Note: Miss me with the Damon VS Stefan debate. I'm literally only in it for Bonnie Bennett, mkay?
Staring over at Katherine, Bonnie thought back to the last time she'd seen the vampire go right up into smoke, leaving a swinging chandelier behind her.
"You're alive," Bonnie remarked, guarding her features to keep them and this situation in check.
"No thanks to you," Katherine rolled her eyes. "Nice job with Kai, by the way. I really wasn't a fan."
"Where did you come from?" Stefan wondered, pulling Bonnie closer to his side.
"I think the more important question," Katherine flashed until she was within arm's reach. Stefan grit his teeth, but Bonnie remained composed, "is who else did you let out when you killed the only Parker who was holding the rest of the Prison Worlds afloat?"
Bonnie's eyes tightened around the corners, but inwardly she was reeling. Of course.
Of course, she thought, of course the other shoe would drop.
"Stefan," Bonnie's eyes stayed on Katherine as she spoke, "Gonna have to take a rain check on tonight."
Katherine smirked over at the younger Salvatore, whose gaze volleyed between the two of them.
"I'm not leaving you with her," Stefan argued gently, trying to get Bonnie to see reason.
"Stefan, I don't need you to protect me." She said as he turned to Katherine, and Stefan took another look at Bonnie, unconvinced.
Bonnie gripped his chin in her hand, and kissed him quickly, and then felt her pupils twist as she held his gaze. "Go home and don't tell anyone we saw Katherine." He nodded numbly and Katherine felt dread build in her chest, since when did witches compel vampires?
Katherine tried to flee, but felt her feet sinking into the ground, heavier than anvils.
"Call me," Stefan said earnestly, dipping his head to look Bonnie in the eye.
"I will," Bonnie said, looking at him with a small smile. He wanted to kiss her again, but her compulsion was stronger. His mouth ghosted over hers just the same.
When he got into his car and drove off, Bonnie lifted her brows at Katherine. "Do you need somewhere to stay?"
Katherine's surprise almost amused her.
Things were tense between Damon and Elena.
Not in the sexual tension leading to performative sex kind of way, but the hey, I think we missed the turn, should we go back, kind of way.
You know, seconds before realisation hits, and chaos ensues.
Elena was mulling her life over the morning after Alaric and Jo's wedding when she got a call from Caroline.
"Where are you?" The blonde asked by way of greeting.
"Damon's, why?" Elena frowned, "Is something wrong?"
"...It's Bonnie's birthday tomorrow," Caroline said, voice inching toward annoyance, "I thought it would be obvious that we have some planning to do? What with us being her best friends and all."
Elena sighed. "I totally forgot," she could hear the blonde's eye-roll, "I'll be over soon."
"Cool, we're at Matt's," Caroline replied, and then promptly hung up.
Elena stared at the cell phone in her hand and swallowed down all the hard feelings that seemed to be boiling in her chest. Moving to stand in front of Damon's full-length mirror, she gave herself a once over, expression souring. She needed a change. She needed to talk to Bonnie, and she needed to clear the air with Damon.
It's not that she ever expected things to be easy between the two of them forever, it was just that she never considered the multitude of ways that their lives could go from epic, to tragic. She suddenly felt both suffocated and adrift..that, and overwhelmingly dissatisfied with her lot.
Flashing over to the bathroom, she scrounged around until she found a pair of scissors. They were more for bandages and whatnot, but they would do. Looking at herself in the bathroom mirror, Elena squared her shoulders.
A change was as good as a holiday, and as much as she wanted to head for the hills and get some focus, she knew that what she really needed to do, was to face everything head-on.
"It's this or a tattoo," she said to her reflection, raising the scissors to her shoulders, gauging the length she had in mind.
Bonnie was watching her when she woke up, and Katherine jerked upright upon the realisation, narrowing her eyes as she took in her surroundings, before she looked back over at Bonnie. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept through the night.
Katherine took in the photos of a handsome man, smiling as he stood beside Bonnie who was dressed in her cheer uniform. She couldn't smell anything other than soap and softener on the linen, and she took that as the obvious cue to assume that the man was long dead.
"You could have killed me," Katherine said with a forced smile.
