It's a love story, baby just say "yes"

Disclaimer: Me no owny

Written for Stefonnie Appreciation week on tumblr, ages ago. I deleted my tumblr so I decided to post it here.

Amnesic Bonnie flirts with Stefan. Damon tries to not let it bother him but it does. Extremely. Stefan is single and Bonnie, well Bonnie doesn't remember anything before they came to town, least of all that she died to bring the 'love of her young life' back. Stupid girl. Everyone and their mother knew that the little Gilbert was no good for her. They were just waiting until she figured that out on her own. But then something even better happened and now she couldn't remember anything from the last two years which meant she'd forgotten that everyone had turned their backs on her when she died and were going to move on. Except for him and he had to admit grudgingly, Stefan. They'd both moved mountains and crossed the plain between the physical and the meta-physical abstractness into the Other side. They'd both risked their souls for her. His excuse had been 'For Elena' as usual, although many people were catching wise to his false words, so he had to change his excuse soon. He still had no idea what Stefan's reason or excuse was. He tried to bait it out of him with his usual sarcastic barbs and mocking smirks but holier-than-thou Stefan just ignored him. Probably still angry with him for stealing his girl.

Damon observes from behind his usual glass of bourbon that Stefan, who should honestly know better, flirts back. It kinda makes Damon want to shove a stake through Stefan's leg, break his neck, set him on fire and other inappropriate things. Damon really shouldn't be feeling this way towards the judgey little witch, for he has everything he ever wanted. He has Elena. The beautiful compassionate girl, turned vampire who just coincidentally happened to share a face with his ex. And he stole her from Stefan. He'd succeeded in his plan to make Stefan's life miserable. So why the hell does he care so much when Bonnie innocently giggles at something dorky his little brother has said.

He shakes his head and simultaneously tries to shake off the feeling that he's missing out. Missing out on something great. Because he has it all, the girl, his brother and the witchling back. All Elena's friends and family (the ones who'd survived) are safe. She's fully embraced her undead life as a vampire. There is nothing that he can determinately put a finger on and count that as missing. So why does he feel a hollow ache in his chest every time he looks at Bonnie smiling shyly at Stefan?

Bonnie can't help flirting with the viridian eyed vampire before her. She knows she shouldn't because she's been told that he's a vampire and she's a witch and those two go to together like cats and dogs or oil and water. Also he's Elena's ex. And Elena's brother always gets unusually tense when whenever she gazes up at Stefan from beneath her lashes and smiles. It's like Jeremy is willing her to remember something. Well she can't. She would if she could. If they told her what she wanted to know about her life. But collectively her best friends, Caroline, Tyler, Matt, Jeremy and Elena have decided to let her memories come back on their own. She knew she was a witch, however she hadn't actively tried to do anything witchy yet, but the rest was completely blank. They took her to a supernatural witch doctor who had assured them that the memories would come back, they shouldn't force them. So they let her do anything she wanted. And she wanted to continue this infatuation she had going with the youngest Salvatore.

He was so hot. He seemed sweet and nice. And more importantly, he didn't look at her like she was about to fall apart like the rest of them. She loved her friends dearly but she really wished that they'd stop looking at her like she was going to break. She also didn't like it when she caught them eyeing her, they looked guilty.

Stefan fully understands that what he's doing is wrong. It's wrong to flirt with someone who had forgotten that you had ripped people apart and manipulated them with your charm until they broke under the pressure. But he can't help it. He's always wanted to get to know Bonnie but her walls were so impenetrable that it was almost impossible. With this Bonnie it's so much easier. He discovers so much about her and he fascinated by every layer he manages to uncover. Bonnie is fun. She's funny. She smiles a lot at small things, like how he remembers that to open the door for her or offers to walk her home. Not that old Bonnie wasn't like that, she was but she kept her guard up around the Salvatore's ever since her Grams died. So they got to see less of that Bonnie and more of the serious helpful Bonnie. This new Bonnie was light in a way that the old Bonnie wasn't. Like the weight of the world wasn't on her shoulders.

