A few weeks after their arrival, things had started to settle in the house. Rose was a little friendlier to Alice which was a positive sign she wasn't Alice's best friend yet and definitely not sisters yet, but things were progressing nicely. Jasper still stayed at Alice's side for the most part but even he was calming down a bit. We were still cautious of each other, but he was starting to drop his guard a bit and allowed me to profile him.
The one who was not settling in with this was the one I should've expected but did not, Edward. I have never seen my brother so on edge before and it was only towards Jasper. He was relentless, hovering around Alice and Jasper like Dracula to Mina and Lucy.
Carlisle had warned him to back off so had Esme, I had given him plenty of warnings that he was pushing Jasper's patience, but all of our warnings feel on deaf ears.
I knew there was a limit to Jasper's patience so when it finally hit a breaking point I wasn't surprised.
Esme, Rose, and Alice had gone out for a girl's day. I had been invited under the premise of it being a nice family outing. But I quickly profiled the true intent, shopping. Anytime her or Rosalie go shopping I tend to hide, they can get frightening and have a habit of trying to buy me new clothes. The words fashion, shopping, new, and Chris, especially all thrown together in the same sentence and repeated by my sister or Esme are always cause for alarm in my mind.
Carlisle had the wireless tuned into a music station playing soft Beethoven music for about thirty seconds, trying to concentrate on the medical journal in his lap. Emmett however seized the opportunity and changed the station to a baseball game
I was content to sit off in the corner of the living room with my wooden chess set and play against myself. Edward cheats so I try not to play against him and Emmett thinks I cheat so getting him to play with me is difficult.
I was considering asking Carlisle who is the only one I enjoy playing against, but he looked distracted enough, between his medical journal and pondering if Jasper had snuck out to follow Alice, Rose, and Esme into town.
Edward confirmed that he hadn't, but I know Carlisle was still nervous and therefore wouldn't make a good chess opponent. When he's focused on the game my father is an excellent opponent, but he's never a challenge when he's distracted and I didn't want an easy win. I wanted a fast paced game that I may lose. If I played against my father now, I would have to keep letting him know it was his move.
A knock at the door caught my attention, I looked at Carlisle, silently asking him if was expecting anyone, an odd thought considering Jasper. I walked over to the front door and opened it. Standing on the porch was a deliveryman holding a large package.
"I have a delivery for a Mr. Christian Cullen."
I raised an eyebrow and looked back into the house, Carlisle joined me at the door, after glancing up the stairs to where Jasper was.
"Um, that's me." I replied
"Sign here please." The deliveryman said handing me a clipboard. As I signed for it, he handed the larger package to Carlisle and put a smaller one o top. "Have a pleasant day." And with that the deliveryman headed back to his truck.
Carlisle and I exchanged a look before looking down at the package in his hands, the handwritten address was to me written in eloquent penmanship. Carlisle seemed to recognize the handwriting but handed the smaller one to me as we walked back into the house. I ripped it open and stared at the contents, it was a very old well polished wooden box and inside the box were chess pieces, ivory and onyx pieces, so perfect in design they were certainly one of a kind.
I stared at them then looked quickly at Carlisle, both of us recognizing the pieces. They were truly one of a kind and I had only seen the set once before…
In Italy
Following in suit Carlisle gently opened the larger package, neither of us were surprised at this point to see the beautiful marble board that accompanied the pieces the last time I had seen it. When I had been sure I would be forced to stay in Italy with the Volturi…with Jane.
"Carlisle, this is Aro's chess set…why would he send it to me?" I asked
"Chris, there is a note here." Carlisle replied handing me a simple piece of, very old parchment paper.
"My dear Christian." It started I shuddered, I certainly did not like how it was starting out. "I apologize for the delay in you receiving this, I wanted to make sure everything was in order before hand." I looked up at Carlisle, "everything was in order?" I asked Carlisle shrugged and nodded for me to keep reading "I know you will enjoy the set as much as I have, you have an eye for magnificent and beautiful things and your admiration of the set was quite obvious, I do know you tried to be polite and hide that. I know you will take excellent care of the set. Till we meet again young chess master, Aro." I looked up at Carlisle who seemed as confused as I felt. Edward and Em looked up at us and exchanged a look.
"Nice set," Em exclaimed turning away from the wireless for a brief second, completely oblivious to the concern I had at Aro's random gift. Edward was more concerned, but his focus was elsewhere.
"Should I be worried 'bout this Carlisle?" I asked softly
"No, I think we are fine. I believe Aro is sincere about this as a gift. It was somewhat obvious that you admired the set Chris, even I noticed it. I don't need to tell you this, but be sure to write a thank you note and I will send it out." I nodded,
"I will,"
"Why don't you go set it up over at your chess table. We'll figure out a more permanent location for them shortly."
"Do you want to play?" I asked, Carlisle smiled and ruffled my hair
"Maybe later, there are a number of articles in the journals I would like to study a bit closer." I nodded and put both the board and the wooden box on my table, I was itching to play, I remembered how perfect the pieces had felt in my hand, despite how frightened I was standing in the chamber surrounded by the Volturi and their guards. I looked at Em, silently begging him to play with me. He rolled his eyes and shook his head at me, he was to busy with his baseball game.
Then a thought crossed my mind, I had promised myself I would give Jasper a chance, mainly I had made a silent promise to Esme, Carlisle, even Alice. Maybe this was the opportunity to take the first step. The moment the idea crossed my mind, Edward looked up from his piano, glaring at me and shaking his head angrily, warning me not to do what I intended to do. Of course I ignored him as I headed towards the stairs.
Carlisle looked up and smiled gratefully as he realized what I was doing and nodded, silently thanking me.
A/N: I am so sorry that it took me so long to update this, I know I promised Sunday then promised Monday and now here it is Wed. night and I'm updating, so I'm very sorry, to make up for it, you guys will be getting three updates, mainly because this chapter was so long I had to divide it into three parts. So you will get three updates on this tonight. The chapters coming up, a friend made some suggestions on how to go with it, because the original idea did not go as smooth as I hope this one came out. Hope you guys enjoy!
