Author's note: Well, I knew it was coming… but I lost a lot of reviewers. =[ It's okay though… I don't blame them because I've really neglected you guys… my life had become more busy than I could have ever expected this year. At the beginning of the school year I was bored out of my mind, and now I'm lucky if I get to bed after 11. I'm so sorry again… but I'm almost positive you won't be disappointed with this one. Just prepare yourselves…

Love,

Mel

21. Sparks

We parked next to a vast nick of forest and I stood, confused. We were having seriously having a picnic in these outfits? I thought this plan was just a cover for my mom…

Ronan was unloading the large picnic basket of food he prepared for me, and I shook my head and smiled. Guess so.

He beamed at me when he slammed the trunk. "Ready?"

I decided to save my question for him being so dressed up for later and chuckled at his excitement. "Born ready, Ronan. Born ready."

He nodded. "Good." He walked in front of me. "Hop on."

I wrapped my arms around his solid neck, and wrapped my legs around his waist. He grunted a bit, and I rubbed his cheek to sooth his thoughts before he took off at mass speed through the woods. When he made a sudden stop, I had to get over the disorientation of the entire forest flashing before my eyes in dizzying speeds, before I could fully evaluate our surroundings.

We were in a bright clearing. The sun was shining, the air was warm, and grasses abundant with daisies and flowers enveloped us. The majestic trees surrounding the gorgeous clearing were like barriers between the real world and enchantment. It was as if I had just entered another city, another country, another dimension.

I stared in awe at our surroundings as Ronan smiled on at my reaction.

"What do you think?" He asked me as I took in the beauty.

I swallowed. "Todo, I've a feeling we're not in Forks anymore."

Ronan chuckled. "That's how I felt when Edward first brought me here. It was probably the only sight of his grueling tour of Forks that I actually enjoyed."

I nodded, facing his sparking figure, and I gasped as if having a flashback. "Edward and Bella's meadow."

He nodded. "Very good."

I stared at his sparkling skin, and even more illuminated smile. "Wow." I managed.

"You've seen me in the sun before, Ava." He replied, chuckling.

I shook my head, at a loss for words. "I know but, wow. Just you, and this place is just… wow."

He smiled again. "Well in that case, I'm glad I wowed you."

I stepped closer to his god-like figure. "So am I."

He nodded, looking deep into my eyes. "Are you hungry?"

I hadn't noticed until he mentioned it, but there was a small pang in my stomach. "Sure."

He nodded, unfolded the large red quilt onto the grass, one that looked as though it should be used on a queen's bed instead of the damp forest ground, and set the picnic basket into the middle. I sat across from his busy figure, watching him unload the food. I gasped as he placed a Greek salad in front of me, along with three stacked and perfectly tooth picked turkey finger sandwiches. He then took out a pitcher of lemonade and a glass, pouring it like a professional into the crystal glass. Just as my Grandpop did on our picnics in the park before his death.

Finger sandwiches bound by a single tooth pick, along with his famous Greek dressing-encrusted salad was a meal we'd share in the park every Sunday during the summer we lived near Chicago. It was the midday snack I hadn't eaten since our last picnic before the accident that happened on that tragic Tuesday. Tears began streaming down my cheeks. It was as if I was sitting in the newly renovated, beautiful Grant Park under our huge oak tree, eating my weekly snack with my favorite person in the world, and when I looked into Ronan's eyes as he sat across from me on the blanket, smiling, I realized this situation wasn't much different. My favorite person in the whole wide world was sparkling right in front of me. Literally, sparkling.

I shook my head, wiping the embarrassing tears off my cheeks. "Thank you so much, Ronan. You didn't have to do this."

He shrugged. "I have to say… the smell of the cold turkey was repulsive, but it was worth it. I would do anything to see that genuine smile illuminate your face."

I sighed, shaking my head.

He settled back into the blanket better, putting his arms behind him. "So, since I told you every detail of our history… do you have any questions?"

I started digging into my salad, and thought for a moment, until my thoughts were interrupted by the dressing that tasted scarily similar to Grandpop's. I swallowed in surprise. "This is… amazing." I managed, not answering his question.

He smiled with pride. "Thank you. Luckily your mom memorized the recipe."

My eyes widened. "She knows the recipe? Why hasn't she made it? I used to ask her for it all the time a few months after his death, but she told me the recipe was no where to be found."

He sighed. "You may not have realized it with her ability to mask emotions, but she was very distraught over her father's death. Making his salad would resurface so many emotions and memories, especially when his death was so recent. She hated looking weak, so she hasn't made it since because she's afraid of how she will react."

I looked down at the salad. "Of course. That's probably why we moved right after his death also. She needed something to focus on. She needed to be away from all of that."

Ronan nodded. "Yes. Memories can be very powerful, but at least she had moved on not long after that. At least you can move on." He looked down.

