Upon awakening, she was . . . honestly somehow not at all surprised to find the absence of car scent surrounding her. She'd always been the type to fall asleep on car trips almost straight away, so it had become something of a routine for one of the Cullens to carry her back inside whenever it happened.

All it took was for her to open her eyes to notice that she'd been moved into the spare room in the Cullens' house, a room she usually occupied whenever visiting. It wasn't a bad room at all, what with the king sized bed, pretty extensive wardrobe, and standard ensuite bathroom, but still, due to the lack of people usually staying there, it was often pretty barren.

While sitting up in the bed, her legs crossed underneath her, she reached for her phone that had been left on the bedside table and typed in her password in time to see a message very quickly vanish into her inbox.

Unknown:

I hope you had a pleasant journey.
Enjoy your time in Forks, amore.
Aro.

She stared blankly into the distance as she wracked her brain for a decent response, while also briefly adding his number to her contact list. It was just strange, even the thought of someone like Aro, or frankly any of the three men she was now metaphorically joined at the hip to, casually sending texts, or God forbid emojis and gifs.

After tapping her fingernails against the screen absently, she began typing her message.

Eliana:

thank you so much for letting me stay! your lil private plane is really nice btw
xx

At that exact moment, someone knocked on the door. "Eli?"

Her eyebrows furrowed together. "Um . . . yeah?"

"Esme wants to know if you're hungry." Eliana could practically feel the perpetual venom that dripped from Rosalie's tone. Admittedly she seemed to have a lot more tolerance for her than Bella, but her point still stood. "If not, she says she doesn't mind cooking something later."

"Er, well-"

"Make a decision now," Rose sighed. "I don't fancy standing here all day waiting for you to decide."

"Okay, fine, yes then," Eliana replied hesitantly. Once no response came from that, she shouted, "Thank you!" at the door.

She felt her phone vibrate beside her once more.

Aro:

You are welcome to stay with us at any time at all. However, would you care to explain the meaning of "btw"? Or "xx" for that matter?

Eliana:

btw = by the way
xx is just kisses. it's not rocket science lmao
(lmao = laugh my ass off)
like, metaphorically, yk
(yk = you know)

Aro:

Caius wanted me to tell you that abbreviations such as the ones you use in these messages are lazy and pathetic.
xx

Eliana:

caius can suck my ass ;)

Now feeling pretty satisfied with herself and her responses, Eliana placed her phone aside once more and reclined back into the bed quite comfortably. She wasn't entirely sure what time it was, but that was far from the thought that felt like it was swallowing her whole as she stared at the ceiling.

She had to tell them. The Cullens. Today. There was no way she could keep that kind of secret with her. But it was how, how to even begin explaining herself, that she continuously drew a blank on.

Her phone lit up again beside her.

Aro:

He says, "With pleasure".
xx

She shook her head and sighed. Things only seemed to suck more when she was on the other side of the world to the people this probably concerned the most-

"Eliana."

The door slammed open so fast that she physically jumped and shot out of her bed. Edward was standing in the doorway, his expression not presenting a single emotion.

"Jeez, Eddy-Boy, I could've been changing!" she exclaimed, beginning to calm down again.

"I wouldn't have come in if you were," Edward reasoned. "I need to talk to you about something."

Eliana nodded. "Close the door."

Edward immediately did as requested, going as far as to lock it behind him to prevent any of the others entering. He refused to take a seat anywhere, instead opting to stand in the corner across from her. Her eyes followed him as he walked.

"You know," she began, "don't you?"

"About the Volturi?" he confirmed. "Yes. I do. Alice does too."

As she took in what he said, she nodded. At least nothing surprising had come out of that. "And . . . you're not upset with me?"

"Now that's the silliest thing I've heard all day."

Eliana gasped as Alice poked her head through the window. She watched the small woman climb through with an astounding amount of ease before seating herself on the bed beside her and taking her hand.

"You could've just used the door, you know," Eliana reminded her. "It's like every day here is a horror game."

Alice rolled her eyes slightly. "I knew the door would be locked. But as I was saying, we wouldn't be upset with you about something like this. None of us would."

"Alice . . ." Edward trailed off.

Eliana glanced between them as they seemingly communicated with each other silently. "W-what? So someone isn't going to react well?"

"No. It will be fine," Edward assured her. "Check your phone."

As she opened her mouth, she felt it vibrate against the bed briefly before it was placed into her hands by Alice.

Unknown:

Eliana, I don't know what you think you are doing, but these childish messages of yours stop now.
Caius

Eliana:

wtf i explained the meaning of them?!
wtf = google it im done helping you mf
mf = again, google it

Caius:

Your attitude is really getting on my nerves now.

