Everyone just had to keep getting married. Stefan supposed that was the natural human way of life, especially when he was now an average Joe like the rest of them - guy meets girl, guy and girl fall in love, and guy proposes to girl with some windswept declaration of love.
Caroline and Tyler had gotten married first, right after they graduated from Whitmore. They had exchanged vows underneath the shade of the trees at Lockwood Manor and had concluded with a wedding reception that rivaled a royal wedding. They had also flooded every form of social media with photos, highlighting Care's blinding, bright sun-and-moon ring.
Jeremy and his high school sweetheart Anna had been next, with a proposal in the middle of a cemetery, followed by an artsy Halloween-themed wedding that reminded everyone more of a haunted house than a celebration of life. Then Matt Donovan had found love in a fellow detective and married her by the lake the very next summer.
The following year, his stupid older brother had proposed to Bonnie freaking Bennett with a series of handwritten love letters and a teddy bear the size of her house.
"What can I say?" Damon had said with a genuine laugh when Stefan had confronted him, "Love makes you do crazy things."
Okay, but love also didn't prompt everyone to believe that they could commit to another person for the rest of their lives, let alone accept adulthood and its responsibilities of mortgages, health insurance, and 401K's. Sure, Stefan had played pretend and restarted his life every time his immortality had overwhelmed him. He had also believed in that eternal, never-moving reset button with an intensity that rivaled the brightest sun, and just like that, his falsehoods had been ripped from his fingers.
Now he was organizing an actual, honest-to-God wedding for his older brother and his soon-to-be sister-in-law, and the entire world might as well have been ripped from underneath him. His afternoons were filled with cake tastings and catering meetings and even dress fittings (since the groom couldn't very well attend those), and while he had always dreamed about his own wedding... he had never dreamed about being his brother's wedding planner.
During these long, dull hours, Bonnie would stare at him with a mournful frown, lingering at the edge of the table as they picked out stationary or wedding flowers or even the type of tulle for Lizzie's and Josie's flower girl dresses. Stefan never understood why - was she missing Damon? Was she missing Caroline's deft and well-coordinated touch? Because if she did, she could have called either of them up, or at the very least, snapped the whole experience on her iPhone. Cell phones existed.
"Hey, Stefan..." Bonnie took a deep breath, steeling herself for something as they idly flipped pages of a stationary book. "I talked to Elena last night, and she's bringing a plus-one - some guy from her residency program."
"Liam, right?" Stefan didn't pull his gaze away from the parchment paper. A few years ago, Elena had left him, and in turn, Mystic Falls to accept a residency program in New Zealand. He had known, then and now, that she meant to start fresh. His suspicions had only been confirmed when Elena had changed her profile pic to include this new guy. A new country, a new program, and apparently now, a new boyfriend. "Good for her."
"Uh-huh." Bonnie was probably glaring daggers at him, or at the very least, trying to convey those daggers through her suddenly-icy voice. "Stefan, I'm telling you this because I care. Besides, that's just code for 'I'm going to brood later and I'm just too nice to tell you,' isn't it?"
"I don't brood."
"And I didn't fry your brain every time you or Damon did something incredibly stupid, and yet here we are."
Picking out wedding stationary because Damon couldn't be arsed to tell his own fiancee if cream or off-white was a better choice for their five-course dinner. Well, no - Stefan knew that Damon truly didn't care which color Bonnie preferred, as long as it was her choice. For all of Damon's numerous faults, he trusted both Stefan and Bonnie with the minutiae of his life.
"Yeah, well..." Stefan sighed, holding up a cream-colored sheet of paper. "I think we should go with this, and I guess it won't hurt Elena's feelings if I bring a date too."
"A date?" Bonnie raised her eyebrows at him, resting her hand underneath her chin as if she were daring him to defy her judgment. "Stef, I've known you for what feels like my entire life. Just who are you bringing, and have I met them before?"
"In fact, you have," Stefan said without thinking, meeting Bonnie's gaze. "After all... a witch of your caliber knows Freya Mikaelson, right?"
