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mbavholidayexchange · 16 days ago

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to: @vampwitchcoven from: @rbquartz

title: i think i love you?! | word count: 4,579 | summary: days before their first big performance at a local festival, benny cooks up a disguised truth potion to see if he can get any juicy gossip and/or a confession of love out of erica (for her sake), but his plan backfires as erica refuses and offers rory the potion instead, and he confesses some love of his own! | AO3 Link

“Heeey Saraaah! Ericaaa! Wait up!”

Sarah chuckles at Erica as she rolls her eyes and shakes her head slightly, the pair pausing their strides to wait for Benny and Ethan to catch up. Benny’s holding a water bottle that’s full of… something , and he’s wearing a mischievous grin – never a good sign – and Ethan seems done with his shit, as usual.

“What’s up, dorks?” Sarah starts, tilting her head and putting her hands on her hips as the two girls turn to face the boys.

“Wanna be a couple o’ guinea pigs for something I'm trying to whip up?” Benny asks, waving the bottle he’s holding in his hand at the pair and wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, his expression growing a tad more mischievous. The liquid – a dark bronze-y color that shifts to a more purple hue with certain movements; and just slightly too thick to be a normal drink, but not quite thick enough to resemble a proper smoothie – sloshes in the bottle and shimmers slightly in the fluorescent lights. Erica scrunches her nose, and Sarah can only gawk at it and shake her head.

“Is this another one of your flavor experiments with some extra earth priestess-y ‘ingredients’ you found in your grandma’s broom closet? Because if so, I’m all good, thanks.” Sarah says, holding her hands up in front of her and taking a step back closer to Erica.

“Yeah, plus it looks like you blended up copper wire, chunky glitter, and every purple and brown vegetable that you could find… which, knowing you, is something you’d definitely try and mix up to try and make it taste good.”

Benny splutters, trying to look to Ethan for defensive support. Ethan shrugs noncommittally, tilting his head to the side.

“ Eeehh , I mean they’re kinda right dude. Just the other day you tried to convince me that adding bananas to a quesadilla would taste good, but it was a texture nightmare!”

Benny shakes his head, waving his hand dismissively in Ethan’s direction.

“It may have been a texture nightmare to you , but the savory-sweet greasiness of it all was chef’s kiss! ” Benny emphasizes his point with a dramatic showing of bringing his fingertips to his lips, kissing them, then spreading his fingers outward with a flourish.

Erica and Sarah groan in disgust as Ethan scrunches up his nose and shudders at the memory, and Benny makes another dismissive noise in response, turning away slightly to pout to himself.

“You guys’re just jealous that you don’t have the same distinguished palate that I do! Amateurs, I swear.”

The group snorts and snickers at that, and Benny just rolls his eyes and turns back to the two girls again, holding the bottle up between his hands in a pleading motion.

“Come on , guys, please? Just one little sip? Just as a test! It’s been something I’ve been trying to perfect and I think I’ve finally gotten it!”

Erica scoffs, raising an eyebrow suspiciously and narrowing her eyes at him slightly.

“And why can’t you test it, smart guy? I thought you had a distinguished palate ? You scared it’ll taste gross and want us to suffer the consequences in your place?”

“Besides,” Sarah cuts in, “aren’t you guys gonna be performing with Rory at Whitechapel’s annual music festival thing in a couple of days? This can’t be a good idea, especially if you accidentally somehow give a vampire food poisoning.”

“It’s nothing like that at all! Absolutely no ill intent, I swear!” Benny makes another show of placing his free hand on his heart, “besides, I think the results will be more beneficial to you than they will to me, especially with our gig. Sooo…?”

Erica squints at him, not convinced in the slightest. She glances at Sarah, who mirrors her skeptical expression but simply shrugs. After a few moments of silence, she sighs and stretches her hand out towards him and his concoction.

“If I take it, will you stop bothering us about it?”

Benny nods enthusiastically, planting the bottle firmly in her palm.

