Merciful - TVD [2]

35

FLASHBACK
SEVERAL MONTHS PRIOR

Mallory and Tyler stood next to each other, paintbrushes in their hands. They were in the Mystic Falls High art room after hours. It had been Mallory's idea to sneak in and Tyler was more than willing to agree to the idea. He was always down to join her in her mischief, which occurred quite a lot.

Tyler peeked over at Mallory, who had her easel positioned in a way he could not see what she was painting. He tried to look, only to have her block his way of seeing it. "It can't be that bad, Mal. Why can't I see it?" He asked her, an amused smile on her face.

"Bad?" Mallory questioned, letting out a scoff, "I was taught how to paint by the greatest artists that have lived in the past eight hundred years. My paintings could never be bad."

Tyler laughed, finding amusement in how confident she was. "Yeah, like who?" He questioned, clearly not believing her, "Da Vinci?"

"Yes, in fact," She admitted, causing Tyler's eyes to widen in shock, "And Van Gogh. Among others."

Tyler smiled, always joining the stories of her past, most of it taking part in what they would learn in world history. In fact, Mallory was the reason Tyler was even passing that class.

Tyler remained still for a long moment, watching how every few seconds, Mallory would steal a glance at him. At that moment, he realized she was painting him. When she was distracted, Tyler used his werewolf speed to rush over. Not expecting it, Mallory was unable to stop Tyler as he found him in front of the painting.

His eyes widened, astonished by how detailed the painting was. It was of him, too.

"You weren't lying when you said you were a great painter," He admitted in a soft tone, only to turn his head when he saw the disappointed look on Mallory's face, "What's wrong?"

"It isn't right," Mallory complained, shaking her head in disapproval, "The strokes...They're not right. I rushed it."

"Mallory, it's amazing," Tyler corrected Mallory, grabbing her by the hands and holding them in his own, "There's no need to feel so down about yourself. I wish I could be as good of a painter as you."

Mallory simply nodded, but it was clear she was still a bit disappointed for some odd reason. Tyler couldn't understand why it meant so much to her.

What he didn't realize was that before she met Damon and Stefan and everyone else she cared about, painting and drawing were the only things that was able to keep her humanity intact after all these centuries, the only thing that kept that human part of her around.

Tyler smiled slightly, figuring out an idea to put Mallory back into a happy mood. He let go of her hands, turning away from her before walking over to his own paint sets. He dipped one of his brushes into the blue paint. After doing so, he whipped himself around in such a way that it caused the paint to splash onto Mallory.

She gasped, looking down to see a line of blue paint going across her white shirt. She looked up at Tyler, who smirked at her daringly. She looked annoyed for a moment, just before she picked up her own paint brush. She dipped it in red before splashing it at Tyler.

Tyler laughed and soon enough, they weren't just splashing each other with paint brushes, they were tossing the entire contents of the paint cans.

The room soon became covered in the paint, as did Mallory and Tyler. They stood in front of each other, laughing when they saw the way they looked.