Disclaimer: I don't anything from any of Stephanie Meyer's books, and I mean no offence by any of the thievery I have done.
FINDING RESOLUTION
Chapter Eighteen: Music and… Music
I felt a strong sense of triumph as I placed the last of my music collection into Edward's complex filing system. Edward responded to my proud grin with a smile of his own. It was so easy to forget the effect he could have on me simply by smiling. The beauty of it surprised me anew, and took my breath away, along with all coherent thoughts. I looked away, to give my brain a chance at functioning normally. My eyes fell on one last cd, one I'd given up on finding a place for. I reached for it now.
Edward beat me to it. He moved from the couch to my side in one blindingly swift motion, and picked up the cd before my hands reached it.
"I know where this should go." He murmured. The sunlight from the window hit his pale fingers as he moved the disc from its case to the player. The light from his diamond skin was brighter than the light the disc reflected from the sun.
I closed my eyes as the familiar melody of my lullaby filled the room.
"It's my favourite song." I admitted.
"It's better live." He replied, an odd note in his voice. His hands pulled me to my feet, surprising my eyes open.
"Wha…- "
"Downstairs," he said in limited explanation. I followed him, catching his enthusiasm. He transferred the grip on my hand to my waist as he sat at the beautiful grand piano.
I sat beside him when his grip tightened in silent communication.
His fingers moved across the keys, bringing to life the same music that had been playing in his room.
"Here, I'll teach you." He said, reaching for my hands. His smile almost silenced my momentary panic.
"I can't play that!" I said doubtfully.
"I'll teach you something else then." He evaded smoothly. He played a few notes I recognized dimly as the beginning of chopsticks.
"I'll embarrass myself." I said, holding my hands back from the keys. Blood rushed to my face as I tried to imagine my coordination trying to reconcile with music.
"Nobody's here." He whispered into my ear. I shivered. He smiled, pleased.
"Stop that." I instructed, reluctantly reached forward.
"What must I stop?" He asked in surprise.
"Being so proud of yourself." I told him, smiling.
I copied the notes he'd played. He showed me the notes that followed, and I played them too. When he'd taught me the whole song through, I tried to play it by myself, with Edward whispering encouragements in my ear. I hit the wrong notes a few times, and forgot what was next once or twice. But with each mistake, instead of blushing and giving up, I laughed instead. Edward laughed with me, and patiently corrected what I did wrong. The lounge room eventually filled with the uplifting music and our laughter. Edward joined in on the other half of the piano, making the happy tune turn into a masterpiece of music.
I smiled happily as we stopped. The piano still rang with the last notes.
I played my part once more, addicted to my limited ability.
Edward ran his fingers up and down my waist.
I hit the wrong note.
The dysfunctional noise rang between us as I turned to him.
"You're being distracting." I informed him.
"Am I?" He asked innocently. He turned back to the piano keys. His hand moved my fingers to the right starting note. I tried hard to conceal my shiver at his touch. I guessed from his badly hidden smile that I hadn't succeeded. As I played, he joined in, swelling my basic notes into a melody once more.
I didn't notice his hand leave the piano until it rested on my leg and made small patterns on my skin.
I jumped, and hit a wrong note again.
"Is that distracting too?" He asked, his eyes dancing. "What about this?"
His cool hand tangled in my hair as he pulled my face toward his. The piano fell silent as our attention changed focus.
"Extremely distracting." I said, pulling away, panting for breath.
"I'm glad." He said.
And he pulled me back.
"Alice and Jasper are on their way home." Edward said, dropping to his feet on the floor. I leapt to reach my clothes, where they'd been discarded earlier. The quick movement made me dimly aware of a dull ache in my legs. I smiled in satisfaction, remembering what we'd been doing to create that particular ache.
"Where did they go anyway?" I asked as I pulled my top on as quickly as I could. It hadn't occurred to me to wonder earlier; being distracted by far more entertaining preoccupations.
