"WOO HOOOOOOO!" A joyful voice screamed out as its owner jumped from the massive cliff into the dark waves waiting below. For a moment after the jump, there was only silence, but then a head of short, spiky black hair broke the surface of the water.
"Come on in! The water is fine!" the jumper cried back to her friends still waiting on the cliff above.
"I thought I was supposed to go first, Alice!" one of the friends, Jacob, bellowed back down to her in good humor. Alice only gave him a playful salute before vanishing under the water again, swimming away from the cliffs and towards the shore.
"Well then, who's up next?" Jacob chuckled, turning to his other two companions. When they only exchanged amused glances, Jacob shrugged. "Ok, guess it'll be me!" he said, then he took a few steps back away from the cliff's edge…
"Is this really necessary?" Edward smirked.
"Absolutely." Jacob sounded dead serious before he suddenly took off running. Right at the edge of the cliff, he took a powerful leap.
"AWWWOOOOOOOOOO!" he shouted the entire way down. Edward sighed and shook his head.
"I wish you'd told me he was like this sooner," he whispered to Bella.
"If I had, you guys would've never hooked up," Bella reminded him with an amused smirk.
"Fair enough," Edward couldn't stop a smile as he conceded. "Now, who's next?"
"I'll go," Bella shrugged. "And I'll even do a swan dive, because why not?" she chuckled, then she took a graceful leap off the cliff.
Once all of them had swum to shore, they were met with a picnic Jacob had set out earlier, protected from the sun by coolers and umbrellas.
"Wow! You really went all out!" Bella smiled in awe as she took in all the food laid out for her and the others. Along with the typical sandwiches, salads, lemonade, and cookies, there were a lot more complicated and expensive dishes like steak, chicken, pulled pork, pasta and pastries.
"Ain't nothing wrong with that!" Jacob grinned excitedly. This wasn't just going to be a picnic, but a feast fit for kings and queens!
"You pig," Bella teased.
"Wolf," Jacob corrected, winking at her before he began to stuff his face.
"Yeah, talk about wolfing things down!" Alice remarked. Jacob pretended to puke in response to her lame pun, so she kicked a bit of sand at him before darting over to Bella's side and nestling up nice and close to her.
Jacob watched as Alice peppered Bella's face in kisses and then he turned a pleading face to Edward.
"Absolutely not," he deadpanned.
"Pretty please?" Jacob scooted closer to the vampire and held out his cheek.
"Alright, fine," Edward caved pretty quickly, pressing his cold lips against Jacob's warm, sun-kissed skin. Jacob growled in pleasure before returning the favor, leaving a BBQ stain on Edward's pale cheek.
"Gross," he muttered, but even though he wiped his cheek off dramatically, he was smiling the entire time.
Not long after, the other Cullens finally arrived.
"Sorry we're late!" Carlisle shouted as he and the rest of the coven walked over. "The hospital was exceptionally busy today, what with all the summer-related injuries!"
"It's not a problem at all," Bella smiled as he and the others sat down beside her.
"I brought more food in case you were still hungry," Esme smiled brightly as she pulled several giant coolers from behind her back. While Bella smiled weakly, Jacob's eyes lit up like the sun.
"Thank you, ma'am!" he cried, then he proceeded to start wolfing down a second lunch.
"Disgusting," Rosalie cast her most ferocious glare at the wolf, but for once, he didn't care at all. Esme's cooking was much too delicious!
"Awww, c'mon, babe! You can't deny that was pretty funny," Emmett laughed and nudged Rosalie.
"Whatever," Rosalie huffed and rolled her eyes before sitting down in the chair she'd brought with her. There was no way she was going to get sand all over her fancy bikini! Sure, the others had blankets and towels, but they still weren't very good at keeping sand out of swimsuits.
And before long, another pack of guests came to the beach. This time, they were with Jacob.
"Gaycob! Hey, Gaycob!" they bellowed. Jacob turned to see Quil, Embry and Seth swimming over from the cliffs.
"Got a little present for ya!" Seth said cheerfully, pulling a small plastic bag from his swim trunk's pockets. In the bag was a little pride flag.
"Gee. Thanks." Jacob grunted.
"Read what it says!" Seth insisted, gesturing to the flag. Jacob removed it from its protective baggy and unfurled it.
Team Gay-job. He plays for his own team and the other team!
And above the words "own team" was a wolf paw while, above the words "other team", was a pair of vampire fangs.
"Wowwww," Jacob buried his face in his hands while everyone else began to laugh.
"It's sweet!" Bella insisted.
"And very fitting!" Edward agreed smugly, taking the flag and tucking it behind Jacob's ear.
