[chapter_28]
Bella is thrilled with her sister's success. Watching Leah grow up, being there beside her every step of the way, she knows that Leah's success is something hard-won - her sister continues to beat the odds out of sheer talent and willfulness, and Bella can only hope to emulate that to some small degree. It has been an unfortunate piece of knowledge to possess, knowing that Indigenous people have to work twice as hard to make it into the same circles Bella can waltz through. Out of all their peers in La Push, it has only been Leah, Jake's older sisters, and a handful of others that have gotten out to go to college. She thinks Seth will follow his sister's path, but she isn't so sure about the others. She hopes their generation will be the one to break the cycle.
Leah, in any case, is living proof that it can be done. She isn't the very first Native American to file into the ranks of filmmakers and world-shakers, but she's going to be one of a very, very small group. Bella knows that her sister lives with that understanding, that weight on her back, every day. It's a pressure she can't relate to, so Bella does all she can to support Leah, when and where she is able.
It's immensely gratifying that Leah is now reaping the rewards of all her hard work. Bella knows Leah is worried about submitting her application for her MFA - about getting in - but Bella doesn't see a cause for concern. What film school in the country is going to turn down someone who just won a huge documentary contest and had their work aired nationally on PBS? Leah's anxiety both is and isn't understandable.
This is part of the reason why, when Bella learns of what her sister has done in wrangling Alistair into agreeing to, more or less, platonically date, she can't help but be relieved. Leah needs people like other people need air. Leah latches onto people and has an unwavering sort of loyalty, but she needs that devotion to be reciprocal - and as much as Leah might not want to admit it, Bella knows that Leah has a pressing need for companionship. She's someone who doesn't do well being alone. While Bella could quite happily close herself into her own space for weeks on end, Leah has never done well with boundaries, with being trapped into one place; where Bella is neutrally social, Leah needs a social life.
Bella thinks Alistair could fill a role in Leah's life. While Alistair is reticent and biting and doesn't appear social in the least, he's shown that he's amenable to going along for the ride. Alistair's social inclination is closer to Bella's, but since Leah is used to dealing with that, maybe the match will be well-made.
Time will only tell, there.
Time will only tell in other places, too. With the quarter nearly halfway through, midterms are looming only a couple of weeks away, and Bella is starting to feel the pressure of her course load and the work she gets done for Midnight Sun. She hadn't been kidding when she told Janeway about not really having the time for a guild, anyway. As nice as it had been to be part of a community of gamers all working toward the same goal, it had also been another commitment of Bella's time that she doesn't really have to spare. It's hard enough to keep up with her Swanning streams and right now, the only gaming she's doing is squeezed into the time she allots for decompressing, a stress relief shuttled between the occasional Netflix binge-watch with the girls and the at-home dates Masen keeps regular.
In fact, Bella's daily schedule is so jam-packed with her course work and studying for her midterms, and staying on top of the projects she is completing for the DOW2 demo due in December, that it doesn't even occur to her to mention her problems with the guild until almost the end of October, only a few days before Halloween.
She and Masen have just finished watching The Nightmare Before Christmas in the spirit of the season, cuddled together under a thick weighted blanket with a silky-soft bamboo cover. With Halloween falling on a Saturday this year and various plans being pitched between their friend groups about what they should do this year, Bella and Masen had taken the time to celebrate in their own way - which is to say that, while their friends seem hell-bent on participating in as many Halloween party antics as possible, Bella and Masen are homebodies through-and-through and would have preferred to have a Halloween movie marathon, instead. They still might, if they can duck out of the Halloween shenanigans early. It isn't entirely off the table.
With the movie credits still running in the background, they exchange soft words and commentary about the week thus-far. Masen is repeatedly slotting their hands together in various configurations, making her giggle when his thumb brushes against the center of her palm and finds an unexpected tickle spot. The mood is so light and she feels so safe, warm, and comforted in the catch of his arms, her chin resting on his chest as she looks up at him.
Bella makes a passing mention about how much she wishes she had more time for gaming, and Masen hums his agreement. He's been busy, too.
