Blossoming

A/N: This was written as a Christmas present for my friend; Luisa. Admittedly, i'm not completely satisfied with it but it's cute and I hope everyone likes it. Especially you, Luisa :)

Matt

Matt really started to notice it while watching Damon's method of "shock therapy". Under the guise of wanting to help Bonnie through her trances, the kisses Damon planted on his girlfriend's best friend always seemed a bit too long...and Damon always seemed a bit too willing to act out on them.

It was a Saturday night when the moment came that it was officially painfully clear to him.

Bonnie was coming out of a screaming fit caused by one of her trances, courtesy of Damon's lips. After the little redhead had calmed down, the relief on Damon's face was apparent.

"Are you alright, little bird?"

And the nicknames. That was another strange aspect to Damon and Bonnie's relationship that Matt wasn't quite sure what to make of. And he was positive that he wasn't the only one who was confused by it.

At Damon's words, Bonnie nodded and sank further into his arms. "I am now. Um..." She blushed deeply, fully registering their current position. "Thank you for helping me."

The amusement in Damon's dark eyes was clearly visible. "I'm never one to abandon a damsel in distress."

And then he stroked her hair...and not in a nonchalant, careless way. It was the kind of hair stroke that showed clear adoration.

Matt tried not to let his jaw drop. The last thing he needed was Damon seeing his reaction. Although, that didn't seem to be too much of a problem, considering most of his focus, if not all of it, was still on Bonnie. Instead, he caught Meredith's eye and he noticed that the dark-haired girl had been casting suspicious glances of her own in Bonnie and Damon's direction.

Yes. Damon definitely liked Bonnie...perhaps a lot more than he should.

Meredith

Meredith watched as Damon paced the room back and forth. She lounged against the door frame in a calmly fashion while his stance was anything but calm.

"She'll be here soon."

"She's already ten minutes late," Damon seethed, glancing up at the clock for the fifteenth time. "The meeting was supposed to start at five."

Meredith laughed lightly. "Bonnie is never on time. The more you know that, the better."

"She is more than likely with that boy," she heard Damon murmur underneath his breath.

That made Meredith pause. Bastian. The topic of him had been brought up by Damon an obnoxious amount of times and it had every member of their group raising their eyebrows.

"Maybe she is," she replied nonchalantly. "But I doubt she'd let him deter her for too long."

The look on Damon's face in response to her words was anything but pleasant. "I don't trust him."

"Why not?"

"Something about him seems...off."

It felt like, to Meredith, that he wanted to say something else but was repressing himself. He then turned to head into the kitchen. "Let me know when she arrives."

Meredith watched him disappear into the kitchen, her eyes narrowed in speculation. When it came to Bastian, there was obviously more going on in his head than just genuine suspicion. He was as transparent as ever.

And this conclusion became even more obvious when Meredith saw Damon's look of utter relief when Bonnie eventually arrived at the boarding house without Bastian in tow.

Stefan

Damon was currently doing the one thing he had always ridiculed Stefan for. Brooding. But unfortunately, the younger Salvatore brother couldn't bring himself to enjoy the sight for he was currently in a rather low mood as well.

About three weeks ago, Stefan had returned to Fells Church and the compulsion plaguing the minds of their human companions had been broken. And along with that, trusts had been broken as well.

Elena, Bonnie, Meredith, and Matt had all four done their share of ignoring the Salvatores. And Stefan couldn't really blame them. They had their minds tampered with and in some ways, their will taken away. Although he had been sure that he was doing the right thing at the time he had left, Stefan was increasingly regretting his decisions, especially after he had seen the hurt look in Elena's eyes the last time they had spoken. But there was also hope. Elena had said that she would forgive both of them in time. But that was what she needed first. Time and space.

"She said she would forgive both of us eventually," Stefan reminded his brother as he paced the grassy fields of the clearing. "She only needs time."

He had a very strong feeling that it wasn't Elena that Damon was upset over, but he would wait for his brother to rise to the bait before the topic of the other person was brought up.

Surprisingly, it didn't take long at all.

"Bonnie hasn't said a single word to me since the moment the truth was out."

And there it was.

This time, it was easier for Stefan to keep his smugness low. This wasn't a very humorous situation after all. "Her feelings are more than likely hurt, Damon. You did spend the last month lying to her."

"I am well aware of that," Damon snapped in a frustrated manner. "But how am I supposed to fix it if she won't even let me near her?"

