COLOURS || Seth Clearwater

THIRTY EIGHT

"Have I ever told you how wonderful you are?" Bella exhaled painlessly, her eyes slowly drooping closing as she relaxed into the healing salve being carefully spread over her bruised and broken ribs.

Lucinda chuckled softly and moved hair away from Bella's thin and pale face so it wouldn't get in her mouth. "You're quite wonderful too, Bella," she smiled softly, straightening herself out once she was done. "And I whole heartedly apologize for not giving you the chance you deserved."

"Thank you," Bella whispered, her tired brown eyes filling with tears due to all the hormones running through her system. "That really means a lot."

"Get some rest, Bella, you need it," Lucinda murmured with a small smile, draping her hair over her left shoulder. She watched patiently as Bella drifted into an uneasy sleep before gently placing her into what was essentially a magic-induced-coma.

When she was sure Bella wouldn't wake any time soon, she set to grabbing all the dirty dishes that Jacob, Seth and Leah had left around the house in between their patrol periods. She hummed quietly to herself as she went, and a content smile rested on her lips.

As she made her way back into the living room, Seth came bounding down the stairs with a wide grin on his face. "Come with me," he smiled softly, his warm hands grabbing hers and pulling her towards the stairs. "I did something I think you'll be happy with."

Pursing her lips to keep her curiosity at bay, Lucinda followed him up the stairs and into her bedroom, where her lips parted in amazement. A variety of blankets were strung up all across the room, hiding the ceiling from view, and some were piled on the bed as well. There was a laundry basket next to her bed filled with an assortment of snacks, and two cups of hot chocolate set on her bedside table.

Directly across from the foot of her bed, on top of her dresser was a small TV with a stack of movies from a vast selection of genres, and a VHS and DVD player. Fairy lights were strung up in the tops of the walls, giving the room a cozy atmosphere Lucinda hadn't realized she loved so much.

"I can take it all down, if you want," Seth spoke up as he nervously scratched the back of his neck. "It's just — Virginia and Rosalie said this is something you'd like, and they even gave me these—" he held up a photo album she hadn't realized he was holding, and pointed to a box pushed up against the side of the dresser that was filled with VHS tapes that she vaguely recognised had her writing scrawled across the tape labeling them. Her family videos. "—I just thought it would be a cool idea and—"

Lucinda cut him off as she threw her arms around his neck. "You are too sweet for your own good, Seth Clearwater," she murmured into his shoulder, kissing his cheek as she pulled away. Tucking her hair behind her ear with a smile, Lucinda took a step back. "I'm going to change out of this—" she was wearing expensive jeans, a fitting shirt, and a pair of black heeled boots "—and into my pyjamas, and then I'll be back, alright?"

After receiving a nod, Lucinda stepped out of the room and walked into the bathroom, where her Sleeping Beauty patterned pyjamas were still folded on the counter, before quickly changing her clothes. She used her magic to braid her hair back as she did so, and was walking back down the hall within five minutes. Ignoring Virginias wink as she passed her room, Lucinda quietly pushed the door open and shut it behind her.

She made herself comfortable on the bed next to Seth, who had waited patiently for her to come back and shuffled underneath the blankets. "So," she grinned. "What are we doing first?"

"We could look at the photo album," Seth hummed, smiling softly as she nodded rapidly.

"You can see just how photogenic Leon is," she grinned rubbing her palms together mischievously. "We loved to tease him about it."

The two sat on the massive bed for hours, pouring over the many photos — a majority of them being polaroid's and sketches — that practically made up the last two hundred years of history for the four ancient beings living in the Cullen's home. It was true, too, that Leon was very photogenic. And Lucinda, staying true to her word, made fun of every picture he showed up in.

There was a sketch of her that Virginia had done back at the dawn of time dressed in her furs while they waited for Leon to come back from fishing.

There was another one that Virginia had done of Dorian asleep on the couch in the home the four of them had been sharing at the time.

A polaroid of Virginia in France, with her freshly bleached hair and edgy style.

One of Leon in Central park during the 60's, picking flowers.

Seth sat quietly and listened to each of the stories behind the photos, hanging on to each and every word that came out of her mouth. He was patient when she couldn't quite remember a detail she felt was necessary, and helped prompt her to help her figure it out. He asked all the right questions in all the right places, something Lucinda adored, and unquestioningly allowed her to skip over the book titled Lucinda and Kane.

When they eventually ran out of photos, they turned to the boxes of old family videos. They couldn't watch all of them, seeing as between the four of them there was over a thousand VHS tapes, but watched the ones that Seth picked out. There were birthdays, children, weddings, funerals, parties, and simple daily walk-through's all documented on the old films.

Overall, Seth decided that his favourite one a video where Dorian was trying to babysit her and Leon's daughter, Molly, only to lose her in a pillow fort. Molly, as it turns out, had crawled away into the kitchen where she had been chewing on a fridge magnet.

A/N: not sure how frequent future updates will be, but here's this :)