Author's note: This story is going to be SHORT...as in, five or six chapters. I did want to bring back my favorite version of the Salvatore family to celebrate the season 3 premiere.
Not trying to plug an old story, but this one will make more sense if you've read Bittersweet and Echoes.
Enjoy!
Warnings: Mature - adult content, language, sensitive subject matter
Elena reached out and seized hold of the car keys off the accent table in the foyer just before her daughter's fingers closed around them. "Not so fast!" Elena cllutched the key ring to her chest. "Exactly where are you going this afternoon?"
Claire's eyes halted mid-roll. "The boardinghouse."
Elena tilted her head and pursed her lips. "When?"
"Right after school."
Elena nodded. "We're not torturing you." Elena did allow herself to roll her eyes. "Since Jenna and Ric will be there, you can even invite Casen if you'd like."
Claire reached for the keys, but Elena tugged them out of reach. "Because I'm sure he wants to help set up for Jackson's wedding."
Dangling the keys from her fingertips, Elena answered her daughter. "If he wants to see you this weekend, that would be a yes." She dropped the car keys into Claire's outstretched hand.
"Is it really going to take all weekend?" Claire flinched as she adjusted her zebra-striped purse on her shoulder. She glanced up the stairs and frowned since her brother was nowhere to be seen. "Braydon, come on!"
"You were excited when Elisa asked you to be in the bridal party." Noting her daughter's tapping foot, Elena glanced down at her watch. "Everybody upstairs, you need to get moving. We leave for school in three minutes." She turned her attention back to Claire as Lily bounded down the stairs with her monkey-print backpack dangling precariously off one shoulder. "Pedicures tomorrow morning. Rehearsal at two. Rehearsal dinner at the Grill at six." Elena held up a finger as she ticked off each task.
"Are weddings always this complicated?"
"We might consider paying you to elope." Damon rounded the corner with a mug of coffee in his hand.
"Ric would agree with you." Elena reached out and took the offered mug. "In the Salvatore family, apparently so." She thought she'd skip telling her daughter the details of her wedding to Damon, since they involved too much time spent getting up close and personal with the toilet...and an unplanned pregnancy. Speaking of an unexpected arrival, Braydon began walking down the stairs.
"Braydon, can you see what you can do with the rest of them?" Elena knelt next to Lily and began to rebraid the end of one pigtail. "We're going to be late. Again." She shook her head.
"You'll just have to have a conference with the principal." Damon stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Tonight while the two of you try to keep Jenna under control would probably be a good time." He nudged her hair off the back of her neck with his chin and he placed a kiss on the nape of her neck.
Elena leaned her head back onto his shoulder. "Jeremy said I've used my last but I'm your sister excuse." She closed her eyes and relaxed into his embrace. "You coming home for lunch?"
"Is that what they're calling it these days?" His words were little more than a growl in her ear.
"Ew! Stop!" Claire waved her hands in front of her face. "Really, I get enough of that from Jackson and Elisa." She grimaced. "You should have heard them during the engagement pictures." Picking up her notebook and her laptop computer, she pointed up the stairs. "Can you tell him I'm outside?"
"Will do." Damon trailed his hand down Elena's waist. "To answer your question, yes, I think I'll be home for lunch. We have a Founder's Council meeting, but I'll be back after that."
"Founder's Council?" Elena pulled away from his hands and spun on her heel.
Damon shook his head. "Nothing like that. Just the regular quarterly meeting." The clock on the mantle chimed eight. "Of course, I'm going to miss it if I don't get going." He leaned in for a kiss, stroking Elena's hair as his lips left hers. "Definitely home for lunch." He leaned over and brushed a kiss atop his youngest daughter's head. "Bye sweetie." Standing back up, he hurried out the door.
Brayden took the stairs two at a time and landed next to his mother with a thud. Elena looked up at her son who seemed to somehow have inherited his uncle's height. "Everybody's ready but Em." He grabbed his bag from beneath the hall table. "Claire already outside?" His class ring flashed under the hall light as he tugged his backpack onto his shoulder. At his mother's nod, he waved one last time and ran through the front door.
"Emma Kate Salvatore!" Elena placed her hand on the bannister of the stairs. "You have exactly thirty seconds, or we're leaving without you." She stepped away from the stairwell and bent to straighten the bow in her youngest daughter's hair.
Nathan leaned in his sister's doorway. "Em, she used your middle name. I'd hurry up." He watched as his sister applied sparkly pink lip gloss to her bottom lip.
Emma capped the container and leaned forward to study her side ponytail. "Mom's not going to leave without me."
"Fifteen more seconds or you'll be walking to school." The alarm chirped as Elena's voice faded away.
Nathan sped out of the doorway. "Where are you going?" Emma called after her twin.
"I'm not walking." Nathan laughed as he grabbed his still-new backpack from where he'd left it outside her door. "Especially not because you want to look perfect for Lo-gan."
"Nathan!" She threw a stuffed pink rabbit out the door.
"I'm getting in the car." Elena called up one last warning.
The alarm chirped again downstairs. "Emma, Mommy says to get ready to walk." Lily's high voice echoed through the house.
"I'm coming!" The door slammed shut below. Emma sighed dramatically as she picked up her messenger bag.
