moodshifter | Alice Cullen | Natasha Romanova

Her walls are already down now, everything that she felt the need to hide earlier that day long forgotten in favor of the moment that he has her in, and he does have her in it. Natasha has been through enough where she was thoroughly convinced that nobody would ever be able to instill anything new in her; she's felt everything, because with the life that she's lived in such a short amount of time, how couldn't she? He's already proven her wrong in that, instilling a pleasant little flutter in her that she's either never experienced or never allowed herself to, and it's... nice. Being around Jasper is nice. She doesn't think she's ever been able to feel like that around another person before.

He can feel the little spark of surprise in her when he grabs her hand, and she isn't certain what he's doing exactly until he lifts it to touch the side of his face again, and it brings a smile to her lips. But then he goes and turns his head, pressing a soft kiss against the palm of her hand, and Natasha swears she can feel the pleasant chill of it dancing up her arm. There's another sudden and unexpected wave of emotion, this time not from her own manipulation as it surprises her just as much as it probably surprises him. It's pure, and warm... something she's certain that she's never felt before, but it goes straight to her head and makes her pleasantly dizzy. Affection. A wave of affection for the man standing with her comes from nowhere, and instead of trying to hide it Natasha bathes in it, because it's easily one of the nicest things she's ever felt.

"I think so, too." She sounds slightly breathless, but her smile is bright and reflects everything that he gives her. She's proud of him, its strong and potent, and that mixes with the affection which mixes in with the arousal and...

Jasper makes her feel simply wonderful.

She blushes a little with she realizes it but she doesn't pull away like she's always had to when she felt like she was getting too close to someone. Instead she basks in it, resting her hand against his face and moving it to brush his long hair from his eyes so she can see them more clearly. Instead of keeping her hand still this time she traces it against his skin, fingertips running slowly down his jaw and back up to trace his cheekbone; testing, making sure that they're still both okay.

"Good." Her smile never fades, but it seems to brighten once more. "I'm glad we agree on something else, because I don't lose."

Jasper has stopped moving again, but it isn't because the danger is mounting, it's because he's savoring everything he can feel coming off her in a way he's really only done with Alice before. He hasn't even noticed how still he's gone, but there's no tension in his shoulders the way there was before when he'd needed to stop moving to avoid an unfortunate incident. She's basking in everything she's feeling and so is he.

"I wouldn't want you to need to start over something so trifling," he murmurs, and then stirs again to run the tip of his nose against her fingers before making another strategic advance in the battle against his thirst and reaching out to set his hands against her waist, and pulls her carefully in to lean up against him. This is the biggest challenge thus far, her scent everywhere, her warmth brighter than sunlight, and he's frowning just a bit as he watches himself as closely as he can.

"I'm very pleased you made the decision to stay," he says after a moment, quiet and steady, as he realizes he still has a strong hold on the thirst. Perhaps that's the secret, he thinks, just keeping it in iron grips, and that's the part that gets easier with time. She's worth doing that for.

He gets another quiet laugh out of her, fluttery and light and somehow completely contradictory to her as a person and yet perfectly fitting to who she is with him. "Always the gentleman," she teases lightly, and there's another lurch of approval and pride when she feels his hands on her waist to drag her in slowly. He's cool, body hard like stone, and it's a nice contradiction to the heat she feels coursing through her simply from his touch. Natasha is no stranger to physical contact with men, she's used it as a weapon more times than she can count and yet it's different with Jasper. Knowing that she has to work for it - that they both do - makes it feel like a prize instead of a chore, and she can't remember the last time she enjoyed being in someone's arms.

She leans against him, working on controlling herself as well to make sure that she doesn't take things too fast too fast, and when she sees that soft frown on his face her fingers slowly trace back up until she brushes her thumb against the corner of his mouth. "None of that," she insists quietly with an encouraging smile. "We're doing well." 'We'. Not 'he', because he's not alone in this and she doesn't want him to ever feel as if he is. She wants to be his partner; not his obstacle.

