There's a sweet taste in the air when she arrives and when she does he fights every urge not to fidget in her presence. Sometimes her appearance is a welcomed distraction but other times it's an inconvenience. She likes appearing when there's a crowd, mainly to mess with him. But he also knows that all she wants is to be seen again, by anybody at all...not just him.

She's changed, that much is certain. It's as if the afterlife spit out a darker, opaque version of the witch. She isn't evil by any means but she isn't quite good, he doesn't blame her. She has a right to feel resentful. She's still dead and she doesn't want to be.

The sweet taste becomes more pungent and he tries not to gag as he pours his bourbon.

"Bonnie, would you come out now?" He asks in a calm tone. He takes a sip. "The place smells like lavender."

"I thought you liked lavender, Stefan."

He turns around to find Bonnie sitting at the bottom of the staircase, her head turned down, her brown hair covering her features.

"I don't."

He studies her frame. To the human eye she appears to be whole, no conventional ghostly qualities but he can see she's not fully here. There's a haziness about her.

"What about that time Elena brought up lavender to the mansion (when you were still living there), she wanted to brighten up that place." She looks up slightly, her hair still concealing her green eyes. "You said you liked it."

"I lied." Stefan shrugged, he threw the flowers out two days later when he couldn't stand it any longer. "It would just hurt her feelings."

Bonnies lips turned upwards, she turns her full attention to him. "You don't care about hurting her feelings anymore though."

Stefan frowned at her animated tone, her vivid emerald eyes shining with some sadistic happiness he's become recently accustomed to whenever Elena is mentioned in their conversations.

"You were listening to us yesterday." It wasn't a question, he knew she was.

"You made her cry." Her tone still gleeful.

He shrugged and walked away. "And she'll get over it." He leaned against the back of the couch, his arms folded.

"Well, she does have your brother." Bonnie looked at him, only a bit surprised to see his face impassive and bored. She stood up but remained where she was. "You look good."

The temperature seemed to drop several degrees and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, whether it was her doing or not he wasn't sure. "Yelling at Elena suddenly makes me attractive?"

She walks down the two steps. "This has nothing to do with Elena." Bonnie slowly drifts towards him, it's deliberate, she's messing with him. "You always look good, you've gotten better looking if that's possible. When I first saw you at school, at a time when everything seemed rosy and ghosts and vampires were a thing of nightmares, I hope you'd talk to me. You didn't." She started to grin, it was a smile that confused him, he couldn't decipher it. "When I found out about your secret, I was repelled by what you were, not you per se. Those disgusted feelings faded, I liked you, thought about you often. Too often."

His eyes remained on hers the entire time during her speech. He read every slight reaction of hers especially her eyes, they bounced around from being doleful, playful to sinister. Right now they were playful.

"Was any of that true?"

"Do you want it to be?" Her hand grazed his cheek then let it fall lightly on his shoulder, she felt very cold. "Would any of it matter if it was?"

He narrowed his eyes but he didn't step away nor did he remove her hand. He thought about what she said and shook his head. "No."

"No to which question?"

"Both." After a couple of seconds later, he sighed. "Death has made you really ballsy, Bonnie."

She laughed softly, "and you love it." She turns away from him.

He placed his hand on top of hers, stilling her. "Why do you come to see me, why do you deliberately want to see me when you have Jeremy. You know we were never as close as you were with Jeremy. He says he hasn't seen you in a month, I've seen you nearly every day. Why?"

He wasn't letting go of her hand although he knows she can disappear on him.

"Why?" She said, her tone teaseful, her eyes reproachful. "Not enjoying our late night rendezvous?"

"Bonnie."

She regarded him for a moment. When the silence stretched on, when nobody spoke, Bonnie stepped even closer to him, just a nose apart. "I hate everything."

Stefan only nodded, he knows this already although it's the first time she voiced it aloud.

She whispered. "I hate everybody, including Jeremy, including you. I hate the choices I made, at the same time I hated how I never really had a choice. I hate that I'm dead. I hate how they can't see me. I hate after the sacrifices I made...I came to nothing." Her icy breath fanned his face, he closed his eyes. "You feel that hate, after being taken out of that safe...being stuck there for months. You sacrificed a lot too. I feel your hate, I relate to it. I can't relate to Jeremy, that's why I don't visit him. He wants the old Bonnie, I'm not her - "

Bonnie stopped when Stefan's eyes snapped open and when his grip tightened around her wrist. Before she could say anymore, he crashed his mouth into hers, harshly kissing her. It wasn't a romantic kiss, he didn't know what it was. He didn't care when Bonnie enthusiastically started taking off his shirt, her hands roaming down his chest or when he started taking off hers. However, in the middle of unbuckling his belt, he felt her pause when he started planting soft kisses along her cheek. Instinctively he tried pulling Bonnie towards him by the back of her neck. She disappeared.

"Shit." He breathed as he dropped his hands to his sides, he shouldn't have done that. "Shit." He sighed when he heard a knock on the front door.

"It hurts when you don't want my presence." Damon's azure eyes widened, taking in Stefan's appearance. "Rough night?"

"Not really." Stefan stepped away from the door.

Damon nodded, "wanna talk about the little Silas aftermath problem or are you in your 'I don't give a shit' kind of moods."

"The latter." Stefan rasped as he drank the rest of his bourbon.

"Right." Damon crossed the threshold. "Fucking hell, this place smells like where Santa Claus and the Easter bunny would come to die."

Stefan smirked into his drink. "I know, can't seem to get rid of it." He heard her laughter in the other room, relief swam through him as his smile became more pronounced.

"What?"

Stefan shook his head. "Nothing…your just too damn funny, brother."

Hey guys, been a while...yeah. Was going through some stuff which made me have really bad writers block. I know I have other stories to finish, I will get to those, I won't abandon them.

Well, I already wrote a Klonnie and Bamon fic, I might as well do a Stefonnie. That's my logic, I don't really ship them but I get it, like really really get it. This is just a random fic about nothing, I haven't written in ages so I'm simply dipping my toes in the water, apologies if it's crappers and mistakes and stuff.

You'll hear from me again.

Byes!