“Yup!” He says, popping the p , “ and I’ll leave you alone about any other wonderfully strange flavor combos I've cooked up forrr… two weeks!”

“Make it a month and you’ve got a deal.”

Benny clicks his tongue disappointedly, but nods. Erica nods back, and places the bottle in her bag, and smirks at Sarah, who snickers. Benny’s smile drops immediately and he starts to object, but Erica puts a finger up and wags it in his face.

“Ah-ah-ah, I said I would take it, not try it in front of you. Nice try, smart guy . See ya at our rehearsal!”

“B-But–!”

Before he can say any more, Erica steps around the two boys, beckoning for Sarah to follow. Sarah smiles, waves at the pair, and follows behind her vampire companion. Benny groans quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose as Ethan shakes his head and elbows him hard, as if to say ‘ I told you so’ .

“Whaddya even plan on doing with that anyway if you’re not gonna try it? Trash it?” Sarah inquires as she matches Erica’s stride once more, raising an eyebrow at her. Erica shrugs one shoulder nonchalantly, reaching back into her bag and pulling out the bottle, inspecting it.

“Not sure yet. Might actually give it to the only other person besides Benny who actually enjoys his… experiments . She’s got just as weird of a palate as he does,” Erica states, placing the bottle back in her bag, stashing it for later, “all I know is that we don’t have to deal with Benny’s food disasters for a whole month.” She beams smugly and tilts her chin up confidently. Sarah giggles, nodding in agreement.

“Let’s just go find Rory and see if they wanna take this off our hands.”

“Take what off your hands?”

Sarah and Erica both yelp, spinning around to look at Rory, who simply beams and waves at them.

“Rory !” They exclaim in unison; Erica runs a hand (as gently as she can to not mess up her makeup) down her face, and Sarah just stares at him quizzically.

“Where the heck did you come from??”

“The opposite side of the hallway,” she says, spinning around and pointing towards the direction she came, “I saw you guys coming up this way, so I figured I’d follow up with you guys to see when we can find time to practice for our show!”

“Well, I told Benny that we’d rehearse later, so sometime after school maybe? It’d have to be at Benny’s or Ethan’s too, since he’s got his drum set over there and I doubt he’d want to drag it anywhere else on his own, and we’re definitely not doing it for him,” Erica says matter-of-factly. Rory nods.

“Alright! Ooh! And we can finally vote on what song to do! I have a list, and we can listen to each of them and see what the vibe is.” Rory says, finishing with a slight wave of their hands, before he perks back up again. “Oh, what’d you wanna show me? You said you had something you wanted me to take off your hands?”

Erica nods, reaching back into her bag to pull out the bottle that Benny had given them a few minutes prior, the shimmering liquid inside sloshing around once more with the movement. Rory tilts his head quizzically, not unlike a puppy as they notice the odd liquid’s brown-to-purple tonal shift, and they quirk an eyebrow.

“What is that ?”

“Dunno, but, it’s another one of Benny’s weird flavor experiments, and I know that you can be a fan of those sometimes, and we’re definitely not gonna be trying this anytime soon,” Erica emphasizes her point by jiggling the bottle around a bit, the mystery liquid gurgling ever so slightly with the movement, “You want it?”

Rory makes an ‘o’ shape with their mouth, and takes the bottle from her grasp, flipping the bottle up and down and back and forth, watching the way that the drink inside glistens.

“Wicked. I’ll take it!”

“What songs did we say we were thinking about performing again?” Erica asks, picking at the strings on her guitar absentmindedly, “One of the options is one of the songs Jack Black and his buddy did for a movie or something, right? ‘Tenacious D’ is their group, isn’t it?”

Rory and Benny hum in affirmation, and Erica nods once before continuing, “I still say we should do something by Paramore or like… MCR. Single Tear, even.”

Benny – who’d been tapping away gently at his drum set trying to get the sequence of notes for one of the songs right – pauses to sneer in Erica’s direction.

