A/N: i feel like someone has probably written a variation of this, and if so, i'd love to read it. honestly, it's been a couple of rough days and i needed some Trash(TM). Bonnie is a bit snarkier here than in canon, but let's face it, season 4!her should've been the snarkiest, given the crap she was going through. hope you enjoy!
Prom sucks. She didn't expect it to blow her mind, but she hoped it would be painless, at least. Seeing magnified, poster-wide photos of her and Jeremy, dancing together at the 60s dance makes her want to cry and throw up, in that order. She wished she lived in a big city where decade dances were scoffed at, where she'd be one person in the crowd and not the Mother Teresa of her group of friends. Not for nothing, but Bonnie sometimes felt like a fraud. Everyone thinks she's the kindest soul to walk the earth, always ready to do someone a good turn. But deep down, she harbors a lot of "negative feelings" (her father's words), a lot of resentment and anger. She does not feel good; she feels tired and annoyed and ready to snap. If she had been truly good, this form of dark magic wouldn't be taking root in her.
She can't deny a part of her likes that it's come to this. She likes to watch herself unravel. She likes to poke the poison inside of her with a stick. She watches the couples aligned on the dance floor and she thinks how easy it would be to choke them all to death - which is a pretty awful thought, but it's also a simple matter of power. She's getting to know herself.
Don't worry, she thinks, watching her classmates, I won't go all Carrie on you.
At least these kids are human. Her vampire friends, though. Sometimes (and it's become more frequent these days), she wants nothing to do with them. Take Elena, for example. Tonight she's acting like an absolute bitch just because she's turned her humanity off. But you can't actually turn it off. It doesn't work like that. You're always stuck with yourself. It's just that vampires have a way of finding excuses. Caroline is busy cleaning up her messes instead of hanging out with Bonnie. Matt is trying to reason with Rebekah and Stefan and Damon are too old for this shit, or they should be.
Like clockwork when they run into a hurdle, Bonnie watches all of them converge on her. Elena is looking particularly ready for a fight.
No, thank you.
Bonnie puts down her paper cup and strolls out of there.
She casts a few sealing and protection wards behind her, making sure that they won't follow her, and what's more fun, that they're all stuck at prom together.
She should've probably grabbed a jacket, though. Her skin pricks with the cold. But it also feels a little thrilling, walking through the woods in a prom gown like some gothic heroine with dark magic coursing through her veins. The dress looked more fun on the hanger, but it impedes her walking. And it's not actually all that pretty, now that she thinks about it. She wrenches the hem and tears blue chunks of it, until her legs are freed. She runs a hand through her loose hair. It's kind of a mess. She was supposed to get it trimmed months ago, but when was the last time she actually cared about these things? And why does she care now? Who is she expecting to meet out here? A handsome stranger?
No, it's just herself. In a way, she's come to meet herself.
Nice to meet you, Bonnie Bennett.
She looks down at her hands. Have you ever done anything worthwhile, she wonders?
It's prom night and she wants to do something awful, something really bad.
Maybe here, in the middle of the forest she can let loose a bit of that dark magic. No one has to get hurt. And if someone happens to come by…well, their fault for being out here this late.
Bonnie laughs, heady with the thought of giving in. Maybe she doesn't have to give a fuck for once.
So she doesn't.
Dark magic feels intimate and disturbing, like a family figure who followed you from young infancy and now noticed that you're a budding young woman. It's perverted and creepy and fun.
She lets it tickle her throat. She lets it climb out. She opens her mouth. She leans against a tree trunk and lets herself be ravished. She notices that the wind has picked up, churning the brushwood and leaves and loamy scrubs and ferns that make up the forest floor. Slowly, living things are being uprooted. Tree branches are falling to the ground around her, but she isn't touched. She just watches and feels it all inside her.
It's pretty fucking great.
And then, it feels like her magic is not only rending the forest in half, but the air itself. There's almost like a gash in the atmosphere, a break in the fabric of whatever makes the present the present. She runs her fingers down her throat, calling to that gash to open wide.
And it does.
And someone is spat out of it into the clearing.
Bonnie blinks.
Okay, she wasn't expecting that part.
It's an actual person.
A boy.
He's shaking uncontrollably as he kneels on the forest floor, looking around him in utter shock.