"As opposed to what, disappearing?" With a small shrug Natasha makes her next move, her free hand slipping down to continue unbuttoning his shirt, and she gets it unfastened to the middle so that she can lay her hand flat on his chest and hold it there. He really is cold, but it's strangely enjoyable and after giving him a moment to adjust she leans forward to press a soft, affectionate kiss to his collarbone. "No," she continues finally, and Natasha's hand leaves his face only so that she can wrap an arm around his waist in return and lean in to rest her cheek against his bare chest. In that moment her eyes close, and she breathes him in... it's nice when it's the other way around. Being surrounded by him, his scent and his touch, makes her feel a strange sense of calm safety. She can't remember the last time that she felt safe, but Jasper is filled with a lot of 'firsts' for her, each one more pleasing than the last.

She watches her own finger trace slow patterns against his skin. "I'm not going anywhere. I don't want to be anywhere but right here."

He lets his fingers link behind Natasha's back, the same way he'd held Alice after she'd first arrived, and tips his head enough to watch the movement of Natasha's hand against the buttons of his shirt, and then his skin. It feels like a branding iron, but he leans into it, a little fascinated by the heat of her skin. When he can't watch any longer, he rests his cheek against her head.

"I was trying to prepare myself for it," he murmurs into her hair. "I was trying to be ready, in those first days even before I told you about Alice's vision, to come back to the cabin after an excursion and find it empty. The relief I felt every time it didn't happen, that's when I knew it'd hurt if it did."

After a moment, he raises his head and turns to glance at the kitchen windows. "Alice is on her way back," he adds, without loosening his arms or trying to step back. He can pick up the tendrils of her feelings, even this far out: happiness, excitement, that satisfaction she gets when she's had luck shopping. How far had she gone?

"Well don't." She makes it sound simple and she knows that, but for Natasha it is. She falls silent for a moment, letting it linger and simply resting in the peace that she's found with the new boundary they've crossed, and another emotion trickles in; anxiety. She's nervous, but she doesn't hide that from him. Not after he's already made so much effort for her today.

"SHIELD wasn't my job, it was my life. Every morning I woke up I wouldn't know where my mission was going to lead me, but it was never my decision. My life has always been that way, even before I joined the agency." Another pause, her fingers still brushing softly against cool skin. "Before SHIELD I was a part of something else, darker. Or at least, back then we were more obvious about our intentions..." Natasha shakes her head. "The point is, since I was eight I never made a decision of my own. When I woke up, when I slept... when I ate, when I read, it was all assigned for me. The day I showed up at the cabin, that was the first choice I've made in my life and even then, it didn't feel like much of a choice after everything that had happened. It feels different now. I've ended a chapter in my life that I don't want to look back on anymore."

She feels his head move and his comment leaves her smiling, and huffing a quiet laugh against his skin before she moves as well to look up at him. "Afraid that she's going to find her husband in the arms of another woman?" She raises an eyebrow, challenging and teasing, and instead of pulling away Natasha reaches up with both of her hands to take his face between them. She pulls him down slowly, because he's simply too damn tall in her opinion, and she stops once to read his eyes before continuing so that she can press a soft kiss against his cheek.

Her mouth moves higher, full lips brushing against his ear with a whisper. "Ty moya sleduyushchaya glava, Dzhasper Uitlok Kheyl. Ty i Elis - moy pervyy vybor."

She's taking a risk, but it's a calculated one, they both know it, and somehow that helps. It helps to have a we, it always has. Alice keeps him balanced, she moves through the world in a dance and brings him along with her, but he and Natasha, if left to themselves, they both look at the world with the eye of a fighter, a strategist who intends to win, not seek out a truce or a draw. It's been a long time since he's had someone like that to lean on, and Maria had never had him on an even footing with herself.

His eyes are still clear when she checks them, there's still no danger that he'll need to disappear on her. He'll do his best not to disappear on her for the rest of his life. "My gordimsya etoy chest'yu, Natal'ya," he murmurs, reaching up to set a chilly hand against hers on his cheek. "Somehow I don't think she'll mind."

