The main thing Bonnie appreciated about their current predicament was the ability to sleep in. When she'd been alive, sleep had been very difficult to come by. Now that she's technically dead, catching up on all the sleep she missed is a pretty nice perk.

She was in bed when she noticed the snow falling.

It was Christmas Day and she'd been busy decorating the entire Boarding House, much to the chagrin of its other inhabitant, for the past week. Damon was currently not speaking to her which put a slight damper on her plans as he was the only other person in the whole of Mystic Falls. Or this version of Mystic Falls anyway.

She'd decorated, put up the tree and generally been merry but no matter what she did she couldn't seem to shake him out of his dark mood. If anything, it had seemed to become worse as she got more into the Christmas spirit.

Not that she blamed him really. They'd tried to escape numerous times. Nothing worked. Her magic was back but she'd never felt so useless.

But as she got out of bed and looked out at the falling snow that blanketed everything outside, she couldn't help the tiny spark of hope that began to grow as she wondered if this would be enough to at least get a smile out of him.

She knew he had a secret soft spot for snow. Winter was his favourite season and she'd heard a few stories from Stefan about how much Damon had loved the snow when he'd been a child. She could only hope vampirism and the preceding 180+ years hadn't changed that.

Bonnie changed out of her pyjamas and into her warmest clothes, wrapping a scarf around her neck, shrugging on her coat and pulling on a pair of gloves as she made her way out of what was now her bedroom. She walked down the stairs, careful to listen out for any signs of Damon as she reached the bottom of them, and made her way towards the front door, glancing at the clock as she walked down the hallway. It was 9am, plenty of time.

She opened the front door and allowed a small grin as she surveyed the scene in front of her. It must have been snowing for a while before she'd noticed as there was at least 2 feet of snow covering everywhere she looked.

She had the ridiculous urge to jump into every untouched inch of snow she possibly could but managed to restrain herself. She had bigger plans in mind.

Damon was shocked awake by a high pitched scream.

He was out of bed and running into the front garden before he'd even processed what kind of scenarios he might be facing. All he knew was that it was Bonnie who had screamed and that he had to get to her immediately.

When he spotted her, standing beneath a rather large tree, it took him another couple of minutes, and an almost frantic search of his surroundings, to locate whatever it was that had caused her to scream.

As far as he could tell, it was nothing.

He grew even more confused when he finally realized she was grinning of all things. She looked like she was about to double over into laughter if he was honest.

"Why were you screaming?" Damon bit out, angry now that it had become obvious that there was no immediate danger.

Bonnie continued to grin, flicking her wrists and eyeing the empty space around him.

He glanced around, noting the perfectly formed snowballs hovering in the air surrounding him and finally realized that it wasn't Bonnie who was in danger but apparently himself.

"Bonnie," he warned, "do you really want to test me right now?" He threw in a smirk for good measure, letting her know that there was obviously going to be only one winner in the war she'd set up. Him.

"Bite me." Bonnie replied, her grin becoming wider, almost dazzling him with its joyous intensity.

"Is that an invitation?" He threw back. Daring. Warning.

Bonnie shrugged, then threw her hands towards him.

He had a second to grasp what that meant before dozens of snowballs came crashing into him from all sides.

He heard her gasping with laughter as one of the snowballs managed to hit him full in the face before she squealed and tore off towards the driveway.

Damon wiped the snow from his eyes, a small smile flashing across his features before he shook his head. He gave her a few seconds head start before using his vampire speed to catch her up. If she was going to play dirty by using her powers then so was he.

They'd been at war for at least an hour before Damon decided to take pity on her and declare a truce. He could tell she was freezing and he had no desire to nurse a sick witch. He briefly wondered whether they could even get sick considering they were supposed to be dead but dismissed it. He wasn't going to let her get sick so it didn't matter.

They walked back into the house. Bonnie started to remove her coat and shoes whilst Damon darted upstairs and was back within thirty seconds, having changed and dried off. He loved being a vampire sometimes.

He watched as Bonnie ran upstairs to change then he turned towards the kitchen. He'd made two hot chocolates and was just finishing stoking the fire when Bonnie reappeared in new clothes. She was still towel drying her hair as she reached for her cup.

