The True Meaning of Fidelity.

Edward stayed with Cecille that night, by request. He couldn't deny those green eyes anything. How feeble her voice was... She truly reverted back to her childhood self that night.

They slept (well, the girl did, at least) in her bed, which was no more than a mattress on the floor, surrounded by sheet music, cleaners, reeds, and tuning tools.

Cecille curled herself up in his arms, Edward's touch was tentative, and he refused to breath, not wanting to risk anything his first time being this close to a human. Eventually, he relaxed beside the girl, allowing her to grasp onto his shirt, no doubt wrinkling it.

But Edward didn't care. The vampire couldn't help but smile at the child in his arms, feeling as possessive as ever over this little Cecille.

~~~

"Where have you been all night?" Esme asked her copper haired son the next morning, hands on her hips. "Rosalie was very upset you weren't at the reception."

Edward sighed, dragging a hand through his shaggy locks. He knew for fact that "upset" was a dire understatement. "I know... I just went for a walk is all." He consoled the shorter women with a small, charming smile. "Lost track of time."

Esme returned the smile. "You're lucky her and Emmett have already left on their honeymoon."

The vampire boy silently agreed wholeheartedly. "Where's Alice and Jasper, then?"

"They're in their room down the hall," his mother replied, referring to the extra royalty suit the two family members had gotten for their stay. "Alice is probably waiting for you. She said you'd be home around this time..."

He nodded, taking her advice and leaving the decorative hotel room for it's twin down the hall.

Alice opened the door before he'd even have a chance to knock. "Nice of you to show up... You smell like human." She added, her voice was one of slight annoyance, but that was covered by her usual airy tone. "So, are you going to tell me where you've been all night?"

If Edward had been human, he would have probably just used the excuse, 'I'm too tired.' But, of course, this wouldn't work, mostly due to the fact that it was impossible for him to sleep.

Instead, he rose an eyebrow. "Don't you know where I've been?" His tone was of faux incredulous.

Her auburn gaze turned dark, eyes narrowing considerable. Tiny fists clenched, she stalked back into the room, leaving the door open for Edward to follow.

"I lost track around ten..." She begrudgingly admitted, falling down onto the plush couch in the center of the room. Their brother, Jasper, temporarily glanced up from the book he was reading by the windowsill. He smiled at his lover's frustration before returning to the book.

Edward sat himself in an adjacent chair, stretching his legs out in front of him. He reclined, hands behind his head, eyes closed in relaxation.

"So are you going to tell me?" The smaller girl pressed again, anxiously leaning forward.

Edward peeked open one eye, smiling at Alice. "What do you see?" He had already looked in her head, he already knew, but he wanted her to say it.

"I see her playing for us." The vampire girl's dark hues glazed over, "On your piano... She's better than you."

Edward watched the vision play in his sister's head. It was obviously Cecille, the orange hair and green eyes gave it away. Though, it wasn't the Cecille he had spent the evening with... This was an older version. Her hair was longer, the ends just barely grazing her slim shoulders as her bony hands swept the piano keys. Her features were sharper, body more developed, but still the same Cecille...

"Are you sure this is going to happen...?" Edward was tentative, almost scared, to ask the question.

"It's not definite..." Alice could sense the boy's fear, "But I wouldn't say it's impossible. I've been having this vision all night, if that says anything."

He nodded, relieved.

"You're going to see her again tonight." Alice didn't ask, she said it as a statement.

Edward glanced out the window, noticing it was a cloudy day, the sun barley poking through the thick coverage. "Yeah..." He sighed.

~~~

It didn't take Edward long to find Cecille. He had long since locked onto her thought pattern, and swept through the streets to find her.

She was basically where he had left her; sitting on the porch steps of the grubby little house just on the boarder of the city. Today (tonight, rather) she looked refreshed, having showered recently with a fresh change of clothes. Her orange hair was still slightly damp, the bottoms clinging to her skin while the top was a frizzy mess. Cecille sat alongside the boy from the cafe, the same she bought her drink from last night. Edward could recognize his generic features easily; a shaggy crop of light brown hair, and dull black eyes. Together they sat close, sharing a cigarette, or so it would seem.

