Stay

I Want You To Stay

"Hey," I answered Alec. He took off his mask and I copied him. He smiled a little when he saw I put my mask next to his on the edge of the balcony.

"How have you been? Since you left?" He asked.

"Alright I guess. I traveled so much and I had a lot of fun, but I was drawn to come back. I missed here too much." I answer, leaning into his side. "Doesn't it ever freak you out that you're supposed to be really old or dead after a long time and you look in the mirror and you don't see any change?" 

"Sometimes, yeah. I just solve a lot of my problems by not looking at myself."

"So you just ignore them until they go away?" 

"I guess."

"That's it? You just bottle up your problems and it die out?" 

"Is your plan of running away from your problems working out better than mine?" Alec sarcastically asked.

I was half-hurt that he said that. He was right, but the truth hurt. Is that how all of the Volturi view me? Jane thought so, after she rudely asked me if I was staying this time. Did Aro and Caius and Demetri think similarly? 

"It's not like any of you cared enough to look for me or send me a letter or asking me to come back," I retort. 

"You don't know that, Vera." Alec tensed his arm that was around me. 

"I do. I have Demetri's tracking skills and Alice's visions. I would've known if the Volturi even thought of finding me." I explained.

"Wait a second. You have to be in proximity of the vampire to get their gift. So...you've met the Cullens?" Alec asked, looking down.

"They're such nice people. And I can kinda tell why Aro is so intimidated by them," I tell Alec.

"Yeah, I guess so." Alec mumbled. 

"What?" 

"It's nothing."

"Don't make me read your mind."

"You wouldn't."

"Try me."

"Fine. I'll tell you everything."

Alec hesitated. His fists clenched and unclenched, and for a second, I saw the black mist from his hands. 

"Remember when you first came here? When you were human?" Alec started.

"Yeah."

"Sometime after you started staying here, I felt happier than I've ever really felt. It worried me alot. I've never felt happy, really ever. Sure, I was okay when Jane was with me, but never anything more. I asked Marcus about why I'm so lonely, and he said I wasn't alone. He told me there was someone else in the castle was just as lonely as me." Alec started.

"Me." I answered.

"Yeah, you. I wanted to talk to you. I didn't really have an idea about what, but I wanted to be by you for a while. Thinking of you made me feel a little better inside. Then you wound up on the balcony and I had to talk to you somehow. And the only story I could think of was when I was a human. Probably wasn't the best story to tell as an introduction to me, I guess. Still, you didn't care. You stood there and listened and even tried to defend me. Everyone else has called me a lost cause, a mistake, and you didn't. You changed my perspective of me. I have no idea why, either. I was so irritable and annoyed then." Alec continued.

"Yeah you were." I respond.

"But let me finish, Vera. I might not ever feel ready to tell anyone if I don't finish this story now." Alec spoke. "Well, I felt better around you. I knew that. I would smile a little. I would think about it a bit more than necessary. Eventually it became a lot more. And it scared me so much. I could only think about you. I lost it. I ignored you, tried to act like you weren't there. And, it only made it worse.

"Then Aro told you the date that you were going to be changed. I went crazy at the thought of you being one of us. I didn't want to be frozen in time. I wanted to see you grow into an adult and get married to some idiot and have a few kids and a dog and watch them grow up as you became old and die one day. I fought against Aro, I told him that we should just let you go back to your life. He refused, and made me change you. I knew you wouldn't want me, an aggressive idiot, to change you, so I did it in your sleep. You wouldn't have felt a thing, either. It was for the best, and my sanity, I suppose.

"But when I was drinking your blood, something wasn't right. Your blood was sweeter and crying out so desperately to me. It was in that moment that I realized that you were my mate." Alec finished.

"Alec?" I asked. "Is this a joke to you? Did Aro tell you that I've been alone and looking for a mate?"

"What? No, Aro hasn't said a word. I'm serious, you're my mate." He replied. He seemed so astonished that I'd think he was lying. Maybe he thought I was just in denial, or really insecure.

"Really?" I breathed. "Alec, I've been all over the world several times looking for my mate for decades and it comes to be that he's been here all along."

"I wanted to find you, but Aro forbade it." Alec admitted. "But I have to ask you a question."

"Yes?"

"Vera, will you be my mate?"

I nodded, and he captured my lips.