"Oh God, Peter, what if she decides that she doesn't want to marry me anymore? Or what if she leaves me at the alter?" Jasper fretted nervously to his friend.
They were in Peter's hotel room (that Alice had insisted they get), while the two girls worked on any last minute details for the wedding. Jasper might as well have been spazzing, the way he was panicking to Peter.
"Then only three of us would know—the Priest, Charlotte, and I," Peter said in exasperation, rubbing his eyes and sighing at Jasper's sharp intake of breath that practically screamed, 'Do you think she would do that?' Peter sighed again and opened his eyes. "Do you really have so little faith in Alice?"
Jasper frowned. "No. You're right. I'm sorry Peter, Alice would never do that, I'm just freaking out."
"I was freaked out just like you when Charlotte and I were married, remember?" Peter laughed at the memory while Jasper smiled at his friend. "Apparently she had wanted to be married a long time ago when she was human. After we left Maria, all Charlotte could look at every time we went into towns was the engagement rings. Obviously I couldn't afford it, but I proposed to her, all the same. After much prodding from her, might I add. But it's okay, I'd do anything to please her."
Jasper nodded, knowing he felt the same way about Alice. He held up the tuxedo she had bought for him before looking back at what his current clothing was before making a face.
Peter just laughed.
****
"Oh my God, what if he runs off because he doesn't want to be a vegetarian?" Alice freaked out to Charlotte.
"You're the psychic, Alice, you would know as soon as he decided. But trust me Alice, I've known Jasper for awhile, and he has never been happier than when he is with you," her voice turned morose, "the way he walked, the way he always looked upon Peter and I bittersweetly. I don't think he thought he would ever find somebody as wonderful as you. My heart always ached for him, but now he was you. He positively lights up when he sees you." She smiled at Alice, and Alice gave her a small one in return.
"You're right, I should have more faith in him," Alice admitted, watching the humans as they worked on her dress off to the side. She was getting some finishing touches since the wedding would be in a week and a half.
"I think he'll be speechless," Charlotte trilled, giggling with Alice.
Alice nodded, still smiling, as she inspected her dress carefully. Everything had to be perfect. "It feels like it's missing something," Alice said thoughtfully, running the fabric through her fingers.
She closed her eyes as a vision overtook her before opening them again after a moment of silence. She beamed at Charlotte, her face lit up like a child in a candy shop.
"I know what it needs," was all she told them.
****
The group of four was sitting in Alice and Jasper's room comfortably a few days later. Alice and Jasper were holding hands on the couch they were sharing, while Peter and Charlotte sat on the edge of the bed.
"You understand why you can't hunt in this area, don't you?" Alice asked nervously, checking for the seventh time.
"Alice honestly," Charlotte said, laughing, "we don't mind going a few towns over."
Alice nodded and couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped her lips. "Thanks so much, Charlotte. Peter."
Peter nodded and smiled at Alice before standing up and holding a hand out for Charlotte. "C'mon Lottie, we'll go now and be back by evening."
Charlotte smiled and took Peter's hand, following him to the door. "We'll see you two in a while," she called over her shoulder, waving before she closed the door softly after herself.
"We need to hunt soon, too," Alice reminded Jasper.
"Let's just...stay here for a little longer," Jasper suggested, pulling Alice onto his lap and nuzzling the back of her neck.
Alice giggled, turning slightly so they were looking into each other's eyes.
"One week," she murmured, pressing her forehead against Jasper's now that they were almost the same height. She twisted her body around fully for a more comfortable position.
"Then we will officially be united forever," Jasper answered, kissing the tip of her nose. "Mr. and Mrs. Whitlock. Think you can put up with me for forever?"
"Hmm," Alice pretended to think about the question, but Jasper felt her amusement. "Yes," she said finally, "I think I just might be able to."
Jasper smiled and pulled her closer, placing a kiss on her cheek. "Good," he growled, trailing kisses down her neck now.
Alice lifted his chin and brought his lips to hers, wrapping her arms around him and knotting her fingers through his hair.
