Hello all! Please forgive me for not updating my other fanfictions but lately I have had a piece of irritating writer's block . but I started this for a friend and was hoping it would get me into the feeling of wanting to write again and it did for now at least, so hopefully tomorrow (or after Sunday the latest) I will be able to update the other fanfictions I have and this writer's block will be gone.

This is a fanfiction about Sulpicia and Aro, I hope you all enjoy it! It starts out when she is human and when he first finds her to when he turns her and they become mates. Rated Teen for possible scenes and language.

Castle Of Hearts

Chapter One- Sulpicia

1327 BC

Volterra, Italy

The young woman carried two water buckets back to the home in which she currently resided in. "Sulpicia! Vieni presto!"

A sigh left the lips of the eighteen year old Sulpicia. She was an orphan since birth and was grown and treated like one. She was a simple girl, standing at 5' 6" with powder like skin. She had long dark hair that went to the bottom of her back, it lay in a natural wave and left a slight frizziness to it.

Sulpicia had blue eyes and a narrowed face, she sometimes would give you 'happy' looks but in truth she wasn't anything of the kind. She always felt she should have been in the riches, in the upper classes of life instead of being forced to work with the lower classes.

The long dress she wore clung against her legs, the fabric being soaked through with the water that surrounded the well behind the shack of a stoned home she stayed in. She wanted so badly to leave, but with nothing to use or anyone who would take her as a wife she was out of options. She stepped through the arch way of the backdoor to the home and set the buckets down on the floor and wiped her hands against her slightly ripped and thin dress.

The old man whom watched over her and a few of her other orphaned "family" was sitting at the chair with wooden cups he had lined up on the about broken down table in front of him. There were six in total whom lived in the home that barely fit four. The man and woman of the home separated the girls and the boys from one side of a small room to the other, having a sheet hung up between them.

There was only one other who was claimed as an "orphan" who was a year older than her with no where else to go. He was someone she barely cared to pay any attention to, he worked nearby but earned barely anything to live on for himself so he'd give whatever he earned to the old man.

"It is about time Sulpicia." The old man gave a huff of annoyance in her direction. This caused her to send him an icy glare. She picked up one bucket and walked it to the man and set it down by his feet. He was wearing a ragged suite, if it even qualified as a suit. He had hole sin his shoes and she doubted at this point patching them would help.

"Is that all?" She asked in her usually bitter but sweet tone that she'd use with the old man and woman. She did owe them for raising her, and she could not blame them for her not being born as a royal would. "Si, si. Do not stay out too late giovane ragazza."

Sulpicia couldn't hold back the scowl that spread across her face, but she said nothing to the man's comment. She wasn't a young girl, she was a young woman. She turned and held up the ends of her dress as she left the home through the front doors. She walked to the nearby village that held her most recent interest lately. Sulpicia let go of her dress and it fell in a less delicate matter than what she had hoped for.

Another scowl went across her face, another thing that she needed, perhaps a new dress that would eliminate her horrid appearance. She used to have one decent dress that she'd save for when she would take walks through the village, she enjoyed the looks she'd recieve from many of the villagers, but the other orphan girls grew jealous in the home and ripped her dress causing it to look like the "rags" she wore now.

She wondered if she could find another and hide it better this time, she was sure she could. She continued her walk, the flat shoes she wore were uncomfortable and too flat to give her proper support, she walked to a small wooden stand that had fabrics in different types of colors. Sulpicia started to run her hands across the fabrics when the old wrinkled woman from behind the stand cried out, "No! Si sporca di loro."

Sulpicia snatched her hands back quickly and looked at them, she hadn't notice the faint darkness against the palms and finger tips of her hands. She said a soft curse beneath her breath that the old woman would not here, the buckets left more than pain in her hands, they left them dirty even with whiping them off against her dress.

She looked up at the woman and quickly said, "Perdonami." Only to earn a soft grunt and nod from the old woman who was sitting in a chair that seemed two sizes small than her, holding the crane in front of her for support. Sulpicia grimaced at the woman, that was another thing she dreaded in this life, she did not want to grow so old to be hunched over with a hump in her back and wrinkles all over her body.

A soft sigh left her lips and she turned away, but only to notice two men walking down a path across from where she stood. They were dressed in fine clothing, nothing on them yelled poor or even something that was from there. One of the men, held up a hand when a young woman next to a stand held out a long fabric piece showing him the color.

