One world apart, part 23: Wasn't your day as eventful as mine?
When Ric entered the boarding house, he was a sight to see. Not a particularly nice sight to see, though. More like an uncommon sight to see.
So that was what Damon did, he saw. And more than that, he watched, at a loss for words.
Alaric himself looked really great. No missing bits of flesh, no bloodshot eyes, no visible wounds.
But the thing was, the ghost was also an Original vampire. It was totally normal for him to look healthy, because almost everything that could potentially happen to him would heal right away. Really, only amputation could apparently not be undone for a normal vampire, which Alaric wasn't, and an haircut too, because, well, hair didn't heal, it grew back.
Besides, the vampire was a ghost. Anything life-threatening would disappear if he "died".
So, yes, Ric was alright.
It certainly wasn't the case for everything else, especially his clothes. They were in shreds. Like, Damon wasn't even sure if they used to be clothes at some point. The pants, he could more or less tell, but the shirt? Had it ever been a shirt at some point? Really, was anyone sure it wasn't just an old rag to begin with? And if he remembered right, it used to be a... white... whitish... shirt?
Well, now, every inch of fabric on Alaric Saltzman had either been torn off or painted bloody. Freshly dried bloody, at that. So, brownishly red, perhaps?
What in hell had happened to the ghost?
The vampire asked just that, once his voice was his to control again.
Ric arched an eyebrow, but didn't stop on his way to Damon's room. He knew the guy had to have kept some of his old clothes. If only for the scent. And it wasn't as if the ghost had seen the vampire cuddle with his shirts to go to sleep, only two days before, right? Oh wait, he had.
It had been cute at the time. And now it would come in handy.
"Connor Jordan thought it'd be a great idea to kamikaze himself, as, you know, he doesn't care for dying, at the Grill, and I told him otherwise."
Damon followed Ric to the stairs, frowning a bit. He wasn't certain how dissuading a supernatural and ghostly hunter to kill himself in front of everyone could possibly turn into... this. Hell, he had no idea why Jordan's ghost would want to kill himse...
Wait, had Alaric said "kamikaze"?
"He tried to blow himself up?"
Ric pushed open the door to Damon's room and went directly for the closet.
"Oh, he didn't just try, he succeeded."
Damon, still following his dead lover around like a love-sick puppy with a big frown on his face, frowned harder. Ric glanced at him for an instant, and decided that, indeed, if the vampire had been a dog, he'd be a siberian husky, given the color pattern. A vampire husky puppy. Uh. Interesting idea, if anything.
"But, didn't you say you stopped him from...?"
"I stopped him from blowing himself up in the Mystic Grill, but it wasn't exactly possible to undo the explosion once he triggered the C4. So I just grabbed him and rushed us out before the blast happened. That's why I'm covered in bits of mashed hunter, obviously."
Damon stood still next to the doorframe of his bathroom, a bemused look on his face, while Ric went to borrow his shower. The guy, ghost or not, needed a shower, that much was certain.
And if the vampire ogled him a bit as he wondered what the sheriff department would cover this up with this time, it was totally warranted. The naked ghost in his shower and covered in blood and other... body remains, was his lover, after all.
Damn, Damon wasn't gay except for Ric, but that one surely was worth the difference.
And Damon found it really disturbing to think about his approval for Elizabeth Forbes' hard work as his eyes roamed Alaric's back shamelessly. So he simply stopped thinking about the sheriff, and went back to appreciating the view.
Even if said view was actually washing off a human milkshake.
"Obviously..."
His voice might have drawled a bit on that part, the vampire realized, but he didn't manage to bring himself to care. During the last years, he had learned not to get surprised by anything, and if sarcasm was his answer to the improbability of his life, who had a right to judge?
The way the soap made Ric's body all shiny under the artificial light made him feel a bit constricted in his pants, as it was. Damon really, really wanted to be a bar of soap, right now, and wasn't that ridiculous? The ghost turned the water on once again, and in a minute there was no reminder of the explosion on him, though the water at his feet was pink with... things.
Alaric turned around, and leaned against the tiled wall. He didn't bother with a towel for now, because he really liked the look on his boyfriend's face. And if he had only a few hours left before becoming immaterial again, he was going to enjoy it as much as possible.
"Obviously. Why, wasn't your day as eventful as mine?"
"Well, it's only midday and I didn't get blown up, that's for sure, but..."
Damon's spirits deflated a bit, as he remembered the events from this morning. Magdalena was alright now, and resting in one of the guest rooms, sure, but still.
"Another of the Five came by and tried to shoot me with werewolf-venom-soaked bullets. I was... saved by your cousin, but she took the bullet for me, and we had to heal her. She didn't look well after that."
Alaric didn't say anything, at first, and when he did he had reached for a towel. He wasn't quite in the mood anymore, with all that serious talk...
"Mag is alright now?"
"Resting, but yeah. Lexi managed to get all the bits of wood out, and well, she's a Saltzman..."
Ric made a mental note to thank the only other friendly ghost around if he got the chance, before the Veil went back into place. Then he turned his attention back to Damon, not having liked the news that a freaking hunter had tried to infect the vampire with werewolf venom, again.
