1-03

"You know," said Jeremy as he stopped, shoving the shovel in the ground and making it stand straight. He wiped moved his hair out from in front of his face, the motion making it look as though he was wiping off sweat. "We could be stealing something more than just the town's sign."

"This is something more than you know," I said, sitting on my camp chair and jotting down notes for one of my many projects.

"I couldn't have guess with the whole Cloaking spell you've put around us," he said. He moved, one second beside the sign and the next he was at the car pulling out a bag of blood and taking a drink. "So you going to tell me what this is? Why it's worth undoing the whining you put up to get on the Allied Council."

"I didn't whine," I said, the affronted tone in my voice not entirely feigned.

Jeremy snorted. "You whined, Micah, admit it," he said. "That storm things. I bet you knew it would annoy them and you still did it. Not to mention the whole breaking into the Sheriff's station."

"Maybe," I said with a shrug. "I'm a teenager. I sort of get to do stupid things and I was testing out my powers."

"Right, because that's an excuse." He sighed, pulling out another camp chair from the back of his truck and teleporting to stand beside me. He shoved the car in the ground and got comfortable. "Don't think I didn't notice you changing the subject back there. Why are we here?"

"We're here to steal the Mystic Falls Welcome board-thing," I told him.

"Really, now. Why?"

"It's better in the long run that I don't tell you," I said. I looked up and saw his expression flicker so quickly that I might have missed it. He was disappointed in me and that hurt a part of me, that I couldn't tell him about everything. But, "Until I can figure out to effectively block mental magic it's safer if only one person knows about it."

"Then it's the most horrible thing that you brought me here," he said. "We've been friends forever. I think along the same lines that you do. This board can kill the Originals, right?"

I nodded. Jeremy sighed again before he was gone. My head moved only because I heard the sound of metal hitting dirt, when I looked I could only see a blur of sinuous movement before the shovel was thrown aside and the board hauled from the ground. In another instant he was near the car and placing the board before he was at my side again taking another sip of his blood bag.

"How are we going to make sure no one notices this?" he asked after taking a breath. "It's only a short hop, jump and a skip to figuring out who took this and why it was taken."

"Short term, I've got an illusionary effect around us. Part of the whole cloaking thing. I created the abstract dimension and played with the way light interacted with it until there's an almost real illusion when looked at from the outside in."

"Nice," he said. "How long did it take you to set this up?"

"Three days," I said. "I had to take pictures. Work through the effect, getting light to just bounce off at a certain point and then embedding the relationship into the fabric of this abstract reality."

"You don't need to explain to me how awesome you are," he said. "I get it."

"That's the pot calling the kettle black," I said. "That display just now. That was you showing off."

Jeremy shrugged. "It's not exactly showing off. Moving fast gives me more time to do other stuff," he said. "And really it feels normal to be in the superspeed state."

"Like me and when I step foot on the ground," I said. "It's almost second nature by now to open myself up, use Nature's power instead of overtaxing my core?"

"Maybe," said Jeremy. "I've never been a witch so I can't make comparisons." He let out a long breath, closing his eyes and reclining further in his chair. "I like this," he said. "The two of us just sitting and doing nothing. It's something we haven't done in a while."

"Stuff," I said, my tone heavy.

"Stuff," he agreed. "But there's no stuff now," he said. "For whatever amount of time that we have. Instead we can talk about partners. There's a new guy at school."

"Yeah?" I said, looking away from the notes I was making to give him my full attention.

"Yeah," said Jeremy. "About our age, reasonably good looking. We had two classes together. He seemed nice from what I could overhear, a little quiet though."

"You were eavesdropping," I said.

He shrugged. "You haven't dated anyone since Jacque," he said. "I'm looking out for you."

"And you haven't exactly dated anyone since your dalliances with Vicki," I said a little defensively. There was something about bringing Jacque that I didn't like, something I had been running away from. At some point I would need to take some time and really think about that relationship.

Jeremy opened his eyes to look at my, an eyebrow raised.

"Sorry," I said. "That sounded off."