"Uh-huh." Bonnie's eyebrows met her hairline. "Freya. Right. I'll believe it when I see it."
He should've called Freya beforehand; at the very least, he could’ve confirmed that she wanted to play his game and help him convince his entire social circle that he was fine. Instead, he had blurted out the first name that came to mind and willed it all to be okay.
So once he and Bonnie said their goodbyes, he ducked into the nearest park and pulled out his phone, calling up Freya’s number.
“Hey,” he said once he heard her voice. “Hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time.”
“It’s as good as any.” Sure enough, her voice was crystal clear - no explosions, no snarling brothers, no mayhem or chaos in the background. “What’s up?”
How should he begin this… how should he be as polite and well-mannered as possible about something he was basically forcing her into….
“Are you free in about a couple of months, by any chance?”
Freya clicked her tongue, her voice growing thoughtful, “I think so. Why?”
“My brother’s getting married, and I sorta-kinda might need a plus one.”
“So you’re asking me?” Freya laughed, her voice lighting up, “I gotta say Stefan, I still remember how when we first met, you were all ‘full disclosure: I dated your sister?’”
He winced. That had been far from his proudest moment - but then again, most of his life had been filled with less than proud moments. Time to own up to the past, Salvatore. Make things kind of right with Freya before digging himself into an even deeper grave than before.
“Yeah, that sounds about right.” He laughed in turn, feeling it stick in his throat. “Look, a) I’m way past that and so should you, and b) just think about it. Damon’s human now, so he’ll behave, and well - he’s marrying Bonnie, so it’ll be fun. A real witches’ wedding.”
Freya hummed, mulling it over for what felt like eternity -
“Okay.”
“Well, it’s not going to be long, and - “ Stefan paused. “Wait, did you say okay?”
“I’ve never been to a Bennett wedding.” Freya’s voice was so amused that he could imagine her smiling, even twirling her hair a little, “Might as well see how it goes, and hey, worst-case scenario, you’ll both have enough booze to last a lifetime.”
“Thanks, Freya. I owe you one.”
“No problem.” She paused, humming a little more, “Though we should probably get our story straight. A plus one typically means we’ve been dating for a while.”
“No better way than to get up here for a weekend,” he teased. “Visit your niece, soak in the sights… get our points all lined up?”
“I’d like that,” she admitted. “I should be free this weekend, so… I’ll see you soon?”
She hung up on him, and honestly - it wasn’t until Stefan stood outside Salvatore Manor that the reality of his life hit him like a ton of bricks. His brother was getting married in a couple of months; Elena would be returning from New Zealand with some stranger; and he had just asked Freya to pretend that they had been part of some whirlwind romance. If he weren't mortal again - and frankly, part of him still felt invincible - he would've reached for a drink. These next few weeks were going to be rough.
Like she promised, Freya drove into town that Friday night, dropping her bags off in Stefan's room before they headed to the Grill. The crowd skewed younger these days (a side effect of them growing up, he supposed), but the food was still solid, and Freya kept stealing his fries more than either one of them wanted to admit.
"What?" She had teased, when he had stolen a couple back. "They're my fry tax. I pretend to be your girlfriend, you give me all your fries."
"I'm pretty sure that's not how it actually works."
"Oh, it's totally how it works," Freya insisted, dipping a few more into ketchup and seizing them for good measure. "I said so, therefore it is."
"Again, that's so not how it works."
"Then how do you want this whole..." she twirled a couple of fries in the air, "Thing to work out? What kicked off our whirlwind romance, besides you just going down the family tree?"
Stefan almost choked on his soda. "Um..."
"Kidding," she said, flashing a bright smile. "But seriously, my sister and Klaus, and now me..."
He opened his mouth to protest, but then realized he couldn't actually discern if he had dated Klaus or not. The 20's had been too nebulous to determine a straight answer, so he shrugged, leaning forward and ordering yet another helping of fries.
"Guilty, I think," he settled on saying, furrowing his brow. "We could say it started with magic lessons."
