life is stressful as hell this week, but im so sexy for this chapter update!
really excited cause i have PLANS, evil plans, for the next few chapters tehehe
if u guys want to see nova's fashion, playlist, or bother me on tumblr, pls go to my profile everything is there!
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CHAPTER EIGHT: POOR UNFORTUNATE SOULS
She wanted to be a blank page.
No more forbidden knowledge to pry from her broken memories, little else but a child figuring out the world with wonder instead of the horror that she knew all too well.
She wouldn't know anything about anyone, blank as she would be. She would have room to add more pages to her book, one filled with ink and less tainted with blood and tears. She would not have to face her friends knowing the ways they could all die, would not have to close her eyes at night only to dream of the death of her family.
She would not have to know.
Nova breathed in and out, fingers tangled in her hair and tugging repetitively. Her jaw rested uncomfortably on the lip of the empty bathtub, eyes transfixed on the leaky faucet of the sink that made soft splashes against the white porcelain.
Her mind would be free to roam to more innocent things, her life would be solely dedicated to enjoying life instead of coming up with plans for survival. Her mind wouldn't have to linger on things that made her mind spin — let alone think that there were two maniacal killers downstairs that were beginning to become so intrinsically a part of her life.
Bonnie was right to be cautious and angry, but she wondered what she would do if she knew the dark depths of the monsters that lurked in Mystic Falls. And for a moment she couldn't even breathe, imagining her baby sister put in this horrible position. All alone, she would be all alone just. like. she is —
Nova's thoughts came to a pause when there was a soft knock at the door. "Come in," she said, without thinking, too numb to worry about anyone finding her like this, it wouldn't be the first time today.
"Hey, are you —" It was Caroline's turn then, to find her in a miserable state in the Gilbert's bathroom.
She quickly closed the door behind her, her blue eyes wide and brimming with too many emotions for the other girl to even think to decipher in the moment.
Caroline's knees hit the floor, ignoring all else to scoot towards her in her pretty yellow sundress with flowers that sparkled under the light. Her hands reached towards her, warm palms grasping her cold ones and gently tugging them away from her tangled hair.
"What happened?"
It took her a moment to realize that her friend was looking down at her hands, skin split from nail marks and blood long dried against her skin. She looked down at her hands with the blonde, feeling further away from reality as she watched herself be treated so gently compared to the unwanted yet possessive touch from before.
"Oh, I.. accident," she explained half-heartedly, shrugging with a reflexive smile that soon twitched back down into apathy.
"Right," Caroline muttered underneath her breath, unconvinced but didn't say more and instead stood up.
Nova's bloody hand, against her volition, tightened around the soft unblemished hand of her best friend. Her brown eyes caught blue, silently begging her to please. don't leave. please don't leave m - even as she let go of her hand.
Caroline looked down at her with soft eyes, catching her hand once more before she could pull away fully and squeezed her wrist, her thumb smoothing across the undamaged skin of her palm.
There were hardly any religion or deities left that hadn't tried to convert her, and they all failed to make her believe in them. And yet as kind blue eyes stared down at her and the bathroom light made a soft glow around soft blonde curls, her eyes were introduced to a beauty she could scarcely call anything but celestial.
Nova watched her for a moment before closing her eyes momentarily, the sound of water rushing from the faucet filling her ears and breaking the temporary silence. She pulled her face away from the lip of the tub, coming back to reality little by little.
She frowned down at her hands, watching them twitch reflexively when hands grabbed hers, gently pressing a washcloth to the blood on her hands. Her brown eyes trailed upward until she looked up again, watching as Caroline fussed over the nail marks on her hand.
Brains are such a bitch, she thought, tears burning their way down her face that she was too tired to hide.
"I'm a mess," she mumbled, hissing when the blonde pressed down a little too hard.
Caroline looked up at her, an apologetic frown on her face as her touch gentled once more. She sighed softly, the breath of her sigh warming her hands yet sending a shiver up her spine, pulling medical grade bandages out of a hastily torn open box. "You're not alone there," she said softly, self-deprecating and sympathetic all in the same breath while she bandaged her wounds.
Nova appreciated that she didn't try to reassure her that she wasn't a mess, it was a simple form of companionship that meant the world to her. She had gotten so used to feeling so alienated in the world, that she always forgot that she didn't have to do everything alone.
