Check out the new fic-The Boys:God of thunder
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Leo reached the school without books, without a backpack, without anything that marked him as a student. He was not in the mood for classes. He had only come for Elena, and to see if Stefan would be foolish enough to show his face after what happened last night. If Stefan did come to school, Leo would give him a more suitable warning. A final warning. One that made absolutely clear what the consequences would be if he or Lexi ever came near Elena again.
He walked forward into the hallway. The crowd of students was thick, moving in waves toward their classrooms. The bell rang, shrill and insistent, signaling that school was about to start. Students hurried, their footsteps loud against the floor. Leo moved with them, not rushing, letting the flow carry him forward.
He was already a little late. Caroline's unexpected visit had delayed him. Then the time at the Gilbert house, with Elena's sweet aunt, had delayed him further. Thinking of Aunt Jenna now, a small smile appeared on his face. She was nice. Genuinely nice. Elena was lucky to have someone like her.
Someone pushed past him. A shoulder slammed into his, hard enough to move a normal person. Leo did not move. He barely felt it.
The person who had pushed him turned quickly, already speaking. "Sorry, boy!" The words were rushed, insincere, the kind of apology you give when you do not have time for a real one. The man did not wait for a reply. He kept walking, disappearing into the crowd.
Leo froze.
He knew that face, even in the quick glance he had caught. Sandy brown hair. A certain way of moving. The vibe of a professor, even in casual clothes.
Alaric Saltzman.
Leo's eyes, no longer limited by human perception, tracked the man until he vanished around a corner. Alaric was here. In Mystic Falls. At the high school. Which meant the plot was moving forward, the pieces falling into place exactly as he remembered from the show.
Alaric had come to town to find his missing wife, Isobel. Isobel, who had been turned into a vampire. Isobel, who was also Elena's biological mother, though Elena did not know it yet. Alaric did not know that either. He was just a man searching for answers, carrying grief and a stake and a mission.
Leo composed himself quickly. Alaric was not a threat to him. Alaric was human, mostly, and his enemy was vampires, not whatever Leo was. There was no reason to be concerned.
His eyes scanned the hallway again, looking for Elena. They found her easily. She was coming out of the girls' bathroom, her dark hair swinging, her face calm. She walked toward the classroom, blending in with the other students, looking like any ordinary high school girl.
"Elena."
His voice cut through the chaos. It was not loud, but it carried. She heard it immediately. She turned, her dark hair swinging with the movement, and when her eyes found his, something shifted in her expression. Surprise. Relief. And something warmer, something that made Leo's chest tighten in a way he was still getting used to.
She walked toward him instead of going to class. The other students flowed around them like water around stones, parting and rejoining, ignoring the two people standing still in the current.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. She stopped inches from him. Her voice was soft, meant only for him, private in the middle of the public hallway. "I thought you weren't coming to school today."
Leo shrugged, pushing his hands into the pockets of his jacket. It was a casual gesture, but there was nothing casual about his eyes. They scanned the hallway even as he looked at her, watching for threats, for vampires, for anything that might harm her.
"I came to see you," he said. "And to check if our vampire friends decided to show their faces today."
Elena's brow furrowed. She glanced around them, checking for eavesdroppers, then lowered her voice further. "Stefan? You think he'd actually come here after what happened last night?"
"I don't know what Stefan Salvatore is capable of," Leo said. His voice was calm, but there was something underneath it. Something cold. "But I know what I'm capable of. And if he shows his face near you again, I won't break his neck so gently next time."
Elena reached out. Her fingers brushed against his arm, light and hesitant. The touch grounded him in a way nothing else could. It reminded him why he was here, why he cared, why he did not simply destroy everything that threatened them.
"You're not going to kill anyone, Leo," she said softly.
"I'm not going to kill anyone," he agreed.
The words felt hollow. He was not sure if he meant them. If anything happened to Elena, if anyone hurt her, he did not know what he would do. He did not know if he could control himself.
The warning bell rang again. The hallway was emptying fast. Late students rushed past, their faces anxious, their feet pounding against the floor. Soon they would be alone in the empty corridor.
"You should go to class," Leo said quietly. "Pretend everything is fine after that terrible night."
"You should come with me."
"I don't have books and notes.I don't have—"
"I don't care." Elena's hand slid down his arm. Her fingers intertwined with his. Her skin was warm against his, soft and alive. "Just sit in the back. Pretend you're my boyfriend who forgot his stuff."
Leo looked down at their joined hands. Such small hands, Elena's. Fragile. He could crush every bone in them without meaning to. He could heal them with a drop of his blood. Both truths existed at once, both equally real. And somehow, Elena had learned to hold them both without flinching.
"Your aunt made me coffee this morning," he said. He was not sure why he was telling her this now. It seemed unimportant compared to vampires and threats and the danger that surrounded them. But the words came out anyway.
Elena blinked. The change in subject caught her off guard. "Jenna?"
