Note: Five months?! Rude. No edits. Duh

Chapter Five

The "L" Word

"Damon, can you go do whatever it is you're doing...away from here?" Bonnie asked, lifting her brows as she crossed her arms over her chest to hide her shaking hands, "I kind of need to be with Stefan right now."

"Sure, it's not like it's my house or anything."

"It's not." Stefan pointed out.

"Shut up."

Bonnie watched the older brother until he disappeared around the corner before she moved her eyes to Stefan.

"What the fuck?" She hissed, finally showing her emotions.

"Bonnie, I just wasn't sure how to tell you everything." Stefan's eyes were wide as he towered over her, resting his hands on her shoulders.

"Well, I don't think I like the option you settled for." She admitted, looking down at her feet.

"It was either this or have Damon pull one of his stunts and screw everything up even more." Stefan explained.

"Look. I get it: you guys came here to do a job. Fine. But what kind of danger am I in that you literally stood by and let my best friend get turned into a succubus?" Bonnie's breathing hitched. "What does that even mean? Was it those douche-socks and their van? Or someone working against my grandmother?"

"Bonnie, I was assigned to you, I care about you...I'm sorry I didn't stop this from happening." Stefan's jaw ticked. "I know she means a lot to you-"

"Stefan, she's my best friend and I love her," Bonnie interjected.

"I know, we're going to fix this, I'm sorry."

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Bonnie mumbled, clutching her stomach. "I'm a witch? My grandmother is your high priestess?"

"She prefers goddess-"

"That sounds like something Damon would say."

"They're bizarrely alike actually." Stefan pointed out. "Which reminds me...there's something else."

"Is it an explanation for Damon's inappropriate behaviour, because I would love to know why you tolerate it as much as you do." She cut out.

"Actually, yes." Stefan pursed his lips, considering his phrasing. "And you're not going to like it, at all."

Damon was sitting in his room twirling a photograph of Sheila when he heard Bonnie scream a loud "what" and he knew, that Stefan had told her.

"Well, at least now she'll know what to expect when we finally bring you home once and for all." He smiled, looking down at the spitting image of Bonnie Bennett, with her hair wild and frazzled from the breeze she'd shut her eyes to feel fully. The face of his Sheila Bennett.

Bonnie was laid out on Stefan's bed muttering to herself, refusing to speak to him until she could think straight. The trilling of her phone startled them both.

"Elena!" Bonnie exhaled in relief, "Hey."

"Hey yourself, breathless-bon-bon," the girl grinned on the other end. "I feel like a blank cheque. A title track. A fucking nuclear bomb."

"I honestly don't know how to respond to that."

"You don't have to," the succubus beamed, "I'm having the best day since Jesus invented the calendar."

"Jesus didn't invent the calendar," Bonnie said in a knee-jerk reaction.

"Whatever, what are you doing?"

"Avoiding Stefan's eye contact." Bonnie said, shooing her boyfriend away as he tried to get her attention.

"You guys are into some weird shit, aren't you?" Elena mused. "Whatever, some dummies from the football team are hosting a wake."

"A wake?"

"More like a wake and bake."

"Christ, 'Lena-"

"It's so easy with you," Elena laughs, "come on, let's do something not-boring away from your definitely-boring boyfriend."

"Stefan isn't boring."

"Tell it to my eye-roll. Mom said I could use the car, she's worried about my mental stability, but apparently not enough to stop me from driving around...so."

"Okay, yeah. Let me get ready. I'll come to you?"

"Perfection. Wear something cute, okay?"

"Sure, love you."

"Why wouldn't you?"

Click.

Bonnie looked over to Stefan whose forehead was riddled with lines and she inched over to him and kissed at them until the creases smoothed out.

"I'm coming with you." Stefan said after planting a slow kiss on her.

"She's not going to like that."

"I couldn't care less." Stefan assured her, pulling her onto his lap and trailing his fingers down the frame of her face. "I really do love you, you know. You-you."

"So it's not weird for you that I look like my grandmother?" Bonnie quipped helplessly.

"Sheila couldn't fit into the template mould of a grandmother if she tried. She's a fucking whirlwind of a woman and a force to be reckoned with. She's basically my boss...sure, it threw me when I first saw what you looked like. But then, god, cliche approaching...but I got to know you, and this ball of frustrated fervour and mind-blowing sincerity is way more my speed." He said with a wide grin. "You're my favourite person in the world, how the hell was I supposed to know that this was going to bring me to you? And feeling the way I do about you, I'm sorry - I can't resent anything that led up to this. And I won't regret anything if something changes..." he swallowed, eyes averting as he exhaled. Looking back up at her he shrugged. "I know it's a lot, just tell me where the lines are and I'll stick to them."

"That's the thing..." Bonnie said, realising the truth of the sentiment as she spoke it. "I don't think I have any lines when it comes to you."

He held her gaze for a tense moment before craning his neck to bring his mouth to hers.

"Well, lucky for you...I only have your best interests on my heart."

"Lucky me." Bonnie murmured against his lips, smiling into a kiss.

