Chapter 10 shifting sands
Hope you all enjoy this!
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It had been a week since the weird witch castle incident.
Bonnie had been worried at first that it would be a significant setback but the day had gone smoothly after the oddness in the carpark. Bonnie had sent Kai back into his seat as she took off in the sporty little car they had commandeered, the look of shock on his face comical. He had then whooped aloud as she folded back the top, hit a straightaway and turned the car loose. She had not been able to help the large grin that had suffused her face. Her father had made her learn to drive on a stick shift first. Bonnie had been angry at the time but had since come to appreciate having the skill…especially when she could use it on a car like this.
"That's it! You have driving duty from now on!" Kai shouted over the wind that assailed them from the speed of the car. Bonnie spared him a glance and was amused at the bright-eyed kid smile he was wearing.
After asking him for directions, Kai instructed her where to go through the city til they came to a giant shopping mall. It was eerily quiet in the city and in the mall.
Bonnie loved it.
It appealed to something weird inside her that made her enjoy this odd sort of voyeurism. She had not indulged in it much while she and Damon had inhabited Mystic Falls, although she had, on her own, done a bit of exploring. Damon had been content to sit in his mansion and his misery and drink the days away. When Bonnie could take it no more and they fought and she left, it was usually to explore for a bit. But, the silence and aloneness always got to her before too long and she returned to the boarding house. So this, being in a big city and this giant mall? It was kinda like time travel and a sci-fi movie all rolled into one. Bonnie would never have suspected she would be so fascinated by this, since she hated being completely alone, and she suspected that her feelings now might not have been the case if she were here by herself.
But she wasn't.
Kai looked around and she thought they must look like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie in this deserted space, him covered in blood as he was and the smears she sported as well.
"Echo?" Kai yelled, startling Bonnie.
"Yep, looks like we're it," he popped his P hard, a habit he seemed to have at times. Bonnie ignored him as she wandered forward, entranced by everything around her.
"Yo, earth to Bonnie? Come in Bonster?" Bonnie turned her head to give him an aggravated look and he grinned.
"Yeah, so, I'm gonna go find some clothes that make me look less like an extra in a Halloween movie. You coming?" he asked.
"I think I wanna explore a bit. But you definitely need some blood free items," she said as she gave him a once over. Seeing him covered in blood made her distinctly nervous but she pushed it firmly down.
"No prob. We can explore while we hunt new threads. I know this mall intimately. Spent a lot of time here as a kid. Was a great place to blend in and stay hidden from my keepers." He stated offhandedly as he started walking purposefully deeper into the mall. Bonnie frowned as she trotted beside him, his long-legged stride making it necessary to keep up.
"What do you mean, hide from your keepers?"
He shot her a side glance. "Troublesome freak siphoner here. I never left the compound without someone to make sure I didn't "do something"," his air quotes around the last added to the eyeroll he did with it made Bonnie laugh. He flashed her a quick grin.
"And did you? Ever "do something" to make this concern valid?" she asked?
"Not nearly as much as they gave me credit for." He muttered before saying louder, "Of course, all the time!"
Bonnie heard the muttered comment but pretended she didn't.
They romped through every store, each pulling a Woolworth's buggy that they gleefully piled with anything that caught their eye. Bonnie felt like one of those gameshow contestants who were given so much time in a store to grab as much as they could… only she didn't have a time limit.
It was amazing.
There had never been much money for many extras when Bonnie was growing up. They weren't poor, but she didn't have doctor parents like Elena, or a family with money like Caroline's father had had. Anything either girl ever wanted, they got. Bonnie had never wanted for her needs, but she suspected even if her grandmother had more money than she thought (and it had turned out she most definitely had), she would not have indulged Bonnie in the same manner. She had often said working for things bred appreciation and humility and with time, Bonnie had come to understand and even be grateful for that philosophy.
However…
This was probably not a situation her grandmother had ever anticipated, even if she did send her here.
So Bonnie intended to wring whatever amount of fun out of this place she could.
Turned out, Kai was not a bad companion when it came to that endeavor.
