Argonaut: def. a person in quest of something dangerous, but rewarding; an adventurer

Chapter 21: I'm Sorry, Do I Look Like A Babysitter?

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From:

Damon

Msg: if you help fix Stefan, ill pay you

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Well, that's an easy decision.

It's been about thirty minutes since I got baby Salvatore back to the boardinghouse, and I was getting quite bored, so I was grateful to see the previously unconscious vamp start to stir. Stefan slowly blinks awake, and I grin at how freaked out he looks when he notices that he's on his living room couch. Flipping another page in my magazine, I look up at the disoriented vamp before taking another sip of the vervain tea I'd made like five minutes prior.

He immediately attempts to lunge at me, but with a wave of my fingers I push him back on the couch and hold him there.

"Good morning, beautiful! Sleep well?" I ask as I toss him a blood bag. Instead of sipping out of it like a juice box like Damon does, he tears into it like jerky and makes a bloody mess all over his handsome mouth. I have to take a moment to question my sanity that I think it makes him look a 'wild' sort of attractive.

I need a therapist.

"Your lack of manners is a bit refreshing, but we actually need to talk before the rest of the Scooby gang get here."

His bright forest green eyes look up at me, and I can see he's riding a bit of a wave of ecstasy after downing the life juice. "About what? Talk fast, before I get too hungry again."

Oh, so this version of him really is a lot more snarky. What a breath of fresh air from the constant brood fest.

"Well, for starters, which would you prefer: learning how to drink human blood, or getting clean on animal blood again?"

He glares at me, "I'm a vampire, Alessia. I was created knowing how to drink human blood."

Rolling my eyes, I pull the magazine off my lap onto the couch, then lean forward, clasping my hands together with a blasé expression on my face. "I mean not drinking blood like a kindergartner at snack time."

His gaze starts to look unfocused once again, instead staring at my neck and licking his bloodied lips. Oooooh the shivers.. FOCUS. We're mad at him. I snap my fingers rapidly, trying to get back his attention, but it doesn't work, so I instead heft another blood bag into his lap. He thoroughly tears into and drains the bag in like three seconds, before glancing back up at me, shame floating through his deep gaze.

"Elena will hate me if I keep drinking human blood, and I can't lose her. She thinks Damon is a monster."

True.

I shrug, taking another sip of my tea. "If she really loves you, she won't mind. Hell, I can barely stand you and I don't mind you wanting to chomp on people's necks."

His green eyes blink incredulously, and I can't help but wonder why he's so surprised. After a few moments of staring at me, he weakly laughs.

"God, you're such a weird witch."

Rude.

"But," he says slowly, "Damon isn't going to teach me. He hates me. I just, I need- God, I don't even fucking know, this blood is messing with my head."

I raise my eyebrows. Stefan? CUSSING? Who knew that was something I needed in my life? Smiling, I move to go get a refill on my drink, and glance back at him, "You want anything to drink that's not human affiliated while you ponder?"

He puts his head in his hands, groaning, before running his fingers through his bronze bed head. "Something strong. And no ice. The burn helps."

Roger dodger.

I give him a mock salute before turning in the direction of the kitchen, taking my coffee mug with me. God, I'm still so jealous of this kitchen. The teapot is still on the stove where I left it, and I quickly refill my mug. Turning to go grab Stefan a glass of 'something strong', I jump when I find him right behind me.

Oh shit, lost my focus.

Glaring, I shove his shoulder out of the way, and start walking back over to the living room knowing well that he can smell the vervain on me. "Move it, Stefan. I'm not very tasty right now."

He holds up a glass tumbler full of bourbon and takes a large gulp that looks almost painful, eyes still pretty wild, but somewhat focused. "I know, I can smell you. You put a spell on the house?"

This makes me smirk. "Damn straight, I did. Do you know how much focus it takes for me to just hold you, with your blood frenzied vamp strength, in place without accidentally crushing you with my magic? It's just a backup plan. But, I'm not surprised you tried it."

Sighing, I sit on the couch once again, crossing my legs languidly now that I just had to protect myself from getting chomped on instead of restraining him. "You decide what you wanna be living off of? No offense, but Damon is paying me to help you out, and I'd rather get started before they all get back here."

He appears in front of me, breathing heavily once again, and he strains to say, "I-I can't lose Elena over this."

"Why?"

It was a pretty loaded question, and one that I'd been curious about for a hot minute. Like, I knew how the doppelgängers were drawn together or whatever, but how did Stefan rationalize it in his brain? The dude was the definition of a fun sponge when he was eating Bambi and friends, very strict on himself, and exceedingly broody and depressing about his existence as a vampire. Not as bad as Finn Mikaelson, but definitely encroaching on Edward Cullen territory. So, how did the ever so serious vampire explain his obsession with the girl he's known a month?

"What?" Is his incredulous reply back, and I don't blame him for not really getting what I'm asking.

"Why can't you lose Elena?"

