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

     The thing about breakups, is that they can be extremely painful. It doesn't matter how attached a person is or isn't, when you get broken up with, it's infinitely more painful. Hazel hadn't realised how attached to Stefan she had become—he brought her out of the shell she used to be, and made her feel worthy of being loved; practically saving her from the survivor's guilt she felt after the crash. He made her feel lighter and happier. And yeah, while he still brought confusion and pain to the table, it was still a lot better than the feelings she felt when she was without him. While it's become normal for them to be rocky and have somewhat of a continuous on-again/off-again relationship, it doesn't make it any less painful to hear him walk away from her yet again.

He wants to do it to protect her—because too much has happened and too many people have died, but, he hasn't realised that she needs him.

Hazel hasn't been handling the breakup well, and she thinks it's almost pitiful to see herself this torn up about a guy that she's only kissed once, and especially after she said she wasn't going to let her world turn upside down over some guy. But, now it was different. She had feelings for Stefan, and he took her heart and crumpled it in front of her face as an act to protect her from himself and his world of vampires and witches. While it might be a heroic and selfless thing for him to do, it almost makes it worse because she wants to hate him but she can't—because he's doing all of this to protect her.

Hazel used to hate Tuesdays the most, but after the few weeks she's had lately, Monday has reclaimed its throne as the worst day of the week. She wants to stay in bed and watch sad movies all day until she rots because she can't bring herself to get out of bed, and she was tempted to do so had Elena not dragged her out of bed to bring her back to reality.

Hazel was spitefully eating her breakfast, watching as Jenna was getting ready to leave when Elena comes down the stairs, "Jeremy's got his sketch pad out." She tells them with an excited smile.

Jenna's jaw drops, "You're kidding?"

"Nope." Elena says as she walks into the kitchen, "But, don't say a word. The minute we encourage him, he'll put it away."

Jenna smirks, "Psychology major. Check that!" Jenna then spots Hazel checking her phone as she puts her dishes away, " You and Stefan? Update?"

Hazel grabs one of her jackets and starts to button it up, ignoring the pity looks from everyone as she says, "He knows how I feel and where I stand, and I know where he stands, but, it doesn't matter." She sighs, "He's leaving."

"Where is he going?" Jenna asks in shock.

"She stopped asking questions. The answers get scary." Elena says as she opens the front door for the three of them to walk out of the house together.

Once they were on the porch, Jenna turns to Hazel, "Yours leaves, mine returns."

"Logan?" Elena's eyebrows shot up.

"He's back." Jenna confirms and the twins groan, "I didn't let him pass the front door."

Hazel walked over to the car, "I hope you slammed it in his face." She grumbles. She thinks she's now entering her 'I hate boys' phase officially.

Jenna winces, "Ah, medium slam."

"Three-strike rule, Jenna." Elena points at her once she reaches the drivers door of her car, "You're not even allowed to watch the news."

Jenna laughs as she walks to her own car, "Exactly. No more Logan 'Scum' Fell."

     Bonnie, Elena and Hazel were in the hallway of their school when they see Caroline and Matt together. Hazel smiles when she sees how happy Caroline seems—how carefree she is with him compared to how shut down she was with Damon. She deserves a good guy like Matt, who was a sweetheart through and through. Elena makes a face and lazily points in their direction, "Did I miss something?"

"They've been hanging out." Hazel explains to her sister, "It started since the party at the Grill. Nothing's happened yet, though."

"Kind of weird, don't you think?" Elena responds.

Bonnie shrugs because she agrees, "She needs someone nice like him, as opposed to a homicidal vampire like Damon." She finishes with a whisper, keeping her voice low so no one could hear her talking about vampires.

     "Yeah, how are you doing with all that?" Hazel asks genuinely, because she couldn't get her mind off of it and the attack even gave her nightmares.

     "I'm freaked out. Damon attacked me. I could be dead right now." She says and the twins' eyes soften with sympathy because they're sure it would've been traumatic, "But, I'm also grateful—to Stefan. He saved my life and... have you seen him?" Bonnie asks Hazel.

