'A truce with you feels like heresy, got me worried about your intentions for me.'
Bonnie was walking back from school when she sensed Kol's familiar presence. She didn't say anything to acknowledge him, only sighed as she continued home.
"I wanted to apologize for my behavior last night." He started, and he did sound genuinely remorseful but Bonnie wasn't about to let that fool her.
"Great. I don't care." She sniped back.
An arm snapped out to grab her own. She stopped suddenly, the hold itself wasn't painful but she couldn't shake it off regardless. Stupid vampire strength, she might as well have been trying to shake off a band of steel. She turned to glare up at Kol.
"I am sorry, Bonnie." Bonnie distantly wondered if that was the first time he'd called her by her actual name. "And I meant what I said last night about wanting a truce."
She noted that his thumb was absently but gently brushing forward and backward on the fabric of her coat. The gentle action just made her scowl harder at the juxtaposition it presented.
"Why Kol? It's not as if you couldn't kill me in a blink of an eye if you wanted to. What purpose does a truce serve you?"
"I don't want to kill you, darling." He sighed, dropping his grip on her arm to put his hands in his pockets, where he pulled out a jar of herbs. "This will help you sleep. I can't stop the dreams but at the very least this tea will allow you to sleep through the night and be well-rested for once."
He sounded genuine but Bonnie didn't want to accept anything from him. Which he seemed to realize as he pressed the jar into her hand before she could argue.
"So what, now you're trying to poison me too?" She couldn't help the way the accusation falls from her lips even when he seemed to be genuinely trying to help her.
Kol rolled his eyes, it was an oddly immature action from a millennia-old sophisticated vampire, she thought spitefully to herself.
"They're spelled, I didn't prepare them myself, if that's what you're worried about. Here." He then pulled free a crisply folded age-worn piece of paper.
"And what the hell is this?"
"A letter." Kol deadpanned, evidently he didn't enjoy her usual smart remarks as much when he was trying to behave himself. "It's from the witch who created the tea. It'll explain how to remake it so you can make it yourself instead of doubting me."
Bonnie looked down at the folded letter that was certainly older than she was and the jar of herbs that would supposedly help with the exhaustion if nothing else. If it was true, then it was certainly touching. Yet she was struggling to wrap her head around the action.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to tell my brother that I hounded you about his bloody coffin," Kol announced, walking away from her backward so he could still hold her gaze.
Bonnie's brows furrowed, confusion replacing doubt as she considered this. "And why didn't you?"
"Hmm?" He cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Why haven't you harassed me about the coffin? I mean you could have walked out with it that day in the caves, so why haven't you?"
Kol tilted his head to the side, a smile beginning to spread across his lips.
"What would be the point? It's not the coffin that I care about." And with that, he turned and walked away.
Bonnie tried not to think too deeply about that statement as she looked back down at the items in her hand, then in the direction that the Original had disappeared in, trying to make sense of the last 5 minutes.
~x~
To my next self,
However far in the future, this finds you, I hope Kol has made good on his word to deliver this to you. I, myself, have lived through the dreams that come from knowing him and know what an ordeal it can be. That is why I am including this enchanted tea, the ingredients I have listed along with the enchantment will help dispel some of the worst side effects.
It may be difficult to believe but I know Kol's intentions to be pure. He has been a great friend to me during this ordeal and I know him to have the best intentions in this. Trust in him, if you can.
Sincerely,
Countess Marie.
~x~
Bonnie found Kol in the Grill the next day. She slammed her bag down on the bar with more force than necessary, Kol looked up from his drink to her with amusement. Bonnie ignored that look, running a hand through her hair in agitation instead, she couldn't believe she was going to say this.
"Fine, I'll take your stupid truce but only because those herbs actually worked and I finally managed to get some sleep. That doesn't mean I like or trust you."
Kol was looking at her like he was resisting the urge to laugh.
"What?" She snapped.
"I forget how stubborn you Bennett witches can be, you're a credit to your bloodline darling." He grinned at her before taking a sip of his drink like he knew such a declaration would rile her up.
Bonnie narrowed her eyes at him and he raised his hands in mock surrender. He still looked far too amused but Bonnie was beginning to gather that was a default setting for him.
"How did you know they would work?" The question had been playing on her mind ever since yesterday and the letter had helped naught in that regard. Though she supposed she couldn't blame her ancestor for not having foretold what an ass the younger Mikaelson could be. Trust him? Yeah right.
