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SKIN & BONES
iv. NEW FRIENDS

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a/n. lily collins is fucking adorable
also all translations will be attached to each statement in the comments :)

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"THANK YOU... FOR COMING with me, I mean."

Lorelai Swan's amber eyes were locked on the scenery before her. Her long fingers were wrapped around the black, leather steering wheel of Jasper's car. Every so often, Lorelai would glance to the side, her eyes missing the extravagant beauty that was Jasper Hale.

His hand had been wrapped around her's as he said, "A four hour road-trip with the love of my life? I wouldn't miss it for the world." He lifted her free hand, pressing his cool lips against it. "Though I must admit, I'm a little confused as to why we didn't just... you know... run."

Lorelai shrugged. "Sometimes I need a little bit of normal in my life," she confessed. "If that means driving for a few hours, then I'll take it. Besides, I miss driving around everywhere. It's so mindless."

"So is running," mumbled Jasper.

Lorelai rolled her eyes, smiling brightly at her boyfriend. Boyfriend. She still wasn't used to calling him that. Regardless, it just felt right.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," taunted Lorelai. "Besides, we'd miss out on all the little sentimental moments if we just sped through life."

"Hm," hummed Jasper. "You have a point."

"I always do."

"Sure you do," sarcastically mentioned Jasper. The couple shared a small laugh. "So, tell me about your friends."

Lorelai shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted. "What do you want to know?"

This time, Jasper shrugged. "I don't know," he imitated. "You only knew them for about a week, but you all seem to be rather close. I mean, we're driving up to Seattle for their graduation, aren't we?"

"Hm," hummed Lorelai. "You have a point."

"I always do."

Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Well," she started, "their names are Stella Capulet and Irene Dae. Both of them are, you know, like us: vampires. I met them at the University of Seattle."

After dying, Lorelai's memory had become impenetrable. She could remember every single moment as clear as day. Still, despite all of this, Lorelai was lost. It hadn't even been long since Lorelai had finally arrived at the University, yet she had still managed to get lost within the first few hours.

Lorelai stumbled about the hallways, turning every which way and going down every other hallway. She had gotten so lost that she wasn't even sure of where exactly she was going anymore.

"Non posso crederci! Odio quello stupido ometto così tanto!"

"Would you stop yelling at me in Italian for one minute? I might not know what you're saying, but I'm a little offended regardless."

Lorelai's ears perked up at the sound of this. She looked over her shoulder to see two girls walking in her direction. One was a brunette and the other was shorter and Korean.

"I mean, for Christ's sake, I literally am Shakespeare, yet I managed to get a B on my paper about Shakespeare," continued to furiously babble the brunette. "How can I get a B on a paper that's literally about myself and my works!?"

"Maybe you just don't know yourself," dismissed the Korean, adjusting the round-frame glasses that sat on her softer facial features. The two girls shared the same eye color as Lorelai: a bright shade of gold.

"Piccolo uomo ridicolo," murmured the brunette, continuing to walk forward in Lorelai's direction with her friend. Then, she suddenly stopped in her tracks upon noticing Lorelai. The brunette tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear before approaching her. "Benvenuto! Are you visiting our campus?"

Lorelai blinked twice before nodding. "Yeah, kind of. I'm lost, actually," admitted Lorelai. She stuck her hand out politely. "I'm Lorelai Swan, but I go by Rory."

The brunette flashed a charming smile at the girl, shaking her hand. "I'm Stella Capulet, but the world knows me as Shakespeare," introduced the girl. She gestured to the Korean girl beside her. "This is Irene Dae, who still doesn't think it's cool to be best friends with Shakespeare."

Irene's golden eyes widened as she smacked Stella's arm. "You can't just go around yelling about being Shakespeare, dipshit," Irene hissed in Stella's ear.

Stella furrowed her eyebrows together. "Why not? She's clearly like us. You know, blood-sucking and ridiculously pretty."

Irene released a small huff of air. "God, you're such a flirt," she muttered. "And not even a good one."

"I'm sorry," Lorelai cut in. "If the three of us are the same, then...?" She stared at Irene with a baffled facial expression. "You have a heartbeat."

Stella made an o-shape with her mouth. "Oh giusto!" she exclaimed. "Right, my bad. Irene's a hybrid."

Irene shot Stella a glance. "Stella—!"

"What?" asked Stella. "If she freaks out and tries to send us off to the Volturi, I'll just go back and time and clean up my mistake." She looked around to make sure that they were still alone in the empty corridor. Then, she looked back at Lorelai. "Irene's half-vampire, half-human. Some vampire humped and dumped her mom if you know what I mean."

"Dude, gross! That's my mom you're talking about."

