InsaneJournal

Who: Alaric and Jenna. And a surprise guest.
What: Ric and Jenna are adorable. And then Ric canon updates. Oh snap.
Where: Their bedroom.
When: The night before. And the morning after. So Thursday night and Friday morning.
Rating/Warnings: R for suggestiveness. Spoilers for ‘Know Thy Enemy’.
Status: Complete.

All in all it had been a good day. Katherine hadn’t caused any problems yet and the drama from the children, Damon included, had been minimal. Ric had managed to take Jenna out on a proper date without the sky falling or everyone turning into birds or whatever crisis the city decided to throw their way next, and in his mind that was a definite win. Okay, maybe that was an improbable example, but it wasn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility, all things considered. And, okay, maybe he and Jenna had both had a couple drinks while they were out, but they were adults. And the high school was giving the students the day off the next day, which in retrospect probably meant an apocalypse was brewing. Or something. In the morning, he would probably be glad for the excuse to stay in and sleep, but that was for later.

At the moment, he was just glad they’d gone to the effort of better soundproofing the apartment. Living with Damon could be awkward, what with the vampire’s enhanced hearing. And on nights like this, he didn’t particularly want Damon listening in. There were some things your friends just shouldn’t know. Standing next to the bed, he pulled his shirt off and tossed it toward the chair in the corner. He’d have to go do the laundry tomorrow. "We should have more days like this," he said, looking over his shoulder at Jenna. "You know...less of the disasters and drama and more nice dates with the pretty girlfriend. What do you think?"

“I am all for the less disaster/more dates plan,” Jenna said with a grin, reaching around her side to unzip her new dress. Normally she wouldn’t have splurged on a dress for a date, but it seemed like the right sort of occasion. It wasn’t every night that she and Ric had an actual nice date, and they hadn’t really done many coupley things at all in Colligo, given the whole forced-marriage-then-sudden-vampirism thing, so this definitely fell into what she would call a special occasion.

She kicked off her new, and adorable, peep-toe fuck-me pumps, and approached him, grinning from ear to ear. "You clean up real good, Saltzman," she said, hooking her fingers in the belt loops of his pants to pull him closer. "You should do it more often. You’ve got the whole ‘naughty teacher’ look going on."

"Good," Ric said with a small smile, watching as she unzipped her dress. What? He was a man, and she was a very attractive woman. He couldn’t help staring a little now and then. There were still days when he had a hard time believing she was with him, especially considering the mess that had been his marriage to Isobel. When your wife leaves you to become a vampire, you tend to lose some confidence when it comes to that sort of thing. But his relationship with Jenna was different, and he was grateful to have her in his life.

Especially when she said things like that. "I do my best," he said with a sort of ‘aw shucks’ smile. He rested his hands on her hips and tugged her closer, lowering his mouth to her neck. "You should have kept those shoes on," he teased, placing light kisses up along her neck. "They look really good on you."

Jenna laughed. She couldn’t help it, really, because drinks always seemed to go to her head and make her giggly. But she laughed and ran her lips across the shell of Ric’s ear, whispering in as sultry a manner as her current partially-inebriated state would allow her. "Play your cards right and I’ll wear them and a smile to bed - and nothing else."

She threaded her fingers through the hair at the back of Alaric’s head, pulling just hard enough to tell him she wanted to look into his face. "You look really good most of the time. It sucks. You’re not supposed to be prettier than me but you totally are."

Well, that was definitely an image Ric wouldn’t complain about. "Which cards are those?" he asked, pushing her dress from her shoulders and letting it fall to the floor. "The ones that say I have a beautiful-" he paused to nip at her neck, "sexy-" his mouth moved up along her jaw "amazing and intelligent girlfriend who never fails to turn me on?" Leaning forward, he pressed his mouth to hers in a quick kiss. "Are those the cards you’re talking about? Because I have no problem playing those."

He laughed as she said he was prettier than her, shaking his head. "No way," he said with a smile. "You’re gorgeous, Jenna. And I’m just the lucky bastard you come home to every night. Besides...I’m not pretty. I’m...ruggedly handsome. Or something. Humor me here."

Jenna grinned, her nose wrinkling with every kiss, blush deepening at every compliment. "Okay," she said, agreeing with him. "Ruggedly handsome. Not at all dripping with boyish charm and enough sincerity to make a girl melt and fall head over heels all at the same time."

She nipped at Ric’s lips when he came in for a kiss, dancing away (and out of the puddle that was her dress) after the briefest of contacts. She slipped back on her heels, grinning at him over her shoulder. "Nope. Not at all pretty."

"I guess I could settle for boyish charm and sincerity," Ric said, feigning a put-upon sigh. Then he smiled. It gave him a sort of warm feeling in his chest when Jenna said things like that. "Especially if it means that you’ll melt and fall head over heels for me. And at the same time too!"

He couldn’t exactly complain as she moved away from him, considering the view it gave him. As she slipped into the shoes, he dropped his hands to the waist of his pants and undid them, letting them fall to the floor. Stepping up behind her, he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. "I love you," he said, abandoning the joking and dropping a kiss to her shoulder. "I love you...so much."

