Eternal Contemplations (6/?)
Title: Eternal Contemplations
Author: fading_tales
Pairing: Damon/Blair (Vampire Diaries/Gossip Girl cross-over)
Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl or any of their characters.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Timing means nothing and everything when you have an eternity to live.
chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Chapter Six
The amenities of the Salvatore mansion are much more to her liking and so he doesn't hear a peep out of her until breakfast the next morning.
"So… aside from annoying your brother and his house guest… what are you planning?" Blair asks while sipping her tea and picking at her toast.
"Yes, Damon. Care to enlighten us?" Stefan injects as he joins the two at the dining table. Stefan's tendency to "pop-up" during his private conversations is just one of the many annoyances of having an undead brother with super-hearing. Of course Stefan probably tells himself the same thing about Damon.
"I thought I was went over this yesterday. It's a s-e-c-r-e-t. As for you," he points a buttery knife in Blair's direction. "Eat your breakfast. I won't be having you faint on me when I need you."
She narrows her eyes at him and he returns the gesture albeit with more humor. She takes a defiant little nibble of her toast and sets it back down to be ignored as she rearranges the fruits on her plate. Her frowns at how she seems to be getting skinner and skinner everyday. Almost as if she was slowly wasting away. He's not ignorant of what her "habits" are, but it's not like he has any right to tell her what to eat. He has his own dietary problems.
Stefan snaps him out of his reverie.
"So if you can't tell us what your big master plan is… care to share your plans for the day?" Stefan prods.
"Oh, well I thought I would head into town… show Blair here around."
"I can do that!"
All three members of the table turn to face the newly arrived Elena Gilbert who pecks a quick kiss on the younger Salvatore's cheek before seating herself at the dining table.
"Don't you have school?" Damon asks.
"Teacher's conference day. We have the day off."
"Well… Blair wanted to go see Mystic Fall's college campus. She's hoping to apply next Fall."
"I did?"
"Yes… because that's why you're here."
Blair tries to convey her disapproval of his choice of excuse, but Damon won't have it. It's just an excuse anyways, so she decides not to be picky despite the mere thought of going to a small, middle of nowhere non-ivy school seemed highly repulsive.
"Yes… that's right. I wanted to see the college campus…"
"That's so great, because I was planning on checking it out, too," Elena supplies. "This way we can get to know one another."
"No, thank you," Blair replies bluntly, returning the other girl's smile for a fake one of her own.
Despite her efforts at being unpleasant, not that the task required much effort, the other brunette girl was completely unmoved.
"You're only a sophomore. Why would you want to go looking at college campuses for?"* Damon interrogates.
"It pays to start researching higher education early!" Elena replies perkily.
Members of the table, even Stefan, raise their eyebrows unconvinced. Damon doesn't like what the little ex-cheerleader was trying to do. Having a third wheel tag along with their morbid little adventure was not part of the s-e-c-r-e-t plan.
"Oh come on! It'll be great!" Elena shifts in her seat to directly face Damon. "Why don't you and Stefan hang out here and… catch up? While I go show Blair around?"
"Yes, Damon. I have some things to talk to you about," Stefan adds.
"I'm sure you do, but that doesn't mean I want to hear what you got to say," Damon says with a sweet smile that belies the malice in his eyes.
"There's some bad blood between us and I think it's time we got over that."
The tension in the room had suddenly risen. Elena and Blair both alternate their glances from one brother to the other.
After a long staring contest between the two siblings, Damon finally breaks the silence. "Fine. Blair, why don't you go with Elena while my brother and I go have a nice long chat."
"But I don't want to go with Elena," Blair says through gritted teeth, giving Damon her best defiant stare. This wasn't what she signed up for.
"Yeah well we all want a lot of things…" Damon replies.
Blair remains petulant and holds her glare. He's not, she repeats, NOT going to just ditch her with some stranger.
Damon sighs and takes one of her hands in his. "Blair, please?" He's using his most enticing, sweet voice.
She slaps his hand away and pushes herself out of her seat. The sound of the wooden chair scraping against the marble flooring makes Damon wince.
