CHAPTER XXXI
❝ It was nice meeting you and the end. ❞
The pair had managed to diffuse the awkwardness between them to some extent as Nikalus' everlasting smile kept shining in the broad sunlight and a smile unconsciously crept up Lucy's face on seeing that smile.
"So, here we are." said Niklaus, clearing his throat as the car came to a stop in front of the hospital.
"Oh, we're already there." chuckled Lucy, glancing out of the window with slight awkwardness, as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.
Looks like the awkwardness still hadn't dissipated.
"Yeah." nodded Niklaus, scratching his neck awkwardly.
"Um..... so maybe we should get out of the car?" suggested Lucy.
"Oh, yeah," said Niklaus, the two of them exiting their respective seats as they came to stand in front of the hospital next to each other.
"Actually," began Lucy, taking a short breath, "you know what, we're being really, really, I mean very really awkward with each other."
"Yeah," nodded Niklaus.
"Do we know why we're being awkward?"
"Of course, it's obvious," shrugged Niklaus, "because we've decided to date. And we obviously can't stay awkward forever."
"So, what to do?"
"Well, it's a small trick I picked up in Hong Kong," began Niklaus, rubbing his hands together as if to gather some courage, "close your eyes."
"You sure?" Lucy raised her brows.
"Huh-uh."
"Okay." she nodded, closing her eyes. "By the way, when did you go to Hong Kong? Sometime recently? Or a century ago?"
"Shh. Don't distract yourself."
"Fine."
She quietened down, waiting for him to say something, although she couldn't quite hear him.
"Niklaus?" she called out, pausing for a reply, but then peeked her left eye open slightly to look around before opening both eyes fully and seeing no one around.
"Seriously?" she sighed, looking at her left.
But when she turned to her right, she nearly got a heart attack.
"Holy shit!" she exclaimed, placing her hand on her heart to calm its fast beating down.
Niklaus had appeared out of nowhere, a bouquet of flowers in his hand.
"What the hell!?" she exclaimed, smacking him on the arm. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"I seriously apologise." grinned Niklaus. "Giving a heart attack was not my intention."
Lucy shook her head to herself, letting out a soft laugh, "Did you really pick up this trick from Hong Kong?"
"Not exactly." he shrugged.
"But, you sure you aren't allergic to any of the flowers?" asked Niklaus.
"Lilies, orchids, daisies, tulips, jasmine, hibiscus, oh my god, what isn't in there?" said Lucy, her eyes widening as she finally took in the number or more like the variety of flowers in the bouquet.
"I wasn't sure which one you would like, so I bought all the types I could find." he said with a slightly sheepish grin. (although we all know the Klaus Mikaelson would never agree that he was acting 'sheepishly')
"I love them all." grinned Lucy. "And you know what, I'm no longer feeling awkward. Your trick did work."
She picked up a tulip, twirling it in her hand for a moment before deciding what to do with it.
She pocketed the flower in Nikalus's shirt's left breast pocket, her fingers grazing for a moment before lightly placing her palm over his heart, grinning, saying, "Your heart is beating quite fast."
Niklaus smirked, taking a step towards her, "Well, so is yours."
"Oh really? How can you tell that?" she smirked back.
"Vampire hearing." he shrugged lightly, pulling out a rose from within the bouquet.
His fingers softly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, grazing her ear for a second before he pulled back and returned with a rose, tucking it behind her ear, all the while keeping his eyes connected to hers.
"Careful, roses have thorns."
"This one doesn't. And never will."
◇◇◆◇◆◇◇
The poor hospital had to endure a little blast which Lucy heard go off right when she was about to enter the building.
Their short sweet flower exchange moment had been abruptly cutted off when someone from behind had honked loudly asking them to 'get a room'.
Both of them had let out small laughs, getting out of the way of the elderly man who had thrown them dirty looks on passing for disrupting his way.
Klaus had gone inside while Lucy had excused herself to attend a phone call with the unfulfilled promise of meeting him inside as soon as she was done with the call.
The phone call had been from Vaishali.
"Hola, I'm heading home. You alright if Hayley tags along?"
