Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight series.

Ah Love! could you and I with Him conspire

To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,

Would not we shatter it to bits-and then

Record it nearer to the Heart's Desire!

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Edward Fitzgerald, XCIX

PREFACE

I never realized how difficult it would be to be so far from them, almost as difficult as it was to be away from my beloved Jasper; as emotionally painful as it was to have physically brought them into my life. More than the separation, though, it was the fear that threatened to consume me in its entirety. Fear of the Volturi discovering them too early, fear of Edward finding out through one slip.

No longer would it be so easy for me to throw myself into danger for the sake of my family. It was hard enough to resolve myself when it was only Jasper I had waiting for me. Now that I had them as well, there'd be no justification I could convince myself with to put myself in life threatening danger if I could help it.

Of course, if a life with the Volturi or a death by their hands meant they would be safe, then I would do it, despite such an option being completely unthinkable before.

At this point, it should be obvious that I would do anything if it meant ensuring they live and I knew, from looking into Jasper's own determined gaze, that he felt exactly the same way.

1. PARTY

As Bella had put it so well in her own thoughts... I was ninety-nine point nine percent sure I was dreaming.

Reason one being, most obviously, that I was a vampire, from what I could see of my pale marble skin and ridiculously luscious hair. Reason two being that I was wearing a terribly familiar looking charcoal gray cloak that I'm sure I didn't own, having fallen asleep in my usual nightwear of a soft long sleeve shirt and grey sweatpants. The final and most obvious reason being that I was sitting comfortably in the lap of a red eyed vampire who was not Jasper.

Like, what the honest ever living fuck?

Anyone under the sun who knew us knew that both of us were disgustingly in love with each other. The Forks town gossip circle even unanimously voted us the most in love young couple of said small town (the most in love adult couple being Carlisle and Esme.) As such, it was unthinkable to anyone, myself included that either of us would be something as ludicrous as unfaithful.

Hence the conclusion that this was a dream, or rather, a terrible nightmare considering from the parchment like quality of the vampire's skin, his milky red eyes, and the hateful glare I was getting from a loli-vampire in a slightly lighter gray cloak nearby, that the vampire I was sitting on was likely Aro of the Volturi. Granted, the two thrones on either side of us holding vampires with similar qualities was also a rather big hint...

I reaaaallly hope that this was just a stress or junk food induced nightmare and not a glimpse of a possible future I was receiving via dreams because that shit just wouldn't fly with me. I'd die before I joined Aro's sick group of sycophants. That or rally an army under Jasper's command, kill them all, and take over completely. Either, or. It depended on which would work best in the situation.

"Madeleine," the pained, guttural call of my name jolted me violently from my musings in the dream as it was delivered by a terrifyingly familiar voice, one so intimately imprinted in my memory that I could mistake him for no one else.

There, forced on his knees by faceless guards, looking all too much like I imagined he would coming out of a vampire battle, was my beloved Jasper, a look of utter exhaustion, defeat, and resignation in his flat black gaze. And yet even underneath all the horrifying markers on him of a war lost, he still managed to relate to me all his adoration, love...acceptance.

His own name stuck painfully in my own throat, sure I'd be choking on it if I were still human. I was shouting at myself in my mind, unable to move my limbs, horrified that I wasn't trying to help him.

He only looked up at me with warm, sad eyes, exposing a torn, ravaged throat and I idly wondered how he was still able to speak at all, both of us ignoring the multitude of vampire guards that lunged for him at a motion from Aro.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"NO!" I choked near soundless as I lunged to a sitting position, arms outstretched to grasp something that wasn't there. From the periphery of my vision I could see the light, nebulous sky that was a typical Forks morning, but I was more focused on calming my chest from the ravaging heaves and sobs brought on by the disturbingly vivid nightmare.

Fantastic, I thought. I could have done without sharing Bella's propensity for intricate, freaky nightmares. Why did she have to taint our twin bond with this crap when all she got from me was happy fun times? And why couldn't there be an office I could file complaints to for this distasteful lack of equal exchange here?

I checked the time and date on my cell and groaned, my head flopping back onto the pillow.

September 13- 3:49am

I blinked when I felt a cold hand on my clammy cheek, cool fingers brushing away strands of hair uncomfortably pasted on damp skin.

"You alright, kitten?" Jasper asked in concern, handing me a glass of water, his usual clear smoky, gravelly voice helping to settle me down a bit, so blessedly different from the alien tone I'd heard from him in my nightmare. "That felt like a bum* dream."

I took a grateful sip of the offered glass, wiping away the sheen of cold sweat with a sleeve now that the fear had passed, smiling at Jasper when he curled his arm around my waist and pulled me gently to lean against him.

