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Alice smiled triumphantly, that mix of mischief and satisfaction that made her impossible to ignore. Nate could only respond with a small, ironic smile. He had noticed her move, yes, but he never imagined she would do that. He had assumed she was merely trying to get a better view of the competition.
Emmett and Rosalie stepped closer, their movements expectant.
"That counts, right?" Emmett asked, his tone playful.
Nate slowly shook his head, crossing his arms.
"No. The deal was that one of you three had to surprise me, and none of you did."
His voice was calm, though tinged with a resigned sense of humor. He took a couple of steps back and picked up his jacket from the ground. As he put it on, he closed his eyes for a moment, as if signaling that the matter was settled.
Alice, maintaining her composure, almost purred as she responded:
"Actually… you never specified. You only said that if you were surprised, you would tell us about your gift. You never said it had to be one of us who surprised you."
Emmett laughed out loud, nodding enthusiastically.
"She's right! That sounds like a win for Team Cullen!"
Even Rosalie and Jasper, though silent, stayed still, watching Nate with expressions that spoke volumes. They weren't exactly pressuring him, but there was something in their silence… a quiet expectation, as if everyone was waiting to see what he would do next.
Nate looked at them one by one. In truth, his comment about revealing his gift had only been a way to motivate them, to break the tension between them. He had no intention of freely sharing what he could—or couldn't—do. Even though they were Alice's family, it didn't seem wise to reveal that information, especially considering people like Aro, who were capable of stealing secrets with a single touch.
He was about to refuse when he saw her.
Alice's smile had softened; her brow was slightly furrowed, and her eyes, normally sparkling, watched him with a gentle, almost vulnerable expression. Nate understood immediately.
She wasn't going to ask him aloud, nor would she reveal something of hers without his consent. But her gaze said it all. It wasn't curiosity she was seeking—it was trust. A silent plea for him to open up a little more, to let go of that invisible distance he still kept with others.
Nate let out a small sigh and looked up at the group.
"All right…" he murmured, finally, his voice low but firm.
He turned toward them, hands sliding into his pockets as his tone became more neutral.
"What exactly do you want to know?"
The kids couldn't contain their curiosity. It almost seemed as if questions were about to rain down from all sides—until Nate raised a hand and calmly clarified:
"I can't be too specific about my gift… for certain reasons. And, to be fair, I never specified how much I would tell you. So here's the deal: one question per person, and I reserve the right not to answer if it's too much."
That statement didn't quell their curiosity; if anything, it fueled it further. Jasper and Rosalie, following Nate's lead in good faith, seemed to take a moment to think through their questions. Emmett, on the other hand, with his usual impulsiveness, didn't waste a second.
"How did you know what move we were going to make?" he asked directly, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised.
Nate wasn't surprised by the bluntness of the question. He remained silent for a few seconds, pondering his answer, then let out a brief sigh before speaking.
"That… is actually pretty obvious," he said, raising a hand as if to illustrate his point. "Every movement has a micro-gesture: a shift in posture, the height of the arms, the position of the feet, even the direction of the gaze. Every action comes with hundreds of small signals that can be interpreted. It's just a matter of understanding the body of your opponent… or whoever you're facing."
His tone was calm, almost didactic, and his words flowed with the confidence of someone who had thought deeply about the subject.
"Even we vampires, who might appear as statues, reveal more than we think. You just have to watch closely. Once you understand the basic movements of the person you're facing, everything else becomes easier. We all move in patterns, and we tend to repeat them. A vampire, for instance, fights with a mix of human and animal instinct. When I was human, I had already learned to read how people moved, and now as a vampire… those details became much more obvious. Like you, my senses were amplified when I transformed. I can pick up on so much more, and I only need to focus on the changing variables."
Emmett looked at him, unsure whether to admire or disbelieve him.
"That's impossible… You can't process all that in a fraction of a second. Even if I could see what you're talking about, there wouldn't be time to interpret it before you hit me and sent me flying."
Nate simply shrugged with a slight, almost indulgent smile.
"As I said, it's something I've been doing since I was human. It took me time to master, of course, but once you understand everything your opponent can physically do, the number of possible moves shrinks drastically. There was a time, when I was still human, when I had to predict… and it didn't always work. But now, with my amplified senses, I don't need to. When you understand all the possible sequences of movement, you can recognize when someone deviates from them."
He leaned slightly forward, moving an arm smoothly as he explained:
"It's like throwing a punch. Even if you just raise your arm forward, many things have to align first for it to have an impact. You square your shoulders, rotate your body, adjust your guard, lower or raise your center of gravity. All of that happens in an instant, but it leaves traces, signals… and if you can read them, you can anticipate what's coming before it happens."
The silence that followed wasn't uncomfortable, but reflective. Jasper seemed to process every word carefully, eyes narrowed as if testing the explanation in his mind. Rosalie crossed her arms, her expression swinging between skepticism and genuine curiosity. Emmett, on the other hand, pursed his lips slightly, still incredulous, but couldn't suppress a brief smile, as if deep down he wanted to understand the same thing.
Rosalie was the next to speak. Her tone was casual, yet skeptical, though everyone noticed the curious spark in her gaze.
