3 months after the confrontation…

The four of us trudged up the steps towards the glass front door of the Cullen house, our black cloaks billowing behind us. Caius had left the sleek black BMW parked across front of the entrance to the garage, which I was convinced he'd done just to annoy them.

I tilted my head back into Marcus who was stood just behind me. "I'm nervous," I muttered quietly. "Can you please knock?"

"You do confuse me, tesoro," he chuckled.

He tapped his knuckles against the door three times and then took a step back so that I was at the front. Through the glass, I could see Esme's figure bustling excitedly down the stairs in her usual smart blouse and pencil skirt.

She pulled open the door with the same friendly grin across her face. "Eli, Marcus, Aro, Caius," she acknowledged each of us in turn with a nod, "please do let yourselves in."

Happily, she stepped to the side and held the door open for us. I smiled at her warmly and led the way through into the house with my hand in Marcus'.

I shrugged off my cloak and placed it over my arm. "Thank you again for allowing us to stay here, Esme."

"Oh, of course." She began leading us upstairs towards the kitchen. "You are always welcome here for as long as you wish."

"Your home is lovely, my dear," Aro complimented just behind us. He'd been in the house a few times now, but he still found it fascinating how open plan the place was, especially compared to the gothic theme of the castle, and Esme's flair for decorating seemed to intrigue him.

"Thank you, Aro." Esme smiled over her shoulder.

In the kitchen, Carlisle was already sat at the kitchen table on a wooden stool with a stack of papers in front of him, each sheet labelled with the Forks Hospital logo. He placed the papers to the side as soon as we entered the room.

"My dear friend Carlisle," Aro greeted, extending his hand out. Carlisle took it willingly while Aro stood perfectly still and absorbed every thought that had passed through his head since our last visit. "Still the good doctor as always, I see."

Carlisle sighed lightly. "My work never stops."

"Can I get you anything?" Esme offered as we sat down at the table beside Carlisle. "I'm afraid we don't usually stock up for your particular choice of diet but you are free to help yourselves to vegetarian food."

"No, thank you," I declined.

Caius shook his head. "I appreciate the offer."

Marcus and Aro both also politely declined in turn, inwardly cringing at the thought of the taste of animal blood. It was not that it tasted bad per se, but I would avoid drinking it at all costs.

I assumed she wasn't expecting us to accept her offer in anyway since she seemed to already have a steaming mug of animal blood which she picked up from the middle of the table and took a sip from.

"I remembered your household being somewhat busier," Marcus humoured light-heartedly.

"Yes," Carlisle chuckled under his breath, "the kids are still at school since it is Friday, but they'll be returning home shortly. Jacob I do believe will be arriving with Renesmee any time now."

Realising that Jacob was arriving shortly, I whipped out my iPod and began scrolling through the music, settling on 'Chihuahua'.

"Ah, and how is our favourite miracle child doing?" Aro asked.

We went silent as we heard the front door creak open and Nessie's giggle echoing through the hall. "You can ask her yourself," Carlisle responded.

After a series of thuds on the stairs as Nessie bear crawled up them like she often did, she ran into the kitchen at full speed. "Auntie Eli!"

"Nessie!" I instantly stood up from my seat and swept the giggling child off her feet, spinning around on the spot while I held her above my hip. Physically, she was only about 11 years old, so her weight and size still made it easy for me to hold her.

Her arms surrounded my shoulders while she hid her face in my neck. "You were gone for too long."

"Ness, I was only gone for a month," I reminded her.

"Exactly, you left us for a whole month!" she exclaimed furiously.

A second, much more reluctant set of footsteps could be heard stamping their way up the stairs. Taking that as my cue, I sat back down in my chair with Nessie on my lap. I pressed play on the song as soon as Jacob came into view and 'Chihuahua' came booming out of my speaker.

Everyone in the room began laughing, and even Nessie giggled but tried to cover her mouth so she didn't seem rude. I however didn't even bother to hold back and cackled loudly.

Jacob held his hands up in mock surrender. "Alright, tomato eyes, message received."

I opened my mouth to talk but nothing came out except the word, "Chihuahua," before I started wheezing with laughter again. I leaned against Caius for support, not that he was doing much better at composing himself than me.

Carlisle leant over the table towards my iPod. At first, I assumed he would turn off the music altogether, but instead he turned up the volume further and continued to laugh.

