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Later, perhaps days, when Sage had been sedated thoroughly with the press of Sam's hands against her pressure points, his lips on the most sensitive parts of her, Rosalie and Emmett stopped by the Uley house.
Sage was in the detached stage of grieving--the part where she knew something major happened in her life, but it felt like it didn't happen to her in a way. She felt the repercussions of Aro's death, of returning to humanity because of his loss, but it felt like it happened to someone else. Not to her.
Happiness warmed her bones, instead, settling into her like sediment on a rainy day. Blissfully cool and wonderfully weighted. She curled herself into Sam's new bed, a courtesy of the Cullens after they betrayed Sam by keeping Aro instead of killing him the way they should have in the field. Though Sage asked him to forgive them for their lack of hindsight, Sam thought they deserved his anger. Said it was a fitting punishment for their carelessness.
The bed was warm, and the day was rainy, the metal roof clanging as rain poured. Sage almost sighed when Sam poked his head in, followed by his tanned torso and short-clad legs. Shamelessly, she drank his disheveled hair in, the marks on his neck that she hadn't been able to leave before. Sam ducked his head, throwing a shirt over his abdomen.
"Pity," Sage sighed out, shaking her head on the pillow. She was wearing the shirt he'd had on before that one.
Sam grinned at her, wolfish as it was. "Emmett and Rosalie are here. You" --he pointed at her-- "need to get up. Right now. She wants to see you. The Ancient One is with them."
"Whatever could they want?" Sage asked, but the prospect of seeing Emmett and Rosalie, whom she had missed nights ago when she and Sam had talked, was exciting.
"I think maybe it could be to see you?" Sam asked, tone drawled out and sarcastic. "Just a guess, though."
"We could ignore it," Sage said, flipped the covers off her and sat up slowly, with purpose. She purposely allowed her legs to show; pale as they were, they were long and languid, a distraction for the weak-willed. "Stay in bed. Tell them we are very busy."
But Sam only swallowed, glancing over her once then turning his gaze to the doorknob, where his hand rested. "I think humanity has changed you. So quickly, too."
"I am a quick learner," Sage said.
Sam laughed, pulling at the door. It clicked open, and in the corridor, Sage could hear Emmett laughing loudly at something. The sound was enough to change her resolve, and she pushed herself off the bed in a way she knew would drive Sam mad, but he only rolled his eyes at her, muttering under his breath about her insatiability. Sage laughed after him, but pulled on a pair of pajama shorts that the Cullens had gratefully given her in her departure from their house.
Walking through his hallway was like second nature to her, almost like she had lived there instead of the Cullens when she first arrived. It had taken her a while to get used to the Cullens, even as a vampire, but Sam's house was cozy in a way that not even Sage's hut had been when she had shared it with her family so long ago.
