A/N: First, no, I have NOT abandoned "The Real Thing." It's just on hiatus until the muse decides to come back from the Caymans where she's been vacationing with Damon and Elena.

Second, this is an in-between story about Damon and Lindsey (from "Ordinary Loneliness") before I get the BIG sequel up. That will happen after I finish "The Real Thing." Reading "Ordinary Loneliness" isn't a necessity before getting into this one, but if you do want to go ahead and read it, I certainly won't stop you! :)

Third, If you're facing a milestone reunion, you already know this, but if you're still in the trenches in high school or feeling seriously left out at college or in life in general, I promise: This too, shall pass. This is a little fantasy piece for "Any of you that have ever felt stepped on, left out, picked on, put down..." (from "Revenge of the Nerds") or just not good enough. Come on in. Glad to have you here. This story is definitely for you. Sometimes, the nerds and the weirdos win the sweepstakes. :)

Fourth: PLEASE review! This isn't meant to be a seriously supernatural story. It's a short bit of fluffiness, probably no more than four chapters. But I'd love to see reviews anyway. If you liked "Ordinary Loneliness," I think you'll like this, too.

Disclaimer: I do not own or operate "The Vampire Diaries."


September, 2016

Damon came back from a blood run to find Lindsey sitting cross-legged on the sofa, looking at a card of some sort. She looked up at him as he came in with the cooler. Her expression was a little odd. It was a little speculative, but also a little sad. He took the blood to the fridge in the basement and came back up.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"This." She handed him the card.

He looked at it, then at Lindsey. "Your thirtieth high school reunion, huh?"

"Yeah."

"You're not planning on going. What's the problem?" Damon said.

"No, actually, I was planning on going. This will be the last time I'm able to see the people from high school that I care about. I can't go to another reunion. I don't age anymore since I turned, so this is the last one where it won't raise any red flags. I'll just look young, but I always have."

He flopped on the sofa next to her. Fortunately, it was so worn out, it didn't matter. But Lindsey flatly refused to buy a new sofa, and he really couldn't blame her. This one was supremely comfortable. "Please don't tell me you want me to go with you. Not to an 80s class reunion."

She looked at him in disbelief. "Really? You think I'm strolling into that reunion without the best looking man in three states - at least - walking in with me? Oh, hell no."

Damon raised one eyebrow. "So I'm arm candy now, huh?"

"Well, yeah. And what gave you the idea you were anything else?" Her coppery brown eyes twinkled at him as she teased him.

"Gee, I don't know how I could have possibly thought I meant something to you," he pouted.

Lindsey laughed and leaned over to him to give him a soulful kiss. "Well, you are the absolute sweetest piece of mancandy, ever. How about that?"

"I am hurt," he snarked.

Lindsey hopped into his lap. "Really? Bet I can make it better," she said with a leer worthy of one of Damon's own. "Besides, aren't you into the whole getting even, revenge is a dish best served cold, karmic payback kind of thing?"

"Yeah. What's that got to do with me going to this reunion with you?"

She grinned at him. "What better karmic payback is there than going to a reunion where some of the people were really nasty to me, only now I look better, dress better and have the best looking husband there? It's perfect!"

Damon checked in with their blood bond, and he could feel how pleased she was by the idea. He sighed. "O.K. I'll go. What do I have to do?"

"Do what you do best: show up and look purty!" she said, wrinkling her nose at him. Lindsey leaned forward to kiss him again. "Thank you, sweetheart," she said.

"You're welcome. But I'm telling you now that if I tear someone's head off because they played too much Bon Jovi, it's your fault."

"Oh hush. You'll make it, I promise. It's one day. You can stand it."

"I guess so," he said. "At least I have a month to psych myself out for it."

"Yep. I need to find a dress for the party at the country club, too. It's cocktail dress, the invitation says, so that does make it a little easier. Guys have it so easy, though. Show up in a suit and you're good."

"Yeah, but a suit wouldn't show your curves," he said, running his hands from her silky brown hair and down her sides. "Not like a sexy dress does, anyway. And I love your curves," he murmured into her neck, then brought his mouth up to kiss her.

"You do, huh?" she said against his mouth.

"Mmm-hmm. You feel like a woman, all soft and warm and sexy." His voice had dropped into the black velvet purr she loved.

"So you don't miss the toned and honed charms of a certain lovely vampire in Virginia who shall remain nameless?" Lindsey said.

Damon raised his head. "Oh, you didn't just go there, did you?" His beautiful blue eyes were a little troubled.

"Yeah. I went there," she admitted.

Damon's tone was stern. "Am I mated to her? Nope. Never will be, either. Once I held you, that was it. I wondered why none of those women satisfied me anymore - why they never did, really." He turned them so he lay on top of her, pinning her to the sofa. She twined her legs with his.

"And why is that? I'm interested," Lindsey said.

"Mostly because they weren't you. I found out I liked women who were a little softer, a little warmer."

"Could have fooled me those first days in Nashville," she replied.

Damon put his head down on her shoulder. "Are you gonna hold that against me from now on? I was an idiot and was clueless about what I had. I needed to grow up, and I finally did - for you."

Lindsey kissed him. "I know and I'm proud of you. You know I am. No, I don't hold it against you. You know I love you more than anything in this world. I waited for you. I wanted you - and only you. Nobody else."

"So what all is this big event going to entail?" he asked.

"Football game on Friday night… Stop it, would you?" Damon was still on top of her and was placing kisses along her neck.

"Mmmm. I'm listening," he said against her skin.

She rolled her eyes. "A picnic at the park on top of the mountain Saturday afternoon, and then the big event at the Cold Creek Country Club Saturday night." She sighed at his touch, then said, "Hadn't planned on going to the football game."