She was so intrigued to investigate all the stores she had never heard of and some of the ones she had. She was finding she had a real liking for the fashion of the 90s. She had exchanged her slightly too big shorts and shirt for a slipdress, chunky cardigan and some comfortable, pointy-toe flats. She found the magic that ruled the prison world a little strange, even now. Everything reset, every day. Meaning everything they took to wear or eat or haul away with them would magically reappear after the reset, just as it had been before they got it the previous day yet, nothing they swiped disappeared from their possession. Therefore, Bonnie didn't feel too terribly bad about literally grabbing anything that she wanted to take with her. She went a bit wild at the perfume counter of Macy's. She had always loved perfume but never been able to afford much of the good stuff.
Not a problem now.
She was pretty sure she had enough perfume in her buggy to start her own store. There were quite a few she had never heard of that she loved and also some that were even still around in 2012.
She had also made Kai try several men's colonges she found appealing. Not that Kai smelled bad (far from it, her traitorous hormones let her know) but she figured if she had to spend time around him, might as well make it pleasant. He humored her and insisted that she try some he picked as well. He had decent taste so she took a couple of his as he got some of the ones she liked.
And she didn't care whether he liked it or not, she got one of everything in Bath and Bodyworks.
Then it was on to the music stores and toy stores. She found quite a good bit of music to explore, collecting a big basket of CDs. Kai's taste seemed to run more toward grunge rock and, while she did appreciate that at certain times, she was much more liberal in her musical preferences. The toy store was hysterical fun. Kai ran around like a giant, hyperactive child, bouncing from thing to thing like a rubber ball… several of which he found and played with as well. It was kinda cute in a hyper puppy way. He did corner her into bouncing around with him on giant bouncy balls with handles which turned out to be a lot of fun. Bonnie had rather forgotten what it felt like to just let loose and have fun and relax. The past few years of her life had been anything but fun or relaxing and she knew she had always had a tendency to take herself way more seriously than she should.
By the time they called it quits and collapsed into a Mcdonalds for food, Bonnie was exhausted but, oddly, happy. She had truly enjoyed romping her way through the mall with Kai, he actually made a decent companion.
They had scrambled around in back and gotten food, Bonnie a Big Mac and fries, Kai…well, Bonnie was pretty sure it looked like Kai had one of everything McD offered. She was simultaneously impressed and disgusted that he actually managed to eat almost all of it.
"How in the hell can you eat that much?" she finally had to ask after watching him scarf down 2 Big Macs, a large fry, 2 apple pies, a huge Coke and a chocolate shake.
He grinned at her as he leaned back in the booth and patted his barely there food baby, "Growing boy's gotta eat!"
She rolled her eyes, "You are so weird."
He smirked, "It takes a lot to keep my constant motion machine moving, BonBon."
"Don't. call me that." She huffed irritably.
"What? Thought that was what the preferred nickname? Damon used it quite a lot."
Bonnie frowned, "Doesn't mean I liked it. So don't" she griped.
He pointed a fry at her, "You need some dessert."
Bonnie wrinkled her nose, "Not from here I don't."
Kai widened his eyes comically. "Don't tell me you're a sugar snob, Miss I-inhale-smores-while-wasted-off-my-ass."
Bonnie chucked her wrapper at him, "No, asshat, I just want something better than McDonald's desserts."
Kai then grinned hugely. It was so completely unfair how unbelievably attractive that made him.
"I know just the thing!"
With that, their shopping trip was over as Kai hustled her and all their stuff to the parking lot. They ended up grabbing a Land Rover this time in order to fit all the mountain of stuff they nabbed. Bonnie had never been in one before but was duly impressed at how luxurious it was, even for a 90s model. Kai took point behind the drivers seat since he knew where they were going.
Turned out that where they were going was a small chocolate shop somewhere in downtown Portland. Bonnie was pretty sure this was what heaven smelled like. They both acted like literal kids in the candy store as they went thru and tasted everything. Bonnie had grabbed a box and was filling it with everything she liked. Particularly one chocolate, caramel, raspberry confection that was to die for. Kai had a box of his own that he was methodically filling with one of everything in the cases.
