"Come on, we're gonna be late," Edward called out to his sister.
"Be safe out there," Esme encouraged.
"Will do!" Alice agreed as she jogged down the stairs. She then directed to her brother and Bella, "Come on!"
Bella stole a peck from her and they piled into Edward's sedan, Alice taking the passenger seat, but hanging over it nearly the entire time.
"Can't you tell me anything?" she asked her.
"You'll just have to see."
"Is it a hidden lake?"
"Nope."
"Does Jake have a farm? Are there sheep?"
"No, he doesn't have a farm or any pets."
"Is it-"
"If I give you a hint will you stop asking questions?"
"Yes, please," Edward pleaded.
"Food."
Alice agreed to the terms so changed subjects. "I gave Edward some of those shirts you recommended."
"Oh yeah, what do you think of them?"
"Comfortable! I'm wearing one of them right now."
He pulled into Jacob's driveway where a few other cars were parked. Bella was the first out and peaked through the living room window.
"They must be in the garage." She led the way to the old building and greeted a group of young locals including Jacob and Leah. "This is Leah's little brother, Seth," she directed to an extremely young man who waved at them.
"That's Embry and Quil, the others are gonna meet us in the woods once their off work," Jacob explained. He got up from his crouched position in front of the bike and greeted his guests with hugs. "Glad you guys could make it, this is Alice and Edward, you already know this whitey."
Bella slapped him in the stomach and went to greet her other girlfriend with a quick peck on the cheek. She then sat on a stool so Leah could lay back between her legs. She beckoned Alice over who rested her head on Leah's shoulder. They were an odd yet obvious throuple as they joked around, periodically roping Embry or Seth into their conversations while Jacob worked diligently on the bike.
"So you're the one who's been stalking Jakey-boy," Quil ribbed the older man. "How'd you meet?"
"Remember that ho-kwat I told off the beach a month ago, this is him. Hasn't left my side since."
"Well, we still have our land, so you must be a good one," Embry joked at his expense.
"Be nice," Jacob politely corrected them. "He knows more about cars and bikes than you or Quil combined."
"So, what'd you come over here in?"
Edward proudly declared, "2006 Volvo S60 R."
"Damn, nice."
"What engine do you have?" Quil asked.
Embry laughed, "Like you know what they mean, but yeah which one do you have?"
"I have the T2-R turbo with a 6-Speed Aisin."
"You ever think about souping it up?"
"No, I'm not into that, like I know how to do it anyway."
"Well, now you got me," Jacob finally piped in. "Okay, I promise now, five more minutes then we'll head out."
"Fuck heading out, it's warm in here," Embry laughed.
Quil added, "Yeah, you know when Sam says eight he means nine, we got time."
"Alright, shit," Jacob chuckled.
"Hey, your little toy there," he gestured to Edward's necklace. "You get that from the internet or or us?"
"Oh, yes, I got it from a native person," he explained and played with the agate.
"Good, he knows," he approvingly nodded to his host.
"I wouldn't let him walk around with some cheap junk. He'd get jumped out here." Jacob reached out and fixed the necklace with a small tug. "Okay, I just need to do the kickstand. Embry, get the lumber."
"You really said that to not say wood," he jibed as he grabbed two piles and kicked the last one to signal to his other friend to follow suit.
"Leah, can you get the fire stuff from there?" he pointed to a cupboard. "Someone make sure to grab the table. You guys can start heading out, I'll catch up in a sec."
The others walked out of the run-down building but Edward lingered for a second in the doorway.
"I have a question for you."
"Fire away."
"Are you gay?"
Jacob hammered away at the kickstand to knock out the kink. While he feigned deep consideration of the question, he was really only buying himself some time if Edward gave up, but he only waited patiently. He figured that if he lost the others, he'd just follow Jacob to the spot.
"Yeah, is that a problem?"
"No. Me too."
Jacob nodded slightly as he wiped his hands clean. "Was that it?"
"... Can I kiss you before we go?"
Jacob rested his hands on his legs and looked up at the other man, still standing curiously at the entry. "Yeah."
He took his time getting up to make Edward approach him. It was a little awkward at first as both of them tried to gauge the situation, and even more so as questions flooded Edward's mind. Jacob was the first to make a move by hooking his hand around the back of his friend's neck and pulling him in so their lips connected.
Immediately in the close proximity, Edward couldn't help but inhale his harsh smell of grease and pines. He just wanted to bathe in it as they kissed. There was an overwhelming gentleness about how Jacob held him and with every moment together, Edward just wanted to melt into him.
