Note: If you are a fan of Elena's character and her relationship with Damon you might not like this story. I'' thank you if you decide to give it a try and I'll understand if you don't. Just please be respectful and have the sense to stay away if it's not your cup of tea.
If you're a bamon fan please bear in mind that there's quite a lot of delena in this fanfiction since they are the main couple of the story (or not, probably), still I hope you give it a try, I think you might enjoy it.
This story is based on Elena's line "She's my best friend, but to you she's something else, isn't she? ". The song mentioned at the end is "Lovefool" by The Cardigans.
#
Lightheaded with relief and a feeling that's horribly similar to happiness – only he never knew it could be this clean, this unadulterated – this is how Damon feels. It's so overwhelming that he can barely move from the spot where Bonnie has - to everyone's dismay - thrown herself into his arms. The impact of her petite body and her honey scent still lingering about him.
He grins, watching as she's surrounded by her friends who won't let her finish a sentence without pulling her into embarrassing embraces. The childish part of him chants in his head because she hugged him first; while everyone else had to pull at her, she'd extracted herself and run to him.
Damon is so intent in watching her that he doesn't see Elena approaching, and when she calls his name he's surprised to see her right in front of him, a sweet, loving smile on her face – reward for his good behavior – and he hums his reply, before she takes his face into her hands to kiss him.
He smiles before returning the kiss and pulling Elena into a light embrace. Over her shoulder he can see Bonnie smiling at him, brightly so. Somehow it reminds him of her smile in that hole where they waited for the eclipse, where there seemed to be no light but her – hope and forgiveness radiating and lightening her up from the inside.
It is a good day, he thinks rubbing one hand in the middle of Elena's back. Bonnie is safe and sound and back in her rightful place, and Elena is there, too.
#
Elena's hand slides against the back of his fingers, up to his wrist and caresses his arm. His smile is tired but content and she feels her heart warming up. She can see now what cracked her defenses, how he could slip into her heart and control it so radically that his departure had wrecked her.
The thought is scary but in an exciting way – the love that consumes and destroys and that she had once wished for is as much a temptation now that it was before, and she doesn't want to be reasonable or prudent. Life is short even for those that are immortal, it seems, and she doesn't want to wonder anymore how it would feel to be loved by Damon. How it would feel to be the only one is his eyes and his heart and his world. Be the sun that rises and sets and the very breath of him.
"Where are we?" he asks, watching her hand sliding on his chest. Their relationship has been undefined up to now and it's only right for him to get an update from the only person that can actually provide one.
"On your couch," she replies with a grin. They are at the beginning of everything, she thinks. It's a new beginning, and she wants to rush to the end only to start again, and so she kisses him. Their mouths are hard against each others'. She can smell the scent of his skin mixed with his cologne and sweetened by a note of honey.
His hands go to her waist but the touch is barely there and he pulls back with a groan.
"Alcohol," he explains, grimacing, "Blondie is waiting for the supplies for the party. And I'm in charge, it seems."
She frowns but doesn't protest much. "Now?" she asks, her hands sliding up his shoulders to keep him there, maybe tempt him if she feels like it. "I don't know why but I highly doubt you are short on alcohol."
The party for Bonnie's return won't have that many guests after all, even if Caroline is treating the matter like it's a national holiday.
"As a matter of fact, I'm not," he confirms, "But Bonnie has grown a taste for blackberry vodka sangria. I can't blame her, I mean, I make the best drinks so of course she loves it, but I'm out of blackberries. And vodka. And sangria too, actually."
The drink is a little too summer-oriented for that time of the year but she jumped from May to January and skipped twenty years or so, so he can't hold it against her. She can have anything she wants.
Elena blinks and chuckles, as he stands from the couch, "So you're going grocery shopping, now?"
This side of him makes her feel more and more certain of the decision she's made. Going back to him will make her completely happy.
"You can manage a few hours without me, can't you?" He turns as he reaches the doorstep. "You'll remember who I am when I come back, right? Should I leave you a note and a picture?" he asks sarcastically, shooting a grin her way.
She gives him a reproachful look but still smiles as he goes.
#
Elena is punctual and ready to party. Stefan stays back as Caroline pulls her into the room. She gets a nod from him and a greeting from Matt.
Jeremy is scowling into a glass of orange juice and she nudges his side to shake a smile out of him. The smile is thin and tired but she can work with that. She's excited, fueled with that charged-up sensation similar to the free fall from a drop tower. She's happy – she's falling in love – and nothing could ruin this moment for her.
"Is that the best you can do?" she asks, with a smile, waiting for him to curve his mouth, too.
It is easy to find the good around you when you feel good inside. Right now she can overlook her brother's mood and inclination to addiction – be it drugs, sex, or alcohol – and she can overlook the tension between Caroline and Stefan and that constant staring he does like he's digging a hole into her to find something to hold on to, and she can overlook Matt's distance.
