Three is Company

The candles have all gone out but Tyler can see clearly in the dark. He doesn't know what woke him, not until he glimpses Bonnie fumbling through her chest of drawers. He glances across the bed and sees Jeremy, one arm thrown above his head while he sleeps. He can sleep through anything.

Bonnie pulls something out of the drawer, feeling over it with her hands, a pair of shorts and a tank top. She's as quiet as she can be, pushing the drawers closed with the tips of her fingers, but the quiet clicking sound as it closes might as well be a foghorn to Tyler's ears. When she turns away from the bed, she reaches for the zipper at the back of her dress.

Tyler could get up to help her, and be at her back before her fingers could even brush against the tiny metal contraption. He could do that. Instead he stays where he is. In the dark he might startle her, and he doesn't want her to know he's looking. When she catches hold of the zipper and pushes it down, he can see her bra. It's black, strapless, and her fingers are reaching behind her to undo the clasp while she lets the dress rest at her hips. She deposits her bra into one of the drawers before wriggling out of the dress. He looks away as she pushes it down, but the sound of it hitting the floor deafening to Tyler's ears.

He swallows as she climbs back onto the bed and eases between him and Jeremy. He didn't see her grab another blanket, and he's surprised when she throws it over them, even Tyler though he doesn't feel the cold. She turns onto her side to make more room, her back to him. When her breathing deepens, he knows she's fallen asleep.

When morning comes, Tyler's twisted himself onto his side in the night. The sunlight filters through the blinds to cast thin slates on the floor, illuminating floating dust motes as they traverse the air. Rolling over, he bumps into Bonnie, who lets out a contended sigh. Jeremy's thrown an arm around her waist. The top of his head is visible over Bonnie's shoulder, where his face is buried in the curve of her neck, tickled by her hair. It could be the opening to some romantic drama, the moment after the happy couple has finally become a couple and wakes up together in the morning.

Or it would be if Tyler wasn't there.

He moves fast to his feet, pushing aside the blanket. He's reaching for his jacket slung over Bonnie's desk chair when she speaks. "What are you doing?" Her voice is still thick with sleep. She raises her head from the pillow and squints at him.

"I was just gonna...go," he says.

"Why?" She doesn't wait for an answer. "Come back. It's not like there's anything to do." She untangles herself from Jeremy to look at the digital clock on her nightstand. She makes a face at the time. It's a little past nine which is too early for a Saturday morning given the night they had. She presses her face against her pillow again and grumbles into it. "Tyler, come back."

He can't help smiling as he climbs back into bed. He sits against the headboard and looks down at her. "Rough night," he says.

Bonnie smiles slightly and she turns onto her back. She forces a breath of air from her mouth as she rubs her forehead. "It wasn't all bad. Elijah's daggered isn't he?"

"Well, there's that," Tyler agrees. "I wish I could have seen you do it."

Bonnie's smile gets bigger and she moves her legs beneath the blanket. Her knees knock against him. "You wouldn't have been disappointed."

He's one hundred percent positive she's right about that.

"Do you think the others are ever gonna talk to us again?" He can still hear Caroline's voice and the crack of her chair as it splintered into pieces behind him.

"I don't know," Bonnie answers. "Matt will, I think. Caroline might once she's had some time. Elena...I don't know."

"What else did she say last night?" he asks.

"Nothing unexpected," she responds. "How could I do that? Why did we have to kill them? We could have talked about it." She makes a clucking sound with her tongue. "Nothing important. Let's talk about something else." Whatever happened with her and Elena, it drained her. "Jeremy told me he loved me," she says. "Last night."

Tyler drops his gaze to her nose. "About time," he says with a laugh that might sound a bit too forced. "Was that news?" It's always been very clear to him that Bonnie's and Jeremy's business together is very unfinished, though neither of them really knows how to finish it, or keep it going as it would appear.

"I guess not," she says. "I just wasn't expecting it."

Tyler wonders if it's okay to ask. He decides it is. If she doesn't want to answer she won't, but he suspects he knows the answer already. Bonnie's tugging at a loose thread on her pillow case when he speaks, and her gaze is focused on the tiny, insignificant thing. She looks up when she hears his voice, and fixes her very green eyes on him.

"What did you say back?"

Bonnie's lips part slightly and she draws in a breath. "I told him I loved him, too," she says. Tyler distracts himself with the buttons on his sleeve. "Is that news?"