"Yeah. Yeah." Lucy nodded, thinking a bit. "If you trust her, I guess I can also trust her."
"That you surely can." hummed Vaishali. "But, you enjoyed your little ride?"
"Yeah, yeah" she rolled her eyes.
"Tell me you guys did something."
"Shut up." Lucy grumbled.
"Please tell me you guys 'at least' kissed."
"No we did not." said Lucy sternly, her cheeks red, although she would never admit so. "We just.... talked."
"Woohoo." whistled Vaishali teasingly. "Got a date fixed or not?"
"Well," said Lucy, taking her dear time in giving her the answer, "not exactly fixed. We haven't decided the venue or date yet."
"Finally." she sighed in fake dreaminess, "I fulfilled my role of the matchmaker. I mean not even a day here and I already brought you guys together. I mean, I must start a matrimonial or a dating site."
"My greatest regards, dear." Lucy said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, I was thinking of talking about this with you. I mean it isn't too fast, is it?"
"No, it is not fast in any way. I mean it's been weeks since he told you about his feelings."
"Yeah, I know, but I'm just worried that maybe it is going really fast and maybe I need to slow down.....?"
"Listen, I don't know how exactly you guys are gonna turn out, but trust me it will be pretty brilliant. But if you really are having a bad feeling about this then go with what your gut says."
"No, I'm not having any bad feeling about any of this, in fact I'm pretty positive about this, but I am not sure if our pace is good or not."
"You thought thoroughly about all this before giving him a yes, right?" asked Vaishali.
"Well, yeah, I thought a lot about it. Contemplating everything."
"Then what's the issue in that? Still, the only thing I will advise is that you tell everything on your first date, because if you do it any later than this then it's gonna develop into a trust issue and maybe he will feel that you are keeping things from him."
"Of course." Lucy nodded, "I know I will have to. Can't keep such big things from him if we're gonna be in a relationship. If he reacts not in the way I'm wishing he will then I guess............ it's fine, no regrets. It was nice meeting you and the end."
"Come on, Lucy, you guys could remain friends at least." urged Vaishali.
"Yeah, we'll see. Anyway," said Lucy, subtly changing the topic, "I was planning a little something to, you know, maybe lift up Bonnie's mood a little. She is right now to some college with Elena Gilbert. So I was thinking of maybe planning a trip of sorts. What do you think? Good idea or bad idea?"
"That depends on Bonnie's reaction, which you would certainly only know after you do this. But I can say that you should see her mood before presenting your idea. She would definitely not take it in a bad way, I am hundred percent sure of it, so, yeah you can try asking if she would like to take a break from this town."
"You really are turning me into a risk-taker." chuckled Lucy. "Okay, so I was thinking that maybe I'll let her choose the destination. And of course we'll make it a group trip. I guess she would like her friends as well to come. And, yeah, you should also join us, and maybe Har-Hayley also join?"
"You would never get over the Harley Quinn, would you?" laughed Vaishali. "Anyway, I... can't come. I need to help Hayley with some things here. And besides, someone needs to stay at your place, 'cause, I mean you know why."
"Oh, absolutely." sighed Lucy, "it's alright. I guess Bonnie and her friends could join me and I guess it would become a pretty big group for a nice little trip to lift up her mood."
"Yeah, don't think too much, she will appreciate this. I mean you really have a soft spot for witches."
"Yeah, I just- her life needs to be sorted out right now. I don't want it to be a painful mess for her. Especially after what happened now with the whole going over the other side thing. Everybody is just using her and I just can't stand that everyone is taking 'her' for granted. I mean, what would they be without her, they all would have been dropped dead ages ago. I just don't understand why these people are so fucking discriminative. She is doing so much and not even a single one of them is coming to see her, except for when they need her help. I mean I need to talk to Stefan over this thing. They just can't be so fucking mean. She deserves respect and that people don't take her for granted."
"Yeah, I think what you should do is make her see her own value. She is underestimating herself. She herself is considering herself granted, and that also because of the image those people have created in her mind for herself. She needs that self-realisation to know her true worth and 'take' that respect from them."