Before approaching the two, Edward stopped to listen to their thoughts. The boy was staring at Cecille as she took a particularly long drag, burning up a portion of the tobacco.

'Even though she acts like such a tomboy... She still looks so damn pretty. Must be those eyes...'

This caused Edward to roll his eyes. "What a childish observation," he muttered to himself. "Of course she's beautiful." He then tuned into the girl's thoughts, promptly dismissing the boy as a small detail in the background of his focus.

'Damnit, Zach, just stop staring already...' Her inner voice sounded quite peeved, causing the spectator vampire to chuckle.

It was at this time Edward decided to finally approach.

The couple on the step had just began to continue their conversation after a brief moment of silence. They were facing each other, and it was Cecille who first noticed the vampire out of the corner of her eye.

Quickly changing the topic, she muttered, "Uh, Zach, you should probably head back now... Your shift starts soon, doesn't it?"

Looking down at the watch on his wrist, the boy came back with, "Shit, you're right..." Stubbing out the cigarette on his shoe, Zach stood.

Cecille was obviously attempting to rush the boy out before Edward had reached them, but the plans didn't line up with the vampire's long strides.

"Hello, Cadence." He made sure to keep his tone even and seductive, glancing between the two. "Who's your friend?" Edward added a small flip of his copper hair, brushing it away from his topaz eyes, added with a dazzling smile.

Needless to say, this was just a formality.

"Uhh..." Zach's voice droned, just as plain as his appearance.

"Don't worry about him," Cecille shrugged the vampire's greeting off, "See you later?"

The younger boy smiled in a dopey fashion at the orange haired girl, "Yeah, later, Cadence."

"Bye." Her voice was quiet as she watched him walk away.

There was an uncomfortable silence. Edward took this moment to re-enter her inner thoughts.

'Just say hello, don't be a bitch. He's nice, remember? For Pete's sake, be polite for once...'

"What the hell do you want?" She spat.

'...Fuck.'

Edward's lips curled into a crooked, but bemused smile, "Just dropped in to see how you're doing." He took a seat, now occupying the seat Zach just left. "Who was that?"

Cecille leaned back, laying down on the dusty porch floor, obviously not caring if her dark purple camisole got dirty, "Just this guy..."

"Just a guy?" Edward too, leaned back, holding himself up with his hands, long legs stretched out. His tone held a playful amusement as he quirked an eyebrow down at Cecille.

"Yeah," She snapped back, her voice still singing to him, despite it's harshness. "Just a guy. So forget about him."

"I think he likes you."

Now it was her turn to look skeptical, "And how would you know?"

Edward tapped his temple, smiling, "Intuition."

Cecille rolled her emerald eyes, sitting up once again. She lazily raked a hand through her messy orange hair, which surprisingly, fixed itself accordingly from the frizzy nest it had once been to a smooth yet spiky style.

By now the sun was below the horizon, off to illuminate some other part of the world.

"Are your guardians home?" Edward asked offhandedly, now recalling that he didn't sense anyone else in the house last night, nor was anyone there now.

"Don't have any." Cecille's voice was just as casual, "Got emancipated last year."

"Don't you need to have a steady income to be emancipated?I don't think a street performer counts as a job..."

"At the time, I was hired as a full-time instructor at a small studio nearby."

"What did you teach?"

"Anything I could get my hands on. From the cello, to the guitar, piano, of course, even some theory lessons, too..."

"Do you still work there?"

The girl shook her head, flicking some minuscule droplets of water onto Edward's shoulder. He didn't mind so much. "It was tough finding clients. I had to audition for every one cause no one believed a twelve year old was better than them... Except for parents who wanted me to give their seven year olds violin lessons." Cecille scrunched up her nose, a repulsed look on her face, "I absolutely hated my novice students... It's them that makes me believe perfect-pitch hearing is a curse."

"You have perfect-pitch?"

