I laughed as Carlisle rejected the fourth call from Alistair this morning. Dropping his phone onto the bed, he lay back down again, folding one arm over his face to block out the light. "Why are you avoiding him?" I asked.

"Because he's only going to-" It rang again, almost immediately, and he groaned, reluctantly answering it this time. "What?"

Chuckling at his harsh reply, I focused on the ceiling, half listening to their conversation, and half pretending I wasn't.

"'I'll be back in a few hours, Alistair,'" the voice down the phone mocked, imitating a British accent. I had to suppress my smile at how terrible it was; Carlisle's was very subtle anyway, so Alistair was only making himself look bad, really. "What's this overnight, shit?"

Too tired to process any kind of snappy comeback, it took him a minuet to answer. "I don't have a curfew," he grumbled instead, really just needing to go back to sleep.

"Listen, you, I like getting laid as much as the next guy, but I don't abandon my best friend on a Saturday night to play sleepovers with my boyfriend," he grumbled back.

"Abandoned, huh?" I teased quietly, grinning. Blowing my cover was worth the opportunity.

He playfully pushed my leg, rolling his eyes. "Don't guilt trip me; you leave me alone all the time, and you know it," he told him. Although he was smiling, his voice still didn't sound quite normal, and his flatmate immediately picked up on it.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just…tired." Only half the truth.

"Garrett's been keeping you up all night, huh?" His teasing was weary now, like he didn't believe him.

"More the other way around, I think," he mumbled, glancing over at me in silent apology.

I didn't think that Alistair was buying it, but he let it slide, proceeding to mock him relentlessly until Carlisle agreed to go home soon. I frowned at the thought of it, but I couldn't hold him hostage forever.

It had taken him the best part of a week to bounce back again, but by the following Friday, he was as bright as normal. When he'd invited me around that night, I'd assumed that we were spending some time in front of the TV, considering he's been in pretty damn sick less than a week before, but that was definitely not the case.

"Carlisle, where are we going?" I demanded for what seemed like the millionth time. We'd been sitting on a bus for the best part of three hours – although I'd slept through most of it, thank god. He'd dragged me out of bed at six in the morning, forced me to pack a hell of a lot of warm clothing, and then refused to tell me where we were headed. There was a suspicious amount of snow gear around me, so I could guess.

He laughed at me, shaking his head. "It's pretty. You'll like it, I promise."

I rolled my eyes at him, but I couldn't deny that I wasn't at least a little excited; surprise dates were the height of romance, right? I happened to glance out the window, just as we passed an arrow with 'parking for ski field' written on it in messy hand writing. "Are you taking me outside?" I asked, distastefully.

"Yep."

I pushed him lightly and he laughed. "I swear to god, if we get lost in the wilderness, I'm never speaking to you again."

"Don't be dramatic," he teased, undoing both of our seatbelts as the bus came to a stop. He was overly eager to get out, grinning as he jumped out into the snow.

I carefully eased myself to the ground, glad now that I'd listened to his instructions regarding footwear and jackets. Although the carpark was mostly clear of snow, the moment we were out of it we were wading through powder. Just as I'd got my footing, working out how to walk through knee-deep flour, a snowball hit my shoulder. I cringed as little bits of it dripped down the collar of my jacket and melted against my skin.

Somehow, Carlisle had managed to get a good ten feet away from me, grinning as he watched me brush it off myself.

"Did you bring me here just so you can through stuff at me?" I complained, narrowing my eyes at him as he collected another handful of snow and compacted it down.

"Fuck yeah, I did," he teased, tossing it at me.

This time I managed to raise my arm in time to break its impact, finding myself laughing before I could stop myself. I ran forward a few steps, quickly stopping when I realised I was going to fall to my death if I continued. Thankfully, he was nice enough to wait for me to gain some ground before subjecting me to another round of fire.

Most of the time, he managed to hit me – his aim was a hell of a lot better than mine – but the only time I ever managed to get him was when he stepped into them, taking pity of me. It was fun though, and we were both laughing and out of breath by the time he came to stand next to me again, taking my hand walking with me up the hill.

I was very out of breath by the time we got up there, but Carlisle wasn't even slightly red. Of course he wasn't. Of course he'd left the being gross and sweaty part to me. Still, letting him go ahead of me had it's benefits; he was ridiculously adorable this overexcited by frozen water. He seemed to forget I was even there in the first place, wandering over and sitting on the ground to overlook the ski fields.

That wasn't where he was focused though. To the left of where he was sitting was a dense area of forestry, but behind it was the town. We were high up enough to be able to see both clearly, and because the weather was so perfect, the sky was startlingly blue where it met the city in the distance.

