CHAPTER 41: WOKE UP WITH A MONSTER
The Mystic Grill
Twice. That was the number of times Kai had knocked Natalie out cold only to keep her tied up in a chair with the help of vervain. And, frankly, she thought it was twice as many times as there should have been. She had many times told herself that she was going to break her rules of trying to avoid killing anybody when it came to him, but when they were finally reunited, she always so weak. She hated that, feeling weak.
And what was even worse, was that she was once again stuck with his constant yammering. "See, we never went out to dinner when I was a kid, so, I always had this fascination with chefs and fine dining. Dad actually let me cook... Taught me to measure by eye. Seasonings to taste, all that stuff, but it's different now in the restaurant world. Everything's on time. It's like, the fries go in, you push a button, it dings and you take 'em out. Literally no guess work."
"Kai, why am I here?" Natalie asked, hissing as she felt the burn from vervain ropes as she tried to struggle her wrists out of them. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat, trying to not only lie to him, but also to herself, by acting like she wasn't terrified.
He smiled at her, but not the sincere one you give to people you like and have friendships with. No, that was the kind that said that you're about to hurt them real bad. "Uh, well I spent eighteen years in abandoned restaurants and now I'm showing off the fruits of my labor."
As he started digging into the eggs he had prepared for himself, Natalie suppressed the urge to roll her eyes because she knew that he was more dangerous than ever now that he suddenly had magic. "Not the Mystic Grill."
"Oh, you mean like, here here, in Mystic Falls," he realized, laughing as he saw her try to look for a way, any way to get out of there, get away from him. He didn't care, because he knew that she wouldn't be able to. He would win, like he always did. "Sorry, I'm nervous. You're like, really pretty."
"Why am I here?" she repeated, narrowing her eyes at him even if she knew that being a bitch probably wouldn't help her at all. She knew that he knew that she disliked him, even if she had no idea how he felt about her.
He raised his hands in surrender, acting surprisingly civil. "Well, I took the spell that was keeping supernaturals out of Mystic Falls and I- I, like, absorbed it... like, ate it, I guess. It's cool, huh? First I eat magic, and then eventually, I lose it. But a huge spell like that? I mean, come on. Magic's oozing out of me, it's all over the place."
"You know, I didn't quite realize I was out of control until I met the manager of the Grill a few hours ago. And he was all like: hey, you can't come in here; we're closed. And you have an unconscious girl over your shoulder," he seemed to find it amusing, laughing as he remembered it, and she laughed sarcastically with.
"And then I was like: don't judge me. And then I gave him a heart-attack, tried to, but all I did was make him vomit uncontrollably, which was like, ugh, let's stop that. So then I tried again and I think I broke his spine? I mean, I'm not, I'm not really sure, because the third time I tried the spell, he kinda exploded in blood. Whoops," he shrugged as he took a sip of coffee as if it was no big deal.
Natalie had known some pretty sadistic people during her three lives. Hell, she had even become friends with a few of them, but she still couldn't help but be surprised at how bad someone could be. She only stared at him in disgust. "There's something seriously wrong with you. You know, other than you being a sociopath."
"I just told you, I have too much magic," he responded, speaking as if she was a three-year-old, making her shake her head at him. "You know, it wasn't until after my test run with the manager that I realized, if I start to merge with Jo and my gushing fountains of magic turn her into that guy, then I'm not gonna have a twin for the merge."
"So, Natalie, that is why you are here. Because I need to get my magic under control- By practicing with you," he tilted his head as he realized that it wasn't the perfect way to say it. "Or rather, by practicing on you.
He only seemed happier when he saw her look like a mix of terrified and horrified. "Oh, PS: Silver lining, after the manager finally stopped thrashing around, I finally managed a cloaking spell. Thank you. It's easy to do and...undo. Phasmatos oculix."
Natalie gasped loudly with wide eyes as the manager appeared between the two supernaturals. There were burns all over his body, and his head was turned right towards her, his feet barely not touching Kai's food. "Table for three," he laughed. "You had no idea."
