InsaneJournal

Who: Jeremy Gilbert and Tyler Lockwood
When: Backdated: Mid October
Where: A Marsh
What: Looking for vervain
Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly.
Status: Complete

Jeremy’s feet were wet and squishy in his boots as he and Tyler trudged through a marsh, looking for more vervain. This had seemed like an easy enough task when Tyler had first suggested it a few months earlier, but now it felt like looking for a needle in a haystack. It wasn’t that they hadn’t found any, but it didn’t exactly grow in abundance so they had to keep searching.

“You’re lucky we’re friends otherwise you would have had to rope some other idiot into doing this,” Considering he was a hybrid, Tyler couldn’t actually handle the vervain, hence his need for Jeremy to assist him. And it wasn’t that Jeremy minded or anything, because having an extra stash of vervain was a really good idea, it was simply that it was an exhausting task.

Tyler had honestly expected this to be easier. He didn’t expect to see a sign that said “Vervain This Way,” but still. He’d been expecting fields of the stuff. Or, well, marshes full of it. He’d worn a pair of shorts so that if he missed seeing it, at least he wouldn’t miss feeling it. But even with that his legs were still completely burn free.

“Yeah, yeah, I owe you one,” Tyler conceded. “Though, I told you we should have brought the beer with us.” This would probably suck a whole lot less if the could pound back a few beers. Sure, it would have been a pain to carry them around, but both he and Jeremy had the strength to carry a case of the stuff on their backs without noticing.

“I don’t think getting drunk out here would have made this any better.” It likely would have made things harder, because they likely would have been too inebriated to concentrate on what they were doing and chances were they probably would have wound up in the marsh once or twice, “Are you sure it’s actually out here? I thought we would have seen something by now.” Jeremy glanced around as they continued walking through the marsh.

Tyler shrugged. To him, there weren’t many situations which couldn’t immediately be made better with a stiff drink, but then, he didn’t get drunk the same way that he did before he became a hybrid. “That’s what Wikipedia said at least,” Tyler said. He was hardly a botanist. Maybe he should have asked Blossom, but he had wanted the whole gift to be a surprise. “Though I guess Wiki’s not the most reliable source.” He didn’t graduate from college without having that drilled into his head. “Want to give it another half hour and then call it a day? We could hang out on that beach of yours so the day won’t be a complete waste.”

Jeremy turned and quirked a brow at Tyler, “You do know that anyone can edit Wikipedia articles, right? Anyone could have written that.” It wasn’t that Jeremy didn’t believe that it was true, but he was getting a little tired of traipsing around in wet shoes. “But yeah, we’ll go another half hour.” If this did all turn out to be a bust, Jeremy could just sic Dragon on him when they got back to his place. Dragon was unlikely to actually hurt Tyler, but he would probably slobber all over him a bit.

“Who would bother?” Tyler asked. Because really, who would bother. It wasn’t like a lot of people knew that vervain could be a vampire repellant. As far as most of the world knew, it was just another plant. “Maybe it’s just not in sea- ouch.” He stepped quickly away from whatever he’d just walked into, and looked down at his bare legs just in time to see the last of the burn disappear as though it had never been there. “Hey man, I think I found some.”

Jeremy shrugged, “I mean, there are people who believe this kind of stuff even though they have no idea that it really exists. People are strange,” He slapped at a gnat that landed on his arm as they continued walking. As Tyler reacted, Jeremy followed his gaze and sure enough there was a small batch of vervain, “Alright, so maybe in this case Wikipedia was right.” Moving, Jeremy crouched down to begin collecting the vervain.

“See, I told you I knew what I was talking about,” Tyler said proudly, glad that he hadn’t had to admit that he might have been wrong. He watched Jeremy gather up the plant. He couldn’t help without burning himself, and so he was content to watch. “You know anything about growing it? With Klaus around, it might not be such a bad idea to have some close at hand.”

Jeremy shook his head as he gathered the vervain and put it in the bag he’d brought along to carry it, “No. Vervain usually fell into the category of stuff Ric took care of.” Alaric was one of the people from his dreams that Jeremy really wished was around. Sure, he knew that the real world version of Ric might be a little different than the dream version, but considering the way the dreams affected people, he’d likely eventually be a little like him. “Stefan or Damon might know something about growing it, but I’d rather not have to talk to Damon.”

The corner’s of Tyler’s lips tugged upwards. “Yeah, I know how you feel,” he said. “Though, lately Damon and I’ve actually been getting along.” It was a little weird, especially with how much Tyler had hated Damon after his last few dreams. He didn’t think that he would have ever willingly spent time with the guy who had bashed his head in and then killed him in the dreams. But if Tyler was trying to be better than he was in the dreams, there was no reason why Damon couldn’t also be trying.

Things with Jeremy and Damon were a little different than Tyler’s situation with Damon so it made sense that Tyler might be able to put their differences behind them, but Jeremy simply couldn’t do it. “We’ll figure something out. I mean, now that we know where it grows, we can at least stock up and we can always use trial and error to try and grow more.” He finished gathering the vervain in the area and closed his bag, “How about we have a drink to celebrate finally finding some?”

“Yeah, any time we need some more we can just have me walk around here in shorts,” Tyler joked. Though, it was probably the easiest method until they figured out how to grow some of their own. Klaus had so far turned out to be a pretty cool guy and he didn’t really expect trouble from him, but it would still be nice to have some around. Especially since Klaus wasn’t the only Mikaelson hanging around the county.