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

     Hazel and Elena aren't usually the type of twins that don't get along. They're the stereotypical twins that can't go an hour without talking to one another, and are each other's best friend while still remaining sisters, and it's always been that way—however, they are still sisters, and they do butt heads sometimes over superficial things because they're teenage girls where hormones get in the way, plus the added stress of the loss of their parents, and Hazel's lack of sleep can cause tension between them. So, when Hazel doesn't speak to Elena for the rest of the night after their guests leave the house, and doesn't come into her room the next morning to talk about nothing like they always do, Elena knows she screwed up.

     Hazel has always had the biggest heart, and sometimes it can get taken for granted because she's always been the type of person to not express her feelings so she could spare someone else's. Elena isn't exempt from that, and it's worse because she's her sister and supposed to know her boundaries. Even though she was coming from a place of love, it wasn't what Hazel wanted at that time and she should've known that.

     "Can we talk?" Elena approaches Hazel timidly like she's a child in trouble with a parent after misbehaving. Hazel looks up from her homework and gestures for her to speak without using her words. The younger twin sighs because this is going to be harder than expected if Hazel wasn't willing to cooperate. Elena sits down on Hazel's bed beside her, "I'm sorry about last night." She starts and Hazel looks up at her, "I shouldn't of meddled and I should've considered how you would've felt about the situation."

     Hazel takes a few seconds to think, playing with her bracelet that she took from her mother's collection after she passed away before she licks her lips to respond. She's considering her words carefully so she doesn't say something she doesn't mean and cause the argument to blow out of proportion, "Thank you for apologising." She replies and moves her homework away from her, "Just... just don't do it again, okay? If things with Stefan are meant to be, they'll fall into place on their own. Forcing things will only make it worse."

     "I know." Elena sighs and runs a hand through her hair, "I know. I just want to see you happy, Haze. When you're with him, I see this... spark." Elena's eyes soften as she reaches for her twin's hand, "And it's one I haven't seen in you for a very long time."

     "I get it, Elena." Hazel frowns, "But, I'm not rushing something like this. These sort of things take time." Especially when Stefan can't stay consistent with the way he acts around her. His mood swings have showed her a side of him that made her unsure if she even wanted anything, and she's not even sure if she wants to touch the fact that he's got unresolved issues with his brother about his ex.

     "I'm sorry." Elena apologises again.

     "I know." Hazel offers her a smile before she notices something different about Elena, "Why aren't you in your uniform?"

     Elena's shoulders slump over and she puts her face in her hands, "God, I can't do it." She groans, "At practice, I was miserable." Elena used to love it, and she used to think it was fun, "And things are different this year. It feels like everything that used to matter, doesn't anymore."

     Hazel shrugged lazily, "I mean, they could matter again."

     "I doubt it." Elena says with a sigh as she sits up straighter, "I've accepted the fact that I'm a quitter. I quit."

     Hazel lets out a small laugh, "Okay. If you want to quit, I'll support it." She offered and Elena sends her an appreciative smile, "I'll even talk to Caroline for you."

Elena exhales knowing that was the part she was dreading the most, "You're the best."

It was night time and everyone was at the school for a pep rally because the first game of the season was coming up. Caroline wasn't the happiest to see that Elena wasn't in her cheerleading uniform, but, after a long discussion with Hazel, the blonde understood and worked tirelessly to fix the placements of her team with a man down. Nonetheless, Hazel and Elena joined the rest of the students in the crowd for the pep rally prior to the game.

"Wait, wait, wait, Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait." Tanner started as soon as she reached the microphone on the podium to address the crowd of fired up students, "Let's be honest here. In the past, we used to let other teams come into our town and roll right over us!" The crowd booed and Tanner held up his hand, "But, that is about to change." He says and everyone cheers, "We've got some great new talent tonight starting on the offence, and I'm gonna tell you right now, it has been a long time since I have seen a kid like this with hands like these. Let's give it up for Stefan Salvatore!"

Everyone cheered for Stefan as he held up his hand to wave at everyone, however, he only kept his eyes on Hazel, who stood amongst her friends and her sister, clapping for him, "To those that have been waiting for us to put a check in the win column, I have only one thing to say to you... your Timberwolves are hungry—and the Central High Lions are what's for dinner!"

"This blows." Tyler complains to Matt, rolling his eyes, "He can't start the guy. He just got here."

