I tried to open my eyes which felt swollen with a heavy sleep. The light from my bedroom window shone off the white wall I was facing, which caused me to have to squint my already-warped eyes. I felt like I'd just slept through an eternity. I hadn't even moved yet, and already I could feel how achy I would be. I reluctantly turned my head, looking towards the nightstand, but was surprised to find Edward sitting in the rocking chair across the room. He looked up from his book and let it slide to the ground.

"Morning."

I opened my mouth to speak but didn't want him to hear my scratchy voice. I could tell it would sound horrid. Instead I lifted my hand in a half-wave.

His lips curled to the side in a smile as he rose and slipped over to my bed. He sat and brushed a piece of tangled hair out of my face, letting his fingers lightly graze my forehead. The cool of his skin was welcome this morning. I smiled back at him and started to twist myself so I could see the clock.

"Eleven-seventeen," he answered before I could roll all the way over.

"Mmm." I let out a groan and stretched my arms toward the headboard of my bed. They felt tight as if I'd been hauling bricks all night. "Ugh, how long did I sleep?"

"About ten and a half hours."

Furrowing my brow, I squeezed my eyes shut in an attempt to regain full consciousness. How could I have slept for so long?

"You shouldn't pout, you needed the rest. You were exhausted." Lacing his hard, thin fingers through mine, he drew my hand up, placing a gentle kiss on the inside of my wrist. "Are you feeling better?"

I touched my neck with my free hand and tried to remember the night before. Had I really thrown half of a tantrum about sneezing? How humanly dramatic of me.

"Uh, well my throat's kind of sore, and I feel a little . . ." I paused, nearly lost in thought again. I didn't want him to know how achy I was feeling this morning. The pain of my genius falling-off-the-rock stunt had somehow multiplied over night. "But hopefully my uh." I was hesitant, this time not actually wanting to say last night's word. "Well hopefully that won't be so bad today."

Edward's expression slowly changed, his eyebrows lifting in amusement.

"Why are you grinning like that?"

He shrugged. "No reason. You just . . . well, you were coughing and sneezing," he emphasized the word as he pressed his hand to my cheek, "quite a bit after you fell asleep last night."

"Wh- ugh, I'm sorry . . . . " I nervously looked away from him.

"Don't apologize, Bella. It was," his eyes playfully wandered the room. "Entertaining. At least it was to see you so uninhibited like that."

I forced a hard laugh and an accidental cough escaped from my chest. "So glad I could entertain you . . . ." my voice trailed off, followed by a few lighter coughs.

"As am I. But I brought you this, in case." He pulled a short glass bottle out of his pocket and held it out to me in both of his hands. The dark red liquid severely contrasted with his milky skin. "Medicine," he confirmed. "It sounds like your throat's bothering you already."

Wide-eyed, I shook my head violently and could feel my hot hair frizzing more against the pillow I was lying on. We had played this game just last night. The game of vampire vs. human. And I refused to lose. I refused to let myself be the human. And consumption of medicine? Definitely a human thing.

"A little medicine won't hurt you." He started unscrewing the white plastic lid.

I grabbed his hands to try to stop him from opening the bottle. "Can't we compromise or something? I really don't want any. . . ."

He paused, squinting his eyes in thought and focused them on me. "And why wouldn't you want something to help make you feel better?"

I slowly pushed myself up, trying not to wince, and sat as eye-to-eye with him as I could. Hopefully he would take me more seriously sitting up.

"I already have something to help make me feel better." I reached out my arms and hugged him around the waist, pushing my head into his chest. I wasn't even listening for a heartbeat.

Encompassing me, he nodded with a smirk. He was still holding the bottle of medicine. "Alright. Let's compromise then. How about if you're still coughing by," he flipped his left wrist up to look at his watch, "two this afternoon, will you take something?"

Bringing my head up and cocking it to the side, I rolled my eyes at him and feigned a thoughtful expression. "Deal, I guess."

He laughed at my act and tucked my head back into his chest. He kissed the top of my hair while rubbing my back.

