In Paris 1723

[1.23]

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For the first time in, what seemed to me like forever, the house was completely silent.

The entire family had left early in the morning. Rose and Alice were going shopping, Esme was walking around some interior decorating store that was a few hours away, Carlisle was at work, Jasper and Emmett were out hunting, and Theo was somewhere in the house watering the countless plants that he bought. The sudden- but welcome- free time allowed me to catch up on my painting, which I had been forced to abandon for a few weeks due to the Bella situation.

I leaned back in my chair and looked at the canvas that sat in front of me, splashes of paint having been splattered across it. The colors contrasting enough that it made it look interesting, but not too overbearing to look at. After letting it dry, I looked over at the cans of paintbrushes, carefully running my fingers over the bristles until I found the brush that I was looking for. I picked it up and twirled the new, unused paintbrush in my hand as I thought about what it needed. Slowly dipping it into the bucket of blue paint, and beginning to drag the paint along the top of the canvas, watching as it dripped down and slowly began to dry.

"Looks good," Theo says, causing me to jump slightly.

"I didn't know you were standing there," I say, watching as he chuckled slightly. After a few seconds, he- almost hesitantly- steps into the room and slowly makes his way over towards me, stopping when he is right behind my chair. He looks over at the painting for a moment before carefully placing his hand on top of mine, guiding a new bush into the bucket of black paint and brushing it across the canvas. After finishing, he pulled our hands away, both of us silently watching as the paint slowly dripped down the canvas.

"Come downstairs with me. I have a surprise for you," Theo whispered into my ear. A shiver ran up my spine when his breath hit my ear. I carefully put down my brush and stood up. Grabbing his hand and pulling him away from the still dripping wet paints, but not in the direction of the door. Quickly pulling him into the bed and straddling his waist, promptly attacking his lips with mine.

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After a few hours, I rolled over and laid on top of Theo's chest, resting my chin on my hands as I smirked down at him. I raised my eyebrow as he wrapped his arm around my back, carefully turning as he grabbed something from the side table before turning back towards me and smiling softly.

"What?" I chuckle, looking at his golden eyes. "Theo. What is it?"

He carefully took my hand and placed the small velvet box in it, making me look down in confusion, not understanding what it was.

"What! What is it?"

"Open it," he pressed gently, watching my face carefully. I sighed as I sat up, gently opening the box and looking at the ring that was carefully nestled inside.

"Theodore Sallow," I gasped, looking from the box back up to him.

"I know how heartbroken you were when it broke, so I got the band fixed. I- um updated it a little too, not too much though," he whispered, "I- I actually, um, I had this whole plan on how I was going to show it to you and repropose to you... but we kinda got sidetracked."

I smiled sheepishly at him and chuckled, "whoops."

He just smiled down at me, gently taking the ring out of its box and holding it.