The others don't like him seeing him spending so much time around her. Damon thinks he's doing it to make Elena jealous. As if he were that shallow. Please, that idea had Damon written all over it. He would never to that to Bonnie or Elena. That was pathetic. He's just very curious about Bonnie, who never he took the time to know.

They began to sneak off to meet each other because the others don't think it's a good idea for them to spend too much time together. Stefan feels weird because it's like lying to her about the relationship they had. The too-much-giving on her part, and the too-much-taking on his part, quasi-friendship but he quickly pushes the guilt aside because he's also never felt this way about anyone including both doppelgangers.

He feels light in her presence. Like he's floating and she's the only thing anchoring him to the ground. He meets her for midnight walks in the woods and secret coffees out of town. They are now proper friends even if they weren't before. And it secretly thrills him every time he catches her stealing a glance at him out of the corner of her eye.

For weeks the stolen looks and blushes on both of their parts are as far as it goes. It's more than enough for both of them. Bonnie tries to remember if she's felt this way before, she searches her heart and she is absolutely sure that she hasn't. Stefan also thinks that this is the first time he's ever felt anything like this. Everything was so quick with Katherine because she was compelling him and then when he met Elena everything was again so rushed and there was so much drama. He had missed the pleasure of falling for someone a little bit at a time. He wouldn't trade this feeling for the world. Bonnie makes him feel alive.

Soon enough they are innocently touching each other. Just holding hands, as if it was a regular thing and giving lingering hugs and sometimes quick chaste kisses on the cheek. It doesn't mean much to the people who observe them, but to them, each touch is everything. The touches are allowed to escalate naturally and Stefan is grateful for this. This is natural. Slow, steady and like slowly tipping off a cliff knowing that you're gonna fly. Bonnie liked to sneak into his room while he was asleep and wake him up with kisses. He liked to snuggle up on the couch and watch her watch old movies, then make out with her until she had to go home. For the first time in his life, he realised that love didn't have to be desperate or difficult. He could be happy. He was slowly but surely falling for the petite woman with the glowing green eyes and amazing smile.

He realises he's in love with her, one day in the forest, after they have finished making each other daisy-chain jewellery. They are in a special part of the woods near the Lockwood Lake. He's so glad Damon isn't around to mock him with some ill-conceived joke about 'acting like a pansy'. He made her laugh and she tilted her head back, the sunlight turning her chocolate waves into a warm auburn and her emerald eyes sparkled with happiness. She looked so…

"Gorgeous."

"Pardon?"

Crap. He'd spoken out loud. Well he might as well bite the bullet and tell her everything now.

"You're beautiful"

She blushes and looks away from him mumbling her thanks.

"Don't."

He catches her chin between his forefinger and thumb.

"What?"

She breathes softly transfixed by his gaze meeting hers directly.

"Don't look at me like I'm talking nonsense," he says as he raises his other hand to her right cheek.

"You are beautiful."

He illustrates his point by stroking her face with every syllable. She nods absently. The moment is broken when a twig snaps and she pushes him away and jumps from him like they've been caught doing something they shouldn't have. He sighs.

They both laugh when they realise they've been frightened by a squirrel. She shrugs it off and surprises him when she strips off her sundress and turns towards the water. She looks back at him giggling at his face while he stares at her in shock.

"What? Old Bonnie never did anything like this?"

He shakes his head.

"Well it's a good thing I don't remember her then."

She giggling again and he smiles and watches her race into the water in her black lace underwear.

"Are you coming in?" she questions before she dives under the cool water again.

