Five hours later
I yawned, opening my eyes.
For a moment, I stared at the ceiling. The room was dark, but darkness held little meaning for my eyes. I was still in Alice's room, though now alone.
'When did I fall asleep? Damn it. I had wanted to enjoy every second of it.'
'And where did she go?'
As if answering my question, I heard light footsteps in the corridor, heading toward the room. A rhythm I recognised well before the door even moved. But it wasn't the footsteps that held my attention, it was the smell drifting ahead of them.
The door opened. Alice stepped inside and reached for the switch, filling the room with a warm, comfortable light. She then turned fully toward me, smiling and holding a large plate in both hands.
"Thought you might be hungry," she said.
My eyes moved from her to the plate, generously stacked with several thick steaks. A quiet laugh rumbled in my chest as I pushed myself to the edge of the bed, stood, and crossed the room toward her.
"You know," I said, "if you keep this up, I'm going to have no choice but to propose."
She giggled, her eyes glinting with mischief. "What if that was my plan from the beginning?"
"Then it's totally working," I said, "and I'm walking into it with my eyes open."
She looked at me with quiet affection, then gestured toward the far side of the room. Only then did I notice what I had entirely missed during the tour: a glass door leading outside.
"Come on," she said lightly. "We have a plan to follow."
The door led to a terrace overlooking the rear side of the property.
Below the hill, a river cut through the forest like a silver ribbon beneath the night sky. Warm exterior lamps cast soft pools of light across the wooden floorboards, giving the entire space a cosy atmosphere.
Near the railing stood a small round table, already set with cutlery and a glass of juice.
Alice placed the plate down carefully.
I moved to her first, wrapped my arms around her from behind, and kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you."
She smiled, turned her head, and pressed a small kiss to my lips, then moved to her seat.
I sat and started eating.
"It's even better when it's freshly cooked," I said after the first bite.
She smiled happily and continued watching me as I worked through the plate.
For most people, being watched so closely while eating would probably feel uncomfortable.
And honestly, if it had been anyone else, I likely would have felt the same way.
But Alice's attention never felt intrusive. Her gaze, her presence, even the simple act of quietly watching me, all felt natural.
We talked while I ate. She told me about the Cullen family, primarily about their lives over the last decade or so. She described how Esme had spent months working through the design of the house, trying to balance each family member's personal tastes against her own vision for the whole. From what I'd seen of it, the result spoke well of the effort.
At some point, a question surfaced that I had been quietly sitting on. "By the way," I said after another bite, "I thought your visions weren't so exact. How did you know when I'd wake up?"
She smiled, and a short, bright laugh followed, the kind that comes with genuine amusement at a memory.
I narrowed my eyes slightly. "What?"
"It wasn't a vision," she said, visibly amused. "Your body told me."
I paused halfway through cutting another piece of steak.
"...My body?"
She nodded, entirely at ease, her expression light and unbothered. I had a clear idea of what she might be referring to, but her casualness didn't fit that notion at all. While the topic wasn't inherently shameful or embarrassing, it certainly should have carried at least some degree of intimacy. Instead, she brought it up with an astonishing nonchalance, like someone remarking on a funny sneeze in their sleep. A persistent thought suggested she might genuinely mean something entirely different, so I decided to dig a little.
"And can I ask," I said carefully, "what exactly my body did?"
Her eyes lit up. She pulled her chair around toward mine, leaning in like someone eager to share a good secret. I leaned toward her as well, and she brought her lips close to my ear and whispered.
I quickly pulled back after she finished. "I did what?"
The words came out louder than intended. Alice pressed a hand over her mouth, barely containing her laughter, and quickly whispered, "If you don't want Emmett making jokes about it for the next three months, I'd keep your voice down."
I exhaled. "You're right," I said, more quietly.
A new thought struck me. I leaned closer to her ear this time, dropping my voice low enough that no vampire at any reasonable distance would catch a syllable. "But if I did that, didn't he already hear it?"
She shook her head.
"It was very quiet," she whispered back. "I only noticed because I was really close to you."
I stared at her for a second before leaning back slowly in my chair.
"I still can't believe I did that."
Alice beamed immediately.
"Me neither!"
She giggled, warm and helpless, and leaned close to my ear one more time. "You were so sweet," she whispered. "I really struggled not to wake you up."
I smiled and kissed her. When we parted, I asked, "How about we go flying? I've still got around ten hours before I need to head back."
"Yes!"
She practically jumped to her feet, then glanced down at herself.
"...Okay, wait. I need to change first. This outfit is absolutely not flight-approved."
I laughed quietly. "Take your time. I'll wait here."
…
About twenty minutes later, she walked back out.
She wore a sleek, dark track jacket, fitted close to her body, over a simple dark top. Slim low-rise jeans and clean white sneakers completed the look. It was simple, sporty, and yet unmistakably Alice.
The jeans perfectly hugged her figure, accentuating her graceful athleticism and the effortless elegance of her every movement.
She embodied perfect balance: petite yet not fragile, fit yet not harsh.
She crossed the terrace toward me, and I let my gaze follow her without making any effort to hide it.
She stopped a few inches from me, tilted her chin up, and gave me a look that was equal parts amused and pleased. "I do like the way you look at me," she said. "But I'd also like actually to go flying at some point tonight."
"Who says we can't do both?" I said.
I swept her into a princess carry, her arms instinctively circling my neck, and backed us toward the railing. She laughed at that, as I used the railing as a pivot and tipped us cleanly over the edge.
One second of open air beneath us.
Then my wings tore free through the back of my shirt. The ground rushed away as we levelled out barely a metre above it, threading fast between the dark trunks of the firs. The forest blurred past on either side. I beat my wings hard, and we punched upward through the canopy in a rush of cold, sharp air.
The treetops fell away below us. We climbed until the full breadth of the valley opened up beneath us, the jagged ridge of the mountains to the east, the scattered lights of the town small and quiet to the south, the trees stretching dark and continuous in every direction.
I glanced down at Alice. She was looking out at all of it, her expression open and still, hair moving against the wind.
I turned us toward the mountains and flew.