Bloom
AN: Finally an update! I know, sorry =)
Ruthless, stubbornly loyal, gorgeous; all these words had been used to describe Rosalie Hale throughout her lifetime. Of course, Rosalie has many defining qualities but she liked to think that at her core, these three truths held firm and were at the root of all her actions. She was simply gorgeous, denying it would be like a fish denying its need for water to survive. Being beautiful had shaped her existence more than anything else, it warped her worldview as a human and ultimately had been her death warrant as a double edged sword.
Her ruthlessness was something that came with her new life, something born of hate and revenge, but it served her well even now. Simply put, Rosalie doesn't take anyone's shit. She says what she means and means what she says. Her morals are absolute, she viewed herself as an absolute. Feelings weren't something considered when she spoke, or acted. If it needed to be done, Rosalie did it. It was why even though Emmett was the strongest in the family, Rosalie was the protector.
Her family had shown her true loyalty, true understanding. They had fought hard to become a cohesive unit, to find happiness, and Rosalie would destroy anything to protect that. What she would not do was give up their safety for her own selfish happiness because being vain and selfish was only ever something Rosalie projected, not something that truly resonated within her heart no matter how dead it was.
Thinking on it, she supposed these were the reasons it had taken her so long to dare reach out and touch the blinding grace that is Bella Swan. Bella's illuminating light had been clear in Rosalie's mind from the very first moment she'd seen Bella and it was a temptation Rosalie had all too willingly pushed aside in favor of fear; but that was over now and how could it not be when Bella looked at Rosalie with those intoxicating brown eyes?
Rosalie is stubborn, luckily it only made her decision all the more resolute. So when Saturday morning came she announced her entrance to the living room with a soft clearing of her throat, her mind expertly silent and her decision only just fully realized. Alice's gasp was merely matched by a perfectly raised blonde eyebrow, daring her sister to ruin the moment because this is a defining moment, at least it is for Rosalie. The mark of something changed in an immovable object by an unstoppable force.
"I am assuming all responsibility for the risk that comes with having Bella in my life but I will not ask the same of you all."
"Well that's not very romantic at all!" Alice immediately complained, making the room chuckle.
The thing was though, that it was the best Rosalie could do, admitting the importance of Bella before even openly courting her didn't sit well with Rosalie. Besides that was a conversation she wanted to ruminate on, perhaps a private conversation with Carlisle and Esme would need to be had, but now wasn't the time for such a grand spillage of Rosalie's emotions, least of all in front of all of her siblings.
"Taking responsibility for those you care about is never not romantic." The line would have been expected if Esme or even Carlisle had said it, but surprisingly Rosalie's support came from Edythe.
Rosalie said a silent, but very sincere, thank you to Edythe, her sister barely incliningly her head to show she was listening. They had always had a weird relationship, Rosalie respected privacy greatly, Edythe had a problem with that for obvious reasons, but it was also the busy body nature Edythe had which was the root of her mind reading powers, that grated on Rosalie's nerves. Also, Rosalie had been a literal vain demon for the first few years of her newborn life and that had grated on Edythe's goody-two-shoes nature. That had all changed after Emmett, everything had changed after Emmett. Then everything had shifted again when Alice and Jasper joined, now everything would change again.
"Everything is about to change for the better!" Edythe announced. Rosalie rolled her eyes without spite at the obvious intrusion of thought. She was grateful for the reassurance, though she'd be loathed to admit it.
Carlisle clapped his hands once as he smiled upon them all, but his eyes warmly caught Rosalie's. "I think I speak for everyone when I say you have our full support in this Rosalie, and might I just say that I trust you to do what's right for all of us involved, now-" , he made a show of checking the watch on his wrist, "I believe visiting hours start in 15 minutes, and yes, she'll be released today. Let's say around lunch time?" He grinned conspiring at Alice as she hurriedly checked the future. When she nodded with a grin, suspicion grew in Rosalie. "Excellent! Then you can take her to lunch before you drop her off at home; right Rosalie?"
Rosalie gave him her deadliest glare, inwardly smirking in satisfaction as the siblings at least reacted. Of course her glares just bounced off her parents but that wouldn't stop Rosalie from delivering them. "Let me make this perfectly clear to everyone here. You are not to involve yourselves in my situation with Bella unless I explicitly ask you to. In fact, no one will be making any more contact with Bella until she actively inquires for it. Understand?"
Again Alice's pout was the loudest thing in the room, so she grumbled, "No fair."
Jasper just laughed and held his wife closer, indulging her pouts with a kiss to the forehead. The show of affection tinged somewhere deep in Rosalie. "Not to worry darlin'. She's gonna love you either way." He winked at Rosalie from over the top of Alice's head, sending his support to his 'twin'.
Emmett grinned as he held Edythe's hand. "She's so going to love me more. I'm Rosalie's bestie, I've got first dips for double dates."
Edythe and Rosalie immediately shared twin scoffs of protest while, again, Alice gasped out dramatically. "You take that back right now Emmett Cullen or I'll hide your video games!"
This time Emmett gasped out and sat forward to point an accusing finger at Alice from across the room. "Absolutely bogus dude! It's best friend law so I don't have to take it back. It's the law Alice! You can't break the law!" He defended furiously, then, "And if you go anywhere near my video games, I'll...I will-"
"You'll what, Emmett?" Alice confidently challenged him upon realizing he had nothing to say.
