Title: Celestial Convergence
Author: Lucidscreamer
Pairing: Carlisle/Edward
Fandom: Twilight
Prompts: 1sentence LJ challenge
Theme set: Alpha
Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga is the creation of Stephenie Meyer.
Author's Note: Please excuse this posting of the entire, finished piece like this. You may want to read it all anyway, as I've added several sentences to the "Meteor Storm" section and done some revision on the other previously posted bits. This concludes "Celestial Convergence", but I am planning to expand some of these vignettes into longer fics. In particular, I plan to expand the 1922-1923 section into a novella. Thanks for reading!
Celestial Convergence
Supernova: Carlisle (1918)
#28 - Sickness
The Chicago hospital where Carlisle works is crowded with death as more and more people -- in what should be the prime of their lives -- are taken by the influenza.
#17 - Tears
Vampires cannot cry, but if it were possible, then the Masen family's plight might move him to tears.
#25 - Devotion
Elizabeth Masen knows she is dying (Carlisle can see it in her eyes), but her hand is strong when she clutches his and demands he do all that is in his power to save her son.
#11 - Name
His name is Edward, and he is so (beautiful) young; he should be out playing baseball in the September sunshine, not dying in a stuffy, crowded hospital ward.
#50 - Supernova
For almost three hundred years, Carlisle has thought himself unchanging, unchangeable, the routine of his life as steady as the cycles of the sun -- but Edward's advent into his life is a supernova after which nothing will ever be the same.
#33 - Fear
Carlisle has never made another vampire, isn't even sure he can do it now, but his fear doesn't stop him from stealing away from the hospital with Edward clutched in his arms.
#05 - Potatoes
He remembers his own transformation, cowering beneath a pile of potatoes, surrounded by the stench of rot and mold, as the excruciating pain scalded like fire and he expended every ounce of will to silence his screams.
#24 - Taste
Edward's is the first human blood he has ever tasted -- it is ambrosia and sin and completion -- and a part of him mourns that he will never taste it (taste Edward) again.
#04 - Pain
As venom burns through Edward's veins, as the young man screams and writhes in his arms, Carlisle holds him and wishes he could take away the agony.
#10 - Ears
Edward's rebirth is three days of thrashing limbs, twisting body, tossing head, his cries for mercy subsiding only when his ceaseless howls have stolen his voice; the silent screams that follow echo more loudly in Carlisle's ears than those that came before.
North Star: Edward (1918-1919)
#32 - Confusion
Edward wakes in confusion that turns to terror at the voices that shout-whisper-laugh-cry-yammer inside his head, with the burning gone but this new pain threatening to tear his sanity apart, and when instinct propels him at his perceived tormentor's throat, he doesn't resist.
#03 - Soft
Only the fact that the other does not fight back, tries instead to soothe him with soft words, prevents Edward from following through with the urge to bite, to rend -- to destroy the source (he thinks) of the cacophony in his brain.
#38 - Gift
It takes minutes for Carlisle to figure out Edward's "gift" (curse); it will take days for Edward to accept, and years to fully master, it.
#18 - Speed
In some ways, Edward is truly newborn, and he spends his time learning how to control his too-fast, too-strong body; to separate the intrusive jumble of thoughts from speech in order to communicate; and to control his primal urges ("Wanting a thing does not mean you must have it right now, Edward.").
#13 - Death
Death is a way of life: he cannot feed without killing, but (for now, at least) the only lives he takes are those of the wild creatures in the forest.
#19 - Wind
His new-found fleetness is a benediction, running is like flying, and Edward finds fleeting peace in these moments when he forgets everything else and simply races the wind.
#01 - Comfort
Carlisle instructs him in the basics of vampiric existence -- hunting, feeding, avoiding the sun -- and it is difficult for Edward, each new lesson a reminder of his lost human life, but he is reassured by the knowledge that Carlisle will be there to guide him.
Meteor Storm: Carlisle and Edward (1922-1923)
#21 - Life
These few years he and Edward have spent together have been the happiest of Carlisle's long life, even if he has had to learn to guard his thoughts and hide his dearest (darkest) desire from (for) his companion.
#40 - Innocence
Edward may be inexperienced, but he finds it difficult to retain his innocence when he is constantly bombarded with the worst thoughts of the people surrounding him.
#27 - Blood
Their first real fight is a storm of angry words and wounded thoughts -- Carlisle's compassionate philosophies clashing against Edward's unwanted intimacy with the evil lurking in human minds -- and, as days pass, it is not their last.
#34 - Lightning/Thunder
On the night that Edward leaves, the storm -- both within and without -- rages more terrible than ever, the crash of thunder echoed in the slamming of doors and the breaking of Carlisle's unbeating heart.
#20 - Freedom
For Edward, this time alone is a descent into madness -- the madness of evil men and his own bloodlust -- but in moments of lucidity, he realizes that this freedom is anything but, and all he really wants is to see his maker again.
