A/N: As always, thank you for your patience. It's been a tough time for all of us. I hope you're all doing well. Thanks for not forgetting about me!

Bella was in that wonderful space between waking and dreaming—awareness but no concrete thought. Her back was cold somehow. She registered the sound of footfalls on carpet and the feel of the bed dipping.

"You left." Her voice came out rough as sandpaper against wood.

Edward folded himself around her, his chest against her back and his arm around her waist. His nose nuzzled at her ear. "Didn't think you'd appreciate it if I wet the bed."

She hummed and sighed, reveling in the delicious tickle of his touch. "That's not a kink of mine."

He brushed her hair to the side and kissed along her shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

"Good question." She reached down to where his hand stroked her belly. She didn't really know how she felt. She couldn't quite grasp how yesterday had been both dream and nightmare.

It also hadn't escaped her notice he was holding himself at an odd angle. She was tucked against him, but his hips were pushed back away from her.

"I know how I want to feel," she said, pushing back so her ass pressed him where he was hard. He hissed, his hand gripped tightly at her waist. "I know what I want to feel."

Maybe most people, when having sex with a person they knew to be their soulmate for the first time, would have wanted the cliche: missionary, eyes locked, noses brushing, hips moving as though to beautiful music.

It wasn't what Bella wanted.

Before she could find the words to articulate her desires, Edward began to trail kisses along her shoulder. She had wiggled out of most of her clothes before they climbed into bed, so there was only her shirt to help her out of.

Then, he pushed her onto her belly, and Bella whimpered. It was a noise of eagerness, anticipation, but mostly, it was the sound of relief. He always knew. Was it part of the soulmate thing? That he just knew what she needed?

Maybe he just didn't want to deal with her morning breath.

She chortled, burying the sound in the pillow.

"You think this is funny?" Edward asked, the heat of his body pressing over but not quite down on her. His lips brushed her ear, his voice a low rumble that vibrated in her blood.

She shook her head vehemently, though the lightness to his tone told her he hadn't taken offense. And if he was looking for an explanation, he wouldn't have used his knees to part her legs the way he did then. Thought faded away replaced by the experience of his touch, his scent, the sound of the two of them.

This was what she wanted, what she needed. She didn't want to think; not even about where to put her hands or how to move with him. She wanted to be taken; consumed. No preamble. No foreplay. No sweet words. There would be time for soft later.

Take me. Claim me.

Her body was pliant, willing, like clay being shaped by a master's touch. Hands on her hips he raised her just enough. He slid inside her. Delicious friction sent thrills down her spine, through her blood. Her legs spread wider, her body opening to accept him, molding around him. He surrounded her—body engulfing hers, his fingers twined tightly with her good hand over her head. She was lost in him, pinned by his weight. The air she breathed was made of his scent and his heat.

And god. It was good. Yes. This. Consume me.

His lips at her neck, teeth sinking into her skin, he began to move in her. Long, slow strokes at first. He pulled back, the length of him sliding inside her, setting off every nerve ending, and pushed forward, burying himself to the hilt.

He overtook her senses. The noises he made—guttural grunts and soft sighs and the breathy, reverent sound of her name on his lips—were a symphony. The taste of the air, the scent of their skin, of sweat and sex, made for a heady mix; a drug that made her head swim. And the feel of him around her, inside her…

There were places in her that belonged to him. With each thrust, those places—desolate and cold—filled. A sense of perfect unity, of completeness washed over her, through her.

Her body was alive—made of pleasure and joy and the profound sense that something new was being created.

There was him and there was her. But as they moved together, there was them—an entity all its own, beautiful and bewildering. She understood what it was then to be one with another person.

All her life she'd believed one and one made two and yet here they were, wrapped up in each other body and soul.

And he was buried deep inside her. She gripped his fingers with her good hand, mouth open in a soundless wail as she lost herself to the ecstasy of it.

The blinding white light of her building orgasm chased away the dark uncertainty that had plagued her for so long. She came with a cry she muffled into the bedding—barely aware enough to remember where they were and that there was any world at all outside of him.

And when she caught her breath again, she found her world, spinning so relentlessly since she'd heard her soulmate sentence uttered by the wrong person, had righted itself. She was anchored, centered, in his arms.

"Safe," she whispered to herself.

"Mmm?" Edward's hum was muffled against the skin of her shoulder where he rested his head.

"Nothing. Go to sleep."

"Mmm," he agreed.

They slept.

