2lazy2login: Whelp, here you go haha

Kuro Furasshu: Don't forget the candy

Standing there, his dead black eyes pouring over me, my visitor waited perfectly motionless in the center of the hall.

He was the best thing I'd seen in a long time.

"Archie?" I breathed, standing just as still as him - but not for long. I launched myself, using all of my speed to slam into him. I let out a cheery laugh as I did, causing him to stumble back a couple of steps. He was barely able to catch me, and had even more trouble staying upright.

Not that he needed too, I kept my feet firmly planted to the ground, and I made sure he didn't fall.

I threw my arms around him, hugging him desperately - it felt like I'd been a survivor stranded on an island, and he was the first one to greet me when I got home. It was amazing!

And he felt weirdly warm. All of my memories told me that he was a solid block of ice every time I touched him, but now he felt strangely nice. I hadn't even thought of what it would be like to interact with other vampires. I didn't consider that we'd feel… normal? To one another at least.

When I pulled back, I kept a hand on his shoulder, grinning like an idiot, as I looked him in the eye.

"Beau." He said with a choked voice, like he was trying to hack up the word. His arms were tight to his sides as he kept looking at me, from my head to my feet and back up again.

"What are you doing here man?" I asked him, feeling giddy. A part of my old world was standing right in front of me, beneath my grip. It was real, it was solid.

It was silent.

"Archie?" I asked with a wide grin, looking at him with a slightly confused face. "You okay?"

He kept the silence up, not saying a thing, even as I shook him a tiny bit. It was unnerving. I've seen vampires go still before of course, myself included - but the way he was looking, it was like I was gazing at an actual corpse.

"Archie." I said with concern this time, putting my other hand on his other shoulder.

Finally, I got a response. "Beau." He croaked, looking me in the eye. "What happened to you?" He asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" I asked dumbly, blinking a couple of times.

He didn't answer. I blinked again.

"Oh!" I said, looking down at myself, and then back up to him. "Right. Well, I died." I said with a shrug. It was strangely normal to think of it by this point, because I've just had to deal with it.

Was it weird that I'd gotten so used to it in only what amounted to a week's worth of time? That I could coherently remember at least.

His frozen expression of shock slowly melted into a grim one. It was the same look he had when we were running from Joss back then, when he had to call his family, and tell them his visions. When he saw me die the first time - he had to be the bearer of bad news.

All of which was an unpleasant reminder, but I couldn't care less right now.

"You died." He whispered.

"Well, I mean, obviously I'm not dead dead." I said, my stupid grin still on my face as I finally let my hands off of him, taking two steps back. I gestured to myself, standing a bit straighter. "I'm… one of you."

He was silent again.

It was actually starting to annoy me that he was doing that. Here he was, coming back after almost half a year, and he's not even talking. Obviously, this was a little bit of a shock, but it wasn't the end of the world. Not for him at least.

"How?" He finally asked.

I rubbed the back of my head, and leaned back on the balls of my feet. "Well, I got bit," I said with a strained chuckle.

He was silent again - then slowly, he started shaking his head, his hand dragging down his face as he looked at me. This time with horror… actual horror.

It was a look that made me feel cold, like I was an animal or something. I shuffled there, uncomfortable under his scrutiny, just letting him process I guess. I was worried that if I said something, he'd decide that this was all too much trouble and just go home.

That was an idea that made me feel even colder.

"Do you wanna sit down?" I asked, backing up a couple of steps towards the couch, smoothly dodging the edge of an end table, as I pointed a thumb over my shoulder at it. He just stood there, still as a statue. "We can talk about what's been going on with each other lately."

That got him moving, if only slightly, he started walking stiffly after me. I did not like how my usually exuberant friend was acting so distant. The thought made me flinch. It was a bit too close to what my angel had done to me in those last few days.

I hopped over the back of the couch and tried my best to smile at him. He just walked around and sat down all normal like.

He was going to say something, but I wanted to try and get him off topic of me being a vampire. So I asked, "Okay, so what are you doing here Archie? Did Carine send you or something?"

"What?" He asked like he was in a daze. I contemplated slapping him - maybe that would get him out of his shock, but again, I didn't want him to leave yet, so hitting him probably wouldn't be the best idea. "No… No! I saw you run into a burning building!" He said, suddenly pointing an accusing finger at me.

