Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Twilight Series

2

Curiosity

The wind kept blowing my long hair into my face, mostly into my eyes and mouth, so that every time I got comfy with my blanket wrapped around me, I would have to take my hand out of my nice, warm blanket and I would have to pull my hair away from my face. That was every minute or two.

It didn't matter. I loved the beach. It was so calming. Sure, it was nice to catch it on a nice day, but Forks didn't have a lot of those. So...you just had to find the beauty in the grey clouds smeared across the sky, connecting with the very dark water below, as well as the dark sand, and harsh wind.

It wasn't easy for all of us to get together anymore. At least that was what Emily said when she encouraged us to go out with the boys. We all came out a couple of hours ago, starting with surfing. Now, everyone who couldn't generate enough body heat to keep them still warm in the piercingly cold water, was sitting on the beach with blankets wrapped around them; that'd be me, Jared's wife, and Embry's fiancée. Everyone else was making their way up the cliffs.

They were really insane, but apparently they all loved it. After all, it was a special tradition of werewolves could survive. A human would never survive the impact of the long fall into the chilling water. Well, they would survive, but it would hurt like hell - so much that you could drown or become disoriented or -

"Claire?"

"Huh?" My head whipped around to look at Kim, who was way to pretty to be dating Jared. "What?"

Kim laughed, also pushing her long, dark hair from her face. "Are you thinking about cliff-jumping again?"

I glanced at the cliffs, seeing the boys appear at the top, one by one. "Yeah." I watched them as they stood around, seeming to tease each other. It was hard to see because it was so far up. "It's just so -"

"Idiotic?"

"Awesome?"

Kim was in her right mind, where as Embry's girlfriend, Danielle, shared Embry's calling for the wild and free. When her and Embry got together, they always did something stupid, and somehow lived to tell the tale.

Danielle laughed at my reaction. "Come on, Claire, don't look at me like that." Her big, curly hair stayed away from her face, giving me a clear view of her very pretty face. Like Kim and I, her skin was a russet colour and her hair was dark. Unlike us, her eyes were a bright blue and her nose was turned upward. She didn't blend. She didn't look like everyone else in the small community of the Quileute tribe, because she simply wasn't apart of it. She wasn't native. It was never an issue, it just intrigued me how well she took that Embry was a shapeshifter, where as Kim and I always knew.

What would my life have been like if I didn't know about werewolves? If the majority of my friends weren't made up of supernatural beings? How would my life be different?

I was curious, but I wouldn't want that. I loved my family and my friends and I couldn't think of any moment of my life where I wished I had it different.

"There goes Em." Danielle nodded to the cliffs. Embry ran from where all the boys were standing, leaping of the edge of the cliff, letting his arm and legs fling around. Soon, he disappeared into the dark waters, reemerging a couple of seconds later.

All of us cheered.

"I'll give it a four," I said.

Kim nodded. "I'd say four point five."

"I'd say ten."

Kim chuckled, bumping her shoulder into Danielle's. "You're not allowed to vote, Dani, he's your boyfriend." She looked at the cliffs, glancing at me. "Looks like Quil's going next, Claire."

That always made me nervous - seeing Quil leap off something incredibly high, even if the water was there to catch him below. But I still watched as he took a running start, going off the cliff, hurling his body forward and tucking, doing two front flips before connecting with the water.

"That's a seven right there."

"Agreed."

I shook my head. "Zero."

Both girls laughed at my score, Dani reaching forward and pulling at my big toe. "Don't be a square, Claire."

"Yeah, square-Claire," Kim adding, fuelling both of their laughter.

I tried to hold in my laughter, failing miserably. "Are you both done?" My laughter faded, wrapping my towel tighter around me. "If I have to score, obviously a ten."

Embry, already out of the water, came running towards us. He decided he needed to be right next to us when he shook the water out of our hair. I pulled my towel up quickly, blocking the water.

Kim squealed. "Embry!"

Dani laughed. "You're supposed to be dry before coming over here, remember?"

Embry laughed too, walking over to her and leaning down, the water still dripping off every inch of his body, now taking place on Dani's legs. He had a wide smile on his face. "You know, baby, I'd really appreciate it if you would lend me your towel."

Dani didn't even have to think. "No."

Embry spun around the fastest I had ever seen him move. He wrapped his hand around a piece of my towel and tugged hard. The towel flew away from my body and was wrapped around him in a matter of seconds.

