Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making a profit from this. Characters, etc. belong to their respective owners.

A/N: I started writing this after season 3 ended, so, it's obviously AU and takes place sometime in the far off future when the Original problem is taken care of. At first, I only planned on this being one big one-shot, but it ended up evolving into something much bigger. It's also filled with references to the show Supernatural, but you shouldn't be completely confounded if you haven't seen it (at least I hope not).

Enjoy!

They're sort of drinking buddies.

Sort of.

They get along well enough she supposes. There's still a long list of stuff she can never forgive him for (like what he did to her mother), but she managed to move past that. But with all the events that had happen within the past two years (give or take a few months), she didn't really have a choice.

She's never really been much of a drinker until then.

Before the Salvatores and the Originals and the general end of life as she knew it, Bonnie knew how to have fun. She would have a couple of drinks at parties. She would occasionally get drunk. But then she became a witch and she had a ton of responsibilities so things like fun and drinking flew out the window.

But now?

She didn't have anything better to do. There was no new evil in Mystic Falls to fight, no impending doom, nothing.

It was strange. She had been hoping and wishing for the days that she could just move on with her life, but what did she have to move onto?

She never applied for any colleges or even bothered to enroll in community college, something her dad was still pissed about.

Caroline and Tyler had gone off to college together somewhere in California, the name of the college always seemed to escape her. Matt had decided to sell his house and move to some other small town on the other side of Virginia, hoping that he could have a supernatural-free life. Elena and Stefan had decided to spend a year or two in Europe or however long while Elena still tried to figure out the ropes of being a vampire. Abby had gone off once again on another one of her 'I'm not good enough to be around you' sabbaticals and Bonnie had finally come to terms with the fact that hell would probably freeze over before the woman ever became an active participant in her life. Jeremy was still in Mystic Falls, in his senior year of high school, but Bonnie would be lying if she said that she was over the fact that he had cheated on her with a ghost. Meredith was also still in Mystic Falls and still working as a doctor, but Bonnie never really ever spoken to the woman and it would be weird to start now.

That pretty much just left her with Damon of all people. She supposed it could always be worse, though. At least he has a big supply of decent booze.

She never used to drink a whole lot. Before being a witch, she would drink occasionally at parties and hadn't been too much of a stranger to hang overs because she was a bit of a lightweight when it came to the hard liquor. After becoming a witch, she had pretty much stopped drinking all together because she couldn't afford to be drunk or even just a bit tipsy in case someone needed her.

Now? Drinking has become one of her new past times.

Before, she had never really thought about why Caroline and Damon and sometimes Stefan and even now Elena took it up as a hobby, but with recent events, she understood it now. It helped them curb their cravings. They used one addiction to forget about another addiction.

Bonnie never thought that she was prone to any sort of addictions in her entire life, but she had been proven wrong. Abby wasn't lying when she said that stopping Jeremy's heart to desiccate Klaus would lead to places of temptation. Just like that, Bonnie had found herself addicted to the dark magic. It hadn't been just about the magic, though. A great deal of it had been about the power, the feeling of invincibility it brought, not having to worry about who would be the one to fuck her over next.

Eventually she came down from her extended high, but she and magic had been on a temporary break ever since. She knew she couldn't avoid it forever because being a witch was all about balance. Using too much magic was bad and not using any magic was also bad. She had definitely become more wary of her powers, though.

So, she drank. And sometimes she drank with Damon. And she sometimes wondered how that even happened in the first place because they never really like each other all that much, but she figured that maybe she filled whatever space Alaric left when he died even though that was a weird thought.

"Uh-oh. You got a serious look on your face tonight," Damon said as he poured himself another glass of bourbon. He was already on his sixth glass…or was it his seventh?

"I always got a serious look on my face," Bonnie replied dryly.

"Fair enough," he replied with a shrug before taking a huge gulp of the alcohol.

She had been expecting him to pry, to ask exactly why she had a serious look on his face, but he didn't. He probably figured that if she wanted to tell him she would and if she didn't then no amount of prodding would get it out of her.

