A/N: Just a little bit of fluff. This is supposed to be a cute moment for Jasper and Nessie, mostly about Jasper and self-acceptance. I feel like there's something about his character that would be really lovely when exposed to the wisdom of children. He'd bounce off well. If you like, please review!

They sat together on the porch, side-by-side in the afternoon shade, looking about as ordinary as any other niece and uncle pair.

A large basket of walnuts stood between them. Renesmee needed a few pounds of them for some dish she was planning. Though only three years old, she looked closer to ten, and had grown into quite the ambitious cook. She rarely ate any of it herself - but seemed to enjoy preparing food for others, especially Jacob.

These would become black walnut fudge for Charlie, if he was not mistaken.

They worked without a real sense of time; she with a nutcracker; he with his hands. There was not much talking. It was a lazy sort of day and he moved without much intention, crushing the outer shells at a nearly human pace. His mind was elsewhere, with Alice. She and Bella had left early yesterday on a hunting trip.

"You know, Uncle Jasper, we really are family."

He smiled down at her. "Yes, of course we are."

"No, I mean really. Well, not you and me - that's only through marriage. But we still are."

He paused, three walnuts between his fingers. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're not only adopted. You're related. Grandpa might have changed everyone besides you and Aunt Alice, but since Mom came, you're all related through marriage."

"How do you figure that?"

She lowered her voice. "Well, James changed Alice. And he bit Mom, even though Dad really changed her. You can still see the scar. That makes them related, kind of."

He was frozen. The idea had never occurred to him; he had long accepted that he and Alice would always be outsiders, deep down. Without the bond of venom that the others shared. But this, his little niece smiling up at him, had offered him a realization.

It was a technicality, sure, but one he didn't expect to be so satisfying. An outsider - with every right to be here. Jasper breathed out slowly, a long sigh, a breeze in the heat.

He reached to ruffle her hair. "Well yes, I suppose you're right."

She laughed, and he imagined that somewhere, Alice was laughing with her.

The sun shone bright and warm. They went on cracking.