❪ 𝓢𝑰𝑿 𝓕𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝓤𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹 ❫ ⚰️ ˖ ׁ ⁩ 𓂃
𝚃𝚅𝙳  ⸻  ✸ 🔮⭑.ᐟ
❝ 𝖶𝖤 𝖧𝖠𝖵𝖤 𝖤𝖳𝖤𝖱𝖭𝖨𝖳𝖸 ❞

✦ ╮ 𝟎𝟖. ❝ 𝟣𝟨𝟤 𝖢𝖠𝖭𝖣𝖫𝖤𝖲 ❞ ── .✦

❝WAKEY, WAKEY, LITTLE SALVATORE. ❞ A familiar voice whispered into Anastasia's ear as she was sound asleep in her bedroom, "Since when has it been this hard to wake you up, Green eyes?"

With a gasp, Anastasia sprung up and wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck, "Aunt Lexi!"

Lexi Branson, Stefan's best friend and the non-biological aunt of Anastasia, laughed as she wrapped her arms around the girl's waist, hugging her back equally as tight.

"What are you doing here?" Anastasia asked as the two pulled out of the hug.

"Don't tell me you don't remember what today is?" Lexi gave her a shocked look.

Raising an eyebrow, Anastasia grabbed her phone off the side of the table and checked the date.

November 1st.

"Uncle Stefan's birthday."

"Bingo!" Lexi grins, "Wanna watch me scare him?"

Anastasia returned the look, "Duh."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

STEFAN SAT asleep in a chair downstairs, waking up as he hears the sound of the book he had been reading, hit the ground.

He sits the book onto the table next to him and gets up to stretch just as he hears the sound of a woman laughing.

Hearing the sound of wind whistling in the air, Stefan walked to the large windows to close the ones that had been open, before hearing things start to move around behind him.

"Damon?!" Stefan calls out, "Anastasia?!"

Just then, a figure attacks him, holding him down by the throat as he was shoved to the floor of the Boarding house.

Stefan stared up at the blonde in shock, "Lexi!"

"Hi." She quickly pulled him up from the ground.

"What are you doing here?" Stefan asked her.

"How could you even ask that?" She asked as the two of them hugged.

"I missed you." He tells her.

Lexi pulled away and grinned up at Stefan, "Happy birthday."

"Okay, you can come out now, Eloise." Stefan says, and watching as his niece lands on her feet beside him and Lexi with a smile on her face.

"I'm still pissed at you, but it's your birthday so I'm going to hug you anyway." Anastasia tells her uncle before hugging him, "Happy birthday, Uncle Stefan."

Stefan grinned, kissing the top of her head, "Thank you."

"Uh, why are you mad at your uncle?" Lexi raised an eyebrow as she looked between the two.

Anastasia groaned, throwing her head back, "There's this guy, a human guy, that I really like. And last night Uncle Stefan killed his ex-girlfriend, his hook-up, whatever you want to call it, because dad turned her into a vampire, and she was going to kill him and his older sister. And then at the end of the night, she decided that she didn't want him to feel the pain of losing anyone else that he loved."

"So, she wanted Uncle Stefan to compel him to forget about what he saw, but Uncle Stefan is on the animal diet so he didn't think he could do it and make it work, so here comes dad, and he tells the girl that he'll do it. Before he could even go in the house, I told him that if he did compel him, that I'd hate him forever, but he did it anyway. And that includes what I'm made at them, because if he ever finds out the truth some other way, then I'm scared he'll hate me because I really knew what had happened to her."

Lexi and Stefan looked at the girl in amusement as she spoke, no pauses between her sentences, as she finishes with a pout on her face.

"Seems like you really like this boy." Lexi says, wrapping her arm around the younger girl's shoulder.

"I do. I really do."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

ANASTASIA SAT at the end of her uncle's bed as Stefan and Lexi playfully shoved one another as they leaned against the headboard.

"Stop." Lexi laughs, "I don't know, some freak shot at me with wooden bullets, I'd bail in under sixty. And why is a new reporter hunting vampires?"

"I don't know. I don't know who knows about us." Stefan tells her, "That guy did. There could be others. Do me a favor while you're here, please be careful."