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Mystic Falls High School
Natalie's eyes fluttered open, and the first thing she saw was Kai. She found it a bit strange, because she couldn't even remember passing out. It didn't take long before she recognized the place they were at. She tried to get away, only to realize her hands were held up, tied to something that was again tied to something in the ceiling.
"Why are we at my high school?" she asked weakly, not even knowing what had exhausted her so much. She could only guess it was because Kai had some weird spells on her while she was passed out.
"They have plenty of restrooms, no flammable surfaces, and everyone's on winter break... Still. You know, it's no wonder America got dumb while I was locked up; they're never in school," he shook his head. "Anyway, do you mind if I try to turn your blood into acid again?"
His last word was the one that caught her attention. Not even that it was weirdly polite of him to ask if he could be a huge bitch and hurt again, in a way that would most likely temporarily kill her. "Again?"
"Yeah, that's uh, that's kinda how you got here in the first place," Kai took his jacket off and threw it on the floor. "I was trying the whole acid-blood thing and I think I burst a few important capillaries in your brain, because you blacked out."
Natalie realized he was getting a bit tired of talking as he held his hand up, no doubt getting ready to turn her blood into acid. "Kai, don't. Don't you dare. If you do this, I will kill you. I promise, I will kill you. If not me, than anybody who cares about me will do it."
"Phasmatos navaro pulsus sanguinox. Phasmatos navaro pulsus sanguinox," he chanted, ignoring her threats, her calling out for him to stop, her crying out in pain because of how much it hurt.
Natalie felt a burning sensation on her chest, something was running down it, and once she realized what could happen, she glanced down. Her worst fear were confirmed. Her necklace was melting, her daylight necklace. "Kai, please. Please stop, you're melting my necklace. Please stop."
He didn't listen to her, opting to keep chanting instead, no matter how much she complained. It took a few moments, but she finally seemed to understand that. She knew that there was only one way for her to salvage herself, and her daylight necklace.
She felt herself growing weaker and weaker from the pain, because pain equals exhaustion. But, she had to try. Her daylights necklace was the one thing that would let her get out of there, if she was able to shake him off.
She took a moment to try to act like there wasn't any pain, to gather as much strength as possible without being doomed. And then, she pulled. She used every ounce of strength, vampire and human, that she had to get out of there. The chains that kept her there fell from the roof, and the lights came with them. The sparks coming from the falling lights were enough for Kai to be distracted.
She glanced over at where he had fallen, either from surprise, or because he was hit by the chains. She ripped the chains off her wrists, and glanced down at where there remainders of her necklace was.
She rushed to the closest classroom, the chemistry lab. She grabbed as much paper as her hands could carry from next to the sink and dampened it with the water running from it. She dabbed her chest, cleaning off where her necklace had once been, only to realize it was too late. The necklace was only melted metal, and it was all on the paper.
"No, no," she kept muttering under her breath. She tried to touch her chest, to feel the cool metal of her necklace, the one she had gotten so used to after the almost two years she had been a vampire.
"Take it that necklace meant something to you?" Kai's voice was suddenly heard, walking up behind her. Natalie looked around, trying to find something she could surprise Kai by using against him, unlike how he could easily snap her neck if she decided to snap his, or rip his heart out. "I never understood sentimental attachments to things, because then it's so upsetting when you lose them."
Natalie noticed a stream of sunlight coming through a window before seeing a gas dispenser. She hesitated for a moment, never having felt it how painful it would be, but decided to take the risk, because she knew it would only hurt more to stay.
She reluctantly put her hand in the sunlight, and it hurt like a bitch. But when her hand started catching fire, she turned to glance at Kai's confused face with a smirk. He wouldn't know what hit him.
She turned the gas on, and quickly shoved her burning hand in front of it. It didn't take more than a millisecond before the flames grew immensely in size, and then it hit Kai straight in the chest.