His eyes eventually find her. He takes her in, mouth open wide. He hasn't seen anything like this before. The girl in a half-torn prom gown whose hair is full of leaves and twig, like some kind of sprite of the forest, an angry naiad who is about to suck his soul.
But then, this angry naiad's features soften.
Bonnie notices the blood on his pink rainbow-T-shirt-over-white-shirt-combo. He looks young and frightened.
"Are you okay?" she asks when the wind dies down.
He swallows, looks around him, then back at her.
"Is this it? The prison world?"
Bonnie frowns. "Uh, no. This is Mystic Falls. I guess some people would call it a prison world but...that'd be a very dramatic description."
His eyes narrow as he surveys her. "How do I know you're telling the truth? How do I know you're not just playing along?"
"Why would I be playing along?"
"You're obviously a witch," he says, bitterly.
Bonnie blinks. "Yeah, that doesn't mean I'm toying with you." But she gets the sense that someone has. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"
He shakes his head. "I don't know how I got here. I was in Portland."
"Wow. You teleported?"
He glares at her. "My family must have sent me here, which means this is some kind of trap. You're trying to trick me."
Bonnie folds her arms. "Do I look like a trap to you?"
And she's surprised by the sound of laughter. He laughs, warm and low in his throat. "I mean, you're a hot girl in a skimpy dress who can do magic. What part of this isn't tailored for me?"
Bonnie notices for the first time the hunger in his eyes, the alertness and the cleverness too. It's not just the simple lust of a teenage boy.
"I guess I'm flattered," she mutters, pulling her hair over her shoulder. "Look, you can walk around and see for yourself. I won't stop you. This isn't a prison. You can drive out of town any time you like. If you have a permit."
He stares at her for a few moments longer, probably wondering if he should take the bait. Bonnie feels a blush coming on. Okay, maybe it's been a while since someone looked at her that way.
"I don't have a permit," he admits, finally.
Bonnie represses a smile. This is the weirdest conversation she's ever had, and that's saying something.
"You said your family sent you here?" she reminds him.
"No." His voice cools. "They were trying to send me to a prison world. If you're telling the truth, it means they failed. Or …you intervened somehow."
At the thought of her intervention his eyes go glassy, as if contemplating an impossible, yet wonderful thing.
Bonnie bites her lip. Had she summoned him here with dark magic? Was it possible?
"What even is a prison world?" she asks instead.
He laughs again, harsher, showing his teeth. "Be happy you don't know."
He makes a move to get back up, but his knees give in and he collapses on the ground, hand over his chest. He's wheezing.
Okay, she's not Mother Teresa, but she can't just stand there. Presumably, she brought him here. She feels a little responsible.
She goes to him. She kneels next to him and casts a soothing charm, something superficial but calming. He's still shaking. Bonnie puts her fingers on the back of his neck, trying to catch his pulse.
The instant she touches his skin, she forgets all about soothing.
Everything flares up, like a fever taking over the body. The barely tamped Expression bursts into showers of unstable magic, like fireworks going off inside her blood, making her gasp and shudder. Violent tendrils shoot out of her towards him, snaring him, but also snaring herself.
"Holy shit… what kind of magic is that?" he groans.
"What kind of warlock are you?" Bonnie shoots back.
"Not a very good one," he admits, staring into her eyes. "I mostly take magic from others."
Bonnie grips the side of his face and the renewed contact makes everything burn, but she feels it would burn worse if she let him go.
"You're a siphoner?"
"Y-yeah," he gasps. "Fuck, that's not – regular magic –"
And he puts his hand on her bare shoulder, bringing her closer.
"It's Expression," she says through gritted teeth, and without meaning to, she leans her forehead against his. She just – she just needs this right now. He feels like an anchor, but also like a funnel, unraveling her faster. His touch is somehow feeding and frustrating the dark magic, and it's pretty goddamn intoxicating.
Did she summon him here because he's the perfect fucking fix?
She closes her eyes.
When she opens them again, he gasps.
"Your eyes, they're uhh…all black now."
"Yours too," she mouths.
The magic draws a thick web between them until it doesn't make sense not to give in. It's like all the frustration and pain and mind-numbing loneliness of the past year becomes this weight that she needs to get off her chest. So, she does the logical thing. She crushes his mouth against hers.