"Well it definitely wasn't all rainbows and unicorns, I'll give you that much."

He chuckled and put the glass aside as soon as I finished, brushing feather light kisses along my neck.

"Not sleepy anymore?" He questioned, though he could likely answer that better than I could.

"No," I replied, petulant. "Entertain me!" I demanded, like a spoiled child would.

Jasper only chuckled again and actually began to sing.

"Happy birthday my darling,

And many, many more
Another year had passed,
And I love you even more

Your eyes I love to see,
Your hair I love to touch,
Your lips I love to kiss
I love you oh, so very much

Tomorrow starts a new year,
And memories put away
I want to say I love you,
Darling, happy birthday

The gift I have for you
Is a promise to be true
To love you through the years
And never ever bring you tears

Tomorrow starts a new year,
And memories fade away
I want to say I love you,
Darling, happy birthday

The gift I have for you
Is a promise to be true
To love you through the years
And never ever bring you tears

Tomorrow starts a new year,
And memories fade away
I want to say I love you,
Darling, happy birthday"**

"Jazz," was all I managed to rasp out, a hand clutching at the material over my chest and eyes watery.

"Now don't go makin' me break one of my promises already," he teased softly, a thumb brushing over a still dry cheek.

"Stupid," I muttered, "tears of joy obviously don't count." I sniffled and wiped away the few tears of utter adoration I shed from the touching lyrics sung with the voice of a god. "Goodness, Jasper, I'm already unquestionably yours. No need to romance me with such intensity."

"You deserve to be intensely romanced," he purred, chest rumbling as he angled my face with a gentle hand and pressed marble lips to mine, the contrast of sensations, as always, sending an invigorating tingle through my body.

"Happy birthday to me," I smirked in pleasure, licking my lips of the sweet taste of him, setting Jasper to laugh huskily in amusement.

We cuddled the rest of the morning before Jasper reminded me to get ready for school. A change into a black crop top with too-long sleeves, ripped skinny jeans, and leather heel boots-* - plus my usual darkish makeup(smoky eye shadow, mascara, wing eyeliner, & black lipstick)- and I was ready to go.

Jasper had just closed the passenger door behind me, chewing the last of my breakfast bagel as I buckled my seat belt, when my cell vibrated once. I wasn't nearly as surprised as I would have been half a year ago when I saw it was a happy birthday text from Rosalie.

"Rosalie?" Jasper questioned as he gracefully slid into the driver's seat.

"Rosalie," I affirmed with a single nod, smiling back at his amused smirk as he caught her massage on my screen:

'Happy birthday, bitch.'

It was another welcome highlight of my morning after the nightmare I'd had and the unholy hour it had forced me to wake up at.

The school day passed entirely unremarkable, especially with Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett no longer attending, and it wasn't as though anyone save Angela had wished me or Bella a happy birthday as they didn't even know when it was. This was completely intentional on both Bella and I's part, if for different reasons. Bella, obviously, is just reticent to the extreme while I simply don't care to thank every nameless acquaintance for wishing me a happy birthday and pretending to be pleased with the few unfitting gifts some may have given me.

I was hardly going to follow common(unnecessary) social practices if I could avoid them entirely. Angela didn't count with her quiet well wishes and sweet gift of homemade sweets and a knitted scarf. The poor, innocent girl flushed deep when I practically glomped her in the hallway. Am one hundred percent sure that if I wasn't going out with Jasper, they'd think I was in love with Angela. I am also about eighty-eight percent sure they'd be right. Jasper believed it'd be a hundred, but what did he know?

Bella obviously dreads anything festive, even her own birthday, but I was actually looking forward to having a proper birthday party for the first time since we were kids. Bella being the shy downer she was didn't exactly have much in the way of close enough friends to invite to birthday get togethers after elementary school and I only had a lot of casual friends that wouldn't like idea of having to buy two presents, one for the quiet girl they don't really know so I never bothered to tell anyone my birthday or hand out invitations either.

The three, sometimes four, person birthday get togethers we had as a family were enough. At first it was just birthday dinner favorites and ice cream and cake for dessert with presents from Renèe and Charlie, but I got bored with that real fast(not that it's not sweet or appreciated) when we could be doing fun things like going to amusement parks, zoos, arcades, etcetera etcetera and then getting the family dinner and presents. But no, because Bella no likey fun. It was a very serious allergy.

