[Maria Maria]

Every splash of red caught in the corner of his eye is her. The dark headed beauty that slips around the corner makes him ache. They’re never her and if they were, he would run fast and far in the opposite direction but he can’t help looking. It’s the not knowing that causes it; at least that’s what he tells himself.

Really, it’s the pain.

It’s the torture.

It’s the blind devotion she required.

And that he gave. Oh. So. Readily.

Alice smooths her fingers over his hair and tells him it’s alright, he didn’t know any other way. But neither did she and she found her way all by herself. It’s easy to blame Maria. It’s easy to dismiss it all to the blood and pain that went hand in hand with love. It’s not that vampires can’t love. It’s that they can’t do it the way humans do. That is Jasper’s issue with Bella, if he has one at all.

Or maybe he’s scarred beyond repair; Insides patched and criss-crossed with scars like his skin. He doesn’t like to think that way and Alice doesn’t let him linger there. She pulls him out of his funk with teasing fingers and tiny dance steps, insisting she needs him to twirl her. There are two women in his life that Jasper can’t escape; his savior and his creator. He’s not sure which one is stronger but he’s betting on Alice.

Muse: Alice Cullen
Fandom: Twilight
Gift Recipient: Jasper Hale
Prompt: 5.2.A - Back Yard
Notes: Piece co-written with i_alreadyknow and i_felthope.


It was a slight tick of her jaw, an almost imperceptible tilt of her head that foretold of the other place she had momentarily gone. The would around her became something of a foggy haze and the movie in her mind was vivid and real. Even in the dark of their bedroom she knew that Jasper could tell that it was happening. She could sense the tension in his muscles where he lay next to her in their bed. They had just been lying there taking in the sounds of the night that wafted in through the windows. And Jasper was perceptive enough when it came to her to know when she had a vision.

Moments later, Alice drew a deep breath and sat up in the bed holding the sheet to her chest. This vision was gone, leaving her in the dark with her Jasper. "I think we should." She said quietly, staring across the room in front of her at the large oil painting on the wall. Vampire vision made it easy for her to see even at night.

Jasper had been relaxed, truly and absolutely when Alice had the vision. He'd come to alert then, waiting until it was over for her to tell him what she'd seen. When she sat up, he followed, his hand resting at the back of her neck. "We should what?" he asked in a low, calm voice. He glanced at the painting then back to Alice. On instinct alone, he let lose a wave of calm, letting it wash over both of them. Regardless of what she'd seen, Alice could use an extra dose of calm.

In all reality, Alice was only as calm as she was because of Jasper. She tended to come undone and become completely frazzled when she was without him for too long. For a second she leaned back into the hand at the back of her neck and then she was off the bed. She pulled on one of Jasper's shirts from the closet and buttoned only two of the buttons at the front. It swallowed her whole. She grabbed one of his Fedora's that she had gotten him for Christmas and the day after Christmas and the day after that. "Are you going to keep me waiting? There are stars." And stars in Forks, Washington was a rare thing indeed.

"Of course not," Jasper said as he rolled out of bed and grabbed a pair of jeans from the foot of the bed. He slipped those on and nabbed another button down on his way over to Alice. He left it unbuttoned, taking her hand in his. "Lead the way," he told her, foregoing shoes. Honestly, the way she looked right now, he'd rather stay in but if Alice wanted to look at stars then they would look at stars.

Lacing her fingers with his, Alice led Jasper through the home, down the stairs and out through the back of the house to the back yard. As she had said, the clouds had parted in a patch of the sky to reveal a peek at the blanket of stars. Craning her neck, she looked up to the sky as her bare feet walked with a dancer's grace out into the dew covered grass, toe then heel. A few steps out she smiled and lifted their conjoined hands to twirl beneath their arms. Her head still tilted up, she closed her eyes and saw only through her minds eye. "Aren't they perfectly lovely?"

Jasper only took a cursory glance at the stars and instead watched Alice. She was infinitely more interesting anyway. He couldn't help smiling at the sight of her twirling beneath his arms.

"Completely lovely," he whispered, his eyes never leaving her.

She knew, even with her eyes closed that Jasper wasn't looking up to the sky and that his words depicted such. Alice had seen it in her vision. And what came next...

Alice turned to face him, opening her eyes to look innocent and yet bright-eyed up to him. "Do you know what happens next?"

Jasper looked down at her, shaking his head. "The future is your area of expertise, Love," he whispered, reaching out to glide his fingers along her cheekbone.