She had been thinking a lot lately, mostly about what she should do with her life. There was one idea she had been toying with for quite some time: hitting the road and going hunting, like those two brothers did on that one CW show. She knew it was kind of stupid that she would go looking for trouble when things had finally calmed down in Mystic Falls, but it was a thought that Bonnie just couldn't shake. She wasn't stupid enough to think that it would be something glamorous or that it would even remotely be like in the TV shows and she also knew that she was still precariously perched on a line when it came to magic, but she also knew that she could do some good and help some people.

"I've been thinking," she began.

"I figured that."

She glared at him, silently telling him that he better shut up and let her finish. "I've been thinking a lot about what I want to be doing with my life and I think I want travel around and…uh, well, hunt monsters and stuff."

He just raised his eyebrows in that ridiculous fashion he always did . Whenever he did that, Bonnie always wondered if maybe that would end up getting stuck that way.

"And stuff?" He asked, dryly. He wondered if she was already drunk.

"Yeah, I mean, there's really nothing keeping me here at the moment and I don't know what else to do. At least this way I can be doing some good in the world," Bonnie replied with a shrug before quickly downing the rest of her bourbon.

Damon snorted. "I think you've been watching too much television, witch."

She bristled at that even thought it was kind of true. "I'm not stupid, Damon. I know that it won't be anything like it is on TV. I'm not exactly new at this in case you don't remember the whole Klaus thing."

"Because that turned out so well for you."

"I didn't ask for your permission or your opinion," she replied firmly, tilting her chin up defiantly.

"Then why are you telling me at all?" He asked.

"Because who else would I tell?" She replied honestly. "I hardly ever talk to Jeremy anymore and I don't really know Meredith."

"Can you even handle using magic?"

"I'm going to have to be able to at some point or another," Bonnie replied with a shrug. "I can't exactly avoid it forever."

"And what happens if you have a relapse?" He replied, referring to her time on "the dark side." It was obvious from his expression that he didn't approve one bit, but Bonnie could care less. It wasn't his decision to make and she wasn't Elena; he couldn't just override her.

"That's always been a risk of using magic even before…that happened. I already told you, Damon, I'm not asking for permission. I want to do this and I'm going to do it."

Damon rolled his eyes. She had always been such a stubborn little thing and nothing would ever change that. He'd be lying if he said that he didn't like seeing that she hadn't completely changed even after her fall into dark magic, though.

"Fine," Damon said while waving his tumbler, the bourbon inside dangerously sloshing around, while he did that exaggerated eye thing he always did. Bonnie was seriously waiting for the day that one of his eyeballs popped out or something. "I guess I'll be going with you."

What?

"What?" she said.

"Well, Stefan and Elena probably wouldn't appreciate it if I let you go off on your own and I don't need two foreheads brooding at me," he answered with a shrug. "Besides, someone has to keep you in line."

Bonnie just gave him a pointed look, letting the irony of that statement sink in.

"Okay, well, I guess we both have to keep each other in line," he amended.

She continued to look at him, letting the irony of that statement sink in.

"Either way, I'm going with you."

Bonnie could see there was no talking him out of tagging along. Maybe having company on her little mission wouldn't be so bad…even if that company was Damon.

"Alright, I'll come pick you up tomorrow morning," Bonnie said with a shrug as she stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder.

"We are not traveling around in that thing you call a car," Damon said.

She kind of took offense to that. "What's wrong with my car? It's more practical and fuel-efficient than yours."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't be caught dead in it."

"You're already dead."

"Undead. I'm undead, not dead. There's a difference, Bonnie."

"You know what? Fine. Whatever. You're paying for all the gas then," Bonnie snapped. She distastefully thought of the cliché of driving all over the country in a vintage car…at least it was a Camaro and not an Impala. She would have really felt like she was trapped in a television show then.

"I'll see you tomorrow and bright and early!" Damon chimed at Bonnie's retreating form as she headed for the door.

Bonnie wondered just what the hell she had gotten herself into.

A/N: So there's chapter one. For those of you who are wondering, more details of what happened previously like Bonnie's sleep to the dark side, taking care of the Originals, Elena's transition to a vampire, the state of Bonnie and Jeremy's relationship, etc. will be explored throughout this fic.

Thanks for reading and thank you in advance for any reviews!