One unfortunate side effect to being a twin with Renèe as your mother was that she believed the idea of getting twins matching presents too cute to pass up, no matter that she knew we were very different and very much individuals. This was also one of the only times she directly contacted Dad so they could 'coordinate' their gifts. Poor awkward Charlie went along with it without resistance at first since he had no idea what to get two little girls, but after I started hanging out with him in the summer(Bella sulking in her room doesn't constitute for much father daughter bonding), he realized that we're different people and may not appreciate getting matching gifts.

Of course, he couldn't exactly argue with our stubborn, single minded mother so he settled for going along with her matching gift thing and buying us small individual gifts. This year we were each given a scrapbook from Renèe and a camera from Charlie, but Charlie also got Bella a warm, pretty coat and hunted down for me a signed copy of one of my favorite books.

At lunch I cornered Bella, knowing she wished to avoid this from the expression of dread on her face at seeing me approach. Her attempts to move Edward and her to a different table than usual were an effort in futility. I may not eat lunch with them anymore, but did she really think she could escape a seer? Especially when her vampire boyfriend was on my side for once(and wasn't that a novelty in itself.) The fact that Bella seemed to unconsciously deny my gift as a seer and cling to the unfounded belief that it couldn't be that powerful or special or accurate was irrelevant.

"We'll be expecting you at the Cullens no later than seven, Bell-Bell," I announced cheerfully, getting a scowl in return.

"Inviting yourself over again? Unlike some I actually have to work."

Wow, just wow. All this because I don't have her useless sense of shame when it came to spending time with my lover's family and them spending their money however they want on me? Rude. My smile became more fixed as I tried not to reminisce on how many of our shared birthdays she's spoiled with her overly irritated, moody attitude.

"Mrs. Newton wouldn't make you work on your birthday, silly! She's trading your shifts and told me to wish you a happy birthday!"

Bella flushed angrily at what'd I'd done, but knew nothing would come of my actions no matter what she yelled at me. Sometimes she was actually smart enough not to fight losing battles.

"I still can't go," she began to hastily deny.

"Don't worry! Your deadline of seven leaves you plenty of time to procrastinate by watching that one Romeo and Juleit movie you have yet to see for homework. After putting all that time and effort into thinking about you and setting this up I'm sure you wouldn't want to disappoint or upset the Cullens by wallowing in your usual antisocial tendencies. After all, they want to celebrate your birthday with you like a real family-"

"I get it! I'll go!" Bella snapped, upset, face red in shame and anger. "But I don't appreciate being obviously guilt tripped into this!" She scowled.

I only smirked in grim satisfaction, mood already spoiled since this morning. "It's obviously something you needed since you certainly weren't going to think of their feelings and efforts on your own. Now you can suck it up and maybe act a bit more grateful that they actually care despite your many faults."

"You say that as if you don't have more personality flaws than I do," she snarked back coldly.

"Everyone has flaws, Isabella, I've always believed that. The difference between you and me is that I've never acted as if I have no flaws at all." Rather than get into a bigger argument, I decided to just walk away. With the last word, of course - that was always satisfying.

To both Bella and my relief, we successfully avoided each other and further talk of our birthday for the rest of us school day. My mood notably lifted when Jasper was ready and waiting after the last bell rang and soon had us speeding to his house, more so than usual.

"What's the rush?" I asked Jasper. I'd learned the hard way not to rely on my gift to answer every question since the visions turned more personal. Damn my strong curiosity for making me a slow learner in that regard.

"I figured you'd want as much time as possible to decorate just right," Jasper replied easily.

"You guys are the ones that are going to be doing all the manual labor and with your super mach speed, it shouldn't take more than ten minutes tops," I scoffed, a smile lifting the edge of my lips.

"Ah, but you're a perfectionist, little dove. You'll be directing poor Emmett and I with orders of 'A little to the left' and 'just a little more that way' while Rosalie, Carlisle, and Esme watch on indulgently." Jasper nodded solemnly in agreement with himself.

"Well...you're not wrong," I laughed, unable to totally deny it.

Jasper's eyes only softened as he gazed at me laughing, stopping my breath short at the sudden flush of warmth his expression evoked in me.

"What is it?" I smiled shyly at him. Jasper was always good at catching me off guard, throwing me off balance, in the best ways.

"To feel you so effused with joy

To see its beauty adorn your face

Brings me a sentiment of love ineffable."*-

His recitation was flawless, his tone bone melting in its quiet intensity and I found myself relating greatly to the last line. 'Brings me a sentiment of love ineffable,' indeed.

"Who wrote that?" I asked, voice shaky and low from holding back a more emotional response.

"An old soldier by the name Jasper Nathan Whitlock did, about his lady love," he replied, just as quiet.