That definitely does the trick, because a) the sensations only intensify and b) he immediately opens his mouth and kisses back, clumsy but very much willing and needy. In fact, it feels brand new. When their tongues brush against each other, it almost feels like screaming, like being galvanized, like that's how maybe Frankenstein's bride got her hair like that, so she deepens the kiss and wraps her arms around him, and this total stranger wraps his arms around her, groping feverishly, trying to touch as much of her as he can.
Bonnie is straddling him, trying to tear at his blood-soaked T-shirt, which… should give her pause again. Like, what was he doing before he got here? What sort of family is this? But she's too drunk on magic to care. She didn't exactly plan to have a magic-fuelled make-out session in the woods, but…then again, she didn't plan against it?
It's when she feels his erection poking her stomach that she takes a moment, just a brief one, to break the kiss. She looks down at him and very slowly and deliberately rubs herself against the seat of his pants.
The boy under her chokes and slams a hand against the ground.
"Could you – not -?"
Bonnie admits she's never felt this kind of power before. It's magic, but it's also not.
"I'm Bonnie, by the way," she says, still moving slowly against him.
"K-Kai."
"Nice to meet you."
He laughs, but his voice cracks. "You should know I – won't hold out much longer – if you keep doing that."
Bonnie swallows. "Then I should help you out…"
Her fingers fumble with his zipper.
"I'm – I'm a virgin," he keens. His eyes are not so black anymore.
Bonnie's fingers pause. Through the fog of lust and dark magic she remembers she is one too.
"That's okay," she says. "I haven't done this before either."
He looks up at her. "Shit. I – I'll probably suck at this. I don't want this to be bad for either of us."
Bonnie smiles. She finds it sort of sweet how self-conscious he is. She'd probably worry too if Expression hadn't totally shut down her brain.
She bends down to him and whispers in his ear, "That's okay. Just let the magic guide you. Don't fight it."
Kai shudders. His eyes go full black again. He grips her to him and runs his fingers down her back, tearing the rest of the gown off her. He can't believe he's undressing a girl and touching her so boldly. Fuck, he's cupping a breast.
"If my family was trying to fuck with me, this would be an excellent way to go," he remarks, throat dry. All he wants is to taste them, eat the magic off her breasts.
Bonnie angles her body just the right way. "Shut up about your family."
"You got it," he murmurs and lowers his mouth to her breast.
Bonnie is wet enough that when she grips his cock and guides it inside her it's not nearly as uncomfortable as she'd thought it would be. It's almost easy. Expression has a way of taking the edge off, but it also gives you a nice sting. When she sinks further, he chokes, parting his mouth in utter shock, because this is actually happening. She arches against him and Kai growls, sinking his teeth into her breast.
He's clearly new at this, because he jumps, his hips moving in quick, chaotic strokes, but it doesn't matter. They're both so high on it, high on something better than just sex. Bonnie feels like she's there but not there, like she's watching herself riding him. It's strange and also electrifying. She reaches a hand down and touches her clit. Kai is greedy for instruction. He wants to learn. He replaces her fingers with his and Bonnie purrs into his mouth. The blood on his shirt is now smeared over her collarbones. Kai licks it off her and kisses her again.
"Whose blood is that?" she asks.
"Not mine," he pants.
And the Expression inside of her is pleased. "Good."
She cranes her neck back, overwhelmed by the upsurge in power and pleasure, and he tries to count the ridges of her throat but he can't go past three because he doesn't know numbers anymore and she's pulsing around him, dragging him deeper inside of her, which feels more profound than it is, and he knows this shit is already addictive, already something he'll want to come back to until it kills him and he wonders who the hell she is, who made her this way, as he loses his last shred of control, screaming her name probably.
He has no way of knowing.
Coming down from it isn't easy.
They lie in a tangle on the cold forest floor, trying to catch their breath.
Bonnie is knocked out. The orgasm felt like being depleted. Her magical levels have dropped considerably, and yet she also feels completely in control as she rests her head on his chest, listening to his erratic heartbeat.
Kai runs his fingers down her bare back. His touch still teases and stings.
"Hey, did I scream your name when I came?" he rasps.
"Um, yeah?"