In the soothing and heart-racing moment, didn't realize he'd been clenching his fists at his sides until he wanted to reach out to his partner. Edward relaxed his hands and took for his free one, his fingers gently stroking Jacob's until he held them in his grasp.
He felt the hand at the back of his neck slide to his jaw and stood a bit stronger as Jacob leaned against him. He was much more solid than his short frame seemed. They let the chaste moment linger between them and shifted their weight when they would briefly press against each other.
Besides the sound of their heaving breaths, Edward could hear their feet shuffle as both men tried to preserve the innocence of their actions before anyone could grow suspicious of their shared absence.
What felt like an endless eternity was probably only a minute before they parted. Jacob smiled up at him as he played with the hairs at the back of his head, combing his fingers contently through the feathery locks.
"Well, how long did that take you to ask?"
"I'm not going to tell you," Edward laughed. "Come on, let's go."
Jacob shouldered on his green jacket as they walked out into the darkness. He peered through the dense forest until he spotted a bright light in the distance where they heard music and loud voices of their friends. They exited the glades to find a large clearing where Leah and Embry bickered over the meager fire they had stoked.
Jacob joined his friends as they set up a table and began searching around for more wood in the forest. Edward joined his sister by the fire.
"You look a little flush," she commented.
"Quiet you." He picked up a stick and began poking at the embers.
Edward listened in on the various conversations and watched the men play fight and wrestle until a few people broke through the trees.
"Who got the new car?" an older man asked to grab the others' attention.
Immediately Embry went to tackle him so he put the pack he bought on the ground to brace himself. The other newcomers set food and drinks on the table, some partaking as soon as plates were set out, others being kind and greeting those who brought it. Leah tore herself from Bella to hug the women and one of the men who wasn't distracted by Embry's shenanigans.
"Who are they?" Edward asked Bella.
"Sam's the one who asked about your car. His wife is Emily, Leah's cousin… The one by the table is Jacob's sister - Rachel - and the last one is Kim. The other guys are Paul and Jared," she introduced. "They'll make their way over soon."
Edward stuck to the bonfire until the only other people he knew left to get more wood for the fire. During their absence, Sam approached him and took the spot on the log.
"Sam." he nodded.
"Edward," the other responded with an outreached hand.
"You friends with Jake?"
"Yeah, we kind of ran into each other and Jacob was nice enough to not kick me off La Push and into the next dimension."
"Very nice to bring you here."
"So how do you know him?"
"It's more that I know his sister and our dad's are friends. We sorta grew up together," he explained. "Everyone knows everyone out here."
"Makes sense, you all seem really close."
"Yeah, we watch out for one another."
As they blathered on about sports and local events, Edward couldn't help but feel like the older man was assessing him, his eyes looking up and down almost trying to size him up. Sam was almost unnaturally muscular compared to the others and was imposing in nearly every facet of his being. From Edward's initial reading of him, the other attendees regarded him in much higher standings than anyone else at the bonfire.
"So, the necklace, who got it for you?"
"Oh," Edward clasped his hand over his chest to hold onto his totem. "Uh… Jacob got it for me. He joked that it would prevent me from getting jumped while we hung out."
He wasn't sure if it was how he said it or if it was more about who gifted it to him, but Sam's demeanor instantly shifted from caution to off-put irritation.
"Oh, I see."
Before Edward could say anything to soothe the situation, Sam excused himself and meandered over to the men who came along with him. It was painfully obvious though, that he was talking about the newcomer at the way they all looked at him across the clearing.
Before he could get too wrapped up in the way he was being perceived by the others, Jacob loudly jogged to him. The sound of crunching pine cones and twigs pulled his attention back to the bonfire.
"Whatcha doing by your lonesome?"
Edward shrugged.
"Come on before you freeze your ass off."
They sat with the much friendlier crowd by the bonfire where Rachel and Leah danced. The latter of the two tried to goad her partners into joining her by performing a mix of her old style shawl steps near them. Jacob followed suit with old style grass dance steps before switching to western dancing.
"Remember when I won silver in jingle-dress?" Rachel bragged as she showed off her moves.
"Yeah, I also remember when you and Paul were the first ones out of the Sweetheart dance."
"Well, that wasn't exactly my fault," she explained.
"What were the moves again?" Leah asked as she tried to copy her steps.