"Ugh, why stay?" Lexi asked, "I"m headed to New York for the weekend Bon Jovi in the Garden. "Wanted Dead or Alive", it's our theme song. It'll be a blast."

"Do you think he would actually remember us?" Anastasia questioned.

"That was a pretty crazy weekend, huh?" Stefan asked his two favorite girls.

"We can make him remember us. Come on, let's go!" Lexi exclaimed, "I mean, what's keeping you guys here?"

"I told you, her name is Elena." Stefan says, putting his shoes back onto his feet.

"Jeremy." Anastasia groaned, falling back onto the comfortable white sheets.

"Let's hope she's better than the last girl you got all sprung over." Lexi says, flashing the picture of Katherine that Stefan kept around.

"You didn't even know Katherine." Stefan snatched the picture out of her hand.

"'Cause if I did, I'd kick her ass." Says Lexi, "Little bitch. Speaking of...where's Damon?"

"Inflicting misery somewhere." Anastasia says just as her phone starts to ring in her hand, "Hello?"

"Are you busy?" Jeremy asked on the other end, "Because homework is kicking my ass. I could use some help."

"I'll be over in ten." Anastasia paused, looking down at the pajamas she was wearing, "Make that twenty, I need to change."

Lexi raised an eyebrow as the girl flashed out of her uncle's room, coming back into the bedroom dressed completely different than she was seconds ago.

Now, she was wearing her signature pair of ripped black jeans and a bad t-shirt that you could no longer tell what it had on, and a pair of white Chuck Taylor's.

"Bye, Uncle Stefan. Bye, Aunt Lexi." She kissed both of them on the cheek before flashing out of the room, the sound of the front door slamming shut below them filling the ears of the two remaining vampires.

"Jeremy?" Lexi questioned.

Stefan chuckled, confirming Lexi's story, "Jeremy."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

ANASTASIA LOOKED over Jeremy's shoulder as he did the homework he wanted her help with.

"You're wallowing." Jenna speaks as she sits down next to her niece.

"So are you."

"My wallowing is legitimate." Jenna tells her, "I was dumped."

"Yeah. Well, Logan's a jerk."

"You didn't get a brush-off email saying, "I'm leaving town, see ya"."

"Wanna keep it down over there?" Jeremy asked from the kitchen table.

"Why? What are you doing?" Jenna asked, turning to look at the two teens in the kitchen.

"Homework."

Jenna and Elena shared a look of confusion, Elena following her aunt's lead to look at her brother over the couch.

"Since when do you do homework?" Elena questioned him.

"I gotta finish this." Jeremy says, erasing the answer as Anastasia pointed out to him that it was wrong, "I'm way behind and I have a quiz tomorrow, so..."

"What do you think?" Elena asked her aunt, "Alien?"

"Some sort of replica." Jenna says.

"He can hear you." Jeremy tells them, "And you, stop telling me that I'm wrong."

"You are wrong! I should know, I'm smarter than you!" Anastasia exclaimed, hitting his shoulder.

Jenna laughed, "She's got you there."

"Jenna!"

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"BONNIE, I was asleep." Anastasia whined as Bonnie pulled her from Jeremy's bed and across the bathroom to Elena's bedroom.

"Stop whining." Bonnie tells her, looking towards Elena, "You up?"

"No." Elena mumbled, tugging on the blanket as Bonnie pulled it away from her, "No, No!"

"Why haven't you called me back?" Bonnie asked her.

Elena sighs, "I'm sorry."

"Are you gonna stay in there forever?"

"Yep."

"Move over." Bonnie lays next to Elena as Anastasia sits on the end of the bed, rubbing her eyes.

"Can I have her back?!" Jeremy's voice called out.

"No!" Bonnie yelled, then looked back at Elena, "I'm officially worried. Are you okay?"

"I'm tired of thinking....of talking. I...." Elena trailed off, not knowing what to say to her best friend.

"Can we get a one-line version so we can at least pretend to be helpful?" Bonnie asked.

"Stefan and I broke up." Elena says.

