Rhydian didn't know at what point in time entering the Cullen household had seemed like a good idea.

Now - with eight pairs of golden eyed crawling across every inch of his face - he was fighting every instinct he had in order not to bolt out of the porch.

His entire posture was strained, spine stiff and shoulders braced like he was waiting for someone to hit him. Dark leather coat bleeding, almost metaphorically, into the light brown shade of the spot of the sofa he was accommodating.

Renesmee was pressed to his side, her face contoured with an expression of protectiveness whilst gripping Rhydian's hand like it was her lifeboat. Opposite them, the rest of the Cullen clan circled them subconsciously.

Carlisle and Esme stood the closest, with Edward and Bella only a few inches back but close enough that they could scoop Renesmee up if it was deemed necessary.

Surprisingly, the seemingly icy blonde whom Rhydian remembered being called Rosalie stood right behind them, her burly mate to her left. A few feet away, Jasper was holding Alice's hand and glaring at Rhydian with dark, unblinking eyes.

"Rhydian," Carlisle began, and there was something akin to awe in his tone. As if sensing it, Edward's eyes swept to the back of Carlisle's head for a nanosecond, and the spark of fiery disapproval in his eyes softened slightly. "You are an immortal child, correct?"

Rhydian's reply was flat and unflicted. "Yes."

"If it's alright to ask, how are you so -" The coven leader broke off, as though he was looking for the right word. His fingers rapped absently against the surface of his kneecap, an action so absentmindedly human that Rhydian's eyes flickered down at the movement. " - so, controlled, in a sense."

"You are curious as to why I'm not attacking your granddaughter right now." Rhydian stated in a wearisome voice, a miniscule of amusement at Carlisle's attempt to soften the blow.

He cocked his head to the side, the shift of posture earning a searching look from Renesmee, as though she was making sure he wasn't any more uncomfortable than he already was.

Rhydian threw a small, confused glance at her direction upon the action. "And I don't know the answer to that."

"Have you always been this immune to blood?" Carlisle questioned, and Rhydian was faintly reminded of those TV shows in which a detective was interrogating a suspect. The thought was both humorous and endearing.

"Controlling myself is something I've always exceeded at. As time passed, I got better at holding back, I suppose." He replied earnestly, voice cracking and trailing off at the end from not having spoken for so long.

Carlisle hummed in response. "How old are you?"

"I," Rhydian flinched as though he'd been slapped, shoulders reeling, and Carlisle's expression shifted from confused to apologetic in seconds. Renesmee's hand tightened around Rhydian's fingers enough for him to feel the caving of his veins. "Forgive me, I tend to forget. I'm - I'm nineteen - I think."

"Nineteen years of age." Carlisle breathed out, and if he'd been in awe before, his eyes now shone with admiration. It made Rhydian reel back, uncomfortable. "It would have taken a newborn at least eighty years to gain such level of control."

"He's still dangerous." Rosalie spat out, loathing flashing through her unique aurete pupils. "He can still hurt Nessie - we all know what immortal children are like."

"I am flattered," Rhydian began, something akin to pure aggression at the top of his tongue. His crimson eyes became as fiery as the words that escaped his parted lips. "That you seem to have encountered so many of my kind. Clearly you must have a lot of first hand experience."

Carlisle shot Rosalie a stern glance, before giving Rhydian an apologetic look. "I apologize - she means that out of worry, not spite. It's just your kind doesn't have very good history." He admitted, and Rhydian would have barked out a laugh if he wasn't currently outnumbered. "What do you reckon, Edward?"

"You shouldn't ask me, Carlisle." Edward bit out, voice vibrating with anger, and Bella placed a hand on his side as through to try and soothe him. Edward's arm rotated to curl around her waist, drawing her closer to him as though he needed physical contact to calm himself down. "Because apparently, I always get to do what I want around here."

Jasper's lips thinned, and a flicker of remorse passed through his pupils before hardening into a void of emotion. Alice squeezed his hand gently from where their fingers were interlaced between them. Clearly the blonde's words had formed a drift between the family - a drift that no one knew which side to take cover on.

"You don't have to trouble yourself in my behalf." Rhydian spoke up, reminding himself that he wasn't going to be present long enough to see how it was all going to play out. "I'm leaving in a moment anyways."