"Jasper, you..." I had nothing to respond with, far too touched to think of anything to say at all.

"I didn't lie about not being one for poetry," Jasper started, "but, Maddy, you inspire me to do things, be things, I never thought I could. You let me feel like a person, made me more a man than I ever have been, and a better one than I ever believed I could be. Your love has altered my immutable existence, in a way I refuse to reject or reverse."

I barely paid attention when the car stopped, Jasper cupping my cheek with a gloved hand so gently I felt as fragile and precious as colored glass.

"You are my life now," Jasper pressed his cool brow lightly against mine, noses just brushing together, "my joy, my peace, my love. Every day I spend with you is a blessing and today, all the more, I thank whatever God responsible for your existence that you were born and allowing me the chance to find you, to love you as you deserve."

Jasper pressed a firm, chaste kiss on my lips.

"Thank you, Madeleine. Thank you for being born."

Before I could so much as sob in response to Jasper's emotive speech, the passenger door was opened.

"What the hell, Jasper?! How are we supposed to top your disgustingly romantic birthday well-wishes now?" Emmett cried indignantly, unbuckling me and clutching me in his arms like a delicate doll and shielding me from Jasper as if he were a criminal.

Jasper was out of the car and standing in front of Emmett, growling, before I could properly blink and take in my new position.

"Emmett," Jasper growled in annoyance and mock anger.

"If I hand her back, will you actually let her go inside? Everyone's kind of waiting."

Obviously Emmett had been the most impatient. Moment thoroughly ended by his meddling, I could only sigh and remind myself to revisit the moment when we were properly alone.

"Put me down, Emmett, we'll go inside now."

The next breath, I was in Jasper's arms instead as he easily made his way to the front door. The surprise came when I opened the door.

"Happy birthday, Maddy!" The loud chorused greeting and the party poppers raining confetti was not unexpected. The black, red, and gold streamers, balloons, candles, and roses decorating their huge living room, however, was very much unexpected. There was a table with black cloth draped over it by Edward's grand piano, displaying a mouthwatering assortment of small, gorgeous brownie cakes with varying toppings of powdered sugar, fudge, chocolate flakes, strawberries, raspberries, and chopped nuts, more roses, a small chocolate fountain with fruit to dip in it, and a sizeable pile of presents wrapped in gold with black or red ribbons.

I loved it. It looked my ideal birthday party decoration. But...

"We did this for you, Maddy. Just you," Jasper told me, brushing a kiss over my warm cheek. "We can clean up and decorate for your sister in three hours before she comes over, but for now we're celebrating your birthday."

I sniffled and swallowed back the tears threatening to fall. "You guys are super awesome," I managed to voice with minimal croaking.

Rosalie flipped her hair, the others smiling. "Of course we are," she sniffed as if I'd stated the obvious. Which, honestly, I totally did.

"I know presents usually go last, but I think you'll want to take your time looking through them than rushing because you're worried of running out of time to clean up everything," Jasper murmured as he set me down and led me to the presents.

"But - but, chocolate," I whined piteously, whimpering low in my throat when he moved me past the table of delicious goodies, pulling my hands back with a chuckle when I weakly reached for a brownie.

"You'll clean off the table soon enough, darlin'. Try enjoyin' your presents first."

"Oh! Oh! Me first!" Emmett lifted the largest wrapped present which was obviously a treasure chest from the shape and making me wonder why he bothered wrapping it before I remembered who I was thinking about. Of course he did, he's Emmett.

I snorted when he waggled his eyebrows, and pointedly made a show of taking out black cropped satin gloves from my back pocket and putting them on.

Rosalie scoffed when Emmett gave an exaggerated pout of hurt as I tore off the gold coin wrapping paper, the others chuckling at our dramatics. Humor was always a good way to mask more serious reasons. No need to reenact Bella's original birthday disaster.

I raised a brow at Emmett when I saw the keyhole in place of a lock or latch, inwardly very pleased and impressed at the dark leather, classic looking, treasure chest. He grinned and handed me a very large, very fancy looking gold key. My breathing stopped when I took in the weight of it.

"Please tell me this is not made entirely of real gold," I pleaded faintly.

"It's not made entirely of real gold," Emmett replied dutifully.

"Don't lie to me," I hissed.

"Well, do you want the truth or what you want to hear?" He retorted cheekily.

I groaned and put a hand over my eyes, trying to come to terms with the ridiculous thing I held in my hand.

"Just don't think about it, Maddy," I muttered in encouragement to myself as I unlocked the chest, ignoring the muffled laughter of my audience. I gasped at discovering the contents.

