"Okay, are you ready?" Stefan Salvatore questions once he's successfully managed to guide them both into the room.
Bonnie Bennett sighs and rolls her eyes as much as she can from their place behind her husband's hands as they cover them. They both knew a blindfold wouldn't have lasted with her patience.
"As much as I'll ever be," She answers dryly.
"Please, your enthusiasm is too much to bare."
"Stef…" Bonnie starts but stops as soon as he removes his hands and she's greeted to the sight of a brightly lit room due to the sun peering in from the ceiling. One of walls housing various works of her paintings from throughout her years. The adjacent filled wall to wall unopened jars of paint. An blank easel, posed in front of the wall to wall window, a small cream colored desk lined with new brushes within arms reach. All of her worned down but swears that they work just as if she just opened them yesterday in the metal container she uses to hold them.
She turns back to face him, try to find the words to voice her gratitude but the sight of the very first set of brushes her father bought her framed in a glass box. Right along with her very first finished piece. A simple bowl of fruit she painted with her fingers in the second grade. His attempt at recreating the one she painted of the two of them of their first dance as husband and wife right below it.
"For when you don't feel like driving to the studio," He offers with a shrug as if it wasn't a big deal. His eyebrows raising in surprise when he's suddenly against the wall. Bonnie's lips firmly against his as her hands go straight to his belt. But he doesn't dare to complain or question it.
...
Moans fall from her lips as he continues to move his hips against hers. Long, deep, steady strokes as his lips ghost against the curve of her neck until he reaches her ear. He doesn't protest in the slightest when she slips her hand into his hair and guides him to her mouth. Legs locking around his waist as her lips move urgently against his own. Though does hiss in response to her moving her hands down to his ass, nails digging into his skin making her unvoiced request clear and he obliges. Smirking as the smug look on her face fades, pleasure overtaking her features and she's screaming his name as she reaches her peak. With him following shortly after.
"So I take it you like the room?" He says as soon as he catches his breath.
Bonnie raises her head from its position in the crook of his neck. Then sits up and climbs on top of him.
...
"Thank you," Bonnie says after she collapses onto his chest. Laughing when she's only met with the sounds of ragged breaths in response.
"No, something is wrong," Bonnie insists into the phone as she paces back and forth. Her eyes going to the door where she hopes Stefan will walk through at any minute to prove her wrong. Chinese takeout in hand that he insisted he needed. "I can feel it." She states when just as the times before it stays shut. And winces when her bottom lip is taken prisoner between her teeth.
"Oh, do you mean your spidey senses are tingling again?" Comes a teasing voice from the other end making her want to scream and throw her phone clear across the room.
"Fine, maybe you're right." Bonnie decides to say instead of acting out her initial response.
"Bon," Elena Gilbert sighs, ignoring Bonnie's attempt to shut down and curl into herself. Something that she's long learned to sense and even longer mastered since their days in the sandbox. "Look, I-" but she stops not wanting to lie or give Bonnie the chance to give in on one of her rare acts of impulses "Give me ten minutes. I'll be there and we will go from there."
"Lena," Bonnie tries but the woman on the other end of the line is not having it.
"You do not need to be anywhere near a driver's seat. Toss the car keys onto the top of the fridge, take your coat off and have a drink out of Stefan's favorite bourbon glass." She commands as she grabs her own coat, and grabs the keys from their place on their hook. Placing a quick kiss to her husband's cheek as he works on some new layout for his bar. Mouthing "Bonnie," to which Damon Salvatore immediately stands ready to go along but stops when she points at his work. And he dramatically rolls his eyes and sits down going back to his project.
Bonnie blinks then starts to look around her home for cameras but stops when she hears,
"I didn't hear keys clanking or the faucet and I'm waiting." Elena comments, and she can hear the sound of the closing of her door in the background. The call promptly ending when she hears as such.
