𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙏𝙒𝙊
ミ★ ( lion and the lamb, act one ) ★彡

     Hazel thinks she hates Tuesdays more than Mondays. There's nothing significant about a Tuesday to have a reason for her to look forward to every week. Mondays get a bad rep for being the start of the school/work week, and kicking people while they're down that the weekend is over. Wednesday is hump day, meaning she's made it halfway through the week. Thursday is Friday's-eve. And Friday begins the weekend once that final bell rings. What's good about Tuesdays? Nothing. In her mind, Tuesdays should be cancelled all together.

The other thing about Tuesdays is that she has Tanner's history class first thing in the morning. He's already difficult to deal with after a full stomach and lots of energy, but, within the first hour of her waking up—especially after a sleepless night, he's impossible. Hazel's not a morning person whatsoever, and she knows having Tanner in her line of sight so early does nothing good for her.

"The Battle of Willow Creek took place right at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls." Tanner explains and looks around the room for someone to pick on to answer his question, "How many casualties resulted in this battle? Ms. Bennett?"

Bonnie looked up from her scribbling on her notebook, "Um... a lot?" She answered with a wince, "I'm not sure. Like a whole lot."

He doesn't look impressed by her answer, "Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Ms. Bennett." He says and Hazel's jaw goes slack while Bonnie puts her head down in embarrassment. He doesn't linger on her very long before picking his next victim, "Mr. Donovan? Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jock stereotype?"

"It's okay, Mr. Tanner, I'm cool with it." Matt answered and the class lightly chuckled at him while Hazel makes a mental note to check in with him to see if he needs any help with his studying. She feels bad for him; his home life isn't exactly the best, nor is it even considered stable.

His dad is out of the picture, his sister, Vicki, is hooked on whatever drug she can get her hands on— which is most annoyingly dealed to her by Jeremy— and his mother is never really around, always disappearing for weeks at a time, so she might as well not be in the picture too. His mom was still into her partying, and everyone in town knows that she hasn't accepted that the good old days are over. She's still living like she's a teen while she has two kids at home struggling. Hazel doesn't like to judge or hate anyone, but, she really dislikes Kelly Donovan.

"Hmm. Ms. Gilbert? Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town's most significantly historical events?" Tanner then asked.

"Which Ms. Gilbert?" Both Hazel and Elena asked in unison, causing the class to laugh again at their freaky twin act.

"Considering Hazel is top of my class, I'm going to ask Elena." Tanner elaborates and Hazel blushed when she noticed Stefan staring at her in amazement.

Elena could feel her heart racing, "I'm sorry, I—I don't know." She stammered. She was smart, but, she hated being put on the spot. Hazel was always better at academics than she was, Elena always leaned more towards the creative side of things. Not to mention, she had help because Hazel often helped tutor her in her classes whenever she felt like she was falling behind.

Tanner's mouth pressed into a thin line of disapproval, placing his hands on his hips as if he was asserting dominance, "I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena. But, the personal excuses ended with summer break." He tells her and both her and Hazel's eyes widened at what he just said.

They really shouldn't be surprised that he didn't care, but, it was the fact that he was so insensitive in public about it without a care. They never expected sympathy and being enabled for the rest of their lives, but it had only been four months since the death of both their parents that nearly took their lives too. There isn't exactly an expiration date on grieving.

"There were 346 casualties." Stefan spoke up when he noticed the twins be completely stunned into silence, the staring towards them only making it worse so he decided to get the attention off them, "Unless you're counting local civilians."

     "That's correct. Mister...?" Tanner trailed, realising he didn't know Stefan's last name.

     "Salvatore."

     "Salvatore." Tanner repeats, realising he recognised that name, "Any relation to the original settlers here at Mystic Falls?"

     "Distant." Stefan answers hesitantly.

     "Well, very good." Tanner said with a nod of his head, "Except, of course, there were no civilian casualties in this battle."