#45 - Hell
Eternal torment, Carlisle decides, is having known the bliss of companionship only to have it torn away.
#22 - Jealousy
In his loneliness, Carlisle imagines terrible things: Edward lost or hurt without Carlisle there to protect him; Edward ripped apart and burning; Edward finding solace in the arms of another.
#16 - Weakness
More than once, Carlisle thinks to search for Edward -- quit the hospital, leave the house, just go! -- but fear (of not finding him, of finding him and being rejected again) holds him in its paralyzing grip and so he stays.
#09 - Telephone
More than once, Edward picks up the telephone to call, to say he's sorry, to ask for Carlisle's forgiveness.
#08 - Happiness
The worst six months of Carlisle's immortal life end with a whimper (his) as he thinks, You're home, you're home, my Edward, never leave me again! over and over and pulls Edward into a tight embrace.
Solar Flare: Carlisle and Edward (1923)
#37 - Technology
Before Edward, Carlisle was never prone to whimsy, but, still giddy from their reunion and reluctant to part from him again so soon, Carlisle quits his job at the hospital and (finding Edward engrossed in a copy of A Thousand Miles Up the Nile) suggests a voyage to Egypt.
#48 - Waves
The ocean crossing is difficult for the both of them, but Edward suffers most for he cannot flee the intrusive thoughts of the sailors who surround them, despite Carlisle's best efforts at suitable distraction.
#42 - Clouds
In Egypt, few days are overcast enough for them to venture outside with impunity, so they improvise -- and, once the treacherous sun has set, a million stars light the way for their clandestine explorations.
#36 - Market
Thick with the choking smells of spice, dust, and sweating human bodies, the back avenues of the Khan el Khalili are shadowy warrens and, wandering the narrow streets, Edward imagines finding a lamp to grant him three wishes.
#26 - Forever
He knows what he would wish for: to remain forever with Carlisle.
#30 - Star
In one of the many stalls of the ancient bazaar, Carlisle buys Edward a cheap silver ring engraved with five-pointed stars.
#23 - Hands
It is an impulsive gesture -- clearly, Edward brings them out in him -- and would almost be a joke if not for the surge of possessive joy Carlisle feels when he slips the ring onto Edward's finger.
#15 - Touch
For days afterward, Edward finds himself rubbing and twisting his new ring, and smiling as he remembers the caress of Carlisle's hands on his.
#46 - Sun
For days afterward, Carlisle glimpses a secretive smile on Edward's lips and a soft, contemplative look in eyes that -- when they meet his -- are as bright and golden as the sun.
#12 - Sensual
On the small dahabiya they've hired for the journey up the Nile to Luxor, the close quarters provide adequate excuses for their bodies to brush close, for arms and hands and hips to touch in passing -- and if some of those touches linger, neither of them object.
#14 - Sex
In their room at the Winter Palace hotel, the heat pools around their bodies like water, and when Carlisle finally (finally) surrenders to the desire that has held him captive since his first glimpse of Edward, that already-existing spark between them ignites into flame.
#35 - Bonds
Their joining is awkward and clumsy and perfect -- a mutual claiming (you are mine and I am yours and we are ours), an acknowledgement of all that lies between them and the hope for all that is yet to come.
#41 - Completion
Lying with Edward, Carlisle feels whole for the first time in his existence.
#49 - Hair
In the afterglow, Edward lies with his head on Carlisle's chest and all but purrs like a contented cat while his mate (and how he loves the sound of that) pets his hair.
#44 - Heaven
After centuries spent longing for a moment such as this, lying with his mate in his arms is the closest thing to heaven that Carlisle can imagine.
Northern Lights: Carlisle and Edward (Now)
#31 - Home
For a small town, Forks is surprisingly accepting of the newcomers, though it undoubtedly helps that it is a small town and they need a doctor like Carlisle too much to risk driving him away.
#43 - Sky
The area is perfect for a pair of "vegetarian" vampires: forests in which to hunt, a secluded house in which to shelter, and lots (lots) of cloud cover.
#29 - Melody
Carlisle has his work, but for now Edward -- bored with "improving his mind" at various universities -- opts to spend his days immersed in music, composing melodies that, when he shares them with Carlisle, express all the things for which he can never find the words.
#02 - Kiss
When Carlisle returns from shopping and finds Edward at the piano, Edward welcomes him home with a kiss.
#07 - Chocolate
They donate the food they'll never eat ("Five bags of M&Ms, Carlisle?") to a food bank in Port Angeles.
#06 - Rain
Watching the latest downpour plaster Edward's shirt to his chiseled torso, Carlisle is reminded once again how much he loves... the rain.
#47 - Moon
Racing through the moonlit forest -- not hunting, but running for the sheer joy of it -- each basks in the presence of the other by his side.
#39 - Smile
Taking Edward's hand in his own, Carlisle caresses the rings his mate wears -- one cheap Egyptian silver, the other a gold wedding band -- and smiles.
(FINIS)