THOSE / FOOLED !

it’d be an excellent night to be out hunting werewolves, but avery wasn’t about to die after actively trying to dodge death for the past couple weeks. so naturally they were sitting out of the town’s festivities; apparently they weren’t the only one, either. avery looked curiously at the other person, hesitating before speaking in an amused tone. “we must be the only two not at the grill anniversary, huh?”

calling mason pissed to see the mystic grill practically overflowing with people during the full moon was an understatement. he should have kept driving on his way to the woods with his chains for his transformation in a few hours, but he couldn’t resist entering the packed grill. was it his concern for the safety of the people of his hometown, or was it the full moon making him more angry and emotional than usual? “hey, what the hell is going on?” he asked to no one in particular, not knowing whose dumbass idea it was to have all these people out getting drunk and making bad decisions with all the wolves descending in a few short hours. he turned to the closest person to him, worry and annoyance painted upon his expression. “you shouldn’t be here. none of you should.”

Fee couldn’t roll her eyes any more. “God, Avery. I’m not a child. He teaches me magic, I do magic for him. It’s simple and logical.” She swallowed hard. “Why? Because they hurt people? Because they lie? Well, guess what? I’ve done it and I’ve done it WORSE.” Tears threatened her eyes, but she’d spent so much time crying in the last twenty-four hours, she refused to cry anymore. “So if you want me to stay away from Kol, be prepared for me to be something TERRIBLE. Something I spent every second of my life trying to avoid but can never escape from.” She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. “I’ll keep him away from you. Just… stay away from him—even me if you have to.” It stung her even more to say it, but Avery was right. They weren’t safe from Kol’s wrath. Fee had to keep it herself, even if that meant telling Avery to get away from her. No one was dying on her watch.

it wasn’t what ophelia needed but avery was just frustrated with her that she didn’t see herself the same way that they did. “is that what this is about? fee, come on, stop that! you’re better than them. you don’t have to. . .” they trailed off, shaking their head. it was what avery needed to hear, even if it wasn’t what they wanted to hear, that she was choosing kol over them. but avery wasn’t sure what else they should have expected. they weren’t charming and tall and flirtatious like kol was. they weren’t a vampire. they were just human, small. they made a lot of mistakes and said the wrong things. they couldn’t guarantee fee’s safety and happiness like kol probably could and that made them hate him so much more. “fine! i will.” and all of the hurt they felt from these sudden realizations translated to anger that masked the hurt they felt with ease. they’d just wanted to protect fee from that smug asshole and now they were paying for it like a grave mistake. “if that’s what you want.”

lips pressed together into a firm line as he looked at the other, “somehow that’s doesn’t surprise me.” head tilting ever so slightly, the male gave a brief shrug “well i guess i’m in the select few that have. i’m just passing through town, no particular reason of interest.”

there was one thing that the concentration of people and things crowding into mystic falls had in common. eden was among them and they were no fool. “right.” they leaned forward on their elbows, smug. amused. “so, which one are you? team jacob or team edward? i don’t judge.”

“You didn’t hurt my feelings, my bad mood has absolutely nothing to do with you.” It was also none of their business and yet for some reason they continued to talk to him. Benny didn’t want to touch the idea of the person’s friend dying so he stayed quiet. “Is there a reason you’re still sat here?”

eden rolled their eyes, sitting back in the chair they sat upon. “no.” they didn’t need a reason to be sat in a public restaurant, bothering a random kid whose raincloud of a mood was worsening eden’s instead of improving it like one would think. it was midly amusing at the very most. “and that’s just offensive. what’s wrong with you, then?”

“ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛᴏᴡɴ?” Marcel repeated pointing a finger, he reached out and pinched Tay’s cheeks then slapped it lightly. “ Isn’t that adorable? You’re in over your head here, be thankful we’re not in my town. You’d never see the light of day again. ”

Of course Lucy knew exactly who her relative was that lived in town but she didn’t let it show on her face. Bonnie was a Bennett witch, she could take care of herself just as Lucy could. She also didn’t believe that John would cause any harm to Bonnie and if he tried, she would be right there to stop him. “Bonnie? name doesn’t ring a bell. Oh wait, she’s the best friend right? I think I remember someone mentioning her.”

john tilted his head back for a moment as though he was studying her answer, as though he was considering for a second that she wasn’t bluffing. he must really look like some kind of idiot to these women. they never knew how much he knew. but then again, maybe he was an idiot, because though he tried, he never seemed to be able to get a step ahead. “you’re not as bad as vampires, i’ll give you that. but man, i’ve never liked you witches,” he said finally, tilting his head forward again. “you’re not as invincible as you think you are.”

“ ɪs ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ɪ ᴄᴀɴ ɢᴇᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴊᴏʜɴᴀᴛʜᴏɴ? ” She asked going to wipe down the bar as if she hadn’t heard him. Elara did. Loud and clear but any hints at love or affection went out the window.

“ Why are you pressing this issue? I am not stuck - up at all and if that’s what you think – ” Her voice trailed away with a small shrug, throwing away a beer bottle.

“ Don’t bother me. ” Elara said with a dismissive tone, looking at him with a shadow of hurt on her face. It was the compulsion trying to push him away. “ You know I have some sort of affliction – or something..why are you doing this? You’re not a nice person John Gilbert. If anything my heart curls into itself when I see you.”

john eyed her curiously, the conversation reminding him of their talk at the ball. that had also gone in a similar direction, with her shutting down on him. “is that what you really want? me to not bother you?” he asked, more amused than anything. 

how did john see elara as anything but stuck-up when that was the only side of her she showed him? it was almost as though it was the only side of herself that she could show him. he could be an asshole, but he didn’t genuinely dislike elara and never had. it was like she had walls around herself that even someone as charming as himself could penetrate. 

sʜᴇ sᴛᴀʀᴛᴇᴅ ᴡʜᴇɴ ʜᴇ ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀᴇᴅ ɪɴ ғʀᴏɴᴛ ᴏғ ʜᴇʀ, it was her least favourite vampire trick. Why couldn’t they just walk? She wiped her nose on her sleeve.

“ My mom? In New Orleans – she’s dead…but I can bring her back if I have the right stuff – ”

ʟᴀᴢɪʟʏ, ᴋᴀᴛʜᴇʀɪɴᴇ ᴘᴏᴜʀᴇᴅ ʜᴇʀsᴇʟғ ᴀ ᴅʀɪɴᴋ, listening to him continue to speak for a moment. She smirked and stomped her long heel into his shoe, piercing his toes, “ Look, I’m going to go easy on you because you’re obviously deluded, I am not scared to tear you apart in front of this Grill, it would bring me joy, I’ve had a long day. Run along. ”

SHE COULD FEEL HERSELF WANTING TO RETRACT, to curl up and forget this conversation altogether. even though they were were still in the midst of talking or arguing or whatever you’d like to call it, mai didn’t like the current status of where the conversation was at nor where it was going. crossing her arms over her chest as a visible defense mechanism, the brunette looked over to matt with mixed emotions that were beginning to leak through her usually unreadable exterior. “you wouldn’t understand, you just wouldn’t. just forget about it.” matt was as human as they came and mai wasn’t going to taint that. it just wasn’t fair. if that upset of frustrated him then she was okay with it because in the end she was doing him a favor whether he knew it or not…or at least that’s what she was telling herself. silence struck and the witch became noticeably quiet. at this point she felt like she was standing in quicksand and every move she made only threatened to submerge her deeper until she hit a point of no return. there was no escape, to any of it. even running didn’t seem like a possibility at this point as her legs felt as heavy as the darkness and the pain that loomed over her. as much as she would like to say the she just didn’t care at all…she did. and right now she found that what he said had somehow possessed a certain unexpected sting to it that she didn’t wish to feel. if anything, that made her feel even more reason to stay away. to keep her distance. “life. my life…my past and even present experiences are what make me think that way. it’s why i find it so crazy. it’s why i am the way i am. sometimes that’s just how people are built. it’s not that big of a deal.” while she had attempted to make it sound like her usual careless remark, it seemed this time around it lacked it’s usual punch and instead faltered horribly. “what i want doesn’t matter…it just doesn’t, okay? do what you want. if that makes it easier then go ahead.” as soon as he a step forward, she made a point to look elsewhere as her arms remained crossed. “nothing, it means nothing,” she said quickly with obvious undertones of defensiveness evident which only served to make what she was saying sound like a bold faced lie. “just forget it matt, forget all of this, okay?!” she almost pleaded with him as she began to shift uncomfortably. “i should just….go. you have class and…i just need to leave, okay? just…please forget i said anything.”