The kisses continued until Jasper's eyes flew open when he felt Alice start playing with his top shirt button. He pulled away and ran against the wall, watching her with wide eyes.
Alice looked down at the ground in hurt before a flare of anger shot up in her. Jasper stepped forward at once to apologize.
"Alice, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have...you have every right to be angry at me for starting that."
"Do you regret it?"
"What? I—no! Definitely not."
"Then don't be sorry!" Alice cried in exasperation, stalking toward him. "I'm angry that we stopped. What is with you and 'protecting my virtue?'" she placed her hands on her hips, waiting for her answer.
Jasper just stared at her, trying to explain the reason. She was practically glaring at him now, and Jasper was suddenly mad. "Dammit Alice, it's because I can't do that to you! Whether or not you want to, I won't do that until we're married. Not to someone I love. Not to you."
Alice dropped her head to stare at her feet in embarrassment. "Sorry."
"No," Jasper sighed and ran his hand through his blonde hair, all anger forgotten, "It's all true, what I said, but I shouldn't have shouted. I haven't hunted for awhile, and the couple four doors down having been fighting for the past hour."
Alice laughed at his pained grimace and took Jasper's hand. "It's fine, Jazz, we'll go hunt now. It's killing two birds with one stone."
Jasper nodded but stopped her first. "Thank you, but Alice, wouldn't you like to change?"
Alice looked down at her clothes and squeaked, scrambling to the closet. "You're right! Thanks, Jazz." She ran into the bathroom with more 'disposable' clothes and came out in less than thirty seconds. She set her clothes and the bed and turned to Jasper, fully ready to go now. "Ready?"
She skipped to the door and they quickly left, Jasper with his arm wrapped around her. "I thought you really liked that dress?" he asked in confusion on their way to the lobby, referring to the dress she was wearing to go hunting.
Alice giggled and twirled away from him. "Oh Jasper, this dress is so three months out of fashion."
"Right," Jasper said, nodding with a serious expression on his face. "Three months old, what was I thinking?"
Alice shook her head in mock-exasperation. "I have no clue. How do you survive without this knowledge?"
"Please enlighten me, oh great one, knower of anything fashion related," Jasper teased before he started laughing.
Alice lowered her voice as she spoke. "The humble vampire seeks my knowledge?"
Jasper tried to regain his composure and nodded, biting his lip to keep from laughing. "Yes, oh great fashion-conscious Alice."
Alice smirked mischievously as she ducked away from him. "Too bad!" she called back to him as she ran away from him at a human pace, jogging through the lobby. Jasper laughed and ran after her, pretending to struggle to catch up.
Everybody stared at them as they ran through the lobby, but the couple ignored the looks, rushing out the front door and down the street. With humans out, they were forced to run at a slow pace. To them, anyway. Constantly trying to get ahead of one another while they ran, Jasper finally ran up behind Alice and wrapped his arms around her waist, spinning her off the ground.
Alice squealed in delight and laughed, waiting for him to put her down. When he finally did, Jasper set her down facing the wrong way and took off.
Alice spun around to glare at him, taking off after him and increasing her pace to be a little too fast for a human. As they both got closer to the nearby forest, Jasper still in the lead, they went full out, running as hard as they both could.
"We'll go to there!" Jasper said, pointing to a tree in the distance. "And I'm going to beat you!" he taunted.
"We'll see about that!" Alice called back, trying to push her small legs faster.
Alice caught up with Jasper when they hit the forest and became immersed in the green.
"I'm going to beat you!" Alice teased back, sticking her tongue out at him before passing him.
Jasper in turn narrowed his eyes and increased his pace, reaching out for the tree that signaled the end of their little race.
"I win!"
"No!"
Jasper laughed in triumph, his exhilarating emotions bubbling over and affecting Alice as well until they were both smiling as they leaned against the tree.
"Time to hunt?" Alice finally suggested after a quiet moment.
Jasper nodded and stood up, holding a hand out to Alice. Alice took his hand and he pulled her up and off the ground. Jasper gave her a soft kiss on the forehead before he pulled back reluctantly and closed his eyes, taking in his surroundings.
