Kate absolutely loses it, and Daphne isn't surprised. She bursts into laughter, so loud the living room windows vibrate; her entire body shaking as she does so, bending over to clutch her stomach. Daphne is sure had she been able too, tears would be flowing down Kate's face.
And it only gets worse when Irina walks over and lifts the baby Laurent out of the bassinet, holding him up like Rafiki did Simba in the lion king; her face filled with a type of horrified amusement, like she wants to laugh but can't until she knows whatever the hell happened to her mate isn't permanent. Not helped by the duckling blue onesie Daphne put him in.
Eleazar is the next to break, he laughs just as hard as Kate, though he at least tries to temper it; burying his face in Carmen's hair as she stands beside him. Kate grips his sleeve, near close to falling over, she is howling in laughter.
Carmen for her part, grins, a wide amused grin but doesn't laugh, just snickers -- does a good job of hiding her grin behind a bit of sympathy for Laurent whose red eyes are glaring at Kate and Eleazar in embarrassment -- even as his baby legs absently kick in midair like he wants to run but can't.
Tanya purses her lips, her own grin threatening to break through, her eyes move back to Daphne, bright golden again and glittering in amusement, intrigue, curiosity, and they're so soft Daphne's chest stutters. "You turned him into a baby...?"
Daphne doesn't bother to hide her own grin, her dimples are deep and only accentuate how lovely her smile already is; and Tanya is sure if her heart could beat it would explode with the amount of adoration and devotion she feels; she'd do anything to keep that smile aimed her way. Daphne giggles, biting the inside of her cheek, a hint of sheepishness in her expression. "I had too! Or... well, at the time it seemed like the only logical choice."
Irina's golden eyes snap to Daphne, bringing the baby Laurent to her chest instead of dangling in mid-air. "You had too?" She releases a sound close to a laugh, but it has a near hysterical edge to it, holds Laurent just a bit tighter, a bit closer, his small baby frame clutched to her chest like a porcelain doll. "Why?!" A hint of exasperation and that same note of hysteria in her voice.
Laurent's voice is muffled when he speaks, by the fur lining Irina's jacket his face is buried in, "Can you turn me around, mon amour?" My love in French; Daphne is Omnilingual, her brain automatically translating languages for her to understand. "I wish to see."
It only makes Kate laugh harder; she's gasping for air she doesn't need, leaning her entire body weight on Eleazar who is having a hard time holding her up while also, absolutely, losing it. He is nearly falling. too. It leads to a strange pretzel where they are both clinging to one another, trying to stay upright and failing; limbs bent at awkward angles that would hurt a human and lead to them falling in a heap but of course, it hardly bothers them.
Tanya looks away, toward the window, her entire frame shaking, eyes closing as she releases shaky breath after shaky breath -- how desperately she wants to come across as the Coven Leader she is but how can she when she's never seen or heard anything so ridiculous in her millennia of life?!
Carmen presses her fist to her mouth, muffling her snickers but it's more of a failed attempt though she is at least, trying to remain levelheaded and sympathetic. When she finally speaks her voice is quivering. "Oh, Miel." Honey, Spanish.
"Tanya?" It's almost comical how quickly Tanya's head snaps back to Daphne, her eyes instantly locked on her like if she asked, Tanya would rip the stars from the sky and gift them to her. It makes Daphne's heartbeat faster which has never happened to her before. Her heart beats at the steady, and very common for her kind, 40 beats per minute, less than once per second -- as it should. But she counts each beat and it's hammering.25 beats per second.
Not fast enough to explain just how affected she is by Tanya but too fast for a human. It brings the levity out of the situation because Tanya's face crumbles into something like panic and everyone's eyes are now locked on Daphne with the same type of concern as if they assume she should be going into cardiac arrest, but they can't quite remember if this is normal for a human heart or not.
"Will you throw that vase beside you?" Daphne asks, meeting Tanya's eyes, hoping she passes off the correct amount of I'm okay, I'm fine, not dying, my heart just isn't meant for the mortal world.
Tanya doesn't take her eyes off of her, stepping close enough that she's almost pressed against Daphne. Because her human mate's heart shouldn't be beating that fast, because if she needs too, she'll turn her right here... she'd rather spend eternity asking for forgiveness than waste a vital precious second asking for permission. She doesn't ask why, even though she doesn't understand why -- if she's about to bite her human mate the least she can do is comply with her last wish.
It isn't Tanya who throws the vase though, it's Kate, because of course it is, but at least this time she's not trying to cause mischief. It's because the vase is just out of Tanya's reach now, and she doesn't think her older sister is willing to step even a half an inch away from Daphne, with the way they were all currently concerned about the humans' strange heart.