"Yeah. It sucks." She paused, changing subjects, "Wanna go inside? It starts to get really cold around this time when we have clouds..."

~~~

It was sort of odd... The tiny house looked so bland and just frankly disgusting on the outside, but... It wasn't half bad on the inside. Edward had failed to notice this last night, being too preoccupied with the distressed girl in his arms to care about the decor.

Cecille did a pretty good job of keeping the rooms clean. Upon entering, they were in what one should call a "living room." But, this was Cecille's house, so it looked more like an orchestra's storage closet. There was a small couch, currently occupied by a cased string bass, the long neck of the instrument off the edge of the armrest somewhat. In the corner, various electric amps were piled, similar to the set up you'd find in a rock concert. Everywhere else, instruments and their accessories were scattered, propped against walls, on shelves and furniture, even balanced precariously against each other in awkward piles.

The floor itself was clean, a nice beige carpet lining the floor. It's only flaws were the random sheets of music and books, but otherwise, it was nice.

Heaving the string bass off the couch, Cecille gestured for the vampire to take a seat. She waddled across the room with the bulky instrument (it being a good height taller than her), and placed it up against a wall next to a lonely cello.

"How much did all these cost you?" Edward had a feeling that the living room wasn't the only place filled with these musical items.

Cecille shrugged, moving into the kitchen, "Most of them were gifts."

"Gifts?" Edward ignored her offer to sit, instead choosing to follow her. She began pulling out a sauce pan, filling it with water and placing it on the stove.

She nodded, letting the water boil and clearing the table of half-written music scores (which Edward assumed she herself composed), along with a metronome and a conductor's baton. "Yeah. I used to play a lot at schools and concert halls, you know? More often than not, some sort of instrument-maker would watch, and offer me one of their creations free."

Edward nodded at the logic, "So they're advertising through you?"

"You guessed it." Now, she grabbed a packet of ramen noodles from a nearby cabinet, tearing it open and dumping the package in. "Every time someone would start going on about how beautiful one of my instruments were, I was obliged so say, 'Oh, this is a whatever-something-series, made by so-and-so. His stuff's very good, I highly recommend it.'" Her voice had grown to a high, squeaky pitch, rolling her mint colored eyes at her own imitation.

Edward couldn't help but intently watch the girl in front of him. Cecille poured her ramen into a bowl, stirring it for a minute. He noted that she was tense, probably feeling his gaze.

'Stop it...' She eventually requested to him, via her thoughts.

"Sorry." He smoothly apologized aloud. The vampire boy remained silent for another moment, giving his female companion time to accompany him at the table. No sooner had she gotten situated, than a faint noise was heard to the back of the kitchen. It was a faint tap, much more apparent to Edward's ears than Cecille's. He rose a copper colored eyebrow at the back door, peering past the screen to see where the noise was coming from. "I think someone's at your door..."

Cecille stopped eating for a moment, the silence allowing her to pick up on the mysterious taps. A look of realization passed her face as she swallowed. "That's Erwin..." She mumbled, leaving her seat.

Questioningly, Edward peered over the girl's slim shoulders as she opened the door. To his surprise, it was a cat that walked in. The ugliest cat Edward had ever seen.

It was hairless little thing, not a Sphinx, as it lacked the basic features of that breed. Instead, this one looked to be just a fat, bald, alley cat. It peered up at the vampire with dusty green-brown eyes, one noticeably larger than the other, sitting oddly on the cat's white face.

The cat seemed to be looking at Edward in the same way the vampire was looking at it; judgmentally. What surprised Edward the most, though, was that this cat didn't hiss or scamper away like any other animal would in his presence. Instead, the ugly beast stared at him with the typical, I'm-so-superior-to-you cat expression.

Cecille, picked up the cat, holding it close to her chest. The creature seemed quite content there, purring loudly as she stroked down hit's multi-colored back, still staring at Edward.

"This is Erwin," she introduced, nuzzling her nose to the beast's cheek, "He stops by sometimes. Haven't seen him for a couple of days, though."

"Nice to meet you, Erwin." Edward humored the girl, still weary of the cat.

They returned to the table, Erwin taking a seat upon the table top between the two.

"So, how long are you in town for?" Cecille yawned, returning to her 99-cent dinner.

Edward shrugged, still watching Erwin out of the corner of his amber eyes, "A few more days, maybe a couple of weeks."

"Where you going next?"

Again, Edward shrugged. "Where ever my family plans on living next... We're really only supposed to be in town for my sister's wedding. But the city's so nice, we decided to make a vacation out of it." The vampire grew a bit more uncomfortable as Erwin's tail began to flick in his direction, grazing the side of his bare arm. Honestly, the boney appendage freaked him out.

Ignoring her friend's obvious discomfort, Cecille nodded, "Who'd your sister marry?"

"My brother Emmett. It's their third wedding."

Cecille nearly dropped her fork, a skeptical look coming across her pretty face. "... What?"

"We're a... Collaborated family." Edward folded his hands on his lap, as to avoid the hairless cat's tail. "It started with my father, then me, my mother came next, then Rosalie, followed by Emmett... Followed by Alice and Jasper, who showed up a few years ago."

"So you're technically older than your mom?"

Edward nodded with a shrug.

"Awesome."

