timing is everything ::ESME::

[bella]

If Bella was being honest, the Cullen place scared her anymore. Carlisle and Esme had talked the Volturi into letting them keep Bree since she surrendered, and while their compassion had amazed Bella - had been something she’d wondered at and was completely jealous of, she had to admit that the red-eyed vampire girl who had wanted her blood so badly wasn’t something she looked forward to seeing. A lot of the time she got lucky and someone was teaching the newcomer how to hunt vegetarian style or keeping her away from humans. Almost always someone was with the girl. That made Bella a little more comfortable, but not entirely, especially when she was so accident prone.

With the wedding coming up soon, how soon Bella wasn’t really sure since Alice was doing most of the planning (anything to keep Bella from a- knowing what was going on and b-letting Bella’s lack of fashion sense get in the way), the human girl had been spending a lot of time at the Cullen place, more than usual. Of course, most of the reason was to distance Charlie a bit. Recently, it had become even more clear that Bella probably wouldn’t be allowed around any humans after being turned into a vampire. If she was anything like Bree, all she would want to do would be kill. Bella had know that thirst would be her biggest personality trait, but she hadn’t really accepted it until she’d seen the newborn that her future father and mother-in-laws had saved from the Volturi.

Her truck was practically on its last breath as she drove to the Cullen’s house. She cringed knowing Edward was going to love that her truck was dying. He was probably responsible for it. Edward didn’t like her truck too much, probably because of its internal speed limit. Honestly, she thought he should be happy that her truck was so sturdy. Wasn’t she the most accident prone human on the face of the planet? Her tuck could take out his little Volvo in one try without even breaking a sweat… if cars could sweat…

Bella slammed the door as she got out and walked as quickly as she could without falling to the house. This was always the dilemma. Did she knock, or just go in? If Alice was doing any planning, she wouldn’t want Bella to see. Then again, the Cullen place was practically her place now too. So she just went in. “Hello?” It was sort of stupid to call out, anyone in the Cullen house would have heard her truck pull up before it even hit the driveway. “Anyone home? Edward? Alice? … Carlisle?… Esme?…” Her voice got softer as she named off the members of her soon to be family. She didn’t want to get to Bree’s name; Bella was still hoping the newest member of the Cullen family wasn’t around.

[kristen]

Esme glanced up from her work, taking time to soak up the image of the disaster she called a kitchen. It was covered in powdered sugar, flower, batter, and all types of liquid she wouldn’t be able to name at this point. Esme herself was a wreck. Batter stuck to her hair topped with icing, her clothes were dinged with the powders and dripped with the liquid mixture she had conquered. Not like it mattered much, she had just stuck on a pair of black sweatpants and a white t-shirt. It had been a while since she had to make a cake and this first time was defiantly not the best. At one point Esme was able to cook and bake, in fact she was good at it. Now since her palette had unfortunately succumbed to another taste of enjoyment she was never able to enjoy the little things she once was able to commandeer. The smell of baking cake should have overcome her taste buds and send them to ultimate heaven, instead it did not appeal to her at all. Cooking and baking was hard to do without sampling, but even harder without the tempting scent that mocked saliva glands. Esme smiled and shook her head at the sight; it would have been hilarious for any onlooker. By now the scent of baking cake had lingered off slightly as it was now cooled and being iced. One layer of it was at least.

Alice was sure to tell Esme to make a big cake, more than enough for Bella, her human friends, mother, and whoever else her daughter decided to invite. Alice always went over the top. The vampire mother wished to take the responsibility of making the cake for Bella’s bridal shower, one that was perfect for the occasion. The shower would surely be gorgeous, a reflection of the oncoming wedding. Times like these Esme was glad she was alone, it gave her time to think of what she wanted to create and actually do it. Not like Esme didn’t like when he children around, just when she was doing something it was hard to do. It was that frisky and frollicle time of day when most of the home was out and about, Carlisle at work and the children roaming around somewhere; unless it was during the week. Bree was taken hunting by Emmett and Rosalie, who had volunteered to take her today. Day by day, week by week, Bree slowly was taking more to their vegetarian diet. It would surely take a while before she was like the rest of the family, even Jasper still struggled, but one day she would be like the rest of them. It was better than the deadly alternative, an eternity as ashes. Esme looked back to her cake and laid another plop of icing down onto the chocolate, cake spreading it around. The cake would be an exotic recipe, one that Esme had always wanted to try.