     He can't stand listening to everyone cheer for the Salvatore kid and brown nose him, considering it was meant to be him that was receiving their cheers, and he walks over to Vicki, who turns to look at him with concern when she sees his expression, "Hey, babe. What's wrong?"

     "Nothing." Tyler replies shortly before his eyes squint when he notices someone in the distance, "Is that Jeremy?"

     Tyler storms over to the youngest Gilbert, who was enjoying a drink with some friends with a stolen bottle of bourbon while Vicki tried to stop him, "Wait, no! Ty! No. Leave him alone."

     "Oh, what do you care?" Tyler snaps at Vicki before turning his attention to Jeremy, "Don't look so down. You can have her when I'm done."

     Jeremy's jaw clenches in a drunken rage and he strikes Tyler in the face, and the two boys begin to fight and grabbing the attention of everyone else to it because of Vicki's screams, begging them to stop.

     Hazel and Elena first ran over, with Stefan right behind them when Tyler had Jeremy pinned to the ground and was about to hit him when Stefan grabbed his wrist, "Hey, he's down! Enough!"

     It was as if Tyler was seeing red. He couldn't get out of his rage and punches Stefan, but, sees that it had no effect on Stefan and he's shocked because that right hook has put many people on the ground.

     Hazel gasps. She hates fighting and she hated it whenever it was people she cared about, "Oh, my God! Stefan, are you okay?" She asks, going to walk over to him to check his cheek but the Salvatore doesn't even get to reply as Jeremy grabs a broken glass bottle and strikes at Tyler, who moves out of the way and he cuts Stefan's hand instead, "Jeremy, no!"

     Matt intervenes and grabs onto Tyler, who was about to swing at Jeremy again for trying to cut him with the glass, "Tyler, knock it off! Stop!" He yells, pulling him away from the altercation, "Come on, man."

     Elena shoves Jeremy slightly, "What the hell, Jeremy?" She snaps, going to grab his face to force it up, "Put your head up, you're bleeding."

     "I'm fine!" Jeremy insists.

     "Yeah, you smell fine." Elena retorts as she went to grab him again.

     Jeremy slaps her hands away, "Just stop, okay?"

     Hazel turns away to look at Stefan, and gasps when she sees that his hand is bleeding, "Oh, my God, your hand." She realises and goes to step towards him to look at it, as her father was a doctor, she has some training in first aid.

      Stefan closes his palm and puts his hand behind his back before she could even inspect it, "No, no, no, it's fine."

      "Is it deep? How bad is it?" She asks but Stefan refuses to show her and she's going out of her mind with worry and guilt that her brother had caused this right before he was about to play for the first time, "Come on!" Hazel grabs his hand and opens his palm, but she sees the cut is completely gone, only blood left behind. Her breath catches in her throat and confusion swirls her mind because she swore she saw a deep cut in the palm of his hand, "But... I saw it, it was..."

     "He missed. It's not my blood." Stefan explains and then wipes the blood to show that there wasn't any cut, "See? I'm fine."

     Hazel shakes her head, "No, no, no. I... I saw it. The glass cut your hand. It was..."

     "It's okay. I'm okay." Stefan reassures but Hazel isn't entirely convinced, "It's okay. I'm okay. It's almost kick-off time, alright? So, um, I'll, uh, I'll see you after the game." He says before running off, leaving Hazel standing there in disbelief.

     Elena walks over to her sister, "What was that about?"

     "Elena, I swear his had was cut..." Hazel can't explain it and she knows she sounds crazy, and honestly, sounding like she's clinically insane makes her want to cry, "I saw it, I swear."

      Elena puts her hand on Hazel's shoulder comfortingly, "Hey, I believe you." She tells her because she's so freaked out by it, "Why don't we go find Bonnie? Maybe she has an explanation."

     Hazel only nods and the twins walk towards the football field.

     "Hey, Tiki, it's all wobbly. Can you stand straight, please?" Caroline asks one of her cheerleaders by the side of the field, and the girl nods and goes to fix her stability, but, ultimately fails. The blonde lets out an annoyed sigh, "Could someone please help Tiki?"

     Bonnie notices the twins walking over, "Hey! Where you been?" She asks them as she pulls them both into seperate hugs. She then notices the panic on Hazel's face, and the way she's fiddling with her fingers while they tremble—a common way to tell she's feeling anxious, "What's going on?"

