empathy

FOUR

With her arms wrapped around his waist and her fingers hooked in his belt loops, Anastasia counts the passing cars in an attempt to drown out the obnoxiously loud sounds of them. It's uncomfortable.

Jasper steers the bike into a cart road and she turns her head slightly to look at the scenery they're passing. It's pretty beautiful, in a weird way. They're quite far away from an already secluded town, apparently, Jasper used to live here when he was human. 

He spent some time redecorating the house when he first switched to the animal diet. It helped with the control. 

Now, he lets Peter and Charlotte stay there whenever they pass through.

Driving past the cotton fields, Anastasia presses a soothing kiss on his shoulder blade upon feeling him tense up. 

He parks the bike in front of the house and Anastasia leans back, her hands slipping from his waist as her eyes fall onto the two people sitting on the porch, obviously waiting for them. 

Jasper turns his head to look at her, his lip twitching slightly as he finds her more relaxed than she has ever been. There is no smell of blood in the air and it's fairly quiet. Still, he quietly asks whether she is okay, smiling when she nods slightly in return. 

She gets off the bike and Jasper immediately takes the backpack from her and her hand in his free one as he leads her to his old friends, rolling his eyes at the ever-present smirk on Peter's face. 

"Hi, yawl must by Anastasia. Yore more gorgeous than he told us yawl are. Ahm Peter, this is mah remarkable girl, Charlotte," Peter speaks up, his accent thick in the air. 

Charlotte and he get up and he throws his arm around his mate's shoulder and presses a kiss to the side of her temple before going back to smirking at Jasper and Anastasia. 

"Good tuh see yawl again, major," Peter turns to Jasper, saluting in a semi-playful way.  

"Ignore him," Charlotte offers Anastasia a gentle smile. "Peter tends to cross every border he finds," she warns light-heartedly. 

"And it's great to finally meet you. Jasper told us a lot about you," Charlotte looks at Jasper at the last part, a small smirk of her own as she teases him. 

"It's good to meet you. Though, I've mostly heard complaints about Peter," Anastasia tilts her head slightly, relaxing a bit more when Charlotte chuckles. "He's a pain. But he's my pain, so I can't really complain. I sometimes call Jasper just to listen to him complain, it makes me feel less bad about it."

"I hav been betrayed by mah people." 

Seeing his pretend-shocked expression, Jasper too relaxes and pulls Anastasia against his chest, kissing the top of her head she leans back into him. 

--- -- -

Turns out, Charlotte and Anastasia are a deadly combination. Over the last hours, they have made it their mission to talk in hushed voices about whatever and send innocent smiles towards their mates whenver they glance over. 

But he is glad they seem to be getting along, it didn't make him feel as bad as he left to hunt. Helping Anastasia get used to being a vampire means being around a lot of blood and it makes it isn't the easiest to him. Though, hunting at least once, usually twice, a day helps. 

And, of course, having her with him. She calms him down in every sense of the way.

Seeing her lay on one of the couhes, he sits down next to her, moving her legs over his. His hand rests on her ankle, his thumb drawing patterns on her skin. 

Anastasia looks over at him, offering a small smile and he smirks slightly as he takes her hand to kiss its back, his eyes never leaving hers. 

Butterflys erupt in her stomach and she quickly looks back to Charlotte, missing the way his smirk widens.

Peter is sitting next to Charlotte, her back leaned against his chest and his arm slung lightly over her shoulder so his hand is resting on her breast.

He glances over to his best friend, raising a brow at the surprisingly few physical contact. Jasper made it sound as though he was all over her every second of the day. Or at least he said he wanted to be. 

Jasper simply narrows his eyes and glares at Peter, whose lips tug into a lop-sided grin. 

Pressing another kiss to Anastasia's wrist, he puts her hand back on ehr stomach and while his right hand continues to draw patters on her skin, his left hand comes to rest on her thigh, squeezing it tightly.