He doesn't need to be told twice. He uses his vamp-speed to hurriedly get undressed and join her in the lake. They play and splash each other like little kids. She attempts to give him a huge splash by beginning to reach her arm as far back as it will go but he reads the intention in her face and quickly grabs her and holds her close to him in order to prevent it. She pouts up at him, trickles of water cascading down her face. The atmosphere changes when they realise that they are practically naked and pressed up against each other. She squirms a bit but he just gently pulls her even closer. He lets go of her arm to cup her face with both hands.

"I love you Bonnie"

Her breath hitches. She feels like she's flying and falling all at once. He kisses her then. Soft, slow, sweet and gentle. It's everything a kiss should be and more. When they break apart, he lets go of her face the gauge her reaction. She shakes her head and places his hand back where it was.

"I love you, Stefan"

The words sound so good coming out of her mouth that he has to kiss her again and again and again

The others are NOT happy when they find out. There's a lot of condescension, and patronizing in their tone towards Bonnie and a lot of hurt and anger in their tones toward Stefan. Bonnie and Stefan don't care. They are together and no one will drive them apart. Elena, Damon and Jeremy can't say much anyway after they are the ones who had hurt them the most. Bonnie doesn't remember but Stefan does and he's pissed on behalf of both of them. He tells them to leave them alone, his voice is calm but his eyes glitter with a hidden threat if they do not comply. They leave him and Bonnie alone after that. Caroline is the only one who's amused by the whole fiasco. She says the gang's already practically incestuous, so what does it matter. She gets glares from both the Gilbert's at her joke. She shrugs it off like it's no big deal, she's really happy that both her best friends are happy. They were both broken and hurt so they deserve some happiness. She does verbally threaten both Elena and Jeremy with painful torture if they don't heed Stefan's not-so-subtle visual warning.

Stefan felt he had to savour this time of Bonnie being in love with him because at any time, Bonnie could remember what a monster he was and then he was certain she wouldn't want anything to do with him. Unfortunately for him, that day came sooner than expected. She met him at the Mystic Grill for date night, but instead of her smiling face he was greeted by her stony expression. He gulped. She remembered.

"You hurt me."

She didn't mince words and he winced at the emptiness of her tone. She knew and he knew that she knew, so he decided to be straight with her.

"Yes."

"I let you get away with it."

God, the guilt of everything that happened before was eating him alive but he was too selfishly in love with her to have her hate him. And karma was coming back to bite him in the ass.

"Yes."

She gave him an aneurism so powerful; it brought him to his knees. When he finally, mercifully blacked out from the pain, she left. Unsure what to do with the information she now had about her past life.

Elena knows that Bonnie remembers what she did, when she just stops talking to her and moves out of their shared dorm room. Just like that, Bonnie, her best friend since kindergarten, her sister, wants nothing to do with her. She urges the others to try and help mend the rift between her and Bonnie but they're afraid that she'll cut them off too. This Bonnie wants nothing to do with her and the thought absolutely kills her inside. Elena accepts that her friend needs her space but she'll still keep trying to stitch together what they once had. Bonnie doesn't think it will work and is content to leave it as is but Elena is stubborn. She needs Bonnie in her life even if she doesn't feel the same.

It was a couple of days after she moved into her new dorm room she catches Damon standing right outside her door.

"What are YOU doing here?'

"Welcome back to the land of remembrance, Judgey'

She rolled her eyes, at his smirk. Damon lunges at her and plunges his tongue into her mouth before she knows which way is up. They kiss for a few minutes both getting lost in the sensations of the feeling igniting between them, before Bonnie manages to realise what she's doing and who she's doing it with. She shoves him back, a bit harsher than she intended but he doesn't seem to mind. In fact he seems a little turned on by it. When he starts coming back towards her, she holds up her hand in a clear warning 'stop' sign. He rolls his eyes, smirks before he listens and stays exactly where he is. Even though he'd like to see what she tastes like again, in other places as well as her mouth and he's longing to rip that dress off her body and see if she's as delicious as he imagines.

"I'm with your brother" she reminds him.

"Was."

"Was." she agrees.

She tries again and Damon has to admire her persistence.

