She had now officially been in school for a week and could say with absolute certainty that she hated it. If not for her dad and Jasper she would have run back to Italy by now. As it was, she was not looking forward to getting up that morning but did anyways. Slowly she detangled herself from the pile of blankets draped over her, groaning at the loss of warmth.
She reluctantly got up and did her morning routine, making sure to not forget to put her necklace back on after her shower. It had been a gift from her uncles. It was a simple black leather band that had a small charm on it with Aro's number on the back. However, on the inside of it was a bunch of engravings that allowed it to grow and shrink with her as she changed shape, curtsy of a gifted vampire the kings knew.
They had gifted it to her after she had accidentally been picked up by animal control and taken to a shelter for homeless animals. She had had to wait there all day, locked in the cage and unable to turn back, until one of the guards on watch had been able to slip in and retrieve her. Demetri had laughed himself senseless at this and had not let her forget it, bringing it up every chance he got for a month. He only stopped when she had managed to cover every piece of clothing he owned in pink glitter as payback.
The incident had worried everyone though, so they had gotten her the collar so that she would never be mistaken for a stray again. Or if she was picked up, Aro would be notified and could send someone to get her quickly. She didn't really think that she had to worry about that here in Forks, but she wore it anyways as it had become a habit and she liked fiddling with the charm on it when bored.
When she was ready, she headed off to school, excited to see Jasper after not seeing him all weekend. Although she knew that he had been in her room as she could smell his scent every morning when she awoke. She pulled into the parking lot and Jasper was at her door, almost before the car had a chance to stop.
"Good morning, Darlin'." He reached down to get her door for her and help her out.
"Morning Cowboy."
"So, before anyone else gets a chance to ask, may I have the pleasure of your company at our table for lunch?" She laughed at his formality.
"Why of course good sir. How could I possibly deny you when you ask like this." In truth, she would have turned down all other offers to sit elsewhere today anyways. Since she had finally talked to her uncles over the weekend about the fact that the Cullens lived here and they had assured her that they were peaceful, she was sure she would not have to worry about getting close to the others.
Although she had woken up to a text from her Uncle Caius reminding her to use every skill he had taught her to tear them apart at the first sign of danger. Which had caused her to roll her eyes at him. Surprisingly he was perhaps the most overprotective member of her vampire family and sometimes he went overboard with his "kill first, figure out if they were actually a threat later" personality.
Jasper walked her to all her classes as had become habit, joining her in their math class where they continued to talk and chat throughout the lesson. Today turned out to be a work period for them, as their teacher was out sick, so they didn't have to worry about getting in trouble like usual so long as they kept working.
All of a sudden though she noticed him tensing and looked up to see that one of the boys had a bloody nose. Realizing that he must be having trouble controlling himself, she quickly decided to try distracting him with her scent before something bad could happen. Her family had always mentioned how a mate's scent often overpowered all others and she just hoped that it was the truth and not an exaggeration.
She quickly moved so her knees were on the edge of her chair and leaned over so that she could drape herself over him. She wrapped her arms around one of his, allowing her head to hang right beside his own. "Hey Cowboy, I really don't understand any of this. Think you could help me out?"
He glanced at her after a moment, finally breaking out of the trance the blood had put him in as her calming scent surrounded him. "Sure Darlin'" he managed, focusing back on the work as the boy left the room.
He let out a small sigh when the scent was finally gone and began to walk her through the steps, incredibly grateful that she had been there to stop him. Even if she didn't know what she had done. Her scent alone was enough to allow him to gather his control, and having his mate so close was just an added help as the vampire in him practically recoiled at the mere thought of hurting her in any way.
As the bell rang, he waited for her to gather her stuff so that they could head to lunch together. He stayed by her side as they both got a tray of food and made their way to join his family at their table. Both of them ignoring the stares and whispers that followed them.
As they got near, Alice jumped up to bring her into a hug. "Hi! I'm Alice! Its nice to finally meet you!"
Maya laughed at her, loving her energy, "nice to finally meet you too. Especially if it gives me other girls to talk to besides Jessica."
Alice released her with a giggle. "Not a fan I take it?"
