Joyride in Hell

-One Shot-

Damon sat in his car wondering why the hell he was even here…

It was Halloween in Mystic Falls. The streets were full of people between the ages of 'young enough to still be trick-or-treating' and 'old enough to enjoy watching the children be ushered around from door to door seeking candy'. The older kids (teens to young adults) were slowly passing by his car on their way to an elaborate corn maze and haunted hayride set up by Caroline Forbes, the Cheer Squad, and the Mystic Falls Student Council.

This wasn't Damon's scene… So once again, why was he here?

There the answer was, no more than 20 feet in front of him, standing in a queue that was ridiculously long for an event focused on entertaining the youth of Mystic Falls. Jeremy was dressed in a nice form fitting black three-button vest over a tight short sleeved white button-up, a black neatly pressed tie trailed down his chest from where it was knotted firmly at his throat, a pair of simple black slacks, and shiny black shoes. Topping off the ensemble of 'Gangster' was a sleek black fedora sitting crocked atop the neatly styled hair, no gel, and a plastic tommy gun replica held loosely in his right hand.

He could admit, to himself, in the safe confines of his car, that Jeremy made a nice picture; all fine lines and defined planes. His head was tilted just so, catching the light from the eerily glowing pumpkins that bordered the queue all the way to the ticket booth for the evenings events. The kid was beautiful… Damnit! What kind of thought was that?! Jeremy Gilbert? Beautiful? Really? Hell yes!

Damon watched the boy for just a minute more before swallowing his disdain and another emotion that he would rather not mention right now that was definitely not caused by the youngest Gilbert.

"Might as wells get this over with…"

~ Damon + Jeremy ~

Jeremy stood in the crazy long line, which sadly enough didn't seem to be moving at all. He tapped out a steady little rhythm against his thigh with the barrel of the toy guy he'd found lying around in the back of his closet, conveniently supplying him with the idea for his costume he currently wore, a bit self-consciously might he add. He was still getting used to the lack of baggy clothing in his closet, and the new polo's and henley's that kept mysteriously taking their place in his closet without him actively trying to replace them… Don't even get him started on the drastic change in the fit of his jeans… At first he thought it was an Elena fashion intervention, but he was beginning to have his suspicions about a dark surly man slipping into his room after buying him clothes he'd never asked for. It wasn't really a secret that Damon didn't really appreciate his 'grungy emo style'.

Lost in his own thoughts about Damon, he didn't notice when said person strolled past all the people lined behind him in varying degrees of impatience. It took said man gripping his arm in a vice grip to fully pull Jeremy from his own head and back into the present.

~ Damon + Jeremy ~

Damon stood there glaring heatedly at anyone who dare complain about his attempt to break line. Jeremy had a hard time suppressing his grin, something that did not go unnoticed by the older man. When he had asked Damon to meet him here he hadn't really expected him to show up, and most definitely hadn't expected him to actually dress up.

Damon was, well, more attractive than any one person had the right to be; even with half his face covered by a white porcelain mask. He was dressed in an ornately embroidered satin black vest over a white long sleeved button up shirt, a black bow tie tied perfectly at his collar, and a short satin black cape set smoothly over his shoulders. His black slacks were creased and fit far better than slacks had a right to fit. He was sleek and the closest thing to perfection Jeremy had ever seen, from the hair slicked back with just a bit of gel on his head to the shiny black expensive leather shoes on his feet.

"Like what you see?" Damon snarked refusing to release his grip on Jeremy's arm, which could be labeled as possessive if the boy didn't know any better.

Jeremy smiled a happy open smile as he answered honestly, "Yeah." A light pink dusted his cheeks as he looked up the few inches Damon had on him. "I actually didn't think you were going to show up, especially not dressed up… Phantom." As he spoke he couldn't help but grin.

"Tch, shows how much faith you have in me, Corleone." Damon clicked his tongue as he reeled Jeremy closer by the single hand on his arm effectively dislodging him from the line.

"Wait! What are you doing!? I've been standing in line for like thirty minutes and I've finally gotten this far!" Jeremy almost squeaked as he watched the smug couple that had been standing behind him for all of that 30 minutes move forward easily closing the gap where he had just been. "Totally rude and uncalled for dude!"

"Relax, Jer." Damon almost crooned as he pulled the disgruntled teen away from the line towards the head of the queue, people glaring as they passed, probably suspecting they were trying to line jump. "Not only was I not going to stand you up, I put in some effort and planned ahead."

Damon preened under the look of pleased surprise that Jeremy gave him. "Yes, I know I'm quite fantastic. Feel free to show your adoration at any moment." Jeremy blushed as he averted his gaze back to looking at the queue they walked past, some people now openly glaring.

Damon dragged Jeremy all the way to the ticket booth where Matt, Werewolf from London (the uni-brow, thin mustache and French beret kind of gave him away), was selling tickets. When he saw the Damon, with Jeremy in tow, he smiled broadly before reaching under the counter. Producing two tickets for the 'Haunted Hayride' he ushered them two with a growly, "Have fun, guys". Jeremy completely missed the grin and wink Matt tossed Damon as the vampire lead him away and around what was beginning to look like an angry mob of a line.

"Next time call in advance and reserve your tickets."

~ Damon + Jeremy ~

The Haunted Hayride was a pretty good idea. It was a little cheesy and more along the lines of amusing than frightening. Being there with Damon, well that was a plus. Damon seemed to find the whole thing so incredibly funny. A steady chuckle seemed to be coming from the man as he pointed out things that weren't even humanly possible, or things that really weren't even non-humanly possible.

All the while he kept touching Jeremy as he pointed these things out. It started with nudges to the shoulder, turning into prods to his ribs and side, before finally becoming a warm hand to the knee.

The other occupants didn't seem to really be enjoying their humor, but Jeremy didn't care. He didn't hear the whispers of irritated passengers, just Damon's deep chuckle of bare amusement. He didn't see the looks they were sending their way, only Damon's laughing eyes and smirking mouth. Hell, he didn't fell the autumn chill, Damon's hand still warmly resting on his thigh. Jeremy was far too smitten to care about anything other than the smirking man beside him.

~ Damon + Jeremy ~

The Haunted Hayride, not something he would have normally been up for, was now looking to be a promising event for years to come. It was hilarious to see what Caroline had deemed scary. Poor little vampire that she was, she had an odd sense of fear. There were more clowns lurking behind those trees than Damon would have imagined for something like this. The dramatics were also far too amusing. He couldn't hide his amusement, not that there was a need; it was only Jeremy to see it.

Also, it turns out that Haunted Hayrides were perfect places to practice casual groping. Damon shared his amusement as often as possible; it gave him an excuse to reach out and touch Jeremy, drawing the boys attention to him, which was actually unnecessary in the end because Jeremy's attention never went far. But there he was, molesting a shoulder, feeling up the boys ribs, and finally working his way down to blatantly caressing the teens knee and thigh.

Damon heard the whispers, saw the looks, felt the night chill in contrast to the constant heat radiating off of Jeremy, but none of it stopped him from leaning over and stealing their first kiss, Jeremy's warmth only egging it on. Damon was smitten; he had been since day one of his return.

~ FIN ~