The cafeteria was a wall of noise and movement as Elena and Bonnie made their way inside. They were deep in discussion about the Founder's Party, their trays in hand as they shuffled through the food line.
"I just hope it's not super stuffy this time," Bonnie was saying, piling a salad onto her plate. "All those council members in one room…"
"It might be okay," Elena replied, her eyes scanning the hot food options without really seeing them. "At least the mansion is beautiful." Her voice was light, but a familiar, slight anxiety about the social event lingered beneath the surface.
As they finished and turned to find a seat,
Elena's eyes moved over the noisy cafeteria. They stopped on a familiar back, straight and still at a busy table. It was Leo. While everyone else was loud and moving, he just sat there, quiet and separate.A simple, warm feeling of happiness spread through her chest.
"Bonnie, look," she said, her voice brightening. She nodded toward the bench. "Let's go sit there."
Bonnie followed her gaze. She saw Leo, sitting alone at the far end of a bench. But as her eyes adjusted, she noticed Caroline Forbes sitting across from him, pushing a fry around her plate. They weren't talking. In fact, they were both eating in a heavy, pointed silence that seemed to create a bubble of awkwardness around them. It was obvious something was off.
But Bonnie's attention snapped back to Elena's face. The instant, genuine happiness she saw there made her own heart lift. For the past two days,she had watched. She'd seen the way Elena would glance toward Leo more often in the history class, and the way he sometimes looked back. It was subtle, but it was there. A part of her felt cautious, always protective of her friend, but a bigger part was just glad to see Elena looking genuinely lighthearted. She hoped it would last forever like this.
"Yeah, of course," Bonnie said, her voice soft and encouraging. "Let's go."
They started weaving through the tables. The awkward scene at the bench became more clear. Caroline sat unnaturally still, pushing a french fry through a pool of ketchup on her plate with a concentrated frown. Her usual bubbly energy was gone, replaced by a stiff, quiet tension. Across from her, Leo ate with a steady, almost mechanical rhythm, his eyes locked on his food as if it required his full attention.
As Elena drew closer to the table, the simple warmth she'd felt a moment before began to fade. In its place came a slow, sinking feeling that tightened in her chest—a twist of something she immediately tried to ignore.
Seeing Leo with Caroline always stirred up a confusing mix inside her. Caroline was her friend. She was loyal, undeniably bright, and could light up any room. But there was another side to her, one Elena knew all too well: Caroline could be fiercely possessive. She treated people like projects or prizes, something to be won and shown off.
Elena watched them now, sitting in that heavy silence, and felt a pang she knew was unfair.She tried to reason with herself. He can sit with whoever he wants. She's my friend. I should be happy they're sitting together. But the logic didn't settle the feeling.The truth was simpler and more selfish, and it hummed quietly beneath all her sensible thoughts: she just didn't like seeing him with Caroline. She wanted to look away, but she couldn't, held by a quiet sense of loss she wasn't ready to name.
Caroline's head snapped up as if she'd sensed their approach. In a flash, the stiff, quiet girl was gone, replaced by the vibrant, social Caroline Forbes. A brilliant, welcoming smile spread across her face.
"Elena! Bonnie! Over here!" she called out, waving her hand in a wide, beckoning arc. Her eyes, however, immediately darted to Leo's face, watching him intently like a scientist observing a reaction.
The sound of Caroline's voice and the mention of their names made Leo look up. He turned his head, and his gaze found Elena first. It wasn't a quick glance. His eyes held hers for a sustained, quiet moment that seemed to stretch out, shutting out the cafeteria's clamor. In that silent look, Elena felt a jolt of connection, a silent question or recognition that made her breath catch. Then, without a word or a change in his neutral expression, he simply turned back to his food and continued eating, deliberately not looking at Caroline or acknowledging her theatrical welcome.
"Come on, sit, sit!" Caroline insisted, her voice bright and a little too loud. She patted the empty bench space beside her with quick, energetic taps. "You two are exactly who we needed to liven this up! We were just… finalizing the game plan for tonight." She said it with a wide smile, as if their stiff silence had been a focused strategy meeting.
