9. Forever

by Ben Harper

"How's it going over there, short stuff?" Emmett called out as he walked into the room. It was a nickname that had stuck between Edward's friends. Rose just smirked and shook her head, putting in the finishing touches on her work. These days, she mostly worked with computer programs, but she still truly loved the feel of a simple pencil in her hand and the scratching sound as she put it to paper.

Her eyes fell on the simple, golden band around her ring finger as her hand tapped out the beat to the music in the background. She still smiled every time she saw it. The words of his vow still rung true in her mind, his kind of forever wasn't the most common kind. Edward's forever was always. He still looked at her as if she held secrets he would gladly uncover. Preferably slowly and thoroughly.

Trying to stop smiling, her eyes sought him out to where he lolled on the couch across the room, adoring eyes on her as his fingers danced across the strings of his guitar.

"I had to get out of my apartment, man." Emmett said as he cracked open their fridge and stuck his head in. When he straightened out, he was holding three beers, passing one to Rose as he passed where she was sitting on a stool by the counter.

"Thanks," she mumbled and finally tore her eyes away from her husband to look down at the picture in front of her.

He had been right on that day, forever wouldn't be enough for them. She could draw him every day of eternity and still not get enough. She drew him from memory, making sure to rediscover every nook of his body and then put it on paper.

"Why did you have to escape?" Edward put carefully put his guitar away and took the beer from his friend.

"Those two are so fucking loud." The almost smug laughter in Emmett's voice made Rosalie pause as she looked up from her work. Her thought process could be read on her face as she stared out into the air for a moment.

"Two who?" Edward asked, watching how Rosalie's mouth fell open, she spun around to face them where she was sitting. The shit-eating grin on Emmett's face was enough of an indicator.

"No!"

"You're kidding me!"

Now laughing, too, Rosalie slid off the stool and moved to sit on the couch, only to be pulled down on her husband's lap and have a soft kiss placed just below her ear. A slight shiver traveled through her body and Edward chuckled, pulling her into the shape of his body.

As she looked back on him, the emotion in her chest almost too big and painful to endure, but impossible to live without. Her fingers briefly traced his jaw and their friends were momentarily forgotten.

That is, until Emmett barreled forward into his story, snapping the pair out of their bubble. With one last glance at each other, they looked back to the large man. Rosalie melted into Edward's embrace as they listened to Emmett retell how Alice had showed up at the apartment the night before, apparently having had enough of the dance she and Jasper had performed since they were introduced to each other.

"And Peter and Charlotte?" Edward asked, a crooked smile on his lips and his thumb tracing his wife's skin just under the hem of her black t-shirt. Like so many others, it was a man with his guitar wrapping protectively around her torso.

"Are probably already out drowning their sorrows together. From what I've learned throughout the years…" Emmett smirked, "From documentaries, that is, women - people, don't really appreciate being broken up with in a text message."

Snorting, Rosalie put her bottle on the table in front of them and held a hand out. "I had seven years. Pay up, bitches."

"I'll get you later," Edward promised with an open-mouthed kiss against her neck. "We have forever."