hey everyone! sorry for the wait! i've had a lot of schoolwork lately and i haven't had much time to write. i think i've developed a better schedule for writing so chapters probably won't take this long from now on. anyways enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 7 - Family Ties
The three of them sat silently around Ms. Gellar's unconscious body. The twins could easily wake her up, but they were hesitant.
Stefan, Natalia and Bonnie brought Michelle straight to the boarding house after they put her to sleep. She was currently sprawled on the couch in a blissful rest. They spent around an hour spitballing ideas of what the reason was for her resistance to compulsion, and they settled on her being an untriggered werewolf.
Their next dilemma would be waking her up. Nobody wanted to do that. Once she woke up, they would have to deal with her asking questions and they'd have to track her ancestry to make sure that the reason she wasn't responding to compulsion was because of wolfism instead of something else, and frankly, they were tired. Really, really tired.
"I don't want to wake her up." Bonnie said with a sigh, breaking the silent streak they had going.
"Neither do I." Nat agreed.
There was silence for a second until Stefan spoke. "This is only the beginning, isn't it?" He asked Natalia. "I mean, in your visions, it gets worse than this, doesn't it?"
The reborn witch looked at him apologetically and nodded.
He suppressed a whine and settled for a sigh and a frown.
Bonnie smacked her hands on her legs determinedly. "Y'know what? We all know that until Damon becomes good again - which he might not even do, the three of us will be handling all of the supernatural problems coming our way. We deserve a before break."
"A what?" Nat asked, slightly amused.
"A before break. A break before shit gets real." She explained.
Natalia and Stefan shared a chuckle.
"How exactly do you have a before break? " Natalia asked with raised brows.
"Well…" Bonnie fidgeted with her necklace. "You know how the founder's party is tomorrow night? I was thinking that maybe we keep Ms. Gellar asleep until after the party. You know, so we can have all day tomorrow to enjoy some supernatural silence."
Nattie thought for a second. "But we still have Damon to deal with."
"Yes, but Damon's not as big of a threat right now. Not with your rules and restrictions for him. He shouldn't be so bad that we can't enjoy the night." Bonnie shrugged.
Natalia sighed. "I don't know…"
Stefan placed his hand on her back. "C'mon, Nat. Let's live a little."
"Yeah, you've been in work mode since Stefan and Damon came to town. Have some fun." Bonnie encouraged.
She found that she couldn't say no to Stefan and Bonnie's puppy dog eyes. "Fine. Let's have a before break."
"Yay!" Bonnie exclaimed, embracing her sister in a big hug.
"We should probably head home. And Ms. Gellar should come with us. We don't want Damon to see her." Natalia said.
Stefan nodded and picked the teacher up. They made their way to the car. Stefan put Ms Gellar in the back seat and Bonnie got into the passenger seat.
"Thanks, Stefan." Nattie said with a soft smile. "For everything. You're a good friend."
"Thank you. I mean, I didn't think I'd have anybody who understands my… paranormal side, but you and Bonnie are making being here really easy. It's nice to have someone to relate to."
"It is." She said with a hint of sadness in her voice, because that's all she'd wanted since she'd been born into this universe. Someone to relate to. But it's kind of hard to find someone like that when in her predicament. Reincarnated souls don't just grow on trees. She sighed shakily. "See you tomorrow, Stefan."
He smiled and nodded. "Remember, it's before break time. Don't overthink your head off."
"I won't. Well, as long as you don't brood your head off."
"Touche."
They smiled again and waved to each other. Nat got into the car and drove her way home with a small grin on her face.
•••
The twins went straight to sleep after getting home from the boarding house, despite it only being 9 PM. Grams got home a little later and woke them up, making them explain why there was a random woman (Ms. Gellar) sleeping on their couch. When they told her what had happened with their teacher, she let them go back to sleep.
"Nice try, little Bennett." Natalia said, smirking at her sister.
"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked. "I totally beat you!"
Now it was the next morning and Bonnie and Natalia were having a water bending competition. They used a simple element manipulation spell ( elementa movere conantur, ignis, aqua, aer et terra in mea potestate est) to shape the water into shapes and animals with their powers.
Elemental manipulation was one of the first things they learned as witches. The four elements, fire, water, air and earth were the most important things to any practicing witch. It didn't matter if you did ancestral magic, traditional magic, traveler magic - whatever it was, you wouldn't be able to do it without at least one of the elements by your side.