"Oh. That." I said, giving him an apologetic smile. So, he saw me in a vision - saw me run into the fire. Got it. I suppose he thought I died for real.

I almost wanted to laugh. I guess he didn't see the other thing.

"The roof caved in on top of you!" He continued, like he was only just remembering it all. "I saw you die! Do you have any idea how stupid that was? Do you know what that would have done to Charlie? Or my sister? You could have…" Trailing off as he realized that wasn't in fact true.

"I couldn't do nothing Archie." I said with a sigh. "There were people in there. They were going to die."

He just shook his head again, leaning back against the cushions as he stared up at the ceiling. "I told her something like this would happen. I told her. But she goes thinking that you'll be all safe and happy. 'He promised'" His voice imitated her so well that it made me cringe. "She actually banned me from following your future, so we wouldn't be tempted to come and interfere anymore" He continued, looking at me as he complained. "Saying that 'We've done enough damage," but just because I'm not looking, doesn't mean I don't see. It just hit me. I was hanging out with Jessamine, just sitting there and wham! I see you, running through fire! And then you've got an entire guy on your shoulders and a kid in your arms! And then the roof caved in on all of you! I knew I could never get there in time, but I couldn't just do nothing, especially not when it was my best friend who was gonna burn to death! I thought maybe I could come back and help Charlie through everything -"

I cut him off then, putting a hand on his shoulder again as I smiled at him.

"Thank you." I said simply. I missed him so much, and this was why. My best friend came back to help out with Charlie, to help him, because he thought I was gone.

His eyes were still a bit frantic as he looked at me. But he nodded his head. "Yeah, of course." He mumbled.

We both sat in silence this time. I sat leaned back on the couch, smiling as I looked at him. It was honestly like one of my hallucinations - though it couldn't compare to my angel obviously, but seeing Archie sitting here was something I thought I'd never see again.

"So," I said, breaking the silence after a minute - I didn't want to wait too long to hear what my old world had been doing. "What have you been up to lately?"

It was obvious that this wasn't what he wanted to talk about. I could see it in his eyes, he was trying to solve the puzzle of what had happened. How did I change? Who did it?

It made me grin a little bit. I could see why my angel had always been so mysterious, it was fun to keep people guessing.

Of course, I wasn't going to leave him hanging for very long - I wasn't mean, but I didn't want to talk about it. I've barely had any time at all to really think about it myself. I'd only been a vampire for a couple of days, and I think one of the things that was keeping me from collapsing into a bundle of nerves was the fact that I didn't have the time to process what's been going on. I guess that's why it felt so normal.

And besides that - I just didn't want to relive the pain. I didn't want to think of the tortuous turning that I had to go through alone. I didn't want to think about how fragile the alliance with the wolves was. I didn't want to think about the fact that after I'm done talking, Archie would have to go home. Back to my angel and their family.

Leaving me alone again.

So why not delay the inevitable for a little while? Enjoy and pretend that I had my old life back for a bit. That my angel wasn't gone, but simply out hunting, or waiting for me to wake up in the morning. That Archie was just here to hang out, like we used to.

Speaking off, he was silent again. Sitting there and staring at me as he tried to figure things out. I decided this time to just let him, it wasn't something that I could avoid talking about, but hopefully it would take him a while.

We sat in silence for about two minutes - if you could count that as a while, before he said something. "Who turned you?" He asked quietly, his voice made of steel.

"Lauren." I said without interest. "Where have you been?" I shot back with a tiny smile.

"Lauren?" He hissed, ignoring my question.

"Yup." I said, nodding my head. It was obvious that I wasn't going to be able to weasel my way out of explaining.

"Tell me everything." He demanded, sitting up straight, glaring at me as though I went and chose this. I had to resist snorting - he probably did think I went out and asked to be changed.

"Well… I was living." I said with a mirthful grin. I wasn't even close to living in my last days as a human - and certainly not now that I was a vampire. Not when I knew for sure that now my angel didn't find me… interesting.

That still hurt like hell. It was like fire running through me, just like when I'd turned. But I think that the pain of losing her was so much worse, and I was going to live with that for the rest of eternity.

As usual, I tried not to think about it, and instead focused on making this story as short as possible. He still hasn't told me anything about the rest of his family, and I was dying with curiosity on what they'd been up to.

