DISClaimer: I'm not Stephenie Meyer. I make no profit from this.

Hope you enjoy this.

I promised Epic Update, but I just had to split it into three. Sorry.

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I smiled to myself as I felt that desire too.

-x-

- Leah -

"Leah?" I felt him gently poking me in the cheek, blinked my eyes open, expecting to see Evan smiling at me, his face a mixture of sleepiness and joy. Instead I was faced with my goddamn kid brother, looking at me like a lost puppy. "Leah, you awake?" He hesitated for a second, then poked me again. I caught his hand with quick reactions and jerked him towards me so he was inches away from me.

He smelled like he'd been running in the forest, but I didn't care. He'd woken me up, and I wanted to know why. He knew I was bad in the mornings, and hell, I didn't even think it was the morning yet.

"What?" I growled, catching the time on the clock on my nightstand. "Seth, for Christ's sake, it's two A.M." He smiled apologetically but sat down on the bed in any case. "Seth." I rolled my eyes and sighed, "That means go away. I'm trying to sleep, you know."

"I know." He shrugged. "But you're leaving today." His voice was somewhat different to what I was used to. There was a darker edge, something empty and a little bit lost to his usual cheery disposition.

"So? You've never cared before." I raised myself up on my elbows and stared at him, "Why the change of heart?" Another pause, where I could see the answer forming in his mouth, "And before you say no reason, remember, I'm faster than you, wolf-form or not. And I will chase you." He opened his trap and shut it again without saying anything.

"Right." His voice went hoarse for a second, broken and unhappy, then, "Well… I didn't realise how much I'd miss you." Another small, tense silence, "because you've always been a bitch to me… but… when -" He gestured at Evan, who was sleeping on top of the covers, shirtless but with pyjama bottoms on. He said he liked sleeping next to me because I was warm. Like his own personal radiator.

"When you saw that I could be happy, you decided you liked me again?" I couldn't help the edge that crept into my voice. I felt guilty, but at the same time… I didn't care so much.

In my heart of hearts, I knew I would miss my brother like hell, his presence had made my life seem so much brighter than it was, especially in the darker times - Sam and Emily's wedding, watching the bloodsuckers get their happy endings, finding his happiness… but I didn't want him to know that. I was Leah. Ice queen Leah. Leah who didn't give a fuck about anyone, and more fool them if they thought I did.

But Seth was my brother. He was family. He knew I would miss him. He just enjoyed torturing me by making me tell him so.

"No." He bit his lip and looked down at the duvet, picking a hole in it. I slapped his hand away, frowning. "Stop being mom." He pouted, and proceeded to pick another hole in the sheets, just out of my reach.

"Hey, this house will be all yours in a couple of days. Mom'll be at Charlie's for the rest of her life, won't she?" He laughed and shook his head.

"You know what I mean."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." Another pause, "Anyway, what did you wake me for?"

"I… I just wanted to say that I was going to miss you." He hesitated, "And that… I love you, sis. Do I need any other excuse?" He looked so pathetic. I nearly jumped out of bed and hugged him, but I counted to ten and remained in place.

"You've hated me for the past… what, six years?" I smirked, "What changed?"

"You found happiness." He smiled. "I hated you because you didn't have the one thing you wanted, and you knew it. And you had to make everyone else know it too." I bit my lip. Did I really want to hear this the day I was going to leave home? "But I think I kind of understood. It hurts to be on your own, doesn't it?" He looked over at Evan. "I mean… it hurt to be the only person, looking at everyone else getting on and being happy, and… not being able to have what you wanted because of those people, didn't it?"

"You saw the damage I did, Seth." I whispered, barely able to hold back the tears that wanted to fall down my face. I did want to hear this. Because I knew I had to.

To be able to leave, I had to know. I had to be sure that my brother had forgiven me and he'd be able to… he'd… he understood why I did it. That there wasn't anything I gained by being a horrible person, but doing it… it let me distance myself from everyone else. It let me get away from everything I hated, and everything I didn't want to be. It let me escape from the hell that was all around me.

