loving you's the antidote

"WHERE IS BONNIE?" Athena narrowed her eyes, looking around the hallways at school suspiciously.

Caroline stops mid-sentence, clamping her jaw shut as she looks at Athena. "Why do you care about Bonnie all of a sudden?"

"I don't," Athena snaps, eyes falling to Stefan as he walks down the hallway towards them. Feeling Caroline's gaze on her, she jerks her gaze to the blonde questioningly. "I'm sorry that I noticed a distinct lack of bitch in this school today, so I'd love to know where Bonnie is."

"Elena is gone," Stefan announces as he stops in front of the two girls, looking at them with wide, worried eyes.

"I don't care about her," Athena shakes her head, giving Stefan the same incredulous look she'd given Caroline.

Caroline sighs, looking at Stefan worriedly. "What do mean she's gone? Maybe she just took a sick day or Damon kidnapped her again."

Stefan heaves a sigh, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "I've tried calling Damon a dozen times, but he's not answering, which means he doesn't have Elena. If he did, he'd take every chance he could to mock me. And he won't help unless you ask,"

"You're not wrong,"

"Anna has her, because of the tomb vampires,"

Caroline holds a hand up, looking at the two in disbelief. "I'm sorry, Anna as in Jeremy's little girlfriend, Anna? She's a vampire?"

Athena and Stefan nod in unison and Caroline scoffs. "First of all, you two need to start telling me these things! I'm in the loop now, you can't just exclude me! Second, how many people in this town are vampires? I mean, seriously,"

Stefan shakes his head, exasperated with the two girls before him. Turning to Athena, he sighs. "If Elena is with Anna, then I guarantee Bonnie is, too, because of her ancestors. Anna knew Emily in 1864, and I bet she thinks Bonnie can open the tomb."

Athena pokes her tongue into her cheek and contemplates her options for a moment, and her brown eyes flicker past Stefan's shoulder to where Mr. Saltzman stands in the doorway of his classroom, watching her and Stefan warily.

"Fine. Caroline, you stay here."

"What? What– no, I want to come!" Caroline exclaims, her blonde hair flicking around wildly. "I am totally capable of hunting down bad vampires."

Athena grimaces and grabs Caroline's wrists, halting her flailing hands. "Cool it on the vampire talk, alright?" She mutters, eyes flashing to Mr. Saltzman briefly. "I know you want to help, but not only are you human, you're also our buffer. It'd be weird if the three of us were missing school the same day as Elena and Bonnie, wouldn't it? We'd get in trouble. So you stay here and I'll text you as soon as I can, okay?"

Caroline hesitates but eventually nods and concedes her argument. Her thin eyebrows furrow briefly as Athena and Stefan make sure they're prepared to leave. "Wait, you're– you said I'm a human, but so are you. Right?"

When Caroline looks up from her shoes, Athena and Stefan are nearly running down the hallway and she huffs a panicked breath to herself. "Right?!"

──────

"Anna just called me from Elena's cellphone and said to meet her in the town square in thirty minutes with the grimoire,"

Athena looks up from said grimoire in her hands with a scoff. "She's awful pushy for someone holding two hostages no one gives a shit about,"

"Athena,"

"Stefan," She mocks, slapping the old spell book shut before standing. "I'm just saying. If Elena died, we'd all be better off."

Stefan sighs, looking at her pleadingly. The honesty in his gaze makes her skin crawl with an emotion that is all too familiar, and she can't stop the way she narrows her eyes at him accusingly. "Why do you care so much about what happens to Elena? Aren't you the one that broke up with her?"

The vampire's eyes widen, but he shakes his surprise away quickly, taking a step toward Athena. "It's not because it's Elena, Athena. I'd go to these lengths for a stranger if it meant that they got away with their lives because it's something no one ever did for me."

He steps towards her again, not letting her escape before he grabs her wrists in his hands much like she'd done with Caroline earlier that morning. He slides his hands from her wrists and clasps both of her hands in his own, shaking them lightly. "There was a time in my life when I didn't have empathy for anyone, and so now I try to have a little for everyone. And I know it drives you crazy,"

She flutters her lashes, looking away from his piercing gaze for a moment before meeting the green hue again.

"I know you wish I'd just stop sometimes," Athena huffs a small laugh at his honest words. "But I won't. I don't want to be the person I used to be, for Lexi, for Damon, and for you. I never want you to see that side of me."

