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𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗟𝗬 𝗕𝗜𝗥𝗧𝗛𝗗𝗔𝗬𝗦 ౿ 🪦
╱━ ❛ 162 CANDLES ◞⁺⊹
𖤐 ﾉ 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝖮𝖭𝖤 ╱ 𝖤𝖯𝖨𝖲𝖮𝖣𝖤 𝖤𝖨𝖦𝖧𝖳
˖ ࣪. ࿐♡ ━━━━━━━━ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗢𝗡𝗘

𝐓he sun shines down on the seventeen-year old that laid on a patch of green grass, the warmth raining down on her skin as she listens to the sounds of all the cars driving by and the planes flying across the sky. It's a feeling that she's missed and craved all in the same way. A feeling that she longed to be able to actually feel again.

"What are you doing, kid?" A voice cuts through the silence that filled the room, amusement clear in the person's voice as they spoke.

Charlotte's eyes snap open and she's met with the sight of the roofed living room. There was no longer that warm feeling, she couldn't feel the grass between her fingers and she couldn't hear the nosy vehicle as they drove by.

A frown makes it's way onto her face as she finally realizes that she was never outside in the first place, instead she was laid out in the living room floor of the home that she shared with her mother and her boyfriend.

"Imagining what the sun feels like again." She sighed, sitting up and crossing her legs as she looked up at the man who leaned against the entrance of the living room with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Are you packed and ready to go?" Lee raised an eyebrow at the teenager, watching as her hand freezes as she played with a loose string hanging on the rips of her jeans.

"Packed? Where are we going?" Her eyebrows pinch together as she tried to think if they had a trip planned but couldn't think of anything.

"Seriously? Your mom has reminded you everyday for the last week and a half." Lee chuckled, "The two of you are supposed to be heading to Mystic Falls tonight. You know, for Stefan's birthday? That's tomorrow....,"

Charlotte's eyes light up at the thought of seeing her "uncle" again after so many years. It was heard for the vampire and her mother to do anything seeing as they didn't have daylight rings, and they couldn't go out into the sun without them on.

The one thing that Charlotte hated about being a vampire : not being able to remember what the sun felt like on her skin.

"You better go pack and get your stuff ready before you girls head out." Lee moves to help the teenager up, laying a kiss on the crown of her head, causing her to let a smile grace her lips. "Go, kid."

Charlotte nods, moving around him and heading up the stairs so that she could go to her bedroom to get everything she would need. She knew they wouldn't be in Mystic Falls for long, but she had always been an over-packer and packed way too much.

"Charlotte Grace! You better be up there packing!" Her mom's voice filled her ears and she let out a groan, and actually started to back her things.

"I am, mom!"

──── ୨ৎ ────

𝐒tefan Salvatore sits asleep in a chair placed in the parlor of his home, waking up as the book that was sat in his leg falls to the floor with a thump. Standing up and stretching, the sounds of giggles rang out causing him to turn in the direction that it came from.

Slowly walking away from his place, his head snaps over in the direction where a door slams shut, more child-like giggles filling the air. The wind blows from an open window, the cream colored curtain flapping along with the invisible air.

Making the move to close the window, he spins around as he feels like someone is in the room with him. More noise is made as he takes the time to look around for the source of where the giggles and noses had come from, calling out for his brother.

"Damon?"

"Stefan." A female voice sings, dragging his name out.

Spinning around to the living room, Stefan's knocked to the floor with a groan before he's quickly flipped over and a body lands on top of his, the blonde vampire hissing in his face as she straddles him.

"Lexi?"

Her face changes back to her normal, beautiful features, "Hi."

"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked as the blonde uses her strength to pull them both to their feet.

"How could you even ask that?" Lexi questions in disbelief at the question that had left her best friend's mouth.

Stefan chuckled, pulling her into a tight hug, "I missed you."

"Happy birthday." Lexi smiles brightly at him, "We wanted to be here to celebrate with you?"

A confused expression passes over Stefan's face as he tilts his head to the side in question before a heavy weight lands on his back.

"Happy birthday, Uncle Stefan!" Charlotte's cheerful voice fills his ears and an even wider smile breaks out on his face as his "niece" hugs his neck tighter, playing a playfully kiss on his cheek.