"Gently, Kate." Tanya cautions, her eyes still locked on Daphne's pulse point, hasn't even blinked, counting each beat, (45 beats per second,) instantly regretting never taking any interest in human medicine or anatomy or health. She'll be calling Rosalie as soon as she is sure her mate isn't going to -- she can't even think the word, stepping even closer, so her chest is to Daphne's back. Daphne can feel her breath on her neck.
Kate gently tosses the vase, underhanded, into the middle of the room far away from Daphne but before it can hit the ground, she flicks her fingers out and it stops. It's just there, in mid-air, hovering a foot off the ground. The air around it too still, wrong, too quiet -- even for those who did not need to move.
They were used to seeing gifts, as "rare" as they are said to be, there are many more gifted vampires than non-gifted ones. But it was indeed rare for a gift to present itself in a human.
There were only 2 instances they were aware of...
Alice, who was able to have visions as a human though they started as feelings and grew until they only occurred during her dreams, which lead to her being put in a mental institution, labeled a changeling or witch, and subjected to electric shock therapy.
Jane and Alec Volturi, the 14-year-old witch twins -- they were born with psychic powers that Aro was interested in from the time they were toddlers. He left them in the care of their parents (it was after the immortal children law had already been instated) planning to return when they were old enough to be turned. He underestimated, however, how quickly the malice for them grew as they did and their powers developed. Bad things tended to happen to those who were unkind to the twins, or their family and good things followed those who were friendly toward them. Eventually they were found too frightening to endure and despite their young age, accused as witches and condemned to burn at the stake. He arrived as they were actively burning alive -- Aro had no time to sneak them away and instead, rescued the twins, bit them and slaughtered the entire village who had been standing in witness to the execution.
(A/N: for anyone who may wonder why Bella is not included in this list, it's because at this point in Canon, absolutely no one knew she was a shield. Even though Eleazar met her at the wedding -- for some unknown reason, he could not deduce her gift until Breaking Dawn when they all gather as witness. They only know Edward cannot read her mind.)
The fact that Tanya's mate could use her gift, actively and with such control was more than even Eleazar had ever seen, (and he was once directly employed by the Volturi to seek out gifted individuals.) He instinctively knows what those gifts would be called -- Molecular Immobilization and Infantilization; but he had never heard of anyone possessing more than one gift, and absolutely not to the point where they had such control even as a human.
Daphne can almost feel his frustration -- much like Edward, he's simply not used to being denied, his gift has never simply not worked.
"I froze Laurent and the wolves just before they could attack him." She explains. "I had no idea how to get him out of the clearing after I did so. He was, essentially, a frozen marble statue; and I didn't want to risk unfreezing him while he was not only in fight or flight mode..." Mostly flight but she'd embarrassed him enough. "...but he was thirsty and hunting when they cornered him."
Even if she couldn't hear the growl, she could feel it. Tanya simply unable and unwilling to think of what would have happened had Daphne been his meal. She's in front of Daphne before her heart can beat once again -- 50 beats per second and counting... her nose running along her jaw. Daphne swallows, another mouthful of nectar replacing the last. "I can only freeze time for a limited time." Her voice is more breathless when she speaks. "I knew the wolves would have chased us had I delayed getting the two of us out of there as soon as possible... so I did the only thing that reasonably allowed me to carry him."
She almost wonders when they'll connect the dots that maybe she isn't human.
In their defense, she looks human. Her bright emerald-green eyes and soft pink lips, -- her mother says she was born with blush on her cheeks, gloss on her lips, and mascara on her lashes -- her heart beats (though admittedly not anything like a humans would) and she's soft to the touch, warm (not as hot as the wolves at 108 but not as cool as a human at 98 -- she runs at an even 101 and never more or less).
"They won't touch you." Tanya's voice is deeper, lower, couldn't even be described as human at this point. It was a growl, a deep guttural one that bellied the fury she felt at the idea of the wolves harming Daphne. Her fingers curled, digging into Daphne's lower back; not painful but a pressure, one meant to reassure both of them.
Daphne may not have been correcting the assumption that she was human, yet, but she sure as hell wasn't going to pretend to be human, either. She wasn't going to pretend this was too fast. She wasn't going to pretend she didn't need Tanya just as much as she knew Tanya needed her.