He wrapped his arms around his legs, resting his chin on his knees as he looked out over it. Although only minutes ago he'd been practically skipping through the snow, he was subdued now.

Finally able to breathe again, I went over to him, sitting closely next to him so our legs were touching. "It's pretty," I murmured, seeing now why he wanted so badly to come up here.

"Yeah," he agreed quietly. There was a little bit of tension in his voice and when I glanced over, he didn't look as happy as he had a few minutes ago. I wondered if perhaps he was still feeling a little unwell from last weekend and the exertion had over done it a bit.

I nudged him with my shoulder. "You okay?"

Sighing and running his hand through his hair, he nodded. "Yep."

"You're a bad lair," I reminded him, smiling when he glanced over at me.

"It just…reminds me of home," he admitted.

I slid my arm around his waist to pull him up against me. "Is that a good thing?"

After hesitating for too long, he just shrugged. "…I don't know anymore…"

"You miss…?" I didn't know whether I should ask about his family. We were in a different point in our relationship now, but his reaction last time certainly hadn't been a good one.

"…I miss my home town, I guess…Running away felt so good at the time, but it didn't really solve anything and it makes me feel like crap whenever I think about it too long." He forced a laugh, mostly to calm himself, I thought.

I kissed his cheek and he leant his head against my shoulder. He hugged my arm when I reached for his hand, and we were quiet for a while, listening to the sound of the birds. Eventually, he changed the subject, and our normal conversations resumed.

"Is Alistair gay?" I asked suddenly. Why I was thinking about him, and not the view in front of me or the boy in my arms, I had no idea.

Carlisle laughed, glancing up at me. "Where did that come from?"

I shrugged. "Just curious."

"Well, yeah, I suppose he is." His hesitance to answer the question immediately spiked my interest.

"You 'suppose' he is?" I pressed. I tried to hide my smile as his cheeks flushed a little, and he avoided eye contact with me.

"…Ah…to be honest, I think he'd fuck anything that moved," he replied slowly, a little awkwardly.

Although I briefly tried not to ask, I couldn't help myself. "So, you, then?"

"Me, what?" he asked, stalling answering me.

That in it's self was an answer, and I was laughing, pushing him back into the snow and pinning his hands above his head. "More than flatmates, huh?" I teased.

"No!" He shook his head, a little more red now. "I mean…we never did anything romantic, it just kind of happened…in my defence, I'd had a lot to drink the first time…"

Bad move, Cullen. "The first time?" Seeing how worried he looked, I leant down to kiss him. "I'm only playing, Carlisle."

"You're not mad, right?" he asked carefully.

"I don't care what you did before we started dating," I laughed. "He just seems to…know you well, that's all." I thought about to all the snide comments Alistair had made in the past few months, laughing myself stupid when I realised they were more 'pointers' than mockery. He had Carlisle's reactions catalogued very well, much to my boyfriend's embarrassment and my amusement.

Carlisle cringed at my choice of words, and I kissed his cheek. "…it wasn't a regular occurrence, by the way. Only when he couldn't pick anyone up in town." Seeing my expression, he added: "Him. Not me. I'd be bathing in bleach for the rest of my life if I ever had a one night stand."

"What's Alistair then, if he wasn't a one night stand?"

"Ah…" He was honestly puzzled for a moment, and then pulled a face. "Friend's with benefits?" He obviously didn't like the realisation very much, which made it all the funnier to me. "I don't know, we live together."

I let him go, but my snickering continued for as I contemplated the real reason behind Alistair's humour.

He let me get away with it for a while, before shoving me gently. "Shut up. You're lucky you're a saint."

"More like a nun. They're sex-deprived, aren't they?"

Opening his mouth to make another comment, he closed it again, giggling to himself. The longer I let it slide, the worse he got, until he couldn't stand it anymore. "Aren't nuns sex-deprived by choice, Garrett?"

"Dickhead," I grumbled, biting back a smile. "But to be fair, it wasn't something I wanted until I met you."

"I'm not complaining. Theoretically, that makes me the best you've ever had," he teased, unable to help himself. He was trying to be arrogant, but couldn't quite pull it off.

"It also makes you the worst, by default," I pointed out. This got me pushed onto my back, Carlisle on top of me suddenly.

"Practice makes perfect, right?"

"Not in the snow, it doesn't," I grumbled, already feeling it start to melt and run down the back of my neck.

He laughed, and kissed me sweetly. "Definitely not in the snow."