"Embry!" I stood quickly, feeling the slightly chilled air hit my shoulders. I took a step forward to get it and he took a step back. "Embry, that's mine."

I got too close and Embry held the towel above my head, far out of my reach. He started to mock me, but never got to finish. "What's the matter, Claire? Someone -"

The towel was ripped away from Embry. Quil pushed Embry away playfully, his deep and sexy laugh coming through. Once Quil had the towel, Embry was done trying for it. Quil was taller and fuller than Embry. It's a fight he would've lost big time.

I smirked confidently, despite the fact that I had nothing to do with getting my towel back. "Ha!"

Quil walked past a disappointed Embry and moved towards me. He wrapped my towel around me tightly and smiled, rubbing my arms over my towel. "Warmer, now?"

"Thank you," I said to him, slowly sitting back down in the sand.

Quil moved away from us to shake out his hair, the damn strands already curling up again now that they had the chance too. He sat down beside me, close enough for me to feel the warmth coming off of him. "What were the scores?"

"We've got an 18.5 for Embry," Kim said, glaring at Embry quickly before looking at Quil. "And a 24 for Quil."

"Yes!" Quil celebrated.

At the same time, Embry's eyes widened and he said, "What?!"

"I gave you a ten," Dani told Embry, wrapping her arms around the love of her life, hugging tightly. She then kissed his cheek and he turned, kissing her fully on the lips. They both laughed and fell back in the sand. The rest of us immediately looked away - not really in disgust, just to give them some privacy.

Quil threw his heavy arm around my shoulders, bumping into me. "Did you give me a ten?"

I let my towel fall down, my bare skin touching his ever warm bare skin. We were so close, I could see the smallest of freckles on his smooth face and the small spot of hazel in his right eye. "Of course." I would always give him ten's.

"Thanks, Claire."

I watched as one, small drop of water slid down his nose. I reached up, wiping his nose dry with one swipe. I chuckled at his reaction. "You're welcome, Quil."

After we were all done at the beach, I was helping Embry put the surf boards in the back of his truck. I was loading in the last board when Embry put his hand on my shoulder roughly. "You know, I don't appreciate you stealing my towel."

I whipped around quickly, throwing my arm, aiming for his head. I knew he was too fast, and of course, I didn't hit him. I watched him back away, laughing at me. I huffed, watching Paul walk past him and up to me, putting his board in Embry's truck.

"Did you have fun today, Paul?"

"Sure," Paul said, no emotion whatsoever.

Embry's hand clamped around Paul's big shoulder. "Paul had buckets full of fun! Though he'd never admit it." His hand slid from his shoulder as Paul turned and walked away. Embry turned to me. "Grumpy pants."

Paul whipped around, a mean look on his sharp face. "I'm not grumpy."

Embry whispered to me, "Him and his girlfriend got into a fight, so -"

"Enough, Embry!" Paul took a couple big steps forward, getting up close and personal to Embry's face. Paul looked angry, but sad and hurt at the same time. Of course anger was his go-to, but there was more than that. His eyes were glossy and tired, like he was upset. "You don't know anything about what it's like."

Embry's brows furrowed and his mouth tightened. I had seen Embry so angry so little amount of times that the sight was almost comical. But there was no laughing. Embry was very angry. "What the hell are you talking about? I imprinted, just like you."

Time seemed to slow down for every person gathered around the trucks at the sound of a word I didn't recognize - everyone except for Paul and Embry.

Paul just scoffed, able to roll any comment off his shoulders. What he lacked was a good enough comeback. "You're pathetic, Embry."

Embry's strong arms wrapped around Paul, knocking him to the ground within a second. The wrestled around, which was usually fun and not a big deal, but this looked serious and angry.

"Hey!" Sam's strong and commanding voice made them stop instantly. He walked over to Paul as Quil walked over to Embry. Sam helped Paul up by the arm, his eyes landing on me in a strange expression I had never seen. It didn't take long for him to look back to Paul, his voice low and annoyed. "Get in the truck."

I watched as they walked away, but I didn't miss Quil give Embry a look a massive disappointment. I knew Quil would back up Embry until the very end. He certainly would've taken Embry's side over Paul's, so why such a look?

What was I not understanding?

Quil walked around Embry and came to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. "Those two." He laughed, but not a genuine one. He opened the truck door for me, gesturing for me to get inside. "My lady."

For a small second, I had forgotten about everything that happened. I chuckled to myself, hopping into the truck and sliding around the seat until I felt my leg touch Embry's. Quil got in beside me, the entirety of his leg pressed up against mine. It wasn't the biggest truck in the world, but the closeness of the three of us never bothered me.

