Disclaimer: The characters in this story are all owned by the CW and L.J Smith.
Bonnie's hand slipped into the pocket of her tight jeans, grasping her phone and holding it in front of her face. Her eyes caught the only patch of light -in the room with the four coffins- shining in through one of the only windows.
It was early in the morning, just before dawn and the young Bennett witch had brought herself here under the suspicion of something threatening the serenity and tightness of their plan. Yes, once again, her dreams had brought her with a lump in the back of her throat, pacing quickly and quietly amongst the stillness of a spring morning in Mystic Falls to the witch house.
Her fingers pressed on buttons familiar to her, picking the contact number on the top of the list that she wanted to text.
I think something's wrong. Meet me at the witch's house.
She sent the text, a shivering feeling enveloping her, a shudder proceeding to run down the back of her neck. She couldn't help but feel she was being watched. Her head crocked to one side, calm and sensitive eyes watching and trying to pick up movement or energy.
Her own magic pulsed through her, and the magic of the house wrapped around her in a way that teased what it would be like to obtain the life giving magic of dead witch's who had been living throughout centuries long before even the birth of her Grams. She in took a sharp breath, her thoughts homing on Jeremy and the events that had lead her to the loss of the benevolence around her.
But her thoughts were abruptly cut off by the sounding of her text tone that took her by surprise.
Damon's name flashed neatly across the screen, and she could almost feel his agitation as she read his reply.
She put her phone on silent before reading his reply.
Do you have any idea what time it is?
She held back a sigh, resisting the urge to hunch her shoulders and attempt to hide within herself from the bad feeling gathering in her stomach. She refrained from letting her thumbs type the words she had never said to him before - I'm scared.
She pressed send on her message.
Damon. I'm serious. This isn't some morning call.
He replied almost instantly, which comforted her- that is, until she read the text.
Nope. It's a text.
She sighed, thinking for a moment of a way to reply without continuing his reign of useless texts. She decided to be honest.
Damon. I had a bad dream.
That's why you're in a bad mood and dragging me into it.
She squeezed her phone in her hand, letting her feet wonder her over to the wall opposite the side of the four coffins. Despite Damon's supposed stalling, she knew he was on his way. She found herself able to relax a little bit at that thought, having no doubt in it.
About Klaus. Here.
She wasn't even a little surprised when Damon's reply managed a roll of her eyes and a bump of her head against the hard wall behind her in slight annoyance with a little amusement.
So you're just not a morning person?
Playfulness embedded in the smile that was growing on her lips; it was inevitable. Absolutely no sleep, and trying to be cracked like a code by Damon Salvatore was just a situation where she couldn't help but smile, and she wasn't far off laughing ether.
Shut it, Damon.
She knew he'd sense the playfulness that was warming her on this eerily still and cold morning, and even if he didn't, she loved getting under his skin just as much as he did hers; it was a morning remedy of hers, a temporary cure to the insanity that could easily grab hold of her from her continuous lack of sleep.
Got it. Not a morning person.
Now she did laugh, putting her phone back into her pocket, knowing he was on his way. A pleasant feeling continued to warm her, and as usual, she found the idea of her texting Damon so strange, but so normal at the same time. She looked up, noticing that the flames that enticed the tall, metal candelabras around the skirts of the room where now strangely alight.
The warm feeling in her froze to cold. She hadn't lit them.
Caution hitched her groggy system.
The flames squirmed in a somehow malevolent way that had Bonnie straightening her posture and pushing herself off the wall. Her eyelids shifted shut in a drawn out blink due to the tiredness she felt and she was startled to see flashes of her dream painted behind them.
The curve of familiar permanently bloodstained lips forced her eyes open immediately. Her heart rate picked up and she clenched her jaw in retaliation.
This however didn't stop the images of Klaus standing next to the coffins that disappeared and re-appeared in a fashion that made her think they would soon either start to fade away, or combust.
In this instant, her eyes flashed open; she knew Klaus was close. She could feel him.
Bonnie felt thick tension swarm the atmosphere as she tried to stay completely and utterly on guard; responding to every bit of sound around her.
In an effort to completely rid the flashes of her recounting nightmares, she quickly squeezed her eyes shut.
When they opened again, he was there.
She resisted the urge to raise a hand to her dizzying head, in turn composing her features, but leaving her confusion and surprise echoing in her voice. "Klaus?"
She half wondered if he was actually in front of her. Klaus's fingers trailed along freely by his waist as he moved closer; those bloodstained lips were twitching upward.
Bonnie notably saw his eyes flick toward the coffins surrounding them and in response her fingers flexed and tensed.
There was no signal as suddenly, fingers wound around her forearms in a bone crushing grip; she had found no time to execute, or react in a manner, that she as a Bennett witch, could make her ancestors proud by.
