It Wasn't an Option

A/N – Hello my fellow fanfic goers! I know I keep promising you a sequel to Home Is Where You Are and it is coming, I promise you it is but before that I have another prequel to it. My good friend Lin and her brother Alex, who is recovering from an accident at present have asked me to write how Alaric became a Vampire, so this follows from My Vampire and is set a few months before Home Is Where You Are and I promise that the sequel is coming, and just to keep you interested I shall give you its working title, Fools Fall in Love, Call Me a Fool. Long title I know but I hope it keeps you going. Right on to the story.

Damon was sat on his floor looking up at their bed, drink in hand, when Stefan walked in. He took one look at the bed then Damon and said,

"You've done it haven't you?"

"Not doing it wasn't an option." Damon told him, deadpan as he continued to stare at the bed, taking a gulp of bourbon he continued,

"I can't live without him Stefan, I can't." Then considered what he had just said before adding, without a trace of sarcasm,

"Or be undead without him." Both brothers turned their attention to the bed once more where blood had stopped seeping out of the gashes on Alaric's dead body, stopped staining the bed covers as his eyes seemed to glaze over more.

***Three hours ago***

Alaric was barely out of the car when Damon seemed to glue himself to his boyfriends back, kissing the back of his neck as he leaned up on his tip toes as he was about half a foot shorter. Alaric turned around in his grasp, so they were chest to chest with his back flat against the glass of drivers side window and claimed those perfect lips with his own, both fighting for control, which Alaric won, as he normally did.

They had just drove back from the Grill, neither of them referred to it as a date but that is exactly what it was, and what it had been since they had gotten together nearly a year ago thanks to some pushing from Stefan, who had gotten sick of them dancing around each other. In that time, Alaric had moved in with Damon, who had found it surprisingly easy to start saying 'ours' instead of 'mine' and 'us' instead of 'me'. They fought like every couple did, except their arguments were extremely loud which Stefan was fine with, it was when things got quite he knew he'd better get out quick because it wouldn't be long after that then the make up sex would start, which was louder than the fighting. Somehow they seemed to have become the parental figures of the hormonal teens of Mystic Falls, and even though Damon complained, loudly about it Alaric has still had to stop him from pulling Tyler's heart out of his chest when he and Jeremy had a fight. Right now though that was all far from their minds as Alaric pushed Damon against the door of the house and began attacking the vampire's neck, slipping his hands under the dark shirt he was wearing, running calloused hands over hard muscles, Damon was breathing hard against Alaric's ear, which to this day never made sense to the hunter as he didn't actually need to breath but that thought was push right out of his head when Damon rolled his hips against his own, telling him exactly how much they both ought to get inside. Alaric fumbled the keys out of his pocket and found the right one and slid it into the lock which was about level with Damon's hip. The vampire's weight against the open door caused it to swing open and they both tumbled inside. Damon was about to tear Alaric's shirt off, who was at this moment doing something unspeakable to the vampire's neck, when he suddenly stilled, Alaric followed suit and looked at his boyfriend who had vamped out, the veins around his eyes dangerous looking in this light as they surrounded his blood red eyes, fangs drawn. Alaric knew this was a bad sign so he hurried to the coat closet and pulled out a cross bow and returned to Damon's side.

"What is it?" he asked, eyes darting left to right and back again.

"Vampires."

"How many?" Alaric asked as he checked how many arrows he had.

"Three." Damon replied before he moved at his high speed so much so that Alaric couldn't see him until he stopped at the far wall, pinning another vampire to the wall, the intruder was slim, blond and about a foot shorter than Damon,

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked, about three inches from the other vampires face.

"Where is he?" the blond gasped out,

"Where is who?"

"Klaus." Damon's features showed nothing but utter confusion. Alaric's too.

"Elijah has him staked in a coffin somewhere." Damon told him,

"We have been following Elijah and he has not led us to him."

"That's because he isn't an idiot." Alaric said, crossbow still raised, keeping an eye out for the other two that Damon had mentioned but Damon himself wasn't listening, he was looking at the blonds eyes closely,

"He's been compelled." He said to Alaric who got what he was saying straight away.

"Rebecka, she sent you, didn't she?" He asked from across the room.

"Yeah she send us and she said if you didn't tell us where he is," he was looking at Damon again now

"that we had to make you."

"Oh, is that right? How exactly are you gonna do that?" Damon asked, clearly amused until he heard a fight behind him, which distracted him enough that the blond escaped him grasp and joined his team mates who had hold of Alaric, one on either side, over powering him even as he struggled against them. Damon was about to rush and tear their heads off when the blond picked up one of the arrows discarded from Alaric's crossbow which lay five feet away and dragged the tip down one of Alaric's forearm. The hunter groaned as the metal tore into his flesh and it started pouring with blood before the vampire made a twin tear in the other arm.

"Don't even think about it, if you do, this will go right through his heart, the thing that you care more about than anything else in the entire world." Damon's heart was in his throat, what was he suppose to do? Even if he took two of them out the third would have killed Alaric before their bodies hit the floor. He wished so hard that he had turned Alaric already, they had talked about it, Alaric was game for it, they loved each other too much to ever put each other through living without one another but they hadn't done it yet because Alaric wanted to stay teaching at the school until Jeremy left because there was no way he could be around annoying kids all the time as a vampire and he wanted to keep an eye on the kids as much as he could but now Damon was regretting not pushing the matter more as they could have avoided situations like this.