Another laugh, and this time one that's somewhat self depreciating. Honor... there's no honor in having Natasha's affection, that would suggest that it's something to be coveted and she knows for a fact that it isn't the case. He doesn't know enough about her yet to realize as much, but he will. Maybe they'll want to change their minds after that happens, but they're putting a lot of faith in her and Natasha isn't blind to that. She has to put faith in them as well.

"I don't think she will either," Natasha tilts her head into his touch as her eyes flutter shut with a soft smile on her lips. "I think," she turns her head to press a warm kiss to his palm, "knowing her," another to his fingertips, "she's going to wait until we're not wrapped around each other to come in, if she feels like she's interrupting something." The last kiss falls on the inside of his wrist before her eyes move back up to his face.

"Which means you should probably let go, handsome."

It's easy to know the perfect moment to walk in when you shamelessly eavesdrop. Laden with bags from several stores in Vancouver, Alice walks along the thick branch outside the living room window and leans down to peek in, beaming, at the two of them wrapped up in each other in the kitchen. It's astonishing how comfortable Jasper is, even to Alice, who's already seen how good they are together in the future. But it's not the same as seeing it happening before her very eyes.

"Hey you two," she says as she hops down, before Jasper's really acted on that suggestion to let Natasha go. She sets all the bags down and zips over to them both before they can separate and puts her arms around each of their shoulders, leaning up to peck Jasper's cheek, then leaning over—so nice to have someone her height—to peck Natasha's, and then rests her head on Jasper's shoulder, next to his half-open shirt, which makes her giggle.

"Looks like you had fun while I was gone. It took you long enough. I had to go all the way to Vancouver to make sure you had enough time." But her fingers play lightly at the nape of Jasper's neck, and Natasha's, and she's brimming with pride.

Her attention is caught before Alice speaks, the light rustle of leaves from the branch she's walking on inconstant with the soft breeze and making her look. She smiles warmly at Alice, as if to try and convey her own pride for Jasper in one look, and the kiss on her cheek brings a pleasant warmth to Nat's face that she's sure she enjoys a little too much. Jasper and Alice are unlike anybody who she's ever met before, and she's almost certain that it's one of the reasons she enjoys them so much.

"We're in no rush," she points out, smiling up at Jasper once more before giving Alice a little wink that silently says 'watch this'. Then Natasha leans up, kissing Jasper on the jaw with soft lips before finally unwrapping her arm around him and moving her other hand to rebutton his shirt. Her fingers pause before she does.

"It looks better this way." She decides aloud before leaving his shirt the way it is, and when she lets go of him she does so to take Alice's hands in both of her own. Jasper isn't the only one here that she's making an effort for, after all. "Come on, show me what you bought in Vancouver. Show off, by the way." She looks at Alice with accusing eyes before they move to Jasper. "Both of you are show offs. I just want to clarify that I see it, and I know, and I'm going to call you out on it. Come on." She grins, tugging Alice toward her a little so she can return the affectionate kiss to her cheek. She's trying. She truly is.

"I'm going to make myself food, keep me company."

Alice's eyes widen a little in surprise as Natasha kisses Jasper's jaw and he doesn't tighten, he doesn't even go still, he doesn't even need to stop breathing. She knows Jasper can feel just how deep and how strong her swell of pride is, and she knows he knows there isn't even a drop of jealousy mixed into it. She's good for him. She'll be good for both of them, and they'll be good for her. Alice is certain of it, and how could she be angry about something like that?

Alice skates a finger along his cheek before she lets Natasha lead her away, leaning into the cheek-kiss she gets in return. Natasha still makes her a little nervous. Not afraid exactly, that isn't it, but Alice still doesn't know how they're going to get to the happy scenes she's seen in her visions. Natasha and Jasper have so much in common. They have a connection already, and she doesn't have that yet. She will, she trusts in that, but...nervous.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watches Jasper take a few silent steps back toward the window. He doesn't need to hunt, he isn't going far, but she catches a flash of him coming back as the sun is setting. He's picked up on that nervousness of hers, she thinks, and it's possible Natasha feels the same, he's giving them time together.

