Author's note: Hi, everyone! Aaahh, so psyched for the beautiful feedback on this story! I'm sorry it's been a minute since I've updated. I wanted to plot a relatively complex sequence of events, and I needed to make sure they're all straight in my head first, before I dive in.
But then I thought "what fun would that be," and decided to dive in, anyway! Sometimes we discover more on the journey, itself, right? :D
"At least she's human now," Elena grumbled, walking into the Salvatore Boarding House. She threw the keys in her hands at the wall with potentially more force than strictly necessary, though entirely too little to create a crack. It was emotional roller coaster weekend, she silently surmised.
"She thinks she can find Stefan," Damon shrugged, unable to resist picking up the keys Elena threw to place them on their proper hook. "I'd be remiss if I didn't at least let her try. All my leads have come up empty so far."
"Such a neat freak," she affectionately shook her head. "Even now."
"Yeah, just because I understand the concept of organization and open spaces. I've seen what your closet looks like, Elena. If I so much as breathe on it, that whole unstable mountain of clutter might actually avalanche."
"I'm a creative and an aspiring medical scientist," Elena pressed her hand against her chest in exaggerated mock-importance. "I need my organized mess."
"Between you and Stefan, I don't know who's worse. You're both frustrating in completely different ways. At least he keeps his gargantuan collection of too-much-stuff neatly arranged, probably ordered by how sad or guilty each makes him feel," he mocked, taking off his shoes and sorting them, though there was an edge to his voice that made Elena pause.
"You miss him," Elena deduced, moving to follow him into the living room.
"Shoes. Off. Now. I'm not letting you get any of that Whitmore nastiness on my rug," Damon pointed to the offending articles. "I've been on enough college campuses to know that every square inch of the ground is probably covered with something questionable."
"Okay, Sophie," Elena complied with a cackle under her breath, taking off her booties and making a grand show of placing them on the shoe rack by the door.
"Did you know I've actually caught Stefan asleep with his shoes on?" Damon pointedly continued as though Elena didn't just compare him to a Ghibli Studio housekeeper-slash-love-interest, but he was unable to hide the slight upward turn of his lips. "I don't know if he does that as yet another form of self-flagellation or to annoy me, but it's working."
"Maybe all your couch surfaces came together and conspired to keep him away," Elena suggested, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him in for a soft kiss.
"I can't say I blame them," he murmured against her lips, before letting them trail down her neck in a string of heated kisses. "What he does is tantamount to abuse."
"So brave of you to protect all those poor and defenseless textiles, Damon," she laughed into her gasp.
"It's not enough for him to terrify all the forest creatures," Damon continued his trail of kisses down to her collarbones, fully aware of the effect they had on her. "Now he has to go after innocent furniture, as well."
"Such a hero," Elena managed, mentally praising herself for keeping her voice so steady while her hands fisted into his shirt.
"I do what I can," he moved back up to breathe against her lips, before pressing her entire body flush against his and delivering a passionate kiss.
"Can you please take this elsewhere before I die from projectile vomiting?" And just like that, the spell was broken as a voice with a distinctly similar timbre to Elena's, though with considerably more venom and steel, boomed across the living space.
"Katherine," her doppelgänger replied with embellished faux sweetness. "Please tell me that's a promise – just try not to do it on Damon's precious rug."
"It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make," Damon remarked flippantly, then narrowed his eyes. "Why are you here and not looking for Stefan?"
"I don't have to explain my methods to you, Damon," Katherine crossed her arms over her chest, her voice the definition of nonchalance.
"You do if you're staying here," he insisted.
"Maybe I'm done with staying in this overrated, ghost-town bed-and-breakfast," she shot back airily.
"I'm going up to our room to unpack," Elena suddenly announced, pointedly turning her back to Katherine in a snubbing manner, hoping to distract Damon from what appeared to be yet another row with their resident femme fatale. "Help me?"
Damon's eyes softened a fraction, though a distinct tightness around his smile remained. "I'll be up with you in a minute." Elena lingered for a few seconds more, searching his gaze until he nodded reassuringly at her to go. Returning the gesture, though admittedly a bit disappointed, she made her way upstairs. Katherine still had entirely too much power to rile him up.
Damon waited until her heard the door shut before speaking. "You're hiding something," he observed, tilting his head to the side, scrutinizing her.
"And so are you, apparently," Katherine's eyebrows shot up in defiance. "Don't want my feather-soft lesser-twin to overhear? Oh my, Damon. What illicit secrets are we about to discuss?"
Jeremy gazed about the abandoned house in panic, instinctively launching toward the windows to seek a way out. Everything was firmly shut. He was undoubtedly trapped in the house.
