la belle dame sans merci | carlisle cullen

Seventy-Nine

Note: This chapter is dedicated to bts_whore_ (I'm sorry it had to go this way hehe)

Minerva was more nervous than she'd have liked to be. To be fair, she hated being nervous. It felt like such a foreign emotion to her now. For years, she had no cause for nerves, nothing had ever mattered enough.

Meeting the rest of the Cullens mattered. They'd made the plan as he was leaving the shop, he shuffled a little and said "So, are you busy Wednesday?" Like that the plan was made.

It was all so serious. They never made real plans, not since the beginnings. Plural for the hiatus. They just appeared, texted to say busy? And then suddenly they were in each other's company. Two days out? That was unheard of.

She was doing incredible mental gymnastics not to call the spade a spade, not to acknowledge why this felt so big. Sure, she was quite close with Alice but the other four were practically strangers. She was meeting his family. He was bringing her home.

Minerva was driving herself fucking crazy and trying very hard not to make that apparent. Bella, it seemed, was starting to know her pretty well. In hindsight, she'd been a little neurotic. Cleaning the baseboards with a toothbrush had been a little much but Minerva was just trying to busy herself. "If I were you, I'd be using magic for everything." Bella had said with her eyebrows raised as she came through the door.

"Where's the fun in that?" She replied from the floor.

"You nervous?" That'd made Minerva's eyes drift to the girl but she focused back on her task. "Edward told me. I'll be there, if it helps." It did, actually. Wickedly. Some common ground, a natural tether beyond whatever magnetism existed between her and Carlisle because that certainly wasn't going to diffuse any awkwardness.

"I'm not nervous, I don't get nervous." Minerva replied in a grumble.

"No, totally." Bella commented, "I know how nerve wracking it is, remember?" She'd thrown her bag over the counter and added from the corner of her mouth, "Meeting your boyfriend's family."

"He's not my—!" Minerva's voice was a little raised in surprise but she cut herself off when she caught Bella's satisfied grin. "You little bastard."

"It's way too easy to wind you up." Bella laughed, "It'll be fine. You don't really give people any choice but to love you."

Minerva's eyebrows had furrowed but she had dignified that with a response, doubling her scrubbing efforts. It had wormed its way into her brain, Bella's perception. You don't really give people any other choice but to love you.

Was that who she was now or just who she pretended to be? Someone people loved. The facade. On the surface she was just a local flower shop owner, unusual in a way that came off as nothing more than a tad eccentric. Under that, the witch, the orphan, the god. Select few
saw that layer and tolerated her anyway. Bella among them, still seeing the absolute inevitability of the witch being lovable.

Then the layer below. The murderer, the divine slayer, the beast of the tri-faced torchbearer. Only one knew who that was and even meeting her at that level, surpassing it, he despised her. Bella would be terrified of her, Carlisle disgusted. At her core, deep at the sinew of her heart, there was nothing to be loved. Only to be feared, escaped, loathed. Something not even a mother could love. Something a mother would be incredibly disappointed in, in fact.

Minerva had shoved those thoughts down, out of sight, out of mind. Trying to turn her raging anxiety into excitement. In all her years, she'd known only one other immortal. They were all so focused on their anonymity that it didn't make forging friendships all that easy. Carlisle had changed that, now she'd comfortably say she knew six immortals. Not bad for an old witch.