She struggled to follow along as Rachel performed her spins and they finally broke apart with a few laughs. Leah eventually just pulled Bella up from her seat where they did a few simple steps that they repeated until Jacob cut in and took the lead. Leah mocked his grass dance steps with her own while she held a beer in her hand before stepping back to watch them.
"Wait, I'm sweating," he huffed and pulled off his jacket before jumping back in.
Rachel took Edward's hand and tried showing him a few simple moves if he wanted to dance, too. At some point, Jacob began to show off as well before dramatically sitting on one of the logs to watch his sister teach the older Cullen sibling.
"Stay light on your feet, you don't move," she politely pointed out. Rachel took small steps with every hop and added a few flourishing twirls.
"My calves are burning," Edward laughed, "I have to sit. Thank you for the lesson."
Rachel nodded and playfully bounded toward Paul who wrapped her in a tight embrace.
"Not bad," Jacob shrugged.
"Not bad, yeah right," he took a swig of the other man's drink and laid flat on the log. "That's so tiring."
"Still wasn't all that bad." He kept a bit of distance but still played with the medallion around his neck. "It was fun to watch. Thanks for humoring Rach."
"I had fun. She's really nice."
"Yeah, I think she's learned a thing or two off of La Push that the boys just don't understand."
"Oh, you're talking about me?"
"Not everything's about you," he light-heartedly undercut him with a grin. "But they tolerate you better than I thought."
"Good."
Edward sat back up and played with the fire again, burning the tip of a branch until it held a bright ember at the end. He watched the party from his seat, the men playing and talking while the women grabbed something to eat. From the distance, his sister and Bella emerged from the glades with more firewood which they stacked by the bonfire.
Edward excused himself and approached Alice. "Hey, are you ready to head out soon?"
"Not really, why?"
"I don't want to overstay my welcome and I think time's running out," he gestured to the necklace. "Sam's not exactly happy about this whole thing."
"Just stay a little longer, okay, we'll leave in a half-hour."
"Okay."
Edward meandered back to his friend's side. "Hey."
"You're not leaving already, are you?"
"Not yet, no."
"Cool, come on," he beckoned.
Without a second thought, Edward did as he was told and followed him back to the house. As they hit the treeline, Paul jogged into view.
"Hey, can I tag along?" he told them rather than asked.
"What?"
Paul nodded, "?í•." He began speaking a different language to Jacob.
As they spoke, both indigenous men looked between each other or toward their friends deeper in the clearing.
"Okay, stop. Edward doesn't know what we're saying, so if you wanna talk shit about him, say it in English."
"Kinda what he means."
"Don't be a fucking dick," Jacob retorted.
Paul stepped at him but the other didn't budge at the affront. In an instant, the others began swarming toward them. Rachel dragged her partner away and Leah was asking Jacob a few questions. Edward watched as Sam glared at them from the table.
He felt Alice drag him into the woods while Jacob spoke angrily with his friends. Edward took a few stumbling steps backward before turning around as they found their way back to the distant glow of the house.
"What the hell was that?"
"I don't know, something about me, I think or maybe Sam? I don't know. They weren't speaking English entirely."
"Wait!" they heard Jacob call to them.
"I'll be there in a little." Edward handed his keys over to Alice as their host jogged over. Once his sister had disappeared around the front, he turned back to Jacob. "Hey, I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to make your friends uncomfortable."
"No, they were dicks, you're my friend too, they should step off. I just… I think your dad was right. You shouldn't be out here anymore. It's just not safe for you."
"What? No, I still want to see you?"
"Sam and those guys are Tribal Police."
"What, are they homophobic or something?"
"No, just protective of the land and people, like all of us. Just - for you and your sister, it'd be better if you just stayed away. If Sam tries to charge you with something, you'd probably end up in front of the Council and that'd be worse. Just… I'm glad I met you and I'm sorry about all of this."
They silently stared at each other. Edward tried so hard to read the other man's face in the low moonlight. He looked broken but something lingered underneath that he could not crack and as they waited each other out, Jacob's words suddenly sank in. He finally released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding and turned tail to his car.
"Are you okay?" his sister finally asked as they made their way out of La Push.
He shook his head and turned up the radio where some DJ was playing experimental rock. They took the pitch black roads back home and when they finally arrived, Edward silently turned in, not caring about the reek of ash and charcoal on his skin.
He pulled out his phone and texted Jacob, "Are you free to come to Forks sometime?"