She then used her wonderful vampire speed (there had been few times where she had been as grateful for being a vampire than that moment) to open the nearest door and rush to the cafeteria, where she knew there was an emergency phone.
Natalie sighed in relief as she saw that the school hadn't taken it down yet, because she had heard there were some plans for it, seeing as every student brought their own smartphones now instead.
The reincarnated vampire quickly dialed the number for the person that almost always answered calls, whether or not they were unidentified numbers or not, because if anyone dared to put a virus in his phone, he'd find them and kill them.
The phone kept ringing, and it took a few rings, where Natalie was constantly looking over her shoulders, looking for Kai, hoping he wasn't coming for her. Then he answered the phone. "Magic camp. How may I help you?"
"Damon? Thank god," Natalie sighed, thankful he picked up, but still sounding abolutely terrfied and nervous, and she guessed that his expression had shifted, from the way his breathing pattern changed. "Kai has me at the high school. You've gotta help me, please."
"Woah, Natalie?" Damon spoke in a way that sounded like he wanted to say more, but Natalie used her vampire hearing to hear that Kai was approaching, and she didn't want him to know they were coming.
She hang up, and ran to the door on the opposite side of where she heard Kai coming from. She didn't take a moment before opening it. Once she actually did, she cursed herself under her breath, because he was staring right back at her with a smirk on his face. He must have used his magic to manipulate her senses somehow.
Natalie started backing away. If it had been anyone else, she would probably be able to run forth and snap his neck. But she couldn't, because he still scared the crap out of her. After what he did in the prison world, she still felt a weight on her shoulders that he had put on it.
Kai held his hand out, hoping to break her neck. But, he still wasn't able to control his magic, and instead he made some kind of super strong wind that threw a table across the room. He rolled his eyes. "Really?"
The 20-year-old girl took a deep breath, because she had to try to keep Kai away from her. She promised to kill him, and she was going to try to do that. Veins appeared under her now dark-red eyes, fangs growing in her mouth as she glared at him.
While she getting her vamp on, he tried again to snap her neck, but was again insuccessful. He knocked a chair over this time. He seemed to get more and more annoyed at the magic's inability to listen to him. "Dammit."
Natalie rushed at him, getting ready to rip his heart straight out of his body. But, it seemed like her being threatening, most likely about to kill him, was a bit of a trigger for his magic. This time, when he twisted his hand, her neck was actually snapped. "Bingo."
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Natalie hated when Kai would kill her. It was getting old already. He had already caused her pain, made it hard for her to move. And now, he had to keep tying her up with vervain ropes and being an overall bitch to her.
"Oh, hello," Kai greeted once he saw her finally waking up. He had a soda in his hand, Natalie was willing to bet he would have prefered for it to be Zima, and he was wearing a Mystic Falls Timberwolves shirt.
"Nice shirt," she complimented sarcastically.
"Well, thanks. Yeah, somebody burned my other one. Which was awesome, by the way," he grinned, seeming genuinely impressed with her survival skills. "I knew there was a reason I liked you. You're crazy pants. Oh, it sucks about that shirt, though."
She glanced at the doors, and knew that she wanted to avoid torture, so she had to stall him until Damon got there. "I thought you didn't see the point in having sentimental attachment to things. I think this qualifies as a weak one, but one nonetheless."
"Oh," he spoke as if he was disappointed in her, taking a sip of his soda. "Is this going to be like an episode of Ricki Lake where I come face-to-face with my demons and change for the better? I expected more from you, Natalie.""No, no. I'm genuinely curious at how you do it," she replied, and she wasn't lying. It was just that if she could avoid it, she would rather not have any conversations with him at all, not after everything he's done. She noticed how he tilted his head in confusion at what she meant. "You know, not care. There was a time when I didn't care, but after that, I can't imagine it again. I don't remember how it felt, and then I was a humanity-less vampire. You're... relatively human."
