Ember

Comet Night

A/N: I get a feeling I'm spoiling u guys with such fast chapters lol. Hopefully my muse cooperates with this rhythm and stays put instead of going on vacation.

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September 10th, 2009

"Come watch a cosmic snowball of gas and dirt go about its business slightly closer to Earth," Stiles invites while handing out one of the itineraries for Comet Night, making his cousin giggle by his side and slap his shoulder once they're far away enough from the person who took the pamphlet.

"Take this seriously!" she warns, though her annoyed look is quickly replaced by a smile once someone else approaches, "come to Comet Night," she tells the lady walking a dog as she hands her the pamphlet.

Stiles doesn't have the heart to tell her that the paper is most likely going to be used to pick up dog poop. "I'm being completely serious," he tells her instead, "comets are made of ice, rock, gas, and dust, what's there to be so excited about?"

"It's about the community ," Caroline insists, "we're getting together and watching something that only happens once in a lifetime, it's a bonding experience!"

"Making friendship bracelets is a bonding experience, but somehow I don't see the whole town getting together for it," Stiles mutters as Caroline walks off again to hand off pamphlets in a different location since going at it in pairs kind of cuts the efficiency of the act in half, "come to Comet Night if you've got nothing better to do," he hands out another one, "Come to Comet Ni-whoa!"

Stiles trips over something but somehow finds the balance to stay on his feet instead of having an intimate encounter with the grass. He straightens up and gets a look at the owner of the boot-clad feet that tried to take him down, meeting startlingly blue eyes filled with amusement.

"Sorry," the man offers, not sounding sorry at all.

"I'll live," Stiles replies, getting over it with the practice of a seasoned school outcast and holding out a pamphlet, "Come to Comet Night, there will be more people to trip," he invites with a mischievous tone.

"Not my thing," the stranger says, fixing Stiles with a strangely intense look as he adds, "Why don't you tell me about the pretty blonde I saw with you instead?"

Siles scoffs, "She's way too young for you," he informs the man, who by all means fits into the 'tall, dark, and handsome' description Caroline gave of her mystery guy from the grill, "She's also the Sheriff's daughter, so I'd really worry about the jail part of jailbait."

"Interesting," the man mutters, the look gone after he blinks.

"Who did I just warn away from my baby cousin, by the way?" Stiles asks because he might as well.

"Damon Salvatore," is the answer he gets, which immediately makes him perk up.

"You're related to Zach?" Stiles blurts out, smiling sheepishly at the man's surprised expression, "It's just that he usually lets me raid his library when I'm in town, probably as a favor to my aunt to keep me out of trouble, and I really wanted to come over and check out some stuff."

"You don't say," Damon's expression falls back into something more pleasant than before when he'd clearly been fishing for information, "He's my uncle, actually. If you go to school with the blondie you may have met my brother, Stefan?"

"I never got around to talking to him, but I've seen him around," Stiles nods, he vaguely remembers Caroline saying Stefan's full name but somehow his brain hadn't made the leap that he could actually be related to Zach too.