The Pros and Cons of Breathing for eleganza_bella
Title: The Pros and Cons of Breathing
Word Count: 2275
Pairing: Edward/Bella, mentions of Alice/Jasper, Rosalie/Emmett, Carlisle/Esme
Warning: Edward and Bella being all… in love. I know how much ya'll hate it when they do that.
Author's Note: Well, I did my best considering I couldn't find someone willing to beta this for me and I completely forgot I had to write this until Sunday. I hope the E/B fluff makes up for it. Enjoy!
Summary: A look at Isabella Swan's life, post-transformation. A year after being turned into a vampire, Bella and Edward visit Rosalie in Europe, where Bella and Rosalie make up and Bella and Edward make out.
"For those who believe in eternal love,
no explanation is necessary;
for those who do not,
no explanation is possible."
- Unknown
"It just seems a bit pointless," Bella commented idly as she sat on the kitchen counter with Edward standing between her legs, both hands on either side of her waist and face pressed against her neck. "Had I known this would be my future, I wouldn't have bothered to learn to cook."
Edward chuckled, the vibrations causing goosebumps to rise on Bella's skin. "That complaint is a little belated, don't you think?"
"I'm not complaining." She pulled away, pressing her pale hands to his perfect, pale face. "I'm not complaining."
Sighing lightly, Edward turned his head and kissed her palm, reaching up to pull her hands away. "I know, Bella."
She would have said more because she was not entirely convinced that he was entirely convinced, but Alice chose that moment to enter the kitchen.
Bella had been a vampire for less than a year now and hadn't seen Forks in just about that time. Charlie thought she and Edward were attending an obscure college together in Oregon. They were in Oregon, alright, but it certainly wasn't for college. They hadn't exactly been able to explain to Police Chief Swan that they were moving to Oregon to avoid a war with the Quileute werewolves and because, after Washington, it was the cloudiest state in the United States, which was beneficial to keep her boyfriend-now-husband from sparkling too much in the sun. She sincerely doubted he would have allowed her go anywhere with Edward then.
They hadn't intended to stay long, but Alice had gotten attached to the sleepy town they'd chosen and she and Jasper had made their home there while Rosalie and Emmett had gone off to England and Carlisle and Esme resided in Italy with the Volturi. Edward and Bella were staying with Alice and Jasper until they decided on plans for themselves, although Alice insisted that staying forever was definitely an option.
Edward made no move to extract himself from Bella simply because his sister had entered the room. Bella wasn't sure whether to be pleased or embarrassed, so she settled for being grateful that her telltale blush could no longer give her away.
"Good morning, Alice," she greeted, fingers unconsciously toying with the little golden hairs at the nape of Edward's neck.
Alice gave the two of them a look of fond exasperation. "Must you do that in the kitchen?"
"Do what?" Edward asked in amusement, relaxing even further against her. "No one usually makes use of this kitchen, anyway, as Bella asseverated not a moment ago."
"I wasn't-"
"Oh," Alice interrupted, blinking innocently at Bella. "Don't let our inability to eat discourage you, Bella. Cook something if you think you'll get rusty."
Edward was chuckling again and Bella, though indignant, had to stifle a laugh of her own. Alice was forever teasing her about her attachment to her old human habits; things like sleeping and cooking and driving the speed limit were all things that Bella had yet to grow out of. She still retired to bed at generally the same time every night, she sometimes opened the cupboard with the intention of cooking breakfast only to find a lack of posts and remember that she could not eat, and she still refused to drive anywhere near as recklessly as the rest of the Cullens.
"That's alright," she finally said. "We'd only have to throw it out, anyway."
Edward drew away from her with one last, lingering kiss to her jaw. Bella tried not to shiver. Alice was watching them, after all.
"Have either of you seen Jasper?" Alice asked and the amused quality in her voice made Bella think that maybe she hadn't been able to suppress the shiver after all. Had she still been able to blush, her cheeks would have been on fire.
"I have," Edward spoke up, a small smirk on his face. Obviously her shiver had not gone unnoticed by him, either, though the cold hand on the small of her back might have something to do with it. "I'll go and get him."