──── ୨ৎ ────

𝐌usic fills the boarding house as Charlotte laid across the foot of Stefan's bed, her phone in hand as her mom's laughter filled the room, Stefan poking at her.

Lexi laughs, fighting Stefan away, "Stop! I don't know, okay? If some freak shot at me with wooden bullets, I'd bail in under sixty."

"And why is a news reporter hunting vampires?" Charlotte asks in confusion as she turns her head to look at the two.

"I don't know." Stefan shrugged, nudging the younger vampire with his foot, laughing as she threatened to break his toe, "I don't know who knows about us. I mean that guy did. There could be others. Hey, do me a favor? While you're here, please be careful. The both of you."

"Yes, sir." Charlotte salutes him, going back to flicking through the music on her IPod.

Lexi groaned, "Why stay? Charlie and I are heading to New York for the weekend. Little mother-daughter trip. Bon Jovi, in the Garden. "Wanted Dead or Alive", it's our theme song! It'll be a blast!"

"Yeah! It'll be like the old times!" Charlotte smiles widely, sitting up on the bed and crossing her legs.

"Like old times? Oh, you mean, like the time you pranked the band's tour bus?" Stefan raised an eyebrow at the brunette teen.

"Hey! We don't actually know that it was me!" Charlotte tries to defend herself, but sighs at the looks shot to her by both her mother and Stefan.

"Do you think that he would actually remember us?" Stefan asked the two of them as he put his shoes back on, "That was a pretty crazy weekend, huh?"

"We can make him remember us." Lexi smirked, moving around Stefan's room, "Come on. Let's go. I mean, what's keeping you here?"

Charlotte smirked, "He already told us."

Stefan thumps her leg with a smile as he spoke to Lexi, "Her name is Elena."

"Well, let's hope she's better than the last girl you got all sprung over." Lexi teases her best friend as she waves around the picture of Katherine that Stefan kept for some odd reason.

"You didn't even know Katherine." Stefan takes the picture from her hands.

"'Cause if I did, I'd kick her ass, little bitch."

"Speak of....," Charlotte trails off as she stands up from Stefan's bed, groaning as her back pops as she stretches. "Where is Damon?"

"Inflicting misery somewhere."

"As always." The teenager rolled her eyes as she thought about the Salvatore brother that she hated.

"Uh-huh."

"Hey, um, you two gonna be okay here?" Stefan turns to ask the two, glancing between the mother and daughter, "Alone? I got some things I gotta take care of."

"As long as you close the curtains so I'm not confined to this one room." Charlotte sends him a sweet smile that he returned with a laugh.

"Well, it's not exactly like we can go anywhere." Lexi points towards the window where the curtains were drawn as it was now daylight outside. "And you and Damon are the only ones with these nifty little daylight rings."

"Which I would kill for." Charlotte sighs before she pauses as Stefan and Lexi turn to look at her, "I wasn't serious."

Lexi giggled before turning back to the boy in front of her, "I have a mood ring from '75. Trade ya?"

"Hey! I gave you that!" Charlotte pouts with an offended look on her face.

"And I cherish it all the time, sweetheart."

"Doesn't work that way and you both know it."

Lexi groaned, "Yeah."

"Hey, Lex, Lottie." Stefan smiles at the two as they both look at him, one with a much more innocent look on her face than the other, "I'm really glad that you both came here."

"Awe, he's a big softy!" Charlotte giggled as she moved closer to the two, throwing her arms around Stefan's waist to hug him.

"Okay, what are we doing for your birthday?" Lexi asked, smiling at the love her best friend had for her daughter as he hugged her back, "It's not everyday a guy turns 162 years old."

Stefan groans loudly, "Really?"

"Oh, yeah."

"I tried to get her to stop and buy you a cake, but she wouldn't do it."

"The stores were closed!"

──── ୨ৎ ────

𝐂harlotte walks around the library in the boarding house, her fingers brushing over the spins of the books the two brother's had collected over the years as she looked for a book that would interest her enough to sit and read it as they waited for Stefan to get back.

"Well, well, well." Damon's voice cuts through the air, causing a sigh to leave the brunette's lips as she turns to face him, "Look what was dragged in. I wondered why it was so dark in here."

"Hmm, it's probably the same that should've dragged to hell." Charlotte sends him a tight smile as she goes back to looking at the many books.