      "Can I ask you a question?" Hazel asks nervously, chewing on her bottom lip, "And can you give me a really serious no-joke response?"

      "Of course." Bonnie's concerned now because she can see the way the twins are nervous, "What is it?"

      "The bad mojo." Elena started, "When you touched Stefan and you had that reaction..."

     Bonnie smiles and shakes her head, "You know what, forget I said that. Your little dinner party plot totally won me over." She brushes off, and she feels bad for ever saying it because she can tell it had stuck with them.

     "No, Bonnie, seriously. What was it?" Hazel insists, "Did you see something, Or..."

     Bonnie analyses her expression and looks into her eyes, and she can tell that there's something else that's going on. She sighs and looks around to make sure Stefan wasn't around before answering, "It wasn't clear like a picture. Like today, I keep seeing those same numbers I told you about... 8, 14, 22." She starts and the twins nod, "When I touched Stefan, it was a feeling. And it vibrated through me, and it was cold, and it..."

      Bonnie trails off and they don't like the where she stopped, "And what?" Elena asks, hoping to get all the information.

     "It was death." Bonnie tells them and Hazel's breath catches in her throat because the memories of what her death felt like were catching up to her, "It's what I imagine death to be like."

      Hazel trembled and she felt like she was going to cry and throw up at the same time, "Excuse me." She says and walks off quickly, heading towards the car and ignoring all the protests from her sister and friends. Elena tried running after her, but, Hazel shoved her hands off of her because she needs to be alone at this point. Once she's at the car, she lets out a shaky breath, trying to push away the thoughts and the feeling of water entering her lungs, and all she can do is clench her fists and dig her fingernails into the palm of her hands to ground her when the pain of her nails press into her flesh.

      "You're okay." She tells herself with a whisper, closing her eyes to concentrate and focus on grounding herself, "You're alive and you're okay."

      When her heart rate calms down to its normal rate, and her hands aren't shaking as much, she opens her eyes and jumps when she notices Damon standing nearby, "Oh, my God." She gasps, clutching at her heart that immediately quickened, "You scared me." She tells him before her eyebrows pull together, "What are you doing here?"

      "I'm hiding from Caroline." Damon answers with a shrug, not apologising for scaring her by appearing out of no where.

     "Why is that?" She asks.

     "I needed a break. She talks more than I can listen." Damon answers her with a playful roll of his eyes.

     Hazel uses her arms to hug herself uncomfortably, "That could be a sign." She points out. Maybe they're not suited for each other if he can't handle Caroline's rambling.

     "Well, she's awfully young." Damon states, "I don't see it going anywhere in the bigger picture. I think she'd drive me crazy."

     Hazel's eyes narrow, "I don't see why you think talking to me about this is appropriate. We've been best friends since the first grade, and that means something to me—I'm not going to listen to you talk badly about her because you decided it was a good idea to date someone younger than you."

     She isn't sure where this spike of confidence came from, especially around someone that makes her uncomfortable but, the urge to defend Caroline came through. Damon held his hands up in surrender, "Duly noted." He replies before walking closer to her, to which Hazel takes a step back, "I'm sorry if I make you uncomfortable. That's not my intention."

     "I think it is. Otherwise you wouldn't put an alternate meaning behind everything you say." Hazel responds with a sideways glance.

      "You're right. I do have other intentions, but, so do you." Damon tells her.

     Hazel is confused because what other intentions does she apparently have? As far as she's aware, she has no intentions, "Really?"

     Damon hums and nods his head, "I see them." He tells her before taking another step towards her, "You want me."

     "Excuse me?" Hazel questions incredulously.

     "I get to you." Damon continues, taking yet another step that Hazel steps away from, only to find herself pressed against the side of the car, "You find yourself drawn to me. You think about me even when you don't want to think about me. I bet you even dreamed about me. And right now... you want to kiss me."

     Damon leans in and she panics, slapping him across the face to get him away from her, "What the hell? I don't know what game you're trying to play here, but, I don't want to be part of it. You're dating my best friend and I don't know what happened in the past with Stefan, but, let's get one thing straight... I am not Katherine." She snaps, walking away.

Completely unaware that the bracelet on her wrist left a small burn mark on his cheek where it made contact that healed within seconds.