Chapter 2 – Masquerade Part 2
A/N: Oooh Some family bonding in this chappie!
Disclaimer – N. unfortunately.
The sun shined through one of the many windows that the tiny store that Charlotte and Caroline were currently occupying. The two girls had their noses buried in racks of dresses, ranging from short cocktail to even some small wedding dresses. It had been almost three hours that Caroline had taken the angel through almost every clothes store in Mystic Falls, but to no victory had they found the right dress for the evening's ball.
"What about this one?" Caroline had been asking that same question for the last hour and a half. However, the question was left to hang in the air while Charlotte's mind was occupied with finding ways of getting out of going to this ridiculous party. "Charlie!" her nickname seemed to pull the brunette out of whatever train disaster that was currently occupying her brain. Caroline impatiently pointed to the black and gold knee length dress that was in her hands. Charlotte's face all but scrunched up at the dress and shook her head. Caroline groaned a little and placed it back on the rack, before she started searching again.
"What? Sorry - I wasn't paying attention." The blonde gave her a look from over the top of the rack. "Caroline…I don't even know if I'm gonna go to this thing tonight anyway." The silence seemed to be deafening when Caroline didn't answer in the span of five seconds. Charlotte almost thought that she had broken the young vampire that she seemed to preoccupy herself with shifting through the rest of the clothes on the rack, before stepping away with a loud groan. None of them seemed to stand out to her! This was going to take forever, and they had to be back at the boarding house in time to let Bonnie in on their plan. However, all hoped seemed lost; until Charlotte's blue eyes seemed to eye spy a brilliant red dress at the front of the store. It was a red halter neck with a short at the front but long at the back wavy tail. The top was just low enough that no adjustments would have to be made if a situation rose where she would need her wings.
Charlotte turned back around, with the dress in hand, and lifted it up so that Caroline could see, which answered herquestion about why Caroline hadn't replied to her earlier. Caroline had her head buried in her phone. A short but loud whistle seemed to startle the blonde enough to look up from her phone and over towards her friend.
"My god! I forgot you could do that!" Caroline complained but her rather annoyed expression disappeared when her own blue eyes rested on the dress that hung from Charlotte's fingers. The fabric was oddly soft and wonderful to the touch. Caroline ended up letting out a loud squeal as an answer to go and try it on.
"My god…I forgot that you could that!" Charlotte teased as she stepped past Caroline, heading towards the changing rooms. She felt a slap against her back and quickly rushed to the room with a loud laugh. Caroline waited patiently on one of the many multi-coloured footstools that littered outside the changing rooms, smiling at the passing worker.
"Oh Bonnie messaged." Caroline started her voice just loud enough that Charlotte could hear over the in store music.
"She's at the house already?" Charlotte yelled back, in the dresser she was wiggling her way into the dress that she may have fallen in love with. Caroline shook her head, but then remembers that she could not be seen.
"No - but we have five minutes." The angel rolled her eyes as she turned on her heel and flung the thin curtain of red fabric away and posed dramatically against the side of the frame.
"What do you think?" she asked in a salutary voice. Caroline giggled as she stood up from the footstool, clapping her hands together as a grin crossed her face.
"Yes! Yes that is the one!" Caroline responded with a laugh. Charlotte let her own giggle escape her lips with a roll of her eyes as she folded back into the changing room again, starting to get changed back into her normal clothing. "Now come on! Let's go buy this and get back to the boarding house."
-x-
What was a nice short-ish walk at the start of the day turned into the two girls' almost jogging back to the boarding house. Damon could hear the giggling even before he saw the two of them rush up the long drive way. He pulled open the massive front door and leaned up against it as Caroline and Charlotte came rushing underneath the roof, the latter breathing rather heavily.
"I thought you were an angel?" Damon questioned as his eyebrow rose. Charlotte rolled her eyes as Caroline pushed past the older vampire and moved her way into the living room.
"Half angel, remember? Still part human, which means …" a loud intake of breath as Damon took her bags from her, receiving a rather odd look from the brunette, and a couple of groans as Charlotte wandered into the living room as well, moaning and groaning about her sore legs in her head. "…that I receive the full frontal assault of having a human body. One that I have actually forgotten to keep fit in a while." Charlotte followed Damon over to the dining table, which was covered in weapons that Alaric had brought over.
The angel's interest perked up when she spotted something that looked like a gun, her hand reached over to pick it up…until another hand came down and slapped it away. "Ow." She hissed pulling her hand back and rested it against her chest. Charlotte sent a mock-ish glare towards Alaric who didn't even look up from the table.
"Charlotte I know you. If you pick that up it is bound to go off." Alaric stated leaving Charlotte staring at him with her mouth a gap. Like a fish. Damon snorted as he set her things on the couch, before he moved back over towards her, placing a finger underneath her jaw and pushed upwards.