Somehow, he still hadn't figured out that she was stalling. "You see, there's a difference between you and me, Natalie. You must have been smarter before. Not caring is great. All those burdens of human emotions, like love, only ruin us. They bring us down. You knew that once. You should get it, but you've weakened yourself so much that you don't understand."
Natalie couldn't help but flash back to that person she was in high school, the person she never wanted to become again. "Yeah, I was a different person once. I killed, I didn't care. But, I'm not that person anymore. That person was a bitch, one that blamed herself for everything. You see, emotions aren't weakness. You just have to learn to not be overwhelmed by them, to balance yourself with them, but not control them."
"Wow, you're a lot sappier than I remember," he commented, narrowing his eyes on her in something that could be confused as feeling, even if that feeling was of disgust.
Natalie knew that it wrong, because she hoped he was doing everything he could, but she was getting a bit impatient waiting for Damon. She had always been a pretty patient person. Like, look at her relationship with Stefan. But she was running out of things to say to occupy her kidnapper. "I mean, come on. You've had to have cared about someone, anyone."
"I guess I liked my brother, Joey. We played Dr. Mario together and he'd always win. Actually, one of my favorite memories is when I finally beat him. Of course, my favorite memory is when I finally beat him to death," Kai smiled, and Natalie nodded her head as if she expected it. "You don't have to waste your energy trying to change me. If Ricki taught me anything, it's that liking yourself is the most important thing. And I like me."
He watched her intently, sitting himself down, crossing his legs in front of her. He smirked, as if he was thinking about all the spells he was going to use, all the ways he was going to torture her while understanding the way his magic worked.
"Oh my god," Natalie suddenly breathed, and he raised an eyebrow, wondering why she suddenly started acting all weird. "I think- I think your magic is working! Your spell was to try to creep me out, right? Because, if not, you totally just failed."
He only smiled bitterly, because he found it fun to have her there. She could never keep her big mouth shut, and so there was always something she'd say that would piss him off enough to make him retaliate.
Natalie flinched as he held his hand up again, trailing his fingers in a weird form. Of course, she knew he was making a cut into her cheek, but she didn't know why. "Ow. What are you- what are you doing?"
"Oh, nothing," he smiled, watching as the K he had cut into her cheek with his magic slowly fade away because of her vampire healing. He then noticed that all of the blood wasn't gone, so he reached out with his thumb and wiped it off. "Just working on my self-control."
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Kai had decided to leave her alone for a little while, and she wasn't sure whether it made her happy or scared. She was happy, because he couldn't torture her anymore when he was gone. But she was also scared, because she knew that if he wasn't there, there was more of a chance that he would find Damon when he was there.
He never did seem to come. And for a while, Natalie thought of the unthinkable, that he just wasn't coming. She was scared that their friendship wasn't deep enough for him to come. But she'd hate to think that he was lying those times he said he wouldn't leave her, those times he said he'd always be there.
Luckily, he didn't break them. Out of nowhere, her vervain ropes were suddenly ripped away from her hands. She didn't know if Kai did some spell to get them off because he enjoyed the chase, but she was just thankful that the vervain wasn't touching her anymore.
She put her fingers on wrist, looking at it to make sure that the burns were healing, which they were. But in a quick moment, suddenly she felt something touch her hand, and then she could also see who it was. "Hey," Damon greeted.
"Are you really here? Please tell me you're really here," she begged. Kai hadn't decided to torture her mentally yet, but there was always a chance that he would. Katherine had once done it, and she almost disliked him as much as she did her.
"I'm here," he assured her, smiling as he tried to see if there was anything wrong with her, any wounds that still hadn't healed. If there were, he would probably kill Kai with even less hesitation than before. "Jo has an invisibility spell. If you can see us, that means you joined the party."
Natalie turned to look over his shoulder, where she saw Jo standing there, looking a bit exhausted. As she knew there were more than one person on the mission, she wondered where the one with the biggest hero-complex she knew was. "Stefan?"
