The doorbell rang, and Sage's pillow paused on its way down to slap Damon's naked torso. She was breathing hard, knees straddling his chest. 'Oh, I wonder who that could be,' she mocked, blowing away a stray feather which had landed on her nose.
'No idea,' said Damon coolly. He sprang up, shoving her from the bed, and gave her a playful smack with his pillow. 'Ignore it.'
Bullshit, she thought, and laughed, landing lightly. 'But now you've just made me far too curious.'She pranced away from him and out along the corridor, sparing an amused glance for where an unconscious Rebekah lay sprawled on a bed in the adjacent room. 'And I've been so looking forward to meeting some of these human friends I hear you've been making,' she winked and then ran, blurring down the stairs.
'Noooo,' Damon whined, appearing before her in the living room, 'Come back to bed. Humans are boring.'
Sage's eyes narrowed. 'That's what I thought. And that's what I thought you thought. Or am I wrong?'
Damon swallowed, and turned away. 'If you open it, I'm not home,' he muttered, flinging himself down on a couch.
'Well someone's a Mister Grumpy-pants today,' said Sage. Now her curiosity really was piqued. She knew her old friend well enough to have figured that something was bothering him. For one thing, after having noisy sex with Rebekah, he hadn't made a single pass at Sage the entire evening. Damon-like behaviour that certainly was not.
Knowing Damon, the problem was bound to be female, but the disparity between the chirpy way he'd been acting and the dark look in his eyes suggested to Sage that whoever was standing behind the door wasn't just yet another girl in the long line of Damon's ever-willing victims.
Smirking at Damon's groan of protestation, Sage opened the door.
'Oh,' she said.
'Who are you?' asked Elena Gilbert.
'Katherine?' Sage yelled over her shoulder, 'Seriously, Damon?' She narrowed her eyes. 'Though if I'm not mistaken, she seems distinctly alive.'
She heard him sigh and rise from the sofa. 'Blah blah, doppelganger, long story.' Sage nodded, mind churning through this new development. She'd heard of the Petrova doppelgangers, of course, but…
'Damon, you're so predictable,' she sighed.
The girl on the doorstep narrowed her eyes. 'Predictable? Tell me about it.' She gave Sage's semi naked body a pointed look. 'Let me take three guesses as to exactly what you're doing here.'
Ooh, claws out. Sage grinned.
'Let's see,' Damon appeared at Sage's shoulder. 'Last time I checked, this was the Salvatore Boarding House, which means that the person who gets to decide who comes and goes here is a Salvatore, which means that -' His eyes widened in mock surprise, 'Oh wait – that's me! So guess what – I don't have to explain myself to you, Elena. What are you doing here?'
'Actually, I came to try and talk,' Elena shouldered her bag, 'But it's pretty clear you're both busy.'
'No no, go ahead,' Damon waved a hand, and leant against the doorframe in a way which was probably supposed to look casual, 'Whatever you had to say can be said in front of Sage. Oh, this is Sage, by the way.'
'You're both in your underwear.'
'We were having a pillow fight.'
'Silly me,' Elena gave a thin smile, 'Obviously you need to be practically naked to pillow fight properly.'
'Well, I'd argue that you need to be practically naked to do everything properly, but that's just my personal opinion.'
Sage watched them jibe each-other with amusement, and wondered what had happened to spark this lover's tiff. 'The name's Sage,' she interrupted, and extended a hand to Elena with a gracious smile. She couldn't resist adding some fuel to the fire, however. 'I'm a good friend of Damon's.'
'Elena Gilbert,' the girl replied, brown eyes narrowed though she took Sage's hand. Elena turned to Damon with a smile plastered to her face and voice dripping with derision. 'How strange. He's never mentioned you to me.'
Sage decided she liked this girl, and decided to throw her a bone. 'Actually, we met by a boxing ring. I've not seen him for years, so this was honestly just an innocent catch-up pillow fight.'
Elena regarded her for a while, then smiled, satisfied.
'Why don't you come in?' Sage offered.
'Nuh uh uh, Salvatore Boarding House, remember?' said Damon in a sing song voice as manoeuvred Sage back from the doorframe, steel in his arms. 'Plus, we have pillow fighting to get on with.'
'I'll leave you to it,' said Elena with a tight lipped smile, already turning to leave.
'Lovely to meet you Elena,' Sage called as she walked away, 'See you around!'
Damon winced. Sage turned to him and pouted. 'We could have had somuch fun together.'
'Oh no we couldn't,' Damon reached around her and slammed the door shut.
'Did you two have a lickle lovers' tiff?' Sage crooned in mock sympathy, following him back into the living room.
Damon snorted, and dropped back down onto the couch. 'There were no tiffs. And no lovers either,' he added at Sage's pointed look. 'There was just one cold human, and one stupid vampire.'
It was now her turn to snort. 'So there I was thinking you'd thrown this party for me, when really you were trying to get over Little Miss Katherine by bedding a certain blonde Original with a little more stamina. Why, you utter cad.' She grinned. 'Did it work?'
'Nothing works,' Damon muttered darkly.
'Come on, Damon.'
'Believe me, I've tried.'
Sage paused. 'Another Katherine?' she asked, careful not to tell any sort of pity or judgement temper her tone.
'Worse in some ways.' Damon poured himself a glass of something it was probably too early in the day for.
Sage nodded slowly. 'Well, I don't know if this is any comfort, but when someone comes to your door after a fight, it means they want to make it work. Which means,' she plopped down on the sofa beside Damon, 'That whatever you did have means something to her.'
'Hmph.' Damon's answer could have meant anything, but when he turned to Sage his eyes were wide and blue. How sweet, she thought. The adorable picture of innocence. My arse.
Her ears suddenly pricked up at the sound of movement from upstairs. 'Damon?' a plaintive voice wailed.
'And on that note,' Sage said, cutting off the question he'd been about to ask, 'It seems Sleeping Beauty's awoken. Better go attend to your blonde bombshell, Mr Rebound.'
Damon flopped his head back onto the cushions. 'What have I done?' he groaned.
An interesting question, Sage thought. What had he done indeed?
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