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

      Monday rolled around a little too quickly for Hazel's liking. She would've liked to stay at home for a few days to catch up on the school work she missed over the weekend because of trivial matters and catch up on some much deserved rest and restoration. However, on the other hand, she is grateful for the distraction from her current reality to play a regular teenage girl. Although she doesn't feel like one, she gets to pretend she is because she has to.

Hazel was out the front of the school, she and Elena had just arrived for the day and she looked over towards the parking lot when she saw a noticeable red Porsche driving to the closest available parking spot. She clutches the bag strap and walks over to Stefan to join him when he got out of the car, peeling the black sunglasses off of his face to reveal his green eyes that she loves so much, "Nice car." She says.

He looks down at the now working car, thanks to Matt, and smiles, "Thought it was a waste to leave it in the garage." Stefan hangs his sunglasses on his shirt, and she smiles at him in agreement. It was a beautiful car that was bound to turn heads, it was absolutely a waste to leave it hidden, collecting dust.

Stefan gently grabbed her face and pulled her in for a kiss, "I didn't know you were coming back today." She speaks out loud. It was a nice surprise to see him at school, but after everything that's been going on with him, she expected at least a few more days until he felt good enough to return.

      "You know, I woke up this morning and I was feeling great and I figured it was time for me to get back into things."

      Concern washes over her features, "Does that mean you're okay now... with all the cravings?"

Stefan nods his head, "Yeah, I mean the worst part is over so... now all I want to do is just spend as much time with you as possible." He says, tucking the hair behind her ear.

Hazel smiles, a blush coating her cheeks, "I'm okay with that." She says, grabbing him by the shirt to give him a kiss.

When she pulls away, Stefan then says, "Hey, thank you..." Hazel looks at him in confusion, wondering what she was receiving thanks for, "for helping me get through the rough patch."

"You don't need to thank me. I'd do it a thousand times over." Hazel tells him truthfully and he nods before a silence falls over them, "We're gonna be late."

"Okay, uh, you know what? I'll catch up with you, I'm gonna grab my stuff." He says, walking back towards his car and she looks at him with confusion again, "I'll be right behind you."

"Okay..." She says as she turns around and walks over to Elena, who had been waiting for her by her own car to walk into the school.

Unbeknownst to both of them, as Stefan goes to the trunk and opens it, it's filled with empty blood bags from the Mystic Falls Hospital.

History was Hazel's first class of the day. Normally, she doesn't mind history class because it's one of her top subjects now that Tanner wasn't her teacher anymore, however, there was a strange tension in the room. Alaric Saltzman was behaving strangely—and she doesn't know why, considering she and Elena know of his dirty little secrets about being a hunter—and to top it all off, Bonnie had returned to school. Alaric was in the midst of explaining that they were getting aside their regular curriculum for a lesson in local history as they approached Founders' Day. Apparently, the school board felt it was more important than World War II. Bonnie sat down at her seat, and smiled at Hazel, however, when she looked at Stefan and Elena, her smile faded and she looked away.

After class, Hazel was determined to get to the bottom of her strange behaviour. Even though she's got a pretty good idea as to what is causing it; she doesn't want to assume until she gets confirmation. Bonnie had basically bolted out of the classroom and Hazel was chasing after her, alongside Elena, "Bonnie!" Hazel calls out.

Bonnie turns around casually to greet them but keeps walking, "Hey."

"Hey, I tried to grab you after class but you had already taken off." Hazel says as Bonnie finally stops walking, "How are you? How's your family?"

Bonnie shrugs, "We're dealing, it's been hard." She says, avoiding eye contact with Elena, and Hazel nods her head. She can understand exactly what she means by that.

"Everyone here really missed you." Hazel tried to say. The tensions palpable between her and Elena and it's so incredibly awkward it makes her sick.

"Yeah, I just had so much to deal with after Grams' funeral and, honestly after Elena told me the tomb spell failed I just didn't really want to come back." Bonnie explained and Hazel looked over at her sister in bewilderment. She couldn't believe she had told Bonnie—and over the phone!

"I hope that you understand why I called... I wanted you to know before you came home." Elena responds truthfully.

"I understand why. I just... shouldn't know." Bonnie replies.

There's a long pause between the three of them, and Hazel looks in between Elena and Bonnie, wondering what to do when Elena opens her mouth, "I know it's been really hard..."

