Time for A Wedding

A/N – Hey y'all! Well I have been away for a while, my muse just deserted me but I think I'm on the road to recovery with this, I love Vampire Diaries so much and Alaric and Damon are my favourite characters, they make an awesome team badass! I adore the relationship between them and as a slash fan I obviously got into the Dalaric ship! Anyway this popped into my head during a lecture where we were talking about the social and emotional reasons why people marry so this was born in my note book! First time writing for TVD and Dalaric so bear with me while I get a feeling for the fandom and I apologize if this seems totally out of whack but I wanted to give it a go! Oh and yeah I've messed with some of the points of the current story, like Stefan being all dark side and the current relationships on the show, just because I wanted to have all the characters there and stay on the story rather than worry about the finer points. Oh Vampire Diaries, Damon, Alaric and everyone else aren't mine; they are the CW's toys I'm just lending them.

Ships: Damon/Alaric, Jeremy/Tyler, Caroline/Matt, Elena/Stefan

Damon sighed as he lent heavily against the window frame in their bedroom as he looked down over the expansive lawn the Elena, Caroline and Bonnie where currently decorating, bossing Jeremy, Tyler and Matt around as they went. Damon heard his approaching brother's footstep from behind him, without turning around he said,

"Can't you control her?" he practically heard Stefan smirk as his baby brother joined him at the window.

"You are the one who put her in charge of planning this; you should have known what you were getting yourself into." He replied as he watched Elena instruct Tyler and Matt on hanging white fairy lights between the beams of the massive wooden structure that Stefan and the rest of the guys had finished constructed a few days ago, beneath the lights currently being strung around it the white chairs were being set out by Jeremy and Bonnie either side of the white aisle.

"Yeah, to save Ric and me having to do it but I never imagined it would turn into this massive affair, Ric is gonna freak when he sees this." Damon stated as he took a rather large gulp of bourbon from the glass currently clutched in his hand.

"Come on, you know you love it all and Ric? He won't care about any of it, he wants to marry you, and the rest of it doesn't matter." Stefan told him and he couldn't help but agree with him as Stefan could see in his face as he left his big brother to his thoughts to go help with things outside, or rather stop Jeremy and Elena getting at each others throats, between himself and Tyler they seemed to manage to keep their other halves calm.

Alone with his thoughts again they turned to his soon to be husband, God that still sounded strange to Damon, Ric was currently being held hostage in the Gilbert house, Elena had been trying to keep them apart for about a week claiming it was in the spirit of a wedding but as she found out it was next to impossible to keep two vampires apart, yes Alaric was now a vampire too, deciding to marry Damon implied that he would eventually become a vampire but the decision had been made for them about three months ago when Team Badass bad been on another hunt, after a group of Vampires were threating Mystic Falls, they had split up and they were about half a mile apart when Damon heard the fight, it was over by the time he arrived in the clearing, Ric was lying on his back, clearly dazed, he had to be to be in agony as Damon could see his back was broken and blood was foaming from his mouth. Damon felt like a stake had been pushed into his chest as the scrambled to Ric, his knees hitting the dirt without him realizing, hovering over Ric's fast fading body, as a after thought Damon scanned the surrounding area, listing and looking for the attacker, he couldn't believe he'd forgotten to check they were safe, the sight of Ric on the ground had driven all other thoughts from his mind. Turning back to Ric he saw the light starting to leave his eyes. Damon wished Ric's ring still worked but the power had completely left it as they discovered after a previous close call, Damon had wanted them to make this decision together but it seemed like his hand was being forced, there was no way he was going to lose the only person he had ever let in. He searched Ric's eyes and saw a look that was asking him to do it. He raised Ric up slightly as he bit into the wrist of the other arm, once he was done and felt the veins around his eyes start to recced he placed his wrist to Ric's mouth before he felt his fiancé's cold lips close around the wound before it healed, Damon knew it was too late and the injuries too much for the blood to heal him and he knew Ric knew too, this was it.

Just as the wound healed the light left those blue orbs. Damon had to remind himself that Alaric's current state wasn't for long. After laying him back down Damon rose from his knees and examined the immediate area, there was six sets of boot prints, as he identified two of them as his and Alaric's Damon realised Ric had been out numbered four to one, they had obviously seen them both and went for the human.

Thankfully the sun had set before Ric woke up

"We are gonna have to be really nice to Bonnie for a while, you need a ring." Damon said as the relief washed over his face, as Ric was getting to his feet Damon rushed over to him and held him tight in his arms, never wanting to let him go.

Damon was brought out of his thoughts by a shout from below the window.

"Hey! This is your wedding, the least you can do it help decorate! These two can't hang lights to save their lives!" Elena hollered to him as Tyler and Matt glared at her from their positions half was up ladders. Damon smirked and went to help.

A day later, just as the sun was starting to set Damon was back in their bedroom standing in front of the mirror looking at himself, if you had told him even two years ago that he would be about to get married he'd have laughed then proceeded to kill you but here he was struggling with cufflinks. Stefan walked into the room and went to help with the problematic items.

"Thanks." Damon said, giving Stefan the once over in his matching suit, a white shirt and blue tie beneath a black waist coat and jacket with matching black pants, it hadn't escaped Damon's notice that the ties perfectly matched the shade of his eyes, damn Elena and here attention to detail.