“Absolutely not. No emo music, we promised!” He says, jabbing one of his drumsticks in her direction.

“I don’t know man, I do a pretty mean Gerard Way impression! I’ve always wanted to recreate his cheerleader outfit that he wore on MCR’s tour,” Rory cuts in, nodding to himself as he makes the ‘okay’ symbol. Erica snaps her fingers a few times in agreement, a quiet applause. Benny rolls his eyes.

“Okay seriously, what other options do we have? We have the Tenacious D song, which I'm pretty sure it’s called ‘I Think I Love You’. Then, we have ‘Flip City’ from the Ghostbusters 2 soundtrack minus all the other fancy instruments, ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’, and ‘Stacy’s Mom’. We need to vote now , our musical careers are at stake!”

Erica rolls her eyes, and Rory nods vigorously.

“Right! My vote is for Tenacious D!” Rory pipes up, throwing his hand up in the air.

“I like your enthusiasm, Rory! I also vote for Tenacious D, on your behalf. Erica, what's your vote?”

“I’m not trying to be the odd one out here, so I guess my vote is also for that one.”

Benny claps once, pumping his fists. “Perfect! Let’s get to practicing!”

After a long while of practicing, Benny throws his drumsticks to the ground, only in mild frustration and just slightly overdramatic, and groans obnoxiously.

“ Okay , I think that’s enough practice for now. Who’s up for a Special Benny Snack break?”

Erica groans, scrunching up her nose and shaking her head, but Rory perks up, picking up their hand and waving it excitedly. Benny grins.

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about! Be right back.” And with that, Benny heads into the house, leaving the two vampires alone. Erica fiddles and plucks at her guitar strings again as Rory plays with the microphone cord, twirling and untwirling it around her fingers. Erica, cool as a cucumber, leans towards Rory, catching their attention ever so slightly. They quirk an eyebrow at her, and she simply smirks right back. Uh oh.

“Sooo… How are things with Ethan?”

Rory splutters, his face flushing as he nearly drops the microphone onto the floor. Erica chortles, wishing that vampires could show up on camera so she could’ve caught his reaction. Rory tries to casually clear his throat but fails, opting to try and lean against the nearby table.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about! Things are perfectly fine, and perfectly friendly . We’re just friends. Just a couple of friendly dudes doing friendly dude things,” Rory pauses, trying to compose themself, before smirking right back at Erica. “I should be asking you how things’re going with Sarah . I see how you look at each other sometimes!”

It’s Erica’s turn to flush and stutter now, and she juts out her bottom lip in a pout and crosses her arms in front of her chest, to which Rory just cackles. Before she can bite back with something smart, Benny re-emerges into the garage, a plate of seemingly innocent sandwiches in his hands.

“Behold, another one of Benny the Magnificent ’s greatest works!”

He tries to offer a sandwich – which seems to look like a normal grilled cheese sandwich, but upon closer inspection, anyone can see that it is not just cheese in that sandwich, but peanut butter and possibly a pickle or two – to Erica, who quickly shakes her head, turning Benny and pushing him in Rory’s direction, who happily takes a sandwich from the platter. Benny takes his own as well, putting the extra sandwich to the side, a quiet ‘suit yourself!’ coming out of his mouth before he takes a huge bite, humming with approval at the taste. Erica tries not to gag, and Rory takes a bite of the sandwich as well, seemingly unfazed. After a few moments of eating in silence, Rory puts the sandwich down, and steeples their fingers in front of them, turning to face Benny, who’s just finishing the last bite of his sandwich.

“Benny, I just gotta say it…”

Benny perks up, awaiting to hear the usual praise coming from his friend.

“These are ass, and if I have to take another bite I think I might vom.”

Benny’s and Erica’s jaws drop in sync as they look at Rory, who also seems surprised at himself for saying that as their hand shoots up to slap over their mouth.