"You know he's right, Lottie." Damon whispered in her ear. To which he received a slap on the chest. Damon pulled away and rubbed at his chest. "Calm down, angel." Charlotte's snarky retort was cut off as a new voice entered the living room.
"What's going on?" Bonnie had moved to looked over from Caroline, Stefan, Damon and then Charlotte herself, before she finally settled her gaze on Jeremy who had just come down from upstairs.
"We're gonna kill Katherine." When the hell did he arrive? Charlotte thought to herself as her arms crossed just in front of her chest. I'm losing my touch. Bonnie didn't seemed to be too convinced as she looked over all of the gang. Her arms crossed as her eyes rested on Stefan.
"I can explain." Stefan then mentioned before Bonnie exploded with a ranting rave of how stupid that plan sounded.
"Please."
"We're gonna kill Katherine." Stefan repeated so seriously that Charlotte couldn't help the snort that escaped her lips, only it ended up as an awkward cough when Bonnie's intense brown gaze ended up landing on her. It was broken when Alaric decided it would be a good time to show off the weapons he had collected over the many years he had been a hunter. Charlotte all but fingered at her Angel Blade that was stuffed up her sleeve of her jacket. She wouldn't need one of the weapons Alaric would supply, but it wouldn't hurt to be doubly prepared for the Katherine Attack.
"This works with compressed air. For you I would recommend this." He held up a small wooden weapon that kind of looked like a mini crossbow on the wrist. "It fits nicely under the jacket sleeve. You use the trigger when you're ready," Alaric then pointed the weapon towards his side and demonstrated how it would work. "You wanted me to show you how to kill a vampire." He commented when he noticed the look that Damon and Stefan had given each other, though Charlotte's face broke out into a grin.
"Man that is so cool." Her gaze moved from the weapon to Alaric, who grinned back at her. It was then that the group had split off and started to practice with the weapons, Charlotte had gratefully, according to Damon, decided to stick with her own weapon, considering in the past whenever the angel had tested anything new there were mishaps. To which pissed Damon off, mostly due to an incident that occurred sometime in the fifties. With a priceless rug that Damon and Stefan had owned. However, Damon never seemed to let that one go.
So Charlotte did the thing she was good at and made herself a cup of tea, before wandering back out into the living room making her way over to one of the many windows. In that time, Charlotte had stretched out of white limbs, wincing a little when her right wing hit the wall. A sigh escaped her lips as she stared out into the garden, it was rather peaceful at this time of day, the faint sound of the birds calling to each other and the sound of the rushing water from one of the many lakes near the house, seemed to sooth her over worked brain.
However, there was something out in the woods that seemed to catch Charlotte's eye.
A figure?
Her whole body tensed as she gripped her mug tighter, the hot sensation of the steaming tea didn't seem to bother her at that moment. She could sense that thing in the woods.
It most defiantly was a person. It was tall, slim, a mop of brown hair … clad in a suit. No. Could it be? No. It couldn't. Her eyes closed shut and she breathed in. Okay just - calm down. The mentioning of Katherine must have brought them back to your brain. They aren't really here. Opening her eyes again, Charlotte could no longer see the person in the woods; a sigh of relief escaped her lips. The wings that rested on her back seemed to twitch slightly as she felt someone else, but with a shrug of her shoulders, she tried to concentrate on the conversations that were happening behind her, while taking another sip of her tea.
"You know they sill amaze me." Charlotte's whole body seemed to freeze at the sound of the new voice. A frown settled on her brow as Charlotte turned her head, wings dipping slightly as she saw the others were still engrossed with each other. "Oh come on, Lottie! You don't remember you own Uncle Gabriel?"
Gabriel!
The sound of his name made Charlotte choke on her tea. Damon's head rose as he frowned.
"Lottie? You okay?" he asked as she turned her whole body, her wings folding into her back once more, a nod of her head made his eyes narrow.
"Damon I'm fine - just excuse me for a moment." She didn't let him get his next question out as her right hand made a motion and the whole room froze. "Gabriel! I know you're there!" her voice rose as she stormed over to the table and all but slammed down her mug. "What even are you doing here?"
"What? Can't your favourite Uncle visit his only niece?" the voice sounded from behind her and she spun on the heel of her foot. A rather unpleasant look graced her soft features, while her eyes narrowed from behind her glasses. To Charlotte, Gabriel looked okay, as well as the fact that his grace seemed to be intact.
"What are you doing here, Gabe?" she asked again and the elder Archangel sighed and rolled his eyes as he snapped his fingers and a bunch of flowers appeared in his hands.
