5

Of Feet and Fate

Bonnie had been doing her nails herself for weeks. Katherine had offered but there was no way Bonnie was letting the vampire anywhere near her person if she could help it. Besides, she felt she was doing a good enough job. Caroline had never complained.

Kai didn't agree. She knew this because he said so loudly and often, while offering his services at the same time.

"What do you know about manicures and pedicures?" Bonnie finally asked.

"Sissy made me do hers every week since we were eight. Actually, I did hers and she did mine… Don't judge," he added when Bonnie burst out laughing. "That didn't last for long. The 'doing mine' part I mean. Meanwhile, I became something of an expert, if I say so myself. Younger sisters started recruiting my services. You can't believe how many chores you can trade away for an emergency filing."

Bonnie had got mani-pedis from men. The first time Faye and Melissa had taken her to a DC salon, Bonnie had been skittish and disconcerted. But after a while, she had relaxed into it. It was no different from having your nails done by a woman. Some guys were better than others, some were more forgiving of calluses and old polish, some bossier about their choice of polish and nail art.

One day, after Kai kept a running commentary for three hours on the state of her toenails, she caved.

Almost immediately, she realized her mistake. But then it was too late.

In the few weeks after Bonnie came back, she had had a lot of intense discussions with Liv Porter. The older witch clearly felt extremely guilty over everything that happened and in her own blustery way, had tried to apologize for her role in Bonnie's suffering.

Bonnie had accepted the apology. But her relationship with Liv was strained now, in a way it hadn't been in a very long time.

And Bonnie wasn't sure she wanted to fix it.

She had always got along better with Luke than his sister. When she had first moved to Portland, and started going to the Parkers and learning Craft side by side with the twins, Liv seemed to develop an instant dislike to her. Later, Bonnie would discover that the twins had known about the engagement long before she was told. Status and circumstances had made the twins extremely close to each other. Liv saw Bonnie as a third wheel, a possible rival for her brother's time and attention. That Bonnie, despite knowing so little about magic, began to display more power and more natural ability than Liv, also rankled.

But as they grew into teenagers, they had come to appreciate having a girl to talk to and share experiences with, and had become friends. Liv still tended to show off her superior knowledge and was miffed when Bonnie mastered a spell faster than she did. But Bonnie believed that at the heart of things, they cared for each other and had each other's back.

It was a belief that had been tested and had failed.

So it was with an uncertain heart that Bonnie dialled Liv's number that morning.

It rang once and connected.

"Hi, Liv. Getting ready?" Caroline had managed to wangle an appointment at some exclusive nail salon for the bridal train that morning.

There was only silence at the line. Bonnie knew someone was there: she could hear breathing.

"Liv? Hello? Can you hear me?" She checked the phone, made sure she hadn't accidentally pressed the mute button.

She hadn't. There was still silence. Unnerving silence.

She swallowed.

Eight. Nine. Ten. She counted ten rings and was about to hang up on the call to Katherine's hotel room when it connected.

"Katherine?"

Silence on the other end.

"Katherine? Did you get it?"

Still silence.

Dread on her end.

"K-Kai?"

"Clever girl."

"Bonnie? Bonnie, are you there?"

Liv's urgent voice pulled her back to reality. "Yes, I'm here, Liv. Where were you? You were just silent on me."

"Sorry. I had to get the door." There were background noises of shuffling, the beep of a microwave. "What's up?"

Bonnie nodded to herself. Of course, that was all there was to it. What was she thinking?

"Mani-pedi is this morning."

"Wow, thanks for reminding me. I mean Caroline's already buzzed three times but it completely skipped my mind."

Bonnie bit her lip. "Caroline wrangled us a slot at Dupont. You know how hard it is to get a space there. We used the wedding option to get the appointment and we still had to book three months in advance. It's all so pretentious, if you ask me. We're still going to get our nails done all over again before the day. I mean, what's the big deal? I've seen the nails that come out of there. I've got better from other salons. I've even got better from-" She checked herself.

She was rambling. She could practically feel Liv's testiness. She took a deep breath and nerved herself to say what she really wanted to say.

"Anyway, maybe you should skip it, if you have other things to do?"

"I don't have other things to do."

"Oh. Er… You have a fitting for your bridemaid's gown-"

"It's at 11. It's exactly half an hour after the mani-pedi is over."

"Oh. Oh, yes it is."

"Caroline synced our calendars. I have appointments at the same time as everyone else. It's supposed to be a group event. What's the matter, Bonnie, you don't want me to come?" Her voice was hard.

Bonnie bristled. Usually, she put up with Liv's brashness. But not today. "Actually, Caroline doesn't want you to come. She said, and I quote, 'if I see Liv Parker, I will kill her.'"

