❝don't bite the neck that feeds you.❞
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"CORY," Charlotte breathed his name in relief, immediately tugging him into the bathroom and locking the door behind them. She pushed open the stalls, making sure no one was inside, and then turned to face her extremely confused best friend. "I think I messed up, big time."

"By not getting drunk and partying with everyone else? Probably,"

"No, by letting Stefan feed on me."

Her words quickly kill his smile and he sets his drink down on the counter, frowning down at her. "What happened? Did he attack you?"

"No," She shakes her head, swallowing roughly. "The opposite, actually. I think that his wires got crossed, and he's borderline obsessed with me now."

Cory's eyes widened and he looked at Charlotte in disbelief for a moment before pressing his hands into his eyes hard enough to see stars in his vision. "Am I going to have to kill your sister's boyfriend? Is this what our friendship has come to?"

"No," Charlotte huffs, pushing her curls over her shoulders. "I don't think so, at least. I– Stefan is getting a handle on it, he's been drinking to curb the cravings, and he's been feeding on animals again, as far as I know. It should– it'll stop in a few days, probably. I don't even see him that much, so I'm sure it'll be dealt with by the time I see him again."

"Do you really believe that?"

"I kind of have to," Charlotte sighs, looking guilty. "Otherwise I'm going to have to tell my sister that I let her boyfriend feed on me, and now he looks at me like he wants to eat me, and I'm not even sure if it's in a bad way or not!"

Cory wiped a hand over his mouth, sighing deeply. "This is insane, Charlie. Genuinely–"

Cory's cut off by a fearful yell echoing through the building, followed by the sound of glass crashing destructively, and they share a brief, confused look before hurrying out of the bathroom towards the chaos.

"Oh, my god,"

"Tyler, stop it! You're hurting him!"

Cory ran forward, ripping Tyler up off of Matt and pinning him against the wall and holding him back from going for Matt again. "What the hell is wrong with you, man?"

"What happened?" Charlotte looked at Elena, who shook her head solemnly.

"Tyler was," She lowered her voice, leaning down towards her ear to whisper her words. "Making out with Matt's mom."

Charlotte made a horrified noise as Elena stepped away to help Matt, her hand covering her mouth as she looked from Matt, to his mother, to Tyler. "Jesus Christ,"

"I'll take it from here," Tyler's father walked up to where Cory still had him pinned, Alaric watching him warily.

Cory stepped back, shooting a look at Mayor Lockwood before joining Charlotte again.

"You hurt?" Tyler shook his head at his dad. "Okay. Go get cleaned up. It's okay."

Tyler walks away, avoiding the judging gazes from the crowd gathered, and Mayor Lockwood holds his hands up, plastering his perfect smile on his face. "Everything's fine. Everything's fine, everybody. Come on, everybody back to the party. Let's go! Have a good time,"

Charlotte disregarded his words, hurrying over to where Elena had gotten Matt into a chair, examining his bloody face. "Matt, are you okay?"

"Where is she?"

Elena looked around, briefly looking at Cory and Charlotte, who simply shook their heads. Sighing, Elena looked back at Matt, trying to lift his chin up. "I don't know,"

"You might need stitches, Matt," Charlotte dragged her thumb across his cheek, looking at him apologetically when he winces.

"No, I'm– I need to find my mom,"

Charlotte sighs, nodding as she stands up straight again. "I'll go look for her, just try not to move too much."

She walks off, Cory staying behind to observe the mess as she travels down the halls, in search of Matt's mom.

Between the crowds of people still gathered, entirely oblivious to what had gone down moments ago, and her own rising anxiety, Charlotte can't seem to find Kelly anywhere, so she heads out the front door, taking in a deep breath of cold air that calms her immediately.

Her eyes roam the few people lingering outside, slowly making their way to their cars to end the long night, and she frowns when she sees Stefan standing at the fence, shoulders heaving with exerted breaths.

She walks over there slowly, her heels signaling him to her presence, and she hesitates before laying a hand on his arm, making him snap around in surprise. "Stefan?"

He has a wild glint in his gaze, but some of it disappears when he sees that it's just Charlotte.

"What are you doing out here? Are you alright?"