Turning his head to catch the scent of an animal, his eye's flashed open and he smirked slightly at Alice. "Cougar," he told her, "and it's heading west."
"Go ahead. Just don't play with your food too much. I'll meet you back here."
"Alright." He shared a glance with her one more time before sprinting after his prey, letting his instincts take over.
While Jasper hunted his cougar, Alice settled for going after a herd of deer since she wasn't that thirsty. After catching only one deer, Alice went to find Jasper to watch him hunt, knowing that he wouldn't be done yet.
When she found him, she could tell that he had already caught a few animals from the bright golden hue his eyes were. Now, he was just playing with the animal in front of him.
Feinting left, he struck the final blow, and the mountain lion fell to the forest floor. Jasper brought his lips to the neck and bit down, sucking the blood from the dead body greedily. Finishing the mountain lion off, Jasper quickly buried the animal before he finally glanced over at Alice.
"What happened to your dress?"
****
"That stupid deer!" Alice screeched as they walked through the forest, now finished with their 'meal,' "I'm glad I killed it, it ruined my dress!"
"But Alice, I thought that that dress was out of fashion, so why does it matter?"
Alice turned to glare at Jasper. "It. Ruined. My. Dress."
Jasper chuckled nervously and held his hands up in surrender. "Right, sorry. Ruined your dress."
The forest was thinning, and Alice suddenly stopped, taking a good long look at her clothing. "Uh...Jasper, I don't think that I can just walk into the hotel with my dress looking like this." The top half had practically been torn to shreds, and Alice's undershirt could be seen.
"Oh. Right, well...here, you can use my coat, that I 'had to bring.' I guess these human pretenses really do help sometimes." Alice smiled and took the coat from his outstretched hand and put it on, laughing at the size.
The sleeves fell way past her fingertips, and the coat was only a few inches from her knees when she stood up straight.
"I think it's a little big," Alice told him, holding up her hands to show the sleeves that flopped over and hung a couple inches.
Jasper laughed. "I think you look adorable in it," he told her honestly.
"Alright," Alice said slowly, buttoning up the coat so her ripped dress wouldn't be seen. "We'll go to the hotel so I can change, and then I want to go out."
"Where?"
Alice shrugged. "I don't know. It's going to be cloudy all day and rain later, though, so I was thinking that we could just spend a day out on the town."
"Fine, we'll go out after you've gotten ready." Jasper finally said, smiling lazily at her.
Alice beamed at him. "Thanks Jazz," she told him before skipping lithely ahead.
Jasper watched her calmly, walking slowly. As she alternated between skipping and her light steps that seemed to belong to a dancer, she hummed quietly under her breath, all worries about her dress forgotten.
As they neared the hotel, Alice slowed her happy pace and instead turned to walk with Jasper. "I'll be ready in record time," Alice promised him as they entered the lobby.
An elderly couple that had been there when they had first raced out of the hotel was there, glaring at Alice and Jasper. Alice bit her lip to keep from laughing when she heard what they said next, "Those kids, they have no respect for their elders anymore. Honestly, running through a lobby is no way for them to behave."
Jasper looked away from them so that they couldn't see the smile on his face. Alice giggled and turned to share an amused glance with Jasper. "I'm probably as old as them," Alice whispered to him, "And I'm pretty sure that you would be just a few years older than them. Just a few."
"Don't make me laugh," Jasper muttered under his breath to her. "It would be disrespectful."
Alice sighed before giving in. "Oh, come on, let me go get ready."
Alice dragged him to the elevator and pulled him in, punching in the '9' and watching as it lit up.
"I just need to clean up and changed, I won't take but an hour."
Jasper put his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "Don't worry, we've got forever—quite literally."
Alice grinned and at the 'ding' that the elevator emitted, Alice pulled Jasper quickly out and to their room.
Jasper laughed under his breath quietly as Alice started flitting through their room as soon as they were in, trying to find a nice outfit. And her shoes.