He almost seemed to glide out of the room rather than walk, his natural elegance never ceasing to amaze Bella. As she'd discovered, that sort of grace had little to do with being a vampire and more to do with time and experience. Edward had had years-centuries, in fact-to perfect his… perfection. Bella was no less clumsy now than she had been while human.
She blinked, startled, as Alice suddenly plopped down on the counter next to her, her grace equaling Edward's and surpassing Bella's. It just wasn't fair.
"It's good to see the two of you so…" Alice wrinkled her nose, searching for the proper adjective. "Close."
Bella felt another wave of embarrassment. Even now, Edward was taking full advantage of the fact that he was no longer tempted to, well, kill her the longer he held her, evident in how he seemed hard-pressed to keep his hands to himself when Bella was in the room. She didn't mind it; she'd been waiting for this new level of intimacy in their relationship for a long time. But just because she didn't mind didn't mean it was a topic she could discuss without stammering.
"Thank you," she managed, feeling warm and yet knowing she wasn't. "We… we really weren't doing anything in here-"
"Oh, I know," Alice's hands clasped her left hand, the ring on Bella's finger glinting in the light. She grinned impishly. "Not in here."
Well, if Bella hadn't thought she was going to die of embarrassment before…
She tugged her hand out of Alice's grasp, sheepish. "That's different. That was our wedding night. And Edward-"
"Please don't make me relive it, Bella," Alice said with a wince. "The walls aren't very thick in this house and we've always had exceptional hearing."
Edward returned to the kitchen and Bella was never happier to see him than in that moment. She was off the counter in seconds, but Alice beat her to it, skating across the kitchen floor in her socks and wrapping her arms around Jasper's waist.
Cool lips brushed Bella's ear as Edward whispered, "May I see you outside for a moment?"
"Sure," She sighed, knees weak. Wasn't she supposed to get better at this?
Edward steered her around the other happy couple in a room, leading her through the large sitting room and to the front porch. The porch swing swayed back and forth in the cool afternoon breeze and Bella walked toward it instinctively. There was just something about sitting on the swing and letting the wind blow through her hair that never failed to put her at ease.
Edward sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her when she leaned against his side. "Rosalie wants us to come and visit her and Emmett in England."
"Oh?"
That was a bit odd. Rosalie had attended the wedding, but, despite what she'd said, she had yet to truly warm up to Bella. The fact that Edward had said that Rosalie was inviting them, and the honesty with which he said it, puzzled her.
"She's trying, Bella," He said, sounding tired and soothing and wonderful and Bella was kissing him before she even realized she'd moved. Edward, surprised but in no way displeased, cupped her cheeks and kissed her back.
Bella pulled away, resting her forehead against his and closing her eyes. "Alright. It should be fun."
She hoped.
Tall, blond, and beautiful Rosalie was entirely unchanged from the last time Bella seen her. Which came as no real surprise. Also unsurprising was the familiar flash of inadequacy and she couldn't help discreetly peeking in Edward's direction, if only to reassure herself that he was still disinterested. She cursed herself-Edward had married her, hadn't he? Not Rosalie-and took his hand in silent apology.
She ignored his curious look, more than willing to become overly interested in her shoes while Edward and Rosalie talked amongst themselves. In fact, she was already preparing for it. Was that a mud stain on her sneakers?
"Bella," Rosalie said in what Bella assumed was supposed to be a welcoming tone, but it came out a bit forced. "It's so good to see you."
"You, too," Bella replied, lifting her eyes and trying not to look uncomfortable. "…where's Emmett?"
"I'll get him," Edward said quickly and, despite the fact that Bella was holding his hand in a death grip that only tightened at his words, he managed to slip away, leaving the two girls alone.
Bella shifted, avoiding Rosalie's eyes as she toyed with the edges of her shirtsleeves and wished that Alice and Jasper had agreed to come. At the very least, Jasper would be able to help her stop feeling so odd around someone who was supposed to be her family now.