     Hazel shakes her head while Elena removes her scarf and goes over to her locker and puts it in there, "Not since he told me he was leaving. For all I know, he's already gone." The older Gilbert shakes her head while she walks over towards her own locker.

     "He wouldn't leave without saying goodbye." Bonnie thinks out loud. Stefan cares for her, he wouldn't just disappear.

     "Yes, he would." Hazel says with a snappy exhale while she retrieves books from her locker, "He thinks he's protecting me." She finishes as she rolls her eyes.

     "So, what are you gonna do?" Bonnie asks.

     "What am I supposed to do?" Hazel replies with a frown, "I've already begged him not to go. If I ask again, I'm being selfish. It is what it is." She says as they start to walk down the hallway again.

     "Maybe it's for the best." Bonnie comments and Hazel and Elena stop to look at Bonnie who stops as well, "I mean, what kind of future could you have had with him, even if he stayed?"

     Hazel thinks about what she says and she frowns. Bonnie is right—what kind of future does she have with Stefan? She wants a family eventually, and she can't have that with someone who is immortal and can't procreate, and even if he could, she can't think about bringing a child into his world where it's dangerous always.

     Suddenly, a banner falls down on them that says 'The Promise of your Future'. Elena's eyes widen as she halts, "Did you just...?"

     Bonnie shakes her head with eyes wide also, "No, I swear."

     Elena sighs while Hazel shrugs, "Oh, well. It's still funny either way." She comments and hits the banner out of her way, walking off to her class.

     It was around lunch time when Hazel was walking from the library when her smile drops and she stops abruptly because she sees Stefan sitting right in front of her on a table. She's shocked to see him there because he was adamant that he was leaving town and she was sure that he was gone by now; and seeing him was enough to slightly take her breath away, "Hi." He says, standing up, "We need to talk."

     Hazel nods understandingly and walks over to him, cautiously sitting across from him while her heart pounds in her chest, "What's going on?"

     "There was an attack last night." Stefan says and Hazel's eyebrow raised, "It was a random attack but it was vampire related for sure." He tells her and she continues to look at him strangely because she's expecting for him to tell her that Damon had something to do with it, since he was the cause of the first round of random 'animal attacks'.

     "You have no idea who it could be, do you?" She asks.

     "Nope." Stefan shakes his head shamefully, "But, it must be somebody new, because leaving a body like that; they're either sloppy or they're trying to send a message."

     "You're sure it's not Damon?" Hazel asks.

     "Well, I'm never sure about Damon, but, he's been trying to keep a low profile lately, so, it's just doesn't make any sense to me." Stefan explains.

      Stefan sighs and Hazel asks, "So, what are you gonna do?"

     "Damon is tracking them right now." He tells her and she nods while he stands up and faces her, "Look, I promised you the truth so I wanted to tell you. I want you to be careful."

     Hazel nods understandingly as she stands up as well, "When I saw you, I... thought you were coming to say goodbye."

      "Not yet." Stefan says.

     Hazel nods her head understandably again, although she's conflicted. She then bit her lip before asking, "Were we ever going to work?" Hazel asks suddenly, and Stefan is surprised she even asked, "Because I want this, and you claim you care about me—but, you didn't even try."

     "I do want this, but, I would never forgive myself if you got hurt again because of me." He replies.

     Hazel can't tell if she's angry or hurt, or annoyed by his response, "I'm still here, Stefan. I'm quite literally begging you to be with me, and you keep screwing with my mind and my feelings." She snaps, "It hurts doing this; and if you're not going to be in my life, then I don't want to keep seeing you around. So, if you want to go, then just go—stop making excuses to stick around and hurt me one more time because you can't make up your mind about what you want." She says before walking away from him, feeling slightly lighter to get that off her chest.

     The career fair was in full swing at the school later that night when Hazel walks up to Caroline, "Where's your head at with all of this these days?" She asks her friend. Caroline was the type of friend to have so many different aspirations in life that Hazel could never keep up. She wanted to be a model, then a photographer, then a singer, then a journalist, then she wanted to be a teacher at one point before deciding to work to be a CEO somewhere. Last Hazel heard, Caroline was into acting.