     "Actually, there were twenty-seven, sir." Stefan corrected him kindly before Tanner could say anything else, "Confederate soldiers—they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss." He says and Hazel's mouth dropped slightly at him standing up to Tanner, "The founder's archives are, uh, stored in civil hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts, Mr. Tanner."

     Tanner doesn't respond.

     "Do I really have to go?" Hazel whined as she racked through her wardrobe for an outfit while Elena was doing her makeup in their shared bathroom, "You know I really don't like going to these things. There's too many people, and something always goes wrong."

     "Yes, yes do you." Elena said as she concentrated on putting on her mascara, "I think it'd be good for us to go back out into the real world again... be normal people."

     Hazel doesn't say anything back because Elena's right. It is time, and she can't continue to rot away in her room in case she might feel better one day in future. She has to work for it herself, and maybe going to a stupid teenage bonfire would help. She could feel normal; be a normal girl rather than the girl who basically died four months ago.

     "Soo..." Elena trails as she walks towards the direction of Hazel's room, "What did you think of Stefan?" She asks, leaning on the doorframe with a suggestive grin.

     Hazel only spared her a sideways glance before returning to look in her closet, "We just met. What do you mean 'what do I think of him'?"

     "Well... he's cute, isn't he?" She insists, shrugging her shoulders, trying to seem casual even though she's desperate to get the information out of her sister.

     "I mean, yeah." Hazel responded before shaking her head in confusion and turning towards her, "Why? What are you up to?"

      "Nothing!" Elena denies the accusation, but the blank stare from her sister shows she doesn't believe her. Elena scoffs, "Fine. I think you two would be cute together."

     Hazel looks confused again, "I thought you were into him?" She says, figuring from the way she brought him over to them at the Grill was her putting herself back out into the dating world again.

     "No, I wanted you two to meet. You two have a lot in common." Elena explains as she makes herself comfortable on Hazel's bed, "I think he'd be perfect for you."

     Hazel only laughed and shook her head, "Oh, Lena, I don't think I'm ready for that yet. I don't even know him."

     "Exactly." Elena pointed at her and Hazel rolled her eyes at her persistence, "That's why the party is the perfect time for you to get to know each other. You know... test the waters."

      "Don't say weird things like that." Hazel responds as she sits beside Elena on the bed, "It's weird."

      "You're weird." Elena shot back and Hazel pinched her arm, "Ow!"

     "Take that back!" Hazel warned her with pointed eyes.

     "No!" Elena refused stubbornly and Hazel pinched her again, "Ow! Stop that!"

     Jenna then walked into the room, "What are you two doing?" She crossed her arms.

     "Elena is trying to peer pressure me into going to the bonfire tonight." Hazel told her and Elena rolled her eyes for tattling.

     Jenna looked in between them, "I'm confused. You both look ready?" She noticed, "Or, half ready since you're still in your school clothes, Hazel."

     "I'm trying to convince her because I think it'd be good for her to return to the real world for a bit instead of reading all night." Elena explains her side.

     Within a second, Hazel can tell who's side Jenna has picked, and it's not hers, "I agree. Hazel, you should go." She says and Hazel groans dramatically, flopping herself backwards onto the bed.

     "We can go just for a bit!" Elena offered, "And after the first hour, if you're not having fun, we'll go home. No ifs, and or buts'."

     Hazel looked her up and down to see if there was even a hint of her lying, "Fine." She agrees but holds up her pinky, "But, only if you pinky swear."

     Elena links her pinky to Hazel's and Jenna smiles, "My work here is done." She says but points at Hazel, "Also, stop pinching your sister. It hurts."

     Elena grins triumphantly as Jenna walks away and she goes up to the wardrobe to help her pick something for the night before her eyes narrow on a particular piece of clothing. She pulls it out and holds it up to Hazel, "Why do you have my shirt?"

     "Hey, you came!" Bonnie smiled brightly as soon as she saw the twins arrive to the party.

     "I convinced her to come for a bit." Elena grinned back as she looped her arm with Hazel's, who was pretending to look annoyed despite holding back a smile herself because she's somewhat glad to be out with her friends.