Stefan takes in another deep breath, seemingly about to answer her before he catches wind of the drying blood on her hand and the sleeve of her dress. His pupils grow large, nearly making his eyes appear black even without the shifting of his face into its vampiric form, and she takes her hand off of his arm, moving to hide it against her chest.

He stops her before she can, grabbing her wrist in a tight grip that makes her wince slightly. "Are you bleeding?"

"No," She breathes out, shaking her head as she pulls her arm away from him. "It's not mine, Stefan. It's not mine."

He looks from her hand to her face, forcing out what she thinks are supposed to be calming puffs of air that don't seem to be working in the slightest.

"Stefan... I don't know if we can keep what happened a secret anymore."

"What?" He inhales sharply, eyes coming back into focus at her words. "No, we can't– why would we tell them?"

"Because you are obviously not okay," She scoffs, shaking her head. "You're drunk in public, and nearly losing it at the thought of someone bleeding near you. That's not okay, no matter what you tell Elena, and as her boyfriend, I think that you should be transparent with her about your lack of control."

Stefan shakes his head, wiping a hand over his mouth. "No, no I'm fine– it's fine, Charlotte,"

"Then tell me, Stefan," She steps closer to him, jaw clenching. "Tell me what would happen if I started bleeding right now. If I cut myself on this fence, or fell and scraped my knee. What would you do?"

He makes a noise similar to a growl, lips curling at the thoughts her words provoke in his rabid, blood-drunk brain. "Charlotte,"

"Imagine it," She huffs, tone dark and stern, so polar opposite to her typical lilting, melodic voice. "I know that you want to. You're waiting for any excuse to feed on someone again– you're waiting for the next fight to break out, so you can have a reason to come to the rescue, because that's the only way you can justify it to yourself– if someone else needs saving."

Stefan groans, grabbing her and walking them into the shadows, pushing her against the wall just out of view of anyone. "It's not– it's not just anyone. It's you."

Charlotte inhales sharply, looking up at him as her pulse races. "What?"

"I don't want to feed on anyone," He grunts, looking frustrated with the fact that she got him to admit it. "I want to feed on you. Every single day since you and Damon saved me from Frederick, all I can think about is feeding on you, because that part of me– the Ripper– he wants you. And right now, I'm fighting for control against him. I'm fighting that voice inside my head that tells me to feed on you, because I don't want to kill you. I couldn't. But if I started, I wouldn't be able to stop."

Charlotte pants, eyes frantically searching his face as his eyes fall on her pulse point beating hard against her throat, drawing his attention. "Stefan,"

"Do you really want to know what I would do if you started bleeding?"

She nods, unable to help herself.

"I'd bite you," He says, gaze going distant and starry as he watches her throat bob with her rough swallow.

He lifts his hand, pressing his fingers into her pulse point. "Right here. I'd bite you, and I would listen to your heart as it got slower, and slower, and slower, and I still wouldn't stop. I'd keep going until I got all of it,"

He leaned in close, head dipping down into the slope of her neck as she twisted her head away from his dark gaze. "I could do it right now," He muttered, breath puffing against her skin as veins crawled up his eyes. "Nobody followed you out here. Nobody would know. "

Struggling to speak past her outpour of emotion, she forces his name out from between her clenched teeth. "Stefan,"

He must hear something– panic, fear, perhaps even the slightest bit of curiosity, because she's never had much of an imagination, and she's never been one to daydream, she likes when things happen, because it satisfies the part of her that craves knowledge and it helps her learn and adapt constantly, and it's a fatal flaw, especially in this case, because a part of her wants to see if he'd actually do it, even though she knows he would.

Whatever it is that gets through his head, it has him pulling away from her with a strained gasp, and when she meets his eyes again, they're full of sorrow and guilt.

She swallows roughly, shaking her head when he begins to mutter out an apology.  "Stefan, have you ever thought that part of the reason you're a ripper is because you won't let yourself accept who you are? I know that Damon isn't innocent by any means, but he's not a ripper, because he's always accepted the fact that he's a vampire. Why can't you do that? Why do you hate it so much?"

He looks torn, and she feels a stab of sympathy at the genuine fear in his eyes– the fear from not understanding or knowing the answer himself. She lifts a hand up to rest on his arm comfortingly, but he flinches away from her and she freezes in the air as he stutters out excuses and apologies before disappearing entirely.

