A/N: Thanks to everyone who had taken the time out to read and review any of my stories.

Warning: some spoilers for 2X18: "The Last Dance" (albeit, a complete and utterly skewed projection of the episode).


Danger makes the heart grow fonder.

Chapter Seven

Bonnie does the decent, honest thing. She tells Jeremy they should cool things off. It's the guilt talking. It's the I-can't bear-to-look-at-you-after-I've-kissed-another-guy that's ruling the conversation.

(Technically, Damon kissed her. But that is besides the point. She acknowledges the fact that she never said no.)

Jeremy doesn't want to cool things off, though. He doesn't want to halt whatever they have going for them.

She tells him about the kiss. The pure violence that flashes across Jeremy's face makes Bonnie realize that she's had everyone all wrong. People are not acting they way they are supposed to. Not any more. There are layers that Bonnie is not sure she ever wants to see.

Jeremy tries to laugh it off: his disappointment, his anger towards Damon, "There is nothing wrong with a little healthy competition."

What he really wants to say is that he would very much like something all to himself. Damon could have any girl he wanted.

Bonnie balks at Jeremy's simplicity. A number has been done on all of them to think that this current existence is anything close to normal.

It is on the tip of her tongue to tell him that she is not a bone to be fought over by two dogs, but who is she kidding.


Damon looks at Elena, at her fragile being; at how much is being done for her. She makes these backroom deals with anything and everyone: Kill her but spare her friends and family.

The difference is huge between selflessness and self-preservation, the former being the crowning glory of martyrdom. Frankly, he doesn't know what's worse.

If there was ever a moment that Elena could pretend that she did not need him in any genuine sense, now is not the time.

She's receptive like anyone who may die soon is receptive. His merciless flirting goes unchecked and unpunished, and there is no doubt in his mind that Elena knows that he was in love with her.

Is in love with her. The slip-ups are quick and real. Damon is in love with Elena. He has to be. It's not like there is anything else out there for him.

It is much easier than loving a witch.


In the middle of the day, Damon comes home to the house that now belongs to his brother's girlfriend. It is not the most typical thing in the world, to give a seventeen year old speed lessons in real estate or to make her an owner of a home with pieces that have existed longer than she has been on earth.

Then again, the Salvatores have shrugged off the jacket of normal so many years ago. (Although Stefan still likes to pretend, and Damon finds it hilarious).

Before Damon steps foot in the foyer, he is aware of voices, hushed tones that reek of conspiracy.

Damon's slightly disappointed when he realizes it's just Caroline and Stefan, bothered that the former is even allowed in the house. But, his mind suffers the worst case of whiplash at the thought because they should not be here. They should be in school learning from an incompetent educational system that is Mystic Falls High.

Through garbled, wet speech he catches Matt and lying and Stefan hugs Caroline to him like she's a lost child. It doesn't seem uncomfortable at all, like it has occurred many times over.

When the hell did this happen? Without notice, Stefan seems to have found a friend in Caroline and she in him.

Damon smothers his croak of laughter and lays low until Caroline's tears are dried and she is sent on her merry way.

"What did Killer Barbie want?," Damon asks, pretending not to have heard.

Stefan was long conscious of his brother's presence. However, ignoring him can be a very difficult task, "Damon," a warning meant to stave off his brother's propensity to mock everything.

"Where's Elena?," Damon asks.

"At School," Stefan delivers, making his annoyance clear. Damon's line of questioning is suspect as all get-out.

"Why aren't you there with her?"

Stefan slightly blanches at the rebuke, "I'm going back there now," he insists.

Stefan effectively ends the conversation by walking out of the front door into the irritatingly sunny day.

His little brother is dropping the ball when it comes to Elena, and Damon never thought he'd see the day.

The world is coming to an end. That is the only plausible explanation.


The strategy is there is no strategy. It's a lose interpretation of survival.

A 1960's dance is the backdrop of rumble with Klaus, and Damon can't stop thinking that he is in some terrible film with bad lighting and an even poorer script.

This night starts as dull as a any other night. The usual happens, so much so that no one's hackles rise until the very last minutes of chaos.

Alaric is way cooler than he usually is, and Damon attributes it to alcohol and the possibly that Ric has gotten laid.

It does not occur to Damon that he has spent more time in high school now than he ever has before. The significance escapes him, he is not one to lament a lost childhood.

Caroline's not blubbering all over the place and Damon assumes she's gotten things back on track with the jock.

Jeremy Gilbert is as close to a nervous breakdown as he can get. Even with Bonnie dancing around him.

Elena smiling at him makes him feel like king of the road. Damon does not know what to enjoy more, Elena's naked adoration or the throbbing vein in Stefan's forehead.

If dancing with Elena was a fleeting reprieve from the obvious, dancing with Bonnie is a reminder of the present. They shoot the shit with as much snark as they can muster and they make issues of death and sacrifice a small affair. They have had this conversation before and they treat the revisited topic with disinterest.

Sure, she trembles in his arms a bit, and shakes with fear, but Bonnie's steadfast and until now, Damon he thought he was the only brave one.

