A/N: hii yup she's not dead haha anyway this chapter isn't nearly as long as it was going to be because i decided to move the Confrontation scene(s) to the next chapter. i'm so mad at myself because i thot i was gonna be writing the decade dance a million years ago but here you go.
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Nova woke up practically vibrating in anticipation of the plan she had come up with last night.
Technically, it was two half-plans meshed together but it was something.
The first step would be to inform her sister and Grams about Pearl and Anna at breakfast. Because much as it hurt her pride to admit, going after them alone would be too risky. Her plans for confronting them was more of a step three thing.
Step two was dealing with Damon and the moonstone problem.
She already had the perfect excuse to get out of the house today.
Caroline had asked her to come over and help with preparations with the Decade Dance, which was technically taking place next year, albeit early next year.
But it was the first year the blonde would be officially in charge of a Decade Dance as the new head of the dance committee and she wanted everything to be perfect.
Nova had found out she was placed on the committee last month, which shouldn't be a surprise since she regularly got roped into helping out. It wasn't the kind of thing she'd usually sign herself up for, but she actually liked helping with the artistic stuff.
Bossing people around was fun too.
The decade had been picked, her and three other students had made the banners and fliers that were currently stuffed in her closet and the decorations were already ordered and should arrive a week before the dance.
The two of them honestly would just be discussing music and outfit options, it'd be two hours tops, but what her dad didn't know wouldn't kill him.
...hopefully.
Nova hummed happily as she finished her coffee, before walking out the kitchen and into the living room. She smiled mischievously before crashing onto the couch next to her sister, who was watching 'Everybody Hates Chris' reruns with their dad.
"Ugh, get off," Bonnie said, annoyed as her twin sister all but sat on her.
"Aww, but payback is so sweet," she replied with a little grin as her sharp chin dug into her sister's shoulder.
Ignoring her sister's squirming, she addressed her dad, who was watching them in part-exasperation and reluctant amusement.
"You ready to start the cooking lessons?"
Yeah, that wiped the amusement off his face real quick.
But despite his so obvious reluctance, he nodded at her, almost solemnly, like he was being sentenced to die in a medieval drama or something, before getting up and heading towards the kitchen.
Nova shifted on the couch to follow him, but not before pressing an obnoxiously loud kiss to her sister's cheek who grimaced before letting a reluctant grin show.
"Any requests for the chefs?"
Bonnie tilted her head, her green eyes on the ceiling as she thought on her response. "I'm thinking... chocolate chip pancakes? With fried eggs and bacon?"
Nova soon found herself staring into teary pleading green eyes and she couldn't help but be reluctantly impressed as her sister continued to give her the full effect of her puppy dog eyes.
"Okay, but you're on clean up duty," she replied as she walked into the kitchen, only getting a happy little smile as a response.
See this is why they were twins, anyone who thought her sister was an innocent angel who wouldn't dare manipulate anyone clearly didn't know her very well.
Nova snorted slightly at the sight of her father, wearing her black and ruffled apron that she rarely uses and standing in the middle of the kitchen, clearly at a loss as to where to even begin.
"First things first, we pull out all of the ingredients and utensils we need so we don't run around the kitchen like we're Louis the 16th."
Nova pulled a pink index card out of her recipe drawer - pink was for breakfast/brunch, purple was for dinner and blue was for baked goods - , her favorite pancake recipe written down on it in her neatest handwriting and handed it to him.
Rudy was used to his daughter's morbid sense of humor and simply sighed, muttering a low, "Good lord," before he got out all of the ingredients whilst she set out the utensils.
"Have you ever made pancakes before?" Nova asked after a long moment of awkward silence, hovering at his side as she watched him measure two cups of flour.
Ugh, small talk, she thought, making a disgusted face behind his back as soon as the words came out of her mouth.
He took his time carefully measuring the baking powder and salt before he answered the question. "Once. When your mother was just three months pregnant with your and your sister."
Nova kept her expression neutral as fuck, but inside she was freaking the fuck out at the casual mention of 'She Who Must Not Be Named', as usually they all just ignored the existence of Abby Bennett.
"They were terrible, of course, but your mother pretended to love them and tried to eat them all," Rudy said with an amused tone to his voice as she quietly passed him the eggs.
"...Well," she started when she saw he wasn't going to indulge in anything else about the woman who had abandoned them. She smiled at him,"Hopefully these will turn out edible 'cause I won't be nearly as nice when I get hungry."
Nova managed to draw a short chuckle out of her dad, and she shared a smile with him before they quickly finished up the recipe. She took over for a short moment to show him how to evenly pour out the batter onto the big hot skillet.