Plus, she was going to kill Edward (Well. Again) once she got her hands on him and Alice and Jasper could have helped to hide the body.
"How have you been?" she heard and looked up to see Rosalie worrying her lower lip, but looking very sincere and very remorseful. Almost as though she felt bad that the conversation was not flowing as easily as it would have had it been Emmett in her place. Guilty, even.
Her guilt made Bella feel guilty as well, guilty enough to answer, "I discovered that playing hide-and-seek with Alice is pointless. As soon as you decide where you're going to hide, she can find you instantly."
Which was true, but Bella had known that for weeks now. Still, she figured that was more of a conversational topic than telling Rosalie that she and Edward had gotten caught nuzzling in the kitchen.
Rosalie stared at her as though she was speaking tongues. Then, to Bella's surprise, she laughed and the sound was refreshingly kind.
"Yes, we all learned that lesson," she said, looking a bit more at ease. "We didn't automatically decide that baseball was the Cullen family bonding ritual. There were failed tries at other games."
"Including hide and seek?" Bella grinned, trying to imagine Edward curled inside a closet, hiding from Alice. Or, worse yet, Edward as It, following the trail of thoughts to find the other Cullens. It was simply too entertaining.
As though reading her mind, Rosalie continued, "Using our powers became against the rules after awhile, but without them it was a bit boring." She laughed again. "We tried such a variety of games…"
Ping pong. Red Rover. Chinese Checkers. Bella's mirth only grew the more human games Rosalie described. She could easily picture the Cullens participating in the activities, but the picture was so funny that Bella wasn't sure she could keep the laughter at bay for much longer.
"On a particularly dull day, we tried Duck Duck Goose," Rosalie was saying when Edward reentered with Emmett in tow. "Naturally, we were all running very fast and Jasper accidentally slipped and fell, taking me with him. It looked not unlike someone sliding onto home plate, except he'd fallen that way. That was when Carlisle suggested that we might try baseball."
Bella felt a twinge of nostalgia, for Carlisle, for Forks, for… no. She put it out of her mind and brushed past Edward to give Emmett a bear hug, which he returned whole-heatedly.
"Careful there, Emmett," Rosalie teased lightly. "That one's Edward's."
Bella smiled.
Dinner passed smoothly once Bella relaxed. It wasn't so much dinner as it was the four of them gathered in the sitting room, exchanging greetings and anecdotes.
Emmett told them how much he was enjoying living in England and how it rained almost as much as the sun shone. Edward, in turn, informed them of how much he was enjoying living with Bella and had been, she feared, seconds away from telling them that she no longer slept in her own bed before she'd stopped him.
"Is it really as bad as you anticipated?" Edward asked her after she'd excused herself to the bathroom, meeting her at the stairs.
Bella smiled mischievously. "It's worse."
The crooked smile he gave her in return was well worth the entire trip.
"Emmett and Rosalie have prepared us a guest room upstairs so we can stay the night before returning back to Oregon," Edward said with a mischievousness all his own. "It only has one bed."
Of course it did.
"There are no secrets in this family, are there?" Bella asked, resigned.
Edward's hand brushed her hairline, sliding from her temple to cup her cheek. "Now that was a complaint," he said and kissed her before she could protest.
"I thought you'd gone to the bathroom, Bella," Rosalie's voice interrupted and, rather than turning to face her and the subsequent embarrassment, Bella simply buried her face in Edward's chest and let him take this one. He owed her, after all, although leaving them alone as he had had done more good than she'd thought.
"She did," Edward said and Bella knew without looking that he was smiling with a hint of innocence on his face.
Rosalie didn't pry further. Bella only lifted her head once she was sure the blonde was gone.
"Eventually, we'll reach the point where I can't look anyone in the face anymore," Bella grumbled good-naturedly.
Edward merely chuckled, lips touching her throat.
Bella was tingling pleasantly, more or less a constant feeling as far as Edward's touch was concerned, and her eyes slipped closed on a content sigh. "I love you, Edward," she said with a smile.
"I love you, too," he whispered, a promise against her skin. "Forever."