I moved closer to him across the blanket. "Ronan." I put my hand to his cheek, and he closed his eyes. Then, suddenly, a question came out of no where. One I must have been subconsciously pondering, because when it came to me, it automatically came out of my mouth just as naturally as it came to my mind. "Why me?"

He opened his eyes, confused. "What?"

"Why am I so special? Why did you pick me, out of all the beautiful girls you've encountered in foreign countries, after being distraught for all this time over the woman you lost?" I looked deep into his eyes, taking a deep breath. "How come you fell in love with me?"

Ronan looked down and smiled then, shaking his head. He took a deep breath.

"After your mother won the house, my family sent me off to Honolulu to watch each of your memories, to make sure you weren't too much of a threat to our safety." He rolled his eyes. "Emmett there by named me the Cullen family stalker."

I chuckled at Emmett's big-brother tactics.

Ronan looked up at me then. "Now, I don't know if I've ever explained to you how the memory reading works."

I thought for a moment, thinking I most definitely had to have asked him that simple question, but when I realized I had no idea, I shook my head no.

"Well, the first time I come across someone's memories, the first memory I see from them is the most vivid one in their mind, which is usually the worst memory they possess, so I always have brace myself for something horrible when I begin to read someone.

"So, I went to Honolulu, and read your mother first. Her memory was…" He shook his head. "It was horrible. Who knew tornadoes could be so devastating, especially in that time period."

I grimaced, recalling my mother's story about her childhood memory of living in Oklahoma with her aunt and uncle for a summer, and miraculously surviving after jumping in the first floor bathtub last minute while desperately clinging on to a mattress she forced on top of her. Her uncle didn't make it through the devastating tornado that broke all kinds of records.

"And then your father's…" He paused, watching my reaction closely when he brought up my father, "watching his father die in front of him of a stroke when he was seventeen…"

I nodded again; March eleventh was always a dark day for him. Ronan rolled his eyes. "Then Alicia's was when she was rejected by that one football player that went to her brother school, and Allison's when she wasn't the center of attention at a party she went to."

I rolled my eyes with him. "I'm sure that has changed."

He smiled then. "Then I saw you for the first time. I restrained from looking at your memories; I was nervous. It was after school one day last year, and I saw you walk out of the school towards your car that was going to bring you home. Your hair was in waves, and blowing in the wind of the incoming storm behind you. And your face, it looked so soft, so breakable; despite the fact you were walking with your chin high. Your expression just didn't match the confidence of your body language. It looked weary in a way, but also very intelligent. You were so beautiful."

He paused. "So, I followed you home hours later. I was walking along your beach; I snuck into your private neighborhood; and I saw you leaning against the railing of your balcony. It had just finished raining, and you were in your bathrobe, watching the heat lightning illuminate the breath-taking ocean in front of you. But the ocean was unsightly compared to the radiance of you." He smiled, reminiscing.

"I finally let myself look into your memories then, bracing myself for the worst, but I was absolutely aghast at what came to me." He shook his head, as if he were pondering why the sky is blue.

"You were backstage for one of your musicals when you were about to go on. You looked around ten, and you were dressed in some Martian-like costume that fit your tiny body awkwardly and caused you to push up the uneven straps every few seconds, but at least it kept your nerves busy. I chuckled actually chuckled during this memory of yours, just because I could tell there was this strange, yet strong emotion seeping from your little body… this… this conflicting concoction of petrifying fear and giddy excitement. I saw you take a deep breath then, and step into the lights. Your behavior was making me very nervous, however. I thought your tooth-pick legs were going to collapse out from under you." He smiled then, moving closer and taking my hand. My skin tingled under his cold touch.

"But then, Ava, your song started, and this big, beautiful voice came from your little ten year-old body, nearly knocking me off my feet as I watched this. The audience… they just fell silent." He was making large hand gestures with the one that wasn't in mine, his eyes glowing with the more excitement than someone who just one the lottery. I smiled, remembering the school-written musical, my favorite performance of all time because both my parents were in the audience.

"Your voice was beautiful… much different than Desi's, but it didn't fail to make my breath catch." Tears began to fill my eyes as his voice became a few decibels lower, more intense.

"When you were finished singing your song, and the audience started to applaud out of control, you smiled and took it in for a second, and at that moment you knew…"

I was closing my eyes, reminiscing, when I finished for him, "That was exactly where I belonged."

He moved closer to me then, utter sincerity in his eye liquid butterscotch eyes. I could feel his sweet breath on my forehead. "I knew I was in love with you at the exact second."

His smiling lips were inches from mine. His breath, it was tempting me as if I had just stepped into the Garden of Eden. I knew temptation only led to hurt, even though the temptation and the constant restrain against my instincts, and the laws of nature, were breaking me slowly and painfully. There was a magnetic force between us, so inevitable, so ill-fated; it was enough to bring tears to my eyes. I couldn't give in. I couldn't hurt him. He was my Ronan. But I wanted him. All of him.

