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

     Bonnie Bennett doesn't often meddle in her friends lives because she knows how much it irritates her when people do it for her, but, when she happened to accidentally make contact with Stefan Salvatore the night of the comet and got a feeling throughout her body that she would associate with the feeling of cold, dark death; she couldn't help but need to say something to Hazel about it. Hazel was too pure, and she's experienced too much pain and death in her life to have someone else add to it. Bonnie knows that Hazel would never say get angry with her for bringing it up to her; in fact, she would appreciate one of her oldest friends looking out for her.

     "Why the about-face?" Elena asks the Bennett girl as she, Bonnie and Hazel walk towards the high school the next morning. Bonnie had been unusually quiet throughout the car ride that morning, and she could tell that the gears were turning, and turning, and turning; and that Bonnie was going to have a breakdown if she continued internalising her thoughts instead of talking about them.

     "It's stupid..." Bonnie says, shaking her head in refusal. She doesn't have the guts to say it to Hazel yet. She knows she needs to, she just can't.

     Hazel looks at her best friend inquisitively, "Bonnie..." She presses in a warning tone that is telling her to speak now.

     "What?" Bonnie asks innocently.

     "Spit it out." Elena demands.

     Bonnie crumbles underneath the matching expectant stares of the Gilbert twins and she sighs because if she doesn't speak now, she never will and she doesn't want something to happen knowing she could've prevented it, "I accidentally touched Stefan. And... I got a really bad feeling." She tells them with a sigh, "And I'm not saying don't date the guy—I'm just suggesting you, you know... take it slow."

     "Is that it?" Elena asks with a laugh before she playfully groans and shakes her head at her, "Bonnie... you were saying she should go for it."

     "It was bad bad!" Bonnie defends.

     Hazel raises an eyebrow, "Is this the whole witch mojo thing again?" She asks and Bonnie nods. Hazel's eyes soften because she's glad that Bonnie was looking out for her, "Thanks for telling me, Bons. But, I don't think I'm going to date him anyway. He's too hot and cold for my taste. It's been a hard year, and I just want to focus on getting back to normal again. Boys or no boys."

     "Exactly. You're single in the prime of your entire high school career. It's the perfect time to play the field." Bonnie replies.

     Hazel laughs, "Oh, yeah, because I'm so that girl." She retorts.

     It was like Stefan heard that they were talking about him because he eventually approached them, "Good morning." He says with a kind smile.

     Bonnie offers him a strained one in return, "Hey..." She says to him before turning to the twins, "Um, I gotta find Caroline. She's not answering her phone. So, I'll see you guys later."

Bonnie doesn't wait around for the twins to protest her leaving, despite how much Hazel wants to follow after her because she and Stefan aren't on the best terms either after their last conversation. Stefan notices the way Bonnie left immediately as he approaches, "She doesn't like me very much." He observes.

"She's my best friend. She's looking out for me because she doesn't know you." Hazel says with a shrug before following after Bonnie, leaving Elena standing with Stefan.

Stefan looks at Elena with a small grimace on his face. Elena sighs, "She's right—she doesn't know you, but, when she does, she will love you."

It was Stefan's turn to sigh, "I don't know what to do, Elena. I can't seem to get this right." He wants to make it known to Hazel that he's interested in her, but, he keeps messing it up because of his actions, and because of Damon—but, he won't tell them that.

"Well, for starters, you can stop being so hot and cold with her. She's getting whiplash because she doesn't know what you're thinking or feeling." Elena suggests before getting an idea and her eyes brighten, "Here's what we're going to do. Are you free tonight?"

Stefan nods, "Yes."

"Perfect." Elena smiles, "Dinner, our house. Eight o'clock. You, Hazel, me, Caroline and Bonnie. You two will spend some quality time, and Bonnie will get to see what a great guy you are for her. Two birds, one stone. Mission accomplished."

Meanwhile, Matt and Tyler are throwing a football around and the Lockwood boy notices Elena and Stefan talking, "Look... there's Elena and her new boyfriend. And here I was thinking he was into my ex, now, he's going after yours. Now, what are they doing? Oh, they're walking, walking, walking. Yep. Right into the sunset while you stand there looking like one of those little yard trolls."

"You're a dick—and its gnomes." Matt corrects, shaking his head, "And he's not after Elena. He's made it clear that he's interested in Hazel."

Tyler scoffs, "And you believe that? They look the same, he's probably just trying with both to see whichever twin he gets. My bet is Elena will go for him before Hazel does." He says.

