Somewhere between 2x10 and 2x11
Soon, soon... I will soon introduce an original character, but not yet... for now, drunkards will do.
Gosh, I want to write about her right now...
Adjusting to our reality, part 9: Honesty
They had been at the Grill for almost an hour.
Damon and him usually talked little during the first hour. Neither of them were good with honesty. They had to have some alcohol in their system before considering any informations exchange with nothing to do with an immediate threat upon the peaceful – right, peaceful – town of Mystic Falls.
Alaric suspected that he hadn't completely thrown the vampire off his trail yet, but he also knew there were secrets he would never reveal, even under the influence of bourbon. Maybe, one day, he'd tell Damon about it. But he'd do it consciously, and not under anyone or anything's influence.
After all, it wasn't as if the vampire had never done worse than what Alaric had.
One day he'd tell Damon about it.
But it'd have to wait.
It wasn't that he didn't trust the vampire. Ric did trust Damon. Up to some point, at least. Or, more accurately, he trusted him about some things, and didn't about some others. He could have bet his life that Damon would do things right to keep Elena alive. He wouldn't have bet one buck that Damon would do that ethically.
That was definitely something the hunter could say to his friend.
But the problem wasn't Damon.
The problem was himself. The problem was the kids. The problem was everyone else.
Don't say anything, and it'll be the same as if nothing had ever happened.
Ric was silent, watching his glass being refilled once more with amber liquid. The last days had been quiet for him, except for Katherine compelling Jenna to stab herself, but well, for Mystic Falls, that wasn't much. No one died, in the end. So, quiet, for him. Not for Damon: Elena being kidnapped, the Original Elijah, Rose...
Damon had almost forgotten about his friend's strange attitude. Almost. Maybe it was time to go back to business and harass Alaric some more. The only thing that was keeping him from doing so was that for now he had no idea about how to do it.
"So, you and Rose?"
The question surprised him. Damon hadn't thought Ric knew about that.
"Rose and me nothing. We're just on the way to become friends."
"Better than nothing, no? You need some friends."
"I've got you already. One friend is infinitely more than what I had for the last ten years. But yes, Rose is kind. I don't know, maybe it's just pity, but I feel like if I can't help her to get better, at least I should be able to do so that she won't get worse."
"The two of you have had seclusion issues. You can help her."
Damon thought he had seen a little disappointment in Ric's eyes, and that made him angry. He didn't know why he was angry that the teacher had hoped he had a thing for Rose, but he was angry.
Maybe Alaric was thinking about Elena's safety? Damon hadn't tried anything for days! And the girl was adequately gifted to put herself in danger out of her own free will, so Damon's presence was necessary. Stefan was always doing as she told him, independence blah blah blah, but one day Elena would agree to trade her life for just anyone, and that day, Damon would be here to prevent her from doing something stupid.
Well, the vampire hadn't exactly been not flirting with the teenager, but he was Damon Salvatore, and Damon Salvatore flirted with anyone as long as they weren't utterly ugly. It would be the case until the day he wouldn't be single anymore. Which wasn't likely to be anytime soon.
The vampire then realized that thinking about Elena didn't hurt as much as it used to.
He still liked her a lot, he might even love her a bit, but he wasn't half as jealous as before.
Maybe he was finally getting over his doppelganger obsession.
And he had a feeling it was all thanks to Ric.
The hunter's phone rang at the exact moment Damon was opening his mouth to say something nice. How thankful he was to Alaric for being his sole friend on the whole planet, how the man had a positive influence on him, or maybe how the unpretentiousness of their friendship helped him a lot to be a bit more honest.
The vampire gritted his teeth.
He wouldn't say a word. But he was hoping that Ric would stay here. Ignore the phone call. Talk with him about everything and nothing. Be here.
It was Vanessa Monroe calling. Alaric picked up and pushed his way outside of the noisy place that was the Mystic Grill this early in the evening.
It hurt more than thinking that Elena was going out with his brother instead of him, than knowing that Katherine had always loved Stefan and never loved him for real, than being aware that his father had always preferred his youngest son over his eldest. Damon didn't get why, but it hurt more.
He watched Alaric go and ordered another drink.
The whole story with the student was getting problematic. Alaric knew she only meant to be useful. And to satisfy her curiosity, too. But the point was that she had no ill intention towards him.
The thing was that, by researching why Isobel had pulled out the chapter about the Falkenbachs, the young woman was doing something completely useless. Not only the hunter had already known what was written in the book before he had had an opportunity to read it, but he also had a pretty clear idea of why exactly his wife had destroyed this particular chapter.
She had hand-pulled the pages about the Petrovas because she was part of that family.
The reason she had done the same with the Falkenbachs chapter was obvious.
"Vanessa?"
There was no one outside of the Grill, and that was convenient for him.
Ric wondered for how long Isobel had known.
After she decided she'd be a vampire? Before? After their wedding? Before?
"I searched every databases I have access to, and nothing. Apparently, the Falkenbachs are really all dead and buried since the Nuremberg trials."