"So that's your gift… some kind of super observation or something? What you mean is, you're practically unbeatable in hand-to-hand combat."
Nate barely smiled, so faintly it almost went unnoticed. He recognized Rosalie's attempt to coax more information out of him, masking her curiosity behind a skeptical attitude. Rather than calling her out, he chose to ignore it politely.
"No one is unbeatable," he replied calmly. "Not Felix, not the twins, not the Romanians, not the Volturi… not even me."
His tone was so natural that he almost didn't notice how much he revealed in those words. The Cullens' glances exchanged confusion and surprise, but Nate simply pretended he hadn't said anything significant and continued in a serene voice.
"As I said before, I see things the same way you do. The difference is in how I process them."
Seeing their perplexed looks, he clarified further.
"It's like looking at a painting. You both see the same colors and the same figure, but my mind perceives more details: the brushstrokes, the exact tones, the direction of each stroke, the technique. It's like breaking something down into thousands of pieces and reassembling it instantly."
He raised a hand, making a slight circular gesture in the air, as if visualizing the painting before him.
"In short, that's what I do: I analyze, understand, and react. And all of that, multiplied by a vampire's perception."
Rosalie remained silent for a few seconds, weighing the explanation with a contemplative expression. Finally, she murmured quietly:
"Sounds overwhelming."
Nate barely nodded.
"A little. As vampires, we don't get tired or fatigued, but sometimes it can be… exhausting to take in everything you perceive. Seeing everything, all the time, can be too much."
His words hung in the air for a moment. The three Cullens watched him silently, surprised by the honesty implicit in his voice. Until then, none of them had considered that such an effective gift could feel like a burden.
Alice, standing to the side, also fell into thought. She remembered that on more than one occasion, when they were alone, Nate would close his eyes and remain still for long minutes, almost as if pretending to sleep. When she asked him why he did it, he always replied with a calm smile: "To better enjoy the moment."
Only now did she understand that the answer held something deeper. She couldn't help but feel a pang of empathy toward him, along with a strange sense that even after so much closeness, she still didn't fully know Nate.
He noticed her distant, slightly confused gaze and arched an eyebrow with a touch of curiosity. Although he knew she had overlooked certain discomforts regarding his gift, he didn't consider it a matter of great importance.
He decided not to dwell on it and changed the topic, turning toward Jasper.
"Is that all, or are you going to use your question?"
Jasper, after hearing Nate's answers, seemed at a loss for what else to ask. He had too many doubts; the gift sounded incredibly useful, but also complicated. Especially in combat, how was it possible for him to keep up with three vampires at the same time? It was difficult to imagine, let alone do, considering he had to observe, analyze, and move simultaneously without losing the initiative.
Even knowing that Nate, as a newborn, was faster and stronger than they, the difference still seemed immense. At no point had he looked worried or overwhelmed, not even when they had cornered him.
Cautiously, he asked the question that intrigued him most:
"So… in theory… what would one have to do to beat you?"
For a moment, Jasper felt he had overstepped. Though his question sounded innocent, he understood it could be easily misinterpreted. Instantly, he regretted it, fearing he had spoiled the good disposition Nate had shown so far.
However, Nate watched him for a few seconds in complete silence before responding calmly:
"I can't answer that."
Jasper's disappointment was immediate, and almost without thinking, he tried to correct his mistake with another question:
"Can you at least tell me how close we were to winning the competition?"
Nate gave a faint smile. That kind of question wasn't too compromising, so he answered calmly:
"Not very close, actually. Since it was only a friendly fight, my goal was to maintain distance and face you one by one until you gave up. At least in a one-on-one, none of you stood a chance. If you had surrounded me or attacked at the same time, I would have simply moved away, gotten into a better position… and eventually, you would have gotten frustrated."
Jasper nodded, his expression thoughtful. He noticed the emphasis Nate had put on the words friendly fight, and he couldn't help feeling a little uneasy. Still, he risked one last question:
"And if it had been a real battle?"
Nate remained silent for a moment, weighing his words before speaking. His tone was more indifferent, though not without respect.
"If it had been a real fight… it would have been much easier. Fights between our kind can end with a single move."
Only Alice noticed his attempt not to sound too blunt. There was a certain tact contained in his voice, a nuance the others overlooked, but she recognized immediately.
Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie exchanged glances, feeling a chill run through them. For a moment, they all remembered the moments during the fight when Nate had struck with surgical precision—points that, in a real context, would have been lethal. It was easy to imagine him tearing off their heads or limbs with the same calm he now spoke with.
The silence stretched for a few seconds, dense and uncomfortable. The tension in the air was palpable.
Emmett, noticing the change in the atmosphere, let out a laugh to lighten it.
"Wow… I think we made a lot of progress today. Maybe next time we can do better! I don't think Nate could handle the entire Cullen family together. Edward can be impressive when he takes things seriously."
His tone aimed to sound light, almost joking, but the name he mentioned caused a look of confusion on Jasper and Rosalie. They exchanged a brief glance before Rosalie spoke, brow slightly furrowed:
"That's true… we made quite a racket, and Edward didn't even show up. Where is he?"