"I have been meaning to ask where you got all of those recipes from. Did you make them yourself?" Rudy continued their conversation as he tried to copy her movements with the next pancake, but it ended up misshaped.
Which is fine, ugly looking pancakes sure as fuck wouldn't stop her from devouring them if they tasted good.
She was distracted with placing bacon in the sizzling skillet and so she answered the question without much thought,"I got them from grandma," she said before flinching.
Nova wasn't quite sure what made her flinch, the bit of oil that hit her bare arm or the slip up of mentioning her past life. Considering the oil had only felt like a quick pinch to her skin, she was pretty sure it was the sudden reminder of the people in her past life.
She kept quiet as her dad fretted over her arm and let him gently guide her towards the kitchen sink, her mind was elsewhere.
She didn't really let herself think too hard about the people in her past life anymore, it was hard enough processing her death, let alone the loss of a whole other family and universe.
She didn't have much of a choice though, she reminded herself, staring blankly at the water that hit the skin of the arm.
Talking to Bonnie about her past life had helped, made it easier to breathe knowing she didn't carry the knowledge of another universe alone. But she couldn't afford to actually mourn the people she had lost and the person she used to be and could have been in that universe without getting the person she was and people she loved in this universe killed.
She hadn't had a lot of people she cared for in her past life but those that she did…
She didn't have time to pick up more pieces of herself.
"Are you alright, kiddo?"
Nova snapped back to reality at her dad's concerned voice and looked up with a reflexive smile that didn't match the sad look in her eyes.
"All good, see? Not even a burn mark." Nova showed off her only slightly red arm, toweling off the water from her arm.
Rudy didn't seem like he believed her, which, fair, she had just spaced out for a good minute or two with a dead look in her eye, but she didn't wanna talk about it and -
"Your pancake is burning," she pointed out, distracting him as he hurried back over to the stove to flip it.
Nova quickly turned on the radio and went back to cooking the eggs and bacon, effectively ending that conversation for the moment as they focused on finishing breakfast.
As soon they finished up though, she knew by the concerned glances he sent her that she had run out of luck and unless she literally ran from the room, it seemed like she couldn't escape whatever kind of Emotional Talk this would be.
She really wished people would stop talking to her nonstop about feelings, it was getting kind of disgusting.
Hmmm... maybe she should try running out the room?
"You know..." Rudy started speaking, rudely interrupting her thoughts of sweet freedom.
"When your Grams told me and your mother about how special you girls would grow to be, as a proud father I didn't question it, even though at the time I hadn't realized just right she was."
She paused in her actions as he gently laid his hand on her shoulder, her brown eyes meeting his as he continued with a serious look on his face.
"I did have questions when, a month or so after your ninth birthday, she told me why one of my baby girls had such old eyes that didn't match her young face."
Nova opened her mouth, but at the last second closed it when she couldn't find any words to say. She didn't know what to say, or how to feel, other than surprised, and so her mouth remained agape as odd noises came out of her throat.
She sounded like a goddamn giraffe.
Grams had always seemed like she knew something about her...other-worldliness; but her dad hadn't seemed like he was aware of anything other than his job to be quite fucking honest.
And in the past, when he had paid attention to his children for more than a few days at a time, he hadn't treated her any differently from her mostly normal sister. She wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing or not.
Speaking of her only slightly less odd sister, she turned towards the archway when she saw Bonnie enter the kitchen, almost passing them up for the coffee machine, only pausing when she noticed the tense atmosphere.
"... everything okay?" Bonnie asked them, tilting her head and looking at them with a worried look in her green eyes.
"Apparently dad knows about reincarnation, specifically mine," she bluntly replied, too focused on mentally dissecting every moment of her childhood.
Bonnie stood there for a moment, shocked speechless for a moment before scrunching her eyebrows and pursing her lips unhappily.
"This family with its secrets," she said, her voice deceptively light as she narrowed her eyes at them for a moment before going back to her coffee.
Nova believed people had the right to keep secrets, but... that was fair, super rude to point out her flaws like that, but fair, she thought, nodding her head slowly in agreement to her twin's words.
Before she could really interrogate him - because, what the fuck? - Grams came inside the house through the kitchen's door that led out to the backyard, and things reluctantly went back to normal as they laid the food out on the table.
Nova set the large carton of orange juice onto the table along with the pancakes before sitting down next to her sister, who wouldn't stop staring at the two adults sitting in front of them.
They all ate in relative silence, the only sound in the kitchen being the radio playing old school R&B and hip-hop.