She's happy, and Bonnie is back, so she doesn't need to feel guilty for wanting to live as hard as she can, because now Bonnie can, too.
"Where is Damon?" she asks, turning to Caroline who is offering her a bottle of beer she has just opened.
"In the kitchen. I think you should buy him an apron for your anniversary," she comments incredulously.
Elena giggles her reply, "I think that would be perfect. Thank you for the suggestion," before leaving the room to join him as someone knocks on the front door.
Her step is light, she wants to observe him first as he moves about the kitchen, whisper to him and see his face lighting up as he sees her, but there are voices in the kitchen and even though they didn't see her she's the one surprised by the scene.
"I don't think you're doing it right," Bonnie says, bending over the pan.
"Ha! We'll see," he replies, "Out of my way," he warns her in a murmur, taking the pot from the cooker to pour the blackberries through a strainer so she won't get burned. "I'll have you eating those words," he announces, "And curling your toes."
"Right," she says dryly, walking around the island and having him bend towards her face.
"You're going to love it, and you know it," he says back, pointing at her with the spoon, which he's using to filter the blackberries through the strainer and catch all the chunks of fruit left. "And when you beg me to make it again, I will refuse, adamantly, thinking back on the little faith you showed me in such a delicate moment."
"Sorry I didn't make banners of support," she says, titling her head to the side and crossing her arms over her breasts.
"Sorry won't make it," he tells her, shaking his head no. He takes the bottle on his right to add wine to the blackberry syrup. Bonnie turns around and without looking up he reaches out his hand as she passes him a blue bottle of blackberry vodka, and that's when Elena is spotted.
Bonnie sees her first, and she smiles at her, "Elena, you're here," and she walks over her to hug her.
He lifts his eyes, offers her a wink and a "Hey there," and goes back to his mixing. Bonnie pulls her into the room as Damon fills a pitcher with reddish drink. She sits on a stool and Elena follows her. "I'm trying to catch up with all I've missed, so you have to tell me everything you did while I was away," she says reaching out to take her hands. Her enthusiasm matches what she was feeling only a minute ago, before it became suddenly blurry for God knows what reason.
Elena offers her friend a smile and she squeezes her hands back, "Well—"
"My work of art is ready," Damon announces and she turns to see him push a glass in Bonnie's direction, decorated with orange and lime slices and a single blackberry mixed with ice.
"You ruined a moment," Bonnie sighs, leering at him.
"Yeah, yeah," he says, waving a hand in her direction, "Try and say that after tasting it," and again, what Elena gets as Bonnie drinks is a wink before he goes back to look at her friend.
But it's Bonnie's party and it's only right for her to get a little attention. She can manage that, Elena thinks smiling. Yes, of course she can.
#
Elena wakes up to find herself engulfed in the warmth of Damon's sheets. She smiles and arches her back, rolling to his side to brush her cheek on his naked chest and hear the reaction of his dead heart coming back to life to race towards her, but all she finds is the lingering scent of him – a vague note of honey underneath the musk.
She opens her eyes to find him pulling up his pants. "Hi, undead sleeping beauty," he greets her, taking a step towards the bed to bend over and press a short kiss against her mouth.
"Where are you going?" she purrs, pulling herself up, her breast in sight as she moves into a very suggestive pose. "I didn't finish with you, yet," she adds biting her lower lip.
"Tempting," he says, turning to take his shirt before looking at her again, "But I gotta go. Baddies are at our door, the world is about to end, yada yada."
"I think the world can manage without you for another hour. I, on the other hand…" she doesn't finish her sentence. There's no need to draw it out for him. Again, he smiles at her and keeps getting dressed.
"Stefan has informed me that our resident witch is going to snoop into the lion's den. Someone needs to back her up."
It's reasonable and right but she doesn't see why he should be the one to back her up.
"Can't Stefan do that?" she asks, pulling the sheet around her. It's suddenly too cold to bear, "And Bonnie is not exactly a damsel in distress, you know."
"Don't let her hear you calling her that," he warns her, amused by the mere thought. "Stefan offered to, actually, but I don't want my clumsy little brother to waste all my effort in bringing her back to the land of the living," he explains, like there's any chance of that at all, like Stefan is not the reliable, sacrificial person he is. But Damon doesn't delegate anything that concerns Bonnie, and it's nothing new so she can't tell herself why it bothers her this time. She can hardly admit to herself it bothers her, let alone find a good excuse for it.
"She could have asked me, but no," he goes on about her "God forbid she asks for help. I swear, one of these days I'll just put a collar with a bell on her and-"
Still, her frown interrupts his rambling and slows him down. "Tonight I'll make you dinner…" he promises, "And a lot of other good things," he adds, raising his eyebrows, suggestively.
