Disclamer: Sigh. You know how this goes. I own nothing TVD.

Summary: What if we had found out about the possible existence of a sire bond with Damon and Caroline, back in Season Two ?

Author's Note: Back with a 10-chapter Daroline fiction, you guys ! Who's excited? I'm excited. Title and summary borrowed from Usher's song.

Mars vs Venus

It had been one of those nights. Damon had nearly died, kissed his brother's girl, been called in emergency to meet Liz Forbes in the hospital, agreed to give Caroline some blood to heal her from a car accident, and found out Katherine was back in town. To say the least, he was exhausted and confused.

The fine mess of his feelings didn't preoccupy him as such as his crazy ex did. After avoiding him for so long, what was she doing back in Mystic Falls? How had he kissed and not recognized the woman he spent a century and a half loving? He was furious that, once again, Katherine had managed to fool him. As soon as he got out of that hospital, he would make sure to find her. Stake her. Rip her head off. Something poetic.

However, for the time being, his concern was Caroline. As he reached her bedroom door, he met Matt Donovan, her boyfriend, who was pacing back and forth like a madman. Damon massaged his temples and sighed.

This wasn't going to be easy.

"How is she doing?" Damon asked politely, effectively catching Matt's attention.

"Pretty much the same," he answered sadly. "She's still unconscious."

"Can I see her?"

The human perceptibly hesitated. It was a secret for no one that Damon and Caroline were "a thing", but it was also public knowledge that she had ended things because he had treated her like crap.

"Sure," was all the jock said as he walked off.

Damon internally thanked this one for being less stubborn than ninety per cent of the dwellers in Mystic Falls. He didn't have it in him to pick another fight tonight.

He carefully threw a look around to make sure he wouldn't be seen and pushed her bedroom door open. In the dim light, as he made his way to her bed, he realized that it was the first time he had seen her without makeup. He took in the worrisome paleness of her skin and her ruffled hair, imagining the shriek of terror that would escape her lips once she'd wake up and realize how terrible she looked.

A small smile formed on his lips. Caroline had a way of being shallow and truly careless that he sometimes envied. In all circumstances, she was full of light, and managed to always see the glass half-full, instead of half-empty. Had he met her back in his long-lost human days, he would have found her exquisite. In this life, however, his darkness was simply too consuming. It would have ruined her.

Damon sighed again and allowed his fingers to brush against her arm softly, interrogating himself as to the reason for that gesture. She looked so fragile, so breakable in the neon light that he felt his heart clench.

He felt sorry for Caroline. She always made bad decisions when it came to her entourage; the best proof was that she had engaged in a relationship with him and struggled to walk away from it, even after he became abusive. But she hadn't learnt her lesson, and she had become friends with Tyler Lockwood.

Now, Damon had no idea what kind of supernatural beings the Lockwoods were, but they were something. Something that had caused Caroline to lie unconscious in this bed.

She was always in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Ever the collateral damage.

Damon promised himself to get to the bottom of that, regardless of the chaos that was slowly taking over his life. Richard Lockwood might be dead, but his punk-ass of a son had caused enough problems as it was. He wouldn't allow it to go on any longer.

Silently still, he walked to the blinds and shut them. He inhaled deeply as he sat back next to Caroline and rolled up his sleeve. It wasn't hard to let the vampire take over – he was tired, and he was more than upset. His eyes turned red, dark veins surfaced under his skin, and the familiar sensation of his fangs pushing through his gums let him known that he was ready.

He bit into his wrist without so much as a wince, and lost no time in opening Caroline's mouth. She was unconscious, but the thick liquid flooded into her mouth naturally. He pressed his wrist against her lips until he found that she had ingested enough to be cured in the next twenty-four hours.

Caroline's fingers moved slightly, and she whimpered. She was going to be fine. Damon stared at the bite marks on his skin until they healed, mere seconds later, faintly relieved to know that, thanks to his blood, the blonde's wounds were already starting to fix themselves.

Truth be told, Damon felt like he had accomplished something noteworthy for the first time in a long while. Of course, he'd done it firstly for Elena and Liz, but he could see now that it was the best way to make amends for the way he had treated Caroline in the past. Even if she would never know what he'd done, it was a way to make up for calling her 'useless'.

Tonight, Elena had decided that he was worth saving; he had done the same with Caroline. He hoped, for her sake, that from then on, she'd be more careful choosing her friends, but above all, that she'd put this second chance at life to good use. Just like he was planning on doing with his own.

—

Caroline shifted uncomfortably in her bed, still amazed that she felt so good, considering the gravity of her wounds. According to everybody in the hospital, it was a miracle that she was even awake. She hated hospitals. They were cold and impersonal and they smelled of detergent. Not to mention the neon light made her look dull.