Kol raised his eyebrows at her as though he believed the answer was obvious. "I helped Marie develop the correct mixture and incantation for the tea eight centuries ago. She found the restless nights to be quite troubling and it was impacting her role in court, so we worked to find a solution. We couldn't find a way to stop the memories - or dreams as you insist on calling them - but we could at least negate their effect."
Bonnie shifted restlessly for a moment.
"Well, I appreciate it. Another few nights like that and I think I might have set someone on fire."
Kol was looking at her with that amused and dare she say fond expression again.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I'm not sure you'll like the answer darling."
"What is it?" She asked again, growing weary with Kol's antics. Even when it seemed he was trying not to annoy her, he annoyed her. As if some treacherous part of her disliked that she could tell he was holding himself back from her.
"You remind me of Renata, is all. Her temper could almost rival my own when she hadn't been able to sleep. It seems to be a reoccurring trait." He shrugged as though hoping his casual delivery would dispel the effect of his words somewhat.
Bonnie privately agreed that he had been right. She didn't particularly want to hear him compare her to his dead wife or all her ancestors that wore her face.
Kol turned to watch her from the corner of his eye as he continued to drink.
"Told you you wouldn't like it." He said, picking up on the cause of her silence. She hated that he seemed to know her so well. She wondered if it was because all of her supposed selves had been so similar that it wasn't so much that he knew her but that he knew them.
"How many selves do I have?" She asked instead in an attempt to change the topic. "You said I should have seen more than two by now."
He took a sip of his drink before answering, stalling it would seem. "I don't know."
"Kol…" Bonnie warned.
"I don't," He shrugged, "I've been in and out of a coffin for a thousand years and travel hasn't always been easy. It's safe to assume I've missed some incarnations, they don't seem to appear with any kind of regularity like the doppelgangers and there's no way of predicting where they might appear."
"And what you can't just give me a rough idea?"
Kol sighed wearily, dropping his head to his chest tiredly. "Bonnie…"
"No. I want to know what to expect." She stated resolutely.
He turned to face her skeptically. "Do you really think it will help? Knowing how many lives you still have to live through? Because I can assure you it's not going to be pleasant."
Bonnie balked, "What do you mean? You mentioned the other day that it was better than the alternative."
"And that wasn't a lie. It's an old spell, Bonnie, I know only what I've picked up. But trust me ignorance is bliss." He punctuated the remark with another sip of his scotch.
Bonnie opened her mouth to say more when she caught sight of the Salvatores entering the Grill. Bonnie turned back to Kol with an apologetic look. Kol smiled tightly in response as though understanding her need to keep this newfound truce from her friends.
"You run along now and do as you're told." He said as though finishing some great threat that the Salvatores had just walked in on.
"And you tell your brother he's going to need to do better than that." She spat, though she flashed him a grateful look that she knew the Salvatores couldn't see with her back to them, before grabbing her bag and storming out of the place.
~x~
Bonnie had sent Abby home. As much as she'd like to get to know her mother, she'd taken her away from the life she was living to open the coffin. The coffin they couldn't open. And until things died down they weren't going to be able to open it so Bonnie saw no sense in keeping Abby here where she was at risk of being spotted by her father and away from the life she so clearly itched to return to.
That didn't mean she was happy about it. She'd lost her mom twice now and once again, had no one to learn magic from. So she figured she deserved a pass as she wallowed on some bench in the town square. She didn't want to be at home right now, couldn't stand the memories or the thought of being all alone in her Grams' empty house.
But not wanting to be alone didn't necessarily mean she wanted to see Kol either regardless of any tentative truces that had been made. Bonnie had originally loathed the way her magic instinctively reacted to Kol's presence, hated being so in tune with him, but had since become thankful for the early warning system it unintentionally acted as.
"What has you looking so forlorn, little witch?" Kol asked as he slid onto the other end of the bench. Bonnie was grateful that he at least didn't try to push this new truce by getting too close because in her current mood she was sure she would have set him on fire.
"My mom left. I brought her here because the spirits told me she could help me open the coffin but that's never gonna happen so she's gone and now I have no one to teach me magic again." She mumbled into her drawn-up knees not overly concerned with how pathetic she looked or what she revealed right now.
Kol frowned at this, confused and a little concerned, not that Bonnie could see this from the way she was studiously avoiding his gaze.
"What do you mean 'teach' you magic? Surely you've had training?"