She smiles at him, catches him by the shirt to pull him down on top of her. He kisses her, squeezes one breast and pulls away to disappear out the door with a "See you later!"
#
She arrives as Stefan is leaving.
He offers her a few gentle words, complimenting her beauty, and he holds the door for her with his usual gentlemanly manners. Elena whispers a thanks and she lingers on the doorstep to watch him leave. It's not hard to remember what made her love him so fiercely, she thinks smiling to herself, before going inside.
The air is warm and fragrant, filled with the smell of cocoa and vanilla. Elena beams wondering how he can know that the Chocolate Bundt cake is her favorite.
From where she stands she sees the table set up with candles and flowers and a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket. She was so excited for their romantic date that she arrived earlier.
Elena wore a red lace skater dress with a tank-style bodice and a flared skirt detailed with rows of tonal sequins; she has let down her hair and used minimal makeup hoping to be sexy without looking like she's made an effort. She hopes he'll like it enough to decide to let his effort with dinner go to waste. She'll insist that they have to eat, then, and they will wait, and they will have a wonderful meal and an even more wonderful night.
A little scream takes her by surprise and she rushes only to finds Damon pulling Bonnie's hand under the running water of the kitchen sink.
"I told you to stay put," he scolds her, bending over her hand.
"What's going on?" she asks. She knows exactly what's happening – Bonnie has burned her fingers and Damon is helping her, simple as that, but still her stomach twists and she doesn't understand what's happening.
Bonnie turns her head and Damon raises his to look over his shoulder, "Oh, you're early," he says.
"I was just about to go," Bonnie explains, offering her a smile, "And I didn't help him," she clarifies.
"You hardly could considering your state," he comments, shutting off the water. That's when she sees her other hand, limp by her side, all wrapped into a white bandage.
"You make it sound like I'm crippled or something," Bonnie grimaces, turning her face again to look at him.
"I could smell your burning flesh," he rebutters, "And from the look of it, you could just have a knack for that."
"I told you the Bolognese sauce was about to burn. I was just trying to help." she says rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, you helped a great deal," he reproaches her. "You know, if you wanted me to bandage your other hand for the love of symmetry you could have just asked. After all, white suits you."
"Talking to you is useless, you know that, right?" her protests are shrill and his expression challenges her to keep it up to see who's the last to give in.
It seems like it'll be a long night.
"But you're still trying. Doesn't that tell something about yourself?" he asks her with a irritating smirk.
"That I'm too good for you," she replies, clearly bothered.
"Or that you're stupid, which explains why you won't stay put when I tell you to!"
"You are such-"
Only the sound of an uncorking bottle stops them, and they both turn to see Elena pouring herself a glass of champagne.
"Please, don't let me interrupt you," she says, sarcastically, taking a sip of her drink.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Bonnie says, taking her hand away from Damon's. She hadn't even realized he was still holding it between his, "I'm leaving immediately," she says, walking around the kitchen island.
"And really, I didn't help him at all. Just a few directions and suggestions, you know, about what you like. This night is all him," Bonnie reassures her with a warm smile. It almost seems like she's proud of him, and that stuns Elena into nodding her way into this little speech.
She watches Bonnie's back as she leaves in a rush. The night is all him, she thinks, and he is all about Bonnie.
Damon smiles at her and rubs his hands together, "You have no idea what is awaiting you."
Elena can feel her stomach sink a little bit.
#
Elena laughs happily along with her best friends – it's been so long since they spent some time like this, in a simple manner, laughing about stupid things, no one dying.
Damon walks around them as they sit on the couch. Bonnie's eyes are on her and she never looks at him. Damon glances their way, gives Elena a short smile, steals a glance towards Bonnie as he turns to fill his glass with bourbon. He gulps down the drink, fills the glass again and raises in their direction, "I'll leave you girls alone."
Lately Damon has spent a lot of time indulging her and Elena is giddy about how perfect her life is, and later when she joins him in his bedroom she wants nothing more than to make love to him. She hugs him from behind as he stares outside the window, glass firmly planted in his hand. He's all hard angles and white marble skin, and she wants to rub herself against him and inhale the smell of him so badly. Her hands roam over his chest, on top of his dark green shirt, tentatively opening a button with some difficulty.
"Damon," she purrs his name but he doesn't move nor react to that. It kind of cools her enthusiasm.
"What's wrong?" she asks pressing her chin to his shoulder. She wants him to talk to her, so they can put whatever it is that worries him behind their backs and entertain themselves with more pleasurable things.
"She's faking it," he says, sounding very pensive.
"What?" Elena is taken aback and confused. She doesn't know who he is talking about and she takes a step back, watching him turn to her to explain. "Bonnie is not happy, she's faking it. I don't know who she's trying to fool considering it's so obvious," he says, grimacing.
"It's not," she contradicts him, "In fact I think she's as happy as she looks," she insists, looking at him and failing to see his reasoning.