Time was irrelevant to immortals both in her world and the mortal one. They simply didn't date, they didn't experiment, they didn't "test things out" -- they bond. Only once, when it's real. In some instances, this instance, its immediate; a fated bond, an all-encompassing bond stronger than anything else. The same could be said with Rosalie and Emmett, Carmen and Eleazar, Bree and Diego, Sam and Emily, Alice and Jasper, Benjamin and Tia, Marcus and Didyme.
Other times, such as the case with Esme and Carlisle, Peter and Charlotte, Irina and Laurent, Victoria (not James) and Riley (not Victoria.) -- it was because they fell in love. That was a double-edged sword. It was not guaranteed, in this case, that your devotion, your bond, your love would be returned. James was Victoria's mate, but Victoria was not James' mate. The same could be said for Victoria who was Riley's mate, but Riley was not Victoria's.
Daphne actually had a theory that the same applied to Bella and Edward; that the human was Edward's mate -- but Edward was not Bella's. After all, human or not, she should not have been able to fall in love with someone else had Edward been her mate. No matter what the circumstances were, it should not have been possible, especially with how tight she held onto him; to the point she was hallucinating his voice. In fact, Esme and Carlisle had been in a very similar situation -- met when Esme was human and only 16 and Carlisle chose to leave her instead of pursuing a relationship. She never loved again, no one could live up to Carlisle in her mind, and the only thing keeping her alive was the love of the child she inevitably lost. There was a difference between Addiction/Obsession and Love.. and Daphne had a suspicion that Bella wanted immortality, she wanted the Cullens as a whole (found family), and the devotion that came with Edward for eternity, NOT that she returned that devotion. But it was a theory, one she didn't currently know how to prove.
Daphne closes the remaining distance between them, leaning, melting, into Tanya sighing in relief and more when Tanya's cold arms wrap around her waist; she loves the way the cold seeps into her overheated skin.
Daphne's hands slide along Tanya's jacket, until they reach the nape of her neck, finally tracing her skin; her touch burns like scorch marks; a heat and warmth that Tanya hasn't felt since she was human. Daphne watches Tanya's eyes swarm and swirl, the way the inky blackness slowly overtakes the gold like someone slowly dropping drip after drop of ink on the sun itself - like an eclipse.
She finally gives into the yearning she's felt since first realizing this beautiful vampire was hers; Daphne's fingers tracing the skin of her neck and up until they're sliding along her jaw, feeling the way it quivers under her touch. "I'll never let them touch you." An almost whispered promise. "I'll kill them all if they try."
A threat. A promise. A claim. Daphne's stomach clenches with lust, desire, and pure arousal. Her fingers curl in the collar of Tanya's jacket, dig into the back of Tanya's neck, grounding herself, grounding both of them.
They have an audience, she desperately tries to remind herself -- distantly remembering teachings about decorum, manners, a time and place but a much larger part of her just did not care. Her head swims and her pulse is still racing -- 70 beats per second! - and when Tanya's lips brush just below her jaw; when they trace her racing pulse, she's sure she's going to pass out.
She tries to swallow a hiss, a whimper as she feels her upper lateral incisors, canines, and first premolars all begin to elongate; her canines being the longest at 2 inches, incisors an inch smaller and her premolars an inch shorter than that. Her entire bottom row of teeth becoming pointed and razor sharp. She feels Tanya's grin against her neck, is sure she's contemplating biting her, wishes she would. "Something wrong, miláčik?"
It's a simple word... darling in Slovakian; but Daphne suddenly has a much more intimate understanding and appreciation for Gomez's reaction anytime he hears Morticia speak French. She absolutely is seconds away from begging Tanya to say something, anything in that accent again when the most dramatic clearing of someone's throat happens, again, overexaggerating it on purpose to remind them they're not alone.
As if they forgot.
Kate is absolutely lucky she is old enough to have a grip on her emotions, her instincts, her powers, and most of all her temper. Daphne closes her eyes, trying to calm the raging instincts inside of her, the ones that want to bite, mark, claim; feels her fangs and teeth retract and revert.
Tanya turns toward her sister, torn between being smug at Daphne's obvious reaction to her, and annoyed at Kate's interruption, again.
Kate for her part rolls her eyes at the look Tanya is sending her, "No. Just, No. She doesn't get to freeze time and then leave us hanging with more questions than answers while the two of you behave like horny newborns." Her eyes flicking back to the still frozen vase.