"Bonnie!" Caroline interrupts them, screeching as she comes running around and pulling her into a hug, "Bonnie! Thank god you're home! I know we talked everyday but I missed you." She says and Elena's face falls. She hasn't gotten a word out of Bonnie since her Grams' funeral, and Caroline had spoken to her everyday? She knows Bonnie had spoken to Hazel a couple of times but she's hurt that she's the only one being ignored, "How are you doing?"

"Better." Bonnie answers Caroline and Hazel gets a sense of deja vu from their first day back at school, "You know, glad to be back and trying to keep myself busy."

An excited grin spreads across Caroline's face, "Well, I can help with that. Major wardrobe confab needed ASAP. You and Hazel need to help me pick up the perfect dress for the Founders' court." She says and Bonnie lets out a small 'oh'.

Elena blinks and confusion spreads across Hazel's face at Elena's confusion, "The Founders' court? Did I miss something?"

"The Founders' court." Hazel repeated to her sister, "You know... Miss Mystic Falls. They announced it today, and you and Caroline are both on it."

Shock spreads across Elena's face, "Oh, my God! We signed up for that so long ago... I completely forgot."

Caroline laughs and nods before an eager expression falls on her face, "So, are you dropping out then?"

Elena looks at Hazel, who was wondering the same thing. In all honesty, she had thought that Elena was all over the planning for it and didn't want her help. It hadn't even occurred that Elena had forgotten about Miss Mystic Falls. The younger Gilbert twin shakes her head, "I can't."

"No?" Caroline deflates and looks over at Hazel, who had grabbed her sister's hand.

"Our mom was the one who wanted her to enter." Hazel explains sadly. She remembers that day like it was yesterday; the way their mom was so excited to get her girls to enter in the Miss Mystic Falls contest and be Miss Mystic just like she was back in her day. Hazel refused just out of stage fright alone (and because of her two left feet when it comes to waltzing) but she remembers the way Elena was equally so excited, because it was going to be a bonding moment between them—and Hazel was excited to watch that happen.

Now it all just feels so trivial.

      "Bonnie, do you have a minute?" Hazel asks as soon as she caught up to her best friend as they were leaving the school building. Bonnie turns as if she's going in a hurry and is about to turn her down, "It'll only take a minute, please?" Bonnie sighs and stops, and Hazel gently takes her hand to walk her over to one of the benches under a tree to talk, "Is everything okay?"

"What do you mean?" Bonnie feigned innocence.

Hazel sends her a blank look, "Bonnie, I've known you since we were four. I know when something is wrong with you." She points out gently, "And if that wasn't obvious enough, I've noticed you barely said ten words to Elena and won't even look at Stefan. So, please tell me what's wrong."

Bonnie shakes her head, "It not worth talking about."

"What do you mean it's not worth it?" Hazel questions with concern, "You're my best friend. You can tell me anything."

The Bennett witch lets out a sigh, "Look, Hazel, I can't just pretend that everything's okay with Elena and Stefan—so, I'm avoiding them. Everything my Grams did was to protect us from those vampires in the tomb. And now they're out, which means she died for nothing."

Hazel looks down at the table. Just like she thought, "I'm so sorry, Bonnie. I understand." She almost whispers, "But, that means you should be mad at me, too."

"Why would I be mad at you?" Bonnie asks, "You tried to stop it. You didn't want to do it."

"Yeah, but I did anyway." Hazel retorts, "And you can't not be mad at me when Elena and I share the same face. You should be mad at my face, too." She argues, "So, what can I do to make this better?"

Bonnie almost cracks a smile at her gesture. Always there to protect Elena and somehow put herself into the crossfire for no good reason, and always trying to sort out their issues, "That's just it, there's nothing you can do." Bonnie says, "I blame Elena, Stefan and Damon, and I'm not putting you in a situation where you have to choose sides." She says before giving her a frown, "I'm just having a hard time with it, okay?"

Hazel's face matches hers, "Okay."

It was the day of the Miss Mystic Falls pageant and Hazel was in the room with the pageant girls, helping Caroline with her hair while Jenna was curling Elena's, the two contestants were putting on their makeup at the same time to get ready. The room was buzzing with excitement and nerves, as each girl was eager to win. Hazel was originally meant to help Elena after her sister decided to stay in the competition, but Jenna had volunteered, and the older Gilbert thought it would make it more special for Elena to have their maternal figure help her get ready; to make it feel as if their mom was there. To help distract herself, she volunteered to help Caroline in the meantime.

