Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, or any of the associated characters. Frankly, if I had, certain characters would have been killed off or regulated to miniscule roles very early in the first book. I also would have studied the dynamics of a healthy, functional relationship before writing the romance.

Summary: Imprinting on a baby? It might have been a mystical force of Destiny, but there was still something seriously twisted and wrong about that.

CLAIRE

Imprinting on a child wouldn't have been so bad a few hundred years ago, when the wolf and his imprint could simply be betrothed until she was older, and nobody would bat an eyelid. In modern-day society, on the other hand, there were so many problems with Imprinting that Quil got a headache just thinking about it.

First, there would be the inevitable questions about paedophilia and cradle-robbing, no matter how he tried to explain that there was nothing sexual about it until and unless Claire wanted it to be. The underlying suspicion would be there, always, and it would hurt Claire. Even if he hadn't Imprinted, Quil probably still would have viewed hurting Claire as unacceptable.

Then there was the fact that he had Imprinted on her when she was two, and the Elders could go on about destiny all they liked, but even Quil could recognize that it sounded like a very twisted concept. Even if he hadn't, Emily's reaction would have made it clear. Embry had said that he had met rocks that were more excitable than Emily. After Emily found out about her niece being the newest Imprint, Quil was inclined to agree… if the rock in question was volcanic magma.

Right now, Claire was a little sister, someone to be protected, (and a fact that had stopped Emily and Leah from castrating him) but what would happen when that changed? Would it change at all?

Leah had studied Psychology in Collage, to help herself get over the many issues that had plagued her since her change, her father's death, her break-up with Sam, and to annoy her pack-mates by psycho-analysing them in a kind of revenge for all the times they had complained about her having issues. As if threatening to make them experience menstrual cramps when Paul had made a 'time of the month' crack hadn't been bad enough!

(Of course, when Sam and Jacob had both laid down an "Absolutely Never" Alpha command, she had simply gone and told Rachel Black instead, landing Paul in all kinds of hot water with his own imprint. As it turned out, all females resented such comments, and being an adolescent shape-shifter was not considered an acceptable excuse.)

One of the things she had mentioned was that until the age of five or six, children were very impressionable, their opinions and concepts not so firmly set as in later life. If Claire saw him as an 'Uncle', or a makeshift 'brother', or a protector now, when she was too young to think of boys as anything more than friends, would he be set in that role forever? Jacob's Imprint, Renesme, had zoomed through her toddler years in a matter of months, and they still weren't sure how Vampire mating worked, but Claire was a normal human, and all of the other Imprints had been in their teens or early twenties when it happened.

In those cases, it was easy to fall in romantic love after you got over the initial problems. With Claire, it was familial love, a best friend or older brother, and no-one knew if that would ever change.

Sometimes, Quil wondered if it might not be better that way.

Maybe they would both be happy if their relationship stayed as it was, rather than going through the all-kinds-of-awkwardness that had surrounded Jacob and Renesme. There was nothing wrong with being as close as family, even if it was completely platonic and never turned into romance.

Either way, he still had over a decade before he needed to worry about it, and plenty could happen in that amount of time.

Claire looked over her colour blocks again, not for the first time. Quil was always so pleased and impressed when she showed him something new she had learned, and she could now name and spell all of the colours. Quil would be so proud of how clever and smart she was!

Claire didn't know why her mummy and daddy were always so tense when Quil came to visit. Quil was nice, and played with her without complaining that dolls and dress up was for girls, so she always had someone to be the husband or father when she and her other friends wanted to play House.

Marriage confused Claire, but apparently it was just like being best friends, only for grown-ups. At least, that's what her daddy had said, even if he had looked pale and very worried when she asked him.

Well, grown-up things were for grown-ups, so Claire didn't have to worry about it for a long, long time. She could pay attention to now, and the future would sort itself out. Now, Quill was coming for a visit, and Claire smiled. Quil was her best friend, her big brother, much more fun than her real brother, and he always would be.

A/N: Ok, this is the only way I could think of that would make Quil/Claire not Wrong on far too many levels. Quil is a protective older brother when Claire is two, and he stays a protective older brother for the rest of their lives, especially if they remain close while she grows up. The thing about Children being very impressionable is true, by the way.

I'll offer an example: My parents have some very close friends with two boys about my age. They played Bridge (a card game) together every weekend while I was growing up, so I saw a lot of them. Recently, someone asked if we would ever get together as a couple, since we had known each other for so long. Once Ian and I stopped laughing, we pointed out that we were so much like siblings that a relationship would feel incestuous.

That is what I think would happen with Claire. Quil would be cemented in her mind as family, which would make romance with him even weirder than it was in the books. The twelve or thirteen year age difference might not mean as much when you're twenty-five and thirty-seven, but at two and sixteen, or even thirteen and twenty-six, it's a pretty big obstacle.

Anyway, sorry it's so short, but I'd love to hear what you all think.

Thanks, Nat