughing?" He deadpanned.
Nessue humphed, he was being ludicrous and she couldn't help but enjoy it. "You think you're so clever, don't you?"
Nahuel rolled his eyes at her. "Your really can't take a joke, can you?" He said.
Nessie smacked his arm playfully. "I happen to be quite the jokester myself, just you wait."
He chuckled at her again and they went back to their comfortable silence. It was dark enough for it to be safe for them to back to the city and back to their respective places.
"That wasn't very nice, by the way." Nahuel commented.
Nessie gave him a questioning look. "What? Smacking your arm?" She asked. "You'll get over it."
"Actually I was referring to you not answering me before about whether or not you think I'm handsome." He said. "But now that you mention it, that was also quite rude of you."
The look of shock on Nessie's face was impossible to hide and Nahuel chuckled at her, his shoulders trembling. "You are very easy to make uncomfortable."
Nessie scoffed. "You're actually terrible." She said. She looked up at him and saw that he hadn't stopped smiling. She couldn't help but laugh at his teasing.
Author's note: I don't own crap. Stephenie Meyer is the one and only owner of the Twilight series.
Okaaaaayy! So, I wrote the bigger half of this chapter a couple months ago before I decided to revisit this story. I got the promise ring scene idea out of the blue after I remembered that portion of Breaking Dawn. I really like that I was able to fit it into the story without making it seem forced, at least I think it doesn't but you guys let me know.
Also, I want to clarify a couple of things about this story: it is a re imagining of a story I wrote some years ago called "My Paramour" but it's not at all the same story, if you read that one you'll be able to tell the differences very quickly. I actually noticed earlier that the preface of this story has "My Paramour" as a title for some reason and I would change it, but that would mean I'd have to delete the chapter and re upload it with the corrections and I honestly can't be bothered to do that right now lol.
Second thing I want to clarify here is that even though J. D. Pardo played Nahuel in the movie verse, I never imagined him looking like that when I read the book and I was extremely disappointed when they casted that actor for the role of Nahuel. He wasn't nearly exotic enough for my taste and he just looked very stiff, I dunno. It just irks me because I feel like they made fantastic casting choices for some of the characters and epically blew it with others.
Sorry for ranting there for a second, anyway I'm still looking for pictures of south American men to see if I find one that resembles what I originally imagined Nahuel to look like. Also, he's described in the books as not being very tall, but I kind of want him to stand at exactly six feet tall because in my mind it's the height that suits him. This is why Nessie has to look up at him, since she has a similar height as Bella, but it's not as difficult for her to reach him as it is with Jacob because he's basically a giant according to the books.
Well, I hope that clarifies some questions in case you had any. I felt the need to do so.
Till the next time!
P.S.: I've been listening to Lindsey Stirling the entire time I've been writing the past few days and if you don't know who she is, you're lost. Go find her music and YouTube channel and listen to her.