"Good to know," he answered, still kissing her neck and shoulder.

She brought his mouth to hers and gave him a sweet, lingering kiss. "If you'll be so kind as to move your tempting self off me, I have a story to finish." She still did freelance writing for the Oneonta paper.

"So I'm tempting, now?" he teased.

"You know darn well you are. Now move or I dump you on the floor - and you know I will."

Reluctantly, Damon sat up and gave his wife a hand up from the sofa, too, but he pulled her into another searing kiss in the process. She finally pulled away and stood. "Gotta write." She started for the stairs, but he met her at the bottom step and grabbed her. She pushed him away. "Stop it, or you're hitting the floor the hard way."

"All right," he pouted.

"We've got all night to mess around, but I need to finish this story this afternoon. I just got sidetracked by that invitation in the mail."

"O.K. Go, write."

"Thanks, sweet pea," she said and kissed him quickly before she ascended the stairs.


1985

"Hey, Lindsey. Want to go for pizza Saturday night?" It was Jay Hill. He caught her by her locker before school started for the day.

"What do you want, Jay?" Lindsey looked at the boy she'd known since seventh grade. He had never extended the first gesture of friendship, unless he wanted something - usually her help on a paper or something similar.

"I don't want anything. Just do you want to go out for pizza on Saturday?" He looked - and sounded - sincere, but Lindsey knew better. This was one of two things: he either needed help in English, or he was in cahoots with somebody and it was calculated to stand her up or embarrass her in some way.

Lindsey closed her locker and spun the wheel on the lock. "So you want to spend some time with me? That's new."

"Well, I mean, you know. You're nice." He was starting to turn red - a telltale sign.

"So I've been told." Lindsey leaned against her locker, arms folded. "So homecoming is in two weeks. Were you wanting to go for pizza so you could ask me to homecoming?" She knew the answer, but wanted to see if he would own up to it.

"Well, no, I've already asked Lee Ann." At least he was honest about that much.

"Yeah, see, I knew that. I heard her telling everybody at lunch the other day." Lee Ann Robinson was one of the few people on earth Lindsey actively hated. "So, you've got a date for homecoming, but you want to get pizza with me. So is it a date? Because if it is, then no, because I don't go out with other girls' boyfriends. And if it isn't a date, then kindly tell me what it is."

Jay had known this wasn't going to work. Lindsey Hargrove might be the class weirdo and generally considered unsuitable for dating, but she wasn't stupid, and she wasn't naive. She could smell a setup a mile away, and he knew it. Lee Ann hated Lindsey and was going to use the pizza date to embarrass her in home ec class on Monday. Jay really didn't want to do it, but Lee Ann had promised him a blow job if he did, and that chick could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch. He squirmed uncomfortably as Lindsey looked at him, eyes narrowed. The rumor was she could read minds, and damn, if he didn't believe it sometimes.

She shook her head. His silence told her everything she needed to know. "That's about what I thought. You need help in class, you know my rate: $15 an hour." She turned and left him looking after her.

"What was that all about?" Lindsey's best friend, Elle Magee, caught up with her.

"Jay Hill asked me to get pizza Saturday night."

Elle rolled her eyes. "Oh really? What'd he want?"

"Not sure. It was a shuck and jive of some kind, though. He turned red as a beet. I'll bet Lee Ann put him up to something, that heifer."

"Well, you know she can't keep her mouth shut about anything. She's in my fifth period calculus class and if she and Jay talk about it at lunch, I'll hear about it then."

"Let me know."

Elle grinned. "I will. Don't we have a date Saturday night anyway?"

Lindsey's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah. Sting in 'The Bride'! Cannot wait! And I saw where the Gateway is doing a special thing. Saw it in the paper this morning. For 50 cents extra, you go at five and see 'Teen Wolf' and then 'The Bride' at seven. Got an extra 50 cents to see Michael J. Fox again?"

"Sure. I wish a cute guy like Michael J. Fox would move here and go to school," Elle sighed.

"Tell me about it. But all we get are jerks like Jay Hill."

"I know. I'd settle for George Michael, and I hate Wham!"

Lindsey laughed. "I know. I'd rather have Andrew Ridgeley, though. He's cute and I don't think he's as stuck on himself as George Michael is. But we both know whose clone we'd like to see here."

Elle sighed again and the girls said in unison, "John Taylor!" They had a shared crush on Duran Duran's bass player. "We're gonna meet him one day. It's got to happen. We'll make it happen!" Elle had conviction in her voice.

"I know we will," Lindsey answered. They seated themselves in their first period English class and waited for the bell to ring.


2016

Lindsey sat in front of her computer, wondering what triggered that memory. She leaned back in her office chair. Compulsion certainly would have come in handy in high school. What if Lee Ann came to the reunion? Wouldn't she have a conniption fit when she saw Damon? "I should compel her to run around clucking and flapping her arms like a chicken," Lindsey said, very low, so Damon wouldn't hear it. The idea was a funny one. She would never do it, but it was a lot of fun to ponder.

As she wrote her story, Lindsey did get amused at the mental image of what some of her former classmates would do when they saw her with Damon. It was downright hilarious, in fact. She wouldn't have to do a thing. But she did need to contact Elle to see if she was coming. She was living in Austin, Texas, and Lindsey very much wanted to see her friend. Elle was one of the few people Lindsey knew could be trusted with her secret, and also one of the few friends whom she'd stay in contact with from now on.

Damon knew something was up with his mate. He could feel her intense amusement through their bond. He wasn't sure she'd tell him, but he could probably kiss it out of her. He grinned to himself. He had a feeling Lindsey had some old ghosts to lay to rest at that reunion - and maybe a score or two to settle. It might be interesting to see, at that.


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