"I'm kind of glad that I don't have the guild, though. If I'm this busy now, I can't imagine how busy I would be if I had guild meetings and dungeons on top of it," she muses. "People keep messaging me about it, trying to get me to come back, but I don't really have anything to say about it."
"Messages?"
"A few," she confirms"Actually, I got a few surprising ones. Like, Relentless sent me a message, too."
Beneath her, Masen stills. "Relentless sent a message?" he asks, tone smooth and soft.
Bella nods her head against his chest and frowns up at him. "Yeah, and it was kind of weird, too. It was almost an apology, but it felt - I don't know, off to me. I didn't reply."
Masen hums, weaving their fingers together with a decisive pressure, his brow knit in concentration. She wonders at what is going through his head and decides, ultimately, that if he wants to tell her, he will.
It's not like Masen is going to go making any trouble, after all. It's not his style.
Masen
I need you to do some research
K.O.
On?
Masen
DOW handle Relentless
K.O.
On it boss
Masen
(Read at 10:12 PM)
.
.
.
K.O.
I have information
Masen
Say more
K.O.
The handle Relentless is owned by
James Denali
As in Denali Corps
Masen
Is that so
K.O.
Yes.
Masen
What else
K.O.
According to emails on the
Denali server James Denali has
recently been assigned to the
Volturi Demo on Denali's side
Masen
I see
Is there more?
K.O.
His search history for the past
week has included a deep dive
on Bella Swan
Masen
Of course he has
What does he know
K.O.
Enough
Masen
Continue
K.O.
He doesn't seem to be aware
of your connection to Bella
He doesn't know Master Culler is you
But he is aware that you are
our CEO and that we're competing
for the same contract
Masen
Proof?
K.O.
(Attached files)
Internet cache and stored texts
on his Apple devices
Masen
I see
Good work
K.O.
Orders?
Masen
Sit on it for now
K.O.
Got it
Masen
(Read at 6:41 AM)
The last time Masen celebrated Halloween in a costume must have been when he was ten or eleven. He has a vivid memory of Carlisle taking him around their neighborhood and of being cold. He'd gone as Batman. There were many king-sized candy bars that year. But that had been the last time - by twelve, he was adamant that he was too old and had refused all cajoling. His parents had accepted it, because they were like that.
The next time Masen had been in a costume at all had been Comic-Con when he was 19 and he went to San Diego as Tony Stark, his only Iron Man concession being a metallic red-and-gold glove modeled after repulsors. Peter had made the joke that of course Masen would choose Tony Stark - they both have the same tin-pot hearts. Masen hadn't minded the comparison.
He had, however, thought it would be the last time he willingly dressed in any sort of costume. But Bella has changed him in more ways than he can describe, so when the idea came up to do a Halloween-themed pub crawl on Saturday night, Masen had quietly resigned himself to the gentle enthusiasm in her green eyes. She wanted to spend the night out with her friends, and so while Bella didn't intend to drink, she would be more than happy to the designated sober person to guide the group safely around. Masen would join her, because he craves any amount of time he can get with her - and because he feels like he may be coveting her attention too much.
They can hang out with their friends, too. They can even do it in costume.
The entire night out is somewhat last minute, which means most of them have spent the week cobbling together the easiest costumes they can. Bella's friend Alice had volunteered to run through all of the local costume shops to get what she could, which is how Masen ends up with an inky black wig and a floor-length black cape with a black-feathered neckline. He's going as Howl, so the rest of his costume is a simple enough combination of black jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt.
Bella is going as Sophie. She's easy to spot in the bar when he arrives, almost half an hour later than everyone else due to certain issues he's been dealing with for the Volturi demo and the strange politicking that is involved. He can see her laughing at something her friend Rose is saying and he stops for a minute, watching her slender back and the elegant line of her neck. Even dressed in a white braided wig and a simple blue long-sleeved dress, he thinks she's probably the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.
