(maintaining peace)

Two Months Later | Present Time

"Come on, Stefan! Go!" Lexi shouted excitedly, earning a sigh from the brooding vampire.

"I can't, Lex," he grumbled, fighting against her hand which was pulling him with her.

"Yes, you can! They would want this for you. They would want you to be happy," Lexi spoke, her voice soft as she grabbed the boy's shoulders. "She would want this."

"I don't have time for dating, Lexi. Things are far too complicated for that," Stefan argued as he looked around the city road they were standing next to, his eyes landing on what used to be Margot's favourite churro truck before meeting the blondes once again.

"Yes, but you made it work before, so why not now? If anything, it's perfect."

"Charlie isn't going to want someone with as much baggage as I have. It would be an unhealthy relationship," Stefan explained as they moved to walk down the sidewalk in New York.

The best friends had moved there not long after everything went down. Stefan couldn't live in Mystic Falls anymore and Lexi promised to help him, so they both left.

It was for the best.

Stefan was working as a mechanic while Lexi worked as a nurse. They shared an apartment near where Margot used to live. Everything had been fine... Until Stefan ran into his ex-boyfriend Charlie.

They had broken up right before Silas locked Stefan in a coffin before pushing him into the lake. It was too complicated; both their lives just didn't fit together. They didn't have time for a relationship so they ended it.

Now, when they saw each other again, Charlie immediately asked if Stefan wanted to get a coffee and Stefan couldn't help but say yes.

"I'm sure he can handle it. He's a witch, he goes through shit all the time. Now, get your ass dressed or I will drag you to the coffee shop myself."

Somewhere Unknown

"Pancakes again?" a woman asked as she walked into a kitchen, a man following behind her, their hands intertwined.

The raven-haired man standing at the stove shook his head with a smirk, "Uh-uh. Vampcakes, Maggie. Your favourite, remember? Oh, and Bon Bon's making coffee."

Margot and Klaus glanced back, sending a grateful smile to the witch as she handed them two steaming cups of coffee.

The group made their way to the dining table where Damon laid out four plates, each with a stack of vampcakes on them. Bonnie rolled her eyes as she looked down at the plate, "Every day I tell you that I hate that."

"And every day, I do it anyway. Bon appetit," Damon retorted with a smile as he handed her a fork.

Margot smiled as she handed Damon the crossword puzzle before leaning into Klaus' side as they ate breakfast.

Two Months Before

The white light slowly dissipated from their vision as they blinked quickly to see their surroundings.

"Oh?" Margot heard Damon say from beside Bonnie. The group of four glanced at each other oddly as they looked around what appeared to be a normal forest inside the Mystic Falls cemetery.

The group very quickly unlinked their hands, awkwardness blooming inside Damon and Bonnie while Margot chuckled, "Well, that got awkward fast."

"What happened?" Bonnie asked, ignoring Margot's comment.

They were in the grave yard, the same one from before they were taken away. The wind was gone, though, and the sun was out, shining down brightly whilst the birds chirped in bliss.

"Where is everybody?" Damon asked as his eyes searched for his brother and girlfriend, before finding himself unable to spot them through the abyss of trees.

Margot glanced up at Klaus before pulling him into a hug. Their arms wrapped tightly around one another. They had thought they would never see each other again.

"Where are you going?" Damon asked as Bonnie suddenly started to walk away.

The three still standing looked at each other for a moment before moving to quickly follow after the determined witch.

They walked aimlessly through the town of Mystic Falls for hours, walking in circles as they looked around for any sign of life.

"Well, I feel a fang. I'm still a vampire," Damon said as he shoved a finger in his mouth.

"Either we're a bunch of dead vampires, or Mystic Falls is no longer magic-free," Margot spoke from beside him as they walked through the town square which was oddly empty.

"Look," Klaus muttered, pointing to a building in confusion.

It was... the Grill?

"We definitely blew that up about an hour ago..." Margot spoke as she stared at the completely intact building.

