The Twilight Twenty-Five

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Prompt: # 15

Pen Name: twilly | Pairing/Character(s): Edward/Bella | Rating: M | Word Count: 500

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The Night They Invented Champagne

"Change her back." Even at his relatively young age, his voice was wrought with the authority and demand that came partially from his birthright, but more from his own achievements within his privileged world.

"Edward," she chided. She wasn't born into his world, but the older woman had achievements of her own. He might not have known the full extent of her resume, but he knew enough.

"No, Marie! I don't know what you did to make her like this. I want Bella back," he roared, slamming his hand on the table like the spoiled brat we was when he was younger.

She remained, head held high, maintaining her composed mask. It was perhaps the hardest skill to teach her granddaughter. "I did exactly what you asked."

"You did not!" His hand hit the table again.

"You asked me to make her into a lady that would fit into your world. That is all I did."

"But she's not the same." The desolation in his voice almost cracked her mask.

"Of course she's different. I never wanted this life for her. But she fell in love with you, which as you know is the most dangerous thing that could happen to someone like her. She begged, and I gave in because I can't stand to see her unhappy. You said you'd make her happy."

"I asked you make her acceptable, not to turn her into an insipid whore without an original thought in her head."

Marie threw her head back and laughed. "Edward, don't play the part of a naïf. It doesn't suit you, and to be quite honest, you can't pull it off."

He had to look away from her. Of course, he knew, but he couldn't bear to think of Bella like that.

"Do you think your uncle ever asked me what I thought of anything? Or the others?"

He still couldn't look at her.

"What would your colleagues say if they saw her digging her bare toes into the dirt as she gardens?"

He knew that would never be acceptable. But neither was censoring Bella.

"Or when she sleeps outside so her sick dog doesn't have to be alone."

"I don't care," he replied quietly, realizing that he really didn't. He wanted the girl he fell in love with back.

Marie continued, "Or when she asks for hot cocoa rather than brandy? And when she plays with the marshmallows."

He was slightly irritated that her grandmother would continue to admonish some of Bella's most endearing traits. "I'd love it. I'd get her more marshmallows."

The clatter of a dropped mug came from behind the kitchen door.

Edward tilted his head, silently asking Marie if it might be Bella. She nodded.

Edward jumped from his chair and rushed through the door.

He didn't see the plastic, haughty Isabella who'd accompanied him to the club earlier.

It was his Bella, the perfectly imperfect girl he loved, sitting a stool, hugging her knees, with puffy red eyes and hot-chocolate-stained fingers.

Thank you for reading my attempt at Gigi crossover in five hundred words or less. (Actually, five hundred exactly.) I've wanted to read an updated Gigi with Edward and Bella for a really long time, and if anybody wants to really fic it, they will get will get my undying gratitude and unlimited sexual favors. js

GeekChic12 already gets unlimited sexual favors for all the fixing she does. I was going to name grandmother after her, but she's just too damn sexy.