It was funny, how a vampire who had known her for less than a handful of moments had seen this. His words felt less comforting than they had initially, but there was a grain of truth in them. Maybe he wasn't someone who she could rely on, but she had people. It was just hard, trying to learn how to lean on people the same way they did her, to remember that even though her situation sucked, she wasn't a special snowflake that would be dealing with this nightmare alone.
Nova leaned her head on her friend's shoulder, uncaring of the uncomfortable position. Arms wrapped around her, a comforting weight resting atop her head.
"Did you need anything?" Caroline asked, even as conversation from downstairs threatened to break their quiet retreat from the world.
"Just you," she whispered, her voice shook and she tried to swallow the words back down her throat.
"..Okay." Caroline held on tighter, all but climbing into the tub with her.
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She drew strength from Caroline's hand in hers, their fingers laced as they rejoined everyone downstairs. Her friend never once let go of her hand even as they made their awkward descent down the stairs until she was all but pulling her down after her, blonde hair nearly hitting her face when she whipped around to look at her.
"I know, okay. I know what everyone thinks about blondes, about me, but I'm..". Caroline sighed, lips pursed and frustration on her face. "I don't know what's going on. Expect that it's weird and majorly freaking you out. And it's killing me not knowing, but if you ever like, need me…I'm here. Please, please — let me be here, okay?"
Nova couldn't find the words to say, no excuse seemed good enough to say no to an offer that made her feel warm and safe in a way that very few people had succeeded in. And so the only thing she could do was nod with a stupidly soft smile.
"Okay," she replied, voice soft as chocolate melting in summer heat.
Nova squeezed the hand still tangled with hers, getting a smile that only served to make her heart melt down any last of her defenses. "I love you," but even those words, spoken so confidently, hardly scratched the surface of what she felt this moment.
"I love you too."
She became distracted by the sound of what could only be kissing, her eyes zeroing in on the open window across from them when the hallway came up empty except for the two of them.
After eating all of that garlic?
Gross.
She could only sigh at the reminder of what needed to be done. Well, maybe she didn't need to do this, it wasn't technically her business, but as usual she was making it her business. "Give me a sec," she muttered, her smile slipping into something more determined. "I need to talk to Romeo before he swallows Juilet's tongue."
"Oh.. okay," Caroline said, confused but still concerned about her. She was reluctant to leave her out of her sight, only letting go of her hand after one final squeeze to reassure them both.
Nova walked over to the door, shedding her vulnerability with each audible step of her boots on wooden floors until she was standing with her head held up high and her posture hopefully convincingly relaxed.
She made a disgusted face when they both didn't immediately pay attention to her wonderful presence opening the door. Being ignored was never an option, in her humble opinion. With a swift kick of her feet, she closed the door with a bang so loud that it nearly made her flinch at her own actions.
She watched with a grin that she didn't bother to hide when Elena jumped, so wrapped up in her constipated white boy that she didn't hear her very loud footsteps let alone the door opening.
Stefan pretended to be jolted by her appearance, or at the very least she hoped with his big ass vampire ears that he was only pretending to be surprised. She eyed him with a suspicious frown when he hastily looked away towards the street for a moment, hands clenched at his sides. Just like that fucking Arthur meme.
What a horny little fucker, and that was coming from her.
"Uh, yes, what is it?" Elena visibly swallowed back the urge to snap at Nova like she normally would, her hands smoothly dropping from her boyfriend's ridiculously sculpted jawline.
Huh, she mused, leaning her weight on the closed door, confused for a second before shrugging off the strange behavior.
Elena was never cruel to her, it wasn't who they were to each other; but they had been friends for ages and could afford to be messy, bratty bitches to each other. The fact that her rude interruption hadn't even gotten her a glare or a petty response spoke volumes. Mostly about how desperate the other girl probably was to make Stefan like her, as though he wasn't fucking whipped by her already.
She took in both of their reactions with a keen eye, raising her eyebrow with a smile still firmly in place no matter how much it hurt. "You gonna find the DVD player or should we reschedule?" It hadn't been her intention, but a guilty look appeared on the brunette's face when she reminded her what this night was supposed to be about.
Elena shook her head, brown eyes so expressively sorrowful it was almost annoying to look at for too long. "No, no," she rushed to say, sighing before turning towards her boyfriend with a soft smile. "Sleepover. We haven't had one in forever."
