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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟓

  -ˋˏ 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 ˎˊ-

˚ 　 ✫ 　　　 ˚ . 　　　 ⋆

. · 　　 +

✧

╰┈˚ · ° .  AS THE SUN STARTED TO SET, Elena's nerves started to skyrocket. She was nervous about her best friend— who had admitted to not liking Stefan very much apparently— and her new boyfriend to meet and have dinner together. Fortunately, with the arrival of Bonnie Bennett, she seemed to calm down slightly, maybe too focused on the girl's rants about all the weird coincidences that were happening in her life.

"You explain it. Last night, I'm watching nine-o. A commercial breaks come on and I'm like, I bet it's that phone commercial. And sure enough, It's that guy and the girl with the bench. He flies to Paris and he flies back. They take a picture."

"Oh, come on. That commercial's on a constant loop." Elena laughed, as she took out from the bags the delivery food that had arrived for the dinner.

"Fine. Well, how about this? Today I'm obsessed with numbers. 3 numbers. I keep seeing 8, 14, and 22. How weird is that?"

Putting on a serious face to go along with her joke, Elena replied to her best friend. "Maybe we should play the lottery." With a chuckle then she asked. "Have you talked to your grams?

"She's just gonna say it's because I'm a witch. I don't want to be a witch.

Do you want to be a witch?"

"I don't want to be a witch."

"Do you want to be a witch?" Bonnie then asked, turning towards me as I brought to the kitchen island the plates to serve the food.

I didn't even know I was involved in the conversation at all, which made my reply delayed by a few seconds. "To be honest, yes. It seems pretty badass." I said with a shrug starting to dump the pasta in the ceramic bowl.

Bonnie rolled her eyes amusedly as Elena let out a chuckle. "And putting it in a nice bowl isn't fooling anybody." The Bennett girl said.

"Ok, serving spoons." Elena muttered, turning around looking around the kitchen trying to remember their place. "Where are the serving spoons?"

"Little drawer on your left." Bonnie suddenly said. And as she opened it, Elena founded the serving spoons.

"Ok, so you've been in this kitchen like a thousand times." Elena reasoned.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Cool, can you find all my missing socks now? I literally have to wear mismatched ones." My comment— one that was quite serious though— made the two girls laugh only to be interrupted by the bell ringing.

"I'll go." I said, a smile threatening to show on my lips as I almost skipped to the door already knowing that it was Zyran and not Stefan, yet again having no answer to why I did know.

"Hello Darlin'." His smile was dazzling, and for a second I could only stare at him. "Are we going to stand here all night so you can stare at me or..."

"Shut up." I was quick to say, opening the door further with flushed cheeks, "Come in. "

His grin widened as he stepped forward until his feet touched mine, his fingers brushing softly against mine. "Dinner with your sister, your sister's best friend and your sister's boyfriend, mh. Fun." He teased lowering his tone into a whisper that was filled with mirth.

"She wanted to know who was the guy that kidnaps me every day at school." I replied, grinning up at him. I had to tilt my head back to look at him, he towered over my 5 '7 form with at least half a foot, probably a few inches, and the broad shoulders and defined muscles of his arms heightened the contrast between us.

"I'm pretty sure that you are the one kidnapping me, Darlin'." He said. His tone had gone deeper but his smile never faltered.

"Sure." I hummed under my breath the sarcastic reply. I rolled my eyes, at last remembering my sister and her best friend in the other room, if they were not already looking at us. I took a step back just as his hand landed on my hips causing my breath to hitch.

And then someone faked a cough. "Sorry." I was almost annoyed by the presence of the other voice if I hadn't been more curious to know the boy, who now stood awkwardly in front of the still open front door.

"Stefan!" Elena called, a smile spread on her lips. She greeted her boyfriend with love-struck eyes before she turned towards where I was standing with Zyran arm wrapped around my waist. "You must be Zyran, I'm Elena, Meda's sister."

Zyran offered her one of his charming smiles, "Nice to meet you."

"Stefan Salvatore." The guy extended his hand— which Zyran shook with a nod.

"And that one is Bonnie.'' I added, motioning towards the girl who stood a bit further.

Silence stretched until Elena finally led us all to the dining table, food already prepared there.

Awkward was a mellow word to describe the atmosphere of the dinner, and if it hadn't been for the way Zyran inhaled the food, wiggling his eyebrows at me teasingly letting some of tension go off me, I would've probably melted into a puddle or bolted out of there and actually kidnapping the guy to watch Twilight with him in my room.

"Did Tanner give you a hard time today?" Elena asked her boyfriend, cutting the tension with her words.

"Well, he let me on the team, So I must have done something right." Stefan replied, making my sister chuckle lightly.

"You must be good if Tanner lets you in on his team even after dissing him every class." Zyran said.

"You should have seen him today." Elena started looking around the table as she spoke. "Tyler threw a ball right at him, and–"

"Yeah, I heard." Bonnie interrupted her sending the table in an even more awkward silence.

I squeezed my eyes containing a groan only to let out yelp when a foot kicked my leg. I covered it with a cough as the rest looked in my direction but it was quickly forgotten for Elena's next question.