It rankles him, deeply, that there is someone out there who seeks to possess her for no other reason than adding her to a trophy collection. James Denali - Masen loathes men like him, who think they should get what they want because they have power and the will to abuse it. He'd been so unsettled by the news that Relentless had messaged his Bella after that guild fiasco that he'd asked K.O to look into it, and what K.O. had been able to dig up overnight had not been flattering. James Denali has designs on Bella - and Masen has no intention of letting him get his way. The best way to handle the situation hasn't been revealed, but Masen can be patient. The opportunity would come. Until then, he'll be more vigilant about Bella's online safety. He's already written a few simple blockers to make it more difficult for James Denali to Google her, but all James needs to do is use someone else's devices to get past the block. It's a temporary solution, though, and Masen will have to make peace with it.
Masen wades through the crowded bar, catches Bella's eye from across the room, and tries not to let his internal delight be so obvious. But he loves her and he loves the way she looks at him. There aren't words to describe it, or how it feels. Even surrounded by all of their mutual friends and acquaintances, it feels like she has eyes only for him.
Bella reaches for his arm when he draws near enough, smiling up at him with simple, bright happiness. "Hi, Howl," she says.
"Sophie," he murmurs, tucking a wisp of the white wig behind her ear. "Sorry, I'm late."
"You haven't missed anything," she tells him with a reassuring pat to the center of his chest. She then turns her head and shoots a look at her sister. "We were just talking about how weird it is to see Leah without her camera."
Leah appears to be dressed as Lily Munster, with a black and white wig and a matching satin dress, which matches Alistair's Herman Munster costume, complete with pale blue face paint. "I want to be buzzed tonight," Leah explains with the sort of exasperation that comes from repeating oneself. "I can't do that with my camera. It's expensive. What if I drop it?"
Bella smiles, sly. "Then Alistair will just buy you a new one, right?"
Alistair gives Bella a very droll look.
Leah sighs. "See? I told you."
Bella laughs.
"That's okay," Peter cuts in. "It's even a good thing. I wanted to go as a Sexy Panda, but part of the costume has back-ordered. I'll just do it next year, and then you can bring your camera and capture me in all my glory. Right, babe?"
K.O., who is the only one actually sitting at the small table their group has secured, makes a noise of agreement. He's wearing a white chef's hat and what appears to be a genuine chef's jacket. Masen narrows his eyes slightly, trying to connect K.O.'s costume to Peter, who is wearing a t-shirt with a white chicken on it, white jeans, and a hat that looks like a chicken's face.
Bella, seeming to sense his confusion, leans up on her tip-toes, bringing her mouth to his ear. "They're supposed to be like those Muppets. Chef and his chicken, you know?"
Masen doesn't know. He didn't watch the Muppets growing up. He still hums, though, because while he doesn't understand the Muppet reference, the innuendo of Peter being K.O.'s chicken is all too clear.
"What on earth is a Sexy Panda?" Emmett asks around a pint of beer. He's wearing some kind of tunic and has an abacus in his hand, which isn't too much of a costume unless one considers how much Emmett worships Pythagoras.
"A panda that's sexy, obviously," Peter tells him.
"I'm too British for this nonsense," Alistair mutters.
"Wait, hold on," Emmett says, scratching his head. "If you nixed the panda costume because you didn't have a part, then did you seriously have this chicken stuff lying around?"
The entire group looks at Peter for an explanation. It's a good question.
Peter wags his brows. "Bro. Do you really want to know?"
Collectively, the entire group grimaces. Emmett speaks for them once again. "On second thought, no. Let me live in ignorance."
Bella presses her lips together and looks at Masen with poorly-concealed amusement when Emmett chugs the rest of his beer. Masen kisses her forehead, mostly to hide his own amusement.
"I don't understand," says a new-comer attached to Alice's hip. He's tall and younger than the rest of them with blond hair, glasses, and an outstanding cowboy get-up that looks, to Masen's untrained eye, authentic.
Rose snorts, flipping her dark, curly-haired wig over her shoulder. "Ali, explain to your main what an innuendo is."
Alice, who wears a frilly dress that belongs perhaps on the set of Gone with the Wind, giggles and then breathlessly explains to the newcomer what Peter meant.
Masen watches the blond boy's cheeks flush in embarrassment, then ducks his lips to Bella's ear. "Who is he?"
"Oh," she says, turning until their noses are almost touching. "That's Jasper, Alice's boyfriend."