"I'm sorry. Are you okay?" Asked Bonnie, "Right, stupid question. I know I've been kind of MIA when you need me the most. I suck."

"You wanna make it up to me? Get my mind off of it."

"Just remember, you asked for it." Bonnie says, getting up from Elena's bed.

She closed the window before grabbing one of Elena's pillows and taking off the pillow case.

"Hey!" Elena exclaimed as the dark skinned girl cut the pillow open with scissors, pouring the feathers all onto the bed.

"Be patient." Bonnie tells her with a smile.

Elena nods, "Okay."

"I need to swear you to secrecy, both of you." Bonnie looks between both girls.

"It's kind of a bad week for that kind of stuff."

"Swear, 'cause I'm not supposed to be showing you this."

"Okay, I swear." Elena shrugged.

Both girls looked over at Anastasia, who was almost back asleep.

"Ellie!" Bonnie exclaimed.

"What?! I'm awake!" She exclaimed, "I swear."

"There's no windows, right?" Bonnie asked.

"Right." Both girls say.

"There's no fan? No air conditioning?"

"None." Elena shook her head, "What are you doing?"

"Grams just showed me this, you're gonna love it." Bonnie grins, "You two ready?"

Elena watched in disbelief as the feather that Bonnie made levitate in the air before dropping them.

"Bonnie, what's going on?"

Bonnie used both hands this time, lifting more feathers in the air, Elena now watching in amazement as she looked around her.

"It's true, Elena. Everything my Grams told me. It's impossible and it's true." Bonnie says, "I'm a witch."

"I believe you."

Anastasia clapped her hands together, gaining their attention, "Since we're sharing secrets."

Elena and Bonnie watched as the feathers levitated in the air once more before dropping into a pile once more.

"How did-," Bonnie gasped in shock.

"My mom was a Flower, her side were witches." Anastasia says, "Uncle Stefan to you during that dinner we were forced to come to.

"That's-,"

Elena's bedroom door swung open, causing the three girls to jump in shock as Jeremy marched inside, throwing Anastasia over his shoulder, "Next time, ask before you snatch and leave."

"Was throwing me over your shoulder necessary" Anastasia asked as he walked into his bedroom and shut the door.

"Yes, yes it was."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

ANASTASIA WAS now back at her house after fighting Jeremy on if she really had to leave and go home or not. In the end, she had won the argument.

"So, this Elena girl." Lexi walks around with a smile on her face, "She'll come around. I'm sure of it. Have you had sex yet?"

"No."

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

"Yes, but see, this isn't about sex or...or compulsion, or any of our other tricks. She has to want to be with me on her own terms." Stefan tells his best friend.

"Wow. That sounded mature and grownup."

"He's not getting any younger." Anastasia smirked at her uncle, "And can we please stop talking about my uncle's sex life? At least wait 'til I'm not in the room, damn."

"Hmm. What about your sex life, Green eyes?" Lexi smirked at her.

"Excuse me?" Stefan looks at his niece.

"What? I'm 133 years old. Did you expect me to be a virgin my whole life?" She asked him.

"Yes!" Stefan exclaims, "Who was it? And when?"

"1906, Kol." She shrugged as Lexi opened her suitcase and pulled out a blood bag, stabbing a straw into it and taking a sip.

"Want some?" Lexi held the bag towards Stefan.

"No." Stefan stood up to move away from the smell, "Thank you."

"Relax. I didn't kill anyone for it." She 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."

"It doesn't matter. 'Cause if I started again...."

"You could stop." Anastasia told her uncle softly.

"Lexi, I'd never judge you." Stefan says.

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

"Funny you should ask." Damon walked into the room, ignoring the harsh glare that his daughter sent his way.

"Well, I wasn't asking you."

"There's a party at the Grill. You'll love it." Damon tells the blonde, "Banquettes, tacky wait staff, all of Stefan and Anastasia's friends."

Stefan rolled his eyes, "I don't want a birthday party."

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

"Dad, stay away from Caroline."

"We're friends, it's coo." He waved his daughter off, "It's important for the town to see us out and about like normal folk. We need to blend." Damon looks over at the blood that Lexi brought with her, "I prefer mine as ninety-eight point six."