Damon studies the brunette as she grabs a book from the shelf, reading the back and putting it back before he turns around and leaves the house.

──── ୨ৎ ────

"𝐂an you make me breakfast?"

Stefan cracks an eye open, chuckling as he notices that Charlotte's leaning over him, her hair pulled into a messy bun and out of her face. "Aren't you seventeen? Can't you make your own breakfast?"

"I could.....," The Branson teen trails off as a wide smile is placed on her face, "....but you make the best French Toast. Please, Uncle Stefan? Please, please, please, pl—,"

"Okay! Okay!" Stefan laughs, cutting her off as he quickly grabs her arm and pulls her to rest in between him and Lexi, "Let me brush my teeth and I'll make you French Toast."

"Yes! You're the best!"

──── ୨ৎ ────

"𝐒o, this Elena girl." Lexi smirked as she looked over at Stefan, "Have you had sex yet?"

"No." Stefan denied, laughing at the look of disgust on Charlotte's face as she kept eating her Toast.

"Sex always works." Lexi tells him, "I mean, you'll rock her world so hard with your vamp sex she'll be yours forever."

"Yeah, but see, this isn't about....sex or — or compulsion. Or any of our other tricks." Stefan explained to the blonde as Charlotte tried to drown them out. "She has to want to be with me. On her own terms."

"Wow. That sounded all mature and grown-up." Lexi tells him as she tosses her daughter a blood bag, "Charlie, catch."

"Well, I'm not getting any older."

"Oh. Ha ha." Lexi stabs a straw through the blood bag in her hand as Charlotte just sinks her teeth in the side of hers. "Want some?"

"No." Stefan denied, standing up from the couch, "Thank you."

"Relax. We didn't kill anyone for it." Lexi tells him, "This phlebotomist I went out with a few times, he's my supplier. Oh, don't judge, okay? Listen, I tried the animal diet. Lasted three weeks. And Charlotte, she tried it but didn't like it."

"Doesn't matter 'cause if I started again, I'd just...I don't know."

"You could stop." Lexi says as she sighs.

"Lexi, I'd never judge you." Stefan says to the blonde, glancing over at Charlotte. "I wouldn't judge her either."

"I'm just jealous of your restraint. I have none." Lexi smiles, "I delight in hedonism. Speaking of which, what are we doing tonight?"

"Funny you should ask." Damon chooses that moment to walk into the living room.

"Well, I wasn't asking you."

"There's a party, at the Grill." Damon continues, "You'll love it. Banquettes, tacky wait staff. All of Stefan's friends."

"Yeah, I don't want a birthday party."

"Well, it's not for you. It's a party, party. No one's gonna know it's your birthday." Damon tells his younger brother, "Caroline's throwing it."

"Damon, stay away from Caroline."

"We're friends. It's cool." Damon says, causing Charlotte to raise an eyebrow, "It's important for the town to see us out and about like normal folk. We need to blend. Ugh. I prefer mine at 98.6."

Lexi looks at Stefan with a shrug, "Let's go."

Charlotte turns to look up at Stefan, a glossy look in her eyes and a pout on her lips, "Please, Uncle Stefan? Please?"

He looks down at her, shaking his head as he looks down at her, "Why do I always fall for the innocent look with you?"

──── ୨ৎ ────

          "𝐈'm almost ready." Lexi comes out of Stefan's shower, wrapped in a fluffy brown towel as Charlotte and Stefan laid around the room, the brunette Brandon having taken a shower before her mom.

"I can't believe you think that we should go to this thing." Stefan comments as he stands up from the chair he was sitting in.

"It's not like I'm asking you to run outside, midday, without your ring." She smiles at him through the mirror before spinning around, "I mean, seriously, it's a party."

"A party that Damon wants us to go to. Yeah?" Stefan looks at the two girls in his bedroom, "So my question is, why? I think he's up to something."

"Who cares? I mean, what can he possibly do in front of all those people in a public place?" Lexi asked him.

"Plan our deaths." Charlotte shrugged as she didn't look up from the book that she was reading.

"We're not dying." Lexi rolls her eyes at her overly dramatic daughter.

"He knows how to keep a low profile, believe me."

"Okay, so he'll behave. Come on. One day a year we get to you. One day that you're not brooding and existing in your own head."