And that's when it hit me. The solution was so simple, so utterly insane, I stopped breathing. But it was a way around the hurt for the both of us. Even though it was absolutely crazy, even though it could lead to disaster, there was a way around the angst. One, completely abnormal solution to our barrier. It could be crossed, because there was one thing Ronan had never experienced with Des.

I snapped out of my position, stepping off the blanket and unzipping the convenient side zipper my dress before I could change my mind. I began sliding the dress over my cleavage, revealing the bright blue lace. I wasn't facing him, but Ronan didn't make a peep at my reckless behavior.

Thank the Lord for Alice Cullen. I thought as I noticed how perfect my body looked.

Ronan finally broke the lingering silence as I was working the dress over my overly wide hips. "Ava… what the hell are you doing?" He sounded oddly disconnected from the world when he spoke, as if he were doped up on some excessively strong drug.

I turned around to face him then, finding him as still as a statue, marveling at my body with wide eyes. He was either marveling, or crapping his pants if it was possible for him. Whatever the case, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of hope for this.

"No," I told him, still trying to figure this out myself. I had the bare minimum of experience with this type of thing; Joseph and I had gotten close to this situation, but never close enough to consider myself legitimate. I was scared out of my pants, or dress, per se. Literally. "You don't get to interrupt. If I only kiss you, you get hurt. And I can't have that." I pushed my dress to the ground, stepping out of it with my heels still on.

He was still watching me with complete surprise. Okay, he was most definitely crapping his pants. "Ava…"

"Ronan, don't." I told him. "I can't take this anymore… this…this constant, agonizing distance between us, when there's this intense pull between us we both know is there… and I have to resist. You're not the only one hurting… and this is our only compromise because… you and Des never got this far." I took a deep breath, afraid of his reaction to the reference to his first love. He didn't flinch luckily, and continued to watch me in surprise. "I want this, not because it's the only way around this twisted boundary, but because I love you more than I've ever loved anyone in my entire life. Here, with you, this is where I belong." Unexpected tears began rolling down my cheeks. The statement was so natural, so true.

Ronan stood up then, looking at me with the most utter sincerity in his butterscotch eyes, amid uncertainty.

I stepped closer to him, sucking in a shaky breath. "And I know you feel the same way."

His eyes searched my face, as if I had gone completely mad, but at the same time, I could tell he agreed. "Ava…" He watched me kick off my heels, "I don't know if I can handle it. A memory could come back… I could hurt you."

I shook my head. "You can handle it."

I came closer to him, loosened his tie, and began unbuttoning his dress shirt, then worked the sleeves off. When his pale white chest was exposed, sunlight glinting off of it slightly, I put my hand on his bare chest. I looked up into his worried, yet loving eyes. "I trust you." I murmured.

He was still looking at me nervously, yet intensely, making my breath quicken as he wrapped his cold arm around my bare waist, and pulled me closer. He winced and quietly groaned in pain as his mouth opened slightly and he breathed me in deeply, closing his eyes as he breathed out, "Ava."

I shivered as his cold thumb grazed under the elastic of my panties. His hand then began to slowly trail up my spine, as if he were trying to memorize each vertebrae, until he slid his fingers under my bra clasp. I was petrified under his gentle touch.

He opened his eyes to meet mine then as he slowly reached for my face. I exhaled rigidly, remembering to breathe as his fingers began to caress my jaw, then along my cheek bones and the bridge of my nose. My eyes closed. "Ava." He breathed again.

My skin was sizzling. Like a chemical reaction was beginning to take effect on my skin, and deeper in my blood as he touched me. I opened my eyes as he then took my chin in his hand and looked into my eyes for a moment, his eyebrows furrowed, concentrated. "Ava." He assured himself before he moved his lips cautiously closer to mine.

I closed my eyes slowly, and when our lips made contact, I felt the sparks fly between our bodies. His lips were hard against mine, however and I expected him to pull away, but instead they only became softer, gingerly searching mine. I put my fingers through his hair and pulled him closer, feeling an explosion inside my body, followed by a searing, tingling heat.

The explosion left an intense burning inside of me at this point; the explosion had ignited my veins. Ronan was the sun, the seas, the stars, the sky. My everywhere, my everything. His hair, his lips, his ice-cold skin; suddenly, it was all apart of me. I jumped and threw my legs around his waist and began kissing him more deeply, more passionately, and he returned it intensely. I pulled away and gasped for breath then, and groaned as he began kissing down my neck, down to my chest.

The cold kisses left my skin tingling happily, and I didn't want it to go away. I went in to kiss him again, and I could feel him smiling under my lips. I knew he wanted this as much as I did. There was no doubt in my mind that this moment was right; in this magical meadow, with Ronan, on this rare sunny, warm day in Forks.

He then put his fingers through my curly hair, and I smiled deviously when I heard glasses and plates being thrown off the blanket as he brought us down to the soft earth.

A/N (cont.)- I would love some reviews to get me through the agony of waiting for spring break!!! =]