She couldn't wait to be out of this miserable place. She wanted to be with Matt, and go shopping with Bonnie. There was also the school carnival to attend to. Anything to put this dreadful incident behind.

Lying in a hospital bed made her feel weak. And Caroline Forbes was done being weak.

For the time being, she needed to get back to sleep. She internally cursed whichever nurse hadn't turned off her television and felt for the remote. She half-opened her eyes, and jumped when she caught a glimpse of a dark silhouette walking towards her as she turned off the TV.

"Elena?" she said, her mouth dry.

Caroline relaxed when her friend greeted her, and hid her eyes from the light for a second.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

Elena walked closer, and the blonde frowned, sensing something different about her friend.

"My name is Katherine," she said. "I was hoping you could give the Salvatore brothers a message for me."

"What are you talking about?" Caroline asked in confusion. "What message?"

Elena, or Katherine – whatever her name was, paused for a second, and the hint of a smile crossed her lips.

"Game on."

Caroline barely had time to comprehend what was happening. Elena grabbed a pillow and pressed it to her face.

Panic built up in a second, and she wondered what had gotten into the brunette. She struggled the best she could for a few seconds, but her attacker was stronger. The more she fought, the harder the pillow pressed against her face. Her cries for help were muffled – wasn't any nurse in charge of freaking night rounds?

Where's my mom? Where's Matt?

Soon enough, everything faded to black.

Where's Damon?

—

Damon sat up in his king size bed, his heart pounding in his chest. He exhaled deeply, clutching his hand to his bare chest and trying to breathe evenly. It felt as if someone had been trying to smother him – even though he didn't need to breathe, technically, the feeling was still unpleasant.

His eyes quickly adapting to the darkness of the room, he scanned his surroundings, expecting to find someone there. But he was alone. It had all been just a dream.

He lied back on the bed and willed himself to sleep, all the while faintly wondering why Caroline's face kept materializing behind his eyelids.

—

Caroline caught a glimpse of Damon walking in the school, on his own. From the moment she laid eyes on him, it was easier to breathe. Damon was a vampire, like her. But he was older and wiser. He was strong. She was safe with him. And she had some unfinished business with him – he was going to pay.

She followed him into the corridor.

When he picked up the sound of her heels behind him, he turned her and remained impassive. Although he didn't let it on, he couldn't help but notice how truly beautiful she looked. Her hair perfectly framed her face, while her eyes were enhanced by some grey eye-shadow. Damon internally laughed at himself for even being able to tell eye-shadow from eye-liner and mascara; this was all her doing.

Anyway, it was not exactly the kind of beauty you'd expect from someone who was in surgery a day before. But then again, she had him – and his vampire blood – to thank for that. He mentally congratulated himself; he'd done a great job fixing her. She had never looked so incredibly attractive.

"Hey, Blondie," he greeted. "They let you out."

She sensed his discomfort, and figured her newly found confidence must have been doing something right. She felt upset that even in a moment like this, he couldn't wait to get away from her.

"I remember," she simply said.

Damon stopped and turned to face her once again. There was something in her voice that he didn't quite like.

"What do you remember?" he asked tiredly.

Caroline started walking towards him.

"I remember how you…manipulated me," she started. "You pushed me around, abused me, erased my memories, fed on me."

Damon's undead heart skipped a beat at the enumeration. Where was this coming from? Had giving her blood triggered this? He had never heard of anything like it before. Maybe Bonnie had decided to tell the truth to Caroline; the witch wasn't exactly his biggest fan, and would stop at nothing to protect her friends.

"You're crazy", he said dismissively, never losing his smile.

Time to get away, he thought as he strode away from her.

"The memories have been coming back, in pieces," Caroline informed.

From the moment the two fangs had pushed through her gums, she'd been having these flashes of past moments. All of them involved Damon and the time they had spent together, in that masquerade of a relationship. There were holes in her memory, small incoherencies, moments of blackout that she could not explain before. At least now, the answers were given to her.

"You can't remember," he said as he made his way back towards her. "It's impossible."

Caroline stood a little taller, the closer he got to her. She was getting a kick from this entire situation.

"I mean," he hesitated. "Unless you're becoming a v—"

She simply smiled in response and found delight in the flash of incomprehension that passed his face.

"I have a message from Katherine," she continued.

Damon swallowed. Was Katherine going to screw with him forever? Why had she killed Caroline? He felt his anger spiral up at the thought of the older vampire killing his blonde protégée.

"She said game on," Caroline whispered.

She decided to walk away and leave him to torture himself with questions.

"Wait," he said.

