Jasper

Following Edward up the stairs, I knew something was off. While my powers couldn't tell me if someone was lying, I had managed to work through the sea of feelings constantly washing at the shore of my mind.

At first, it had taken years to pick out the debris floating on the water. Deciphering the individual emotions in more complex dives. To know who was happy or angry had been too easy. It was the more intricate moods like insecurity or deceit that had taken more time and practice to discern.

That, and of course, remembering the way Edward's left eyebrow twitched ever so slightly whenever he was trying to hide something.

Wordlessly, I followed him through to his room where he opened one of the giant windows.

"What is it that you have to show me?" I questioned, folding my arms, waiting for him to explain the real reason he'd dragged me up there.

"Over here," Edward replied quietly.

He jumped out the window.

I blinked heavily, lowered my arms, and walked over to the glass.

Enclosed by tall trees, Esme's garden stretched out below me. Edward ran across the damp green lawn. What could I do but follow?

I leapt down. "Where are we going?" I pressed, impatiently, wondering what he was doing and for what reason.

He didn't reply. My brother finally stopped inside the tree line and just by the stream. The sounds of Tania and the rest of my family faded out and I raised my eyebrow. He had taken me out of hearing distance from the rest of the house so he could talk to me.

"It's true. I can't hide anything from you, Jasper." Edward gave me a weak smile.

"What's wrong?" I got straight to it. Edward hadn't wasted time. "What's happened?"

"I wanted to warn you. Since you'll find out soon enough." He turned away and then frowning, glanced back towards me, the hesitation and weariness reflecting in his dark golden eyes.

He sighed, "Alice and I broke up."

What. My head filled with questions. I didn't know what to say, though knowing he would be picking up on all of them. Why? When?

Edward cracked a dim crooked smile at all my questions. "We decided when we moved back to Forks. We're just not," he stopped, searching for the right words, "meant to be."

I'm sorry, I thought. Some dread rose inside me. "Is it going to be awkward?" As much as I felt bad for them, finding my way into a house with more negative emotions would not be something to look forward to. I could only hope Edward wouldn't take offence.

But he shook his head, amused. "It was at first. We're fine now. Esme took it the worst."

I didn't doubt that. Apparently, Esme had been waiting for Edward to find someone ever since she'd joined the coven, and for Alice, too.

"Anyway, I wanted to tell you. Alice insisted to wait until you both returned. Considering…" he trailed off.

I nodded slowly. "I understand," I told him. It hasn't exactly been easy, I thought.

My mind distantly flicked back to a particularly painful image of Tania sitting cross legged on a hotel bed covering her face with her hands. Discarded next to her lay a magazine, opened on a double page spread entitled 'I just want my daughter to come home'. Next to it, a picture of her distressed, tearful mother, clutching a tissue.

"Jasper," Edward pulled me back to reality. My eyes flickered to him. "I heard her thoughts. You are, in Tania's words," he hesitated, "suffocating her."

My jaw stiffened. Was he really doing this? Lecturing me on my love life? On a newborn, no less?

"I know," he said quickly, "I don't have a right to say anything, and it's none of my business. But if we're all going to be in the same house - as it's easier for you to not be around unpleasant emotions all the time – it's easier for me not to be listening to it all."

"If anything ever happened-," I cut him off with a growl.

He interrupted me, "you're both not on your own anymore. We are all responsible now, not just you."

My brother had a point. Still, I hated the idea of her attacking someone and having to deal with the guilt from both of us. Her, ending a life, and myself for not stepping in when I could have.

I was eager to adjust back to being with the rest of our coven, or being closer to the humans again. However, Tania's enhanced newborn senses were wearing off.

"Alright," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. I did want the space. There had been times when being around Tania was like the waves were crashing against rocks, jutting out of the sea in a jagged line.

I spent the rest of the day with my siblings, apart from Alice. After assuring me everything would be fine, she'd taken Tania on a trip to Seattle. Carlisle had to work, though Esme had joined the four of us, too.

The rain was heavy, not taking long to soak all of us as we sprinted through the mountains, covering ground as fast as the water droplets fell. There had been no sunrise under the thick grey clouds.

Racing past me, Emmett shoved me aside into a tree, howling with laughter when part of the trunk splintered and ripped my shirt. I grinned at him, running behind him to catch up. I slid across the ground towards him, catching his legs. He fell to the ground, dirt and mud flying up everywhere.

Some of it hit Rosalie and she glared at us as we rolled on the ground laughing. Picking up a fallen trunk, she threw it at me. I caught it and threw it back towards her, before Emmett stood up and it smacked into him, splitting in half across his muscular body. He lost his balance, falling back down into the mud and getting even more dirty.

Esme's laughter chimed through the air as she watched us. "I'm going to have to hose them down when we get back," she joked to Edward who was standing dangerously close to us.

Suddenly Emmett was staring at Edward, grinning. One second his hands were in the mud, the next, Edward was being pulled down towards the ground with us, his shirt clinging to his skin and covered in dirt. Emmett had him in a headlock, but Edward managed to flip him over and then advanced towards me.

I dodged, jumping up and grabbing a branch to climb up onto. Esme caught my eyes, her warm delight spreading towards me.

Edward took a swipe at Emmett, who swerved out of the way. I interrupted both of them, leaping down from the tree and sending them both onto their backs.

"God damn," Emmett tried to get up, but I'd pinned them both to the ground.

I smirked down at them.

"We let you win," chuckled Edward.

Esme did end up hosing us down.

The rain had done most of the work for her. Some of the mud had washed away, still leaving behind twigs and leaves.

She'd grabbed some towels through the window of one of the bathrooms so we wouldn't drip water everywhere. I still entered through the window of the main bathroom to take a quick shower and change into some dry clothes I'd left there earlier. I had only taken them from the suitcase Tania and I bought back from England so I hadn't even seen our room yet.