Elena managed a small, polite smile as she slid onto the bench next to Bonnie, directly across from Leo. "A game plan, huh?" she asked, her tone carefully light. She busied herself straightening her napkin and fork, using the task as an excuse to keep her eyes down.
Bonnie, sensing the thick awkwardness in the air, jumped in with a gentle, neutral question. "So, are you guys all set for the party?" she asked, looking between Caroline and Leo.
Caroline's smile widened into a triumphant beam. "Absolutely," she announced, her voice full of confidence. "We're going together. It's officially settled." She shot a quick, meaningful glance at Leo, her eyebrows raised slightly as if waiting for his confirmation.
All eyes turned to him. Leo looked back at Caroline, his expression flat. The reminder of the debt, of her will enforced by his own promise, was clear in his eyes. After a brief pause, he gave a single, stiff nod. It wasn't enthusiastic or happy; it was a forced gesture of compliance.
The finality of that nod felt like a cold, heavy stone dropping in Elena's stomach. The warm flutter she'd felt when he looked at her vanished completely. She focused on cutting her pizza into neat, precise squares, her movements controlled.
"That's great," Elena said. The words came out thin and hollow, even to her own ears. She felt the gentle, reassuring press of Bonnie's knee against hers under the table—a silent message of support.
Caroline saw Leo's stiff nod and knew he is still angry on her forceful behaviour. She didn't push him further right now otherwise it would definitely backfire. The best way to smooth this over, she decided, was to simply move forward and dazzle him—and everyone else—with her preparations.
Her voice bubbled with excitement as she launched into the details for her captive audience. "Oh my gosh, you have to see my dress. It's this amazing sapphire blue, strapless. The cut is literally perfect. I found silver heels that match the beading exactly." She leaned in, her planning mode fully engaged. "And I've figured out the best time to get there—late enough for everyone to notice, but early enough that we still hear the mayor's boring speech."
She continued talking, her words flowing about hairstyles, the playlist the Lockwoods would likely use, and which groups would be where in the ballroom. It was a performance of pure, bubbly planning meant to cover the quiet tension radiating from Leo's side of the table.
Elena just nodded along, eating her meticulously cut pizza. She contributed little "mmm-hmm" sounds and tight smiles, but her mind wasn't on dresses or playlists. It was hyper-focused on the quiet, brooding presence of Leo just a few feet away, and the strange, hollow disappointment that had firmly settled in her chest where her brief happiness had been.
On a quiet bench at the far end of the cafeteria, Stefan Salvatore sat alone, maintaining a careful distance from the table where Leo sat with Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie. The raw, paralyzing fear he'd felt upon seeing Leo's true face that first night had subsided. In its place was a cold, focused clarity. He knew exactly what kind of monster he was dealing with.
Over the past two days, Stefan had done what he did best: he observed and he researched. He'd used his vampiric hearing to catch fragments of Leo's conversations and had spent hours in the library, sifting through old town records and historical bestiaries, searching for any creature that matched that cracked, demonic face. He had found nothing, which was perhaps the most unsettling fact of all.
Now, listening from across the room, his heightened senses picked up every strained silence and forced pleasantry from their table. But it was Elena's reactions that truly complicated things every time he watched her with Leo. He could hear the slight change in her heartbeat, the subtle shift in her voice when she spoke near Leo. She was drawn to him, and she had no idea of the danger.
A complicated mix of frustration, protectiveness, and helplessness tightened in his chest. What was he supposed to do? Storm over and reveal everything? He couldn't. It would expose his own secrets and terrify Elena. All he could do was watch. With a final, troubled glance at the group—his eyes lingering on Elena's politely smiling face—he stood up. He carried his untouched tray to the trash, discarded his full plate with a quiet, definitive clatter, and left the cafeteria.
***
Any Suggestions on Mha overpowered thing because I have just finished mha s1 and now thinking of writing a fanfic on this and mc already have golden wings but it is normal wings