"It's my birthday, yeah?" Stefan asked jokingly.

"It's our day!" Charlotte tells him.

Lexi nods along to her daughter, "She's right. And that guy that jumped naked in the Trevi Fountain and got drunk on the torch of the Statue of Liberty? That guy can take a break from all his worrying for one night and go to a stupid party. So quit your whining....," She moves behind him and smacks him on the ass as she pushes in towards his bathroom.

"Fine." Stefan holds his hands up in surrender, turning to look at the two in his bedroom, "You two are a dangerous duo to mess with when together."

"And don't you forget it!"

──── ୨ৎ ────

          𝐂harlotte hums a Metallica song under head breath as she walks back towards the stairs, going back to Stefan's room when her ears pick up on the sound of a car door shutting outside right before the door bell rings.

"It's open! Come on in!" She calls out as she turns to jog towards the door, gasping as she stopped in her tracks at the familiar face of the girl that Stefan carried around but by being able to listen to the girls heart beating in her chest, confusion filled her body.

"Uh... who are—,"

"Charlie! Who was at the door?!" Lexi called out to her daughter as she came around the corner still wrapped up in the towel since she had left her clothes downstairs in her bag. "Oh, my God. How, uh, oh."

"You can — you can see her too, right?" Charlotte asked quietly, not taking her eyes off the brunette standing in front of them.

"Uh-huh." Lexi nodded, in the same amount of shock that her daughter was in. "Who—,"

"Uh, I'm Elena." Elena introduces herself, looking between the two of them.

Charlotte is quick to turn around, slapping a hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing loudly like she wanted to.

"Who are you?"

"Lexi." The blonde introduces herself, "And this is Charlie."

Charlotte turns back around, smiling at the girl as she still tries to keep her laughter at bay, "We're friends of Stefan's."

Elena is taken back as she glanced over at Lexi, who was wrapped in just a towel, "Is he here?"

"He's in the shower. Um....do you wanna wait?"

"No." Elena's voice is quiet.

"We'll tell him that you stopped by." Charlotte sends her a cheeky smile, hands sliding into her ripped jeans pockets.

"That's okay." Elena tells her before she turns around and walks out of the house.

"She totally thinks you slept with Uncle Stefan." Charlotte finally laughs, dodging the hit from her mom as the blonde flies up the stairs, "Best part of this trip!"

"Hush or you're grounded!"

──── ୨ৎ ────

          "𝐘ou have some serious emotional damage." Lexi sits cross legged on Stefan's bed as she checks over her make up in a small hand-held mirror, both her and Charlie having listened to Stefan's explanation about Elena.

"No, it's not what you guys think." Stefan had his hand tucked in his jean pockets, "She's not Katherine."

"Then they're related because they could be twins, Uncle Stefan." Charlotte shrugged, trying the strings to her converse.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" Lexi questioned, "You — you didn't find out?"

"No, maybe I don't wanna know." Stefan shrugged, "I have, I have no desire to tie Elena to Katherine."

Charlotte and Lexi both send him the same look.

"Okay, yes, yes. The — the resemblance is what drew me in but that's it. Katherine and Elena may look the same on the outside but on the inside they are completely different."

"That's what they all say."

"Oh, so Elena's not a raging bitch, then, huh?"

Stefan smiles, "No. No, Elena is....Elena's warm and she's....she's kind and she's caring and she's selfless. And it's real. And...honestly, when I'm around her I...I completely forget what I am."

"Oh, my God." Lexi stares at her best friend, "You're in love with her."

"Yeah. Now I am."

"Wow." Charlotte grinned as she walked towards the bedroom door, "And now she thinks you slept with mom 'cause she came in while mom was in a towel and you were showering."

────           ୨ৎ          ────

          𝐓he mother and daughter walk into 'The Grill', both of them looking around as Damon walks up to them. Charlotte rolls her eyes, bumping harshly into his shoulder as she disappears into the crowd.

"Where's my brother?" Damon questions the blonde, glancing over his shoulder at the brunette who had been quick to blend in among the other teenagers that Caroline had invited.

"He said he'd meet us here." Lexi tells him.

"Buy you a—," Damon trails off as she walks by her.