Nova stuffed her face with misshapen pancakes, sneaking Merlin a few bits of bacon underneath the table before eventually shooing him away - the last thing she wanted to do today was clean up his nasty vomit - and waited.
one, two…
"So, are there any more secrets you three wanna tell me about?" Bonnie spoke up first, all but stabbing her sunny side up eggs with her fork until the yolk ran down her plate.
Nova looked at her sister's rudely murdered eggs, before letting her eyes roam across the adults that remained silent - Rudy looked contrite, Grams just looked unamused - before settling on her twin.
"... I was the one who ate your blueberry yogurt,"she confessed in mock seriousness, getting an almost playful glare in response.
"I should have known it was you! Seriously, Nova?"
"Ok, but how was I supposed to know it was yours?"
"I wrote my name on it!"
"Girls let's not argue while we're eating." Rudy decided to butt into their honestly lighthearted argument, his tone chiding.
Grams hid her slightly vindictive smile behind her cup of orange juice as the twins turned their matching glares onto him.
"Don't think I didn't see you chugging the last of my iced coffee last week, do you know how much those things cost?" She accused him, staring him down with a raised brow.
"I -"
"Not to mention the reason I label my food is because someone kept eating all my snacks," Bonnie added, talking over any excuses their father would have told them.
"Although maybe I was wrong to place all the on one person."
"That is so rude, you know I'm not nearly as much of a food thief as dad!"
The twins bickered for a while in between eating and the tense atmosphere was broken, for the moment.
It went unsaid, but she knew they were trying to be more honest - or at least more open with each other as a family, which is probably why dad had revealed what he had today.
And while that honesty was all well and good for things like, doing Magic around the house, it didn't change the fact that dad was a normal human and the one season the show had gotten him involved in the Supernatural... he died.
A gruesome death that sometimes haunted her nightmares.
So she patiently waited for her dad to go upstairs to do some work before she decided to address their little problem. The rolled up newspaper in her hand crinkled underneath her firm grip.
Bonnie set a cleaned glass cup into the dish rack before turning towards her lurking sister as Grams dried it, her brows raised and head tilted as she silently asked her what was up.
"We've got a problem," she replied to the look, but before they could say anything in reply she walked out the back door without looking back to see if she was being followed.
She shivered as the cold wind slapped against her bare legs - oops, maybe she should have put on sometimes more than a big ratty sweater before she stormed out into 40 degree weather? - before sitting down on the orange cushioned patio chair and unfurling the matching umbrella in the middle of the table.
"I assume there's a reason for the theatrics," Grams said as she sat down with another cup of tea in hand. Bonnie snorted at their grandmother's dryly spoken words, wiping the leaves off a patio chair before she too sat down and looked at her expectantly.
In her opinion, it was her goddamn bisexual right to be as dramatic as she wanted, but she kept that to herself for the moment and tried to be… serious. Eugh.
She unrolled the 'Mystic Falls Courier' that had come in early today and held it up in front of her. The Headline in bold lettering told them yes, there was a reason for her dramatics: 'Mystic Falls Hospital Stolen Blood Remains Mystery'.
"Merlin found Pearl and Anna hiding out in a house on the outskirts of town," she explained, watching the way both Bennett women froze, a pinched look of worry on the elder's face and an angry look on the younger.
Nova wasn't too sure if this was part of Pearl or Anna's plans to be honest, it was too sloppy for it to be anything other than a newbie Vampire. But Anna had more than likely turned multiple people to do her bidding, meaning this was on her as much as it was the idiot who had done this.
"I thought they were going to leave town, that was the deal for Anna getting her mother back," Bonnie stated, snatching the paper from her hands and hurriedly reading the article.
"Vampires love going back on their word. Never forget that, baby." Grams said, her tone as firm as the look on her face.
"What are we going to do? What's the plan?" Bonnie questioned, aiming her words at her sister, who was still watching them calmly.
"We're going to talk to them," Nova replied with a little grin, the simplicity of her plan seemed to confuse her sister and so she explained her very bare bones plan.
Damon more than likely knew what they wanted or at least had some idea, and so she would use him to gather as much information as she could before they confronted them.
Merlin would lead them to their little hideout early tomorrow and from there.. well, she didn't really have much of a plan from there, but they had broken a deal with them by staying in town and she couldn't just let that go unchecked.
She had to get them out of town someway that still eluded her, all she knew was that it would probably involve violence.
"Okay, what about... this?"
Nova looked up from her laptop, halfway done adding 50s music to the decade dance playlist, and smiled brightly at the sight of her best friend.
Caroline had picked three outfits out at the 'Mystic Vintage Shoppe', a store that sold vintage styles of clothes, jewelry, wigs and makeup for nearly every decade. With a town like Mystic Falls, who couldn't seem to get out of the past - and stop glorying it a little too much for her taste -, the shop was a necessity.