When his mortality had returned, so too had the potential for witchcraft. Stefan should've seen it coming, given Silas's antics, but he hadn't. His bedroom had caught on fire a few times; Damon's arms had suffered from some serious frostbite; and he and Bonnie had played magical tug-of-war over morning coffee before either party had realized what was happening.
Bonnie had offered to teach him, but Stefan had refused. He hadn't felt right when he and Damon had relied on Bonnie time after time, with nothing to give back except love and gratitude.
So he had emailed Freya, and thanks to the magic of texts, calls, and video chats, she had walked him through the basics. How to levitate inanimate objects, how to create a grimoire, how to build his arsenal of spells, how to perform location spells, how to ward buildings, how to fry a vampire's brain - no stone had been unturned, and their conversations had quickly turned from professional to personal to scarily intimate.
He had cheered her on when Keelin had first entered Freya's life; she had encouraged him to date one of the younger witches that had helped Hope. Neither relationship had panned out, but at the time, Stefan had figured it was luck and incompatibility. As he watched Freya chow down on dinner, though, he couldn't help wonder if he had been wrong - if he had been the underlying factor.
Too late to dwell on that now, especially if they were committing to a fake relationship.
“Sure.” Freya finished off her fries, watching Stefan pull out a bullet journal. “Are you actually writing all of this down?”
“It’ll help us keep everything straight.”
“Everyone and their mom reads your diary.” She held out her hand. “Let me hold onto it.”
For the first time since he had roped them into this crazy mess, Stefan hesitated. This journal not only contained his story, but also his to-do lists, his overall plans for life, and everything he wanted to remember. Mortal memories were even worse than immortal ones. They couldn’t retain anything - nor were they anywhere near reliable.
Yet he slid the journal her way, and willed the pen to write without his hands.
“Okay.” He drew in a breath. “So we had magic lessons and… what, when did we realize something special happened?”
“The first time you created fireworks - for your best friend’s wedding. You looked so happy when you made them resemble her wedding ring, and that was before they got to witness your hard work.”
“You remember that?”
Stefan blinked back genuine surprise, sitting up straight. He remembered it, of course - he had promised Caroline he would do more than officiate. He would make their reception unforgettable, by letting them dance underneath sun-and-moon fireworks, and circling firelights around each and every member of their wedding party.
Then Jeremy and Anna had been surrounded by wisps-of-fire, while Matt and his bride had received warm weather and a sunny day (when, by all accounts, there should’ve been rain).
“Of course.” Freya’s expression softened as she wiped the grime off her fingers and reached for Stefan’s pen. “It was the first time I’d seen someone so excited about fireworks. It was a really simple spell and yet…” she paused. “You smiled like the entire world had just opened up to you.”
“It wasn’t simple for me,” he admitted with a slight grimace.
If Bonnie had been behind in her magic studies, Stefan had been worse, with nearly two centuries under his belt before mana had started to flow through his veins. Two hundred years to plow through life with a vampire’s strength, and almost none of a witch’s finesse and balance. It had been like learning to walk all over again.
Her expression crumbled. “Right, sorry. It’s just…”
“That’s when you learned,” he cut her off, focusing his attention back to their rules. “What about when I first told you I loved you? Or our first date?”
He could see some of his friends piling in for meals - Tyler and Caroline on a work date, or even Damon and Matt sharing drinks at the bar - and somehow, that just made this feel so much more intimate. Those that mattered were watching them. Those that mattered would know that he had been making this all up - and -
“You told me here, right now.” Freya’s voice was almost exasperated as she looked up at him. “And as for our first kiss…. here.”
She scooted her chair next to him, closing the gap before she planted a quick, chaste kiss on his lips. He sat there, his entire body growing rigid, as she laughed into that kiss, twirling her fingers around his hair.
They were in the middle of the Grill. The most public place in town. And she was kissing him. On the lips. On the lips!! Like they were in high school!
When Freya let go, it was right as the waiter delivered their order of hamburgers. He could only roll his eyes at them (“God, you were worse than me and Anna,”) before turning his attention back towards two other tables.
He exchanged a Knowing look with Freya, before he burst into laughter.
“To nostalgic fake dates that somehow turned real,” he said, holding up his soda glass.
