Summary: A one-shot of the beginning of Jacob and Renesmee's romantic relationship. The subtle shift between friends and lovers.
A Sweet Beginning
"Jake?"
"Yeah Nessie?"
"Why was everyone watching us when we left today?"
"Hm?" He asked, taking my small hand in his warm one.
"Why were they looking at you? We go on walks every day…"
"I don't know." He said smiling, stopping and pulling me into a hug.
"Yes you do." My voice muffled against his chest. "Emm looked like he was about ready to hit you and if looks could kill you'd be dead twice over thanks to Rose..." I looked up at his face. He was staring off into the distance. "I know Dad pulled you aside while I was sleeping this morning." He smiled again, looking down at me. "What did he want?"
"To check in with me."
"About what?"
"Nothing to worry your beautiful head with." He said, touching my nose and stepping back from me again. "Now do you want to swim, or what?" I couldn't hide my smile as I took off at a full sprint, hand in hand with my Jacob.
We'd found this place a few days ago while out on a hunt. Everybody called it a bubbling hot spring, something I'd never seen before. All I knew was that it was a little pool of warm water that sort of rolled over itself as it came to the top. It was only about the size of our living room but it seemed to be pretty deep. We'd thrown a few rocks in and hadn't seen them hit the bottom. I'd wanted to jump in right then but Jake pointed out that we didn't have our suits with us and Alice would have been pissed if we'd ruined another one of her precious outfits.
The trees started getting denser the closer we got to our little pool. We also started to see a flowering moss that was hanging on everything. I slowed down to a walk and Jake matched my pace.
"Do you remember it being this beautiful?" I asked, a little breathless.
"I was a tad distracted last time." Jake whispered, closer than I realized.
I met his eyes and my cheeks warmed with a light pink flush. I was becoming more accustomed to that as of late. It was subtle, but there was definitely a shift in how we were relating to each other. Over the past few months I'd started to notice…things.
The little tingle of electricity when our skin touched – the ripple of his muscles under his shirt when my hand rested on his arm – the way his lips curved – the way his eyes softened when he looked at me…
"Nessie?"
I looked at the ground, my cheeks now cherry red. I'd been openly staring.
"Hmm?" I asked, trying to regain my composure.
He slipped his hand under my chin and lifted my head until our eyes met, running his thumb over my still flushed cheeks.
"No need to be embarrassed." He smiled warmly, melting my heart. "Shall we go for a dip?"
"How very formal of you, sir." I said, laughing as we headed deeper into the knot of trees hand in hand.
"Wait here." Jake said a few minutes later, planting a kiss on the back of my hand before dropping it and disappearing into the trees in front of us. We were almost there; I could hear the water moving in front of me and slightly to the right.
A moment later Jake burst back through the trees, dropping to his knees and holding up a beautiful red flower.
"For you, my lady." He said smiling. I smiled in return and took the flower, tucking it behind my ear.
I was suddenly very thankful that Alice had taken me shopping yesterday. She had insisted that I needed a new swimsuit, even though the one-piece that I'd been wearing for the last few months still fit perfectly.
Rose had come with us and had thankfully been a buffer for some of Alice's more…outlandish? Inappropriate? Options. Some of them were more string than fabric. A few of them I hadn't even wanted to come out of the dressing room because I'd felt naked.
After what seemed like ages of trying on bikini after bikini, Rose brought in the perfect suit. It was a metallic bronze color that looked amazing with my hair and skin tone. It wasn't really a one-piece or a bikini. It had top and bottom ties like the string bikinis that Alice was bringing me except it had crisscrossing strips of fabric from the front to the back, top to bottom across my stomach over to the left side of my ribs. I'd never see anything like it. They said it had the sex appeal (making me turn red and wondering why I would ever need such a thing, but now grateful for it) of a string bikini, but the comfort and cover of the one-piece.
I was worried what Mom and Dad would say when I brought it home and showed it to them but all they did was sigh, telling me that I looked beautiful and that they couldn't believe how grown up I was getting. Mom said she wished she could keep me young forever and Dad reminded her that there was nothing they could do to stop it. I swear they said something about keeping Jake in line too, but I couldn't be sure.
The red flower looked great with my hair and would look amazing against the fabric of the new suit. As far as I knew nobody had told Jacob about our little outing and I was a little nervous about how he was going to react. He'd never seen so much of my skin before. It hadn't crossed my mind but suddenly the thought of him seeing so much of me made my heart flutter.