"Nope. My mom left when I was three and my Grams died shortly after I came into my powers."
"And yet you tried to kill Nik, having very nearly succeeded, have taken on Elijah, found a way to keep the doppelganger alive after the sacrifice and god knows what else. Well, now I must say I'm even more impressed than I was before."
Bonnie turned to face him, resting her cheek on her knees as she looked at him in confusion.
"How do you know about that?"
Kol smiled at her, "My siblings have been filling me in, it's the normal protocol for when one of us gets woken up. And don't tell him I said this but Nik is rather impressed that you managed to fake your death without him realizing. He's seen most of the tricks by now and yet you still managed to pull the wool over his eyes."
Bonnie smiled lightly. She didn't trust Kol, probably never would, but it was nice to get some recognition, especially to have it come from a former witch and thousand-year-old vampire who'd been around the magical block.
"I could teach you about magic if you want?" Kol seemed to sense her hesitation at the offer as he was quick to elaborate. "Oh come on, you already know I was a witch and I've spent the majority of my time outside of my coffin in the company of witches. I know more than probably most covens. What do you have to lose?"
Bonnie stared at him a moment in contemplation and at the damn smirk that he probably thought was charming but Bonnie found endlessly irritating. Or at least that's what she liked to tell herself. It didn't matter how attractive he was he was still an Original and therefore could not be trusted, she had to remember that.
"My sanity?" She answered lightly in response to his question.
Kol rolled his eyes. "Come on, you can learn more about those memories and about magic at the same time. And I'm sure you haven't had any proper Latin lessons, that's not a bad deal."
Bonnie had to admit he was right if only to herself.
"What do you get out of it?"
"The pleasure of your company and something to do other than taunting Nik." He answered easily as if there couldn't possibly be any other answer.
Bonnie rolled her eyes, finally standing, "Fine but any funny business and I'm setting you on fire." She warned.
"Kinky." Came Kol's immediate response. Far too quickly for Bonnie's liking.
"Kol!"
Kol merely laughed at her outrage.
~x~
"Do you own all of these, darling?" Kol asked conversationally as he spun around in the center of the room looking at all the grimoires scattered throughout the apartment she'd brought them to.
"They're not mine. Elijah was working with these warlocks, Jonah and Luka Martin, Klaus had Luka's sister. That's why they were working with Elijah, in the hopes of getting her back. But they'd been collecting these so they wouldn't get lost to time and circumstances, it just seemed wrong to get rid of them after they died so I had Stefan compel the landlord to keep the room as it is." Bonnie was shifting grimoires off of the floor into piles so that there was somewhere to sit, as she talked. "I'm surprised you followed me without questioning where we were going, to be honest."
"Well, I figured it was best to let you lead the way as you'd probably not want to go back to Casa de Mikaelson." Kol smiled cheekily at her. It was an expression she'd seen on his face before but only in her dreams as Renata, it was difficult to remember who he was when he looked at her like that so she quickly looked away. Difficult to remember who she was and who they were, even.
"Yeah, you're right on that one." Kol hummed in response as he edged around the room looking at the range of grimoires. "Can I ask you something?"
"Mhmm."
"Isn't that weird? I mean I know they're your siblings but you've been together for a thousand years don't you get tired of each other? And then there's the whole coffin situation… I just can't imagine living with the guy who…" She trailed off then unsure how best to summarize it without offending Kol.
"Living with the guy who puts us in dagger-induced time-outs when he's sick of us?" Kol finished for her before looking uncertain. "That is the right phrase, right? 'Time out'? Elijah's teaching me modern phrases but I don't think he's the most reliable source."
Bonnie nodded in answer to his question, biting back a smile at the thought of Elijah trying to teach his siblings the terminology and slang they'd missed out on. If this truce relied on her ability not to offend a temperamental Original they were screwed.
Kol threw himself down in one of the armchairs, legs sprawled out in front of him like it was his own personal throne.
"Well, it's hardly a picnic. But we're indestructible, Nik gets sick of us he sticks a dagger in our hearts, which of course do not work on him so we don't have that option when we get sick of him. So there's always the tried and true method of throwing each other through a few walls. But we're family, we're all each other has after a thousand years, the only constant in a world that is constantly changing." Kol had an almost somber look on his face then, as he became lost in thought.
