Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries or any of its characters.
Summary: What if they couldn't immediately go to Lady Ulma's, after Damon had rescued Bonnie from the slave traders? What if they had to stay one more night at the inn? Just one night. Together.
Has references to the short story 'After Hours' by L.J Smith.
A/N: Thanks to Anonymous Reviewer, for her/his enormously inspiring review.
"It's just for one night; couldn't you manage that, my redbird?"
Bonnie nodded, but her shoulders were slumped, the corners of her lips turned down. She hated that dingy brown room, though of course, she reasoned, it was a heaven compared to what she had been through. And staying with Damon, it wouldn't be so bad...
As if he had read her thoughts, he said, "I'll be there. You wouldn't be all alone, like last time."
"Yeah" Bonnie forced a smile.
The landlady wasn't happy to see them back, but she didn't dare to refuse. So Bonnie ended up in the same room where Damon had left her. After the landlady left, Damon flopped down on a couch beside the window, and pulled out a bottle of Black Magic from somewhere. Bonnie wished she could peep into his mind sometime, just to see what he was thinking.
"I'll take a shower" she told him.
"All right."
Damon looked at the small, delicate figure, the mass of fiery hair. He thought he knew her well, he could read her thoughts, but somehow, he could never figure out how her mind worked.
"But they were going to kill me anyway. If I'd told about you, they'd have hurt you, too."
He wondered at how easily she had said it, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Faced with death, threatened with torture, how could she even think about saving him?
It hurt to think about it, he had to admit, taking another swig of Black Magic, the look on her face as she had said it, the tears he had wiped away.
Would she do that for someone else, he wondered, for Stefan, or Matt, or Meredith, or Elena? Would she try to save them too, taking her own life at stake? But knowing her like he did, he knew that she would. She would do anything for her friends, the ones she loved, the ones she cared about. And suddenly he felt glad that she considered him to be one of them.
Could he do that? Risk his own life to save someone else?
She came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, shivering, for the inn didn't have a water heater, and Damon found he couldn't look away, from her bare arms, the goose-bumps on her skin, the shape of her body under the towel, her hair shining in the firelight. He wanted to touch her then so badly, just to see what those lips would feel like, or how they would taste...
"Turn around. I'm going to change."
"Couldn't you change in the bathroom?" he grumbled, trying to sound irritated.
"But I always change here. The bathroom is so small!" she said, looking at him with such wide, innocent eyes that he couldn't hide a smile.
"I've seen you naked before, you know." he said with a smirk, turning. "What a pity you were all covered in blood."
He knew that she had blushed red, though he couldn't see her face. He could hear the rush of her clothes as she put them on. Her scent, fresh from the shower, wafted to him. It always smelt like strawberries, but it had something else as well, something that was entirely hers, something that was just Bonnie.
"I'm done!" she called in her sing-song voice.
"Do you remember the time we had first met?" he asked suddenly. He said it so quietly he thought Bonnie hadn't heard it at first. He was about to repeat his question when she said:
"Of course! It was at my house, when you and Stefan had come to take Elena" she remembered how he had perched on her sill, the look he had given her, half amused, half searching. How she'd thought he had fallen off the window. "Oh wait. I think I met you before that. At the party that Alaric threw for us- You kissed me!" she said excitedly, "And you said kissing a redhead cures one of all ailments!"
"It does!" He chuckled. Then, very quietly, he said, "But before that, redbird?"
He had never looked at her like that, it almost scared Bonnie. He looked so ravaged, so vulnerable, like he needed something from her, something that only she had. He looked as if...as if his whole five-hundred year vampire life depended on her answer. She thought back seriously this time, realising it was important, but she couldn't find anything better than that.
"No, I don't think so. Why do you ask Damon?"
Damon shook his head and turned away, as if he had just realised he was being silly. He went to the window and stared at the dark street below, till he felt her hand on his arm.
"What's wrong?" she asked, very softly.
"Nothing." He raised his hand to her face, running his thumb up and down her cheek. His face was just inches from hers. She closed her eyes at that the touch.
"You know, I might have seen you somewhere in the streets, or on the bus. You did look a bit familiar, now that I come to think of it"
"Now now, little red, aren't you saying that just to make me feel better?" he said with a smile.
Bonnie laughed, the sound of tingling bells. "Maybe." She said. "I hate to see you look so sad."
It was when she said things like this, Damon felt so lost, wondering what it could've meant, how much she meant by it. He tried to probe her mind again. She didn't resist, she never resisted. Her mind was always open, she never had any secrets.
