Just a fun little interlude while I work on 1918 part 2... it's a drabble-bunny that kept coming up in my head. I was going to post it in the Drabbles, since it's not in narrative form, but since it's all real prequel headcanon, I thought it belonged here instead.

Carlisle Cullen laid down his wooden stake and distractedly ate some day-old bread and hard cheese. It was midnight, and he was waiting with his fellows by the sewer-lid for the mysterious vampire to reappear. He actually consumed less than half of the meal he had brought, as he had gladly shared it with two friends who hadn't thought to pack a snack for their night of monster-hunting.

Jasper Whitlock had a cold plate of dinner from the officer's mess in Houston. Sergeant Lockewoode had saved it for him while he was stuck in a meeting with a bunch of generals, listening to Jefferson Davis working himself into a tizzy over the Emancipation Proclamation and the lyrics of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. He didn't even notice what he was eating (it was cold bean mash with bacon with a side of sliced carrots) because he was mulling over his impression of the President and worrying over his horse, Patch, who had been favoring a sore leg for most of the day.

Esme Platt (she had dropped the Evenson for fear of being discovered) had a fairly decent hospital meal of sliced pot roast, string beans and a little potato… although that was more than a full day-and-a-half before the end of her human life, since she spent that final day anxiously watching her infant son weaken.

Edward Masen was never able to get any food down during his brief hospital stay, being already so far gone with fever. For his last real food he had forced down a couple of saltines and some chicken broth, mainly for his mother's sake, though that was two days ago. His last day as a human was spent with the taste of crushed aspirin lingering in his mouth. His last drink was a few drops of water coaxed into him by his mother several hours before, who was shortly thereafter forced back to bed by their nurses, for the last time. (Carlisle also gave him some water during the early stages of his transformation, fearing that his dehydration might make the spread of venom more difficult)

Mary Alice Brandon had a typical dinner in the asylum, a bean mash ironically similar to Jasper's but without the bacon, with a side dish of six different pills that left her staring at her plate long after it had been cleared away. She was actually seeing tomorrow's bean mash in her head, though as it turned out she wouldn't be there to eat it.

Rosalie Hale had a nice dinner with Vera and her husband, one of Vera's more successful experiments in cooking-on-a-dime: a lovely kidney-bean casserole topped with crushed Cornflakes. It was a little burnt while the two friends chattered and cooed over Henry, but still surprisingly satisfying to Rosalie, who was used to finer fare.

Emmett McCarty packed himself a fine man-sized lunch when he went out a-bear-hunting. A tin cup packed with leftover stew from last night, a full mini-loaf of his Ma's corn bread (which he had split and soaked at least a quarter-cup of maple syrup into), an apple, some scraps of dried venison, a little blueberry pie, and a supposedly-empty canteen to be filled at the stream, but which secretly held a splash of whiskey.

.

Epilogue: Bella Cullen drank human blood.