Damon ignored the fact that he found it slightly adorable, a word he'd been attaching to her more and more often lately, and focused on watching the flames.

They sat in silence, finishing their hot chocolate and warming up again.

"What's that smell?" Bonnie asked, sitting up suddenly and looking towards the kitchen.

"Dinner." Damon replied evenly.

"You're cooking Christmas dinner?" She raised her eyebrows, perplexed.

"Well I wasn't going to let you do it, you'd probably burn the place down." He scoffed.

Bonnie ignored the insult and leaned closer to him, watching his face intently. "Why?"

"Why, what?"

"Why, after everything that you've been saying all week, have you suddenly decided to actually acknowledge that it's Christmas?"

"You were going to force me into this holiday no matter what I did, I may as well have decent food if I have to suffer through it."

"You don't even need to eat!"

"I don't, but you do, and it would be better for me if you didn't contract food poisoning because you insisted on following through with this insane plan of yours to pretend like any of this means anything anymore." Damon huffed.

"Of course it still means something!" Bonnie argued.

"We're dead."

"But we're still here."

"We don't even know where here is!"

"Mystic Falls." Bonnie deadpanned.

Damon sighed in frustration, standing up and taking their empty cups back into the kitchen. "Hilarious."

Bonnie followed behind him, determination and curiosity burning through her.

"Seriously, why are you doing this?" Bonnie pushed, grabbing his arm to halt his progress.

Damon stopped but didn't turn to look at her.

"I told you."

"That's a bullshit answer and you know it."

He finally turned and met her eyes. She saw the anger and frustration in them but there was something else there too. Fear, maybe? She couldn't be sure.

"Dinner will be ready in a couple of hours. I'm going out." Damon shrugged out of her hold, sped to the sink to deposit their cups then sped out of the front door, slamming it behind him.

Bonnie groaned and lifted her hands to her head, running her fingers through her still damp hair in exasperation.

She walked back into the living room, deciding to take a nap whilst she waited for Damon to cool off and dinner to be done.

She fell asleep watching the lights flash softly on the Christmas tree.

When she woke up again she could tell Damon had returned. She heard him moving things around in the kitchen and got up to see what he was doing.

He'd just finished serving out their dinner when she walked in. He glanced up at her, face blank, then went back to what he was doing.

She decided to ignore him. If he didn't want to talk, fine, she'd stop making the effort to get him to.

Dinner passed in silence. It wasn't awkward but there was an undercurrent of something she couldn't really place. Everything felt tense, but it was a different tension to what she was used to with Damon. It felt nervous, on edge. Like they were both waiting for something but neither of them wanted to start it.

When she'd finished she stood up from the table and set her plate in the sink. She continued to ignore him as she strode out of the kitchen and back into the living room.

It was ten minutes before he joined her again and when he did the blank look he'd graced her with for the past hour seemed to have disappeared entirely. He looked troubled.

"I'm sorry," He muttered, sitting down on the opposite side of the sofa from her.

Bonnie remained impassive, sensing more.

"I hate this place. I hate that we're stuck here. I hate that we're dead but we're still, somehow, alive. I hate that we're alone. I hate that everyone else is back at home and that we don't know what's happening to them. Most of all I hate...," he seemed to struggle then, forcing a breath out and wincing as he did so, his words grew quieter and more intense, "I hate that I don't hate it." He looked wild for a moment as he met Bonnie's eyes, willing her to understand something.

"I don't hate any of it, not really, not like I should. I feel free," There was a slight wonder buried in his tone that truly shocked her. She didn't think she'd ever heard him sound so boyish. So...light.

"Since I turned I haven't felt balanced. Being a vampire, everything is intense all the time. It never stops. You're constantly cycling between emotions. Everything is too much but nothing is enough." His eyes were captivating as they stared into hers. She could feel her breath quickening, her heart reacting to his words as if it were trying to act them out.

"It's different here. It's like it all stopped. I feel like I did when I was human. Before all of it," he didn't mention Katherine but somehow she knew that was what he meant, "you'd have liked that me." He grinned, wry.

Bonnie regained some of her breath, enough to speak for the first time in what felt like years. "You're not the worst person to be trapped here with, even the you you are now."

Damon inclined his head towards her, acknowledging but not really agreeing.