"Absolutely." said Lucy, completely determined. "I mean these kind of things makes me so much angry that I feel like murdering someone. I don't just get why these people are treating her this way. I want to fucking change it anyhow-"
She was interrupted abruptly as a loud blast went off, making all of the people scattered near the hospital building duck for cover by instinct.
There was an instant uproar. People started running in all directions, leaving all their work and just fleeing the scene.
"Hello? What happened? What was that noise?" Vaishali's worried voice filled Lucy's ears as Lucy tried making her way inside past the mass of panicked people running out of the hospital building.
"I'm alright. I'll call you later." she said hurriedly, hanging up the call.
"Oh, crap." she muttered to herself, dialling Klaus' number as several people went bumping past her, most of them being the hospital employees aiding the patients out of danger.
The call rang thrice before it was refused and a message popped up in her chat box.
Niklaus ━ Can't pick call but don't worry, the hunter is being managed.
Well, looks like you aren't blown to bits then. ━ Lucy
Niklaus ━ Still intact, don't worry. Take the car, it's still parked outside. You weren't near the blast, were you?
Nah, I'm also intact. Keys? ━ Lucy
Niklaus ━ In the lock cylinder.
Too good. Literally anyone could take it. Anyway, I'll get it dropped off at your place later. ━ Lucy
Niklaus ━ Sure. But I have to manage this insolent hunter. Bye.
Bye, Nik. ━ Lucy
Lucy rolled her eyes at his carelessness, before pocketing the phone and exiting the premises of a panic-stricken hospital.
The way they talked to each other was the same but something in the air between them felt different. Because after all they are now 'officially dating'.
◇◇◆◇◆◇◇
It was late evening when Bonnie returned back, clad in a party costume.
Lucy had spent the majority of her day at home with Brie while Vaishali and Hayley had again left for some work after Hayley had briefly met Brie.
However, Bonnie didn't particularly seem to be in an after-party mood.
"You alright?"
Her voice seemed to snap out the Bennett Witch from her thoughts, as she jerked slightly and turned her attention to the other witch sitting on the dining table, looking at her expectantly for some sort of reply.
"Um, yeah," said Bonnie, nodding her head rapidly, "I'm fine. Just some after-party effects."
"You hungry?" Lucy asked, opting to better not interfere in Bonnie's life more than she already had. "Freshen up. I'll get the food setted up."
"Sure."
Bonnie was downstairs within fifteen minutes by the time both of their plates were setted upturned on the dining table.
She couldn't help but notice the intricate carvings and designs on the crockery, clearly displaying their expensiveness.
"I had the food heated." said Lucy as she started serving both of them. "Brie is already famished and off to bed, I mean, it's quite late by now. But the two of us will be fine."
They ate in silence while the silence of the large mansion with only a few scuffling staff along with the sound of this eating.
Bonnie sometimes wondered how such a huge mansion could not manage to scare Lucy and Brie. She herself found it quite unnerving to sleep during her first night here, especially when the whole mansion was filled with a chilling deep silence.
"Ehm." Lucy cleared her throat, after they were done with the dinner, diverting the Bennett Witch's attention to her. "I wanted to kind of show you something. Maybe now but if you're tired then we can shift it to tomorrow as well."
"No, it's fine." said Bonnie modestly. "I'm not tired. You can show it now."
"Okay." she grinned back at her with childlike excitement, before getting up from her place at the dining table and urging her to do the same.
Lucy led her upstairs, past many artefacts and paintings that stood proudly, adorning the corridors of the vast mansion; until they reached a set of double doors, it's golden handle glistening in the moonlight.
The scarcity of lighting near that particular room and the complete gothic look of the door which stood out of all other decors of the house, made Bonnie feel slightly uncomfortable. It kinda gave her a mystical as well as a horror movie feeling.
"Don't feel creeped out." chuckled Lucy, noticing her uncomfortable expression. "The previous owner had this room built for god knows what but I am not hiding any dead bodies inside."
"Oh, no it's just giving a little horror movie vibe." chuckled Bonnie as Lucy inserted an ancient looking key in the door, turning it and pushed the door open.