"Forever," she repeated and it was enough.
Word Count: 2275
Pairing: Edward/Bella, mentions of Alice/Jasper, Rosalie/Emmett, Carlisle/Esme
Warning: Edward and Bella being all… in love. I know how much ya'll hate it when they do that.
Author's Note: Well, I did my best considering I couldn't find someone willing to beta this for me and I completely forgot I had to write this until Sunday. I hope the E/B fluff makes up for it. Enjoy!
Summary: A look at Isabella Swan's life, post-transformation. A year after being turned into a vampire, Bella and Edward visit Rosalie in Europe, where Bella and Rosalie make up and Bella and Edward make out.
"For those who believe in eternal love,
no explanation is necessary;
for those who do not,
no explanation is possible."
- Unknown
"It just seems a bit pointless," Bella commented idly as she sat on the kitchen counter with Edward standing between her legs, both hands on either side of her waist and face pressed against her neck. "Had I known this would be my future, I wouldn't have bothered to learn to cook."
Edward chuckled, the vibrations causing goosebumps to rise on Bella's skin. "That complaint is a little belated, don't you think?"
"I'm not complaining." She pulled away, pressing her pale hands to his perfect, pale face. "I'm not complaining."
Sighing lightly, Edward turned his head and kissed her palm, reaching up to pull her hands away. "I know, Bella."
She would have said more because she was not entirely convinced that he was entirely convinced, but Alice chose that moment to enter the kitchen.
Bella had been a vampire for less than a year now and hadn't seen Forks in just about that time. Charlie thought she and Edward were attending an obscure college together in Oregon. They were in Oregon, alright, but it certainly wasn't for college. They hadn't exactly been able to explain to Police Chief Swan that they were moving to Oregon to avoid a war with the Quileute werewolves and because, after Washington, it was the cloudiest state in the United States, which was beneficial to keep her boyfriend-now-husband from sparkling too much in the sun. She sincerely doubted he would have allowed her go anywhere with Edward then.
They hadn't intended to stay long, but Alice had gotten attached to the sleepy town they'd chosen and she and Jasper had made their home there while Rosalie and Emmett had gone off to England and Carlisle and Esme resided in Italy with the Volturi. Edward and Bella were staying with Alice and Jasper until they decided on plans for themselves, although Alice insisted that staying forever was definitely an option.
Edward made no move to extract himself from Bella simply because his sister had entered the room. Bella wasn't sure whether to be pleased or embarrassed, so she settled for being grateful that her telltale blush could no longer give her away.
"Good morning, Alice," she greeted, fingers unconsciously toying with the little golden hairs at the nape of Edward's neck.
Alice gave the two of them a look of fond exasperation. "Must you do that in the kitchen?"
"Do what?" Edward asked in amusement, relaxing even further against her. "No one usually makes use of this kitchen, anyway, as Bella asseverated not a moment ago."
"I wasn't-"
"Oh," Alice interrupted, blinking innocently at Bella. "Don't let our inability to eat discourage you, Bella. Cook something if you think you'll get rusty."
Edward was chuckling again and Bella, though indignant, had to stifle a laugh of her own. Alice was forever teasing her about her attachment to her old human habits; things like sleeping and cooking and driving the speed limit were all things that Bella had yet to grow out of. She still retired to bed at generally the same time every night, she sometimes opened the cupboard with the intention of cooking breakfast only to find a lack of posts and remember that she could not eat, and she still refused to drive anywhere near as recklessly as the rest of the Cullens.
"That's alright," she finally said. "We'd only have to throw it out, anyway."
Edward drew away from her with one last, lingering kiss to her jaw. Bella tried not to shiver. Alice was watching them, after all.
"Have either of you seen Jasper?" Alice asked and the amused quality in her voice made Bella think that maybe she hadn't been able to suppress the shiver after all. Had she still been able to blush, her cheeks would have been on fire.
"I have," Edward spoke up, a small smirk on his face. Obviously her shiver had not gone unnoticed by him, either, though the cold hand on the small of her back might have something to do with it. "I'll go and get him."