Tyler shakes his head slowly, and raises his eyes to hers again. "No." It was inevitable really. "But...where do we stand in all this?"

"Where do you stand?"

"With you. And him. We're in this together, right?"

Bonnie nods and shifts to prop herself up on her elbow. "Right."

"I've always known you and Jeremy are you and Jeremy," he says. "I'm not expecting anything." He didn't expect what he's gotten this far. Bonnie kissing him that one time, Bonnie feeling anything for him outside the realm of friendship, Jeremy being fairly okay with the whole thing. It seems like too much to ask to be the endgame.

"It's just complicated," she says. "I told Jeremy the same thing. I don't want to mess us up. We've got enough problems without adding a love triangle to the mix."

"It's already been added, Bonnie," Tyler says. "And it's not messing anything up. We're okay." As if to prove it to her he leans down to peck the corner of her mouth. "We're all fine," he says against her lips. He feels her smiling.

When he pulls back, he can see her smile. "That's what Jeremy said."

"What else did he say?"

She looks hesitant for a minute but then she takes in a deep breath. "He told me that...you want whatever I want."

"I do," Tyler says.

Bonnie's eyes are hard on his and she presses her lips together, the corner curving upward into a smile she's trying to hide. "Whatever I want," she clarifies. He can tell she doesn't thinks he's game for it, whatever it is.

Tyler cocks his head to the side and narrows his eyes curiously. "Tell me what you want then. I'll give it to you."

Bonnie holds his gaze for a moment longer. Her tongue peeks through her lips, and he follows as she draws it back into her mouth. He'd rather she put it in his. She makes a quiet huffing sound as she looks away from him. "I just said I didn't want to mess us up and now I'm this close to actually doing that," she says, rolling onto her back again and covering her face with her hands.

God, she's cute.

Tyler smiles as he drapes an arm over her waist, his fingers just barely avoiding brushing Jeremy's arm. He adjusts so his face is level with hers, his feet hanging off the bed's edge. He looks down at her. At the sloping neckline of her tank top, twisted slightly and straining against the curve of her breasts, her chest rising and falling slowly. He can hear her heartbeat, beating slightly faster than normal. He tells himself it didn't start beating even faster when he touched her. He drags his eyes up to her face again where she peeks through her fingers at him, one green eye visible. "What?" she asks, dropping her arms to her sides.

"Tell me," he urges.

"It's-"

"Tell me."

"Tyler," Bonnie says seriously. "It's not-"

"What's not?" he asks. "Do you want us both? Is that what you're trying not to say?"

"No," she says, too quickly. Her eyes get wide and she glances away from his face.

Tyler laughs. "No?"

There's a smile that wants to appear on Bonnie's face, too, but she won't let it. "Tyler-"

He likes how she says his name.

"Bonnie. Do you want me to wake him?" he asks, nodding to Jeremy who is still sleeping.He should probably be involved in this conversation.

"No," Bonnie says. Her voice drops to barely a whisper like she thinks they'll actually wake him. They won't. A hurricane might wake Jeremy up or maybe a hard shove, but otherwise he's lost to the world. "We're not-"

"If that's what you want," Tyler says, interrupting her. "We can figure it out."

"That's not normal."

"We're not normal, Bonnie."

A hybrid, a witch and a hunter. There is nothing normal about them.

"You know what I mean," she says. "People don't-" She waves her hands around in a circle. "You know."

"People do," Tyler says. They just don't know them. Who is there to judge anyway? Elena? Caroline? Matt? They've got bigger things to be horrified about than the three of them being the three of them. And if they're not friends anymore anyway, then what's the harm in it? It's not like they have to advertise it. They're good at keeping secrets, after all.

Bonnie makes a stern face and rolls her eyes.

"If you don't want it, then we don't do it," Tyler says. "But if you do want it, then we can try. If you want to be with Jeremy, you can be with Jeremy. If you want to be with me the next day you can be. No jealousy, no conflict, no shame, just...you know, whatever."

Bonnie's quiet. They stare at each other for what seems like a long time. Maybe he imagines it, but he thinks he sees her eyes drop to his mouth. "I'm gonna take a shower," she says..

"Okay," he says, moving his arm so she can climb out of bed. "Think about it. Let us know."

