Heartbeat [Alec Volturi]

Indubitable

"Is he always like this, or is it just us?"

I glanced over my shoulder.

An unsurprisingly moody Alec was posted up by the front door of the vintage fashion shop, phone to his ear. His mouth was set in a hard line, and upon first glance, he would appear grim, stoical, and uninterested in his conversation all at the same time. He ran a hand through his hair and for some reason, the sight made the corners of my lips tilt up. Everything was shifting, and we were adjusting, but it was the little habits that sent me. I made sure to hide it when I re-entered the conversation, keeping what privacy I could for Alec and myself. 

I shrugged. "Depends who he's talking to." I grabbed for another hat on the wall, tossing it towards Emmett. "Add that one."

Emmett examined the green hat with bright red daisies and decided it was ugly enough to add on top of the other four on his head. He bent down to admire himself in the mirror.

"What about sharks?"

He squinted but grinned brightly a second later. "You'd have to catch 'em."

I snorted, "you expect me to believe you've never tried?"

"Hey smarty pants," he cocked his hip and pointed a finger at me. Which was even less intimidating with the tower of flower hats on his head. It had me missing certain friends of mine. "You don't know my–"

"Yes," Jasper rounded the corner with a faux fur jacket draped over his arm. "Multiple times."

"Et tu, Jazz?"

Jasper shrugged his brother's dramatics off, lifting up the large men's winter coat to show me. "Wicked," I approved the fashion addition, so he helped me add it over the two similar ones I already had on. Quite a difficult task considering both the weight and the sleeves building up.

While Emmett was going afternoon tea hat shopping, I was preparing for a winter adventure in Narnia. The three of us had made camp in the fitting room lounge area in the assorted clothing store, hidden behind half-walls and essentially making a mess of a bunch of accessory items while Alice and Rosalie shopped.

It was the fourth clothing store in the informal shopping center. We'd gone into each of them, though they weren't nearly enough for Alice. She had insisted on buying both Alec and my's clothing for the rest of our time with them, which made sense seeing as we were wearing Jasper and Rosalie's old clothes, but she'd eventually gotten fed up with my fidgeting and sent me to sit with the boys.

The recent news about Razin made it feel safer to leave the Cullen's property. This, paired with the fact that once we returned to Volterra, leaving the castle would be a nonstarter, made me practically beg to go with the women. Of course, Alec insisted on coming along, which required extra precaution in the form of Jasper and Emmett. It wasn't too bad. Emmett and Alec seemed to have settled their differences by not speaking, which was the best anyone could hope for. It also allowed Emmett and I to bond over our boredom. Though, being out and about was enough for me.

"So, do you guys factor in an animals' risk of extinction when you hunt or is it just like, eh, to you?"

I didn't get an answer, because the instant Emmett saw me he let out a single guffaw and pointed like a child. "You look like a baby bear!" I laughed along, spinning as if to show off my attire because, to be fair, I was sort of drowning under the three outrageous coats.

Jasper chuckled, resettling the heavy material as it began to fall off my shoulders before re-claiming his fabulous poor quality leopard fabric chair. Which might have been, hands down, the ugliest thing in the place.

I reached for another hat hanging on the wall a few inches short of my fingertips, but another individual got to it first. Alec deposited it into my hands straight away but was frowning when I faced him. As expected, he'd refused to wear contacts, preferring to look like a pompous tool with sunglasses every time we went inside. And they said I was the stubborn one. He raised an eyebrow as he took in the sight before him. Emmett was balancing a stack load of hats like a debutante practising posture and Jasper, who had allowed us to load him up with a boatload of plastic necklaces and bracelets was lounging back in amusement. And me, who challenged him.