"Come on," he insists, "Have you seen her? She smiles the way people do when they have to show their teeth to the dentist. She laughs out of time and half the time she keeps her face down…" he lists, looking surprised by the second by the fact that she hasn't seen what is so clear to him. "Didn't you notice?"
The question Elena wants to ask is why he did.
#
Elena is almost scared of his reaction when she tells him that Bonnie has a date – which is ridiculous because he has no particular reason to care about that. And yet, there's a tiny part of her whispering and making fun of her, waiting for him to get mad, go crazy. He doesn't.
He stays perfectly still, doesn't even look up from his book. She says the words and three very long seconds later he's making an "Mmm" sound like she informed him about the weather. "Great," he adds, after a few more moments.
His jaw clenches a bit and his eyes are so focused on the page, like he cares about nothing else than what he's reading about, that she can't help but smile. She likes Damon when he's focused on something. She likes him more when he's focused on her.
Elena sighs in relief, standing from the couch to let one hand travel along his shoulder and kiss his cheek before going upstairs to take a quick shower.
When she comes back in the sitting room thirty minutes later he's reading the same book, unmoved by the news. How silly of her to ever doubt his love and devotion, she thinks with a happy smile on her face.
She doesn't notice he's still stuck on the same page.
#
When he enters the room he sees Bonnie sitting on his sofa, Elena right next to her and a cup of coffee between her hands. It's coffee with sugar and whipped cream. Uh, oh.
"That coffee speaks trouble," he says waving his hand towards the cup, "And not only because all that whipped cream is going to stay on your hips forever," he adds, walking inside the room.
"Thanks for your concern about my figure," Bonnie replies with a half-hearted nasty look – now that gets him worried.
"Who's dying?" he asks, looking from Elena to Bonnie and then back to Elena again.
"Everything's fine," Bonnie insists.
The witch is hushed immediately with a "Shhh. That's a mortal sin, shame on you," as Damon accuses her childishly, looking expectantly at Elena to spill it.
Bonnie has actually told her it would be better not to let Damon know and she really wants to respect her wishes, but he's already caught onto the lie and it's stupid to insist when it's all going to come out in the end. And there a petty part of her, which she doesn't want to acknowledge , that wants Damon to see Bonnie's lacking just like her boyfriend did, because despite the fact that Damon is her boyfriend sometimes she doesn't feel like his girlfriend.
"He will know, sooner or later," she tells Bonnie before looking up at Damon to explain, "Adam, the boy she was dating… he cheated on her. He left her for another girl."
From the corner of her eyes Elena sees Bonnie looking down, her eyes glossy from tears unshed and she feels her heart tightening a bit for her. Despite it all she doesn't want to see her suffer.
"I'm going to kill him," he says between his teeth, his mouth stretched into an angry smile, before he turns to leave. "I'll be back in time for dinner—"
"You're not going to kill anybody," Bonnie calls to him, dampening his enthusiasm for the mission he has just found himself. The way he turns on his heels and look at her with a disappointed expression leaves Elena perplexed. She never saw him behave like that – one word from Bonnie, not even a kind one, and he obeys like she has him tamed. It burns a little thinking that she has to make doe eyes at him, beg and manipulates to have him agree with her.
"I'll make you a necklace with his teeth, mm?" he offers, like it's an auction he wants to win.
"I'm not into jewelry," she lies, trying to sound annoyed at his proposal.
"I'll remember that for future reference."
Bonnie looks down, brushes the back of her hand under her nose and he walks in front of her to get down on knee and meet her eyes at her level. One hand on her knee for comfort.
"If you let me kill the asshole I won't even ask for a Christmas gift," he says, like a little boy promising to be good so that Santa Claus will bring him his favorite toy.
"I wasn't planning on giving you one, anyway," Bonnie informs, grimacing. Clearly his tactic hasn't worked, and still Elena's heart tightens a bit, her previous pity for Bonnie's situation forgotten entirely. She feels invisible and cut out even if she's there, sitting right next to her, her boyfriend on his knee in front of another girl.
"Liar, liar, pants on fire," he accuses her with a smile lightening up his face.
Bonnie rolls her eyes, trying hard not to smile and failing.
"You are the worse," Bonnie says, annoyed and endeared. A strange combination Elena only ever saw when they were together.
"But you looove me so," Damon chants stressing the notes. Bonnie kicks at his ankle having him jump with an "Ouch!" – like that could actually hurt a vampire of his strength.
"That's ridiculous!" she protests, "And you love me more, anyway!" Bonnie yells after him as he takes the steps two at the time singing Love me, love me, say that you love me.
Elena will never admit it – for her pride and self-esteem will not let her, for it's not fair and it's not the way it should always be, for it's not what he promised (he promised forever, hasn't he?) - but she fears Damon loves Bonnie more. More than anything else.