She clinked her glass against his, returning that smile.
Fake Dating - Stefan Salvatore / Freya Mikaelson | wordcount: 2,528
Caroline and Tyler had gotten married first, right after they graduated from Whitmore. They had exchanged vows underneath the shade of the trees at Lockwood Manor and had concluded with a wedding reception that rivaled a royal wedding. They had also flooded every form of social media with photos, highlighting Care's blinding, bright sun-and-moon ring.
Jeremy and his high school sweetheart Anna had been next, with a proposal in the middle of a cemetery, followed by an artsy Halloween-themed wedding that reminded everyone more of a haunted house than a celebration of life. Then Matt Donovan had found love in a fellow detective and married her by the lake the very next summer.
The following year, his stupid older brother had proposed to Bonnie freaking Bennett with a series of handwritten love letters and a teddy bear the size of her house.
"What can I say?" Damon had said with a genuine laugh when Stefan had confronted him, "Love makes you do crazy things."
Okay, but love also didn't prompt everyone to believe that they could commit to another person for the rest of their lives, let alone accept adulthood and its responsibilities of mortgages, health insurance, and 401K's. Sure, Stefan had played pretend and restarted his life every time his immortality had overwhelmed him. He had also believed in that eternal, never-moving reset button with an intensity that rivaled the brightest sun, and just like that, his falsehoods had been ripped from his fingers.
Now he was organizing an actual, honest-to-God wedding for his older brother and his soon-to-be sister-in-law, and the entire world might as well have been ripped from underneath him. His afternoons were filled with cake tastings and catering meetings and even dress fittings (since the groom couldn't very well attend those), and while he had always dreamed about his own wedding... he had never dreamed about being his brother's wedding planner.
During these long, dull hours, Bonnie would stare at him with a mournful frown, lingering at the edge of the table as they picked out stationary or wedding flowers or even the type of tulle for Lizzie's and Josie's flower girl dresses. Stefan never understood why - was she missing Damon? Was she missing Caroline's deft and well-coordinated touch? Because if she did, she could have called either of them up, or at the very least, snapped the whole experience on her iPhone. Cell phones existed.
"Hey, Stefan..." Bonnie took a deep breath, steeling herself for something as they idly flipped pages of a stationary book. "I talked to Elena last night, and she's bringing a plus-one - some guy from her residency program."
"Liam, right?" Stefan didn't pull his gaze away from the parchment paper. A few years ago, Elena had left him, and in turn, Mystic Falls to accept a residency program in New Zealand. He had known, then and now, that she meant to start fresh. His suspicions had only been confirmed when Elena had changed her profile pic to include this new guy. A new country, a new program, and apparently now, a new boyfriend. "Good for her."
"Uh-huh." Bonnie was probably glaring daggers at him, or at the very least, trying to convey those daggers through her suddenly-icy voice. "Stefan, I'm telling you this because I care. Besides, that's just code for 'I'm going to brood later and I'm just too nice to tell you,' isn't it?"
"I don't brood."
"And I didn't fry your brain every time you or Damon did something incredibly stupid, and yet here we are."
Picking out wedding stationary because Damon couldn't be arsed to tell his own fiancee if cream or off-white was a better choice for their five-course dinner. Well, no - Stefan knew that Damon truly didn't care which color Bonnie preferred, as long as it was her choice. For all of Damon's numerous faults, he trusted both Stefan and Bonnie with the minutiae of his life.
"Yeah, well..." Stefan sighed, holding up a cream-colored sheet of paper. "I think we should go with this, and I guess it won't hurt Elena's feelings if I bring a date too."
"A date?" Bonnie raised her eyebrows at him, resting her hand underneath her chin as if she were daring him to defy her judgment. "Stef, I've known you for what feels like my entire life. Just who are you bringing, and have I met them before?"
"In fact, you have," Stefan said without thinking, meeting Bonnie's gaze. "After all... a witch of your caliber knows Freya Mikaelson, right?"
"Uh-huh." Bonnie's eyebrows met her hairline. "Freya. Right. I'll believe it when I see it."