"What the hell? Why did you lock me in here? Do you not want me to save my sister? Is this because she's a vampire?" This coming on the heels of his apology to the witches on behalf of his ancestors made him wonder if this was perhaps some kind of belated, supernatural revenge – especially given their famous animosity toward the undead. As his quite visible anger began to build, Bonnie suddenly felt the shift in the air – the increased wind current within the house. It was puzzling and felt familiar.
"They want you to investigate the lead, Jer," she suddenly realized.
"How am I supposed to do that?" He finally turned to face her, fear and anger fighting for dominance to create what purported to be an explosive cocktail.
A compartment of a scorched wall unit suddenly shot open, revealing three candles, matches, and some incense. Jeremy approached it cautiously, casting a sideways glance at his ghostly interlocutor. "What am I supposed to do with these?"
She studied the contents, moving to pick them up by instinct, until she was dismayed yet again to see her ethereal hands pass right through the candle she aimed to study. "They want you to cast a Zoning spell, I think. It coats the area in magical energy, allowing you to access the astral plane."
"The what?" Jeremy temporarily halted the raging emotions within to be replaced by sheer confusion.
"It's an extra-dimensional plane of existence where spirits can talk to each other," Bonnie explained. "It's going to take some time for the incense to travel the expanse of the house."
"So, what do we do then? You said Elena's in danger!" He cried, alarmed at the witches' complete lack of empathy toward his sister's dilemma.
"I'm going to go check on her – make sure that she and Damon really left campus," Bonnie soothed. "If they did, she's safe for now. I was just a bit panicked before."
Jeremy watched her disappear for a minutes, then return with a visibly relieved expression.
"She's fine," Bonnie informed him, placing a hand that he couldn't feel on his arm in what would have been a soothing gesture had she been corporeal, but he appreciated it nonetheless. "They're at the Boarding House. Elena's researching crows and ravens on her laptop, for some reason, and Damon's antagonizing Katherine. How long is she going to stay with us?"
"Until we find Stefan," he shook his head, his own annoyance at his sister's obnoxious doppelgänger returning. "Can't happen soon enough. I'm pretty sure she stole my phone. What's the danger, anyway? You never told me." His expression immediately shifted as he noticed Bonnie frown with visible distress – her entire body looking to comfort itself as her arms wrapped around her own waist. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, Jer. I just … I need to check on something real quick," she answered, though she sounded decidedly distracted. Her eyes were unfocused, elsewhere. "I'll be right back," she added, before he got a chance to reply, and promptly disappeared again.
Within mere moments, Bonnie was back in the basement of Whitmore Hall – what she decided within the last few hours had to be the creepiest place on Earth.
The arrogant blond man was gone now, and the prisoner sat alone, huddled in his cell. Upon closer inspection, Bonnie saw that he was clutching at his heart protectively. There was a gaping wound that he was desperately trying to cover with his hand.
She took a seat on the floor directly in front of him, fighting the tears that came unbidden to her eyes in empathy not only for his suffering, but also his obvious bravery in the face of it. Bonnie was awed at his emphatic resilience – the irreverence and pride with which he had faced his tormentor when she was here earlier in the day.
She let her eyes wander his face – his mussed raven hair, his penetrating dark gaze, the open rebellion gracing his expression.
"Hey, mister. I don't know your name, and I refuse to call you by a number. I don't know if you can hear me," she said to the figure. "You probably can't. But I promise you – we will get you out, no matter what."
At that moment, she saw his eyes become focused and she could have sworn, had she not known better, that they looked directly into hers.
This chapter was originally going to be a lot longer, but I split it into two to update a bit faster. Suffice to say, the next one is going to be angsty. When Katherine feels cornered, she fights dirty. That's all I'll say on the matter for now. No, Damon is definitely not spilling his guts to Katherine. Just going to stop that train of thought right there in case anyone was wondering. :D They have their history, and he just has a better than average read on her behavior.
Damon's neat-freak status is inspired by him seen fretting about the state of his rug in canon. The fact that people in TVD are shown to sleep with their shoes on is mind-boggling to me. Who does that? Surely, rug-protective Damon would have a problem with this! :D
Only one chapter left in Serendipity. (Probably – I've been saying that for ages and it just kept getting longer – but at least we're finally two chapters deep in Elena/Damon!)
I'll try to have the next chapter out soon. A lot of will take place in the Boarding House. With that said, it's coming very soon.
So, does anyone here watch The Mandalorian? I'm on S3 now, and holy smokes, I looooooove Bo-Katan's arc this season. :D It's fantastic!
Please be sure to let me know what you awesome humans think! Reviews are always beloved. :) Have an excellent weekend, all!