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Bonnie sat at the kitchen counter nursing her glass of wine, thoroughly amused by the scene in front of her.
Damon and Elena kept up their usual witty banter as they moved about in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on the dinner that they had all been invited to. They were, as was their norm, bickering like an old married couple.
But underneath each snarky comeback laid deep warmth and affection that was obvious to anyone who came across them. And somehow, it never seemed to get old.
Bonnie had long since accepted that there was no getting rid of Damon Salvatore, what with her best friend being the danger magnet she was. She had never liked him though, her aversion to the arrogant vampire bordering on a malicious hatred.
Still, she had known better to voice her opinion about the elder Salvatore too persistently, for consciously or otherwise, Elena had always been fiercely protective when it came to her boyfriend's brother. It didn't mean that Bonnie wouldn't have loved to make vampire barbecue out of him though.
The only reason that she hadn't set his immortal ass on fire was that he was working with her to save her best friend. Only for Elena had she tolerated the vampire; and vice versa.
Somewhere along the way however, she had begun to see what Elena was always going on about. Bonnie couldn't pinpoint exactly where during their 'Scooby Doo' adventures it was that her view of Damon had begun to soften.
Someplace between 'Mission: Save Elena' to 'Mission: Save the World', and all that had entailed, she had caught a glimpse of something other than a psychotic killer in the persona that was Damon Salvatore.
Damon could be a better man. And sometimes, when she was too tired to hate him, too tired to be biased about what he was, she could almost see that he was indeed the better man for Elena.
Bonnie had always been perceptive. She had seen, perhaps before anyone else, the feelings that Damon silently harbored for Elena.
She had always found it questionable how Stefan had claimed to love Elena for who she was underneath her face, when his creator and first love had been an almost identical match physically. But he had, from the moment he came into their lives, claimed to love Elena and no other, and seeing how much the then grief-stricken Elena had needed him, Bonnie had kept her thoughts to herself.
Damon, on the other hand, was the polar opposite. He had, after the first shock of discovering Katherine's doppelganger, treated Elena just as he did everybody else. Even with her he had been the 'psychopath with no redeeming qualities'. His feelings for his brother's seventeen year old girlfriend had been kindled and developed over time. He had, unlike Stefan, gotten to know the person behind the face before loving her. And that itself, proved his feelings to be real.
She had seen that Damon's love for Elena surpassed anything any of them had known before. She knew his love to be unconditional and without demand, and just as everlasting. Her witchy pride had, however, withheld her from acknowledging the fact that whatever else he may be, Damon was perfect for Elena.
The psychopath had begun to turn into a man. At first, though, it was only Elena who was privy to his softer side. Everyone else was still a happy meal on legs. That had been the beginning of their odd friendship. Their custom had, from the beginning, been 'push, push, pull and embrace'.
Damon and Elena had challenged each other on all levels, each pushing the other to be better, to be stronger. Their chemistry was searing as it was undeniable; their fights frequent as they were legendary. Some, if not most days, their little town of Mystic Falls would reverberate with the residue of yet another clash.
Damon would then be found at the Grill or at the Boarding House, drinking himself into a stupor, and Elena would be in dire need of tub upon tub of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice-cream. And even as they fought, it was an unspoken rule of the cosmos that Damon and Elena would always have each other's back. The icy glares', biting remarks and silent treatment was but a façade. Everyone but them knew that.
They had always understood each other on a deeper, intimate level, Bonnie had long since realized. Their bond was nothing she could ever hope to understand, and she would have given up had it not been so immensely intriguing.
Damon would always fight for Elena, choose Elena and give her everything he has, all of the time. And Elena would always trust Damon, support Damon, and forgive him the unforgivable. How else could you explain how their relationship survived him murdering her little brother? Granted, Jeremy had lived, thanks to Emily's handy ring, but none of them had thought they could come back from that particular debacle. And yet again, they had been surprised.
Even though her best friend would disagree fervently for so many, many months to come, Bonnie had known then, that Elena would always, always choose Damon too. She just didn't know it yet.
And then had ensued the doppelganger hijincks. In the catastrophe of the curse and the originals that had followed, Bonnie had finally been able completely let go of her aversion to the elder Salvatore brother. That his first instinct was to protect Elena had decidedly won him brownie points in Bonnie's book, going so far as to take an arrow in the back for her, literally.
Elena was one of the most important people in Bonnie's world, and as far as Damon was concerned, Elena was his world. So they had had neutral ground there. But it had been during the brief period when Klaus had taken over Alaric's body that she had truly and wholly accepted the snarky vampire. When he had taken it upon himself to save her life, even as she had been ready to sacrifice it for her friend, Bonnie saw the man that Damon was inside the immortal hide of his vampire self. The man he never allowed himself to be, except in front of Elena.
It had proven that though Damon would always choose Elena, it never meant that he didn't care for the rest of their 'Scooby Doo Gang'; as he so eloquently christened them. He cared enough to help her, to save her, just as he would do for Caroline, Jeremy or Alaric, without a second thought. Damon just hid it well.
Saint Stefan could take care of the collateral damage and be Elena's hero for it. He, on the other hand, would take all the essential measures, one's that would truly matter to her at the end of the day, and he would even let her hate him for it.
Bonnie's uncertainties had been cleared then. Damon was 'it' for Elena, whether she knew it or not. They were all either would ever need, and Bonnie itched to just shake some sense into her best friend. To scream and shout that the Elena she knew since she was two; the Elena she grew up with; the Elena that she still was inside, would already have chosen Damon, and put him out of his anguish. And she knew that Caroline fervently agreed.
But one thing she had learnt from her ancestors was that you didn't interfere with the dealings of fate. So she had waited and watched as Elena broke both her and Damon, bit by agonizing bit by refusing to acknowledge her growing feelings for the darker man. She had watched as Damon, the once 'self-serving psychopath' put himself in harm's way again and again for the woman he adored to gain nothing in return. She had watched as Elena had been just moments away from completely and utterly breaking apart the entire time that Damon was at death's door. She had watched as Stefan's betrayal and Katherine's unexpected sacrifice threw them all for a loop and subsequently, finally, brought Damon and Elena closer.
And she still watched as they had taken it upon themselves to be the ones to take responsibility for their entire group as they all recovered from the carnage that was what was left of their lives; becoming the parental figures in their rather messed up, dysfunctional family. Elena had always been a maternal figure in Jeremy's life, but now it was with Damon firmly by her side. The leaned on each other and healed each other; twin flames coming together at last, albeit excruciatingly slowly.
So Bonnie watched and waited, barely restraining herself from screaming to the high heavens and shaking the two people she had come to love and admire together. And she hoped that they would just realize that their feelings for each other were more than reciprocated, and soon, because she was certain that she would crack before long. Forget a woman scorned; hell hath no fury like a witch at the end of her patience!
A/N : Please read and review =)
-Nightshade94