In the chest was a Cruella de Vil paradise; an assortment of rich, supple furs and leathers, treated to perfection.

"What..." For the second time today I was speechless.

"You're the one who told us that just burying the animals we suck dry was wasteful. Rosalie and Esme already have their own collections to do what they want with."

"You guys are seriously trying to make me cry, aren't you?" I huffed as I teared up again, lifting a ridiculously soft, large bear fur to my face. It hardly smelled at all, no gross smells at least.

Don't get me wrong, I am completely against hunting animals solely for their fur, but the Cullens had to hunt to live and while I honestly wouldn't have cared if they fed on humans, it was their choice to be vegetarian. What I did have a problem with was them just burying the poor things after draining them of blood. It's not like they didn't have the time or means to learn how to use all of it to some effect, whether to use or sell somewhere. I just found it a bit disrespectful to discard their bodies like that and they obviously didn't mind my opinion if this present was any indication.

"You're welcome," Emmett grinned smugly, obviously quite pleased with himself.

"Yeah, yeah, move over Nimrod, it's my turn," Rosalie shoved a sputtering Emmett away, ignoring when he sulked, and handed me a smaller rectangular chest. When I ripped off the gold filigree wrapping paper it revealed a dark stained wood chest with a golden latch and a beautiful rose design carved on the front.

When opened its cream satin-lined contents revealed an intricate black, gold, and white 18th century ball gown encrusted with hundreds of little crystals and gems I couldn't even pretend weren't real considering who it was from.

"I know how much you like historically accurate clothes pieces. This is just one of a whole wardrobe of clothes I made or bought from around the world for you to play dress up with Jasper," Rosalie smirked. I knew that meant I had a new collection of lingerie through the ages to match somewhere.

"Does that mean Jasper has a dress up closet now too?" I asked.

"Of course! What's the point of my gift if it's not a matching set?" She replied haughtily.

"May I go next?" It was Esme's turn to carefully hand me a present wrapped in gold damask paper. It was heavy and felt breakable so I opened it carefully. I swallowed loudly at the sight.

It was a sizeable jewelry box of gold metal and stained glass with a gorgeous black and violet swallowtail butterfly design on the lid. Inside was an assortment of delicate, elegant jewelry pieces of varying gems and metals.

"I designed everything for you myself," Esme confessed shyly. Jasper easily put the gift aside so I could hug her with all the meager strength I could muster.

"It's a priceless gift, Esme. I'll treasure every piece," I whispered shakily.

"I suppose it's my turn," Carlisle mused, handing me the smallest, lightest gift so far wrapped in gold feather patterned paper. Ripping the paper revealed a luxurious black leather scrapbook embossed with Celtic designs and inside...inside were what could be nothing but the legitimate pages of sketches of Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh interspersed with sketches drawn by Carlisle himself of landscapes and scenes lost to history, forever changed by the modernization wrought from progress.

"I...I have no words," I choked out, rubbing my eyes before the tears could fall.

Jasper handed me my last gift, heavier than Esme's in my lap, a box wrapped in pretty crumpled gold foil paper. Out of the box I struggled to lift an octagonal chest made to look like dark stone, a lying dragon carved on the top and surrounded by gothic designs. Lifting the lid made my limbs numb with shock. Were it not for vampire reflexes, my gift would already require a replacement lid. Inside the cushy lined box was an embarrassment of riches; gems, crystals, and precious metals. All of them curiously egg shaped though of varying sizes. A handful of certain sizes were set in rings, bracelets, or necklaces but the rest were simply egg shaped treasures, many of them different kinds of opals.

I burst out laughing at recalling how I'd told him months ago my favorite gem and why.

"You- you got me dragon eggs for my birthday!" I managed to breath out between hysterical laughter. Apparently, he'd told the others why he'd gotten her such a strange gift since they laughed with her. "I cannot believe you guys!" I huffed as I wiped away tears and stared at their gifts, overwhelmed.

Just guessing at the insane value of their individual gifts was liable to give me a heart attack and I somewhat understood why Bella was so mortified at the idea at getting crazy expensive gifts, but rather than needlessly worry about skewed reciprocation(healthy relationships are not about giving expensive material objects or favors with the expectation of getting another material object of equal value), I was just more frantic at how easily they spent their money or gave away invaluable objects, but that only meant I hadn't understood the true scope of how immaterial the Cullens wealth was to them.

A small part of me wanted to protest, but the bigger part of me knew I was aiming for forever with Jasper so it'd be better for me to adjust to their expenditure, at least, before I marry into their coven and turn because the way they use money is not going to change anytime soon with how much of it they probably have as a coven, nevermind individually.

