A/N at bottom, per usual :)

Now That You're Here

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"Buddy the elf, what's your favorite color?"

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Chapter Seventeen

Christmas Cookies

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The Waiting Game, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is a strategy in which one or more participants withhold an action temporarily in the hopes of having a favorable opportunity for a more effective action later on. However the waiting game I find myself in doesn't seem to have a favorable outcome.

Here I am, in my twenties, playing a child's game, with adult consequences. What in the hell was I thinking?

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

"You okay there Bella?" The voice breaks through my silent revery.

I blink more times than acceptable for a rational human being, and answer intelligibly "huh? Uhm… yes!" Ahh... four years of higher education at work folks.

Alice and Rosalie share a look that makes me frown.

"What?"

"Are you sure?" Rosalie asks again.

"Yeah you seem kind of out of it." Alice agrees.

I shrug, turning back to the task at hand. The very messy task at hand. Of baking sugar cookies and decorating them horribly. I mean to be honest, no one decorates cookies for decoration, they decorate it with as much icing as humanly possible. The more icing the better I say.

"Uh… you wanna talk about it?" Alice nudges my shoulder, interrupting my attempt at creating a Santa hat. Icing goes halfway across two other cookies.

I turn slowly, icing bag raised in self defense. "Did you see what you just made me do?"

Alice glances at the icing bag, then at the cookies, before looking back at the icing bag. She raises her hands in surrender. "It was an accident, I swear."

"I don't know if I believe her." Rosalie says, reaching for the bag of flour on the table. She clutches it tightly, as if she is the one being threatened by the pipe icing.

"What?" Alice almost screeches. She reaches for the giant container of sprinkles, brandishing it threateningly between the two of us.

Rosalie and I share a look, pointing our kitchen weapons towards her.

"You have two options," I say, "you can surrender or you can surrender."

Alice raises the sprinkles menacingly. "Never."

"If you mess up this kitchen there will be hell to pay." We all turn at the sound of Carlisle striding into the room. "Although from the looks of it, you guys aren't that far away from that."

"Hey, I didn't start this." Alice shrugs, slyly placing the container of sprinkles back on the counter.

Carlisle raises one single brow, the look saying more than words ever could. Rosalie and I watch as Alice's look turns to indigent outrage.

"I didn't-" She starts, buts stops when he raises his hands in an appeasing manner.

"It doesn't matter who started it, but when I said there will be hell to pay, I mean you will have Emse's wrath to face, not mine." Carlise says, "Although I think it would be very interesting to watch you girls get into trouble."

I laugh, earning a side smile from him, and lay my icing back on the table. "Don't worry Carlisle, we'll clean up before anyone is the wiser."

He walks out of the room, but no sooner have I spoken, then Emmett and Edward walk into the kitchen. Emmett whistles. "Did we miss the war? Who fired first, Aliceland or Roseworld?"

"Har har har," Alice leers, reaching for the sprinkles before thinking twice and setting it back on the counter. She slaps his hand away when he reaches for a cookie.

"Ow! What the hell. Isn't the point of Christmas to be about giving and sharing?"

"Sharing?" Rosalie gives an incredulous laugh. "When we stopped for lunch on the way up here, you ordered two large fries. Two! And you refused to let Edward or myself have any."

"Well they weren't Christmas fries."

Rosalie gives him a look that would make most men whither and die. Emmett merely shrugs and stares her in the eye as he slowly reaches for the cookies again. This time it's Rosalie who smacks his hand away.

With a spatula.

"Damnit woman!" He shrieks, cradling his hand to his chest. "Fine. Fine. Guess I'll just starve to death," he grumbles, looking to Edward for help.

"Don't look at me. You brought this on yourself." Edward grins. "Besides, I just watched you wolf down two chicken sandwiches."

"Let me guess, Christmas sandwiches?" I say, biting my lip to keep from laughing.

"No," Edward says, "he would have been forced to share them if they were Christmas sandwiches. They were just his monday afternoon snacks."

"Not even Christmas Eve Eve sandwiches?" I laugh.

"Those come later," Emmett says, jovial mood returning full force.