"But I didn't," Bonnie pointed a finger and then revealed a blood bag in her other hand. "Besides, if I wanted to kill you, I'd want a fair fight. You were wrung dry by the time you found me, and you still managed to have an attitude."
Katherine snorted. "Have you met me?"
"This might come as a shock to you, but I thought it fair to put at least one of my cards on the table. I was psychic before I was a witch, before I died, and before I became this, so I would watch the words you choose wisely from here on out," Bonnie said, dropping the blood bag back down in her own lap, irritating Katherine, "I'm not interested in whatever you think is standing in the way of whatever it is you want this time. I'm not fighting you, I'm not negotiating with you and I'm sure as hell not wasting my time lying to myself about who you are." Bonnie could see the shift in the vampire when Katherine realised who she was dealing with.
"You always were smarter than most people in the room," Katherine complimented brazenly, remembering Bonnie's show of power the previous night, and knowing it was best to tread lightly and politely when it came to the Bennett witch in front of her. Bonnie almost rolled her eyes.
"The only thing that stopped me from being the smartest was not acting on my intuition out of fear," Bonnie told her. "I'm different now. I had to be," Bonnie tilted her head. "I know you know what that's like, Damon told me about your story."
"He may never move on," Katherine rolled her eyes, mouth turning down at the corners.
"Probably not," Bonnie agreed with a lift of her shoulders. "That's a story for another lifetime. What are you doing here?"
"I need you to untie me," Katherine said vaguely.
"You know I don't follow," Bonnie sighed.
"Instead of staying in hell, I climbed my way out of that shit-hole, all the way until I reached one of the Parkers' prison-worlds," Katherine pulled a face, "no small feat and no applause...story of my fucking life," Bonnie wondered then if either Damon or Katherine knew how alike they were. "I can't leave the radius of the portal that passes me between without the permission of the person running the plane...catch my drift?"
"You're bound to me," Bonnie murmured.
"Not to you," Katherine held up a finger, "by you."
"No, no," Bonnie shook her head sweetly, eyes turning to black ink, "to me."
Stefan was sitting in his room frowning at his hands when his phone rang.
Slowly, he turned his gaze to the device, and his entire demeanor changed when he saw who was calling.
"Bonnie-"
"I'm sorry about last night," she said, "I feel horrible about asking for a rain-check."
"I for one would feel less horrible if you said you wanted to make up for it today," Stefan negotiated, amusing her.
"What did you have in mind?" Bonnie wondered, eyes trailing over Katherine's form.
"You...me, some pre-birthday festivities," Stefan was smiling, she could tell.
"Would it be awful of me to want to skip over my birthday completely tomorrow?" Bonnie wondered, "it's a little bit of a sore spot."
"You should tell Caroline that, she's rallying the troops as we speak."
"Of course she is," Bonnie sighed softly, "I'll be grateful. I can totally do grateful." They both laughed.
"So, uh-"
"Katherine's under control," Bonnie answered before he could ask, "she was bound by the radius of the portals between the prison worlds...and incidentally the person who was in charge of them."
"...You?" he guessed.
"The one and only," Bonnie half-sang, "she's asleep now, but when she wakes up she's gonna be pissed...well, actually, probably not, considering the spell I cast on her."
"You're terrifying, did you know that?" Stefan asked, and Bonnie laughed.
"Music to my ears," Bonnie grinned. "Also, I've been thinking..." Stefan held his breath, "We need like a code word or something for tomorrow," he exhaled, "if I'm at my limit, and I want out the city limits, I wanna say a word, and you'll know to take my hand and run to the nearest airport."
"Why don't you just tell me telepathically?" Stefan wondered, and Bonnie pursed her lips.
"I mean, I'd feel better if it were a two-way thing, I wanna talk to you, not at you," she explained, biting her bottom lip, "it's not like I wanted to compel you last night, it was just necessary in the moment. You get it, right?"
"I do," he swore, "Also, we can figure it out, maybe there's a channel we can open?"
"Okay, you have my interest," Bonnie beamed. "Wanna come over?"
"I have a better idea," Stefan said, "pack a bag."
Damon was spinning his phone in his hand as he tried to come up with the words he needed to save his friendship with Bonnie.