────          ୨ৎ          ────

         𝐂harlotte pushes her way past teenagers dancing with each other, looking around her her mom and Stefan when she bumps harshly into someone. Just as she moves to tumble to the ground due to the impact of the hit, hands shoot out to wrap around her waist stopping her from actually making contact with the dirty floor.

"Shit! I am so sorry!" The owner of the hands looks down at her with wide eyes.

"No, don't worry about it." Charlotte shakes her head as she looks up, locking eyes with a brown haired, dark brown eyed teenager, "Seriously, don't worry about it. I was just looking for my sister and Stefan."

"Stefan? Salvatore?" He asked in confusion, "How do you know Stefan?"

"Oh, my sister is his best friend and we're here for his birthday." She tells him as he lets go of her waist and she holds her hand out, "I'm Charlotte Branson...why did I just tell you my full government name? I go by Charlie, though."

He smiles brightly at her, "Jeremy Gilbert." And shakes her hand. "Uh, can I buy you a drink?"

"Aren't you a little too young to be buying drinks?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

Jeremy laughs, "I mean, a non-alcoholic drink?"

"Right." She laughs, "Yeah, sure. But just until I see my sister and Stefan."

"I'll keep you company."

────          ୨ৎ           ────

          "𝐖here's Charlotte?" Stefan leans down to ask Lexi, not having seen the brunette vampire since his arrival at the Grill after his quick trip to see Elena since she had stopped by the Boarding house.

"Oh, I haven't seen her since we....found her." Lexi lets a smirk overtake her face as she notices her daughter sitting at a table across from a boy, the two of them laughing and talking with each other, "Right over there with that puppy eyed boy."

"Boy? What boy? She's not allowed to date." Stefan's head snaps over to where Lexi was pointing, "That's Elena's little brother, Jeremy."

Lexi tilted her head, "Hmm, he's cute. Way better looking than the last guy she was dating. He was a bit of a dick. Plus, I didn't see her as the type to date someone named Andrew. I wanted to rip his fake eyebrows off."

"She's not allowed to date!" Stefan calls over his shoulder as he makes his way towards the table where the two are sitting.

"Typically Uncle behavior!" Lexi calls after him with a laugh, leaning against the pool table as she watches them.

"Lottie." Stefan's hand clamps down onto her shoulder as he stands behind her, smiling down at both her and Jeremy, "I see you've met Jeremy."

"Oh, yeah. We bumped into each other, literally." Charlotte laughs as she looks up at her "Uncle", who nodded.

"I was just keeping her company until you and her sister got here." Jeremy informed the Salvatore boy who had been dating his sister.

"Thanks. Rematch in pool?" Stefan raised an eyebrow as he looks to the teenage girl, "Fifty bucks I kick your ass again."

"Oh, you're so on." Charlotte laughs as she stands up from her chair, turning back to Jeremy. "Thank you for the drink, and for keeping me company."

"Yeah, it was no problem." Jeremy smiled and paused, "Can I — uh, could I get your number? Maybe we can keep in contact? You know, long distance friends."

Charlotte nods with another laugh, pulling her phone out to give to him as he does the same. The vampire is quick to add her number into his phone, hanging it back to him, "It was nice meeting you."

"Didn't I tell you that you couldn't date anyone for a while?" Stefan wrapped an arm around her shoulders as the two of them walked away.

"I'm 150!" She looks at him in disbelief.

"Then no dates until you're 250." He says as they come to a stop in front of the pool table where Lexi was laughing at the two of them.

"If I can make it that far." Charlotte playfully rolls her eyes as she grabs a pool stick, "Tomorrow's not promised, you know."

"Wise words from a person who's ass I'm taking fifty from." Stefan smirked as she turns around to squint at him.

"You're on."

────          ୨ৎ          ────

          "𝐇ave you been practicing?" Stefan looks over at Charlotte as she makes another solid ball fall into one of the pockets.

The brunette vampire shrugs her shoulder, "Mom's boyfriend bought a pool table for our house. I play with him all the time."

"More like she scams him of his money." Lexi laughed as Stefan took his shot, none of them noticing that Elena watched from a distance.

"Miss." Charlotte bumps her hip into his, knocking him off balance and making him miss.

"Oh, that's how you want to play?" Stefan smiles widely at the girl, passing Lexi his pool stick and wrapping his arms around Charlotte's legs, turning her body to where she was hanging from his arms upside down.

