A/N: Thanks again for the reviews and adds! I so greatly appreciate your feedback/comments.
This chapter is a little different...just an idea I felt the need to write. Let me know what you think!
Takes place still early on in their relationship....
Jasper and Alice lay together on an abandoned hammock in the middle of the woods. They were balanced on it perfectly, both looking up into the heavy branches of the trees that blocked out the sky. Occasionally they would glance at one another, content just to have their arms touching as they laid.
They were playing twenty questions. He loved the pure bliss that emanated from her as they spoke--it was catching. He soon found that he enjoyed answering her questions just as much as he liked to ask them. He liked to feel the emotions that his responses brought out in her.
"Gold or silver?" she asked.
"Silver jewelry, gold anything else," he said, "clouds or stars?"
"Mmm…both. Clouds if they're especially fluffy, stars if the night is clear enough to make them sparkle. Same question."
"Stars," he answered, "I haven't seen enough of the clouds to know if I like them or not."
"We'll have to work on that," she answered with a grin before asking, "Snowmen or snow angels?"
"I haven't…"
She interrupted, "Please don't tell me you haven't done either…"
He didn't say anything.
Her eyes widened, "The next place we travel must have snow. And many clouds. You don't know what you're missing," she told him.
He chuckled at her enthusiasm, "It's a deal," he responded, "we will make snow angels and look at the clouds." This satisfied her.
"Now, favorite season?"
"Autumn. I like the colors," she continued, "favorite animal?"
"To look at or to eat?" Jasper replied.
"Either."
"Well I've only eaten deer, squirrels, rabbits, and once a bear since I've been with you," he answered, "so I guess…I enjoyed the bear the most."
"Why the bear?"
"It provided the most…and it was more challenging than the others."
She grinned, agreeing, "I like the challenges. Wait until you try the mountain lions. Or maybe one day we'll make it to Africa or something and try something really wild. Like a panther."
"Or a cheetah," he added.
"Or a rhino."
"I would love to see you hunting a rhino," he admitted with a smile.
"I would love to hunt a rhino, so I can probably promise you that you will see that one day," she said matter-of-factly, her voice tinkling.
He laughed. "My turn now."
She waited patiently, her gold eyes glowing, enjoying the surprise of the spur-of-the-moment questions they were coming up with.
"Okay…favorite flower?"
He felt her sigh, "I love all flowers. Carnations are fun, roses are romantic, but somehow a little sad, daisies seem happy…I don't know. I think they're all beautiful. No favorite. Or maybe they're all my favorite."
He accepted the answer with a nod, "Your turn."
She thought for a moment, and then he felt her cheerful emotions falter, becoming uneasy.
"You can ask me anything," he reminded her, wondering what could make her feel uncomfortable all of the sudden.
She hesitated, her uneasiness overlapping with burning curiosity.
His brow furrowed as he seriously wondered what she could be thinking to ask, but he didn't push her.
She paused for another moment before asking quietly, "Jasper…what does human blood taste like?"
He felt the venom pool in his throat at the thought of it.
He swallowed, asking, "You've…never tasted human blood? Not even in the beginning?"
"No…I saw you and then I saw Carlisle hunting with Esme, his mate. They were hunting animals, so I did too," she told him, still uneasy, her innocence apparent.
He suddenly turned to kiss her forehead and he felt some of her discomfort melt away. She smiled in response, but the curiosity was still there. "Human blood," he said, thinking for a moment, "well…I guess it tastes how it smells," he replied simply, swallowing more venom.
"It smells delicious," she admitted.
"It is," he said, "it's pleasantly warm and just slides down your throat, soothing the burn…for a moment, you don't feel that itch. The need is fulfilled. It's similar to drinking animal blood, only instead of the blandness, it's…well, it's as sweet as it smells. You feel…more than just satisfied. You enjoy it," he explained, knowing that if a human happened to be nearby at the moment, he wouldn't be able to resist.
"You didn't enjoy it though," Alice stated, recalling a conversation they had when they had first met.
He grimaced, "The blood tastes amazing. A thousand times better than animal blood. But feeling everything they feel as they're slowly dying as you drink…it becomes unbearable after a while."
"Do you think I would like their blood?" she asked him, all insecurities forgotten.
He thought hard about his answer before responding.
"We won't know unless you try it, but I would never want you to. It's probably easier to resist if you don't," he said finally, "but to directly answer you…I think you'd love the taste, but feel too much remorse after. You love just about everyone, humans included. You wouldn't like taking a life just because human blood tastes better than animal blood. And I don't think you'd enjoy hunting a human…only someone very apathetic or very sadistic can enjoy hunting humans." He wondered which he was--apathetic or sadistic.
She nodded, absorbing everything he said, appreciating his honesty and the fact that he knew her so well already.
They laid in silence for a few moments before she spoke again, "Your turn."
"My turn?"
"Your turn to ask me a question," she clarified.
He had almost forgotten that this had been part of a game. Jasper decided to just say what he was thinking, once again. He whole-heartedly loved how open he could be with her. She was what had been missing before.
"Am I the apathetic or sadistic?" he asked clearly, honestly wanting her to answer him. He couldn't decide.
"You don't hunt humans anymore, so you aren't either," she answered immediately.
"But I still have trouble resisting them," he admitted, "so which am I?"
He could feel her protectiveness of him coming out. She turned to look him in the eyes, gold now facing gold, "You aren't sadistic because if you were, all of the fear and pain and panic associated with death would make you crave their blood even more. You'd want to kill them, not just for the sustenance, but for the thrill of it. You enjoy the blood, but their emotions desperately depress you. So you're not sadistic."
He wondered why he was unable to see himself as clearly as she could see him.
She continued, determined, "And if you were apathetic, then you wouldn't enjoy killing, but you wouldn't not enjoy it either. It wouldn't matter to you, because they'd just be humans. But their pain gets to you. It effects you. It's not apathy if you feel something," she told him.
"If I'm neither, than what am I?" he questioned.
"Compassionate?" she tried.
"I don't think that that would be the right word to describe me…" he said slowly.
"I think it fits. You care enough about your prey that when it hurts, you hurt."
"I don't want to care about my prey though, I just do," he confessed, slightly ashamed.
"You do without even realizing it. That's deep compassion. And while we're speaking of it, I'm not apathetic or sadistic, either," she offered.
"You and I seem to be in the same boat," Jasper told her, "we drink animal blood because we feel too much remorse for killing humans," he stated.
She nodded next to him, "I think that makes us sort of remarkable."
He agreed, "We're definitely rare."
"Absolutely."
He ran his fingers over her eyebrows, admiring her beautiful gold eyes, "As long as we can be rare together, I don't mind being remarkable."