     "Broadcast journalism, I think." Caroline says, showing her the pamphlet she got from the stall, "I'm going to ask Logan Fell for some tips next time I see him."

     "Good luck with that. Logan's a jerk, I wouldn't take advice from him if it meant it'd save my life." Hazel clicked her tongue as she looked over the pamphlet and gave it back to her, "Either way, I think you should go for it, Care. You certainly have the face for TV."

     "You think?" Caroline asks.

     "I know." Hazel replies before asking, "How are you and Matt going?"

     Caroline's shoulders slump, "I don't want to talk about that."

     This isn't the usual response for Caroline. She's usually the type to gush about her crushes—unless it was Damon. She looks sad, and Hazel doesn't like to see her best friend sad. Hazel's eyebrows pull together and she puts a hand on her shoulder, "Care, what's wrong?"

     Caroline sighs in frustration, "I think I like him, but it's clear that he still has feelings for Elena, and I can't tell if she has feelings for him, too." She explains, "I just feel stupid and don't think it's going anywhere. So, we're just friends."

      "I seriously doubt that." Hazel says, "Elena hasn't had feelings for him for a very long time, and she knows that you two are hanging out; she wouldn't get involved with that—and Matt has this sparkle in his eyes when he looks at you. He doesn't look at Elena like that." He used too, but after hanging out with Caroline, it's clear that he's realised that chasing after Elena was fruitless and that his feelings for Caroline are stronger than what he thought he had for Elena.

     "Yeah, sure." She replies, although it's clear she doesn't really believe what Hazel's saying. She's insecure about the whole thing and doesn't want to start falling for someone that doesn't love her back. She's already done that once with Damon, she doesn't want to do it again. Caroline then lets out a sigh and says, "Look, I gotta go find my mom and tell her about the stall."

     "Okay. Let me know—" Hazel doesn't even get to finish her sentence as Caroline had already walked off in a hurry. Hazel lets out a sigh and runs her hand through her hair. She isn't sure how to navigate that, and she hopes that maybe she can catch Matt soon and talk to him to let him know what's going on. In the meantime, she starts looking at the stalls for potential career pathways.

     Stefan found Hazel walking the hallways and saw her looking at one of the stalls, his eyebrows raise at the choice because it was nursing—and he knows she's afraid of blood, "I'm guessing you're not here to plan the path for your future." She mumbling, not looking at him before she pauses in realisation. She looks up at him with a glance that showed she was unimpressed, "You're looking out for me."

      "Hope that's okay." Hazel doesn't respond and walks over to another table, looking at the career pamphlets set up. Stefan walks over to her, "You know I wanted to be a doctor before everything happened, but, uh, then I couldn't, 'cause... the blood. I've dabbled in a bunch of other things different things, though."

     Although she appreciates the fact that he's letting her get to know him more, she feels it's too little too late now, "Didn't love anything enough to stick to it?" She assumes, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear before moving on to the next booth with Stefan right behind her.

      "No, I... I loved it all. I just... I had to move on before anybody could notice that I wasn't getting any older." Stefan says.

     "How long before that would happen?" She asks, wondering if maybe he's been in town a lot longer than she thought and that's why he needs to leave.

      "Few years, usually. Sometimes shorter." He answers.

      Hazel finally looks up at him, "And you always left?"

      Stefan shrugs, "I didn't have a choice." He says and Hazel looks away, noticing that they were in front of another medical stall that helped kids get to medical school to become doctors and surgeons.

      Her eyes softened as she thinks about her dad. He was a doctor and held his own practice in the middle of town square. Elena and Hazel always used to play there in his office after school, and some of their best memories from childhood were there. She bit her lip, "Elena wants to be a doctor." She says. "Our mom wanted her to be a journalist, and she loves writing as well, but, she wants to follow in our dad's footsteps and eventually open her own practice like he did."

      "So, what about... what about you? What are your, uh, plans for the future?" Stefan asks, noticing that she only told him about Elena's plans and not hers.

     Hazel looks up at him, "I don't wanna talk about my future, Stefan. Because everything you're saying is making it perfectly clear that you're not gonna be in it." She snaps lightly.