He shouldn't have kissed her, he knew that. He'd known it before, during, and after the brief bliss of being the closest he'd ever been to her. He shouldn't have kissed her, but the only thing he regretted was just kissing her; not asking, not hedging, not getting any clarification before his own obvious declaration. He'd thought himself better than that. And clearly, he'd thought wrong.
And now, he had to deal with the fact that he was with Elena, and for all Bonnie's intents and purposes, she was kissing and feeding on (and feeding) his brother.
He knew he had to be more mature about his decisions, he had to define his wants and needs before he obliterated his life once again all because he couldn't stand the thought of falling shy of his destined lot. The fear of living with a new burden for another two hundred years was a little hard to swallow.
He wondered how selfish he really was, at the core of his person. He wondered if he was the kind of guy who could rip his brother away from Bonnie, while he still had Elena, just to make sure he had Bonnie, too. He wondered about what that made him, just like he wondered about what kind of a person Elena was, to love someone like him, when before, she'd loved Stefan, and maybe still did. Damon sat there stewing in this thing that had been brewing between him and Elena, and couldn't help but wonder if it was as simple as him being the only one who'd forgive her, and vice versa - and about what that meant. For the both of them.
Damon looked down at his phone, and held down the '2' button.
"I was waiting for this," she said, and it sounded like she'd jammed the phone between her ear and her shoulder blade, her hands busy with something PG-13 he hoped.
"I'm sorry," Damon said. "I shouldn't have-"
"But you did," Bonnie interjected, "and now we're on the phone getting ready to pretend it never happened. Right?"
"I," Damon felt the floor flee from underfoot. "I don't know."
"Damon, stop," Bonnie stopped her packing and held her phone to her ear while she looked out of her bedroom window. "I don't know why everything has to be between you and your brother, but-"
"No, no," Damon interrupted, "This is not a me and Stefan thing."
"What then?" She prompted him.
"It's a me-and-you thing," he said feebly, "it is. But it's also a me-thing."
"Does it matter to you how I feel?" Bonnie asked. "Does it matter to you -at all- that I don't want you to have whatever it is you think you want, on a whim mind you, just to keep you happy all the time?"
"Of course it matters how you feel-"
"-you decided what situation we were going to be in by kissing me when you did, knowing what you did," Bonnie reminded him, "you can't just decide for everyone, Damon, you can't!"
"How was I supposed to know I'd ever feel like this about you?" He snapped, wincing, eyes shut as the words left his mouth at the volume it did.
"Because it was so far-fetched to begin with," Bonnie snapped with her eyes slitting in annoyance, "it's not like we spent four months alone together, it's not like I'm a psychic who can see through you at any given moment, and know what it is you really want." He didn't want to think about the implication of those words, about how long she'd known already. He couldn't.
"Bonnie, please, I'm trying to fix this," Damon half-begged her.
"Then why does it feel like it's getting worse?" She countered. "I have to go, Stefan told me to pack a bag, and so far, all I've managed is socks. I'll see you at whatever hellish ordeals awaits us all at my surprise birthday party." A click.
"Surprise birthday party?" Damon muttered aloud, "...Caroline."
When Stefan pulled up to her driveway, Bonnie was sitting on her porch bench, waiting for him.
Standing upright as he walked up the stairs, she felt the tightness in her chest release a little at the sight of him.
"What's wrong?" He asked, pulling her closer to him by the waist. She went onto the balls of her feet to kiss him quickly.
"I have to tell you something," she admitted. "Non-Katherine related," she clarified.
"Should I be worried?" He joked, already worried.
"I am," she said with a nod leading him so they could sit on her bench together. "Damon came over before the wedding-"
"He's upset is he?" Stefan scowled, looking out over her front lawn, and further, across the road, where one of Bonnie's neighbours was fiddling and plucking their way through their flower bushes.
"That's an understatement," she said, following his gaze before turning to him and chewing her lip. "We haven't stopped fighting of late."
"What did he say?"
"He was being a dick, in general, about us, or whatever," Bonnie swallowed, "and right before he left, and most likely the reason he left, was, he, uh...he kissed me."
"Of course he did," Stefan growled, pulling away from her a little to sigh into his palms. "I'm so over this shit." He shot upright, "what, uh, what happened after he kissed you?"
"He bolted," Bonnie told him.
"Well, I mean, we're not dating, so-" she took his hand in hers.
