Hi there XD I think I made pretty good use of that "Slow Updates" tag huh? (FFdotnet edit: y'all don't have tags but still) Sorry 'bout that. Hopefully some people are still interested in this. Anyway, I'll try to at least post once a month, that should be doable... right?
October 3rd, 2009
It speaks to his commitment to Bonnie that Stiles rings the doorbell of her grandmother's house at exactly eight a.m. and not a minute later, grinning when his friend opens it and immediately launches herself into his arms.
"What's this for?" Stiles asks with a chuckle even as he winds his arms around her. "Not that I'm complaining about the warm welcome."
"Stiles," she starts in a mock serious tone, stepping back. "I've been meditating for hours every day, and you've brought me an actual spellbook!"
"You're welcome," he smirks, and she proceeds to pull him in by the arm, right toward the kitchen.
"Good to see you, Stiles," Grams – as Bonnie's grandmother Sheila has insisted he calls her since he started visiting – greets him as she places three teacups on the kitchen table, "You look tired, honey."
"Late night researching," Stiles justifies it with a sheepish grin. It's technically true, even if the research was on why the hell the wolfsbane didn't hurt him. Depending on the day's results, he may chalk it up to it being the wrong strain, but that's only if the books don't end up being the real deal. He did look them over with his meager French and they look real enough.
"Did you at least do the chemistry reading?" Bonnie asks as they each grab a seat at the table, Stiles dropping his backpack on the empty chair to his left.
Stiles scoffs, "No."
"I thought you liked to read?" Grams asks, pouring the tea. She's using the old kettle that always makes Stiles want to buy her an electric one for her birthday, but she insists some things are better done the old-fashioned way. Stiles graciously refrains from arguing for the sake of avoiding a headache.
"Oh, I love reading," Stiles replies, "which is why I spent last night reading the two books I got for Cinnabon here, or at least what I could with the little French I know and a dictionary."
Grams chuckles but Bonnie looks immediately excited, "Books plural? For me?"
Stiles just stares at her, "Duh? I'm not a witch, what am I supposed to do with spellbooks?"
Grams pauses just as she's mixing a third spoon of sugar into her tea, the heathen. "Spellbooks?" She repeats, and her tone is something between curiosity and disbelief.
"Yep," Stiles grins, "Turns out even witches need some extra cash, I guess."
"Let's see it then," Bonnie requests, trying and failing to reign in her excitement.
Stiles chuckles and stalls by taking a sip of the tea, some herbal blend he can't identify but tastes appropriate for the fall season. She glares at him, making him laugh and cave to turning toward his backpack and opening it, pulling out the two books and placing them in the center of the table. "They're in French," he warns, "but were the most legit-looking ones." In two different extremes, just to be sure. One ancient-looking and one seemingly fresh off the nearest bookstore, culinary aisle.
Bonnie ignores her tea in order to pick up the smaller one, frowning at the cover before reading the preface and snorting. Grams, on the other hand, stays silent as she picks up the thicker, old-looking book and starts leafing through it, brows rising slightly at every passing page.
"Well, aren't you full of surprises," She fixes Stiles with a considering look, "Where did you get these?"
"Online store," Stile shrugs, "bit out of the way, in a second page of Google kinda way, but looked real enough. I figured Bonbon needs all the help she can get."
"Online store," Grams scoffs, "I can't believe it. The spells are legitimate, at least these ones are."
"Hey, just because you only go near a computer to answer emails from your occult class doesn't mean other witches aren't taking advantage of the wonder of online sales," Stiles jokes, earning a mock glare. "I do have a question though, I thought spells would be in Latin?"
"Some are," Grams replies, bringing their attention fully to her as she seems to enter what Stiles calls lecture mode. "And some are in French, German, Old English, Norse, Greek, Polish," she adds with a small nod to Stiles, "old languages are more common than newer ones, especially in established covens or certain bloodlines, but newer languages can also be used. It's all about establishing patterns and repetition, imbuing them with intent. Some spells are so often used they hardly need to be spoken."
"Like lighting a fire," Stiles points out, remembering how Bonnie's magic had done it just because of her emotions.
"Exactly," Grams nods, "and some can be cast wordlessly after some practice. Rituals, on the other hand, must always be spoken. Too many moving parts to leave anything to chance unless it's one's own creation, but we won't be discussing those yet," she warns Bonnie, who looks slightly disappointed but nods.
"Wait, wait," Stiles blurts out suddenly as a thought strikes him, "so magic spells and rituals are real, I got that. What about tarot? 'Cause I remember you reading my cards before."