The cake itself would be mango flavored followed by a tropical filling of pineapple, passion fruit, coconut, mango, and a tinge of raspberry with just a drop of liquor, for the taste. Together it would almost be like you were having a drink on the beach. Nice and relaxing. The icing would be coconut butter cream, without the coconut texture. Esme hoped it would make a good combination, it was a risk to take but she took it. As she iced the one layer with the icing Esme heard a car pulling into the driveway. She knew it was Bella’s by the loudness it possessed. The Cullens’ cars were soft and they purred when started and while being driven. Bella’s spit. Esme’s eyes widened as she whispered ‘shoot’ to herself and grabbed the cake carefully, placing it into the refrigerator with great care next to the other un-iced cakes. She scooped up the butter cream in the bowl and placed it on the shelf above the cake and started for the counter. It would be no used to even try to clean it, she wouldn’t be able to clean such a mess in the amount of time she had.

Esme just closed the cabinets and hid the secret flavorings wherever she could hide them, making sure none of the visible ingredients were left out. Of course they were spilled all over the kitchen, and Esme herself, but they were all splattered everywhere and therefore nearly impossible to pick out. Footsteps echoed as Bella climbed the stairs and opened the door, calling out a greeting and asking for members of the family one by one. As Esme finished scrambling she quickly pulled her hair back and spoke out an answer.

“In here, dear!” She said loudly, cleaning some of the mess as she pushed it into the sink to make it look as though she were doing something. As she did this, Esme formulated a story for oncoming questions; she was ready for them.

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[bella]

It wasn’t long before Bella heard the familiar voice of her soon to be mother-in-law. She smiled a little, just glad that it wasn’t Bree, Emmett, or Rosalie. Bree, for obvious reasons, since Bella was still very much human. Rosalie, also for obvious reasons, because the beautiful blonde still didn’t really like Bella all that much for wanting to not stay human. Emmett, because like all big brothers, he was annoying. Esme was usually straight with her without being tactless, so Bella couldn’t really complain about having the mother-figure there for company if Edward had to be gone. She tucked a lock of her brown hair behind her ear and closed the door slightly. Her fingers toyed with the fabric at the bottom of her green t-shirt. Her faded blue jeans completed the outfit that would have made Alice cringe. Actually, Bella was sort of in awe that the little pixie girl that she already considered a sister hadn’t snuck into her house in the middle of the night and replaced all of her clothes with something she deemed fashionable. The human was sure she wasn’t going to get as lucky in her life as a vampire. According to Edward, Alice didn’t let anyone of them wear the same thing more than once. Funny, Edward must have had a ton of the same color of pants and shirts. Or maybe Bella just never really paid that close attention to his clothes. The human girl was always marveling at his perfect face, frozen at seventeen forever. While she was stuck being eighteen, getting closer to nineteen every day.

Esme’s voice was coming from the kitchen, which was odd because vampires didn’t eat. Bella was immediately suspicious, but couldn’t think that her fiancée’s (ugh) adoptive mother would have anything to do with any surprises. Unless Alice talked her into it of course. Emmett, sure. That bit bear would just love to do something to get Bella to flip out. But Esme, she was so kind. So she shrugged off anything about her having anything to do with some surprise plan (maybe Bella wasn’t so smart after all), and headed for the kitchen. “Hey, Esme.” Bella’s voice sounded rough compared to the music of any of the Cullens’ voices, but she was used to that now. She’d been with Edward about two years, counting that little time he ran away from her and moved his whole family away - Bella tried not to think about that time. “Everyone out? I thought maybe Edward or Carlisle might be here…” She trailed off, watching Esme clean. “Are you cooking something? I thought vampires didn’t eat.”

Suspicion came back, but not enough to jump to the conclusion that Esme had anything to do with something as crazy as a wedding shower. As far as Bella was concerned, there was going to be no parties before the wedding, since she was pretty much required to go through with a wedding now. She wasn’t going to turn her back on the idea; Bella had meant everything she’d told Edward when she had said that she wanted to do this right. She was going to marry him, have their little honeymoon where he would fulfill his part of their bargain, and then he would turn her into a vampire so she wouldn’t be so fragile anymore. She wanted to live with the Cullens, not be their little pet, like Laurent had called her. She didn’t want to be carried by Edward because she couldn’t keep up, but because he just wanted to carry her. She didn’t want the Cullens to have to hold their breath every time she scraped her knee or got a paper cut, the latter of the two brought back horrible memories of her birthday and it only solidified her opinion that she needed to be a vampire too.

“Bree’s gone for now, right?” Bella started looking around, as if the newborn vampire would appear out of nowhere, which, for Bella, could be the case since the human’s senses were so slow compared to the senses of a vampire. She sighed and slumped into a chair at the table. “I just needed to get away from Charlie. He’s moping around the house like I’m already gone. I don’t think he’s seen Billy since… well all that newborn stuff happened. Billy kinda freaked him out I think. He heard the wolves and Billy started rushing for the house. I think Charlie’s more superstitious now and I don’t know what I’m gonna do about that.” Bella couldn’t hide the frustration and exhaustion in her voice, she’d never been a great actress, so she didn’t even try.