"Well you can have your Christmas Cookies later tonight when we give them to everybody." Rosalie says, "and not a minute sooner."

Emmett holds his hands up in surrender, walking backwards out of the room. "I see how it is. I see how it is."

The minute he's out of the room, I reach for a cookie and take a bite.

"What happened to waiting?" Edward says, still smiling.

"Hey, I helped make the cookies, I'm above the rules." I say between bites. Like my own personal backup dancers, Alice and Rosalie both nod their heads in agreement and take a cookie.

Edward reaches for a cookie and I grab his hand to stop him. But the minute my hand touches his, I drop it like a hot iron. I can't explain why I reacted such away, but I can see the moment he reacts to my actions. He blinks several times, as if trying to clear his mind. His smile wans, losing it's boyish charm, and he drops his hand, as if it too was being burnt.

I do the only thing I can think of the remedy this declining situation. I reach out and hand him a cookie. "Don't tell Emmett."

And just like that, I stopped a mini disaster from taking control.

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xXx

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After dinner, Emmett is finally able to get his cookies and eat them too. Everyone manages to get at least one cookie before Emmett descends upon them.

Esme and Carlisle surprise Rosalie, Emmett, and Alice with an early Christmas present and then Emse turns to Edward and I, who sit on opposite ends of the long sofa. "Although you two are last minute additions to our Christmas festivities, Edward more so than you dear Bella, I have a gift for you both as well." And she hands us each identical size boxes wrapped in silver snowflake paper.

We all tear into our presents a moment later, and we each received our own set of pajamas. Emmett and Rosalie's were a matching red and green flannel set, Alice's a concoction of bright pink silk, and mine was a grey and blue set, made of the softest material I'd ever felt. And Edward's looked exactly like mine.

If we wore them, we'd look like a couple.

"I know yours and Bella's match, Edward, but they were the nicest ones I could find on such short notice, and they're both just so soft!" Esme gushes.

"It's perfect," I say truthfully. "I love it. Thank you so much, that was very thoughtful of you."

"Yes, thank you." Edward says, stroking the material between his fingers.

"Are you sure you don't mind? I can exchange them later if you'd like."

"No, it's fine. Bella and I, we're… well- we're…" he trails off.

"We're friends." I finish. "Nothing wrong with having a matching set between friends." Who knew pajamas could make me a liar?

Rosalie raises one perfect brow. Really, she seems to say.

I raise my brow back. Do you have any better ways to clarify us?

She shakes her head slightly, as if reading my mind, and changes our mental conversation. "It doesn't matter what any of you say, Emmett and I have the best set of pajamas."

"What?" Alice squeaks indignantly. "Did you see what they gave me?" She holds it up, as if none of had seen her bright pink, look at me, pajamas.

"Yeah, and your point?" Emmett says. "It's got nothing to do with Christmas! How does it count? Aren't our pajamas supposed to be Christmas?"

"I got them for Christmas! How are they not Christmas?" She argues.

"Since when is pink a Christmas color?" Edward chimes in.

"Oh like you're one to talk, Mr. grey and blue pajamas." Alice sticks out her tongue.

"I mean they kind of are." I argue. "I've seen lots of Christmas decorations with silver tinsel and blue garland around."

"But no one thinks of grey and blue and goes- oh yeah, Christmas!" Alice says.

"Yeah because they think of red and green!" Rosalie says, high fiving Emmett.

"So we can all agree that Rosalie and Emmett are the most Christmas-y and Alice is the least Christmas-y?" Edward says.

"Hey!" Alice shouts at the same moment there is a chorus of "Yes."

"What about yours and Bella's then?" Alice crosses her arms.

Edward and I share a conspiratorial look. 'Yeah those," I say, "those are just pajamas."

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I wanted to name this chapter: "Is that an icing bag, or are you just happy to see me?' but that was just a little bit too long lol.

Short and sweet chapter, but it was fun to write! I wanted a little less tension this time around. Suggestions, comments, praise and a million dollars? Well maybe not that last one, but thank you guys for helping my story to reach over 200 reviews! YAYAYAYAYAY! Super exciting and I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support and kind words. You guys are wonderful, thank you! XXO