"I love her, Alessia."

Rolling my eyes at that logic, I instead start mockingly humming 'What You Won't Do For Love', and he glares down at me momentarily, before softening a bit. "I owe you an apology."

I can't help but scoff into my tea, and I unfold my legs, gaze turning venomous as I stand up and look him dead in his animalistic green eyes, "You 'owe' me nothing. If you think that apologizing for wrecking my relationship with Grams is something you have to do instead of something you want to do, you'll have better luck bullshitting your girlfriend than me. I don't want your half-assed apology that just serves to make you feel better."

He looks properly scolded, and I receive my confirmation from the guilt and frustration in his eyes that this is just a way for him to avoid what's gonna happen next. So, I quickly add, "Anyway, quit trying to distract me. If it's you're for keeping Stelena together, you're going back to being vegetarian, Dracula."

And with that, I promptly wave my hand, snapping his neck.

I look at his collapsed body, and feel a bit of a chill from actually using my magic to lethally harm someone for the first time. Even with that Fell douche, I'd only ripped his arm off, and although I knew Stefan would wake up, that would've killed anyone else, and it was still a bit unnerving using nature's gifts for this purpose.

Sighing, I whisper, "Suprenatet," and Stefan's body lifts from the floor, trailing behind me as I descend into the weird torture cellar the Salvatores had. Thankfully, I'm fully out of sight of where someone could see me, unlike at the pageant, so I wouldn't have to actually carry him. I'd had a bit of a panic before when someone started walking up the driveway, and had to pretend that he had gotten wasted at the party.

Steering my magic towards the cell, I toss him in there without much care for how he lands and smirk at the loud sound of his body crashing onto the concrete floor. That'll probably hurt whenever he wakes up. I turn to head back up the stairs, but pause momentarily. When Stefan tossed Damon in here, he took his daylight ring. Sure, there was a spell on the house, but this would make absolutely certain that even if something happened to me, he'd be stuck down here till Damon let him out.

Stepping quickly as my heels clack on the floor, I grab the large, ugly ring off his finger and shove it in my purse for safekeeping, before promptly turning and locking him in. Oh, dammit. I didn't have any animal blood. Maybe he kept some extra in his room.

*

Alright, I might've gotten distracted while adventuring in Stefan's library of a bedroom. But, what would you do if you were surrounded by literature describing a first hand account of the last 160 years? I had just finished reading Stefan's diary on his Ripper period in the Roaring Twenties, and to be frank, it was pretty disturbing. Placing the diary back in its place, I'm once again reminded that this is a terrible way of storing pertinent information, and swear to myself that I'll never adopt the practice.

Continuing to walk along the packed bookshelf, I pause when I feel something pulse from the book I'd absentmindedly stared at for a few seconds. Well, that's weird. Reaching forward, I find an old journal, withered over time unlike the rest of the more well-kept notebooks. Opening the leather binding, I'm a bit surprised to see that it's dated around the same time as Stefan and Damon got turned. In a sporadic case of the butterfingers, I drop the book and several papers fall out.

Goddammit.

I crouch down to pick them up and see that I've found the one journal that has Kat's picture in it. I shove it back in the pages, but pause when I feel another pulse from the next paper under my hand.

Slowly observing it, I send out a little bit of my magic to make sure it's not a cursed object, and I see that it's folded quite a bit. Unfolding it, my heart stops.

It's a sketch, a very old one, of a woman dated 1862.

Man. I was really, really hoping that hunch wouldn't be right.

It all made sense, but it didn't really stop my stomach from dropping at the verification. I did have that odd sensation of déja vu from the very start of my life, and I've always known too much. Damon and Stefan both had acted like they had known me, or that I had strong ties with them before I even knew them, and I hadn't wanted to acknowledge it, because I didn't honestly want to know. And with the affirmation that my concerns were somewhat reasonable, I start getting angry.

I really fucking hope there's not another bitch wearing my face right now, because if I have to deal with this doppelgänger shit, I'll shoot myself in the fucking head.

And with that, I promptly shove the picture back in the book, brushing it off as I hear the rest of the Scooby gang coming into the boardinghouse.

I'll deal with this once Stefan's sober. Now is not the time.

*

I descend the stairs, and instantly, Elena runs over to me. "Is Stefan alright?"

Nodding, I point my thumb over towards the cellar, and Elena looks at me gratefully before rushing down the basement stairs. Damon looks tired, and surprisingly, so does everyone else. Bons promptly comes over and smacks me hard on the head.

"Ow! WHY?!" I yelp, grabbing my now throbbing head in pain.

Bonnie's olive green eyes are ablaze with her anger and I wince at how hard she's glaring at me. Ugh, great, a lecture is coming at me at a hundred miles an hour.

"Alessia Marie. I'm your sister, and I love you. But if you ever take off with a fucking ripper again, and only send me one text telling me what you're doing, not letting me know if you're still breathing for over three hours, I'll kill you myself."

