Chapter Text
Billy, from what I could tell, had not been very surprised by this. In fact, I think he had been expecting this sort of behavior from Jacob for a while now. If the shy tilt of embarrassment to Jacob’s head was any tell. I had wheeled away a bit to give him some semblance of privacy and flipped through the book on runes Renée had given me. I couldn’t help that I still looked up at him occasionally anyway. No matter how well intentioned I was feeling, I couldn’t help wanting to take in more of his cute expressions.
When the phone call was finally over, Jacob looked more frustrated than anything else, which honestly made me smile. I knew he was just worried about me, but that didn’t mean he needed to be camping in the sparse Jacksonville forests for more than a month to make sure I stayed safe. I was learning some stuff with Renée as well, so surely I’d be able to keep myself relatively safe even without his presence.
“I know you’re worried, but we’ll see each other again soon! Besides...” I paused leaning in close to him to whisper, “Don’t tell anyone else for now, but I can do a bit of magic to protect myself now.” I leaned back grinning at him. Jacob snorted at me.
“You’re joking around to make me feel better, aren’t you?” There was an amused quirk to his lips, and I pouted at him.
“So you can have magical powers, but I can’t? Rude.” I replied, fishing a slip of paper out of my pocket. I guess I would just have to prove it to him then. Renée had told me to save these for an emergency, but I could just make another later.
“See? I’ll prove it to you,” I said, presenting the thin, paper square. I licked my finger and drew the rune for shielding as best as I could from memory. I had to lick my finger a second time about halfway through writing it but that wasn’t a huge deal. Using my own fluids would make it a lot stronger, according to Renée. I didn’t really have something tougher than my mom lying around before though. The rune blinked before disappearing from the paper, and I looked at Jacob with a smug expression.
“Try to punch me.”
“I’m not going to punch you!” Jacob responded, sounding somewhat outraged at the idea. I sighed, waving my hand.
“You don’t have to do it as hard as you can. In fact, I’d prefer if you didn’t,” I said shrinking into my shoulders a bit at the idea.
“But this doesn’t work if you don’t at least pretend to attack me.” I pointed out with a meaningful look. Jacob looked wary at best. He stood up and approached me slowly, and I slumped slightly. There was no way he was going to even try to hurt me. I supposed that made sense, but now the shield felt a little bit silly.
His hand pressed up against a wall in between me and him, about a few inches away from my arm. I blinked in surprise. Renée always threw something at it or gave it a hearty smack, so I was surprised that something lacking aggression was also stopped. Jacob also looked rather surprised.
“Oh, you really weren’t lying,” he said, marveling a bit at the invisible wall and running his hand across it to find the edge.
“I wouldn’t tell you to punch me if I was!” I replied, somewhat indignant that he thought I might have been. He glanced into my face at that, our eyes meeting.
“I’m still not doing that.” Jacob insisted seriously. I sighed.
“Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t at this point, but now I’m stuck with this thing until something happens. So I guess you can take some comfort in that,” I said, resigning myself to being a magically conjured bubble of safety until the following day when I was practicing with Renée again.
“There’s no time limit?” He asked, pressing his hand a little more firmly against the magic.
“Not that I’m aware of? I’m sure I could dispel it, but I don’t know how to do that yet.” I answered. Jacob nodded thoughtfully in response, and I watched him continue to marvel at my very basic shield spell. He knocked on it curiously, and I was surprised by the hollow sound it made like he was rapping on glass.
“You’ll have to hit it a little harder than that.” I pointed out.
“I figured.” He shrugged slightly.
“I just didn’t think magic was real,” he said, suddenly looking at me with excitement. His dark eyes were practically glittering at thought. I would’ve laughed at him, if it wasn’t for the fact that I acted the exact same way when I found out too.
“Me neither.” I replied with a shrug. “Apparently me and Bella come from a long line of it. I don’t really know too much about it myself though. I only just found out, and you’re the first to know, so don’t tell anyone. Willow will kill me if she knows I told you first.” I gave Jacob a look I hoped portrayed how serious I was about this. He laughed lightly in response.
“Your secret is safe with me. Though I think you greatly overestimate how much I speak to Willow.” I rolled my eyes at him in amusement.