He almost seemed to glide out of the room rather than walk, his natural elegance never ceasing to amaze Bella. As she'd discovered, that sort of grace had little to do with being a vampire and more to do with time and experience. Edward had had years-centuries, in fact-to perfect his… perfection. Bella was no less clumsy now than she had been while human.
She blinked, startled, as Alice suddenly plopped down on the counter next to her, her grace equaling Edward's and surpassing Bella's. It just wasn't fair.
"It's good to see the two of you so…" Alice wrinkled her nose, searching for the proper adjective. "Close."
Bella felt another wave of embarrassment. Even now, Edward was taking full advantage of the fact that he was no longer tempted to, well, kill her the longer he held her, evident in how he seemed hard-pressed to keep his hands to himself when Bella was in the room. She didn't mind it; she'd been waiting for this new level of intimacy in their relationship for a long time. But just because she didn't mind didn't mean it was a topic she could discuss without stammering.
"Thank you," she managed, feeling warm and yet knowing she wasn't. "We… we really weren't doing anything in here-"
"Oh, I know," Alice's hands clasped her left hand, the ring on Bella's finger glinting in the light. She grinned impishly. "Not in here."
Well, if Bella hadn't thought she was going to die of embarrassment before…
She tugged her hand out of Alice's grasp, sheepish. "That's different. That was our wedding night. And Edward-"
"Please don't make me relive it, Bella," Alice said with a wince. "The walls aren't very thick in this house and we've always had exceptional hearing."
Edward returned to the kitchen and Bella was never happier to see him than in that moment. She was off the counter in seconds, but Alice beat her to it, skating across the kitchen floor in her socks and wrapping her arms around Jasper's waist.
Cool lips brushed Bella's ear as Edward whispered, "May I see you outside for a moment?"
"Sure," She sighed, knees weak. Wasn't she supposed to get better at this?
Edward steered her around the other happy couple in a room, leading her through the large sitting room and to the front porch. The porch swing swayed back and forth in the cool afternoon breeze and Bella walked toward it instinctively. There was just something about sitting on the swing and letting the wind blow through her hair that never failed to put her at ease.
Edward sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her when she leaned against his side. "Rosalie wants us to come and visit her and Emmett in England."
"Oh?"
That was a bit odd. Rosalie had attended the wedding, but, despite what she'd said, she had yet to truly warm up to Bella. The fact that Edward had said that Rosalie was inviting them, and the honesty with which he said it, puzzled her.
"She's trying, Bella," He said, sounding tired and soothing and wonderful and Bella was kissing him before she even realized she'd moved. Edward, surprised but in no way displeased, cupped her cheeks and kissed her back.
Bella pulled away, resting her forehead against his and closing her eyes. "Alright. It should be fun."
She hoped.
Tall, blond, and beautiful Rosalie was entirely unchanged from the last time Bella seen her. Which came as no real surprise. Also unsurprising was the familiar flash of inadequacy and she couldn't help discreetly peeking in Edward's direction, if only to reassure herself that he was still disinterested. She cursed herself-Edward had married her, hadn't he? Not Rosalie-and took his hand in silent apology.
She ignored his curious look, more than willing to become overly interested in her shoes while Edward and Rosalie talked amongst themselves. In fact, she was already preparing for it. Was that a mud stain on her sneakers?
"Bella," Rosalie said in what Bella assumed was supposed to be a welcoming tone, but it came out a bit forced. "It's so good to see you."
"You, too," Bella replied, lifting her eyes and trying not to look uncomfortable. "…where's Emmett?"
"I'll get him," Edward said quickly and, despite the fact that Bella was holding his hand in a death grip that only tightened at his words, he managed to slip away, leaving the two girls alone.
Bella shifted, avoiding Rosalie's eyes as she toyed with the edges of her shirtsleeves and wished that Alice and Jasper had agreed to come. At the very least, Jasper would be able to help her stop feeling so odd around someone who was supposed to be her family now.
Plus, she was going to kill Edward (Well. Again) once she got her hands on him and Alice and Jasper could have helped to hide the body.
