A/N: I wrote this silly little fic awhile back and I really liked it even though it wasn't very long.


It’s On

“Jake, are you sure you want to do this?”

I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face at the question. We were lounging around in the living room of the Cullen house and Nessie was staring at me, a laugh hidden in her smile. It should have hurt that she was questioning my judgment, but I couldn’t blame her on this particular subject. If I was her, I would be asking the same question… was I absolutely nuts? Of course, now that I had agreed to this I couldn’t back down.

“Come on, Nessie. Quil and Embry have been talking about nothing else for days! Besides, if we backed out Emmett would never let me live it down,” I complained. She rolled her eyes and gave an exaggerated sigh.

“You know that my dad is going to kick your butt, right?” she asked, her chocolate brown eyes twinkling. I chuckled and pulled her into my arms, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“You are such a brat,” I told her. She grinned brightly, her pearly white teeth gleaming at me.

“Yeah, dad said it’s one of the reasons you love me so much,” she retorted and pulled away from me, attempting to fix her rumpled curls. She snarled at me when I reached out to move a stray curl from her eyes.

I moved away, grinning like a fool with my hands held up in front of me in a gesture of submission. “Okay, I understand, no touching the hair,” I laughed. She hated her curly hair, one of the two genetic gifts her Grandfather Charlie had passed down to her. I had watched her spend hours in front of a mirror trying to get the curls into some semblance of order. I didn’t understand why she tried though; they gave her a tousled, sexy look. Not that I ever let her father know what I thought, she barely passed for fifteen and Edward wasn’t going to let me even think about touching her for another year at least.

I sighed in resignation and Nessie gave me a knowing smile. She held out her hand to me and I took it eagerly, enjoy any reason I could use to touch her. “Let’s get going, Uncle Emmett isn’t a very patient guy,” she reminded me.

“Sure, sure,” I sighed, “Why disappoint a guy who can tear me to pieces with a smile on his face?”

***

We stood in the middle of a giant field, thunder clouds rolling in over the mountains to the north of us. Alice, Emmett, Edward and Jasper stood to one side, grinning confidently at us. Seth, Quil and Embry stood beside me, cracking their knuckles and growling playfully at our opponents. It would be a game to remember, the wolves versus the vamps… this was going to be a blast!

Nessie was sitting out, content to watch the game with the rest of the group which included Carlisle and Esme, who had made a picnic large enough to feed an army. Luckily my family and pack were hungry enough to take advantage of it. Claire (now eight) was sitting with Tara, the newest addition to our family as Quil’s Imprintee. They were digging through the picnic basket, pulling out sandwiches and homemade brownies and handing them to Sue and Charlie, who didn’t look quite as comfortable with this gathering as everyone else did. Bella and Rosalie sat beside them, trying to make Charlie feel as comfortable as possible, but even I could tell it wasn’t working very well.

Alice suddenly danced into the middle of the field as the rest of her family ran out to check the markings for each base.

“Is everyone ready for some baseball?” she called out in her high, clear voice. Our small crowd of spectators cheered loudly, clapping and hooting as loudly as they would at a real baseball stadium.

A peal of thunder rolled overhead, lightning flashed just behind Alice, making her glow ethereally. I saw Charlie shudder and I tried to hold back a laugh, this was going to be a hard game for him to swallow no matter who won. Sue squeezed his hand reassuringly and he gave her a weak smile. The poor guy would never see the world the same way again.

Emmett loped across the field back to us, a predatory gleam shining in his eyes. “All right, Mutt, you and the rest of your puppies get to bat first,” he told me.

“Excellent, you blood suckers are going down,” I growled, adrenaline and excitement coursing through me.

“You wish,” he retorted and bounded back across the field to his team and family.

I turned to my pack and grinned with feral pleasure. “Let’s play ball.”