It let me have my own personal grieving space.

I'm just glad I grew up and got out of that space before I had repelled everyone, before I was left on my own, and for good. Well, not exactly on my own, but you know.

"I saw it. And I hated you for it." He raised his eyebrows.

"You hated a lot about me, didn't you?" I offered, knowing now was the time to repent for everything I'd done to Seth in the past. I might not get another chance for a long time. When he didn't speak, I took the initiative and spoke for him, "It's OK, Seth, I know you did. Hell, I'm still surprised you introduced me as your sister to everyone we met." The look on his face told me everything, "Mom told you to be civil, right?" He nodded. "I'm sorry, Seth."

"You were a stubborn, bitter, angry woman, Leah." He smiled, still looking at the duvet. "You've changed a lot since then."

"Well, I'm not so angry any more… and I'm not so bitter, but I'm still damn stubborn Seth." He nodded and reached his hand out to take mine. I didn't let him, but I put my arms around him and held him for a long minute.

He sniffed and coughed to cover it, but I knew as soon as I pulled away that my hair would be a little wet and he would be teary.

"Damn, Seth, be a man." I murmured. He laughed into my hair and squeezed me tighter for a second.

"I'm going to miss you, Leah." He choked, pulling away slightly so he could look at me face. I smiled at him and pulled him close again.

"You know how to find me, Seth, and I'm always on the other end of a mental connection if you want me." He nodded and squeezed me again, released me and smiled.

"I really am going to miss you, Leah." He said, his voice breaking as he rose from the duvet and wiped his eyes. "I… I want you to know, as well, before you go…" He blinked a couple of times, the moonlight shining on the wall and reflecting into the tears on his cheeks as he turned away.

"Yes, Seth?" I was playing bored and tired Leah again, just to make him feel better, "What?"

"That I… well, I forgive you, Leah." I looked up at him, running my hand through my hair.

"You what?"

"I forgive you." He swallowed, "For everything. And I love you and I'm gonna miss you." He smiled, "Now get some sleep, or you'll never be up in the morning."

"Damn, you sound like dad." He laughed softly and closed the door behind him as he left me awake and alone in the dark.

Slowly, I let myself back down to the mattress and stared up at the ceiling, watching the light shine on all the cracks in the paint.

I was leaving home tomorrow, and I was going with the one person that meant everything in the world to me. I would do anything for him, and I'm pretty sure that he would do a fair bit for me, if push came to shove. I looked over at him, sleeping quietly with a huge smile on his face, and felt my stomach do the familiar tidal wave of emotion as the imprinting did its work. I wasn't sure if I really needed that any more though, because Evan had become all the things I had never had, in just the short space of time I'd known him.

He'd become my best friend - we sat up and chatted for hours on end, we had loads in common, like our love of extreme sports - Embry had practically forced him to go to the cliffs with the guys and try jumping them, and he'd loved it, even though, according to Mackenzie, he'd been afraid of heights since he was eight. Go figure, had been my simple retort.

I didn't think I liked Max much, because she always seemed to have a bad word to say about Evan. I know it was my job to be protective and positive, he was my soul mate, and he was the one who I would love for the rest of my life, but she just couldn't be happy for him. I swear sometimes it would be a case of jealousy. She'd see Evan and I sitting down together, talking or something, and she'd immediately put in a dig about his shoes or his hair looking scruffy.

It was like she was jealous of him being so happy - because I never saw him without a smile on his face - even though she was the one that had hurt him so much. He didn't talk to her often, didn't react to those tiny comments any more. He was so used to them, or so good at ignoring them, whichever it was, that it didn't take long for our conversations to become deeper and more complex, more personal, more knowing.