And Bonnie realized then that she could probably understand the fucked up dynamic that the Mikaelsons had. They were immortal, they'd outlasted empires; there were very few things that were certain in a constantly evolving world, except for their siblings still being alive when they next awoke. Klaus may stick daggers in their hearts but their siblings were the only ones who'd understand the disorientation of waking to a world that was forever changed or the fear of running from the very parents that had raised you. They had no one to rely on but each other no matter how they felt about the other. They couldn't even rely on their sirelings if they wanted to stay one step ahead of Mikael.
Kol seemed to recollect himself then, a smirk finding its way onto his lips again but it was only now that Bonnie realized just how hollow the expression was. A learned mask rather than a genuine expression. And maybe she didn't hate it quite so much anymore. She was all too familiar with the wearing of masks to protect yourself.
"So where do you want to start? You'll probably find that your Latin has naturally improved anyways."
"What makes you say that?"
Kol found a crystal on the coffee table beside him and immediately began chucking it in the air like a five-year-old let loose in a toy store.
"You'll begin to assimilate the knowledge that your past selves had, you won't even realize it, it'll just be something you know. Like if someone asked you to define 'the' on the spot you probably wouldn't be able to do so, yet you know exactly how to use it and its purpose. It's the same with the memories. But it'll take a while for the languages to fully take root."
"Well, I didn't know any Latin a year ago so at least some good will come of this," Bonnie muttered, turning her back to Kol to look at some of the grimoires spread out but not before she caught that sardonic smile stretched across his lips again.
"Are there any spells on transmutation in here?"
"Probably." Bonnie agreed absently, already focusing on the spell to reveal one of the grimoires with such a spell in. One such grimoire flew across the room into her hand. When she looked up from the leather-bound tome Kol was staring at her with blatant appreciation. Bonnie absently wondered if he hadn't been entirely joking earlier about having a magic kink. She cleared her throat in an attempt to clear her mind of the thought as she handed him the book, his fingers brushing her own as he took it. The barest touch made her heart flutter and her magic soar.
"Thank you, darling." Okay, that smile wasn't helping her empty her mind either.
"Why transmutation?" She asked as Kol easily flipped through the grimoire to the specific spell.
"Good place to practice tenses." And then he shrugged, "And I always enjoyed transmutation. Shall we?"
~x~
There was only darkness this time, Bonnie was aware of her surroundings yet she couldn't see a thing. She wondered if the room she was in was pitch black but for some reason, she knew that not to be the case.
Then, she heard footsteps approaching, the unmistakable sound of boots on stone.
"What are you up to Nik? Why have you dragged me down here?" Bonnie recognized that voice as Kol's yet she still couldn't see anything.
"You'll see brother." And that was definitely Klaus.
What the hell was going on here? she thought to herself.
Then the air was filled with sounds of groaning, the unmistakable sound of a heavy door being pulled on well-worn hinges. And then there were further footsteps, closer this time. Solavita instinctively shuffled backward. But even with the door open, Bonnie still couldn't see a thing, was something covering her eyes? She couldn't feel anything and yet…
"Renata?" Kol gasped, and he seemed much closer now, almost as if he were right in front of her.
Solavita flinched backward at the sound.
"My name is Solavita." She corrected but the words were shaky and Bonnie could feel the fine tremors that wracked her thin frame. Too thin in fact.
"My apologies darling, you reminded me of someone." Kol breathed.
Solavita nodded shakily.
"What is the meaning of this brother?"
"I found her like this, apparently the Brotherhood's cruelty extends further than just to vampires. I thought you might be intrigued by this particular prisoner. So tell me, what have you done brother?"
"Are you accusing me of something?" Although he was talking to Klaus, Solavita knew, even without her sight, that he hadn't moved an inch and was still right in front of her.
The very thought made her uncomfortable.
"Should I be?" Klaus retorted.
"I have no magic, what could I have possibly done?"
"I wouldn't expect something as trivial as that to stop you." Klaus sneered, accusation and derision dripping from his words, sounding more unstable than usual to Bonnie's ears.
"Do you really think I would have let Mikael kill my wife at all if I had any way of sparing her that? If I had been able to reach out to the spirits in any way? He wouldn't have been able to touch her if it were up to me." Kol snarled back at his brother.
Solavita knew that he'd sprung to his feet to face off with his brother then and she sagged in relief at the thought. Her magic was tumultuous these days and being kept prisoner by the Brotherhood hadn't changed that, nor had them starving her in a futile attempt to diminish her power. And the proximity to this stranger was riling her magic up in a way that was unfamiliar to her, almost as if it was trying to reach out to him. Yet from the way he spoke she knew he had to be a vampire so this conclusion made absolutely no sense.
