Fire & Ice (E. Cullen)

8.

A/N - OKAY SO I AM ONLY PLANNING ON THIS BEING A SHORT STORY. ATM IT IS LOOKING TO BE AT LEAST 10 CHAPTERS WITH AN EPILOGUE. 15 CHAPTERS MAXIMUM. WILL SEE HOW IT GOES AS I WRITE IT. I ALWAYS PLANNED ON IT BEING A SHORT THING AND THE WAY DANY WILL CHANGE THE TWILIGHT PLOT ANYWAY MEANS THAT A LOT OF THINGS WON'T HAPPEN. 

..........

Dany glances back watching Sam drive away before she turns forward again, Edward leans against Bella's truck, she's tucked under his arm talking as she appears to read the book in her hand but his eyes are on Dany. She raises her hand and waves to him, he smiles and waves back. It's been weeks of this. Of looks. Of smiles and hand gestures. Of hushed voices in the library or in quiet halls to keep Bella from seeing them. Of evenings meeting in the woods to talk. Dany feels like the other woman. She feels dirty for it. But she's found a friend in Edward, in someone that knows about Drogon, in someone she can really talk to even if they have to hide if from Sam and from Bella. She knows how Sam will feel considering he warned her away from him, and now....after these weeks she knows why. 

It had been a few days ago when he'd told her. He'd felt that with her having shared a life changing, life endangering secret then he had to as well, for them to be equals, it needed to be an equal exchange. He'd walked through the trees with her, Drogon flying above them and then just announced it: 'I'm a vampire'. She should possibly have been more surprised, but after dragon-blood, actual dragons and shape shifting wolves it didn't actually seem that surprising that something like vampires would exist too. She'd asked him question after question about his species and his life. Unlike telling Bella there was something about telling Dany everything that felt right, it was easy, there was no awkwardness after, no tension, he actually felt relieved to have told her. To get it off his chest. Watching her now, she somehow seems even more beautiful then she did the day before, everyday he thinks that these feelings will go away, that his crush would mellow out but they've just been getting stronger. He finds it hard to stay away from her. Finds it hard to keep his eyes from her. Seeks her out. He knew things changed when he came back from Italy. But he didn't realise just how much. 

He needs to figure this out.....whether Dany is worth loosing out on a relationship with Bella, if Dany is the one he's supposed to be with and that would mean he put his family through upheaval for nothing. And then what if it doesn't work with Dany? What if she's not the one he's supposed to be with. Putting his family through all of this. Putting Dany and Bella through all of this, if it doesn't work......what is he supposed to do here? Stay with Bella and hope they work through this funk? Or pursue Dany in the hopes that she is the one he is meant to spend the rest of his life with? He looks down at Bella who hasn't stopped to take a breath since she started talking, not even realising he's stopped paying attention. He looks back at Dany to find her crossing the parking lot with Angela who talks with her. Dany's patient and soft smile on her face. Dany so easily gives up her time to talk to anyone that wants to talk to her, she doesn't shut herself away with a book or her headphones in. Dany is open where Bella is closed off.

..............

Edward doesn't see Dany again until lunch, she's stood at her locker rearranging her books when he approaches her, his eyes scanning over the hall to make sure Bella isn't around before he strikes up a conversation with Dany. He hates this. He hates that she's basically his dirty secret, that he doesn't feel secure in his relationship with Bella to have a friend in Dany. Maybe a part of him knows that his feelings for her aren't platonic at all. That even after only weeks of her presence in his life he feels more for Dany then he ever did with Bella, more then he does feel for Bella. Day after day his feels are making themselves more known to him, and he knows it is not a crush any more. But he can't be sure how Dany feels. She's a closed book, her features schooled and precise, only showing the world what she wants them to see. The princess in her, trained and poised, always. And he can't read her mind to figure it out either. She smiles slightly as she turns to him.

"Hello" she greets, he smiles back and then he is leaning closer. He kisses her, surprising her. She squeaks a little against his lips, before she surrenders to it, her lips moving back against his, despite what he is he's softer then she expected, a little on the chilly side but she doesn't mind it. Her hand reaches for his jacket before he pulls back. "What was that?" she asks him leaning away from him.

"I was trying to figure out how you felt about me" Edward admits brushing his fingers through Dany's hair.

"Then why didn't you just ask me?" she comments frowning at him. "And you have a girlfriend, it shouldn't matter...."

"But it does matter" he argues. "It's driving me insane" he grumbles a little. "The feels you invoke inside of me....you're making me question everything...."

"Then perhaps we should terminate this friendship until you have the answers you seek" Dany offers, and it's her Princess voice that comes through. The calm and collected future leader of her people. He searches her eyes trying to read her. "It might actually be for the best that this ceases here" she offers. "I am to return home; back to my people, I will be Queen......." she draws off staring into his eyes back, all her excuses as to why they shouldn't be friends, shouldn't be more then friends. He leans back to her. "Edward" she whispers in weak warning. He tilts her head slightly and ghosts his lips over hers. "This is a terrible idea" she comments before she kisses him fully, pressing herself closer to him. He eagerly kisses her back. The weeks of pent up emotions flooding out of them. His fingers thread through her hair cupping her head, scared that this, just maybe, could be his imagination, and if it is....he really doesn't want it to stop. He pulls back slowly before setting a lingering kiss on her lips and then rests his forehead to hers. "This is a terrible idea" Dany repeats, Edward smirks a little.

"Yes" he agrees. "It is" he whispers moving in for another kiss. He cannot help himself, once was not and never will be enough. Her hands rest on his arms as his lips meet hers. Both of them are unaware of Bella watching them from the end of the corridor.