“ What?! I thought you liked my creations!” Benny cries, throwing his hands up in the air, and Erica’s shocked expression begins to mold itself into a gleeful one.

“I do! I like all of them!” Rory yelps, trying to fix the situation, but the words keep tumbling out of his mouth, and it’s like watching a dam break at last. “Most of them. At least a few of them… okay, maybe just like one or two..?”

Benny gawks as Rory slaps her hands over her mouth again, realizing that talking isn’t going to fix the situation anymore. Erica barks out a laugh, claps, and eventually her laughing fit forces her to double over and clutch her sides. Benny frowns at Erica and shoves her in an effort to get her to knock it off, causing her to stumble a bit as she tries to stay in her seat. Soon enough, the laughter dies down ever so slightly and is reduced to giggles, and Erica sits back up again. Benny glowers at her again, crossing his arms over his chest as he pouts like a little kid, slouching in his seat.

“Can’t believe I thought you were a flavor connoisseur like I was, turns out it was all a lie.” Benny starts, before something clicks in his brain, and he sits up quickly and turns to Erica.

“Erica! That drink I gave you, did you ever try it after we talked??”

Erica, still recovering, shakes her head no, wiping at the tears that had formed in her eyes.

“No, and I never planned on it, dork! I just took it so you’d leave us alone, and gave it to… Rory…” Erica pauses, the cogs in her brain turning as the pair turn to look at Rory, then back at each other, and Erica’s expression grows dangerous with each passing second.

“Benny… what did you put in that drink?”

Benny shrinks in on himself ever so slightly, turning away from her sharp gaze and scratches at the back of his neck.

“I-it uhh, may or may not have been… a truth potion?” He squeaks out, shrugging sheepishly. Erica glares daggers, and Rory pales.

“ What?! ” They say simultaneously, Erica growling it out as Rory yelps again. Benny throws his hands up in front of him, waving them around wildly as he tries to defend himself, both with his words and from a hypothetical barrage from the two vampires sitting in front of him.

“It was a truth potion! I wanted to give it to Erica so she can finally stop being a coward and confess her feelings for Sarah, or get some juicy vampire gossip from her, I don’t know! I didn’t plan on it being given to anyone else!”

“Of course you didn’t, dumbass! You never do!” Erica snaps, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration and getting to her feet, and she begins to pace back and forth. “How long do the effects last? Did you at least figure that out, Einstein?”

“Probably a day or so at least? Shouldn’t be longer than that, so it should be no problem, see?” Benny says, trying to fix the situation, but Rory’s still not satisfied.

“A day or so?? What am I supposed to do, spill my guts to half of Whitechapel at the festival tonight? You guys already know I can’t hold water, what makes you think I’ll be okay with a truth potion and singing a song about love? I didn’t wanna tell Ethan like this, it had to be special–!”

Before he keeps on yammering, Rory slaps their hands over their mouth once again in an effort to keep the words in, eyes wide. Benny’s eyebrows shoot up, and he blinks a couple times at the vampire. Rory blinks back, and Benny smirks.

“You have a crush on Ethan and didn’t think to tell me your master plan?”

It comes out muffled, but Rory still responds truthfully, to her dismay. “’S not jus’ a crush I fink, def’nit’ly more, but the chances of him liking me back have t’ be slim t’ none.”

Benny snorts and shrugs, a smirk still adorning his face.

“I don’t know man, only one way to find out now!”

To that, Rory pouts, shaking his head and running their hands down their face and then shaking his hands to loosen them up a bit.

“Whatever. Let’s just get this over with, I guess.”

Rory waits in the wings of the stage, looking over the crowd, his stomach twisting in knots. He fidgets with the cord of the microphone in his hands as he catches sight of Ethan and Sarah, lost in their own conversation as they wait for their friends to take the stage finally, the last act of the day. The tech crew is nearly done loading up Benny’s drum set, making sure everything is set up correctly and is all tuned up alongside Erica’s guitar. One of the crew stops by Rory, taking the mic from their hands and tapping it a couple times and mumbling into it to test it, before giving it back with a thumbs up. Rory nods in thanks, and turns back to look out at the crowd. Erica comes to stand just behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder gently.

