▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟎

-ˋˏ 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 ˎˊ-

˚ 　 ✫ 　　　 ˚ . 　　　 ⋆

. · 　　 +

✧

╰┈˚ · ° .   SUN STREAMD DOWN THE OPENING of the mountain showering the makeshift bed with morning light. The chirping of the birds was heard alongside the rustle of the leaves. Warmth was the first thing that I felt when I started waking up, the body beside me the owner of said heat. A ray of sunshine hit Zyran so perfectly, that even in my half sleep state I couldn't help but be mesmerized by the view.

"Good morning, Darlin'." He spoke, voice of a deeper timbre from the sleep. His usual toasty brown eyes with hints of a lighter shade were lightened by the direct light to a hazel color and the tips of his lips were displayed into the softest of smiles.

He had both his arms wrapped around me as I had fallen asleep with my head atop of his naked chest, fingers playing with the end of my lavender's hair. It almost looked like that even in the night, he did not want to let go of me.

"Morning." I grumbled, letting my head rest once again peacefully against him. My eyes closed, not even fighting against the urge of falling asleep again.

"It's almost noon." he said, but he didn't make a move to get up. No– he brought my body so it was completely splayed on top of him, legs intertwined with each other. "My dragon is happy." He mumbled against my neck as a pur rattled his chest.

"Why?" I asked almost incoherently. His purr was making me relax even more.

"We have our mate in our arms." He replied, and I could hear the deep satisfaction and pure happiness in his tone.

It was the first time he had spoken the word mate after he had told me about it. Acknowledging the bond without fear of me running away. It felt good.

"And...We have your scent all over us." he trailed off, changing his voice to a more teasing one. "You really like to cuddle."

"I don't know what to say to that." I replied, too sleepy to even feel embarrassed by that.

He let out a chuckle and I could only imagine the grin twisting his lips. Seconds blended to minutes, his fingers left my hair and started tracing shapes on my back until slowly they trailed underneath the shirt. Up and down against my bare back until they brushed against the skin just between my shoulder blades.

A gasp left my lips as shivers traveled down to my spine to my core, lightening its embers. It was an unexpectedly pleasant feeling. "Zyran." His name left my lips dragged out through a breath.

"Your wings." He said with a low tone. His eyes were alight with fire, veiled with blue when I met his gaze. "You can still feel them even with the blocking charm." Once again his fingers brushed across the skin leaving a trail of pleasure. "They are very sensitive."

The fact that he had told me that I had wings completely got over me as I fought the urge to squeeze my legs together and suppress a moan.

I was already liking these wings.

His nostril flared, eyes rolling back as if he had caught the scent of the most aphrodisiac smell.

"You are temptation made flesh." He whispered, thumb brushing against my lip. "But I won't touch you." He said. "Not yet."

I wanted to let out a groan of displeasure at his words but I refrained. It was probably for the best. Or not.

───── ⋆˖⁺‧ ☽◯☾ ‧⁺˖⋆ ─────

╰┈˚ · ° .   If there was one thing that Caroline Forbes excelled in, it was throwing a party. Events in general were the blonde forte.

Nothing had changed with the decoration of the Mystic Grill but the atmosphere change from any other day could've been felt with the alcohol running from the bar and people dancing between the tables with music turned way louder than the normal standard of the restaurant-cafè.

"I look hot, don't I, Darlin'?" Zyran had a grin that I was sure not even a mass murder was going to wash off his face. He was proudly wearing his black smokey eye look with an eyeliner wing that I had done and yeah, he was right, he looked hot.

"Yes, you do." I replied for the fifth time that night.

"Yes, I do." he nodded, "Now come on. I see the birthday boy."

We stayed talking with Stefan and his best friend who turned up in Mystic Falls for the man's birthday for a bit, even playing a game or two of pool with them.

The night continued smoothly. We danced, ate food, played more pool-– which I was not a very good player of but still loved it— and drinked alcohol. With his fast healing and heat that burned it down, Zyran couldn't get drunk— me on the other hand, still easily could.

