Who: Jeremy and Tyler What: Tyler pays Jeremy a visit. When: Not long after Tyler got back to town. Where: Jeremy's house Rating/Warnings: Low/none Status: Complete
Tyler had to admit that he was excited to see Jeremy again. A trip away from the Orange County was exactly what he had needed, but he had missed the people he’d left behind. And frankly, the relative isolation of living in the mountains wasn’t Tyler’s prefered way to live.
He knocked on Jeremy’s door, a case of beer tucked under his arm.
When Tyler had left Orange County, Jeremy honestly hadn’t been too surprised, considering he left Mystic Falls so often, it just felt natural. So when he had seen that he’d come back, he also wasn’t surprised. He wasn’t surprised, but he was certainly happy to see that he was back, because had missed having Tyler around to hang out with.
It wasn’t so much the knock at the door that alerted Jeremy to Tyler’s arrival, but Dragon barking in response to the knock at the door. “Go lay down,” Jeremy said to the boxer as he took hold of his collar and turned him towards his bed at the other end of the room before moving to answer the door, “Hey! Come on in.”
“Hey man,” Tyler said, grinning widely at the sight of his friend. He walked into the house, glad that Jeremy had put forth the invitation without being asked. “Long time no see. How’s it going?”
Jeremy hadn’t even thought about the fact that Tyler was still a Hybrid when he invited his friend in. He was simply being courteous, because he didn’t think that Tyler had come over to stand outside the door the entire time. “It’s going pretty good. How about you?” He closed the door once Tyler was inside and gestured towards the couch.
“Not bad,” Tyler said, smiling. “I’m feeling pretty refreshed after taking a break from this place.” The fact that Blossom had welcomed him back with open arms really didn’t hurt matters either. He took a seat on the couch, popped the lid off of two of the beers, and offered one to Jeremy. “So, what kind of crazy shit did I end up missing?”
“Not much really,” Jeremy said, sitting down beside Tyler on the couch and taking the bottle that was offered to him, “Not a lot has happened since you left, but I bet something crazy will happen now that you’re back.” He smirked, knowing that that was probably not what Tyler wanted to hear, but it was true. The crazy stuff that happened in Orange County always tended to do it when you didn’t want it to.
“Oh yeah,” Tyler said. “Guess the peace of getting out of dodge couldn’t last forever. Hopefully it’s low level crazy though, like garden gnomes coming to life and not something like demons attacking.”
“Well now you’re just jinxed us.” Jeremy smirked and took a sip of his beer, “And I’m not sure if a crossbow actually works on garden gnomes.” He hadn’t had much use for his crossbow recently, but he kept it accessible and in good condition just in case he needed it at short notice. Last thing you wanted when there was a crisis was a faulty crossbow.
“Who knows?” Tyler said. “I mean, I guess if they stayed like, clay or whatever, then you could probably shatter them. At the very least you could pin them to the ground. It’s not like they’re very big.” He nearly laughed. “I almost forgot what kind of weird conversations you’d have here. I don’t think we’d even talk about living garden gnome destruction in Mystic Falls.”
“That’s true. Just smash them and hope they aren’t going to reform,” Jeremy laughed and nodded, “Right? Could you imagine if we had to deal with lawn gnomes in Mystic Falls? Damon would probably think that he knew the best way to deal with them and it’d backfire. Then we’d probably have to find some obscure spell to stop them and Bonnie’s magic wouldn’t be reliable, but in the end it would work.” It sounded extremely bizarre, but at the same time it was completely plausible for Mystic Falls.
“Yeah, I don’t know why everyone listens to Damon as much as they do,” Tyler said, not even trying to keep the bitterness from his voice. “Stefan would, of course, try to explain away Damon’s terrible idea. But yeah, Bonnie would totally save all our asses. Sometimes I wish she was in on all this too.” Except not too much. He didn’t think he’d wish the dreams on his worst enemy.
Another reason Jeremy was glad that Tyler was back was because he had someone else who disliked Damon as much as he did. “At least nine times out of ten Damon just made things worse.” He could sort of understand why Stefan would try to defend Damon sometimes, but at the same time, Damon really didn’t deserve anyone defending him, “If Bonnie was here her magic would probably be tapped out most of the time.” Considering how often crazy shit happened in Orange County.
There really wasn’t anyone in the dreams who Tyler disliked more than Damon, except for maybe Klaus. Then again, Klaus had never actually killed Tyler. Except for the time that he turned Tyler into a hybrid. And he did kill Tyler’s mother and his entire pack. “I’d give him a solid ten times out of ten,” Tyler muttered. He shook his head. “Though I’d rather not talk about that guy. What’s new with you? How’s Myrcella doing?”
Jeremy could definitely understand that. Damon was the last person he wanted to talk about also. “Not much is new really. Myrcella’s good. She’s got her salon now, so that’s where she is now,” Jeremy gestured towards the front of the house where the garage was that Myrcella had had turned into a salon so that she could work from home, “I think she has a client at the moment, but you’ll probably see her before you leave.”
“Really?” Tyler asked. “That’s great. Maybe I’ll let her give me a haircut one of these days.” Of course, she probably would want to get paid and right now Tyler was content with compelling the things he needed. Now that he was back he knew that at some point he should get a job, but though he’d managed to finish his classes and graduate before he left, he still hadn’t made up his mind about what to do. “And you? You been keeping busy?”
“I’m sure she’d be happy to do that. She does mine every now and then.” Jeremy liked his hair on the slightly shaggier side, but Myrcella would neaten it up from time to time, “Yeah. I got a job on a construction site for the summer, but I’ll have to find something else once classes start. Something that fits into my schedule better.” He was also going to have to finally figure out a major this year, because he didn’t want to graduate without having studied something specific.
“I’m glad I’m finally done with all that,” Tyler said. “Though I will miss football. I don’t think I could get away with going pro.” Someone was bound to figure out that he wasn’t entirely human in the NFL. “But construction, huh? Good work?”
“Yeah, someone would probably get hurt then. And it likely wouldn’t be you,” Jeremy smirked and took a sip of his beer, “Yeah, it’s been pretty good. I’ve mostly been lugging things back and forth, considering it’s not exactly difficult for me. Not that they know that I have slightly superhuman strength.” Being a Hunter definitely had its perks.
“Yeah, sounds like it would be a breeze.” Tyler should probably get a job at some point, but he was kind of enjoying the free time. He could compel almost everything he needed, though he had the sneaking suspicion that if Blossom knew she wouldn’t approve. Besides, he got his Bachelor of Exercise Sciences. He might as well put it to use at some point.
“Wanna go out to the beach? It’s been months since I’ve been on one, and I’m sure you have some OC drama to fill me in on.”
Jeremy laughed and finished off his beer before getting to his feet, “Yeah, there’s probably a little more than some.” He glanced over at Dragon who was still lying down on the other side of the room, “Come on. We’re going outside.” He then turned back to Tyler and gestured towards the patio door as Dragon got to his feet and ran ahead into the kitchen, “You’ll probably want to take the drinks with you.”