     "Hazel, it's not that I don't wanna be in it—"

     "—You can't, I get it." She interjects, "I heard you the first time and the second time, and I appreciate you looking out for me but, please, if you're gonna leave, then just go." She reiterates her same speech from earlier, annoyed that she has to repeat her request.

      Suddenly, Jenna walks into the room and approaches Hazel and Stefan, "Hide me."

     "What's going on?" Hazel asks as she turns her attention to her aunt.

     "The scum Fell has landed." Jenna says.

     Hazel lets out an annoyed and frustrated sigh, "Logan's here?"

     Stefan's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Wait, Logan Fell?"

     Jenna sighs in shame and nods and Stefan and spots Logan talking to a crowd of fans in the hallway, Logan looks over at him and waves.

     Hazel walks out into the hallway with Jenna to see what was going on when Elena sees the tension and excuses herself to come over to them, "What's going on here?"

     Logan approaches them, "Jenna, are you dodging me?"

     "It's a form of self-preservation." Jenna says with narrowed eyes onto her ex-boyfriend.

      Stefan turns to the twins, "Um, why don't you and Jenna go somewhere else?"

     Stefan looks at the twins significantly and Hazel understands the look immediately, "Let's go." She says, grabbing onto Jenna and Elena's hand and leads them away from Logan and Stefan quickly.

     Hazel takes Jenna and her twin to another part of the school and she stops when she thinks she's far enough to ask, "When Logan came to the house, what did he say?"

     "Fake flattery. Stupid, dimpled grin. Puppy dog eyes." Jenna replies.

    "We're serious, Jenna. How did he act? What did he say?" Elena presses. Normally she would've chuckled at the comment but now was not the time for jokes. She saw how protective Stefan got as soon as he saw Logan, and there was something going on.

      "He was the usual Logan, was charming, a little more manic than usual." Jenna shrugs, "He kept trying to convince me to let him in." The twins paled because that could only mean one thing—that Logan has become a vampire—and Jenna notices their change of demeanour immediately, "What?"

      Hazel steps forward, "Okay, listen to me very carefully. Do not, under any circumstances, talk to him again. I'm serious, Jenna, like ever!"

      Before Jenna could say anything else, Alaric walks over to them, "Hey." He says with a smile, "I was hoping to see you tonight." He says to Jenna, to which the twins eyebrows raise in intrigue as to what was happening between them.

     "Career night is the new bowling." Jenna jokes, and Alaric chuckles at it, to which Jenna's eyes soften in return.

      "Okay, um, excuse us." Elena says as she grabs onto Hazel's hand and pulls her away from them to find Stefan.

      The twins exit the school and look around for Stefan, finding him by the railing on the phone. They approach him as he hangs up his phone.

     Elena crosses her arms over her chest, "So, anything you'd like to share?"

     Stefan looks nervous as he says, "Logan was turned into a vampire—we don't know by who, but, he's threatening to expose us unless we tell him how he can walk in the sun."

     "Does he know who turned him?" Hazel asks.

     "No. That's why he's here because he's trying to get us to tell him. But, it wasn't either of us." Stefan answers.

     Hazel then realises something. He's here at careers night, and Caroline wants to ask him for tips about his career. She wouldn't hesitate to approach him if she saw him, and she has no idea that he's a vampire, "Oh, my God, Caroline." She gasps and turns on her feet to run inside the school building again.

      She looks around the hallway frantically with Stefan and Elena in tow, and she sees Matt heading towards the opposite direction, "Hey, have you seen Caroline?" She asks him in a panic.

      "Yeah. She just got a ride home from that news guy, Logan Fell." He says badly, and continues to walk away.

      Hazel turns to Stefan with wide and terrified eyes, "Stay here." Stefan says as he starts to walk away, leaving her there with a look of anguish on her face as Elena comforts her, equally as worried.

      It was a little over an hour later when Stefan returns to the school and had told them that Caroline was alright and that he had taken her home. She was fine, just shaken up because all she knew was that Logan Fell attacked her; and nothing else. She had no idea it was because he was a vampire looking to get back at her mom for burying him in the woods after he got killed on a vampire hunt. He felt like he was pushed to the side and covered up like nothing while he died for the town.