     "Thanks for helping me." Caroline whispered while Hazel curled one of her blonde strands. They both knew that Caroline had the capacity to do it herself—she was a perfectionist who always had the best makeup and hair—but, Caroline knew her best friend needed the distraction while Jenna and Elena spoke about their mom. It was a painful memory; thinking about how excited they both were about the pageant, and how fun their mom made it sound. So much had changed since then and it hurts to think about because they both would've enjoyed the process a lot more if she was there. Maybe Hazel should've signed up for the pageant for her.

     Hazel gives her a small sad smile that doesn't reach her eyes, to which Caroline stopped applying her makeup and put a hand over hers over her shoulder for comfort, "Don't thank me until you're sure your hair isn't gonna burn off." She jokes and Caroline rolls her eyes because Hazel always had nice hair. Once the last strand was curled and Hazel had sprayed it with hairspray, she put the canister down and says, "I'm gonna go get your dress while you finish that."

     Hazel walked out of the room and Caroline looks at her retreating figure with sadness.

     The room storing all the dresses was just down the hall, and Hazel could only be think that it was extremely trusting and bold to have all dresses in one place, as she's sure there has been some vindictive pageant girls in the past; desperate and willing to do anything to win—even daring to go as far as destroying another contestant's dress to do so.

     Or, maybe she's watched too many movies where that's happened.

     When she enters the room, she sees Amber Bradley already in the room, still in her casual clothes and pacing around, and she looked nervous as if she was having a panic attack, "Are you okay, Amber?" Hazel asks genuinely. She recognises the signs all too well as if she's staring in a mirror.

     Amber looked up and gave a smile that seemed as if she was trying to convince herself more than Hazel that she was alright, "I hate being the center of attention. I get panic attacks."

Hazel knows exactly what she means as she's experienced it herself many times, "Do you need some privacy so you can change?" She offered, pointing her thumb at the door to say she can leave so she has space.

"Actually I'm just—I'm gonna go get some air." She decides, walking out of the room and closes the door. Hazel makes a face of confusion as to what to make of that before shaking it off and grabbing Caroline's dress.

As she picks it off the rack, she sees the older Salvatore brother in the reflection of the mirror, standing behind her. She jumps slightly and turns around, "Hey, you can't be back here." She scolds unhappily.

"We need to talk." Damon informs her seriously.

Hazel raises her eyebrows, holding up Caroline's dress, "Does it have to be right now?" She asks, implying its a bad time.

Damon only takes a step towards her, "Normally I would have a completely different outlook of what I'm about to tell you but since it could really inconvenience me, I'll squeal."

Hazel sends him a look, "What are you talking about?"

"Stefan's still drinking human blood." He confesses and Hazel's face falls in shock and betrayal, a gasp catching in her throat by being blindsided once again, "Yeah, a month ago I would have rejoiced but with the Council back on the alert, it is not a good time for Stefan to fly off the handle."

Denial settles into Hazel's bones as she shakes her head and begins to pace, "I know he's been a little edgy but he said that was normal."

"He has a fridge full of stolen blood bank contraband in the house." Damon tells her and Hazel goes to sit down on the couch as she feels as if she was going to pass out at any second from the news, "He has no idea what normal is, his entire existence isn't normal. Normal to a vampire is drinking human blood, but, he spent all this time fighting it when he should have been learning to control it; and now it's controlling him instead."

Hazel shakes her head, "I can't believe this. I mean, it's Stefan that we're talking about here."

"Stefan on human blood, Hazel; he'll do anything, he'll say anything because he's not gonna want to stop. Trust me." He warns her and Hazel's face falls again because she's starting to realise that this was all real and happening.

Hazel stood to her feet and began pacing once more, leaving the dress on the couch, "This is all my fault. I'm the one who fed him the blood in the first place." She forced him to drink it to save herself and Elena from a vampire, knowing he doesn't drink it and there was a reason for that.

Suddenly, the door opens and Stefan enters, interrupting them. He looks confused as to why his brother and girlfriend are alone in a room together and why Hazel looks so worried as she stares back at him, "What's going on in here?"

Damon turns his head to look at his younger brother, "I was just filling Hazel on your extra-curricular activities."

Stefan laughs and shakes his head. He's nervous and trying to cover it up, "What are you talking about?"

"I know about the blood, Stefan." Hazel explains gently. She doesn't want it to feel like an intervention because no one takes that well.

Looking in between the couple awkwardly, Damon speaks up, "I'm uh—I'll be downstairs, drinking."

