For: BamonIsEternal (on tumblr) February Challenge: Valentine's Day
Title: Rom-Coms
Word Count: 1165
Disclaimer: Obviously, I own nothing from The Vampire Diaries show or book series.
Light from the refrigerator halts Bonnie's shuffling feet. She thought they were alone. Before she can back out of the kitchen, a flare of blonde sends her anxiety skyrocketing.
"Bonnie?"
"Caroline?" she mimics Caroline's shock. Normalizing the situation. Stabilizing her heartbeat. "What are you doing here?"
"Stefan and I—"
"Right, right, but I mean, why here?" Bonnie's feet are planted in the doorway, but she's ready to run. Not that she can outrun her vampire best friend, but her body screams to escape.
"We went to The Gold Cellar, so it's close—wait." Shit. "Why are you here?"
"Oh, I—"
"Is Damon here? Stefan and I didn't hear—"
"Yeah, he's—"
"Stefan said—"
"We're watching rom-coms."
Caroline pauses. "Rom-coms."
"Yeah."
"We watch rom-coms on Valentine's Day."
"Not when you or Elena had a boyfriend." Bonnie even blew off Jeremy for Galentine's Day. "Which is fine. It's just—"
"Why Damon, though?"
"He asked." Kinda. "He asked what were my plans, and I told him about Galentine's Day, and he coined Pal-entine's Day—so we're watching The Proposal."
"I love the Proposal."
"You also love Stefan." She edges into the kitchen and skirts about Caroline for a glass. "So, you should probably, ya know, get back to him."
Caroline raises the water pitcher, and Bonnie holds out two glasses. She ignores the whipped cream can sitting on the counter, pleading her brain not to make that visual.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For making you spend Valentine's Day alone. With Damon." Caroline's nose crinkles. "God, you even smell like him."
"It's okay. It's not like I hate him anymore." Bonnie cracks a smile. "Okay, I still hate him, but I don't hate him."
"He grows on you like moss."
They laugh. She's not wrong. Caroline gives Bonnie a quick hug and a meaningful look before speeding out of the room.
When she closes the door behind her, she feels Damon's room magically seal everything in and repeal everything out. It's a spell she created by becoming the catalyst herself to activate a modified version of the tomb spell. It's a protective measure—that she's grateful for tonight.
She crawls onto the bed and hands Damon his glass. She blatantly avoids his shit-starting grin, downing half of her glass like it's the alcohol she desperately needs to chill out.
"Rom-coms."
"Don't even."
"Okay, but, seriously, you handled that well."
"I said, don't."
"I can just imagine Carebear straining to hear Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock—to be sorely disappointed.
"Can we just forget—"
"I mean, you weren't totally lying." She exhales loudly. "We were watching those trash movies."
"They aren't trash."
"I genuinely have no idea how you watch them."
"They're cute."
"You're cute." Bonnie rolls her eyes—and startled by Damon's sniff near her ear. "You do smell like me."
"Please, don't—"
"Probably because that's my shirt, which I'm surprised Car—"
"Stop right—"
"But more likely, it's from all our wild sex."
"Damon."
He laughs, draws her into his bare chest, and pops a kiss onto the crown of her head, but she covers her hot face, barring herself from the reality that Caroline almost found out.
Caroline cannot find out about this. Not yet, anyway. Because Bonnie didn't even know what "this" is. It happened gradually, a few months after they returned from the prison world. Elena moved on and away, and Damon relied heavily on Bonnie to reconstruct his life without turning off his humanity. The nature of their relationship quietly heated up, until they were at a simmer they couldn't ignore.
"You have to admit, it's a little thrilling—the 'almost getting caught', not the sex. We both know that's phenomenal."
"Would you just stop?" Her humor is gone, and she pulls away from him. "No one can find out about this!"
She's glad their room—his room—is soundproof.
"Okay, but let me ask you this," he cups her face gently, "why not?"
All her reasons hide in the depths of her mind because Damon's eyes are startling them, and her. His gaze is sincere, vulnerable, and… happy. A combination she'd never witnessed from him. He notices how her mouth opens, but she cannot capture a single excuse.
"If you want to keep this," he presses a quick kiss to her mouth, "under the sheets, fine. But if you think I want to keep us a secret, you'd be wrong."
"What?"
"What do you mean, 'what'?" He's more amused than upset. "I spent years chasing a genuine and reciprocated love, and I found it here. With you."
"Okay, Nicholas Sparks."
"That's my girl." His grin melds into a softer smile. "Seriously, Bonnie, I lo—"
"No!" Her eyes are wide. "Don't say it. You don't."
"And how do you know that?"
"Because…" He can hear the tremor in her voice, she sees it in the way his expression sobers. "Because what if Elena gets her memories back?" She gains momentum. "What if she gets her memories back, and she comes back to Mystic Falls, and she declares her undying love for you? What then, huh?"
"Even if she gets her memory back, I will tell her that my undying love is only for a stubborn little witch who is afraid to love—not because she doesn't have an enormous heart, but because no one has even tried to match her love yet."
She clenches her jaw to keep it from wobbling, but she quickly loses the fight. His hand, still holds her face, catches her tears.
"Just so we're on the same page, I'm gonna try to match your love."
"Yeah, I got that."
"Okay, good." She feels his smile in his kiss. "I love you, Bonnie. You believed there was something good in me when there wasn't anything in me. You make me a better person."
"Hard to believe when you're still a shithead," she grumbles. He laughs, she rolls her eyes—their signature interaction. "You promise?"
"Promise what?"
"That you love me." She barely hears herself.
"I do. I promise I love you."
"I love you too."
Despite everything they had gone through, he had been the only one to trust her, not just depend on her. He had been the only one to see her strength, not just her power. He had come back for her in the prison world, not for Elena but for her, and he continued to stay with her through her post-traumatic period. Their lives had been running parallel for so long, but now, they meshed seamlessly.
"Well, I knew that." He lays her down and hovers over her. "But does everyone else know?"
Probably.
"We can tell them." She takes his surprised face into her hands and presses a long kiss on his mouth. His hands already edge under her shirt—his shirt—when she pulls away. "But I will do all the talking."
"Yeah, we both know I'm better at the 'not talking' part anyway."
Thanks for reading! And thanks again, Maya, for organizing this!