The first outfit was a cliche but cute red and white polka dot dress. While the second one had a 50s housewife aesthetic to it.
This last one, however, put all the other outfits to fucking shame; it was a ivory dress with spaghetti straps, lace bodice and a tulle skirt with more lace layered underneath. Paired with black and ivory shoes and lace gloves, the blonde looked like fucking ethereal.
Nova bounced off the bed, grabbing the faux pearl and diamond choker from the last outfit before joining the other girl in the floor length mirror. She gently pushed her blonde hair aside as she carefully snapped the necklace around her neck.
"Very Marilyn Monroe of you. You look fucking gorgeous," she finally said, resting her chin on the other girl's shoulder as she looked over the outfit, sharing a beaming smile with the blonde in the mirror.
"Are you sure it's not too much white? What if some idiot spills punch on it?" Caroline asked, worryingly running her hands on the tulle skirt.
"Well, I'll just have to carry club soda around with me then." Nova was quick to reply, but still her best friend looked hesitant to wear the very white outfit near teenagers who would more than likely be drunk on spiked punch.
Nova would probably be one of those teenagers, but still...
"If you don't wear this to the decade dance I will dump you as my date," she said matter of factly, lying her ass off, but it got her the reaction she wanted.
Caroline quickly spun around, gasping dramatically, a look of outraged look on her face, "Shut up! You would not!"
The blonde's outrage was probably only a little fake, considering that the four best friends had been planning on going together with matching 'Pink Ladies' jackets since the dance committee had decided on the 50s for the decade dance.
"Oh, but I would," she replied, folding her arms and staring the other girl down with a serious look on her face that was completely fake.
Caroline looked away first, sighing in defeat and rolling her eyes at the triumph grin that took over her face.
"Ugh, fine! But if this dress gets stained by one of our dumb classmates, I'm blaming it on you, bitch," she said, pointing a finger at her with an exasperated look on her face as the reincarnated teen kept smiling at her.
"Fine by me, slut," Nova replied back just as affectionately.
"Good. Now, it's your turn. I wanna see what you picked out!"
Nova managed to catch the black garment bags shoved in her face before it fell to the floor and sighed before unzipping them. She loved dressing up, but trying on clothes was too exhausting and mind numbing for her.
She decided to try on her Greaser inspired look first, since it was the one she was most excited about, and pulled out the outfit from the garment bag.
With this outfit, she hadn't really bought anything but the wide black belt and the black and cherry red heels from the vintage store; the off shoulder black shirt and the shiny leather pants had come from her closet.
She stripped down to her lingerie before pulling the outfit out of the bag.
First were the pants. Putting on the snug leather required her to lay down on the bed and an extra set of hands to help her tug them up her curves.
"Suck it in," Caroline instructed as they finally got the leather pants halfway over her hips and towards her stomach.
"I am," she all but whined, but did as told and sucked in her stomach more.
See now this is why she rarely wore these pants, they might make her ass look amazing but they always took a forklift to get in and out of them. Also, she might have, maybe indulged in too many holiday sweets this winter and gained a little weight.
The extra fat on her stomach was worth it, in her opinion, but she digressed.
Three minutes later of wiggling later, the girls let out matching sighs of relief when they finally managed to button the leather pants.
Caroline collapsed onto laid on her back and and things were quiet for a moment as they took a breather and just stared up at the ceiling. She could see a small dent in the ceiling where she vaguely remembered throwing something at.
Nova turned her head to stare at Caroline as she seemed to daydream before deciding to just approach the subject that had been in the back of her mind for a while.
"So, Kaya's back in town, for the holidays," she said, watching the blonde out the corner of her eye.
Caroline's serene mood changed instantly, her body tensing and her hands began fidgeting with her necklace. "Oh, wow, I thought I saw her at Tyler's party. She looked... different, total wardrobe change. It looks good on her, grandma sweaters were so not a good look on her -"
Nature below her, it was a fucking miracle that Caroline kept any type of secret from her, let alone whatever she had managed to hide from her for this long.
"Okay, out with it, Carebear," she said, turning on her side and gently cutting the girl off with a hand on her hand.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," the blonde paused as she finally looked over at her and caught the disbelieving look on Nova's face.
"...You're gonna totally hate me," Caroline said, turning on her side as well, a guilty look on her face.
Nova nearly scoffed at the very idea of ever hating Caroline Forbes, but instead she grabbed the girl by her cheeks, smushing them until the other girl smiled slightly at her silly antics.
