Between the Perennial Blooms || Paul Lahote

Twenty Four | Aster

"it's in the way she breathes and bleeds beauty,
the ethereal glow of kindness seeping from her skin,
it's in the grace and gait of her stride and step,
a nymph dancing on the water, not a single ripple,
it's the fragility that sits in her smile,
the mystery hidden beneath the blank canvas"
—aavillianess || scattered thoughts

• • •

For having just met, Bailey and Edward got on remarkably well. They sat upon her bed for hours, just talking, just getting to know one another. Edward spoke of his family, of their fantastic abilities, of their close ties, of their unconventional bond. He also spoke of his past, of his life before the turn, of his life after, and of his life whilst coming to grips with his newfound immortality. Bailey, in turn, spoke of her childhood with her Gran, of the few memories she had from her much younger years when she still visited Charlie, and of her earliest recollections of Bella. She spoke of days spent with old man Jodie and his Snake Shack, of the red dirt roads of Acoma she walked as a child that reminded her so dearly of the Rez, and of the time back when she was seven and got her ankle tangled in a coil of loose barbed wire. She pulled up the hem of her pant leg when Edward asked to see the scars, and taking the opening as an opportunity to ask her about the events that took place only a few days prior to, he did so with gentle grace.

"I-I haven't worked up the courage to look at it yet," Bailey replied upon a soft sigh. "My friend Paul-"

"Lahote?"

"-yes." Bailey smiled adoringly at the thought of him. "He changes the bandages for me every night. I like to watch him while he does it, b-but the look on his face..." she shook her head as if to ward away the memory. "It scares me."

"Why?"

"Because he looks so sad," she admitted, wringing her dainty fingers together as she looked down on them in her lap. "And if the sight of my leg makes someone as brave and strong and- and stoic as him sad, then I can only imagine what it'll make me."

"Forgive me if I'm overstepping my boundaries here..." Edward began quietly, laying his large, cold palm -one in such striking contrast to Paul's- overtop both of Bailey's own. "But if you'd like — and only if you're ready, of course — maybe you'd find it easier to look at the wounds with my brother there with you. You know, the one I mentioned earlier?"

"The empath?"

"Jasper," Edward corrected, smiling small when Bailey peered up at him from beneath thick lashes. "He's a little rough around the edges seeing as he's the newest addition to our family, but something tells me the two of you will get along just fine."

"C-could..." Bailey breathed in deep, then exhaled quickly. "Do you think I could meet him?" She asked. "S-sometime soon?"

"Of course," Edward appeased with a slowly growing grin. "Ever since Bella told us you moved to Forks back in July, my family — and myself included — have been anxious to meet you. Bella speaks very fondly of you," he told her. "Though, if I'm being completely honest, she made it sound like you were far younger than you actually are."

One of many bubblegum blushes stained Bailey cheeks as she looked upon her sister's boyfriend bashfully. "E-Everyone thinks I'm so small," she said to him by way of explanation, blushing further when his lips twitched upward with the beginnings of a humored smirk. "So everyone tends to treat me like I'm still eleven."