"Why don't we see any people? If we're still on the other side, we should at least still be able to see the living."

Damon looked around the surrounding area with a look filled with confusion and slight fear, "Where the hell are we? And I don't mean geographically."

"I have no idea."

— — —

"Uh, how many more streets are we going to wander?" Damon asked with a groan as they walked through Mystic Falls.

"How many times are you going to ask me questions I don't have the answers to? Huh?" Bonnie spoke, glancing back at Klaus and Margot who walked a few paces back.

"There's something weird about the cars," the heretic spoke up after some time.

Klaus nodded, "Yeah, they're almost twenty years old or more, and yet they all look brand new."

Bonnie and Damon stopped in their steps as though they were in a trance. They were staring at Elena's house.

"And that is Elena's not-so-burnt-to-a-crisp house."

Margot glanced at them, "What happened to Elena's house?"

"She burned it down. Long story."

The heretic sighed before grabbing onto a paper that was sitting on the lawn. She pulled off the elastic before unravelling it. Her eyes widened slightly as she read it. "Look," Margot said as she held out the paper for Bonnie to see.

"Hm? Rare solar eclipse expected to be seen across 12 states," she read confused, unsure of why Margot insisted she read the paper.

Margot let out a sigh before hastily whispering, "The date."

"May 10th... 1994. Is that– are we– That's impossible."

The sky went dark as though clouds had covered the sun, except in this case, it was the moon.

A solar eclipse.

"I don't think we should be asking where we are," Damon said as he stared at the moon, watching as it moved across the sun. "I think we should be asking when we are."

— — —

Klaus and Margot were sitting peacefully on a porch swing at the Gilbert residence while Bonnie and Damon spoke. The hybrid hadn't taken his hands off of her since they arrived wherever they were. He didn't want her to disappear.

"Wonder if there's any booze in this empty retroville," the blue-eyed vampire said as he leaned against the door.

"It feels so weird to be back here. Practically grew up on this porch," Bonnie commented as she glanced at the toys that littered the porch, all of which they assumed were Elena's old ones.

"All right. Talk us through it," Margot said, glancing over at the witch as she played with the rings on Klaus' left hand.

"Before the other side collapsed, my Grams said that she made a sacrifice so I could find peace–"

"I believe she wanted the part where you actually have a theory," the hybrid said as he glanced at the Bennett witch.

"Well, this clearly isn't peace. Otherwise, I wouldn't be stuck here with you two and it would just be Margot."

Margot smirked whilst the two men rolled their eyes, "Rude."

"She must have... I don't know... Sent me somewhere, and when I held your hands, I took you with me."

"Did she happen to whisper a safe word in her last breaths, a clue maybe, witchy path out of here?" Margot asked.

"No, but if we got here by magic, magic should be able to get us out," Bonnie said, however, there was an obvious frown on her face.

Damon noticed her expression, "And that frown that's not upside down is telling me what?"

Bonnie stared at a candle before holding out her hand, "Phesmatos, incendia." The candle did nothing, causing her to emit a sigh, "I still can't do magic."

Damon sighed, "Perfect. What about you, Maggie?"

Margot easily lit the candle without speaking, earning a smile from Damon. "That doesn't help us though. If Bonnie was put in here by her Grams, chances are, it needs to be Bennett magic to get us out. My magic will do jack shit other than offer entertainment and provide torture when necessary."

— — —

It was the next day and Margot was in the Salvatore kitchen making beignets with Klaus while Damon made more pancakes or as he insisted he call them, vampcakes.

The sounds of Salt-N-Pepa's 'Whatta Man' filled the room as Damon drank from a bottle of bourbon whilst he flipped a pancake.

The door opened and in came Bonnie carrying a small stuffed teddy bear. "I didn't know you cooked," she said, slightly amused at the sight of housewife Damon.

"I don't," he answered, glancing back and seeing Klaus with his head buried in Margot's neck as he hugged her waist. He seemed so... soft. It was weird.

