AN: This story was written for runningsissors in theair_thesun fic exchange on livejournal. The poem used in the section breaks comes from a tumblr post that I will link to in my profile as soon as links are working again. Huge thanks go out to grrlinterrupted for doing the beta work on this story!

Warning: Contains sexual content.

Spiders

I

"I will kill the spiders. I will share my fries with you when you've finished all yours and are still hungry."

Jacob heard the scream while he was loading the dishwasher. The damn thing had been broken for three weeks and had finally made its way to the top of the 'Damn Things To Be Repaired in the Black House' list just the other day—only after Jacob had convinced his dad that, really, nothing could be done for their 18-year-old toaster, and the sparks shooting out of it had to be hazardous for the environment and, you know, contributing to the death of koalas in Peru. So Jacob was loading the dishwasher to show his dad how useful and fun it was to keep it functioning and feeling very accomplished about it, when all of the sudden this…shriek came from the back of the house.

Of course Jacob's first thought was, 'Oh, no, I left a pair of scissors on my dresser; Bella probably knocked them onto the ground then fell on top of them, impaling herself on the pointy end,' which was actually a fairly rational fear to have. So he dropped the forks he was holding into the sink and sprinted out of the kitchen and down the hall to his bedroom, where the door was already standing open.

The first thing Jacob noticed was Bella standing on his bed. Well, that wasn't completely true. The first thing Jacob noticed was that Bella wasn't wearing any pants. Then he noticed she was on his bed. Without pants.

"Jacob!" She looked relieved when she saw him in the doorway but didn't move off the bed.

"What's going on?"

"There!" Bella flung out her arm in the direction of the bathroom. "It's in there."

"What is?"

"The spider."

Jacob blinked, looked at the closed bathroom door and then back to Bella. "What happened to your pants?"

Bella, as if suddenly remembering herself, blushed and tugged at the hem of her long t-shirt. "I…they're in there, too. I was going to the bathroom when the spider started crawling towards my feet. I panicked."

"So you sacrificed your pants." Jacob shook his head. "You know, the spider could always go under the bathroom door, right?"

Bella nodded. "That's why you need to get rid of it. Please, Jacob? Or it might crawl into your mouth while you're sleeping."

Jacob considered her for a long moment—definitely took the opportunity to check out her legs—and grinned. "You're really freaked out by this, aren't you?"

She groaned. "Jacob, can't you just—"

"Is it the legs? Those eight, spindly little—"

"Jake!"

"Just imagine it crawling all over you, moving it's furry little body—"

"Get it!" Bella howled, pointing to the bathroom. "You have to get it now!"

Chuckling, Jacob pretended to roll up his non-existent sleeves. "All right. All right. I'll take care of it. You know," Jacob said as he strode across the room, "my friends refer to me as 'the spider whisperer.'"

"No we don't."

"Well, you will after this."

"Just don't touch it with your hands," Bella cautioned with a shudder. "Take something to squish it with."

"Why would I 'squish' it?" Jacob asked, reaching for the jar of nuts and bolts on his dresser and dumping it out. "When I could save it as a snack for later?"

The look of horrified disgust she gave him then was so sincere, he wondered if she actually believed him. Her wide brown eyes pinned him where he stood. "Jacob Black, if you eat that spider, I'll tell every girl you ever like,"—she leaned toward him—"and you'll never get kissed again."

Jacob's breath caught somewhere in his chest, and he tried to laugh, but it came out as a choking sound. "Yeah, okay. I'll get rid of it, alright?"

He opened the bathroom and stepped inside. Bella's pants were by the toilet, and he picked them up and shook them out. Nothing. Glancing around the bathroom, he found no trace of the terrifying spider. Jacob sighed and flushed the toilet.

"Okay, Bells," he yelled. "It's gone."

A gentle thump and three seconds later, Bella's face appeared cautiously in the doorway. "Really?"

He held up the empty jar. "Really. But I'm afraid I've got some bad news."

"What?"

"I found it in your pants. I think it was, like, nesting in there. Might have even laid some eggs—"

Bella blanched and jumped back from offending item of clothing. "Uh, that's okay. I don't really need them right now. Why don't we just throw them in the washer with some of your stuff? I saw a bunch of dirty clothes…"

She retreated back into his room, leaving Jacob to smile to himself. "That sounds like a great idea."