"I came to see how you were." He replied as he held the flowers out towards her. Charlotte's resolve was slowly starting to come undone, as a small smile spread across her lips as she accepted the bunch of roses from him, bringing them up to her nose and smelt them. They all but came out of the Garden of Eden. A raise of her brow made Gabriel twitch a little on the spot. "Okay fine. I had a run in with your boys."
"You what!?" the high pitch of her voice all but made one of the vases on the hallway table explode. Charlotte ducked a little as she looked over at the damage, her lip pulled upwards slightly in a small hint of melancholy at her powers.
"Easy there, princess. They're fine." Charlotte then chucked the roses back onto the table, taking a step forward, closer to her uncle.
"What did you do? What happened?" the questions seemed to fly out of her mouth, only Gabriel raising a hand, and snapping his fingers made her questions cease and not another sound escaped it. Her eyes widened as she noticed what Gabriel had done. Oh, you little shit she thought.
"I just had a little fun that's all. And what makes you think I did anything?" he answered. "Besides Deano said a few things that got me thinking. So I came all the way over here to Mystic Falls to see how you are holding up and before you ask 'how did I found you?' us angels have a funny way of doing things, even if you were expelled all the way out here to the middle of nowhere by a high level spirit." That piece of information made Charlotte's eyes widen even more, Gabe only nodded as if he knew what she was thinking. "-no I do not know if…he knows where you are. However, that doesn't mean he won't figure out a way how to. Charlotte you are his flesh and blood, he'll want you back." Charlotte's expression all but dropped as tears started to swell behind her eyes. Gabe reached out a finger and placed it under her chin, tilting her head backwards, only until her eyes met his own did his hand moved to rest against her cheek. "But don't worry, If Lucifer does find his way to you, all you gotta do is pray." Charlotte's eyes closed as a single tear leaked from the corner of her eye.
A kiss against Charlotte's forehead was all she felt before a flutter of wings was heard. Opening her eyes again Charlotte let out a loud groan, with another flick of her wrist and the inhabitants of the living room came to life again. Damon was the only one that seemed to notice that anything was different about the room.
"What did you do to my vase?! There is water on the carpet. Charlotte!"
-x-
"Are you sure you guys don't want me there tonight?" Alaric had asked the group once everyone was standing in a circle, surrounding the table, after Damon had stopped fretting about his broken vase and soaked rug.
"No, I need you to stay with Elena." …what? "I don't want her to know about this." Stefan told Alaric, though his gaze had landed on Charlotte. Why was he looking at … oh is it because I blab? I blab a lot about plans that shouldn't be blab about. Charlotte ended up poking her tongue out at Stefan to which his lips twitched but he ignored her.
"Okay, well. I'll make sure she doesn't leave my sight."
"Hey maybe I should help Ric keep Elena under control?" Charlotte butted in, and everyone turned their gaze onto her. Mostly with a look of 'a possibility.' Which then slowly dwindled down to a 'not a possibility.' Due to Caroline's death glare at both Charlotte and Stefan.
"No! No…I bought you a dress, you are going!" Caroline all but pronounced to which Charlotte hung her head, before sighing. You shouldn't piss off a newborn vampire.
"Fine…" came the moan. Stefan shifted on his feet before he spoke up.
"Alright, if anybodywants to back out, I'll understand." Oh. Charlotte's hand, that had flown up was smacked back down by Caroline.
"Yeah cold feet speak now. I don't want this going wrong if someone chickens out. Caroline. Charlotte." Well now that wasn't fair.
"I won't." Caroline insisted…before she paused and looked over at Charlotte expectantly. Oh she was waiting for me to say…
"Fine - me neither. I need something to put my mind at ease anyway." She stated while crossing her arms over her chest, trying to push her glasses up without using her hands.
"Good and look, she killed me. Fair's fair. As long as there's no werewolf running around."
"Oh, I took care of Mason." Damon added as he smirked over at Charlotte before he did his eyebrow thing. You know the one were he stares at you, but his eyebrows go up and down.
"As long as Tyler doesn't kill anyone, he won't turn." Jeremy added.
"Bonnie? Are you with us?" Stefan asked Bonnie who had been quiet for the whole duration of the others talking. All heads turned to face her, while she looked up at them. Before a sigh escaped her lips.
"No one gets hurt."
"Except Katherine," Damon and Charlotte replied in unison. "Tonight Katherine gets a stake through her heart." He finished for them before he turned to face Charlotte and they high fived. Well - this should be a walk in the park.
A/N:
Phew - Chapter two is done! I hoped you all enjoyed. Possible Elijah next chapter :D But I wanna know if you guys like the story or not so leave a review! Otherwise I won't know!
As usual, I apologise for any spelling, grammar, tense mistakes at it midnight and I just suck at proofing heh.