Stefan smiled down at her with an equally sappy look on his face, fists slowly unclenching the more he looked at her. "Say no more, I will go make myself scarce. You two have fun."
"See you tomorrow?"
Stefan nodded and hummed and let her leave after a short kiss to her forehead, leaving the girl even more flustered with a ridiculously wide smile on her face.
The two of them watched her disappear into the house, basically on cloud nine in a way that Nova had only seen a handful of times in all the time of knowing her. She inhaled and exhaled, hating herself a little when she thought about having to break that bubble of happiness.
Not wasting time lest Elena question why she wasn't following behind her, she closed the door again with a gentle hand this time before turning to face him.
"Is everything okay?" Stefan immediately wanted to know, clocking the tense way she held herself for a moment.
"Damon still around?" She ignored his question to ask, but she figured the answer to that question by the simple fact that Stefan would still be hanging around Elena like a lemur does a tree if his brother was around.
Regardless, she was pleased by his short nod in confirmation. She could handle them just fine separately, together though? They quickly became unbearable and suffocating.
"About him.. I wanna apologize for his—"
She watched him flinch instead of finishing that useless apology, holding his head with a pained grimace. Each time he opened his mouth, only for his pain to worsen until he struggled to stay on his feet let alone speak.
Cold air scattered leaves around them, sending a strong unpleasant chill down her spine but not strong enough to break her concentration. She was better than that, had to be.
It didn't take long for him to put two and two together, who else could be the cause of this unbearable pain that a vampire shouldn't be capable of feeling?
Magic flowed from her as easily as breathing, her anger at his words fueling the spell until he had to close his eyes at the magnitude of power washing over him. It was a simple spell, and yet very effective.
Using her magic to harm others didn't fill her with a sense of dark pleasure or truly anything other than a settled reassurance that she could in fact handle herself.
His body became unsteady, his feet stumbling backwards as he tried to get away from her but only succeeded in dropping to the porch with an audible thud. By the time she stopped popping his brain much like the popcorn she could smell wafting from cracked windows, all he was capable of doing was breathing and allowing his body to slowly heal, loud echoes of the pain making his hands twitch.
"I want you to listen to me very carefully, because I'm not going to say this ever again," she whispered to him, knowing he could hear her regardless. She only continued speaking when his viciously vampiric eyes met hers, pain the only emotion she could decipher from his face. She wondered what he saw on her face—the apathy to his pain, the determination that filled her or maybe in this moment of vulnerability, he only saw prey that dared to be anything other than food.
None of it mattered, she supposed, this was a much needed warning shot.
"This family? Elena? I know that you care about her, hell you might even be falling in love with her. I don't care. Not when I know the things that I know, ripper. I don't care how hungry you get, starve until you desiccate for all I care because if a single thing happens to any of the people I love because you couldn't control yourself.. I will build myself into a monster that you could only ever dream of becoming, tearing into you and all you love until you beg me to stop even though you know the only mercy I will show you is death."
She honestly didn't expect her speech to do anything meaningful, like get it through his dumb fuck brain and make it stick the next time he fell off the wagon, and that wasn't the point of it anyway. She knew that most vampires were arrogant at best, dumb as a brick at worst; the Salvatores had not only the stupidity and arrogance but the impulsiveness to forget about her warnings.
This was her trying to be kind, even when it was doubtless that they didn't deserve it.
Nova watched impassively as he stood on unsteady feet, understanding dawning on his features the more his mind healed from the merciless onslaught of pain that had sent him to his knees.
"You know." Stefan said, watching her in a way unfamiliar to her.
Her lips twitched, whether into a frown or smile not even she knew when apathy took hold of her once again. "That you're a ticking time bomb most of the time? Yes. There isn't much that I don't know. Your brother's hints weren't needed, though a much appreciated reminder," she said, tilting her head and trying to decipher the different way that he looked at her.
Stefan's jaw clenched and shame bled onto his features, concealing his vampiric features behind his human facade. "You have no reason to trust me, I know. Believe me. I get it. But I need you to know that I would never hurt her. I want to protect her. Don't you see that us fighting is exactly what my brother—"
Nova disregarded the rest of his words once his brother came back into conversation, brown eyes dissecting his body language rather than the bullshit spewing from his mouth. His obvious attempts at smoothing things over aside, his feet did not attempt to close the small distance between them.