"You like it," Jasper gave that heart-stopping roguish grin.

"That's the biggest understatement I've ever heard," I mock scowled. "How the hell am I supposed to top this with the future presents I give you all?!" I demanded. "Shocking and awing people silent is supposed to be my thing," I complained.

Of course, they all laughed at me.

"Should we take back our presents, then?" Carlisle offered, humoring me.

I literally hissed at him like a pissed cat and hoarded Jasper's heavy gift closer to me, as if to shield it with my body.

"How dare you suggest such blasphemy?" I whispered as if he had spoken the most horrendous sin, the most unspeakable insult anyone could imagine.

Jasper coughed into one hand to poorly disguise his laughter. It would have been fairly convincing if I didn't know vampires didn't need to cough, or even breath.

"Relax, mama dragon, no one's gonna try to take your presents," Emmett was the one laughing the loudest. "Seriously, though, you're hilarious."

"It's a gift, really," posing like a diva, tone full of pomp. A few moments of silence was all I could take before the temptation was too much to resist. "Can I eat the chocolate buffet now?"

Honestly, with how easy, how often, I made the Cullens laugh it was hard to see them as these paradigms of perfection, as these all mighty immortal beings beyond human understanding. The way Bella described them, they seemed like an asshole race, but I refuse to believe anyone with a stick up their ass can have such a bright, healthy sense of humor.

Monsters, they say. Please.

"So I heard your sister's procrastinating her arrival by watching Romeo & Juliet," Rosalie commented, idly spinning a white rose between her fingers.

"Ye~s?" I stretched out the word, wondering where she was going with this.

"Well, I just happen to set aside some matching 14th century clothes downstairs. I think there's enough time to play out maybe one scene from the play ourselves, say...act II scene I?" Rosalie suggested none too subtly.

I couldn't help the excited grin that took up half my face while Jasper grimaced beside me.

"I am not wearing tights," Jasper immediately refused. While I wouldn't push Jasper into wearing tights for my sake(or at all, ever), I was disappointed at not being able to act out one of the play's most famous scene with him in full costume.

"Relax," Rosalie brushed aside his worry and my disappointment easily, "I touched up your costume so it's not too colorful or frilly, and no tights," she promised.

"Then I see no issue with getting dressed for our roles," Jasper smirked. I squeaked when he suddenly picked me up and ghosted me away to his rooms. In the open space of the living room were two dressed mannequins that obviously shared our body measurements and were dressed in the promised upper class 14th century costumes I could easily imagine in a Shakespearean play.

"Best birthday ever," I whispered, sniffling a bit as I gently ran my hands over my Juliet outfit.

"And to think," Jasper moved to press himself to my back, wrapping his arms around my waist and pressing a kiss to my head, "It's not even over yet."

By the time Edward and Bella arrived, all my gifts were safely stowed away in Jasper's car to be taken back to my house, along with my sweets, and my personalized decorations were switched with Bella's own. Far less grand than her own, considering Bella's utter lack of festive spirit regarding anything, the streamers and balloons were gone, the many candles and roses switched out with only a handful of yellow and white candles and a bowl or two of pink, yellow, and white roses while the black cloth of the table had been replaced with a white one and on it were displayed a gorgeous yellow rose frosted cake, more roses tastefully placed, a stack of glass plates, and a small pile of silver-wrapped presents.

Despite being very toned down from my own decorations and the 'canon' ones as well, Bella still looked upon them with a, frankly insulting, look of utter anguish. The mood firmly set by that one expression, the Cullens became reserved, cautious, treated Bella as though she was glass. I wish I could say this was something new, but it was hardly that. Bella had always held the Cullens(Edward included) to some higher standard because of what they were. While it was great that she didn't look down on them or vilify them as irredeemable monsters, glorifying and romanticiszing them to being something more than 'merely human', 'perfection incarnate', honestly wasn't much better in my opinion.

In the end, being vampires didn't make them less 'people' than they were when they had been human. Of course being turned had changed them, down to their species, but that didn't mean they didn't stem from the same roots as everyone else; a mother and father, a family, a life. Their turn only meant a significant life change, obviously more severe and more difficult to handle than most humans would ever have to deal with, but still similar enough to other situations to be relatable, not close to wholly alien, and it wasn't something that couldn't be overcome. The Cullens were proof enough of that. Maybe they weren't completely whole anymore, broken as they were by events in their life that couldn't be stopped or prevented, but it's not like humans were much better. I'd consider it more rare to find someone who hadn't been broken by life at one point or another(what sheltered, privileged, lucky little shits.)