Rolling her eyes, Esme paused the music and patted Jacob on the shoulder. "I apologise for their immaturity, Jacob."

I scoffed jokingly. "Uh, rude. Beverly Hills Chihuahua, it's you again, yay," I cheered sarcastically.

He forced a smile. "I'd be lying if I said it's nice to see you, tomato eyes."

"Aw, the feeling is mutual."

"Ah, young Renesmee, wonderful to see you." Aro smiled down at her on my lap.

"Hello Aro, Caius, Marcus." She briefly glanced at each of them. "I skipped another grade in homeschool!" she announced jubilantly.

The corner of Marcus' lips twitched into a smile. "Congratulations, little one. Soon you will be smarter than Caius."

"Brother," Caius growled.

I leaned in to whisper in Nessie's ear, ensuring that everyone heard. "He feels threatened by your intellect, that's all."

"Eliana, that is not true," he argued.

I nodded at him condescendingly. "Sure."

Nessie sighed and folded her arms over the table with her chin resting atop. "I'll never be as smart or as good at anything as Caius, or any of you."

Aro tilted his head to the side to see her face better and frowned. "Do not think like that, Renesmee. You are already an exceedingly bright child, with the most potential I have ever known. Who knows what you will make of yourself in this world?"

She still didn't seem to perk up much at that, only sighing yet again.

Jacob exhaled deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Nessie's still a bit upset because a boy at the play park over at the reservation told her she was a freak," he told us.

"Oh Ness, you poor thing," I cooed and pulled her into a hug.

Marcus shook his head disapprovingly. "I assume you dealt with said boy accordingly?"

Jacob nodded in confirmation. "The boy's been spoken to, but she's still kinda bummed out about it though."

Esme petted the top of her head and stepped over to the fridge. "Will some food cheer you up? Emmett still has some bear left over, and I can always tell him it was Carlisle who drank it."

"Yes please." Nessie nodded sadly and continued to rest her head against the table and sulk.

"No good ever came from taking insignificant others opinions into account, young one, especially those which such low intellect compared to yours," Caius advised wisely.

She nodded and weakly smiled. Esme reappeared from the fridge with a yellow straw cup, the scent from the crimson liquid filling the room. Nessie took it from her eagerly and downed a long gulp of the stuff. "Thank you."

"No problem, sweetie," she replied.

"Honey, take some advice from me." I placed my hand over Nessie's while she glanced up at me curiously. "Boys suck, like, suck. They're a waste of time, and they're all just as bad as each other, and some of them can be really mean. Just, don't take it to heart, okay? They're just jealous that they're not nearly as beautiful as you and they don't own dresses as nice as yours."

She giggled slightly at my explanation. "But Jacob's the nice one."

Aro gasped dramatically. "And what about me?"

Without a word, she slid off my lap giggling and ran over to Jacob who swiftly picked her up and held her weight in one scarily muscular arm.

"Silence speaks volume," I teased.

The Cullens finally arrived back from school an hour later. Caius had been forced to move the car out of the drive, but he still made sure to discretely leave a few scratches in the paintwork on the side of Edward's Volvo.

Every seat in the front room was occupied. There was so little space that Alice had to sit on Jasper's lap and me on Aro's. Nessie was more than happy to sit on a pile of fluffy white cushions on the floor by Bella's feet like some kind of puppy.

"So, how is young Renesmee progressing?" Aro asked.

"She has grown two inches in the past month. Her unprecedented growth rate seems to be slowing down considerably, now slightly closer to that of a human child," Carlisle explained.

"Alice says I'll be taller than my mom soon!" Nessie exclaimed, clapping her hands together excitedly, which made Aro chuckle lightly.

"And I assume she continues to follow your animal blood diet?" Caius questioned.

Nessie nodded her head in confirmation. "Jacob does hunting challenges with me in the forest. It's really fun. Oh," she rolled onto her back playfully, still on the floor, "and Esme sometimes cooks human food for me as well, but I prefer to eat like everyone else."

"How much contact has Renesmee had with the human world?" Aro asked.

"Only really from Charlie, and some people down at the reservation occasionally," Jacob responded. "Ness spends most of her time around here."

Nessie giggled and ran over to me. She leant on my knee and stretched her arm up towards my face. "Here, I'll show you."