Ah, that's what it was, she mused, realizing belatedly that he was viewing her as someone to be guarded around. She was a threat that could not be easily subdued, no longer a crying girl in the middle of a forest but someone that could shine light on his darkest secrets and ruin his delusions of ever going back to being a human by falling in love with a kinder echo of his past.
She was honestly just glad that her threats had been taken seriously, it would have been very embarrassing if he had instead laughed at her. She would rather "accidentally" murder Elena's boyfriend than deal with the humiliation of that scenario.
"Damon is a big boy, don't bother apologizing for his bullshit ever again. It's embarrassing for both of you. Thankfully, I'm not naive enough to ever trust him. He has been fed and temporarily leashed," she dismissed his worries, cutting him off before he spoke again. "Those that are mine are protected and the moment either of you forgets that..."
Stefan could only respond silently with a respectful tilt of his head, he turned to leave, clearly aware of the end of the conversation but he paused on the last step and turned around. "..why are you so sure that Damon will do as you ask?"
Eh, she supposed she could throw the poor schmuck a bone, if only to pay back the elder Salvatore for being such a delightful guest. He could deal with his pestering younger brother in return for ruining her night.
"Forget about Elena for a moment. Why don't you ask him why he needs a witch? A Bennett one at that."
He drifted off somewhere for a moment, trying to put together a puzzle without all of its pieces. He looked almost afraid of what the answer to that could be, but more tired than anything else.
"Goodnight, Stefan," she said, staring at him until he got the hint.
"Goodnight, Nova," he said, thankfully too distracted by his own thoughts to question why she was so eager to be rid of him.
Nova could only hope that his Damon related issues would keep him from lurking around. Considering how obsessed they were with each other, it was almost guaranteed. Her eyes tracked him with narrowed eyes, watching him until she could no longer see his figure nor feel the familiar chill of death that radiated around vampires.
Nova reached into her pockets and pulled out the black marker she had stolen from Jeremy's room. Wasn't like he was actually using them anyway, with his drawing pad hidden underneath piles of laundry. She ignored how upset that actually made her, pushing back the memories of them drawing on skin and walls when they ran out of room on their sketch pads.
Cap in her mouth, she drew her attention focused on the ground. Lifting up the floral welcome mat, she kneeled down and drew on the back of it, stubbornly pressing down when ink refused to work. Looking down at her shoddy work, she examined the symbol for air and could only hope it would work.
Briefly closing her brown eyes, she placed her hands on the simple symbol and started the chant she had crammed into the corners of her mind. "Tutas hi," she muttered a quiet "shit," underneath her breath again and started once more. "Tutus hic.. ab noxa. Nolite loqui malum, non videas malum, non audias malum. Tutus hic ab noxa."
Imbuing magic onto items was her thing, picking things apart and putting them back together until it was powerful and hers was something she enjoyed no matter how tedious or exhausting.
Her magic burned inside of her, a comforting presence that began to slowly drip down her fingertips like warm honey and weaving itself into the very fabric of the mat. She inhaled fresh air that threatened to overwhelm her lungs and exhaled until her shoulders relaxed and the last of the spell made a tiny little knot that tethered her magic to the magic she had let sink into the welcoming mat of the Gilberts home.
Standing up slowly and trying not to tip over as she did so, she swallowed the odd feeling of being magically tied to an inanimate object and breathed in and out again until the string of magic became background noise in the warm haze of her magic.
She was officially the Gilbert's unofficial security system, next on her list was the Forbes; the moment any of those fucks crossed the welcome mat with ill intent, the spell would force them away through any means necessary and most importantly she would feel it. It wasn't a full proof plan by any means, a lot could go wrong and she could think of at least three different ways to bypass the spell without magic. What it was however, was a stepping stone until she could find other small ways to protect the people she loved.
Bigger spells were fine and all, but it took a lot of energy and yet the sacrifice of another witch could undo it all in a moment. Smaller spells underneath a flashier spell were her way of making sure whatever she did didn't draw attention until it was too late for them to do anything about it.
The next step in keeping her friends safe was simple, and yet scarier than any spell.
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Nova slipped back into the house, very much aware of the warm weight of magic that regarded her the moment her feet touched the welcome mat. She only relaxed her shoulders once the door was closed, sighing softly and kicking off her boots by the door. Her nervousness shedded with each step she took towards the sound of laughter she could hear coming from the living room.