We sat in silence like that, but after a minute, a sudden guilt overtook me. The urge to bring up how sorry I was for my ridiculousness just the night before threw knots in my stomach. After a moment of contemplation, I gave in. "Edward, can we talk?" I spoke into his chest purposefully, though I knew he could hear me anyway.

"About?"

"About how sorry I am for last night." I loosened myself from his grip and looked up. His eyes searched mine as he shook his head.

"You don't have anything to be sorry about, Bella."

I felt a fluttering cough rise in my chest but fought it by slowly clearing my throat. "No, I mean just for being . . . er, for having . . . "

"For being human and having weaknesses." He shook his head again, this time with more force. "Bella, I don't want you to have to change who you are and what you do just because I'm around."

A monstrous fire burned in his eyes. They always looked like this when he was feeling bad about who he was. About what he was.

"To me, you have no weaknesses."

I sighed and slipped my hands into his which were in his lap. For some reason I was craving the cool of his skin. Stretching my fingers out and placing my palm to his, I absentmindedly changed the subject. Anything to avoid my Edward being sad.

"How long did you stay last night?"

His eyes traced our hands before he looked up to me. "I left to get your medicine. Though your sleep was restless until earlier this morning."

I narrowed my eyes onto his face. "Restless?"

"More restless than usual. You were rolling from side to side, coughing a bit, sneezing. I'm surprised you don't remember waking a few times."

"I actually woke up?"

Edward nodded once.

"What did I do?"

"Well, you certainly weren't so self-conscious about your sneeziness. I guess maybe you had forgotten I was here or something. I'm not quite sure." He chuckled and the fire disappeared from his eyes. "No turning away, no constant apologizing. Just a few regular Bella sneezes." He turned his attention to our hands which I was still playing with.

"You should stop saying that word, I really don't like it," I grimaced.

Edward's eyebrows tightened. "What do you mean?"

I abruptly retracted my hand from Edward's. Pulling my legs to my chest, I crossed my arms around them. "I just don't like that word, especially when it's referring to me."

"Mmhmm . . . ."

Turning my head, I mocked my own voice to break the slight tension that had built. "Now if you were referring to your own sneezes, that'd be okay, but," I rolled my head backwards to stretch my sore neck then refocused on him with a sigh. "You don't sneeze."

He lifted a curious eyebrow. "Says who?"

I tried justifying it out loud. "Well, you can't get sick, you're almost made of stone, your senses don't work right."

"Hey, hey now . . . I can see just fine, I can feel, I can hear, I can taste. I can certainly smell just like you." He leaned over putting his face right next to mine and inhaled through his nose. "You should know. You are my favorite scent," he whispered, his ocher eyes grabbing hold of mine as he pulled away.

I paused. His breath, sweet and delicious, suddenly started to tingle my nose. It was a deathtrap as far as my sneeziness went. If I turned away, I would lose this moment with him, if his scent wafted to me again, I would surely sneeze. I pinched my nose closed and decided not to turn away, though my nostrils were tingling more heavily now, my eyes almost watering. I stared him straight in the eye and tried to focus on not breathing. I would not let him win this one.

He chuckled at my reaction and lifted his eyebrow. I could tell he would not let me off easy today.

Releasing my nose, I took in a quick breath and was pleased to find the tingle had subsided. "Sorry," I genuinely smiled at his disappointment. "Nothing."

After smirking at his own failure, Edward's eyes vacantly drifted towards the floor beside the bed. It looked like he was focusing on something, but when I followed his gaze I couldn't see anything. Looking back to his face, I noticed his lips had parted and his nostrils were slightly flaring. A sudden passion ran through me. Was this it? Was Edward about to sneeze? I settled in and glued my eyes to his distressed expression. He was awkwardly blinking and took a few short breaths in.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he turned to look at me, a smile crawling across his lips. I guess my quizzical look set him off.

"Thought you were lucky, huh?"

"What?!" I demanded.

"Did you actually think I had to sneeze?" He looked proud of himself.

I had no words. If I hadn't been embarrassed about sneezing in front of him before, his little show would have done it. Teasing me about something that he never did, something that I couldn't help doing. My face dropped and I looked away from him.