"I'm aware," Bonnie interjected, "I'm just not built for secrets, Stefan."
"So, what happens now?"
"I packed a bag, didn't I?" She said with a smile. "And I spelled the house, and Katherine, so we're all clear."
"What do we do if more Katherine's come crawling out of the woodwork?"
"Fight till the end," Bonnie declared dramatically and then laughed. "I don't know, and right now I couldn't care. We can't assume every hypothetical person who is freed is going to go on a killing spree. I was stuck in a prison world and I'm not a serial killer or a bitch from the middle ages," Bonnie shrugged. "It's my birthday at midnight, and I want to be lost somewhere in the woods with you."
"Can I kiss you?" Stefan asked, "I've been wanting to since last night."
Nodding, Bonnie felt him pull her tight against him, their mouths pressing together, before opening up for their tongues to curl into one another. She didn't know why it felt like free-falling when he kissed her this way, but it did. She didn't know why she wasn't worried about Elena's reaction (at all), but, she wasn't.
"-The surprise I have planned, can't really be a surprise, so I have to ask you something," Stefan said, mouth brushing past hers as he interrupted them.
"Okay, shoot."
"Are you ready to see your mom?" Oh.
"I, I've been thinking about it," Bonnie admits.
"Of course you have," he smiles to himself about something, "You're probably a hundred years into the future already."
"Just the next fifty, actually," she tells him with a soft laugh, "I didn't want to go into a spiral." He was right, the thinking never ended.
"So...?" He gives her a measured gaze.
"I think it says a lot that you'd do this for me after what I did," Bonnie says quietly, still in the circle of his arms, looking up now, trying to read his expression same as he was trying to read hers.
"Well, let's not forget what I did before that," he says, wincing.
"True," she shrugs, kissing him again quickly, "Thank you and yes, I do want to go."
"Perfect," he kisses her again, quickly, then takes her hand and her bag and leads her toward his car.
Damon wasn't interested in the pissing contest that was about to go down between Bonnie's other friends, all three of whom had it on their agenda to out-do the others when it came to 'being there for Bonnie' now that she no longer needed them to be. Fucking typical.
Instead, he was planning on begging Bonnie in person to forgive him for the idiotic kiss, and then the stream of idiotic things that came from his mouth when he was spiralling in the aftershock of said kiss. He wanted to make sure that they were still them, despite everything, like always.
So, there he stood watching Stefan play the perfect boyfriend, even though the both of them made a show of swearing up and down that they weren't a couple. When the duo left, however, his focus shifted elsewhere. Whether that was because of some toxic coping mechanism of his or what, he shook off introspection and made his way to Bonnie's front door.
She'd said some interesting things to Stefan when she hadn't been making puppy-eyes at him. The name Katherine repeatedly came up and he knew for a fact that Kai's death was at the centre of all this, which meant that Bonnie was hiding the consequences of her big spells - once again.
"Groundbreaking," Damon scoffed sarcastically to himself as he tried the doorknob. "And I'm the stubborn one." A zap of magic curled around his hand, a flush of warning, but cooled upon recognition he guessed when it receded and the door clicked open under his touch. "Maybe magic isn't rubbish after all." Creeping in, and clicking the door shut as quietly as he could, he sent his senses out to get his bearings, and hone in on where Bonnie'd stowed Katherine away.
"I'm in here, Damon," Katherine called him, and he backtracked to the living room and walked in, skidding to a stop at the sight before him. "She left a letter," Katherine gestured to the low coffee table in front of her, before her eyes flitted back up to the Smart TV. Blinking at her slowly, he hesitated, though a sudden and distracting pull called from the letter left behind for him.
So, Bonnie had known he'd come. She'd known he'd find Katherine. She'd wanted him to be here while she was gone.
Another example of the quiet way she knew him. Without making it known and even when came up this way, it was only as a byproduct of the new information. She was smarter than anyone he knew.
He was frozen stiff. And he didn't know which cause was the most ultimate: Bonnie knowing him better than even his own brother, or Katherine, the summation of too much of him, sitting in front of him dressed in Bonnie's clothes, smelling of Bonnie in Bonnie's house, the way Elena sometimes would be, when she wasn't feeling herself. It was jarring.