He should've called Freya beforehand; at the very least, he could’ve confirmed that she wanted to play his game and help him convince his entire social circle that he was fine. Instead, he had blurted out the first name that came to mind and willed it all to be okay.
So once he and Bonnie said their goodbyes, he ducked into the nearest park and pulled out his phone, calling up Freya’s number.
“Hey,” he said once he heard her voice. “Hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time.”
“It’s as good as any.” Sure enough, her voice was crystal clear - no explosions, no snarling brothers, no mayhem or chaos in the background. “What’s up?”
How should he begin this… how should he be as polite and well-mannered as possible about something he was basically forcing her into….
“Are you free in about a couple of months, by any chance?”
Freya clicked her tongue, her voice growing thoughtful, “I think so. Why?”
“My brother’s getting married, and I sorta-kinda might need a plus one.”
“So you’re asking me?” Freya laughed, her voice lighting up, “I gotta say Stefan, I still remember how when we first met, you were all ‘full disclosure: I dated your sister?’”
He winced. That had been far from his proudest moment - but then again, most of his life had been filled with less than proud moments. Time to own up to the past, Salvatore. Make things kind of right with Freya before digging himself into an even deeper grave than before.
“Yeah, that sounds about right.” He laughed in turn, feeling it stick in his throat. “Look, a) I’m way past that and so should you, and b) just think about it. Damon’s human now, so he’ll behave, and well - he’s marrying Bonnie, so it’ll be fun. A real witches’ wedding.”
Freya hummed, mulling it over for what felt like eternity -
“Okay.”
“Well, it’s not going to be long, and - “ Stefan paused. “Wait, did you say okay?”
“I’ve never been to a Bennett wedding.” Freya’s voice was so amused that he could imagine her smiling, even twirling her hair a little, “Might as well see how it goes, and hey, worst-case scenario, you’ll both have enough booze to last a lifetime.”
“Thanks, Freya. I owe you one.”
“No problem.” She paused, humming a little more, “Though we should probably get our story straight. A plus one typically means we’ve been dating for a while.”
“No better way than to get up here for a weekend,” he teased. “Visit your niece, soak in the sights… get our points all lined up?”
“I’d like that,” she admitted. “I should be free this weekend, so… I’ll see you soon?”
She hung up on him, and honestly - it wasn’t until Stefan stood outside Salvatore Manor that the reality of his life hit him like a ton of bricks. His brother was getting married in a couple of months; Elena would be returning from New Zealand with some stranger; and he had just asked Freya to pretend that they had been part of some whirlwind romance. If he weren't mortal again - and frankly, part of him still felt invincible - he would've reached for a drink. These next few weeks were going to be rough.
Like she promised, Freya drove into town that Friday night, dropping her bags off in Stefan's room before they headed to the Grill. The crowd skewed younger these days (a side effect of them growing up, he supposed), but the food was still solid, and Freya kept stealing his fries more than either one of them wanted to admit.
"What?" She had teased, when he had stolen a couple back. "They're my fry tax. I pretend to be your girlfriend, you give me all your fries."
"I'm pretty sure that's not how it actually works."
"Oh, it's totally how it works," Freya insisted, dipping a few more into ketchup and seizing them for good measure. "I said so, therefore it is."
"Again, that's so not how it works."
"Then how do you want this whole..." she twirled a couple of fries in the air, "Thing to work out? What kicked off our whirlwind romance, besides you just going down the family tree?"
Stefan almost choked on his soda. "Um..."
"Kidding," she said, flashing a bright smile. "But seriously, my sister and Klaus, and now me..."
He opened his mouth to protest, but then realized he couldn't actually discern if he had dated Klaus or not. The 20's had been too nebulous to determine a straight answer, so he shrugged, leaning forward and ordering yet another helping of fries.
"Guilty, I think," he settled on saying, furrowing his brow. "We could say it started with magic lessons."
When his mortality had returned, so too had the potential for witchcraft. Stefan should've seen it coming, given Silas's antics, but he hadn't. His bedroom had caught on fire a few times; Damon's arms had suffered from some serious frostbite; and he and Bonnie had played magical tug-of-war over morning coffee before either party had realized what was happening.