"I see." He pauses. "Who is Rose supposed to be?"
"Ada Lovelace," Bella says loftily.
Well, Masen considers. That would explain the lace and the corset.
"I was going to be Lovelace, but I chickened out when I saw the dress," Bella confesses.
Masen, who has seen Bella be remarkably and endearingly clumsy, privately thinks this was probably a good idea. Masen doesn't doubt that Rose's outfit is significantly less voluminous than it would be if it was historically accurate, but it's still a lot of fabric to navigate. He's also quietly relieved that Bella is modestly covered up. He's self-aware enough to know it would rankle to see others looking at Bella the way they are looking at Rose and the low-dipping neckline of her dress.
"You look lovely like this," he says instead.
"Thank you," she blushes, looking down bashfully.
Eventually, the chatting leads them to another round of drinks. Masen buys for the group, mostly because he intends to steal Bella away early. A busy waitress brings their tray to the table and Leah stands up, clearing her throat while holding a glass high in the air. Masen and Bella each raise a glass of water, joining in the toast.
"A toast to Alice," Leah declares, grinning when Alice ducks her head shyly. "Who did so much work to make sure none of us look like the poor college students we actually are!"
"Hear, hear!"
Glasses clink together merrily, the sound loss in the general chaos of the crowded bar. Masen lets it all wash over him, content to just stand at Bella's side as her more open personality displays itself. Before her, Masen would have never willingly joined in so many group excursions, but they seem to be moderately important to her and he is willing to spend time with her in any way he can - even like this, with the group stumbling to another bar, this one hosting a Halloween-themed karaoke contest that Alice and Peter end up joining, much to the shared despair of the rest of the group. It's entertaining enough that, for the first time in weeks, Masen finds that his mind is willingly on something other than work, the stress rolling off his shoulders. By the time they get to the third bar, half of their friends more than a little tipsy, Masen feels some strange combination of recharged and drained. The stress is melting away, but the strain of sustained social interaction is clawing at him.
Fortunately, Bella seems to feel the same way. She pulls her sister aside after only ten minutes in the third bar and tells Leah that she and Masen would be leaving. Leah and the rest of the group wave them off, and Bella and Masen escape to the chill in the air.
It's cold enough that Bella's breath can be seen every time she exhales. Seeing that her dress is thin and clearly not adequate for the weather, Masen unties the cape from his neck and drapes it over her shoulders. Bella smiles up at him and reaches for his hand.
Her hands are small, slender, long-fingered. They always fit so perfectly in his own.
"Where should we go? Home?"
Masen lifts a brow. Where is home to her? Her dorm or his loft?
Bella's cheeks flush a lovely shade of pink. "I mean, your home," she clarifies. "They probably won't be expecting me back tonight, and I really don't want to deal with Rose's hangover in the morning…"
"Mm. Stay with me," he agrees. Masen orients himself on the street, taking in the brisk air and the moon rising from between squat buildings. He wonders if he should call for an Uber, or if they should BART at least some of the way.
Bella ends up deciding for them. "Can we walk for a bit?"
"You aren't too cold?"
"I'm fine," she insists. "A few blocks, at least, and then we'll catch one of the late-running buses."
Their stroll takes them down a sidewalk interspersed with more people their age in outrageous costumes. They make a quiet game of trying to guess costumes, and when they run across one that neither of them can place, Masen pulls out his phone to Google for the answer. Bella, entertainingly, gets competitive very quickly, insisting on keeping a tally of who makes the right guesses and arguing with zeal that there is a difference between a witch and a Wiccan.
"I'm telling you, you're wrong," she says, now scrolling through her collection of Google images to prove him wrong. "Look, see. Witches clearly have more of a goth vibe, while Wiccans are more colorful. That girl back there was wearing neon gauze and a pointed hat. She was definitely dressed as a Wiccan."
"Semantics."
"No, it's not semantics," she laughs. "There's a clear difference!"
"If you say so," he concedes. By now, the block has drifted from small businesses to residential areas, so there's both fewer people and fewer lights. He thinks it's about time to start looking for a BART stop so they can get home. Bella's teeth have been chattering intermittently for the last few minutes. He sees one stop across the street and makes to cross with her, but he finds that Bella has stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. "Bella?"