"What?" Katherine asked, eyes wide like Elena's would be when he caught her staring at him, and she was about to pretend it was him who was staring at her.
"You look like her now," is all he can manage.
"Sad and pathetic, you mean?" Katherine wondered, sounding at least a little more like herself, even though her voice was small and she was completely devoid of that menacing presence he'd come to expect from her always.
Brushing her off, he made his way to the folded page and flipped it open.
Katherine clawed her way out of hell and now she's tethered to me.
I spelled her, so there's no need to cause a scene.
Can you trust me? Or will you be too busy thinking of ways to control
everything again? And don't lie to yourself, either. And especially
no more lying to me. I can take a lot Damon, but I won't stand for that.
Don't touch her, no matter what.
I'll love you more if you figure out a way to cancel my birthday.
I'll see you tomorrow.
Bon.
Closing the page, he looked back at Katherine.
"So, what? You live here now?"
"She knew you'd never let that happen," Katherine paused the show she was watching, and crossed her legs over as she looked at him tiredly. "So, no. I'm waiting for her verdict," she looked down as she said that, stretching the hem of the pajama shirt. She looked young again.
"A Bennett couch beats hell, even I know that," Damon muttered, still displeased by her being under Bonnie's roof, close enough to be wearing Bonnie's things. This close to him and still breathing.
"It's purgatory all the same to me," Katherine tells him with a forced smile. "It is interesting though-"
"Here we go-"
"She controls him, too you know," Katherine tells Damon. "She compelled him not to say anything about seeing me and I'm guessing he didn't because I expected you hours ago."
"Hours ago? Seriously?" Damon shot her a droll look. She didn't control him. Not anymore. Never again.
"Elena would mean nothing to you if it weren't for me, and everyone knows that."
"I'm not your dog-"
"Who said you were?" Katherine seems genuinely curious, making him more mad.
"Fuck you," he grunts, flexing his jaw tight.
"She gave me the mark of cain, in case you were planning on trying anything. Which I should also doubly suggest you don't try, because it takes me too." So, if he tried to hurt her, he'd be hurt seven times worse, and she would die anyway? What was Bonnie's plan?
"We should drop you off at Klaus' and hope he's the one who guts you," Damon said, smiling creeping into view. "Happy birthday Bonnie indeed."
She was turned to Stefan in the passenger seat, watching him sing along to his playlist, but she was thinking about Damon.
If he'd pieced anything together yet or had at the very least gotten some closure.
She'd know soon enough.
"How did you even find her?" Bonnie asked suddenly, turning the volume down a little with her powers.
"Caroline," Stefan said easily, "She and Abby still talk I guess."
"Huh," was all Bonnie said.
"What? You're far away," Stefan notes.
"My brain is in hyperdrive," Bonnie confessed, "and I think it's making me hungry, or-"
"Ssh," Stefan interrupts her, "if you say it out loud neither of us will make it to your mother. Trust me."
"Sorry," Bonnie says under a laugh. "I didn't expect being undead to make me so bluntly base."
"No one does," Stefan shrugs, "if it makes you feel any better you're already miles ahead of Damon and I compared to when we turned."
"That does, actually," she smiles smugly at him and he sticks his tongue out at her.
"Just coffee, right?" Bonnie asks, again.
"I promise, I have a whole day planned."
"Finally," Caroline drawled as she heard Matt's front door open. "It took you long enough."
"Nice hair," Matt said, trying to ease the tension between the two of them as Elena stepped inside. "You look like your mom."
"Thanks, Matt - hi Caroline," Elena said pointedly.
"Where is your boyfriend?" The blonde asked with a scowl, still looking at the space behind Elena as if a shroud of black denim would just magically appear, "you think he'd bother being Bonnie's number one fan and all."
Elena's smile went flat and tight and her eyes shifted just a little too widely.
"Well, I don't know where he is, so," she throws out an awkward hand and looks to Matt when Caroline's expression goes from annoyed to exasperated.
"Great, I can't wait to see him take credit for everything tomorrow!" the blonde growled.
"We were thinking kegger in the woods meets project x at the boarding house," Matt told Elena, hoping she'd realise he was being sarcastic. She didn't.
"I don't think either of them would mind, it's for Bonnie," Elena said, the same strain giving a twitch to her expression now. Matt and Caroline exchanged glances, confirming they were both on the same train of thought.
