Short Stories and Oneshots

Almost Lover

Author: Bertie Bott

Platform:– Fanfiction.net

Type: Twilight x Vampire Diaries

Jasper's honor demands he takes action. Really, he couldn't abide sitting by watching his family smother Bella to the point of snuffing out her happiness...And if helping her also helps an old friend, then it's an easy decision when he takes it upon himself to set her free.

~

There was only so much Jasper could sit back and abide before his honor demanded action.

Standing below the window of the room Bella occupied as she prepared for her wedding to his brother, Jasper decided he'd reached that limit.

Dejection, fear, resignation; her emotions swirled together in a melting pot of negativity, and it took Jasper a good minute of so to determine what they inevitably amounted to – a longing to escape, a pull to run and be free.

He couldn't really blame the poor darlin' either. After coming back from Italy, she'd been overwhelmed, hurt and vulnerable and it appeared Edward had struck when the iron was hot, essentially forcing her into a wedding they all knew she didn't want. Jasper had warned them that their incessant smothering was going to suffocate her and inevitably drive her away, but it was almost as if Edward and Alice fought harder to keep her in response. He wouldn't be surprised if there was some unknown vision of Alice's they were trying to prevent...they'd done it countless enough times.

His affections for his pixie wife were quite genuine despite her not being his mate, but he was in no way blinded to her faults. Vampires with gifts such as hers and Edward's tended to get a superiority complex. They imposed their will onto others and used their gift to justify it.

It's what they'd been doing all along with Bella and he'd been quite vocal in his protest against it. Emmett and Rosalie had stood with him, but Carlisle and Esme had done what they always did – taken Alice's faulty visions and Edward's boyish desires as facts, saying that the girl was clearly Edward's mate, and they would therefore follow his direction regarding her.

But Jasper knew better – they were no more mates than he and Alice were. The mating bond was a complex and intricate tie designed to keep an immortal creature sane throughout their incredibly long life. What Edward felt was a shallow puddle compared to the deep ocean of emotions between mates, and he was willing to bet the boy knew it too and that was why he fought so hard to keep his would-be mate.

But Bella, his eyes turned up to the window in contemplation. She felt deeper than any human he'd ever known, not that he'd known many. She was far smarter than what any of the others gave her credit for, and he believed she knew exactly what Alice and Edward were doing with her. So the question begged was why? Why was she allowing the wonder twins to manipulate her into this farce of a wedding...? Why did she taste of sour regret and disappointment every time he was near her? And why did he feel the twang of a mating bond within her, stretched so thin as though her mate resided on the other side of the country?

In his freedom during lone hunts, he'd often contemplated Bella's complicated emotions. While he felt a sense of duty to help her in apology for almost killing her, his desire to help was not so superficial as that. Though he'd lacked the amount of time in her presence the others had, Jasper was still willing to bet he knew her better than anyone else in the family. Emotions couldn't lie, after all, and Jasper found she felt as deeply and freely as he did, and that fact had caused a smoldering spark of protection to ignite within him. She reminded him of him before the change, full of so much potential and a desire to help others. When he thought of his traumatic turn and subsequent years of manipulation and death, it made him want to prevent the same from happening to her; to protect her as he'd once protected his human sister.