Loud laughter leaves her lips as she grabs onto his ankles so that she wouldn't fall, "Put me down! Put me down!"

"I'm going to get shots!" Lexi calls out through the loud laughter of her daughter as Stefan slowly lowered her to the ground so that she could get back to her feet.

"Bring me one!"

"Not old enough!"

"Not old enough physically, but old enough year wise!"

────          ୨ৎ          ────

          "𝐓hree shots of tequila." Lexi leans against the bar while looking around, catching sight of Elena talking to a few teenagers that she more than likely went to school with, "Make that four."

The bartender looks up at her, "I'm gonna need to see some ID."

"No, you don't." The blonde looks up at him, focusing on the way his pupils dilate.

"That will be, uh—,"

"Free."

"On the house."

"Thanks!" Lexi's voice is cheerful as he pours the shots before she takes them off the bar and makes her way towards the girl who shared the same face with Katherine, "Ah, the famous Elena."

Elena turns around, here voice hard, "Towel girl."

"I've been called worse." Lexi tells her with a shrug of her shoulder, holding out a shot glass to her, "Here."

"I didn't know that you guys could drink."

"Oh, yeah. It helps curb the cravings." Lexi tells her as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "But makes for a lot of lushy vamps."

Elena gives a short laugh, "You know, I've never seen Stefan drunk. He always seems so....,"

"Uptight?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah." Elena nods, pointing towards her with a sarcastic smile, "But not with you. Or the girl he's turning upside down."

"Well, that's the benefit of knowing someone for over a hundred years, and then watching your daughter grow up." Lexi tells her, "You can just be yourself."

"Yeah, he can't be himself with me."

"Well, not yet. The first step was him telling you. The rest comes with time." Lexi explained to her. 

"You seem so sure." Elena frowns as if Lexi had experienced it.

"The love of my life was human." Lexi smiles softly at her, "He went through what...I imagine you're going through. Denial, anger, etcetera. But at the end of the day...love really did conquer all. But what really sold the two of us on it, was that he managed to love my daughter just like she was his own."

"Your daughter?" Elena tilts her head with a confused look on her face.

Lexi nods her head in the direction of the pool table where Stefan and Charlotte were messing around, Stefan trapping her in a headlock and messing up her hair, "I found Charlie when she was just five-years old. Stefan's always checking up on her." She paused, "Are you gonna drink that?"

"Oh, uh, go for it." Elena hands the shot to her, watching as she quickly drinks it, "I'm scared."

"But you're here." Lexi tells her, "'Cause you're crazy about him. I get it. I mean....what's not to love?"

The both look back over at Stefan hits the pool balls with the pool queue in his hand.

"Listen, take it from someone who has been around a long time. When it's real....you can't walk away." Lexi says in a soft tone before shooting back the last tequila shot.

"Hey, Lexi." Elena calls out, the blonde turning back to her. "It was really nice meeting you."

"Mom, Stefan is cheating!" Charlotte whined as Lexi walked back over to them.

"I'm cheating? You were pushing me out of the way!"

"Oh, whatever! I'm going to the bathroom." Charlotte tells them before walking away from the two of them.

"Thank you." Stefan smiles at his best friend.

"You weren't supposed to be listening." Lexi smiled over at her, "I was feeling epic. Whatever....thank you."

"For?"

"Treating Charlie like she's actually your niece...like she's my real daughter."

"She is your real daughter, Lexi. You're the only mother that she will ever know." Stefan says to her, "And I'm grateful that I'm a part of her life."

────          ୨ৎ          ────

          "𝐘ou know, I was thinking." Stefan spoke up as Charlotte took a turn at yet another pool game between the two of them, "If you ever wanna give your mom and Lee a few days to themselves, you can always come back and visit. We can even take a road trip for a few days."

"Yeah, I think the road trip is out of the question...you know, can't really walk in the sunlight."

Stefan chuckled, "Right, yeah, I forgot." Stefan laughs as he catches sight of Elena walking their way.

"Hi." Elena takes his pool stick in her hand as she smiles at him.

"Hey. You came."

"I couldn't miss your hundredth-and-whatever birthday." Elena joked with him.

"162." Charlotte spoke up unintentionally, awkwardly looking up at Elena and Stefan looked at her, "I'll just be...not here." 