"Just going about my days as usual, going to school, going to work… and just trying to have fun." I laughed, running a hand through my hair. "I went hiking one day, just kinda exploring the woods, and I bumped into Lauren."

He sat frozen, his jaw set firm as he let me continue. "Apparently, she was here scouting for Victor. They've been hunting me for the past couple of months… he wants revenge for Joss."

I could hear the tiniest growl coming from Archie, deep within his chest, but he was obviously trying to stay quiet. "And she didn't kill you?" He asked, glaring a hole into the wall behind me.

I sat for a couple of seconds. I wish she had. "No. She couldn't finish the job."

His eyes turned sharply to me. "How come?"

I was silent for another second. Was this a secret, or not? And if it was, then who was my loyalty too? Jules or Archie?

It was annoying keeping secrets. I'd already offered to be the wolves informant on all things vampire. Why couldn't I do the same for Archie?

"I was saved." I said with a small grin as I thought about my best friend… best female friend. Archie didn't say anything, his eyebrow quirked up, and waiting for me to explain how the heck I was saved from a vampire.

"Well," I said slowly, tilting my head to the side as I looked at my hand, flexing it slightly as a way to not look him in the eye. "A friend of mine - and a bunch of her friends came and uh… killed her."

He blinked twice. "They killed her?"

I pursed my lips, and nodded. "She's… sorta a werewolf. The Quileutes turn into wolves when there are vampires around. They've known Carine for a long time. Were you with Carine back then?"

Archie gawked at me for a moment, but quickly recovered, blinking fast. "Well I guess that explains the smell," He muttered, leaning away a bit.

"Tell me about it." I said with a small laugh.

"That doesn't explain how I didn't see any of this." He frowned, his forehead creasing as he thought hard.

"Werewolves." He said softly, sighing. "You sure?"

"Very sure," I promised, frowning as I remembered Jules fighting with Paula. "I guess you weren't with Carine the last time there were werewolves here in Forks?"

"No. I hadn't found her yet." Archie was still lost in thought - till something suddenly seemingly occurred to him. His eyes widened, and she turned to stare at me with a shocked expression. "Your best friend is a werewolf?"

I nodded sheepishly.

"How long has this been going on?"

"Not long," I said with a shrug. "She's only been a wolf for a couple of weeks… and I didn't know until after I turned."

He glowered at me "A young werewolf? Even worse! Edyth was right -"

I quickly cut him off, flinching hard as he said my angel's name. "No. There's nothing wrong with werewolves," I said with a little heat. I had to resist letting out a hiss. It was so much harder controlling my emotions since I turned, almost harder than the whole blood drinking thing.

Archie tensed a little, obviously sensing that I was pissed. Or he thought I was. I calmed down in less than a second, shaking my head as I looked out the window.

We were both silent for a minute.

"Beau," he said softly. I looked back over at him, my eyes downcast. "Has…" He started to say, but quickly grunted. "You haven't had anyone help you through this." He said, his voice laced with regret as he spoke the truth. I didn't say anything.

"We let this happen." He whispered, putting his face in his hands and his elbows on his knees as he hunched over. I instantly sat up, reaching a hand out to comfort him, but he started talking again, cutting me off from the action.

"I mean, I knew it was a possibility at one point. And believe me," He said, sitting up as well quickly, his eyes pleading. "I've wanted you to be a part of the family since the start, but not… not like this." He gestured to me, his voice weighed down with guilt.

And if that didn't hurt like a son of a crow. If he came back here just to tell me again that I wasn't wanted by his family, then I don't know what I would do.

I shook my head fast, and I snapped at him with steel in my voice. "Stop it."

Instantly he froze, looking at me with a little shock. I don't think I'd ever spoken to him like that - but this sucked. It hurt imagining that they all actually cared. Or that if they did… on some level, that they would feel bad about what happened to me.

"This isn't your fault. It's none of their fault… you all have lives, you have each other." I said, letting my voice drop with sorrow. "Your family didn't want me."

He was about to say something, but I didn't let him. "And. That's. Ok." I said looking him in the eye, even as it burned every inch of my unbeating heart. "It's ok." I repeated… trying to convince myself this time.