When Stefan's car pulled up outside of Elena's house, the girl glowered at the couple from her bedroom window.

"What kind of entry-level fuckery is this?" She hissed under her breath. Skipping through her house, because hello; she was still bloody glowing thanks to Tyler, she yanked her front door open and widened her eyes at Bonnie. "I already donated to Greenpeace, Salvatore. You can leave your girlfriend with me."

"The day you actually do a good deed is the day I stop rolling my eyes at your secret language with each other," Stefan said with a wolfish grin on his face as he intertwined his fingers with Bonnie's as they made their way toward Elena.

"It's not a secret language." Bonnie laughed.

"It may as well be."

"It should be," Elena said grumpily, "So invaders like you and your brother actually get the hint that we want to be left alone."

"Do you think I drove all the way here because Bonnie didn't want me to come?" Stefan challenged. Holding his gaze, Elena's eyes slid slowly over to Bonnie and turned to slits.

"Elena. He's my boyfriend and you're my best friend-"

"Is he-"

"Is she?"

"Both of you need to quit it, before I go home and turn my phone off." Bonnie lifted her eyes up to her boyfriend.

"Fine." Stefan exhaled, offering up a small smile in apology. "I can hang out with the cool kids," he said as they walked into Elena's house, "who don't know a thing about Phil Collins, or think blues music was made by white people. I can totally hang."

The rest of the football team had decided to commemorate their fallen comrades with a kegger, naturally.

Elena had demanded she did a solo tour to scout the scene before she reported back to see if they were worthy enough to approach anyone at the party. So Stefan and Bonnie stood aside, turned toward one another, conspiring.

"I can't believe we brought a succubus to a house party." Bonnie griped.

"I know. There has to be a punchline in there somewhere."

"Guys!" Someone yelled over the music. "Tyler's fucking dead." A hush fell over everyone.

"What?" Bonnie hissed.

"Tyler?" Stefan frowned, making his girlfriend roll her eyes.

"Dead?" Bonnie called out to the announcer, Brad? "Who said he's dead?"

"I just got a text from Melissa. She lives next door to him. The police just came to tell his parents."

"What else did she say?" Someone else asked as Stefan and Bonnie turned to Elena.

"Elena, we need to go." Bonnie said, sternly.

"Ew, why?" The brunette glowered as Bonnie gripped on her arm and steered her out of the backyard and out to the driveway. "What the hell, Bonnie!"

"What the hell?" Bonnie hissed. "I believe the answer to that is literally you."

"What are you even saying?" Elena scowled, crossing her arms and refusing to walk any further.

"Do you really wanna do this in Brad's driveway?" Bonnie warned.

"His name is Brandon." Elena pointed out with a raised finger.

"Yeah, and I'm really going to lose sleep over that one." Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Get in the car so we can deal with what's really happening here."

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

"I'll do it if you won't." Stefan said calmly.

"Do what?" Elena frowned.

"I don't know how to-" Stefan waved a hand over Elena and her eyes shut while she remained upright. "-whaaat." Bonnie gaped. "Is she asleep?"

"Kinda. I put her on pause." Stefan explained.

"So. Magic is real?" Bonnie said, unable to hide the awe in her voice. Stefan pressed his lips together to stop from fawning over her.

"Yeah babe, and it's a part of you, too."

"Wild." Bonnie sighed waving her hand in front of Elena's sleeping face. "So what happens now?"

Damon was waiting for them when they walked in, carrying the still-sleeping succubus.

"Did someone learn their first incantation?" Damon grinned.

"Hell no." Bonnie huffed, helping lay Elena down one of the couches in the den. "Goddamn dead-weight."

"Me or the sapphic-succubus?"

"Elena is not a lesbian," Bonnie said between gritted teeth, already agitated with Damon, "she's just weirdly possessive."

"Erm-kay," Damon said, making sure to sound unconvinced, "this might come as a shock to you: but she can be both."

"So any girl that doesn't want to stick it out with you is automatically lesbian?" Bonnie questioned.

"God no. I'm just saying that there is something bizarre between the two of you, and I'm tired of being the only one who acknowledges it."

"Having a toxic friendship does not the girl a lesbian make." Stefan explained dramatically, bugging his eyes out at his older brother. "You of all idiots should know what love can do to someone."

"Hence me telling all of you, that Elena would kill for Bonnie."

"What-

"If you are about to suggest we keep her as a succubus so help me god, Damon." Bonnie seethed.

A slim finger trailed down the edge of the gurney.

"So. Necromancy?" A shrill voice asked, from a blubbering form near the waist of the cloaked woman.

"Obviously, Charles." The woman bit out. "What else would be the solution at a morgue?"

"In the demon realm we don't have morgues, forgive me for not acclimating to this idiotic plane for the convenience of your idiosyncrasies." The demon huffed.

"Touche little sludge bucket," the woman sighed. "Get me my grimoire."

"Was the word 'please' a phase in the eighties or are you just being a bitch again?"

"You tell me since you know so goddamn much today."

"Just think, will you?" Damon said, again for the fourth time. "Think about it."