As soon as the smooth skin of her tiny hand made contact with my face, my vision faded at the edges, a bright white light taking over.

…

Jacob and Nessie were both in the forest, trekking through in slow and precise steps, presumably in search of food. His attention was suddenly caught by a rustling in the distance, where a little brown rabbit appeared out of the dense foliage.

"Last one to catch that bunny has to clean my garage," Jacob taunted with a grin.

He propelled himself forwards and began to sprint towards the small animal in front of him. Nessie groaned, stamping her foot on the muddy ground below her feet, and then ran after him. "No fair, I wasn't ready! And there are spiders in your garage!"

The memory fast-forward to Nessie bent over the limp form of the rabbit while Jacob stood back with his arms crossed. "Since I got there first," he began smugly, "I'll take my winnings at your closest convenience."

She simply rolled her eyes at him and went back to draining the remaining life out of the rabbit.

That image blurred out once more and was briskly replaced by a second. I recognised the small, enclosed space to be Carlisle's office.

Nessie had her back pressed up against the side of one of the bookshelves which already had a tape measure from ceiling to floor and a series of markings indicating her height at different points in time. Carlisle stood in front of her with a small notebook and black Sharpie pen.

He paused his note-taking and shook his head. "Renesmee, stop standing on your toes."

"Oh." She frowned, her height suddenly dropping by a few inches. "How did you know?"

"Because you do this every time," he laughed quietly.

She watched as he used the pen to draw a line from the top of her head to the tape measure and took down a series of numbers in his notebook.

"I just want to be tall," she muttered.

"As you will be," Carlisle glanced up from his notebook, "very soon, I believe."

The memory blurred out once more, and I assumed it was over when just one more image flashed in front of my eyes. She was in some kind of playground, surrounded by metal climbing frames, slides, and seesaws.

In the corner, Jacob was sitting back on a wooden bench with a bag of cheese balls in his hand, having a deep conversation with Seth. This must've been from earlier today, the incident she'd been talking about with that boy.

While she sat at the top of the monkey bars, a seat no child would've been able to reach on their own, a small boy, about 13 years old, walked up to her. His rich copper skin tone contrasted greatly to her much paler one, and his cropped black hair moved slightly with the wind.

"Why are you sitting up there, you freak?" he sneered.

Nessie frowned sadly and crossed her arms. "Because I want to."

"Because you're just a freak, that's why," he laughed before running off to rejoin a group of similar boys the same age.

Jacob and Seth instantly shot up from where they were sitting on the bench, Jacob with a murderous expression on his face. Seth ended up being the one to approach the group of boys while Jacob helped Nessie down from the monkey bars.

She didn't cry, but she was definitely upset. Snatching the bag of cheese balls from Jacob's grip, she strided purposefully towards Jacob's car without a word.

…

As if adjusting the focus on a camera, reality slowly unblurred and I was back in the Cullens' front room on Aro's lap.

I shook my head annoyedly. "Give me the name and address of the boy, and I'll hang him by his-"

"No," Bella interrupted before I had the chance to finish. "Jacob's already scared him enough, there's no need to hang him by his…"

Nessie cocked her head to the side confusedly. "His…what?"

I laughed at her innocence. "It's not important."

Caius decided to finish my sentence for me. "Eliana was going to say by his bal-"

"No!" Bella yelled slightly too loudly. "She's not even a year old yet. Can I have my daughter as an innocent little girl for at least a little while longer?"

Nessie rolled her eyes. "I heard what he said in anyway, mom." She turned her attention to Aro and lifted up her hand. "Want to see?"

Once Aro had finished watching her recent memories, she then leaned up to Marcus, who had to pull her onto the sofa beside him so that she could reach his face, and then a very reluctant Caius, who I had to bribe with…other things, much to Edward's horror.

She pulled away slowly and edged backwards towards Edward who pulled her onto his lap. Caius seemed too shocked to say anything, which only made me laugh.

I smiled at her. "Your coolness left him shook, Nessie."

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: I'm back hehe, and finally with the final book! This story will be quite busy, but there'll also be plenty of fluff and further relationship development with the kings hehe.

I have a thing where I get way too emotionally invested in the stories I write, so I'm dreading the point where this book is over, but I have plenty more fun Volturi-based stories lined up for very soon!

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love hearing your thoughts, stay tuned for more updates, stay safe, and ily lots!