Just then Solavita felt the castle rumble beneath her, the very foundations threatened by the magic she couldn't control.
"What was that?" Kol asked warily, the previous anger and heartbreak replaced by concern. Bonnie knew that even as a vampire he would recognize wayward magic when it happened. The magic woven into his being that he could no longer access but still very much there, reacting to such errant magic.
"Ask her." Klaus instructed, "It's been near-constant."
Kol turned and crouched back down in front of her.
"Solavita darling, can you look at me?" His voice was surprisingly gentle, it wasn't a tone Bonnie was personally familiar with, was perhaps just an attempt to calm the wayward magic.
Solavita shook her head, "I cannot see my lord."
"What happened?" Kol inquired, brushing his fingers along the scarring she knew must surround her eyes. The thick welts from the Brotherhood's cruelty sealing the flesh shut.
Solavita flinched at the touch.
"The Brotherhood. They deemed me a sympathizer to vampires. My mother was turned by one of the villagers hoping to avoid persecution. We cared for her instead of turning her over, vampire or not she was family. The Brotherhood didn't care that her transition had only occurred because of their relentless and reckless crusade. They grabbed my sisters and I. Told us we were to never see the light of day again, that we had turned our backs on nature and as such, we were prohibited from seeing the very nature we served again."
Solavita could sense the way Kol trembled in anger. Her senses were stronger ever since she'd been blinded, her magic filling in the blanks for her where her other senses failed. And his aura was particularly easy to read for reasons beyond her comprehension.
"What do you know of the Brotherhood?" Klaus asked from where he remained in the doorway, his voice commanding even now, putting Bonnie on edge.
"They were created by another witch of my bloodline, a distant cousin, she gave her life to the spell that created them. Their goal is to destroy Silas, vampires were created by the spell that bore Silas and as such, they hunt them too."
"How do you know this?" Kol asked softly, unlike his brother, he didn't seem to want to startle her. It must be a shock for him to be looking at his wife's face once more, Bonnie mused, the very face he thought he was never to see again now before him.
"Spirits talk. When the Brotherhood came to town we communed with the spirits to learn what we could. As a cousin of our bloodline and now a spirit on the other side, we were granted that information."
"I see, isn't that convenient," Klaus commented, paranoia and accusation evident in his tone.
"Shut it Nik." Kol snarled.
"No, I won't be quieted, not until you tell me what the bloody hell is going on with her and why she looks like your dead wife!?"
"I don't know!" Kol growled, launching to his feet once more. "Ayana said she had found a way to keep her safe but then she handed me my wife's body so I had assumed she'd failed. Or at the very least had used my wife's death to secure the bloodline."
"Well, it would appear she did more than that." Klaus snarled at his brother through gritted teeth, coming closer until they were stood toe to toe.
"It's been a hundred years Nik, it's not as if I can bloody well ask her."
"Is my sister Angelsia still alive?" Solavita mumbled, fearful of the two raging vampires before her and what might happen to her if she was caught in the crossfire.
"You hold your tong-" Klaus started.
"We'll check sweetheart." Kol interrupted his brother. "Why?"
"I think she knows something about all of this, not that I'll pretend to know what you're talking about, but she's your best bet. As I suspect my mother is already dead."
"Most likely," Klaus told her coldly.
Solavita couldn't tell what happened next but she heard one set of footsteps move away down the corridor and subsequently, away from her. Solavita let out a sigh of relief until she heard another set of footsteps approaching her, they were light on their feet but noticeable enough for her to tense up again.
"We will sort this sweetheart, don't you worry." Kol's voice washed over her, calming her minutely, it seemed he was better than his brother at any rate.
"Why? Why help me when I have nothing to offer you?"
"Because I owe a debt to your family."
~x~
Things carried on in this manner for several days. They'd hang out at the Martin's old place and Kol would help her with Latin, spell work, and occasionally even her history project. Privately Bonnie could admit to herself that he wasn't the most abominable company she'd ever had. But he was still a vampire. And an Original one at that. No matter how excited her magic got in his presence, that wasn't going to change. She just had to keep reminding herself of that and everything would be fine.