     Bonnie laughed at them before waggling her eyebrows, "Soo... Stefan?" She questioned Hazel. She noticed him staring at her and how they seemed to have the same personality.

     Hazel rolled her eyes and stomped her foot lightly, "Not you, too." She groaned at her.

      "What?" Bonnie asked innocently, "Just admit it, Hazel. He's cute."

"Yeah, he's cute, you're cute—you'd will be cute together." Elena agreed.

"You know you just technically called yourself cute, right?" Hazel snorted at Elena and she smiled slyly, "And, okay, so he's a little pretty—I think it's the romance novel stare." Hazel admitted with another roll of her eyes, even though she was slightly blushing at the idea of her and Stefan, "But, so what?"

     "So, where is he?" Bonnie asks them as she looks around the party for the particular face, eager to get Hazel and Stefan to talk.

     "I don't know." Hazel shrugged, "You tell me—you're the psychic one." She joked.

      "Right. I forgot." Bonnie chuckled, "Okay, so give me a sec. Grams says I have to concentrate." She says, closing her eyes.

      "Wait, you need a crystal ball." Elena realised and they started to look around before Hazel hands her, an empty beer bottle. Bonnie takes it and touches Hazel's hand. Bonnie spaces out for a while, comes back to her senses, and abruptly pulls her hand back with wide eyes, "What?" Elena asks, noticing the strange interaction.

      "That was weird." Bonnie comments with a frown on her face, "When I touched you... I saw a ring of fire."

     Hazel's blood went cold, "What?" She asks while Elena continued to look confused.

      "It was ring of fire—three, actually. Like they were altars. There was a man, too." Bonnie described and Hazel could feel the air restricting in her lungs again. Bonnie then shook her head, snapping out of her daze, "I'm drunk. It's the drinking. There's nothing psychic about it." She says, although it sounds more like she's trying to convince herself more than anything, "Yeah, okay, I'm gonna get a refill." She then leaves the twins alone.

       "What was that about?" Elena asks her sister.

      "She just described my nightmare." Hazel gulped, "In perfect detail."

      Elena's eyes widened, understanding why she was so freaked out. Every time Hazel has that nightmare, she notices that a piece of her sister dies every time because she's so scared. She then looks around for their friend, "Bonnie!" She called out to her, but Bonnie only continued to walk away. Elena turned to her, "I'm gonna go get her and see if she can explain any of this. Hold on. Stay here." She orders before practically running after her and leaving Hazel by herself.

       Hazel used her arms to hug herself uncomfortably as she was by herself in a crowd, any sense of self confidence gone the minute Bonnie brought up her nightmare. She was confident about being at the party since she had her friends by her side, but now that they had run off and she was yet to find Caroline, she was anxious and she wanted to be home where it was safe.

     "Hi." She heard and it caused her to jump in fright because she hadn't noticed someone approach her. She turned to see Stefan standing behind her, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

      "No, it's okay." Hazel stuttered, trying to calm down her beating heart.

      "I'm sorry. Are you okay? You seem like you're upset about something." He noticed, his green eyes showing nothing but concern about her well-being.

      Hazel shook her head and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, "Oh, uh, no, it's—it's just Bonnie. She's... you know what? Never mind." She rambled before placing a smile on her face, deciding they weren't close enough for her to start whining to him, "You're... here."

      Stefan nodded his head, "I'm here." He confirmed, her smile making him smile. The two fell into a comfortable silence before Stefan offered, "Do you want to go for a walk?"

"Yeah, that'd be really nice actually." She agreed and the two started to walk away from the condensed areas of the party towards a more quieter area. They didn't talk until Hazel decided to speak up once they got towards the bridge near the outskirts of the party; she's trying to forget about the fact that she's on a bridge near a body of water, "You know, you're kind of the talk of the town."

Stefan looked amused as he responded, "Am I?"

Hazel giggled, "Mysterious new guy? Oh, yeah. Big gossip."