     Damon quickly leaves and Stefan offers her an uncomfortable smile and huffs as he says, "I was going to tell you."

      Hazel doesn't believe him for a second, and it's all over her face as she crosses her arms and asks, calling his bluff, "When?"

      "I'm fine." Stefan insists as she steps closer towards her, "I'm fine—the blood, it doesn't change anything."

      "It's changing you."

      "Why? Because I kept it a secret from you?" Stefan retorted and she gave him an obvious look and nodded, "Come on, Hazel, look, giving the way you're reacting right now, can you really blame me for doing that?"

      Hazel looked bewildered by him. Damon was right, he would say anything—including gaslighting her into thinking she's the problem because she's worried about his habit, "Are you hearing yourself right now?" She scoffs and he shrugs casually like nothing was wrong, "You've been stealing blood and lying, and you say that everything's fine? Everything's not fine, Stefan!"

      Stefan scoffs, "So, what—so you and Damon all of a sudden have everything figured out then?"

     Hazel lets out a sigh of frustration, "It's not about Damon. It's about what's happening to you." She argues back.

      "I know and I'm telling you that I'm fine!" Stefan exclaims and Hazel blinks at him, watching the way his demeanour changes from insisting to begging, "I'm fine. Please, come on. Hazel, I thought you... I thought you believed in me."

      Hazel sees exactly what he's doing. He's making her feel bad for him because he's desperate, "I'm not doing this with you right now. I need a minute." She says, grabbing Caroline's dress and walking out of the dressing room.

     After the dance and the other pageant activities, the girls were on the stage, while Hazel stood with Jenna and Alaric in the crowd. Hazel had noticed a while ago that Amber had gone missing and she assumed that nerves got the best of her, and she decided to not participate. Hazel doesn't blame her. The poor girl didn't stand a chance against the founding families that were in the run to win; they had apparently only let her in to make it seem as if it wasn't just only for founding families, according to Caroline—which, of course it was.

Mayor Lockwood walked up onto the stage, "Before I crown the winner, I'd like to offer a personal thank you to all of these young ladies for their efforts to better our community." He says, gesturing to the contestants, and everyone applauded, "So, without further a due it is my honor to announce our very own Miss Mystic Falls, Miss Caroline Forbes!"

Caroline's eyes widened in surprise while Hazel let out an excited squeal for her best friend, causing Caroline and Elena to laugh at her excitement. Elena turned to the blonde with a smile, "Congratulations!"

      Caroline's jaw was still ajar in shock as she says, "I actually won!" Elena nodded at her and pulled Caroline into a hug before Mayor Lockwood placed the banner around Caroline's shoulder.

      Hazel spotted Damon standing in the back of the crowd. He signalled to her that he wanted to talk to her by nudging his head to come closer and she excused herself from Jenna and walked over to him, "What is it, is it Stefan?"

      "There were signs of a struggle in the upstairs bathroom." Damon murmured to her, unaware that Bonnie was watching them, "There was blood and that Amber girl is missing. I can't find him either."

       Hazel lets out a gasp, "Oh, my God! He wouldn't hurt her. He won't." She shakes her head in denial, feeling her breathing quicken.

      Feeling the anxiety attack come on, Damon placed a hand on her shoulder, "Let's just find him, okay?" He suggests and she nods her head, "Let's get your coat, come on."

      Damon and Hazel then left to go find Stefan, leaving the Lockwood's backyard and headed towards the front, hoping to find the younger Salvatore.

      As they got to the front, they heard screaming and Damon started running, as did Hazel, to see Stefan chasing after Amber with blood all over his face. Stefan bites into her and she screams harder, "Stefan!" Hazel yells out as she approaches them and upon hearing her voice, he lets Amber go with a snarl to look at his girlfriend, who was staring at him in horror. She can't tell if he snarled at her for interrupting or because he wants to prey on her next.

     Damon steps in front of Hazel protectively, "Stefan, come on, get control." He says calmly to his brother with his hand out like he was a wild animal to get him to snap out of his blood thirst while Hazel's eyes began to fill with tears with the way he was like a different person, "It's okay, come on. Breathe through it, man."

     Damon steps closer and closer to Stefan until he's almost touching him, and just as he's about to, it was like Stefan snapped out of his trance and grabbed his older brother and throws him against one of the trees with a snarl. Damon gets up instantly and Stefan walks closer to him again to attack, "Stefan, stop it!" Hazel yells, when all of a sudden, Stefan stops in his tracks and groans, holding onto his head as if he was in pain.