II

"I won't ever pop my collar. I will never be rude to your tummy- when i hear it growl and gurgle, I promise to bend down and reply respectfully."

"Bells, I'm starving."

"Children in Africa are starving. You ate six waffles three hours ago." Bella brushed back the hair that had escaped from her ponytail and peered at the coat of yellow paint drying on the wall. La Push didn't get any more sun than Forks, so there wasn't much natural light coming in from the window. It made it hard to check for streaks.

"Woah. She just played the 'children in Africa' card." Quil shot Jacob a disparaging look from where he was sprawled out on the tarp-covered floor. "Are you sure you asked her to be your girlfriend and not your mom?"

Bella heard Jacob deliver a sharp kick to Quil's ribs and finally turned away from drying paint. "One more coat, I think."

The boys groaned in unison. Quil got to his feet. "I'm out of here."

"You said you'd help us finish," Jacob said but look rather envious as Quil made a beeline for the door.

"I did help." Quil shrugged unapologetically. "But I'm not the one with the slave-driver girlfriend who's looking to start a modern day Trail of Tears by starving Quileute children out of their homes. See ya."

Bella narrowed her eyes upon catching Jacob's wide smile. "He called me a slave driver. That's sort of offensive."

Jacob's smile didn't falter. "Yeah, but he also called you my girlfriend. Twice."

She shook her head but felt her own lips twitch into a smile. "I don't see what the big deal is."

"Okay. Sure. Play it cool. Nothing exciting about me being your boyfriend. Nothing at all."

"No, I only mean that we basically do the same things we did before."

"We didn't make out before."

Bella blushed and carefully set down her paintbrush on top of the open can just so she had an excuse to look somewhere else. "That's one thing."

"A pretty awesome thing."

Bella snorted but didn't disagree.

Of course, that only made Jacob smile even wider. "And I didn't get to call you my girlfriend before."

"You know, usually it's the girl who's obsessed with labels."

"Well, I think we can both agree that you're not exactly a 'usual' girl. You don't like shopping, and you don't go all crazy once a month—"

Bella gave him a wry look. "Thanks."

"—because you're crazy the whole month through." His fingers found her belt loops and gave a firm tug that sent her stumbling into his chest. "And you are sort of a slave driver. A cute one covered in paint, but still."

"Is it on my face?" Bella rubbed at her cheeks, checking for dried traces of the paint they'd been using to brighten up Sam and Emily's nursery. Emily wasn't due for another three months, but Bella knew she would feel better having the time-consuming task out of the way, and the guys weren't going to mobilize without some pushing.

"Nah. Just on your hands." He brushed his thumbs over the yellow patches crusted onto her knuckles and palms and then pressed them urgently to his stomach. "Listen," he said. "That is the sound of my body eating itself. If we keep going on like this, I may start to disintegrate before your very eyes. All six and a half feet of me. Gone. And on your conscience."

Bella bit back her grin and listened to the almost imperceptible rumbling beneath her hands. The Pack was always overdramatic when it came to getting fed. If one of them didn't get to consume an entire cow's worth of meat throughout the course of the day, it was a full-blown travesty. "Wow, you must be really hungry."

"Definitely reaching 'children in Africa' levels of starvation."

"And you've done so much hard work."

"Yeah. But anything for you, honey."

"You deserve a break."

"I am sort of tired."

"Can I get you something?"

Bella slipped her fingers beneath the hem of his shirt.

"Oh, um…"

"Something to eat?"

Her fingertips skimmed over warm skin.

"Er…yeah, because I'm…uh…"

"Hungry?"

She traced the line of fine hair to the waistband of his jeans.

He swallowed.

Bella pulled away with an innocent smile. "Then I'll go put a pizza in the oven."

III

"I will eat the mushrooms when we order the supreme pizza. I will kiss the papercuts. And the door-slammed finger. And the counter-bumped hip."

The door closed behind them with a noisy bang.

"Shhhh!"

"Sorry."

"Here. Just—"

"Ouch."