Maya grimaced "I can only listen to so much gossip."
Jasper laughed outright at that, drawing stares from the around the room as he did. He ignored them though and directed Maya into the seat next him, introducing her to his other siblings as he did. She got along well with everyone but Edward who seemed to like glaring at her without saying anything, but she didn't take it personally. They all still thought her human and he was probably just wary of being discovered.
Instead, she focused on getting to know her imprints family and enjoying her time with them. By the end of lunch, they were all chatting like old friends. They had also invited her to sit with them from now on, which was a relief as Jessica and Mike were truly getting on her last nerves.
That day when she went home it was with a smile on her face, happy with how her day had gone. Jasper on the other hand had immediately begun to pace the moment he had gotten home. A frown set firmly on his own face.
"I think I'm going to tell her" he finally stated.
"What? Why?" Rosalie demanded. She liked the girl and worried about scarring her off so soon. Not to mention what could happen if she told someone about them.
"Today in class there was a boy with a bloody nose. I almost lost control, but then she leaned over and I caught her scent and all of a sudden the bloodlust was practically gone. I know now that I won't hurt her and I want to be able to be honest with her if we are going to be together."
Carlisle sighed at this. He had known that the girl would have to be told eventually, she was his son's mate after all. According to their laws, human mates could be told of their world but only because no vampire would ever dream of leaving them human. Of having to live knowing that they would only get a few short years with their mate before they died. "Very well. You may tell her. But please do it here where we can all be around to help explain. It would also be best to do this over the weekend, so she has a few days to process this."
Edward tried to speak up against it, but Carlisle cut him off with a stern look and he gave up and marched off to sulk.
Jasper nodded, accepting these terms before heading up to his room to begin planning how to tell her that he was a blood drinking monster.
The family had decided that Alice would ask Maya over for a sleepover that weekend, as none of them thought her dad would be okay with it if he thought it was Jasper asking. Maya had happily agreed, excited to spend more time with the people she was quickly becoming friends with.
And so, Friday after school she followed the Cullens home in her car, staring at their house in shock as they pulled up to it.
"What do you think of it?" Jasper asked, opening her door for her.
"It is definitely not what I expected. Amazing, but not what I thought it would look like." She was mentally comparing it to the Volturi's castle and noting how much more open it was.
He chuckled, "well my mother, Esme, will be glad to hear that. She designed it."
They stepped into the house, Jasper taking her coat for her and leading her into the living room.
"Maya, this is my adopted father, Carlisle and my adopted mother, Esme."
"It's a pleasure to meet you both."
"Yes, its nice to finally meet you too. The children have told us so much about you!" Esme gushed.
Maya smiled at that and exchanged a few pleasantries before turning towards Alice, "so what are we doing first?"
"Well actually, first we have something to share with you Darlin'. All of us" Jasper told her, a strange look on his face.
"Right because that totally does not sound ominous in the least" she remarked sarcastically, earning a laugh from Emmet as she sat down.
"So, what's up?" she asked once they were all settled. She was pretty sure that they were going to tell her about being vampires now and she was still trying to figure out how to react. Should she go along with it? Or just come out and admit what she was? Ah fuck it she thought, if I want to be friends with them, they are going to find out sooner or later. Might as well be sooner.
"Well, you see Darlin' ..." Jasper trailed off. Now that she was right in front of him, he had no idea how to tell her, not when it may mean that she would be scared of him. Or worse; hate him.
"What my son is trying to say is that we are not normal. You see my family and I are vampires" Carlisle explained for him.
"Yep, I know" she gave a nod of her head, enjoying the looks of shock that over took their faces.
"You know?! How could you possibly know?!" Rosalie shrieked, worried her family had been discovered.
"Well, I'm not exactly normal myself and you're not the first vampires I have met. I actually figured it out the first time I saw you."
"Wait you knew this whole time?" Emmet asked, confused.
"And what do you mean 'not normal'?" Edward added in an accusing tone.
"I'm a shifter and yes, Emmet, if you know what to look for its not hard to spot or figure out."
"That's impossible. You can't be a shifter. You smell nothing like them" Rosalie declared.