"He doesn't know," the male vampire responded shortly, just wanting to get her out of there as quickly as possible. And talking about their brother/kinda-boyfriend was definitely going to take up some time.
She furrowed her eyebrows. "Why?"
"Because I didn't tell him." He didn't say anything more about it. He hadn't told his brother because he knew he was trying to fix things up with Caroline, his best friend. Damon, himself, had decided that this was his chance to get Natalie to forgive him completely for what he did to Alaric.
Although Jo thought they had a cute friendship and didn't have anything against them showing it, she knew there was only a matter of time before she couldn't hold the spell anymore. "Come on, we need to get out of here."
Damon nodded, seemingly he thought it was a good idea, not having noticed the obvious problem. Natalie, however, just remembered, having been a bit busy with the thought of Damon being there to save her. "Damon, my necklace. Kai melted my necklace."
His eyes widened, because those were some of the worst news that could come at that moment. If she couldn't go outside of the school, she couldn't get home and they couldn't save her. He grabbed her shoulders, searching for necklace he was used to being hanging around her neck, it wasn't there. "What?"
Jo was getting more and more tired, feeling like she was going to faint any time, her head having started to spin already. She wanted to save Natalie, but sitting there couldn't help her. "I hate to cut this reunion short, but meter's running on this spell."
"Okay," Natalie sighed, trying to steady her breathing, because she was scared. Damon looked at her worriedly, because he didn't know what to do anymore. "Well, what about the tunnels under the school? We can go through them."
He couldn't help but smile at the good ideas constantly coming from his best friend's mouth. "Good call. Boiler room. Stat. Come on."
He got up from where he had crouched next to her, holding his hand out for her to take. She smiled softly at the hand, grateful that he had come to save her. She grabbed it, pulling herself into a standing position.
They started walking, but then Damon remembered that their witch wasn't the strongest one in the world. Actually, she had just gotten her magic back and little to no idea on how to use it, and he wasn't going to let anything get in the way of him saving Natalie. "You good?"
"I'm good," the doctor lied, her back to him so he couldn't see when she wiped the blood that had been running down her nose away.
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Natalie clung onto Damon's arm as they walked down the hallways of the school, searching for where they had to go to the boiler room. It had been a while since they had to do anything in there, so it was getting hard to remember where every singly little thing was. She was still a bit weak from when he kept turning her blood into acid.
Jo, on the other hand, was staggering behind them, trying to keep up. But she didn't feel well at all. She was coughing, blood running down her nose. The kind that the vampires could easily smell.
"Are you okay?" Natalie asked, stopping in her tracks, forcing Damon to stop with her. She didn't only worry for her because she was their ticket to getting them out of there. She liked Jo, she was nice, and she didn't want her to get hurt.
"Yeah. Three people is just a lot more to cloak than two," she admitted, catching up to the two. But just as she did, her legs seemed unable to support her anymore. Natalie was forced to let go of Damon as he caught the witch.
Unlike Natalie, he wasn't that worried for her as a person. He was more worried for her as the witch that was going to save his best friend from being tortured by a sociopath. "Woah. Why is your nose bleeding?"
Then Kai walked up from a corner at the end of the hallway, smirking. He found it funny how they thought they could beat him when he was there. They couldn't. "I have a guess. Magic's hard. Isn't it, Jo?"
"I'm so sorry," Jo cried, wiping the blood away from under her nose.
Damon looked a bit awkward. If they weren't in a tense situation, he probably would have patted her back and said there, there monotonously. "Don't sweat it. I want him to see me while I kick his ass. Now, get out of here, okay?"
Jo nodded weakly, and limped away from there. Kai didn't stop her, because he had no reason to. Damon only seemed like he was ready to fight him, rolling his shoulders with a grin, Natalie smiling a bit at him.
Until suddenly, he couldn't see that smile anymore. She was just gone. He looked up at a smug-looking Kai with a glare. He didn't know what he'd just done to Natalie, but he was just getting angrier and angrier about it. "Where's Natalie?"