"Yeah, yeah, shh," Stella hushed before continuing in her story.

"Wait, is that even possible?" wondered Lorelai.

Stella shrugged. "We're undead, aren't we?" she returned. "Anyways, I was friends with Irene's mom, which is how we became best friends."

Lorelai had to take a moment to absorb this information. Her eyes glistened with wonder. "That's incredible," she admitted. She turned her attention to Stella. "You said something about... going back in time? Are you a Manipulator, too?"

Stella nodded. "Yup!" she confirmed happily. "I can speed it up, slow it down, go back in time—the whole nine yards, really."

Lorelai looked down at her hands. Did that mean she could do that, too? Lorelai hadn't really given it much thought to what the extent of her powers were. If she could manipulate time, then what else could she do?

"So I take it you're a Manipulator, too, then since you asked," Irene stated. "What can you do?"

Lorelai laughed quietly. "More like what can't I do?" she murmured. She looked up at the girls once more. "I'm the rarest of our kind. I'm... basically the Manipulator, I guess."

Stella hummed, taking this in. Then, she smiled brightly at Lorelai. "Incredibile!" she commented. "That's amazing! Well, since you're cool, and I'm cool, and Irene's kinda alright—"

"Hey!"

"—Then we'll just have to be friends."

"And we've been friends ever since," Lorelai finished.

Jasper paused, his brain taking in this information. "So Stella can manipulate time and Irene is just an ordinary vampire?"

Lorelai pressed her lips together. She had purposely left out the bit about Irene being a human-vampire hybrid simply due to the fact that it wasn't her business to tell. She wasn't as close to Irene as Stella was, so it wasn't her place.

"Pretty much," Lorelai confirmed. "The three of us got really close really fast. We just... clicked, I guess. Maybe it's a vampire thing."

Jasper chuckled. "Definitely not," he declared. "Not everyone's as friendly as you are, darling." Lorelai shrugged at that. "But, Rory... You said someone died while you were in Seattle. Does that mean...?"

Lorelai shook her head. "No, Stella and Irene are very much alive," she said, chewing on the inside of her cheek. "As you know, I decided to take a bus all the way to Seattle instead of driving or running. I still don't know why I decided to do that, but what's done is done, I guess." She paused. "On the bus, I met this girl. I think she was about 16-years-old. Her name was Bree... Bree Tanner. She was running away from her abusive family in Vegas and ended up buying a ticket to Seattle. I guess it was the only one available when she got to the bus station."

Lorelai frowned at the thought of Bree.

"I don't know why I felt so attached to Bree the second we met," admitted Lorelai. "Stella thought it had something to do with... La tua cantante." She smiled at her horrific Italian accent. "You know, when a human's blood sings to you. But I wasn't attracted to Bree's blood. I guess she just reminded me of Bella—all weak and vulnerable to all the dangers around her. I felt protective of her."

She felt Jasper squeeze her hand gently in a supportive manner. Lorelai flashed a small smile at him.

"So I offered her a spot in my hotel room. It's not like I was planning on using it anyway," Lorelai continued. "Bree and I got to know each other throughout the drive. I introduced her to Stella and Irene, and they felt attached to her, too. She was the classic little sister kinda person, I guess."

She gripped the steering wheel tightly as the rest of the story went flooding out of her mouth.

"I guess I never really thought about Bree being linked to the Seattle disappearances. I mean, she had three vampires protecting her," rambled Lorelai. "But one night, Stella, Irene, and I went hunting, and decided to come back early to hang out with Bree. But by the time we arrived..."

Lorelai sighed. "There was this odor coming from my hotel room. We noticed it immediately. I mean, it was seriously potent. There... There was blood all over the room and the window was left wide open. We spent hours tracking the smell and Bree, but we ended up going in circles. We've been trying to figure out what happened to her since then, but with my obligations here and the girls having theirs, there wasn't a lot we could do."

Jasper traced his thumb across the back of Lorelai's hand. "Don't worry, darling. We're going to get to the bottom of this. If Victoria isn't the one behind these disappearances, then whoever took Bree has to," he gently said.

"Stella thought about going back in time to find Bree before she was taken, but we were gone all day with exploring the campus and then hunting that evening. The bridge of time was just too wide," Lorelai mentioned. "Do you really think we'll be able to get to the bottom of this?"

"I know we will."

Lorelai smiled at Jasper. "Thank you for being so hopeful," she quietly said.

Jasper just stared at her in a loving manner. "Now that I have you, all I have is hope."

○ ○ ○

"Next, Stella Capulet, majoring in English!"

Lorelai rose to her feet as the people all around her erupted with expected applause. "Woo!" Lorelai cheered, her voice booming throughout the auditorium. "That's my girl!"