Even witches who used dark magic and expression needed the elements. Without the big four, magic wouldn't exist at all.
Witches all have an element that is assigned to them when they unlock their powers. Bonnie's was fire and Natalia's was water (as she discovered when she almost flooded the house). Those were the elements that just came naturally to the girls. But Grams was a hard ass and tried to make sure that they were masters in all four elements.
A water bending competition was a bit unfair because water was Nat's strongest element while it was Bonnie's weakest, but a win is a win and a loss is a loss.
"Bon, don't kid yourself." Natalia scoffed. "I made a dragon out of water . Sure, your bunny was cute but it really just didn't stand a chance."
"That's not fair, though! I freaking hate water!" Bonnie pouted slumping back into her chair.
"I don't know what to tell you, babe. Sucks to suck, I guess." Nat grinned.
"I'm gonna kill you." The competitive little witch said, jumping out of her chair and chasing after Natalia who ran away right after she insulted her sister.
Bonnie finally caught up to Nat and tackled her to the ground. They laid on the ground together with smiles on their faces, both feeling more peaceful than they had in a while.
•••
The twins walked into the grille with Caroline (who was blabbering about her dress for the founder's party that night) in tow. They spotted Tyler having an awkward conversation with his parents in a booth. The werewolf had a huge pout on his face - bored with whatever his parents were talking about.
"Okay, so who are you two taking to the founder's party?" Caroline asked as they sat down at the table.
"Hmm," Bonnie thought, "Everybody's taken except for the three of us."
"Damn." Natalia hummed.
"Let's all go together." Caroline suggested. "We'll be a little threesome."
"I'm down." Bonnie said.
"Sure." Nat agreed.
They ate the rest of their meal, whisked Tyler away and all headed over to the Gilbert's house to get ready.
•••
Tyler and Matt were playing Call of Duty on the downstairs TV, Vicki and Jeremy were baking something downstairs with Grams and Miranda, and the twins, Caroline and Elena were getting ready upstairs.
"Hold your head still, Care." Natalia scolded. She was trying to braid the blonde's hair but Caroline kept moving her head because she was talking.
"Sorry." Caroline apologized half heartedly and continued to ramble on about how Tiki was cheating on her new boyfriend Kyle. Sometimes Nat questioned how Caroline retained this information, but when she asked, the answers she got were always vague as hell. Sometimes she thought that Care was a psychic or something. She could predict breakups way too easily for an average human.
Elena and Bonnie were doing their makeup at the mirror and exchanged an amused look at Caroline's antics.
Once they were all ready to go, the group of friends made their way to the founder's party. They met Stefan there (he and Elena exchanged some gushy sentiments about how the other looked), and Damon was nowhere to be found yet.
Matt, Vicki, Ty and Jeremy all went off to find their respective dates, Stefan and Elena walked hand in hand and the Bon, Care and Nat trio linked their arms and walked in together.
"Girls!" Carol Lockwood exclaimed when she saw them. "You all looked stunning." She said, trailing her judgemental eyes over them. "Are you all going together?" She asked cautiously.
"Yep." Caroline said, while both twins nodded confidently.
"Oh. How… progressive." She looked at them blankly for a minute and then snapped out of it. "Anyways, enjoy the party!"
The second they were out of Mrs. Lockwoods sight, the girls burst into a fit of laughter.
"We haven't even been here a minute and we've already been subtly insulted." Bonnie laughed, wiping a tear from her eye.
"Oh my goodness, she looked so scared of us!" Caroline wheezed.
When their laughs died down, they all got champagne and made a lap around the party, trying to scope out the drama. There was always drama at these parties, and Caroline was always on top of it.
As they were wandering, they caught Tiki stumbling into an empty bedroom with Trevor.
"Care, you were right!" Bonnie whisper gasped. "She is cheating on Kyle!"
"You know I'm always right." The blonde shrugged.
"Kyle and Trevor… does Tiki have a thing for frat boy names?" Nat inquired with a head tilt.
They all looked at each other and just giggled. They scurried away before they were caught snooping.
After a couple more rounds around the mansion, and many, many more glasses of champagne, the girls were successfully tipsy. Well, a little more than tipsy. They were strolling around the party loudly, their arms still linked. They were trying their best to avoid Caroline's mom, and everytime they spotted her they would make a sharp turn and end up knocking something over or bumping into someone.