"Do you hear that?" she asks, cocking her head to the side.
All Masen hears is the distant noise of music and people a block or so away, so he shakes his head.
Bella frowns, then turns, squinting into the space between two neighboring apartment buildings. "I think it's coming from over there," she says. She doesn't hesitate before she ventures away, following whatever sound had snagged her attention, and Masen follows warily. He doesn't dream of stopping her, but he is more cautious where she is not, looking around them to make sure it's safe while she explores ahead.
Bella's search takes them halfway down that narrow alleyway before she stops on a dime with a gasp, and then says, "Oh no…"
Masen closes in behind her, peering over her shoulder at whatever has caught her attention. Oh no, indeed.
There in the alleyway is an abandoned cardboard box, dirty and torn, with scrawling Sharpie written over the side: TAKE ME HOME. Now that he's closer, he can hear the plaintive mewling of the animal inside. He's amazed Bella had been able to hear it so well.
Bella moves to kneel in front of the box, leaning over to have a closer look inside. She makes a helpless sound, reaching a hand inside to stroke down the back of a slender, clearly malnourished kitten. It's too dark to get an idea of the cat's coloring, but Masen can easily see the way the kitten leans up into the warmth of Bella's hand, eager for affection. He can also easily see how swift his girlfriend attaches herself to the animal.
Bella looks up at him, biting her lip. "We should take it somewhere. A vet's office, maybe," she suggests shyly.
Masen puts his hands in his pockets. "Vets are probably closed. It's late."
"Oh," she says, crestfallen. She pats at the kitten more, her brow furrowed.
Masen restrains the upward tick of his mouth. She's cute.
"We can take it back to the loft for now," he offers, and even as he says it, he knows full well that the for now is purely fictional. Bella is already attached to the kitten and since dorms don't allow for pets, the only logical place for her to home the kitten is at Masen's place.
He doesn't have a problem with it. If the kitten is there, then Bella will have more incentive to see him during the week. His offer is purely selfish.
The elated smile she gives him more than makes up for the future headache of having to housetrain a small kitten and the medical bills the animal will rack up to get it into healthy condition. Those are minor inconveniences compared to the way Bella looks at him as she cradles the kitten carefully in the crook of her arms, to the way she leans herself into his side while they wait for an Uber, to the way she so serenely lets him talk the Uber driver into letting them take the kitten into the car.
By the time they get back to the loft, Bella has already made a plan on how to get the kitten the care it needs. She's booked an appointment for a local vet the next morning, has a list of basic cat supplies waiting in an Amazon cart and is fully prepared to sacrifice one of Masen's bath towels to cleaning the kitten up. The kitten is small enough that it probably can't do anything other than drink milk, so while Bella is sudsing the kitten up with his shampoo, Masen runs down to the corner store for a half-gallon of full-fat milk. When he gets back, he finds Bella sitting on the floor in the living room, cooing at the kitten as she buffs the water off its fur.
Masen bypasses them, lingering only for a moment to memorize the maternal expression on Bella's face, and goes directly to the kitchen to heat up a small bowl of milk, which he then takes to the living room. He places the bowl down first, then sits down next to Bella, who releases the kitten from the towel.
They stare at the kitten expectantly.
The kitten mews at them.
"Shouldn't he be drinking it by now?" Bella asks a minute later when the kitten has decided to lay down on the towel and ignore the milk.
"He?"
Bella nods. "Definitely a boy," she confirms.
"Maybe he doesn't know how," Masen suggests. A bowl of milk certainly isn't how kittens usually feed.
"Ah," Bella says in realization, and then spends the next five minutes coaxing the kitten to the bowl by dipping her finger in the milk and letting the kitten lick the milk from her finger.
Masen stays silent throughout this time, satisfied to just watch. He can't help it if his mind takes the inevitable turn to the future, imagining this patience from Bella directed at another small creature - but that would be several years from now. Several years. Masen is willing to share her with some of the world, with their friends, and with this kitten, but he is selfish enough to not want to divide her attention more than that. Not yet.