He relaxes against the headboard again as she turns around to look at him. He sees her eyes slide from him to Jeremy. She laughs to herself as she shakes her head. When he hears the water start running in the bathroom, he leans his head back, and closes his eyes.

Jeremy looks at his phone. No messages, no missed calls, nothing. He considers calling Matt himself, but he doesn't think he'd answer, and he doesn't really want to talk if it'll just be more of the same of last night. But they haven't heard anything, not even about Rebekah being up and biting again. The only people he's spoken to this morning have been Bonnie and Tyler, which is nice, but usually he would have heard from Elena by now at least. She used to invite him over for dinner or lunch or something on the weekend. Now that the truth is out there, that seems unlikely.

The three of them eat scrambled eggs in front of the TV. Tyler sips from a blood bag through the morning. Bonnie avoids doing homework and reads from a grimoire instead. Sometimes she pauses to text Lucy back. They've been talking all morning, Lucy assuring her that Ramona's definitely out of the picture, and Bonnie making sure Lucy is definitely out of town and far away from Klaus. Jeremy takes inventory of his hunting gear while Tyler watches. Sometimes he checks his phone, too, and Jeremy knows Bonnie does. It's always a text from Lucy on the other side of that beep, but she still expects it to be someone else.

"I'm gonna go to my house," Tyler says, "to pick up the mail."

"Your mail?" Jeremy says.

"He has college letters," Bonnie says, "that he hasn't looked at."

Tyler pulls on his jacket. "And I should look at them. Be back in a few."

Bonnie's house has never felt so still. Outside of it, what's going on? Klaus may be reining Rebekah or she may be wreaking havoc on her brother. She's probably being clued in to all that's happened since she's been gone, Stefan and Damon being killed and everything. Within a few days Klaus and Rebekah will both probably know who's responsible for that. That's going to be a hard secret to keep. It won't just be Klaus and Rebekah. It might be Sheriff Forbes and what's left of the Council. Jeremy's not looking forward to the way Caroline's mom will look at them all once she knows the truth. He can't remember if she was still kind of friends with Damon or not.

Well, she did kill Jeremy once and that death would have been pretty permanent if not for Bonnie. He could always mention that if she decided to scold him or something.

Tyler returns with a stack of envelopes in hand and he joins Bonnie on the couch to open them. She takes half and he takes the other. She reads off the names of the schools there. Whitmore. Duke. University of Virginia. University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. University of Southern California. University of California - Berkeley. And those are just a few.

"I'm surprised you're looking at California," Bonnie says.

Tyler shrugs his shoulders and reaches for the envelopes. "It's far. Isn't that why you applied all the way out there?"

"Are you actually gonna go?"

Tyler becomes quiet. He stares down at the envelopes with their glossy seals. "I don't know. I like having the option."

Jeremy wishes he had the option.

"Well, Gilbert," Tyler says, propping his feet up on the coffee table but turning his head enough to look over his shoulder at Jeremy, "what do you think about California? You'll have to come with us if Elena decides to disown you. I can compel someone at a high school to let you register."

Jeremy grins but doesn't say anything as he rolls wooded bullets along the table's surface. "Sun and surf. What's not to like?"

It's hard to tell if Tyler's being serious or not. But where will he go when Bonnie and Tyler leave? He hasn't called his house home in months, and now that Elena knows what they did, it's unlikely she'll be extending anymore invitations for him to return. But Jeremy can't imagine following Bonnie and Tyler across the country where they'll be freshmen. It's not like they'll want Jeremy, still in high school, around to hang out in their dorm rooms. He'll be that kid following his older friends to parties.

Tyler will probably pledge some fraternity, and he'll eventually become president of said fraternity. All his frat brothers will know and adore Bonnie, his girlfriend, who no one will be able to say a negative thing about her. They'll all find her peculiar interest in the occult a little quirky, but they'll think she's incredibly sweet and painfully beautiful. Everyone will know them or want to know them or want to be them. How will Jeremy fit into these new lives they'll build for themselves? They won't be able to make room for him.

But there's no room for him here either.

"Jeremy," Bonnie says, "wanna go hunting?"

He smiles. It'd be nice to stake some vampires today. "It's not like we're doing anything else."

After a four hour roundtrip drive, staking four murderous vampires, chowing down on greasy fries and burgers at a diner along the way, and growing Jeremy's Mark by a measly three inches, they return to Bonnie's house. Jeremy's stares at his arm, expecting the Mark to grow a little bit more. Maybe it's having a delayed reaction.

