Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries, or the winx club characters briefly mentioned here (Stella, Techna, Bloom, Icy, Trix).
It's absolutely unfair how she ends up being the one who has to babysit Jeremy every-single-time. They are ten now, for God's sakes! There has to be a better way to settle this than Stone-Papers-Scissors! Maybe they should take turns, like grown-ups?
"No, thanks!" Caroline decides as soon as she suggests this, and focuses her attention back on the Winx Club reruns, her short blond hair tied up in a desperate attempt at a ponytail resembling that of Stella, her flip flops scattered on the floor in the careless manner of a girl without a care in the world. Which is weird, considering her parents' divorce and the complications that the adults talk about but none of them really understand.
Elena is more sympathetic. She takes a quick look at Jeremy, who's busy painting the sky red in his drawing book. She wonders how someone so old can still think the sky is red, but he swears it is, and she knows better than to argue. He always wins every single debate they have, that's one of the many annoying thing about brothers, and she's learnt her lesson after she lost out the blue china plate to him. "Is he being a trouble?" she asks, wondering why he even needs a baby-sitter. Then she remembers this is Jeremy, the guy who lit firecrackers on the neighbors' lawn and woke them up at 3 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning. Yeah, she's pretty sure that when they grow up, he's going to be a lot of trouble. Whatever, their mom and dad can deal with it, she will have better things to do than attend parent-teacher meetings at his school and stuff. "Jeremy, be good to Bonnie." She warns him.
"I am good!" He yells back immediately without bothering to even look at her. "Right, Bonnie?"
And Bonnie doesn't really understand why she minds baby-sitting him- if she minds at all, for that matter. Jeremy is….. nice. He's…. "He's okay." She assures, leaving out the part that if he wasn't studying in a grade below hers and the girls in her class weren't so mean, they might actually have been friends.
"Look! It's Icy!" Caroline yells, and all three of them turn their attention back to the TV as they watch their favorite fairies fight against the evil witches.
"I hate witches", Bonnie whines, when Techna is tossed to the side by one. The fight is pretty intense, and they all agree it would be so cool to be able to fight like this in real life someday!
"Hey, Bonnie?" Jeremy interrupts her.
And now she remembers why she hates this. Couldn't this have waited till the Trix got thrown into the dungeons? "Yeah?" she responds, only paying half-attention to him. It's Enchantix time for Bloom, whoo!
"Where do we go when we die?"
That is enough to get her full attention, her eyes fixed on his face in a scrutinizing gaze. Where did that come from? Why is he thinking about death? "I don't know, why?" she asks, concerned.
He shrugs. "I wanna know. How come you're older than me but don't know this? How can you be trusted to babysit me if you don't even know this?"
She rolls her eyes. "Nobody knows this."
He shrugs again. "Well, let me know when you find out."
She laughs. He is such an ignorant little kid. "How will I do that? When I die, there will be no way for me to talk to you."
His hands pause for a moment, red crayon in the air, his eyes refusing to leave her face, like she would disappear that very second if he did. "I will miss you", he tells her sincerely.
She feels a warm tug in her heart when he says that, and she doesn't hesitate to tell him, "I'll miss you too."
She's tired of saying goodbyes. Seriously. Mystic Falls has to be the town with the highest mortality rate in the world. Honestly? She's a little surprised that the FBI and the CIA and Homeland security haven't all set up their bases there yet.
She doesn't have vampire super hearing, but amidst all the chaos downstairs between Tyler and Matt and Caroline, and whoever else is there, she can still hear the clock ticking. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock. She hears Liv laughing in the background and Jeremy joining in, and a sigh leaves her chest before she can stop it. "I hate witches."
Sometimes she thinks she's being selfish by being jealous, maybe Jeremy should move on, now that she is breathing on a deadline and all. But this- she's-
Look, it's complicated, okay? They have said goodbyes to each other so many times. He dies, she dies, he dies. She's lost count by now. They always think it's permanent, but it never is, and by now they have run out of things they need to say to each other before they leave. And this- she's-
"You okay?" He asks her when he notices the empty look in her eyes that seem to be fixed on the pendulum of the old clock on the wall.
"Yeah", she quickly gathers herself, fakes a smile, places a kiss on his lips while she still has the chance. "You okay?"
"Not really", he admits. "I don't know what we're going to do about Markos, Bonnie."
She takes his hand in hers and squeezes firmly. "We'll win. We always do. Klaus, Silas… nobody ever stood a chance against us."
He nods, her optimism keeping his spirits up, as always, and sits down beside her and stares at the wall like her. He laughs suddenly. "The kids at school are kind of impressed that I'm nailing a college chick."
"How romantic!" She rolls her eyes and places her head on his shoulder. "Have you been studying?"
"Is there any time to?" He counters.
Time, yes, they don't have much of that. In any way.
So she just laughs and stays quiet and listens to his heart-beat and takes in the smell of his sweat soaked shirt while she still can. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.
Jeremy was right. The sky is red in her dreams. It's broken, it's bleeding, and it's sucking in everything standing in its way. Her teddy bear, her biology note book, her black high heels- her. She can feel herself rising up with the vortex, but it feels like she is falling into the depths of a bottomless well. Where is she headed to? Where do we go when we die?
Why was she trusted to protect The Other Side when she doesn't even know this?
Is she even alive? Has she been? What is she? Who is she?
Why won't the voices she's hearing answer her? Why do they just keep chanting? Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie, Bonnie….
"Bonnie", Liv's voice wakes her up. It takes her a moment to gather where he is. Couch, Salvatore Mansion, what the?
"Look, I'm sorry." For once, Liv's apology sounds genuine, and she doesn't remember what-
Oh, right. They had come down here to ignore the Markos problem for the moment and talk about Enzo, and Liv had told her how she had tried to look for a spell to keep her here but still turned up empty. She had assured her it's okay, excused herself as she is no longer a witch and no longer of any use to them, and taken a quick nap on the couch.
"It's okay", she assures again, but really, it's anything but okay. The Other Side is crumbling, and it will take her with it, and she doesn't even have the heart to tell Jeremy.
"Where's Jeremy?" It's funny she's asking her about her own boyfriend's whereabouts.
Liv shrugs. "I don't wanna ruin surprises, so."
She arches up an eyebrow and wonders what's going on. Liv leaves her alone in silence to keep wondering. And she finally gets the answer when Jeremy walks in through the door. "I brought you this." He holds up a paper bag.
She takes it curiously and like a child on Christmas eve, looks inside. Blueberry muffins, her favorite.
"You are not going to ask me to marry you or something, right?" she jokes. He laughs. And she knows he knows. He's figured it out. Or maybe Liv told her. She doesn't get the details, but she knows he knows.
But they don't have to talk about it. It's best not to talk about it. They have said goodbyes to each other so many times. He dies, she dies, he dies. She's lost count by now. They always think it's permanent, but it never is, and by now they have run out of things they need to say to each other before they leave. And this- she's-
She's so in love with him.
"Hey, let me have a bite of that muffin!" and so they're pretending like the world as they know it isn't ending.
She scoffs. "You don't like blueberry muffins."
He huffs. "I don't like salad either, but mom made me have it anyway."
She laughs. "Do you remember that time Mrs. Gilbert made you….." Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.
("I will miss you." "I'll miss you too.")
A/N: I am so stoked for the season finale, I seriously wonder what's gonna happen to The Other Side. Anyways, hope this liked this one-shot. Please review! Thanks for reading!