I looked down at the floor. "Because," I continued, clearing my throat unnecessarily. "That means, I am not your responsibility. None of you have to come and rescue me every time I trip, or a vampire attacks, or there's a fire." I say waving my hand at each of the few things I've had to deal with. None of which was a major concern for me now, besides Victor. "The only one I imagine that would have any sort of reason to need to explain things to me would be Lauren - but that's never gonna happen."

He looked progressively more and more pissed off as I talked, and was looking for a way to cut me off, but I just kept talking. "She's dead by the way." I threw out casually.

I leaned back into the couch, and finished, saying. "I'm not a part of the Cullen clan." I said with a sad laugh, shrugging. "So… it's ok Archie. None of you need to help me."

After a second, I also said quickly, "But I wouldn't mind asking a few questions before… before you head home."

I did have about a hundred questions. Hopefully he'd humor a couple of them.

"You…" Archie breathed. I looked back up at him. He was boiling, his hands clenched hard at his sides.

"I told her." He growled. I knew immediately who he was talking about. "I told her that you-"

"It's not her fault Archie." I whispered.

"The hell it isn't!" He snapped, standing up. "I told her! I told her! I told her!" He yelled, and started pacing back and forth. "I told her that you wouldn't be safe! I told her that you wouldn't be ok!"

I stood up as well. This was not how I wanted this to go. "Archie. It's not her fault." I repeated.

He just continued on. "Now what happened? Oh? He died! Guess who told her that! Me! He got turned! By himself! My best friend died! And of course he thinks he's alone in it all! He was alone the whole time! He went and changed without any of us even knowing, and he thought that we wouldn't care!"

I… I knew that if I was human, I'd be crying. This hurt. I imagine that they would care on some level, but not for me personally.

Carine and Earnest… they were kind people. They would care in the same way you heard of a terrible accident on the news. It sucked, but you didn't know anyone involved.

Royal and Eleanor. Well Royal was probably happy that I was out of the picture, and Eleanor was as I would imagine, enjoying her life.

Jessamine never really knew me very well. Out of all of them, she was probably just indifferent to me.

The only other one… besides my angel… was standing right in front of me.

"Archie," I whispered while he took a breath to rant some more. "It's ok." I repeated - it was really the only thing I could say. It was ok, as long as my angel was ok.

She was fine, hopefully happy with her distractions, and not weighed down by me. So it was ok.

"NO!" He finally yelled. "No this is not okay! Beau…" He said firmly, trying to hold his growling back, and failing miserably as he kept pacing.

"Screw this!" He finally hissed, pulling out his phone. Blazingly fast, he started dialing on his phone, and the next second he had it up to his ear.

But I was faster. I felt my breath leave me.

I knew who he was calling. My vampiric mind quickly figured out that that call would be to his family, and… I don't think I could handle it.

I was by his side in a second, and my hand was on his, "Please… don't." I choked out. I couldn't handle it… not again. He would call them, and they would come back. She'd come back.

Then when they saw me… when she saw me. She'd leave again.

I really would be putting my life in danger if I did that, because I wouldn't want to continue existing. If she saw me as I was now… boring… uninteresting.

Nothing to her.

I couldn't do it.

"Please," I said, not able to look him in the eye. Vaguely I registered that he'd already clicked to cancel the call… but I was shaking all over, unable to do anything but try and keep myself from breaking down in front of him. "Archie. Please." I whimpered, letting my hands fall to my sides as I stood there, my eyes shut tight as I tried to block this all out.

"All right,"he said quietly, enunciating each word with slow precision. "I won't. Take a breath."

I tried to obey, forcing my eyes to look up at him as I breathed hard. His eyes were wide as he watched my face. He waited till I was calmer to say anything.

"You look like hell Beau."

"I was in a burning building." I shakily joked, barely managing to pull myself back together.

"It goes deeper than that. You're a mess."

I flinched hard. That wasn't helping. "Look, I'm trying my best here."

He paused for a second. "What do you mean?"

"This hasn't been exactly easy Archie. I'm working on it."

He nodded. Slowly, he put a hand on my shoulder. "I know."

He patted me once, and then took a breath for himself. "Ok, now, I want you to start from the beginning. Tell me everything." He said, guiding me back to the couch, obviously eager to move on from any newborn freak out I might have, continuing on with the conversation.