Sulpicia noticed how the woman pulled on it to show how much it could stand and noticed how the woman leaned forward to expose the front of her body to the men. That man gave a shake of his head and stepped back, placing his hands behind his back. He stood tall and straight, he had dark hair which was longer than what most men would keep it, but she couldn't see the front of his face.

Sulpicia gave a roll of her eyes and walked to a wooden stand that was closer to the men, she seemed desperate enough for herself but she wasn't as to be as desperate as most women were in the village, she at least knew shame in exposing herself to earn the eyes of men.

She heard the soft murmers of the men as they gave a soft thank you before walking on, they began walking past where she was and she quickly looked at a jar in front of her as to pretend to be busy. She heard the second man speak to the man with the dark hair as they passed by her, he was speaking with a hint of annoyance to his voice. "Surely this place has nothing but scum Aro."

"I would wish you to respect where I look Caius, besides not all of it has wrong perks. What if we could relocate here? We could make it better." A chuckle left the man, Aro. Sulpicia blinked at this and thoughts began to run inside of her mind, what were they? Were they royalty or nearly that wealhy? They had to be to be by how they looked. She walked away from the stand and kept near to them, her curiosity over them began to grow as she picked up her footing and ended up at a stand right next to one they stood at.

She noticed the stand she stopped in front of had what looked to be supplies for cooking, which the stand held wooden spoons, bowls, and poorly made cups. A soft sigh left her as she picked up a cup that seemed to only be worthy for a child. "Quanto costa?" She asked the man whom rather quickly spoke too fast for her to even understand what he said, she gave a soft nod and set the cup down.

But what she didn't notice, was that the man named Aro was now looking in her direction, something about her had caught his attention, whether it was her scent or her voice. But surely he knew that both matched her perfectly, to him she was a fresh breath of much unneeded air. She didn't look like any of the other women he had passed by while him and his "brother" walked these dirt streets. She didn't come towards them as a needy woman, although he could tell she wanted to approach them by how he heard her following them.

He couldn't help but chuckle when he walked by the first stand she stood at, he could hear her heart beat accelerate and then he heard it continue as they walked away from her. He had heard her foot steps quicken when she'd almost lose sight of them in the crowd of people, and then slow when they would stop. He admitted to himself that her way of acting natural was amusing, he could look up to how she was being. She was desperate yes, but not in a pathetic way. She was the kind of desperate that still could hold some honor, that wouldn't do all of the work for just herself.

Aro gave a tilt of his head as he took a deep breath in, her scent was almost like roses but something else made it seem not as strong, maybe vanilla or cinnamon. He closed his eyes as he let himself enjoy the briefness of her scent, then opened them. She didn't look his way, or turn her head to pretend she was looking at their stand. Such a clever girl. He glanced at Caius whom had looked from him to her and gave him a look. "You cannot be serious." Caius said in his usual uncaring, uninterested tone.

"Oh I am very serious..." Aro trailed off as he walked over to the stand she was standing at. She was studying the cups and bowls as he stopped next to her and picked up the small cup she had briefly and looked at it on all sides and even on the inside, a half chuckle left her which sounded more like an unimpressed huff. He only smiled at this. "Perhaps, you could inspect such a thing better?" He said, turning his body towards hers allowing her to know full well that he had heard her.

She stopped her inspection of the bowls and turned her face towards his and the first thing she noticed were his eyes, they were dark but something seemed different about them, something she couldn't quite put her finger on or explain. He had a nice face which caused her to smirk, his face was almost narrow like hers, he was thin but not deathly thin like most men she saw. He gave off the appearance of deadly, but also young-like.

She decided to be slow and make him wait for an answer, by the V shaped pendant around his neck she couldn't guess that he had to wait long for anything. He cleared his throat after a moment and shifted from one foot to the other, a smile appeared on her face this time as she looked him up and down. "When I see such a thing then I will tell you."

A sly grin spread across his face at her response and he let out a low chuckle. "Well, well...what a free minded woman you are..."

"You have no idea." She said in a simple reply to him then turned straight again, looking at the things in front of her.

Translations (forgive me if some of these are wrong, I used Google Translate):

Vieni presto- "Come quick."

Si, si- "Yes, yes"

Giovane ragazza- "Young girl."

No! Si sporca di loro.- "No! You will dirty them."

Perdonami- "Forgive me."

Quanto costa?- "How much"