There was silence at the other end of the line.

Bonnie immediately felt horrible. "Look… Liv."

"Fine. I'll go to the fitting by myself. I can do my nails myself anyway."

"Liv-"

"Is there anything else I'm uninvited to? I need to update my calendar."

"Liv-"

"Or should I just step off the bridal train completely while I'm at it? What do Meliisa and Faye think? Why do I ask? They hate me more than Caroline does."

"Caroline doesn't-"

"I'd love to stay and chat all morning with you, Bonnie but I have a dress fitting to reschedule. If there isn't anything else…"

Bonnie swallowed. "Liv, I'm sorry. I'll-"

"I guess not. A happy mani-pedi to you. Send the bitches my love."

The call ended.

Bonnie sighed.

He had large hands with long, slender fingers. She tried not to squirm when he held her ankle in the circle of his grip, tilting her foot this way and that. His face was bent over her leg, his brows furrowed in concentration.

There was something… disconcerting… about this.

Then he ran his palm down her sole, feeling for calluses.

She almost kicked him in the face.

"I'm ticklish," she explained, burning face, pounding heart.

She was ticklish. And that was the only reason why her whole body had lit up like a match when he touched her.

That had to be the only reason.

"You're ticklish?" He asked and his voice and face was pure unadulterated joy.

She knew for certain she had made a mistake.

Half an hour and one foot later – and was it just her or was he painstakingly slow – she was a right bundle of nerves.

"Stop wriggling," Kai murmured, his hands steady as he carefully applied red polish on her toes.

"I said pink," Bonnie said. It was the first time she had spoken since she said she was ticklish. She meant the words to come out matter-of-factly, maybe with a bite of irritation, and was shocked at the way her voice sounded, low, hoarse… turned on.

What had she been thinking agreeing to this?

"If you're going to be walking around here bare-feet, then I'm going to be looking at them all the time. Might as well have something worth looking at."

"I'm not doing my nails for your benefit!"

"Technically, I'm the one that's doing your nails," he said cheekily, glancing up at her from through impossible long lashes and winking.

She tried to yank back her foot and he just managed to grab the ankle in the nick of time. "There… there now. Don't be silly and ruin all my good work." He scolded, tucking her heel firmly between his thighs.

Not for the first time in her life, Bonnie was grateful for her complexion's inability to blush.

His hands were warm. His thighs… where her foot was half-buried were warm. The room was warm.

She was playing with fire.

She tried to take her foot again.

Kai ran a finger down her sole and she almost jumped out of the chair.

"Stop it!" she shrieked.

"Do that again and I'll pin you down on that sofa and tickle you mercilessly."

A very explicit mental image of that scenario – herself pinned under his weight, wriggling helplessly, that focused determined look on his face as his hands ran all over her body – invaded her brain.

She stopped struggling at once.

"Bonnie, where's your head at? You're like a thousand miles away?"

Bonnie started.

Someone was carefully applying polish on her nails – pale pink, not red – but it was an older woman with small careful fingers. She wasn't reclining in the sofa of the Salvatore boarding house, but in the multi-functional armchair at Madam DuPont's Hair & Nail Spa.

Somewhere in the middle of their group mani-pedi, she had drifted off into memories.

Memories that she had no business reliving.

She turned to Melissa with a bright smile. "Sorry, I guess I slept off."

"Your eyes were wide open."

"It happens sometimes," Bonnie said, as casually as she could.

"Mmm.. hmm…" Melissa said, clearly not buying it. She seemed on the verge of saying more then she shifted her gaze to something above Bonnie's shoulder and backed down. "You can sleep all you need now. You have less than two weeks to get ready for this wedding. I have no idea how you intend to pull it off even with me and Faye flying in to help."

Bonnie had met Melissa and Faye during one of the Gemini coven gatherings shortly after she migrated to Portland. They had not perfectly filled the Caroline and Elena shaped holes in Bonnie's life… but they had carved out spaces for themselves in it. The coven elders had been quietly disapproving of Bonnie's choice to fill her bridal train – not with the daughters and wives of the coven elite – but with two witches from a backwater self-styled circle (not even a proper coven!) and a vampire. Liv's presence was already a given. It was one of the few times when Bonnie had not caved in to Joshua Parker and the other Gemini Elders, and insisted on her way.

She looked over her shoulder now, to see who – Faye or Caroline – had shut Melissa down. She caught the edge of Caroline's pointed glare and smiled her thanks.