And it didn't take long for us to become more intimate. It didn't take long for us to hold hands wherever we went, for Evan to throw his arm around my shoulders when we were at the Cullen's place, as though he could protect me if the bloodsuckers went schizo, or for me to sit on him, basically wherever he sat.

- Evan -

I lay in the darkness and heard them talking. The door had opened and the clicking of the lock had woken me where I lay, but I knew better than to move immediately. Leaving my eyes closed, I focused on keeping my breathing even as Seth jokily berated his sister for being the broken woman he felt I had fixed so quickly, and so perfectly.

I had to hold back a laugh when he said he'd hated her. He'd wanted to disown her- our talks over football and American football had revealed a little more than our tactical differences. He had filled in the blanks for me, just like, I assumed, Max had filled in the blanks for Leah. Still, I couldn't help that. I liked Seth a lot, he seemed to know exactly how to brighten up a room or a party, without really a lot of material to work with. He was a sunny person - a lot like Jacob, but with a little less… anger and resentment.

When he left, I heard Leah sigh and turn over, then there was silence for a while. I dared to blink my eyes open and look at her, see the perfectly formed woman that lay next to me. My own personal radiator. I shifted slightly and she turned to look at me.

"You awake?" She murmured, her voice barely audible in the darkness.

"Kind of." I smiled and she leaned over and kissed my cheek. "What's the time?"

"Half past Two." She growled. "Seth woke me up."

"Oh." I nodded, still lying on top of the covers. An involuntary shudder crossed me and I swore in my head. Bugger and damnit.

"Cold?" without waiting for an answer, Leah yanked the covers out from under me and let them flutter down over the pair of us.

"Bloody hell, woman! Warn a person." She giggled softly and I wasn't mad any more. There was no way I could be mad at Leah. I appreciated that she had to love me, because of the imprinting thing, but I liked to think there was something in there that meant she would have fallen in love with me even if she hadn't been a wolf. Even if she'd been human.

"Go back to sleep, Evan." She smiled, and I nodded, even though I didn't plan to do anything of the sort.

If circumstances had been different, I supposed, I would have looked and looked, but never found someone like her. Mackenzie was beautiful, in her own way, and I did love her, but I think I had been too blind to see the manipulation she managed so easily, the fact that she wasn't afraid to make people feel bad for her own ends. Because she was a good person, I knew her well enough to be sure of that, but she hurt me, and I don't think she could let that go. Hurting me seemed to be her way of coping with our break-up, and I wasn't going to take that away from her. I was just going to leave.

I watched Leah for the better part of ten minutes, I think she thought I had gone back to sleep, but I was still lying there, watching, studying the curve of her cheekbones, the edges of her lips that blurred into her skin, the shape of her eyebrows, the smile that reached around to her eyes.

She was staring up at the ceiling, looking into the nothingness above us, staring into the darkness of the light fixture. I took a breath, leaned over and let my lips rest against hers for a long second, she squeaked in surprise and I brought my hand up to slide into her hair. She smiled against my lips and slid her arm around me, pulled me closer.

"Night Leah." I murmured as I pulled away. She grinned up at me and laughed lightly.

"Tomorrow's the start of something completely new, isn't it, Evan?"

"If you want it to be, then yes, it honestly, really and truly is." She smiled at me and sighed.

"You know what, Evan?"

"No, what?"

"I love you." I was struck by the heavy sentiment of her words, weighed down by sleep and nostalgia, but brand-newness and sweetness of the three words made my heart do cartwheels. I shut my eyes and smiled at her. Because I loved her too.

"I love you too. Now, go to sleep." She laughed and curled up against me, warming me up almost immediately, and that was even before I felt the too-hot-body-temperature.

I blinked, my eyes getting heavier every time I did, and finally resigned myself to sleep. I didn't particularly want to, but I knew that the faster I fell asleep, the faster tomorrow would come and the faster my life would change.

-x-

A/N: Please review and let me know how I did... :P

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