"You're right. I already know." Once again she lifted their joined hands and twirled beneath their arms. When she stopped, she moved forward so that the tips of her toes were over his in the grass. She wrapped her free arm up around his shoulders and bobbed up on those toes to earn herself another inch closer to him. "You kiss me."

"Far be it from me to mess up the future," Jasper responds, leaning down into a kiss.

[I am…]

I am a monster. I am worse than you can even imagine. They say it’s always the quiet ones and ‘they’ whoever they may be are right. The quiet ones watch and they learn. They plan and they think. They imagine things that the ones who talk don’t have the time to imagine. They give nothing away but they take everything.

I am reformed. At least in part. I am reformed because of Alice. I am reformed because of my respect and love for Carlisle and Esme. Even if I did not respect and care for them as I do, I would adhere to their way of life because they took Alice and myself in without knowing anything about us. We showed up, Alice picked out room and introduced us. Carlisle never batted an eyelash. He opened his heart and his home to us without reservation.

I am gifted. I can manipulate emotions. I can make you happy or sad. I can plummet you to despair or lift your hopes higher than they have ever been. I’ve yet to find someone’s emotions I couldn’t manipulate. Human, vampire, werewolf or hybrid. It’s all the same to me. It comes in handy when tension rises but I do try to keep manipulation of the emotions of those nearest to me to a minimum. I want Alice to love me because she loves me, not because I manipulated her into it. And I’m very well aware she loves me because she’s Alice and no other reason.

I am cursed. I feel the emotions of those around me and if I’m not careful I can let them overwhelm me. With my past, my inclinations and my nature, letting anything overwhelm me, outside of Alice, is often dangerous.

I am blessed. I’ve got Alice and that in and of itself would be enough of a blessing for eternity. However, I’ve also got an extended family that accept me for what I am, failings included, without condition or question. Not only do they accept me, they love me and they are concerned for me. I know that regardless of what happens, I will not be left alone.

I am jealous of Bella. I adore Bella and I agreed with Edward bringing her into the family long before Edward agreed. However, it was so easy for her. Everything about being a vampire has come so easy to her. I am the second oldest vampire in the coven and I struggle with what I am and the lifestyle I have chosen more than anyone else. Alice likes to remind me, and of course she is right, my beginnings were very different from Bella’s. She was born into love. I was born into bloody vengeance. Carlisle theorizes that it makes a difference. I think the evidence backs that up.

I am Jasper Whitlock Hale, brother to Emmett, Rose, Edward and Bella. I am an uncle to a miracle and husband to a saint. I am okay with the way my eternity is turning out. I know how it will end and my beginning is behind me.

[Can You Handle It?]

He and Alice love to dance. Perhaps more properly, he loves to watch her dance and recently real dancing has come back into fashion. He blames that reality show that Alice watches—the one with celebrities and dancing. He’s grateful for the upswing in popularity and dancing makes Alice smile. She’s always dancing. They dance in the forest without any music. They dance at home while Edward plays the piano and occasionally when Jasper is feeling very, very brave, they dance in public.

Right now they’re at a ball room dance hall dressed in the appropriate tuxedo and gown. Her hand rests lightly in his while his fingertips press to the small of her back. It’s a bit lower than propriety would have allowed during his time but not one eyebrow raises now. Her smile is brilliant and it tugs one of his own smiles out of hiding.

“You can do this,” she tells him. “You do this.”

He nods, putting all his faith and trust in a tiny whisper of a person despite the way he can hear their hearts thud around him. Their blood flutters through their veins and thirst burns his throat with scalding, dry heat. He can handle this. He can do this. For her.

Then the music starts and he’s immersed in a world that’s not covered in blood or burnt to ash by thirst. There’s just Alice and him and music; her hand in his, her laugh in his ears.

He can handle this. For her.

Muse: Alice Cullen
Fandom: Twilight
Gift Recipient: Jasper Hale
Prompt: 2.1.B - Wax
Notes: Piece co-written with i_alreadyknow and i_felthope.


Their room was lit up despite the only source of illumination being something so small as a candle. The sheer number of candles made the light almost seem artificial, far from natural. She wore one of his favorite corset's with a choker, thigh high stockings and garters. Alice picked up one of the candles and carried it over to the bed. Jasper was laid out on the bed, his wrists bound above his head by a silken ribbon that he could easily slip out of if he wanted to. The mattress gave as she climbed atop him, straddling him with a knee on either side. She could always tell when Jasper wanted this, to feel pain. He never had to say anything. Alice just knew.