Caroline didn't smile back. "Talking about all the help you need, where is your future sister-in-law? If she's not here in 15 minutes, she'll lose her slot. Madam Dupont is booked weeks in advance. She must know about today's appointment. I synced everyone's calendars and I sent hourly reminders."

"Trust me, Caroline, we got your reminders. All three of them," Faye grumbled from behind her magazine.

"So where is she?"

Bonnie shifted in her chair. She repeated her earlier conversation with Liv to the others. With some politically correct editing.

"You didn't have to do that, Bonnie," said Caroline, self-righteous hypocrisy oozing with every syllable. "I was just a little angry at the time. She's part of the train and she's welcome to do things with us. We're a team here."

"Oh please!" Bonnie retorted, eloquently.

Faye snorted. "Caroline, you're just worried that she'll bring us down on Bonnie's day. And you should be. Have you seen the bird's nest on that girl's head?"

"Faye!" Melissa hissed.

"What? I just said what we're all thinking."

Bonnie sighed. "Today's the first day and I needed to smooth the waters but I'm not leaving her out next time. I care about Liv, OK? And she cares about me. She made a mistake. Is there anyone in this room right now that hasn't done anything they regretted?"

Three pairs of eyes looked everywhere and anywhere but each other.

"No matter who wins the Merge, I'm going to be dealing with Liv one way or the other for the rest of my life."

"Wow, that isn't creepy at all," Faye murmured sotto-voce.

Bonnie pressed her hands to her temple "I need you guys to just … help me out, OK? Until the wedding, at least." She could hear her voice breaking but there was nothing she could do to stop it. "You have no idea the kind of pressure I'm under. Apparently, you literally can't wave a magic wand and have everybody forget that you're supposed to have died. I keep an affidavit in wallet that says I'm alive because every other day someone asks me for it. I'm constantly getting calls from some Warlock or the other asking for information about the Prison World and…" she swallowed. "The Prisoner. Luke and I are flying to Orlando for a meeting with some Elders who are too old to make the trip to the wedding but apparently need to bless us or something. And somehow I'm supposed to do all this and make out time to meet with the attorneys to discuss… " And to her horror, the tears starter pouring now. "…to discuss about my…"

Caroline was at her side in a heartbeat, her arms tight around her.

"My… my grandmother's last will and testament."

"Oh Bonnie, I'm so sorry," Melissa whispered.

"Why don't you just postpone the wedding?" Faye asked, shaking her head.

"I. Won't. Postpone. The. Wedding!" Bonnie screamed.

As one, the girls shrank back. Bonnie noted with some satisfaction that the good thing about being usually so easy going was that when you did lose your temper, it really got people's attention.

Then she noticed that the manicurists were still in the room, studiously working on their feet, and apparently oblivious to her recent rants.

"Silencing spell?" She asked Melissa, completely embarrased.

Faye rolled her eyes. "Smokescreen spell. Custom-made by yours truly. They think we're gossiping about your future mother-in-law."

Bonnie covered her face with her hands and sighed. "Look, I'm sorry I yelled. I'm just tired of having to explain myself every time. The Gemini coven needs this wedding to happen. And soon. He's out there, and he has a plan, OK? I don't know how much of what he told me was true, but if he's going to do half of what he claimed… then the coven needs every weapon they can use to fight the battle that is to come."

Except for Caroline, the other girls were all leaning forward to hear her. She didn't even realize that her voice had fallen to a whisper. It was a habit born out of the superstitious but very real fear she had that saying his name would summon him.

"Is that what you think of yourself, Bonnie? As a weapon?" Caroline's voice was sad.

Bonnie refused to let it get to her. "I was born into this incredible lineage. I have all this power. This was what I was meant to do. The Gemini coven are the good guys. I was destined to join my bloodline to theirs."

She didn't miss the way they shifty-eyed each other and she stared down each of them in turn, daring someone to say something.

Faye did not disappoint her. "I know you have this rule where your friends only get to give their opinion once, right?"

"Yes, I do," Bonnie said warily.

"So, you know I already said that I think that's a whole bunch of crap, right?"

"Yes, I know."

"OK. Just checking."

It was a mistake. She wasn't trying to get her foot from him. It was just a spasm, a completely involuntary spasm.

At least, that's what she kept screaming as he attacked her, his fingers expertly and mercilessly searching and devastating every single ticklish zone on her body. She tried to kick him off, and they ended on the floor, him kneeling over her, and his hands still working her sides. She was laughing and screaming so hard that she was barely breathing.

"Kai stop. Kai stop!" She managed between wracking giggles. "You're ruining my nails!"

He was laughing as hard as she was. "I gave you fair warning. Naughty girl."

The way he said the last two words made her shiver in an entirely different way.