"Jasper, do you know where my heels went? You know, the ones that made me look a couple inches taller?" she called as she looked around the room once more before sighing and entering the bathroom. "Never mind, I'll look after I take my shower, would you mind trying to find them for me?"
"Did you check under the bed"
Alice poked her head out from the bathroom. "No...will you?"
Jasper rolled his eyes but got down on his hands and knees to lift up the bed skirt. Looking under, he spotted the shoes and quickly fished them out. "Found them!" he called to Alice, who thanked him in return over the sound of the pounding water.
Jasper went looking through the closet, debating whether or not he should change his shirt when he saw it. It was hanging there in a bag so he couldn't see it, but he knew what it was. His fingers ached to reach out and touch and look at Alice's wedding dress.
As he stared at the bag though, Jasper knew that Alice didn't want him to look at it until the wedding. The wedding. It was in a week, it now dawned on him utterly and completely that in a week, he would be married to the most wonderful woman in existence.
Jasper sighed and ran a hand through his hair, turning away from the closet and instead opting to just wear the shirt he was wearing now. He fumbled with the buttons on his shirt as Alice came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, her hair still dripping slightly onto her new dress as she took the shoes from where he had set them.
As soon as she put them on, Alice walked over to the closet and gently touched her wedding dress. "Thank you," she said conversationally. Of course she would know that he had thought about looking at it. He almost had looked at the dress. "But you didn't," she answered the thought as if she could read his mind.
Jasper looked at her wryly, and Alice laughed quietly, smiling at him. "That would be Edward. I can just tell what you're thinking. So, are you ready to go yet?"
"Yes," he nodded and glanced over over at Alice. "Are you ready?"
"In a minute," she told him, digging through the closet before she pulled out a purse, slipping some money in that they had, however, considering that they kept all their money with them, 'some' was actually quite a large amount. "Okay, I'm ready." Jasper smiled and led the way out the door, grabbing his coat and her own, knowing that the humans would find it strange if they didn't have one.
Walking through the town, Alice window shopped from her spot next to Jasper where he had his arm wrapped around her.
She suddenly stopped and stared at one store in particular, and Jasper glanced over at her. "What? What is it?" He turned to look at the store and then back at Alice. "A camera store?"
Alice nodded and pulled Jasper into the store. "Yeah, come on!" Alice happily browsed through the store, looking at all the different camera makes and models. "You know, we've never had our picture taken," she started quietly, looking up at Jasper through her lashes. "And," she continued, "the wedding is only a few days. We'll need a camera for that."
Seeing Alice's hopeful expression, and her even more hopeful emotions, Jasper couldn't say no just yet. "You've been thinking about this for a while, haven't you?"
"I suppose..okay, yes, I have. Obviously we need one for the wedding, and we have a store right here, Jasper it's perfect!"
Jasper sighed but agreed, knowing that a camera would be nice for the wedding. "What kind were you thinking of?"
Alice grinned and clapped her hands in excitement. "Contax S."
Jasper raised an eyebrow. "Yes, you definitely have thought about this a lot."
Alice ignored his remark, instead pulling Jasper over to see the display. "Look, it even has a horizontal focal-point shutter," she told Jasper, examining the camera closely.
"Do you even know what that means?"
Alice faltered, and Jasper just shook his head. "Well, no," she admitted, "but you have to admit, it sounds technical and professional. Doesn't it make you want one?"
Jasper laughed. "Alice, relax, we'll go back to the hotel, think about it and decide on the right camera, get the money, and come back later."
Alice fidgeted slightly, and Jasper raised an eyebrow again. Alice sighed and admitted sheepishly, "Well, I kind of...sort of...already knew we were going to come here and get one. And if we go back to the hotel...they'll sell out."
Sighing, Jasper rolled his eyes and held out his hand. "You have enough money for it, don't you?"
Alice nodded happily and dug through her purse, pulling out a large amount of cash. "Since we don't have an account at any banks," she explained, "I kind of just brought a random amount. It's more than enough though."
