Don't Take the Child

Summary: Stefan takes Delena to the store and unknowingly uses her to attract female attention to himself, leaving Damon none too pleased. Based off of a SL idea.

Chapter 1

Trudging into the living room with a shrewd look consuming his visage, Stefan's chartreuse optics spot his little niece, Delena, sitting on the sumptuous couch, coloring on a piece of paper at the coffee table. He needed to go to the store to pick up some things, and he figured it would be fun to take his two year old niece with him. "Hey kiddo. Wanna go to the store with Uncle Steffy?"

Delena looked up at him as his herculean figure promenaded across Damon's velvety, Persian rug, causing her stout limb to extend as she held her tiny hand up. "Stwop!"

A frown instantly creased his chiseled features as Stefan hiked a curious brow, wondering why she was telling him to stop. "What's wrong?"

Delena's cyanic hues gazed down at his thick-souled boots, before jabbing a stubby finger at them. "Bwad shoe! Off da wug!"

Realization hit Stefan like a ton of bricks as his chartreuse irises rolled heavenwards, knowing that only one person in the world would teach her to say that. "Your dad put you up to this, didn't he?"

Eliciting a few giggles in response to Stefan's question, Delena's chubby hand wrapped back around the amethyst crayon as she began to resume coloring, soon squealing as Stefan's herculean limbs encompassed her infantile structure, picking her up and attaching the toddler to his hip, giving her a buoyant grin. "C'mon, we're going for a ride in the car."

"Car dwirty."

Delena continued to emanate contagious laughter as Stefan disembogued an enervated sigh, using dexterous phalanges to expeditiously tickle underneath the little girl's chin. "No it is not, you little clean freak." Ambling towards the door, Stefan circulated his emerald eyes around the room once more, before opening the door and walking towards the car, opening the metallic car door as he strapped Delena inside, before shutting it lightly and getting in the driver's side, sliding the keys into the ignition and revving the engine, taking off towards the nearest store.

"Delena, do we really need all of this?" Stefan arched a dark brow as he saw his little niece holding a box of chocolate fudge cookies. He had made the mistake of letting her roam around the store, thus enabling her to grab almost every cookie container from the lower shelf, begging him to get it for her. "Okay, fine, but I swear Delena, this is the last box I'm buying." Taking the box out of her stubby hands, Stefan swiftly picked up the energetic child, placing her into the seat of the shopping cart, as a groan fell from his thin margins, seeing about ten boxes of cookies sitting in the buggy. "You're a little cookie monster, you know that?" Puerile giggles emitted from Delena as Stefan jabbed his forefinger at her stout belly, snapping his head up quickly when a mellifluous laugh is heard behind him, his viridian spheres meeting with a young woman. Her blonde locks cascaded down her svelte back as she gripped her own shopping cart with dainty fingertips, amusement shimmering within oceanic orbs. "You are really good with her."

A low chortle escaped his thin lines as Stefan adverted his malachite orbs away from Delena, focusing all his attention on the blonde standing before him. "Well, I am the world's greatest uncle."

An ebullient grin lifted the girl's rosy lips, hearing the tearing of cardboard as Delena managed to get her hands on one of the boxes, trying to open it. Stefan frowned instantly, taking the box away from her. "Delena, do not open cookies in the-" He stopped in his tracks when the pellucid liquid garnered within Delena's watery orbs, threatening to create a cataract down her blowzy cheeks. His urbane physiognomy softened marginally, as he efficiently tore the top of the box clean off. "That's how you open them, kiddo." Flashing a coy grin, his leafy hues diverted back to the woman who was still standing there, descrying the tender moment. "Awwww..."

Delena was happily munching on her cookies, masticating one after another as she slipped them past plush barricades, not noticing Stefan had wandered over to the woman, using his charismatic features to woo her even more. "Her dad isn't around a lot, so I usually have to take care of her." They continued to talk for awhile, as Stefan grinned like an idiot on the inside, realizing how easy it is to pick up girls when you have a child. "I'm Lindsey."

A lewd expression claimed Stefan's debonair visage. "I'm Stefan. Want to go back to my place for awhile, Lindsey?"

