Title: Maid Café Madness

Author: skysamuelle
Pairing: Bonnie/Damon, Caroline/Tyler
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries

A/N: Written for the Bamon Drabble Party at bubbly_fics.

Summary: Another fund raiser rolls around and once again Caroline Forbes never fails to disappoint in this year's theme; a maid cafe.

Rated: PG

As with every provincial small town worthy of this definition, Mystic Falls had its snobbish, conservative little traditions. Fund raising was, unfortunately for Bonnie Bennett, one among those.

The young witch had truly proved to have the worst luck when it came to these kinds of events, particularly when said events were organized by head cheerleader and her best friend Caroline Forbes.

Last year, the theme Caroline had chosen to exploit was 'car washing in bikini' and the initiative had met huge success. Except for the part where she'd fallen into a trance and accidentally set a car on fire. All Tikki's fault. Bonnie hated with a passion those elite- branded situations where cheerleaders were authorized to behave like bitches only because the spotlight was on them.

It made her feel responsible for every bullish prank by association.

But that had nothing to do with the current reason the youngest Bennett resented fundraisers, small towns, and blonde bossy friends. Another fund raiser had rolled around and Caroline was absolutely set on besting last year's success. So this year's theme was … a Maid Café.

Bonnie blamed the idea on the bad influence of Caroline's new boyfriend, Tyler Lockwood, and the flat boredom that had the rest of the cheerleading squad squeaking in excitement at the initiative.

Maid cafés are a subcategory of Japanese cosplay restaurants where waitresses dressed in maid costumes act as servants and treat customers as masters (and mistresses) in a private home, rather than as café patrons. Tyler was a closet manga and anime fan, a fact Bonnie had found extremely funny when she had discovered it back when they had a fling.

It was not so funny now. She blamed her current predicament on Tyler's stupid fetishes.

Caroline had all of her cheerleaders dressed like French Maids, in an ensemble composed of a white and black dress which reached just above their knees with a petticoat, a pinafore, white stockings and associated visible garters, and a red bow in their curly hair, which were styled to form short ringlets. And since Caroline also thought that adding a gothic touch would make her girls sexier, black lipstick and nail polish completed the masquerade.

Bonnie didn't feel sexy serving her customers, she felt like she was joining in the cast of a porn movie!

Sure, they were doing this for charity. It didn't make the idea that every single boy she had taken orders from and smiled at today was probably having very dirty thoughts about her and her friends any less annoying.

Suddenly, the witch envied Elena for having quit the team before the madness started.

She could not believe she was actually participating in this… chauvinistic display.

Grams was probably rolling in her grave.

Which was exactly what she had repeated to Damon yesterday. He had laughed and replied that she was being her usual serious, uptight self.

She had never wished so badly that they were still bitter archenemies. This way, if –when- he showed up, and tormented her with lame-ass quips over her ridiculous appearance, she would have no problem causing all kinds of bodily harm to him.

Now that they were quasi-friends, she would just feel too bad inflicting some casual but probably deserved pain.

When Damon strolled in, his Armani black shirt and black pants fitting him so perfectly and making some of her teammates gush, and scrutinized the area of the Mystic Grill they had rented for the occasion, evidently looking for something specific, Bonnie's first instinct was to hide. Or to run. Expatriate in some far away country he would never step in, not even for the kicks of making fun of her.

Then his eyes found her, and she felt…hot, and whether it was from the embarrassment or something else she didn't want to know.

His gaze narrowed on target and it burned, raking all over her form, drinking in every detail of her outfit. For a moment his body tensed, but then he squared his shoulders and scanned the room again. He stalked toward her, hands in his pockets, his best sexy-but-innocent smile on.

Bonnie braced herself for whatever crass joke his devious mind was devising and trying to dissimulate before he could spring it on her.

But Damon just handed her a smooth, "Scotch on the rocks for me, pretty girl," walked past the frowning witch, and sat down at the booth nearest her.

Bonnie took her sweet time bringing the drink to him, hoping against all reason that this would give him another reason to bitch at her.

The vampire circumvented all her fears once more, because when his scotch was set in front of him, he didn't act like his usual snarky self.

He simply looked her up and down intensely, sipped his drink and glanced around the room quickly, his features twisting briefly in a sour grimace. Bonnie couldn't possibly guess that, at that moment, her nemesis was trying to process an unexpected but imperative urge to cover her with his jacket and snatch her away: he did not want anyone else to look at her and feel what he was feeling.

"Just say it, Damon."

"Say what?"

"Whatever supposedly clever line you're cooking. I'm perfectly aware of the ridiculousness of my situation, so spit it out and get it over with."

Damon's lips twitched in a sarcastic smile. "Believe me; the last thing you look is ridiculous."

She rolled her eyes, sighing impatiently. "I like it better when your insults are clearer."

"How am I insulting you?"

"I don't know yet, why don't you tell me?"

The vampire tilted his head aside and studied her again with his unsettling thoroughness, licking his lips before adding, "Nasty mood or not, you look like a doll. A Victorian doll, not some kind of sex toy, I mean…and it's not an insult. It makes me want to eat you up."

He said it so seriously, it nearly sounded like a compliment he wanted to pay her, without quite knowing how to go about it.

"Oh."

Bonnie didn't know how to respond to that. Was Damon Salvatore babbling? She was confused about what she wanted that to mean. Because it had to mean something, right? Did she really want it to mean anything?

Fortunately she didn't have time to come up with a suitable reaction because there were clients waiting to be served at the corner table.

A cool hand closing around her wrist prevented her from excusing herself.

"I've been to one of these places, you know. In Osaka. You're supposed to keep supplying me and keep me entertained until I'm ready to leave."

"I don't even want to know what you mean by that." She scoffed and uselessly slapped his hand with the menu.

"Just sit with me," he snapped gruffly, before he downed his drink. "Bring the bottle."

For whatever reason, the witch hesitated to refuse him straight and proper. She eyed Caroline, who was watching from across the room with a pinched expression. "Just wait a moment."

Damon actually dropped her wrist, letting her go. Bonnie reached her blonde best friend, tempted to justify herself and invent a pathetic excuse on why she would have wanted to sit with the older Salvatore, when they were always bickering.

Caroline stopped her first, patting her shoulder: "Good idea, B. Insult him or flatter him, but keep the asshole drinking. I want his wallet on a plate when this is over."

Feeling equal parts guilty and relieved, Bonnie ended up accepting with a simple, "Okay."

Returning to a smirking Damon with a bottle of scotch, she shook her head lightly at his smugness.

"Stop oozing attitude and just tell me about this travel to Japan of yours. Just leave out the depraved parts."

"Those are the best parts!" Damon mock-complained, like a child, and that was how Bonnie knew he would begin his story with those exact parts she wished to hear the least.

Yet, she couldn't help but feel like her evening was looking up.