"And you? You're alright?"
Damon squirmed a bit on his feet, but didn't look away, which was a good sign. The vampire would totally have been one to lie and hide the fact he was infected or hurt, if it had been the case, but he was holding his gaze. Never a guarantee with Damon, but still.
"No problem. Magdalena took us both, hunter and vampire alike, by surprise, and the bullet didn't even get anywhere near me."
Mostly because the woman had boldly put herself between him and said bullet, but Damon didn't want to dwell on the fact that much. He was still shaken by the very fact that someone else than his brother or Alaric would risk their lives for him, and he didn't want to remember that Mag had indeed taken a huge risk for him.
Alaric sighed, and put on a new shirt, one that didn't look like it had been eaten by a blood slime and spit back because it tasted bad.
They still had many things to deal with, and ultimately...
Ultimately he wasn't going to stay here. Damon would still be able to see him, but he wouldn't really be there. There would be no contact, no warmth, no comfort.
Damon was surprised when the ghost suddenly pulled him into a hug, but he found it strangely pleasant. Comforting, even, and, maybe, just maybe, he thought he would miss it when the world would get back on tracks. Or, as much on tracks as it ever was in Mystic Falls.
Alaric withdrew himself, and patted his lover on the shoulder, sighing.
"Come on, we got to take care of the ghost infestation, and of the Silas statue, and..."
"I get it, I get it! Please do not remind me of all our problems, or we'll have another one to deal with right away."
Ric gave him a passing glance, before focusing back on the stairs he was descending. It'd be ridiculous for him to stumble down the stairs because he hadn't been looking, and the ghost didn't exactly appreciate being ridiculous, especially not now that everyone could see him again.
"And what would that problem be?"
Damon rolled his eyes.
"My nervous breakdown."
A tiny smile lifted the left corner of Ric's mouth, but the vampire could obviously not see that.
"Of course."
A door opened upstairs, and the two looked up to where they had just come from. Mag was standing in the doorframe of a guest room, looking a bit lost. She might not have realized yet where she was, since she wasn't exactly familiar with the Salvatore boarding house, and could see no reason why she'd sleep here of all places.
Then her eyes fell on her cousin, and she nodded to herself. Right, vampires were real, and there was a ghost invasion currently on-going in the small town. She had been shot with a wooden bullet. No great penetration, but surely painful. If she had even needed a reason not to become a vampire, it would have been that. She didn't want people to shoot her with that kind of bullets ever again.
Magdalena's eyes glided to Damon Salvatore, vampire owner of the boarding house that she had possibly saved this morning. Uh.
The woman looked around, but saw no one else in the house.
"Weren't Stefan and his friend here?"
Lexi. Right, Lexi, who had taken care of her leg. Good thing for Stefan to be friend with that girl, even if she was a bit ghostly... At least she wasn't a murderous villain like most ghosts in this town.
Damon checked his watch, and sure enough, he knew where his brother had gone off to.
The vampire rolled his eyes.
"My delightful little brother went to his... I-have-no-idea-which-number-it-is graduation ceremony. It shouldn't be long before it starts, and..."
He squinted, thoughtful.
"I should probably go there too, just in case a bunch of angry ghosts decided to off my friends after, or worse, during the ceremony. It's not like most of them have been adamant to do just that since the moment the Veil got put on pause, after all..."
Alaric nodded. The ghosts just knew where almost all of their targets were going to be, wasn't that marvelous? He sure hoped there wouldn't be any death today, except for those who were, in fact, already dead, but that was a difficult wish to please.
"You do that. I think I'll go and take the sheriff's place at the clearing so that she can organize her men to keep an eye on the ceremony too. Besides, I'm sure Liz Forbes would appreciate not having to chop off a head every ten minutes, whereas I simply don't care."
Then the ghost turned to his boyfriend.
"And you don't get yourself killed, you got that?"
Damon's eyes widened comically, and he brought his hands to his heart.
"I would never!"
Ric gave him a skeptical look, but said nothing. The two disappeared from Mag's field of view. The women blinked at the empty entrance of the boarding house, and yawned.
"Yeah, right, you do that. Me, I'll just... go back to sleep, you know."
She went for the room she had just left.
Just as they walked out of the boarding house, Alaric and Damon stopped to the sight of someone approaching them. Someone they hadn't seen since... some time. They shared a perplexed look. When exactly had the grim reaper walked out of town? A week ago? Five days? They weren't certain, but they certainly hadn't seen her during the last days.
Judging by the look on her face, Ariane had been very, very confused by what she had just seen. Considering she could see the different layers of the afterlife, and that one of them was currently joined together with the living world...
"What the hell did you idiots do while I was away?"
Yup, Ariane was wondering why there were freaking material ghosts running around and causing havoc. Had they been her, they would surely react just the same way.
So Damon did the sensible thing and put his hands in the air, as if to surrender before she decided to reap him. Just in case.
"We didn't do anything. Silas' the one who went and forced our witch to do naughty things."
Alaric snorted at that. It surely was the easy way around the truth.
Damon glared at him. He didn't need any help to look like an idiot, thank you very much.
