Whatever It Takes {Two | Alaric Saltzman}

Bird on a Wire

As Abigail pulled the last of the chocolate muffins she made out of the oven, she noticed something about Alaric that she never had before. Something new. Something that made her stop in her tracks.

"Oh, my God, Ric."

"What? Did you burn them?" He turned away from the dining table to face her in the kitchen. "If you did, I think we have enough. Or we could just stop at that place-"

"No..." Her smile was not the one she thought it was. "You have a gray hair. A few, actually."

Rounding the breakfast bar, he asked, "Are you calling me old?"

"I mean, you're almost-"

He threw his head back as he trapped her between his body and the counter. "Don't say it."

"Forty." She interlocked her fingers behind his head, bringing his eyes to hers. "You're almost forty."

"Five years. Ish." He was already so close to her face, and moving closer with every word, so she was not surprised when he kissed her. "I mean, doesn't dying and coming back to life, at the very least, stunt my age?"

When her hands dropped to his chest on their own accord, she let them rest there. The color of his three-quarter zip pullover was the same as her daylight ring, the gold band the only thing distinguishing the difference between them. Everything else disappeared, the sound of his voice, the coffee maker, even the birds outside of the open window.

It all came rushing at her, louder than before. Like she'd been engrossed completely by her own silence for so long that the world had forgotten about her. There was no opening to speak, but a sharp breath in gave her one. "I want a human life with you; I just can't give it to you. So, Alaric, if you-"

"Bea, no." His hand wrapped around her wrist as she took a step away from him, stopping her from getting very far. "We don't need to talk about that again."

"I think we do, and I don't think that choice can be just mine."

"Well, it is."

"Why? Because you're afraid life with you will never be enough for me?"

"And you're afraid that I'm going to decide that before you have the chance to, but I'm more in love with you than I ever have been. I want to eat dinner on the couch when we have a table. I want to dance under candlelight in our home and at the biggest parties of the year. I want to leave those parties early to watch the same movies we've seen one hundred times. I want to read books together, wherever we are, until one of us can't help but reach out for the other. I want to take a thousand more road trips where we stop in every little town and pull over to watch the sunset. I want a life with you. I want to marry you, Abigail." That look of hurt, the one that she'd caused before, shouldn't have followed his words, and it shouldn't have preceded what he said next, but it did. "So, it's your choice. It will always be your choice."

Jo was on her feet the moment Abigail and Alaric stepped into the boarding house. "Oh, thank God. Breakfast. Please tell me that you brought mimosas."

Liv came down the stairs. "Careful with your answer, she might light you on fire."

"Okay." Alaric walked straight to the bar cart. "I am not watching this sober."

"What exactly are we watching?" Stefan asked as he came into the room.

"Today, we make s'mores. In a month, I win the Merge and become leader of my coven, guaranteeing its survival," Jo explained. "Liv has me on a thirty day regimen between now and the next celestial event."

"And this regimen has to happen in my living room, why?"

Abigail let out half a laugh. "Damon feels guilty."