Tiberius Salvatore: Mikaelson Extended

40

"You should go." Stefan told his brother. "Enzo and I had a fight, he's a little pissed off. He's in the living room. If he's still here by the time he wakes up- well, I don't know."
"Okay. Will you be all right?"
"Yeah. Keep your family safe."
"What about you?"
"I'll walk Ivy home. And I can beat Enzo if need be."
"Don't kill him. Enzo's not that bad of a person." Stefan scoffed. "Really, Stefan. Enzo's just pissed because he cared about Damon too. Everyone's handling their grief differently."
"Maybe he's right-"
"It's a rabbit hole, Stefan. Even if you could talk to him, he'd still be dead. You don't even have a witch who'd be willing to do a spell, if such a spell existed, to bring them back. Bonnie's dead too. Just hope that they're together somewhere."
"How do you do it? How do you not want to just let go, stop living and reunite with him wherever he is. Or wherever Charlotte is."
"I told Caroline earlier that I think if I didn't have Anya, I would have turned off my humanity, or something. But that's not true. If I didn't have Anya, I don't know what would have become of me. I would have either killed myself, turned off my humanity, or just disappeared. Somewhere I don't know- sort of like you're doing except I wouldn't have talked to anyone. I would have turned into someone else, too."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty, Stefan. Sure I'm not over her death, but I'm not upset at you. Or anyone else in Mystic Falls."
"Because she wouldn't want you to be." Stefan smiled sadly.
"Well, that and you're my little brother."
"Going to Mystic Falls was a bad mistake. I should've stayed away. I shouldn't have gone there."
"But then I wouldn't have seen you again."
"But your wife wouldn't have died. Damon wouldn't have died, either." Stefan said and Rio was silent for a minute.
"Maybe it would have still happened. In a different way. You never know. You can't dwell on the what ifs."
"What is it about Mom that you refused to tell us?"
"And this conversations over." Rio said walking back upstairs to the girls. "I'll see you soon, Stefan."
"Really? You're just going to freeze me out?"
"All you need to know is that she and I never got along. I never had mom, so dad picked up the slack. That's why I always have and always will love him more."
"Dad didn't act like that for Damon and I."
"Well, you guys had mom. That's why he was there for me more. When it was my tenth birthday, mom barely gave me a chocolate bar. For you and Damon- well, she more or less threw the two of you a parade. Each."
"She loved you."
"Not as much as she loved the two of you. You were her favourites. I was barely a blip in her radar. Dad once told me I reminded her of him."
"You're nothing like Giuseppe."
"I'm a little like him. I mean sure, he was sometimes bad. And I didn't always agree with him, but he was a good man. His intentions were never bad. You're talking about a town where vampires were known to be evil. Dad was only trying to do good."
"And what would he say if he could see you right now?"
"Well, I doubt there'd be hugs all around. Anyways, as you said, I should probably go before Enzo wakes up. I'll talk to you tonight, or tomorrow."

Rio had successfully gotten the girls out of the house without Caroline or Enzo realising. Well, the Enzo bit was easy. Rio had told Stefan that he wasn't ready for anyone to know he had adopted. If they knew, well then they knew. But if they didn't, they had no reason to know. Rio headed to Ohio, next for no reason in particular. He had Anya text Sam but he obviously had to stop at a diner to feed Anya- far enough from the house that Enzo and Caroline hopefully wouldn't bump into him, but close enough that it didn't take too long. She'd been really sleepy today, sleepier than normal. He thought he should probably go to a doctor to get that checked out, even before he entered Ohio. He checked her for a fever but didn't notice anything wrong. He decided he still should and drove to the nearest hospital. The doctors had told him there was nothing wrong, that she seemed to be healthy. So Rio thanked them and got back on the road. He compelled them to forget about the baby they treated. The drive to Ohio took ten hours. If Rio was driving at his usual speed it might have take six to eight hours. But he couldn't. After four hours they stopped at another diner to feed Rhea.
"So how's Zach doing, Anya?" Rio asked, once they sat down.
"He's okay. The whole moving thing kind of put a kink in the relationship. We're sort of just friends, now."
"Sort of?"
"Well, I still love him and I know he loves me but we can't date because I don't want to get his hopes up with long distance so we're friends who love each other."
"Love, huh?" Rio asked raising a brow. "You've never mentioned the l-word."
"Well, when it was just you, me and Sam, living together after mum, we tried long distance. And then I realised I love him. And I can't do the long distance thing because then there's hope that we'll come back to one another someday and I don't know if we ever will, what with you never growing and with my, well, I don't know if it's a good idea until I'm fully confident with my magic. And then there was the New Orleans mess so until life's settled down, it's just friends. But I do love him."
"Do you-" Rio broke off. "Do you ever just think about going to him?"
"What, and leave you?" She scoffed.
"Well, legally you don't have to stay with me. You're technically an adult."
"I still need you Rio. I'm eighteen, sure. I should be going off to college, I know. But I'm thinking of waiting a year. Until things settle a little. In fact I want to go Harvard."
"Harvard?"
"Yeah, Harvard Law. I wanna be a lawyer."
"You know, you are the first witch I've come across who wants to do Law."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Most usually just either own a magic shop or go into design. Or medicine and science. I'm proud of you, though, Anya. And you can do it."
"Thanks Rio." She smiled up at him. "It means a lot."
"Hey hey. You have your mother's brains. You can accomplish anything you put your mind to. You even have the biggest baddest vampire wrapped around your little finger."
"Well, I think it helped that he wasn't allowed to kill me." Rio chuckled and Anya groaned. "God where is that food. I'm starving." She flagged down a waitress. "Hey, we've been waiting for hours, and not to sound horribly rude and impatient but where's our food?"
"Oh, uh. Sorry." The woman glanced at Rio suspiciously.
"Oh it's okay. He's my dad, he adopted me." Anya said to the woman. The woman raised a brow. "It's what you were thinking!"
"Sorry for jumping to conclusions."
"Don't worry, it's not a bad thing to look out for people." Rio smiled generously at the woman. "I've been told it's a good quality to care."
"Thanks." The woman laughed. "Well I'll go see what the holdup is. You have a cute baby."
"Thank you." Rio smiled. "She's certainly precious."