"Ready?" He asked, grabbing my hand again.
"I am if you are." I said, a small nervous chuckle escaping my lips. If he noticed, he didn't say anything.
As we pushed through the last of the trees separating us from the crystal clear pool, my breath caught in my throat.
"Y-You did this?" I asked in disbelief.
Spread out before us was a picnic fit for a Princess. All of our favorite foods were laid out on a blanket a few feet from the pool, covered by clear tents to keep them fresh and away from the bugs. There were petals of the flower in my hair strewn about and more of the flowers bobbing on top of the springs. Light music played from a portable iHome and a large squishy beanbag chair sat by the food with a soft blanket strewn lazily across it. My towel slipped from my hands and landed on the edge of the picnic blanket.
"For me?"
"Who else would it be for, silly?" He replied smiling.
"But when –?"
"While you got ready this morning. I had a little help." He said sheepishly, looking at the ground.
"Alice." I said.
"Alice." He confirmed, glancing up to see my reaction.
I couldn't have gotten rid of my smile if I'd wanted to – which I didn't.
"Well I love it, Jake." I said earnestly, taking his hands in mine. "Nobody has ever done anything like this for me before. Thank you."
He met my eyes again, smiling. "You're welcome. You hungry or do you want to swim first?"
I was a little warm after our hike up here and hadn't expected food so I'd eaten a snack before we left.
"Why don't we swim and work up an appetite? Then we'll enjoy the food all that much more." I said with a smile, playing with the hem of my cover-up. "Will the food last?"
"Sure will. Esme knows what she's doing." He said with an even bigger smile, slipping his shirt off and cannon-balling into the calm water, sending droplets and flowers everywhere.
I took a minute to take him in. Had he always been that attractive? I swear he'd never been this toned before…
I glanced away just in the nick of time. When his back was turned again I slipped off my cover-up and dropped it by my towel on the picnic blanket. When I looked back over toward the pool Jake was staring at me. And not the kind where you look away embarrassed when you're caught; the kind where it doesn't matter what's going on around you, you're so focused on what you're staring at nothing could break you out of it.
I waited a second while he took it in, then when he still hadn't looked away I started to get embarrassed, worried that it was actually a bad kind of staring, not the good kind. I reached down for my cover-up but Jake's hand on my arm stopped me. I hadn't even realized that he'd gotten out of the pool.
"Sorry." He said; his voice deeper than I remembered it. "Is that new?" He said, clearing his throat and motioning to my suit.
"Um, yes." I said, my voice small, looking at our feet. He lifted my face to meet his.
"Well I love it." He took a shaky breath. "Sorry for staring, it's just that you're – um…" He cleared his throat again, shifting from one foot to the other, "very beautiful. I couldn't look away."
We locked eyes for a few minutes before he wordlessly led me over to the pool, picked me up, and lowered me into the water, following me in. We hugged for a while, warm water lapping over our entwined limbs, my head resting perfectly against the hollow of his shoulder.
This was new to us, this closeness. Something had definitely changed. I felt a shift and knew that now there was no going back. While that thought should scare me, it didn't. I was excited to see what this new realm held for us. I knew that no matter what happened, I would always have my Jacob, and he would always have me.
"Hey Nessie?" He whispered quietly against the top of my head.
"Yeah Jake?" So low I could barely hear it.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
And just like everything else today, the weight of those words were different. They felt heavier – thicker somehow coming out of my mouth. Heavier to my ears. But it was a weight that I liked – something I could definitely get used to.
I felt Jake's hand on my cheek, sliding down to my chin and once again gently guiding my face towards his. I knew something was coming, I could feel the electricity of it in the air, the water humming with its anticipation.
My eyes eased shut as his hands slipped up into my wet hair and made a light fist.
"Jake?" I said, my lips brushing against his, the question catching in my throat and slipping into his mouth.
"Yeah?" He responded, his thick breath filling my mouth.
"Is this what it's always going to be like from now on?"
A moment passed in silence.
"It'll only get better from here." He said before his lips pressed into mine.
A/N: As of right now this is just a one-shot with no plans to make it into anything else. Leave a review if you liked it, leave one if you didn't (I'll read and respond to either) – check my profile as for what to do if you want more, and I hope you have an awesome day! Thanks for stopping by – hope you enjoyed.
~ J3SS