Chapter 9 Running to stand still
"So I wanted to run something by you, if that's ok." Elena mentioned to me as she stood in the kitchen and arranged the silverware drawer and organized the cabinets while I sat in the hall that ran from the living room to the bedrooms and looked through the doorway at her. She had been nice enough to offer to help me unpack and get the apartment situated to my liking to make it feel more like home and I gladly accepted her offer. I hadn't done all that much unpacking and kind of just let everything remain in the boxes they had been put in when I left. But it was time to let all that out and Elena had come here earlier today to help get me started and now a few hours later, it was late afternoon and we were nearing the end. Just tying up some loose ends.
"That's fine, as long as it's not something that I am really going to dislike." I told Elena from my spot on the floor where I was breaking down cardboard boxes and tossing them into piles to be taken out to the dumpster. I turned my head to meet her eyes and she had this look of gleam there that suggested she was up to something that I knew I might come to regret if I did say yes to it. I frowned and asked "It's something bad isn't it?"
"It depends on how you look at it." Elena said back, turning to face me and pushed herself up on the counter so her legs dangled over each other. She sent an uneasy grin at me and said. "I kind of told Stefan that we would hang out with him and Damon tonight."
"What?" I stood up at her statement with my mouth wide open and walked into the kitchen with my hands on my hips. "Why would you do that?"
"Because I thought it would be fun and you could use some fun in your life." Elena replied with a shrug. "What's the big deal? We haven't all just hung out yet and it could actually turn out to be a good thing."
"A good thing?" I asked, pressing my fingers to my head as an ache was already beginning to start. "That's the phrase you are going to use to describe a night with Damon?"
"And with me and with Stefan." Elena pointed out before her lips curled upwards into a tight little smile and she sat back with her hands tucked under her arms. "Interesting how you conveniently left us out of that sentence. Does someone have Damon on her mind?"
"Uh no way." I protested, shaking my head and rolled my eyes. That was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard and I told her that. "That's just insane. I do not have Damon on my mind. I'm not even thinking about him."
"Then why are you blushing?" She asked, her smirk getting even bigger as she zeroed in on my face. "Don't even deny it, because it is true."
"It's hot in here that's all." I touched my cheeks with my palm and they were warm but there was no way I would ever admit that it was because I was blushing. I looked at Elena, watching her shake nod her head knowingly and demanded "What? Why are you smirking like that?"
"Oh nothing...it's just..." She paused, briefly hiding her face behind her hands so it would muffle the sound but I still heard the end parts of her giggling. "I think you are starting to like Damon more then you will say."
"No. There is no way I like him. Not going to happen." I decided, waving my hands in the air as I walked over and leaned against the counter. "My heart is still on the mend from my last relationship."
"That doesn't mean you don't like him" Elena responded, jumping down from the counter with her arms crossed.
"It also doesn't mean that I do like him." I retorted, motioning to the chaos in the kitchen and said. "Enough talk about Damon and let's just get back to this."
"Fine but are we still on for tonight with the guys?" She asked, unable to stop the mischievous look from taking over her face. "Just casual hanging out. Nothing serious."
"Fine. We'll do it, as long as you stop harassing me about Damon." I warned her and she nodded quickly and enthusiastically.
"Damon who?" She asked playfully before we both turn back to the task at hand and began to put things in order while thinking about what tonight would bring. It could be really good. Or really bad. Really really bad.
Later that night
"Mmm, now this looks yummy." Damon's smug voice spoke up from an armchair off to the side of the living room the second that Elena entered the room that night with Stefan while Allison trailed in after them rolling her eyes as soon as he had spoken. They had just arrived there in Elena's car a few minutes ago, thinking it could actually work out that the four of them might have a good time. But Damon seemed bound and determined to make things not go as smoothly as they could. That was obvious by the way he was already making comments towards Allison.
"Damon, don't start right now. It's too early in the night for you to ruin it." Elena shot back, resisting the urge to groan at his comment and turned to Allie to grab her by the arm and tug her forward. "Ignore him, he likes it."
"Trust me, I'm already tuning him out." The older brunette replied, looking around Elena's shoulder to send Damon a look, but that only made the dark haired vamp smirk and blow a kiss in her direction. She shook her head in disgust before saying. "And you thought this would be a good idea."