Marching to the front door and snatching up the car keys hanging besides the doorway Blair calls over her shoulder to Elena, "Are we going or what? We're taking Damon's car and I don't know how to drive." Elena hurries on over to follow her.
Sitting in the passenger's seat as Elena puts the key into the ignition, Blair inwardly groans at the thought of her precious time being wasted on some boring college tour of a campus she would never even consider applying to.
Back in the Salvatore dining room, Damon leans back in his chair and smiles. She can be sweet in her own way when she wants to be.
xxx
Blair suppresses the third yawn she has within five minutes after arriving at Mystic Fall's very own four year college. Their campus tour guide is a lanky pale guy with mouse brown hair who looks as bored and miserable as she was. In contrast, Elena continues to be bubbly and enthusiastic, oh-ing and ah-ing at everything they passed by. It greatly grated on Blair's nerves.
She's not here to make friends. She's here to help her vampire friend (although she's seriously thinking of downgrading him to acquittance) free his undead girlfriend and in return gain the means to finally and permanently win over the UES and cement her bright and shiny future.
Even if she was trying to make friends, this Elena girl was seriously freaking her out with the way she kept staring at her neck and tugging on her scarf. The other girl had asked more than once to "borrow" said scarf and while Blair isn't surprised that a small town girl like her being mesmerized by the glamorous New York fashion, really, enough is enough. Finally after much pestering, Blair relents and shoves the silk Hermes scarf at the girl.
"Here! You can have it."
What was odd was that even after finally getting her hands on the much coveted scarf, the other girl's face had taken on a puzzled and almost disappointed look. The oh-ing and ah-ing stops after that and Elena doesn't say another word until they reach the library part of the tour. Blair mentally shrugs her shoulders and attributes the weird behavior as something only small town folk do and something she would never understand.
xxx
During a particularly boring stretch of time during the campus tour, Elena takes Blair's hand and pulls her back allowing the rest of the group to go on ahead without them.
"I need to talk to you."
"And miss out on the exciting tour?" Blair replies sarcastically.
"It's about Damon."
"Of course it is."
"Look, I know he's like totally hot and charismatic and charming…"
"Is there a 'but' coming soon or what?"
"But he's dangerous," Elena finishes lamely.
"Oh great… another 'stay away from him, he's bad!' talk."
"He's not who you think he is!"
"You mean he's not a hundred and seventy-five year old vampire?"
Blair feels a slight tug of self-satisfaction at the surprised look on the other girl's face. After gaping like a goldfish for several seconds, Elena manages to sputter out a coherent sentence, albeit a short one.
"You know?"
Blair answers with a bored look. "Listen, are we going to go check out the study hall or what?"
"If you know what he is then you must know that he has certain powers. Powers to persuade you to do things he tells you to do."
"Yeah, that whole compulsion thing doesn't work on me. Listen, this little tour thing is kind of boring and I'm guessing it was just all part of ruse for you to warn me against Damon anyhow. So… since we got that annoying part out of the way, I'm gonna go on ahead and you can stay there with your mouth open in shock. I'll meet you back at the house in an hour."
Before Elena can compose a coherent thought Blair had already turned a corner and disappeared.
xxx
After being abandoned by Damon's new girl toy (Elena doesn't believe for a second that Damon hasn't twisted the poor girl's mind one way or another), Elena finds herself wandering back to the Salvatore mansion. She finds Stefan in his room looking through some letters with yellowing pages.
"Hey."
"Hey. Back so soon? It's only…" Stefan takes a glance at his wristwatch. "11. I know the campus is small, but I didn't think it was that small."
"Blair ditched me."
"Seems like Damon picked an interesting one."
"I'll say," Elena sighs as she collapses on the sofa. Blair Waldorf had tired her out. And she thought Caroline's cattiness was bad.
"Despite our personal opinions about her... we need to get her away from him."
"Are you sure? Because I'm beginning to think he's finally found his perfect match. Where is the evil incarnate anyways? I thought you guys were supposed to be hanging out?"
"Right after you guys left I tried to get him to talk to me, but he just avoided conversation as per usual and then slipped out."
Stefan sighed, rubbing his temples in agitation.
