A/N: Shared perspective on the latest (brief) scene.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Jeremy has practiced stoic since she walked out the door. He expected his resolve to crumble the moment he saw her but shit, when have any of his expectations come true? His surprise barely registers when their eyes connect. Damn if her presence or her wide eyes don't affect him.
Bonnie is flustered, that much he can tell and her eyes admit. She neglected to fortify herself against the (high) probability of seeing him so soon. Maybe, and this thought flits across her features, tightening her mouth and softening her eyes, she didn't because the typical Jeremy response would be head-on confrontation, pressure from all sides, staunch refusal to match her rather hesitant one. And she could definitely deal with that and reduce what he felt into some trite phase. But he does no such thing. He stands there in the doorway, a man breaking through the blackness of his eyes to look at her.
Jeremy follows her jerky movements with his mouth shut. Something has changed in him, something died in him when he did what he did. He's been rejected before, been played, played back, done all that but he's never done this. He's never stood there, an immovable object, a force you either collide into or avoid. He won't lie to himself—seeing Bonnie squeezes his gut into an origami square. He keeps his mouth shut because he might say something to get Elena out of the room. From there he might say her name in a soft way that comes with a caress and an expelled breath. God knows it would be much easier to do the typical thing.
His eyes are too focused so she cuts short the conversation and rushes past him. For a second she thinks he might angle his body away to give her room but he stays. She flows around him, holding her breath because to breathe would mean to acquiesce. To what? A flash of brushing knuckles answers this current needling question.
There's only so much stoicism Jeremy can maintain. He angles his head towards Bonnie as she slides around him and the mask slips. His brow furrows, his thoughts become tangled in touching her and containing himself, in doing what he knows and practicing what he doesn't. Bonnie makes the choice for him—she disappears, leaving Jeremy more of a hardened mess than before.
Thirty minutes later she sneaks a glance at him sitting on the stairs. He has an elbow on one knee and a hand propping up his head. Jeremy smiles against his fingers in such a way that makes her want to press a kiss right at the uncovered hook of his mouth. Her eyes follow his back to a flailing Elena. The reluctant pride at creating an invisible barrier melts away.