'I can feel it,' he thought to himself as he sat there, just finishing his deep spiritual journey to the bottom of a bottle.
The blood coursed through his veins, lighting the way for the rest of his body to follow as he literally controlled time inside his body, aging every inch of himself little by little as he sat there.
Unconcerned with the concerned look that he was getting from Rose, no doubt she was worried about him growing up too fast, but by this point, she knew that it was impossible for him to be a normal child.
After all, no normal child should have to experience the things he had lived through them. According to him, he had acquired their memories. Lived their lives. Thought their thoughts, all before he came out of the womb.
What kind of child could he be?
Was his cumulative experience not already more than theirs, she often thought to herself.
But despite that, she still had the hope in her mind that he would at least let her baby him a little bit. Maybe a pinched cheek here, or a bath there...but the more he grew physically, the further away she got from taking advantage of that time in his life.
She couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking when she wanted a baby of her own. She had forgotten how complicated the young could be, and yet, she still wanted it.
As he sat there, facilitated his growth, he began to feel something tugging at his senses from outside his house, calling out to him, announcing its desire and approach.
It didn't even take a moment to know what it was.
Leah.
However, what took longer than a moment was trying to pinpoint exactly where, inside of himself, that feeling was coming from. If he could pinpoint, he reasoned he might be able to figure out exactly how and why these bonds formed and if possible, form them on his own.
Then, at that point, wouldn't he have an ability like that dame who worked with the Volturi that manipulated mate bonds?
Not only would that make his "conquest" so so easy, but also, he couldn't help but imagine a gif of Jiriyah when he thought about just how crazy, stupid, laid, he would get with mates from all over the world who had loyalty ingrained into their very souls.
He thought for a moment about if he was a little bit of a scumbag, and then he realized that that thought was definitely a by-product of his rebirth in a world centered around love and dramatics, so he discarded it and continued to imagine the harem, as he felt his body age under his will.
He checked himself, mentally analyzing his physical age, realizing his knowledge of medicine and childhood development was practically non-existent.
Only he knew that he hadn't actually acquired any memories from the vamps and was just relying on his past life knowledge of these individuals and business savvy to navigate his way through these interactions...but now that he thought about it, why not get some knowledge on medicine, the human body, advanced combat, hunting, fashion, cars, and whatever else the people around him specialized in.
He realized that he had been wasting time not acquiring and integrating this valuable knowledge, and wondered just how well Aro integrated the knowledge he acquired from looking at every thought that a person has ever had when he touches them, and if he even did at all.
He didn't know and couldn't know, so he dismissed it and released a steady breath like he was a cultivator who just finished meditating and had to release that turbid air.
It made him feel like a real big boss and he loved it.
Then, he opened his eyes and waited for Leah to arrive.
And then, he thought better of it, and decided that she should know that she wasn't the only one who wanted to meet. These bonds go both ways and felt far more valuable than just about anything that he had ever encountered in his existence.
For the first time in his life, he had a family he could trust, even if they weren't exactly the most desirable allies and a women that would stand by his side no matter what. As well as the constant influx of beauty that graced his vision.
Rose, Alice, Esme, seemed to be very much in love with holding on to him, and he would enjoy it for every second that he could, he thought as he leaned his head back onto Rose's breasts and raised his eyes above his head to look back at Rose.
"Leah is coming. Want to come with me to meet her?" He asked. Making it seem like he had the option to just walk out of the door without anyone following him or wondering where he was going. He was not too proud to pretend.
Rose's eyebrows furrowed, and she looked at him with both confusion and concern.
He had already told them that there was a possibility that she would be coming back, and even more of a possibility that she would come alone. And when they asked him why, he just said that she would tell them on her own.
Only that it was because of her that the battle did not break out, and to welcome her when she came.
So, they adopted a wait and see approach, falling back on their usual antics, and now, it was time to welcome the new addition to his family...if everything went as he expected.
"Why do you need to meet her? Is she alone?" She asked two question back to back, sounding very suspicious of the she-wolf's intentions.
He couldn't help but laugh at her...only to stop when he saw the stunned gazes looking in his direction, his mind whirring, and realizing just how beautiful his laugh must have sounded to them, remembering Renesmee's appeal. Like a Veela's allure, only without the off switch.
He shut his mouth, taking note of another piece of leverage at his disposal, and gave Rose a quick flick on the nose to snap her out of it.
"I don't know if she's alone, but I do know she's in her human form," he believed, based on how long it was taking her to arrive. "That's why I asked if you wanted to come."
"Whoa whoa, I'm coming tool." Emmett piped up from where he and Jasper were sitting on the couch in front of the tv playing some game that he didn't know.
"You can all come, it's not like you're doing anything anyway," he said, accurately pointing out that these vamps really did have nothing going on at the moment. Clean up took barely anytime and I knew they worked through the night to get shit done, so he wasn't surprised when he got up in the morning to find everything done.
Now, they were all just doing random stuff around him, probably watching him grow at a visible rate...which he didn't mind, since if it was him, he would be watching too.
I mean, there's a reason Anos Vondigoad was so badass. It's because from the very beginning everything he did was a flex. Even his growth.
And now, he was doing the same.
Flexing on the very laws of science themselves.
It didn't take long for the group to come to a consensus, with only Jasper and Esme staying behind to watch over Edward and Bella, while the rest went and started walking in Leah's direction.
Our MC dressed in a standard t-shirt and jeans that were way too well-made and some black sneakers. All of which seemed tailor-made to fit his body.
He didn't know how Alice did it, but she seemed to pull clothes from a pocket dimension that fit him perfectly after every single meal of his. He definitely had to gain that knowledge, even if it didn't translate to talent, it was still information.
Valuable information.
Anyone who said fashion wasn't important was a fool. Appearance is one of the first parameters upon which a person is judged in a first meeting, and he refused to make a bad impression on any potential business contact...or in this case, life partner.
He immediately walked past the weirdness of a 5 year-old looking boy thinking about life partners and started to walk forward as they Cullens practically surrounded him as he walked.
It was subtle, but he could tell they were on edge.
Listening for everything, and not willing to venture too far from the house.
At their current distance, he could still look back and see it.
It wouldn't even take two seconds to get back to the defenseless Bella and Edward should shit get real.
Three minutes later he began to pick up the sound of footsteps coming closer from a distance, clearly running. His senses sharpening by the second, even faster than his body grew.
And it wasn't long before Leah emerged from the trees and locked eyes with him.
Her body visibly loosening for a brief moment, before she caught sight of the Cullens on his sides.
But before she got too on edge, he decided to nip it all in the bud.
"Leah, I'm glad to finally meet you." He began, his smile practically contagious, with a hint of innocence that he used to disarm people by the thousands in his past life. I'm Carlie (pronounced Kar-lee) (A/N: thinking I'll just have him be called Cal) and I think we're really going to like getting to know each other."
And staying true to all that he knew to be true of any world, his smile quickly spread to the brown-skinned beauty as she herself did something she hadn't done in a very long time.
She smiled.