She untied her hair from the tight bun she had tortured her temples with, walking towards the sound with eager steps that made them look up at her.
Caroline turned towards her with an excited grin, lifting the disgusting alcohol that their uninvited guest had oh so graciously left for them in one hand and a pillow in another. "C'mon slow poke," she said, throwing the pillow and giggling drunkenly when the pillow smacked her in the face before she caught it.
"Who decided the lightweight should be handed the strong stuff?" Nova teased, nudging her way through the excess of blankets and pillows laid on the floor where the coffee table had previously sat, now pushed off to the side to make room for sleepover purposes. She settled between the drunk and her twin, curling herself up beneath two blankets.
"You try prying it away from her," Bonnie replied dryly, nearly smacking her in the face when she passed the popcorn over to her.
"Just try to hide it before Jenna gets home," Elena reminded them with a sigh when she caught the blonde passing the bottle around like a joint.
Caroline replied with a mocking salute that turned into panic when she heard someone struggling to open the front door with their key. Needless to say, the bottle was hidden underneath their blankets and the blonde was quick to keep her mouth full of popcorn when Jenna decided to join them for their movie night.
Jenna sighed, happily ditching the half-cold takeout for reheated lasagna, eyeing the suspiciously quiet blonde that was trying very hard to hide from her gaze. "You should've called me, I wouldn't have bought Chinese if I had known Nova was the one cooking. No offense Elena." She curled back up on the couch with a glass of white wine and her food.
"Some taken," Elena mumbled underneath her breath, throwing an amused look her aunt's way before going back to rifling through the movie options.
Nova had rented a few options out at the grocery store while waiting for Jeremy to finish putting the groceries in the trunk of her car. There were at least two good options that she remembered liking vaguely enough in her last life, the others were chosen because they sounded horrible enough to be a good laugh.
Of course, Elena being Elena, chose the absolute saddest option without even realizing it. "Aw. Let's try this one, it looks cute," pressing play on the dvd player and not noticing the immediate fall of Nova's face when she cut the lights and joined them on the floor.
It was her own damn fault for picking Pixar's Up anyway, she thought, suddenly regretting not getting drunk or picking anything other than the sad old man movie.
Nova tried to hide her tears, very badly for that matter, and the rest of them could try even pretend that they weren't fucking bawling their eyes out. Popcorn laid abandoned between them, all but forgotten in favor of trying to keep their eyes dry.
"I don't want your help. I want you safe!"
Nova peaked over at her best friends, a rueful smile on her face. She was a goddamn idiot if she thought her sister and friends would even let her walk this universe alone. As if summoned by her gaze, Caroline looked over, sober enough by now to notice the funny little look on her face but not clear headed enough to know what it meant.
"You okay?" She whispered, trying not to interrupt the others watching the movie despite them all being so closely huddled together in their sadness.
Nova nodded and hummed in agreement, letting her head fall onto her shoulder and smiling when the blonde wrapped her arm around her shoulders in response.
Sad movie aside, she couldn't imagine this night could be any better.
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She took it back.
Fuck this night, when would it end?
Why won't it end?
Jenna had retired to her room for the night, claiming aching joints that refused to join them sleeping on the living room floor. She had found the booze that had been badly hidden by a very drunk blonde, and had taken it upstairs with her without a word but an all too knowing look in her eyes that no one dared to question.
All the teenagers knew that there would be questions later, like where they got it. It wasn't liquor that Duke or a cheap fake ID could supply them with, it wasn't even that special brand of semi-wealthy shit that Tyler stole from his parents.
Jenna wasn't one to be naive enough to think they wouldn't try to drink, smoke, have sex or really do anything temptingly reckless. She just also couldn't turn a blind eye to them, not when she wasn't a young and reckless girl anymore. And definitely not when she was worried about being a good guardian.
Morning would come with a hell of interrogation, or an intervention if the situation called for it.
That wasn't what had ruined her night though, her brown eyes trailed towards her little sister who had been a pain in the ass all night.
The girls were gossiping idly, too keyed up from being in each other's presence to think about sleeping despite the late hour and it still being a school night.
Nova had decided it was the perfect time to bring up the fact that they were fucking Twitches, there was no time to delay this reveal any longer, not when they had bigger things to worry about.
Bonnie had caught on to what she was trying to do and decided to block her every move.
