Serendipity || Rosalie Hale

- 14 -

"Is it okay if I join?" Both Daria and Irina look up towards the new voice, and Irina glances at Daria to see her reaction.

"Sure," the young vampire looks back at the board. "I bet you could help me beat this menace." She scoots to the side a little and gestures for Rosalie to sit beside her. Rosalie throws a quick look towards Emmett, who is still outside and smiling broadly.

Rosalie looks at the pieces and elbows Daria before whispering a move.

"That'll help?" She whispers back, not as subtle as Rosalie had been. The latter nods with pursed lips, holding back a smile before Daria makes the move.

"Check." Rosalie says, and Irina jokingly glares at her.

"Wait, really?" Daria asks while her eyes lit up, and Irina nods. Irina moves her tower to the left, and Rosalie looks at Daria to see if she knows which piece she'll have to move now. Daria moves the queen and frowns.

"Mate?" She questions, and Irina's jaw falls down in mock anger while Rosalie nods with a smile. Daria's eyes light up and a broad smile is playing on her lips as she looks at Rosalie. "I won?" Rosalie nods again. "Fuck yeah, another round?" Irina takes a double take at Darias choice of words but chuckles and nods anyway.

"Or you could play Rosalie?" She suggest but Daria shakes her head.

"I'd rather have her by my side instead of going against her." She tilts her head slightly to look at Rosalie with a smile and the latter knows that if there was still any blood left in her system, it would've gone all to her cheeks right about now.

Irina starts to rearrange the pieces while Daria gets up.

"Where are you going?" Daria frowns as she looks at Irina and shrugs.

"I felt like stretching my legs." She simply says before walking out of the room and leaving a flabbergasted Irina and Rosalie behind. The latter stands up and waves at Irina not to worry as she follows Daria outside.

The young vampire is sitting on the steps at the front door and looks towards the darkness outside.

"Something wrong?" Rosalie asks as she sits down beside her. Daria looks up to acknowledge her before shaking her head and looking back. A soft sigh leaves her and she turns to Rosalie.

"How do you do it?" Rosalie's frown and confused look lets her know that she had no clue as to what she meant. "Just.. doing everything and nothing at once."

"I'm not really following..."

"I've been playing chess for a few hours now and I have had no break. No need to go to the toilet. I didn't need something to snack or to drink. My focus was on the game the whole time." Daria chuckles. "I'm not like that."

Rosalie purses her lips to hold back her reply. You are now.

"I can't remember a time where I had this kind of focus." Daria shakes her head. "It's not normal."

"We are not normal." Rosalie replies carefully.

"Are you okay with that?" Daria suddenly asks. "Can you honestly tell me that you are okay with who you are. With what you are." Rosalie could hear the underlying tone of disgust and anger, it hadn't left Daria as Rosalie had hoped.

"I've had a lot of time to adjust."

"That doesn't answer my question." Daria retorts. "A simple yes or no will do." Rosalie purses her lips again and sighs.

"It's not as simple as that." Rosalie holds up a finger as Daria opens her mouth to reply. "It's not a yes or no answer. If you had asked me this when I was turned and only had two weeks to adjust, my answer would have been a simply no. But I have had time to adjust to take in the negatives and the positives. I have learned to cope with the fact that I need blood to survive, to get older without aging. I would have really liked to be a mother and I still do, but it isn't holding me back from living. And neither should your changing hold you back."

"This isn't living." Rosalie raises an eyebrow.

"Isn't living? We do everything that a person could only dream of." Rosalie chuckles as she hears her own words. She wasn't only trying to convince Daria, but she was saying words that Emmett had told her multiple times and she hadn't believed until right now. "We can travel everywhere, we're stronger than anyone."

"But at what cost?" Daria's voice is only a whisper, and Rosalie frowns.

"The blood?" Her voice matching Daria's.

"Not just that." Daria stands up and walks around. "What about the thrill of doing something dangerous and not failing. Sitting on the couch and snacking away, knowing that you'll regret it and working out the next day even if it won't change the next weekend. What about sleeping and dreaming something wonderful." Rosalie purses her lips and Daria knows exactly what to say to get her over the edge. "What about marrying who you love and growing old together." Rosalie's eyes snap up towards Daria. There was something in them that Daria couldn't describe but it wasn't necessarily negative or positive.

"What about not being afraid your loved ones will die?" Daria takes a step back and Rosalie realises what she said.

"That's an entirely other conversation." Daria mutters.

"It's not what I meant." Daria frowns and looks at her.

"You didn't mean the death of my family? My death for Penelope? My anxiety that all of you would one day die?" Daria takes a step forward and looks Rosalie right in the eye. "Then what exactly did you mean?"

Rosalie knew that it wasn't the time to tell her, or to ask her anything. She was new to this life and adjusting, which was certainly not going well at this moment. She knew that Daria needed a friend and not whatever she wanted to be. Rosalie's thoughts were going thousand miles an hour to figure out the right words to Daria's question but the latter wasn't going to wait as long.

"Forget it."