scorch: to affect the color, taste, etc., of by burning slightly
The fire that burns in her veins contrasts darkly with the ice that runs through his. Wanting normalcy in the form of a new life, Safina Wells finds this unachievable in the name of Ja...
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"he who love touches walks not in darkness" -plato
In the days that followed Safina's return from the hospital, she spent them with her parents. Gabe and the Cullens had returned to school, mainly to keep up appearances. Cherie took Safina shopping in Seattle and her father took her fishing at First Beach. She had never been able to spend so much time with her father, and even though she fully understood why, it still almost brought tears to her eyes when he admitted that he didn't know that much about his own daughter. She brought him up to speed on mostly everything: her top picks for college, her favorite sports teams, and even the subjects she struggled with most in school. Elliot, in return, told his daughter stories about her mother from when they were young teenagers in love, and then the old Quileute legends. They listened to each other with deep intensity, neither one willing to miss a single detail.
Cherie brough Safina with her to her clients' homes, informing her about all the details of interior design. They went for coffee and played with the twins. Caiden seemed to have an obsession with jewelry, which Cherie had warned Safina about. He would pull at it until it broke, which was a problem considering the teething necklace that rested around his neck. Zara, on the other hand, was a biter. Her sharp toddler teeth prompted a yelp from Safina when Zara had dug them into her sister's finger. Safina, who had been hesitant about the twins' very existence, loved the way they looked at her with such adoration, despite not having known her for very long.
Safina had begged Renesmee to tell her all of the details surrounding her and Seth. While the bronze haired girl refused, her pale cheeks burned with a bright crimson. Nessie had tried to ask Seth on a date but had clammed up and decided against it. Who needed a boyfriend anyway? When she watched how Jasper and Safina interacted, though, she decided that she did.
Jasper encouraged her to go for it, the longing she felt was overwhelming to the empath. Safina agreed, suddenly excited at the notion of double dating. Even though Jasper wasn't quite sure what that meant, if it pleased Saf, it pleased him. Saf. He'd called her that on accident one day as they sat on the sandy beach, wind blowing harshly. Seeing the tidepools always brought a certain joy to Safina, but he couldn't tell anyone what she had seen as his sole focus was her.
"Saf, you're so beautiful," he'd blurted.
"'Saf?'" she'd laughed, like music to his sensitive ears, "and you're beautiful-er, Jay."
And so they had nicknames for each other, along with a disposable camera Safina had bought from the pharmacy. The roll mainly consisted of candid pictures of her. Pictures of her doing homework, drawing, laughing, all the things he loved to watch his "Saf" do. He considered stealing the camera, saving it for a special occasion. Jasper smiled at the ideas that formed about what he could do with the pictures.
Safina's hair was wrapped around her finger, she was listening to Jasper read a book about the Civil War. She loved the joy it brought to Jay whenever he talked about how the war played out, especially the battle tactics. Her mahogany eyes took in the way his fingers trailed the words as he read them, and she smiled.
This had become a sort of routine, them reading to each other. He read historical fiction - and non-fiction - and she read him the Harry Potter series. Jasper found himself lost in not only her voice, but the content of the books. As it turned out, the Civil War Major loved magic. Sometimes they would compete in drawing each other, even though Safina's talent far outweighed Jasper's. Occasionally, they found themselves in the arcade of the local (and only) bowling alley. She showed him how to play Pacman - he knew how to play, though he would never tell her that. They played skeeball and cheated on the whack-a-mole game.
His reading came to a sudden halt and before she knew it, Safina was standing in the living room, where Alice held a tight grip onto Gabe's hand.
"What's going on Alice?" Carlisle's voice was calm, yet authoritative.
"Something's wrong."
Safina's eyes swept over the Cullens, whose eyes also searched for the others. Renesmee held on tightly to her mother, worried tears filling her eyes.
"What's wrong?" Gabe asked, his arm wrapped around her small waist.
"Someone's coming," she stated, her golden eyes wide with worry as they stared at the Cullen patriarch, "and I can't see who it is."
"What do they want?" Bella asked, her grip equally tight on her husband and daughter.
Edward answered for Alice, his face crestfallen, "Jasper. They want Jasper."