"What is that?" Caroline asked, her tone shifted. More attentive.
"What is what, Care?" Elena asks back, bracing herself.
"That thing your face is doing every time we bring up Bonnie or Damon."
"My face isn't doing anything," Elena said, her teeth close to clenching. "I'm here to plan her birthday, so can we just do that please? I don't need an interrogation right now."
"I wasn't interrogating you, I was asking you why you're in such a shitty mood and what it has to do with Bonnie," Caroline articulated with her hands as she jut out her hip.
"Aren't her and Stefan like a thing now?" Matt asked errantly.
"Why would you ask that?" Elena tilted her head.
"Wait, why are you mad at Bonnie if it isn't about Stefan-" Matt asked.
Caroline laughed at that while Elena threw back a dark-eyed what in a low voice.
"At least they're consistent," the blonde vampire said to no one in particular.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Elena wasn't hiding her mood anymore, and Caroline seemed to have woken up that morning for the sole purpose of this exact argument.
"Three people are unaccounted for right now and you look like you did when Bonnie rocked your shit at prom night, wearing the crown of course," Caroline let the memory of Bonnie standing her ground that night flood her memory, smiling. Bonnie was always adapting, always doing it better than she did the last time. Caroline had always admired that about her, tried to emulate it for herself in her own life. With Bonnie she knew she was safe in their friendship. But with Elena? "I've seen them with her, and like, it's so obvious what's going on in your head right now, it's written all over your face."
"What Bonnie does is her business-" Matt interjects.
"It affects more than Bonnie," Elena tells him seriously.
"So you are upset with her?" Caroline clarifies.
"She killed their mom Caroline," Elena reminded them, "and then killed Kai, and turned in the middle there, somewhere, oh, and killed all of Lily's friends too. That's a lot of murder for Bonnie Bennett." And still has nothing to do with what you're actually mad about, Caroline thought. She was about to say exactly that, but Matt spoke first, dismissing Elena's words all the same.
"I was there with her," Matt reminded Elena, "Bonnie made hard decisions that day to protect all of us."
"Yeah, and what have you done lately, Elena? Besides be jealous?" Caroline asked, crossing her arms, mirroring Matt as they both narrowed their eyes over at the brunette.
"Are you ready?" Stefan asked, killing the engine of his Porsche.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Bonnie said with a nod and climbed out.
Stefan walked behind her as they made their way into a small, serene cafe. At the far end, by a window framed with twisting leaves sat Bonnie's mother, reading from a small book in her hand. As if sensing the two of them, Abby's eyes lifted and connected with her daughter's.
Oh, Bonnie realised. I actually missed her.
"You okay?" Stefan's voice was softer than soft but she heard him and nodded, curling between the tables, making her way over to Abby.
"Hi," Bonnie said weakly.
"I can't believe you're really here."
"Me either," Bonnie admits.
"Sit, please," Abby gestures to them. "You know," the older Bennett vampire looks both frustrated and pained for a moment when she turns her eyes onto Stefan, "when you called and told me what happened to Bonnie, I had the mind to kill you."
"I wouldn't have put up a fight," Stefan tells her.
"That wouldn't have placated me," Abby swore in return, a flash in her eyes telling him a part of her would maybe always want him dead. "I hate you for what you did to me, and I hate that it was a foreshadowing for what would be in store for my child."
"I still have my magic," Bonnie tells her, pulling Abby's heated focus off of Stefan, "and you're giving him too much credit. I'm the one who chose this for myself. No one else."
"He was there," Abby waved a hand, "the least he could have done was tried to stop you, or take your place. Anything," her hard eyes went back to him, "anything in an effort to make up for what he did." Bonnie looked almost offended for a beat.
"And what about you?" Bonnie countered in kind, "where were you?"
"That's fair," Abby consented with a chastised nod, "So we're both bad news for you," she hummed to herself, "And yet here we are."
A short but weighted pause checked all three of them into compliance.
"Do you have any magic left?" Bonnie asked, unable to keep all of her questions at bay.
"We can talk about that next time," Abby replied vaguely, reaching into her bag. "For now, I got you this. For tomorrow."
Bonnie watched her pull out a little box, and a memory flooded forward, coalescing around that box, and Bonnie could almost hear the sound of her Grams' voice.
