Alice

He led us to this magnificent house. I wasn't going to deny that. It was white and pristine. Almost as good as the day it was made, I would venture to guess. I didn't want to be here, and the only reason I was here was because of Jasper. I would do anything for him, and this was testing that power he had over me.

To be honest, these people scared me. They basically ignored the basic principals of their nature, and they lived together peacefully, and they interacted with humans on a daily basis. It just wasn't right. But Jasper had this aurora of calm about him, and he wasn't using his power, but I felt that as well. But I couldn't help my feeling of fear and dread as we got closer to the house. I held his hand firmly, convincing myself I wouldn't let it go for anything.

The man, Carlisle, opened the door for us, and waited for us to go in first. I looked at him, then the door. I took a deep breath and walked in, dragging Jasper behind me. I stopped just inside the door, and then it was his time to drag me behind him. There were four people standing before us. I hid myself behind Jasper, looking around his arm to look at them. He didn't move.

The tallest one was frightening. And his smile did nothing to ease that. His curly hair looked menacing to me, though his eyes were warm and welcoming. Honey colored, of course. He had his arm wrapped around a woman, also very tall. She had blond hair that was very long. She was, for lack of any other words, very beautiful. Her arm was also wrapped around the tall man. Then of course there was Edward, who was laughing lightly to himself. Next to him there was a woman with caramel curls. She was also very pretty, and she seemed to be glowing with happiness. Carlisle went to stand by her side, putting his arm around her shoulders. Edward truly was the odd man out. Good.

"My name is Esme, and this is Rosalie, and Emmett," the lady with the caramel colored hair said sweetly, pointing to each person as she said their name. Jasper nodded, and I did nothing. I looked up at his face, fear clearly written on my face. He just smiled warmly.

"My name is Jasper, this is Alice," he said in a low voice. It was his usual voice. The lady, Esme, just smiled warmly at us still. Her eyes were trying to get a better look at me and I pushed myself further behind Jasper as a result. The blond girl was looking at my hair with almost a disgusted look.

"Would you like to get cleaned up? Edward said something about that, didn't you?" she said, looking at Edward, giving up on trying to see me fully. Edward nodded his head, but I shook mine. I just wanted to get out of the house. Jasper smiled and raised a hand.

"Can we have a moment alone?" he asked. They all nodded and left, going up the grand staircase.

"Alice," he said, turning to me. He took my hands in his. "We aren't going to be here very long, so please just try be your usual self. I like that you better, anyway," he said quietly, with a smile. I couldn't help but smile back. "That's better," he said. He bent down and kissed the top of my head.

Directly after this conversation, Esme came down the stairs with two towels and some clothes. I assumed it was an outfit for Jasper and an outfit for myself. She smiled warmly.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything too serious," she said sweetly. It wasn't right. "I brought you some towels and extra clothes, the ones you're wearing are a bit tattered, and we only have one bathroom, for Rosalie, of course," she said. She reminded me faintly of someone I once knew, but I couldn't place where that could be from. Jasper took the towels and quietly said thank you as she led us to the third floor. She opened the door to a bedroom and I shrank back quickly. It had little things everywhere. Pictures, even. I didn't like it. It wasn't natural for vampires to live like this.

Jasper took my hand and led me in the room. I wasn't going to fight him, I could never do that. Esme showed us where everything in the bathroom was. It was spacious, and smelled of… lavender. I wrinkled my nose, hoping Jasper wouldn't smell like that when he was done.

"So I'll leave you two alone," she said, closing the door to the bedroom. Rosalie and Emmett weren't in here, so we had the room to ourselves. Jasper looked around, and then his eyes settled on the clothes on the counter. They were in two piles, one for him and one for me.

"Ladies first," he said, exiting the bathroom quickly. I sighed. He would always be like that. Of that I was sure. I looked around, feeling uncomfortable. Stranger's house, stranger's bathroom, said strangers could hear everything that happened, and one could also hear my thoughts. I had every reason to feel uncomfortable.

I looked at the shower. It had shampoo and conditioner, and a small bottle of liquid. It had a pop open top similar to the shampoo, but I could tell that it wasn't the same thing as the shampoo. I didn't see a bar of soap anywhere. There was something hanging from the lever to turn the water on, and I figured it was to was with, not that we really needed to wash.