"Yeah, shifters smell like wet dog, but you smell like nature and oddly enough, sun naps" Alice added, confused.
"Well I don't know what kind of shifters you have met, but I'm a cat, so that probably explains why I don't smell like a dog" she said with a giggle.
"So you have known what we were the whole time?" Jasper was still trying to get over the shock that this wonderful girl in front of him was not only not scared of him, but had in fact known about him the entire time and had still chosen to approach him.
"Yes, we did cover this. Please do try and keep up Cowboy" she joked, patting him on the leg.
"Then do you ... know about mates?" He asked hopefully. If she accepted him being a vampire maybe she would accept him being her mate.
"Is this your less than straightforward way of asking if I know that we are mates? Cause the answers yes. I knew the first moment that we met."
He let out a breath at that, shocked, "you never said anything."
"Well, neither did you. And besides I wanted to take it slow and get to know you first before we jumped into anything. Although, full disclosure I was also having a lot of fun teasing you. Especially about the whole possibly knowing about vampires thing."
He let out a small laugh at that recalling all the times she had hinted at her knowledge only to backtrack and turn it into a joke. He supposed he should have guessed that she had known all along, lord knows she had left enough hints.
The conversation continued from there, her explaining what she was and what her life was like growing up. But she did leave out the part of her basically being raised by the Volturi as she didn't think that would go over too well. Instead, she simply told them she had met a random coven that she grew close to. They explained part of their pasts; how they all met and what gifts they had.
She had been very glad for her innate ability to block out mental gifts when she had heard that Edward was a mind reader. Though she had to apologize to Alice for confusing her. Apparently because her gift worked based on the decisions people made, Alice had a hard time seeing her. She could sometimes see the physical outcome but the mental decision were blocked from her sight, hiding most of her actions from Alice. Which explained why Alice could see her eventually meeting Jasper but not the specifics. As mates they were always meant to meet, but her decisions impacted the when and how of it.
The whole conversation had intrigued Carlisle, who had jumped straight into research mode and began trying to think of reasons as to why she had this gift. His most prominent one being that it was some kind of countermeasure that her kind had gained through evolution in order to better defend themselves against enemies. Maya wasn't too sure how much she liked that theory since as far as she knew the only ones with mental gifts were vampires and she didn't want to think about possibly being enemies with those she considered family. But she brushed it aside. Who her ancestors, who she had never met and knew nothing about, hated had nothing to with her. She loved her family and they loved her, so she saw no reason to go poking around and possibly stirring up conflict where it wasn't needed.
Eventually their conversation wound down and Jasper invited her on a tour of the house. It ended at his room where he watched from the doorway, nervous as she inspected his space. He knew it was ridiculous for a 164 year old vampire to be worried about what a 17 year old thought of his room (for God's sake he had spent a good part of the night rearranging and cleaning it) but he couldn't help it. She was his mate and he wanted her approval.
Not to mention in his own eyes he couldn't help but find his own room lacking in comparison to hers, not that she even knew he had seen it. Her room was full of life and told stories of her interests and hobbies. She had old paints and canvases, books of all kinds scattered everywhere, pictures and drawings on the wall, mementos from her childhood and an overall atmosphere that was uniquely her. Every time he was in it, he felt comforted like he was in a warm and cozy den filled with life and happiness.
His room on the other was scarily neat. Not a thing was out of place and for someone who was nearing the 2 century mark, lacking in personal affects. His shelves were filled with all the books he had collected, most about history and war, but also a good deal on mystery, with only a few scattered pictures. He had one of him with Peter and Charlotte taken in the 1970s, the last time he had seen them, one of Carlisle and Esme at one of their weddings, another of Rosalie and Emmet that they had taken while on a couple's trip and one with him and Edward on either side of Alice at a carnival she had dragged them to.
But that was where the obvious personal bits ended. Sure, he had a few things he had picked up over the years, but nothing that stood out as holding sentimental value. Not even his furniture looked personal. Unlike with hers that was scratched and dented from obvious use and accidents over the years, his was all modern and new looking pieces made from dark wood. Overall, he found the room lacking and devoid of personality.