She's only managed a few sips, flirting with the burn as the brown liquid slides down her throat. Warming her insides and easing some of the tension she feels like a pair of heels two sizes too small but the price was too good to pass up. When she hears the ringing of her doorbell and frowns, but quickly smiles when she realizes that Elena must have forgotten her keys in her haste exit. Prepared to tease her, Bonnie strides towards the door after pulling on her coat and palming her phone but doesn't give up the glass. Her grip only tightens and she feels her throat close when she sees the flashing lights of red and blue raging against her window, reflecting on the wood paneling of her living room.
Another ring of her doorbell and insistent knocks bring her out of her rationale of the liquor already gone to her head and she forces herself to move to the door. Her hand shaking all the while.
There's a remorseful look on the officer's face as he tells her of an accident. A car found off to the side of the road, slid across black ice. She frowns when she sees that the man's lips are still moving yet no sound is coming out. Her eyes go to the man standing at the officer that has apparently decided to take lead on this one to see if he's suffering from the same as she is but the man only offers her a sad smile, eyes filled with pity and maybe understanding. Exchanging a look to the other before his lips part and just as the man before. Not one word hits her ears.
She never believed the edits of time slowing and the annoying sound effect of whirring or ringing if the editor decided to branch out. The slight tilt of the camera indicating the character's vision before the camera panned and showed their sometimes overdramatized expression and now she feels it all to well. It almost makes her want to send her apologies for all the times she teased and poked fun of what she had long deemed as cliche. And track down whoever started the trend as they must have experienced it first hand.
Between the ringing in her ears, her world quite literally feeling as if it's been thrown off balance and feeling nothing but the stinging of her tears and burning of her throat that no longer has anything to do with the alcohol. It's not until the glass has hit the ground, broken into what through her tear stained vision seems like a million pieces at her feet. And her hand goes to her stomach before her knees go out.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry but-"
It's the first time words have actually managed to register clearly since a cop hesitantly broke the news and she looks up to see what has broken the spell only to see the man and his partner looking at her apprehensively. Like she's new territory and they've never been fully trained on how to approach or handle the situation. And she waits for them to break the spell again but the same voice rings out before it's promptly cut off.
"Does it look like I give a shit about what you can and cannot allow?" an enraged voice bellows and Bonnie thinks she'd laugh if she could manage anything except turning her head to see who's addressing her "My sister is…"
"Let her through," Bonnie manages to choke out "Please," she makes sure to hold the officer's concerned stares "I can't handle bailing out my sister right now, and everyone at the precinct will hate you by the time she's released."
There's amusement in both of their eyes and a quirk of their lips but it stops there. And the one that stayed while the braver of the two is nearly knocked over as Elena appears. Face red from her screaming, brown eyes wide as ever, and filled with concern that pries at an already open wound. The only thing keeping Bonnie from allowing herself to completely break down being the metal cuff clamped around one of the brunette's wrist. The other open catching Bonnie's attention before Elena's arms wrap around her.
Bonnie waits for the standard assurance that no one ever wants to hear. The
"Everything is going to be okay."
"You're going to be fine."
"He wouldn't want you to dot dot dot."
But it never comes. As Elena only squeezes her tighter when her lips part. And she presses them together, burying her head into the crook of Elena's neck as she holds on tighter and lets the tears fall.
She watches with a chill that she's sure has nothing to do with the cold as his casket is lowered into the ground.
The funeral was a blur. The only thing she really remembers vividly being the Eulogy delivered by Damon that gathered equal parts of tears and laughter from those in attendance. Words spoken by his best friends Lexi and Klaus. The latter of which she's still surprised managed to be respectful. Not one crewd innuendo slipped in. She doesn't remember much of her own, her words never reaching her ears. Only the occasional soft laughs from the crowd among pitiful stares and encouraging nods from Caroline and Elena's hand steadily rubbing her back in attempts to soothe her. Quickly ushering her back to her seat in between their mother and herself once Bonnie was done.