"Let's go." Lexi spoke after Damon leaves. She notices the looks from Anastasia and Stefan, "Please?"

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"I'M ALMOST ready." Lexi walked out of Stefan's bathroom in just her towel after getting out of the shower, finding Anastasia laid out on her uncle's bed while Stefan sat at his desk.

"I can't believe you actually think that we should go to this thing." Stefan says as he stands up.

"It's not like she's asking you to run outside midday without your ring on." Anastasia tells him as she texted Jeremy, asking if he was going to come to the party.

"Seriously, it's a party." Lexi tells her best friend.

"A party that Damon wants us to go to, you know? So my questions is, why?" Stefan looked between the two girls, "I think he's up to something."

"He's always up to something." Anastasia mumbled.

"Who cares? What can he possibly do in front of all those people in a public place?" Lexi questioned.

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

"Okay, so he'll behave. Come on. One day a year I get you and Ana, one day that you're not brooding and existing in your own head." Lexi said.

"You are always a party killer on your birthday." Shrugged Anastasia.

Stefan looked between the two girls, "It's my birthday, yeah?"

"It's my day." Lexi says, "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 of his worrying for one night and go to a stupid party. So quit your whining." She hits him on his ass, "And go get ready."

Stefan held his hands up in surrender, "Fine."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"IT'S OPEN! Come on in!" Lexi called as there was a knock on the door.

"Don't invite people into my house." Anastasia playfully pushed Lexi as the two walked towards the living room where Lexi had left her suitcase.

"Hush, little gir - oh, my god!"

Anastasia looked in the direction Lexi was as she came to a stop, finding Elena coming into the house, "Oh, this will be good."

"How..uh, wh - who?" Lexi stared at Elena in shock, looking over at Anastasia for confirmation that she was seeing what she was seeing.

"I'm Elena." She introduces herself, glancing at Anastasia before looking at the girl in just a towel, "Who are you?"

"Lexi, a friend of Stefan and Anastasia." Lexi says.

"Is he here?" Elena asked.

"He's in the shower." Anastasia answered for Lexi, arms crossed over her chest.

"Do you want to wait?" Asked Lexi.

"No."

"I'll tell him you stopped by." Lexi tells her.

"That's okay." Elena walked out the door.

"She thinks you slept with Uncle Stefan." Smirked Anastasia.

Lexi looked at the green eyed girl before zooming up the stairs, Anastasia right behind her.

"Are you out of your freaking mind?" Lexi asked Stefan.

Stefan looks at her in confusion as he buttoned his shirt.

"I just met Elena." Lexi held up the photo of Katherine from 1864, "You both have some serious explaining to do."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"YOU HAVE some serious emotional damage."

Lexi was now dressed as she did her makeup in the mirror, Anastasia standing in the bathroom as she curled her long dark brown hair.

"No, it's not what you think." Says Stefan, "She's not Katherine."

"Then they're related."

Anastasia tensed up at her statement.

"Cause they can be twins."

"I don't know."

"You don't know or you didn't find out?" Lexi asked him.

"No. Maybe, I don't want to know." Stefan stopped pacing next to his bed, "I have - I have no desire to tie Elena to Katherine."

Lexi gives him a look.

"Okay. Yes, yes 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." Stefan explained.

"So, Elena is not a raging bitch then, huh?" Lexi asked.

"No. Elena is...Elena's warm and she's - she's kind, and caring, and she's selfless, and it's real." Anastasia rolled her eyes as Stefan explained Elena to Lexi, "And honestly when I'm around her, I...I completely forget what I am."

"Oh, my god! You're in love with her."

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"I THINK this is the first time I've seen you in something other than ripped jeans." Jeremy spoke from behind Anastasia, causing her to turn around.

She gave him a blank stare, "I was forced into this dress."

Jeremy smirked, "Someone forced you into a dress? I'd like to meet this person."

"Turn around, hot stuff."

Jeremy turns around to find Lexi standing behind him with her arms crossed and a smirk tugging on her lips.

"Hi."