"Well, you have the mysterious thing going, too." He brings up and she looks up at him in confusion, "Twinged in sadness."

"What makes you think that I'm sad?" Hazel asked, wondering if it really was that obvious that she was indeed sad.

Stefan shrugged lightly, "I can just tell." He says and Hazel bites her lip as she stares over the bridge and into the small creek below, feeling her heart rate going up as she looks down at it, flashbacks hitting her mind but trying to not make it obvious that she's nervous to be standing there.

"Yeah, I don't really have the best poker face." Hazel let out a quiet and nervous laugh before she made eye contact with him, "Besides, you don't want to know, it's... it's not exactly good party chit-chat."

"Well, I've never really been very good at, uh, chit-chat." Stefan offered politely, not wanting her to feel bad about her lack of optimism.

Hazel returned her gaze back at the creek and leaned against the bridge, trying to hide how nervous she was being on the bridge, "Last spring... my parents' car drove off of a bridge into the lake. And Elena and I were in the backseat. Elena survived, and I was pronounced dead for a few minutes but ended up surviving—the doctors said it was a miracle I did, but... they didn't. No one knows what happened or how it happened, but, it did and now my family is forever broken." She frowned before looking up at Stefan with a fake happy smile, "So, that's my story."

Stefan reached out to place his hand on top of hers, "You won't be sad forever, Hazel."

"I hope so." Hazel responds with a whisper.

"Let's keep walking." Stefan suggests and gently grabbed onto Hazel's hand again so they could walk, entwining their fingers and she could feel the blush coating her cheeks at the gesture, and the relief filled her to be away from the small bridge, "You know, I like Bonnie. She seems like a good friend."

"She is." Hazel agreed with a nod, "She, Elena and Caroline are the bestest friends in the world. I don't know what I'd do without them."

Stefan then noticed Matt staring, "And Matt..." He brings up, "He can't seem to, uh, take his eyes off of us. What's the story there?"

"He dated Elena for a few years. He's one of my best friends also. He's just protective, that's all." Hazel explains casually, "Matt was that friend since childhood that she started dating to see if they could be more... but then, our parents died, and everything changed between them and she couldn't stay in that relationship. But, it didn't change how I felt about our friendship."

"Did you?" Stefan suddenly asked and she looked at him with confusion, "Did you have someone like that?"

"I did—Tyler." Hazel confirmed, and she could see the recognition that dawned on his face at mention of his name, telling her that she had his own encounter with her ex-boyfriend, "We were together for a few months, but, he changed. I don't blame him, his life hasn't exactly been rainbows and sunshines. It doesn't matter now anyway, he's dating Vicki—Matt's sister." She tells him and he looks confused as to the relationship. She shrugged, "It's a small town. Everyone dates everyone here." Stefan then laughed which made Hazel smile, "But, Tyler and I, together we just... I don't know, it wasn't, um—it wasn't..."

"Passionate?" Stefan suggested.

"No." Hazel responded as she felt herself getting sucked into his eyes, "No, it wasn't passionate..." Her eyebrows then pulled together when she noticed his eyes start to change, "Hey, um, are you okay? Your eye, it just—it's—"

Stefan quickly turned his face away from her, "Oh, um... yeah, no. It's, um—it's nothing." He disregards, "Um, are you thirsty? I'm gonna get us a drink."

He doesn't let Hazel answer before he leaves her standing there with confusion and bewilderment by his sudden change in demeanour.

Once Hazel found her sister, she sighed, "I'm ready to go. I've had enough." She informed her.

Elena frowned, "What happened to Stefan? I thought you were having fun?"

      "Couldn't tell you. He disappeared and haven't been able to see him since." She answers with a sigh before looking down at the time on her watch face, "Probably time to call it anyway. I still need to finish my homework before Tanner kills me—which you need to do too."

Elena groaned softly at Tanner's name and the embarrassment she felt in class by being called out, "Okay, we'll go say goodbye to everyone and then we'll go." She says and Hazel nodded, "And if it makes you feel any better, Matt and I had a conversation."