Bonnie saw him start to pull back from the conversation. He obviously thought he'd said too much, she could tell enough to know that he thought sharing had been a bad idea. She needed to show him he could trust her.

"Wait here." She instructed, walking purposefully towards the stairs and up them to her bedroom. She'd wrapped it for him just in case he came around. At the time she hadn't held much hope for giving it to him but now she was glad she'd followed her instincts and picked it out anyway.

She headed back downstairs and into the living room, a neatly wrapped package clasped tightly between her hands.

She held the gift out to him before she could second guess herself, equal parts relieved and worried when he finally accepted it.

"Bonnie..." Damon started.

"Just open it."

She sat back down, watching as he stared at her. She held his gaze until he dropped his and began to open it.

When he finished tearing off the paper his whole body seemed to shut down in shock. She waited, assessing his reaction and hoping she'd bet correctly.

His eyes kept darting up to her face then back down to what he held in his hands, as if he didn't know what to confront first.

Finally, he cleared his throat. "How did you...?" He trailed off, hoarse, unable to finish.

"I found a spell, I wasn't sure if it would work and even when I'd finished I couldn't be completely certain that it had worked until just now." She felt her cheeks getting warm in embarrassment and tried to calm her heart as it started to race again.

"It's," Damon began, faltering again before seeming to pull himself together, "it's perfect. Thank you." He met her eyes properly this time and Bonnie could have wept when she saw the depth of emotion in them.

She stood up, an excuse to leave on the tip of her tongue, anything to get away from this moment. It felt too real, too intimate.

She didn't get a chance to say anything though before Damon was up on his feet too and wrapping her into an embrace.

Bonnie stiffened in surprise but then relaxed and raised her arms to hug him back. She'd almost forgotten what human contact felt like and didn't know whether the intensity that she was feeling from it was because she hadn't hugged anyone for six months or whether it was because it was Damon she was hugging.

She sank into him and felt him almost melt around her. It felt safe and comforting being here like this. It was like coming home.

He pulled away eventually but his arms did not release her, they simply dropped to her elbows, holding on loosely.

Bonnie looked down. Her cheeks felt even warmer than before and she was sure Damon could hear her heart frantically trying to escape her chest.

She could feel her magic prickling along her skin and fought to rein it in, confused for a second as to what it was doing.

She stood a little straighter and raised her head back up, determined to meet his eyes. She'd only given him a present, it was nothing to get all emotional over.

When she finally did manage to look at him she almost jolted back in shock. He was smiling. An actual honest to god smile. She tried to remember when she'd ever seen him smile without there being a hidden smirk or grimace or in joke behind it. She came up blank.

She was about to ask him why he was smiling when her eyes caught on something growing above them.

Damon must have noticed too because he followed her gaze then laughed.

"Something you want to tell me, Bonnie?" The smirk was back full force now. Asshole.

"It was my magic." She defended, embarrassed.

"Your magic wants to...kiss me?" Damon was beaming.

"No!"

"Just you then."

"Yes, no, what? Shut up!" She grimaced, hating her slip up.

"Bonnie."

She didn't look up.

"Bon Bon."

She still didn't look up.

"Please, Bonnie."

She was just going to look at the floor for the rest of her life. Or death. Whatever, she'd do it.

"I need to give you your gift." Damon said, a fond note of exasperation in his voice.

Bonnie did glance up then, curious despite herself.

Damon looked triumphant for a second but his features quickly turned softer as he began to lean towards her.

Bonnie couldn't breathe properly again and she was definitely in danger of having her heart actually fly right out of her chest.

He paused, inches from her lips.

Bonnie felt crazed, crazy, craving. She felt everything. It felt surreal yet so, so very real. That feeling of home washed over her once more.

Damon's lips hovered above her own, waiting. It felt like a challenge, like an invitation. It felt like a dare and a question and a promise.

It felt like a second chance.

She tilted her face up towards his and brushed his lips lightly, pulled back just a little, hesitant.

Bonnie felt his hands slide up her arms from her elbows, one moving to wrap around the back of her head and the other travelling up to cup her cheek gently.

He whispered a quiet, "Merry Christmas," against her lips before meeting them again more firmly this time.

As they stood under her magically grown mistletoe, wrapped up in each other and finally at peace, they both had one thought dancing slowly through their minds.

Home.