More Answers and Visiting The Cullens

"You said you were gonna give me answers, Jace...so give them," Bella sat across from me, her gaze boring a hole through my head as I sighed and leaned back on my bed to which she replied by leaning forward towards the edge of the seat she was on.

...Jeez, she really is stupidly curious about this stuff.

Shrugging, I met Bella's gaze and began to speak, "I'm going to give you the answers I have, Bella. Who knows if they'll satiate your curiosity," I warned her before continuing, "Right, so ever since I can remember, I've been like this. Different," I gestured to myself, "I've always had an impossibly strong body, reflexes that make people look like they're moving in slow motion and stamina that would put even the best marathon runner to shame."

"But why?" she interrupted me and I replied with shrug and an unsure shake of my head, "That's it?" she asked with a subtle disbelief in her tone, "You've just been like this since you were born? No accident with chemicals that none of us knew about? You're not secretly an alien or anything?" she questioned before looking somewhat disappointed, "Well...that's anticlimactic."

Hearing her, I rolled my eyes, "What? Would it make anymore sense if I said I found a meteor and inside that meteor there was some sort of special rock which bonded with me and gave me super powers? That'd be just as confusing as me being born with them," I said with a mocking tone. After I spoke, Bella was looking at me with narrowed eyes, to which I gave her a confused look and said, "What?"

"...Are you sure you didn't find a special rock in a meteor?"

Hearing her, I closed my eyes and brought a hand to pinch the bridge of my nose, "Bella, you're my sister and I love you...but right now I'm an inch away from hitting you so hard with a pillow you'll develop some sort of pillow-related trauma."

"S-sorry," she awkwardly spluttered out, no doubt a little intimidated by that fact I could probably follow through with my 'threat', "It's just...really weird to think my older brother is some sort of superhuman," she spoke in a tone of further disbelief, leaning back into the chair and looking up at the ceiling, thoughts obviously flittering around her mind at a mile a minute.

"Is it though?" I questioned, looking at my sibling who was knocked out of her thinking by my question. She looked at me with scrunched up eyebrows, obviously confused by what I meant, so I elaborated, "Think about it. When was the last time I was ill? I've never been ill, Bella. Not even a sniffle. Ever," she still seemed a little unbelieving at what I was getting at, and it showed when she replied to what I was saying.

"There are a load of people who never get ill, Jason," she spoke, sounding so sure of herself.

Nodding, I conceded somewhat to what she said, "Sure, some people don't get colds or fevers. They have strong immune systems. But Bella...when was the last time you heard me sneeze? Or, like I said, have a sniffle because of a snotty nose? When was the last time you heard me cough because of phlegm?" I asked and she looked like she was about to answer but she immediately drew a blank. "For a matter of fact, when was the last time you ever saw me get injured? Bella, I've never had a cut or a bruise throughout my entire life. I've never broken a bone or pulled a muscle either despite the amount of physical contact sports I've played in. Hell, I even used to do boxing and kickboxing along with the tournaments that went along with them."

"Huh," Bella said, stumped by what I'd said, "...I guess we should've caught on sooner," she let out an awkward chuckle before looking toward me, "Then why didn't you tell us? I mean, I kinda get it - because you'd probably be experimented on by the government or whatever - but what I mean is...how come you didn't tell our parents when we were kids? You shouldn't have known any better. You were a kid," she said with an uneasy chuckle.

Scratching the back of my head, I mulled over how to reply to this question. The real answer is that I was already an adult, mentally, at that point. I knew not to tell people what I was capable of because I knew it'd get me in deep shit.

But I can't say that to Bella right now. So, I went another route that wasn't technically a lie.

"Well, Bells, I was always clever. I figured out I was different to other people pretty quick and I figured out pretty soon after that, that being different isn't all too good. Different is usually singled out by others," I answered with a slight frown, "I guess as a kid I didn't want to be singled out as some sort of freak."

...Which wasn't untrue, I guess. I wanted a normal-ish life, hot Vampire chicks aside. Childhood was fun purely because of the lack of responsibility and because of the fact that it so easy and without expectations. I didn't care what other kids thought about me, like I was portraying to Bella, but rather what other people and humans thought of me. If I was different, I'd quickly begin to be treated in such a way - which would lead to my free and easy life disappearing. You know what the government would do if they found out they had a veritable superhuman? The best course of action would be getting turned into their personal one-man army. The worst? Having my flesh, organs and liquids torn from me to advance science in some way or another.

With that said, Bella's expression went all sorts of awkward before she got up and tentatively walked over to me being somewhat stunted in her approach like she didn't know if this was the right cause of action. God, she's just like dad at times like this.

Socially inept.

In the end, she sat down next to me and awkward leaned her head on my shoulder as her arm wrapped around me in the form of a side hug, "...I'm, you know, not the best at stuff like this Jace...but you're still my annoying sibling no matter how strong you are. I'd never think you're a freak," she reassured me and the sincerity nearly brought a brotherly tear to my eye. She was an idiot but at times like this, she tries her best and that's all that counts.