"Hey, what am I supposed to do, Ty?" Matt asks with annoyance as he threw the ball back to him, "She made her choice and wanted to end things with me."

"Let her know she made the wrong one." Tyler answers as he catches the football.

Matt notices the glint that is in his friend's eyes and he gets worried, "What are you doing?" He asks and his eyes widen when he sees Tyler reel his arm back to throw the ball at Stefan, and Matt knows Tyler has a strong throwing arm that could cause damage if someone gets a ball to the head without protective gear, "Ty, don't. Ty, don't! Ty!"

     Tyler ignores Matt and throws the ball at Stefan, who has his back towards him. He says he's doing it for Matt, to make an example of Stefan for him, but, there's a part of him that's slightly jealous that he's hanging around Hazel.

     Stefan quickly turns around and catches the ball, causing them all to look at him in shock, because he shouldn't have been able to catch it—his reflexes are too quick. Elena can't help but freeze in amazement and let out a small laugh at Tyler and Matt's shock when Stefan throws the ball back with enough force for Tyler to stumble when he catches it.

    The cheerleaders were on the side of the field warming up, opposite from the football tryouts when Elena and Hazel show up. They walk over to Bonnie who was stretching on the grass, the older twin noticing that Stefan was on the football field with the team. He must be trying out. Hopefully Tyler doesn't give him a hard time, she thinks knowing that Tyler can get quite aggressive while playing. Bonnie's eyes brighten when she sees the twins, "Oh, my God! You're here!" She states excitedly. She didn't think that Elena would ever get back into the groove of things and come back to things she loved before the crash—cheerleading was one of them.

     "I decided I can't be sad girl forever. The only way to get things back to the way they were is to do things that were." Elena states as she begins to sit down and stretch.

     Bonnie then looked at Hazel, "Are you trying out, too?"

     Hazel lets out a laugh at the idea, "God, no. I'm here to support only." Hazel sits down on the sidelines and reaches into her bag to grab a book, "I'll break my leg accidentally standing too long, let alone trying to flip." She says and Elena snorts because her sister is very much indeed uncoordinated.

     Elena does the splits and touches her nose to her knee, feeling the stretch in her hamstrings before sitting upright to switch legs, "Oh, and two are coming to dinner tonight."

     "I am?" Bonnie asks.

     Hazel's eyes narrowed onto her sister suspiciously considering she apparently needed an invite to have dinner at her own home, "What are you up to?"

     "Nothing." Elena says innocently and Hazel doesn't believe her because Elena can't lie to her to save her life, "You, me, Bonnie and Caroline. Girl's night—it's been a while."

     "I mean, yeah, if you could get a hold of her to ask, though." Hazel retorts because she hasn't seen the blonde all day.

     "Have you seen her?" Bonnie asks Hazel, knowing that Caroline doesn't move an inch without telling the older Gilbert twin with an update.

     Hazel only shakes her head. She's worried. She doesn't want to let it show because she's sure that she probably decided to skip today and have some 'me-time', she's sure there might be a boy involved, but, she's concerned that if there is, why hasn't she told her about it? "I texted her like a hundred times."

     "Don't change the subject, Bonnie Bennett!" Elena exclaims pointedly, "You're going to be there."

     Bonnie rolls her eyes, "Fine. I'll go." She relents, knowing she's up to something, she just doesn't know what because she's posing it as an innocent girls night.

     "Good." Elena smiles as she continues to warm up, forcing it more when she sees Hazel's suspicious glances.

     It had been a few minutes of the girls warming up and Caroline was still yet to show. Bonnie looked around, "Seriously, where is Caroline?"

     "I don't know. It's not like her." Elena answers with a frown, because it isn't. Caroline is usually the first one at practice and the last one to leave at captain, and she had missed the first fifteen minutes of practice.

     Hazel frowns too and reaches into her bag again for her phone, "I'll try her again." As she begins to dial Caroline's number, a blue Mustang pulls up with the top down and Caroline in the passenger seat next to a male who was driving, "Uhh..." Hazel is lost for words when she sees Caroline lean over to kiss him.

     "Oh, my God. That must be the mystery guy from the Grill." Bonnie gasps. Caroline has been obsessed with him since she first saw him the night of the bonfire, and she had been kicking herself for being too drunk to get his number. She just couldn't believe she had bagged him when she had no clue who he was or where he was from.

     "That's not a mystery guy. That's Damon Salvatore." Hazel states with concern as to what his intentions were with her best friend since she got a weird vibe from him when they first met.

