Ellis felt startlingly hollow as he walked away from Seth in those woods. It was as if he was leaving the small parts of himself that he knew behind, making him a different person. It felt both horrible, and breath-takingly freeing. Ellis was free to reinvent himself, find out what person he wanted to be without any pressure from others, wether it was well intended or not. Ellis actually felt slightly excited about it. Like a young adult going on holiday for the first time without their parents watching over them. He would get to explore himself, find out what he liked and disliked. It was liberating.

(He didn't know then that it was lucky that he chose to leave at that moment. If he had stayed any later he could have been killed by the visiting Volturi, who killed the other surviving newborn. Or he could have been recruited into their ranks, as his gift was rare. So, it was lucky that Ellis left as he would not have taken kindly to either option. )

The first thing Ellis did was head south, aiming for Florida. He stayed mostly out of human lodgings, such as town and cities, preferring to stick to cross country. He did occasionally sneak into a few towns to steal new clothes and money in case he decided to use public transport. The clothes that Alice had dressed him in had long since become stained and tattered. It was a shame, he supposed, as they were really nice clothes. But he did not feel sad for disposing of them. Somehow, hidden amongst the fabric of his trousers, Alice had snuck in a card scribed in the Cullen's phone numbers. Ellis had no idea how she did that, or how she knew he was going to leave, but in the next town he brought himself a basic flip phone and keyed in the numbers anyway. Not that he liked them, but it was nice to know some of them cared, if only a little bit.

Ellis had been by himself for a month when he first saw it. He had been wondering through a busy seaside town, strolling down the beach in a practise at acting human when he had heard music. Further in shore on the pavement was a group of people standing and watching a busker preform. He was playing a piece on his cello, an instrument cover of live and let die. An interesting choice for such an instrument. Ellis adjusted the sunglasses obscuring his eyes and headed towards the musician. The weakness evening sun combined with the warm glow of the street lamps kept Ellis' skin from sparkling like a fairy whilst also gleaming on the smooth wooden body of the cello. It was made from a deep red wood and varnished and polished until it shone. It was in a better condition than the man playing it, showing the love he held for his instrument.

Ellis watched as the song came to an end and clapped with the small audience watching. Whilst to human ears, the playing was good, to vampire senses, the playing was fair st best. The man playing, a handsome but scruffy young man, was not getting his timings exactly right and had difficulty with keeping the strings clear. For some reason, it bugged Ellis. There was something incessantly homely and familiar about the cello. Now, Ellis barely remembered his human life, fact like information at best. But he remembered a cello. A small, scratched old thing which his brother had given him for his tenth birthday. Hearing another reminded him of that. The flashback feelings of joy and excitement as well as the blurry human memory of his brother's face beaming at him was enough to make Ellis blink. Later that night, he broke into a expensive music store and stole a cello and a bow worth eight thousand as well as a case and other supplies. The police never had any evidence of the crime apart from the missing instrument.

The cello Ellis had stolen was a beautiful carving of black wood with a matching plain black bow. Twirling patterns were carved into the sides and the wood was lovely and smooth under his touch. It came up almost to his shoulders, the neck of the instrument curved elegantly into a spiral at the top. Ellis, who had decided to name his new belonging, dubbed it Tall Dark and Handsome as a small joke to himself and he had allowed himself to grin at the terrible humour.

The first time Ellis played it, he snapped the bow and ripped the strings. Inhuman amounts of strength was good and all, but it was rather hard for delicate things. After replacing the bow and the strings Ellis tried again. And again. And again. He spent nearly a week in that town, not moving from his practice until he was satisfied, playing every song he could remember learning then stealing sheet music to learn more. But eventually hunger won out and Ellis decided to move on. Although he had a habit of wearing out the horse hair on the bow extremely quickly, Ellis eventually found that he was finally satisfied with his skill. It seemed that he had been a pretty good cellist as a human.

Since then Tall, Dark & Handsome became Ellis' most treasured belonging, almost seeming like a friend. Music was what Ellis turned to when memories would resurface and cloud his mind. It was what he turned to when he fell off the wagon and killed a person. It was what he turned to when he found the abandoned wreckage of his Aunt and Uncle's house and the cracked frame on the wall of a family photo, dusty with age. Ellis turned to music and let it express all the feelings his vampire body could not convey.

Ellis was playing music, a cover of 'who wants to live forever' by queen, when his phone rang surprising him. He froze, sound dying as the black box continued to vibrate. He had never even used his phone before so who would have his number?

"What?" He asked rudely, annoyed at being interrupted.

"Ellis!" Alice's voice, tinny through the terrible speaker, chimed with excitement that he had answered. Ellis was confused about how she got his number but brushed it off due to her weirdness, or the possibility of what he had been told was true and that Alice could see the future. Or she just had really great connections.

"I was calling to say that Bella's and Edward's wedding is in a week and you are invited since you owe a certain wolf boy a promise-" for some reason, Alice had already adopted him as a sibling in her head and Ellis really couldn't be bothered to argue. He was honestly not surprised she knew about Seth. Were there anything you could keep from her? -" I have already prepared you a suit and there is a spare room in the house if you should want to stay, Esme and Carlisle said you are welcome. Please arrive as soon as possible as I want you to be the flower boy. You're the only one young enough for it and it's too dangerous to have human children around".

"Do I get any say in this?" Ellis muttered sourly, slightly annoyed about being called back so soon.

"Nope", Alice replied cheerfully. "Esme and Carlisle are offering to adopt you if you want, as long as you turn veggie but I assume that will be no problem".

Ellis sighed, mainly out of force of habit rather than reacting. He was surprised that The Cullens wanted to welcome a feral thing like him into the family, but he supposed that he fit the traumatised child in need of saving that Carlisle seemed to like. And, with him being turned so young, he would need a adult to be able to live within human society. So, the Cullen's were really his only option.

"Fine", he relented. "I'll arrive in two days. Tell Carlisle and Esme thank you and say hello to Seth for me. After all, I did promise him".

"Will do", Alice chirped. "Welcome to the family baby brother".