Bonnie still wasn't sure what Kol was really getting out of this whole truce deal, if someone had the same face as her dead spouse but said incarnation hated her, she wouldn't be in a hurry to spend time with them. But it didn't seem to bother Kol. Or at the very least he didn't act as though it bothered him, barely even addressed the fact she had the same face as potentially several other women that Kol had known.
Or perhaps he had understood her hesitancy still to believe anything as truth in regards to these multiple selves and that's why he'd been keeping quiet, she realized on one such afternoon at the Martin's.
"Oh, I brought you this. Thought it might be helpful." Kol shrugged nonchalantly after handing her the old leather-bound book, open to a specific page.
Bonnie took it hesitantly, "What is it?" She asked looking up at the vampire expectantly with raised eyebrows.
Kol flopped down in the armchair that he'd practically claimed as his own. "Elijah's journal from 1114. It's a passage about Solavita so you know this isn't something I've conjured to sway you or whatever it is that's going through that pretty head of yours, darling."
Bonnie rolled her eyes at the teasing tone before turning her attention to the book in question.
"I can't read this. It's an invasion of privacy." But she had to admit she was curious.
"Oh, Elijah won't care. It's mainly a load of sanctimonious bollocks about saving our family and reclaiming our humanity. Never let it be said that my big brother isn't a massive hypocrite."
Bonnie snorted at that. Yeah, that seemed about right. She tried to avoid the supposedly 'Noble Original' whenever possible because his past was as much bloodstained as his siblings despite the mask he liked to present to the world. And maybe she was still a little bitter about his betrayal, losing them their one chance of ridding the world of Klaus.
Tuscany, June 1114.
We have reclaimed the abode once belonging to the Brotherhood of the Five since Niklaus disposed of them, and though my brother now suffers from delusions in the wake of such an act, he is not the only brother I find myself concerned with. Amongst the Brotherhood's prisoners, we found a young woman by the name of Solavita who, most strikingly, bears an uncanny resemblance to Kol's late wife; Renata. Kol has been vague about his knowledge in regards to this young woman, only proposing that she is a doppelganger much like my dearly departed Tatia was.
And while the idea has merit I find myself struggling to accept the notion. It was from his mother-in-law; Ayana, that our mother obtained the spell for immortality. Is it really so difficult to imagine that she might have performed a similar feat for her own daughter? Kol vehemently dismisses the notion of immortality playing any part in this miraculous situation, but Kol has always been secretive when it came to Renata even long before her untimely death, so I do not find this all that surprising. Though I fear this is something else entirely.
The woman herself bears no recollection of Kol. Though her sister Angelsia claims that their mother had suffered from visions throughout her younger sister's pregnancy of being bound by old magic and an unnatural darkness. It would be fair to assume that such claims are in regards to Kol and whatever spell Ayana may have cast on her late daughter respectfully. But sightless as Solavita is, it's impossible to know if she truly recognizes Kol as we recognize her. And as such his humanity is just beyond his grasp along with it.
I fear we may never know and if there is anything to discover here, that Niklaus will destroy it in one of his fits of delusion before we are ever to truly know.
The entry ends there and Bonnie has read enough to know she doesn't want a further glimpse into the elder Original's mind.
"Sanctimonious is right," Bonnie muttered as she snapped the book shut.
Kol smiled wryly at the comment. "That's Elijah for you, darling."
Bonnie scowled at him as she handed him back the journal. "Would you quit it with the darling?"
"No can do, old-world manners I'm afraid." Kol denied as he flicked through his brother's journal.
Bonnie rolled her eyes, "I call bull. I think you just do it to annoy me."
Kol smiled in amusement not looking up at her as he pretended to occupy himself with Elijah's journal.
"No, that's just a fun little side effect."
Bonnie groaned in annoyance before turning her back on him to find a grimoire to occupy herself with. Stupid Mikaelsons.
~x~
Bonnie had only gone to the Grill to pick up a textbook from Matt for their history project, she hadn't been expecting to run into anyone else, but perhaps she should have known better, what with it being the only decent hang out spot in their small town.
"Bonnie! I haven't seen you in ages, where have you been?" She found herself suddenly cornered by Caroline as she was trying to leave.
"Probably been busy hanging around the baby Mikaelson brother," Damon spoke up from behind them.
Bonnie's eyes fluttered in irritation as she fought the urge to groan in annoyance. Great, just great, she thought to herself. It sounded like Damon had been drinking as well so no doubt this conversation was going to be an absolute train wreck.