      Bonnie's head snapped towards Hazel, "Salvatore, as in Stefan?!" She asked and Hazel nodded.

     Caroline got out of the car, closing the passenger seat door and walked over to the group, "Sorry I'm late, girls. I, was, uh... busy." She grinned, completely forgetting how she would grill anyone for not being at least five minutes early for practice at any other occasion, especially if that was their excuse, "Alright, let's start with the double pike herkey hurdler, what do you say?" She asks and the girls get into formation to begin the routine while Caroline counted, watching over them all to make sure they were doing the correct movements.

     Hazel looked at Elena sympathetically. She's been out of it too long and she sticks out like a sore thumb because she doesn't know the routine anymore. Either it's changed or she's forgotten, but, she's behind on the counts and the moves aren't coming to her as smoothly anymore—and it's obvious to the drill sergeant that Caroline becomes when she's at practice, because she demands perfection for her team, "Elena, sweetie, why don't you just observe today?" The blonde suggests and Elena shamefully nods her head as she steps out from the group and joins her twin on the grass, her cheeks flushing pink from embarrassment. The younger twin puts her head on Hazel's shoulder, watching as the team continues on with practice, "Okay? Keep going! Ok. Do it again from the top. And 5, 6, 7, 8..."

Elena, Hazel and Bonnie were preparing dinner in the kitchen that night. Bonnie had come early to help set up, but, Caroline was yet to be seen, yet again. Wherever she was, she was clearly being preoccupied with Damon Salvatore. While they prepare, Bonnie was back to insisting she was psychic, "You explain it. Last night, I'm watching Nine-o, a commercial breaks come on and I'm like 'I bet it's that phone commercial'. And sure enough, it's that guy and the girl with the bench, he flies to Paris and he flies back. They take a picture..."

"Oh, come on." Elena groans in disbelief with a laugh, "That commercial's on a constant loop."

"Fine. Well, how about this?" Bonnie thinks of another thing, "Today I'm obsessed with numbers. Three numbers. I keep seeing eight, fourteen, and twenty-two. How weird is that?"

"Maybe we should play the lottery." Hazel jokes lightly, "Have you talked to your Grams? She would know."

Bonnie sighs and slumps her shoulders, "She's just gonna say it's because I'm a witch. I don't want to be a witch." She looks at the girls with desperation, "Do you want to be a witch?"

"I don't want to be a witch." Elena answers as she pours the takeaway food into a bowl.

"And putting it in a nice bowl isn't fooling anybody." Bonnie retorts.

"I didn't have any time to prepare anything, and our fridge is empty. Otherwise we were have grilled cheeses for dinner." Elena whines since it was a last minute decision to have dinner with everyone. She then put the packaging down before looking around, "Okay, serving spoons. Where are the serving spoons?" She asks herself as her mind has come to a complete blank. She's too excited for what she has planned that she can't even think of anything else.

"Middle drawer on your left." Bonnie answers for her.

Elena opens the middle drawer on her left to reveal the serving spoons that she was looking for. She turns to Bonnie who has a knowing look on her face and the younger twin laughs, "Okay, so you've been in this kitchen like a thousand times."

     "Yeah, that's it." Bonnie replies, though she's not happy that she's not being heard. Her demeanour falters.

     "Well, witch powers or no witch powers, we'll still love you either way, Bons." Hazel tells her and Bonnie smiles appreciatively at her. The doorbell rings and Hazel looks at her watch, "Ah, that must be Caroline finally rolling in. I'll go get her."

     Hazel walks to the front door, leaving Bonnie and Elena in the kitchen by themselves and the Bennett girl looks at Elena, who winks at her, unknowingly to the other twin who walked away from them. When she gets the front door, she opens it expecting Caroline, but, she blinks in surprise to see Stefan standing there instead of her blonde best friend, "What the hell?" Hazel mutters.

     Stefan rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, "Yeah... Elena invited me." He told her and Hazel only stares at him blankly. She should've known something was up—and she should've known that this was it, "I'm assuming she didn't tell you?"

     Hazel shakes her head, "No..." She replies before sighing. This was Elena's dinner, she has no say in who she can and can't invite so she steps aside politely and says, "Come in."

     Hazel, Elena, Stefan and Bonnie were eating together at the dining table, an awkward silence blanketing the group while Hazel texted Caroline to hurry up and get there as soon as possible. The blonde had a gift at always knowing how to make conversation, even when the silence is as awkward and thick as this. Hazel needs her there now since she doesn't want to talk to Elena for pulling this stunt.