She didn't have to say anything. Her look exposed all of her love for him, all of her understanding. There need not be excuses for such an intimate necessity. She loved that he wanted and needed it. And somewhere deep inside, she craved meeting that need. "Just a drop." Her voice lilted above the quiet background of a solo Mozart piano solo. Tilting the candle, a drop of the melted wax fell to the hollow of Jasper's throat.

He closed his eyes, flinching when the hot wax hit his skin then swallowed hard and opened his eyes to look up at Alice. Jasper had spent a hundred years equating love with pain and with fighting. It wasn't something that went away over night. He wasn't sure it was something that would ever go away. This kind of pain wasn't something caused without attention or premeditation. That attention, care to detail and planning bespoke of love to him as well. He tugged at the ribbons, knowing he could break it if he wanted to and bit down on his bottom lip. Moments like this were almost healing to Jasper. Alice made this alright. She made all the darker sides of him, the sides that Maria had carved so meticulously, acceptable, even desirable.

"More," he said in a gruff whisper, his voice catching slightly, almost hesitant. Despite everything there were times Jasper expected Alice to turn around and walk away. This was always one of those times.

There wasn't anything in this world that could tear her away though. She had reached that connective point from day one... from before day one, before he had even known she existed. A corner of her lips tugged in an almost innocent smile in contrast to the intentionally wicked dribble of wax down the length of his sternum. "Do call me a merciful benefactress, if you will."

Jasper half growled-half moaned almost before the wax hit his skin. He arched up into it rather than pulling back away, watching Alice with a predatory stare. "You are a merciful goddess," he whispered.

"Well, Goddess is a stretch but I'll take it." Alice spoke, her voice a light and airy sonata compared to the deep growl coming from her mate. She reached down trace her fingers jthrough the now lukewarm wax over his skin. There was only a little left in the candle she held, although she was more than willing to go get a new candle out of the numerous ones spread out over the room. She tipped the pillar and spilled the bit of wax over his lower torso. "And now? Now what am I, Jasper?"

With a flick of his wrists, Jasper ripped the ribbons to shreds. He reached up and grabbed Alice's wrists, flipping her to her back. "Mine," he growled low in his throat as he pressed her mouth to hers.

["Honestly, I think the world's going to end bloody. But it doesn't mean we shouldn't fight. We do have choices. I choose to go down swingin'." - Dean Winchester Supernatural]

ooc:Pre-Series around 1964

The world is going to end bloody. You’re certain of that and you’ve got a century of blood and violence in your past to serve as evidence. The world is going to end bloody but she won’t be the one to end it. She could. She’s got all the resources and power to do it but she likes the world the way it is. She likes the malleable humans and all the ways they can entertain. She likes conquering them, regardless of how easy the feat and she likes eating. Often.

It’s more complicated than that for you. You hold them in your arms and drain the life them but you do more than that. With their blood you get their emotions. All their fear and pain; everything they dream slipping away from them like the blood the pours down your throat. The world is going to end bloody but you’re not going to participate in it. Not anymore.

As per Alice's request, Jasper made his way toward the small cottage they were staying in on the island. He could see the candle light through the open windows. Sheers danced with the wind, giving him unobstructed slices of the room within. He opened the front door and stepped inside. Alice was standing next to the bed, one hand curved around the bed post. The corset she was wearing cinched an already small waist to tiny. He was certain she was well aware of the picture she made. She did this for him, not that she didn't get pleasure out of it as well but it was a scene set up for him. He walked up behind her, running his fingertips of the lacing at the back of the corset.

"You're right. It's twisted," he said quietly, his head dipping to brush a kiss across her shoulders.

[Dare: Dress Up]

He can hear the slide of the laces as he pulls them through the eyelets. His eyes linger on the corset as much as they do on the woman in it. It isn’t something from a sex shop or a cheap leather imitation from a dominatrix store. Alice has to have the corsets custom made with whalebone stays and intricately embroidered silk. It is precisely the sort of corset women wore when Jasper was human. He pulls the laces tight again with a glance up to Alice. She nods slightly, lips curving into a smile as he cinches the corset even tighter until she’s wasp-waisted. Her hands curve around the bedpost and her head bows as he pulls tightly one more time and ties them in a neat bow at the small of her back.