Lindsey nodded rapidly, her glossed petals splaying across the expanse of her cranium in an effulgent grin. "I'd love to." After checking out at the cash register, Stefan quickly strolled back to the car, putting all of the groceries into the back while letting Delena snack on her cookies in her carseat, turning the AC on in the vehicle as he traipsed back into the store to look for Lindsey.

Stefan's green pools scanned the area until he finally caught sight of her leaving with her cart of groceries. Advancing towards her petite structure, he benignly tapped her shoulder, chortling lowly as she jumped before whirling around to face his masculine countenance, turquoise scleras burning into his forest green ones before she grazed rubicund petals against luscious brims, feeling a shiver running down her spine as Stefan molded his lips into hers, kissing with ardent passion as his adroit digits gripped banana locks, trailing his fingertips down her porcelain backside, relishing in every moment before it was broken by a guff voice emanating from behind the two. "Having fun there brother?"

The hairs on Stefan's back stood straight up as he detracted his lips from Lindsey's, turning around to face the disapprobation permeating across the expanse of his brother's stony features. "Look, Damom, it's not what it looks like. I can explain!"

"Explain?!" A low scoff fell from rose-tinted margins as Damon shook his head from side to side, flabbergasted at his younger brother's salacious behavior. "I need no explainaton, brother. It's pretty clear what you're doing."

Disquietude suffused Lindsey's pulchritudinous lineaments as she started to back away, keeping a tenacious grip on her groceries. "I think I should go, and let you two work this out."

"Lindsey, wait!" A deep frown encroached on Stefan's forehead as the girl walked away, heading towards her car as Stefan fulminated his burly form to face the languid state of his brother, leaning up against the brick wall as the drumming of his callused digits could be heard against the wall. "Are you satisfied? You let my entertainment for the night get away."

"Actually, I am happy." Using brawny limbs to heave himself off the dirt-caked wall, Damon stood inches from his younger brother's face, staring him down as cyanic eyes burned with austere authority. "Mind telling me where my kid is?"

"She's in the car." Sighing, Stefan looked away, knowing he was being a terrible exemplar for his niece, and probably deserved Damon's vociferations.

"So, let me get this straight. You took my child, without even asking me, to the store just so you can lock lips with a blonde? For God's sake Stefan, you could have at least picked out a brunette."

"She walked up to me!" Stefan managed to get out through gritted teeth, green verdigris growing agitated. "And what about you, teaching her to protect your damn rugs from any minuscule amount of dirt and grim that might garner on the surface."

"My rugs have more value than your meaningless sex life will ever have." Damon snapped back, still angered that his brother used his daughter to get into a woman's pants.

Silence loomed over them for a few moments before it was broken by Stefan's humorous chuckle. "You know, you would probably be doing this same things if the roles were reversed."

"That's besides the point!" Damon snapped back bitingly, knowing deep inside that Stefan's words were true, but hell would freeze before he ever admitted it. "You're not taking my kid to the store again."

Stefan rotated his chartreuse optics heavenwards, eliciting a sigh at his brother's brusque behavior. "Yeah, sure. Whatever." Walking back to the car, Stefan reluctantly got in and drove off, not saying anything to Delena as she jubilantly munched on her prized cookies, oblivious to the unusual silence consuming the car.

Arriving home, Stefan expeditiously unloaded the groceries and grabbed Delena from the backseat, taking her inside the house where Elena was awaiting his arrival, her expression pernicious. "What's this I hear from Damon about you using our baby as a chick magnet?"

A groan entered the capacious vicinity, Stefan's emerald oculars burning with vexation. "I did it unintentionally, Elena. How many times do I have to explain myself?"

Swiftly walking towards Stefan, Elena took Delena from his hold, her face scrunching up when she sees the remains of eaten cookies residing on my alabaster visage. "Are you seriously incapable of cleaning up a child? I can't believe you took her out in public like this!"

"Are you done?" Annoyance inundated Stefan's voice as he leaned up against the wall, eyeing Elena for a moment before going upstairs, a coy grin elongating across his suave features. Oh yes, he was definitely doing this again. Pissing off his brother and Elena was just too much fun.

Fin