Anyway, the point was, thanks to Bella's weird inferiority complex and her skewed perception that vampires were the pinnacle of evolutionary perfection(I mean, honestly), she had this very obvious, very awkward attitude/behavior towards them that was only worsened by her usual stubborn petulance and misplaced sense of obligation and shame towards most things. She thought the Cullens were these distant, perfect beings and she an insignificant human, not realizing it was she herself placing this insurmountable obstacle between them with her unsubtle behavior.

Not that the Cullens entirely minded, they were far too used to various human reactions for them to mind Bella putting them on pedestals, but that didn't make it alright. Not that I was doing anything about it. Why would I, with how stubborn and 'I know I'm right' Bella usually is? Hopefully, she'd understand the more time she spent with them and that she'd be used to it soon - preferable before she was tur-

"Madeleine!" My eyes snapped to Edward who was standing in front of me with a brown paper and twine package in his hand, his gold eyes narrowed at me.

Jasper gave a low growl in response to the slight provocation, inaudible to me if I hadn't been pressed back to his chest to feel it. The exchange was nothing new when we were around each other. Edward would snoop in my idle thoughts, hear something he didn't like, frown in disapproval in my direction and I would respond by scowling or sneering back while Jasper openly glared, hissed, or growled at his little brother to back the fuck off. Boys, honestly.

"You say something?" I asked, seeing how it looked like he'd been trying to get my attention for a bit and only raised his voice a bit when my thoughts got too unsavory for him.

"I'd been informed you already opened the rest of your gifts, and decided it best to present mine." He smiled teasingly at my sister who was pressed to his side, expression resigned, "and give Bella a little more time to delay the inevitable."

I took the gift with no little amount of caution and opened it slowly, carefully. I gasped at what lay inside.

"I-is this..." I stammered, seeming to amuse Edward greatly as he smirked at me tauntingly.

"A signed first edition of The Satanic Bible? Yes."

All the vampires winced when I suddenly squealed with joy, hugging the gift to my chest. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" I hopped up and down, too ecstatic to keep it in. "I can't believe you found this! Do you have any idea how much I wanted this?!" I was happy enough to feel a little lightheaded with the emotion.

Jasper, ever attentive to my moods, placed a cautionary arm around my waist.

"You...actually like it?" Edward murmured, entirely baffled.

"Of course! Didn't I mention these were the kinds of books I read when I first talked to you guys at school? I thought that's why you got it for me."

"I thought you were joking!"

"This was supposed to be a gag gift!" I laughed. "Either way, it's awesome! Thank you!"

Edward only sighed in, dare I say, fond exasperation and responded. "Your real gift is waiting on a shelf in Jasper's rooms. It's a vintage collection of books on Myths and Legends from around the world."

"Really, Edward, thank you," I told him sincerely. "They're wonderful, thoughtful gifts."

Jasper gave another, sudden, inaudible growl. Judging by the narrow eyed look he was giving Bella and her own weak 'uncaring' look, she had been jealous of the gifts her boyfriend had given me, despite claiming to not want any gifts at all.

I was surprised to see that Edward briefly squeezed Bella's arm in a way that could be construed as both placating and a warning to behave herself.

"Well!" I clapped my hands together after carefully setting aside the precious book. "Now that Bell-Bell's here, it's her turn to open presents!"

Bella poorly hid her grimace and squared her shoulders to 'bravely' approach the small pile of presents - with a discreet nudge from Edward obviously.

"Oh!" Bella paused from where she was reluctantly reaching for the closet package, the others all turning to look at me as well. "Mine first! Here!" I all but shoved them in her hands, admittedly a bit anxious.

Bella looked wide eyed at the item in her hands. It was only a pair of leather gloves, though they were of nice quality; thin, smooth tan with ridiculously soft lining.

"Try them on!" I urged with a bright smile.

"Why? You know they fit so it's pointless. Besides I'm about to open the other presents," she argued with a small frown.

"Then just open the presents with them on," I insisted with an impatient huff. "I want to see how they look on you!" I threw out an excuse, hoping she'd just listen to me for once.

"For what?" No dice. "They're just gloves. And with your gift, you should already know how they look on me."

"Can you please just put them on for at least the next ten minutes?" I asked in frustrated exasperation, biting the inside of my cheek when I obviously leaked out too much frustration in my voice when Bella narrowed her eyes in suspicion at me.

"Why are you so insistent on this?" She demanded. "Did you have a vision or something?"

