[Eeeep!]

Seth could hardly sit still. He had a backpack full of school work he needed to do over the holidays (he was getting to skip a couple of weeks for this) and a secondhand Gameboy that dangled forgotten in one hand. He had his forehead pressed against the small window and he hadn’t taken his eyes off the view since he’d gotten on the plane.

“Hey, you okay?” Embry asked as he poured himself into the seat next to Seth. Embry was, as always, relaxed almost to a fault.

A grin spread across Seth’s face and he looked over at Embry. “Yeah. Did you see how high we are? My ears did that popping thing until Esme gave me some gum.” He snapped his gum, blowing a bubble to illustrate his story.

“Yeah, she gave me some too,” Embry nodded. He did not feel the need to snap his gum or blow bubbles.

“We’re going to a whole island,” Seth said, winding himself up again. “Esme says there’s waterfalls, beaches, jungles and wave runners. She said we could just run around and do whatever we want.”

“Yeah, I was there too squirt. I heard,” Embry said, reaching out to ruffle Seth’s hair with one hand.

“Yeah but you’re…and I’m…” Seth said, wiggling involuntarily. “I mean, aren’t you excited? I’ve never been on an airplane or to an island or out of Forks on two feet.”

“Yeah. I’m excited,” Embry smirked. “I’m wiggling on the inside.”
Seth giggled and looked out the window again. “It’s high. I mentioned that didn’t I? You think we’ll crash?”

“Nah, the Cullens aren’t going to put us on a plane that would crash. Besides, statistically cars kill a lot more people than planes.” Embry said as he folded his hands over his stomach, yawned and closed his eyes.

“I think maybe we could survive a plane crash anyway. I mean as long as it didn’t explode, I think we’d survive,” Seth said, still watching the ground far below. “And we wouldn’t have to eat each other.”

“What?” Embry asked, one eye cracking open to look at Seth, giving him his own personal version of a what the fuck look.

“You know, that movie. Where the plane crashes and the survivors end up eating the dead to stay alive,” Seth responded.

“I gotta talk to your sister about the kind of movies she lets you watch,” Embry grumbled.

Seth laughed and looked back over at Embry. “I’m fifteen, not five.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Embry responded, eyes closing again. His tone clearly said that he wasn’t buying Seth’s story. “Don’t worry ‘bout crashing, Squirt. Get some rest. We’ve got a whole island to explore when we land.”

[What Scares You?]

Seth isn’t afraid of much. Leah says it’s because he was dropped on his head when he was a baby. Sometimes she says it was because he gnawed on his crib bars which were obviously painted with lead paint. Either way, there’s an obvious reason why Seth isn’t afraid of much.

It isn’t because of crib bars and accidents.

Seth has a big sister that would take on an entire wolf pack, or one cranky alpha, to protect him. He’s got an alpha that would take on a vampire coven and the other wolf pack to protect him. He’s also got a vampire coven that considers him family and he’s seen what they’ll do for family. Seth doesn’t have to be afraid because he’s sheltered and he knows that’s probably a bad thing, but he likes it just the way it is.

The only thing Seth is afraid of is losing them. He’s afraid of change because it breaks people up, forces them to make decisions and he usually doesn’t like where those decisions lead. Everything is a mess right now. Jacob won’t phase when they’re phased because he doesn’t want to subject them to his thoughts and Leah fights more with Embry than she did before they started dating. Of course that’s just because she’s not busy trying to ignore him. Nessie is acting weird, not squealing when she should and squealing when he doesn’t understand why and Alice is so busy she doesn’t even stop to use him as aspirin.

He likes to be needed and he likes being relied on. Everything is changing and Seth is staying static. He’ll figure out where he fits when this is all done because the nice thing about having a shelter? It usually finds a way to adapt.