"It will be once Damon stops acting like an ass." Elena hissed, setting her bag and jacket on a nearby table before pulling Allison further into the room and down onto one of the couches away from where Damon was sitting. She turned to where Stefan was standing and motioned for him to come in and sit next to her which he did.
"So...what are the events planned for tonight?" Damon asked, turning his attention to the rest of them with his eye brows raised but he was really directing his question towards Allison. "What kind of trouble do we plan on getting in?"
"I've had enough trouble to last me a lifetime, I do not need anymore." Allison answered back, her eyes already glaring at Damon and her arms were tightly crossed over her body like she was preparing to fight with him all night and Elena was convinced that just may happen. Those two had a way of always butting heads when they were around each other and to be honest it was kind of amusing.
"Sweetheart, you don't know trouble until you've hung around me long enough." Damon pointed out, setting his glass of blood on the table and turning his body to face the couch with a mischievous smile. "Trust me, it's fun. You should try it."
"Actually I know what fun is." She replied, tossing her hair behind her shoulder with a frown. "And looking at you, you could probably do with having a little less of it."
"That will never happen." Damon sneered, leaning back in the chair, his eyes fully focused on Allie's face. Elena looked at Stefan who looked back at her like he wanted to laugh but he didn't and neither did she. But boy did she want to. Watching these two interact was just fun. Damon seemed to get a lot of amusement from antagonizing Allison because he just kept at it. "You however look like you need to loosen up."
"Oh and you think you are going to be the one to do it?" She asked, crossing her legs over each other and sent Damon that look that said for him to bring it.
"I could definitely show you a good time." Damon said, tapping his chin with his fingers tips while suggestively winking at her. "A night with me will have even an ice queen like you wanting to go out and find trouble."
"Let's get our facts straight, you and I will never spend a night together. Ever." Allison shook her head so fast that her hair tumbled over her shoulder and showed off her slender neck which only further proved to excite Damon as he sat up and his fangs were already starting to pop out. She quickly covered her neck again and groaned. "You are so one dimensional."
"So what?" Damon shot back, clasping his hands together gleefully. "Can't handle it?"
"You are just so aggravating." Allison hissed, throwing herself back in her seat and turning away in annoyance.
Elena giggled inwardly as she watched these two interact. It was so obvious to anyone around that both Damon and Allie were enjoying pushing each others buttons. It was rare for Damon to have someone go toe to toe with him on every occasion, but Allie fit the bill perfectly. She wasn't afraid to stand up to him and say something to piss him off. Damon needed someone like that. And maybe one day, is she stuck around long enough, perhaps Allie would give Damon that chance.
2 hours later
"Hey Elena, come with me for a minute. I want to talk to you." Stefan said to his girlfriend, taking her by the hand and pulled her off the couch to follow him out of the room. He wanted to be alone with her, but mostly he wanted to be out of earshot of Allison and Damon when he said what had been on his mind since the moment the night had begun.
"What about..." Elena began to say, looking back over her shoulder at the other two figures in the room and was opening her mouth to say something else when she was interrupted by a pair of arguing voices.
"...you are such a prude..."
"I am not!"
"Oh yes you are. You look like just the type of girl to hold out on a guy just because it's fun for you."
"Just because I wont sleep with you, doesn't mean I am a prude. You arrogant jack ass!"
"...actually it does.."
"Well you're not even a real guy. You're a freaking vampire."
"You didn't have a problem sleeping with your precious viking now did you?"
"You're just jealous of Eric."
"No, I'm sexually frustrated, that's the point. And your man Eric seems like a real dumb ass if you ask me."
"You know what never mind. We'll just leave them alone. They look like that are getting along so well." Elena said sarcastically, taking his hand and hurriedly they left the room. Their absence went un-noticed by Allie and Damon who continued to argue incessantly, their voices shooting back at each other like bullets as Stefan pulled Elena towards the staircase and they quickly ascended to the second floor before Elena turned to him and said. "They are a little too intense with each other. I've never seen anyone argue with Damon so much for so long. He usually makes everyone cranky and want to run away. But Allie just sits there and takes it without ever looking like she will stop."
"She's a tough little thing, that's for sure." Stefan agreed, opening the door to his bed room/ resting area and ushered her in, shutting the door securely and then taking a seat on the bed. "But I have to say that I think she has been good for Damon."