Maya wondered around his room, taking in the little nick-nacks he had scattered about as she made her way to his bookshelves. She wondered where they had all come from and how long he had had them. The pocket watch that sat on his desk looked like an antique and she wondered if it was from his human life. A stuffed bear on his shelf that looked like a prize you would win at a carnival piqued her curiosity, making her wonder just what had made that trip special enough to keep a memento of it. The chess set that seemed to be hand carved also interested her; it was too fancy looking to have been picked up at a local toy store. Reaching the shelves, she ran her hands along the spins of the covers. She was unsurprised to find that many were history books, she had realized in the short time she had known him that Jasper's favourite subject was history. The mystery books though came a bit of a shock, although looking back she really shouldn't have been surprised; Jasper seemed like the type to enjoy a good puzzle. She smiled as she took in the photos, enjoying the glimpse into their lives and the happy memories he shared with his family.
When she was done she turned to take in his room as a whole, enjoying the feelings she got from it. Unlike her room that was cluttered and messy, his was organized in a way that spoke of a discerning eye. Hers had odds and ends from all her phases, old paint and canvases from when her uncle Caius had tried to teach her to paint, books she had gotten and hated or loved, and a ridiculous number of things from her childhood she was too lazy to toss away.
She found it amusing how different their rooms were. Hers cluttered with everything that had caught her fancy, if even for only a moment, and never disposed of. His full of carefully selected items and pictures to remind him of the good times and those he held dear. Looking over his room again she couldn't help the rush of warmth she felt at the thought. It made her happy to know that this man, who kept and cared for only what he valued most or deemed important, had opened his door to her. That he had seen her and decided that she was someone he wanted to add to the small group of people he cared for. Absently she wondered what her nick-nacks would one day be. What objects would he find that would remind him of special memories they would share and decide to bring home? Grinning to herself she admitted silently that she couldn't wait to find out.
Turning to face him she sent him a smirk. "You know I think this may be the first boys' room I've been in where it wasn't a complete disaster."
"And just how many boys' rooms have you been in" he questioned with a frown, feeling a rush of possessiveness fill him. His Darlin' should not have been alone in any boy's room but his.
"Only a handful. My Uncles, my dads, and my brothers." Maya gave a careless shrug, not noticing his shoulders relaxing at her comment. "Though I hope you're aware, if I spend anytime in here whatever system you have going will be messed up."
Jasper raised an eyebrow at her, "Is that a fact."
"Yep. I'm a brat who was horribly spoiled my family and as such tends to just make myself at home when invited in." Maya's unrepentant smile made his snort.
"Do tell."
"Well, its not like it's completely my fault," Jasper made a sound of disbelief, "really! My family spoiled me rotten! None of them had to sleep and yet all of them had beds in their room. Each with a set of blankets they knew I liked. It was their way of trying to convince me to ask them instead of someone else to read me bedtime stories. Or to just spend more time with them in general as I wouldn't have to go all the way back to my room and could just sleep there. So really, it's my family you have to blame for my lack of knowledge on personal space."
Jasper just shook his head in amusement at the picture she painted. He could easily imagine her charming a whole coven of vampires as a child. From the pictures he had seen in her room, she was absolutely adorable and with her personality he thought it would have been impossible to resist her. "So, you charmed your way into a coven and they turned you into a brat."
She sent him a blinding smile that sent a flood of warmth through him. "Exactly!"
"Mm, and given the fact that you think you will be spending time here, enough to mess up my room, may I take that as a willingness to begin a relationship with me ma'am?"
Maya cocked her head to the side in contemplation. "Yes and no. Or rather maybe?"
Feeling a stab of hurt at her rejection and confusion at her wording, Jasper moved forward and pulled her into his arms. "Maybe?" he asked in a quiet voice, desperate for an explanation as to why not so he could fix it.
She looked up at him with a serious expression, although her apparent amusement at the situation further confused him. "Jasper you are a true southern gentleman. Surely you must know that nothing can come of this unless you first ask for my father's permission? I mean I shouldn't even be in your room, let alone be here with you without a chaperone. It simply isn't proper."