I quickly shed my clothes and stepped in the shower with its clear hanging curtain and turned the water on. I started with my hair, cleaning it then letting the conditioner sit while I got the dirt and everything else off my skin. After I rinsed the conditioner out of my hair I turned the water off and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around my body quickly. I looked at the pile of clothes. They were nice, and looked like they had been altered quickly.

The top was a dark purple button down shirt, silk. It was very soft. The pants were a basic pair of blue jeans, with the bottoms hemmed. I put these new luxurious clothes on quickly, and then dried my hair with the towel. I stepped out of the room to find Jasper sitting on one of the chairs talking to the blond man, Carlisle in low tones. I didn't listen in, but they both acknowledged my entrance. They both nodded and shook hands. Carlisle left the room, and Jasper came over to me. He put his hands on my shoulders lightly and kissed my cheek. Then he stepped in the bathroom with various hair products and make up to freshen up.

I crossed my arms and stood in the middle of the room. It was awkward standing in here. There were black and white photographs and drawings of the younger couple, Rosalie and Emmett. There were pictures of her dressed in an elegant white dress standing next to him, in a classic black and white tuxedo. Their marriage. This place kept getting more and more terrifying. I saw the irony in that immediately.

One would consider something terrifying if it were black with cobwebs and cement walls. This house had white walls that looked as if they were cleaned every day, and I hadn't been able to find one cobweb or spider. I hadn't even spotted a dust mote. It was unsettling.

Jasper emerged with only the pants on, his hair still wet. There were trails of water running down his chest. My eyes lingered there a little too long. I knew I shouldn't have been doing it, it wasn't proper of me to do, but I couldn't tear my eyes away. He chuckled and pulled his shirt on. I blinked, pushing the memory of him without a shirt out of my head. He walked over and took my hands in his, then pulled me in for a hug. This was unusual for him.

"Alice?" He said my name as a question. Oh no. "How would you feel if we were to – "he paused, trying to phrase his words correctly no doubt. "Stay with these Cullen's for a while?" he finished quickly. I now understood the hug. I pulled away, keeping my hands at his sides, and looked up at him in disbelief. "It would only be for a little while, just to try their lifestyle," he said, trying to make me see his reasoning. I didn't understand it.

"Why?" was all I could manage to ask.

"These people… they have such amazing control over their emotions. So much better than you or I. When I first met you I felt hope, and all these emotions I had never felt before, and now I'm feeling them in large amounts, and these people are concentrating on them. They're keeping all the other feelings… hunger, anger, rudeness, all that they're keeping at bay. They seem to understand what their outward and inward appearance means, and they're keeping it as peaceful and pleasant as possible. I want to learn that. For you," he said. I don't think he understood that he was already perfect in my eyes. He didn't need to control his emotions for me, he didn't need to do anything for me. Then I realized, he didn't want to do this just for me. But he wanted to do it for himself. I couldn't blame him. And if he did want to do this for me as well, then I wasn't about to stop him.

"I – I suppose we could try it," I said in a small voice. I had no intentions on staying here very long. Looking around this room, looking at the connection these people had made me uncomfortable. And Jasper and I had always been, when in private, extremely physical in our relationship. How would these people take that if those actions were to continue? I didn't want to think about it too much. He smiled at me, and I smiled back, though I think it was more of a grimace.

"Thank you," he said. He bent his head down and kissed me tenderly. I responded eagerly. I heard someone clear their throat from the door. I looked over when Jasper pulled away. It was Carlisle.

He was smiling, and I saw his wife Esme, behind him, beaming, it seemed. Once again I stood behind Jasper. There seemed to be some unspoken conversation between Carlisle and Jasper, but Esme stepped forward slowly.

"If you'd like, I can show you around the house. And we have an extra room for you two," she said excitedly. I don't think she could have kept the joy out of her voice if she had tried to. I didn't know why that joy was there though…

"We would love that," he said, a guard up in his voice. He walked forward slowly, following the lady, and I wasn't about to leave his side, so I followed. Little did I know that I was following him into our new life.

The epilogue I'm thinking is going to be long. But this was the last chapter. Please let me know what you think of it.