"This is fucking ridiculous," he says indignantly, when it becomes apparent it's done all the progressing it's going to do for today. "This thing should be at least halfway done by now. How long is this gonna take?"

"As long as it takes," Bonnie says as she flings herself onto the couch. Tyler sits down with her and "We'll pick up the pace. We'll go at least once a week. Maybe more if we can, and we'll have to average out at least five vampires each time just to be safe. In a month or so we'll see where we are."

They might not have a month.

They didn't go to Nex this time but to another bar, further out but just as vampire heavy. Lucy suggested it. They didn't want anyone at Nex to realize they were making this a regular thing. The one they found was named Molly's and it was a dive. Vampires fed on humans in the dark corners. They few that bothered to hide their activities in the bathrooms with its suspiciously stained floors, killed the humans right there, and disposed of the bodies there, too. At least the ones fed on in the open usually got to leave.

Bonnie was more careful about them. She didn't want Jeremy too close so she sent them a few streets over, where they were better hidden. Tyler was there for each one, making sure nothing went to awry, and nothing did. It was uneventful. The humans being fed on were directed to Tyler, who fed them his blood and compelled them to run. Jeremy wanted to stay longer, kill a few more, but the crowd inside had started to thin. Taking any more might attract some attention.

"There's still a lot here," Bonnie says, examining his arm. She traces over the Mark with her fingers, seeing the new additions. "I can start trying to figure this much out and then we'll be halfway there when it finishes."

She's trying to be optimistic. At least one of them is. Tyler seems indifferent but he's got to be just as impatient. If this Mark will get them closer to killing Klaus, it would be nice if it didn't take a century or so to get it there. First Bonnie tries to take a picture of the mark with her phone but it doesn't show up so Jeremy decides to sketch it. Tyler grabs the mirror mounted on the wall in the hallway and another from Bonnie's room to hold so Jeremy can see. They sit in the living room together, Jeremy shirtless and drawing and Tyler helping how he can while Bonnie tries to decipher the meanings. She mumbles about Silas and Qetsiyah and takes notes in the margins of her own grimoire.

After about an hour, in which Jeremy watches a repeat of the squid documentary Tyler and Bonnie were watching the other day, Bonnie says she has to call Shane.

"I can come and show you what we have so far later," Bonnie says, perching on the edge of her bed. She has no idea what any of the illustrations signify, if anything. There's magic there, she can feel that much, but she doesn't know what she's supposed to do with it. "On Monday if that's okay."

The thought of going back to the school is a dreary one. Homeroom with Caroline will be terrible, as will class with Matt. Elena and Caroline will probably both skip lunch, but if she asks Tyler to sit with her, he will. But how long will that go on? For a week? A month? The rest of the semester? Is she going to graduate while not speaking to either of her best friends? Well, they'll graduate not speaking to her, too, so Bonnie supposes they'll all be suffering that one.

"I"m teaching all day," Shane says, "and I've got meetings all afternoon plus I have some research to send out. I won't be done until after six. You're welcome to come then."

Always so busy.

"I will," she says. Maybe she'll skip school entirely? But then Elena might think Bonnie has reason to be ashamed, and she definitely doesn't have any reason to feel ashamed for what she did, what she helped Tyler and Jeremy do. And she doesn't want to give Elena the satisfaction. But Bonnie doesn't think she wants to put herself through a full day of classes either, where she'll spend the whole day wondering what Elena and Caroline are thinking. Maybe she'll ask Tyler and Jeremy to skip with her. They can make this a three day thing.

"There's actually something I wanted to talk to you about," Shane says, pulling Bonnie from her thoughts. "Regarding Silas."

"What about him?"

"We'll talk about it on Monday," he says. "I'll see you then. Have a good night, Bonnie."

She hangs up and rejoins the boys downstairs. Jeremy's finished with his sketching and he passes the papers to Bonnie.

"Bonnie," Jeremy says, after a few seconds, "are they okay?"

She nods. "They're great. I'm showing them to Shane on Monday. We'll try to figure out what I'm supposed to do."