"Traditionally your grandmother would have given this to you, but, that was not meant to be." The humming heightened and hit a fever-pitch, causing Bonnie's hand to tingle when her mother placed the gift in her palm. "Don't open it until midnight, okay?"
"Okay. Thank you." Bonnie said, lifting her eyes up to Abby again. A familiar feeling struck her as she studied the woman's expression. "You're leaving?"
"I have to, I'm sorry."
"Don't apologise, I know where we stand," Bonnie's smile was as forced as it was sincere, and Abby returned it.
"I'll be better soon," the elder Bennett said, "I just need a little more time."
"Well, we have eternity," Bonnie told her as she stood, "and this time around I won't be holding my breath."
"Look after each other," was all she said, and then made her way to the counter, paid her bill, glanced back at Bonnie one more time, and left.
"That wasn't at all what I expected," Stefan admitted after a while.
"It went better than I expected," Bonnie told him. She held the jewellery box out to him. "You have to keep this, there's no way I'd wait until midnight."
"Of course," he slipped it into his hidden jacket pocket. "Ready for the next bit? No more relatives, I promise."
"Let's go."
Elena stared back at the two of them.
"Seriously?" She said in an exhale. "This is how we talk to each other now?"
"We've coddled you long enough," Caroline said with a wave of her hand, "Bonnie turning changed things. For one, it changed her relationship with the two of them, because now she's around longer... forever, remember? That changes things."
"Well, I am too, remember?" Elena half-whined. "Everyone except Matt at this point," she turned to him then, "You might as well join."
"Don't joke about that," Caroline scowled as Matt pulled a face.
"What?" Elena laughed bitterly, "Bonnie didn't want it either, and now look at her. She gets whatever she wants."
"You could have spared us all this performance if you could have just admitted that you're jealous of her," Matt told her, "like the child you clearly are and always will be."
"Screw this," Elena grabbed her bag, "plan her birthday by yourself and celebrate it without me, I don't care anymore."
"Surprise, surprise," Caroline muttered after her, even waving her off. Once the door shut after Elena, the two blondes turned to each other and sighed.
"You know," Matt said with a lighter note in his tone, "I always wondered how long it would take before we stopped all that Dawson's Creek shit."
Caroline snorted at that and made for her purse.
"Come on," the vampire jerked her head toward the front door, "we've got a birthday to plan." When she opened the door she jumped back, almost walking into Liv and Tyler. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Tomorrow's her birthday, right?" Tyler said with a shrug. The two blondes looked over at his girlfriend.
"She's kind of a de facto honorary member of our coven now, with the prison world thing and all. I'm here to help plan the celebration, see what you guys need."
"Finally," Caroline sighed with a grin, "an actual team. Okay, let's go!"
Katherine sighed loudly.
"So that's your genius plan?"
"It would be," Damon told her, "if I was allowed near you."
"So she does control you."
"No, she asked, and I listened. It's different," his eyes bugged out over the word 'different'.
"You're different," Katherine observed. "Are you in love with her?"
"Is that the only way you can fathom me listening to a woman?"
"It's the only time you ever have," her shoulders lifted and dropped.
"Well, not anymore. You're not the only one who was in hell, you know?"
"Yes, you've brought it up like four times now, I get it."
"I don't think you do, though," Damon's eyes narrowed. "You clearly didn't change at all, so I wouldn't expect you to see it in those of us who have."
A bubbling laugh erupted from her, and she looked so suddenly alive, so amused, so tangible.
"You and Stefan are still in love with the same woman and I'm the one who's refused change?" Katherine wiped a tear away from her eye, sighing in musical amusement. "I'll give you props for picking a new face, but I'd hardly call this decision a turning point."
"...He's in love with her?" Damon echoed. Katherine's eyes scoured his expression then.
"Would that matter this time around?"
"Where in Virginia are you taking me to?" Bonnie laughed as he took another corner.
"This part of the surprise is still a surprise," he told her, pursing his lips, barely containing his own excitement.
"Okay, okay," she humoured him and shut her eyes.
The smell of everything changed. A sharp bergamot zest filtered in through the window as he took another turn. Bonnie felt the heat turn up as well. The sound of the gravel underneath them turned softer, and there was a humming in the air.