"There's going to be a storm tonight. They went to prepare for the game." Edward explained. He seemed to be having no trouble forming coherent sentences. It irritated me somewhat that he could do that. His expression was calm and still, another thing I envied. I had a sneaking suspicion that the expression on my face was still reflecting the satisfaction I was feeling.
I pulled my thoughts from my envy as I realized that I'd been watching Edward dress, instead of dressing myself. My envy immediately changed to appreciation.
I had trouble breathing when I looked at his face for too long. This particular view was almost heart stopping. It was a colossal tribute that I ever bothered to look at his face.
He turned and caught me, and smiled at the blush that rushed up my face. My breath hitched, and I remembered exactly why I struggled to keep my eyes from his face so often. Without a word, he reached to fix the buttons I'd unsuccessfully tried to do myself. A self-satisfied smile settled comfortably on his flawless features.
"Don't tell Rosalie what we just did, please." He murmured as he tucked my hair behind my ears.
"Why?" I asked. I focused hard on breathing as I got caught in his golden gaze. Maybe one day I wouldn't have to worry about him hearing my reaction to his every gaze, every touch. But I doubted it.
"Can you imagine the state of my piano if Rosalie and Emmett did what we just did on top of it?"
I smiled in satisfaction as I reveled in memories of exactly what we'd just done on top of the piano.
"Pants." He murmured. I pulled my mind out of the gutter, where it was thoroughly comfortable, and looked around frantically. I found my pants just as we heard noises outside. Edward kissed me lightly on the forehead and disappeared to field them away.
I was hopping, one leg in pants, when I heard Alice's voice call from the kitchen.
"Underwear first, then pants!"
Oops.
I gave up on dressing under pressure, and instead collected my clothes and disappeared upstairs to Edward's room.
Edward opened the door a few minutes later to find me fully dressed and looking at my reflection in a picture frame.
"My hair looks like a bird's nest." I complained self consciously.
"No," he corrected, smiling. He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. "Your hair looks like you've just had sex on a piano."
I laughed.
"You look beautiful." He murmured in my ear.
"Ey batter batter batter…"
Alice's off-putting chant was blatantly ignored by Jasper as he stretched his arms out casually. The pitch, when it came, was sudden and swift. Less than a second later, the air split with a loud resounding crack. The baseball disappeared into the sky as Rosalie pelted around the bases, impossibly far apart.
Before I was aware of Edward disappearing in search, he'd returned and thrown the ball to Emmett. The ball crashed into his hand with another sound reminiscent of thunder. Rosalie stopped short. Emmett stood between her and home base, a ball in his hand and a confident smirk on his face.
Without hesitation, both of them dived. I saw both of their bodies collide at home base with another earsplitting crash. Sparks flew between their two stone bodies. They disentangled, and stood, looking to Esme for her decision.
"Out!" She declared. Rosalie groaned. Emmett high-fived Edward. They looked like teenagers out of movie. Admittedly, teenagers with breathtaking looks far beyond those of mere movie stars.
Edward darted to my side in the brief intermission as the sides swapped. His cold arms wrapped tightly around my waist from behind.
"Enjoying the game?" He asked. I nodded. His body pressed against mine caused sensations to rush through my body that prevented my ability to form words.
"Mm-hmm." I murmured incoherently. I turned in his arms and wrapped mine around his neck. I stood on tiptoe and kissed him. His stone lips molded obligingly to mine. I shivered.
Edward suddenly stiffened and stood straight, pulling away. He took up a defensive position in front of me. In seconds, I was surrounded by the Cullen family, a ring of failsafe protection. The lighthearted game faces were gone, replaced by looks of threat and danger than made me shiver, even though the looks weren't directed at me.
It took a few moments to see exactly what, or who, those looks were focused on. Three figures had just landed a few feet from me. Graceful, slender… winged figures.
The Dhian had found me.
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed it!
Sorry about the superly massive time gap there, I'll do my best to remedy that next time. maybe.
please please reveiw! I will make no demands, because i was slightly terdish and didn't update for ages. But please anyway?