Edward heavily sighed after reading me. "Oh, Bella . . . ." He placed his cool hands on my knees and leaned over to me. Kissing me softly on the side of the mouth, he whispered, "I apologize, I didn't mean to upset you."

My face was hard, but I felt another tickle building in my nose. This must have caused my expression to grow more frustrated, because Edward scooted toward me and placed his cold hand underneath my hair onto the back of my warm neck. I felt like he was purely taunting me now.

"Edward . . . Hhh . . ."

He brought his face close, his eyes worried at the sound of his name. I don't think he realized I had to sneeze. I cupped my left hand around his right cheek and quickly shook my head at him. "No . . . " my breathy voice trailed off as I buried my face into my legs which were still pulled into my chest. I quickly put my free arm around me to shield any chance of Edward seeing me.

I inhaled as deeply as I could. "Hh-hih... HiitChOO! HehtCHoo."

"Bless you, Bella," Edward whispered. He removed my hand from his cheek and kissed the top of it.

I drew my head up from my knees and started rubbing my itchy eyes. "Sorry." I looked down at my gray sweatpants and saw a few splatters. I smudged them with my other hand.

"Don't be sorry." He tucked a loose piece of hair behind my ear and pressed the back of his hand into my warm cheek. A chill ran through me.

I threw my legs off the side of the bed, my back to Edward, and sneezed again. "HehtCHew!" It caused me to hitch forward, almost sliding me right into the floor. Edward blessed me before I could even finish sneezing and pulled me backwards to him.

He kissed the top of my head and wrapped his arms all the way around my waist, his chest cradling my back.

"Did I start you sneezing again?" His voice was low.

I shrugged, rubbed my eyes, and started to reach for a tissue from the nightstand, but found myself not able to move in Edward's stone arms. "I just, I don't want Charlie to hear me. He has more important things to worry about."

A sudden but deep tickle set in my nose once more. My eyes burned for relief and my breathing picked up dramatically. I couldn't reach the tissues and I would've rather died than sneeze on Edward. I brought my sweatshirt sleeves up to my nose and mouth and barely had time to take a breath.

"HihShoo, hihSHeew!" Edward quietly blessed me after each sneeze and started reaching for the box of tissues before I had finished. I inhaled with the rest of the energy I had and one last time, "HehCHOO!" into my sleeve. The force of this one sent me harder into his chest.

"You're not sounding good at all." He handed me the two tissues that he had grabbed, and I blew my nose. "It sounds like they're getting stronger, Bella. Why don't you take some medicine."

I looked over at my alarm clock. The numbers were blurred through my watery eyes. I blew my nose one last time and dropped the tissues into the floor.

"It isn't two yet . . . ." I reminded him, trying to clear the scratch in my throat. I turned towards him and resituated myself so that we were facing. "And plus, you already broke the compromise by faking."

He lifted an eyebrow in serious question at the roughness of my voice.

"Yes, your little non-existent sneeze, remember?" My words sounded short and hot. I crossed my arms over my chest and slumped back against my pillows. I wanted to lay the guilt on thick.

He started caressing my left arm with his pale hands. His continuous touch had a way of melting my anger.

"Edward?" I opened my eyes to find him staring at me. I scrunched my face in discontent at myself, at the question I was about to ask. I suddenly decided against it and shook my head. "Sorry, never mind."

Edward looked hurt, his eyes dropped and focused on my arm which he was still rubbing. "Bella, you know you can ask me anything." His voice was velvet sugar with a hint of defeat.

"I know, it's just a stupid question," I sighed. "Something only a human would ask." I rolled my eyes at myself and focused my gaze onto the quilted comforter on my bed until the wave of emotion had dissipated within me.

After a few minutes, Edward laid my arm in my lap and stood. He tossed me a pair of jeans from my closet and a black sweater.

"Get dressed."

I studied his dark, fierce eyes for a quick second. There was a desperate ring in his voice. Something I didn't often hear.