"I got you something," she says brightly, and almost skips to her pile of bags to dig through and find a very small one, a black bag with a black jewelry box inside it, and inside that, a pair of ruby and black diamond earrings. "I was walking past the window and they made me think of you."

She doesn't see Jasper leave, too wrapped up in her concentration on Alice to keep tabs on him. She's made strides with him, but Alice is a different story. They've just met, and although it feels as if she knows her already from all of the stories that Jasper has told Natasha, she knows full well that it isn't enough. There's a connection that needs to be formed between them, and connecting with people is something that Natasha is a master at unless it's in a true and personal level. It's hard for her to be who she is, instead of the person she thinks Alice wants her to be. But she'll try.

She takes the bag and gives Alice a curious glance before opening it, pulling out the box only to remove the lid and see the earrings inside. It's easy to notice that upon first glance they're real; Natasha knows her jewelry. The rubies alone probably cost a pretty penny, but it's the black diamond that makes her eyes widen and look up at Alice as if she isn't certain whether she had meant to hand her a different bag.

"You got these for me?" She needs confirmation. This isn't the time she's held expensive jewelry, but it is the first time it's been handed to Natasha, not Natalie or Sophia or any other mask she's had to put on. She can't help but give a shy smile, uncertain as to whether or not she should even accept them, but after a few moments she removes them from their box and she slips them into her ears before leaning forward and pressing another soft kiss to Alice's cheek, this time with a follow up one to the tip of her nose.

"These are beautiful. Thank you, Alice." She brushes the small woman's hair behind her ear with a tender touch, and she gives her a wink. "They're my colors. How did you know?"

After a few moments of hesitation and nervously chewing on the corner of her lip, Natasha turns to grab the cookware she's going to need. "Jasper and I were talking." She smiles to herself. "...We think that it's best to stay here. Let the family come to us instead, save some time for the three of us to be alone together, you were right."

"I had a hunch," Alice says with a secretive smile. She's seen the Black Widow in her, well, her work uniform? Is that what it's called? Red and black just seems to be a theme for her, and Alice just doesn't hesitate when it comes to appropriate gifts, she never has.

She can't blush, but Natasha makes her almost wish she could. She's like Jasper that way, Alice thinks with a happy smile as Natasha turns to start cooking and she moves to a counter out of the way and goes to hop onto it and stumbles with the force of the slew of images that suddenly slam through her—

—the crunch of frozen pine needles beneath boots, the swish of black red-lined cloaks, a row of hoods drifting too fast through the snowy forest, Aro's bared-teeth smile, the ice in Caius' eyes, Marcus' indifferent sigh, the rest of the family arrayed on either side of Alice and Natasha standing shoulder to shoulder to separate Jasper from Felix the executioner, Natasha's red eyes...red?—

"—oh," she gasps, gripping the counter so hard the granite nearly cracks. A thump outside is Jasper reappearing and blurring to her side, watching her with that sharp intensity. He doesn't even need to ask what she'd seen before she's reaching one hand for him, one hand out for Natasha. "The Volturi," she blurts, looking back to Jasper, horrified. "They're coming after...after you."

Natasha just barely notices the stumble before she's already hurrying to Alice's side, and before she can ask what's wrong Jasper is back in a blur of color. Her hands are on Alice's arm and shoulder as if she's catching her to keep her steady, and Natasha's wide-eyed stare flickers between Alice and Jasper when the woman finally speaks. She must have had a vision, but everything that she says...

"The what?" She looks at Alice before looking back up at Jasper, and her impatience seems to come through for the first time. Barely a second passes by before she's pushing again in annoyance. "What the hell are the Volturi, they're after who, him? Jasper?" She looks up at Jasper now, brow furrowed in concern. "Why is somebody after you?" She doesn't like being in the dark... Natasha is always the first to know something, that's her job. She's not working anymore, but it's become a part of her personality, now. "Somebody explain to me what that sentence means, that'd be great."