Wherever they were, she was already grateful to be there.
Even if it was while feeling so untethered, and new and strange.
She was still trying to wrap her head around who she was now. Her behaviour, her way of thinking, her ideas of time, and love, and friendship and people and blood and bodies had all changed.
Maybe it was when she and Kai kissed. Or when she and Damon kissed. Or Stefan. Or when she saw the look on Caroline's face once her best friend realised what'd happened. Or the look on Abby's face when she saw for herself that what Stefan had told her was true.
Or maybe it was the look on Lily's face when she realised she'd underestimated Bonnie after all. Like Klaus had, like they all had.
Except Bonnie had made the choice then, standing in front of Lily, that she wouldn't be asking for permission anymore. She wouldn't be so precious about everything that mattered to the people that mattered to her, not the way she used to be. Not to the point of misery.
Not to the point of triviality, becoming the thing that hung now between her and Elena. The obligation realising it was misconstrued as an act of love.
Stefan's car glided into a smooth stop and he told her to wait again, so she did.
Her door opened, and she let him cover her eyes with her hands, and lead her to where the grass was getting thicker, and the humming was getting louder.
"A few more steps," he said, and then his hand dropped away and she opened her eyes to a field of wildflowers, in all their colours.
"I'm not your boyfriend," he said, eyes shining when her gaze lifted to his, "so I couldn't get you a bouquet or anything, way too official and cliche."
"This is way better," Bonnie said, face warming in the sun.
"Almost," Stefan said, pulling her up, her legs wrapping around his waist. "Warmer," she pulled her face to his, "warm-"she covered his laughing with a kiss.
Bonnie's face was beaming up at Caroline from within the sea of flowers around her when the blonde checked the photo she'd just gotten.
I love this for you! Tell Stefan he has until midnight, she texted back.
"Is she fine?" Matt asked, peering over her shoulder. Just then his phone vibrated, too.
Bonnie had sent him a picture of an old tractor they'd found on the lot. 'saw this and thought of you' her message read underneath. Caroline snorted when she read that. Good, she thought to herself as she felt the feeling rush in, more normal. This is better, this is good.
"So," Tyler slid in the last of the party supplies into the back of his car, "Liv said she's happy to use her magic to put it all up." His girlfriend nodded.
"I know we weren't the most helpful before," she tells Caroline, eyes sincere, "but what Bonnie did for us means this is the least we could do."
"I'll get the cake," Matt said, jingling his own car keys as he backtracked to his truck. "See everyone tomorrow at...?"
"Eight!" Caroline shoots a finger gun at him.
"Aye-aye Captain!" Matt says and then jogs into his car and makes his way.
"They never lock the Boarding House, but you can call Elena if you can't get in."
"Got it, where are you going?" His eyes asked a follow-up question, and she rolled her own at him.
"I trust you and Liv to hang up the decorations," she tells him, "I'll only be a half-hour, I have to go get Bonnie something to wear, you know how she is."
"Okay, keep your phone on."
"Yes dad," Caroline throws over her shoulder, skipping off to the next block of stores.
"When do you think she'll tell them?" Liv asked after they'd already started driving to the Salvatore's.
"I don't know, but it better be soon, because I don't think your parents are going to be so soft about it much longer."
"Yeah," Liv looked out the window, "I just hope they're not planning on crashing tomorrow night."
"Do you think they will?"
"One way or another," she replies ominously with a forced smile.
"Are you happy?" Stefan asks, his voice drifting down like a falling leaf.
"I don't think I've ever felt this still," Bonnie said after a while, turning to look up at him as they lay there, still littered with petals, pollen and each other's clothes. "It's a feeling that's better than happiness, I think." The fluttering in both of their chests spun a little faster as their gazes stayed locked.
"Whatever happens, we'll have at least had this," he says in agreement, "I'm feeling grateful for that."
"Always ready for the end," Bonnie murmured more to herself as she moved to cup his jaw and kiss him again, "which came first, I wonder? The vampire, or their damnation?"
There was no telling once their tongues met.
A/N: A nice, long update to announce my return from hiatus.
There's the matter of the Parkers' Coven, Katherine, Damon and the dreaded birthday to look forward to in the next update.
Stay excellent xo