"Tell Charlie you're coming over for the afternoon, I'll meet you downstairs in five minutes." Before I could ask questions, he slipped out the window without looking back.

After dressing and brushing my teeth, I tramped down the stairs and grabbed a granola bar from the kitchen cabinet. Charlie was plastered in front of the television again.

"Morning. Or should I say Afternoon?" he called from the couch. I faked a laugh while walking into the living room. It was the least I could do to acknowledge his attempt at a joke.

"I wasn't expecting to see you up for another few hours." He turned from the television and looked at me. "You're dressed, are you heading out?"

"Oh, Edward's coming to pick me up . . . if that's okay. We're going to go hang out at his house for the afternoon."

"Uh, okay, yeah. That sounds good, I guess." He scratched his head. "Are you, at least, feeling any better?"

I slowly inhaled through my nose so he could hear for himself. "Yup, I can actually breathe today."

"That's great. I bet it was the medicine that helped so well."

I nodded, feigning a smile. "Yeah . . . ."

Without warning, a sharp prick stung my nose. How stupid that I had actually breathed through my nose like that. Of course I would upset it in front of Charlie, proving my wellness to be not as true as he would've liked. There's no way he would let me step foot out of the house if he knew I was still sick.

I quickly slinked back into the kitchen, shuffled over to the sink, and lifted the lever. Running water was the only last-minute choice I had to mask this sneeze.

"Bells," Charlie called at the sound of the water, "You don't have to do the dishes right now. I'll get them later."

"Hh..Okay, dad!" My voice sounded airy.

Where the heck was Edward? I needed to get out of here.

The tingle in my nose was torturous, and the buildup seemed nearly endless. I was almost afraid I'd miss the sneeze completely and my cover would be blown. Anticipating, I took in one last, sharp breath and clamped down on my nostrils, cutting my air off for a split second.

There was a knock on the door.

"I got it!" Charlie bellowed.

Finally. I pushed down on the sink lever and could hear Edward and Charlie making small-talk. I tried blinking the tears out of my eyes and held my cool hands to my face. There was a burning heat in my cheeks that usually only came around when I was trying to stretch the truth in some form or another. I had to calm down.

"Bells, it's your . . . he's here!"

I had to make this quick. Immediately, I walked straight to the bottom of the stairs where Edward and Charlie were standing. Edward's eyes picked up mine as I came through the hallway. I think he could sense the stinging in them because he slightly nodded in understanding, something that Charlie wouldn't have noticed. I quickly grabbed my jacket that was hanging on the railing and Edward helped me into it. I consciously refrained from making eye-contact with Charlie. He would know. Somehow.

"Have fun. And be safe." Charlie nervously readjusted the ball cap that hung on the banister. He scratched his head again.

I flashed him a fleeting smile and waved. "Bye, dad. See you tonight."

Edward opened the door and I stumbled out as quick as I could. My nose was still tingling. After Edward shut the door, he grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently. We were free.

"You okay?" Edward ducked his head to meet my height and whispered.

I shook my head no and brought my free hand up to itch my nose in frustration.

"I almost didn't . . . hhuh," my eyes fluttered and my breath started hitching, "didn't make it, hhh, in there . . . ."

He swung the Volvo door ajar, but as I was about to slide in, the front door of the house opened again. It was Charlie.

I froze, facing Edward, my back to Charlie. My hand was still up against my nose.

"Edward?" his voice held an air of anxiety and creeped from the house.

"Yes, sir." He gripped my hand a bit tighter for moral support. I held my breath and didn't move.

"No, uh, no wild parties or anything, right?"

"No, sir. Not at all."

"Okay, just checking. Have a good time." The door closed just as quickly as it had opened.

I inhaled and brought the collar of my coat up to cover my face. "HupShoo!" I slightly lurched forward, but felt Edward's hands steady me. I looked up into his worried eyes, which darted my face for a sign of something. Finding nothing, he embraced me in a tight hug, running his hard arms down my back.

"Bella, you're really sick."

Shaking my head no with a sniffle, I pulled away and lowered myself into the passenger seat.