Kai tilted his head, faking a confused look for why he was so annoyed with him just taking his best friend away from him in that way. "Oh, are we not cloaking people anymore? I thought that's what this was."
Damon didn't seem like he could wait anymore from hurting Kai after everything he's done, to Natalie and Bonnie. He sped over to him, getting ready to snap his miserable little neck, but then he was gone too.
But then he heard him whistle, and turned around abruptly to find him there instead. Damon knew there was a reason he hated most witches (now, excluding Bonnie Bennett, of course). As he only mocked him, grinning and waving, he was having enough of him. He grabbed a broom, and threw it straight at his chest.
Only for a second Kai to show up, standing right next to the one he had thrown a broom at with a big smirk. "That's gotta hurt. I am definitely getting the hang of this. Cloaking spells, illusions. You know, it's all the same wheelhouse."
Then, the stabbed Kai turned into someone else. His height decreased about ten centimeters, his hair growing with the same amount. His facial features and body morphed into that of Natalie Saltzman.
Damon's eyes widened as he realized how may have almost killed his best friend, one of his favorite people in the world. If she ended up dead because of him, he would never be able to forgive himself. So, he rushed forth to grab her, but he wasn't able to. Kai held his hand out, making his hands travel to his head as he was given an aneurysm.
Natalie fell towards a locker as Damon fell weakly to the ground. The female vampire was hyperventilating as she looked at the broom that was still sticking out of her chest. The male one tried to crawl to her, to get it out of her.
He then noticed that Jo hadn't gotten away, seeming to have fallen down from exhaustion as Damon had tried to fight him. Kai grabbed her arms, hoisting her up as he dragged her with him. "Now that I've got the kinks worked out, we can actually do this. Is there an upcoming celestial event that interests you? I'm partial to-"
He was cut of by an arrow hitting his shoulder. He had felt worse pain from trying to kill himself thousands of times in the prison world, but that didn't mean that he was able to keep himself from falling to his knees, dropping his twin sister.
Then, Natalie turned to the side, seeing who was there. She couldn't help but calm down a bit as she saw her father and brother standing there. If this was any other situation, she would have scolded Jeremy for using one of her old weapons, but she was too happy to see them to do anything. It also had something to do with the broom in her chest.
As Damon seemed to start to come to his senses, Alaric sent him a nod, wondering if he could take care of his daughter, or if he had to do it himself. Damon nodded back, signalizing that he could take care of her if he took care of Jo.
He sighed for a moment, watching as Natalie seemed to slowly be falling asleep. "No, Natalie. You've gotta stay awake for me, okay? Look at me. Focus on me, focus on my voice. I'm here. You've gotta stay awake. For me. Please."
He looked at the broom, putting his hands on it carefully as he started pulling. She kept gasping in pain. She grabbed onto the ends of his jacket to hold onto it. While it may have hurt to have it thrown in her body, getting it pulled out was even worse.
A tear went down her face involuntarily. She groaned as he used a bit more strength to pull it out of her completely. She didn't stop looking like she was in pain, though. That made Damon all the more worried. "What? What's wrong? Didn't I get it? What?"
"I just really hate him," she breathed, letting go of his jacket. He couldn't help but smile as she got back to the Natalie he knew and loved. He nodded, seeming like he agreed. She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, him tilting his head in confusion, wondering what she was doing. The reincarnation then sighed in defeat. "Okay, you're off best friend probation."
"Oh, thank god." They both chuckled together as he put his hand on hers. Even when they were done laughing, they still looked at each other with what was a wide grin in Natalie's case and a soft smile in Damon's.
Then Alaric and Jo walked down the hall, and the father of the previously kidnapped girl, looked at Jo as if he was asking if she could stand, to which she nodded. Alaric then walked closer to his daughter, letting go of Jo. "Nat, are you okay?"