Somewhere in her head, Bonnie's common sense was screaming at her to stop this.

She worked out her arms from under his, and tried to push him off. "Kai," she gasped. "Let me go."

"Mmm… let me think," he said, grinning. Then he grabbed both hands with one of his own and yanked it over her head, the other hand working towards her stomach. "No."

"Come on," she said and tried to kick him again.

His eyes glinted. "Oh no, you did not!" He pressed his whole length down on her, pinning her in place easily.

His whole long, hard length.

Hard, in every sense of the word.

They both froze at the same time.

He was so near her that she could count his lashes if she wanted to, his breath was fanning her face. She watched the apple in his throat bob. His eyes were dark, burning.

"K-Kai," she whispered.

He groaned, and buried his face in her throat. She felt his hot breath on her skin, his lips a few inches from her cleavage. She squirmed and realized her mistake too late. His pelvis seemed to lock into hers.

Every nerve in her body was aching.

"Kai," she said, almost a cry now.

"My god, Bonnie," and he literally growled the words into her skin, making her bones vibrate.

"We can't-"

"Do you have any idea, how badly I want you?" He was moving up the column of her throat, over her jaw, her chin… She felt the press of one kiss, then another, then another. He was lighting a trail of sparks on her and every one of them was igniting. "I dream about you. Like this. Being inside you. I think about you all. the. time. Bonnie, you haunt me."

Each word he spoke was like a cannon ball at her defences. He was so rarely serious, so rarely vulnerable. From the moment Katherine had told her point blank, Bonnie had seen it, seen his persistence, and she had been running, from it, from him. He had turned it into a joke that she pretended not to get the punch-line of, and they had been dancing around this for weeks.

Because she couldn't. One day, she'd get them all out of this place and she'd have to face the reality of her existence and this was not something that could ever happen to her. Not if she wanted any semblance of sanity or joy in her life.

She swallowed against the lump forming in her throat, desperately trying to control her treacherous body and stop this. "Kai," she started and then his lips swallowed the rest of her words.

That was the kiss that sealed her fate. After that, there was absolutely nothing she could have done to stop what was going to happen.

Some people went through their whole lives without knowing what they were born to do. And for a long time, Bonnie Bennett believed that she wasn't one of those unlucky people. Because she believed she had a purpose. She believed she had a destiny. She believed she knew why she was born.

Until that moment.

Because in that moment, in that kiss, she realized that she hadn't had a clue. Because now, she knew. Everything in her life, every decision she had made, every path she had chosen was pre-destined to lead her to this moment.

She was born to kiss Kai Parker.

She could feel the synapses in her brain breaking and making and making and breaking. Every bone in her body, every drop of blood was screaming one word.

Finally!

The part of her brain that could still function rationally was wondering why on Earth (or Hell) she had fought this for so long, drawn it out, tiptoed around it, side-tracked, dodged, hidden behind Katherine, circumvented… when it was clearly inevitable and if she had known this was how it was going to be, she would have kissed Kai Parker the moment she first laid eyes on him.

Their mouths slanted around each other, sucking, biting, licking, tongues twining and warring with each other, tasting places they probably hadn't known existed. One of his hands was in her hair, angling her face as he burrowed even deeper into her mouth. The other hand was running up and down her side in a jerky, desperate rhythm. She had a hand on his neck and the other arm across his shoulder, clinging for dear life because she was drowning and she was going to take him with her.

They were literally out of breath when they pulled apart and even then, his tongue kept flicking over her lips, as if he couldn't stop tasting her.

"Please don't make me stop," he whispered, his voice tortured, his body shuddering against hers in a way that was incredible and terrible at the same time.

"We're not stopping," she whispered back, almost like a warning. She barely recognised her own voice.

If a mere kiss could make her feel like this, then there was no force in the world that was going to stop this.

His eyes were shining, glowing as they searched through her face, as if he didn't quite believe her, as if he was searching for doubts.

She tightened her grip on his neck and pulled him down.

The time for doubts had passed.

A/N: Thank you so much for the outpouring of encouragement and support and commiseration! It's so wonderful just knowing that you know, we're not alone. We're not .. delusional. I'm not crazy for seeing something in this pairing that I believe was promised to us right from 6x2 when they met for the first time - and for feeling cheated that we never got that. So I'm going to keep pushing through this fic because even though it's AU, I want to keep it as real to what canon Bonkai ought to have been. Keep sending your vibes, guys. You're just wonderful.

A/N2: There's so much going on in this chapter that I have no idea what to call it. So please, dear reader, any suggestions?

A/N3: Faye and Melissa are from the Secret Circle (TV version, I think). Modified to fit my fic! I loved them (the show, not so much).