Being in the truck, the hum of the radio slowly coming back from static as we drove, and Quil and Embry talking about things I couldn't have cared less about - all of it left me to myself - time to think.

Paul was always quick to anger, to yell, to fight. And none of what happened surprised me in the least. It was Sam's look; Quil's look. Embry's sudden tackle of anger, all seeming to stem from one word I couldn't place to have any special meaning: imprinting.

It didn't sound so serious, but it was the source of all the chaos that little while ago. Something about it...made me scared to ask. I never held back anything from Quil. I trusted him with the whole of my soul. I asked him anything and he always seemed to have an answer. But something about the word imprinting, made me wary to ask anyone, especially Quil.

I didn't mean to, but I thought about that one single word all the way back to the Clearwater household. And then, laying in the guest bedroom, on the soft mattress, with the window open just a touch, I was alone again with my thoughts.

knock knock

The door swung open. Leah was never quiet, never subtle, never gentle. She took a couple steps inside of my room. "Dinner's ready."

I nodded, rolling off of the bed, taking my place beside her as we walked down the hallway. "Did you have fun cliff jumping today? You were kind of showing all the boys up again, Leah," I told her. "Remember how Seth asked you not to do that?"

"I'm not trying to show them up," she told me quickly, not defensively. She sounded like she was simply stating facts. "I just do. I can't -"

"Help it," I finished for her, laughing. Once was reached the dining room table, I sat down beside her. "They're just babies if they can't accept that just maybe a girl can be tougher than them."

"They've always been that way."

"Where's Seth anyway?"

"Over at the Uley's with everyone else."

"Oh." I twirled my fork around the spaghetti; Leah's famous dish. It wasn't that it tasted spectacular. It was just one of the things she knew how to make correctly every time. We had spaghetti a lot whenever I stayed here. Staring at the plate made me wish I was at Emily's. She made the best food and it was no secret.

Leah's eyes were glued to the TV behind me, and again, alone with my thoughts.

Something about the word imprinting. Looking at Leah now, and how honest and raw to the core she was, I knew she could never look me in the eyes and lie or divert or try and stray away from the conversation. She had never done it before. Why would she now?

"Leah."

"Yeah?" She didn't look me in the eyes.

"What's imprinting?"

She looked at me then, fork pausing in the air. She didn't seem too surprised or too startled, or maybe she was just hiding it really well. "Why?" she asked quickly, setting her fork down, suddenly seeming interested in just me instead of the wilderness show over my shoulder. "Why do you ask that?"

"I - I just -" I shrugged, trying to find the words to explain. "It was Paul and Embry today. Didn't you hear that conversation?"

She nodded. "Everyone did."

"Why was it..." I sighed. "A trigger word? Why did Embry tackle Paul when he said it? What does it mean? Why can't it be said aloud?"

Leah started back in on eating her spaghetti, not seeming bothered by my sudden questions. "It's not my place to tell you, and it's certainly not the time." Her eyes looked past me and she concentrated on the screen.

"Why can't you just tell me? Why is it a big deal?" I dropped my fork, leaning every so slightly towards her. "It's not the time? What does that mean?"

"It means you're young and you wouldn't understand."

I tried to hide my being hurt, letting my head fall down to look onto the plate. I knew Leah. If she was going to tell me, she was going to tell me. There was no convincing her. I wish she had told me. I wish she didn't look at me as a young child who couldn't understand the concept of imprinting.

I breathed in and out heavily, an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion washing over me. "I'm not hungry anymore," I said, standing and about to take my dish.

"I'll take care of it."

I stepped away from the table, a little taken back. "Thanks."

Leah looked me over, her lips parting as she looked down and sighed. Her eyes met mine once again. She brought her knees up to her chest, her big brown eyes begging me to ask a certain question. "Claire..."

I sat back down quickly. "Leah, I'm not a kid anymore. I can understand."

"I can't tell you. It's not my place," she repeated. But she leaned forward, resting her elbow of the table and her head in her hand. "But I..." She hesitated - something I didn't see from Leah often. "I know the effect imprinting can have on people. It's not all good, it can be painful too. I..." She was trying to figure out what she could and couldn't say. "Ask Sam. Don't ask Quil. Ask Sam. He'll know when you need to hear. He'll know what to say."