One hand goes onto Natasha's shoulder, and it takes more effort to avoid using his abilities to quell her impatience, but he knows that's not to be done, not to her. "The Volturi are as near to leaders as the vampire world has," he says softly, eyes still on Alice as she leans against the counter, recovering her equilibrium. Whatever she'd seen, it's rattled her badly. "They're enforcers of the few laws we have. Nearly all of them revolving around keeping the existence of vampires a secret. We've had...dealings...with them in the past. Come out alive, so far. It's been a decade since they last...Alice, what did you see?"

His eyes drop to Alice's pocket as her phone starts ringing. "That'll be Edward," he says absently as Alice pulls her hand from his to fumble for it. "He always picks up on it when Alice has a vision that strong. I don't know why the Volturi would be after me, but at one point they were awfully intent on Alice and Edward joining them. Aro likes collecting people with abilities. But they're, oddly enough, honorable in their way. We've broken no laws, not even bent any, so they've left us in peace."

The simple hand on her shoulder seems to calm her, and for a moment Natasha almost gets angry when she thinks that Jasper has purposefully forced her to calm herself. Then she realizes that, no, it's just because he's there and she finds that comforting, and how disgusting is that?

Alice looks shaken and Natasha moves before she really thinks, leaning further into the woman and sitting up on the counter with her to gently pull Alice into her and hold her steady for a moment, fingers running through her hair as Natasha's eyes are on Jasper. She only loosens her grip when Alice reaches for her phone, but she doesn't pull away.

"Keeping the existence of vampires a secret." Natasha says aloud, her heart leaping into her throat. "So a leaked video of one breaking out of his constraints in a top secret facility, that would probably put a damper on what they consider as 'secret', wouldn't it?" Vampire leaders... Natasha wouldn't even know where to begin when it comes to protecting him from something like that, and for the first time she feels horribly useless. That simply won't do.

"What do they do to people they feel have broken their law?"

Alice is talking rapidly to Edward, not so quickly that Natasha probably can't follow, but certainly faster than usual. She'd seen all three of the Volturi but only their four most trusted aides, Jane and Alec and Felix and Dmitri, no vast array of followers like they'd brought along ten years ago. It's winter in her vision, a thick crust of old snow. They're not coming this minute, and he relaxes visibly at that, able to turn more of his attention to Natasha.

"It would, at that," he says darkly. "And any research on that 'alternate species' that happened to be released, they wouldn't look too kindly on that either." He can hear Edward on the other end of the phone, and even Carlisle in the background, saying they'll wrap up their lives in Calgary and start back toward Forks as soon as they can.

"It's a capital crime," he says briskly, falling back into the reassurance of that military briefing they both find so comfortable. "To bring attention, to make a scene. We could argue until we ran out of air, and I'm sure Carlisle will, that I was held against my will and my escape was my only survival, but that won't change the letter of their law."

"Well fuck their law." She says it simply, eyes moving back to Alice as she barely hears voices on the other end of the phone, and Natasha's obviously deep in thought as her eyes move to the window. This is her fault for the leak in the first place, and even if Jasper or Alice won't blame her for that or say that they understood why it was necessary, she knows it to be the case.

Every decision that she's made in the past few weeks has been painfully reckless and Natasha knows it, but who can blame her? She's never made choices for herself before, perhaps she's getting a little high off of the simply ability to do so. Perhaps she doesn't consider her own mortality something to be coveted, or maybe Natasha has seen into a world where being just her will never truly be enough.

It's a world filled with gods and monsters, aliens and magic and it's all so far over her head that she feels as if she's drowning in it. Her choice to come here, it wasn't a choice to run. She's still going to make up for the bad of her past, but now she's going to do it on her terms, and why can't she have both? Why can't she have redemption and love? She doesn't deserve it, but since when has Natasha Romanoff let the world tell her exactly what she deserves.

"I'm useless like this." Her eyes move to Jasper suddenly as if she's made her mind, a toil of emotions twisting around within her until she finally settles on steel certainty, fortified with determination. "You'll have to change me before they get here." Simple. As if offering a forgotten umbrella in the rain.