matt didn’t want to fight anymore. he hadn’t gone into this originally intending to fight with mai, but somewhere along the line it had escalated to that point and he felt the intense need to defend himself against her words. but not anymore. “what, so i don’t know you, but you know me? how do you know what i won’t understand?” he’d been through his own fair share of crap in his life, in his past experiences. it wasn’t something he was using as an excuse to push everyone away from him, and in fact it was more of a reason he loved and cared more deeply. it was easier than being alone, even if that’s where he was at the end of every night anyway. matt could only watch, helplessly, as she sunk into her quicksand. the quicksand that not even the strength of a quarterback could pull her out of, a thought that made him want to walk away and never look back because it was work. it was so much work. but it wasn’t in matt to leave it when that was what she was saying on the outside, when his guts and his brain and his heart told him something wasn’t right. perhaps it was something he misinterpreted, something that meant he should use as more of a reason to walk away. his feet were cemented to the floor while her facade crumbled before his eyes. or, at least, pieces of it. “it is a big deal, mai. you’re a big deal to me. maybe that’s crazy but i don’t care.” his world would not end, nor would life as he knew it, end, if she succeeded in pushing him away from her. at most a few weeks and the guilt he felt from giving up, and the hurt he felt from being rejected that way, would being to subside. there was something about how lost she seemed, how confused she seemed, how close she was to opening up to him, at least from what he could sense. which probably wasn’t a lot, because matt wasn’t great at reading people. that only made it even more difficult for him to understand her. “i want to help you. i know more than you think. i’m not just a dumb jock, okay? so please, just. . . let me help you.” but the thing was that it didn’t need to be that way. she looked like and sounded like she needed help, more than he originally thought before from her moody moments and underlying dark statements. it felt like something deeper and scarier to matt than it had before. hearing his first name instead of his last leaving her lips, that was the part that really brought goosebumps to his arms. it wasn’t so simple to just forget like she insisted. it wasn’t something he could let her walk away while he thought about it, worried, wondering if she’d be at school tomorrow or the next day or the next day. she couldn’t just expect that.

It was almost funny to her how brainwashed Katherine had made him. There really was something to be admired in how easily the vampire manipulated the people around her. “Yeah of course, you’re right. She loves you why would she ever do something like that?” Inwardly she rolled her eyes thinking about how naive he was. “I’m helping Katherine and she wants to break the curse. The reason for me helping Katherine isn’t something you need to know.”

mason glanced at her wearily, unamused by the sarcasm. was it sarcasm? it sounded like sarcasm as uncharacteristic of lucy it seemed. he never knew with her, to be honest. he gave up trying to understand lucy bennett a long time ago. but he didn’t need her to validate his relationship because he had something with katherine that no one else ever understood. not any of his friends back in florida, not his family here, no one. “does it ever get tiring, being so serious and negative and private all the time? i mean, damn. humor me. have a drink or something.”

