General – POV
A typical Forks morning: low clouds, damp air, and the usual uninspired grey sky. In the parking lot, students drifted toward the entrance in loose groups, while others lingered near their cars, stretching out the last few minutes before the bell.
Jessica, Angela, Mike, Tyler, and Eric had gathered in their usual spot by Tyler's van. Jessica laughed with the others, though something still felt subtly amiss. It wasn't exactly sadness; she knew there had never been anything real between her and Samael, and she knew that. But being passed over without a second glance still stung, even if she couldn't fully explain why. The feeling was contradictory. Angela noticed her recent mood but remained silent.
Eric was mid-sentence when he abruptly stopped.
"What?" Mike asked, grinning. "Forget how your own story ends?"
Eric didn't answer, his expression completely still as he stared toward the far end of the lot.
Then Angela, who had already looked in the same direction, said quietly, "No way."
Everyone turned.
The grey Aston Martin was parked there, a car they all recognised by now. But it wasn't the car that caught them off guard; it was the passenger door swinging open and Alice stepping out. A second later, Samael came around from the driver's side.
Silence fell.
Eric recovered first. "I mean-" he gestured vaguely, "-maybe he just gave her a lift."
No one responded, still watching.
Alice looked up at Samael with a warm, easy smile. She stepped close and took his hand. Samael looked down at her in a similar way, and together they headed toward the entrance. He said something low as they walked, and Alice let out a soft, delighted giggle that carried just far enough to reach the group.
Nearly every student in the parking lot had turned to watch them by that point.
Tyler watched them disappear through the school doors, blinked once, and turned to Eric. "Yeah, Eric," he said. "Not just a lift."
Jessica and Angela stood shoulder to shoulder, looking in the direction Samael and Alice had gone.
"Do you think I never had a chance?" Jessica asked without turning her head.
"No," Angela said, with the certainty of someone reciting a well-established fact.
Jessica turned to look at her. "You could at least pretend to hesitate about it. Best friend. Just so you know." She let out a short, aggrieved huff and went inside.
Angela sighed, shook her head, and followed.
The boys still stood in silence.
"We're doing something wrong, aren't we" Eric said eventually, but it didn't come out as a question.
"Yes," said Mike.
"Yeah," Tyler added.
Samael – POV
We'd lingered at Alice's locker so long before heading to first period that the corridors had nearly emptied. Neither of us had noticed, or cared. When we reached the point where our paths diverged, she stepped in front of me, rose onto her tiptoes, kissed me, then stepped back and continued on her way without missing a beat. I stood there for a moment, watching her go. She glanced back once, winked playfully, and kept walking, a faint smile lingering on my lips for a second longer before I finally turned back the way we had come.
The corridor was almost completely empty; maybe two minutes until the bell. Instead of heading to class, I stopped, facing down the hall as if waiting.
A few seconds passed. I exhaled quietly.
"I didn't realise you were into hide and seek," I said calmly. A slight pause. "Bit childish, don't you think, Peter?"
From around the corner, Peter emerged, rubbing the back of his neck. "How long have you known I was there?"
"Long enough," I said, and turned toward my class.
The bell rang the moment I started walking. Peter broke into a jog to catch up and fell into step beside me, immediately launching into a speech he'd clearly been composing for the last five minutes.
"Okay, so—" he started quickly, "I saw you two, and yeah, I could've just walked up like a normal person, but there was a whole... situation happening. And I read that situation, and it very clearly said 'do not approach.' So I didn't. Which, by the way, was the correct decision."
He kept going without slowing.
"And then you just kept walking, and now we have the same first period, same direction, and I'm stuck behind you like I'm following you on purpose, which I wasn't. Just to be clear."
He said all of that without taking a single meaningful breath.
"Goodness," I said. "That was a lot of words."
He looked at me. "Okay, you know what, no," he said, cutting himself off. "Why do I feel like I'm the weird one here? I'm not the guy who shows up, what, three days ago and suddenly starts dating one of the top five girls in the entire school."
I laughed lightly.
"Honestly, from that angle, I might understand you."
He looked at me like I'd just validated something important.
"Thank you. That's all I needed."
A short pause.
"She brought you lunch yesterday, too."
"She did."
He nodded slowly.
"Right... yeah. I'm fine. Completely fine."
He didn't sound completely fine.
...
The first two periods passed without anything noteworthy, and before long, it was time for lunch. Like the day before, the three of us ended up at the same table. Alice placed a lunchbox in front of me as promised.
I swallowed a piece of steak, then remembered something and glanced at Peter. He'd just bitten into an apple, head turned slightly, watching something across the room.