"How was it?" She asked Elena, knowing Matt has been wanting to speak to her since they broke up.

"Awkward." Elena winced and Hazel grimaced at the idea, "He thought I was into Stefan and he told me was willing to fight for us?"

"Oh, God." Hazel laughed uncomfortably, "I think it's just the alcohol. I doubt we'll be seeing any grand gestures anytime soon."

"I hope so." Elena says, linking her arm with Hazel's, "I just want to be friends. Our relationship wasn't what I wanted. I don't even think he's actually in love with me—he just thinks he is."

"And maybe he'll wake up to that. Eventually." She assured her younger twin before correcting herself, "Maybe." Elena glared at her lightly for the false hope before the two laughed at each other, but Hazel's laughter stopped when Stefan approached them and she saw Caroline behind him, "Oh, I was wondering who abducted you, but, now I know." She joked.

Stefan rubbed the back of his neck nervously because he knows he told her he was getting her a drink and didn't return, only to find him speaking to Caroline, "Is she like that with, uh... all the guys?" He asked, pointing his thumb in Caroline's direction.

"You're fresh meat. She'll back off eventually." Elena assured him with a laugh, internally planning on speaking to her so she could let the blonde know that Stefan and Hazel were getting closer. She knew Caroline would back off for her best friend. Elena's eyes then noticed Jeremy going towards the woods, "God, you gotta be kidding me!"

"What?" Both Hazel and Stefan asked her in confusion and looked around, wondering what she had seen to cause that reaction.

"Our brother." Elena grumbled as she was going to follow after him.

"The drunk one?" Stefan asked.

"That would be the one." Hazel confirmed with pursed lips.

"Excuse me." Elena said before turning to Hazel, "I'll go talk to him. Stay here." She says and Hazel raised an eyebrow because she knew it wasn't going to be a nice talk, unlike if Hazel was there because she has a soft spot for him.

"Need some help?" Stefan called out to her.

Hazel laughed, "Trust me, you're not going to want to witness that." She said while she could hear Elena screaming his name while running after him, "It's going to be a tough-love conversation. It's a bit uncomfortable to be around." She pinched her fingers together.

"Let me guess, you're not the tough love-kind of person?" Stefan chuckled at her.

"You're correct." Hazel grimaced, "Especially when it comes to Jeremy. He's my baby brother. I hate yelling at him."

"Ah, so that's Elena's job." Stefan realised and Hazel laughed while nodding. It wasn't like Elena enjoyed yelling at him, but it's because she can get her argument across a lot better than Hazel could. Stefan's joking manner then dropped, "Hey, um, I'm sorry for running away before. It was pretty rude of me. Can I make it up to you?"

"You don't owe me anything, Stefan." Hazel shrugged and put her hands in her pockets since they were starting to get cold, "It's a party. These things happen."

"Yeah, but—"

"Somebody help!" The sound of Elena's scream cut off their conversation and Stefan noticed the way Hazel stiffened at her twin's screams of panic. They turned to see Jeremy and Elena carrying an injured Vicki Donovan out from the woods.

"Oh, my God." Hazel gasped as she approached them, with Stefan in tow.

Matt and Tyler ran towards them and Matt checked on her and her wounds immediately, and Matt then yelled out, "Somebody, call an ambulance!"

"Everybody back up, give her some space!" Tyler yelled at the crowd that was surrounding them, waving his hands to push them back.

"It's her neck. Something bit her. She's losing a lot of blood." Elena sniffled, crying out of fear because Vicki didn't look good from the way she was attacked.

Someone took off their shirt and gave it to them to put on the wound while Stefan and Hazel could only watch with shock. Without thinking, Hazel hid her face into Stefan's chest, she couldn't look at the blood anymore. It was scaring her seeing Vicki like that—she liked Vicki, all things considering. She never liked seeing anyone hurt.

Stefan placed his arms around her instinctively when he felt her shaking and heard her sniffling. He'd never let anything—or anyone—hurt her.