────           ୨ৎ             ────

        𝐂harlotte walks back over to Elena and Stefan after he motioned that it was okay for her to come back over, but she stops as a group of police officers being lead by a short blonde haired lady storms towards the bar where her mom stood next to Damon.

"Uncle Stefan....,"

"What are you doing?"

"Thank you for the Vervain. Now, if you'll excuse me."

"Oh, my God." Stefan grabs Charlotte's arm, pulling her along with him.

"What is it?" Elena asked, confused as she follows behind the two vampires.

"Excuse us. Sorry." Stefan pulls the brunette towards the front entrance but two police stop them from leaving.

"Can't go out this way."

"Come on. Back way."

"Uncle Stefan, what the hell is going on?!"

Gun shots ring out just as the three run out the back of The Grill, coming around the corner to see Lexi making her way towards the blonde lady before Damon appeared in front of her, staking her through the heart.

Stefan quickly pulls Charlotte against his chest, muffling the mix of a scream and cry spilling from her lips and covering Elena's mouth to stop her screams from escaping her lips.

"Why?" Lexi croaks out, staring into the crystal blue eyes of her killer — Stefan's brother — with the thoughts of only her daughter crossing her mind.

"It's part of the plan." Damon whispers to her before moving a little closer, "You're daughter may just be next." And he pushes the stake deeper into her chest, until her skin turns grey and veins appear all over her body.

Charlotte sobs into Stefan's shoulder, her entire body shaking at the sight of her dead mother laying on the hard, cold concrete just a few feet away.

"Are you okay?" Damon turns to the Sheriff.

"Thank you."

────          ୨ৎ              ────

          "𝐒tefan. Stefan." Elena chases after the vampire, him holding Charlotte up as she continued to cry for the loss of her mother.

"He killed her." Stefan turns around, keeping a tight grip on his niece, "He killed Zach, he killed Tanner, he turned Vicki. I have to kill him."

"No, you can't do that." Elena protests, trying to stop him from leaving.

"Why are you trying to save him?!" He asked, looking over at her in disbelief, "Elena, he's never going to change! Don't you see that?! He's never gonna change."

"I'm not trying to save him. I'm trying to save you! You have no idea what this will do to you." Elena tells him, "Please, Stefan!"

"Everywhere that I go, pain and death follow. Damon follows me. No more." He shakes his head, "Especially, when he truly hurts the people that I care about. Charlie can barely stand! She just watched him kill her mother!"

"Stefan, please, please, just — just talk to me." Elena begged, still following him, "Let me be there for you. Talk to me."

He shakes his head, pain in his voice and tears in his eyes, "No. You were right to stay away from me. Come on, Lottie. Get in the car."

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          𝐃amon pours him a shot of bourbon, a smirk slowly appearing on his face as he turns towards where Stefan is standing in front of the window, "Told you I'd take care of it."

Stefan moves quickly, punching his brother in the face as both of them start fighting each other, Stefan throwing Damon across the room.

Another figure appears over him a stake in her hand but just as she goes to stake him, Damon brings his legs up and kicks out, sending Charlotte flying across the room and into the bookshelf behind her.

Stefan quickly grabs Damon, using his speed to hold him against the wall.

"Come on, I did this for you, to get them off our trail." Damon grunts out.

"You never do anything for anyone but yourself." Stefan says, holding Damon in place as Charlotte picks the stake back up and throws it towards him, watching as Stefan stabs the stake through Damon's stomach.

Damon groans out, "You missed."

"No. You saved my life, I'm sparing yours." Stefan tells his brother, "We're even. And now we're done. Charlie, upstairs."

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          𝐒tefan watches as Charlotte paces his bedroom, the brunette running her fingers through her hair harshly. "Char—,"

"I'm going to kill him!" Her voice is harsh as she cuts him off, anger coursing through her veins.

"Hey, hey, we're not killing anybody."

We're not — he killed my mother, Stefan!"

The Salvatore boy flinches as she doesn't call him 'Uncle Stefan' which lets him know that she was really pissed, "I know, Lottie!" He stands up and puts his hands on her shoulders I know. And I'll handle it, but I need your help."

Charlotte stares up at him, angry tears in her eyes as she started into his pleading ones, "Fine."