We both sat down, and he looked at me with such an intense expression that it almost made me nervous.

I told him everything. Every little detail that seemed important. Of course though, I left out the bit about the motorcycles, the fragile relationship I have with Jules… and the voices in my head. But I explained how I ended up becoming friends with a pack of werewolves, how they saved me from the very brink of death. How I turned. How I've been trying to secure a treaty with them for the past two days. I ended by telling him that my moms in town, and that she will be here with Charlie soon.

He listened to it all with rapt attention, not interrupting a single time as I told him my story. His lips were pulled back into an expression that was nowhere near a smile.

"We… we really shouldn't have left." He said with a hollow laugh. "It didn't do you a single bit of good."

I just sighed, closing my eyes as I tried to rest. "Sometimes doing what's best for yourself means doing something wrong to someone else. That's just how it goes."

The phone rang.

"That's probably Charlie," I said, swinging onto my feet. I walked away from his pitying look.

"Charlie?" I answered the phone. I could hear Archie walking up, leaning against the door frame as he watched me talk.

"No, it's me," Jules whispered.

"Jules!" I said, a happy smile spreading along my face as I finally heard my safe harbor's voice.

I could feel the tension in Archie's shoulders. With a glance I could see him staring at me with curiosity… and a bit of worry? I decided not to think about it.

"Just making sure you were still alive," she said bluntly.

"I'm fine. I told you that it wasn't-"

"Yeah. I got it. Bye."

She hung up on me.

That crappy feeling came back fast. I was still a jerk. I limply hung the phone back on the wall. I stood silent for a second.

"Dammnit," I growled. I shook my head, turning back to Archie who was looking at me with wide eyes. I don't think I'd ever cussed in front of him, or anyone actually - but it felt like the situation called for it.

"They aren't too excited that I'm here." He whispered, pursing his lips.

"No. But it's none of their business."

Archie shrugged, "So what do we do now?" He mused. He seemed to be talking to himself for a moment. "Things to do. Loose end to tie up… explanations to be had." He said, eyeing me up and down again, as if he were trying to figure out exactly what I was.

"What do you mean? What things to do?"

His face was suddenly a mask of careful. "I don't know for sure… I need to see Carine."

I felt my stomach drop. Was he going to leave so soon? I hadn't even gotten to ask how to be a vampire for pete's sake! Was I doing anything right?

And of all the Cullens… he was the only one I could really believe still cared about me.

Archie was the only one.

"Could you - uh stay… please? For just a little while. I - I'd like to ask some things before you head out." I begged, my voice cracking as I looked at my feet.

He was silent again. I felt scared, and I held my breath. I wasn't ready to hear that someone of my world was going to leave me again, but I wasn't going to stop him.

"Yeah man. Of course." He said softly. I looked up at him with relief, smiling.

"Thank you."

"First though, I need to hunt… like badly." He said in a strained voice - but then his look turned thoughtful. "I guess… Do you wanna come with me?"

He let a small grin slowly spread along his lips. "I can explain how everything works. Teach you a little. Even if you are some kind of prodigy."

I nodded excited, and was about to say as much, but he interrupted. "I honestly don't have a clue on how you… Jess is going to be so jealous of you." He laughed, walking past me and out the back door. I was on his heels, breathing harder as I thought about that.

He was talking about how I've been able to resist human blood. When I told him the explanation of everything… he almost couldn't believe it.

"What? Why would you tell her?" I asked, taking my hoodie off, and casually tossing it back into the living room, on the couch before I shut the door.

"Why wouldn't I?" He shot back, without even glancing at me. I didn't want to hurt any of his family any more than I already have, and if this made Jessamine feel crappy, then I'd rather she didn't know.

I didn't even want to think of my angel's reaction when she saw me in Archie's mind. It was like someone stabbing me in the chest. And I wasn't even thinking about it, just the thought of thinking of it.

"It's not like she'll appreciate it." I muttered, quickly catching up to him, walking by his side as we got into the woods. "Archie, I don't want to make her feel bad."

He just rolled his eyes, waving me off. "My Jess has some pretty thick skin Beau. She'd be more upset with me keeping it a secret."

"Seriously. I don't -" I tried to continue, but he quickly ran forward, becoming what would be a blur for any normal human.

I guess it was time to hunt. I followed after him.

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