Daphne finally opens her eyes, when she feels like she won't just jump Tanya, but she doesn't pull away from her, doesn't let her go, isn't sure she could. "With limitations." She reveals. "I can freeze anything for around 20 to 30 minutes... I've never tested the limitations distance wise." Her mother can freeze everything within 20 miles of herself. "But if I stay in the vicinity of what I have frozen, it lasts longer. 45 minutes is the longest I've ever froze, anything, but I'd have to stay in the living room for the entire 45 minutes or my power would wear off, automatically. If I want to interact with something while it's frozen and keep it frozen while I do, that takes actual effort and concentration, and I can't do it to more than one person or item at a time."
Eleazar is the one who walks over to the vase, as soon as his hands touch it, the stillness surrounding it ends. "Fascinating..." He murmurs, staring at the vase, mind racing.
"And this?" Irina asks, reminding everyone in the room that Laurent is still there, and still a baby. It makes Kate snicker again. "You can just turn people into babies?"
Daphne inhales deeply, exhales slowly, fingers absently playing with the small baby hairs on the back of Tanya's neck, Tanya's eyes flutter but Daphne misses it. "It's a bit more complicated than that but yes, I can. I debated turning him into a child or toddler but didn't want to give him the ability to run. It seemed safter than risking someone witnessing a small vampire child, making assumptions, and running to the Volturi crying, "Immortal Child"."
She winces when all 3 sisters stiffen at the word, curling her fingers in Tanya's hair, pressing a sweet, soft, kiss to her cheek, her jaw, her chin. "Sorry, love."
Tanya sighs, relaxing against her, fingers digging into her sides, that same delicious pressure. "You know about Immortal children?"
Daphne hums, eyes flicking toward Kate and Irina; knowing Immortal children were a sore spot. She nods. "I know a lot, about a lot."
"Wait, hold on. Before we - before we move on, can you undo this?" Irina motions to Laurent whose red eyes flick between his mate and Daphne, cradled against Irina's chest.
Laurent smiles at Daphne, that same kind nature he used with the human in the meadow slipping through. "No pressure, petit." Little one, French. "I'm fine just as I am."
Daphne grins again but shakes her head. "I can change him back," She reluctantly lets go of Tanya, stepping in their direction, feeling Tanya shadow her. Tanya's eyes locked not on Daphne but on Laurent, a low, warning growl the closer they get. His eyes are still a burnt red, he's still thirsty.
Laurent looks a little offended that she assumes he would attack her mate. "She does not even smell like food or make me thirsty!" He defends, crossing his baby arms over his chest as much as he can.
That does make her stop growling but she still stays pressed against Daphne's back, ready to pull her away in a second if she has too. Another conversation they assume she cannot hear. "I thought it was because she was my mate that I wasn't affected by her scent." Tanya muses aloud, turning her face to bury her nose in Daphne's hair. She smells like blooming honeysuckle, the sweetest crisp apples, with a hint of heat and spice. It makes Tanya's mouth water, but not in thirst.
Eleazar, Kate, Irina, and Carmen inhale deeply but discretely, taking in her scent more clearly. It had no effect on them either. While being around humans was easier for them because of their diet, like all of their kind they still felt the same ever present burning ache in their throat when around them. The want and need to feed; it was easier to ignore, to repress, but it never went away. Daphne's scent didn't cause their throat to burn, didn't make venom pool in their mouth.
Daphne slides her fingers in the baby Laurent's hair, closing her eyes, feeling her power flow out of her and wrap around him the same as it had before, but this time to undo what she did. Her eyes snap open when she hears a ripping sound; but Tanya has her in a corner of the room, pressed against the wall, the elder vampire shielding her eyes but laughing freely, unrestrained -- everyone is?
"I think we should have figured the onesie wouldn't have reverted with him." She teases at Daphne's questioning glance.
Daphne presses her lips together, bouncing on her toes as she starts to snicker. "His clothes are in the back room... folded on top of the washer."
Hears Kate whistle, the closing of her laundry room door, knows Kate is loving every glorious minute of this even as Irina snarls at her sister.
"Stop it, Kate!"
"I didn't even say anything, Irina!"
"You're thinking about saying it, and that's bad enough!"
A scoff. "You can read minds now?"
Another snarl. "I don't need to read your mind, I know you, Katrina."
An answering snarl. "Don't call me that."
"Ouch! Damnit, Kate."
Can almost taste the smug satisfaction after Kate shocks Irina in retaliation. "Oops."
Tanya rolls her eyes so dramatically, overexaggerating the movement for Daphne's benefit, accompanied by a deep sigh that only an older sister who has been putting up with a millennia's worth of bickering can sigh. "Welcome to the family, Moja láska." My love, Slovakian.
Daphne is sure her heart simultaneously, slowed down, sped up, and stopped beating all together.