“I know you don’t. But... you do talk to Embry, which I hope you can see how the problem would stem from there.” Jacob stroked his chin as if it was something he had to give some thought to, and I snorted at him.
“Hmm... Yes, I suppose their imprint bond would mean he’d divulge that information with her.” I raised my eyebrows at him.
“Bravo,” I said, clapping my hands. Jacob just grinned at me. Then, taking me entirely by surprise, broke my shield by sweeping me into a tight bear hug. I made a startled noise when my feet lifted off of the ground.
“That was way too easy to break.” He told me after to setting me back down on my feet. I stared at him feeling somewhat annoyed.
“It’s supposed to after a single hit! It’s not a barricade.” I attempted to explain. Stronger shields required a lot more than a slip of paper and some spit, after all. Jacob tilted his head slightly.
“That seems... inefficient,” he said after a moment of thought. I looked at him in slight irritation, but it also wasn’t like I could refute him. It absolutely was inefficient. Though I supposed that was also why vampires were so scary in all the texts I had read, along with some other supernatural creatures I mostly wanted to pretend were extinct or something.
“Of course it is! If it wasn’t, magic would probably rule the modern world.” I replied with a laugh.
“That’s true.” He conceded. Jacob gave me another squeeze in his arms, tucking his face back into my shoulder before pulling away just as quickly as he’d done it. I noticed this time he had a half-lidded look that I wasn’t sure how to categorize on his face.
“Is this a wolf thing?” I asked before I could stop myself. He blinked, the expression disappearing from his face.
“...Yes.” He pulled the rest of the way away from me and out of the hugs, his hands sliding down my arms to my hands. He held my hands in his loosely, gazing at me with a soft expression.
I stared at him suspiciously, but somehow, I found the strength in myself to not question his obvious lie. Clearly he did not want to talk about it. Also, I wasn’t sure that it was entirely a lie. After all, that definitely wasn’t a human thing.
“I should go.” Jacob sighed, but his hands didn’t stop holding onto mine. I didn’t really recognize this Jacob, but I was mostly attributing all of his behavior to mother hen-ing me like everyone else around me seemed to currently be doing. It probably didn’t help when they could visually see the damage that was done to me. If Jacob hadn’t been holding onto my hands, I would’ve tried to cover my neck with one hand. At least in Forks I could get away with wearing a turtle neck. Though there was no real good way of hiding the web of pink on the left side of my face.
“You should.” I replied, relaxing my hands completely in his and attempting to slide them away. Jacob just tightened his hold on them. I gave him the best look of disappointment I could muster.
“I’m not going to stop you, if that’s what you’re hoping for.”
“...I’m not.” He definitely was. I sighed. He was being harder to move than a boulder.
“My mom’s probably going to be home soon.” I pointed out, “You’ll have to leave then. Besides, you need to get home.” Jacob was starting to look a bit like a reluctant, kicked puppy. I felt like a villain for being perfectly reasonable. Was there something I was missing?
“You’re sure you’ll be safe?” He asked me suddenly.
“Of course!” I assured him. It wasn’t like I was entirely certain that that would be the case. I always had some kernel of fear nestled in my heart since I’d woken up after the accident, but I could always provide enough false bravado to make sure people made good decisions, and it would not be a good decision for Jacob to stay here. I gave his chest a light shove.
“ Go ,” I said with a slight laugh, “You’re obviously never going to want to. See you?” Jacob took a single step, seeming to wake up to reality.
“See you.” He replied, hesitating a moment longer before disappearing out the window. I looked out after him, catching a flash of fur as he shifted for the long journey across the country. I assumed he would be fine, but I would definitely prefer that he didn’t run thousands of miles to see me again. That was seriously an insane amount of distance for even a giant, dire wolf, which I was pretty sure he was even bigger than shifted.
I closed the window with a soft sigh. I hoped he really was headed home; although, I could probably check with Billy in a week if I really wanted to make sure. I wasn’t sure that was necessary though. I tapped my fingers on the desk while scooting my wheeled chair around over the wood floors.
I really wanted to go back to Forks too.
