𝐒𝐀𝐅𝐄𝐓𝐘 𝐍𝐄𝐓, ᵗʰᵉ ᵛᵃᵐᵖⁱʳᵉ ᵈⁱᵃʳⁱᵉˢ

-𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘯𝘦𝘥

𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

morning had started another day in mystic falls and at the salvatore house, phoebe woke up in the arms of her boyfriend where she honestly felt the most safe recently.

she moved slightly to let him know and in response stefan kissed the back of her head.

"mmm, good morning" the teen smiled sheepishly.

"i could get used to this".

"rise and shine, sleepyheads" the voice of a certain raven-haired vampire startled the couple making them turn to see him sitting on the bed,"what are you doing?" "damon! please!"

phoebe covered her herself with the sheet as damon rolled his eyes, nonchalantly,"oh, stop being smutty".

"seriously, get out of here!" stefan told his brother, helping cover up his girlfriend's body parts.

damon rolled his eyes once again,"if i see something i haven't seen before, i'll throw a dollar at it. now listen, we have some very important business to discuss".

"and it has to be right now?" phoebe asked, gesturing with her eyes to the current predicament.

"well, we have lots to do, and now that we're all friends and working toward a common goal" phoebe and stefan shared a knowing glance at that when damon stood from the bed,"so, in order to open the tomb, we need to find the journal to get the grimoire to open the tomb. first things first, since you are friends with elena and she is indeed a gilbert, you two are on journal duty".

phoebe scoffed, in disbelief,"since when am i helping?"

"well, stefan's helping, and you've taken up residence in stefan's bed, ergo..."

stefan turned to the girl,"you don't have to do anything you don't want to do".

phoebe nodded, nonchalantly, laying back down, "i'll look for it tonight".

"good".

"how do we know that this journal will hold the location of the grimoire?" stefan questioned, leaning up against the headboard, looking up at his brother, "we're really going to take the word of this vampire? he seems like a bit of a dimwit".

"in lieu of any other options" damon shrugged.

"okay, what exactly is a grimoire, anyway?" phoebe engaged in the conversation, turning back to the brothers, getting really fed up with them ruining her beauty sleep.

"it's a witch's cookbook" damon stated, simply.

"every spell that a witch casts is unique unto itself, so every witch would document their work" stefan explained it a little better for the teen.

"yeah. cookbook".

"what about our mystery vampire? dimwit obviously wasn't working alone, so whoever's out there knows who we are".

"and i don't like that disadvantage, so..." damon clapped his hands, rather loudly,"chop, chop" he then began walking toward the door before turning back,"you know, i really like this ménage-threesome team thing. it's got a bit of kink to it. don't screw it up" he then finally left the room.

the couple turned to each other, giving each other looks before phoebe started,"he does have—"

stefan made the girl stop by putting his finger to his lips and then he pointed out the door and then to his ear.

phoebe got the memo and nodded,"oh, right, yeah".

"okay" the younger salvatore planted a kiss on phoebe's hand before moving to leave the bed, but she had other plans.

"oh! no, come here" the girl placed her hands on each side of his neck and planted an affectionate kiss on his lips.

"mmm. we shouldn't—" phoebe cut stefan off with a 'shh' and did the same gesture he did earlier making him chuckle before she kissed him again, with stefan bringing the sheet back over them.

~~~~~~~~~~

at the gilbert house, phoebe and elena sat at a table in the kitchen looking for the journal when elena decides to make conversation,"do you think damon really believes you and stefan? that you're both trying to help him?"

phoebe shrugged, with a sigh,"i don't think damon knows what to believe. trust isn't something that looks like it comes naturally to him".

"you know, i really think that damon believes that everything he's done, every move that he's made, he's done for love. it's twisted, but kind of sad" elena said, showing her empathy for the older salvatore.

phoebe's eyebrows furrowed at this, making her stop what she was doing and look up at her best friend,"there are other ways to get what you want. you don't have to kill people. and stefan thinks he has no regard for human life, elena. i don't know what to believe. he acts like he enjoys inflicting pain on others. stefan doesn't want to make the same mistakes again, i guess".

"so what do you think will happen if the tomb gets opened and damon gets katherine back?" elena questioned.

"i think that whatever damon promises, a lot of people won't have to die" phoebe answered, truthfully.

elena exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding and went back to looking for the journal as well as phoebe after a minute.

~~~~~~~~~~

an hour passes and the two teens didn't find anything until elena found a picture of jonathan gilbert as it said at the bottom of it.

phoebe noticed elena's confused look and stood from her seat at the table to stand behind the girl, looking over her shoulder at the picture.

"it's jonathan gilbert" phoebe stated looking at the man.

elena set the frame down, pulling a wooden antique box out of a bigger cardboard box on a chair in front of her.

confusion washed over both girls.

"what's this?" elena questioned with phoebe thinking the same thing.

the gilbert girl opened the box and found some weird contraption neither one of them ever seen before.

"what are you guys doing?"

phoebe and elena heard jeremy's voice before he came into their view making elena discretely shut the box.

"hey. just going through some stuff. feeling sentimental. dad had this whole family journal form years ago. i thought i'd dig it up" elena said, nonchalantly.

a small smirk made its way to phoebe's lips at the clever idea as jeremy moved to sit on the counter, "jonathan gilbert's journal?"

"yeah, what do you know about it?" phoebe asked the younger gilbert.

"i just did a history report on it" he answered.

"oh. so where is it now?" elena asked her brother.

"i gave it to mr. saltzman. he wanted to see it".

after hearing this, elena and phoebe share a glance, already getting the same idea.

stefan.