Bonnie flung her arms out without magical enhancement in an involuntary response to rid the hybrid and the pain. She only ended up gasping, muffled screams dying in her throat as she attempted to keep her dignity.
Klaus slammed her form into his, dizzying Bonnie from the collision.
She wondered with a curious burning why her ancestors weren't intervening. Her wondering however, ceased when she tilted her chin and glimpsed the smug and mischievous expression Klaus was wearing. It was instantly clear he had made a deal; used his disturbed ways to leave Bonnie without her defense and the biggest part of her.
She mumbled something that sounded extremely to clear to the hybrid like a demand for personal and his hands off her. He ignored her, using the hand he had hitched on her waist to drag her over to one of the coffins in a way that could be regarded as graceful.
"Sorry, love, it's a family matter; not at all personal." While Bonnie was attempting to well up the magic that permanently ran through her veins, he used one of his hands to raise the lid to the empty coffin they were at.
This was the moment Klaus finally looked her directly in the eye. She had a permanent glare flashing as she grappled for her magical abilities still; she raised her chin in regard to his glare. She came to the conclusion that Klaus was definitely the reason why her powers were being cruelly silenced while she was left to scream.
His mouth finally twisted slowly. "Actually," he started, lifting her swiftly into the padded confinement of the coffin, "it is a little personal." He smiled brilliantly, the memory of how she had him writhing on the grassy plains that night he broke his curse. She had almost killed him, and would've too.
"Good night, sweetheart." The lid of the coffin then closed before she could sit up and push back, covering his image with a suffocating black. Fury enveloped her as well as seething humiliation.
Bonnie pushed against the black, her breath coming out wrangled and strange. Panic dawned on her, seeping into her bones. Her breath started to come out rapidly now.
Her fingers clawed endlessly and pointlessly at the hard, blackness confining her. Her vision circled and swirled, though nothing was distorted but the blackness and the shape of her fingers in front of her. She in took quick, sharp breaths, her fingers curling into balls that banged on the top of the coffin. She yelled for freedom and help, but as she guessed, no one was around to listen in the first place. She was in the witch house, she guessed, and as she did she felt like she was getting slapped in the face by irony.
They had chosen the witch's house as cover and protection for all of the original coffins from Klaus, it was deserted; now she was in one of those coffins and deserted, stuck with limited air supply. She bet that Klaus had taken the rest of the coffins; he had won and gotten his way and it irked her even more than the prospect of dying in a coffin did.
###
Damon Salvatore walked into the building some minutes later, attempting to feel the presence of one little witch who had weaved herself into his morning. He could feel an obvious hum of magical benevolence, but nothing of Bonnie.
The vampire grasped his phone in his hand and flashed a low glance downward to search for a reason in relation to her lack of presence, and found none.
Bonnie's name then rolled off his tongue in that special way no one else could make it sound, and he strolled deeper in the building. He decided to head to the place of silent agreement Bonnie and he usually had- the room with the coffins.
Damon's footsteps fell silently against the wooden floorboards; he had long ago mastered the skill of stealth. He called her name once again, irritation obvious in his tone; patience, however, was a skill he had yet to master.
He at this moment became aware that something was wrong, and his assumption was proved perfectly accurate when he walked through the archway into his destination and found the room coffin-free- except for one. Damon's eyes then sought for the hybrid that didn't needed any inspection of red-hands, and found him instantly.
Damon's gaze didn't linger on Klaus for long- even as he was mentally firing every curse he knew in his direction- and they swept to where a coffin was being pounded from the inside.
Bonnie.
He could smell her in this room. Her citrus and spice sent caused his chin to rise in a way Bonnie would have.
"You're loosing your touch, Klaus. Bonnie saw this coming," Damon regarded as he eyes raked regrettably over the length of the coffin that contained Bonnie.
"Didn't stop the little one from being contained." Damon kept himself from walking any closer to the coffin, standing almost directly in the middle of it and Klaus.
"If you wanted her to dream about you, you could've just seduced her the old fashioned way…" Damon's gaze lifted to meet Klaus's nonchalantly, "though, I don't think Bonnie's a horse girl. She was never into the saddle club."
Damon searched for a flinch on the hybrid's end; yes Caroline had let everything about her and Klaus slip- well, she let it slip to Elena and Bonnie, and he was just in hearing range.
"I've gotten what I want, Damon. My family back, the witch suffering her revenge- the score's just about even between us today, but I could make this day better by freeing the world of you; believe it or not, some are suffering from your second life."
Damon couldn't help snorting; he, himself was suffering from his second life. He decided to ignore his threat.
"Suffocating the last, Bennett? What a boring end to a powerful line- and Stefan said you had style," he shrugged, trying to keep how much the thought of the Bennett line dying irked him away from his expression.