"Look, you don't have to tell me shit. You're entitled to keep your secrets. I'm just being a curious bitch," she said, letting go of her cheeks but keeping her brown eyes focused on her blue ones as she continued.
"But I swear on my best boob that I could never hate you. Scouts honor." Nova grabbed said boob - which was looking awesome in her new bra - and clumsily did the three fingered salute.
Caroline rolled her eyes at her, but still smiled brightly at her words, and, after a moment of contemplation she sighed in resignation. "I... when Kaya just out of freaking nowhere ghosted you, I kind of... confronted her?"
Nova looked at the girl with wide eyes that said: what the fuck, but she bit her lip to keep herself from interrupting her.
"I was just going to... I don't know... get answers for you, and I did… after I insulted her for a full five minutes -'' At this, she sent her friend an even more incredulous look.
"I know, I know, I felt like super crappy when she told me about some old bitch outing her. She didn't want you to feel responsible so I agreed when she asked me to keep it a secret from you."
Okay, well, she felt fucking embarrassed that she was that predictable, but she also felt unbelievably touched that she had such a great friend looking out for her.
She had already known, but it was nice to be reminded her best friends would go to the same lengths she would for them.
Caroline was still fidgeting, nervous about her reaction and when Nova saw this, she put on a quick smile for her.
"I don't know I've ever had someone defend my honor? I think you just made me love you even more you sappy bitch," she said, a faux-amazed tone to her voice that made her best friend break out into a big and beautiful bashful grin.
"Shut up," Caroline said, the tension from her shoulders relaxing as she tried to hide a beautiful bashful grin into the covers on her bed.
"Never," Nova vowed in faux solemnity.
Caroline shook her head, before rolling over and hopping off the bed. "Let's see this outfit! Those pants better be worth the struggle!"
Caroline helped her off the bed with a loud giggle when she had a hard time lifting herself up, which didn't bode well for her ability to dance in these things, and then she slipped on the top, belt and shoes.
"This is the one," Caroline decided as soon as they had stepped in front of the mirror, the caramel ombre haired girl's all black outfit and the blonde's all white outfit a stark contrast together.
"I didn't even try on the dress," she said with an amused huff, pointing her thumb towards the red dress still wrapped in its garment bag.
"Doesn't matter, this is perfect, it's so... you. And I refuse to go to the dance with you if you don't." Caroline tossed her words back at her with a sly grin on her face.
"Touche." Nova hummed, turning around in the mirror to look at her ass, and yup, it still looked pretty damn good in these pants. "Okay, I'm sold. You win."
Caroline clapped excitedly, a pleased smile on her face before she began to play with her hair and they spent the next fifteen minutes trying to figure out what they were gonna do with their makeup and hair.
They were in the middle of changing back into their normal clothes when a reminder on her phone went off. It was 3:15 pm, she needed the leave now if she wanted to make good time before her dad came to pick her up.
"So... I need a... tiny favor," she started, hesitant to broach the subject considering how much the blonde seemed to distrust the elder Salvatore, which was very smart of her.
"...what is it?" Caroline questioned, seeming to catch on that whatever it is that she wanted wouldn't make her happy.
Nova decided to explain the bare minimal for right now, that Damon had made her upset and she wanted to fuck up his entire day but couldn't find any other time to confront him with her still being relatively grounded and all.
The only reason her dad had let her to come here was because preparing for the decade dance was technically a school thing.
Caroline was quiet for a moment as she slipped on her white lace robe and pink bunny slippers, but eventually she looked at her. "I wanna help, of course, but.. what if he hurts you?" She questioned, a worried look on her face.
He couldn't.
Nova wasn't sure she was just that confident in her ability to protect herself, or much scarier thought... that she had some misplaced trust in the volatile Vampire.
She would prefer the first option because the second one would be fucking stupid of her considering the guy always managed to hurt the ones closest to him the most.
Caroline didn't want a cocky response or a worrying one though, her best friend wanted to know she had a safety net. She didn't. But, it wouldn't hurt to have one. Just in case she was horribly wrong.
"Okay, how about this, text me every time you get worried about me, and if I don't respond feel free to call Bonnie or Grams to come bail my ass out."
"That's... a lot of texts."
"And I'll answer each one."
"..Promise?"
"Pinky promise," she replied seriously, holding out her ringed pinky finger and getting a cute smile from her friend before the blonde wrapped her pinky finger around hers.
Since her dad drove her, she was forced to take a taxi to the Salvatore Boarding house.
Nova paid and tipped the driver before stepping out of the car, her phone glued to her hand as she hit send on her latest text to her best friend.