"What concerns me most is the girl. I don't understand why he's bringing in someone new and from New York of all places into all this. Blair Waldorf is definitely someone who will be missed if she's gone, judging by the designer luggage I hauled up for her yesterday. Damon's reckless, but he's not stupid. If he's using her as his personal 24 hour deli the way he was using Caroline-"
"She knows. Everything. And she says that he's not biting her."
Elena gives Stefan a moment to process the shocking information.
"She knows? And he's not biting her? That would definitely be out of character of Damon. He probably just told her to say that."
"She says compulsion doesn't work on her."
"Then clearly Damon's got her more warped than we thought."
"We don't know that… maybe… maybe he's changed?"
Stefan shoots Elena a disbelieving look.
"I haven't noticed any bite marks on her neck."
"Damon doesn't always go for the jugular… he's more of a fan of the femoral artery."
Elena rolls her eyes. "I'm not surprised. But… she was pretty convincing…"
"Then we have to find out for sure. If he is feeding on her, she will need to get those puncture wounds cleaned up properly or they'll fester. I don't want to see any more innocent people get hurt because of his selfishness. Can you check it out?"
"I'm all for rescuing damsels in distress, but how am I suppose to do that? With Caroline, she just hid the bite marks with scarves and even then it was hard to get her to take them off."
"Don't girls like… shower together at the gym? Go invite her to yoga or something," Stefan suggests weakly.
"Yeah… or something," Elena mocks. "Maybe Bonnie would know what to do… she hasn't been answering my calls all day."
"Maybe she's still reeling from the last time Damon was in town. Let her have her peace."
"Yeah, you're right," Elena lets out her millionth sigh of the day. "I'm just worried. I wish he would just leave. I don't want anymore people to get hurt either."
xxx
Later that afternoon Elena finds Blair lounging in the library, a copy of Jane Austen in her hands. Blair's eyes dart up briefly to register the other girl's presence before flickering back to her book. Elena suppresses a groan as she seats herself down next to the other brunette.
"So… how are you doing?"
"Good."
"How's the book?"
"Good."
This wasn't going to be easy.
"How did you get back here?"
"Met a guy, he gave me a ride. Men are so easy, just bat a few eyelashes at them and you'll have them eating out of the palm of your hand."
"I see."
Elena mentally adds more things to her list of striking similarities between Blair Waldorf and Damon Salvatore. Manipulation of the opposite sex. Check.
"Do you know when Damon's coming back?" Blair asks, looking up from her book.
"No… he kind of just comes and goes whenever he wants."
Blair scoffs and mumbles curses under her breath. "Typical."
Conversation falls flat once again and after yet another awkward silence, Elena tries once more at facilitating a dialogue.
"So, there's this… yoga social thing happening at the YMCA later on today… do you like… wanna go check it out?"
"No thanks. My trainer doesn't like me working out with amateurs. Thinks it'll make me form bad habits that he'll have to correct and it would be a hassle and so on..."
Blair turns a page in her book.
"Oh. I see."
So much for Stefan's plan. Elena gets up from her precarious position perched on edge of the large oak desk and seats herself next to the Blair on the leather sofa. Blair scrunches up her nose in annoyance, but pulls her feet in to give the Elena some room.
Elena steels herself for her task. She needs to find out if this Blair Waldorf is really telling the truth or not. It's time to get more aggressive otherwise she would be getting nowhere.
"It's pretty sunny out today. Aren't you hot? You must be hot. Let's take off the sweater."
Elena reaches over in attempt to pull off Blair's cardigan, but Blair moves out of the way, closing her book.
"What sun are you talking about? Ones behind dense, frigid clouds? It's like 45 degrees in here. I'm not taking off my sweater."
"Do you like swimming? We can swim!"
"No. Thanks. Didn't you just hear what I said? It's freezing."
"I know where there's a heat pool!"
Once again Elena reaches over to tug on Blair's sweater.
"Stop being weird."
Blair gets up to leave, but Elena stands up too and follows her.
"How about a bath? A nice hot bath then to warm you up. Come on, I'll even draw the water for you."
Once again Elena is enthusiastic her efforts to save the poor humans caught in the Damon's twisted web of lies and deceit.