Stella strutted across the stage, her gaze falling on Lorelai's. She flashed a big smile at the girl before blowing her a playful kiss. Lorelai chuckled and caught the kiss in her hands, causing Stella to laugh.

As Lorelai returned to her seat beside Jasper, she noticed an older man give her a nasty look. Lorelai arched an eyebrow at the man before turning her attention back to the graduation ceremony. Despite not knowing Irene and Stella for very long, Lorelai still felt like a proud mother.

"Irene Dae, majoring in Biology!"

As Irene walked across the stage, Lorelai rose to her feet once again, "Yeah, Irene! Let's go!"

Irene sent a small smile to the girl. Irene sometimes felt that she was the odd-ball between Stella and Lorelai. She was much quieter and elegant, yet still somehow just as weird and energetic as the two.

As Lorelai went back to her seat, she found herself being the victim to another judgmental stare from the man. Jasper looked over with narrowed eyes. "Come on, man. Lighten up," Jasper defensively said.

Lorelai smiled at Jasper, her hand resting in his. For the rest of the graduation ceremony, they sat like this. Lorelai was thankful for Jasper being so willing to attend the ceremony with her. While she was always worried about the safety of her loved ones, she truly needed a break from being on guard consistently 24/7. Besides, the others could protect Bella and Charlie just fine without Lorelai and Jasper for one day. What could possibly happen in one day, anyway?

Once the graduation ceremony was over, Lorelai dragged Jasper around until they found Stella and Irene.

"Rory!" Stella's voice came.

Lorelai spun around to see the brunette. Grinning from ear-to-ear, Lorelai released Jasper's hand to his dismay, running toward the girl. "Ah, Stella!" she squealed. She hugged the girl tightly before turning to Irene, who had been walking over to them after Stella sprinted over to greet Lorelai. "Irene!"

"Rory!" Irene greeted, elated. "It's so good to see you again."

Stella looked past the Manipulator, her eyes locking on Jasper's figure. "Ooh, is this him?" Stella wondered.

Lorelai glanced back at Jasper as he approached the trio of girls. "Oh, yes! Jazz, this is Irene and Stella. Guys, this is Jasper," she introduced.

"Um, frankly, I think it should be Stella and Irene, not the other way," Stella opinionated.

Irene rolled her eyes. "You'll have to excuse her, Jasper," she said. "Also, I apologize for the few thousand times Stell talks about Shakespeare. You'll hear it a lot."

"As a matter of fact, I'm proud of being Shakespeare. I've created a legacy for myself," argued Stella, clearly joking. "All you've ever done is be the Fred to my George Weasley."

Irene's jaw dropped at the sound of this. "Why am I Fred? If anything, you're Fred!" exclaimed Irene.

"Why am I Fred?"

"Because you're dead!"

"We're both dead, stupid!"

Jasper turned to Lorelai, seeing that his newest acquaintances were busy. "Darling, you left out quite an important detail about your friends," he quietly said. He glanced at Irene. "Her heart is beating."

Lorelai sighed. "I know, I know. I'm sorry. I would've told you, but it isn't my business to tell. The three of us are the only ones who know about her being half-human, half-vampire," she explained. "Please don't be mad."

Jasper shook his head, saying, "I'm not mad. I'm just worried about what will happen if the Volturi find out."

Lorelai shrugged. "They won't find out," she said. "You do trust me, don't you?"

Jasper nodded. "With my life."

Smiling, Lorelai reached up at pecked his lips. "Good," she whispered. Then, she turned back to the girls. "If anything, Irene's right and Stella's Fred."

"Hey!"

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AUTHOR'S NOTE:

emma watson is stella capulet

bae joohyun is irene dae

i'm highkey so excited about stella and irene's characters. the best way i can really describe them is like yin and yang. yes, they're a lot like fred and george, but they're also different and not as identical in their personalities. another good way to describe them is that stella is very loud and outgoing, irene is very quiet and doesn't open up to a lot of people because of her human-vampire trait. remember, you fr can't trust no one in this economy (i'm looking at you irina).

if you didn't catch the little spoilers about stella, i'm just going to point out four things: she's fluent in italian, her last name is capulet, her email has the year she was born in (1594), and she likes to refer to herself as shakespeare. hmm...

also irene is a human-vampire hybrid. that's pretty interesting if you asked me...

anyways i'm excited about them. this chapter was to introduce their characters, as well as the fiasco involving bree tanner. while it may seem like this was the end to that little mini storyline, it most definitely isn't.

remember what i said about normalcy earlier?

anyways, stella and irene will remain key characters in future chapters and maybe (just maybe) i'll create a separate story for them.

let me know what you guys think of them! feedback is very much appreciated! <3

Revised: January 6th, 2020