She hadn't even thought of that. She honestly didn't know, but she didn't want him to worry about her any more than he had to. Damon held his hand out to her the same way he had before, and she took it gladly as he pulled her up. She turned to father with a fake smile. "Yeah, never better," she lied.
But when she turned back to Damon, who still had a tight hold on her hand, the fake smile turned real. He hadn't taken his eyes off her since he had fallen from Kai's aneurysm, and he hadn't stopped smiling since he knew she was going to be okay.
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The Salvatore Boarding House
Natalie wasn't in the mood for a two-hour drive to Whitmore, where she didn't even take any classes anymore, so she just went to the last place she had called home, where her home had a home. The Salvatore Boarding House. There had been a lot of memories there. She stood in the parlor, and the first thing that came to mind was the first time she and Stefan had gone a bit further than kissing.
And the exact person she had been thinking of then came through the door, seeing her standing there. He suppressed his urge to run and hug her, or kiss her, because he didn't really know where they were since she kissed him at the hospital.
"I heard your daylight necklace melted straight off your body," was the first thing he greeted her with after a day of torture. He fickled with the thing he made sure he had gotten her in his hands.
She turned around smiling a bit, but not enough for it to seem real. "Yeah, a pretty terrible to time to lose the one thing that lets me go out in daylight when our favorite witch is stuck in a 1994 prison world."
"Yeah, well, Jo has gotten a bit better. She made you this," Stefan smiled a bit back, holding up a pretty new daylight ring. At least it wasn't as ugly as the Caroline was stuck with when she had gotten hers. "Sorry, it was a ring this time."
She sent him a blank look at him actually saying sorry for the type of daylight jewlery she had gotten. She responded in a typical Natalie fashion, with a voice so monotone it was sarcastic. "Oh, no, this is terrible."
He looked at her expectantly, and she held her right hand out for him. She made sure it wasn't the left one, where engagement and wedding rings went, so people wouldn't get the wrong idea. But still, she couldn't help but want people to get the wrong idea as he slid it on her finger, her smiling as she watched him.
And somehow, her smiling made him feel even more guilty. He had fallen for many things when it came to her, but her smile was definitely one of them. And when he thought about how much he loved her, he felt guilty for not saving her. Because he would have. He would have done so many things for her to be safe, for her to smile.
He would give her all the love he could muster, until he was empty, until he felt drained and unable to feel anything again, just so he could that smile. Or any smile at all, as long as it was hers.
He released her hand, gnawing on the inside of his lip. Natalie watched her expectantly, as he looked like he desperately wanted to say something. "I wish I knew, I would have come and helped."
"It's okay, I'm fine. I'm out and about," she tried to keep him from worrying, from blaming himself. She didn't know why Damon didn't tell him, but she knew that it was nobody's fault that he wasn't there. And it was okay, she was okay.
She should have known that it wouldn't work to just say that she was okay. She knew Stefan better than that. He just kept staring at her in worry, his eyes scouring her body in search of injuries, even if they would have healed by now. "Still, I wish I could've been there."
It wasn't the first time she had seen him being sad and mopey about not being the hero. It wasn't because he didn't want anybody else to get the glory, but because he felt like after everything he had done in his life, he needed some way to forgive himself, and that was through saving people. Especially saving her, after everything he had done to hurt her. "You know that I don't blame you, so you shouldn't blame you."
"Yeah, yeah. But, still-" he tried to keep going, but she wouldn't let him.
She grabbed his hand quickly, and he stumbled a bit, even if he was standing straight. She didn't intertwine their fingers, keeping them in each other's grips. Instead, she led it to be on her chest, over her heart. "You feel that? That's my heart, and it's still beating. I'm here, I'm alive."
Stefan, being a bit of an everything man, noticed something that was a bit weird. And, so, he decided to comment on it in case something was wrong. "It's beating a bit fast."
"That's because of you," she admitted sheepishly, not meeting his eyes for a moment before deciding to go back with where she was going. "And, as you can see, I am here and I am safe and right now I'm seeing you being all full-on hero complex on me, so stop. You don't always have to be the hero, sometimes you can just be a regular guy. My regular guy."