Athena heaves a sigh, but she plasters a placid smile on her face that she knows will please him for the time being. "I suppose I can press pause on the whole death wish thing and be helpful."

"I would appreciate it very much," He hums, still clasping her hands in his own. "And think of it like this; you're not saving Elena, you're saving Bonnie."

"Why on earth would that change the way I viewed–"

"You can fool Caroline all day long, sweetheart," He drawls, an amused glint glimmering in his eye. "But I know that a part of you wants to like Bonnie, and that same part of you doesn't want her to get hurt."

Athena narrows her eyes but concedes with a sigh. "Fine. Damon will go and meet Anna, and we'll find Bonnie and her kidnapping-prone best friend, and the day will be saved once again."

"Come on, Athena, it'll be great. I bet you'll even get to threaten someone,"

She arches a dark eyebrow as he drops their clasped hands and begins to back out of the living room of the boarding house. "Promise?"

His laughter echoes through the house as he turns to leave, and Athena begins to follow after him with a smile that twitches at her lips. Her fingers momentarily drift to her scar and she winces at the slight sensitivity but continues.

Her mind drifts back to Stefan's words, about his frustrating empathy. He was so haunted by his past self that she couldn't imagine what he was going through, or how rough it was for him to not want her to know anything about him during that time.

He said he'd never want her to see that side of him, his tone implying that he was afraid of her judging him and going so far as to leave him or never speaking to him again, but she couldn't imagine such a thing ever happening.

She had a hard time imagining any part of her not loving Stefan Salvatore in his entirety. The thought was simply impossible.

──────

"Anna wants to open the tomb tonight after sundown. Something about a party, and a bunch of bodies for the vampires to feed on."

"Oh, shit," Athena slaps a hand to her forehead as she and Stefan drive towards the motel that Anna had been staying at. "This guy from Duke is throwing a party tonight by the old church ruins– Caroline invited a ton of people. If the tomb vampires get out it'll be a massacre."

Stefan rests a hand on her arm, briefly taking his eyes off the road to give her a reassuring gaze. "We won't let that happen. As soon as we have Katherine out of the tomb, Bonnie will close it and Anna will be trapped in there."

"She never specified how she wanted to be reunited with her mom again," Damon chuckles smugly on the other line. "Semantics, people. Semantics."

Athena rolls her eyes, her foot tapping on the floor of the car. "What about this vampire that's at the motel with Bonnie and Elena? Is he a threat?"

"God, no, he's a newbie. The only thing you need to worry about is his appetite, which should be easy. As long as you don't spill blood, he won't be a problem. At least not for you two."

Stefan sighs and nods, glancing at the phone lying on the console between his and Athena's arms. "We'll meet you at the tomb tonight with Bonnie."

"I'll have Anna."

The line clicks off and Athena silences her phone once more, just in time for them to pull up to the motel and throw the car into park with a slight jerk. The duo hurries out of the car and up the set of stairs outside the motel, Athena's thick-heeled boots echoing on the concrete.

Stefan shakes his head as they read numbers off the doors. "You need to invest in flat shoes,"

"The day I can't run or kill a vampire in heels is the day the world ends, trust me," She breathes, pushing her dark hair out of her face as she stops outside the door. "This is the one Damon said."

Stefan nods and wraps his hand around the doorknob, crushing it beneath his strength as he shoulders the door inwards. Gasps echoed through the dank motel room, and Athena watched the newborn vampire scramble toward the shadows with narrowed eyes.

"Stefan!"

Athena ignores Elena's cry of relief, and her eyes fall to Bonnie as she stands from the bed with shaky legs. Sighing to herself, Athena's eyes fall to the vampire's ringless hands and her eyes shimmer with an idea.

Stefan pulls the two girls out of the room and towards the staircase, and Athena waves him off as she rips the curtains open and watches the vampire's skin burn as he drops between the two beds and hides himself in the shadows.

Walking towards him, she kneels beside him with a glare. "I'd kill you myself, but I've got a friend who's getting tired of cleaning up after my murders."

The vampire groans, looking at her with wide, terrified eyes.

"When the sun goes down, leave town and never come back, or I will kill you," She stands, clearing her throat. Impulsively, she swings her leg back and slams the tip of her boot into his ribs, listening to the bones crack as he cries out. "And leave Bonnie the hell alone."