They found Stefan and Elena in the display room. They were looking at the original registry of the first founders party in 1864.
"Helloooooo!" Caroline shouted, beaming brightly.
Stefan and Elena turned to look at the drunk trio, immediately noticing their intoxication levels.
"Uh, hi, guys." Elena said, "How's the party so far?"
"Really good." Bonnie said. Tears started to line her eyes. Bonnie was an emotional drunk. Whenever she was under the influence, she would cry at anything and everything. "I'm just so happy that I get to be here with you guys!" She sobbed.
Caroline was a loud drunk. "Bonnie, don't cry!" She screamed, enveloping her friend in her arms and rocking her around.
Natalia didn't remember drinking in her first life and she'd only been drunk a handful of times in this life, but she was a laugher when she was wasted. She started giggling uncontrollably. "Bonnie, it's happy time, not crying time!" She said through giggles.
Soon she had to hold her stomach because she was laughing so hard, which caused Bonnie and Care to start laughing as well - well, Caroline's laugh was more of a booming cackle.
Stefan and Elena watched them with raised eyebrows. They looked at each other and looked back to their friends who were wheezing with laughter.
Just then, Caroline toppled over Bonnie and both girls got champagne all over them.
"Oh no." Natalia said apathetically. Then she started laughing again.
Elena sighed. "Okay, let's get you two cleaned up. Stefan, can you handle Nat?"
He shot her a thumbs up and then caught Natalia who stumbled over.
"You okay?" He asked standing her up right.
"I'm a-mah-zang." She said. Her eyes grew wide. "Woah, I just created a new word. A-mah-zang. Stefan, I could make money off of that!"
Stefan chuckled. "You sure could." He replied. It was nice seeing her all playful and happy. Normally she looked like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. But then he was snapped back into reality and remembered something that he needed to talk to her about.
"Nat, Damon's here." He said. He knew that she probably wouldn't have a genuine response since she wasn't.. y'know, of sound and mind, but he still felt like he needed to tell her.
She snorted. "Damon? That's a silly name. Who's that?"
"Uh, Damon? My brother? That doesn't ring a bell?" He asked.
"You're a bell." She responded and then started laughing again.
"Natalia, this is serious." Stefan reasoned.
"Steffy, let loose a little! You're only a hundred-and-whatever pretending to be a seventeen year old once! This is supposed to be our break time, right? So let's dance."
"Nat, we really shouldn't. We have to pay attention to Damon, I thought he wasn't going to come since Ms. Gellar wouldn't be making him, but-"
" Ughhhhhhhhhh ." Nat groaned loudly. "Stefan, you know I love you more than the whole world and stuff, but you're really boring right now. I'm gonna go dance with someone else."
She kissed his cheek and skipped away.
Stefan sighed in frustration and finished his champagne in one gulp.
Natalia found someone to dance with right away. His hair was dark and his suit was black, which contrasted his ghostly pale skin very well.
She tapped on his shoulder and he turned around, showing her his face.
Her eyes grew wide when they made eye contact.
"Dude, your eyes are really blue! Like Zoboomafoo! You should get that checked out!" She gasped when they made eye contact.
Damon Salvatore raised his brows at her. She was clearly drunk. "Zobooma-what?" He asked with an amused chuckle.
"Zoboomafoo. It's an educational children's show that ran from 1999 - 2001. You look like the lemur that was on the show." She clarified matter-of-factly.
"Uh, do you know who I am?" He asked. Did she really not recognize him? "I have to say, I'm a little offended." He put a hand over his heart like she'd wounded him.
"Of course I know who you are! You're Damien! Stefan's brother! And you're here."
"I am here." He replied with slightly narrowed eyes. He didn't know what to make of this conversation.
"That's what Stef told me. Anyways, you wanna dance?" She asked.
Damon's brows shot up, but of course, he smirked. "I would be honored." He took her hand and kissed the back of it.
She laughed and he led her out to the floor. The sound of chatter overlapped the music, which made it hard to hear, so Damon and Nat just swayed back and forth to no specific beat.
"You know," Damon started, breaking their silent streak. "I'm supposed to be here with my girlfriend. Michelle. But, I just can't seem to find her. She's not answering my calls, she's not at her house, do you have any idea where she might be?"
"Mm..." She genuinely thought for a moment. "Sorry, mi amigo. I got nothing. I hope you find her, though."