"She's suffering in the silence even you can agree to wanting, Damon. So judgmental- she'll burden death with it now."
There was a tick that flashed in Damon's clenched jaw. Yes, she could be judgmental, but that was something only he was burdened with- and it wasn't a burden now. They had an unspoken alliance, a friendship even.
"Come on, I've made it easy for you, Damon," he drawled out with that disturbed smile edging, "you won't even be blamed; I've even supplied the coffin. The ocean would go lovely with it in a few hours-"
Damon didn't know whether he was purposely baiting him- he didn't even know why he felt like he was being baited- but nevertheless, he charged at him like the impulsive vampire he was with no second thought.
The memory of Bonnie's peaceful, and unfocused features that night she died briefly, for the sake of their plan hit him as he hit air. Damon's eyes snapped open, his neck twisting to catch sight of the hybrid; but he wasn't to be found.
"Fucking coward," Damon muttered, releasing a breath of frustration as he pushed down his hit of rage.
Meanwhile, Bonnie continued to thrash her form in the coffin, wetness falling down her cheeks as her panic continued to rise into hysteria. She had heard voices; someone else beside Klaus was there; but now she heard nothing.
Suddenly, there was a crack where the lid of the coffin and the bottom that contained Bonnie intersected. Light!
An inch of light seeped through the intersection in a flash and Bonnie new someone was opening it; freeing her. She arched her back and threw her form upward, ready to taste the release with her eyes closed.
Her heart hammered loudly in her chest, so loudly that even she could hear it and feel it drumming throughout her form. She didn't, however meet her release quite as freely as she was going for.
When Bonnie sat up, the coffin lid stretching open just in time for her torso to bolt up, Damon's head had leaned cleanly over the base. His face had been tilted as he had almost- despite the sobbing he'd heard- thought he'd find a sleeping Bonnie, a peaceful, unconscious, little witch.
But, her flying torso projected speed he didn't predict and his face clashed with hers; his forehead smashing painfully against hers, which was wet and creased, their nose's in line, and finally, his lips straight in a beeline right onto hers.
Their lips crashed together and while Bonnie's head throbbed painfully from their clash, she lingered there for a moment of hesitation that she shouldn't have. She felt the familiarity of those lips; though, she had never planted a kiss on them before, she had watched them countless times form her name and countless times attempt to sway her.
Secretly, this is exactly how she thought they would feel like, even though it wasn't a real kiss, just a brush. Damon felt the same; except shock hit him harder then it did Bonnie. By just the brush, he could feel the softness of her heart shaped lips and taste the citrusy hint of the blood pumping rapidly around her body.
The spark of their accidental kiss ran through their bodies and jolted them, if not straight away, eventually.
They both pulled back so abruptly and so fast it had Damon stumbling to the wall and Bonnie's form rocking the coffin and almost falling back in if it weren't for her arms that were thrown out just in time; she would not be put back in there.
She didn't meet his eyes, knowing he was staring at her and that her cheeks were flushing in a way she just didn't do in front of Damon Salvatore.
Damon's eyes were slightly wide, his head tilting so he could look at her properly, trying to distract his mind from what had just occurred. Her hair was mostly disheveled, her clothes scrunched- her shirt sliding off her shoulder in a way that revealed that glowing caramel skin of hers. Damon wet his lips in an involuntary fashion as he continued to assess her, skipping those lips he'd had a brief and confronting taste of, and finally noticing the wetness that glinted off her cheeks that were tilted downward in an effort to prevent any eye contact between the two.
Damon felt as though he were holding one, long breath.
Her eyes then peeked up at him; they were green and broken; passionately green, and scared in a way Damon had never seen on her before.
The sight made Damon's heart contract just a little bit, causing his eyes to avert.
He heard a loud intake of breath escape Bonnie's lips as she attempted to push herself out of the coffin, Damon watching her from the corner of his eyes.
The vampire watched her exert all the strength she had left in her seemingly shaken form to push herself, and found it odd in that moment how fragile she looked; he had never once associated the words fragile and Bonnie Bennett together before, even when she was the innocent, little thing he stalked for his necklace in the parking lot a year ago.
He then noticed especially how the way her hands were trembling, and that's when he realized that the thought to help her had slipped his mind. He flashed back over to her, his fingers around her forearms to steady her, feeling them shake beneath his fingers. He didn't meet her eyes.
Damon used his strength to help Bonnie lift her other leg out of the coffin; her gaze was lowered and pointing at the ground, while his was on the coffin, feeling empathy.
When she was firmly on her feet- but still shaking slightly- he passed his gaze back onto her intensely. His lips felt like they were buttoned shut as Bonnie looked at him straight in the eye. They stood there for a moment, his lips pursing in thought as he observed her face carefully. There was a small tugging on his chest as he did so.