"You need to eat something more than a few fries, Meda. You are drunk." My mate said pushing the basket of fried food in front of me. Hell yeah.

My happy munching turned sour when I spotted Caroline crying, she too was drunk and still drinking, sitting at a table further away.

"She is crying." I said.

"Who?"

"Care-bear."

"Care-bear? Since when did you call Caroline that?" Zyran snickered, but I wasn't amused.

"Since we were little actually. She was my best friend. And then we grew up. I became content with staying in my corner and she wanted to be prom queen. Be the it girl and what not. And she lost herself in the meanwhile." I replied, a sad frown morphin my previous content features.

"Then why don't you go there and talk with her. You know, from drunk girl to drunk girl."

I slapped his arm "I'm not drunk." I said, proving my words wrong when I almost tripped when I stood up.

"Sure." He didn't believe me even for a second.

I rolled my eyes— or at least I think I did— and tried to walk towards her table. Key word trying because in the end Zy led me there supporting half of my weight.

I sat down on the empty chair next to her not quite gracefully, "Hi."

"Hi?"

"I'll be over there." And with that, the dragon shifter left us two alone.

Silence stretched, awkwardness fell. And I stole her drink for more liquid courage,

"Hey!"

"I needed it." I shrugged, giving the glass back to her. "Why are you crying?"

"Why do you care?" She scoffed, turning her attention to her glass.

"I didn't come here just to steal your drink. Come on, spill. Drunk girl to drunk girl."

Caroline succeeds in staying silent for only a minute before blurting out everything.

"And he is right. I am useless and I am pathetic and I am a waste of space." She cried, tears streamed down her face, sobs rocketed her body.

My heart ached at her words. "No you are not. You are not all those things, Care. And you should never let anyone make you believe that. You deserve better than him. You deserve so much better and I really hope that you can start to see it. You are already so much better than him. Damon Salvatore is the only pathetic person here, this you should believe."

"I'm shallow and I wanna be deep, like your or Elena."

"Caroline, we are not deep, we are traumatized." I deadpanned. "And honestly, I'm not that deep, my depthness ends with the pages of a fantasy book. If you really think of yourself as shallow then... we can be shallow together if you want. It's better than being shallow alone." I let out a breath before adding, "Don't go back to him. And if he comes to you again, just tell me alright? We can be shallow together and beat the crap out of him."

"Shallow together."

"Yeah. Shallow together."

───── ⋆˖⁺‧ ☽◯☾ ‧⁺˖⋆ ─────

╰┈˚ · ° .  "You are a good friend, you know." Zyran said as he helped me take off my makeup. More so he was doing it himself.

"Do you think that she is going to be okay?"

"Yes, with time. And I'm sure you are going to help her with your shallow-coded friendship." He replied with a chuckle passing me a shirt-– one of his by how large it was on me— that I wore with his help without concerning myself twice about the fact that he had just seen me half naked. I was too drunk to care. "Matt took her home. She is going to sleep off the booze-"

"And probably forget everything about tonight." I couldn't help but let the sadness creep in my voice or the small pout my lips turned into.

"She won't, Darlin'. I promise you." He kissed my forehead, leading me to the bed. "Get in."

"Are you staying?" I asked but I fell asleep without hearing his answer.

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!!

Small chapter but Caroline and Meda are rekindling their friendship, which I adore. Caroline was so insecure in the first season but no one can say that she wasn't a bitch at first.

And other than that, you can see a bit of Meda's struggle to fit in. What I think is that having a best friend is such an important part of someone's life. Having that someone you can tell anything and share everything with. Not having one can be really hard, most of all during the teenage years, when you are in school and everyone seems to have that someone. It's something that I still struggle with and I wanted to add this to this story since I know I'm not probably the only one feeling this way. I hope you guys can feel seen.

Do you guys have any suggestions on who you would want Meda's best friend to be? I have some ideas but I would love to hear yours too!

The next chapter will be on saturday since wednesday is Christmas!! 

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

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