For a moment everything was quiet. Rosalie and Edythe shared a look, wondering which idiot would back down first. Rosalie had places to be after all. Finally, Emmett's usually childish face morphed into the sort of look Rosalie wore when she was about to shatter somebody's soul. Maybe her bestie was spending too much time with her. Rosalie ignored Edythe's 'you think' look.
"I'll save Bella every single time that she doesn't want to go shopping with you, and don't even try to deny it. Edythe told me that you've been upset over her dislike of shopping for a week." Emmett dropped his bomb.
Edythe's eyes grew wide as Alice's fury was all on her at once. "You told him!" She popped up to stand on her toes. "So much for our Wonder Twins Power Pact!"
Edythe stood then, eyes black as she hissed at Alice in embarrassment. "You made me do that stupid pact and it doesn't have anything to do with this."
Alice covered her mouth with a cry before placing her hands on her hips and standing firm in the face of Edythe's glare. "Take that back right now, Edythe."
Rosalie grabbed her keys from the hook by the door, smiling at Carlisle as he waved her off, it'd be awhile before anything happened, it usually was when Alice and Edythe got into a mind battle. Edythe would read Alice's mind and see her visions while Alice would use her premonitions to counter Edythe's arguments. Sometimes they would go back and forth for days without actually having to say a verbal word; they really were the wonder twins.
Esme walked Rosalie to the door, squeezing her hand gently just before she left. "We love you, Rosalie. Remember that this is a good thing."
Rosalie paused and bit her lip in hesitation. "How can you know that, truly?" It was a question that Rosalie desperately wished to be answered.
Esme only looked at Rosalie in that sad but kind knowing sort of way that only mother's could do and she cupped her daughter's cheek. "Oh Rosalie, one day you will know exactly why it simply is, and I think that day will be very soon."
Rosalie sighed, she hated parental advice served up in riddles, but she did love Esme. "I'll be home later."
Esme smiles warmly and lets her go. "Of course Sweetheart, take your time."
Oh how that was a laughable thought, time, she had plenty of time. She had once hated how much time she has left on the earth, now in a cruel twist of fate, a new idea is starting to form from the dark trenches of Rosalie's brain; was forever going to be enough now that she found Bella? The thought was both dangerously tempting as it was frightful, especially for someone like Rosalie to entertain.
When Rosalie arrived at the hospital she paused, just for a moment, before she entered the building. It wasn't nervousness that delayed her because Rosalie didn't do nervousness, but rather it was a stab of uncertainty that stopped her feet and startled her heart. Rosalie wasn't delusional nor did she have some God complex, and she knew everything wouldn't magically come together just because Alice had seen them together and happy in the future with Bella as a vampire. Alice saw many versions of the future, and on very rare occasions something would happen that not even Alice could predict.
The future is a subjective thing and Rosalie could not allow herself to get so caught up in what could be that she made herself unaware of the now. At this moment Bella did not know of her importance in Rosalie's life. Right now, Rosalie and Bella are barely friends and even though Rosalie was eager to change that, she could not bulldoze her way into Bella's heart. Love was to be a work of art, an enticing dance, friendship and courting was the way in which they learned the steps.
'Good God.' Rosalie grimaced at her own thoughts, she'd always been a secret hopeless romantic and was ever so grateful that Edythe wasn't here to read her thoughts. Not that she was embarrassed by her want to woo Bella, she'd just never been so openly soft in front of her family. Bella, it seemed, was already causing a change within Rosalie. Thinking about it caused Rosalie to smile and continue into the hospital. She had an answer to an age old question and it felt like a precious secret that only she was aware of.
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? Change, beautiful, wonderful change. In truth, Rosalie had already fallen for Bella and it wasn't just from their fleeting moments, it was also from that affection that grew from afar as she watched Bella in school.
Rosalie hummed, amused by her own thoughts as she entered the elevator. Perhaps it made her sound a little bit like a stalker, but it wasn't like she had crossed any lines like climbing through Bella's bedroom window and watching her sleep at night. No, Rosalie could never invade a person's privacy so gregiously. Rosalie just paid special attention whenever Bella was around, her vampire senses had never felt like such a gift than it had in the past two months of her life. Rosalie listened when Bella spoke, not to know Bella's business but to understand what Bella thought, her opinions, her sense of humor, her values. Everything that made Bella who she was, was in her words, and if her words weren't enough, Bella's face always gave away what she really thought. Those expressive brown eyes were far too truthful to be called fair.
Yes, Rosalie Hale had indeed been paying attention to Bella Swan, in fact Bella had been Rosalie's sole focus, no matter how much Rosalie had denied it at first. How foolish she had been to disregard a mate bond as though it was an optional thing. Then to resent it as though it was something forced, something manufactured. That insistent pull she could feel between herself and Bella had caused Rosalie to take notice of someone's existence for the first time in 81 years, ever since she first took notice of a strong young man with the face of a long forgotten child in the woods dying from a bear attack. She hadn't regretted saving Emmett that day, just in the same way that she couldn't regret loving Bella.
Rosalie had been quite stubborn indeed.