𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭-𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬² | 𝙏𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 ✓

𝐗𝐈𝐕

Tobias sat on his stool as he painted a person, a man, onto the canvas. Lucine's journal was wide open next to him. 

He and Ren had spent so long reading it and never would he have imagined Lucine's life to be so eventful. She went through things he never even dreamt of. But the thing that stood out to him so far, the thing he couldn't get out of his head was that angel figure she talked about.

There was no name on the pages. He never gave one to her. Something about him felt familiar, it drew him in and he couldn't help but try to paint him the way Lucine described him.

The way she described his eyes as "hauntingly beautiful" or even the way she described he'd appear from the darkest corner of her room in the dead of night, almost blinding her. He still hadn't finished it yet, mostly due to getting distracted with his paintings and school work and the fact that he promised his best friend they'd read it together.

He stepped back from the painting, looking at it completely as he tried rubbing dry paint off his arm. 

Something about him felt too familiar it made his head hurt so much he didn't hear his mother knock nor did he hear her walk in.

She placed a hand on his shoulder as she looked at his painting making him jump slightly, snapping him out of his headache. "This is a first," Meloria said with a small smile as she admired her son's work.

"What do you mean? I've done people before." He said confused. She chuckled, "Yeah, but you've never done a self-portrait before. Although, those eyes are a little scary, and the last time you had hair that blonde was when you were born." She said, her eyes shifting to his for a second.

He looked at the painting and then at the mirror that was slightly behind it. 

Oh my god. I have to ask Lucine about this tonight.

He tried to keep his composure so his mother wouldn't get scared but inside he was freaking out. With everything Lucine went through, he couldn't help but jump to conclusions.

"Alright well, you can work on it tomorrow, we gotta get going." His mother announced as she walked out of his room, looking down at her watch. He simply nodded as he closed the journal, wanting to try and finish it by tonight with Ren. They were no more than ten pages away from the end.

Lucine had just finished writing about how Rosalie found out about her big secret. To say they were excited to finish the tragedy that truly was Lucine's life was an understatement.

Rosalie had walked in to remind them that the journal wasn't a book about a fictional character multiple times. It kept them both in line from saying anything outrageous about Lucine's decisions. For a while, they did hate Ren's parents even though she wrote about them with very obvious care, they couldn't help but be mad about what Ren's dad called Lucine and her sister not defending her at the moment.

In the end, she was still a real person, a teenager. Dealing with stuff like that couldn't have been easy on her.

***

"I can't help but feel like my world is falling apart." Tobias read out loud as he and Ren lay on her bed, her twinkling lights and the moonlight being the only source of light. She lay on his chest as he plays with her hair.

"The angel came to me again the other night during Bella's wedding. We had an argument and I know she didn't mean what she said, at least I want to believe that she didn't mean them." Ren sighed. "My mom really put her through the wringer didn't she." Tobias just nodded as he let out a sigh.

"I mean, she was scared, wouldn't you be scared if your sister suddenly tells you that she's related to the only vampires that could destroy everything you have?" He tried to reason. "Yeah, but I wouldn't say all those hurtful things." They decided not to touch the topic again. Ren forgot about all the things her mother did to her aunt.

"The angel and I talked on the edge of my favorite cliff that night. He told me I'm going to die, or rather, I am dying. He said I have until everyone I love is happy. I don't think that'll be too hard, I made my dad promise he'd be okay without me, Bella's married and expecting a daughter soon so there's not much for me to do there. I know everyone else will be okay." He continued. They were five pages away from the end.

Lucine didn't write as much in her journal near the end so there were a bunch of holes in between that had to be filled in by Ren's family.

"It's weird," Ren says before he could continue.

"What is?" He asked as she sits up, her hair a bit messy from him playing with it. "I mean, my aunt Lucine was technically older than all of my family, even my grandpa Carlisle. It's just weird to remember that she was my aunt on my mom's side, my human side, and not my dad's vampire side." She confessed as Tobias nodded. 

"I guess that is a little weird but she technically wasn't that old. Physically she was only eighteen." Ren chuckled as she laid her head back on his chest. "Yeah, so are my parents." Technically she wasn't wrong. Physically, her parents were still teenagers.

The last few pages were empty, not that they really needed them but it would've been cool to see it all from her perspective. 

"You're kidding right?"Tobias says as he looks at the blank pages. "I completely forgot about that but we already know what happens." Tobias sighs as he closes the journal. "I know, I can guess what happened but it could've been cool to see it all through her eyes." They sat in silence as he placed the now-finished journal on Ren's bedside table. 

They lay together as they think about everything they just read.

"Do you think we'll even find people that will love us the way Lucine and Rosalie loved each other?" Ren asked as she drew shapes onto Tobias' covered chest. He shrugged. 

"I don't know. Do you remember how Lucine described it? She said that falling in love with Rosalie was the most natural unexpecting thing she'd felt since being here. Destiny, the universe, had tried pushing all these people towards her but they still found a way to fall in love. Something like that is rare I think." He says as she looked up at him near the end.

They looked at each other, their faces closer than they'd ever been.

He knew she was beautiful, everyone knew she was beautiful but having her so close made him want to blush.

"I want to love and be loved the way they did." She whispered, not breaking eye contact as her hair fell over her shoulders, framing her face beautifully.

"Me too." He said.

Damnit, me too.