Everyone had their own rituals. Whether it be a way of life or a little quirk, they all had their little rituals that helped them pass on through the days. 

His mamma liked to go on an early morning bike rides, liked to spend an hour on the move no matter where they were on the state of the art bike his father had bought her. It was something that she liked to do as a human that had started simply because she didn't have her own car. 

Aunty Alice moved the flowers in their home around constantly, never seemingly happy with where she had last placed them or with the way they looked, but that was fine, it was harmless and rather endearing if the soft, tender expression of Uncle Jasper's eyes said anything to him. It said a lot, really, and it was quite sweet to see the love that his family held for one another. 

Everyone had their own traditions, rituals, whether it be Ressie's habit of buying books that she never read to fill her room that his mother stole to read at the earliest hour of the morning as she waited for mamma's return for her relaxing rides or the annoying way that his father mindlessly played piano late at night when his children were sleeping, unable to help himself as he finds himself seated at the keys. 

Just as it was part of the ritual for Jacob to complain from wherever he was in the house and for Seth to snap back that his alpha was the one disturbing them in that situation. 

It was the little things that Romulus expected to happen, that he was used to happening. Rituals and traditions and habits.

He had his own things that he liked to do, naturally, the things that he needed to be done. 

It was perhaps why he was so far behind the rest of his family as they arrived in Forks, returning two decades after they last left to the same house of his birth. He had to drive toward wherever they were going, had to be in the car to see the world as it passed him by. 

The simple fact was that he hated planes, hated the quick flight and departures, hated the way they cut the journey short, made you arrive too quickly without a challenge. 

His mamma often blamed herself for that, claimed that it was her fault that he wanted to experience the adventure, to draw things out against time because of the trip she had taken him on to the amazon at only three months old. He promised that wasn't the case, but Roman Elders-Cullen was a stubborn woman that knew him better than anyone else, barring perhaps his father, and there was nothing that he could hide from her motherly eye.

His car was thrummed beneath him, the engine sounding much the same that it always did, and he shifted in the seat, stretching out his legs the best that he could.

Romulus was later than usual, having taken a detour through past along closer to the coast than necessary. He couldn't see it the whole way, but if he kept his window open he could hear it faintly in the distance, could smell the salt on the window if it was strong enough. It was enough to justify the state of worry that his mom was likely to greet him with, her worried heart never soothed no matter his mamma's and Aunty Alice's reassurances to his safety. 

The rain had come when he was on his way home, nearly there the long, deserted road when the smoke from the engine started. 

He stopped with a small to the breaks on the shoulder of the road, slamming a hand against the steering wheel. With a quick glance to the rearview mirror, he was out of his seat and lifting the hood with barely a thought, the action coming as natural as the speed. 

More smoke billowed up into his face, puffing out at him in an acrid cloud. The smell stung at his eyes and he recoiled despite himself, taking a step back away from the harsh, terrible scent. 

"What the-" he cut himself off, nose wrinkled in distaste at the curse that he had nearly spoken. 

Romulus tugged his phone free, uncaring for water damage as he angrily called his parents. Three of them and not one answers their phone. 

Releasing a barely contained growl of anger, he nearly misses the phone ringing in his hand as he mentally practices his teenage rant to work on his parent's guilt. 

"Rom, honey, I see that you're having a bit of car trouble," Alice sings at him as he answers, sounding all too pleased with herself and whatever situation she had actually seen occurring. "I'm sending Rose to come and get you." 

"Can't I just run home?" he asks, not willing to admit that he was actually whining. 

"And leave that car? Do you have a death wish?" 

"Okay, yeah, fine. Do I have to wait long?" 

"Of course not. See you soon Rom." 

He's soaked through, leaned up against the side of his car that continued to smoke when he saw the lights of the truck coming toward him. he jumps at the chance, easily recognizing the tow as he waves his arms to catch the driver's attention -- a young girl if his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. 

She slows before him, tugging her phone from her pocket and laying it on the dash before flicking on the hazard lights and darting out into the rain. 

He meets her at the front of the car with an easy smile and head ducked against the drops that hit against his cheeks. 

His stomach swoops at the side of her, clothes already beginning to stick to her figure and he realizes why his aunt was so amused with the situation. She was very pretty. 

"Thanks for stopping! My aunt was supposed to come and get me, but she's late and would have killed me if I left the car," he said. 

Her mouth opened but nothing much came out. Romulus turned away to hide the small smirk that came unbidden at her reaction to him. Logically, he knew that he was strikingly handsome, that the natural genetics of his parents paired with the attraction that came with immortality, but it was always pleasing to see how they reacted to him. 

"Do you know what's wrong?" she asks, voice coming out quite firm despite how timid she sounded. The girl moved forward, bee-lining for the hood.

"Not at all, it just started smoking," he told her, and she nodded quickly, already pointing toward the problem immediately.

"It's the power steering belt that caused the smoke. Your belt probably wasn't getting enough fluid and it snapped," she told him. "But it's the weirdest because nothing looks wrong with your power steering."

"That has to be a weird coincidence," he grumbles, pulling his phone from his pocket and typing away at it angrily. 

Aunty Rose was always fiddling with their cars and would never let something like this get by him. Not unless she had intended for it to happen. 

"For sure," she breathed. "Um, so there has to be a leak somewhere in order for it to break like that. I'll be able to check it out if you want me to bring it back to the shop, or did you want to wait for your aunt to get here?"

Romulus snaps his head back up to look at her, grunting at the backwards, non-sensical answers he was receiving and rakes a hand through his hair. "You're able to fix this, right?" he asked, aggravated.

"This ought to be pretty easy, so I wouldn't worry too much. It's not hard if you know what you're doing," she admits, rubbing her forehead displacing some of the water.

He grunts again, typing away on his phone to tell his aunt only to receive a vague answer that he should le the girl fix it for him. 

And then he realizes what sort of impression he was making, how rude he appeared to be. God, he felt all broody and edgy just like his dad right now. 

"Hey, what's your name?" he asked, voice a lot softer than before.

"I'm Elspeth Uley, my dad owns Mecha Works on the reservation," she tells him, forcing an awkward smile and giving him a tiny wave. "What's yours?"

He glanced up from his phone to look at her. "Romulus Cullen, I'm just getting into town."

Startling at the name, she took an unconscious step away from him, face paling. Romulus looked at her then, eyes narrowed as he took in her reaction.

"Do you know me?" he asked, unbidden his caution seeps into his voice.

"I met your . . . Renesmee and Jacob, it has nothing to do with you, they were just. . . a bit. . ." Elspeth trailed off, looking for the right word so she didn't offend him, but he sighed before she could say anything.

"Ressie is eccentric, and Jake is just rude. I get it," he chuckles, shaking his head softly as he thought of the people that must have been his family. "Anyway, here, let me take your number and you can take my car."

She nodded absently, sprouting off her number quickly. He just reached out a hand, offering her his keys and she took them with a shaky hand.

Almost immediately, Aunty rose pulled up to them in her red Porsche, blonde hair placed around her face in that perfect, modelesque way that it always was when she drove, looking all the while like a Grand Prix girl. He rolled his eyes, sparing the girl one last look and smile before he ducked into the passenger seat.  

They pulled away the moment he was seated. 

But Romulus kept his eyes on her as they left, attention peeled to the pretty girl that smelled of cars, old books, and wolf. 

Elspeth Uley, she had said. It was a cute name. 

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well that's it folks. this it the end...

or rather,,, the end in this book. You can check out the rest of Romulus and Elspeth's story in On the Art of Breaking so keep on eye out for that, my dudes. 

unedited 

2020-04-29