Charlotte lingers in the shadows against the outer wall of the Founders' building, willing her heart to calm for what seemed like the millionth time tonight.

She walks out of the darkness Stefan had pushed her into, back beneath the light of the full moon that washes her aglow, and she looks up at the full moon with an almost wistful gaze. When she drops her gaze back down to earth, she finds her sister walking out of the building with a furrow in her brow.

"Elena," She says her name, hoping her sister can't hear the distance in her voice, or see the way she feels like she's floating out of her body as she approaches her.

"Charlie," Elena gives her a once over, seemingly relieved at her presence. "Mrs. Donovan was inside, I think– I think Matt's leaving. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," She nods, swallowing as she looks out towards the parking lot where the car is parked somewhere amongst the many others. "Yeah, let's go."

Elena and her turn, walking away in silence, but as they grow nearer to the parking lot, Elena perks up a bit, clearing her throat. "Stefan? Stefan, are you out here?"

Charlotte tenses, snapping her head in Elena's direction. "What are you doing?"

Elena gives her a confused look, shrugging slightly. "I wanted to say goodbye to Stefan and make sure he was okay,"

"Why wouldn't he be okay?"

Elena frowns, her forehead wrinkling with it. "Charlie..."

"No, I'm–" Charlotte shakes her head, looking away again. "Sorry, I'm just tired and impatient, I guess. Ready for bed. I'll wait in the car if you want to find him,"

"No, it's fine," Elena trails off, and a low groan suddenly carries over to them, making them both tense up slightly.

Charlotte turns her head, searching for the source of it, and both girls seem to locate the shadow of a man lying on the ground a few feet away.

"Stefan?" Elena picks up her pace, Charlotte following close behind as they kneel beside the man who is decidedly not Stefan, but entirely familiar to Charlotte. "Oh, my god. Hey– hey, are you okay?"

The man groans again, and Elena helps him roll over onto his back. "What happened?"

"My arm," He pushes upright with his hand, and cradles his other arm with a wince. "I lost my balance and fell. I'm clumsy."

Charlotte's stomach rolls with displeasure as Elena looks at the man worriedly, and she takes a few steps away from the man, oblivious to the way Elena looks at her with rising suspicion.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ─── 

"Charlotte! Charlotte, slow down!"

Charlotte frowns at the sound of Caroline's voice echoing down the hall and she turns to look at the girl, forcing a small smile onto her lips. "What's up, Care? Is everything okay?"

"Well, I already talked to Elena about it and she said she's staying in, but are you still planning on competing in the Miss Mystic Falls pageant?"

Charlotte let out a puff of air, her smile falling back into a frown at the blonde's words. "Oh, god, I– I totally forgot about that. Elena said she's still doing it?"

Caroline nodded, eyes flashing bitterly before she pushed it away. "Bonnie said it's because your mom wanted you guys to do it, but I totally get if that's, like, too much for you to–"

"No," Charlotte shook her head, pushing her curls off her face from where they'd fallen out of her loose ponytail. "I, uh, I think I'm still doing it. My dad... he and I bought my dress when we first signed up, so I don't have a reason not to, I guess."

Caroline chuckled uncomfortably, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Well, I'm pretty sure you and Tyler are supposed to be partners, but that won't work out anymore, will it?"

Charlotte flinched at the reminder, wrapping her arms around herself. "Yeah, I guess not. I'll figure something out, though. Don't worry, Caroline."

"Alright, well... the first meeting is after school tomorrow, so don't be late!"

"Yeah, alright." Charlotte swallows roughly, rubbing a hand over the back of her neck as Caroline departs with a chipper wave.

The warning bell rings above her head, and she mindlessly walks to class, suddenly dreading the weekend ahead.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Honor your partner," Mrs. Lockwood's soft but no less demanding voice echoed in the cleared-out cafeteria where Charlotte stood beside her sister, with Stefan in front of Elena, and Tyler in front of her.

From the moment she'd walked into the room and spotted Tyler standing by his mom, she'd been trying to determine if this was just a really realistic nightmare, and when Stefan arrived with Elena in tow, his mood entirely cheerful compared to the nearly feral one he had the other night at the Founder's Party, Charlotte truly, truly couldn't believe that her life was so ridiculously chaotic.