"I've been thinking that too." Elena agreed, walking over and sitting next to him. "His focus has been entirely on her since she arrived and he hasn't even made any move to feed on any other people. And that's hard to do. Normally he loses interest fast. But with Allie, it's like he can't get enough."
"I think he likes her but he won't admit it, even to himself." Stefan replied, thinking of the conversations he had with his brother over the new girl and how Damon always tried to play it off like it was just about having fun. But there was something in Damon's eyes that said it wasn't quite true. "I mean, despite the fighting and comments, did you see how they were looking at each other?"
"Like they were getting so pissed off that the only way to release the tension would be for Damon to throw her over the back of the couch and take her right then and there? Yea I saw that." Elena nodded, running her hands through her long straight hair. "I've been seeing it build since the parking lot ambush but now it is hotter then ever. And the longer this goes on the more it starts making sense to me."
"What does?" Stefan wondered, placing his hand on top of hers.
"That whether they admit it or not, feelings are starting to develop between them and you know I am right." Elena said with a knowing look. "And it's more then just the sexual tension. I can see it and I just know that something is going to happen between them."
"Damon says he doesn't want anything serious." Stefan replied with a shrug.
"Damon is lying to himself."
40 minutes later
"See? Now isn't this much more fun then constantly arguing?" Allison asked him as they walked through the long hallways of the house side by side with barely any light shining on them and she turned to look at him with an easy smile. "Wouldn't you rather spend the evening being this gentleman and showing me around your house rather then sitting in the living room yelling at me?"
"Actually I would rather be throwing you against the wall and biting you." He admitted, enjoying the shocked look on her face before finishing with "...while we also have mind blowing sex at the same time."
"And here it goes again." She threw her hands up in the air, her fingers brushing against his arm before she leaned back against the wall and crossed her arms tightly. "Do you seriously think of nothing but sex all the time?"
"Sometimes." He smirked, standing against the other wall and pressed his foot "And other times I just think about you in general."
He could tell that his answer surprised her because he could sense the quickening of her heartbeat as she looked at him and to be honest, his answer also surprised him. It wasn't that often that when he said something that was on his mind, that it turned out to be serious. But this time it was. And it was true what he said. He did sometimes just sit around and think about her. It wasn't like he could help it, she was in his head constantly all day and all night. She just wouldn't leave him alone even when they weren't around each other. And although he would never be ashamed of anything he ever thought or obsessed about, he was glad that she wasn't able to read the minds of vampires, especially his. Because some of the things he thought about doing with her would more then likely scare her off ever setting eyes on him again. And she amused him greatly, so he wanted to keep her around as long as he could. It was a challenge to get along, or try to, with someone like her.
"You know, you aren't as annoying when you talk like that." She said, breaking him out of his thoughts to find her looking at him intently, like she was studying him. "It's kind of nice actually."
"Nice enough to join me in my bed tonight?" He asked hopefully while trying not to laugh at the look of disbelief on her face. She showed her emotions so easily that he was almost jealous. "Just kidding...sort of."
"I should have expected that from you." She told him, uncrossing her arms and rolling her eyes. "But you keep on surprising me. I think you will be nice for a while but then you will do a complete turnaround and do the opposite."
"It's a gift." He nodded, motioning her to follow him again and she did, walking behind him with tiny quiet steps without saying a word. He peeked over his shoulder at her and said. "Like the view?"
"Not really." She retorted, smirking up at him and then walked around him so they were moving side by side. "Where are we going now? You already gave me the entire tour. Shouldn't we go back and join Elena and Stefan?"
"I'm sure my brother is keeping his pet entertained and I don't think he would appreciate being bothered." He explained, opening the door to the upstairs library and took her by the hand and pulling her in the room, not bothering to turn on the lights. He felt her step closer to his side so he could lead her easily through the darkness and once they reached the wall, he reached to the side until his fingers grasped the fabric and pulled back the curtains that hide a single glass door that led out to the balcony. He twisted the knob and pushed Allison through it until they were standing on the concrete bathed in the bright moonlight to the point where he wouldn't have to turn on the outside lights.
"Wow, it's nice out here." She said, letting go of his hand as she stepped closer to the railing to look over the edge. He felt something akin to disappointment go through him when she was no longer touching him and he had to fight the sudden urge to reach out and grab her again. It made him realize that this was perhaps the first time he felt this spark and desire to touch someone since Katherine and Elena. It almost threw him for a minute as he watched her. She turned to look at him with a smile. "You spend a lot of time out here thinking. I can tell."