     "Did Tanner give you a hard time today?" Elena asks Stefan as she picks up a vegetable on her fork and Hazel looks up at him with intrigue since she did notice him trying out.

     Stefan looked at Hazel momentarily before turning to answer Elena, "Well, he let me on the team, so, I must have done something right." He replies awkwardly.

     Elena turns to her sister, "Hazel, you should have seen Stefan today. Tyler threw a ball right at him, and—"

     "Yeah, I heard." Hazel interrupts Elena nonchalantly and goes back to paying attention to her food, although it feels like she playing with it more than she's consuming it. She had been listening to the story all day about how Tyler threw the ball at Stefan and he caught it with ease, whereas some people who have been on the team with him for years still struggle to catch one of Tyler's throws.

     Elena sighs at her and realising that she's messed up with trying to shove them together and she looks at Bonnie instead, "Why don't you tell Stefan about your family?"

     Bonnie's confused as to why she would suggest that and answers anyway, "Um, divorced. No mom. Live with my dad."

     Elena slightly kicks Bonnie's leg and sends her a look for being difficult and adding to the awkward tension in the room, "No, about the witches." She says pointedly before turning to Stefan, "Bonnie's family has a lineage of witches. It's really cool."

     "Cool isn't the word I'd use." Bonnie comments with a grimace.

     "Well, it's certainly interesting." Stefan says and Bonnie looks at him with intrigue, "I'm not too versed, but, I do know that there's a history of Celtic druids that migrated here in the 1800's."

     "My family came by way of Salem." Bonnie tells him, her tone a little less cold because it seems like he knows what he's talking about.

     Stefan looks interested by that piece of information, "Really? Salem witches?"

     Bonnie nods, "Yeah."

     "I would say that's pretty cool." Stefan says.

     "Really? Why?" Bonnie asks with surprise and interest, and her tone is more warm than ever.

     Stefan shrugs as if it was obvious, "Salem witches are heroic examples of individualism and nonconformity." He answers her.

     Bonnie smiles and her body relaxes around him. Stefan has won her over, "Yeah, they are."

     The doorbell rings again and Hazel drops her cutlery immediately to get the door knowing it must be Caroline finally showing up. She opens the door to her, "Care, where have you been—" She begins to ask her but freezes when she sees Damon accompanying her. She grits her teeth in annoyance because Salvatore brothers are raining from the sky at this point and both Elena and Caroline are shoving them down her throat, "I see you brought a date, too."

     "We brought dessert." Caroline says as she holds up the box brought over from the local bakery as if the cake would sweeten her up for being late and bringing her new boyfriend that she seemed to forget to mention to her. Hazel had no idea that she was seeing someone—let alone Stefan's older brother, which was so incredibly out of character for her.

     Damon offers her a smile, "Hope you don't mind."

     Caroline doesn't wait for an answer and walks inside, and the interaction catches the attention of Elena and Stefan, who walk to the front door, "What are you doing here?" Stefan asks his older brother with concern.

     "Waiting for Hazel or Elena to invite me in." Damon answers as he smirks at the twins.

     There's a gut feeling sinking in to Hazel's stomach and she doesn't speak. She feels so uncomfortable underneath his gaze. Elena's confused as to why he's there and why he's so insistent on waiting for her to verbally invite him in, but was going to let him in anyway because he came with Caroline, "Oh, yeah, you can..."

     "No, no, no." Stefan stops her from speaking further and they look at him with confusion, "He can't, uh... he can't stay. Can you, Damon?"

     Caroline was wondering why her boyfriend was still in the doorway, "Get in here."

     "We're just... finishing up." Stefan excuses, hoping it's enough to send him away.

     Elena looks in between them weirdly, sensing the family issues that Hazel mentioned, "It's fine. Just come on in." She tells Damon.

     Damon smirks as he steps into the home, "Thank you. You have a beautiful home."

Everyone had moved to the living room and Hazel had excused herself to make everyone tea to go with the dessert provided by Caroline and Damon as a way to get away from everyone for a few moments. She wanted this night to be over as soon as possible, but, now that Caroline has showed up at the end of the night, she can expect it to go on a lot longer than she would like.

Caroline was sat on Damon's lap on one of the chairs as she rambled to Stefan, "I cannot believe that Mr. Tanner let you on the team. Tyler must be seething." She laughs and Hazel could only hum in fake agreement because she's sick of hearing Tyler's name, "But, good for you. Go for it."