"She showed me pictures of you," Leo said, still holding her hand. "When you were small. Braces, pigtails, and the goth one with all the black makeup."
Elena's eyes widened. Her mouth opened, then closed. A flush crept onto her cheeks, visible even in the dim hallway light. The pink spread from her cheekbones to her ears, warming her whole face.
"She did not," Elena said. Her voice was higher than usual, defensive in a way that was almost cute.
"She did." Leo's smile widened. "I have every single image burned into my memory now. You had a phase with overalls, Elena.Your aunt showed me at least four different photos featuring denim overalls and various cartoon-themed t-shirts."
"That's it." Elena tugged at his hand, pulling him toward the classroom door. Her grip was firm, determined. "Now you're definitely coming to class with me. I need to supervise you."
"You think I'll tell Bonnie?"
"I think you'll tell everyone." She stopped at the classroom door and looked back at him. Her expression was serious, but her eyes were dancing. "And I think you need to be with me until I confirm that you are not going to tell anyone about those photos. That's just basic relationship security."
"So this is a hostage situation now?"
"This is a mutual agreement. Now, we both have to go to class."
She pushed open the door and pulled him inside.
The classroom was already settling into the rhythm of attendance. Students sat in their seats, some paying attention, some staring out windows, some texting under their desks. A few heads turned as they slipped in through the back.
Caroline's head turned fully. Her gaze landed on Leo, then moved to Elena, then back to Leo. Something flickered in her eyes. Sadness, mostly. The kind of quiet hurt you cannot hide. Leo had rejected her this morning, gently but firmly. And here he was now, holding hands with Elena, walking into class together like it was the most natural thing in the world. Caroline looked away quickly, focusing on her desk, on her notebook, on anything except them.
Most other students were too focused on the start of class to care. A couple of people glanced up, noted the new arrivals, and returned to their own concerns.
Elena led Leo to two empty seats near the window. She ignored the new history teacher completely. Teachers changed every semester. Some left, some stayed. It was not important. What was important was the boy beside her, the one who had walked through fire, the one whose blood had healed her, the one who was somehow, impossibly, hers.
They sat side by side, close enough that their shoulders almost touched. On the desk in front of them, someone had carved initials into the wood. Old graffiti. Teenage ghosts. Signs of students who had sat here before, years ago, leaving their marks behind.
"You really don't have anywhere else to be?" Elena whispered. The teacher had started talking about something—history, probably, dates and names and events—but Leo could not be bothered to follow. His attention was entirely on her.
"Nowhere that matters," he said quietly.
Elena was quiet for a moment. The teacher's voice droned on in the background, a distant hum. Then, so softly he almost missed it, she spoke.
"Last night, when I saw the explosion—when I thought you were still in the car—"
She stopped. Swallowed. Her hand tightened around his.
"I wasn't," Leo said gently.
"I know that now. I know." She took a breath. "But in that moment... in that moment, I thought I was going to lose you. I've lost people before, Leo. My parents. I know what loss feels like. I know how it settles into your bones and stays there, how it becomes part of you that never really goes away." She paused again. "And in that moment, I thought I was going to feel that again. I thought I was going to carry another person I loved into that place inside me where the dead live."
Leo turned to look at her. The morning light came through the window behind her, catching the edges of her face, her hair, her shoulders. It made her look almost golden. Human and glowing all at once. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
"You won't lose me," he said. His voice was low, certain. "Not like that. Not ever."
"You can't promise that."
"I'm the Devil, Elena." A small smile touched his lips. "I can promise whatever I want."
Elena's lips pressed together. Not in anger. In thought. In consideration. The idea was still new to her, still settling into her understanding of the world. Her boyfriend was Lucifer Morningstar. The fallen angel. The light-bringer. The devil himself.
"That's going to take some getting used to," she said slowly. "The whole 'my boyfriend is literally Lucifer' thing."
"Take your time." Leo's smile widened. "I've had eons to get used to it. A few more days won't hurt."
She laughed. It was a real laugh, quiet and surprised and beautiful. A few students glanced back at the sound. Caroline's head turned completely. Elena did not notice or care.
"You can't just say things like that in the middle of history class," she whispered, still smiling.
"I can say whatever I want. I'm the—"
"If you say 'I'm the Devil' one more time, I'm going to throw this textbook at your head."
Leo grinned. It felt strange on his face—genuine and unguarded and real. "You'd miss."
"Would I?"
Their eyes met. Something passed between them. An understanding. A promise. A shared acknowledgment that everything had changed and somehow, impossibly, they were still here.
The teacher called Elena's name for attendance.
She raised her hand automatically, still looking at Leo. "Present," she said.
And Leo thought: Yes.You are.You are so completely present. In this moment. In this impossible life. In this body I never thought I would want to protect.
But he did not say it. He just sat beside her in a classroom in Mystic Falls, pretending to be a normal boy with a normal girlfriend, and let the morning light warm them both.
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