Jasper looked down at her in shock, but her earnest and serious expression broke at the sound of Emmet's booming laughter. She broke away from his hold as she doubled over in a fit of laughter. "Your face ... god your face!"
Growling at her, he picked her up and threw her onto the bed where he proceeded to tickle her mercilessly until she could barely breath. "st-stop ... enough ... pl-please ... I'm sorry!"
He pulled back a arched a brow at her, "Do you mean it?"
"Yes!" she shrieked, scrambling backwards and away from his hands. "I'm sorry just please stop!"
Laughing at her, he tugged her close again and placed a soft kiss to the top of her head. "Good girl. And you were right, I should definitely introduce myself to your father before taking you on a proper date."
She giggled at that, just as Esme called them both down so that Maya could eat.
Jasper joined her at the table, along with most of the family. They all chatted happily about simple things and Maya laughed along with them as Emmet regaled her with stories of his pranks and embarrassing moments of various family members.
Eventually, Maya was forced to call it a night and Jasper led her back up to his room to sleep. It may not have been "proper" and his human parents would have probably lectured him for days about allowing an unmarried woman to stay in his bed, but the possessive nature of a vampire refused to allow her to stay elsewhere.
As Jasper pulled back the covers to allow her to slide in she paused as she made her way across the room. "Why do you have a bed?"she had wondered about it earlier, but had gotten distracted with her teasing and forgot to ask.
"What?" Jasper asked, pretending to misunderstand. He was not about to admit that he had gone out the first day he had met her and bought one just so that she could stay in his room.
"I know Rosalie and Emmet have one, along with Carlisle and Esme I'm assuming, but Alice and Edward don't. So why do you?"
Sighing in defeat, Jasper rubbed the back of his neck. He probably should have guessed that she would notice; it was a little obvious when she put it like that. "I met you," he grumbled, not looking at her, "and you were human, or well, a shifter. I wanted you to have somewhere comfortable to sleep when you stayed over."
Maya smirked. "When? That's a tad presumptuous don't you think Love?"
Heat flared at her use of the term of endearment and he growled in pleasure, giving her a smirk in return. "You'll find I don't surrender easy Darlin'. Especially not when the prize is as priceless as you are. I would have found a way get you one way or another."
She blushed at the look in his eye and looked down. Moving fast, before she could change her mind, she jumped onto the bed, grabbed his arm and pulled him down on top of her. The second her back hit the bed and she felt his weight press down on her, she tangled her hands in his hair and brought her lips up to meet his.
Jasper froze above her, unbelieving that the thing he had been daydreaming of happening since the first time her saw her was actually happening. A tug at his hair pulled him from his shock and he quickly brought his hands up to pull her closer and deepen the kiss.
Pulling back Maya sent him a blinding smile. "Your bed is very comfy. Good choice. Though it needs more blankets."
He laughed at that and rolled them over so that she was on top. "I'll see what I can do Darlin' to bring it up to your standards. But for now, you need sleep."
"See that you do" Maya teased tiredly before snuggling deeper into his arms and allowing her eyes to fall closed.
The group spent the rest of the weekend getting to know each other better now that they all knew she was not human. She had even shifted for them, showing them how she could change her size at will from that of a small kitten to the size of a small horse. Emmet apparently had a large range of cat related questions to ask her which she found hilarious. They ranged from "did she cough up hair balls?" to "what would happen if she shaved her hair then tried shifting? Would she be a hairless cat?" That last one she had been tempted to try, just to see what would happen, but the others had been quick to stop them before they could actually grab a pair of scissors.
From then on, her presence at the Cullen house was not uncommon. She could often be found curled up with Jasper on the couch either in cat or human form, playing with Alice in her closet, chatting with Rose in the garage as she worked on a car, cooking with Esme, explaining more about her kind to Carlisle, or playing with Emmet.
Emmet in particular seemed to really get a kick out of finally having a "pet" to play with, buying her all manner of cat toys and going so far as to call her "Shadow" when she was in cat form. The rest of the family had also picked up on this habit and she found that so long as they were willing to pet her when they did it, she definitely did not mind the new name.