"How'd you sleep?" Bonnie asked, sending a small smile to Margot who was being swayed gently by Klaus who stood behind her comfortingly.

"Me... not good. My 1994 mattress was very lumpy and these two are very loud. What do you got there?"

Bonnie grinned as she held up the bear, "Oh. Miss Cuddles. I lost her when I was 9, but I went into my house last night, and there she was." She paused as she pulled out an old book from her backpack, "I also found this at my Grams' house, her old grimoire."

"Yeah? Well, I found this," Damon exclaimed as he held up a bottle of bourbon. "I drank it last year when Ric died."

"So, we're in this snapshot of another time or something. Everything that existed in 1994 still exists."

The Salvatore held up a music disk with a grimace, "For better or for worse."

"Listen. There was a time when I couldn't practice magic. This grimoire taught me a lot. Maybe I can reteach myself, especially with Margot here."

"If you're still a witch, which with our luck and your skill, probably ain't the case."

Margot scoffed from the other side of the room, "Would a little support kill you?"

The vampire glanced at her, "I am acutely aware that we are in some otherworldly time dimension. However, did you ever think for one second that maybe it's Bon Bon being negative reacting to my natural self negatively, hmm?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes, "You're ridiculous."

"Nope. I'm consistent. Eat your pancakes. Oh, and... You can do a crossword puzzle."

Margot grinned. Damon had been trying to figure out the same word for the last three hours. It was quite amusing actually.

Klaus' hand had slipped up her shirt, resting just under her breast as he kissed along her shoulder.

He was very distracting.

Bonnie sighed before sitting down. "Oh, gee, thanks. Breakfast with my least favourite person and a crossword puzzle from 1994... All right," she paused as she grabbed a pen before staring down at the paper, "What's a 7-letter word for..."

The natural lighting had suddenly disappeared from the skylight above them. The room was completely dark for a moment. It was... an eclipse. Again?

After a few minutes, the sun appeared once again.

"You've got to be kidding me," Klaus said as he stared out the skylight. "Bonnie, look at the date on that paper."

The witch quickly looked at the date before saying, "... It says May 10, 1994. It's the same day as yesterday. We're living the same day all over again."

Margot sighed as she stared up at Klaus, "Well, that proves it. We're in hell, my own personal, custom-built hell."

Klaus tightened his hold on her.

"What do you mean by that, kid?" Damon asked as he and Bonnie turned to look at her.

Margot stared at the ground, "My best friend died on May 10th, 1994."

Damon held onto his bottle of bourbon with an unreadable expression, "Great. Bottoms up."

Somewhere Unknown | Present Time

Two months had gone by since they realized they were living the same day over and over again. The four had gotten into a routine, Damon would make breakfast, Bonnie would make coffee and Klaus and Margot would do whatever they wanted.

Damon had eventually forced them to move out after he caught them fucking on the kitchen table... the couch and the counter and his bed. It was really a sanitary hazard in his mind.

The couple had found themselves a lovely little home not far from the boarding house. It was a cute little abode with gardens surrounding it and large fields on all sides for them to watch the sun rise and fall with each passing day.

Inside, the interior needed some work but since they had all the time in the world, Klaus and Margot threw themselves into interior design.

After a few weeks, the house was spick and span and in perfect shape for the two of them. The walls were painted a mix of green and white and there were windows in every room which overlooked the large fields and wildflowers that Margot had planted.

It was perfect.

Damon continued to flip his pancakes as Bonnie, Margot and Klaus sat at the table.

The witch was working on yet another crossword puzzle. "What's a 7-letter word for 'kill me now'?" Bonnie pondered as she played with her pen, letting the metal spin along her finger tips.

"That joke got old 6 weeks ago," Damon commented as he plated the pancakes before setting them on the table.

"So did this crossword puzzle. Every day for two months, I've done this stupid thing, and I still can't figure out 27 across. 'An old tongue twister Eddie turned top 40'?"