A cold breeze bit into the parts of her legs that weren't covered by her thigh-high boots and it made her almost regret wearing a skirt. Almost being the key word.
She looked up at the boarding house with a mischievous look on her face as she walked towards the front door. She wasn't sure if anyone was home, but she pulled on the doorbell, to be polite -
Okay, that was a fucking lie, she would rather waltz in, but she wanted to make sure no one was home.
And apparently someone was, because the door opened to reveal Stefan and a pretty older woman in a maid uniform, and you know...her mind went to dirty places.
Thankfully, for him, his next actions quickly shut down any thoughts of him cheating on her best friend by handing the woman a tote bag of honest to god cleaning supplies.
She folded her arms and politely - and curiously - staying quiet as she watched them say their goodbyes.
"Enjoy the rest of your day, Linda. Thank you again for the homemade cookies, they were delicious," Stefan said, pushing past his surprise at seeing her to give the older looking woman a genuinely kind look.
"Oh, you're welcome, honey! Make sure to save some for your brother!" The strawberry blonde haired woman said with a beautiful smile of her own, receiving a tighter one in return at the mention of his wayward brother.
Linda stepped out of the house, nodding at her with a dazzling smile in a short greeting - despite the woman's pretty smile, her blue eyes had a slightly dazed look in them that clued her in to the fact she was heavily compelled - before leaving.
Huh, well, that explains how the place is always so clean, she thought, watching the woman walk away towards her car that she had failed to notice.
"Wow, she's... wow. God, I need to find me a sugar mama asap," she said in greeting, sliding past him and into the house without an invitation.
"Hey, I wasn't expecting you, is there anything I can get you?" Stefan asked politely, following her into the living room, where she made herself comfy by perching herself onto the arm of the couch.
She supposed his words were his polite way of asking her what the fuck was she doing here, which, you know, fair. Hmm, she seemed to like doing that to him, popping in when he least expected.
"Where is Damon?" She asked in reply, getting straight to the point.
"I haven't seen him since this morning..." Stefan paused in pouring himself a strong drink to cast an inquiring glance at the fleeting angry look on her face that she couldn't hide from him.
"What did he do?"
Nova paused for a second as he abandoned his drink to sit on the coffee table in front of her, his eyes filled with concern, which was sweet if also a little annoying. God, she was friends with such worry rats, or was it worrywarts?
"You look hot. Where are you going, stud muffin? Hot date with Lena?" She deflected, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively as her mind whirled with the possibilities.
Should she?
Stefan gracefully ignored her hitting on him and her prying question without even a twitch, which was very impressive; but considering who his brother was, she probably shouldn't be surprised he was good at ignoring inappropriate comments.
"I know you and my brother have been getting along," she snorted at that, considering how much they argued. "But I know how he is. When people get too close to him he lashes out. Just... tell me, I need to know, did he hurt you?"
Fuck it, she was gonna do it.
"Not physically, if that's what you're asking." God she should be an actress, no, you know what, fuck that they should just give her a goddamn Emmy already.
She kept herself from cackling evilly by digging her faux-nails into the palm of her hand.
"But he did hurt you," Stefan said, less of a question and more of a statement.
Nova had to play this carefully, the two of them weren't very close but she doubted he would fall for a more dramatic performance. So, she decided to just be her usual blunt self, it wasn't like making Damon look bad was that hard.
"It's like you said. We got close, really close, like his head between my thighs close. And then he ghosted me, as if I don't have enough abandonment issues already." Everything she said was true, but leaving out the theft of the moonstone was a little bit of a gamble.
Maybe mentioning stolen property would invoke Stefan's chivalrous side even more, but she was already regretting telling one person about the moonstone.
She didn't want anyone else to know, not right now at least.
There was something else though. Elena. Even though their relationship was new, she knew that Stefan Salvatore would do anything to keep her best friend safe.
"And...there's something else," Nova spoke up again before he could say respond to her previous words. She bit her lip before she hesitantly brought him up to speed. "Apparently he's been talking with Pearl and Anna."
"I thought they left town the night of the Tomb." There was a deep frown slowly marring his pretty face, his body tensing as though he expected them to crawl out of the woodwork and attack him now.
"Yeah, well, I don't think Pearl is ready to let go of this town, or the past," she said, annoyance dripping from her tone as she folded her arms.
She was sympathetic to the elder Vampire's plight, living in one world only to then suddenly wake up into a different yet achingly familiar world was never easy.
But trying to recreate whatever control her and Katherine had Mystic Falls way back then wasn't realistic. It had ended badly before with the Council, and it would end doubly bad this time if they tried to stay.