"No problem brother, it's what the best man is for." Stefan replied with a reassuring smile. Just then Caroline stuck her head around the door and told them it was time to go. The boys made it down stairs and into one of the rooms just off from the door leading down out onto the lawn, Damon had a feeling that Alaric was in the opposing room.

"Right, my time to leave, I gotta be at the top before it all starts, so I'll see you then?" Stefan asked as he began to make his way back to the door, Damon couldn't muster a audible response as his nerves seemed to be gagging him, seeing this Stefan took a chance and moved back towards his brother and drew him into his arms and was relived when he felt his arms tighten around him, a while back Damon would have punched him for even attempting to hug him but this was a different game now.

"Love you, brother." Stefan said as he left, Damon smiled after him. He checked himself in the mirror once more before Caroline walked in.

"Ready?" She asked. He nodded and looped her arm as they made their way to the door as they walked out the full force of it hit Damon, in the distance he could see an area full of tables and seats with a bar set up near by and a huge place that had been set up as a kind of make shift dance floor in front of a stage, it was all illuminated by row after row of paper lanterns suspended on string, it that was obviously for the party afterwards and in front of him was the wooden structure but it looked almost unrecognizable from the bare pile of sticks it had been at the beginning of yesterday, there was small lights wrapped and draped over every inch of it, they were accompanied by drapes of a cream colour that hung from the top and then pooled at the bottom, the aisle was white carpet and ran the entire length between the two sides of chairs. Sat in those chairs was what seemed most the council, of course they had be invited, it was 'tradition' as the Mayor had told them, she was currently sat in the second row on the left hand side, beside the Sheriff, sat in front of them was Tyler and Matt along with a few others, on the opposite side to them sat Bonnie with a seat next to her waiting for Elena, Stefan and Jeremy were stood to the end of the aisle awaiting the grooms with the woman who was conducting the ceremony. When they drew level with them Caroline kissed Damon on the cheek before leaving him stood with Stefan and walking to sit beside Matt, her floor length green dress flowing elegantly behind her.

"Alright?" Stefan whispered to him, he simply nodded in response, offering a smile. Then they both turned their attention back towards the doors as Alaric and Elena came into view, Elena was wearing the same dress as Caroline was, green and flowing with simple silver detail along the shoulder straps and she was looping arms with Alaric who had a beautiful smile on his face which seemed to make Damon smile even more. He was wearing the same suit as Damon with the exception of the tie; it was still blue but a much darker and stormier than Damon's. When the duo reached the end of the aisle Elena mirrored Caroline's actions and kissed Alaric on the cheek before leaving him stood next to Jeremy and in front of Damon before taking her place beside Bonnie.

The ceremony was traditional, the lady conducting it started off by saying that Damon and Alaric had decided to spend the rest of their lives together, it was safe to say there was several smirks at this, before letting the guys say their own vows, something that they had both been dreading but knew that they had to do because there was no traditional vows that really covered what they had to say so Alaric decided to bite the bullet and go first.

"Damon, I think its safe to say no one could have predicted that we would even get together never mind make it to this moment and I for one will forever grateful that we were all wrong, you've changed me and my life in so many ways its impossible to name them all but I will be forever thankful that you did. I never dared dream I would met someone that could make me feel this way, that I'm worth anything even if I'm not sure I deserve the love you give me. I love you so much and I always will, for the rest of time." Damon didn't miss Jeremy having to turn away slightly to wipe a tear from his eyes as he began his own vows.

"Ric, I don't think that word could ever say how what you mean to me and how you have saved and changed my life in so many ways, I owe everything to you, I've had to wait a very long time to find you and I will never let you go, I simply don't function without you anymore and that should scare me but it doesn't and I don't care, I love you with every thing I have and I will for forever and always. They both turned to their respective best man and they were handed almost identical platinum rings, the only difference between them was the one that was placed on Damon's ring finger bore the name 'Alaric' inside and on the one Damon placed on Ric's hand the name 'Damon' was inscribed there. There was a moment's pause whilst the final official words were said before they both leaned into each other, Damon catching Ric's full bottom lip between his own drawing in closer as they wrapped their arms around each other and everyone around them clapped and cheered.

Later on Damon and Alaric were lounging in two of the chairs at one of the tables by the dance floor, Damon was leaning into Ric who had a arm around his husbands shoulders as they watched there friends and family, Stefan was currently probing up the bar as he sang under his breath the song that was currently playing along the night air, he was watching Elena and Bonnie as they danced in the centre on the dance floor, Matt and Caroline were dancing not to far from them, well Caroline was dancing Matt was kind of shuffling his feet whilst holding a beer bottle, he was so drunk he didn't seem to trust himself with doing more than that. Damon glanced over to one of the trees at the edge of the lawn and laughed slightly, gently elbowing Ric he nodded his head in the direction of Jeremy and Tyler who seemed to be trying to eat each others faces, seven months of being together and they still could keep their hands off each other. Damon smiled and turned back to Ric,

"I love you."

"I love you too."

A/N – Well, what did y'all think? Just a little something to get the ball rolling, in terms of me getting into the fandom and writing again! Leave a review if you like! Thanks for reading.