~~~

With Cecille finished with her small meal, the two decided to retire to back to the living room, sitting on the couch. Edward was secretly glad to again be in close proximity to the child prodigy, though he was having trouble placing exactly why. She, on the other hand, was not so comfortable being so close to him, having gotten over last night's experience. But, when Erwin hopped up and squirmed himself between the two, Cecille's thoughts turned from nervous to relieved.

The beautiful vampire simply pursed his lips ignoring the disappointed feeling in his stomach when he heard this, distracting himself with a few pieces of stray sheet music.

"Song of the Birds? Pablo Casals..." He read aloud, smiling fondly at the piece. "You're learning the cello solo?"

The orange haired girl's demeanor suddenly changed. She turned, now sitting on one leg, scooping Erwin into her lap so she could get a better view at the bundle of paper in his hand. "Learned it, actually. It was my weekend project awhile ago." Her grin reflected her pride, "As far as the fingerings go, you wouldn't think it'd be such a difficult piece, but really it's the tone and dynamics that make it."

Edward nodded, having head the solo many times before. "Play it for me?" He sincerely requested, handing the papers to the girl, amber eyes pleading.

Cecille bit her plump bottom lips, unsure of how to answer. 'Playing in front of a thousand people is one thing... But the smaller the audience is, the more self-conscience I feel... But Edward did stay with me last night... I suppose I could return the favor...'

"If you don't want to--" Edward began, only to be cut off when Erwin was pushed onto his lap so Cecille could stand. With bored eyes, the cat glanced up at the vampire's face before strutting over to the cushion his owner just abandoned.

Cecille strode across the small room, her long legs clearing it in three steps. Grabbing the cello from the wall, she fished for a bow on the dusty window sill beside the instrument. Plucking one of what seemed like a collection of various string bows, she drug it across the wire-coiled strings of the cello itself. Finding the instrument to be well in tune, she sat down on the coffee table, of all things, and began to play.

Just as she said before, the notes weren't incredibly difficult, and the beauty of the piece mostly relied on the tone and dynamics. Needless to say, this wondrous girl of music mastered these elements flawlessly.

Suddenly, he was back in that concert hall all those years ago, hearing Chopin. Again, he found himself on that sole street corner, surrounded by Vivaldi... The same feelings he experienced there, the high that made him feel like a human once again, overwhelmed the copper haired boy. His eyes glazed over, entranced by the girl's magical fingers sweeping across the neck.

Had he the ability... Edward would've damn near cried right there.

Cecille finished the short solo, but for Edward it was over all too soon. With the final vibrato still hanging in the air, Cecille raised her head.

Faster than she could register, Edward stood from the couch and was crouching in front of her, so close their knees touched. Slowly, he reached for her face, amber eyes, still glazed over with her music's intoxication. Her own green eyes held innocent confusion, topping off her adorable expression, her head tilted slightly to the left.

The vampire held her face just a moment longer before doing something that took them both by surprise.

Willed by some uncontrollable urge, he swept down and kissed Cecille, cold lips pressed tightly against her own plump ones...