Just then, Bonnie stabbed her pen into the stack of pancakes. "And I hate pancakes!" she loudly exclaimed in anger.

"Whoa. Don't take it out on the pancakes, love," Klaus said, his voice full of amusement as he played with Margot's hair which had grown a few inches longer.

Damon nodded, "Those pancakes, like myself, are waiting for you to be witchy to get us the hell out of here."

"She's trying her best, Damon. When you lose your magic, it takes a lot to get it back," Margot explained as she tried to find one pancake that didn't have ink in it.

"Further evidence we're in hell. Not only am I stuck with Bonnie, I'm stuck with the useless version of her."

Bonnie opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out, instead, she glanced wearily around the room, "Did you hear that?"

"What would I have heard, Bonnie? We're the only four people here. We were the only four people here two months ago, and we're the only four people here now!"

"Well, I swear I heard something!"

Margot sighed. They were getting antsy which meant they yelled at each other constantly. It was not fun.

"Maybe it's the sound of existential despair. I hear that's what hell sounds like."

Damon had recently admitted he believed it was his personal hell, not Margot's after he had gotten drunk one night while they attempted to play Monopoly. They soon learned to never play Monopoly with Damon and Klaus together. Necks were snapped and hands were ripped off.

"You know what? You think we're trapped in your hell? I have to spend every day on repeat with the person I like least on this earth, the person who tormented me for months and the person who I had a crush on in grade eleven. Maybe we're trapped in mine."

Margot sent the witch a wink, "Had a crush on you too, Bon Bon."

Klaus poked her side, "Easy, love. Remember whose you are."

"I'm gonna puke," Damon muttered as he stared at the couple in disgust.

— — —

Margot moaned softly as Klaus pressed her against the bed, his lips never leaving hers as his hands moved under her shirt to glide along the soft skin of her stomach leaving her shivering with delight.

When his lips parted from hers, he rested his forehead against hers as he whispered, "I love you, Margot."

Klaus' voice was quiet and barely above a whisper as he stared into her warm brown eyes, calmly awaiting a response.

The heretic grinned before she pulled on the back of his neck so she could kiss him again. As their lips touched, she muttered a soft, "I love you too, Nik."

He smiled brightly into the kiss before pulling her into a hug, maneuvering them so she was on top. He didn't want to crush her, not that she would mind.

"I've waited centuries for you, love. I hope you don't mind that I never plan to let you leave now."

She let out a soft content sigh as she moved her hand to rest on his cheek, "Well, it's a good thing I don't plan on leaving any time soon, Niklaus Mikaelson."

He let out a breathy chuckle, "Full name, huh? You must really love me, perhaps I should start calling you Margot Salv–" He paused before shaking his head with a grin, "No... Margot Mikaelson. Yes. That sounds quite nice, doesn't it?"

She pressed her lips against his, taking his breath away. "Sounds perfect."

Downstairs, Bonnie was making tomato soup at the stove while Damon sat at the table. He smiled slightly, earning a confused look from the witch as she handed him a bowl.

"What's that look for?"

"I think Klaus practically just proposed to Maggie."

Bonnie smiled, "They really are perfect, aren't they?"

Damon nodded before scrunching up his face.

"And what's that look for?" Bonnie asked amused.

"Klaus is... showing how much he really loves her," he explained as he tried to tune out the loud moans coming from upstairs.

Bonnie laughed loudly, "God those two are like rabbits."

He glanced down at the crossword, "Look who got 27 across."

Bonnie scoffed, "I wish. 27 across is a rock I am pushing up an endless mountain."

"An old tongue twister Eddie turned top 40," Damon read. "Eddie Vedder. Pearl Jam. 'Yellow Ledbetter.' Good work."

The witch grabbed the paper from his hands to read it herself, "Are you messing with me?"

"No. Are you messing with me?"

"I didn't finish this."

Damon swallowed a spoonful of his soup, "Well, neither did I and Margot and Klaus had been preoccupied for the last few hours so..."

"There's someone else here..."