“Everything okay?”

Rory half-shrugs. “Well, you know, just terrified. Not of the crowd, though.”

Erica nods in understanding, patting their shoulder a couple times comfortingly. After a few moments, they both hear the voice of the stage manager further back in the wing say ‘ five minutes to places ,’ and turn back to look in their direction, spotting Benny nearby in the process.

“Thank you, five.” Rory and Erica say simultaneously. Rory takes a deep breath, shaking out his limbs and rocking back and forth slightly to calm their nerves. Erica pats them on the shoulder one more time, squeezing gently, and she walks off to go grab her guitar from the stagehand holding onto it.

“Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” Benny chirps, coming up behind Rory and bumping shoulders as he passes, heading to his drum set with drumsticks in hand. Rory takes another deep breath, and makes his way to the front end of the stage. She looks back over her shoulder at Erica and Benny, who both give her an encouraging thumbs up. She smiles, and gives one right back.

“Let’s rock!”

They patiently await for their cue, poised and ready, and suddenly the two sides of the curtain roll open, revealing the small band. The crowd – which was a bit larger of a turnout than they expected, but it is a festival after all – cheers, and Rory can’t help but grin at the sight. They throw their free hand up in the air and wave it excitedly, bringing the mic up to their mouth with their other hand.

“Helloooo Whitechapel!” They start, and the crowd whoops and whistles in response. “My name is Rory, and these are my two friends Erica and Benny. We’ve got something special in store for you today, and we hope you enjoy it. This is ‘I Think I Love You’ by Tenacious D!”

The crowd cheers once more, and when they quiet down, Rory turns back to his two bandmates, counting them down silently, and then it begins.

As both of Erica’s and Benny’s solos come to an end and the chorus is ready to begin, Rory takes a chance to step towards the end of the stage, a determined look in his eyes. Ethan watches, quirking an eyebrow as Rory points a finger directly at him, but then it all clicks, and his face flushes. Rory smiles sheepishly, and brings the mic back to his lips.

“Ethan, I have to tell you something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time, but didn’t have the courage to say before… I think I love you.”

The crowd cheers loudly and Rory pauses, thinking, before they shut their eyes and shake their head, waving their hand as if to shake off their last statement, and start again, growing more passionate with each word that comes out of their mouth.

“Y’know what, scratch that, I do love you! But, I’m gonna say ‘I think I love you,’ because I don’t even know if this is love, ‘cause I’ve never felt this feeling before, and I think I might be going insane!”

The crowd cheers again, and Rory seems to forget where she is for a moment, but she shakes it off and an awkward smile breaks out onto her face. She tries to dance around casually as she searches the crowd again, looking for Ethan, and a full grin replaces the awkward one she had before as she finds him and sees that his expression matches hers – lovestruck.

“HEY, I think I love you! So what am I so afraid of?!” Rory breaks into song again with added vigor, bouncing around the stage and trying not to get tangled in the microphone cord. Ethan can’t help but watch with adoration, and Sarah grabs him by the shoulders and begins to shake him back and forth, squealing in his ear. Benny fist pumps once, a huge grin on his face, and Erica smirks, both of them feeding off of Rory’s energy and playing with added intensity.

“Do you think I have a case? Let me ask you to your face,” Rory turns back around, looking for Ethan in the crowd once more, and once she finds him she outstretches her hand towards him, speaking to Ethan directly. Ethan beams.

“Do you think you love me? I think I love you!”

“Thank you, Whitechapel! Good night!”

