#two southern vets who are slowly accepting that they are mates combined with trauma and nomadic tendencies...

[goldeneyedgirl]

Wait I NEED more variable stars!! Can I make that a request for Christmas or? Also, do you have any other bits and pieces of the STL alternate universe where he grabs her and they both leave? They make my heart so happy ❤️

I cannot promise/guarantee canon Variable Stars for Ficmas, but I can absolutely dig out some cut scenes or the Chapter That Was Scrapped at the very least.

I honestly never wrote any more of the 'Jasper takes Mary-Alice with him' verse because the OG one was just depressing and the one I published a few Ficmases ago kind of set them up to be happy together. However, I like a good spontaneous challenge

takes place after mary-alice and jasper had a nice healing, post-escape bath in the forgotten house (which you can read here.) (Later, Emmett will admit that it's his fault they went so far afield. It was his turn to pick the hunting grounds, and they ventured way out of their usual comfort zone. It was a spontaneous choice, not part of the plan, and that's where it all fell down.

The animals aren't as wary, there are no worn paths from previous hunts, and it is completely untouched. There are the odd scents - human hunters, nomads, the usual thing that any piece of land in this part of the country holds. But there was nothing to suggest there was any risk. He would never bring his family somewhere he suspected was dangerous.)

The thing is, he barely even sees anyone before he is slammed into a tree that creaks ominously, bark and branches raining down on them - there's a glimpse of a nomad, downwind, in the lake. Smeared with blood that is rolling down his back in rivulets.

And then he's having the life choked out of him, cracks spiralling up his neck and his panic bursting out as he stares down into dead red eyes.

(She's tiny.)

(No really, he needs to emphasise that it takes him a minute to understand that she's managed to manoeuvre him against the tree - at speed - so that she's standing on a boulder, holding him several inches above the ground by his throat because she's child-sized. It takes him a moment to comprehend what is happening, it's so unexpected.)

Right now, he's expecting to die. She looks unamused, and the male is already redressing to come over; if the Diminutive Devil is this vicious, he doesn't stand a chance against the male. He just hopes Rose gets as far away as possible and doesn't come looking for him.

The male is scarred worse up close, blood seeping out of his shirt like some kind of biblical nightmare, and Emmett's honestly wondering how fast his death is going to be. Between the two of them, he might actually get out of this without experiencing mind-bending pain.

(He's definitely panicking. Is she an Immortal Child? He's never seen one. She's so dirt and blood-covered, he can't tell. If she is, the male is going to be even more protective, with the whole 'illegal upon execution' thing. Shit shit shit.)

He's holding his hands up in peace, trying not to look like more of a threat but as he looks back at the girl, she frowns at him and backs off immediately, releasing him suddenly before folding herself against the male.

"I'm sorry, I didn't..." he begins, his voice hoarse as the cracks heal, trying to back away as fast as possible.

"I didn't know it was you, Emmett," the girl says, her voice flat. "I didn't see you coming." She frowns again and looks down at herself. "This is all wrong."

There's no inflection in her words, but the male - with a dark look in Emmett's direction - acts as if she's gone hysterical and looks down at her.

"It's okay. You can wash off the worst of it." His voice is calmer and gentler than Emmett anticipated.

"It wasn't supposed to go this way," the girl says and this time, he hears the frustration in her voice.

"The best-laid plans, Mary-Alice." The male's eyes are back on Emmett and he really wishes he'd taken the opportunity to leave.

Except...

"Wait, how do you know my name?"