#look my thirst for solo jasper content is unquenchable

[justhaletwinsthings]

lads i am having Thoughts about pre-alice jasper’s relationship with peter and charlotte.

for your consideration:

peter and charlotte come to find him when things are really Going To Shit(TM) down south, that's just canon. jas and maria are pitting the newborns against each other and making increasingly violent power moves and it really looks like one of them is going to be dead by the end of the year. and, well, if you ask anyone involved it's a real toss up as to who that's gonna be.

realistically tho, it's probably jasper. bc by this point he's just... tired. he doesn't necessarily mind all the fighting and killing, and he knows that he's very, very good at it, but, well... eighty years will wear anyone down

add on to that the fact that maria's been his only constant for so very long now? that he can't quite smother his affection for her in the way she can hers for him? well, it leaves him both at a tactical disadvantage and in an awkward mental place where he doesn't even know what he'd do without her. sure he could take up control of her army and lead it in full capacity, but the fact is that he's never had the same hunger, the same drive to keep taking more territory, more feeding grounds, more people that she does. it's part of the reason she likes him so much. he’s not a threat like nettie and lucy were because he doesn't really have an overabundance of ambition in that way, not like he did in life. he's always been content just to follow her lead.

he fights because it's all he knows, because she made him, and because as far as he's aware the rest of the world is doing exactly the same thing.

but then peter leaves. peter, who was something close to a friend, who was the first person he's met since he was turned who was jasper's more than he was maria's, runs off with some silly little newborn girl and jasper lets him. he could have stopped them, hell, should have stopped them. he should have hunted them down and ripped them both apart and all of them know it. but he didn’t. it's the first time he ever consciously goes against maria, and, well, it sets a precedent.

which is why things start to escalate (see above)

peter, for his part, isn’t really expecting all that much when he makes his way back south. it’s a stupid thing to do, borderline suicidal really, as charlotte is quick to tell him. just because jasper let them go once doesn’t mean he’ll do it again; he’s loyal to maria first and foremost everyone knows that. he won’t just leave her, no matter what peter tells him.

still, he’s saved peter’s life multiple times over years and in multiple ways too. having his back in a fight, putting him back together on the rare occasion a newborn managed to get the jump on him, convincing maria to keep him on for more than the usual year, and, most importantly, letting him and charlotte flee without a fight that night all those years ago. peter owes him.

besides, peter knows they were friends. or at least as close to being friends as jasper was capable of getting back when they met. that means something.

and, well, peter was terrified when he left, even if he hid it under his usual confidence and bravado. he was so certain that he and charlotte were heading out of one war zone and straight into another, one where they didn’t know the players or the playing field and were all on their own, without friends or allies (as shitty as they were) for the first time since they were human.

but that’s not what they found. instead they found peace and freedom and other vampires that were, if not friendly, at least usually willing to leave them alone if they showed them the same courtesy. it was amazing and it was thanks to jasper that peter got to live long enough to experience it. so it seems only right in his mind that the perfect way of repaying his friend would be to let him experience it too. he just has to convince he stubborn bastard that it’s actually worth trying for.

charlotte, let it be known, thinks it’s a terrible idea. she has no real attachment to jasper, not in the way peter does. to her he’s always been more monster than man, maria’s loyal lieutenant and the one who she knew from very early on was going to kill her when she outlived her usefulness to the cause. charlotte’s never been an idiot, not even in the haze of newborn bloodlust, and even if peter hadn't clued her in it wouldn’t have taken her long to figure out that after a certain point the newborns just stopped coming back. she was terrified of jasper back then, no matter how much peter insisted that he wasn't really a bad guy, just misguided, and that’s never quite gone away.

but.

but he let them leave, no matter how much he really probably shouldn’t have, and peter’s right in saying that means something. perhaps that peter’s friendship with him wasn’t quite as one sided as she’d first thought. she hopes that's the case, for peter's sake if nothing else. besides, she knows from the look in her man's eyes that he’s doing this with or without her. better her there to watch his back than no one at all.

so they go

still, charlotte prepares herself for disappointment. or rather, prepares herself to deal with peter's disappointment, and to get the hell out of dodge when this inevitably blows up in their faces

neither of them really expect jasper to come with them, and certainly not as easily as he actually does.