"You look so pretty!" Alice snickered. And as soon as Jasper and Emmett saw it, they burst into roars of laughter. Even Rosalie had to hide a grin, although it was more of a smirk at Jacob's predicament than amusement at the joke flag.
Only Carlisle and Esme showed any mercy, Carlisle smiling and shaking his head while Esme gave Jacob a compassionate smile.
"We're proud of you, honey," she told him. Then she also handed him a pride flag, although it was much larger and prettier. Likewise, on each stripe of the flag, there was a supportive message. One from every Cullen.
"Oh. Thanks," Jacob felt his heart fill with affection for Esme and the other Cullens. He touched the flag reverently and smiled.
"Don't think I didn't make you one too," Esme grinned, turning to Bella and handing her a similar flag.
"Thank you," Bella murmured in gratitude as she took the flag.
"Love you, Bells!" Alice nuzzled Bella again as she studied her new flag with a soft, small smile on her face.
"Oh, Alice, please don't!" Bella said, half joking and half serious. She wasn't sure what she'd do if the tiny vampire started crying.
"Don't worry, I won't!" Alice promised, then she kissed Bella's cheek again as she wrapped herself and Bella up in the flag.
"Awww, it's so cute that it makes me sick!" Emmett declared.
"Oh, shut up, Emmett," Alice grunted as Esme threw Emmett a small glare.
"What?" he asked innocently. Edward threw an empty bottle at Emmett's head in response.
"Ouch!" Emmett cried indignantly as the bottle bounced off of him with a metallic clang.
"Boys," Esme finally interjected.
"Sorry," Emmett and Edward both apologized, but neither of them looked very sorry.
"So, now that we're all here, how about we go have some real fun?" Seth pleaded, pointing to the waves.
"Heck yeah!" Quil and Embry took off at once, needing no further prompting. Jacob turned to Edward.
"Do I have to?" Edward asked, but he already knew the answer.
"Come on, Eddie, go play with your boy toy!" Jasper teased.
"Didn't need to hear that," Rosalie scowled at Jasper.
"Oh, hush," Jasper snorted. Then he tossed a handful of sand at Rosalie.
"JASPER!" Rosalie thundered, but Jasper took off running for the water. He knew Rosalie wouldn't follow him because of what the salt would do to her gorgeous, flowing locks.
Emmett was the next to go running. He hit the water so hard that the waves were knocked over by him rather than the other way around.
"Come on, Edward, let's go," Bella laughed, standing up as the tide temporarily reversed itself from the force of Emmett slamming into it.
"How come you're inviting him and not me?" Alice pouted.
"Because I already know you'll follow me in," Bella teased. Alice continued to pout, but she couldn't deny that Bella was totally right.
"Ok, fine," Edward pretended to groan as everyone else made their way to the water.
"You coming, Jacob?" he asked, not bothering to turn around. But maybe he should have, because as soon as he was on his feet, Jacob jumped onto his back. "Well, guess that answers that question!" Edward grunted.
"Mush, Edward! Onward! Forward! Excelsior!" Jacob cried, wrapping an arm around Edward's shoulders as he pointed to the water.
"Jacob!" Edward rolled his amber eyes, but he couldn't stop a smile from twitching across his face.
"Oooh, carry me too!" Alice pleaded, then before Bella even had time to blink, Alice was suddenly perched upon her back. It was a good thing Alice was so tiny! Even someone as unathletic as Bella could carry her around quite easily.
So the two happy couples joined their friends in the water while Rosalie, Carlisle and Esme remained on shore. Carlisle and Esme watched with matching smiles as two more of their clan finally found their significant others, and even Rosalie couldn't stop a small smile. She may not have approved of Alice and Edward, or of the people they'd chosen to be with (seriously, a human and a werewolf. Could it have been any worse?), but she had to admit that they were all very cute. In fact, as she continued to watch them splash around, she finally whipped out her phone and snapped a photo, adding a rainbow filter to it. Then she got off her fancy little chair and joined the others in the water.
AN: This is an Eclipse AU where, following the end of New Moon, Alice and Bella begin to realize their feelings for each other, but Bella stays with Edward for a bit longer, leading to repeated Edward v. Jacob matches until Bella finally just breaks it off with both of them and runs to Alice. This leaves Edward and Jacob despondent because they have no excuse to see each other anymore and that makes them realize that maybe their loathing was actually loving and their fights over Bella were only ever done in attempt to impress the other and because Foe-Yay is a thing, so they become a couple too. Also, yes, this means that Alice isn't married to Jasper.
Also, of course, in this moment, Jacob has given the Cullens his blessing to spend this one day at the beach with him, hence why none of the wolves are complaining about the vampires being on their territory.