Stefan gave him a very small smile. "She probably just needs time, like Elena. Give her a few more weeks and if she doesn't come to you on her own, go to her. But do it gently. We're the ones that did something wrong, after all."

He had no idea that he had planted the seed that would lead to the events of the next few weeks with that statement.

Damon

This was the first time in a very long stretch of time that Damon decided to follow his brother's advice. And he hated it...but it wasn't likely that he had much of a choice. Saint Stefan was much more experienced in the emotions of humans, after all.

So after a few weeks of waiting, he decided to finally confront Bonnie. And in her quarters. The mundane building had been excruciatingly easy to get into.

The problem was, however, that Bonnie was late. Her classes had gotten out nearly two hours ago and she still wasn't here. The idea of her spending time with that mutt made the vampire feel very agitated.

When the door finally did swing open, he was somewhat relieved to see that she was alone.

"Where have you been?" He asked from the darkness of the room.

The surprise caused his little redbird to nearly jump out of her skin in fright. "Damon! What are you doing here?!"

Damon stepped out from the shadows so she could more clearly see him. "You didn't answer my question, redbird. Where have you been?"

Now Bonnie's warm brown eyes went from a frightened hue to an angry one. "I was with Bastian. And before you ask, no, i'm not going to stop spending time with him. He's my friend. And it really isn't any of your business."

He wasn't at all used to her standing up to him quite that viciously. He wasn't sure if he was even more mad now or if he just wanted to kiss her. But even so, he remained in his current stance, his jaw clenched in frustration. "It is my business if you're putting yourself in dangerous."

"Bastian isn't dangerous, Damon. And even if he was, it's not your job to protect me. I never asked you to." She then paused, looking straight at him now. "What are you doing in my dorm?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Well, I don't want to talk to you." Damon could clearly see that she was about to try to flee from him but he wasn't going to allow it this time. He had waited long enough to speak to her. He firmly but gently grabbed her arm, stopping her in her tracks.

She attempted to fight against him, but he knew that it would be pointless in the end. "Damon, let go of me!"

"I'll let you go if you will allow me to talk to you," he replied, and he was deeply ashamed when he actually allowed a tone of pleading to slip past his lips, but not enough to stop talking. "You've avoided me for weeks."

"I don't want to talk to you," Bonnie repeated, tears beginning to leak from her eyes. "Just...leave me alone."

The tears in her eyes was enough to get him to speak in a soft voice. It hadn't been his intention to make her cry, after all. "Redbird, please talk to me. I don't say the word 'please' often but you have me by the limbs here. What can I do to make you listen?"

Bonnie sniffled. "You hurt my feelings, Damon. You spent an entire month lying to me and compelling me. I thought you...well, I thought you cared more."

"I do care about you, little bird." In truth, the vampire was coming to the terms that he more than care for her. Despite all of his plans of making Elena his princess of darkness one day, somewhere along the way, the little redheaded psychic standing in front of him had stolen his heart. But that could be discussed later.

"Then why did you do it?"

"Because I wasn't thinking. Not at all." Damon closed his dark eyes for a moment before he reopened them, his determination clear. "I wanted to end the plan about halfway through it but I didn't know how to go about it because I didn't know where my little brother was. But I shouldn't have gone along with it at all and i'm...sorry." Another word that wasn't easy for him to say.

When Bonnie didn't say anything, he continued, taking her hands into his gently. "Would you allow me to begin trying to make it up to you by treating you to dinner tomorrow?"

Bonnie's eyes widened in surprise. "Damon..."

"Let me finish," he half ordered and half pleaded. "I've been acting like a fool...for a long time now Bonnie, and one of the things that proves that is the clear denial of how I feel about you. But now that i've realized it, I want to act out on it. Will you give me the chance to make everything up to you? And to truly give what's between us a chance? I know you feel the same way."

He was genuinely surprised by the small smile that spread across his little redbird's face after that, but he was overjoyed to see it nonetheless. It had been a long time since he had gotten to see her smile.

"Damon...i'm still a little mad. But...I...I do feel the same way for you," she admitted with a blush. "But...i'll go to dinner with you tonight. And if you don't mind, could I ask something else?"

"Anything you desire, my dear."

"Kiss me."

He frowned in surprise and Bonnie's blush deepened. "I just...i've missed you. And your kisses. But if you think..."

But Damon didn't give her time to finish. Instead, he fulfilled her request and pressed a loving kiss to her lips. The first ones of many in the new status of their relationship.

The End