Who: Tyler and Stefan What: Commiserating When: Late January Where: Stefan's place Rating: Low (mentions of vampires and drinking alcohol) Status: Complete
Tyler couldn’t believe that Blossom was gone. That Bubbles was too. It wasn’t that Tyler had spent a lot of time at Stefan’s place after Bubbles had moved in, but even he could tell that the place was different. Emptier. He had regretted it before, but now he was a little glad that Blossom had never moved in. He didn’t know how he’d take having her move out.
Tyler reached for his drink, already poured, from the table, and knocked it back.
There were a lot of drinks. Stefan liked it when the girls weren’t around, because it meant he wasn’t getting the pitying looks, the random hugs, the Are you okay?s. He could just wallow by himself, without the guilt of not pretending he was okay, or the guilt of not being a more entertaining friend.
Stefan poured himself another glass. He was starting to feel it, really feel it. Which was a good thing. “It feels different.” He said, almost as if he’d read Tyler’s thoughts. “Around here. You know?”
“Yeah,” Tyler said. “I feel it too.” He knocked back another drink. “It’s strange to think about the fact that Bubbles isn’t here anymore. That they both just left.”
“Yeah.” Stefan was still feeling sharp pains inside at the sound of her name. At the thought of her face. He wondered if she felt them, too--was she hurting as much as he was? He didn’t like thinking of it, so he gulped again from his glass. The burning was a nice distraction.
“We’ve got a spare room again, then.” Not that they hadn’t before. Bubbles had moved into Stefan’s room, rather than the spare they had in the house.
“We keep drinking like this, and I might need to make use of it tonight,” Tyler said with a bit of a weak smile. It was nice being able to drink with another vampire though. His tolerance was too high to get drunk with humans without them realizing that something was up.
Stefan gave a little snort. Of course, he knew that he and Tyler could both put away quite a bit of liquor before they’d need to use a spare bedroom. He nodded. “Well, you’re welcome to it, should you decide to stay.” It was a good house. Even though Anna was the only human living there now.
“Ha, thanks,” Tyler said. It was entirely possible he might, just because his apartment was a fair ways away from Stefan’s. He pounded back another glass of liquor, finally being able to feel a bit of a buzz. “So, how’ve things been otherwise?”
“So far so good. Lexi went on a date with some guy. The Garage is good, so far. Not that I expect that to change. Joe and I run a tight ship." He lifted the glass to gulp from it. The warmth felt good. The fuzziness. "What about you? Everything else... good... in your life?"
“No kidding,” Tyler said. He didn’t know Lexi very well. They’d gone to the same high school, but she’d been a few years older than him. He knew she dreamed of Mystic Falls, though he’d never met her in the dreams, and he’d see her sometimes when he was at Stefan’s place, but they’d never exactly been friends. Still, “It’s good someone is,” he said, only a little bitter.
He took a large swig of his alcohol. “Things are okay,” he said. “Plus side, Blossom’s not dead, and we didn’t break up because of some psychopath, so there’s that. Caroline and I’ve been spending a bit of time together. Helps take my mind off things.”
“Always a silver lining.” Stefan said with a nod. Tyler and Caroline made a cute couple in his Dreams, so it would make sense for them to get together in this world. Even though he would never wish these Dreams on even his worst enemy, at least he knew that Caroline had support in their community.
“Here’s to silver linings.” Stefan said, holding up his glass to clink against Tyler’s.
“We gotta be good at finding the silver lining with the dreams we’ve got to deal with,” Tyler said, a little bitterly. But he smiled at Stefan’s toast and clinked in glass against Stefan’s. “To silver linings,” he echoed. And hey, having someone to share the misery with was kind of a silver lining in itself.