"And what are we doing here?" Casen turned to Claire as she drove down the leaf-covered winding driveway.
Claire shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever my aunt says I need to do." She stepped out of the car and pulled her jacket more tightly around her. "Have you ever been here?"
"The creepy house on the hill?" Casen pointed at the house. "Never."
"People think it's creepy?" Claire stared at the house, trying to imagine it as threatening. While no one from the family lived there any longer, it had hosted so many family gatherings and community events, she couldn't think of it any other way than an extension of her own house.
"Um, yeah." Casen walked alongside Claire as they dodged the falling leaves. "When I was little, we used to imagine ghosts or something living underneath in the cellar. All I can think of is cobwebs and spiders. Have you seen any skeletons?"
Claire glared at him out of the corner of her eye. "There's a basement, but I haven't seen any ghosts." She unlocked the front door and looked around in the darkness. "Ric? Jenna?" Turning back to look at Casen, she tapped her fingers on the door. "Guess we're the first ones here. Want the tour?"
Casen gave an evil grin. "We're actually alone?"
"I think so." Claire walked farther into the house. The hearth was cold, giving the room an empty feeling. She never remembered being here without a roaring fire - not even in the heat of the summer.
"Why don't you give me a tour of the basement? I'll bet it's dark...and quiet." He trailed a finger over the collar of her blouse.
Claire's cheeks flushed pink. A side effect of being the oldest of five was the fact that even when you were alone, you never really knew when someone would be running through the room you happened to be in. "Are you sure?" She tried to tease, but her voice came out breathier than she'd intended.
"I should be asking you that." He rested his forehead against hers.
"Well, it's this way." She took his hand and led him in the direction of the kitchen, fully aware of how fast her heart was pounding in her chest. Despite being nine months from graduating, up until recently, she'd had very little experience with the opposite sex - unless they were related to her. Always thought of as an overly bookish introvert, the boys in Mystic Falls tended to overlook her...until she won the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. Once they'd see her with her hair curled and spilling over her shoulders, drawing attention to the fact that there was much more to her than the ability to recite the periodic table from memory, she'd had her pick of the high school seniors.
And she'd selected Casen. After knowing each other since his family moved to town in the third grade, he'd always been at her side. For the past few months, friendship had gradually changed into something more, but they'd never moved farther than holding hands.
Flicking on a light switch, she carefully climbed down the stone steps. "Not much to see really." She turned in a circle in the midst of the room that seemed to be some type of storage area.
"Oh yes there is." Casen stepped closer to her and wrapped his hands low around her waist, resting his palms on the pockets of her jeans. Slowly, he lowered his face to meet hers and his lips were surprisingly soft at first. As he deepened the kiss, she felt his tongue skim across her upper lip, demanding entrance in her mouth as his fingertips skimmed the waistband of the back of her jeans.
Claire hesitantly opened her lips and was taken aback at the sensation of some else's tongue exploring her mouth. She felt the corners of his lips turn up in a grin as she tentatively began her own exploration of the slickness of his teeth.
Her breath caught in her chest as he pulled up the back of her shirt so he could rest his palm against the small of her back.
"Too fast?" His fingers taunted with the skin below the waistline of her jeans.
Claire blinked in surprise at the unexpected feelings, both in her chest and far lower down. She shifted in place at the dampness she couldn't control. Her deep green eyes looked into his brown ones. "Not at all." She sighed into his kiss as his hand plunged deeper and cupped beneath her jeans, not quite daring enough to penetrate the thin cotton of her underwear.
"Claire?" The door to the basement thudded open, and Alaric began to make his descent down the stairwell. Claire hastily pulled away and began to rearrange her shirt, but she didn't quite make it in time.
"Uncle Ric." She blinked as she backed into a storage shelf, sending a handful of boxes tumbling to the floor. "Mom said it was ok to bring Casen."
"I'm sure she did. He's always been pretty handy." Alaric gave her a knowing look. "I've been calling you for five minutes. I guess you've been...busy."
Claire bent to pick up the contents of the first box. "I was giving him a tour."
"Looked like a very private one." He inclined his head to Casen. "Clean that up. Your aunt has the chairs ready to set out."
"We'll be right up, Uncle Ric." Claire knelt down and tossed a photo album in the cardboard box.
"Leave the door open." Alaric's shoulders shook with laughter as he made his way back up the stairs.
Casen gave her a guilty smile. "Sorry about that." He handed her a stack of papers.
Shaking her head, Claire let out a long sigh. "It's impossible to keep a secret in this family." She reached for a leather-bound book and picked it up. The glue had loosened with age, and the handwritten pages rained onto the floor. "Ugh!" She scooped them into a pile.
"What is that?"
She picked up a page. At the top, the date September 12, 1887 was written in a neat script. "Some of Aunt Jenna's historical stuff, I think. I'm going to be so dead."
"No you're not." He gathered the pages and slid them into his jacket pocket. "We'll just stick them in your backpack. You can put them back in order tonight, and I'll sneak them back into the box tomorrow before the wedding."
"Thank you." She smiled in anticipation as he leaned in closer to her once again.
He traced the outline of her jaw with the pad of his thumb. "That's what I'm here for."