"Where is he?" the blond asked again.

"I told you I don't know! Elijah has him!"

"Wrong answer." The other vampire said and proceeded to scrap along, deep into Alaric's chest, bloody seeping out of it and onto the hunters white shirt, dying it a deep rich red. This was beginning to become another issue, Damon could see because the two vampires hold his boyfriend in place were getting distracted by the blood and as Alaric no longer wore his ring as it's power had dried up if one of them lost it and bit into him then they were screwed.

Another ten minuets passed with Damon and the other vampire continued their shouting match with Alaric getting slashed more and more, he was starting to lose the ability to stay awake due to his blood loss. Then there was a glimmer of hope, Damon picked up the scents of Stefan and Tyler along with Elena and Jeremy but it were the first two Damon was excited to pick up on, they could help.

Thank goodness they had been too busy to close the door, it meant that once they had smelt the blood Stefan and Tyler had been able to sneak up undetected by the three vampires as they were distracted, two by a dying human in their arms, leaking blood and the other by a pissed off Damon. The vampire and hybrid stood outside and formed a plan and checked their other halves were safe in the space of thirty seconds before they crept inside, it was too late when they were spotted, Tyler leapt forward and snapped the neck of the vampire on Alaric's left side and Stefan grabbed the leader and snapped his neck too which caused him to drop the arrow right in front of the remaining vampire who picked it up and before Stefan had the chance to react stabbed Alaric through the stomach causing blood to begin pouring out of the hunters mouth before he collapsed to the floor as Stefan snapped the neck of the vampire and he lost his grip.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion to Damon who felt his insides turn to ice as the blood kept pouring from his lovers' mouth, before anyone knew what was happening Damon had picked Alaric up and ran up the stairs with him and into their bedroom. Stefan knew exactly what his brother was about to do and he knew, in his position he would do the same. He knew the only thing he could do for now was to help Tyler finish the vampires at their feet off probably and they get rid of their bodies.

Up in the vast bedroom Damon placed Alaric on their bed, not caring that the white sheets were fast becoming red with blood. He kneeled next to the hunter and whispered,

"I know this isn't the way or time we planned, and you might kill me afterwards but I am not losing you, not when I just got you." And with that he ripped his wrist open with his fangs and then jammed it against Alaric's mouth, forcing it under those lips that he knew so well, ensuring that the blood got into his system before he died.

When he was sure that he had done so he backed off the bed, knowing that when Alaric woke he was going to lash out with his arms, it was a defence mechanism. He poured himself a drink from the bottle left on the night stand from their activities the night before. He then sat down on the hard floor and stared up at the bed. It was about an hour until Stefan walked in

***present***

"I can't live without him Stefan, I can't."

"Or be undead without him."

Stefan looked down at his older brother; he had never seen him as vulnerable as he was right now. To Stefan, Damon has always been the one with the quick sarcasm, the one liners, the one who was loved but never loved himself but all of that changed with Alaric stumbled across his path and from the first time he saw them together he knew that there was a difference in his brother, he didn't know what at the time but he liked it and he wanted his brother to be happy and if this is what it took that so be it. He cast his eyes over his brother and brother in law, or as good as one last time before leaving them alone, returning to the three people down stairs.

It was about twenty minuets after Stefan left when Alaric woke up with a huge gasp, his arms swinging widely; Damon was at his side in seconds.

"Ric? Calm down, you're fine, they are gone." He told him, hands on his freshly healed arms. Alaric's hazel eyes connected to Damon's electric blue ones,

"Damon, what did you do?" he asked, scared out of his mind, knowing already the answer,

"I wasn't gonna lose you, not now, not ever, I waited too freaking long for you, I am not letting them take you away now, I can not live without you, Ric. I won't live without you. Not changing you, well it wasn't an option." He told him, echoing his words to Stefan earlier. Damon was starting to get hysterical, something he hadn't done for centuries, so to cut him off, Alaric kissed him, hard. Damon looked stunned when he pulled away,

"Thank you."

"Come again?"

"I want to be with you forever and with us it is a possibility, you were right in what you said, it isn't the way or time that we planned it but when does anything we ever plan work out like we want it to?" he smiled at Damon, who returned it and then kissed him before hugging him close, to reassure himself that he was really here with him, for good, he breathed his sent in, once more committing it to memory for the millionth time.

"I guess I need to talk to Bonnie? Get a ring?" Damon pulled away and looked a little sheepish,

"Damon?"

"Well, we knew it was gonna happen at some point so I went ahead and asked her." Standing up, he walked over to a set of draws and from the bottom one he picked something up before walking back to sit on the bed, and handing it to Alaric,

"I hope you don't mind that it is pretty much like mine, I know you like mine and I didn't know what else you would like so I went with the safe option." Alaric was staring at an almost perfect replica of Damon's ring, all the same apart from were the D was on his there was an A in its place. Sliding in onto his left index finger and looking back up at his boyfriend.

"I love you De."

"I love you too Ric, so much."

A/N – Ahhh, there! Done, now I promise the sequel, named at the moment, in case you missed it, Fools Fall In Love, Call Me A Fool but I really wanted to do this for Lin and Alex, she has been a massive help and support during my Dalaric stories and I owed her this and Alex, well I have never spoken to him but I love him a tiny bit already and he really needs to get better! Leave me a line and tell me your thoughts.

xxx