"I hope so too." He hummed.
"Does it make you sad?" She asked.
"Does what make me sad?"
"The fact that your girlfriend is missing! Duh!" She said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh, uh, yes. I'm very, very sad." He said and mustered up the most unrealistic sad face in the world.
"Oh, Damien!" She exclaimed. "I'm so sorry."
She hugged him as they continued swaying to the music. He didn't really know what to do - he wasn't used to people showing empathy towards him. So, he just awkwardly patted her back. She's really warm, he thought idly.
She gave him one last squeeze and smiled up at him. "Feel better?" She inquired.
He looked down at her hopeful expression and gave the most genuine smile he had in a while. "Much better. Thanks."
"I do what I can. I'm gonna go somewhere else now. Bye, Damien!"
He gave her a stiff nod as a goodbye and decided that he should go soon. What a freaking weird night, he thought as he made his way upstairs to retrieve his crystal.
•••
Natalia, Caroline and Bonnie were piled on top of each other on the Gilbert's couch. They couldn't go to the boarding house because Damon would be there and they couldn't go to the Bennett's or the Forbes' because of the Sheriff and Grams' wrath, so they chose the Gilbert's. Miranda and Grayson honestly didn't notice anything unless it was right in front of them. As long as nobody flat out told them that the girls were drunker than a grandmother on Christmas, they just wouldn't realize.
All three of them passed out at some point in the night, and Stefan, Elena, Tyler, Jere, Matt and Vicki (who were all standing around the unconscious girls) had to do a lot of lying to explain that.
Caroline was the first to wake up. "Ohh, my head." She groaned. "What happened?"
"You three were wasted." Matt replied.
"So drunk." Jeremy added.
Caroline turned to look at her surroundings. "Damn it! Nat was drunk and I don't even remember?" She exclaimed.
"Be quiet!" Natalia hissed.
"Yeah, shut up." Bonnie agreed.
They all sat up to get a good look around. They felt gross.
"We called Grams and the Sheriff. We told them you guys are sleeping over, so you don't have to worry about getting home." Jeremy said.
They nodded. After drinking some tea and saying goodbye to the others, Vicki, Caroline, Nat, Bonnie and Elena crammed into Elena's queen sized bed.
Just as they were drifting off, Caroline spoke up. "Guys?" She whispered.
"No." Bonnie said flatly.
Caroline tried to elbow her but ended up hitting Elena instead. "Oops. Sorry, 'Lena. But anyways, I was thinking. You know how I'm supposed to become a vampire? Well, I was thinking about how badass I would be, and I decided that… I want to turn."
"Good for you, Care." Elena congratulated quietly with a smile.
"Yay." Bonnie yawned.
"That's great, Caroline. I don't think you should turn sooner than you did in the visions, but we can ask Stefan to give you some blood when the time comes." Nat said.
"When did I turn in the visions?" Caroline asked.
"Right after the founder's day celebration. Katherine was the one to do it, but we can figure something else out, 'kay?"
Care nodded. "Okay. What about you, Vick? Do you want to turn?"
Vicki thought for a second. "I don't think so. I like being human."
"That's okay too. As long as it's your decision, it's the right one." Natalia said.
"Thanks, kid." Vicki pressed a kiss to Nat's forehead and the witch smiled.
"Goodnight, guys. I love you." Caroline said.
"Love you." The rest of them mumbled, all drifting into deep sleeps.
alrighty, y'all. it's time for the big reveal. i added up all the votes for nats love interest, and the the winner is (drum roll please)…
harem!
the harem won by a landslide. i know there are some of you who were rooting for something else, and there are probably some of you who stop reading the story because they don't like harem stories, and that's fine. just make sure not to leave any negativity in the comments because i'm fragile.
there was one person on in the reviews who gave some very detailed and valid reasons why they didn't want a harem, and they made tons of sense, but the vote has spoken, and i like the idea of having my audience have some say in my stories, it's really motivating.
the harem will include damon, stefan, elijah, kol and klaus (and finn? do i sense another vote coming along? nah). i was going to include rebekah, but then another idea for her love interest popped into my mind and i went with that instead. bonnie's pairing has been decided as well.
the mikaelson's will be arriving sooner than they did in the show, so we don't have to wait for them too long. i really like the way i'm planning on introducing them.
anyways, thanks for reading! i hope you have a good day!