FIRE AND ICE ⎯ n.mikaelson¹

XLIII. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

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After school had finished and night-time had arrived, Thea made her way to the Salvatore Boarding House along with Caroline and Bonnie. The three of them were sat on the long couch in the parlour, talking aimlessly amongst themselves when Elena walked back in, sliding a wooden crate onto the table behind the couch. The sound of rattling wine bottles cutting off the girls' conversation.

"One for you," the doppelganger started with a wicked smile as she pulled out one of the wine bottles out of the crate and handed it to Bonnie. "One for you," she repeated as she pulled out another bottle before handing it to Caroline's awaiting hands, "and one for you," Elena finished, pulling out the second to last bottle and handing it to Thea who smiled in return.

Bonnie reached into the crate, pulling out a fresh blood bag from the box, "I'm assuming this is for Caroline," she stated with a grimace. Caroline smiled, and reached for the blood bag only for Elena to grab it before she could. "Actually, it's for me," the doppelganger grinned, causing the three girls to exchange surprised glances, looking between each other and the newly turned vampire in front of them.

"I thought," Caroline trailed as Bonnie frowned at the brunette in confusion, "oh. Are you saying that," she trailed as Elena drank the blood bag before taking it out of her mouth and smiling at the three of them, showing them that she can now keep the blood down. "Thanks to Damon, I am now a functional dysfunctional vampire," Elena grinned happily causing Bonnie and Thea to both smile back at her.

"That's amazing," Thea responded happily as Caroline frowned at them, "uh, what do you mean 'thanks to Damon?'" she inquired causing the wolf to roll her eyes, knowing where the conversation was going to end up. "Well, he suggested that I try it again. So I did, and it worked," Elena shrugged, "no more snatch, eat, erase," she cheered happily as she joined the girls and sat on the couch opposite them.

Caroline sighed, turning back around in her seat to face her, "so, where is my least favourite Salvatore?" she asked, earning an elbow in the side from the wolf who sat next to her. Elena held up her phone, "out with Stefan for the night, don't wait up. Brother bonding," she read aloud causing Caroline to hum bitterly in response.

"Hmm, so you guys check-in text now? What else do you do?" Caroline inquired judgementally causing Elena to narrow her eyes at her. "I know that you're not the biggest fan, but he kind of just changed my life. Would you mind laying off on all the hate?" the doppelganger snapped, her tone making it clear that she was offended by what the vampire had said.

An awkward silence fell upon the girls as Caroline and Elena both narrowed their eyes at each other, making Thea sigh. "Okay, new girls' night rule- no boy talk, yeah? Plus, why talk when we have this?" Bonnie spoke up, breaking the tension between Elena and Caroline. The witch smirked as she searched through her bag before holding up a bag of herbs to show her friends.

Thea's mouth gaped open in shock, "is that stoner tea?" she teased the witch mockingly causing Bonnie's smirk to drop. "It's spirit tea. It opens up your chi or whatever," the Bennett witch corrected, frowning as she caught sight of Thea's raised eyebrow as the wolf continued to smirk at her, not convinced by her explanation. "Come on. It's not drugs. Shane is helping me do natural magic without having to access the spirits," the witch insisted causing Caroline to frown.

"Mm-hmm," the blonde hummed judgementally once again, earning another elbow in her ribs from Thea as Bonnie looked at her exasperatedly, "don't judge!" Caroline continued to stare at the witch with a stony expression, causing both Bonnie and Thea to scowl at her finally forcing the blonde to give in. "Okay, fine. I hereby vow not to be judgemental for the rest of the evening! Even if you three are potentially ruining your lives as I stand idly by, it's your choice," the blonde huffed.