for him it's a way out, something he's been looking for for a while now, even if he didn't quite realise it until the opportunity was dropped in his lap. he's not sure if he believes peter when he tells him about the world outside of the southern territories, of how wonderful and free it is, he just knows that he wants to leave and that he doesn't want to have to kill maria to do it, not really. if this is his opportunity to do that he'll take it. it's not like he has any better ideas

peter is thrilled ofc. he has the love of his life, he has the friend he thought he'd never get to see again, and he has the whole world at his feet. in his mind things are really looking up. what he does not have, however, is the foresight to realise in his excitement that things maybe aren't quite as simple as he'd like them to be

the first time they take jasper out into a city (new york, because peter is eager to show off all of his new favourite places and this one’s near the top of the list) is a Disaster(TM). peter and charlotte aren't the cullens but they're still far more integrated into the human world than jasper has been since he was, well, alive

jas, despite his age, has little experience being around so many people, especially when the sole purpose of the outing isn't to nab one of them to chow down on. he also has little practice pretending to be alive for any period of time, constantly forgetting to breathe or hide his unnatural eyes, and he definitely isn't used to feeling so many emotions all at once. it's all very overwhelming for him. he barely lasts an hour before he snaps and kills a girl in an alley, which, y’know, isn’t really a great start.

and beyond that, the group dynamic is just awkward at first. peter likes jasper and he clearly cares about him, but forging a bond of blood and brotherhood on an open battlefield is very different to actually living together. they know each other rather well but they don't actually know a lot about each other. 

jasper, for one, didn't know that peter was an irritating little bastard with a bad habit of up and leaving in the middle of the because he got a feeling or something  equally ridiculous, and then returning at complete random anything from days to hours later without so much as a by your leave. the first time it happens jas, respectfully, freaks the fuck out (though he’d rather die than admit it), utterly convinced that the idiot’s gone and gotten himself fucking murdered or something. it leads to quite the beat-down when peter finally returns, though the younger vampire takes it in stride. he’s just too happy that jasper is finally showing more emotion than blank face stoicism to be all that upset by it, honestly, especially since he’s had way worse in the past -- and from jasper himself even.

charlotte, on the other hand, sits somewhere on the other side of the spectrum in that she’s still clearly afraid of jasper. oh, she's rather good at hiding it and she's nice enough to him all told, but there's really no way of keeping these things from an empath. weirdly, jasper finds it kind of comforting. it's something he's used to, a sign the world hasn't completely turned on his head. in a way it’s as familiar as peter’s steady companionship; it shows him that the status quo he was defined by for nearly a century still exists, in some form at least, and that does a lot to keep him grounded for the first few years, difficult as they are

things start to get better over time 

jasper gets used to moving among humans and to not having to constantly look over his shoulder for the next attack. hell, he even starts to get used to having time to himself. it’s a strange and freeing thing and he doesn’t know quite what to do with it at first, not until charlotte suggests picking up a hobby. 

he takes an interest in history, reading about everything from aztec burial rites to the napoleonic wars in a way that he’d never had the opportunity to do before, both as a human and as a soldier in maria’s army. peter hears about this and starts adding museums and galleries to their travel itinerary because he’s a good bro really, even if jasper refuses to admit it. it’s some of the best days of jasper life actually, just the three of them roaming america and experiencing the things and places that they never got to when they were young

he and peter reestablish their old common ground over time. they learn how to exist together outside of all the fighting and bloodshed and find that they genuinely do like each other. peter is cheerful and brash, impulsive but loyal, and determined to make sure that they all live their lives to the fullest. if that means instigating stupid bets and competitions and dragging jasper into more petty wrestling matches than he knows what to do with then so be it. it makes jasper happy, he knows, to be treated like a person and not a just a weapon, and he likes it when jasper is happy. if anyone deserves to be it’s him

honestly it’s part of why jasper later comes to like emmett so much: he reminds him a lot of peter

charlotte too softens towards him over time. they’re quite similar people at their core really; scholarly and reticent and quick-witted. it helps too, that jasper quickly (if somewhat unwittingly) made clear just how much he cared for and worried about peter upon joining the group with that little freak out over that first disappearing act. that alone was enough to earn him the benefit of the doubt in her mind

she’s also encouraging of jasper’s interest in history and literature and whatever else in a way that no one else has ever been in his life, more than willing to sit and discuss them with him for hours on end while peter pouts and stomps and tells them how boring they are. for jasper, whose passions have always had to fall to the wayside in favour of practicality, it means a lot more than he’s capable of saying

their friendship is quieter and more subdued than the one he shares with peter, but no less valuable for it. they’re more prone to sitting quietly together than going on grand adventures, but companionable silence is something they’ve both grown to appreciate. and, well, if it ever grows tiring well peter is always available to be a subject of lighthearted mockery

the years they spend together are honestly the first time jasper can remember even getting close to being truly happy, even of the act of eating humans is prone to throwing him into deep depressions, and that really does mean a lot to him

family is a tricky concept for vampires but he’s more than happy to consider them his. if this is what eternity looks like, he decides it isn’t so bad 

and then he wanders into a diner in philly and meets the love of his life and finally experiences true joy but, well, that isn't for a few years yet

#look my thirst for solo jasper content is unquenchable #and by god if smeyer won't write it then i will #twilight #jasper hale #peter #charlotte #maria #shut up a