” ᴛʜᴇɴ ᴡʜʏ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʏᴏᴜ – ” sʜᴇ sᴛᴀʀᴛᴇᴅ with an annoyed tone looking over at them. Katherine backed up against the aisle of soup cans as they touched her face. Her breath went shallow at the sound of her name. She smirked, taking their hand and crushing it, the other snuck behind her back to reach for a can of corn chowder. “Aren’t you clever? ”

Fee immediately felt protective of her decisions. Yeah, she was kissing him, so what? He was also the reason she was tortured. She was getting the picture everyone was trying to paint—she wasn’t blind. Or maybe she was. Isn’t that what people said about love? Ophelia didn’t care. She was moving out of it, she had to. “I’m not defending him and he’s not my boyfriend! He’s my nothing! He teaches me about magic, that’s all! And considering I’ve never met another person who knows that much about magic and actually can be around me without me accidentally almost killing them, yeah okay it’s been nice.” Ophelia wanted to scream. If her throat wasn’t still sore from all the screaming she’d done last night she probably would have. She took a deep breath and huffed. Her eyes were stinging. “He’s not going to kill you. As much as you probably don’t believe it right now, I wouldn’t let him do that. But next time, don’t go challenging forces you can’t hope to compete with. Mikaelson. Avoid the name.”

exasperated, avery rolled their eyes and dropped their shoulders. the tension moved to their arms, crossed against their chest. “open your eyes, fee! do you think he’d really just help you without a price?” they stared hard at her for a moment, their tone and their anger softening slightly at the look on her face. “look, vampires can’t be trusted, okay? men can’t be trusted. especially not kol, why can’t you see that? he’s bad.” at her statement, they let out a humorless breath of air, vaguely resembling a chuckle. but avery hardly found it funny, just unbelievable. “you weren’t there. you didn’t hear what he said.” admittedly avery would argue that bringing up ophelia’s name to kol at the ball was about the only reason they were alive at this moment. they were confident they could defend themselves if they had to, even if it meant staking kol a million times, but fee? they worried about fee. they worried a lot, because she was willing to sacrifice so much at her own damn expense, and avery hated that just as much as they admired it.

“ ᴀs ʟᴏɴɢ ᴀs ᴡᴇ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴇᴍʙᴀʀʀᴀss ᴛʜᴇᴍ, ” ᴠɪᴏʟᴇᴛ sᴀɪᴅ sᴏғᴛʟʏ, “ I don’t think they’ll mind.” She shook her head and affected a small giggle, “ Nope normal hours, normal pay and shhh, they’ll hear you, I have college to pay for. It’ll be over before we know it – of course we’ll have to come back tomorrow. We never really leave this place do we? ”

“Work on what? I might be socially awkward but I know how to fist bump, it’s really not that difficult.” Benny frowned. He knew well that there were plenty of things he was bad at, but with the life he’d had it was clear to see why. The fight wasn’t something that he wanted to talk about and so he ignored the topic completely. “Really? You two met? Ho did that go?”

matt raised his eyebrows as a laugh left his throat. “i’m joking, man.” fist bumps were a sore topic, that was noted and matt wouldn’t tease him about that again. there was a moment’s hesitation as he considered how much to tell benny of his conversation with ophelia during the ball. “she called me mark, and i’m pretty sure she hates me. so, that was great. i think she misses you.” a smile grew on his face as he shrugged.

sʜᴇ ᴡᴀs ᴀ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ʜᴜʀᴛ, ʜᴇ ᴅɪᴅɴ'ᴛ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴘʟᴀʏ ʜᴇʀ ɢᴀᴍᴇs, her hand roughly grabbed his arm. “ Oh Matt, ”

Katherine let her bloodshot eyes appear for just a second, it was only a second, but enough for him to see. She wasn’t Elena and she wasn’t in the mood for such a dismissal so soon.

matt, at this point, didn’t even know how to act around her or what to say. it was so out of character for her to speak the way she was, and do the things she was, it was new to him, and kind of terrifying.