Heartbeat [Alec Volturi]

Pulse

His eyes would always be the first thing I noticed about him.

It was as if with every glance, every flicker of emotion that passed through them struck me in the chest like a drum. The world kept turning, there were no people frozen in time nor emptiness around us. The world merely became the background for something much more important. We could be in the middle of a battleground and the danger around us would never take precedence over the electricity that passed between us with a single look. Ben Franklin was an amateur compared to us.

Us. What was us? An unstable, unpredictable clash of two storms that had no intent on backing down. Storms, that would never give an inch but desired eighty plus. Storms that sparked lightning by simply entering the same room. I had to believe that everyone must feel this way, though it became hard to convince myself of such a fact once I realized how strange it would be if Alec were to strike such a response in all of those he encountered.

His eyes had returned to the colour of a ripe cherry and the intensity of the way he observed me made me drop my head. Butterflies raced across my chest and a flash of regret passed through my bones as I watched his shoes take a step back from the bed.

It was only moments ago that we had been in his car...Weren't we talking about something? Wasn't I mad at him?

Before I could pursue that thought, he set a pile of folded clothing on my lap.

"Change. Now." Alec ordered, an errant harshness in his tone. I flinched, refusing to look him dead on. He gave a small sigh as he took in my sensitivity, his own mind processing a better tactic. "Please." He added in a husky voice.

I nodded slowly and shifted the night clothes onto the bed. Following his orders, I moved past him to a floor length mirror and reached behind my back to try and unknot my shirt. I watched in the mirror as Alec's eyes darted around the room and anywhere that I wasn't before he coughed, "I will be right outside." I hadn't considered the taboo before I started, but I couldn't help the small smile that spread on my face at his expense until I realized my own problem.

"Wait. I err...I need help." The single string that tied neatly at the back of my waist had been double knotted by Heidi. While I was grateful for the extra insurance that no club goers would have been able to pull the string and let the shirt fall off of me, I couldn't help but scrunch my nose at a second, possibly suspicious, Heidi involved circumstance that happened to take place while I was with Alec. Although, who would have expected I'd be alone with Alec only a few hours later as I changed into his clothes and disrobed in his room. God, what was with me today?

He nodded and started towards me. I dropped my gaze down, pulling my hair over my shoulder so he could have better access to the knot. His shoes entered my field of vision and involuntarily, I met his eyes in the mirror. I patiently let out a breath I'd just barely taken in, as if to prepare myself for the pressure of his touch. His fingers hardly grazed the middle of my back but it still provoked a small gasp which I tried to turn into a sneeze. He muttered a gentle blessing for it before I felt the strings fall from their bond to hang down at my sides.

I held the top against my chest and studied him in the mirror as he retrieved the unfamiliar shirt from the bed. He handed it to me, averting his gaze the entire time. "I will be..."

"I'll call." I assured him and his eyes snapped to me, before unconsciously noticing my bare shoulder and likely the rest of my exposed back. Instead of feeling ashamed or embarrassed, as I would have expected of myself, I gave a genuine and full bodied laugh. Alec's eyes widened, realising he'd been caught.

He mumbled an adorably innocent apology before swiftly exiting the room. Wait, did I just find him adorable? And innocent?

I changed and found myself observing the walls around me. I'd never been in this room. It was smaller than the other bedchambers (a term the others sometimes used) I'd visited. I ran through them in my mind as I weighed the differences and similarities.