Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

30 - ᴀ ʙᴏok

ATHENA :)
Right person, not enough time.
Like literally, we had two days. Screw the universe.
Touchwood.
Undelivered!

AS THE message shined back as undelivered once more, Athena strolled into the Black house without knocking. She knew that it was only Billy inside (Jake was out the back with Bella) and heard that he wasn't doing anything important. Plus she had gotten permission to do so weeks and weeks ago. As she pulled off her coat, she made direct eye contact with the ex wolf who had quickly moved to the kitchen as she stopped in the doorway. She raised a brow in suspicion but continued on into the house, holding eye contact. He began to wonder, very loudly, what was going on with her. Her smile had finally returned but now it came parented with a raised brow that confused him. She sighed as she settled onto the sofa, thinking that he had truly forgotten the importance of the day. "Oh don't tell me you forgot," she frowned, shutting his confusing thoughts out of her mind because they just made her feel worse. Had she gotten the wrong day? She glanced to the calendar that hung in their kitchen, no it was the right day.

He raised a brow as he echoed, "Forgot?"

"Billy!" she exclaimed, sighing dramatically in a joking manner that hid the slight annoyance that she felt in the vague distance of her mind. It wasn't like she had a lot of different anniversary dates to remember, she didn't even have a birthday. He had one date to remember when it came to her and he forgot it. Her best friend forgot the one date that truly mattered to her, to both of them really.

Billy, with a hidden smirk that she was too distracted by a bird barely flying into the window, came out from around the counter with an old, browning leather-bound book in his lap. "Obviously I didn't forget," he laughed, catching her attention away from the window and the thankfully not injured bird. She smiled softly as he handed her the book. 

"Is that a present for me?" she grinned, overly excited as receiving gifts wasn't something she had ever gotten used to. "We don't normally do presents, I didn't get you anything," she sighed, putting the book into her lap with a frown directed towards Billy.

"That's okay," he shrugged, just wanting her to open the gift that he had searched for centuries. "The centuries-long friendship is enough," he sighed, jokingly exhausted. She chuckled softly taking the book in her hands again. She ran her hand against the cover, trying to feel the indents of a faded title that hardly even showed. She opened the first page and skim-read the contents, wondering why this specific book on England had been gifted to her. It's not like she needed the information, given that it was describing the ten year period that she remained there for after her turning.  "Page one hundred and eighty-two," Billy prompted after she had flicked through the book without stumbling across the specific page he wanted her to see.

Athena cocked a brow and looked up as she flicked to the page. She glanced down at the page and felt her vision physically shift to enhance her view on a particular image in the top corner of one of the pages. "Oh my Lucifer," she gasped, looking even closer at the image. "Is this-"

"You and your mother? I think so," he answered with a grin that formed only because of how happy she looked. He watched as she traced the older woman's face, smiling softly as she noted the similarities the two of them had. She had her mothers smile. "I tried to find the actual painting but I couldn't-"

"The book is perfect,"  she interrupted, still smiling and staring intently at the book as no other words could come to her mind. In the image, a human version of Athena had long curled hair that matched her mothers. Her eyes looked so full of hope and happiness for life that it led Athena to wonder what had even happened to her, how she became the person that she was today. She had always resented the person who turned her, after finding out it was the man who kept her captive, but now that feeling only intensified. To make herself at peace, she had created another fake life for herself - one where she simply did not have parents. But now, that fake life was broken down. She did have a Mother, who loved her by the looks of the image and according to the book she had been a rather important person. She had two brothers and a father that weren't pictured yet she had some sort of guess as to what they could look like. She thought she probably had her fathers nose but her mothers smile and all around lightness. She just stared at the image, unable to form any sort of words at all. A very unusual predicament.

"Did I finally get you speechless?" Billy chuckled, watching as she skim-read the small paragraph next to the image of the painting for the eighteenth time - he would have thought that by now the words were engraved in her mind.

"She's beautiful," she muttered with a smile, feeling pools of venom full tears form in her eyes - the closest to shed happy tears she had ever gotten. Another part of her wished she could actually cry the happy tears but most of her felt that not being able to cry the happy tears was a gift. That way, the happiness would be kept locked within her forever. So, so so happy. She could not even explain it.  "Thank you, thousands of times over," she whispered as she moved to hug him as tight as she could without causing some sort of damage.

"Happy friend anniversary," he whispered as they hugged. She chuckled to herself as they both reluctantly broke the hug.

"The happiest one yet, I think," she replied with a huge grin as she sat back down on the sofa, pulling the book into her vision once more. She could not get enough of that picture, just the smallest glance had her smiling beyond belief. She could not believe that he had gone through the painstaking effort it must have been to find this. Nott hat she had ever really looked herself, she had never felt the need to really.  "Now I feel awful about not getting you anything," she continued, looking up from the page with guilt-ridden features.

"A batch of cookies would do it,"  he replied awfully quickly. She chuckled softly and gently closed the book, putting it on a surface far away from spillages before she headed into the kitchen.

"So, Jake's birthday is coming up right?" she asked as she began pulling ingredients from every cupboard, not hesitating once on any location since she had cooked enough times to know the placement of everything - even what was in the junk drawer. She had found another benefit of the Vampire lifestyle a few years ago - the ability to sense any measurement almost perfectly almost every single time. So she did not require any measuring equipment and just began placing things in a bowl, waiting for his response.

"It's in a week," he replied, watching as she quickly beat the sugar and butter in the bowl without even watching it and none of it spilt over the edge.

"Sixteen, it weirds me out that you have a sixteen-year-old son. I mean it feels like yesterday that you were around that age," she reminisced, cracking an egg into the bowl.

"Believe me, I know," he chuckled with a grin that warmed her heart somewhat. It was weird for her to see a person she always saw as a teenager (and still did really) become the adult with a child that he used to dream about. Knowing he had the life she could never get bought her an indescribable and undefinable type of happiness - one that knocked most of the other negative thoughts about her own life from her mind (most of the time.)

"Do you think he'll go 'wolfish' as I used to call it," she added, not looking down to the bowl as she perfectly poured the flour. He chuckled softly when she stuck her tongue out at him, having noticed his stare of amusement.

"I hope so, it would be nice to have another way to relate to him. Like getting to teach him something again," Bily smiled, remiss about how his son had been younger. He missed those days more than he, or any other parent, would ever admit to themselves or anyone else.

She cocked a brow, "Like the bedtime stories?"

He laughed,  "You heard about that?"

"He told me a few weeks ago," she replied as she passed him a spoon full of cookie dough. "Good?" she laughed once a smile of joy formed on his face.

"Add more chocolate chips," he spoke at an almost whisper. She laughed and then threw the rest of the bag in, throwing the cookie to chocolate ratio way off. It made the gooiest, chocolatey cookies that he seemed to really enjoy as she flicked through the book again - seeing in any of the pages had any more information on her family. Sadly, they did not. Athena smiled as she reached the page again, her gaze fixated on the painting of her and her mother. It was the happiest she had been in a long while.