Note: Just written. Unedited. Dedicated to Zsaclar ;) XO


We Might Be Having A Bit Of A Disagreement (Again)

-I Don't Know Why I Lay My Hands On Her-


Her neck was itching.

Bonnie frowned as she clawed absently at it again while her eyes went in and out of focus as she stared down at some textbook or other; about what, she couldn't tell you. A sound somewhere between a growl and a sigh heaved its way through her and she pushed herself away from her study desk.

"Come on…" She muttered to herself, rolling her neck side to side and frowning when the itch came back. Then her mind went back to the same place it had been going since he left her room. Damon's hands, pressing into her skin as they closed around her throat. They hadn't even been around her neck that long, her own anger and strength making damn sure of that. She'd been this close, this close, to putting one of those candles to good use and reminding him exactly how bad things could get between them. But for some reason, she decided against it. But she still wanted him to burn, so she crawled into his chest and set him alight from the inside.

The look on his face when she'd looked him dead on and asked, "Am I wrong?" she could still see it behind every blink of her eye. She'd broken something in him and that meant one of two things when it came to Damon. The less likely avenue of 'hmm, maybe I should listen to her' or his personal favourite, 'ignore all sense and logic and do whatever I please'. She was just waiting for it really; for his choices to ripple into her world and topple over the little clarity and peace she had left. It was a habit of both his and hers, to put her last, to take her forgranted…And she was doing everything in her literal power to put an end to that. She just needed him to see that, to see the sense in it, to put her first too…or at the very least, to stop putting her last. "Dammit Damon." She sighed, standing up and moving to her bed. With Caroline MIA and Elena volleying between the Boarding House and the hospital, Bonnie was mostly alone these days…which, shuddering a little, she decided to move past, because lingering on the silence wasn't sitting well with her…

Ring

Ring, ring

She grabbed at her phone, welcoming the distraction but her smile fell as she read the name light up in bright green as it flashed on her screen. Before she could stop herself she pressed ignore and tossed it aside. It buzzed and she rolled her eyes when she read the message.

Really, Bon?

"Screw you." She mumbled, annoyed.

You know I'm just going to keep calling and texting until you answer, so answer.

"No." She said aloud, her voice growing angrier. There was a beat of silence.

Come on Bon-Bon, I need to talk to you

Please?

"No." She maintained.

Bonnie, please. I need you

She stared long and hard at the screen, chewing at her bottom lip. When her phone began trilling loudly she sucked in a long breath and answered it, lifting the device to her ear with all the reluctance in the world.

"I'm sorry." Was the first thing he said. She rolled her eyes.

"You've been saying that a lot lately." She pointed out, "Wanna fill me in on the why this time?"

"For…for the whole, semi-strangulation and the ascendant bullshit."

"Bullshit is correct." She allowed with a quirked brow, "And I'm not sure I'm quite over you putting your hands on me." She dove right in, "I know that it's typically you to see red and get violent when you don't get your way but when it comes to me I thought you'd know better than that."

"Believe me I do." He quickly replied and her eyes narrowed of their own volition, and, as if he were in the room he followed up with, "…Bonnie I swear, I never wanted to hurt you –"

"You didn't." She interrupted, "I shoved you off before you could. If we're being honest you hardly touched me but that's not the point, Damon and you know that. The point is that you treat me like I'm expendable…the way you always did. That hurt."

"How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?" He half-sighed into the phone and she frowned. The audacity of this man-child.

"You only have to say it once more if you can actually get around to meaning it." She snapped. She heard him draw a breath and could picture his face. As he ran his tongue over his bottom lip and furrowed his brow; picking a different angle with her. Something to appease her, to get as close as he could at meeting her halfway. She pursed her lips as she waited and he knew the look on her face when she got like this. Her eyes both bright and hard; like smooth, brilliant gems framed with those expressive brows that always rose incredulously in his direction. Her mouth twisted off to the side as she pressed her lips together and moved them into one corner, mulling everything over.

"I do mean it, every time." She groaned.

"So what, I'm just supposed to believe you?" She countered, "I'm just supposed to take your word for it when you and I both know that you have a habit of saying one thing and doing another."

"Bonnie, you're still okay, you're still safe –"

"No thanks to you."

"You know," his voice grew lighter and she knew he was changing the subject, "I didn't call you for this." She snorted.

"I don't care why you called."

"Yes you do, or you wouldn't have answered." She pulled a face at his arrogance.