"Damon?"
"Hm?"
"How did you get those shadows under your eyes?"
"How do you think I got them?"
"Um...someone punched you in the face?"
"Of course not." he growled, making a face "I was worried."
"Worried about what?"
"What do you think? I leave you somewhere and I come back to get you and find you are gone, how do you think I'd feel?"
"You were worried about me?"
"What's wrong with that, redbird?"
"I thought you didn't care about me."
She couldn't see Damon's face clearly at that moment, it was half in shadow. And suddenly, his lips were on hers. He held her so hard, she couldn't pull away. She could feel his nails digging on her arms, clutching so tightly it almost hurt. When at last he was finished, he pulled her back roughly.
"Fine then. I don't."
"Damon, I didn't mean-"
"Who is it that saves your life every time?" he said, very quietly, in a voice that Bonnie knew he used when he was either very sad, or very angry. She wondered which it was. "Who carried you home, when you were as good as dead? Who was it that fed you his own blood, to save your stupid human life? Who is it that runs to you, every time you call? Who is it that saved you tonight?"
"Damon-" she wiped away at tears that revealed everything. "I...I didn't mean it that way. I was just surprised that you were be so worried about me, that you got shadows under your eyes. I mean, it's just stupid old me, you know." she tried to force a feeble smile at him, which failed badly.
"Bonnie." he used her real name, hoping to make a point. "Whatever you do, don't ever, ever think that I don't care about you. Because that'd be a lie."
As it on an impulse, she threw her arms around in his neck, locking them in an embrace. It caught him by surprise, but he held her tighter, bringing her closer. She pressed her cheek to Damon's, and they stayed like that, wrapped up in each other. It was so different from their kiss, she with her eyes closed, he with his face buried in her shoulder.
"I care about you too, Damon" she whispered "A lot. A lot more than you think."
He didn't say anything for quite a long time. Bonnie didn't expect him to, but then he whispered back, in a voice that trembled with emotion, "Nobody has ever said that to me, you know. In all my life, as a human, and as a vampire."
Bonnie pulled back, she had to look at his face when he said that. He gulped once, and looked away. His eyes looked so sad. She wondered how it must have been, to live for centuries, without having that one thing they all took for granted, and she couldn't stop the tears running down her face.
"Why are you crying, redbird?" he asked, very gently.
"Oh Damon!" she hugged him tight, her tears wetting his shirt, his heart. And he knew that those tears were his salvation. Her tears would save him, if anything could.
He let her cry for him, and he let one tear fall, his own. The one that would never be seen, never be understood.
At last, they pulled away, and Bonnie said, just to think about something else, "Damon, are we supposed to sleep in the same bed?"
Damon didn't seem to have thought about that. It was a small bed, meant for a single person, and Bonnie wondered how they could both squeeze into it.
"It looks like we have to." Damon said. "But I could ask the landlady for another room if you want."
"No, I don't mind." Bonnie said faintly, then realising what it meant, "No! I don't want to stay alone!"
Damon chuckled, and so they ended up together, bundled up against each other in the small bed, under that thin brown blanket where he had left Bonnie alone, day after day. Damon put his arm around her, and she clutched at his hand, touching it to her lips. In the real world where they lived, they'd never be like this, they'd never dare to be so close. But that night, in that room, it didn't matter.
"I am sorry; I couldn't get you the one thing you asked for." Damon said, stroking her hair. "I know how much you hate this room."
"I don't mind it that much, because you are with me." Bonnie said sleepily.
And Damon realized, if he started apologizing for all the things he had done, and the ones he couldn't do, it would never end, and yet she'd forgive them all. He buried his face in her hair.
Damon couldn't sleep all night, watching the frail figure sleeping in his arms, feeling her soft, sweet breath, the rise and fall of her chest, listening to the beat of her heart. She slept so peacefully, as if the last few days had never happened, like she was completely safe sleeping in the arms of a dark, dangerous vampire who could kill her any second. But, he guessed, there was a part of her that knew that he wouldn't hurt her, and she trusted that part. She trusted him, and it was a strange thing to Damon. Nobody ever trusted him, not even Elena.
And, as the first light of the day fell on her face, he knew something he had doubted before. He would give up his life to save her, his centuries old vampire life for her little human one. He would do anything to keep her safe.
A/N: Isn't it sad, Damon does die trying to save Bonnie. Please review. Sorry if there are any mistakes, do point them out. Thanks for reading.