He tried to keep himself from grinning at her telling him that he made her heart race. Because it was the same for her, but she never noticed. "A regular guy who's in love with a regular girl? His regular girl?"
Not having been 100% sure of where Stefan stood when it came to them, she couldn't help but smile softly at his words. For a while, she dreamed of hearing him say those words, and now it felt weird to think of a world where she didn't know. "I think his regular girl would like to think so."
"I think her regular guy thinks so too," he finally took his hand away from her chest. He only intertwined them, swinging them between them. Yet, he still couldn't stop being a hero, thinking he needed to be on. "But still, I should've-"
"Nuh-uh. Shut up," she cut him off, shaking her head on him. If it wasn't for her not wanting to let go of his hand, she probably would have crossed her arms over her chest with a disappointed look.
And then she realized why he decided to cut back in with his hero-complex as his eyes gleamed playfully as he looked down on his shorter girlfriend. She would never stop applauding his ability to be smooth. "Make me."
They both leaned into one another, him going down as she went up, their lips meeting slowly. And suddenly, it all exploded. Fireworks, butterflies, the whole cliche package. Natalie had never wanted something cliche, but with Stefan, kissing him, she was weirdly okay with it. And she couldn't help but hope she could stay in that moment forever, not having to let go of him.
But they couldn't kiss forever, no matter how much they hated it. But even if she wasn't okay, no matter what she told people, she still smiled a bit as she met his eyes. But they didn't lean away from each other, their foreheads still touching, leaning on one another through it.
Even if still feeling her hand in his, her forehead against his, the happy, romantic mood faded as her smile did as well. Without his lips on hers, without anybody saying anything, she couldn't help but go back to everything that had happened that day. How much it still hurt.
"I'm glad you're okay," he then spoke up, making her suck a breath in as his deep voice startled her. She could feel his warm breath on her face, her eyes barely being open anymore as she tried to focus on him just being there, being with her.
"So am I," she let out a breathy chuckle.
He noticed one thing. That little scrunch in her nose that everyone knew what meant. She had gotten better at hiding it, but with him, her guard was always a bit more down. She couldn't lie to him without him knowing. "Are you? Okay, I mean?"
"No," Natalie answered, surprisingly honest. But she pressed her head against his even harder as she released her grip on his hand. His hand traveled to her hips, holding on to them tightly as she ran her hand over his chest and shoulder. "But, right now, with you, it feels like I could be."
He didn't say anything, because he didn't have to. He knew there were still more words on the tip of her tongue. She wanted more from him than that. She wanted a promise, she wanted him to say that he'd be hers, without saying the words. "Just don't let me go."
If the moment didn't feel so perfect, he would have nodded. Instead, he settled for tightening his grip on her hips. "Never." And she smiled, because that's what she needed. She needed him, and she needed to know he was there, he wasn't going to let her go, not again.
At one point, she believed that he was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. At that point, she was hurt, she was devastated. She had lost her first love because he was unable to listen to her, and he didn't seem to care. But he did. He did care. Hearing her tell him that she hated him, that one of the worst thing he could ever remember hearing. But it wasn't true. Because he wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened to her. He was arguably the best.
He changed her. He had changed her in the best way possible. She had fallen hard, and she thought that she was never going to be able to get up, and then he offered his hand and pulled her against his chest. He whispered sweet words of encouragement, he taught her that although her soul was black, her heart was gold.
▹▹▹
A/N: Well, this was a long ass chapter.
Since it's been over five seasons since Stefan and Natalie first met, I'm thinking we can finally get a true, real relationship between the two, where they can call each other boyfriend and girlfriend without having to feel like things aren't the way they should be. You guys have been unbelievably patient, and now you're getting your reward.
And, season 6 is definitely my favorite Datalie season. No question.
\Votes and comments are greatly appreciated.