after 4x03, though with the whole Damon-is-a-mess-and-I-certainly-don't-plan-to-use-the-sire-bond-bullshit, many things haven't happened exactly as in the show. Just know that Damon was there to trap Connor.


Gaaah... It's hard to write about this... So hard... Hopefully the part when it start to move will come soon enough.

By the way, I've started a twitter account where I plan to post various things about my fanfics: update notice, "writing in process" news, this kind of things... I don't know if it'll be useful, but well, I try.

https_:_/_/_twitter_._com_/_EKernor


One world apart, part 5: Here, watching and listening

"So, you led the hunter right to Klaus and Damon?"

Jeremy shrugged, and punched the air, under Alaric's watchful eye.

"That's about it, yeah. I didn't especially want him to murder half of the people I care about, meaning, my sister, her boyfriend, Caroline, and even Damon. Oh, and Tyler, even if he's a douchebag. And since this Connor didn't seem to be one to make a deal, more of the kind to kill all the vampires until there's none left whatsoever, or until he himself is dead..."

"You thought it'd be better to finish it with the second option."

There was no judgment in the ghost's voice. He was only stating a fact, even if he felt a bit sad that the teenager had to chose about something such as to kill or let a person live. It wasn't something a teenager should have to do.

"I don't have anything against vampire hunters. They can be useful. You were dead useful. But you're just dead, now, so... And this one was a radical. Still, it appear I have the potential to be a hunter, somehow, and this town definitely needs someone who will not just overlook what happens. Elena is too busy trying not to jump at anyone throat, Stefan tries too hard to keep the peace, Caroline isn't exactly a hero, and Damon is just completely out of it."

Yeeesss, Damon could hardly be called a hero. And that wasn't the only reason the vampire was out of it, lately. There was no point trusting him to keep Mystic Falls protected.

"Alright, Jeremy. I'll teach you how to fight efficiently."

Alaric's ghost walked to the teenager, and put his hand on Jeremy's arm.

"But, as you already know, we can touch but we can't touch. You see we are in contact, and yet you don't feel anything, correct?"

Jeremy nodded. He had had time, with Anna, to experiment. There was absolutely no way for a living person to touch a ghost. It didn't mean they could pass through one another either. If it happened, the ghost was simply pushed out of the space where the living person wanted to go, without them feeling anything, which was weird. If the ghost had a strong will, and was particularly angry, they sometimes succeeded in pushing back, and then it was the living person who was pushed out. Those who could do that were usually dead witches.

As for Alaric, he had been pushed out a few times in the first days of his ghostly existence. It had been weird. At some point, he had literally been trapped in a moving crowd in a corridor in the high school, and he had been pushed back... well, back and forth, for three whole minutes. Being a ghost unable to interact with the world was really strange, sometimes. It had felt as if he had no strength at all, not even enough to keep standing, as he had been pushed right and left, into a wall, against a backpack, away from a teen and back into the crowd. There had even been a time when he had embarassingly ended up with his face in the cleavage of fellow / ex-colleague / math teacher Andrea Lopez. If a ghost had ever blushed in the history of the Other Side, it was him.

"So, I can't fight with you to train you. All I can do, is giving you tips, and showing you techniques, without actually making you practice them against me, or react to a response to your attacks. At some point, you'll have to ask for someone to help you."

"I know that!"

"Good."

And with that said, Alaric began to instruct Jeremy about his stance, the way he should think about the fights and his opponents, how to keep focused on what was going on. When the teenager asked if this would all be really useful in a fight with a werewolf, or worse, a vampire, the teacher retorted that they had to start with the basics. And anyway, if they got to the point when Jeremy could fight supernatural beings long enough with just speed and strength, then it would come in handy to know how to break a neck just with his arms. After all, it was so much easier to stake an unconscious vampire than a conscious one...

The sun was about to set when they stopped the training.

Jeremy was sweaty and exhausted, and he let himself fall to the ground with a relieved sigh.

"I can't believe you people actually do that for fun."

The ghost snorted lightly.

"That's called sports, Jeremy, and if you did a bit more of it on a daily basis, you wouldn't be so exhausted after just that."

The teenager mock-glared at the teacher. He opened his mouth to say some smartass reply, but shut it right back.

Damon was making his way into the woods, and towards them. Maybe Elena had sent the vampire in a search-my-little-brother-please-I'm-so-worried hunt, so that he'd leave the boarding house a bit. Leaving by the same token the bottles of bourbon behind.

Now, if there was one thing Alaric had demanded of Jeremy in exchange for his training him, it was this: to never tell Damon that the ghost was there. He didn't want the vampire to hold onto false hope, and given the way things were going for now, it really looked like it was what would happen if the teen told Damon about his presence.

The vampire trailed to them, squinted at the teenager who was lying on the ground, and sat down upon a rock.

"Your sister seemed to think you were gone to get some drugs again. I'll tell her you were only taking a dirt bath. She'll be delighted, no doubt."

A handful of dirt flew in the general direction of Damon, but it fell back way before it reached the vampire.

"I was exercising, if you must know. I run into too many supernaturals creatures by the week for my mental tranquility, and too many of them usually try to murder me at one point or another. I'd rather not make a target too easy to take down."