As we pulled out of the driveway, neither of us spoke. After sniffling a few more times in the silence, I turned to look at him.

"Can I ask where we're going?"

"You can ask all you want . . ."

"But you won't answer . . . ." I finished his thought for him.

His hands gripped harder on the steering wheel. "No, I'll answer you. If you answer something for me."

I nodded, remembering our earlier conversation. "Right, compromise."

"So you're agreeing then?"

"Yes, Edward Cullen." I shot him a grin though his eyes were plastered to the road. "I agree."

A smile slid onto his lips. "Excellent. We're going to the field."

A simple answer. Too bad I had to blow my question on such a predictable answer.

"My turn?"

I nodded and folded my arms across my chest, maybe a subconscious way of guarding myself for what he was about to ask. He did have a bad habit of always asking difficult questions. Bad for me, anyways.

"Why do you get so frustrated by your sneezes?"

I sat and embraced the silence for a minute. Edward would give me as much time as I needed. Then, cocking a sarcastic eyebrow, I sighed. "Do you want the long answer or the short answer?"

"I want whichever you're willing to give."

Reluctance teetered which answer I would spill. "Uh. Well . . . . I just. You don't sneeze." I turned towards the window, embarrassed that all of this had to do with him.

"That's really all? So if I were to . . . . I'm . . . I guess I'm just afraid you won't get over your cold, Bella, if you keep forcing yourself to not sneeze as much as you need to. I don't want to be the reason why you're still sick."

I shrugged, still looking away. "Then maybe we shouldn't be spending so much time together," I forced through a raspy breath. The very idea made my insides churn.

"Or maybe you're looking at it all wrong," he spoke through his teeth.

I turned back to Edward to find his brow furrowed and his jaw set. Throwing the Volvo in park on the outer edges of a dense forest, he whipped his door open. I climbed out of the car without waiting for him to get my door.

Every other time we'd come to the forest, I would cling onto Edward's back as he sped through the thick green. It only ever took Edward a few seconds to speed from the forest to the field. For me it took an hour. And that was on a good day.

But I didn't want a ride today. I could walk just fine.

Looking at me with questioning eyes, he held out a hand. "No?"

I shook my head. "Thanks, I can walk."

"Bella . . . ." He rubbed the back of his neck in frustration at my unwillingness.

Ten minutes into our hike, my nose inevitably started to tingle. I silently cursed myself and stopped in my tracks. I wouldn't move again until I got these sneezes out.

I turned away from Edward who was a few steps in front of me. It didn't take long for him to notice that I'd fallen behind. He backtracked and came up behind me, slipping his arms around my waist and pressing his face next to mine.

"How are you feeling?"

I didn't answer him for fear of further agitating my sinuses.

I could feel his iron arms wrapped around me, pressing into my stomach. As my breath started hitching, his arms rose and fell with my breathing.

Scrambling to beat my sneeze, I wrapped my arms around his to try to pry his arms off of me. Why didn't he understand that I felt absolutely disgusting when I sneezed around him? And there he was. Doing nothing but encouraging my sneeziness.

"Hh . . . HhhEdward . . . ." I groaned his name still trying to free myself.

"Yes, love?" His sweet scent suddenly whipped around my face and sent my breath to it's peak.

"Hehh . . . hetCHOO!" I lurched forward, bending at the waist. Just as quickly, another surfaced. "HitCHOO!" The release eased my irritation.

"Bless you," he purred into my ear as soon as I was standing upright again.

I sniffled. "Sorry, thanks. Uh . . . ."

A shiver ran down my spine. "Do you have a . . . "

Before I could finish, Edward was dangling a white handkerchief in front of me. He unwrapped his other arm from around my waist and stepped around to face me. I emptied the gurgling mess from my nose and stuck the handkerchief in my coat. "Thanks, " I breathed, as he brushed some hair back from my collar. I rubbed my eyes and let out a pathetic sigh.

Edward clicked his tongue and furrowed his brow.

"We'll make this quick, alright?" He grabbed my hand and turned. His understanding deeply soothed me. I climbed onto his back and he shot off further into the forest until we came to our field.