Now he wanted her to stick around, now she mattered to him. It was too much. Caroline experienced another mood swing. She was here to make him pay. Before she could register the movements of her own body, she sent him flying across the corridor and felt infinitely satisfied to see the surprised look on his face. He deserved it.

"You suck," she spat.

She inhaled deeply and as she walked away, she had to stop herself from turning back to see if he was okay.

—

"He's dead," she said blankly. "I killed him."

Her face was smeared with blood to attest she had, indeed. Damon sympathized as her façade broke down and she started crying. Girls' tears were his least favourite thing in the world. Caroline's tears made him want to find who had caused them and rip their fucking heart out.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked, distress seeping through her every word.

"Hey, it's okay," he said comfortingly as he rubbed circles on her back. "I can help you."

"You can?"

"Yeah," he assured. "I have to."

As soon as the words passed his lips, Damon realized that this was the feeling he couldn't identify when he woke up panting the night before, and the same feeling that was gnawing at him as he tried to convince Stefan and Elena to kill Caroline. He had to help her. It was his duty.

His promise seemed to calm her down.

"What are you gonna do?" she asked.

"The only thing I can do," he answered with a smile.

He brushed a strand of hair away from her face, and smiled to himself at all the blood on her pretty face. He would have to teach her how to feed properly, one of these days.

For a moment, he paused. What was with him? The only person he was here to help was himself. He was not willing to deal with a new-born vampire, let alone Caroline Forbes. She was enough of a neurotic control freak as a human, no need to let her insufferable personality magnify.

"I'm going to kill you," he asserted to get back on track with his plan.

"Please, don't," she begged. "I don't want to die."

"But you're already dead," he argued lightly.

"No, I'm not," she said strongly. "Don't say that, okay? Just help me, okay?"

"Okay," Damon heard himself say.

"Help me, please," she said again.

Damon felt his mood shift once more as she gave in to the panic and started crying profusely. He remembered his thoughts of the night before, as he fed her his blood. She was always collateral damage. This situation wasn't any different: Katherine had used her to deliver a message. A stupid message. Poor Caroline hadn't asked for this.

He raised his palms to show her that he wasn't going to harm her. His arms enclosed her in a tight embrace and she held on to him. Damon's eyes closed. He suddenly felt like he had purpose. It was in the way her shoulders had relaxed against his, like she felt safe from the world with him.

"You're going to be okay," he soothed. "You'll be okay."

She nodded as her breathing became regular again. She wouldn't expect the blow – he was free to stake her and get on with his life. It felt wrong, but it was the safest option for everyone.

"It's the only way," he said, more for himself, but didn't move.

Damon frowned. It made sense that she wanted to punch him one moment and broke down in his arms the next; her new condition would require significant adjustments. But what was going on with him? Why was he so affectionate with her? Why didn't he want to let go?

Before he could answer that for himself, Stefan came out of nowhere and kicked the stake off his hand. From the corner of his eye, Damon noticed Elena coming along, as well.

"Stefan," he growled as Caroline stepped away from him.

The brothers didn't have time to argue as Caroline pushed Elena away.

"Get away from me," Caroline shrieked. "You killed me!"

"No, no, Caroline, that wasn't me," Elena said. "You know that. That was Katherine."

"No," the blonde yelled. "Then why did she look like you?"

"Stefan, we need to get her inside," Elena said.

Damon rolled his eyes. Elena always thought she had everything under control, but she didn't know the first thing about what Caroline needed. He was going to be in charge here, and nobody else. Stefan wouldn't turn Caroline into a bunny-eating, weak vampire. She needed to be strong.

"Let me deal with her," he demanded. "I'll get her inside and clean her up."

Stefan and Elena objected, of course, but Caroline ran to him and he protectively grabbed her hand. He dissuasively glared at his brother and started walking away.

"C'mon, Blondie," he said.

"Bonnie," Caroline breathed as she stopped.

Damon sighed as his eyes met the witch's green ones. Like he didn't have enough problems, seriously.

"No, no," the witch whispered. "No you can't— you can't be."

She grabbed Caroline's arm to sense if there was any humanity left in her friend, like the blood on Caroline's face wasn't enough proof. She'd be cruelly disappointed. Damon had no patience for this teenage drama. Meeting Bonnie would only push Caroline further into her state of distress, and it was not good for her.

Bonnie walked past them, not without glaring at their entwined fingers, and gasped when she glimpsed the dead body lying there. She buried her face into her arms and heaved a deep sigh. Caroline took a step towards her, but Damon firmly stopped her. She instinctively followed his silent order.

"This is crazy," Elena whispered.

Caroline's thoughts exactly. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore tonight. She couldn't seem to get away from Damon, of all people, without having a panic attack. She was avoiding Matt. She wondered if Elena was telling the truth about this Katherine person who had killed her, and Bonnie was looking at her with so much disgust that she felt sick to her stomach. And she wanted more blood already.