     After that, Hazel and Elena had decided to go home. They had had enough excitement for one night and Hazel was quite literally exhausted from it all. Elena went out again to the Grill to meet up with Bonnie, and everyone else was out of the house while Hazel had some time to herself to think.

She sees why Stefan thinks they can't be together, because it's dangerous; but, Hazel doesn't care about that. She wants him, and she doesn't want to be without him. She's told him to go, but that wasn't her heart speaking; it was her anger. She hates that she has feelings for him sometimes because he keeps pushing her away, but, what's love if not worth fighting for?

Hazel grabs her keys and gets into her car, pulling up to his driveway less than a few minutes later and anxiously approaches his front door, her heart beating out of her chest and her breath shallow as she knocks onto the wood.

Stefan opens the door a few seconds later, "What I said before about you leaving. It was harsh." She blurts out. She had a whole speech planned in her head and this was not how it went, but, it's what came out.

Stefan shakes his head, "No, no. You had every right."

"You asked me what I wanted my future to be." Hazel continued, "I wanted to be a psychologist. I've always been more introverted than Elena, and felt uncomfortable in my own skin. My mom would support me and encouraged me to try new things and push me out of my comfort zone, and then she died. And I could see myself going back to the old ways, where I was too scared to be out of my shell. I wanted to learn about how or why my brain works the way it does, and how to fix it. And I know that you think you put all of this bad stuff into my life, but, my life already had it. I was buried in it."

"This is different." Stefan argues.

"It doesn't make it any less painful." Hazel argues back.

"I know that it's... that's it's hard to understand, but, I'm doing this for you." Stefan says and goes to walk away and close the door behind him.

"No." Hazel denies and stops the door, "You don't get to make that decision for me. If you walk away, it's for you, because I know what I want." This was the now or never moment and she takes in a deep breath as she finally admits, "Stefan, I'm falling in love with you."

Stefan still has his back towards Hazel and she waits for a moment, tears sparkling in her eyes, afraid that Stefan will walk away again, and if he does, she will need to learn that she needs to move on for once and for all. Instead, Stefan finally turns around with tears in his eyes and he quickly walks over towards Hazel, grabs her face in his hands and kisses her with passion.

They continue kissing, making their way into the front room of the Salvatore house and Stefan has Hazel against the wall for a second. Hazel runs her hands through his hair and Stefan holds her face to his as they continue to kiss.

Suddenly, Stefan feels his eyes changing and he stops kissing her. Hazel breathes heavily as Stefan rests his head on her shoulder. Stefan, also breathing heavily, finally pulls away and turns around so Hazel cannot see his vampire face. Hazel tries to pull him back to face her. She doesn't want him to have to hide from her; she accepts him in every way and she knows what he is, "Don't."

"Hazel, I can't." He says, refusing to look at her.

"Yes, you can." She touches his face, "Don't hide from me."

Stefan turns his face towards her and Hazel keeps her hand on his cheek. Stefan's eyes are red and the veins still crawl towards his eyes but she looks at him with no fear. She gently touches the veins around his eyes Stefan feels a little more under control with his urge to feed on her, Hazel then kisses him again.

When she pulls away, he pulls her back for another kiss before Stefan's face has become normal again. Stefan smiles and takes Hazel's hand and leads her up to his bedroom, and once they were at the top of the landing, Stefan pulls her in for another passionate kiss.

They eventually make it to Stefan's bedroom where Stefan beings removing his and Hazel's clothes while touching each other's bodies. Stefan then gently lowers Hazel onto the bed and they continue to kiss while she explores the muscles on Stefan's back as Stefan kisses her neck and touches one side of her cheek.

Hazel couldn't believe it. She thought she'd be nervous as she finally loses it for the first time, but, she can't help but feel nothing but bliss, and there isn't an ounce of hesitation in her body as she continues on, letting Stefan show her how much he loves her back.

Stefan was holding Hazel in his arms and stroking her hair later that night while she wore one of his shirts to cover her naked body. She felt like she was on cloud nine as Stefan stroked her hair, and she could finally see where he stays in mostly while in the comfort of his arms, "I've never been in your room before." She realises. He's been in her house, and she's been in the front room of his, but never in his room.