Grams seems nothing but amused, "Rituals can technically be anything, even the right set of cards being touched by someone. Palm reading, on the other hand, takes a certain affinity of the empathetic kind, or being really good at people-reading."
"How do you know that?" Bonnie asks, "There's nothing in your occult class about it, is there?"
"Darling, don't you think I've asked all these questions and more to my mother?" Grams shakes her head, "I told you, we come from a very long line of witches, this knowledge has been passed down for longer than this city's been standing."
"Awesome," Stiles can't help but mutter, apparently not quietly enough since Grams turns a sharp look his way.
"Magic is not all fun and games," she adds in a warning tone, "it's a responsibility, to nature and to oneself. You must never forget that," she adds once her eyes turn back to Bonnie. His friend nods in understanding, and Stiles is quick to copy her lest he wants to be kicked out of the witchy crash course. "Now," Grams starts more lightly, letting the seriousness fall to the background, "why don't we finish our tea and take this to the living room?"
They both put the books aside and focus back on the tea and catching up, asking about their time at school and being informed that Stiles is less swamped now that History is a self-study period and he can do half his homework during it and that Bonnie is having some issues with Tiki that turn Cheer into a magical nightmare, some of which Stiles hadn't actually noticed. He suggests knocking her out before practice – there's got to be a sleeping spell somewhere – to avoid the headache, but their unamused looks tell him his suggestion wasn't well-received.
Once in the living room, Grams insists on looking over the contents of both books before allowing Bonnie anywhere close to an untried spell. Stiles then spends the next hour trying his best to meditate with Bonnie – and failing miserably due to his complete inability to sit still for more than five minutes without having something to focus on – while Grams takes a more detailed look at Manuscrits Malveillants only to conclude that there's nothing in it that Bonnie is ready for or needs to know at the moment and demand Stiles takes it back with him so as not to tempt her granddaughter.
Ne Brûle Pas does get a green light, as long as Bonnie only practices in front of Grams, and she's quickly given a spell to start with, "This is fairly common, it used to require fire and a twig of sage but nowadays a simple candle will do, though it helps to be sage scented. For as long as the wick burns, a sealed room will be completely soundproof."
It takes some trial and error once Grams brings them into the guest bedroom and pulls out some candles, mostly a lot of Stiles standing just outside the door and telling them whether he can hear them or not, but it's worth it for the bright smile Bonnie gives him when he informs her that he couldn't hear a peep. She gets to try a couple more spells, simple levitation ones and a lot of candle lighting and extinguishing, while Stiles ends up chatting with Grams as they observe.
Now that he's finally in on the Bennett family secret, she doesn't seem to mind the dozens of questions pouring out of Stiles' mouth as they occur to him, some he's been wondering about for a while – can you magic up money? The answer is yes to the paper notes but it's way too complicated to be worth the effort and no to precious metals like gold and silver – and some that come up as they watch Bonnie try and levitate a couple of ripped-up pieces of paper – like is there such a thing as doing too much magic? Apparently yes, it's called magical exhaustion and it can be as lethal as magical backlash, which is another concept Stiles insists be explained to him. Unfortunately, not all of his questions can be answered – Grams doesn't know if there's a spell for making phones crash-proof and isn't in a hurry to find out – and some apparently shouldn't be, according to Grams – witches maintain the balance, bringing back the dead goes entirely against it.
Stiles considers asking about locator spells, curious about whether or not they may be able to tell him where Damon is, but it's not as if he can just jump on his jeep and go find him if he gets a location anyway. It's probably silly, some random teenager worried about the mostly immortal vampire, and while there's been some invasion of privacy on Damon's part – somehow entering his bedroom uninvited to drop off the new phone? – it might not be welcome for Stiles to return it by tracking the man down when he clearly doesn't want to be found. This isn't a mystery for him to solve, and he should leave it at that.
It's not long before Bonnie needs a bit of a break, and Grams takes the opportunity to head to the kitchen, intent on making them lunch instead of ordering in, though in their defense Stiles would also be tired of takeout given they've lived in Mystic Falls their whole lives and there are very limited options. He even offers to help in the kitchen, but is shooed away to the living room couch and ordered to keep Bonnie company. They're discussing what other items Stiles had seen offered at Le Mirage when a thought occurs to him.
"Are you telling Caroline?" He blurts out, offering a sheepish smile at the interruption.
"I'm-" Bonnie hesitates, looking away from him and toward the kitchen, "not sure, yet."