Damon is full of interesting ideas. It is the reason he wraps a hand around Bonnie's elbow and slips out; away from the blaring music and the inaccurate portrayal of flower children.

The Girls' bathroom is closer than the Boys', and on the way there, Damon keeps his eyes peeled for Klaus while simultaneously formulating the best damn pep talk he has given in years.

It doesn't take much of a push to get Bonnie into a stall. Damon thinks about the last time he was in the bathroom with Bonnie Bennett and the moment seems like déjà vu.

What flies out of his mouth is that this, all of this is about protecting Elena. Bonnie nods like she understands, like that was her whole point in the first place then she launches herself into his arms, fingers scuffing along his shoulders hidden under his black, black shirt.

Bonnie knows that kissing him at a time like this is just plain stupid.

Damon didn't hesitate in kissing her back, eagerly pressing her against the partition. He held her to him and kissed her until he felt a strangely shaped heat uncoiling in his chest.

He will leave a bruise, he is kissing her too hard and too fast not to leave a mark. He will say what he has to say with his mouth and his tongue.

And Bonnie, the girl resigned to a crucified state of mind, kisses him like it is last thing she'll ever give or get.

The kiss ends because she has the breathe, air rushing out of her mouth, a terrible ache in her chest that tells her that this is a better way to die.

The two stand there, holding each other like dying animals in the forest.


Save for serial killers and evil, nefarious predators, no one has ever wanted to kill Bonnie before tonight. The thought prickles her, saddens her because she liked to think that she is a good as a person she can be.

Sometimes, when she uses magic she gets this near nirvana sensation that marathon runners get when they hit a particularly good stride: weightless, painless, the unmistakable indication that your body has given up before your brain has.

She's not floating but she feels like she is. The blood that drips from her nose grounds her like nothing else (Damon's lips on hers has the same effect but analyzing that is beyond irrelevant).

Looking at Klaus with Alaric's face is more difficult than Bonnie thought it would be. He got to you to. He got to all of us. High school teachers used to be sacrosanct, right up there with small children and animals.

She can't resist looking at Elena and Stefan, hands sliding against the glass windows of the cafeteria doors, their mouth's open desperation.

The only recourse is to shut down.


His plan was fucking foolproof and he dares anyone to say anything different.

When Elena comes to Damon later, after the hysteria, he's amazed that she struggles so hard not to look shame-faced. He can't tell whether it's because she's truly sorry about smacking him or if it's because being is his bedroom has become a common occurrence and it shouldn't be.

He spouts some bullshit about always choosing her, follows the script complete with pained facial expression - this is what a person looks like when they cannot have the person they're in love with.

And Elena seems so relieved. She didn't hurt his feelings nearly enough to make him turn away from her.


Damon remembers when going underground used to be exhilarating.

He finds Jeremy's slouched upright, eyes closed, frowning even as he sleeps.

Candles surround Bonnie like a shrine. She lays on her side, already out of this evening's clothing, clad in sweats and a t-shirt too big for her frame.

Damon doesn't know how she can sleep when he's wired like a son of a bitch.

Bonnie's eyes fly open, a terrible thought infiltrating confused sleep.

"Damon?," she asks because it somehow seems unthinkable that Klaus would find her so soon.

Damon doesn't do the human thing like inquire about her health. He needs to stare at her blinking eyes because the image of her still body will haunt him forever.

"Elena was upset," Damon says.

"I know. There wasn't enough time to tell her." Bonnie looks like she's going to cry.

"Do you need anything?"

"No," Bonnie says, shaking her head in a sluggish manner, "Jeremy. He brought me everything. Some clothes, laptop, my books." She plans to sit there and pour over every single spell she can. That book that she and Damon drove so many miles for must have something they can use.

Damon should go home. He should go home to an empty bed only to be bombarded by the sounds of frantic coupling between his brother and Elena.

"I'm sorry," Bonnie says quietly.

Damon is taking aback by the statement "About what?"

"Alaric. I know he was your friend. I don't know how but maybe I can get Klaus to leave his body."

"Don't worry about that now."

"Why not? Just add it to a very long list of things to worry about," Bonnie comments, a wry smile on her face.

"What happened in the bathroom..." Damon starts, trailing off before he completes his statement.

"It was nothing. I don't know. Maybe it was my last attempt at being spontaneous," Bonnie offers as an excuse.

Damon makes a sound that is just too gentle for its own good.

Spur of the moment, he speeds over to where she is sitting and he does something ridiculously juvenile. He presses a kiss to her cheek in one moment of sheer recklessness. It's not lost on Damon that Bonnie accepts the kiss because she gives in more readily than Elena ever did.

Jeremy jerks awake only to see Bonnie's wide open eyes, "Can't sleep?"

Bonnie stares at the space that Damon once stood, "Something like that," Bonnie answers distractedly.

She puts a hand to her face and wonders what will happen tomorrow.


A/N UPDATE INFO:

Due to various real life obligations (grad school is kicking my behind), "She Hates Me" will be updated sporadically until the end of May.