After the Letter
By V.C. Turner
Bonnie wrapped herself around Damon, tears staining her cheeks and dripping onto his black shirt. She felt his arms squeeze tightly around her as his hands rubbed her back. They respected each other. They loved each other. It was that simple.
And yet it wasn't.
After all the words he'd spoken tonight - after he recited the letter he'd written more than three years earlier, word for word, Bonnie remembered the pain of his absence. During that absence, she felt she had no choice to fill the void with something, someone. That someone was Enzo.
Now that Damon had returned to her, returned to her life, she began to feel a swell of hope blooming in her chest along with the guilt of connecting herself to another man because she had no other choice.
And now…now there was a choice.
Somewhere in Damon's arms lay the key to something deeper than anything she'd ever felt. Like Damon, it terrified her in so many ways. She didn't lose herself in Damon. She couldn't. He wouldn't let her and she never felt that she needed to be anyone else around her best friend.
Yet, with his arms wrapped firmly around her waist with no hint of letting her go anytime soon, came the realization that both of them were holding something back. Something important.
She couldn't let that pass.
Not again. Not this time.
Too many things had gone unsaid. She waited three years to find out the contents of that letter. She refused to wait another minute to find out the contents of his heart.
With a willpower she never knew she had, she pulled back from him just enough to face him but remain in his embrace.
"Thank you, Damon," she said quietly.
He raised an eyebrow.
"For what?" he asked, looking up at her green eyes.
"For telling me what the letter said," she whispered, placing her forehead against his.
She sighed, managing to slow the flow of tears that continued to roll down her heart-shaped face.
He briefly removed a hand from her waist long enough to wipe it away and place it back around her again.
"Don't cry, Bon Bon," he said softly, "I'm here."
"I know," she said, still feeling every emotion she wanted to fight for fear he'd see through her like he always did.
She began to shake a little. Instinctively, he pulled her tighter to him, as if he planned on making up for all the missed time over the past three years.
Bonnie gathered her courage and placed a brief kiss on his forehead. Her heart beat furiously, but she calmed it quickly. She expected Damon would hear it; possibly even feel it since they were nearly pressed against one another.
Then Bonnie felt something she didn't expect: Damon shuddered in her arms the moment she placed her lips on his skin. He then let out a shaky breath as if he'd been holding it for so long that he couldn't take it anymore.
The air escaping his lips tickled her neck, but she bit back a giggle that threatened to burst through the tender and serious moment.
He pulled her closer and she heard him mumble something into her neck.
"Damon, I don't have vampire hearing," she teased, "You're gonna have to speak up if you want me to hear it."
Damon let out a sigh.
"I don't know if you're ready to hear it," he said quietly.
"We're supposed to tell each other everything," she pointed out, feeling more like herself and not like the crying mess she was a few moments ago.
Damon pulled back, cupping her chin with his right hand and stroking her cheek with his thumb.
"Not this," Damon pointed out.
She placed her hand on his to reassure him. Whatever he said, she could take it. They'd been through actual hell together. What's one more confession between friends?
She was ready.
"Yes – this," she said, "Everything."
Damon looked in her eyes, cupping her face in his hands. He shook his head, and looked down at the necklace she wore around her neck. He reached around and unclasped it, tossing it in the bushes behind him.
"Damon, what?" Bonnie started to say.
"I love you, Bonnie," Damon said.
She smiled.
"I know, silly. You just told me that in the letter," Bonnie pointed out, not knowing if she believed that's what he meant or not.
"No," he said, "I love you, Bonnie."
Before she could form her next thought, Damon lifted her chin and kissed her lips so softly she felt as if she were floating. She could swear her heart stopped, but it didn't matter.
If she died, he'd save her.
If she didn't, he'd already saved her.
His lips caressed hers, leaving no millimeter of her mouth unexplored. When he finally pulled away, his eyes held a promise no one had ever given her before. His blue orbs twinkled, but he didn't say a word.
He was waiting for an answer to an unasked question. She had waited too. For years, they danced the waltz between friendship and something more. He'd taken the first step – leapt into that hopeful place.
She felt it. She knew for the rest of their lives, she'd feel it too.
So … she took the leap with him.
"I love you too," she whispered back.
Turns out forever, wouldn't be so bad after all.