sailor silvimoon: Thank you for the lovely review. Glad to hear you love my story.

"Okay guys, that`s it for today. Be prepared for a quiz sometime this week." Alaric warned, smiling at his students. He turned away and started cleaning the blackboard just as the bell signalled the end of today`s lessons. He could hear his students chattering as they filed out of the room and breathed a sigh of relief, which quickly turned to resignation when he looked over his shoulder and noticed that Elena had lingered. The girl had been giving him strange looks the whole time, proving his fears that Jenna had talked to her.

It was the Monday after their cancelled date. After his latest encounter with Damon. Upon returning to Mystic Falls late Friday night he had been struck by guilt. He hadn`t only lied to Jenna, he had also cheated on her again. Twice. After dropping the vampire off at the boarding house he had returned to his own apartment and vowed to himself that it wouldn`t happen again.

When he`d called Jenna the next day she had sounded pissed and told him she was busy. On Sunday she hadn`t answered or returned his calls and he knew he was in trouble. Sunday afternoon had found him at the Grill, having drinks with Damon who seemed to find his predicament very amusing and couldn`t really understand why Ric bothered.

And now he had to face Elena, who was looking at him with wide doe eyes. "I suppose you don`t have a question concerning today`s lesson?" he asked, sitting down on his desk. "Where were you on Friday? Jenna told me you cancelled your date." At least Elena cut straight to the point, instead of talking around the subject. He had to give her credit for that. "Damon and I had a tip where Isobel might be. We had to check it out quickly if we wanted to have any chance at catching her." he replied, reasoning with himself that technically it wasn`t a lie. He just wasn`t telling her everything.

"Did you find her?" Elena asked eagerly. "No, we were too late. I would have called you if we had found her." He knew that she wanted to meet her biological mother. He just wasn`t sure if it would be good idea. Elena tried not to let her disappointment show. "You should talk to Jenna. She was really upset." the brunette told him. Ric grimaced. "She`s not answering my calls." Not that he could really blame her. Elena smiled sadly. "Just give her time. Maybe she only wants to test how serious this is to you. Put a little more effort into it." she advised. "Okay. Thanks for the tip." Elena nodded and joined Stefan, who had been hovering in the doorway the whole time, without Ric noticing. He watched the two of them leave and then quickly went to finish his work.

On the way home he stopped by the florist. It had been a while since he had done this whole relationship thing, but flowers were never a bad idea, right? He looked at the red roses first, but dismissed those as too cliché. Maybe white ones? Or rather tulips? He realized that he had no idea what kind of flowers Jenna liked. The sales girl noticed his indecision and offered her help. In the end she chose a bouquet of white and purple roses for him.

He had just given her Jenna`s address and scribbled a hasty note onto a card, when someone spoke directly behind him. "Are those for me?" Alaric jumped and turned to face the grinning vampire. "They`re for Jenna. But I`m sure you knew that already." Damon adopted a fake hurt look. "Why does she get flowers and I don`t?" Ric cast a quick glance at the sales girl to make sure she wasn`t listening, before he answered. "It´s an apology, because I ditched her for you. Besides, I`m not dating you."

A strange look crossed the vampire`s face, but it was gone in a second. "If you ask me, I don`t understand why you`re putting that much effort into something that`ll never work out anyway." Damon told him in a bored tone and Ric felt the sudden urge to punch him. "I`m not asking you." He turned to the sales girl to pay for the flowers and when he turned back around again Damon was gone. Shaking his head Alaric went home.

A few hours later the teacher was sitting in his apartment. It had gotten dark, the only light coming from a small lamp next to the couch. He had just finished writing his lesson plans for the next day, when the door opened and Damon strolled in. "Stefan and Elena are at the boarding house. And they`re all lovey-dovey." he complained, dropping down on the couch next to the teacher and holding up a bottle of bourbon. "Drink?"

Ric shook his head. "I have to work tomorrow." he reminded the vampire, who only shrugged in response. "So?" Alaric wondered if he was imagining things or if Damon was actually pouting. Giving in (and damn it, why did he always give in to Damon?) he murmured: "Okay. But only one." Damon´s face lit up and he bounded to the kitchen to get them glasses.

For a few minutes they drank in companiable silence. "Any news on Isobel?" Ric asked after a while. Damon shook his head. "Maybe it`s better this way. Maybe we should just give up the search." the teacher mused. Damon arched an eyebrow at him. "I thought you wanted to find her so badly." he wondered. "Yes, but... maybe it´s a stupid idea, searching for the woman who ruined my life. And who obviously doesn`t want me to find her." Ric muttered, downing his drink and allowing Damon to pour him another one. If he kept going like this he was well on his way to becoming an alcoholic. If he wasn`t one already.

"Harsh." Damon commented, startling him out of his musings. The teacher shrugged. "I just think ... my life would have turned out differently when I hadn`t met her." he tried to explain. Somehow that thought was stuck in his head lately and he couldn`t help but wonder what might have happened if he hadn`t married Isobel. "Marrying her estranged me from my family. They hated her, you know?" He kept staring at his glass, not sure why he was telling Damon these things.

"My father wasn`t exactly fond of Katherine, either." The vampire let him know. Alaric looked at him in surprise. He had never heard Damon speak about his father before. "What was he like?" he asked, not sure if it was a good idea to question the vampire. If he would even answer. But he seemed to be in a talkative mood today. "He was a self-righteous bastard."

"You didn´t get along?" Damon shook his head. "He hated me. I could never do anything right. We fought all the time. That`s when he wasn`t simply ignoring me, of course." he was staring off into space. "Stefan on the other hand was his golden boy. You can`t imagine how often I heard the words `Why can`t you be more like your brother?`." Damon snorted. Ric was surprised at the pain he could see in the vampire`s eyes and wondered if he was aware that he`d dropped his usual mask of indifference.

"I know what you mean." he murmured finally, drawing Damon`s attention to himself. Startled out of his thoughts, the vampire schooled his features again. "My dad and I have a tough relationship as well." the teacher admitted. He didn`t like talking about his family. But Damon had been so open with him. He figured he owed him a little honesty as well.

"He always favoured my older brother. Which probably isn`t all that surprising. Nathan was always so ambitious. So much like him. Best of his year in high school, had his pick of colleges, became a lawyer, like our dad wanted him to. He has a nice wife and kids..." he trailed off, stared at his glass again. "Dad was always disappointed in me. Thought I was wasting my life by becoming a teacher. Back in high school ... and also in college I got into a few fights. I didn`t really mean to. It just happened, you know? The fact that my brother`s a lawyer really came in handy a few times, when he had to bail me out of jail... Of course my dad didn`t appreciate it when he found out. One more thing he could complain about. And marrying Isobel only topped it off."

Silence followed his admission. When he finally looked up again he could see a new found understanding in Damon´s eyes. They had more in common than one might think, he realized. Finally the vampire smirked. "You`re brother sounds horribly boring." Ric couldn`t help but chuckle. Still smiling he raised his glass in a toast. "To boring brothers." Damon mimicked the action. "And fathers who don`t give a shit. So why should we?" They drained their drinks and Damon left shortly afterwards, but Ric couldn`t help but think that something had changed between them.

The next chapter will be longer. I promise.