"Peter."
He looked back at me, still chewing, and gave a small shake of his head as if to say what?
"I ordered the bike. It'll be here on Saturday."
That got his attention immediately. "Oh — nice. Yeah, we can ride Saturday evening then."
"Deal."
Alice leaned toward me slightly, her tone casual but her intent clear. "So you're free Friday after classes, Samy."
I looked at her and nodded.
Her smile grew a little. "Good. I want you to meet my family."
Peter choked, coughing sharply, clearly caught completely off guard. Alice and I both looked at him.
"You good, man?" I asked.
He waved a hand, coughing once more until his airway cleared. "Yeah, yeah. Totally fine. Went down wrong."
I held his gaze for a second, one eyebrow raised, but Alice pulled my attention back before I could say anything.
"So?" she asked, looking at me with that expectant smile.
"Why not?"
She made a small, delighted sound and leaned in to kiss me on the cheek. I smiled. Across the table, Peter had gone suspiciously quiet, focusing on his food with too much dedication. The shock was still written on him clearly enough, but for once, he kept it entirely to himself.
...
The rest of lunch passed with the familiar undercurrent of glances toward our table, most of which I noticed but ignored. Bella's reaction, however, was clear. She had moved past surprise into genuine bewilderment. Still unsettled from biology, the realisation that Alice and I were already together only seemed to compound her reaction.
The rest of the school day passed much the same way. The only thing that held any real interest was my time with Alice. We kept to ourselves between classes, away from prying ears, and talked about each other, our perspectives, how we each made sense of the world, the small details that often reveal more about a person than the big ones.
...
After school, I drove her home so she could change, left the car at the Cullens' house, and then the evening was ours.
We ended up deep in the forest outside Seattle, high in the branches of a tall pine that towered above the other trees. Far below, a wide river snaked through the darkness, its surface catching and reflecting faint light in slow, shifting patterns. The forest stretched endlessly, quiet and still.
Alice sat sideways across my legs, leaning into me, her head resting against my chest. She had both arms loosely wrapped around one of mine. She wore a sleeveless blouse, and my free hand rested against her bare shoulder, slowly tracing gentle movements along her skin.
She was telling me about the weeks before we met, about the visions, how they had grown more frequent as the day approached, becoming sharper and more insistent.
"I didn't know exactly when it would happen," she said, "or even how. But the closer it got, the clearer that vision of you became." She paused. "And I was worried you wouldn't like me, or that I'd do something reckless and ruin it before it even started." A small, quiet laugh escaped her. "My visions change so easily depending on what we do, so nothing was ever certain."
I listened without interrupting, my hand slowing as a gentle caress shifted to a light hold on her shoulder.
After a moment of quiet, she tightened her arms around mine, holding me more firmly. "Samy," she said softly, "I waited for you for so long and was so afraid of losing you, even before we were together."
I smiled, a gentle sadness underlying the expression. I brought my other arm around her, drew her closer, and kissed the top of her head. "I know," I murmured. "But I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere. Not ever."
She smiled and shifted closer, pressing her head into my chest as if trying to eliminate the last bit of space between us.
Still, I sensed a lingering worry, a quiet fear that hadn't quite released its hold. I could see it even now.
The more time we spent together, the more clearly I saw her, including the parts quietly shaped by years of solitude. She needed affection, the kind she had gone without for too long, and I wasn't just willing to give it; I was glad to.
I let a moment settle between us, then said quietly, "The wolf shapeshifters and I share one very particular thing in common."
She looked up at me.
"It's called imprinting." Seeing the word meant nothing to her, I elaborated, "In theory, it isn't always romantic, but realistically, it almost always is. Think of it as their version of falling in love, except it happens instantaneously, not gradually. The person you imprint on becomes your entire world, as some fundamental part of you has already decided it."
She went completely still in my arms.
"Did you—" she began, her voice slightly unsteady.
"Yes," I said. "The moment I saw you in the cafeteria."
Then, smiling, I added, "So even if you try... you're not getting away from me, my little pixie."
She looked at me for a moment, then shifted fully toward me, wrapping her legs around me as she kissed me with enormous passion. When she pulled back, there was no uncertainty left in her expression.
"I'm not going anywhere," she said. "Never." The last word came out a little louder, as if she wanted the whole forest to take note.
I smiled. "Eternity, then."
"Eternity," she said, and we picked up exactly where we left off.
[Hi all! This chapter is a bit shorter than the recent ones. I'll have to do the same for the next 3–4 chapters, so I don't slow down the update rate. Uni is hitting hard this year]