"Thanks, Bells," I smiled as I lifted a hand and ruffled her hair in an affectionate gesture. She shuffled away from me at that point, to escape me messing with her hair, and I brought my hand back as she flattened any stray hair and a grim look came across my face, "Which is why you've gotta promise me that you won't tell anyone what I've told and shown you today, Bella. Not mom, not dad, none of your friends--ever. Under any circumstance."

She seemed to hear the utter seriousness of my voice as she stopped messing with her hair and looked to me with an expression that was quickly mirroring my seriousness.

"I know," she nodded, "And I promise I won't tell anyone. Ever," she promised before a sour look came across her face, "Even if it does make me feel bad for our parents."

"It's better that they don't know, Bella," I reassured her because it was the truth - if they knew about me, it was only a matter of time before they found out about the Cullens...and when that happened, the Volturi would be on us like a rash on a prostitute. Fast and nasty, that is.

Bella nodded, agreeing with me for a totally different reason than why I asked her to lie to our parents, before she added with a smile, "Though I've gotta say...I'm somewhat jealous you got all the superpowers and I got nothing," she said with a somewhat bitter smile on her face and I had to hurriedly restrain a smile because I knew what she's said was wrong.

She did have a superpower. She had a supernatural power that blocked out powers from affecting her. Like ability-canceling. Pretty decent, if you ask me.

Of course I didn't say any of this and just clipped her lightly on the back of the head.

"You really wouldn't. It's pretty tedious for everyday things," I casually informed her before leaning over my bed and reaching under it, pulling out a dumbbell of about 50kg. I never really used it because of how light it was, but to keep up appearances I kept it around. Turning to Bella, I waved the weight around, "For instance, a little too much force gripping this and--" I continued what I meant by squeezing a little. The metal bar of the dumbbell creaked and groaned and when I threw the weight onto the bed, Bella's eyes widened at the finger indents in the metal.

"...I can see why it'd be tedious," she said, in disbelief, before she tried to pick up the weight to feel the bar. Though with her stick-like arms? She couldn't get it off the bed even when she used both arms to try and lift it. In the end, she gave up and just looked at me with a deadpan look before she shook her head, "Such a cheater," she laughingly joked.

Scoffing in a joking manner, I replied, "Cheating? Don't hate me just because I was blessed with the physique of a God," I wiggled my eyebrows up and down in a jokingly suggestive manner before I heard a car pulling up in front of the house, dad's voice speaking to himself. I put a finger up to stop Bella and I spoke up shortly after it, "Dad's home. Remember, nothing like this gets to dad. No talking about this stuff when he's in the house either. Got it?" I asked and she nodded just as I got up off my bed.

Just as I was opening the door, Bella spoke up behind me, "Wait, you have super senses as well? Jesus, Jason, don't tell me you can shoot lasers from your eyes as well...right?" she started off jokingly but there was a legitimate question in there as well.

Pointing toward the hallway beyond my now opened door, gesturing her to exit, I gave a smug smile, "Yep, my senses are all dialed to eleven just like my strength and speed. Now get out of my room, Bella." Bella huffed and stood up before getting on her way to her room. Though I did hear her mutter something about how I was a douche for not answering her question, "I heard that," I called out to her, making her jump before pointing to my eyes as she turned around, "I'm not Superman. Nothing comes out of these eyes except manly tears."

Smirking, I closed the door and I heard Bella give a light scoff before laughing at my joke and entering her room.

I, on the other hand, just went and lay down after moving the dumbbell back underneath my bed. I just lay there, thinking through what I should wear for going over to the Cullen's tonight. Smart casual or just casual? Only the most important philosophical questions, obviously.

. . .

It was about quarter past seven and I'd just arrived at the Cullen's house. Here's to hoping it goes okay.

I'd arrived on my bike, with leather jacket, a white dress shirt, some black dress pants and a pair of dress shoes. I'd gone for smart casual for tonight. It wasn't a full-on suit - which would've been too much - but it wasn't like I was rocking up in sweatpants either. Happy medium.

By the time I'd kicked the stand down for my bike, the door opened and I saw Esme looking over at me with a smile before she gestured me over, "Jason, how are you?" she asked before quickly continuing, "It's quite chilly, so why don't we get you inside? Rosalie and Alice have a surprise for you."

Hearing her, I smiled at her thinking about my human need for heat before I shook my head, "I'm much more resistant to the cold than the normal human, Mrs. Cullen," I joked before sniffing the air and catching a whiff of something - food. As I got closer to the door, I spoke up, "This surprise wouldn't have anything to do with food, would it?" I asked with a grin. Esme looked surprised before she nodded and my grin became a full-blown smile, "I had a feeling there'd be food, so I'm glad I only had a light snack before coming over."

...What I did say was that a 'light' snack consisted of three sandwiches, two bananas, a whole box of grapes and a liter of orange juice. All brought with my own money, of course. If not, I'm afraid my diet would bankrupt my dad.

Either way, Esme was oblivious to my thoughts and stepped back and allowed me entry to the house.