"But you just got here," Rhydian turned to answer Renesmee's aghast expression with a smothered frown, burgundy eyes casting downwards to where their hands were touching and she was transmitting her thoughts through him. "You could be our guest for a while, right, Daddy?"

Just as Rhydian was about to warily question whom she was calling 'daddy', Edward spoke up from across the side of the room. "Love, I don't think that's a good idea."

Rhydian's eyes darted to him and away. "Renesmee can only transmit her thoughts through touch." It was more of a question than a statement, and Edward's eyes connected with his family's as though they were having a silent conversation, which Rhydian cocked his eyebrow at. "You needn't tell me, I was just curious. Can you hear everyone's thoughts or is it just her?"

Edward paused for a beat before replying. "I'm a mind reader, actually." He seemed conflicted about admitting it out loud, but once the truth were out you couldn't exactly withdraw it.

The weight of the words 'mind reader' rattled around Rhydian's head before he gnawed his lower lip between his teeth and accepted the fact that a stranger had been rummaging through his thoughts as off now.

"Any other potentially mind-intrusive gifts I should be aware of?" He asked, balling his fists in a passive aggressive manner.

Again,the coven shared quick fleeting looks whilst Bella's eyes darted anxiously to where Renesmee was stroking Rhydian's balled first reassuringly. "None that concern the mind." Carlisle replied, artfully yet answering Rhydian's question at the same time.

"Don't be stiff about revealing anything - you have bigger things to worry about, I assure you." Rhydian said coolly, his gaze flashing to Bella's and narrowing significantly. He willed for the newborn to remember the very reason she had parted ways from her daughter's side briefly, and it took the mother a moment before recollection came to her.

"Irina Denali." Bella breathed out, and almost at once, all attention shifted to her. She tensed awkwardly for a moment before continuing, every line in her body moving harmoniously with each other. "I saw her in the woods. She ran away before we could talk, though. I couldn't sense any of her coven around either."

"Did she see something that could have made her run?" Esme asked, a soft note of concern in her voice. Towards this 'Irina' or her own coven, Rhydian didn't know, but he was willing to wager both - there was something kind and warm about Esme that made him give her the benefit of the doubt.

Bella's shurg came across a little ignorant in Rhydian's eyes. "I figured it might be Jacob's presence. Seeing a wolf could have been too much for her after -" Bella's gaze fell on Rhydian and she swallowed the end of her sentence. "- after what happened."

"Would you have replied with the same level of coolness if it had it been someone from your own coven?" Rhydian murmured, more to himself than aloud. The Cullen clan turned back to him, eyes questioning, and he continued albeit tightly. "Treat your allies as your own, else you might loose them."

There was a beat of silence in which Renesmee's hummingbird-of-a-heart was the only noise to placate the room. "Do you know where you are heading next?" Rosalie quipped, and that sentence alone had many hidden meanings. It isn't your place to tell us what to do, you are a danger to us, when are you leaving?

"Wherever the wind takes me." Rhydian admitted, swatting away the feeling of nostalgia that twisted his stomach like a knife.

"You can stay here as our guest," Renesmee suggested, grasping both of Rhydian hands in his own. It wasn't until then, when he was forced to pay proper attention to her gift, that he realized she wasn't speaking in words - but images. Yet somehow, he could decipher what she meant without much difficulty. "For a few days, until you have a destination picked out."

Rhydian opened his mouth to politely decline, but something about Renesmee's pleading expression made his tongue thaw like ice. Swallowing slowly, he pursed his lips before nodding.

A look of pure joy entered Renesmee's face and a relieved laugh stringed out of her lips. Edward sighed and translated the change of events to the rest of the coven, who stiffened in begrudging acceptance.

Before Rhydian knew it, Renesmee was speaking almost too quickly for him to understand, rattling the spaces between seconds with an ever flowing train of thought that escaped out of her nail buds and injected into his mind with the pad of her crescent fingertips.

Around them, the Cullen household returned to what seemed like a strained standstill of peace, and Rhydian wondered faintly if this was what it was like watching flowers wilt.

†††

I'm going to be earnest with you guys - the moment I get the chance, I am going to rewrite this chapter from scratch. I've read it over and over and it seems pathetic. What are your thoughts? I really could use some advice.