"Why don't you tell Stefan about your family?" The girl said to her friend.

And as she said that, my eyes narrowed down on Zyran, the boy concealing a smirk behind his hand.

"Um, divorced. No mom. Live with my dad."

"no, about the witches." Elena told her, eyes hard as he looked at the Bennet girl. "Bonnie's family has a lineage of witches. It's really cool."

"Cool isn't the word I'd use."

"Well, it's certainly interesting. I'm not too versed, But I do know

that there's a history of celtic druids that migrated here in the 1800s." Stefan said, offering a smile to the girl.

"My family came by way of Salem."

"Really? Salem witches?" At Bonnie's nod, the Salvatore's boy continued, "I would say that's pretty cool."

"Really? Why?" Took by surprise at his words the black girl asked.

"Salem witches are heroic examples of individualism and nonconformity."

"Yeah, they are."

Finally a breach in the awkwardness. Stefan had played it well.

"Plus, I think that having come from a lineage of witches is much cooler than having a human one." Added Zyran, winking cheeky at the girl only for him to yelp when this time it had been my foot to connect with his leg.

Payback, asshole.

The boy though, had not to conceal since at that exact time the doorbell rang.

"I wonder who that could be." Elena wondered out loud as she stood up to open.

My smirk was playing on my lips as I looked at Zyran, his eyes now were the one playfully narrowed on me. But the look quickly faded to a much serious one when Elena opened the door. Caroline was quick to stroll in, dessert in hand while my sister talked with the person at the door. We all stood up, Stefan going to Elena as Bonnie walked to Caroline.

"What is it?" I asked Zyran.

He muttered words under his breath that seemed like another language and everything felt muted for a second. "It's Stefan's brother." He said frowning.

"You know him?"

"I know of him. And what I know, I don't like it." he was quick to stand next to me, arm wrapped around my shoulder, bringing me closer to him.

"Zy?"

"Just stay near me okay? And try not to talk with him too much." He asked, moving a strand of lavender hair behind my ear. "Please trust me. I will explain later."

"Alright." I whispered. His nostril flared slightly for a second he closed the distance between us. I closed my eyes almost instinctively when I felt his lips touch my forehead leaving a soft kiss there.

"You have a beautiful home, Elena." The new man, cladded in a leather jacket with raven hair and smirking lips said. His gaze quickly moved towards where we were. "And you must be the sister. Andromeda, right? I'm Damon, Stefan's older brother." He said, smirk widening even more as he stepped closer.

Even if Zyran had not told me a word about him, my instinct almost shouted at me that this man was nothing less than a predator. I didn't like him.

Zyrian's hold on me tightened at the man's words and sudden attention to me, but he offered the newcomers a smile that had similar resemblance to his normal one, charming nevertheless but hidden slightly by harshness.

"Zyran." The man at my side introduced himself, making Damon's eyes shift towards him.

He almost seemed to grow before my eyes as he extended his hand to Damon, steam radiating off of him, a shade of bright blue flashing across his eyes, reflected on the skin of his exposed arms to resemble scales. Or maybe, most likely, it had been my vision playing trick on me. It did that sometimes, like seeing the stars winking down at me or orbs of light hovering over bushes, like a white fox transparent like a ghost or ears too pointed to be human.

The way Damon's lips tinned as he shook Zyran's hand was noticeable, but fortunately, Elena was there to cut through the conversation.

"Sit." she told us motioning for the couch, "I'll be right back with the desserts."

───── ⋆˖⁺‧ ☽◯☾ ‧⁺˖⋆ ─────

╰┈˚ · ° .  We had finished eating the dessert that the couple— because Caroline and Damon were a couple apparently— had brought, and now we were all in the living room. Stefan and Elena on the couch, Caroline and Damon sharing an armchair, Bonnie on a chair while I sat on the second armchair with Zyran— who was completely interested in brushing his fingers through my locks. He felt warmer than his normal temperature somehow.

"I cannot believe that Mr. Tanner let you on the team." Caroline exclaimed, her hands holding a red mug with her coffee."Tyler must be seething. But good for you. Go for it."

"That's what I always tell him. You have to engage. You can't just sit there and wait for life to come to you. You have to go get it." Damon remarked, eyes fixated on his brother, who was glaring at him.

They did not seem to go along very well.

"Yeah, Elena wasn't so lucky today. It's only because you missed summer camp." Caroline commented looking at the brunette girl.

"Summer camp?" Zyran whispered at my back.

"Cheerleading." I mouthed back to him, making him nod when he understood.

"God, I don't know how you're ever going to learn the routines." The blonde girl vocalized her thoughts in a way that it actually made my eyebrow almost shoot upwards.

I had not been the only one to think that Caroline lacked empathy with her phrase because Bonnie answered to her in a clipped tone, "I'll work with her. She'll get it."

But then, not even listening to what her friend had told her, Caroline muttered to herself "I guess we can put her in the back."

"You know, you don't seem like the cheerleader type, Elena." Damon noted.

"Oh, it's just 'cause her parents died. Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going through a blah phase. She used to be way more fun, now she resembles Andromeda much more." Caroline said. She was the only one smiling or finding her words amusing. But she quickly caught her mistake, smile falling as she added. "And I say that with complete sensitivity."