Stefan presses a kiss to her head, "Hm, well, it hasn't changed much over the years."

"Do you leave everything here when you come and go?" She asks as she nuzzles further into his chest, feeling his warmth.

"It's the only place that... that has remained constant. This room holds every memory that I've ever thought was important enough to hold on to." He says and Hazel smiles up at how many things he thought was important. Stefan kisses her forehead, "Are you thirsty or anything?"

"A little." Hazel nods, "You?" She asks before realising what she said, "Uh..."

Stefan laughs, "I'm fine. Let me get you something to drink, okay?" Hazel nods again and he kisses her. Stefan then gets up and leaves the room and Hazel snuggles up against a pillow and smiles brightly.

Soon she gets up and starts exploring Stefan's room. Looking at all the trinkets and papers, smelling the candles to get an idea of what type of scent he likes and flipping through some of the books scattered everywhere before her eyebrows furrowed when her eyes catch a glimpse of something on the table.

She picks it up when she sees a photo of her. It's old, and Hazel can't remember taking a photo like that until she spots the writing on the bottom right hand corner of it.

Katherine, 1864.

Hazel gasps and feels the bile rise in her throat immediately at the resemblance. It didn't make any sense and she feels her heart drop when she looks at it. She's just a pawn; a replacement for Katherine and she can't help but feel pain thinking that. Hazel drops the picture down and grabs her things immediately, running out of the house and gets into her car before Stefan could stop her.

She immediately drives off back home, balling her eyes out as ignored Stefan's calls and she dials Elena's number, "Hey, bunny. Where are you?" She then hears Hazel sobbing and asks, "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Elena... we look like her." Hazel admits through sobs, continuing to drive down the deserted road, "We look like Katherine."

"What does that mean?"

"Like she could be our triplet. We look like Katherine!" Hazel hyperventilates, gripping the steering wheel as she continues to cry and drive, "I feel so stupid, dammit!"

"Look, you need to calm down. You can't drive in that condition. Pull over, and I'll come get you. We'll pick your car up in the morning after we get to the bottom of this." Elena says.

Hazel let out a hiccup, "Okay. I love you." She says and hangs up the phone.

As she looks up, she sees someone in the middle of the road and she gasps and slams on her brakes, but was too late as she still hits the person, and they hit her windshield, causing the car to flip and roll.

Hazel lets out a cough and a gasp of pain, feeling the blood rush to her head and choking on it from being stuck upside down. She tries to scream but her breath is stuck in her throat, feeling the panic attack coming on from flashbacks of the night that killed her parents. It's happening all over again, only it'll be you that dies this time, she thinks to herself.

She looks to the side through her tears and sees the man that she hit slowly gets back up, and she gasps in fright as she hears the bones cracking and healing as he starts to approach her. Hazel lets out a few whimpers as she tries to escape the car before she lets out a scream when he gets close to the car, hoping that anyone would hear her and help her, and thankfully the man runs away.

A second later, Damon appears and he scares her, making her scream again, "How ya doing in there?" He asks her.

Hazel couldn't believe it when she sees him—that Damon was her saving grace, "Damon?"

"You look stuck." He observes, looking at the wreck.

"It's my seat belt." Hazel cries, "I can't get it."

Damon hushes her as she stands up and rips the car door off before crouching down, "I'm gonna get out of there. I want you to put your hands on the roof." He tells her and Hazel follows his instructions, "Just like that. You ready?" He asks and counts down before ejecting her seat belt and catching her quickly, "I got you." He says, getting her out of the car and picking her up, "Are you okay? Can you stand? Is anything broken?"

Hazel can only woozily shake her head. She doesn't think anything is broken, but she hasn't exactly had time to find out. Damon puts Hazel down but she can barely stand and he catches her before she falls to the ground, "Whoa, you're fading fast, Hazel." He says while trying to ground her, "Hazel, look at me." Damon grabs her face and she can barely open her eyes, "Focus. Look at me. Okay."

"I look like her..." Is all Hazel can mumble out through her tears.

"What?" Damon asks but doesn't get a response as Hazel faints and the world goes dark around her.