Most of Jasper's attention is divided between watching Alice's emotional state carefully as it winds down from the spike of panic, and listening to Edward's side of the conversation and everyone in the background—Rose sounding irritated that they're uprooting themselves again, Emmett looking forward to getting back to familiar territory, not enough bears around Calgary it seems, Carlisle and Esme starting their plans—but at that, Jasper's head snaps around to stare at Natasha in undisguised shock.

She's a tangle of feelings, but there's a blue streak of certainty in her running through it all, and it takes him a moment to find his tongue. "Natalia, you know that's not something we'd insist upon," he says, and he can hear the helpless bewildered note in his own voice. She's making this decision based on so little, and she's so firm with it, he isn't certain there isn't anything he could say to dissuade her.

That said, he isn't certain he ought to, or even that he'd want to. Edward had agonized for more than a year over turning Bella, nearly lost her thanks to his reluctance, but neither Jasper nor Alice have any qualms about Natasha's human life being over too soon. They know something of what she's been through, Jasper's seen what she's capable of just as a human.

Instead of continuing on that line, he falls silent and wraps an arm around her waist. "We'll have time to prepare you for it," he murmurs, watching Alice again as she's wrapping up her conversation, then looking back down at Natasha. "I can't change you myself. It's up to Alice whether she wants to risk that."

"I didn't hear you insisting upon it," she counters, looking up at him with a simple shrug. "And if you did I would have told you to mind your own business, I think you know me well enough by now to know that. This has nothing to do with that. It's the right choice to make." In the grand scheme of things, at least. Her defensive exterior seems to soften when he wraps his arm around her waist, and Natasha can't help herself but let her head lean into him as her hand rests softly on his middle, holding him close with a soft touch that doesn't try to trap him there but instead shows that he's welcome.

She waits until Alice is off of the phone before she continues. "The things that you do, I'm not comfortable with them because I know them." She looks up at Jasper with a frown before glancing back at Alice. "I'm comfortable with them because I've seen worse. I've fought worse, I've fought things that aren't organic, things that are... horrifying. That could kill even you, after I've seen what they're capable of. I've seen what a real nightmare looks like, it doesn't have cold skin and super speed."

For only a moment Natasha's eyes close, the Chitauri monstrosities flashing behind her lids in hoards, Hulk chasing her through the tight confines of a helicarrier, a literal god trying to terrify her from behind a glass prison... they open again. "Just because I'm here and I want to-" she pauses, because for some reason saying it is harder than her demand for them to take her mortality away, "-I want to try, with you... with both of you, I still have a lot of red in my ledger. More than I thought, apparently." The last part comes out quietly, guilt twisting through her before she pushes it away. Not behind a wall, but away completely, because now isn't the time.

"I'm not going to stop trying to fix everything. There are people out there who need me and I'm not capable of solving all of the problems I should be able to solve the way that I am now. I won't live long enough." Another statement made as fact. "I want to be the person that I'm supposed to be, not the one that I'm made into. I can start here." She looks up at Jasper once more, a frown tugging at the corners of her mouth. "And I'll be damned if I sit back and let you fight the first battle I've been here for without me. So you need to change me." She looks back at Alice now, and she shrugs. "I don't do useless."

The vision had become clearer as she'd talked it over with Edward, as sometimes happens—it helps when someone else is seeing what she's seeing—and when she hangs up, she's much calmer, thinking ahead to the plans they need to make, the preparations. It takes her a few moments to catch up to what Natasha is saying. She listens quietly as she sets her phone aside, and when Natasha looks at Alice, she reaches out to slip her fingers between Natasha's.

"I saw us," she says softly, eyes roving Natasha's face, taking in the human flush on her cheeks, her lovely deep eyes, the rise and fall of breath, all her micro-movements that will be frozen when she's turned. "I saw you, Tash, I saw us standing between Jasper and the Volturi. We're going to fight together." She tucks Natasha's hair behind her ear with her other hand. "I've seen you changed. You're so beautiful. I can't wait to meet you. ...but I'm not sure I..." She swallows, just thinking of how difficult it would be to bite Natasha, and she leans into Jasper's hand when he sets it on her shoulder.