Yikes. That's a threat. But, I can't help but smile at her affection showing through her rage. What a great little sister.

"Roger that, boss lady. But, really, you should be yelling at D and Care Bear. She made me promise to make sure Stefano wouldn't ruin the pageant, and he offered to pay me to get him clean, which, by the way, you're welcome, you two."

She spins on them, apparently unaware of all agreements made, and Damon immediately raises his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, whoa there, she had full rein to say no. Oh, but that reminds me. You two are crashing at Caroline's right?"

We both nod, and I see Caroline realize something and walk back out the front door with a quick, "I forgot something!"

Damon sheepishly shoves his hands in his pockets, glancing around the boardinghouse. "You know, since you're helping out with Stefan, I wouldn't mind if you two stayed here for a bit. I know that Caroline only has one guest room, anyway. You can do whatever ju-ju you want to make it survivable."

I can't help but blink in surprise at the offer, which is unusually nice and out of character. Bonnie's the first one to answer.

"We can't do that to you, Damon-," he cuts her off.

"Oh, whatever. Don't make it a big deal. It's a boardinghouse, the place has plenty of space to board, and it's not like me and Stefan are using all the rooms."

Well, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Grinning, I wrap an arm around Damon's shoulder, "Aw! Thanks, you vampire bastard. Your kindness is noted and appreciated."

Rolling his pretty blue eyes at my antics, he shoves my arm from his shoulder with an exasperated sigh just as Caroline comes in with bags of food and a one of those drink holder things. She huffs as she slides her pretty blonde self through the large oak door, glaring at us when she sees we're all looking at her amusedly. "Wanna actually help instead of just watching me struggle?"

"I'm partial to watching," is Damon's quick retort, and Bons rolls her eyes and moves to help her as I try not to laugh at how badly Care is balancing the food. Jesus Christ, she could never be a waitress.

We all move over into the dining room and start spreading out the food that they picked up from the Grill. The room smells like burgers and fries, and I can't help but think about how much the smell doesn't suit the opulence of the house we're in. Suddenly, Care is in front of me with a drink in her hand, smiling brightly at me. "A Reese's milkshake, as promised."

I raise an eyebrow at her, a bit confused at first when I realize what she meant. Smiling warmly back, I bump her shoulder with mine playfully.

"Told ya so."

*

There's steps echoing through the hall as we all munch on fried food together, trading light banter and sarcasm as we eat, and Elena appears. The mood dies a little, and as much as I acknowledge that Stefan is a fun sponge, he's nowhere near as much of a buzzkill to me as Elena Gilbert.

"He's still out, Alessia. You didn't cast a sleeping spell on him, right?" She asks earnestly, rubbing the back of her neck like she did the hard work today.

"Nope," I say, mid-chew of my cheeseburger, "Snapped his neck. He should be fine in the next hour or so with all that human juice pumping in him."

Elena looks at me, shocked, and I'm assuming a bit angry that I hurt her boo thing, but she could get over it.

"You couldn't do it any other way?"

Swallowing my bite of food, I look out of the corner of my eye and see Bons clenching her fists under the table next to me. Looks like she wasn't feeling very forgiving either. "I don't owe you or Stefan any kindness right now. Be happy I didn't put him into a magic-induced coma 'till he was sober."

Not that I would. That's a lot of effort and magic on my part.

"Alessia, please. We're sorry for what happened with Grams, but you can't put all the blame on us," she says in a certain tone that's splitting between compassionate and judgmental.

I look up into her doe eyes, and give her my warmest smile.

"Watch me."

Caroline chokes on her bite of fries as she tries not to laugh, and I can see a small smirk tugging on Bonnie's lips. She had ranted to me passion after everything went down at the tomb about how she wasn't going to even speak to Elena for a while, and it looked like she was holding tight to that promise for now.

Elena looks pained that Bonnie isn't even acknowledging her, and moves to either say something or come sit with us, when suddenly the house vibrates.

Elena is a capital 'I', Idiot.

Standing up, I give Damon a look, and I'm growing more and more happy at how easily he's starting to interpret them, because he immediately goes to check around the house. I turn to Doppelena.

"You went in the cell?"

Her doe eyes are caught in the headlights and she starts to stutter, "W-well, I was just checking on him, I thought I locked it back into place, I-I-," Damon surprisingly interrupts her as he walks back into the room, ice blue eyes locked on mine.

"You spelledthe house so he can't leave?"

I start nodding, glancing around to see if said bronze vampire was somewhere behind him and he answers my question before I ask it. "He's back in, no thanks to a certain brunette."

We all glance at Elena, and she flushes brightly in embarrassment. "Sorry, everyone."

You're going to have wayyy bigger apologies to make in the next couple months, Gilbert.

*

A/N: Hi everyone! I don't know if I'll get another chapter out before Christmas, but I wanted to wish you all a Happy Holidays all the same.

Thanks for all the likes and comments!