She resolutely stared past Tyler's head, not making eye contact with him even as he tried to garner her attention. She dutifully ignored Mrs. Lockwood's widening grin every time she and Tyler stood in the same general vicinity, trying to push away the thought that she probably knew that Tyler had cheated on her, or done drugs with Vicki Donovan and countless others until Charlotte finally broke up with him. Even though Tyler didn't have a good relationship with his parents, it didn't take away from the fact that this was a small town, and it didn't matter if you were also doing drugs– if those drugs were being shared with the Mayor's son, everyone would know. Especially when it was Vicki Donovan sharing them with him.

One of the final breaking points for her relationship with Tyler was the realization that Tyler's parents knew he was doing these things, and treating her horribly, and they still wanted her to be with him. They wanted her to fix him, like she hadn't lost her parents and tried to kill herself. Like she was capable of fixing anyone, let alone herself. They didn't have concern for her outside of her existence in relevance to Tyler, and that meant that they would brush her own personal issues aside to try and recruit her back into the family. Because Tyler dating a Gilbert meant staying in the Founding Families, and the appearance of a small town utopia was all they wanted.

So now Charlotte had to suffer through horrible small talk with Carol Lockwood every time she saw the woman, and pretend like she didn't want to scream in the woman's face that her son was a horrible boyfriend, and an even worse friend. His behavior at the party the other night simply proved that.

Charlotte could hardly hover her hand in front of his, let alone pretend that she could honor him like they were supposed to. She couldn't pretend to be infatuated with him, not like she was when they signed up for it all those months ago, giggling and mocking the way that the adults took everything so seriously. It was hilarious, almost, to think that she had been excited for this pageant at one point. Hilarious to think there had been a point in her life where she was oblivious and happy, and slept well at night, and didn't have scars on her wrists that burned and chafed, and proved not as a reminder of her survival, but of her parents' deaths.

She startled out of her haze when Stefan and Elena moved fast beside her, Stefan dipping Elena down and earning a scolding look from Mrs. Lockwood.

"There's no touching during this part," Carol shook her head, approaching the couple. "It's about the simple intimacy of the near-touch."

Stefan and Elena nod, thoroughly scolded, and Charlotte wants to laugh with them, she wants to find the humor in it, but she can't meet Stefan's eyes without thinking of the way he'd growled out every word into her throat, and how he'd told her how much he wants to kill her because she has put him into some Ripper-daze.

The guilt that wracks her body when she looks at her lovesick sister makes her want to dry heave.

"Very nice, Charlotte," Carol smiles, looking between her son and his ex-girlfriend. "You two are naturals."

Charlotte flinches, and Tyler forces a smile for his mother's sake, because it's such a blatant lie. Charlotte has never been so grateful that they're not touching yet, that there's still a way for her to avoid the physical contact, and it's obvious in the way she moves around him. Unblinking, with a thousand-yard stare that would chill anyone that looked her way. Her face had drained of blood long again, pulse thumping wildly in her wrist, and when she was reminded of the fact that she had a looming sense of panic, it just made her heart speed up even more. That, of course, just reminded her of the fact that Stefan was probably attuned to the sound of her heartbeat, and fighting back the urge to rip her throat out with his teeth and drain her dry.

She finishes the lesson in a daze, and as soon as Mrs. Lockwood dismisses them, she turns away from Tyler and breezes past Stefan and Elena without a single look in their direction.

She ignores her sister calling her name, instead reaching a trembling hand into her backpack to pull her car keys out.

"Charlotte! What the hell?"

Her arm is yanked back, and she snaps around, instinctively raising a fist in the direction of whoever had touched her, and she quickly drops it when she sees Cory standing there with a worried look on his face that grows deeper by the second.

"Sorry," She forces the word out, suddenly realizing she hadn't spoken a word in the last hour and a half, not while she was trying to breathe around the cement hardening in her stomach. "Sorry."

"What's going on?" Cory dips his head down, watching as she continuously forces her gaze back into focus on him, fighting against herself to stay present. "Charlie,"

Charlotte's chest heaves with rattling breaths that pain her every time she forcibly inhales, and she looks up at Cory with hot tears bubbling in her waterline suddenly.