"The Volturi won't be here for weeks," she says after a few moments of silence. "Carlisle and the others will come back next week. We don't need to do anything now. We still have time."

Natasha cracks a small smile at the nickname once more, and it only grows into a confident smirk as Alice continues. "Damn right we do. See?" She looks up at Jasper and grins, reaching up with the hand that Alice isn't holding so she can brush his hair out of his eyes. "We're standing between you and the Volturi. I may not know much about vampires but I'm pretty sure that Alice and I are a terrifying team, they'll probably, you know." She wrinkles her nose and looks back at Alice. "Just turn around and walk the other way again, if they know what's good for them. We'll be fine."

Her smile fades a little, and Natasha squeezes Alice's hand tightly in reassurance before she looks back up at Jasper. "YA ne dopushchu, chtoby s toboy chto-nibud' sluchilos', Dzhasper, obeshchayu. I ya ne dayu obeshchaniy, kotoryye ya ne mogu soblyudat'." She lets silence fall between them for a moment, her words settling, and she can feel the tension. The Volturi, whoever they are, are significant to both Jasper and Alice and their culture, and Natasha knows what it feels like to learn that you're being hunted. So she does the only thing she can think of. She tries to make it better.

"Enough of that then. We have time, we'll wait until your family gets here to make a solid plan." She reaches up once more to drag Jasper down so she can plant a soft kiss on his cheek, and then she turns to look at Alice, taking her face in both of Natasha's hands. "And you, little miss Prophet, you know I'm not going anywhere and we're going to handle this. So, right now, enough." She pulls Alice's head a little closer to plant a soft kiss on her forehead before she grabs her hand, and Natasha grabs Jasper's with the other before she drags them both to the stove.

"Now. Your human is freaking starving, and both of you have spent all day running off and hunting and I have to actually put out effort to make my meals. So you're both cooking me dinner." It's not a request, but at least she pairs it with a sweet smile and a flutter of lashes. "I'll teach you if you want."

As it had been about a century since Alice had attempted to cook anything, and even longer for Jasper, they both accept the offer, and the afternoon spent in the kitchen is warmly domestic. Eventually Alice puts music on, the CD of classics from the 30s and 40s still in the stereo, and there's a little dancing here and there in between cooking. They make far more food than Natasha could eat in one night, planning ahead for the rest of the week, and they both sit with her and talk while she eats.

It's a good time to tell her about their previous encounters with the Volturi: Edward's frantic attempts at suicide-by-rule-breaking, Victoria's newborn army that had come after them—Alice speaks sadly of Bree Tanner, the little sister they'd barely known but had already accepted—and finally the almost-clash when Aro had brought dozens of his followers to Forks because of a willful misunderstanding. Only Alice sharing her violent death-filled vision of the future had dissuaded Aro from following through immediately on his attempt to slaughter the family and all of their allies, giving them enough time to prove, lawfully, that Renesmee would not be a threat. They'd been forced to follow their own laws and had retreated, but Alice had always known Aro hadn't forgotten about her, or about Edward.

In between the stories, they tell her about the family and how they'd all come together, Edward first and then Esme, Rose and then Emmett, Alice and Jasper attaching themselves to the family several years later, no one new until Edward had met Bella, and everything that had followed. It's a long conversation, lasting through dinner, washing up, putting away the other food they'd made, and by the end of it, the three of them are curled together on the couch with the fireplace blazing softly against the chill of the house.

"...so this has sort of happened to us before," Alice says with a little shrug from her place curled on Natasha's lap with her legs draped over Jasper's. "Although I hope it will be a little less dramatic this time."