Athena turns and exits the hotel room, her eyes falling over the railing of the balcony to find Stefan closing the door to the backseat on Elena and Bonnie, heaving a heavy sigh. His eyes flicker up as she walks down the stairs and he hurries towards her with relief shining in his gaze.

"Are you alright? He didn't hurt you?"

Athena smiles lightly, shaking her head even as his hands come up to cup her cheeks and examine her for injuries. "I'm alright, Stefan. He didn't have a daylight ring, so I just opened the curtains."

Stefan huffs a laugh, though there's a proud look on his face. "What did you say to him?"

"I told him to leave when the sunset, and never come back or I'd kill him," She mockingly pouted, her lips pursing as his hand cupped her sharp jawline. "I told him that my friend is tired of cleaning up after my murders, and I broke a few of his ribs, no biggie."

"I am tired of cleaning up after you, you're right," He nods, then glances back over his shoulder to the two girls awaiting them in the car. "We have to get Elena home before the sun sets."

Athena nods, wanting to spend as little time as possible with the girl in an enclosed environment. "We should take Bonnie to see her grandma, there's no way Damon didn't mention her being in trouble."

The duo share a look of agreement, and they head back to the car, climbing in in a silence that settles between the four of them. Exhaustion and anticipation both swarm in the air, along with the pain that comes from a broken heart.

The olive-skinned girl watches with sad eyes as Stefan's hand slides across the console and rests atop Athena's as if it belonged there. Crossing her arms over her chest, Elena swooped her gaze to the window and allowed the evening sun to momentarily clear her vision of everything she'd seen in the past few hours.

──────

Bonnie stood outside her house, her arms crossed over her chest as she shifted uncomfortably on her heels, eyeing Stefan and Athena. "Thanks again, for saving my life," She huffs a laugh that's more for her own sake than theirs. "It seems to be a recurring theme lately."

"Well, that's what happens when you're friends with Elena,"

Stefan leans over and flicks her forehead, making her groan under her breath and press her fingers over the spot on her temple that briefly aches. He shifts his gaze, seeing a looser smile cross Bonnie's face at the interaction. "It's no problem, Bonnie. I know you didn't ask to be involved in all of this, but it's kind of hard to avoid once you're,"

"Friends with a doppelgänger and vampires? And have your own witch-related crisis?" Bonnie finishes, sharing a short laugh with Stefan. "Still, you don't have to risk your life for me. You shouldn't even want to, Athena,"

Said girl shrugs a shoulder, feigning ignorance. "I have a very convincing friend who is a pain in my ass most days. He's good at making me do things I don't want to do."

Stefan rolls his eyes but can't help the smile that teases his lips. "Whatever you say, Athena,"

Bonnie shakes her head at them. "Thank you guys, really. It means a lot."

"If you really want to thank someone, thank Damon,"

The young witch's eyebrows furrow, crooked jaw clenching. "What do you mean?"

Stefan shakes his head. "Damon knew what hotel you guys were at because he promised Anna he'd get the tomb open to get her mother out."

"He's not going to–"

"No," Athena shakes her head. "He just needed the Gilbert journal back from her before she figured out a way to do it herself. He told us where Anna was most likely holding you guys, and distracted her so we could get you out."

Bonnie's eyes widen and she lets out a slow breath that falls quiet as she looks up at the duo again. "I'll do it."

Stefan's dark brows furrow. "What?"

"I'll open the tomb," Bonnie nods. "I'll help you guys get Katherine out, or whatever. Just so long as we don't let Anna unleash the tomb vampires on the town."

Stefan's jaw drops slightly, and he looks to Athena who shakes her head in disbelief as she looks back at Bonnie.

"O–okay," Athena nods, pulling on the sleeves of her long-sleeved shirt. "We're meeting Damon and Anna by the old church after the sun sets."

Bonnie nods, stuffing her hands in the pocket of the jacket Stefan had let her use. "I'll be there."

──────

author's note; the L word has been dropped mentally. we haven't even gotten a real kiss yet, but here we are. also, i would've put this entire episode in one chapter but:

1. i had to fit stefan and athena yearning in here and it got a bit out of hand

2. the tomb opening scene is sad bc of grams and it's going to be a whole thing so bear with me

3. i got bored so deal with it

originally published; 11.27.20.

edited: 11.28.23. 

- liz