"You still have feelings for the guy?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said. I took a breath and closed my eyes, allowing myself to think back and feel. The previous me had been devastated when Jacque had disappeared, spending long weeks spurring Sherriff Forbes into talking to other towns so that an alert could be issued. But Jacque had been of the age that he could disappear with no one thinking it was a kidnapping, it hadn't helped that his parents hadn't exactly like the whole him being gay thing.

When I thought about those feeling, they were dulled but they were still there. My first reaction was to skirt away from them, not to feel them, but that wasn't healthy at all.

Just as healthy as letting yourself feel anger instead of fear, a part of me said but I ignored it. Starting tomorrow I would start working on that, I would be visiting Whitmore with Dad and Stephan then.

The important part was that even though they were dulled, the feelings were still there. The sort of feelings that made me think Jacque had been the first person I'd allowed myself to love.

"I think I do," I told Jeremy. "I don't like that I do."

"Tell me about it," said Jeremy. He let out another sigh. "What is it with us and older people?" he said. "Why can't we choose more stable relationships with people our age."

"Because people our age are stupid," I said.

Jeremy snorted. "We're people our age," he said.

"We being the exceptions of course," I said. I let out a short breath. "But maybe you're right. Maybe getting of Jacque is having a rebound."

"Does this mean we go out hunting?" he said.

"College guys and girls?" I said. "Whitmore tomorrow."

"Didn't we just talk about more stable relationships? I don't think college students will be looking towards dating a bunch of sixteen year olds."

"I'm almost seventeen," I said. "And we'll just say we have boyish good looks."

"Could work," said Jeremy. "Consider me baited into this horrible idea. Anyway, we should get a move on. Where are we going to stow this thing anyway?" he asked.

"Haven't really thought that far ahead," I said. "I don't really trust anyplace. Between the spirits and whatever ghost might be watching us right now means that it will be vulnerable wherever it is."

"I think I might have an idea," said Jeremy. He got up and before I could do anything I was being deposited into the passenger seat. I looked at the mirror and Jeremy was moving faster than I could track, in a few second the driver's door was closing and the car starting.

"Where are we going?" I asked him.

"On a drive out of town," he said. "It'll make sense when I get what we're looking for. Now make small talk, I'm planning a long drive."

It was an incredibly long drive considering it was unplanned. I received a call from Bonnie fifteen minutes into the drive, she telling me that a new witch family had just moved into town and were introducing themselves. I told her that she could take her of it and that I would be home quite late from the way the ride was looking at it.

"Abington?" I said when we reached a board.

"Yeah," said Jeremy. He continued to drive until he found a diner with three trucks outside. He stepped outside and I followed, watching as he strut towards the front door before he stopped.

"What now?" I asked.

"Give me a sec," he said. He closed his eyes and then there was a scream, people shouting out Fire! before they started hurtling towards the door. The pair of us stepped to the side, watching as the some of the patrons ran out while others were trying to put out Jeremy's mental fire.

I looked inside, the remaining people suddenly stopped, murmuring their confusion before the woman in charge ask everyone to leave because she feared there might be a gas leak. The few remaining patrons left, Jeremy stopped one, a tall, black woman with absurdly bright lipstick.

"Follow us," he said and he started walking towards the car.

"Have to admit, Jer. This is really creepy. Like really, really creepy," I said.

"I know," he returned. "I'm internally having to push back the shivers," he told me. "But this needs to be done. Okay," Jeremy said to the woman. He reached into the back of his truck and pulled out the sign. "Take this," he said, "and in the next heavily populated town you'll ask for a safety deposit box to stop this. First give me your phone, though," he said. The woman did as asked. Jeremy took it and pressed a few buttons.

"You call that number when you're done," he said. "I'll set up some money so that you can get some income from this. Oh, and don't think about this much, don't think about its oddity. When you receive the money you'll remember that it was for a job and not think much about it. When I call you, me or him, you'll tell us where you stowed this right?"

"Sure," the woman said.

Jeremy nodded. "You can go," he said. The woman took the sign and left. We watched as her truck pulled out and moved west. "That's done," he said. "What's next?"

"We burn down the bridge leading into town," I said.

Jeremy was quiet for a moment before he gave a nod. "That should be fun," he said.

Sometimes I wondered if I was a bad example to people because Jeremy had agreed to readily to that for my liking. I shrugged though, problems for another day.