     Hazel is in shock, wondering what was happening to him and turns around behind her to see Bonnie standing there with Elena beside her. Hazel lets out a gasp at the way Bonnie was working her magic so effortlessly when she eventually releases the spell.

      Stefan feels as if he could finally breathe again once the pain stopped, but reality eventually kicked in and he could see the way his girlfriend was looking at him with shock and horror, alongside Bonnie and Damon. He stumbles back slightly, as if he's looking for an escape route and Damon takes a cautious step forward, "It's okay." He tells him but Stefan can only continue stumbling around and staring at Hazel, "Stefan."

      Stefan then runs away.

     Amber was going to be okay, but, she lost a lot of blood, and despite Bonnie and Elena coming to help subdue Stefan, they were still on the outs. Hazel wasn't sure what to do but she knows she needs to help Stefan. She's the reason he has lost control over his bloodlust—it's her responsibility to at least try to help. She had confided in Alaric, who had already noticed that something was off with Stefan and agreed to help her and Damon, especially with what happened to Amber. It didn't take a genius to realise that it was a vampire that attacked her.

      Hazel waited until Stefan came home from wherever he disappeared to. He was refusing to answer her calls out of shame and she knew he would eventually return home. He entered his bedroom in a rush, pulling his jacket off and threw it on the bed in an attempt to calm himself down when Hazel made her appearance known, "You shouldn't be here." Stefan tells her while placing his head in his hand.

      "I know." She responds stiffly from the doorway. She's afraid, but not of him, she's scared of what he could do or how he could react if she fails.

      He huffs an ironic laugh at himself. He should've known that she would figure it out somehow with the way he lost control with that girl earlier tonight—even if Damon didn't tell her, "Now you know."

      "That wasn't you."

       "Oh, it was absolutely me." Stefan replies as he paces around the room anxiously, "A monster, a predator, that's who I am, Hazel."

       "That's what the blood makes you." Hazel replies. She'll always defend him, and he knows that.

       "The blood brings out what's inside of me and if you think any differently then you're an idiot." He snaps.

      Hazel blinks at the insult. She tries to not be offended by it because she knows it's him acting out. She just needs to treat him like any other addict; only this one is much more deadlier, "I know this isn't you, Stefan."

     "I wanted to drain every ounce of blood from that girl's body." Stefan emphasises, pointing at his chest where his heart was, "It's who I am."

      Hazel shakes her head, "No, you can't scare me off."

      He looks at her with bewilderment, "Why would you risk it? Why would you come here?"

      "Because I did this, this is my fault; I'm the one who made you drink the blood."

      "All you did was expose me to who I really am." Stefan exclaimed while running a hand through his hair.

      "This isn't you."

      "Stop saying that!" He shouts angrily, knocking off items from his desk. Hazel flinches from the suddenness of it but starts walking towards him, "Don't get any closer to me."

      She doesn't listen, "I'm not gonna let this happen to you."

       "Stop." He warns.

       She doesn't listen to him again and only continues coming closer, "Stefan, I'm not gonna give up on you! I believe in you!"

       "Stop!" He yells again, grabbing her by the shoulders and pushes her against the wall very roughly, slamming his fist into the wall after while she gasps in fear, "Stop!" He looks at her face and sees how afraid she was, her breath shaky and her heart pounding. She watches as his face changes to a softer version of himself—the version she's so used to, "I'm so sorry."

       "It's okay." She says shakily and he lets out an exhale and puts his head on her shoulder, "It's okay."

       Stefan lets out a sob, "I don't know what's happening to me." He cries into her shoulder.

       "It's okay, Stefan. It's okay." She shushes him, using one arm to hug him while the other arm reaches into her back pocket to take a vervain dart, "You're gonna be okay." She says, almost as if she was telling herself that. She closes her eyes before stabbing him with the dart, right into his back and injects him with the vervain.

      Stefan's body stiffens and he steps away from her before he promptly falls to the ground. Hazel watches in shock at what she had just done, running a hand through her hair and panting as Damon enters in the room. She looks at him, "You sure you want to do this?"

      Hazel looks back down at her unconscious boyfriend and images of Amber's bloodied body and everyone else she loves the same way fills her mind. She then pictures Stefan's terrified face from the woods and tells herself that she wants to help him—protect him from himself, "I'm sure."