He thought it would pass.

He soon realized that he was wrong. And it was showing very evidently.

You’d been… down. Not a seasonal depression down. A down that you felt in your bones, which came easy to you in the town you lived in, around the people you were always with. Vampires and werewolves and witches and doppelgängers were tiring.

It was different this time. Your herbs were dying. The crystals on your windowsill were fading in color and cracking. Your magic was dimming as a result.

Your friends had tried first to make you feel better. Elena failed, Bonnie failed, Caroline failed.

Elijah wasn’t the type to involve himself directly into your magic, but the sight of you fading in real time, before his eyes, his love, was enough.

You were at work, working at the library, and he took it upon himself to buy you new crystals. To set them along your windowsill himself, setting the old, dimmed ones in a plastic basket and set them on your porch for the next full moon so they could recharge there.

He bought you new herbs, putting them in your cabinet with the dying ones, placing the dying ones in your kitchens windowsill, letting them get some sun.

He waited in your room, flipping through some sappy love novel from your shelf as he awaited your arrival home from work, sat against your headboard, his dress shoes kicked off neatly by the bed. Something he only did when he was comfortable in your space.

You arrived home with a relieved sigh. You went to your kitchen first thing, opening the cupboard and reaching inside before pausing.

….these weren’t your jars. But they were.. the same herbs. But alive.

You hesitated as you grabbed a small jar of hibiscus, adding a few of the petals to a stainless steel tea steeper, pouring hot water inside the mug as you walked up the staircase to your room.

You paused as you entered your bedroom, seeing your boyfriend lounged in your bed, with one of your books.

He looked up once you were in the doorway, having already heard you enter the house.

“We need to have a talk, my love. I’m not letting you be like this any longer.” He spoke, closing the book, his dress shirt sleeves folded up his forearms.