He noticed, as he usually did, little resemblances here and there to many of her ancestors; the ones he had watched over carefully. One of his hands had unconsciously uncoiled from her arm and reached up to push a lock of her once straightened hair from her face. Bonnie's already laboured breaths came out a little faster now, but he barely noticed it.
He then realized just what the tugging was. Damon looked down to notice that Bonnie's fingers were nervously clasping the material of his t-shirt to keep her hands steady, he thought. Bonnie's fingers had actually tightened around his shirt as a reaction to the feeling his fingers against the side of her face provoked; she was nervous.
It was at that moment both of them realized just how close they were- closer than they ever had been before, and for longer than they ever had- and once again, abruptly pulled away. Bonnie's hands flew to her hair as she turned her back on him, touching the place his fingers had been at the side of her face, as though she was trying to replace the feeling.
Her breath was still ragged and loud- she continued to taste the air as though she hadn't had a sample of it in years.
She walked slowly until she had her head against the wall she had rested against earlier, where she had texted Damon with that safe feeling in the pit of her stomach. The Bennett felt the dried wetness on her cheeks as she turned around finally, leaning her back against the wall to face a curious looking Damon. Her eyes were wide, but the same safe feeling enveloped her once again as she stared at the dark haired vampire.
Damon opened his mouth to speak, but he suddenly heard a louder hitch of the witch's breathing and watched as words shaped around her own ragged and deep breathes of phobia, relief and initial lack of oxygen.
"You… You came for me." She didn't wince or flinch at the words, not asking a question, simply stating a fact that had been obvious to her from the very moment she had been trapped in that coffin.
A frown tucked his lips, his eyes narrowing in the way they did when he was thinking hard. His eyes stayed locked with hers, though even as he stared at her, he seemed to be staring at something more distant, something she couldn't see.
"I'll always come for you, Bonnie."
His eyes then locked with hers truly and she understood exactly what he meant. He could no longer leave her to die; he could no longer act like he didn't care about her life, no longer joke about it even. And neither could she for him.
She had once been all and willing to kill the vampire in front of her. Now, she couldn't even imagine doing so, as though the idea was so deeply buried in their past that she couldn't turn her head far enough to look back. She nodded slowly.
She ran a hand through her hair, not smiling, but letting a ghost of one push through whilst pursing her lips in thought of their situation and assessing all the damage around them.
"What's Stefan going to say…?" she mumbled half to herself, half to Damon knowing he'd hear her.
"Screw Stefan. We'll make our own team." He grinned slightly. Loosening the tension between them.
"Couple." Bonnie amended with a slight smile.
Damon raised his eyebrows the way only he could, a smirk edging at the corners of his lips. "I didn't know you were single and looking."
Bonnie shook her head, the indents of her smile deepening. "I didn't- Two is a couple, Damon."
Damon nodded slowly, his eyes scanning the plains of her face, down to her lips where he felt the pull again. "As in you and I?" His face inched closer to hers, his eyes locked on her lips.
"The Salvatore and the Bennett," he continued, his face tilting, "the witch and the vampire." Bonnie didn't flinch. Her lips parted as she tried to scramble for reasonable thoughts and actions to use that would push him away; but she stayed still with her eyes on his lips.
They were drawn to the shadows that brought out the aching lips on each other's faces, and while neither of them could look away, Bonnie mustered up words she had never once said to him before- but meant from the bottom of her heart.
"Thank you."
A slight smile tugged at the edge of his lips; genuine and charming which completely contradicted what came out of his mouth next as his head tilted.
"So that's the… what? The second time I've saved you?" He started with a full-blown grin covering his lips now, "are we making this a thing? Should I start charging?" He teased. She actually smiled at that, shaking her head.
Bonnie shifted awkwardly under his gaze, only spurring his words on with a lower voice in tune with the dimness of the candles surrounding them. "Maybe with a proper kiss next time."
Bonnie's gaze crashed into his, more taken aback then she should have been by his suggestion; she laughed, a slight nervousness flowing along.
She inhaled a breath, and before she could take full control of her actions, her toes were raising her to a level that made them almost equal. Damon smiled at this, leaning forward and changing course at the last minute to place a soft kiss on her forehead.
His hand lingered on her waist while his lips lingered still against her forehead, sparking warmth in the pit of Bonnie's- and even Damon's- stomach. Bonnie was slightly flustered, itching to grip back onto him with an unknown attraction.
Before Damon pulled away, he whispered something into the crown of her head that made Bonnie smile.
His heels then turned, his feet carrying him away from her- the echo of his words playing in Bonnie's ears like an addicting symphony.
"I'm glad you're safe."
Let me know what you think! I had the idea come to me after Bonnie was put in the coffin by Klaus in her dream, and from there Bamon fantasies ensued with Damon as Bonnie's knight in shinning armor. Hope you guys liked it.