Kismet | Damon Salvatore

Chapter 13

The following morning was strange.

Damon had slept for once, though it wasn't continuous. Every time Maribel wiggled into a new position, he cracked open one eye to make sure all was well.

She'd spent most of the night facing away from him, but had turned back around eventually, both hands tucked under her head as she furrowed her eyebrows. He spent several minutes watching her before he realized he needed to snap out of his daze and go back to sleep.

"What are you doing?" he asked when he found her digging in the backyard after breakfast.

"Planting the seeds I got," she said, trying to make the holes as evenly spaced as she could. "There are no worms here. No birds, from what I can tell. But everything else is the same. I don't know if plants will be able to grow considering the day repeats but it's worth a shot. A little experiment."

He noticed the pile of books laying off to the side. "Experiment?"

"I've looked up how to properly grow every single seed I brought. Some flowers, some vegetables. I've also figured out how long it should take me to see results. This will let me know if this world is capable of sustaining plant life outside of what existed on May 10, 1994. My theory is that it will, since it is able to preserve all the other plants that were present to a great deal of accuracy. Animal life is different. Organisms with more consciousness can't exist unless they're put here. As far as I can tell, of the three Domains— bacteria, archaea, eukaryota— the eukaryotic kingdom plantae is the only one that can exist, while kingdom animalia is selective to circumstance. Domain archaea, I don't know if it needs to, those are extremophiles and I don't think anyone in their right mind would enter this world and go to the most extreme environments... even if they are preserved properly. Domain bacteria probably exists fully. We have healthy bacteria in us, and we wouldn't be feeling all too well if they were gone, and then kingdom fungi probably exists, too..." she trailed off. "Nevermind, I'm sorry, I'm probably boring the hell out of you."

He'd just been daring to wonder why he was so interested in what she was saying when he'd never previously given a single shit about the domains and kingdoms of life. "Well," he said, not wanting to say she bored him (because she didn't) and also not wanting to say she didn't bore him (because he wasn't sure what she'd think if he did), "what about the weather? Is this good weather for these things you're planting?"

It was a stupid question and he knew it, but she didn't seem to think so. "Actually, though I might say yes off the top of my head, I haven't actually measured the relative humidity," she mused. "I probably could set up a few experiments to measure the conditions, see if they have the same patterns each repetition in terms of when the wind surges, when the most humid part of the day happens... that's another investigation to add to the already long list."

Damon visibly flinched, not because of what she said, but because seeing the giddy look on her face as she pulled out a notepad to add it to the list of experiments made him think of the word 'cute.'

Don't think that. She's just a friend. You don't like her that way and you shouldn't.

He sat in the living room watching Bonnie practice spells once she went to burrow away in her lab until fight club. Bonnie didn't seem to mind the company, but she was definitely suspicious about why he was being so quiet.

He found himself thinking it would be more fun if Maribel was there.

"So," said Bonnie, catching onto the fact that something was wrong with him. "Why aren't you complaining about my progress?"

He made a face. "Do you want me to?"

"No but that seems to be your default mode. What's got you so pensive?"