"What was—"

"Vacuum cleaner."

"In your laundry room?"

"This used to be the cleaning closet."

"Then where—"

"Jacob! Kiss me."

He didn't have to be told twice. Really, he didn't even need to be told once, but he liked it when she got all worked up. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and he ran his hands through it as she rose up on her toes to meet him. There wasn't much room to work with. He couldn't even lift an arm without knocking into a bottle of bleach.

But there.

The washing machine. Perfect.

He lifted her up onto it.

"Wait! It's open."

He watched her fumble in the darkness for the lid and then close it awkwardly while leaning to one side.

"Okay."

Jacob stepped up between her spread knees and kissed her again. Her hands slid around his chest and up his spine, pulling him closer until he was flush against her. He pushed her skirt up around her hips.

"Which pocket?" Bella asked against his lips.

"Back left. Other left."

A moment later he heard the sound of the packet ripping. Bella undid the buckle of his belt. "You'll have to do it. I can't see what I'm doing."

He took the condom from her, and immediately her hands went for his hair, curling it around her finger and tugging so his neck was closer to her mouth. Her tongue darted out over his skin and Jacob nearly lost his concentration.

"Jake," she drew out his name like a plea.

"Done." He drew her forward to the edge of the washing machine and her legs went around his hips.

"Don't rip my underwear."

"That happened once."

"Twice. And I—ohhhh." Bella's words fell away as Jacob began to move inside her.

He groaned into the space between her shoulder and neck.

"Be careful," Bella murmured. "If Charlie hears—"

"Can we not talk about your dad right now?" He adjusted his grip on her thighs. "Or any other time we're having sex?"

"Okay. Okay."

And if the washing machine started filling with water a few moments later, well, it was just that kind of night.

IV

"I'll try my hardest not to get annoyed when you whisper questions and comments during movies. I will be the big spoon. I will let you win at wrestling. Sometimes."

It was hot. The clouds had been hanging low all day, trapping the incurable Forks moisture in a blanket of sticky heat beneath the May sun. The air conditioning in the Rabbit wasn't working, so Bella leaned hallway out he open window as Jacob drove the familiar route to La Push. She could barely hear him over the wind whipping past her ears.

"What?"

"I said that I graduate in a week."

Bella turned her face to rest it on her arm. She smiled at him. "I know."

"So…I'll be a high school graduate, and you'll be a high school graduate…"

"And…"

His gaze slid over to her. "And it will be summer."

"Yes."

"So we should do something."

"Hm. Like fly fishing?"

"Ugh. No."

Bella raised an eyebrow at him while trying to keep her windblown hair out of her face. "You like fly fishing."

"Not with you." He shook his head. "When we get there, you always talk a lot like there's something exciting happening, but there's not. Fly fishing is the opposite of happening. And then when you can't pretend it's exciting anymore, you get sulky."

"I do not sulk."

"You pull out your book and you sulk. While reading. It's sort of impressive." He reached over to squeeze her knee, and Bella caught his fingers, lacing them through her own. It was the one kind of warmth she could always take more of. "Anyway, fly fishing is something I can do with my Dad. I'd rather do 'us' things."

"Give me an example."

"Like…watching Joss Whedon shows, eating food that you make, making lists of words Quil isn't allowed to use, setting up Embry on blind dates, taking road trips down the coast—"

Her eyebrows shot up. "Taking road trips is an 'us' thing?"

"It could be."

Bella sighed and looked back at the window. "I can't, Jake. I have work. And Charlie."

"Newton's? You work all the time. They owe you a week or two off."

"It's the busiest time of the year."

"What about that new guy who started working there?"

"Rick? He's awful."

"That shouldn't mean you don't get vacation time."

Bella was silent.

"And," Jacob continued, "Charlie is a 40-year-old man who lived on his own for 16 years before you moved in, and he didn't die once. He could survive a few days without you."

"I don't think he'd like the idea of us doing a roadtrip on our own."

"He trusts me to keep you safe."

"You know that's not what I mean."

"We're adults. Charlie doesn't have to approve of what we do."

"I just…"—she tossed her hands in the air—"…it's not a good time, okay?"