Jeremy doesn't bother to put his shirt back on. Maybe because he and Tyler are too riveted by that squid. Well, they never got to see the end last time. Bonnie sets the sketches down on the table and squeezes between them to watch. At least staring at Jeremy she can pretend she's simply interested in the Mark, which is what she'll say if Jeremy notices that she's looking at him instead of paying attention to the squid and its tentacles and the ocean science guy with the accent. As Tyler extends an arm along the back of the couch, she thinks about what he said this morning.

Think about it. Let us know.

She's definitely thinking about it.

She doesn't know if she'll tell them.

Tyler likes to give Jeremy shit about being a deep sleeper, but he's not exactly a light one himself. Bonnie sits at the edge of the bed for at least five minutes, humming contentedly, and playing with the hem of her giant Mystic Falls Cheer Squad t-shirt, before he wakes up.

"Hey," he says groggily, sitting up. Does he always sleep shirtless? And apparently pantless as well? "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she answers. She folds her bare legs beneath her. He might have caught a glimpse of her underwear when she did that, but if he did he pretends otherwise.

He rubs one of his eyes and smiles. "So, what's up then?" The arm he raises is the one with the bracelet on it with those ridiculously hideous shells. She reaches out to touch it, pulling his arm toward her. Her lips quirk upward into a smile as she drags a finger along the length of his arm, across the vein, stopping when she reaches his bicep.

"Bonnie," Tyler says. "This is fun but...what are you doing?"

She meets his eyes with hers. They're brown, so, so brown. While Jeremy's eyes are a sweet, patient brown, Tyler's burn with intensity. "I thought about it," she says.

Tyler's eyes widen slightly with understanding. "Oh."

Bonnie tugs on his arm. "Come on." They're definitely not doing this in her dad's bed.

He comes with her, lacing their fingers together as she pulls him toward her bedroom. The candles are lit again, like some cheesy nineties movie where the heroine is about to lose her virginity to her dream guy. If this was a movie there might also be rose petals strewn across the bed, but that may be hard to work up with Jeremy sitting there, his back against the headboard and wearing only a pair of baggy gym shorts. He looks up when they come in and he smiles as Bonnie pushes the door closed.

Bonnie releases Tyler's hand to go to Jeremy and straddle him. He doesn't say anything when he kisses her, tangling his fingers in her hair, and kissing her so completely she feels it everywhere. When his lips drop to her neck and his tongue flicks out to taste her skin, she exhales. With her fingers stroking the back of his neck, she turns her head.

Tyler's still at the door.

With a slow smile, she extends her hand. Come here.

The words have barely brushed against his brain when he's beside them on the bed, kissing her. She relishes in the familiar chill of his lips and the equal coldness of his fingers as he turns her chin to him. It's Tyler's mouth she gasps into when Jeremy's fingers, warm and gentle, skim beneath her shirt and across her breasts. Another gasp later and Tyler's tongue slips into her mouth. He does amazing things with his tongue. She takes one hand off Jeremy to slide it around Tyler's neck and hold him there. Bonnie sighs when Tyler's hands slide to her waist and rest delicately at the top of her panties. When his fingers slip inside them, inside her, she grins against his mouth. She feels him smiling, too.

Jeremy pulls away to lift her shirt over her head. Tyler breaks their kiss to help. When it's gone, thrown somewhere onto the floor, he pulls her mouth to his again while Jeremy's tongue skates along her neck and then lower, to the valley between her breasts.

"Bonnie."

In that moment she doesn't know which of them says it. Maybe it was both.

When she wakes up, her room is filled with pale sunlight. Outside she can hear a few squirrels taking their usual morning perusal of the tree outside her window. There's no Tyler, no Jeremy. It's just her. She lets out a sigh as she squeezes her eyes closed again. She can still feel Tyler's fingers and Jeremy's mouth.

Tyler's just down the hall and Jeremy's downstairs. She could go to one of them (both of them?) right now if she wanted to. They said it was okay.

But no.

I do not need a love triangle, Bonnie thinks. Still, it was a pretty good dream or it could have been, had she been allowed to get to the good parts. She rolls onto her back, and she smiles as she slips her hand between her thighs.

It's a good thought - an impossible thought - but a good one.

Welcome to Mystic Falls where three is company.

There may be a few mistakes in this one, typos and such, but I have to go deal with real life and I wanted to get this up. I will make any necessary corrections tomorrow. We'll see Matt, Caroline, and Elena again next chapter. Thanks for reading and reviewing!