The vampire shrugged, and silence fell back onto the group. Ric was keeping carefully quiet, just in case he said somehing and Jeremy answered without thinking that he shouldn't actually be speaking with no one. At some point, Damon looked back at the teen, who didn't seem to be willing to get up and leave the woods just yet.

"Training, you said?"

"At my level, it's more like exercising, really, but yeah, it's my goal. Why?"

The vampire remained thoughtful for a few seconds, which Alaric used to observe him.

Damon looked... not a mess, because the red eyes – and by that he meant the red eyes that were caused by abuse of alcohol – and the bad breath had left since quite a long time, with him being a vampire and all that. But he looked bad, in a way, his shoulder slumped and his gaze empty.

Ric sighed. His lover really needed to get himself together. No matter what, the teacher wasn't coming back. He was dead, and it was about time for the vampire to accept it.

But he couldn't speak up without gaining the attention of Jeremy, and so the suspicion of Damon, and he coudn't speak through the teenager, because it would be like giving himself away. No, actually, it would be giving oneself away, no discussion, no "like".

And Alaric didn't want to give himself away.

So he couldn't say anything. So he watched. So he listened.

Then, Damon surprised both the teenager and the teacher.

"I could help you train, if you feel like it."

Jeremy's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. He spluttered a bit, and had to sit up so that he could cough properly, and not suffocate himself.

"Why would you do that?"

The vampire arched an eyebrow at him.

"Do you really need to ask?"

Finally, they agreed to come here one evening out of two, so that the teenager would not overexert himself between school, training, and the various other kinds of shit that could happen – and usually did happen – in Mystic Falls. And on top of that, he had to spend the next day with Klaus and Connor of all people, so that he could draw the tattoo on the man's arm as he seemingly was the only one able to see it... Not that Damon knew the hunter still lived.

When they finally left the woods, Jeremy heading for the Gilbert house and Damon for the boarding house – no, sorry, for the wine cellar of the boarding house – Ric tagged along Jeremy for a while.

They needed to talk, and least of all about the guilt the teenager was currently experiencing when he remembered that he had promised Alaric not to say anything about his existence to the vampire.

Continued existence.

Continued ghostly invisible intangible existence.

Whatever.

When they arrived at the Gilbert House, Jeremy sighed, and put his coat down. He started to cook himself dinner, with the TV on. Soon enough, though, he put it out.

"Don't you feel lonely, sometimes?"

The teenager didn't answer right away, chopping vegetables into small bits.

As his legal guardian was dead, and his new legal guardian was not trusting herself not to try to drain him of his blood right now, the teenager lived alone in the house. At first, it had been great, no one to order him around or tell him to go to bed after 2 a.m., but it wasn't the same as when parents went away for a week and then came back. He was actually starting to feel a bit lonely, from time to time. He was in fact happy to see that Alaric might stick around a bit more often from now on.

For a time, he had lived off pizzas, but a stern look from the ghost had ended it easily two days prior. Sure, the teacher was already busy enough watching over Damon, but strangely, it didn't seem to be enough. He had to look over Jeremy, too...

Meaning, a twenty minutes lecture about why it was not healthy to eat only pizza. Even for breakfast. Not that Jeremy didn't agree with that last part, but he had just been too lazy to search for something else, so he usually finished the pizza from the previous evening in the morning.

So here he was now, making a salad for dinner. He was putting extra effort because of the teacher's presence, of course.

"I do. I just hope it won't take years for Elena to come to terms with the fact that she's a vampire, now. I'm still a minor, after all. I need someone to look after me."

Ric arched an eyebrow, and his eyes looked down at the dish that the teenager had almost finished to prepare.

"More like you'd rather not have to make dinner yourself, isn't it?"

Jeremy smirked a bit, and waved his knife in the air, as if to fend off an attacker. The knife eventually came into contact with the ghost, who had to take a step back because of it.

"I hope you don't do that with living beings around."

"Depends. Does Damon count as a living being?"

The teacher squinted his eyes.

"I'll let you the benefit of doubt. Now, as we're talking about Damon..."

Jeremy put down his knife, and went to the fridge, searching for what was left of the steak from yesterday. He proceeded to heat it up again.

"... You know you can't feel guilty about not telling him, don't you?"

The teenager took his salad and went to the table, planning on eating it meanwhile.

"Of course I know that. Because I know doesn't mean I agree."

The ghost stared at the youth for a few minutes.

"You're feeling even more guilty because he proposed to help you, aren't you?"

"Possible."

Alaric sighed. It wasn't that he wanted Jeremy to keep quiet. Hell, he wanted Damon to know he was here, if only to stop the vampire from drinking so much. But he also knew that knowing wasn't likely to stop his boyfriend, and that it was even more likely to make him more desperate. Maybe for a time, the vampire would get better, but soon enough...

Soon enough, the fact that Ric was here, watching and listening, but that he would never be able to see and hear him on his part, this fact would eat him up. And as Damon would know that Ric was here, it was more than likely that the vampire would never be able to let go. Meaning, that Alaric wouldn't be able to either. And for a vampire and a ghost, "never" was a long time of negation.

Jeremy went to take his steak.

"You don't have to explain, Ric. I know how grieving works. It's just that I never managed to follow the advices, myself, not without using drugs and alcohol, which are definitely not part of the advices for grieving. I won't tell Damon... unless you tell me to, that is."