She was relieved when Jacob dropped the subject, and they drove the rest of the way to La Push in silence.

V

"Other times I will not. I will go faster. Harder. I will pull when you want."

"You told me you applied."

"No. I told you I had looked at the application, which I did."

Jacob stared at her across the table. She was looking down at her plate while meticulously cutting her grilled chicken into tiny pieces. Beside them, Charlie and Billy shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

Jacob put down his fork. "Why didn't you apply?"

"I want to save some more money."

"You've been saving for over two years."

"College is expensive, Jake."

He looked to Charlie, who shrugged and shook his head. Jacob sat back in his chair. "That's complete crap, and you know it."

Bella's head whipped up, and he was hit with the full force of her wide brown eyes. "Excuse me?"

"This has nothing to do with money. You just can't stand the idea of leaving for Forks for more than 24 hours."

"That's not true."

"When was the last time you visited Renee?"

Bella looked away. "Phil's been busy. There hasn't been a good time, and I'm trying to save."

"For a college you never plan on going to?"

"That's not fair. I'm just not ready yet—"

"They're not coming back, Bella!"

The silence was like a shocked scream. Bella was looking at Jacob as if he had pulled a gun from his pocket and shot her. Everyone had stopped eating, and there was no movement save for the subtle flickering of the light bulb above the sink.

Billy cleared his throat. "Charlie, you, want to, uh, show me that new ammo you were talking about? In the garage?"

Charlie looked back and forth between Jacob and Bella, sighed, and got to his feet. "Sure. The ammo. Right."

Jacob felt nervous as his dad and Charlie evacuated the room. Bella was not a frightening person, but she was an important one—the important one—and in general he preferred to avoid moments like these, which made their relationship seem precarious. But some things were worth pushing for.

"What do you mean?" Bella asked once they were alone, hand tightly clutching her glass of water on the table.

He took a deep breath. "The Cullens aren't coming back to Forks. Ever."

"I know that."

"Edward's not coming back."

"I know. I'm not—I don't…" Elbows on the table, she dropped her face into her hands. "But what if he does? He won't, but what if he does, just once, and I'm not here?"

"You want him to come back."

"Jake." Her eyes were shiny with tears that didn't fall. "Not like that. I just need to talk to him. I need him to explain or apologize or…just make sense."

"Bella…"

"What? You're going to tell me he's a vampire, so I shouldn't expect something like that? Well, I am human, Jake, and I need closure. I deserve that, don't I? You've made me want so many things I didn't want before we became friends, and this is one of those things."

Jacob pushed his chair back and got up. He circled around the table, grabbing Charlie's vacated chair and pulling it up next to Bella's. As he sat down, he took her hands between his. "If it's really that important to you, then we'll hunt him down. Together. Because otherwise you're not going to see him if he doesn't want you to."

She shook her head. "That's sweet of you to offer, but I wouldn't know where to begin looking."

He leaned in to kiss her cheek. "Then it looks like we'll be taking that road trip after all."

VI

"And tease you when you don't."

Bella handed Jacob her suitcase and he took it with one hand, weighing it.

"That's it?"

"Yep."

"We could be gone for a while, you know."

"I know. I packed an extra toothbrush."

"This feels lighter than two toothbrushes."

Bella hip-checked him, and Jacob had the decency to fake a sideways stumble as she continued to the car. Peering in the Rabbit's window, she saw the backseat crammed with over-stuffed bags. "Holy crow. Did you pack your entire room?"

"Don't worry," Embry said as he and Quil came out the Blacks' front door with a bag each, "two of those suitcases are just filled with condoms, so they shouldn't be taking up space for very long." They tossed the luggage into the trunk—the only place there was still room.

"Oh, that reminds me." She turned back to Jacob. "I was thinking we should make this a road trip of abstinence."

Jacob looked horrified. Beside him, Embry and Quil started cackling. "A road trip of what?"

"Abstinence. No sex. So we can focus on the less physical side of our relationship."

Jacob blinked at her once and then twice, as if awaiting further clarification. "Are you serious?"

Bella took his hand and smiled. "Come on. It'll be fun."