"Sure." Zyran muttered, and for the first time I had seen his smile completely fall. He squeezed my thigh once before it was quick to reform even if much more strained. "Plus, do you really need to be a certain type to be a cheerleader?" He wondered out loud with a scoff. "If you are good you are good. You don't need to be the knockoff copy of Barbie to be a cheerleader, but sure, I guess the stereotype works for some people."

I was sure as hell not the stereotype of the cheerleading girl. I had lavender hair, eyeliner wings on my eyes and I wore fishnets on most days. Even with my mid-size form with wider hips and a soft belly, bigger thighs and arms. The sport fascinated me. The choreographies, the moves, the squad, and yes, even the uniforms. But as much as I was athletic enough and I loved to dance, I wasn't the type to mesh well with bigger groups of people and have the risk of touching them. So I stayed in my bubble, content enough to dance alone in my spare time.

"I'm sorry, Elena." Demon says, still thinking at the words his girlfriend uttered. "I know what it's like to lose both your parents. In fact, Stefan and I have watched almost every single person we've ever cared about die."

I guess, the end goal was just to spite his brother since he didn't even glance in my direction.

"We don't need to get into that right now, Damon." Stefan said.

"Oh, you know what, you're right, Stef. I'm sorry. The last thing I wanted to do was bring her up."

I exchanged a look with Zyran that said the exact same thing. We are getting away from this as soon as possible. And we were able to do that just a couple of minutes later when Bonnie announced her departure.

Zyran and I said our goodbyes to the two remaining couples then, choosing to go upstairs to my room instead with the cookies that I had baked that afternoon.

"I can't fucking believe it." Zyran muttered a laugh trying to escape his lips.

He closed the door of my room behind him, a weird blue glow that I did not think about twice covering it before it disappeared.

"Please, tell me that they didn't date the same girl once and now Damon is trying to get even with his brother?" I said, burying my head in one of the dozens of pillows on my bed.

"Oh they did. I'm sure of it." Zyran chuckled, losing his shoes much like I had done and falling chest forward onto my bed next to me.

"And how do you know that?" I asked raising an eyebrow down at him.

He groaned, nose scrunched in distaste as he grumbled. "Do we really have to talk about him?" Then he changed the subject, closing his eyes to speak. "I really like your bed. It's soft and comfortable with all this blanket and pillow. You can lose yourself in it."

I snorted at that, but I wanted answers... and gossip. I took a cookie from the jar that I had placed on my nightstand, passing it underneath his nose to let him smell it. His eyes snapped open quickly, and he literally tried to bite it from my head, and if it hadn't been for my fast reflexes he would have actually accomplished doing that.

"A cookie for an answer." I tutted.

He groaned again, playfully glaring at me. "Fine. From what I know, this girl, Katherine, played them both. He dated them at the same time but I don't know if they were aware of each other. In the end, Katherine died and I guess Damon is still holding a grudge on his brother dating his girl." He furrowed his forehead, rolled his eyes. "If she wanted them both she could've just said that. Having more than one lover is not that deep. Love is endless. She just wanted chaos and mess with their lives."

"Would you do it?" I suddenly asked. "Having more than one person?"

"No." he said. "I could never love more than one person but that's me. I believe that there are people that have enough of them to love more than one person. No romantic love is the same because everyone is different." Then his eyes found mine, almost as if his words had another meaning, a double one that I had to still discover. "But I would love someone that shared her heart— her soul, with more than one person."

The words hit me in a deeper way that in that moment I had no idea of. My breath caught in my throat and my heart stammered.

His grin came back into full force, the depth of the previous talk forgotten as he stole the cookie from my hand with a bite.

A giggle left my mouth as he closed his eyes at the taste of the sweet. "These are good."

"Thank you." I chuckled, making his eyes snap to me.

"Tell me that you did them. Please."

A laugh bubbled out of me as I nodded my head and took my computer already putting on Twilight. "I did. Now you can eat as we watch the movie.

"Yes." he exclaimed, excitedly shuffling until he was sitting between my legs, back resting against my font as I rested mine against the headboard. The jar of cookies safely underneath his arm as he leaned his head on shoulder.

"Comfortable?" I asked with an amused chuckle.

He thought about it for a second, showing me a finger as if to say 'one second' as he moved the blanket atop of us and turned the lights off until only the computer and the stars and the moon remained to light the room. "Now I am."

I snickered under my breath, loving way more than I probably should how comfortable we both were with each other. "Can I touch your hair?" I asked as the forest showed on the screen playing the first scene in Twilight.

"You can do whatever you want, Darlin'" He murmured. And an echo far away arrived to my ear like a broken whisper. 'I'm yours' it said.

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!!

There is going to be no love for Damon in this fic. I do not like him and I do not condone all the abuse that his character has done.

The abuse that apparently so many of you forgets.

I hate his character for what he has done to many women in the show. Andromeda and the rest of my oc hate him. And I'm not going to move away from this thought. So if you want a fic that has Damon as best friend or even just a friend, this is not for you.

Thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Saturday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