Jenna closed her eyes and leaned back into Ric’s embrace, just enjoying the feel of his arms around her, holding her, giving her the security and warmth she craved. And no matter how many times they were in just this position, or how many times those three little words were breathed back and forth between them in the dead of the night, when the only thing separating their bare skin was a thin sheen of sweat, hearing Ric, arguably the most amazing man she’d ever met, say those words to her, Jenna’s heart jumped.

"I love you too," she whispered, relaxing in his arms. "More than I can say. More than I could ever hope to adequately express." Jenna turned her head and nuzzled his cheek, enjoying the faint scrape of stubble across her lips.

As silly and flirty as they could be, these were the moments Ric enjoyed most. Just being close to Jenna, knowing she loved him, was enough. Smiling against her shoulder, he considered the fact that this beautiful, amazing woman loved him. He’d thought he had found ‘the one’ with Isobel, and it had broken him to lose her. But being with Jenna had showed him that what he’d had with Is had been nothing compared to this. He’d loved her, there was no denying that, but he’d never been able to give himself completely to her, because she’d never been completely his. She’d always wanted something else and he’d known it in the back of his mind. He never felt that way with Jenna.

"How did I get so lucky?" he asked her, only partly joking. He’d been very gunshy when it came to relationships after his failed marriage, and he had never expected to find something like this. But he had and he was eternally grateful. "Let’s go to bed," he said, turning her around to kiss her, then gave her a teasing wink. "You can leave the shoes on."

"Mmm," Jenna said, her nose wrinkling up in pleasure. "Shoes and a smile. I believe that’s exactly what I promised you."

She backed away, peeling off the rest of her clothes as she went, grinning from ear to ear. A mischievous light shone in her eyes as she spoke. "That is...if you can catch me."

"Catch you, huh?" Ric said, laughing as he stepped out of the last of his own clothes. "I think I can manage that."

-----

He was, understandably, confused when he woke up. Maddox was nowhere to be seen and it didn’t look as though the ritual had taken place. But he was, undoubtedly, in the teacher’s body. So there was that. He was just in the teacher’s body, naked, in a very disheveled mess of a bed with a very pretty young woman.

"What the..." he muttered under his breath. But he could adapt. He was very good at that. The woman, he assumed, was Elena’s sweet aunt Jenna. Yes, she would certainly be helpful. Reaching over, he carefully removed the necklace from her neck and set it aside before gently pushing at her shoulder. "Jenna," he said, trying his best to sound like an earnest small town history teacher. "Wake up."

Jenna grumbled a little and turned, snuggling closer to Ric, her feet inching closer to his like little frozen heat-seeking missiles. "...Coffee..." was eventually heard in the midst of her muffled mumbling, eyes still resolutely closed. She was warm and happy and sleepy and, just a few hours before, she’d been extremely satisfied winkwinknudgenudgeifyouknowwhatimean. She yawned widely and stretched a bit, keeping her skin as near to his as she could. "Bribe Damon," emerged from the middle of it, and when she was done Jenna didn’t offer much context for the phrase.

Well, if this was part of playing the boring history teacher, he was hardly going to complain. She was pretty enough, and pushing her away would only cause suspicion. And, with these strange new circumstances, suspicion was something he could not yet afford. "Bribe Damon?" he asked with a raised eyebrow and a laugh, but inside he was intrigued. So the elder Salvatore was here as well? Perhaps the history teacher wasn’t as boring as he thought. "I’ll get right on that. But first..." He leaned forward and kissed her deeply. "I need you to do something for me. Look at me, Jenna. Come on."

"Only if there’s coffee and morning sex in it for me," Jenna teased, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She grinned, peeling first one, then the other, open to peer up at Ric. "Morning, baby," she said, slipping her arms around him. Her fingernails traced light patterns across his hip and the small of his back, the skin turning pink with the pressure before fading back to white a few seconds later. Not that they could see that happen. "Love you. Sleep well?"

"Fair enough," he said with a nod. "Morning." He ran a possessive hand up and down her back as he spoke, looking down at her. She could be interesting to keep around. She was certainly pretty enough. Like a very nice piece of art that was, judging by the vague ache in his muscles, fairly decent in bed. "I love you too," he told her, though the words were hollow on his tongue. "And I slept fantastically," Moving his hand, he cupped her cheek, tilting her head back slightly to look in her eyes. "Now...I need you to do something for me, Jenna," he said, his voice changing and adopting his own accent. His eyes caught hers, staring deeply. "I want you to tell me all about this place, your lovely niece, the Salvatore brothers and Katherine Pierce." He smiled coldly. "And when we’re alone like this? You can just call me Klaus."

Jenna, not knowing the danger she was in, gazed trustingly into her boyfriend’s eyes. Her pupils flexed and she pressed her body closer to his, wanting his warmth to banish the chill that seemed to be creeping up her spine. "Yes, Klaus."