Rowing the Rarepair Rowboat: Kyle Valenti (Roswell, New Mexico) x Hayley Marshall (The Vampire Diaries)
Requested by @wonderdoves
The resemblance is uncanny. Hayley honestly couldn't quite believe that he wasn't really Tyler. She knew doppelgangers existed, of course, but she just wasn't expecting to meet one of someone she already knows.
But some time has passed since she first ran into Kyle at the Wild Pony, a cozy little bar full of cowboys in Roswell. She's gotten over the similar appearance now that she's spent enough time with him to know for certain that he is nothing like Tyler. For one, he's a doctor.
There's a sigh as soon as the door opens. Hayley tries to suppress her grin, but she's miserable at it.
"You know, you really shouldn't be here," Kyle tells her, but there's fondness to his voice, not a lecture. "And she really shouldn't be here. Isn't this, like, traumatizing for her?"
He sits down next to her as she looks down at Hope, happily cross-legged on the floor, facing the window into the operating room. Her attention's more focused on the little patterns she's making appear on their side of the glass than what's actually going on inside.
"Her entire life has been full of trauma since before she was even born," Hayley counters, turning her head to look at him. "Trust me, this is fairly low on the scale. And the guy lived, so all she witnessed was brilliant doctors doing their jobs."
Kyle shakes his head, but he doesn't argue the point. "Okay, well, since you're here, I get off in about ten minutes. I just need to wait for Maxfield to finish up in there. Then Crashdown?"
Hayley nods. "Sounds good."
He returns her nod, then glances over at Hope. Pushing up out of his seat, he slides down next to her on the floor, back against the glass.
"That's a pretty cool design," he says to her, pointing a finger at the two little spirals she's drawn with her magic.
"That one means Witch," she explains, pointing to one, then the other, "and this one is Werewolf. I'm both."
Kyle's smile widens, glancing from the symbols to her. "Well, that makes you very unique then, doesn't it?"
Hope's face lights up, and part of Hayley does, too, just watching them as she starts to carve out the symbol for Vampire and starts giving Kyle a history lesson on the different species. He doesn't seem to mind at all, listening with rapt interest and enthusiasm.
Hayley eventually draws Hope's attention to let Kyle finish up in the operating room, and they head out to the diner. It's nice, hanging out with him, and honestly, it's hard for her to think of Tyler when she sees him now. They're two very different people, and she's definitely glad about that.
And it's strange, but she just feels things for Kyle that she never did with Tyler. She just knows that he's worth sticking around Roswell for.