My dudes this is so self indulgent lmfao feel free to skip as many lines as you want but tips and suggestions are always welcome. also feel free to flame me lol I wont reply maybe ill cry about it later but lets be real yall be crying during this quarantine
Dude I haven't been a teenager in like forever rip me ;-;
special thanks to BrookeWorm3 for reviewing and everyone who subscribed and favorited this fic! I hope you guys like this chapter c:
I actually don't like this chapter but whatever
When Irene first introduced her mom to Mystic Falls, her mom refused to leave the house. So scared of what other people might think of Irene's supposed absentee mother and the rumors she might've accrued.
If it wasn't for her abrupt trip to the hospital, Mystic Falls and Leonie, as a whole, might've never have intersected so perfectly together.
The cause was, of course as always, Damon. In a bout of trying to figure out who was the more powerful of the two, the older vampire spurred Irene and Bonnie on into a fight that ended in Bonnie's favor. Irene, despite having been trained and, unknown to them, depleted of most of her powers after Pulling Leonie, let a blast go wayside and ended up with third degree burns that she refused to let Damon heal.
Bonnie, beyond mad already at being goaded into a fight, immediately drove her to the hospital and it was here that Leonie found her, after having received a frantic phone call from an unsure receptionist. Arriving just as frantic when she arrived in the waiting room.
"K-Kat?" The utterly hesitant and terrified tone of her whispered gasp was what made Bonnie look up between tears.
The Chinese woman standing before her was an utter mess. She looked to be around Jenna's age, albeit a little older but it was hard to tell with her features. Her dark hair was pulled up into a bun, black circles visible under concealer two tones too yellow than her neck, and her entire outfit was littered with small white hairs. Like a white dog had attacked her on the way to the hospital. Bonnie knew only one white dog and that was Leonie's Eurasier, Atlas.
Oh. Atlas.
Irene's mom, to Bonnie, was not that impressive a sight at that moment. She looked like she was just dragged out of bed and not at all worth all the excitement Irene had stewed up while talking about how her mom was finally back to stay permanently with her. Bonnie knew that with her dad's passing, Irene was all kinds of out of sorts and Elena's supernatural business wasn't helping it. But for a woman that did not even show up for her own husband's funeral, Bonnie really was expecting more out of one of her best friend's moms.
Even if said best friend was hospitalized thanks to no one's fault but her own.
"Hi, Mrs. Zhurong," Irene had spent ages teaching Bonnie the proper pronunciation in exchange with Bonnie and her grandmother teaching her about their heritage. At this point, Bonnie was quite confident with her tones. She didn't know why Irene's mom stiffened all the same though, "I'm Irene's friend, Bonnie."
"Ah, Bonnie..." came the hesitant reply and then a perfectly manicured hand came up to scratch the back of her neck. Bonnie's heart was already wrenching at the thought of having hurt her friend, she didn't want to think about the possibility that Irene's mom was going to turn out her polar opposite and be not as accepting as Irene made her out to be. Despite being friends with the sheriff's daughter and the town council's princess, Elena (who liked to pretend that she didn't have everyone wrapped around her finger), Bonnie knew that some people just weren't going to accept that her and Sheila were around to stay.
Irene talked the world of her mother. She adored the woman and Bonnie adored Irene. Ever since she started coming out of her shell, Irene liked to regal them of tales of her mom's travels around the world and the people she met. Bonnie didn't want to find out if the protagonist of those stories would turn out to be just another passersby who'd scoff at her skin color as she walked by. Even if the reason why Irene was hospitalized was because of her, Bonnie didn't want to hear it come out from the mouth of someone she was best friends with idolized.
Even if she did deserve it.
She didn't realize she was clenching her fists white when she felt a silken touch ghost past her knuckles. Bonnie looked up and the haunted look on Leonie's face was gone and replaced with a small smile, "You can call me Leonie. Can you tell me what happened?"
And she did, more than Bonnie liked to admit. The sudden shift in uncertainty to responsive acceptance was so reassuring that Bonnie couldn't help it. The second Leonie shifted herself so she was completely turned towards her and started patting her arm with her free arm, Bonnie unfolded like a house of cards. She found the more she talked the more she liked Leonie and the more she understood why Irene seemed to think the world of her absent mother.
It was in the way that once she heard Bonnie's voice catch, she immediately folded the girl into an embrace and despite the pounding heart in Bonnie's ear, Leonie kept whispering that everything was going to be alright. Her quiet voice silencing the sound of the hospital around them and drowning out the sound of Bonnie's own guilt.