Eliana:

see that right there sounds like a you problem

"El." Eliana glanced up from her phone to find Alice giving her a very wary look. "If I were you, I'd at least consider taking it easy on Caius. He's the most volatile of the lot, mates or not."

Eliana batted a hand at her dismissively. "Psh, relax. What's he going to do? Fly out to Forks for the sole purpose of spanking me? I don't think so."

Edward covered his mouth with his hand to conceal his amusement. "I wouldn't put it past him," he murmured.

"Here." Alice quickly thrusted the phone to her. "You have another message."

Unknown:

Caius is close to crushing his phone in his fist. For my sake, Aro's, and your own, please stop goading him so much.
Marcus.

Eliana:

fine i'll stop
but only because I'm nice, not because caius deserves to be left alone
tell him that
tell him he's annoying and i'm only leaving him alone because im nice
xx

Marcus:

Telling him would be goading him, wouldn't it?

After sending a shrugging emoji in response, she sighed and tossed her phone towards Edward. "Hold onto it. I keep getting distracted."

"If you're still so attached to them, why didn't you choose to extend your stay?" Edward questioned.

She shook her head. "I've had a crazy enough week as it is. I just need . . . time to recuperate, you know? Actually, now that I think about it . . ." Her gaze turned to Alice, who had that very knowing look about her that answered the question she'd been about to ask almost immediately. "For how long have you known?"

Alice shrugged. "Put it this way: I wouldn't have brought you to Italy with us if not for what I saw."

"And you didn't tell me, because . . .?" Eliana prompted.

"If I would've told you, you'd have gotten spooked and left early," Alice responded, "and you certainly never would've been at the point of kissing them-"

"Alice," she hissed. "Not now, not with everyone possibly listening. So, um," She sighed, "do the others know?"

"I was tempted to tell them," Edward replied, "but we figured it best to allow you to announce the news today."

Eliana winced. "Yeah, I might just wait until-"

There was a reason why Alice and Eliana didn't get along quite as well as they should have. In theory, they had quite similar personalities, but the fact that Alice was so spontaneous and Eliana was anything but that made things quite difficult between them.

In fact, it was Alice's spontaneity that left Eliana suddenly standing in the centre of the Cullens' living room, with everyone except Carlisle and Esme sitting in front of her, staring confusedly. Eliana couldn't even say she was surprised anymore. She inhaled sharply and rolled her eyes as Alice dragged her by the hand closer to the others.

"You guys, Eli has something important to announce!"

"No, no," Eliana interjected, "it's not that important, this can wait-"

"This can't wait," Alice corrected her, before murmuring close to her ear, "If you don't do this now, your chances of this ending civil are fading away fast."

At that moment, Edward reappeared in the doorway with both Carlisle and Esme in tow. "I think we're ready now, Alice."

Eliana sighed with a betrayed glance at Edward. "Not you too. You and Alice were in cahoots all along, weren't you?"

"Jesus, just get on with it." Rosalie folded her arms over her chest and leant back into the corner of the sofa, one leg crossed over the other. "What did you want to say?"

"Did something happen in Italy?" Bella asked. Honestly, Eliana had almost forgotten that Bella was there, but a brief glance at her beside Jasper, her hand held in Edward's, convinced her otherwise.

"Something sure did." Alice nudged her forward. "Go on."

Eliana glanced back at her before looking back at the Cullens. Attempting to ignore their expectant stares, she cleared her throat unnecessarily. "Well, everyone," She smiled very awkwardly, reminding herself of some kind of class presentation, "so, what happened is, um . . . I found my, er, m-my true mates. Um . . ."

There was silence for a long moment, silence that was only broken when Bella asked, "What's a true mate?"

"A true mate is an extremely rare phenomenon," Carlisle explained, "easily comparable to what humans would call a "soulmate", or a werewolf or shapeshifter's imprint. It is theorised that every human has one, but due to the short lifespan of humans, most never so much as encounter theirs. However, due to immortality, there have been very few noted cases of true mating." He then turned back to her. "Are you certain, Eli?"

"Er . . ." She shrugged her shoulders a little, "I'd say pretty certain, yeah-"

"Hold on, you said "mates"," Emmett cut in.

Eliana very slowly nodded her head. "I did," she confirmed hesitantly. "And that's because they are-"

"They're non-binary?" Bella guessed.

"No, Bells, not that kind of "they"," she answered. Once she'd taken a second to plan her method of explaining herself, she came to the conclusion that being blunt was probably the only way through this. "My true mates are Aro, Caius, and Marcus Volturi."

