Love. Hate. Such a Fine Line.

The Lockwood Memorial Ball (Pt. 1)

In traditional Mystic Falls fashion, the Lockwood Estate was covered head-to-toe in glamorous decor. Being that Mayor Matt Donovan resided at the Estate—with his wife and son, he made it his annual duty to make sure everything was as Mrs. Lockwood would have wanted.
Matt remembered running through the Mansion with Tyler as a young boy and inevitably getting scolded by Carol. She had always rambled on about the importance of the ancient furniture to the boys whenever they'd bump into a table from the 1800's or throw a football into a couch from the 1900's. Of course, her lecturing only got so far. The boys would just nod their heads and continue to cause chaos around the home.
It was those memories that were displayed throughout the estate. Similar to the 'Pictures of You' theme at their Mystic Falls High Senior Prom in 2011, large screens displayed various images of the Lockwood family.
Walking up to the glamorous mansion, Valencia stopped to stare at a row of images.

The images reflected, what her Aunt Caroline had always described as, that obnoxiously cocky Lockwood smirk. Valencia smiled as she saw a younger version of her other father figure, Alaric Saltzman. That man had a knack for helping out the most troubled kids and, though she didn't mention it very often, she was extremely grateful.
As she scanned over each of the photos, one of her Uncles put his arm around her shoulder.

"This is quite a spectacle you have going on here, Uncle Matty. I never pegged you as a fancy party kinda guy"

Matt laughed at his non-biological niece's comment as he responded, "A ball at the Lockwood Mansion doesn't feel right without the dramatics, Cia."

As the young Salvatore witch was about to respond, she felt a small hand tug on her dress which prompted her to look down. As her green eyes met little blue ones, Valencia smiled and bent down to the young boy's level.

"Is that my favorite Donovan?"

The 3-year old Donovan boy was trying to get out words but his giggles from Valencia tickling him were interfering.
"Cia! Hahaha! Stop it!"

Valencia then picked up Matt's son and rested him on her hip. As the young Donovan boy got distracted while playing with the Salvatore siphoner's necklace, Valencia turned towards her Uncle with concern in her eyes.

In a low voice, she said, "Victor really shouldn't be here, Uncle Matty. You know the trend of these Mystic Falls events. They're usually followed by death"

Matt smiled endearingly at the young Salvatore as he responded, "I'm way ahead of you. I had Bonnie put the same protection spell that she put on the twins at Caroline and Stefan's wedding."

The mood immediately turned somber as he mentioned the late Salvatore. Hoping to change the direction of the conversation, Valencia turned towards Victor while placing him down on the floor gently.

As she crouched down to the Donovan boy's level, she smiled goofily while enthusiastically saying, "Okay, Victor. I'm going to need you to make me a huge promise. Can you do that for me?"