"That's not exactly surprising. I mean, even if the last Falkenbach hadn't been condamned and hadn't died shortly after that, people die and families die out. It happens, that's all."
"I know, but why would Isobel go out of her way to destroy a chapter from a book you can get just by ordering it if this chapter had nothing to do with living persons?"
She did it so that he'd know she knew.
Alaric wouldn't tell that to the young woman, though.
"Maybe what she was interested in wasn't a person, but a thing, a piece of information?"
A car parked two lots away from him.
"If that's the case, I really don't know what to do now..."
Three men got out of the car and entered the Grill. One of them was already seriously drunk and vociferated when he bumped into a car. They looked like troublemakers, but as long as they didn't have fangs, claws, magical powers, or weren't his students, it was none of Ric's business.
"Just let it go. You did a good job, and it's not even your problem to begin with. It wouldn't be the first time we don't have all the informations. So please, go back to your studies, don't get involved."
If Vanessa could do that, Ric would have one less thing to worry about. He really wished she'd listen to him. So when she tried to say something, but he interrupted her.
"Don't say you won't if you will. There's no point in lying, and I won't come to tie you up to a chair if you decide to get involved, but I'd prefer to know you'll be safe, that's all."
There was an awkward silence, then the student hung up without a word.
At least she hadn't lied.
Alaric sighed. His worries didn't go anywhere.
He went back inside and sat next to Damon only to find him pouting while staring ferociously at his glass of bourbon. The teacher said nothing at first, but after three minutes of silence he got bored and took matters into his own hands.
Damon felt fingers on his jaw.
Ric's hand was trying to force him to turn his head and look at the man.
The vampire considered not to give the teacher satisfaction, but the pressure of his friend's fingertips on his cheekbone and chin was getting stronger as time went by. If he had been human, resisting anymore would have gotten him bruises.
He slowly turned his head and looked at Ric.
"Is anything the matter?"
The teacher looked genuinely pissed at him, but also kind of worried, and that was just a bit nice to know someone was interested in how he felt.
"That's exactly what I want to ask you, Damon."
Ric let go of him, and the vampire didn't go back to ruminating his thoughts.
"If you have something to say, say it to my face."
"This Monroe girl whistles and you comes running with your tail between your legs? Seriously?"
Alaric endeavored not to let a snarky remark out and stared at his friend, puzzled.
Damon was definitely averting his eyes.
The terribly dangerous blue eyes, the deceiving, the seductive, the appealing, the striking ice-blue eyes of Damon Salvatore were fleeing Alaric Saltzman's perfectly average gaze.
"I can't believe I'm going to ask you that, Damon, but... are you perhaps jealous?"
The vampire choked on his bourbon.
"Jealous? Why would I..."
"Forget it. That was a stupid idea. But you looked like you were jealous of Vanessa, which would be pretty hilarious since I only talk to her on the phone occasionally whereas the two of us spend hours drinking together and hunting evil creatures."
Exactly. Why would the vampire be jealous anyway?
Alaric was simply trying to keep a clueless girl alive, nothing more. And Damon knew from experience that it wasn't a simple task. There were people, such as Elena, who couldn't help but end up getting involved in problems that weren't their own. The Gilbert girl was a special case, however: she had that particular talent to willingly choose to get in trouble for every seal pup in distress she saw when she already had her fair share of problems on her own.
There was nothing to be envious of.
But shit, Damon was jealous.
Admitting it freaked him out, but it was the truth. The vampire was envious of a female student who called his best friend once a day for ten minutes at most and he didn't know what to do about that.
The teacher had gone back to drinking when he heard Damon's voice once again.
"I don't know, Ric. I've no idea why, but I'm jealous as hell thinking about how you befriend this Monroe girl. I'm desperately trying to believe that it's because she definitely is suspicious, that she's stealing you away from me, Jenna and the kids. All I know is that I don't like you walking away from our drinking times to answer your phone."
So much honesty from the vampire startled his friend.
An imbibed voice coming from his right prevented the hunter from thinking too much about it.
"True men are not supposed to be so emotional over each other, little girl."
Alaric looked at Damon, who was ignoring the comment, then looked beside him. It was without a doubt one of the idiots from before.
Ric hoped he would be wise enough to shut up now, but the man was too drunk to act as a responsible adult. Or maybe he was a moron and an asshole to begin with.
"My pals and I are going on a road trip, and we thought that we could take the opportunity and wipe clean the area of men like you. You know, emotional, fragile..."
Damon smirked.
This was side-splitting.
The frail man he was was precisely considering some splitting.
Ribs splitting. Head and body splitting. There were many delicate ways to take care of fools.
Alaric was getting a little worried. Things were definitely going to get out of control. And he wasn't in the mood to burry any corpse – let alone to deal with the fact that they were in public.
The man tried to say something else, but his nose met the hunter's fist and broke.
He then tried to insult Ric, but blood was invading his filthy mouth from his broken nose.
Alaric stood up, rated the tree morons' strength and retained a disdainful sneer.
"Leave now. You had enough to drink for toni... no, more likely, for today."