"I can't believe this is happening," Bonnie said, her face flooded with tears.

"Oh, don't pout about it," Damon answered, shovel in hand. "We've got a body to bury."

He walked up to Elena and handed her the shovel.

"Thought you were calling the shots," he mocked. "No?"

Caroline watched in silence as he looked at the corpse.

"Sucks to be you, buddy," Damon said.

He didn't have time for another smart line. With a cry of pain that made Caroline jump, Damon fell to his knees, his hands pulling at his hair, his face distorted by pain. Caroline felt herself starting to hyperventilate as anxiety got the best of her. What was happening to him? Seeing him like this was unbearable, and she felt compelled to do something. She looked at Elena in confusion, and followed the brunette's gaze until it fell on Bonnie.

"I told you what would happen if anyone else got hurt," Bonnie addressed to Damon.

Caroline had never seen her acting so cold. It frightened her – the girl standing there wasn't her best friend. But then again, she was now technically dead and had fangs, so …

"I didn't do this," Damon managed to say through his teeth.

"Bonnie, it wasn't his fault," Elena argued.

"Yeah, it was my fault, I'm sorry," Caroline yelled.

"Everything that happens is his fault, Elena," the green-eyed girl replied, completely ignoring the blonde.

"Bonnie, what are you doing?" Elena asked.

Caroline watched in horror as a fire started at the end of the trail of water that Bonnie had directed towards Damon. Fire was fatal to vampires. Bonnie was trying to kill him. She could not let that happen. She could not let anybody hurt him.

"Leave him alone," Caroline growled.

Damon's eyes widened as the blonde vampire grabbed her friend by the throat and knocked her head into the concrete, red eyes, fangs and all. He swiftly got to his feet as the pain stopped, grabbed Caroline and ran away with her before the witch could come back to her senses.

"Let's clean you up," he said as he closed the bathroom door behind them.

Caroline did as she was told and stood still, staring at herself in the mirror.

"She hates me," she said in between hiccups and tears. "Bonnie hates me."

Damon rolled his eyes and barely stopped himself from slamming his fist into the wall at the thought of that Bennett witch. Instead, he grabbed a few tissues, humidified them and started cleaning the blood off Caroline's face.

"She's a judgmental bitch," he said disdainfully. "She'll get over herself. You're BFFs, aren't you? Nothing has change, except that you'll actually be around forever."

Caroline sobbed as dark veins surfaced under her eyes as a sign of her bloodlust spiralling up.

"And why does this keep happening to my face?" she yelled, violently spinning around.

Damon laughed – of course this would be the thing that'd upset her the most about this entire mayhem. Her mascara was running, and she looked monstrous. Good old shallow Caroline. He cupped her face with his hands and cleaned the rest of the blood softly.

"Look at this," he commanded, and she immediately looked up.

He let his own fangs protrude, and his eyes redden. He even growled to put on a good show, and smiled when Caroline's eyes widened. He let her study his face for a while, then returned to his normal state.

"See? It's nothing," he said dismissively. "You're just hungry."

"How can you make it go away so easily?" she whined.

Once again, Damon laughed. She looked like a little girl, and all he wanted to do was take her by the hand, and show her the way. The feeling annoyed him to death, but he figured that, if she was going to stay alive (which she was, since she had Morality Police rooting for her), he might as well help her out before Stefan turned her into a veggie vamp.

"I'll teach you, if you stop whining," he promised. "Don't need another brooding vamp around."

Caroline laughed, and Damon felt like he had accomplished something, for the second time in twenty-four hours. She couldn't deny that she'd always wondered why Stefan was so damn serious all the time. Now that she remembered that he was a vampire, now that she experienced it herself, she understood him a little better.

The moment was gone soon enough, though. She felt tears spring to her eyes again and grabbed his wrists, as his hands were still cupping her face. She didn't want him to let go.

"Why did Katherine do this to me?" she whispered.

"I don't know," Damon said truthfully.

He caressed her check, very aware that the more they were in contact, the more she relaxed. He brought her head to rest on his chest and combed his fingers through her silky blonde hair. Caroline inhaled deeply.

"But I promise you, I'll make her pay," he hissed.

There was a short silence, during which she mused about how protective he sounded.

"You don't give a damn about me," she said against his chest, holding him tighter. "Why are you so nice to me?"

Damon remained silent. He had no idea.

to be continued ...

a/n : We're starting off slow with a few scenes with my own twists. I'll include details from the canon, but I'll also modify a lot of them, so bear with me, okay? What are your thoughts : does this sound like a good start? Let me know everything ! I love you and your reviews! xo