"I don't know why you called if you knew I was still mad at you and you'd get an earful." She pointed out. He nodded his head, a little bobbing motion to the left and right…he had to admit, she had him there.

"It's because I just so happen to know that no matter how mad at me you are that I can always get a straight answer out of you." She could hear the smile in his voice. Whether it was a soft affection at her or his ego …it was anyone's guess really. Scratching at the back of her neck she forged on.

"Is that supposed to make me more empathetic to your cause?" She wondered and he snorted.

"No, if anything it's testament to how much I don't deserve to call you a friend." She wanted to smack something, or fall back onto her plush mattress, she couldn't decide. She wanted to be mean, wanted to drill it into his head that he was being an idiot, that there were other options…but, in that moment, she knew that he needed someone to talk to. And honestly, she didn't want to keep playing the same god-awful scenarios in her head on repeat so she welcomed the distraction.

"Out with it." She said, her voice terse.

"Lily gave the cure to Elena." She hummed. "I told Elena to take it, be human, be happy or whatever, and …"

"And?" She pressed when he didn't go on.

"And I may have suggested we both become human." He blurted and Bonnie's eyes bulged. She shot upright and to attention.

"What did she say?"

"She uh," he struggled to put it into words, "Stared at me like I was an alien and then basically teleported out of the room." Bonnie almost laughed but it wouldn't have helped anything. Truthfully, it was a very Elena response and she told him as much. "So what did I do wrong?"

"Wrong?" Bonnie echoed, "I don't know if you did anything wrong, maybe she just…has to think it through?"

"What are you not saying…" She really hated that he could read her so well, even through the sound her voice. It made sparing his feelings next to impossible.

"I just think that there's a lot at stake here Damon and now, with your genius at play the stakes have never been higher. Because now she's deciding for both of you, because you've said it yourself, all you see is her…she sees a house and her career and all these things that come with being human but you, you haven't even really thought about it, have you?"

"What's there to think about?" She shook her head.

"Damon, don't be naïve, there's a lot to think about, you've built a lot of yourself around the lifestyle of a vampire, when that's taken from you who knows what effect it'll have. I feel like you're not taking yourself into consideration at all here."

"Nothing to consider." He replied breezily.

"Yeah well, lemme know how that works out for you." She grumbled and she heard a soft noise on the other end, a breathy laugh.

"I know this is stupid –"

"So stupid –"

"And it probably isn't going to end well –"

"Try at all –"

"But I need to try you know, I need to do this for her, be human for her, it's what she'd want."

"You don't know that Damon."

"It's what she wants for herself." Bonnie held back everything she could have said then and there. Like how all Elena seemed to do was think about herself. How Damon was going into this thinking short-term, like he always did. How both of them were in over their heads and they expected Bonnie and everyone else to smile and support them through it all.

"What do you want for yourself?" Bonnie wondered.

"I want to be happy." He said after a long moment. "I want to be with her, being with her makes me happy, I don't care what it costs." A small part of Bonnie's heart broke for him; a part in the designated Damon Salvatore section of her heart. It was small, but persistent.

"Then nothing I say can change that anyway." Bonnie said, "And honestly, as idiotic as it all sounds, all I want for both of you is happiness …so…"

Neither of them said anything for a while and just as she opened her mouth to speak he beat her to it.

"Bon?"

"Hmm?"

"You know, in my own way, I love you right?"

"How'd you figure that out?"

"You're the first person I needed to talk to when she left." He said matter of factly. "The first person I think of when something goes south because you always know what to do. You're the first person that comes to mind when I need something to make sense." She was frowning now, for an entirely different reason. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that you're my best friend. And," he laughed a little, "It's all new territory for me so I'm not surprised I'm already screwing it up but I just wanted you to know that I do care about you and that, you know, it would be cool, me being human…I could be a pseudo Uncle to your kids."

"Out of the question." Was her immediate response and he laughed again then, a warm sound.

"All jokes aside, no matter what happens, I'm going to make things right between us." She hummed noncommittally.

"You can start by remembering my coffee order." She said with a small smile.

"You got it, Bennett." She smiled at that.

"You know that I only want what's best for you Damon." She said softly, "For you to be happy, content." He hummed and the sound tickled her ear.

"I know, it's how I know you love me too," he said, pride leaking into his voice, "Why else would you put up with my shit?" Why indeed, she wondered.

"Someone has to." She said with a sniff. He grinned as he responded.

"And I'm so glad that person is you."


Thoughts?