Every time she opened her mouth to say something, her sister, in all of her scary intuition, interrupted her with the grace of someone who knew how to redirect conversations. She knew exactly what to say to get their friends distracted, spiraling into conversation that went on for ages.
Nova aggressively filed down her nails, the green facial mask that made her face feel like stone doing nothing to calm her or make her look approachable. She had thought they had agreed to this, that it was best to tell them everything as soon as possible so that their friends didn't get a rude awakening to the truth of this world. So what the fuck was she missing?
As if to test the tight grip that was on her leash, she turned to Bonnie and opened her mouth mockingly wide, sticking out her tongue with an eye roll when her twin interrupted her once again.
"Can you believe that Tiki and Rose had the guts to cut me off when I was speaking? Messy bitches didn't even give me time to breathe." Bonnie said, wiggling her toes to see them sparkle in the light.
"I wonder what that's like," she mumbled, rolling her eyes and flipping open her phone when it vibrated.
She half listened to her friends complain about their fellow cheerleaders, as though they hadn't and couldn't be just as horrible. Resting her chin on her knee, she ignored the smear of green now on her panda pajama pants.
{smalltown asshole} Couldn't keep your pretty mouth shut, could you?
Nova pouted said lips, disappointed it wasn't someone, anything, else texting her at two am. Of course it had to be Damon. The text still made her smile, amused that her plan to annoy him with his brother had worked so well that he apparently had tried calling her four times before he settled for texts.
awwe u think my lips are pretty
thank u
ik im tempting as Aphrodite but try not to stare too much ;)
She bit her lip to keep herself from laughing out loud at the immediate response, her eyes nearly gleaming with mischievous delight. Occasionally, it was funny interacting with vampires…in the way it was fun jumping off a building with a dubious parachute.
{smalltown asshole}
Tempting as a shot of poison, maybe.
Get some rest, temptress. We have things 2 do tomorrow.
Nova scratched her head, trying to suss out what the hell he was up to and why she had to get roped into things. He was only interested in Katherine, and messing with his brother, so it had to be something related to them. But why bring her into things? Just because she swore to help him get into his precious Tomb, did not mean that she was available as a witch help hotline whenever his undead heart wanted it.
ah, no
this temptress has school and a ball game to pretend to care about
but good luck w being the town nuisance by urself⊹˚.
She stared at her phone, zoning out and nearly falling asleep waiting for a response that came back after a suspicious amount of time compared to the other texts he had sent to her.
I'll pay you.
Ah, damn, he knew the way to her heart already.
okay :D pick me up Gilberts b4 school starts
i expect breakfast too, waffles and caramel latte
xoxo
Her cheeks lifted the clay mask until little dry flakes dropped onto her half polished hands, manic giggles left her mouth drawing the attention of her friends.
"What's so funny?" Caroline paused in her rubbing an unneeded amount of skin cream on her face, blonde head filled with rollers turning towards the sound of unhinged laughter. She eyed her with inquisitive blue eyes that were quickly sobering up with every sip of water that all of them had forced her to take. The last thing either of them wanted to deal with in the morning was a hungover Caroline and a pissed off Jenna.
Nova flipped her phone closed, a secretive little smile on her face as she stuffed her phone back in the pocket of her shorts. "Me," came her easy answer, getting eye rolls all around in response. "I'm hilarious. And fucking hungry. I need a snack. C'mon Bon, we're gonna go get some snacks."
She didn't give her sister much of a choice, pulling her by the arm out of the living room until her sister had no choice but to get up along with her unless she wanted to lose an arm.
"Alright, alright. I'll help. You don't have to–" Bonnie's words were quickly cut off by the glare on her twin sister's face that was thrown her way the moment they entered the kitchen.
Nova's eyes were aflame with frustration that was accompanied by her opening and slamming drawers in search of a spoon.
"I thought tonight we agreed we couldn't keep them out of the loop anymore." She gestured wildly towards the living room where their friends waited. "That they would find out eventually and it was time to tell them before they get caught unaware in this shitshow."
Bonnie opened the right drawer without second guessing herself, regardless of the fact that she didn't cook much at home let alone at the Gilberts. There was very little doubt that her intuition was incredible as it was a nuisance.
She pouted and snatched the spoon out of her sister's hand, pulling the mint chocolate chip ice cream out the freezer in a overdramatic huff.
"Elena smiled tonight. She even laughed, she hasn't laughed like that since.." The accident, they both thought but couldn't put it in words. "I just… Are we sure this is the right time to tell them?"