Bonnie had offered to teach him, but Stefan had refused. He hadn't felt right when he and Damon had relied on Bonnie time after time, with nothing to give back except love and gratitude.
So he had emailed Freya, and thanks to the magic of texts, calls, and video chats, she had walked him through the basics. How to levitate inanimate objects, how to create a grimoire, how to build his arsenal of spells, how to perform location spells, how to ward buildings, how to fry a vampire's brain - no stone had been unturned, and their conversations had quickly turned from professional to personal to scarily intimate.
He had cheered her on when Keelin had first entered Freya's life; she had encouraged him to date one of the younger witches that had helped Hope. Neither relationship had panned out, but at the time, Stefan had figured it was luck and incompatibility. As he watched Freya chow down on dinner, though, he couldn't help wonder if he had been wrong - if he had been the underlying factor.
Too late to dwell on that now, especially if they were committing to a fake relationship.
“Sure.” Freya finished off her fries, watching Stefan pull out a bullet journal. “Are you actually writing all of this down?”
“It’ll help us keep everything straight.”
“Everyone and their mom reads your diary.” She held out her hand. “Let me hold onto it.”
For the first time since he had roped them into this crazy mess, Stefan hesitated. This journal not only contained his story, but also his to-do lists, his overall plans for life, and everything he wanted to remember. Mortal memories were even worse than immortal ones. They couldn’t retain anything - nor were they anywhere near reliable.
Yet he slid the journal her way, and willed the pen to write without his hands.
“Okay.” He drew in a breath. “So we had magic lessons and… what, when did we realize something special happened?”
“The first time you created fireworks - for your best friend’s wedding. You looked so happy when you made them resemble her wedding ring, and that was before they got to witness your hard work.”
“You remember that?”
Stefan blinked back genuine surprise, sitting up straight. He remembered it, of course - he had promised Caroline he would do more than officiate. He would make their reception unforgettable, by letting them dance underneath sun-and-moon fireworks, and circling firelights around each and every member of their wedding party.
Then Jeremy and Anna had been surrounded by wisps-of-fire, while Matt and his bride had received warm weather and a sunny day (when, by all accounts, there should’ve been rain).
“Of course.” Freya’s expression softened as she wiped the grime off her fingers and reached for Stefan’s pen. “It was the first time I’d seen someone so excited about fireworks. It was a really simple spell and yet…” she paused. “You smiled like the entire world had just opened up to you.”
“It wasn’t simple for me,” he admitted with a slight grimace.
If Bonnie had been behind in her magic studies, Stefan had been worse, with nearly two centuries under his belt before mana had started to flow through his veins. Two hundred years to plow through life with a vampire’s strength, and almost none of a witch’s finesse and balance. It had been like learning to walk all over again.
Her expression crumbled. “Right, sorry. It’s just…”
“That’s when you learned,” he cut her off, focusing his attention back to their rules. “What about when I first told you I loved you? Or our first date?”
He could see some of his friends piling in for meals - Tyler and Caroline on a work date, or even Damon and Matt sharing drinks at the bar - and somehow, that just made this feel so much more intimate. Those that mattered were watching them. Those that mattered would know that he had been making this all up - and -
“You told me here, right now.” Freya’s voice was almost exasperated as she looked up at him. “And as for our first kiss…. here.”
She scooted her chair next to him, closing the gap before she planted a quick, chaste kiss on his lips. He sat there, his entire body growing rigid, as she laughed into that kiss, twirling her fingers around his hair.
They were in the middle of the Grill. The most public place in town. And she was kissing him. On the lips. On the lips!! Like they were in high school!
When Freya let go, it was right as the waiter delivered their order of hamburgers. He could only roll his eyes at them (“God, you were worse than me and Anna,”) before turning his attention back towards two other tables.
He exchanged a Knowing look with Freya, before he burst into laughter.
“To nostalgic fake dates that somehow turned real,” he said, holding up his soda glass.
She clinked her glass against his, returning that smile.
“And hopefully, to many, many more of them.”