Between two worlds life hovers like a star,twixt night and morn,
Upon the horizon's verge.
George Gordon Byron
The trilling of Elena's phone woke Stefan up slowly. Elena standing over him, smacking him in the shoulder got him up a lot faster.
"You have to hide!" Elena hissed.
"What? What's going on?" Stefan moved away from Elena's hand and rubbed his eyes. The urgency in her voice was exasperated more than panicked, so he didn't immediately make a move.
"Bonnie is coming over right now. I totally forgot we're headed to Chesapeake today to go to the mall."
He was pretty sure that didn't make any sense.
"I have to what?"
"Stay out of the way. Because I don't want her to see you." She seemed satisfied he was awake and stepped into her closet.
He might have been more offended if he was more awake. Instead, Stefan's brow dropped in confusion as he arched his back in a satisfying stretch. "Excuse me?"
"I know. I sound like a crazy bitch, but she's my best friend, and still not on board with us spending all this time together so I told her we'd have a day to ourselves. And it's a long trip. And if she sees you..."
"She'll be pissed the whole day. Yeah. Got it." Stefan dragged himself up into a sitting position. He was still wearing a t-shirt and boxers. His jeans were lying beside the bed, close enough to pull on quickly. "Do I have to roll under the bed or something, or do you need me all the way out of the house before I've had any coffee?" He ran his fingers through his hair and watched Elena run around her room grabbing clothes. Not noticing or ignoring his sarcasm.
"Whatever you need to do so she doesn't see you. Shoot, I'm so late." She stopped in the doorway and looked back at him, apologetic. "I'm sorry, Stefan. You can stay here if you don't want to go home, or if you want a day off from Damon, okay? If you could stay up here for now, please."
As quickly as she had woken him, she was gone. Stefan looked over at the bathroom where she had apparently gotten ready before she woke him up. Well that was considerate. Sometimes, dating teenagers had its downside. He pinched the bridge of his nose and huffed a wry laugh. Fucking hell.
He heard Bonnie step onto the front porch the same time Elena made it downstairs to throw the door open. Elena was too obvious about keeping Bonnie out, as if Stefan would be that insolent to not stay out of the way, but Bonnie didn't comment on it. Sometimes it was okay to let appearances be.
Staying in bed was tempting, but Stefan felt like a creeper in a stranger's house when he was there by himself. Instead, he dragged himself to the kitchen after he heard Bonnie's car leave.
He was not paying attention to whoever else was in the house.
"She seemed to be in a hurry."
"Fuck!" Stefan jumped back five feet from the silhouette of Alaric standing in front the of the kitchen window holding up a menacing...
Coffeepot.
Full of fresh steaming coffee.
Alaric was also grinning. "Morning, sunshine."
Smiling sheepishly, realizing his pants were on, but not fastened, Stefan tried to amend his clothes while accepting the proffered mug full of brain-fixing caffeine.
"Rough night?" Alaric's eyebrows were probably arched that high since the moment Stefan came downstairs, but he only noticed them after his first scalding gulp.
"You don't even want to know."
Face morphing into something sour, Alaric put the coffeepot back onto its burner. "Considering you spent the night with my pseudo-daughter or whatever. I'm betting you're right."
"Oh no, we didn't..."
"Save it. Really don't want to know." Alaric shook his head and picked up his own mug before settling on a stool across from Stefan.
"Fair enough." Stefan smiled; content to drink his coffee in companionable silence.
Alaric was a good guy. A hunter, true, but he didn't seem to mind Stefan being with Elena. He also didn't seem too put off by Damon. Stefan wondered about that, figured with Elena out of the house, he and Alaric could probably talk about it like adults.
"You and Damon seem to be spending a lot of time together lately." He started cautiously, wary of making the man uncomfortable.
Alaric nodded. "Yeah, well, I'm a history buff and he's living history." He took a deep drink of his coffee. "He has had some incredible experiences that make great stories."
Stefan looked up sharply. He wondered what filters Damon told his stories through to make them appear so incredible. "Is that why you guys have been getting along so well?"
"It's part of it." Alaric set the mug down, "I guess it's nice to have another adult who really knows what's going on in this town. We don't have to pretend everything is normal."
Stefan stiffened. Pretending to be normal was sort of his eternal purpose. His eyes locked on the dregs in his mug. "Is that weird? With everything that happened with Isobel?"
Alaric was silent long enough for Stefan to realize he'd said something wrong. He looked up expecting Alaric to be upset, but the man was only staring out the window above the sink looking thoughtful, like he hadn't considered it before.
"I'm sorry, Ric. That was disrespectful. It's really none of my business."
Alaric shrugged lightly and looked back at Stefan. "No, no, it's fine. Honestly we don't usually talk about that. I guess it's true, but it happened, and it's over. Knowing Damon kind of helped me work through it. He spent so much time being lonely and upset because of the way Katherine manipulated him, I didn't want to turn into that."
Stefan knew Damon had been wrecked over the Katherine fiasco. He figured that had been why Damon got hung up on Elena for a while. Stefan didn't really give Katherine much thought since he still had Elena. But Damon didn't talk about their ex like it was a problem anymore. Apparently his brother was just not talking about her with him. A flicker of hurt twitched in Stefan, but he wasn't sure at which part. "Well, that's mature." His forehead creased and his eyes fell to his empty mug again.
The man's laugh surprised him.
"Is that funny?" Stefan looked up, curious.
Nodding with a half-smile on his face as he poured more coffee for Stefan, Alaric quieted. "It is. You've been spending too much time with teenagers. I'd think you've gotten old enough to realize not every end of a relationship has to be the end of the world."
There was truth there that Stefan usually ignored. Pretending to be a normal teenager consumed him too often. The feelings of being misunderstood, and being overwhelmed by the idea that life and death hinged on good grades and getting into college and whether the pretty girl liked him. Or if her friends would talk her out of dating him.
It was a lot easier to go on thinking that superficial stuff mattered more than reality breathing down his neck with the more-likely possibility of spiraling into Ripper oblivion, or of being put down by purple flowers and wooden stakes.
"Yeah, I guess." Parts of Alaric's statement puzzled him. "So this is something Damon helped you realize?"
"More or less. He's a smart guy and a good friend when he wants to be. Well, I don't have to tell you that. You know him better than anybody."
Stefan nodded slowly. Talking about Damon this way was a mistake. He never had those kinds of talks with his brother. They only fought over blood and girls, argued until the liquor was gone or one of them was unconscious. Maybe his search for normality was keeping him from those conversations.
He wanted to stick around, to let Alaric keep telling him about the version of his brother he was missing out on. Instead he finished his coffee, and showed himself out with quiet gratitude.
There was so much time in the day; Stefan wasn't sure what to do with himself as he left the house. Usually he spent his free time with Elena, but if she was gone all day he figured he could catch up on some journaling.
That meant going back to his house and to Damon.
He had never been so hesitant to see his brother before and he didn't want to start. Maybe something was going on with Damon; maybe he would want to talk about it. They could have the kinds of conversations Damon was having with Alaric. Stefan laughed at himself. He knew he was always too optimistic about what he expected out of Damon. But if there was another way to be, Stefan didn't even know how to start.
It was still early anyway. Even with daylight rings, vampires tended to thrive in moonlight and get lethargic in the sun. And Alaric and Elena were obnoxiously early risers. Stefan hoped Jeremy was enjoying his sleep in Denver.
He took a deep breath, and headed home.