"How have you been?" she heard and looked up to see Rosalie worrying her lower lip, but looking very sincere and very remorseful. Almost as though she felt bad that the conversation was not flowing as easily as it would have had it been Emmett in her place. Guilty, even.
Her guilt made Bella feel guilty as well, guilty enough to answer, "I discovered that playing hide-and-seek with Alice is pointless. As soon as you decide where you're going to hide, she can find you instantly."
Which was true, but Bella had known that for weeks now. Still, she figured that was more of a conversational topic than telling Rosalie that she and Edward had gotten caught nuzzling in the kitchen.
Rosalie stared at her as though she was speaking tongues. Then, to Bella's surprise, she laughed and the sound was refreshingly kind.
"Yes, we all learned that lesson," she said, looking a bit more at ease. "We didn't automatically decide that baseball was the Cullen family bonding ritual. There were failed tries at other games."
"Including hide and seek?" Bella grinned, trying to imagine Edward curled inside a closet, hiding from Alice. Or, worse yet, Edward as It, following the trail of thoughts to find the other Cullens. It was simply too entertaining.
As though reading her mind, Rosalie continued, "Using our powers became against the rules after awhile, but without them it was a bit boring." She laughed again. "We tried such a variety of games…"
Ping pong. Red Rover. Chinese Checkers. Bella's mirth only grew the more human games Rosalie described. She could easily picture the Cullens participating in the activities, but the picture was so funny that Bella wasn't sure she could keep the laughter at bay for much longer.
"On a particularly dull day, we tried Duck Duck Goose," Rosalie was saying when Edward reentered with Emmett in tow. "Naturally, we were all running very fast and Jasper accidentally slipped and fell, taking me with him. It looked not unlike someone sliding onto home plate, except he'd fallen that way. That was when Carlisle suggested that we might try baseball."
Bella felt a twinge of nostalgia, for Carlisle, for Forks, for… no. She put it out of her mind and brushed past Edward to give Emmett a bear hug, which he returned whole-heatedly.
"Careful there, Emmett," Rosalie teased lightly. "That one's Edward's."
Bella smiled.
Dinner passed smoothly once Bella relaxed. It wasn't so much dinner as it was the four of them gathered in the sitting room, exchanging greetings and anecdotes.
Emmett told them how much he was enjoying living in England and how it rained almost as much as the sun shone. Edward, in turn, informed them of how much he was enjoying living with Bella and had been, she feared, seconds away from telling them that she no longer slept in her own bed before she'd stopped him.
"Is it really as bad as you anticipated?" Edward asked her after she'd excused herself to the bathroom, meeting her at the stairs.
Bella smiled mischievously. "It's worse."
The crooked smile he gave her in return was well worth the entire trip.
"Emmett and Rosalie have prepared us a guest room upstairs so we can stay the night before returning back to Oregon," Edward said with a mischievousness all his own. "It only has one bed."
Of course it did.
"There are no secrets in this family, are there?" Bella asked, resigned.
Edward's hand brushed her hairline, sliding from her temple to cup her cheek. "Now that was a complaint," he said and kissed her before she could protest.
"I thought you'd gone to the bathroom, Bella," Rosalie's voice interrupted and, rather than turning to face her and the subsequent embarrassment, Bella simply buried her face in Edward's chest and let him take this one. He owed her, after all, although leaving them alone as he had had done more good than she'd thought.
"She did," Edward said and Bella knew without looking that he was smiling with a hint of innocence on his face.
Rosalie didn't pry further. Bella only lifted her head once she was sure the blonde was gone.
"Eventually, we'll reach the point where I can't look anyone in the face anymore," Bella grumbled good-naturedly.
Edward merely chuckled, lips touching her throat.
Bella was tingling pleasantly, more or less a constant feeling as far as Edward's touch was concerned, and her eyes slipped closed on a content sigh. "I love you, Edward," she said with a smile.
"I love you, too," he whispered, a promise against her skin. "Forever."
"Forever," she repeated and it was enough.