"Think about this," Bonnie heaved, pushing past Stefan, "If you don't give me my friend back, the way she was before those skull-toting bottom-breeders got their scummy hands on her, I will not stop kicking you until one of us dies."

"Wow." Damon commended with a slow clap, "You really know how to give a guy a stern talking to."

"Fuck you, Damon." Bonnie spat. "How dare you barter with my friends life?"

"I didn't tell her to get in that bloody van, did I?" He yelled back.

"No, what you're doing is worse," Bonnie informed him, "you're standing there, knowing full well you can fix this and you're choosing to do nothing."

"Can you please talk some sense into her?" Damon said, looking over her head at his brother, who'd clenched a fist and pressed it to his mouth when they'd started arguing.

"Pros and cons." Stefan said from under his fist.

"Stefan?" Bonnie gasped, spinning around to him.

"Bon," Stefan held out his arms to her, "If there's one thing I know about Elena it's that she loves you. A lot. We can circumvent the demon inside of her, but why waste a perfectly good opportunity to make her more durable? Whatever is coming is going to take a lot more than the two of us."

"Then train me." Bonnie said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, she frowned at the two of them while she spoke, eyes flitting between them. "Make me a witch that can help you, that can defend herself. Don't expect me to stand by while you up-end my friend's life so that she can be some sort of shield because of whatever is about to go down."

"I want to be durable." Elena's voice stilled the three of them. The succubus sat up and eyed them all out. "I get a say in all of this, don't I?"

"Of course you do." Damon exhaled, giving Bonnie a smug look which she pulled an incredulous face back at.

"Eat my ass, Damon. I'm here for Bonnie, not to be near you." Elena said, sneering at him as he approached her. "Touch me and I'll scalp you."

"Why do I incite so much violence in the two of you?" The older brother wondered.

"Because you're a miserable piece of shit who provokes people until their demeanour resembles your own and then you opt to play the victim, which only infuriates the other person more, perpetuating your cycle of self-deprecation and isolation." Bonnie rambled thoughtlessly as her eyes went out of focus.

Coming back into herself she realised everyone in the room was staring at her.

"My mom had psych text books all over the house." The green-eyed girl explained.

"How dare you insinuate that you had enough time to study psychology outside of your heinous schedule at school." Elena griped. "I should just cut my losses with you and start hanging out with the cheerleaders again."

"Why? Did you run out of laxatives?" Stefan quipped.

"Oh good. Steven has a sense of humour now, perfect." Elena yawned. "Anyone want to tame this demon inside of me, because while I may look like I could be on the cover of Sports Illustrated right now, it's literally always down to eat someone."

"So. Just so we're all on the same page," Bonnie said, holding out a hand with an unimpressed expression already in place, "You're pacifying this demon and not exorcising it? And you're all OK with that?" She eyed Stefan out.

"Who gives a shit what these dummies think?" Elena returned. "I am like super strong and shit now. I wanna find those satan-suck-ups and tear them a new asshole. Each."

"And I say we give the succubus what she wants." Damon chimed in.

"Did I not just denounce any and all opinion by anyone who is not me on what happens to me now?" Elena glared. "God, Damon. Read a book."

"I'm a witch. I've read thousands."

"I've seen those things on TV, it's picture-book-city up in that bitch. Even you can do better." Elena tisked.

"I'm literally speechless." Stefan blinked.

"Oh. It gets worse." Bonnie whispered to him.

"So. What happens now?" Elena asked, clapping her hands together. "Do I have to change into a white dress or something?"

"God help us." Stefan said under his breath.

There were twelve candles around her body as she laid on the wooden floor. Bonnie stood a few feet away, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

After Stefan finished lighting the last candle, he made his way over to Bonnie and held out his hand. His chest unwound when she took his hand in hers.

"A lot is happening." He whispered to her as Damon appeared with his grimoire, pushing his inky hair out of his face as he flipped hurriedly through the pages. "How are you feeling about it?"

"I feel like if I have feelings about it, I'll have to do more than just manage each moment; which in itself is taking a lot out of me right now." She said honestly. "I mean, my best friend is the calmest I've ever seen her, and she's a succubus now. My boyfriend is a witch, a witch?"

"Sheila loathes the differentiating term 'warlock'," he explains.

"Right, so my boyfriend is a witch. His brother is a witch and everyone is on the same page and I feel dazed by all of this new information and I don't even know where to begin."

"Getting that off of your chest was a good place to start." Stefan offered.

"I want to help, Stefan."

"I know that," he assured her, "and you will. But you also have to remember why Elena is doing this, and why I'm holding your hand: we love you. Yeah, I love you." Bonnie's heart galumphed. "So. Re-calibrate babe, I've got you."

"Will you dingalings quit reciting Top-Ten-Things-To-Make-People-In-The-Same-Room-As-You-Want-To-Throw-Up-And-Die? Please and thank you." Damon snipped. Bonnie didn't even look away from Stefan.

"I love you, too." she said with a broad smile

A/N: This is probably the one story I write for myself. I fucking love it, I can't even explain why.

Reviews are cool if you can get 'em, but I'll update this eventually anyway.

Stay excellent XO