As the crowd roars and the curtains close, Sarah practically shoves Ethan through the throngs of people, trying to work their way backstage. A few handfuls of people notice the pair and try to move out of their way, but the rest are still buzzing with the excitement of the performance that Rory, Erica, and Benny just gave. Ethan tries to mumble “oops” or “sorry” to anyone they bump into, but Sarah comes to the rescue and just yells “coming through!” to anyone within earshot, and that seems to work at least somewhat. Eventually, they make their way to the wings of the stage, and push past the curtain, weaving through the tech crew that are working to clean up. Sarah eventually spots Erica near the dressing rooms, and throws up her arms, waving to try and catch her attention.

“Erica!”

At the mention of her name, Erica whips her head around, until her eyes land on Sarah. She smiles softly at her, and when she spots Ethan following right behind Sarah, her smile turns into a knowing smirk. Ethan’s face turns bright red, and Erica snickers.

“Go get ‘em, lover boy!” She quips, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb at one of the dressing rooms. Ethan waves her off, his blush spreading to his ears and neck. He can hear the girls start to giggle and chatter away about something else as he walks to the door that Erica had gestured at, and he stands in front of it awkwardly as he tries to think of something intelligent he could possibly say to Rory instead of just allowing his brain to turn into a bag of bricks. He feels like with the performance alone, Rory had already put the whole thing and the feelings he had into words so perfectly, what else could he possibly add? As he’s standing there lost in thought, the door suddenly flies open and Ethan jumps.

“Shoot, sorry, my bad, I’ll mov��”

“Oh! Ethan, hey!”

Ethan stops, his mouth agape as he realizes he’s now face-to-face with the exact vampire he needed to talk to… completely unprepared to do so.

“...Rory!”

Rory beams at him, and Ethan feels like his brain completely short-circuits at the sight.

“Uhh… I– uhm. You… you did. Good. You did good!” He somehow manages to stutter out, and Rory snickers.

“Thanks, man. Although, that stuttering was a bit painful to watch,” Rory says, before their eyes widen and they cover their mouth with their hand in horror. “Oh my god, I am so sorry. Benny gave Erica this stupid truth potion which she then gave to me because she didn’t wanna drink it, and of course I drank it all, and–!”

Ethan places his hand over the one Rory has shielding their mouth, and chuckles. If vampires could blush, Ethan knows that Rory would be just as red as he is. He shakes his head and rolls his eyes at the mention of his best friend’s failed plan.

“I told Benny that his plan would never work, Erica’s too smart for that,” He says, then his eyes widen as well, and he tries to recover, “N-not to say that you’re not smart or anything, because you are and can be, i-it’s just–”

Rory giggles, taking Ethan’s hand in both of her own, and Ethan never thought he could do it but he manages to blush darker than before; he has to be radiating heat now, there’s no way he isn’t, but either Rory doesn’t notice or he simply doesn’t say anything, to Ethan’s relief.

“Hey, it’s okay! You’re good, we’re good,” She says, pausing to look down at their joined hands. She smiles, but furrows her brows a bit, and Ethan tilts his head questioningly.

“Did… did you like the song? It wasn’t supposed to be a confession-of-love performance, just a regular one, but that’s how it ended up, I guess. Thanks to the dumb truth potion, and a spur-of-the-moment decision I made at our rehearsal yesterday.”

“I loved it, you guys did great. You did great. I loved watching it. Watching you.”

Rory beams again, and Ethan grins right back, until he remembers something, and smirks.

“Oh! To answer your questions from before – I think you do have a case, and I do think I love you.” Ethan adds cleverly. Rory blinks at him a couple times, confused, before it finally clicks and he cackles, pulling Ethan close and wrapping his arms around him, squeezing him in a hug. Ethan squawks at the sudden movement, but recovers quickly, breaking into a fit of giggles and squeezing right back.

“I love you, Ethan!”

“I love you, Rory.”

#submission #mbav #my babysitters a vampire #my babysitter's a vampire #mbav holiday exchange #mbavholidayexchange #ethan morgan #sarah fox #erica jones #rory keaner #benny weir #ethory

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