Bonnie hugged her arms around herself, staring out of the open window at the slowly rising sun. The burn at the back of her throat signified the bloodlust that she was trying, with all her might, to hold at bay. A throat clearing behind her caused her to whirl around, bringing her face to face with Tyler Lockwood.
Bonnie and Tyler had never been particularly close. They hung out with the same circle of friends, they went to all the same parties and they worked together to get rid of whichever evil entity blew into town to try and kill them, but they had never really sat down together to talk since they were little kids. He smiled warily at her as he took a few more steps into the room.
"How're you feeling?" he asked gently. She snorted and turned back to face the window.
"Considering my best friend killed me and turned me into something that I never wanted to be, I'm pretty good." He came a little bit closer and hesitantly wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"You know, when I was first turned, I was so happy. Being a hybrid meant that I didn't have to turn if I didn't want to, I didn't have to die and leave behind Caroline and the people that I loved. I thought that it was a blessing, y'know? But then I found out that I was sired to Klaus, and Rebekah made me feed on this girl and I was hurting Caroline and it just felt like everything was falling apart around me. It took me a while to realise it, but being a vampire, even if I'm only half-vampire, wasn't all I'd chalked it up to being in my head."
"You know, if you're trying to convince me to turn, you're doing a pretty crappy job." Tyler grinned and shook his head.
"I'm not trying to convince you to do anything; it's your choice. I'm just saying that, I was pretty much alone in this. Yeah, I had support from Caroline and, in their own twisted way, the Originals, but no one else understood what it was like to be a sired hybrid. You don't have to go through that. You have Caroline and the Salvatore's and…well, you've got me if you need me." She smiled.
"Thanks, Ty." He whistled.
"Wow. No one has called me that nickname in ages, Bon-Bon." She laughed at his use of her childhood nickname.
"Same here." They stood in a comfortable silence for a while, just watching the sunrise.
"You know, I think Damon might have a thing for you." Bonnie scoffed.
"Damon Salvatore does not have a thing for me. He loves Elena. We hate each other." Tyler turned his head to look at her, an inscrutable look on his face.
"You don't seriously believe that, do you?"
"Ty..." He could hear the warning in her voice and held his hands up in surrender.
"I'm just saying, Damon hasn't hated you for a long time, and I think you know that, because...because I don't think you hate him either. Not anymore."
Damon watched the hands of the clock moving. The ticking sounds seemed to be magnified and all he could think was that with every second that passed, Bonnie came closer to permanent death.
"Damon." His posture stiffened, but he didn't turn as he heard his brother approaching. Stefan gently sat beside him on the couch in front of the clock, his eyes fixed ahead. They sat in silence for a few minutes, Damon nursing a glass of bourbon in his hands. "You love her." Although it was intended as a question, it came out as a statement. Damon flinched, but otherwise showed no outwardly acknowledgement of his brother. Stefan sighed deeply. "Damon, I know that you and I haven't always had the best relationship, but…I'm your brother. I'm here if you want to talk, you know. About anything. I know that we've had our differences, but I don't want you to think that I don't care about y-"
"Stefan." Damon interrupted, holding up his hand to prevent him from going further. "Stop talking, okay? Just stop, stop trying to bond with me, stop trying to comfort me, stop acting like you're not happy that after years of me making your life miserable, you're not happy that karma has come back to bite me in the ass. I get it, okay. I deserve this. I deserve to lose Bonnie, because I have done terrible things, not just to you but to her and the people that she loves and complete strangers on the road, just because I could. I'm not a good guy and I never have been, so why would I get the good girl, a girl that would put me first and not just, 'first after Stefan'? I never deserved her and now I can't have her because she's going to die and she's going to take what's left of my soul with her. So thanks for the offer, but I'm not feeling like having a brotherly heart-to-heart right now." Silence followed Damon's long-winded speech before he let out a groan and threw back the remaining bourbon in his cup before standing to his feet. "I think your brooding has started to rub off on me," he said before speeding out of the room. Stefan couldn't help but let out a quiet chuckle at his brother's ever-present snark even as he felt his heart break slightly at the self-deprecating attitude that Damon had towards himself.
"No one deserves this, Damon. Not even you, no matter what you've done."
"Can I help you with anything ma'am?" A devious smirk crept upon Elena's face as she turned to the shop assistant smiling warmly at her.
"Actually you can." She walked closer to her and gazed deeply into her eyes, allowing her powers of compulsion to keep the woman where she stood. "You are going to go to the Salvatore boarding house. You will ask to speak to Bonnie Bennett; tell them that her father has some news for her that he wanted you to deliver to her. You will then cut yourself and you will allow her to feed on you. Do you understand?"
"I understand." The woman replied, monotonously. Elena's grin widened.
This was going to be good.