He takes a step back, just watching her for a moment as the candle light flickers across her marble skin, shadows chasing the light. She watches him over her shoulder, quiet because she likes to be stared at as much as he enjoys staring at her. The step he takes toward her finally is hesitant, his arm outstretched so that his fingertips brush the back of her neck then drift over her shoulders and down the lacing of the corset. He swallows hard, his hand going to her hip as he turns her in place.

He always treats her as if she were fragile and never more so than when he’s got her dressed up like this. Unneeded breath trembles as he exhales and dips his head to brush a kiss across her lips then the curve of her neck. Alice reaches up to run her fingers through his hair and pull him down deeper into the kiss. His hands play over the corset, skirting her hips then back up to the swell of her breasts and the nape of her neck. She pulls back after a moment, a coy smile trickling across her lips.

“Are you going to keep me waiting again, Mr. Whitlock?”

Jasper grins, a full grin that makes the dimple in his cheek come out. “No, Ma’am. Not anymore.”

[Dare: Do something you know you shouldn’t]

He hangs back, hovering in the shadows with his hands shoved in his pockets. The real test would be to mingle with them, ice cold hands brushing over-heated skin, letting their emotions rush over him instead of the other way around. He can hear their blood pounding through their veins, heart thumping in an effort to keep up. He struggles against his own feelings, imposing calm upon them. It’s gratifying and a little bit of a power kick when he hears the heartbeats slow, blood level out to a low shush through veins. The thirst is a dry, almost overwhelming burn up and down his throat. He hasn’t hunted in nearly a week and a half; his eyes are completely black and he knows he shouldn’t be here.

He can’t help being drawn to people. Everything inside of him hungers to make a massacre of the scene in front of him. He can see their blood pooling across the floor and pouring down his throat. He wishes he could forget the way it tastes. The Cullens have four more days before any one of them will hunt; even Bella and this is a test. He needs to know he’s come further. He needs to push all the limits of his control. He’s doing alright until two teenage girls catch sight of him. He can hear their whispers, feel the lust and curiosity furl off them. He could do it. He could lure them away; there’s an alley just outside and they’d never know what happened until it was far too late. Just a grin, one corner of his lips tugging up a little.

Then she’s there, his own personal redemption, her hand sliding across the small of his back. The girls’ whispers stop, lust turns into disappointment and her lips are against the hollow just below his ear. “You weren’t going to hurt them.” He knows it’s a lie because she wouldn’t have shown up otherwise. Alice is allowed to do that; tell little lies and protect what’s already so broken as long as she’s always there to save him.

“I’m thirsty. Let’s go hunt,” she says as she pulls back with a bright smile on her face as she tells the second lie in as many minutes. She slips her hand into his and as always, Jasper feels hope.

[ Make a list of habits]


• Using the sun and the stars to tell time.
• Keeping my ability default set on ‘calm’
• Baths as opposed to showers
• Assessing a situation, every situation as I walk into it.
• Looking to Alice for confirmation of my assessment of the situation.
• Constantly ‘sizing’ the other guy up.
• Developing a strategy to take the ‘other’ guy down
• My accent. I’ve not lived in the south for decades and I doubt I will live there again but my accent remains, out of habit I suppose.
• Normal human tics (these get their own list)


[Human tics]


• Blinking
• Not staring at something too long (With the exception of Alice. I tend to stare at her a great deal)
• Restlessness, particularly with my hands. I twirl and flip pens, bats, pencils etc between my fingers. A bit of it is showing off and entirely too ostentatious to be human but it’s become a habit in and of itself. I can’t hold something and not flip, toss, twirl and fiddle with whatever it is. (Alice swears it’s ‘sexy’)
• Breathing

[Make a list of obsessions]


• Alice
• Pushing myself to abstain from feeding as long as the others do (despite knowing it’s potentially dangerous)
• Civil war books. They’re generally, incredibly wrong. However, I’m still obsessed with reading them even though they make me angry.
• Baseball. I love playing it and watching it.

[Make a list of hopes]


• Alice always
• My control will remain intact and grow stronger with time.
• One of these days my past won’t haunt me.
• If my past no longer haunts me, I’ll still be the man that Alice has made me.
• Emmett will realize brute strength does is not always enough.


[Make a list of disappointments]


• I’ve not got many but most of them involve myself.
• My lack of control
• How many days I have when I still want to abandon the eating habits I’ve imposed upon myself.
• It took me a century to leave.