Never Say Never • Twilight

01 | RETURN TO YOUR ROOTS

Forks Washington smells like earth.

A discovery that shouldn't have startled Beau, yet it causes him to halt as soon as he catches a whiff of the outside world. Hinds slapping against the cold, wet pavement outside Forks Airport, though the freezing temperature is the last thing on his mind whenever he brings his muzzle to the ground, sniffing curiously.

Bella stalls beside him, eyes roaming around the crowd as they search for someone neither of them have seen in years. Blunt teeth sinking into the flush skin of her lower lip when she finally spots Charlie across the parking lot, standing beside a police car that is most likely his. He's flailing a paper banner over his head, and the only words Beau truly recognises are "Forks" and "Bella".

Beau can feel the grip on his leash tightening faintly, in a way that can only mean one thing - Bella is nervous, and incredibly so. The thought causes something in Beau's mind to shift, attention flitting away from his unfamiliar surroundings as he focuses on bringing a smile on the brunette's somber face.

Nipping the material of her jeans to get his attention, he grins up at her in encouragement, lips pulled back over his upper teeth. An expression so jovial and warm that it causes Bella's own mouth to shift into a small smile in return.

The tiny upwards curl of her lip accents her beauty in the most subtle of ways - and even after all these years, Bella is still the prettiest person Beau has had the pleasure of meeting. Both inside and out.

Bella's posture is slightly more relaxed when she greets Charlie, her smile becoming more genuine as he welcomes her to Forks, taking her trunk and placing it on the glove compartment of his car.

Once they all pile into the vehicle, Charlie and Bella talk about something that Beau doesn't bother to listen into - knowing better than to try to understand whatever is coming out of their mouths, and settling for watching Charlie beneath half-lidded eyelids instead.

The Charlie Beau remembers has less facial hair - not that Beau particularly minds this new asset, after all, how else would he keep his face warm without hair? However, the one thing that has Beau's mind reeling in disbelief is how much Charlie had shrunk.

The Charlie in his memory was so tall at Beau couldn't make out his face at times, but now Beau's head reaches just above his waist. Leaving him to ponder whether or not it's normal for people to shrink in the time span of a few years.

Abruptly, Charlie and Bella go silent, which Beau takes as an indication of their conversation is over. Putting aside his thoughts, Beau jostles to the side, head overlapping Bella's lap.

Shuffling closer to her hands when she offers them to him; rubbing circles underneath his eyes, beside the flaps of his ears. Gentle touches that Bella always reserves for him and him alone.

Beau's eyelids flutter open when her hands retacts, the sound of Charlie opening and closing the car door behind him startling him out of his relaxed demeanour. Tailbone wringing with excitement at the thought of finally arriving to his childhood home, and he dashes happily towards the front steps when Bella opens the door for him.

Hearing her laugh quietly and murmur something about him being over-enthusiastic to Charlie before they're both out of hearing range.

The house is just as Beau remembers it, except it looks a little older, a little worn away. Despite that, it still contains the same smell of boot polish and dusty floorboards.

Almost like a relic in Beau's memory, and he feels nostalgia flood to the very roof of his mouth as he stares at the front door. Searching for the homely smell of baked cookies that Renee used to waft behind her, and dropping his head when he recalls why it's missing.

"Beau?" Bella's voice drifts into focus, and she's crouching down to his height in the next moment, eyebrows crinkled as though she can almost sense his sadness. Charlie shuffles past them, awkward, murmuring something that Beau doesn't pay attention to. "What's wrong?"

Pushing his face into Bella's palm, he allows himself to bask in the comforting murmurs of her voice. Pulling away after a moment when he realised the tip of Bella's fingers are turning blue from the chill and yanking the sleeve of her jacket with his gaping maws in order to usher her inside.

Once she closes the door behind them, Beau allows himself to take in the inside of the house. Throat tightening when he realises it has barely changed. There, on the mantelpiece just outside the living room, are photos of all four of them - right where they had been all those years ago. A few of young, baby Bella in her cradle, then of Renee, and gradually Beau came into the picture.

The more Beau stares, the more it becomes palpably clear that Charlie never got a chance to move on. Perhaps having Bella close would change that. Perhaps it would make him feel a little less lonely, just like Phil made Renee feel a little happier. If there is one thing Beau has learnt, is that moving on is healthy. Moving on makes people get better.

It's like turning a new leaf, in a sense. Yet as Beau's eyes skitter back to young Charlie's frozen, photographed grin, and something in his heart shatters just a little.

They all moved on, but not us.

Not us.

❃

surprise #2 ! this update has been dragged out a lot, so thank you for your patience.

this is my first time writing an animal oc perspective, so give me your honest opinion: on a scale of one to ten (one being the lowest), how did i do?

i'm aware that dogs are colorblind, so i didn't touch on color much and instead tried to focus on scent and touch. don't know if i succeeded, lmao.

anyway, hope this was to your liking. the next chapter was originally part of this chapter, but i wanted to end it with an endgame quote so here it is.

to be perfectly honest, there's gonna be a lot of irrelevant endgame references in this fic, so buckle up, i guess.