~0~

When she woke again it was to the soft murmur of Edward's voice. She pressed back and frowned when she didn't come up against the resistance of his hard chest. Her eyes opened reluctantly, and when they focused, she was greeted by the sight of Edward sitting in a weird looking chair on the ground, his gaze intent on her and his phone to his ear.

"Thank you, Eleazar. I appreciate it," he said into the phone before he set it down on the ground beside him.

They stared at each other for a few beats. Bella bit the inside of her lip trying to keep a handle on the broad smile that threatened to stretch across her face.

What she felt for this man was a study in contrasts. The purity of the joy she felt was total and so innocent. A blush rose to her cheeks, and some shy part of her wanted to duck her head. Yet looking at him, she felt the demanding pull of attraction. The things she would do to him. The things she wanted him to do to her.

Well. Pure wasn't the word for all that.

The safety she'd found in his arms; the danger of giving herself over to another person. The snug certainty—nothing in her life had ever felt this right, this natural. At the same time, it stunned her. Surely an emotion like this couldn't be human—so mundane that almost every person in the world had felt it. She could fly with a love like this; it was utterly supernatural.

It was yin and yang.

He was her soulmate.

"Are you watching me while I sleep?" She arched an eyebrow, trying to sound stern despite the smile playing at her lips.

"Yes," he said, unabashed.

"Hmm." Bella touched the side of her cheek, just a touch self-conscious. "I hope I wasn't drooling."

"No drool." His grin widened. "You talk in your sleep. Did you know that?"

Her cheeks flushed. She had known that, of course, but having slept alone for many years now, it was something she'd conveniently forgotten. "What did I say?"

"You have a crush."

"Do I?"

"Yeah. You called out for some Edward character several times."

"Oh, him." She sighed, cuddling her pillow closer. "I'm a little obsessed with that guy."

"A little?"

She held up her hand, holding her thumb and pointer fingers an inch apart.

He stood and crossed the room, kneeling on the floor in front of her. He kissed the tip of her nose with a gentle pressure. "He's a little obsessed with you too. You know... In case you wondered."

She cupped the back of his neck, bringing his head down so she could nuzzle the scruff at his cheek. She stroked her fingers through his hair. "What did Eleazar want?"

"Hmm?" He seemed blissed out by the movement of her fingertips along his scalp. "He didn't want anything. I was asking him for something."

"Really?"

"That's typically the way the butler thing works."

"Ah. I always wondered, but having two working hands and two functioning legs I always preferred the get off my ass and do it myself method." She winked at him in case he didn't know she was joking.

He kissed her nose and then her lips sweetly. "But then I'd have to stop staring at you while you sleep."

"Creeper."

He traced the shape of her face with a feather soft touch. His gentle smile faltered as he skimmed over her neck, the vivid bruises there. "Did I…" He swallowed audibly. "Did I hurt you? When we… I wasn't as careful as I should have been."

There was that giddy rush again. That bubble of happiness so pure, she wanted to giggle with the joy of it. He was such a good man.

Bella opened her mouth to deny his words but reconsidered. There wasn't much she'd gotten right in her life so far. This, them, was important. She wasn't going to take that for granted just because he was her soulmate.

So, she wasn't going to lie to him. "Someone beat the shit out of me a few days ago." She sighed and cupped his cheek before he could duck his head. "You weren't the one who hurt me. I'm sore. I'm not broken. You gave me exactly what I needed."

He put a hand over hers against his cheek, stroking the ridges of her knuckles. "You are a little broken." He drew his fingers down her arm until he found her casted hand. "That's what I was talking to Eleazar about."

"About my broken wrist?" She quirked an eyebrow.

"I asked him to set a few things in the bathroom. In case you wanted to take a shower." He tilted his head. "Or a bath."

"Oh, a bath," she said with reverence. When was the last time she'd had a bath?

"If you take a bath, you won't have to wrap your wrist as long as we're careful." He stood and gestured with his head. "Come on. I'll help you."

Some minutes later Bella found herself in a bright, large bathroom, warm in a robe Edward had produced out of nowhere, watching as he filled the rounded tub. Steam curled up, making the air thick and pleasant, infused by the scent of the lavender bath oil he tipped into the hot water. She watched, chewing on her bottom lip.

He glanced at her and frowned. He stood and crossed to her, one hand on her shoulder as he wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She sniffed hard and shook her head, stepping closer to him. "Just… I don't think anyone has run a bath for me."

"Ever?"

"Well. Maybe a nanny when I was a little kid." She looped her arms around him and leaned against his chest.

