𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭-𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬² | 𝙏𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 ✓

𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐕

Bella had been gone almost a week now and Lucine was starting to get worried.

She knew Bella could take care of herself, but that sisterly instinct was getting better. Her leg bounced up and down as she bit her nails, staring out Rosalie's studio window.

Rosalie stood behind a canvas, secretly painting a portrait of her lover.

"Lucine, stop worrying so much." She finally spoke, Lucine, let out a sigh as she dropped her hand. "I can't. I haven't seen her in years and the second I do, we get into an argument." She says, standing up as she starts pacing the room.

Rosalie's eyes followed her as she moved around the small room. Most of the space was taken up by either empty canvas' or finished paintings of Lucine.

"After the argument, you two had at her wedding fifteen years ago, I'm not surprised she'd pull something like this." Her hatred for her lover's sister was very apparent but she rarely ever sugar-coated how she felt.

"You've known Bella for so long already, I thought you two would've, I don't know, gotten a little close by now?" Rosalie rolled her as she let herself fall against her chair. "Bella became worse than insufferable after you-" She cut herself off, she still couldn't bring herself to say it.

Lucine sighed, a small smile growing on her face as she walked over to Rosalie, sitting on her lap. Rosalie wrapped her arms around Lucine's waist, leaning her forehead on Lucine's shoulder.

Lucine ran her hands through her blonde hair, "You can say it, Rosie. I'm here now." She reassured her, kissing the crown of her head. "I know, but those fifteen years were some of the hardest I've ever had to go through," Rosalie confesses. Fifteen years without the woman she loved. Having to live on after watching Lucine be carried to their doorstep, dead, and having to bury her was torture.

There were many moments when she wanted to join her. End it all and finally be with Lucine without a care in the world but she knew Lucine wouldn't want that.

"We have a lot of time together now. No need to worry about something far away." They stayed quiet for a second, enjoying each other's company as neither of them tried their best to forget the time they lost.

After a while, Lucine got off her fiancé's lap with protest from said fiancé making the woman laugh.

"We gotta start planning the wedding," Lucine announced. Rosalie couldn't help but stay seated with a smile on her face as she listened to Lucine tell her what she wanted their wedding to be like.

They both knew that Alice would plan the whole thing anyways.

"You know there's something we have to do before the wedding right?" She spoke making Lucine stop talking about what kind of flowers she wanted. As soon as their eyes connected, she knew what she meant.

"I'm scared. What if he doesn't take it well?" Lucine tells her with a sigh, going back to sit on her lover's lap.

"He's your father Lucine. He'll be ecstatic to see you again. You didn't see him but the day your brothers brought you back to us after you... Passed. Your father was a mess. So, trust me when I tell you he'll be over the moon." Lucine knew she was right. She and her father always did have a better relationship than he did with Bella.

But considering how their mother favored Bella, things just worked themselves out that way.

"How about you go talk to him today? We're not doing much for the rest of the day." Lucine looked up at her from playing with her engagement ring, searching her eyes for a lie but she knew Rosalie wouldn't joke about something like this.

Slowly, she nodded making them stand up so they could head over to the Swan house.

***

Charlie's cruiser was parked in the driveway meaning he was home.

Lucine says nervously in the passenger seat of Rosalie's car. Rosalie held her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze before telling her she'd wait in the car for her.

She knew they would need some time alone.

Lucine walked up to the house she remembered so vividly; fifteen years stuck between time and space gave her a lot of time to think.

Hesitantly, with a shaky hand, she knocked on the door. She could hear the TV on and two muffled voices laughing. Heavy footsteps came closer to the door and it took everything in her to not run away into the woods that surrounded the place.

Soon enough, the door opened, Charlie laughing at something behind him before he looked at who was at the door.

His face slowly fell as he processed who was in front of him.

"Hi, dad." Her voice came out shaky as she tried not to cry. Her hand held balled-up fabric from her shirt. The bottle he held in his hand soon found itself shattered on the floor as he pulled her into a hug.

He held his daughter's head against his shoulder as tears streamed down his cheeks.

"Lucine. I-" He couldn't speak.

God, I really hope this isn't another one of your cruel jokes of a dream. Charlie cursed to himself as he kissed the side of her head, listening to the way she cried into his shoulder.

Years, he had spent years wishing for some sort of miracle.

If his other daughter and her family could be a bunch of vampires, why couldn't she come back to life?

"I missed you." He told her quietly.

"I missed you too." She said through tears, she sounded older. Nothing like the eighteen year old girl that left him fifteen years ago.

Charlie held his precious daughter in his arms again, wishing on everything holy that she wouldn't disappear.

The last time he held her in his arms she was cold and drenched. Lifeless.

For months after that day, he kept waking up from nightmares, running to Lucine's room to check on her only to find it empty.

"I'm not going anywhere. I promise." She told him as if reading his mind. He chuckled, "I hope so, I can't have you leaving me again." She moved her head from his shoulder, looking up at him.

He'd gotten older, his wrinkles were more visible. She placed her hands on his shoulders as she smiled up at him, that smile he'd wished years to see at least one last time.

"It's cold out here, can we go inside and talk?" She asked making him laugh. "Yeah, yeah, come on in. This is still your home." And with that, they went inside to fill the time they lost together.

***

Three to five more chapters left hehe

Hope y'all read the 'Extra' chapter in Soul Searching to see what Lucine and Rosalie's wedding is going to be like.

-HS.*