"I'm in love with Jeremy."

"Are you?"

He questions her love for Elena's pathetic little brother out loud now, he always has privately.

"No" she admits again softly, her hand falling back to her side.

He takes a cautionary step forward, to get closer to her. He can't control himself. He has to get closer to her. She stops him once again, with her words this time.

"You're with Elena, my best friend."

"I don't care about her like I should, I care about you,"

He decides to be honest with her because she's been so honest with him. She takes a big breath before looking up and glaring at him. That was obviously the wrong thing to say.

"I still care about her." she says biting out each word as if it's unpleasant.

"Bonnie I…"

And before he can finish his sentence she's already through her front door. He knows he lost his chance before he ever really had one.

Bonnie Bennett cared more her friends, than her own life. Evidenced by how eager she was to put herself in harm's way for the sake of keeping all of them out of it. She wasn't like Elena who for all her talk of martyrdom, let her friends fall one by one as if they were pawn pieces on a chess board, and she of course the most important, the Queen.

To have a shot with Bonnie you had to prove that you not only care about her but her friends and family as well. Like the honourable Stefan probably did. He slammed his fist in the wall on his way out, causing splinters and web-like cracks to appear. He needed several drinks and several women to make him forget that he just screwed up maybe his only chance to have the witch.

She's done a good job of avoiding him. The repulsion spell she's had on herself for a couple of weeks had worked wonders to keep him away from her but Stefan had powerful friends too. Once the witches he contacted realised he and his brother were the infamous witch-killing Salvatore's, their reluctance to help him immediately Increased. He had to pay top dollar just for a consultation and even more for a simple spell removal.

She doesn't seem too surprised that Stefan manages to corner her on her way to the library.

"I'm so sorry. Everything I did… Everything I said to you…."

"Was a lie, Stefan"

She's perfected the art of a blank face well before her death, and it hurts him to know that she's started using this defence mechanism again. When someone hurt her, she didn't lash out, didn't get revenge, just accepted it and cut them from her trusted circle of friends.

"No it wasn't! I…"

She interrupts him again.

"Did you and your brother cook this up? Get the witch to fall for you so you can use her as a magical tool to protect Elena."

It's like a hard slap to the face to realise that she could think so low about him. But then he supposed he hadn't given her much option in past. Seeing his pained face, makes her wince slightly, enough to give him hope.

"I'm so sorry for everything that my brother and I did to you or let happen to you without trying to stop it."

He looks so sincere and it throws her for a bit while she contemplates his apology before she remembers that he was always like this. He always used his sensitivity to manipulate others into doing what he wanted. And she fell for it every time, hook line and sinker. She was an idiot. Well no more.

"I'm so sorry, I never meant to hurt you."

That snaps her out of her thought processing, and into another rightful rage.

"And that's supposed to make it better? You still hurt me. You were willing to do anything to keep Elena alive."

He nodded his head. She's right.

"Even if it meant hurting me in the process."

He nods again, ashamed at how caught up he was in Elena that he'd gladly sacrifice her friends if she could safely breathe another day. That kind of obsession wasn't healthy. He hadn't known that. But he knows now, because she showed him through the pureness of her love. She speaks again, her voice and her temper, rising with every syllable.

"Would you have killed me for her Stefan?"

"No."

Of that he is absolutely certain. His humanity may have been turned off and his morals completely screwed up but he knows without a doubt that he would never kill her for Elena. She was the only person left alive with all her morals still intact. He owed her a debt, which just kept increasing with every spell she performed, every nosebleed she suffered and every sacrifice she endured. If he ever raised so much as a hand towards her, he'd kill himself afterwards, he was sure of it.

She doesn't believe him.

"Stop lying to me."

This may be his last chance to reach her. To tell her everything he's ever wanted to say to her before it's too late.

"I fell more and more for you every day, I love you, Bon. You have to believe me."

"Just leave me alone."

