Disclaimer: I don't own 'Twilight' or the characters contained within, it all belongs to the 'Twilight' queen, Stephanie Meyer. I just manipulate the characters' strings for the purposes of entertainment.

Enjoy.

Tempting as it was to remain in the forest with nothing but the minds of animals for company, it wouldn't have been possible for me to avoid coming back forever. I trundled back to the ferrari, the blood almost dry, but sticky, a primitive glue. Alice's disapproving face materialised in my mind as I touched the car door handle, a perverse amusement when I sat down behind the wheel, blood clinging to the leather. The engine purred to life, and I began to drive back towards my perfect home, my perfect family, my perfect wife...

Perfect.

Ignoring the speed limit as usual, I took a more scenic route back, avoiding the humans wherever I could. I considered visiting a clothing store, if only to stop Bella or Alice from questioning me about why I had ruined a perfectly good outfit, but decided against it. No doubt impatient Bella would have already gone to visit the house, seen conclusive proof that I had lied to her, so at least the bloody clothes would show her that I had actually been out hunting.

The car pulled in with its muffled roar, like a predator, lethal, but elegant. Well, as elegant as something bright yellow could be, anyway. I could tell Bella was there, knew she would be waiting for me with a kiss and a contented smile, the questions about why I hadn't told her the truth saved until later, or forgotten altogether. I could practically smell her adoration on the air as I closed the car door behind me, pausing only to rub off a bit of the blood from the door, which had stubbornly stayed on. Pushing open the door connecting the garage to the rest of the house, I trod silently, the whole house already knowing that I had returned. As I walked into the kitchen, I had already braced myself for Bella, waiting at the other side of the door to embrace me, kiss me, hold me. Mechanically, I felt my arms moving around her, touching the beautiful silk dress, wondering absentmindedly if it had been her or Alice that had picked it out. Probably Alice. Bella didn't quite have her taste for fashion.

'Miss me?' I asked, the hint of a smile on my lips. I didn't need to hear her answer, of course, I knew she was desperate to spend every second of eternity together, until every last animal was completely drained of its blood.

'Oh, Edward...' She detached herself, looking into my eyes. 'What happened to your clothes?' she asked with an attempted frown. Well, no surprises there, she was bound to ask about them sooner or later.

'I have plenty of other perfectly good clothes. And, failing that, plenty of money for clothes.'

'Those clothes were perfectly good before you went and ruined them,' Alice chimed in with a mock scowl. 'I should know. After all, I picked them myself. C'mon Jasper, let's leave the loving couple alone for a bit.' And with that, she grabbed Jasper's arm and man-handled him out of the room, followed by Esme and her indulgent smiles.

When they were gone, Bella captured my lips again, kissing me passionately, and when she released me, she was smiling. 'You know,' she whispered, her breath tickling my ear. 'You should really change out of those clothes. I'd be happy to help you.'

I twitched.

Bella, luckily, took this as a sign of agreement, and let go of me entirely, the dress moving gently around her. 'I was so worried, when I saw Emmett and Jasper here. I thought something had happened with the Volturi, or...'

It was really tempting to agree that I had had a narrow miss, barely escaped with my life after encountering them, but I resisted.

'No, I'm fine. Although my clothes seemed to have suffered some fatal injuries.' She laughed, and kissed me again.

'Come on, let's go back to the cottage.' She grabbed my hand, the strong grip surprising me, since she still acted helpless without me, just like when she had been human. She wanted protection, needed to be protected from everything and everyone, the entire world was a danger, and I her shield. She could barely walk for a minute without falling down, and I loved being there to pick her up, knowing that she was infatuated with me without having to read it from her mind, knowing that she was mine, knowing that she knew she was mine, and loved it.

As a vampire, she didn't need any protection.

As a vampire, she was just... perfect.

We walked past Esme's botanical masterpieces, Bella waving at Renesme, Renesme looking up with a frown at her mother for having been interrupted from the book, and quickly returning to it after Bella had turned away, laughing and hugging my arm.

The cottage door closed behind us, and Bella let go of me. 'You still didn't say why you weren't with Emmett, Jasper and Carlisle.'

She was being surprisingly persistent today. Usually it would have been enough to kiss her to hear the end of it. Well, at least she wasn't insisting on stripping me. A small blessing.

'I wanted to hunt on my own, but I didn't want you to worry.' The lie slipped out easily, sweet, gullible Bella accepting it all. 'I know, it could have been dangerous, but there weren't any Volturi around, and I'm fine. See? Bear's blood.' I answered her question before she had time to ask it, mind reading unnecessary for knowing what she was thinking as she looked questioningly at the blood on my cashmere shirt. She still hadn't gotten used to telling apart the differences between blood of an animal and my blood, the absolutely precise senses of a vampire still too much for her pathetically human mind.

'Well, alright then,' she said eventually, walking into the next room, her mind attempting to lure me closer.

'I'm going to take a shower, maybe take a leaf out of Renesme's book and read something.' And before she could reply, I had already run off to the bathroom, locking the door behind me. If she wanted to, she could break through it, but she was still too human-minded to do such a thing, and besides, even if she had thought of doing it, she wouldn't, not being stupid enough to not work out that I wanted to be alone.

Sooner or later, I would have to come out.

I couldn't hide forever.

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