"I'm telling her about vampires as soon as the vervain stuff arrives," Stiles tells her since it's only polite to give her some warning. "But this is all you, Bonbon. I know she can be a bit much, but- I mean, so can I, right? Doesn't mean we'll go spreading it around."
"Stiles," she's got that soft, slightly exasperated tone he hasn't heard in a while and a small smile pulling at her lips as she looks back at him, "You're not much, you're just enough. It's just… Grams says people shouldn't know about it, and you and Care aren't just people but-"
The sound of a throat clearing startles them into looking over at the door of the kitchen, where Bonnie's grandma is leaning on the wall with her arms crossed, a wooden spoon in hand. "I only say that to keep you safe, it's what I'm here for, but it's still your choice in the end."
"I know," Bonnie sighs, but still casts a dejected look toward the spellbook she'd been practicing with.
Grams seems to realize the issue, at least faster than Stiles does, because her voice softens as she continues. "Honey, I don't have to approve of your every action to keep helping you, that's not how this family works."
It's clearly the right thing to say, given Bonnie's lips immediately stretch into a grateful smile. "Thanks, Grams." She says just as her grandma nods and goes back into the kitchen.
Stiles absently wonders if there's some sort of eavesdropping spell in the living room since she shouldn't have heard them from so far away, but knows better than to ask. It's her house, after all.
"Can I think about it?" Bonnie ends up asking, and Stiles just nods in response. "Are you telling anyone else?"
Stiles pauses for a moment in thought, wondering if he should also tell Aunt Liz, but there's a niggling feeling in the back of his mind that makes him think he should wait on that. "I don't think so, not yet," he admits, then remembers- "uh, Jeremy kind of already knows most of the parts that don't involve you."
"You told Elena's baby brother?" She exclaims incredulously, "I know you've been hanging out lately but- really?"
"Hey, you try busting a punching bag in front of someone and convincing them it's nothing," he replies with a narrow-eyed look, "and he needs to know how to protect himself anyway, there's only good vampires around for now, as far as we know, but that's not gonna last forever."
"That's true. I guess if her little brother knows, Elena should too," Bonnie adds pensively.
"She already does," Stiles is quick to inform her. "She found out on Thursday, but I'll let her tell you about that if she feels like it."
"Oh," his friend huffs out, seeming both surprised and disappointed. Stiles wonders if Elena will even tell her if Bonnie doesn't take the initiative of bringing up her magic first. "Anyway, what about other stores, didn't you buy some books on our shopping trip?"
"I'm still waiting to figure out if one of them is the real deal, it's pretty much just a herb catalog," Stiles shrugs. "I didn't find anything else closer to the city. You already said the public library was a bust, and I've read most witch-related books in the Salvatore library already, so we're probably stuck buying online."
"What?" She gapes at him, "You've been looking for that long?"
"Duh," he rolls his eyes, "I wanted to help you, that's what friends do, right?"
Stiles doesn't mean for some insecurity to creep into his tone, it's not like him to doubt his friends, but lately Scott's barely let him get a word edgewise, Elena outright accused him of being some sort of predator just for having danced with Damon at the party, and Damon just up and left without a word, so what if-
His internal spiral is timely interrupted by Bonnie launching herself at him, and it's probably thanks to his supernatural constitution that the strength of her arms around his neck doesn't make him suffocate, "You're one of my best friends, you idiot. You'd still be even if you didn't read through whole libraries for me and bought me books," she firmly informs him.
"Good- good to know, Cinnabon," He huffs out a relieved chuckle, glad that at least this isn't about to change.
Bonnie seems to to decide he makes for a pretty good pillow because she only ends the hug in order to turn around and lay back on his chest instead like they usually do on movie nights, though most of the time she and Caroline seem to compete over who takes up the most space.
"Think you can magic the remote over here?" he asks after realizing it's still by the TV and nowhere near the couch.
"Don't even think about it!" Grams yells from the kitchen, startling them. Definitely some eavesdropping spell.
Stiles trades a look with Bonnie and they both try to muffle their laughter before he just grabs his phone out of his pocket to watch something on YouTube instead. Bonnie snatches it before he's even able to open the app.
"This is the new phone? Damn, where'd you get the money for it?" Her tone turns teasing as she adds, "Anything you wanna share, Stiles?"
Stiles throws his head back with a groan, "Not this again."
I'm losing track of who knows what, I need a list lol.
We'll be seeing more spells from the "Don't Burn" book soon I think, I have a few in mind already.
On a different note, did anyone notice Stiles and Sheila never touched? :)