"I think you should leave." Bonnie says, trying her hardest to keep her temper in check. Looking away from the brunette as soon as she's finished her spiel about some new technology that helped her through her grief.
"Bonnie," Davina Claire tries, reaching for the widow's hands but stops when she sees the warning look in Bonnie's green eyes. Closing her own she turns and grabs for the pamphlet she brought with her having anticipated it all. She remembered feeling the same way when an old acquaintance suggested it to her when she had to bury her own husband. "I've already signed you up. The activation is inside if you change your mind." And with that she grabs her belongings and leaves after making quick conversation with Rebekah who asked her how she was dealing with this.
And Bonnie can't help but frown at the fact that the brunette hadn't had a breakdown in the environment that she must have felt all to well. On their own volition, green eyes drop down to pamphlet but look away just as fast. Depositing the booklet in the nearest drawer and takes a deep breath before starting to go over to where her grandmother stands. A glass of a brown liquid in Sheila Bennett's hand that her mother takes from her grandmother's grasp.
"Mom, we're at a reception." Abigail Bennett scolds her own mother and hands it over to her eldest daughter that waits until Abby looks away before raising it to her lips. The eldest of the three of them glaring at Elena when the brunette shows up out of nowhere and takes it from her before Lucy can even take a sip.
"Do you think that there's something after this?"
"You're the one that was raised as Catholic." Bonnie looks up at her brother in law as he helps her put the food away "You tell me."
Damon cracks a smile at that before he begins his response,
"Stef was always the more religious of us. Even our Mother. After she died he was the one that dragged me and Dad to church."
Bonnie feels a tug at her lips "Yeah, he and Grams would go together. I think she might be taking it harder than the both of us."
"She told me she was opening a bottle of her best Bourbon tonight and that I was welcomed to join her. So yeah, I think she might be."
"You're okay with being her fill in?"
"It'll be the same as last time. Pull me close and toss me to the side the minute Luce finally settles down with someone she thinks worthy of her granddaughters."
"You don't sound bitter about that at all." Bonnie chuckles.
"I have the mom and one of her sister's stamps of approval. That's good enough for me."
"More than you expected," Bonnie corrects.
"That's what I said."
She ignores the wary looks in her sister's eyes as she urges the both of them to go home. They've been accommodating her in every way for the past five days. And while she enjoys them catering to her every whim she feels as if she'll lose her mind if they don't go back to engaging into their usual behavior consisting of snark and borderline bullying.
"I'll call you if I need you." Bonnie assures once she's managed to push them at a safe distance from the front door of her home. Standing at the threshold as the door is half closed to prevent them from barging their way back in.
"I'm coming back tomorrow." Elena yells as Bonnie closes the door.
…
She waits until she hears the sounds of their cars peeling off onto the road before she moves away from the door. Taking in the first quiet she's gotten in what feels like years. Then it hits her as soon as she passes the room Stefan set up for her on her way to her bedroom where she intended to crawl into her bed and sleep for a day. Maybe two. Tears spring to her eyes as she passes the threshold. Emerald eyes scanning every detail and before they land on his painting she violently turns her head away. Instead going over to the wall containing her work, waving her hand over the wall and watching as it clears and starts to go through her unfinished pieces. Ultimately deciding on a simple landscape and drags the image over to the easel.
Only able to stare at the forest green eyes that come of it.
She's shrugging on her coat when she passes the table holding the bowl containing her keys and stops and stares at the drawer. Closing her eyes before she reaches for the handle. Gulping at the site of the booklet and her hands move with a mind of their own.
A/N: So I said I wasn't starting another story until I finished at least one of my other w.i.p.s. Sooo I'm not. This is going down as a one shot. Stemmed from my current binge of Black Mirror. Same title as the story if anyone is wondering (or cares). Maybe I'll come back to it when I do finish one or possibly add more later. But I couldn't get the idea out of my head.