Elena successfully ushers a confused and weirded out Blair into the spacious Salvatore bathroom and manages to rid Blair of her sweater, finally.
"Hey! Stop it. What are you doing?" Blair complains as Elena unceremoniously unzips her dress and is currently in the process of trying to slip the whole thing off. "Hey! That's an Eleanor Waldorf Original! Be careful! What the hell?" Blair pushes the other brunette girl away before her said Waldorf Original drops to the floor. "What's your problem? It's like you're trying to take off my clothes all day."
"Yes, Elena. Why are you trying to get Blair naked? Not that I'm complaining."
The sound of Damon's voice coming from the doorway startles both girls.
"I'm not dressed! Get out of here, perv!" Blair shouts as she throws an unlit votive candle at him. "And you, too! Get out!"
Elena groans and tears at her hair.
"I'm just trying to look out for you. I'm making sure your bite wounds aren't getting infected or anything."
"I told you he is not biting me."
"Obviously he's got you wrapped around his little finger."
"I'm really not… biting her, that is," Damon injects into the conversation. With a wink towards Blair, he adds, "Not that I haven't been tempted."
"I said get out!" Blair throws a towel this time.
"Jeez! It's not like I haven't seen breasts before," Damon calls over his shoulder as he walks away.
Both girls glare indignantly at the elder Salvatore's retreating figure.
"He's such a prick sometimes," Blair mumbles under her breath.
"More like all the time," Elena replies. "If he's really not compelling you or feeding on you, which I don't understand like… at all, then what the hell are you doing with him? Can't you see he's a monster?"
Blair flinches a little at the harshness of Elena's accusations.
"If Damon is a monster, then what is your boyfriend, Stefan? They are brothers you know."
"Stefan's different. He's not a killer-"
"Oh, please. Spare me the self-hating, broody vampire redemption crap. I've watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I know how the story goes. And Angel was a moody bore if you asked me."
"You still haven't answered my question."
Blair walks over to the large vanity mirror and rearranges her clothes. She runs a hand through her mahogany curls and smiles at Elena through the reflection.
"I'm with Damon because we have a deal."
"Any deal with Damon is a deal with the devil."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it. Damon is bad. You're like a broken record."
She turns around and leans against the vanity table to face Elena who was still sitting on the floor surrounded by discarded clothing.
"Listen, thanks for the girl scout advice, but really. I'm fine. No need to look out for me. Damon and I will hurry up with our little plan and then we'll both get out of your hair. So just sit tight, okay?" Blair said in a tone of finality.
She gives the brunette on the floor what was suppose to be a comforting, but came out as condescending, pat on the shoulder as she walks out of the bathroom to follow after Damon. As she turns the corner she hears Elena scream after her "What plan?"
xxx
She finds him in his room looking through a fragile looking leather bound journal with archaic symbols and drawings sprawled across the pages.
"Enough of this, Damon," Blair sighs, leaning against the door frame. "I've been dragged all through town by your gracious host from the decrepit college campus to the dingy sorry excuse for a mall-"
"Elena and you went shopping?"
"No, some guy took me after I ditched the campus tour thing."
"You just went off with a stranger?"
"He was harmless." As if as an afterthought Blair adds, "And he had a nice car," as jibe at Damon and his retro vehicle of choice.
"I don't like you going off with strangers."
"What do you think I'm doing right now with you?"
"That hurts. I thought we were at least past acquaintances. Maybe move on to friends with benefits?"
"Stop trying to be cute, Damon. Where are we going to do now?"
He shuts the journal in his hand with a snap.
"Playtime's over. We're going to the tomb."
xxx
*I have no clue how old Elena actually is, but I'm assuming she's a sophomore? And I believe that since this fic takes place pre-pilot in the GG universe, Blair and the gang should be in the beginnings of junior year still. Correct me if I'm wrong, but all I know is that GG's season 1 was junior year and then season 2 senior and so on… If it's not… opps. Just pretend that it is for the sake of the story ok? =)
A/N: So! I was going to put a scene where they're actually AT the tomb, but I think I'll leave that for the next chapter since there's going to be some MAJOR revelations in there and this seemed to be a good transition piece that will lead into that. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
-> Chapter Seven