"Cool."
"Just cool?"
"No. That was…"
"Better than your fantasies?" she asks.
"My imagination didn't really do it justice."
She smiles, gratified.
"It doesn't feel real. Are you real? Is this real?"
"I don't know," she confesses, biting her thumb. It wouldn't be the first time her dreams have felt this vivid.
"Well, if this is the prison world I guess I can't complain," he drawls.
Bonnie lifts her head slightly. "Why were they trying to send you to a prison world?"
Kai wraps a lock of her hair round his finger. "You know how you have this dark magic inside of you? And how it's totally awesome but really insane?"
Bonnie nods, blushing.
"Yeah well, I guess I'm insane, but without the magic."
"What do you mean?"
He shrugs. "I mean, I don't think I went overboard, but they were mad I tried to kill a bunch of my siblings."
Bonnie stills.
"But it's 'kill or be killed' in the Gemini coven. So really, I was just playing by their rules. I guess maybe the axe was overkill."
She should probably be alarmed by this, but her blood pressure doesn't spike. She watches him calmly. This scrawny kid with, admittedly, a pretty good jaw who'd just had sex for the first time was a murderer? She couldn't really see it.
She didn't want to see it.
And well, if she had to stare at that bald fact in the face, she'd also have to admit that most of her friends already were murderers. Like, habitual ones.
"You were just trying to survive, weren't you?"
"Yeah."
"You didn't do it for the fun of it."
Kai quirks his lips. "Well…doing bad shit is fun, you have to admit. I mean, we just had dark magic sex. That's probably frowned upon, but hell, I'd do it again. And again. And again."
Bonnie blushes. "Me too."
Kai looks at her and his sharp blue eyes are tinged with fondness. "I have a feeling I caught you at a weird time in your life. Like maybe this isn't who you normally are. The axe thing should have freaked you out more."
Bonnie frowns. "I don't know…honestly, this might as well be me. It's not like I was someone before."
He rubs his thumb against her cheek. "I know the feeling."
He's quickly growing hard again.
But Bonnie shakes her head. "I should probably get back to prom."
"Prom?"
"Yeah, I sort of left a bunch of people trapped in the building."
Kai laughs. "Seriously?"
"Yeah. I mean, why do you think I'm wearing this gown?"
"To seduce me?"
She rolls her eyes. "Yes, that's definitely why."
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but your dress is kind of…nonfunctional at the moment."
And he points to the torn bodice. Bonnie blushes, recalling the exact way it happened.
"Crap… I can't go back naked." She looks down at him. "Hey, give me your T-shirt."
Kai doesn't have to be told twice. He wriggles out of the over-garment. Bonnie thought layering clothes was no longer a thing, but maybe he hasn't got the memo.
Something falls out of his pocket in the grass.
Bonnie picks it up. "What's this?"
"My pager?"
Bonnie gives him a look of utter confusion.
"What, you don't have one? How do you even get around?" he asks.
"Aren't pagers like…old-timey Tamagotchi's from the 90s?"
"First of all, you're clearly not familiar with Tamagotchi's and secondly…isn't it still the 90s?"
Bonnie's jaw falls open.
"How can it still be the 90s when it's 2012?"
It's his turn to gape at her.
"No…it's 1994. You know, Kurt Cobain just died?"
Bonnie blinks. "Are you insane? Wait no, you already said you are."
"I'm not – I have the pager to prove it!"
Bonnie turns the small object in her hands.
"Did I…"
"Did you break the time-space continuum to bring me here?" he finishes for her. "It's a possibility."
Bonnie exhales. So, not only did she have sex for the first time with a perfect stranger, he's also from the past. This feels exactly like one of her grandmother's outrageous harlequins, except way more convoluted.
"Do you still want the T-Shirt?" he asks hesitantly.
Bonnie takes it from him and pulls it over her head. Now that she knows about him, even the shirt smells like the 90s, somehow. Oh, and blood. Definitely smells of blood too.
They stare at each other.
"What now?" he asks, looking around them at the empty woods. "We can't stay here all night."
Bonnie has no idea. But she should probably drop by the high school.
She doesn't want to go alone. And she can't leave him here.
Here goes nothing.
She takes his hand in hers. "I guess – I guess we go to prom."