"Fine. We'll get the camera, happy?"
Alice nodded and grinned at him. "Extremely. Thank you, Jasper."
Jasper sighed but gave her a small smile, walking up to the front register. "Excuse me," he said politely to the man working there, "but you do you have any of the Contax S cameras in stock right now?"
The human blinked once and nodded, glancing at Alice before his lust spiked. Jasper bit back the growl as the man nervously offered to go get it out of the back.
"It's even charged already!" Alice told Jasper quietly, excitement bubbling over in her voice.
"Did you see the way he was looking at you? And the lust, ugh!" Jasper growled, glaring at the door leading to the back room.
Alice rolled her eyes and put her hand on Jasper's shoulder. "Calm down, don't worry about it, just ignore it. As soon as we get the camera, we'll go."
As the man came back into view, Jasper's hand clenched into a fist at his side, but he nodded tensely to Alice to show that he would behave.
Forty-five minutes later, Alice and Jasper walked out of the store, Alice carrying the camera in her hands, examining it carefully. She held it up and went to take a picture of Jasper, sticking her tongue out in concentration to get the angle on his face just right. Jasper laughed just as she snapped the picture, and Alice smiled, knowing without even needing to See that it would turn out wonderful.
With a sudden burst of excitement, Alice grabbed Jasper's hand and began to run somewhere. "Come on!" she called to him.
"Where?"
Alice finally stopped running when she got to the center of the small town, glancing around once before walking straight up to a woman that was walking down the street across from them. "Excuse me!" she called to the lady, fingering the camera. "Excuse me, would you mind taking a picture of us?" she asked, gesturing to herself and Jasper, who had come to stand behind Alice.
The woman hesitated before shrugging. "Sure. Where would you like me to take it?"
"Just...right here is fine, right, Jazz?"
"Sure, Ali," he murmured into her hair, ignoring the woman standing there with their camera.
Alice pointed out what button the lady should push to take a picture, and then quickly moved to stand beside Jasper.
"Ready?" the woman asked. Alice nodded, smiling brightly at the camera while Jasper wrapped his arm around her protectively and smiled, looking down at Alice instead of the camera, a look of adoration clear on his face.
With an audible click, the kind woman smiled and handed the camera back to Alice. "You two are very photogenic."
"Thank you. We really appreciate that." The woman nodded and smiled once more at Alice.
"No problem, hun, I hope you have a nice day." She gathered up her bags and started to walk away.
A single rain drop fell from the sky suddenly, before thousands start falling quickly after it. Alice glanced up at the sky and smiled, while Jasper just shook his head. "We should probably get back to the hotel, Ali."
"Why?" she pouted, giving Jasper the puppy dog eyes.
Jasper just shook his head and laughed, pointing to the camera. "I don't think that it's water-proof."
Alice shrieked when she realized the camera was starting to get wet and she stuffed it into her jacket, wanting to keep it as dry as possible. Looking up at the rain-filled sky one more time, Alice sighed and took Jasper's hans to start their walk back to the hotel. "You're right," she admitted grudgingly, though she wasn't as annoyed as she pretended to be.
How could she be when everything seemed so utterly right right then?
Longer than nine pages! This chapter is longer than nine full pages! Sorry, that's really good for me. I'm pretty happy with how this chapter turned out, and if you couldn't tell from how big the wedding played a part in this chapter, it's coming up...next! And I got it out quicker than last chapter, too.
On a different note, the Twilight Awards have started, if you didn't already know. I have a link to it on my profile.
I've also just recently realized that there was a story on here by the same name about Alice and Jasper's first two years. No, they didn't copy mine or anything, I actually posted mine after them, but apparently there's got deleted or they deleted or whatever, but when I first realized this, I was afraid that someone was going to like...accuse me of stealing their story or something. I didn't, by the way.
Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own it, I am simply borrowing Stephenie's wonderful characters. Did you know Jasper's name was originally supposed to be Ronald? I find that hilarious, and I also wonder if I would like him as much if she had kept his name that...Nah, I'd love him the same.
~Tally