He gave her a squeeze and pulled away, leading her over to the tub. "Come on."

She watched with surprise as he got in the tub. Clad in only boxers, he sat on the ample lip at the head of the tub and patted his knee. Getting the idea, Bella shimmied out of her borrowed robe and stepped into the tub. Using his knee to keep her balance, she sat in the water, moaning as the perfect heat flowed over her skin. "That feels so good." Her aching body relaxed, and she leaned back against his legs.

He rubbed a spot behind her ears, soothing away a minor headache.

"You doing okay down there?" Edward asked, tone soft. He poured warm bath water from a cup over her tilted head to wet her hair.

Bella realized she'd been quiet for minutes. She breathed in the steam and lavender, searching for the right words, wondering if she should feel self-conscious. "I was thinking about whether or not I'm going to be any good at this whole relationship thing." She let out a low moan, blissed out as he worked shampoo into her hair, massaging her scalp as he did. "You've done this before."

"This?" He chuckled. "I don't think I've ever given someone a bath before." He let his hands dip into the water, teasing the outline of her breasts. "I enjoy the view though."

"Not this." She flicked water at him. "You're just good at taking care of me. I don't know if I would have thought to do something like this for you."

"Bella." He cupped his hand under her chin and tilted her head up. He leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. "You think you don't take care of me? What was the first thing you did the day we met? You fed a half starved, fresh out of prison stranger. You introduced me to my nephew. You're good to me, baby. You're good for me."

She was pleased by the thought. Imagine that. Was there anyone else in the whole damn world whose life was made better because she was in it? What a novel concept, and one that would take some getting used to.

"I don't know if it would make you feel better, but in case it does, this is all new to me too." Edward's tone was even, as gentle as his hands as they moved over her hair, massaging conditioner in now.

"What's new? Relationships?" Bella furrowed her brow. "But you've been in them."

He sighed and chuckled. "Honey, that was so long ago. At least three versions of myself since the first relationship." He dipped his hands in the water, rinsing off the excess conditioner. "I think about relationships differently now than I used to."

"You were going to marry Tanya. That's pretty serious."

"Well, in terms of commitment, sure. We've had versions of this conversation. People get into relationships without thinking about the long term, without thinking about what partnership looks like. I was serious about Tanya. I loved her. But did that make me a good partner?" He scoffed. "Who would have chosen the man I was back then? A liar. And a cheat. A criminal."

Hands to her shoulders, he pushed forward gently. "Scoot up."

She did, and he slid into the tub behind her, boxers and all. He wrapped his arms around her, fingers skimming up her body as he buried his nose at her neck. "I need you to know that this, for me, is more, Bella." He pressed his lips to her cheek, her hair. "I'm not taking anything for granted. If this were about emotion only, about attraction and connection it would be a no-brainer. I fell in love with you before I knew I was supposed to. My heart and soul are yours. But none of that makes me a good partner for you."

"Edward—"

"Shh." His arms around her tightened. "It's okay. I'm saying, I don't know who I'm meant to be yet. I'm trying to be good. A good man. A good son." He swallowed hard, the sound loud in her ear. "If there ever comes a time I'm not good enough for you—"

"Edward," she admonished.

"You and I both know the soulmate thing doesn't make me enough."

She pulled away, craning her neck to glare at him. "And I chose you before that. I chose you of my own free will. Fuck destiny."

He grinned and kissed her cheek. "I know. And I'm not saying you were wrong. I'm saying I know I need to work for it. Work on me. Work on us."

"We both do." She had to smile, because hadn't she thought the same thing earlier? That she couldn't take anything for granted? She tilted her head back, kissing the underside of his jaw. "This is going to work."

"Oh?" He teased her lips with his. His fingers drew circles around her belly button under the water. "What makes you say that?"

She sighed, relishing in his touch, her body coming alive again easily, nerves lighting up one by one. "Neither of us know what we're doing," she whispered. "Who we're going to be. Same page. Same book." She raised her eyes to look in his. "I have to be good enough for you too. We can figure it out. Together."

"Together," he echoed as though trying the idea on for size.

"Assuming I don't get sent up for attempted murder anyway."

He shook his head, ducking to kiss her shoulder. "You won't." The words were firm—a promise.

"I know," she said, mostly believing it.

He pressed two fingers to her chin and tilted her head up again. He kissed her. And kissed her.

And as his hands drifted lower, teasing the inside of her thighs, she let that worry slip away and let her world shrink back down to him.

Them.

A/N: I'll see you as soon as I can. Take care of yourselves.