Cory mutters a panicked curse and pushes her into the bathroom nearby, hands grasping onto her shoulders tightly. "Charlotte, just look at me, alright? Focus on me, and try to breathe,"

"I can't," She forces out, choking on nothing. "I just– I can't–"

"Look at me, Charlotte." He squeezes her shoulders, overexaggerating his calming breaths. "Breathe with me. Just do what I do."

She forces in a deep inhale that sends a sharp pain through her ribs, and lets it out when Cory does his. They do this for a moment– perhaps minutes or hours, she can't tell, until the tears on her cheeks dry and her breathing is calmed down again.

"Charlie,"

"I'm–" She wets her lips, biting her tongue as regret floods her tone. "I can't do this pageant. I can't. I want to, for my parents, but I can't dance with Tyler– I can't do it, Cory, I can't do it– I don't want him to touch me, I can't–"

"Charlotte," He rattles her slightly, breaking off her fearful rambling. "I'll handle it, alright? Let me handle it."

She sniffs, looking up at him pitifully. "How?"

"Just trust me when I say you won't have to dance with him, okay? Can you do that?"

Charlotte hesitates for a moment, but she nods, lifting the bottom of her shirt to wipe at the tears on her cheeks.

"Okay," Cory breathes out a heavy sigh, turning her towards the bathroom door. "Go to your car, and I'll come with, alright? I'll meet you in a minute, I just need to get some things from my locker."

"Okay," She nods, giving him a small smile that he mirrors fondly before she leaves the bathroom and disappears down the hall. 

Cory waits a moment, glancing at his reflection in the mirror as he gathers himself, and he lets out a deep sigh that bleeds into a groan as he turns away, grabbing for the door handle and swinging it open wide enough that it slams into the door stopper behind it.

His steps are silent on the tiled floors as he makes his way down the hall where a dark-haired boy lingers, and Cory rolls his shoulders back, straightening his posture out and rising to his full height that he usually dismisses with a slouch and old flannels that don't fit him right.

"Hey, Tyler."

The boy snaps around to face Cory, confusion twisting his features as he looks around, presumably for Charlotte, because they are usually glued together. "Uh– what's up, Cory?"

"I need you to do me a favor," Cory sniffs, eyeing his growing defensive posture closely. "Actually– you're going to do me a favor, because I'm going to do you one in return."

Tyler scoffs out a laugh, his dark eyes roaming the empty hall, looking for a crowd that doesn't exist to garner attention from by acting like the macho man that he is entirely not. "What are you talking about?"

"Tomorrow, you're going to wake up and conveniently find yourself feeling under the weather. Your mom will be disappointed, and you're going to tell her that it's alright, because you already talked to me about stepping in for you when you got sick last night."

"And why would I do that? I'm supposed to be Charlotte's escort."

Cory grits his teeth and moves fast, wrapping Tyler's shirt into his fists and slamming him against the lockers. Tyler struggles against his hold, but Cory just holds him tighter, unwavering in his actions. "You're not even going to look at Charlotte tomorrow, do you understand? If you show up and try to escort her, I will beat you to a pulp. You don't look at her, you don't think about her, I don't even want you to breathe in her direction. Otherwise I'll have to lose my temper, and I really don't want to break my hand caving your face in."

Cory shoves him back, metal lockers banging with Tyler's grunt of pain as his breath is knocked out of him. He turns away, already heading down the hall as he throws a look over his shoulder at Tyler. "Stay away from her, Tyler! I swear to god I'll kill you."

He shoves the double doors open and steps out into the fall evening, taking in a deep breath as he heads across the way to where Charlotte's sitting behind the wheel of her car, looking exhausted.

He ducks down into the passenger seat and she starts the car silently, backing up and driving off with little forethought.

When they slow for an approaching stop sign, Charlotte looks over at him. "Did you get everything you need?"

Cory nods, tugging at the sleeves of his sweatshirt. "Yep."

Charlotte nods and continues driving. They both choose to ignore the fact that he didn't stop by his locker for anything.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

author's note; me writing this entire plot arc while katherine is about to show up and make things so much worse: am i... the drama?

edited and published; 3.1.23.

- liz