As I climbed the stairs to the top floor, I could hear some heavy rock music playing from down the hallway. Approaching my door, which looked the same as it did last time we were in Forks, my hand stopped on the door handle.

My stomach muscles tightened. I felt – nervous. Would she be unhappy to see me? Should I give her more time? On the other side of the door I could sense her restlessness, her lack of energy, her misery and pain.

I swallowed, pressing down the handle and opening the door.

She was sitting on the swivel stool at the desk. The music had been coming from some black and silver headphones that were plugged into a new laptop. Tania didn't look up as I entered. Her fingers were hovering over the touchpad while her eyes were shut, head nodding in time to the heavy beats in the song.

Eyes gliding over the bed covered in brightly coloured shopping bags, I took a few steps into the room. I walked up behind Tania. Despite not saying anything or opening her eyes, she knew I was there as I felt her tension, her shoulders stiffen. She even stopped moving her head, her whole body still.

I leant over her, my chest touching her back as I reached a hand forward to the touchpad. She let me, placing her hand onto her lap and leaning back slightly for the contact. Scrolling down, I clicked on a calmer song with a slower rhythm.

I turned my face to look at her, and saw her peeking at me from the corner of her eyes. I unplugged the headphones and placed them down on the desk beside a large stack of CDs. She relaxed upon hearing the song, the first verse starting.

I swivelled the stool around, taking Tania's hands and she complied with me as I lifted her to her feet. We swayed to the music. I did most of the work, leading her through the gentle piano music of the song, spinning her around slowly.

Before stepping back towards me, she tilted her head up to meet my eyes for the first time that evening.

We ended up both blurting out, "I need some time."

She hummed, amused, putting her arms around my neck. I waited for her to talk first.

"You keep telling me how strong I am, Jasper, and then you don't let me be."

I frowned, my hands touching the soft fabric on her waist.

"Can you let me feel something real?" she asked, then chewing her lip, no doubt worried for my reaction.

"Your feelings are real," I tried to tell her.

Tania exhaled, raising her eyebrows. She didn't believe me.

"Most of them," I mumbled.

She moved closer to me, resting her cheek against my shoulder. "I know it must be awful feeling what I feel all the time, and I'm sorry you have to put up with all my shit-,"

I stopped, touching her cheek so she would look at me. "Tania, no. I love feeling your emotions and putting up with your shit." She smiled at that, though continued to watch my face, questioningly.

"I'm sorry I've made you feel this way. I'm just so scared something will happen. And it would be my fault."

She moved her hands across my shoulders, touching my skin around the collar of my shirt. "Why do you think that? It would never be your fault, Jas."

I didn't reply, breaking eye contact.

"Besides, I haven't killed anyone in two years. Don't you think I've earnt some responsibility?"

I met her eyes again, breathing in her scent now that she was so close to me. "You know even I can't handle it sometimes," I murmured.

"Then we're in this together?" she asked. "Aren't we?"

I nodded once and she crushed her lips to mine. I pressed myself against her, my hand running down her back as hers slid up my neck into my hair. We kissed for a long time, the music still blaring from the laptop going into a third, fourth, fifth song.

Eventually we pulled apart. I licked my lips, turning my attention towards the bed.

She followed my gaze and giggled upon seeing the mountain of shopping bags still there.

"Tania," I smiled. "How much did you and Alice buy? Was there even anything left in Seattle?"

She walked over to the bed and picked up a shiny black bag. "Well I had to get new clothes, didn't I? And stuff for school, tomorrow." Tania extracted a midnight blue and black backpack, some notebooks, pens.

Once she'd cleared a space on the bed, I sat down and watched as she found homes for all her new possessions. The bookcase filled up easily with all her favourite titles and CDs. We talked about our day whilst she hung up all the clothes she had acquired.

I didn't have much stuff. My books had been moved from one of the boxes in the wardrobe that now lined the shelves. Everything else had been left untouched in the storage boxes. I took one of them out and opened it on the bed. Tania came and sat next to me. I picked up the album resting on top of some folded up, yellowed, time worn clothes. The smell of dust hit my nose.

Inside the album were old photographs, letters, and memorabilia from my past. Carefully, Tania turned the pages, a sense of wonder in her eyes and then sadness.

"I wish I could've kept something," she closed the book, passing it back to me.

The fire her creator had caused destroyed almost all her material possessions. I remembered how after she tried to rebuild her life it had all been taken away again when she turned. There had been no way of retrieving anything from her mother's house without risk.

I placed it back in the box before touching her shoulder, allowing her emotions to float as they were, trying to stay true to my word.

"It's already getting harder to remember some of it," Tania spoke, in reference to her human life.

It's how it was for us. Human recollections faded, always more hazy than our vampire lives. Perhaps it was the fragility of human memory, or the fact our senses were a hundred times less vivid before. Eventually, names, friends and families faces evaporated into a colourless blur.

"Maybe writing it down will help," I suggested, rubbing her back.

She thought for a moment and smiled. It was faint, but genuine, and it reached her eyes. "Yeah," said Tania. "I think I will."

"Plus," I pointed out, placing the box on the floor and sliding closer to her. "We have to make some new memories."

Another update so quickly and it's 2400 words! I hope you guys liked it. Just a couple of things I wanted to mention: In my old fic Alice and Edward had got together part way through (I must have felt guilty for them not having anyone as Bella wasn't going to be in the story at all and I didn't know I would be writing a sequel), but a serious relationship was not implied. In case anyone didn't know I'm British, so I am using English spellings and words. However for Jasper's point of view I am trying to use Americanisms to make it sound more like his voice, though I will still use British spellings for both perspectives.

Thanks for reading! & I love feedback ;)