"That's what I always tell him." Damon pipes up and Stefan's jaw clenches at the sound of his voice, "You have to engage. You can't just sit there and wait for life to come to you. You have to go get it."

"Yeah, Elena wasn't so lucky today." Caroline mentions and Elena's jaw goes slack. Caroline usually is a good friend—she's amazing to Hazel, but, can sometimes be a bit ignorant with what she says to everyone else, and these are one of those moments. Caroline looks at the younger twin, "It's only because you missed summer camp. God, I don't know how you're ever going to learn the routines." She thinks out loud.

"I'll work with her." Bonnie offers, sensing how upset Elena was getting, "She'll get it."

Elena smiles at Bonnie appreciatively for sticking up for her and Caroline continues to think out loud, "I guess we can put her in the back..."

Damon turns to the younger twin, "You know, you don't seem like the cheerleader type, Elena."

"Oh, it's just 'cause their parents died." Caroline says without thinking and the twins look at her with a blank face, "Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going through a blah phase. Elena used to be way more fun." Caroline then notices the silence in the room and the way that the twins weren't looking at her, "And I say that with complete sensitivity."

"I'm sorry." Damon says and they look at him curiously because he actually sounded sincere, "I know what it's like to lose both your parents. In fact, Stefan and I have watched almost every single person we've ever cared about die."

Stefan laughs nervously because the way Damon said that made Hazel's eyes falter because she watched her parents die and died herself, "We don't need to get into that right now, Damon."

"Oh, you know what, you're right, Stef. I'm sorry. The last thing I wanted to do was bring her up." Damon replies with a subtle smirk when he notices Stefan's irritated glare.

Hazel had finally had enough and needed to get out of there immediately, "Excuse me." She says, getting up from her seat on the couch and walks to the kitchen to do the dishes to seem busy. She'd start re-tiling the damn roof if it meant she could get out of there.

     Once she reached the kitchen, she felt like she could finally breathe. She just couldn't believe how her night has ended. She wanted a night with her friends and instead she's surrounded by Salvatore men where there is drama brewing—or rather, already brewed—between the two of them. Hazel started on the dishes almost immediately, and using the hot water that she plunged her hands in as a way to ground her in reality. It's not the healthiest way to cope, but, it reminds her that there's a whole outside world outside of her strong thoughts. There weren't too many dishes beyond the few things that they had used up since they had gotten takeout, so, it didn't take her very long to wash up before she could move on to the drying part of the process.

     "One more." She hears Damon say as he enters the kitchen, holding his mug in his hand from earlier.

Hazel turns to take it, "Oh, thank you." She says as she brings it to the sink to clean it up like she had done with the others. Damon doesn't move from his spot and it's clear he's searching for a way to strike up a conversation with her. She's not exactly being welcoming to him and she realises that she's being rude, so she sighs, "Earlier, did you mean... Katherine?" She asks him in a small voice, finally turning to look at him properly. He hums and nods his head. So, they didn't break up by choice, they only broke up because she died; if he had the chance, Stefan would still be with her, "How did she die?"

"In a fire." Damon tells her and her eyes widen at the trauma, "Tragic fire."

"Recently?" Hazel's eyes soften.

Damon nods, "It seems like it was yesterday." He says sombrely.

Hazel gnaws on her bottom lip. She's nervous to ask, and she almost doesn't want to, but, she has to know, "What was she like?"

"She was beautiful—a lot like you in that department." Damon points at her and she sends him a strange look for his idea of a compliment, "She was also very complicated and selfish, and at times, not very kind; but, very sexy and seductive."

The way Damon talks about Katherine feels much more intimate than just his brother's girlfriend, it was almost as if he was also in love with her, "Right." Hazel isn't sure what to make of that information, but, she's very certain that she's right on this, "So... which one of you dated her first?"

"Nicely deduced." Damon smirks before he shrugs, "Ask Stefan. I'm sure his answer differs from mine." The elusiveness of Katherine only seems to grow further for Hazel. She can't wrap her head around her and her history with the Salvatore brothers, but, she can see that it was possibly her that caused the rift between them; Hazel just wants to know whether it wasn't intentional or if she meticulously planned and played the both of them.

     For now, she can just see that Damon is broken by the passing of Katherine just as much as Stefan is, "I'm sorry... about Katherine." She says to him, watching as Damon freezes at her response because he wasn't expecting it, "You lost her, too."