Arabella Gilbert ♡ TVD

Pictures Of You

Damon and Stefan were stood in the boarding house, the sun shining through the window as they played catch with a football across their living room.

"So, how longs it been?" Damon questioned as he caught the ball, using one arm to throw it back to his brother. "Eight, nine days?"

Stefan nodded as he rolled it around in his hands. "Yeah, eight or nine days. I don't know. I lost count."

Damon smiled as he held his hands up ready for Stefan to throw it back. "If we lost count of the consecutive days on which Arabella Salvatore has not killed anyone, I'd say that's progress, brother."

"So what are we gonna do, just, ah, throw the football around for another one hundred and fifty years until Elle gets her humanity back? Because I'm cool with that." Stefan said.

"She doesn't want the cure." Damon reiterated for the hundreth time. "Like I said, I'm not forcing it. And If she knows you're trying, she's gonna start killing." Damon caught the ball and paused, picking up his glass of brothers bond bourbon and taking a generous swig. "Unless we pull a Lexi and bombard her with emotions, hoping that one of them sticks, we're just gonna need to leave her to do what she wants. I have every faith, she'll come back to us soon."

"Well, if that doesn't work, then we go to plan B : Lock her up, keep her sidelined until we figure out a plan C."

Damon rolled his eyes. "And what happens when she gets slammed with every emotion she's repressed since Jeremy died?" He threw the ball back, a little too rough. "Do you remember what she was like when she realised Jeremy was actually gone?"

Stefan gripped the ball to his chest. Of course he remembered how she was because it broke his heart. "We'll be there for her, we'll guide her through it. Help her."

"But, I thought when this was all over, you were gonna cut her out of your life." Damon said and Stefan smiled, unconvincingly before looking down at the ground. "All right, how we doing this?"

********

Arabella and Rebekah were walking down the streets in Mystic Falls, Arabella dressed to the nines as she bought something from every shop.

On Damon's credit card of course.

"You're gonna fail, you know." Arabella told Rebekah. The blonde had made a deal with her brothers that if she managed to act like a human for one whole day - no vampire abilities - they would allow her to take the cure. "You should be locking yourself inside all day, not shopping for prom."

"Name me a more human experience than Senior prom?" Rebekah asked.

"Death."

Rebekah groaned, glaring at the Petrova Hybrid. "Why should I even listen to you? You don't even have your humanity."

Arabella laughed. "You do realise you won't even be able to compel yourself a date, right?"

"Yes, and last time I checked you're living in my house because I'm the only one that can tolerate you, so how about you stop been so rude!"

"Fine, I want to come with you." Arabella looked thrilled with herself. "Yeah, I'll keep an eye on you to make sure that you pass Elijah's test. As soon as you've gotten the cure, it'll be gone for good and I won't have to worry that the boys are gonna try and cram it down my throat."

The Petrova Hybrid continued walking and Rebekah trailed after her. Arabella abruptly stopped when she was approaching a dress shop, after overhearing a conversation between her two bestfriends. With a wicked smirk, she pushed open the door to the dress shop, the chime jingling as they entered.