There was something about Irene that made it so easy to let loose around her. She noticed it during one of the many sleepovers they'd have when they were younger, when Caroline and Elena were far gone in their dreamlands. Bonnie and Irene would stay up until their eyes burnt just talking about the looks they'd get from townspeople and bond over the fact that no one else really got it. With Caroline and Elena, Bonnie was always scared of being too loud and rowdy alongside the girls. Until Irene was adopted into their trio, Bonnie thought that was all she was going to be until she left Mystic Falls—the quiet and reserved friend. It wasn't until Irene joined in, did she really feel okay with letting loose when they all started going to parties and drinking until the sunset.
Being around Leonie felt like a fresh new breeze of air. If Irene was like stepping outside for the first time, then Leonie was the breeze that lulled you out and the beam of sun that warmed your skin.
Idly, she wondered if this was what it would be like if her mom never left her in Sheila's care.
When the nurse finally let them know that Irene's operation was over and was okayed for visitors, Leonie practically flew up from her seat alongside Bonnie and into the room the nurse just exited out of.
The fact that Damon was already in there did not seem to faze her at all. Not as much as the fact that the second the two Zhurongs' eyes met, the younger of the two completely broke down in a way Bonnie never witnessed before.
When Leonie immediately went over to her daughter and started combing her fingers through her daughter's hair, whispering words that cemented the image of a tired single mother comforting her child in Bonnie's eyes, it just clicked and she had to yank Damon out of the room just so the two could keep their privacy. No longer did she look disheveled in Bonnie's eyes. Just overworked and tired of something unsaid. Her messy hair but clean manicured fingers blended into one cohesive image that she knew someone like Carol Lockwood would never dare allow herself to be seen in public in. Leonie was a tired single mother with just as many resources as Carol but without a care in the world for the social side of her money. She didn't quite understand it, but she got it.
Just as Irene waxed soliloquies about her absent mom, Leonie seemed every bit aware of what she said and tried her best to play the accompaniment. Bonnie never knew Irene to break down. She'd seen her through heartbreak and cheesy romcoms, but not in the same way she was now wrapped in her mom's arms. It was like a cork was unscrewed and all the tears couldn't be held back anymore.
Bonnie had seen the lost look in Leonie's eyes. Bonnie also saw her close her eyes before kissing the top of her daughter's head and shuffled her closer.
Before she closed the door, she noted how comfortable her friend looked despite bawling her eyes out and being hooked on anesthesia. It was a look she hadn't seen since before the funeral when Irene would go around town and hang out in the weirdest places with her dad.
After the third degree burns fiasco, Leonie seemed to suddenly be almost everywhere throughout Mystic Falls. Irene called it adventuring for the first few weeks where she dipped out of their plans to drive her mom around the town. During that month, she was introduced to almost anyone that was worth being introduced to and it seemed like after a few minutes she charmed her way into all their hearts like she did Bonnie.
Irene, as a joke, called it her motherly instinct— her mom charisma. Her BME. Big Mom Energy.
Leonie was none the wiser and kept doing as she was doing. When it seemed like she was as comfortable with the town as the town was comfortable with her presence in not just the Falls but also in Irene's life (her meeting with the Salvatores were interesting, to say the least), she really stepped up to the image she made of herself after allowing Irene to keep living in that mansion of her's and went back to her work life.
Irene said her mom was something like a traveling writer slash performer of sorts. Her stay in Mystic Falls after years and years of being absent in her daughter's life was something like a sabbatical. But now that she was her own boss, she just had to keep up with meetings and whatnot.
It was sometime during one of these meetings and her monthly work-related absences that Mystic Falls as introduced to Irene's not-yet-stepdad— Elijah.
And let it be known that Mystic Falls loved Elijah as much as they loved Leonie from the moment they laid eyes on him.
The first time Caroline and Bonnie met Elijah was during one of their days off in which Elena went to go hang out with Stefan. Caroline was only a little bit incensed that the girl had dipped on them to hang out with her boyfriend, but Irene had reassured her that the Gilbert girl had plenty of chances to come hang out with them in the future.
It wasn't like they were going to be banned from having sleepovers anyways.
The freshly renovated Zhurong house was beautiful and huge and even though it had the perfect space for it, devoid of a pool. A fact that Caroline lamented but Irene was strangely adamant about not having. Her dad (may he rest in peace) was a swimmer turned librarian when an injury healed the wrong way; it just seemed entirely absurd that the man wouldn't have installed a body of water in his own home— was Caroline's argument. Irene would just shrug it off every time as the blonde treated it like it was the scandal of the century.