I felt a purposeful, strong jab at my meager human mental defences then and unwillingly a snippet of what could have happened slipped to the forefront of my mind before I shifted my thoughts to inane things. But the damage was done, it was too late to stop him from seeing-

"Jasper nearly kills Bella over a paper cut?!" Edward growled loudly, angrily as he was suddenly in a defensive crouch before her.

I glared incredulously at Edturd for what he just blurted out while everyone else froze, Jasper himself looking quite pained from what he'd just heard.

"Emmett, punch Edward," I demanded with icy calm. The next second, Edward crashed to the ground from not one but two punches to the head. Seems Rosalie decided to use the opportunity as well.

Only another scant second passed and Edward was back on his feet, glaring daggers at Rosalie, Emmet, and I and growling non-stop.

"Did any of you ever even consider just how deeply Jasper's gift affects him?" My voice soft with restrained fury.

"How do you mean, Madeleine?" Carlisle asked, equally cautious and curious.

"It seems to me that you all only believe in the most basic definition of his abilities, that being someone capable of feeling emotions that are not their own. But it's far more than that," I hissed before physically restraining myself and taking a deep breath to calm down a little. "Rather than emotions, what Jasper can sense are feelings, a small but incredibly significant difference."

"I don't get it," Emmet said loudly. "Aren't they the same thing?"

I took another deep breath, unable to believe that I had to explain this to vampires decades older than me. Hadn't any of them ever taken even a basic psychology class? Carlisle must have, right?!

"Emotions are generally classified as concepts like joy and sorrow, love and hate, pleasure and anger. Feelings can describe those emotional states but they also cover physical ailments," I explained slowly, as if to dimwits. "Feeling sick; dizziness, nausea, pain. Feeling tired; being numb, sore, sleepy. Feeling hungry."

Ah, at last my lecture seemed to be clicking.

"To feel the hunger and thirst of hundreds of humans on a regular basis might not be so dire as human feelings don't seem as strong to you as your own kind, but a coven of vampires whose diet has them in a constant state of unsatisfied thirst..." I trailed off as the dawning horror eclipsed all their faces, quickly morphing to deep awe and respect as they turned to a stunned Jasper.

"It's beyond a miracle that Jasper hasn't snapped once since he joined us!" Emmet blurted what they were all likely thinking.

"No, it's thanks to Jasper's incredible control that he hasn't," I refuted strongly. "You all praise Edward for not losing it over his singer, for seeming to have more control over his thirst than even Carlisle, but Jasper has to deal with not only his own thirst but Edward's and the rest of yours as well. Almost 24/7." I couldn't help but turn a frown onto Carlisle. "I can't say I'm not upset that you especially never noticed this, Carlisle. You are meant to be their coven leader their father, but in this case, in both respects, you have failed Jasper."

Bella sucked in a sharp breath at my calm reprimand, the vampires not breathing at all, shocked silent by my recriminations.

I merely waited to see who would speak first into the stunned quiet. I wasn't at all surprised at who it turned out to be.

AN: I'm aliiiiiiive! Relax, my peeps. As long as I'm not dead, I would never leave you hanging! I should probably warn you again that I am horrendous at keeping deadlines. Truth be told I already had around 5k written by the time I said I'd update(which was sometime in March, I believe?), but I just couldn't find the will to eke out those last 2k words to wrap it up. And ending it on a cliffie! Not my intention since I'm not that great at them but just turned out that way, hope you don't mind as I don't know when I'll update next, lol!

I am sorry about taking so long, though I don't think it was as long as it took me to update between chapter 8 and 9 of the first book(I think it hit almost two years or more before I added ch 9 and kept going), but life and depression like to sucker punch me in the gut. I recently got a new job, then another one(two jobs) a month or two later and only recently got used to the early hours and lack of free, relaxing me time. Upside is that it fired up the muse in me to write as a way to escape reality! So hopefully you'll be seeing the next chapter before the year is over(I've learned better than to make promises at this point.)

Anyway! On to the story notes!:

*I'm just referring to 'bum', unnecessarily bringing attention to Jasper's use of slang from his human years because I always feel like it's awkward or forced the few times I sneak it in there and feeling the need to explain myself...

**I can't find this on tumblr and my YouTube isn't working so just...look up Happy Birthday My darling- Carl Smith on YouTube if you're really interested in what it sounds like?

-*her outfit, as usual, will be on madsper dot tumblr dot com for those interested

*-Jasper's poem is actually an original work, so, you know, I mean, I'm the one who wrote it. Hope it's not too terrible... ,°(~,~)`•

I sincerely thank all my loyal readers for their utmost patience and hope I have done your expectations justice. As always, thank you for reading my story and reviews are most welcome. Until next time!

,(^o^)/