She clasped her hand over her mouth the moment the sentence had left her. While she became vaguely aware of Alice jumping for joy at the spot, Edward following Bella out of the room, and the others' shocked stares, all she could focus on was the pounding she could feel in her throat. She felt like she was going to be sick, or pass out, or maybe that her heart would just explode out from her chest-

"Congratulations, Eli." Esme blinked a few times. "That is wonderful to hear."

Alice's jumping suddenly stopped. Eliana felt her place her cool palm against her forehead. "Oh dear, you look like you're about to be sick!"

Eliana quickly shook her head. "Don't talk about being sick. I'm fine." Her gaze slowly drifted around the room. "Where'd Bella go?"

Rosalie, who looked almost disappointingly underwhelmed at the revelation, pointed with her thumb towards the door. "The other human's sulking as we speak."

If it was possible for a heart to physically sink through a person's body, Eliana wouldn't have doubted that to be the case in her own. "S-Sulking?"


"Bells."

Bella kept her back turned. She held her head in her hands as she stared out of Edward's window. "What?" she bit out icily.

Eliana almost found herself jumping back at the hostility of her tone. "I heard you were upset. I get that. But . . . can't we just talk about this properly?"

"The Volturi? Seriously?"

She tilted her head to the side. ". . . And that's an issue to you, because . . .?"

"They wanted to kill me, you know," Bella murmured. "And you too, in case you've already forgotten."

Eliana's eyebrows began to furrow together in bemusement. "Bella, that wouldn't have happened. What happened that day couldn't have gotten that far. And it's not like I chose them. I can't help literally any of this. I'm . . . quite possibly more confused about all of this than you are, but it's out of my hands."

She sniffed a humourless laugh. "Not to mention they're much older than you. You know, it gets to a point where it's just creepy-"

"Creepy?" Eliana made an indignant squeaking noise as she held her mouth open in what could only be described as a loss of words entirely. "Bells, you spent half of junior year and all of your senior year dating a guy who's 100 years older than you! At least I'm an adult, not some kind of 17 year old getting action with a pensioner!"

"Please, you're barely an adult," Bella argued. "And you're not seriously trying to compare a 100 year age gap to a literal 10,000 year age gap, are you?" she sneered.

"Okay, first of all, the age gap isn't 10,000 years, it's 3000. At least fact-check yourself before hurling insults," she snapped. "And second of all, you just love to act like you're so mature, with your uwu alpha male vampire boyfriend and high-school graduation and all that crap, but you know what? You sure do have a funny way of demonstrating your maturity. Third of all," she continued before she could be interrupted, "you can't break up with a true mate, you little dumbass bitch! And it's not even like you're in any kind of position to judge 一 you fell head-over-heels for a vampire!"

"And so did you, you asshole!" Bella shouted back. "But at least mine doesn't kill humans!"

"At least mine didn't cause the dodos to become extinct for fuck's sake-!"

"Party's over!"

They both watch Emmett burst into the room and stand between them, and although it was quite clear that he'd heard the argument himself, the grin on his face made it plainly obvious that it was of very little bother to him.

"You," He pointed at Bella, "your boyfriend's waiting for you downstairs. And you," His finger then moved to Eliana, who very quickly slapped it away. Emmett held his hands up in mock surrender, "no need to get violent," he joked, before his face became serious for a moment. "Go to your room." He then laughed. "See? No need for screaming, you guys."


Once the door to her room was well and truly closed, and locked for good measure, and the window too since Alice was pretty unpredictable sometimes, Eliana slumped down against the foot of the door and let her head fall back against the wood with a resounding thud. She wouldn't cry, she wouldn't let herself cry after something as dumb as that, so instead she bit her lip and squeezed her eyes closed in an effort to dispel the gradual blurring of her vision.

As if on cue, she felt her phone buzz repetitively in her pocket, which was accompanied by her ringtone. Without even bothering to check who the call was from prior, she slid her phone out of her pocket and held it up to her ear.

"Yes?"

"Amore mio, it is so lovely to hear your voice again!" Aro's soft tone carried through her phone, not quite as rich and full as it usually was in person but still containing a gentleness to it.

"Yeah, you too," she mumbled.

A loud rustling started up so quickly that she immediately pulled the phone away from her ear for a few seconds, although she still kept it close enough to hear the muffled argument that occurred between Aro and Caius.

"Eliana!" Caius snapped. "I do not know when your attitude became acceptable, but it stops now! Being at a distance from us does not excuse your blatant disrespect!"

Eliana sniffled, but managed to stop herself from sobbing out loud by pressing the back of her hand against her nose and taking a few deep breaths. "Yeah, I can't exactly say I'm sorry about that," she admitted with a weak laugh.