That was her reply before she shut both the physical door of the library study room and the door to her heart.

He was devastated. She's the best thing that ever happened to him. Not Katherine, not Elena, HER. He never deserved her. He was such an idiot, he should have told her. But maybe that would've pushed her away faster. He doesn't know what to think anymore. All he knows is that he's lost without her.

His brother laughs when he receives a dozen roses turned into mulch.

He says flippantly that Stefan should use them to make potpourri since he's already behaving like such a girl. Stefan's only noticeable response is for his eyelid to twitch. Damon turns his back for a second to mix himself another drink, but he really should know better than to turn his back on the ripper.

He wakes up with a sore neck and burning sensation which is spreading all across his body. The bastard took his ring. Oddly enough, even though he should be pissed, he's kind of proud of his brother for finally standing up to him. He never did that when he used to mention Elena. Maybe he did deserve the little witch after all.

Just when Stefan's lost all hope she appears on his doorstep after a month of not returning his calls and all his gifts sent back to him in pieces.

"You went to the other side."

"Yes."

"You brought me back."

"Yes."

She stares at him for a minute, unable to voice the question stuck in her throat. He knows what she wants to ask but he's unsure if she can handle the truth. He's done enough lying, the truth is all she's going to get from now on. Even if she hates him for it, he'd prefer her hatred to her silence. And he's too far gone to care about that now, too stubborn. He will spend the rest of her life trying to make her love him again. If she feels even an inkling of the amount of love, he feels for her, his goal will be achieved.

"Why?"

The question comes out garbled due to the emotion clogging her oesophagus.

"Because out of every one, me, my brother, Caroline, Elena, Jeremy, Matt, Tyler, you deserved life the most."

And then she's in his arms and he can detect the sweet odour of her strawberry shampoo, mango body wash and coconut cocoa butter, it's an intoxicating melange of scents and all he wants to do is have her there as long as possible.

Damon sees them hugging and he senses that everything between them is going to be alright. He fights to urge to smash everything in the house and set it on fire. He swallows the rage down because he had his chance; several chances in fact, most of them before she died. But he was too stubborn and held on to the girl who shared the face of his first love and the woman who'd broken his heart. He'd held on to his revenge against Stefan, when he could've have let it go and gotten something so much better. Someone who would've made him forget that he was always the second choice. Again Stefan had beaten him, in figuring out what he thought was an annoying pebble in his shoe was actually a diamond in the rough. Extremely rare and undeniably beautiful. He couldn't fault his brother this time. He decides to do the noblest thing he's ever done in his life. He's going to leave them alone and let them be happy. He owes that to them both.

When she pulls back she's openly weeping with the tears trailing down her cheeks and he's surprised to find that he has water in his eyes as well.

"I meant what I said you know." he assures her earnestly.

He's acting like an over-eager dorky schoolboy but he doesn't care. She's come back to him.

"I love you."

She smiles. The smile that seems like should blind him and could light up the whole world and fill the sun with envy. The smile that he loves. The smile that he put there.

"I love you too."

His heart soars and he immediately captures her mouth with his. He pours everything he's feeling into the kiss. His elation, his apologies, his complete adoration and love for her. He lets her break the lip lock for air, although he's proud and slightly smug as she gasps. She sees his grin and hits him playfully.

"You still have to make it up to me." she declares.

"I have an eternity" he answers before quickly pulling her into another fiery kiss.

The flames from their passion ignite both of them from the inside out and when they break apart again they are smouldering for each other. He picks her up ignoring her half-hearted protests, hitches her thighs around his narrow waist and kicks the door shut with his foot. He proceeds to carry her up the stairs until they are in his bedroom. He makes love to her sweetly and tenderly the first time, for the second passionately and roughly and for the rest of the night, a mixture of the two temperaments. He loves her and only her and he's never going to let her go. He can see by the happiness shining in her eyes that she feels the same

Hope you enjoyed. Review if you want!