After their looting of the confectionary store, They decided to find a place to stay the night since, Bonnie pointed out reasonably, they had a lot of stuff to sort thru and why drive all the way back when they could literally stay anywhere they wanted. So they found a swank looking hotel and commandeered the penthouse. They grabbed a couple of luggage trolleys and hauled their stuff up. By the time they got it all up Bonnie was seriously rethinking her bing shopping spree. Until she popped open one of her CDs and loaded it into the state of the art (for 1994 anyway) sound system and collapsed on the couch with one of the bags of books she had snagged at Borders. The smooth tones of Kenny G's sax started rolling thru the room and she sighed happily as she rummaged thru her stack of books as Kai attacked the mini bar.
She stopped suddenly as the thought struck her.
She actually did feel happy and relaxed. And had done so for the majority of the day.
Huh.
She shot a glance at her companion as he seemed engrossed in lining up the small bottles of liquor from the fridge on the countertop in the kitchen area.
She had spent the entire day with Kai and they hadn't tried to kill each other once.
In fact, except for the incident this morning at the park, they had actually gotten along fairly well.
Exceptionally well, really.
Bonnie sat back into the plush sofa, books forgotten, as she mused upon the curious turn of events. How had they managed to go from actively trying to kill each other to friendly(ish) shopping companions in just a couple of days?
Who was Kai that he could switch hats so quickly? Who was she that she could evidently do the same?
Kai suddenly plopped down on the couch to her side, 4 mini bottles clutched in his hand.
"Here, I brought you a couple but just so you know, I'm cutting you off at two."
Bonnie raised an indignant eyebrow. "Who gave you that authority?"
Kai turned his head and gave her an eyebrow right back as he set down the bottles on the coffee table. "I did, since throwing up two nights in a row from binge drinking is usually the sign of an issue. Not to mention, while you are undoubtedly cute when you're sloshed, I don't feel like waking up and hunting down crackers for you tonight when you wake up puking from it."
Bonnie huffed in aggravation as she had to admit, she really didn't want to spend another night like that either. Still, her dignity and choice were on the line here.
"I do know my own limits and.."
"coulda fooled me." Kai broke in before she could finish.
Bonnie fumed before reaching and grabbing a bottle at random, twisting the top off it viciously and slamming back the contents.
Then she began to cough violently as whatever was in that bottle made its fiery presence felt in her throat and mouth.
"Shit Bon, why the fuck did you do that? Slamming fireball is a horrid idea!" Kai spluttered as he pounded her on the back.
Bonnie was sure her throat had just been burnt out. Tears filled her eyes as she choked and hacked her way to being able to semi breathe again.
"You….asshole…did….on…purpose…" she gasped between coughs.
Kai wisely kept his desire to laugh under wraps, sure she might try to emasculate him if he did.
"Sorry Bon, but that idiot move was solely your own since you didn't bother to wait for me to tell you what I grabbed or look at it yourself. I was gonna see if you felt like mixed drinks or flavored shots or if you were a straight liquor kind of girl. Kinda hard to tell last night since we didn't have much choice. Dad was always a straight shooter when it came to alcohol. No fun stuff."
Bonnie had got her breath back but her head was spinning a bit from the rush of the liquor. She definitely DID NOT want a repeat of the previous night so decided that one was her done.
"I think I am done with alcohol for right now." She muttered.
Kai nodded, deciding silence was wiser at the moment. He sat for a moment before reaching for his own bottle and, much more calmly, twisting off the top and taking a swig. He grabbed the TV remote before leaning back into the comfy sofa. One of the weird wonders of this world was that TV and cable still worked. He had long since given up trying to figure out that one since there was no one to run such things. Granted, it showed the same stuff over and over so maybe it was somehow already preset for the day. He had never really been curious enough to try and figure it out once he figured out what was going on. He just quit watching. However, now seemed a good time to divert attention with mindless, random TV shows so he turned it on and started channel flipping til he found the channel playing cartoons.
They sat side by side mindlessly watching til they both fell asleep.
That was the night Bonnie discovered Kai had nightmares too.
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