About six months later...

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Emma's POV

We were high up in a tree, Nick having flew us here so we could have a moment of peace, and the cold air was tickling my pale skin. Nick wrapped his arms me to warm me up and the feel of his heartbeat beating sparadically with mine made me smile against his chest.

Ever since he got back and Edward went all crazy on him, we've been pursuing our relationship. That is a lot easier said than done when I live in a house full of vampires and werewolves and he lives in a house with twenty-odd experiments with their own unique set of rules for how our relationship should be developing. They all have good in their hearts, even my family who are so overprotecting that Nick is a little intimidated, but sometimes we just need a break.

"I love you." Nick said, brushing back a piece of my hair.

"I know you do." I said with a giggle, burrying my nose in the crook of his neck.

"Don't you?" He asked, cupping my chin with his gentle fingers.

I smiled up at him widely, not caring that I was giving up on my usual game. "Of course I do."

"Then why won't you marry me?" He asked for the third time that night.

"Because." I reasoned stubbornly. I was tired of having this conversation.

"Don't be like that," Nick said gently. "I just want to know what's going on in that pretty little head of yours."

This comment made me blush, but I fought the urge to give into it. Still, my cheeks responded anyways.

"You know why." I said sternly.

"Is this about Bex and Gazzy?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. There was nothing that ever got past him; that was part of the reason I loved him so much.

I nodded. "Momma was devastated when Bex ran away to get married and when Gazzy broke her heart and ran off with some random girl he met at a bar one night, she was torn apart inside. She still won't come out of her room since she's been back."

"Daddy said we should treat her like nothing happened but it's getting hard to ignore it." I continued, trying not to cry as I thought about my poor, broken sister. "She won't eat, barely sleeps, and when she talks to anyone, it's only to Leah since she felt this pain when Sam left her."

"I can't believe he would do something like that." Nick said, stroking back my hair subconsciously. "What guy in his right mind would abandon his wife; especially when she was as special as your sister."

"You think she's special?" I asked, trying to hide the hurt and pain that was evident in my voice.

He smiled lightly. "I think your whole family is special." A gentle kiss to my temple, then one to my cheek, another to my nose, before finally placing one delicately on my lips. "But it's you that I am completely head over heels, real deal, honest to god in love with." He said sincerely. "I wouldn't care if nothing ever changed as long as I got to keep you with me forever."

"You mean it?" I asked, not sure if he was just trying to get me to marry him still. "You wouldn't care if we never got married?"

He looked thoughtful, but finally answered after a minute. "Would I be a little disapointed? Yeah, I can't lie, I want you to be my wife more than anything in the world because it would mean that I belonged to you. But would I force you to do something you aren't ready for? Never, I love you too much for that, Ems."

"Do you ever think about what we would be like if we didn't have our backgrounds?" I asked after ten minutes of quiet, not uncomfortable silence. "I mean, do you think we would have been together if I wasn't a half vampire or you weren't an Avian?"

"Do I think that we'd fall in love?" He asked back. "I would like to think so. Because I know that if I hadn't of met you, and hadn't of gotten the chance to experience the love you have to offer, I don't think I would be the same person. I don't think I would be able to handle my life if you weren't in it."

I rested my head back against his chest, letting him continue to place soft kisses on the top of my head, while I thought about what he had said. Sometimes I wondered if he could read my mind because that was exactly how I felt.

Staring at the stars from this close reminded me of the future that we could have. I wouldn't be stuck on the ground, both literally and figuratively, and I would be able to experience the world with new eyes. I was eight years old technically, but I was a grown woman now. It was time for me to stop being afraid of taking a chance and just live.

"Ask me again." I whispered, leaning my head up so he could see my eyes.

"Ask what?" He responded before it clicked. "Emma Roseme Black, will you marry me?"

"Yes," I said, a huge smile spreading across my face as he pressed his lips to mine.

And like that, I had my very own happy ending. Screw Cinderella and Snow White, I was a Black; we made our own destiny.

AN: That's the end, folks. Thanks for sticking with me through this four part story. It really has been a blast to write. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did :)