Pearl should know this, seeing as, if her Journal was to be believed, she had been the one trying to convince Katherine to get the fuck out of town.
Whether the woman was feeling homesick or vengeful was up in the air but in the end it didn't matter.
Emily might have been fine working with the Vampires to control the town and its humans from the shadows, but the Bennett Witches alive now wouldn't turn a blind eye someone trying to take over their home.
"They were the ones who stole the blood from the hospital," Stefan said in realization, getting a maybe so hand gesture from her. "And Damon, being Damon, sought out Pearl because of Katherine and her friendship with her."
He had come coming to another conclusion that, honestly, wasn't out of the realm of possibilities. But they honestly wouldn't know jack shit until they found the little shit.
"I don't know whether he came to them or the other way around. All I know is that I need to find him. To talk." And throttle him, she thought, but didn't say as she crossed her arms.
"I see," that was all that came out of the younger Salvatore's mouth for a long moment as he started doing the whole... brooding eyebrow thing.
Nova had the sudden urge to squish his cheeks like she had done to Caroline earlier, but somehow managed to control the urge and settled for knocking her shoe against his to get his attention.
"Have I ever told you that your brother is an asshole? Because he is," she said, her voice disgustingly fond. She didn't say anything else and just smiled at him as they shared an understanding look.
Stefan let out of sigh before he stood up, grabbing a brown leather jacket she hadn't noticed off the back of the couch. She felt her phone buzz in her hand, and so she watched him slip on the jacket out the corner of her eyes - what? leather jackets made everyone ninety percent hotter - as she sent out a quick reply to her worried best friend.
"I'll keep an eye out for him and let you know if I find him. I've gotta go pick up, Elena. Did you need a ride home?" Stefan asked when she looked back up at him, slipping her phone into the pocket of her jacket.
"Thanks, but no thanks. I think I'll stay here. Wait to see if he shows up," she replied, a light smile on her face and a stubborn look in her brown eyes.
Stefan looked hesitant to leave her here to confront his volatile brother alone, but the look on her face said it all. She wouldn't be moved.
Nova almost didn't catch the frustrated look on his face, as fleeting as it was, but she bit her bottom lip to stop herself from smiling. Ah, frustrating people was her favorite hobby.
"Okay, but if he does show, let me know," he said firmly, an equally stubborn look in his eyes.
"Okay," she agreed, a little too easily - a little eager to get rid of him - if the look he shot her was anything to go by. "I promise."
She had already made one promise, why not make another one?
After a few more reassuring words spewed at the youngest Salvatore sibling, he reluctantly left her.
She had sat quietly to herself for a moment as she waited until the Vampire was well ways away from the boarding house, and now here she was, wandering the house.
Now that the starry-eyed fangirling had worn off, she was starting to agree with Damon's assessment of the boardinghouse. She still didn't really know what the fuck 'kitschy' meant, but she was gonna take a wild guess and say it meant expensive yet kind of fucking ugly.
She soon shrugged off her thoughts on how some of the interior decor looked and slowly stalked into the eldest Salvatore's bedroom. And, it was with a shit ton of glee that she began to ransack Damon's room inch by inch. Starting with his drawers.
She honestly didn't think the moonstone was in the house this go around, but that didn't stop her from throwing all of the expensive-looking clothing out of the drawers and onto the floor in a half-hearted attempt to find it.
Nova felt a truly devious smile appear on her face when she found a roll of cash in the third drawer she upturned. She picked it up and quickly counted the stack of fifty dollar bills, and if possible her grin became even wider as she counted a little over five hundred.
She pursed her lips as she thought on it because honestly, she probably should draw the line somewhere, it wasn't her money and theft was illegal, immoral and -
Oh fuck, who was she kidding?
"Asshole owes me money for opening that fucking tomb anyway," she muttered, tucking the money safely away in her wallet and shoving her wallet down into her bag.
Nova looked down at the mess she had made of his stuff all over the floor and sighed when she realized two things.
She didn't want him to know she had taken his poorly hidden money until it was too late, and well, remembering the pretty maid that had left moments ago, she was pretty sure that Damon probably wouldn't be the one cleaning this up.
So, with a put-on sigh, she began to painstakingly fold his clothes back up in his drawer as neatly as they had been before she had fucked it up.
Fifteen minutes later and she still hadn't found anything else of note, and snooping high and low in his bathroom sadly didn't reveal another wad of cash waiting to be stolen.
Nova was in the middle of giving her best friend another update text when her brown eyes strayed towards all the products on the counter before gluing themselves to the comb lying innocently next to a bottle of cologne.
She smiled deviously at herself in the mirror.