During the duration of dinner, Natasha does a lot of listening. She doesn't speak much other than asking appropriate questions as they arise, but other than that she simply absorbs all of the data they give her to file away important information she may need in the future. They've had quite a journey together it seems, but it's nothing more than what she would expect for them after knowing how long they've been together. It's another reason why she's so dedicated to giving this a chance; it can't be easy, letting a new person in on something that's so established and intimate. The fact that both Alice and Jasper are trying makes Natasha want to try, and she's particularly more attentive as they tell her everything because of it.

"I don't do dramatic," she promises with a small smile, one arm wrapped around Alice's middle as the other drapes across the back of the couch where her fingertips play at the hem of Jasper's sleeve. "The Volturi..." she sighs, rolling her eyes a little. "It's good to know that corrupt systems of power don't end with mortality, things would be far too boring." She looks between the two of them before her eyes move to the window, and Natasha wrestles with her own uncertainty before she finally gives a proper response.

"I've dealt with systems like that before. I've been part of them actually, on a more dramatic scale but still." She shakes her head. "Maybe if we're lucky this isn't going to end with violence. I've been a diplomat before, I've had extensive training in how to talk down a potentially hostile situation. I'm not saying that it'll help, but I'm hoping that there's a small chance it might. I was able to convince Tony Stark to be a team player and Hulk to come out of hiding, maybe I can convince a bunch of vampire royalty to set down their arms."

Alice and Jasper exchange a look, Jasper carefully neutral for now, Alice a little surprised at the idea of Natasha talking them down. It's a possibility, of course, and it had worked last time, barely. She hasn't seen Aro coming with nearly so many of the guard this time either. They aren't preparing for a battle. Maybe they think she'll come quietly.

"It's me they're after," she says after a few moments, glancing down with a sigh. Jasper's hand moves up to rest on her ankle, a gentle reassuring squeeze. "They're coming here because of Jasper, but that's just their excuse this time. Aro has wanted to get me to join him for years, ever since he first learned what I can do. The last time they came, it was under another excuse, it was really to try and kill everyone else so he could 'pardon' me and make me join them."

It's still chilling to think just how close they'd come, how close she'd come to losing everything, to losing Jasper, to never have this chance right now. Jasper's thumb moves along her skin and she can feel his influence, like a breath of cool air, soothing away the little hamster-wheel of panic that she hadn't even realized had begun running inside her. She reaches out to cup his cheek in a brief thank-you, then turns her head to look up at Natasha.

"I only saw a few of them. It doesn't look like they're coming to fight. But you'll need to be turned before they get here, they can't know about you."

"Ah." Natasha's eyes move to Jasper's face when she hears Alice's sigh, and she doesn't need any heightened abilities to see that he's calming her down in some way. The touch to his face with Alice's careful hand only confirms it, and Natasha starts to play with her hair, pulling it back and brushing her fingers through the short strands. "Well. Aro can take his excuses and politely shove them, because he's not getting you." She says it with certainty, and to seal her promise she presses a swift kiss to Alice's cheek. "Not after I've just managed to find you, I think I've had enough injustice for one life, hmm?"

When Alice looks up at her Natasha smiles, warm and what she hopes to be reassuring. "I'll be turned. I'd rather not fight but I'm not going to back down if one is necessary, it's not really my style." She looks at Jasper once more, eyes lingering on his face. "We're going to want to talk to Carlisle about it as soon as he gets here though, the sooner I turn and adjust the better." Natasha feels a twist of discomfort in her stomach, but it's directed at herself and nothing else.

She looks back at Alice, her smile restrained and almost sad this time. "I don't really know how I'm going to handle that much power, I have control but..." she trials off, her stare going through the woman for a second before her eyes flicker back into focus and her smile forcefully returns. "I just think it would be better to give myself time to adjust." She's already lethal and it hasn't gotten her memories that she wants to keep. Natasha isn't certain that her new decision will make that much better, but she knows that it's necessary. That's what matters.

"I told you. No more of that." She shifts, leaning back into the couch more comfortably and dragging Alice with her. "I'm not afraid of a little conflict, we'll handle it. For now," She nudges Jasper's leg with the tip of her foot, "distractions. Music, cards - no cards." She corrects suddenly with narrowed eyes at Alice. "You probably cheat."

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