Bonnie was so earnest in her response, with her expressive features and mournful hazel eyes. Her sister's reasoning was almost enough to convince her to agree, to let it slide back on the shelf for another night.
"Tell us what?"
Almost being the keyword.
Elena slipped in the kitchen, suspicions raised and reaffirmed when her best friend avoided looking at her, embarrassingly guilty looking. "Tell us what," she repeated, aiming her attention towards the only person who met her gaze.
Bonnie looked towards her older and wiser sister instead and sighed at the look she got in response. In simplest of words, it said, 'You dun fucked up, you see what you did?' mixed with a heavy side dish of, 'I fucking told you.'
Elena being happy about a boy wasn't enough, not with the possibility of her being used and drained of blood hanging over their heads. Elena and Caroline's survival had to come first, before any fleeting happiness. And with the right information they could not only survive but thrive in this new world. She couldn't afford to screw up with her best friend's lives, not like she did with Miranda and Grayson.
"Let's uh, let me take this off my face before I turn into stone. And let's take this back in the living room to thaw," Nova replied when her sister remained silent, wildly waving the carton of ice cream. "Trust me, we're gonna need it."
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Fingers laced together, breaths deep and calming in the same synchronized rhythm of their magic.
The past argument long forgotten, nerves became insignificant and the questioning of their friends was all but background noise. Inner turmoil had no place here, with her sister sitting by her side and magic wrapping around them in an welcoming embrace.
With one simple word in mind, she willed it to be true.
Float.
She opened her eyes and met those of her best friends, their attention captured by the small storm of feathers they were caught in.
Nova had more complicated spells that had come to mind when she thought of this reveal. And most of them were a helluva lot more fancy but… when the time came, she had torn into pillowcases with the simplest of magics in mind.
Even with her and Caroline in a moment they were previously never supposed to witness, this scene that played out before her was achingly familiar. It filled her with such bittersweet nostalgia that she could only feel comforted by the small spectacle.
Lips curled and tense fingers relaxed in each other's hold as disbelief grew into childlike amazement. Feathers teasingly brushed against the tip of her nose, pulling giggles from Caroline's lips and gently breaking the awed silence their magic invoked.
Nova couldn't help but smile at the sound, her voice serene in spite of the nerves that threatened to shatter this perfect moment. "So.. all those jokes about us being Twitches?" She watched, amused by Elena testing to see if there were hidden strings fooling their perception, only to come empty.
"They were never jokes," Bonnie finished for her, their hands intertwined less for magical purposes and more so for moral purposes. They'd been nervous wrecks over this moment for years, it was no wonder they clung to each other like buoys.
"We're witches."
Elena let out a soft exhale, her amazement never slipping away from her face. "I believe you," she said, surrounded by feathers brushing across her skin.
Caroline looked over at them, stars in her eyes and childlike happiness flushing her cheeks. There were no reprimands for keeping secrets, and no demands spilled from eager lips. Just happiness, the kind that was unfiltered and had scarcely been seen since the glamor of childhood imagination had been doused.
Magic had been introduced and taken away in the span of a handful of years, kept only in books and dreams for the longest of times. And here they were, unraveling a veiled world and reintroducing them to magic once more in an undeniable way.
And Nova… Well, it went without saying that she would burn the world down to nothing but ashes and dust just to keep Caroline smiling like that.
There was a creaking noise, barely noticeable but sharp enough to break the twins concentration. With keeping their magic secret as ingrained as it was in their minds, their magic dissipated faster than it had been summoned.
Slowly fallen feathers succumbed to the earth's natural gravity, the only clue left that something had happened.
Her brown eyes shifted around to find the source of the noise, only for all of them to flinch back at the sound of a thumping sound hitting a nearby window.
Fucking birds, she thought, just barely catching sight of black wings.
Tensions bled out at the comical sight, causing giggles to spring forth from her friends mouths. Feathers displacing once more as they collapsed against the remainers of their pillows.
Nova smiled brightly, relaxing at the sound and bumping her shoulder with her younger sister's until she couldn't help but smile as well. Hazel eyes practically sparkling with happiness, a weight lifted from her shoulders.
Yeah, things weren't perfect, could never be perfect… She slowly came to terms that perfection was overrated, that as long as she had them with her along for the ride.
Eugh, she was unbelievably cheesy.