Grams was probably gonna kill her, and honestly, she wouldn't blame the elder Witch if she did because what she was doing was stupid.
Despite her being well aware of her stupidity, she pulled the stray black hairs off of the comb with an over exaggerated disgusted grimace on her face and scattered it in a bowl.
The bowl in question looked like it was worth hundreds of dollars at the least and she was probably gonna fuck it up permanently with Dark Magic.
Whilst the twin's grandmother hadn't shied away from letting them look at darker spells and their uses; she had never encouraged them to practice Dark Magic either, quite the fucking opposite actually.
Grams was a loyal servant of Nature, and Black Magic was kind of like.. giving your overbearing mother the middle finger before sneaking out to do drugs.
She hummed, tilting her head in thought for a moment as she tried to remember the next step to the spell she had only just barely remembered seeing in her great-grandmother's grimoire.
Truthfully, it wasn't the darkest spell she knew, but it was probably the darkest one she had ever actually done. It was basically a bad luck hex, and as a general rule with hexes, the longer it stayed the more the effects of the spell worsened.
Nova brought the bowl to the sink and poured hot water into the bowl when she remembered the rest of the spell. She carefully set the bowl back on the counter and in the center of the four candle sticks she had stolen from a candelabra.
"Incedia," she whispered, watching as they all lit.
The reincarnated Witch then set her eyes on the mix in the middle of the lit candles, her features scrunched in concentration as she glared at it. She probably looked constipated, but she wasn't a fucking microwave and she sure as hell didn't do this often so who knows if it'd work -
Nova let out a hum, watching with a pleased look in her eyes as the hot water in the bowl raised in temperatures so much more that it boiled and steamed.
She closed her eyes as she gathered most - she didn't want to kill him and so she held herself back, as always - of her frustration and anger before she began chanting, "Pati subtus me ira," she furiously repeated the chant a few times until she felt her Magic react.
An unwilling and stuttering gasp falling from her mouth as she felt her Magic viciously twist inside of her in a way it had never done before; her heart felt like it was going trying to punch itself out of her chest and her stomach dropped as the spell began to take root.
The water in the bowl bubbled so high until it spilled from the sides, until eventually the water in the bowl evaporated. The smell of hair burning reaching her nose was the only warning she got before the bowl's contents burst into flames and the candles died out.
Nova took in deep breaths in her nose and out her mouth for several seconds as she tried to calm herself down.
But it was futile, she realized. She felt like a live-wire. As though she had stepped onto a nonstop roller coaster ride and all of her frustration and anger that had gone into the spell had made a home inside of the darkest parts of her Soul.
She idly scratched at her chest, as though she could scratch the feeling out of her, before grabbing the bowl out of the circle of candles.
"Oops," she said dispassionately, as she looked at the cracks on the bowl and the burn mark in the middle.
She didn't bother trying to clean the damage and just slid the bowl into the garbage, before grabbing the nearest booze, cup, and leaving the kitchen in a daze.
Nova watched with an amused little grin as she filled a teacup with cinnamon whiskey filled, and with her pinky poking out she took a sip. Despite the fiery burn that came with it, she managed to gulp it down in one go like a shot glass.
She still felt like she was vibrating from the inside, and the imprint of her anger was still raging inside of her like a tsunami, but she was an expert at bottling her feelings up and so she did just that, albeit with some difficulty.
Nova looked around the room, noticing for the first time that the room she had holed herself inside of was in fact, the library. She smiled excitedly at the sight and fuck, the smell of old books that surrounded her.
She used the archway behind her to slide up from the floor she couldn't remember sitting on and poured herself another cup of cinnamon whiskey as she browsed the room with eager eyes.
Her ringed fingers trailed the fragile spines of the books as she walked around the room.
Unlike the Lockwood's book collection that were pure decoration, the Salvatores books were very obviously not only read but well taken care of in a way that screamed that this house belonged to a bunch of fucking book worms.
Eventually she grabbed a few books off the shelf, some of them she had read already and some she hadn't even heard of, and settled herself into a dark worn leather chair, her legs thrown over the arm of it.
Nova handled all the books carefully as she set them and her drink on the low side table next to the armchair. Fucking up ugly china was one thing, but she'd rather hex herself than fuck up a book.
She tried to pretend she was content as she got lost within the pages of the book in her hand, but even as her fingers carefully turned the pages, the turmoil in her chest persisted.
thanks for reading babes! feed my muse with reviews please, tell me what was your favorite scene of this chapter? how'd you find this story? so far whose your favorite character you love to see nova interact with? im dying to know. also! happy (almost too fucking late) pride, please stay safe, wash your hands, wear a mask, and remember that i love you so much!