But one day, maybe. It would be nice. A family of his own. He can't imagine it happening with anyone but her.
That night, after they have successfully led the kitten to eat and put together a makeshift litter box out of one of his shoe boxes, Bella and Masen go to sleep with the kitten purring happily between them.
Bella curls around the kitten until her head is resting on Masen's shoulder. "Thank you," she says quietly.
Masen presses a soft kiss to her forehead. "Of course," he returns, and wonders if she understands that there was never any question, never any hesitation at all from his end. Of course, he would keep the kitten she found and fell in love with so quickly. It would be absurd to think otherwise.
He would do anything for her. Anything. Including gather intelligence he might need to keep her safe from would-bes who want nothing more than to possess her as if she were a trophy.
If James Denali thinks it will be easy to get to Bella, he has another thing coming.
Bella Swan ʘthelittlecygnet
Say hello to Atari!
(Picture Attachment: A small kitten with pale blue eyes and mostly white fur, only the tops of its ears, its toes, and the tip of its tail dusted with a soft grey. Its ears are standing straight up, head tilted as it looks up at Masen Cullen, who is holding the kitten away from his body with both hands, a deadpan expression on his face.)
L Clearwater ʘClearlyFilmingThis
Hold up what
Peter C. ʘpeteypete
Are we allowed cats in the building?
Em for MC ʘmathmagician
ʘpeteypete We own the building so...yes?
Seth Clearwater ʘchangethisquil
Hey! Pistachio has a cousin now!
A/N: Update 1 of 2!
So, I picked exactly zero of these costumes - you can thank the lovelies over on Facebook for heeding the call and giving these recommendations. I wanted to use them all, but I ended up going with the ones that were most realistically possible, i.e., the simple ones. I think most of them are self-explanatory, but I feel I should talk about Ada Lovelace. Ada Lovelace was the daughter of Lord Byron (the poet) and a Countess in her own right, but she's most well-known for being a mathematician who wrote the first algorithm for a "computing machine" in the 1800s, making her the very first computer programmer ever when computers weren't even a thing. A lot of people agree that Lovelace had the first theoretical concept of what computers would become. Of course, she isn't widely recognized because she's a woman - but that's history for you.
Yes, they totally named the kitten Atari, because they're both huge, huge nerds. In other news, Atari is releasing a console this year to explicitly compete against Nintendo and PlayStation, so it might be work checking out? It looks pretty dope.
American readers, it's time to buckle in. The votes counts aren't complete until the last vote is officially counted, which means we're not likely to know the outcome of this election on election night - I would estimate we'll know, at the very latest, by Thanksgiving. Hold on tight. Don't be distracted. Don't panic - not yet.
Also, with the Supreme Court looking like it is, now is the time to figure out health insurance alternatives if you need them, just to be prepared. It may also interest you to learn that The Satanic Temple has successfully made the right to get an abortion protected by religion through a series of legal loopholes that essentially take advantage of the Hobby Lobby precedent set by Neil Gorsuch before he was a Justice - because The Satanic Temple has something they call a "Satanic Abortion Ritual", and because organizations get to have more protections than individuals for certain healthcare liberties, women can now use a few documents to ensure their right to make a choice about their body and their healthcare. And while women are certainly entitled to take legal action if a clinic denies them the right to an abortion if the woman claims religious liberty as a member of The Satanic Temple, it's important to note that this protection operates under the assumption that Roe v. Wade is upheld, and under the assumption that your state has abortion clinics. However, because The Satanic Temple is literally a federally-recognized religious institution, putting them on the same par as other churches, there is legal protection there. This didn't get a lot of news coverage when it happened in August, but it's important to know about it now, just in case. You can, of course, read more about it at The Satanic Temple (and learn more about the not-Satan-worshipping Satanists and their absolutely metal anarchist approach to securing social liberties through religious protection loopholes). Information is only a Google search away.
(As a point of note, in case anyone cares, I'm an agnostic atheist. I just like knowing things.)
As always, be honest. I can take it. Stay safe, stay inside, stay up on the science. And Happy Halloween!
~Rae