Well, Bonnie could say that she would have expected some sort of gothic styled room or perhaps a workshop of some sorts but what she didn't expect was to see the whole room covered in rows and rows of bookshelves, literally turning it into a mini-library or more like a library too-big-to-be-a-house-library.
"Oh my god." Bonnie laughed in disbelief, her eyes still widened in shock and surprise alike. "It's really huge."
"This is my spellbook collection, I mean a few of them."
"You have 'more' spellbooks?" chuckled Bonnie, moving inside and past the bookshelves, her eyes travelling over all sorts of the books, recognising their names to be in various languages. "I mean there would be about a million of them in here only."
"Not a million, but I guess a few hundreds." laughed Lucy, following shortly after her. "I've moved in temporarily so I only brought a few of them, the others are still in Florida."
"How many languages do you know?" asked Bonnie as they turned into another bookshelf corridor.
"Not too many. But basically most are the ones associated with magic spells and stuff." shrugged Lucy. "Like Latin and Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, and a few more. You'll find plenty of them here."
"So you practice here?" asked Bonnie, her witch self finding child-like excitement in all the magic-related stuff around her.
"Ya, I mean not exactly here. But here. Come on, let me show you."
Lucy turned two more times from their current position at the end of one corridor as Bonnie followed and slowed down as Lucy came to a stop in front of another section of the bookshelves.
"There is nothing non-normal about this." said Bonnie, furrowing her brows. "It looks just the same."
"Well, it's no longer the same now." said Lucy as she curled her fingers once and some books at certain positions in the bookshelf in front of them half came out and a very quiet mechanical sound filled their ears for a moment before a part of the bookshelf opened itself as if it was a normal working door.
"I know it's a little wierd or maybe a little horror movie cliche, but it's one of the secret rooms the previous owner had built." chuckled Lucy motioning the Bennett Witch to step inside.
Past the 'bookish' door there was another room, about one-fourth of the one they will be exiting, with all its walls filled with more spellbooks and a large table in the centre along with some chairs as numerous candles across the room lightened it.
"It's nice." said Bonnie, a smile slowly creeping up her face, her voice echoing as the door closed behind them,"It's..... witchy."
"Amazing." grinned Lucy, "So I was thinking that if we've come thisss far across all the long corridors........, we can maybe try a little practising?"
Lucy finished hesitantly, looking at Bonnie for her reaction as if to make sure she didn't offend her in any way.
"You don't have to walk on eggshells around me." said Bonnie, passing her a small smile.
"No, no," she said quickly, "I didn't mean to sound like tha-"
"No, it's alright," smiled Bonnie, easing her worries, "I would love to try some practising. Maybe I can finally recover."
"Of course," said Lucy, a smile reaching her lips, "wait here I'll bring some basic ones from outside. The ones in here are a little bit............ you know, advanced."
"No, it's fine. We have to do the basics only, can't really jump to the advanced."
"Okay, so I'll just go and come back in a second. You can look around if you want in the meantime." grinned Lucy as she exited the practising room leaving Bonnie in the room alone.
Bonnie's eyes trailed around the books surrounding her, finding it really peculiar that she could only spot nine or ten books that were in Latin. All the other books were in another language which was common to them all.
She decided to pick up one of the Latin ones (of course) which was at the deep corner, the only Latin one in that particular section. She couldn't even read that section's name engraved over its top on the rack's side.
The first step she took echoed very loudly, making her still for a second, before continuing. She picked up the book, it's old binding standing out as she read the name to herself: 'Séance ad Crepusculum' 【Séance at Twilight】
Her brows furrowed at the peculiar name and she flicked through the pages, seeing tear marks at several places, plenty of pages missing, a lot of scribbling across the pages and even a bloodstain at a page.
She really now understood the advancement in this room.
Bonnie shutted the book close, placing the book safely back at its place as her eyes shifted to the one next to it.
It was a thin black-velvet one that looked extremely new. Some words written in a language unknown to Bonnie were reflecting across its side before Bonnie pulled it out slowly to see a large symbol woven with what she assumed was gold thread.
(a/n: I don't know what this symbol in reality means. But if any of you do then do tell me. I really don't want to unknowingly promote something bad)
She didn't know the symbol's meaning but nevertheless it really gave off a dark vibe.