It was during one of these rants that Irene's mom and Elijah walked in. All three girls were sprawled across the fully spread out sofa bed with Atlas sleeping in between them. Caroline, just about three sentences into the conclusion of her thesis as to why the Zhurong residence was just begging for the presence of a pool when Leonie breezed past the living room before stopping abruptly. A clear giggle cut short in the short second it took for her to realize that she wasn't as alone as she thought.
Caroline's first impression of Leonie was very much the same as Bonnie's. Messy hair but detailed like a royal. Unimpressive with a dash of strange. Their first meeting was so similar down to when the woman stared at her in something akin to stunned awe. To be honest, and let Irene never know this fact, Caroline thought that Leonie was actually a bit daft in those few minutes of their meeting. She knew her best friend liked talking about her mom, but the fact that the first thing that Leonie had said upon seeing the blonde for the first time was a hesitant "Candice?" was kind of insulting.
"No, it's Caroline actually." Never one to judge too fast, Caroline had sprung up and immediately after Leonie had blushed a bright red and apologized just as fast. The bright smile that sprouted over Caroline's features thereafter was shared between the two as the conversation turned from awkward to some funny topic or other. Long story short, Caroline really did like Leonie. She was so refreshing in the clamminess that was Mystic Falls.
So along with Bonnie and Irene, for whatever reason given that this was her mom, she paused and just stared as Leonie came into view followed by a taller man dressed in a rather dashing three-piece. Leonie herself was also dressed to the nines in a white lace dress that Caroline swore she once saw was hanging in the back of Irene's closet last she checked. The girls exchanged looks as Leonie stiffened like a teenager caught doing something she ought not to be doing before clearing her throat.
"Girls," beside her, Irene was tilting her head curiously at the man standing beside her mom. With three teenagers giving them the most absurd re-enactment of parents catching their rebellious daughter sneaking back into the house at night, the man looked totally in his element. In fact, with the way he was posturing next to Leonie, it seemed like he was enjoying her discomfort and damn. Caroline was so curious.
"Hi, Eli." Irene greeted and the two girls beside her swung their heads back to stare at her. Though a little taken back, Irene acted like the scene before her was perfectly normal. If not amusing. Judging by the smile, whatever development they were all witnessing was something she was very satisfied with and god forbid if Caroline did not get all the details by the end of the night, she was going to tear Irene Zhurong a new one.
"Good evening, Irene. Having fun?" Oh lord, even his voice was wow. Dulcet was the only way to describe that accent.
"Mmmhmm," Irene hummed and exchanged looks with her mom, who to her credit, wasn't even trying to pantomime killing her daughter if she didn't shut up in the next three seconds. "How was dinner?"
"Excellent," the man answered back and damn if that didn't make Bonnie and Caroline swoon. The man adjusted his tie and aw! placed a hand on Leonie's back, staring down at her with a small smile and no longer looking at Irene. "The company had a lot to do with that."
Bonnie could've punched a hole into Irene at that. The Chinese girl was definitely going to have a bruise with how hard Caroline was squeezing her arm, an action that she reflected with almost the same strength to her. One of the three of them almost squealed.
The look on Leonie's face was well worth the injuries. Everything about her just screamed relaxed next to Elijah, his posture and expression reflected right off him onto her. She was smiling as she leaned into his touch. Caroline and Bonnie would have argued it to be lovingly. Later, Leonie would argue back that the man was just radiating heat and she was unconsciously inching towards him because she didn't know that Irene's dress was that breezy. At the moment, the older woman just stared at the man-not-her-boyfriend with an expression close to what priests would say newlyweds looked at each other with before composing herself and addressing the three of them, "so it looks like this year's town events are going to have a new sponsor."
"Cool," Irene whistled nonchalantly and even if Caroline was excited at the prospect, imagine all the possibilities!, she was still enthralled with the actual Hallmark movie moment happening before her.
When Elijah finally left with everything that included a kiss on Leonie's hand, everyone screamed and that was all it took for them to circulate the rumor that Mystic Fall's resident bachelorette was taken in every sense of the word. After Caroline finally was able to get everything out of Irene about the man, she had a new mission that included a dossier as to why Elijah Smith was the perfect candidate to being Irene's new stepdad.
Of course, none of the girls told Leonie (who vehemently and frequently claimed that that man was only a business partner, but she will admit that Elijah was dreamy) about the dossier and Caroline's new personal mission. Irene only knew a little bit about Caroline's new obsession, but for the most part, left the vampire to her own devices.
And obsess over it, she did. Caroline went through pages and weeks of planning and giggling to Bonnie until Elena's literal existence turned all their lives into a dumpster fire.