"Leah -"

"I'm not saying anymore." She was firm in that decision, returning to her relaxed state of TV dinner.

I nodded, standing and walking through the living room, glancing at the TV and the shelves of books around it. When Harry died, they didn't clean out any of his stuff. All of it was still sitting around, waiting to be used. I hadn't seen Leah or Seth touch any of those books ever. My eye was drawn to a couple books on the highest shelf. Those were the ones on the history of the Quileute tribe - about the legends and stories and the origination of the Quileute tribe. If anyone outside of any tribe read any of those books, they wouldn't believe a word of it, but it was all true - shape-shifters, vampires, good, evil. spirits, and demons. It was all there. All of it.

I glanced at Leah. "Are you going to bed right after this? Early morning, right?"

"Yeah, I will be. Don't worry, I won't bother you with the TV."

"Thank you, Leah." I walked down the hall, turning into my bedroom and closing the door softly. I walked over to my dresser, getting my pyjamas. I was calling it a night. The sky had been good to us today, but whenever it's good it gets bad again. It would rain tonight.

And so I sat back on my bed in my pyjamas, lazily looking at my laptop screen. It was dim. It was dying. I had gotten it seven years ago for my birthday. It was going, but it was still working. And so I watched my fuzzy, quiet, dimly lit computer screen for about an hour before I heard Leah's bedroom door close.

I gave it another twenty minutes. I could see it now, Leah laying with some of the covers on, some of them off, hair everywhere, legs tangled among themselves. Maybe a little bit of drool.

I laughed at the thought, both on the way to the living room and on the way back. And then I sat down on the bed, opening up the old, blue book. It was thin, with maybe 150 pages. It was coming apart at the edges, but it was still very much intact. The cover was a dark turquoise, with the Quileute symbol of a chief on the front and no words. I opened it up, the wonderful sound of the pages coming apart from each other.

There was no index. It was simply a book of words. At the top of every 10 pages or so there would be a title of what the next ten pages would entail. I read a little bit from the early topics. Quileute tribe fascinated me, simply because it wasn't my tribe. And I had ready plenty of books on my tribe - Makah tribe - but only in my early years of life. They were very children-based books. There was never anything about imprinting. I was hoping this book, which was directed more towards an older demographic, would give me the answers.

And yet -

"Oh, my god!" I gasped, watching a tall, dark figure come to the bedroom window. I scooted back on the bed in a panic, until I recognized the curls on top of the man's head. I let out a breath of vast relief. "The window, really?"

"Front door was locked," Quil explained, climbing through and shutting the window. He was dripping on my floor. He quickly walked over to my dresser, grabbing a towel on top and rubbing it over his head, and then over his beautiful skin. He tossed the towel near the door and then crawled into bed next to me.

Even after he had been outside in the cold rain, the heat that radiated off of him was intense. His eyes attached to the book in my hands. "What are you -" He was reaching out for it, and he looked surprised when I hid it away. He looked at me. "Claire?"

I put the book on my bedside table. "It's nothing," I said quickly, getting more comfy. "How was dinner? You should've been here. We had spaghetti."

Quil laughed, sinking into the bed and into his most comfortable position of on his back, arms crossed over his chest, staring at the ceiling. "Dinner was good." He closed his eyes. "Jake wouldn't stop bugging me about getting enough sleep tonight. Early morning tomorrow."

"Me too."

"You work tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"I'll give you a ride."

"I can bike, Quil."

"No." He shook his head, eyes still closed. "I will give you a ride."

I sensed the conversation ended. It was fine with me. I enjoyed his company, whether he was falling asleep on me or talking too much. Either way, the fact that he was there - that was all I needed.

I stared at him - eyes closed, finally relaxed. His face looks softer when he had his eyes closed. He looked younger. I watched as his chest rose and then fell, and then rose and then fell over and over again. I watched as his lips parted every so slightly, and his brows furrowed for a quick second before he relaxed again. He had fallen asleep.

I moved my pillow with me, so that I was laying flat and I closed my eyes, alerting all my other senses. It wasn't until then that I had realize that the hair of my arms were sticking up. I was cold. I had forgotten to shut my window once it started raining. Now that Quil had shut it, and he was beside me, it was warmer, but the cold air still lingered.

I scooted closer to Quil, letting my bare skin touch his. Immediately, the warmth came to me all over my body as I placed my hand on his chest, my leg over his leg. I knew I couldn't stay like that for too long. It'd be too hot eventually. But right then, it was the perfect temperature.

The perfect moment.