A single word was hand-scribbled at the bottom of the very first page along with an Ouroboros sign at the centre.
She flickered through the pages, not understanding even a single word of it, however a few pictionary depictions in them somewhat represented some sort of positioning during a ritual of sorts.(at least from what Bonnie understood)
Bonnie shutted it close hurriedly as she heard the door open and turned back, taking some steps away from the shelves, instinctively hiding the book behind her back.
"I'm really sorry, it took me so long to find these books." Lucy huffed to herself, setting a large stack of books she was carrying with a loud thump on the table.
"What happened? Are you hiding something behind your back?" mused Lucy in amusement.
"Um, no," chuckled Bonnie awkwardly, bringing the book back from behind her, "I was just looking around and you came in suddenly so I just reacted."
"Oh, it's alright." chuckled Lucy, waving it off. "By the way, which of the books managed to catch your interest?"
"It's in some other language, I really don't understand it," shrugged Bonnie in embarrassment as she passed the book to Lucy.
"Oh, it's one of the Stygians ones." Lucy nodded to herself, noticing the symbol on its front before she flattered, pausing on seeing the symbol drawn over its very first page.
"What happened?" asked Bonnie, noticing her silence as well as the creasing forehead as she flipped through the book.
"Oh, nothing," she chuckled, although the uneasiness in her voice didn't go unnoticed by Bonnie.
"Really?"
"Yeah. It's one of the Stygians ones, so it's in the Stygian language. Well, you know Stygians....?" said Lucy, her tone sounding better as if she had managed to conceal the uneasiness behind it.
"Yeah, it's the coven you are in." Bonnie nodded.
"Yeah." said Lucy, shutting the book close and placing it back from where it had been picked. "So, we have our own language so that nobody else could understand the spells we make. And the symbol on the cover is our coven's symbol."
"What was it about?" she asked curiously, finding it within herself to ask this question.
"Oh, nothing really important," chuckled Lucy, turning back to the table as she started setting up the candles. "It's just some life and death stuff. In fact, I went through that book for the first time. Quite..... fine-ish."
Bonnie could distinctively make out the underlying uneasiness in her words and movements.
"Alright. Let's-Let's begin." said Lucy, taking the cue of changing the topic into a more favourable one (for her at least).
But Bonnie wasn't quite done yet.
Lucy had done so much for her, and now she couldn't just stay back and ignore a possible issue she might be facing.
"Life and death? You mean something related to creating new species?"
"Oh," laughed Lucy, finding the suggestion a little funny, "not at all. Witches might be the one responsible for creating all these new species, however we don't keep books for- like literally creating new species."
"Then what is it about?"
"It's about bringing the dead back to life. Happy?" she said bluntly, slamming the book in her hand on the table.
The occupants of the room stilled, startled by the sudden reaction.
"I-I am really sorry- I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." said Lucy hurriedly, a guilty expression overcoming her face. "I didn't mean to. I shouldn't have said it like that- I'm sorry-"
"No, no, it's fine, it's fine," said Bonnie, "I shouldn't have asked so many questions like that. I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry, it's my mistake, I shouldn't have-"
"No, it's alright. I shouldn't have persisted."
"It's my fault. I shouldn't have." sighed Lucy, running a hand through her hair. "It's just, I looked through that book for the first time and it was so much to take in- you-you won't understand. It's complicated-"
"It's fine. I shouldn't have intruded like that." said Bonnie, trying to pass her a weak smile.
"Yeah." Lucy sighed. "Let's-Let's just forget this. I shouldn't have spoken like that. Let's just do some practice, it's already past midnight."
"Yeah."
━━━━━━✰━━━━━━
A/n:
Well, here I am guys, after soooooo many days of my hectic exams. (They are still going on btw)
This chapter was supposed to be longer, but considering its already 4k words, I stopped.
A question ~
• was the cheesy romance at the beginning of the chapter, GOOD or FINE or BAD ?
(pls ans truthfully or else I'm gonna get confident abt this and you're gonna have to read some more shitty scenes again)
Until then,
Ripahhhhhhhhhh.
Word Count : 4005