"Uh, Aunt Lexi, this is Jeremy. Jeremy, this is Lexi." Anastasia introduced the two of them to each other, "She's not my actual aunt but she's known Uncle Stefan for a long time."

"Ah, you're the boy that Anastasia was telling me about." Lexi shook his outstretched hand, "She was right. You are cute."

Anastasaia's eyes grew wide, "Aunt Lexi!"

Lexi laughed, "I'm going to find your uncle, kiddo. You two have fun...but not too much fun, if you know what I mean." She winked.

"Lexi!" Anastasia turned around to find Jeremy smirking at her, "What?"

"You think I'm cute?"

"Uh, I need a shot of something super strong." She mumbled, brushing pas him, her face heating up.

Jeremy laughed, grabbing her arm and stopping her from going anywhere, "Stop. I'll stop messing with you. Besides, I think you're cute, too."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"GREEN EYES!" Lexi walked over to Jeremy and Anastasia, "Come with me to get shot. I'll get you one also."

"Ugh, fine." Anastasia stood up from the booth, turning to Jeremy, "I'll be right back."

"Three shots of Tequila." Lexi turned her head and saw Elena, "Make that four."

"I need to see some ID's." The bartender looked between Lexi and Anastasia.

"No, you don't." Lexi started to compel him.

"That'll be-,"

"Free."

"On the house."

"Thanks." Lexi smiled, taking three of the four shots, leaving Anastasia with the fourth as she walked back over to Jeremy.

"I didn't take you for the Tequila type of person." Jeremy says as she sits back down.

"Hmm, Bourbon is more my thing." Anastasia smirked.

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

THE TWO teens sat in the booth they had been in practically the whole night, laughing about anything and everything when, out of the corner of her eye, Anastasia took notice of Lexi being dragged out by Sheriff Forbes.

"Oh, my god." Stefan exclaimed as he also saw it happening.

"I'll be right back." Anastasia tells Jeremy.

"Stacie!" Jeremy calls as she rushes after her uncle.

"I'll be back! Just stay inside!" She called back to him.

"Can't go out this way." The Officer standing in front of the door tells the three.

"Out the back." Anastasia tugged her uncle towards the back, and out of the door.

As they round the corner, they're face to face with Damon staking Lexi through the heart.

"NO!" Anastasia screamed, falling to her knees as Stefan tried to pull her away from the scene. "No, no, no, Lexi! Lexi!"

"Why?" Lexi grunts as she looks up at Damon.

"It's all part of the plan." Damon whispered quietly.

"Ana is never going to forgive you for this." Lexi gets out just before she falls to the ground, dead.

"She'll forgive me eventually." Damon says to no one in particular, "I'm her father."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

"STEFAN! STEFAN!" Elena called as she ran after him.

"He killed her! He killed Zach, he killed Tanner, he turned Vicki. I have to kill him!" Stefan was angry as he stormed away from the Grill, having told Anastasia to go wait in his car since she had come with him and Lexi.

"No, you can't do that!" Elena tells him.

"Why are you trying to protect him?! Elena, he's never gonna change! Don't you see that?! He's never going to change!" Stefan yelled.

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

"Everywhere Anastasia and I have been, pain and death follow. Damon follows us. No more."

"Stefan, please. Please just - just talk to me." Elena pleaded with him, "Let me be here for you. Talk to me."

"No. You were right to stay away from me." Stefan says, "And I don't need Damon to be around Anastasia. I've taken care of her for 133 years, I'll take care of her for 133 more."

❱ 🌿⋆｡˚

DAMON STOOD in the Boarding house when Stefan arrived, Anastasia having fallen asleep in the car.

"Told you I'd take care of it." Damon tells his little brother.

Stefan attack's Damon, both of them fighting before Stefan pins his brother against the wall.

"Come on, I did this for you and Eloise. To get them off our trail." Damon says.

"You never do anything for anyone but yourself." Stefan says before stabbing him in the chest with a stake.

Damon stared at him in shock, "You missed."

"No. You save my life and my nieces. I'm sparing yours. We're even. And now we're done." Stefan tells him before walking out to grab Anastasia from the car.