As she led him to the car door, Quil snickered. "Geeze, man. Guess that means you won't be needing suitcase number four or number five."

"And that would make the contents of number seven pretty pointless." Embry grinned. "I guess we could replace them with board games or some of Quil's M-A-G-A-Z-I-N-E-S."

Rolling her eyes, Bella helped a still-shocked Jacob in the driver's seat. "I know how to spell 'magazines.'" She closed the car door and walked over to where Quil and Embry were loitering. "I'm sure they're all National Geographic."

"B-E-S-T-I-A-L-I-T—"

"We'll miss you guys." Stretching up onto her tip-toes Bella hooked her arms around both of their necks and squeezed until they moved to hug her back.

"How long are you gonna make him sweat it out?" Embry whispered in her ear.

"It'll give him something to think about until we hit Idaho."

VII

"I will send you random texts and leave you silly gifts. Not always. Not on schedule. Just Whenever I want to. Whenever I think you need one. Or seven."

Took a picture of you drooling against the window. Saving it for blackmail.

no apples. doritos okay?

He smells like beer and wax. Save me!

save yourself. too tired to move. lying in fecal position.

shit. FETAL position.

Shit. Lol.

minnesota had better vending machines and speed limits.

I'm pregnant.

Just kidding! Haha.

good one!

Lilo and Stitch or Sherlock Holmes?

batman forever.

if i send dirty texts to you, is there a way for charlie to see them?

VIII

"I will check your tire pressure. And remind you to take your car in."

Bella straightened when Jacob reappeared through the trees, fastening the button of his shorts. She tossed him his shirt as he stepped over the guardrail. "Well?"

Jacob thrust his arms through the sleeves. "I could only communicate with the alpha."

"How many were there?"

"Five." His head poked through the top. "Apparently most of them have already stopped phasing. Vampires don't come through here often enough."

Bella sighed. "Then they haven't—"

"But there's a large coven living about 20 miles north of here. On the coast. They haven't entered the pack's territory, so there hasn't been a confrontation. They've been there for seven months. Sounds like it could be them."

Bella looked at the sun but then shielded her eyes with a raised hand because it was so bright.

Jacob had finished dressing. "You want to go today?"

When she looked at the paved road, it was spotted with bright bursts of colors that rippled and faded before her eyes. Purple. Green. Blue. Red. Black.

"The front right tire is low." She kicked it with her heel.

"Yeah…"

Circling the car under Jacob's probing stare, she inspected the other three tires. They were fine, and she wasn't sure what to say.

Jacob filled the silence for her. "Why don't we get something to eat? Go to the gas station. Find somewhere to sleep."

Bella was already getting back into the car. "That sounds good. I'm hungry."

IX

"I will hold your hand."

Jacob sat and watched the waves roll in and break against the sand. It was the wrong beach. No driftwood and not enough rock. There were clouds though, thick gray swabs of color that had been hiding the sun for the last week. He could barely remember what it had felt like on his fur as he approached the local pack in the woods—the first time he had phased in almost a month.

He felt like phasing now. It was an itch just below his skin, and he thought Bella's name over and over and over until her remembered why he was there.

There was a noise behind him and to the left. Clumsy footfalls on stone. They belonged to Bella, and Jacob turned to watch her stumble out onto the sand from the artificial steps that led up to the oversized beach house. She'd been gone for two hours.

Jacob stood, but Bella didn't notice. Her eyes were on the horizon as she kept walking forward toward the ocean. Half way there she staggered and dropped towards the ground as if struck, collapsing in on herself until she was crouching on her toes, arms huddled around her knees.

Jacob was at her side a moment later, but she was already moving again. She shot forward like a coiled spring let fly, and she chased away the distance between her and the murky blue of the water until it was splashing up over her sneakers and darkening the denim of her shorts. She ran until she had to walk and wade through the choppy waves more slowly. When she was waist-deep, she stopped.

This time, Jacob approached her slowly. He followed the ripples of her wake and the scent of vampire until he was two feet away. Her body swayed with the current, but she was not weightless, and Jacob took her hand.

X

"I will love you. I will love you. I will love you."

They whispered to each other as the patches of light fell across their faces.

- fin -