"What?" Caroline's face scrunched up in confusion evidently, the Salvatores hadn't updated her on the suspicions yet.
"Oh, haven't you heard? The little wicked witch of the west has been having psychic witch dreams about Kol, figures she'd join team Mikaelson sooner or later."
"It's not like that." Bonnie tried to reassure Caroline with a smile.
"Oh no? So what have the two of you been doing over at those apartments over on Froe Street?"
Bonnie resisted the urge to grind her teeth together in frustration at Damon's questioning but only barely. Of course, he'd been watching her. Creep. She spun around to face the older vampire, realizing that this conversation wasn't just going to go away as she'd first hoped.
"Kol hates Klaus, don't you think it'd be a good idea to get close to someone who's known him for a thousand years? That it might actually be helpful to have some clue about his weaknesses from someone who's got a thousand years worth of reason to be pissed about."
"Did you forget what happened the last time we teamed up with a Mikaelson to take down Klaus?" Damon asked incredulously as if she hadn't been instrumental in all of their plans as the only witch in town and the only one who'd put up with the Salvatores nonsense for this long.
"Do you mean the plan with Rebekah and Mikael that worked exactly as we planned except for your brother coming in and ruining everything? So maybe the vampire brother we should be watching out for is yours. As it was also him that stole the coffins from Klaus and got us into this coffin mess in the first place. Or maybe you mean the fact that Rebekah later wanted revenge for Elena needlessly stabbing her in the back when she'd been going along with the plan just fine?"
"Rebekah was a liability! And did you forget about Elijah ruining our one shot at taking Klaus down after the sacrifice?"
"No, I didn't forget. But you're the one that teamed up with Elijah again and that's why all of the Originals are now out of their coffins giving us even more to worry about! All of our failed plans to take down Klaus have been your idea, I'm just trying to make the most out of the mess you've made." Bonnie snapped at Damon, fury brimming over, she grabbed her stuff to leave. She needed to get out of here before she did something even more stupid than going head to head with a known temperamental vampire. "See you later, Care."
Bonnie took a deep breath to calm her roiling magic once she stepped outside. God, when had her life gotten so messed up? Oh yeah, that's right, when the Salvatores came to town. She should have known that her new truce with Kol wouldn't go unnoticed for long but she hadn't expected Damon to immediately assume she'd switched sides. How stupid was he? You'd think constantly sacrificing yourself might earn you at least a little reprieve from suspicion, apparently not.
Bonnie tilted her head up to the sky as she took another deep breath in an attempt to calm down. She was thankful now that she'd been vague about the details of her dreams involving Kol because if that was how they reacted without knowing the whole story? Well, then they'd never trust her if they learned the truth.
Bonnie let out a sigh at the thought, god she wished she could go back to two years ago before she knew she was a witch, back to before all of this nonsense. She knew a do-over wasn't in the cards for her but a girl could dream.
A/N: This chapter was easier to write than the last, that felt like pulling teeth for some reason. But yay we're getting somewhere with Kol and Bonnie and the plot now. If you guys have any suggestions about what you'd like to see either plot or flashback wise I'll try to incorporate it. I finished this chap about a week after the last but I'm trying to sort out some pacing concerns so I wanted to finish the next chapter before posting this one to make sure everything was on track and I didn't have anything else to add. Anyways let me know your thoughts in the comments :)
Replies:
Hawkeing: This is a super interesting concept! I've always liked the Bonnie/Kol pairing, but it was just so sad that she would either have to give up her magic or die and leave him alone.
Honestly, the idea of his soulmate repeatedly living and dying as a witchy doppleganger might explain why Kol is always so... unpredictable. Going through that over and over again would probably be enough to drive any immortal mad. I'd love to see if that's something you explore later!
Thank you sweetie! Honestly that was what my motivation was for this story, a scenario in which she wouldn't have to give up her magic (because I don't think Kol would want her too anyways as he knows what it is to lose your magic) or die and leave him alone. This story is sorta inspired by another LJ Smith book idea that I loved so I'm adapting it here for them.
And I took this comment into consideration! It was already something I'd briefly thought about when I was thinking about how the soul bond might work but the impact on Kol wasn't something I'd entirely planned out yet and this comment helped me figure somethings out. Its definitely going to come up a little later but Kol is going to downplay how bad it was for him and as it happens after their death's Bonnie won't have those memories so it's going to come from the others