"Eliana, tesoro," She noticed from the faint sound of Caius' voice in the background that Marcus had presumably taken the phone from him, "you sound distraught. Is something the matter?"

The line went much quieter after that. Clearly what Marcus had said was enough to silence both Aro and Caius.

She inhaled a shaky breath. "What, are you a mind reader now or something?" she attempted to joke. Even she could hear the increasing unsteadiness in her voice now.

"I just know you very well," Marcus responded. "Now, will you tell us what evidently has you so worked up?"

"It's not a big deal," she insisted, "it's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine."

"Then explain the tears under your eyes," Caius challenged. She noticed that his voice, though subtly, had softened since earlier.

Eliana sniffled again and swiped her fingertips under her eyes, only to find that he was totally right in that assumption. "H-how did you . . .?"

"Our hearing is beyond what you believe to be capable," he answered. "Also, lucky guess."

"I'm just . . ." She sighed, although her breath seemed to tremble, "it's not a big deal, I'm fine-"

"Considering how your idea of "not a big deal" is being left to be hunted down and killed in the middle of the library," Caius reminded her, "I believe it is in your best interests to tell us what happened."

"Nothing happened, it's not important-"

"Cara mia, we could go back and forth on this all day, but do not lie to us. If whatever happened wasn't of importance, it wouldn't have been enough to bring you to tears," Aro said.

Eliana went quiet for a moment. "I hate it when you're reasonable," she complained, although Caius simply barked out a laugh at that statement. "But it's really-"

"Not a big deal?" Aro finished. "If it is not so important, what issue is there with telling us?"

"I guess none," she admitted. "Just don't make it a bigger deal than it is, seriously, and don't interrupt me until I've finished explaining everything." Their silence served as confirmation that she had their attention. "It's, er . . . well, I told the Cullens about, you know, everything. So, they all now know that you're my true mates or whatever. Anyway, the only one who kinda reacted weirdly to it at all was Bella-"

"That Cullen girl-"

"Caius, I said don't interrupt me," Eliana continued. "I don't really know why Bella acted the way she did. I've never seen her act like that to anyone before. She was just . . . really mad. And I said some things, and she said some things, and insults were hurled, and now," She paused to sigh, "and now Bella won't talk to me. Like, at all. And everything is weird here now, and everyone's acting off, and I don't . . . Honestly, I'm just sick of being here. I think I just want to go home."

There was silence for a little while, until Aro suggested, "Perhaps it would be for the best if we were to schedule a trip to Forks now."

"I'd like to give that human a piece of my mind-"

"This is what I meant by overreacting and making it a bigger deal than it is," Eliana interrupted. "It was just a dumb argument. It doesn't have to be a big thing."

"Maybe," Marcus began, "it would be more suitable for us to simply book you a flight to England tonight. If that is what you would prefer, of course."

She nodded her head. "I-If you don't mind," she replied hesitantly. "Thanks."

"No need to thank us, amore mio," he replied. "We love you, and as long as you are happy, that is all that matters to us."

"That and I'm 90% sure Caius would have absolutely taken up the chance to give Isabella a piece of his mind if the opportunity presented itself," Aro added honestly.

"I'm sure Caius is more sensible than that," Eliana reasoned.

It was quiet for a moment. "Eliana, sucking up to me will not make things easier for you," Caius reminded her. "You still haven't so much as muttered an apology for your earlier conduct."

"And why should I? If you're genuinely offended by a bunch of Gen-Z abbreviations, that's definitely your problem," she argued. "And I'm not some kind of suck-up, thank you."

Caius' next sentence was spoken with a humourless laugh throughout. "How on earth can you expect others to understand your message if you refuse to type in full sentences? I have had it up to here — yes, I am holding my hand up — with every last one of your "OMG"s, "LMAO"s, and "WTF"s."

Eliana scoffed. "Please, you can guess most of them," she snapped. "If you're too lazy to rub at least 2 brain cells together, that's again your issue."

"Lazy?" he seethed. "You have the absolute fucking audacity to call me lazy-?"

"Caius, brother," Aro interrupted sternly, "that is enough. Remember who you are speaking to. Eliana promises to cease her use of abbreviations when sending messages to you. Don't you, cara mia?"

". . . Sure," she muttered under her breath.

"That was not a "yes", Eliana," Aro commented warningly.

She sighed as heavily as she could without causing herself to have a coughing fit. "Yes, sure, whatever."

"And now do you see?" The slight darkness in Aro's tone had finally shifted back to smugness once more. "There is nothing more effective than simple problem-solving."

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: I was so desperate to get this out today, I'm so glad I got it done in time! Also, I love their conversations, even over the phone. Writing arguments between Caius and anyone is oddly therapeutic.

Anyway, thankl you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!