"How?" He asked, moving forward until he was leaning against the railing next to her with his arms crossed. "You can't read my mind."
"No but I have a feeling about you Damon. And something tells me you're not as bad ass as you think you are."
At the end of the night
"I still say you should have let me go knock on the door to at least say good bye." I said to Damon as we climbed up the stairs of my apartment building an hour after he had taken me out on the porch. I was surprised when we ended up managing to have a semi pleasant conversation that didn't include all that many sexual innuendos that were common whenever we talked. He actually revealed part of his history with Stefan, including their transformations into vampires at the exact same time and their involvement with the vampire Katherine, who resembled Elena almost to a t. I wasn't expecting him to tell me so much but he must have felt the same openness I did after our hours of bickering and his past just came pouring out until I knew just about everything there was to know about him. It almost made me understand why he was the way he was. And more importantly, why he acted the way he did.
"Unless you wanted to walk in and see something that will scar you for life, then be glad that I pulled you out of the house when I did." Damon replied, sticking his hands in his pockets as we climbed up the stairs.
"Too late, I've already been scarred for life." I muttered, not thinking clearly when I said that but at that brief moment in time, Eric's face flashed in front of my eyes and it was like an avalanche after that. I paused on the second floor landing and stood against the wall as the images from that morning replayed in my head, each time getting more and more painful as the pain came back to me and slugged me in the chest. Seeing the look on Eric's face when he realized whose name had slipped from his lips was a memory that was never going to truly die. It would always be stuck there no matter what happened in the future. I just hoped in the future, that when I had flashbacks like this, the pain wouldn't feel as sharp as it did right now.
"You're crying." Damon pointed out, his finger touching my face and bringing me back to the present where I was forced to look up at him and for once he wasn't smirking or making stupid comments. His blue eyes just stared down at me, searching my face for confirmation of something he must have been thinking about. "You were thinking about him weren't you?"
"It's hard not to. Everything that happened that morning is still with me. It's like no matter how far I run or how much I try to over work myself, I just can't forget about the pain." I mumbled, looking down and hating myself for allowing my weakness to shine through in front of a vampire. I touched my hand to my chest, right over my heart and sighed. "Eric is still in there, and I don't know if he will ever get out."
Damon didn't say anything for so long that when his silence finally made its impact on me, I snapped my head up just to see if he was still there. And he was, only this time he was much closer then before. It seemed like he had been waiting for me to meet his eyes because when I did, I found myself being shoved against the opposite wall but in a more gentle manner then all the other times he had done something like that, with his hand providing cushioning before I could feel any pain. I didn't even have a second to react before I felt his breath on my face and I knew at that moment that something was about to happen. And I didn't think it had anything to do with him wanting to taste my blood. In fact, he didn't even have his fangs out, but he was looking at me with this look of hunger in his eyes. But it was a hunger for something else and as I felt his lips on my neck and his fingers tangled in my hair, it hit me. Damon was going to try and kiss me! I don't know why, but my heart flipped at this realization and I felt him pull back to meet my eyes before he started closing in again, only this time I didn't allow him to get closer.
I reached up with my hand just as the warmth started spreading across my skin and I used it to push Damon clear across the hallway until his back met with the other wall and he fell down to his knees in a heap. I felt my face tighten as I saw him look up and over at my hand where the light was still burning from my finger tips and his pale face started to darken with fury. I closed my hand into a fist as the light disappeared and my eyes rose until the met his angry, twisted features. I barely dropped my arm to the side when he got to his feet and flashed across the landing, trapping me between his arms on the wall as I was forced to glare up at his fangs that had come out in full force and were inches from my face. "Damon, don't..."
"Don't toy with me." He snapped, raising his hand and I cringed, half expecting him to hit me and I closed my eyes to wait for the blow, but it never came. Instead the sound of a pop and the breaking of plaster met my ears and I turned my eyes to see that he had rammed his fist into the wall next to my head. The action was so quick that I didn't have time to be afraid, but when he pulled his arm out, the feeling hit me and my body started to shake violently. Maybe Damon was something to fear after all.
"I can't, Damon. I just can't. Not right now." I managed to spit out as my lip quivered and I turned my head to meet his eyes and saw that the anger I had seen only moment before had already begun to dissipate leaving him with a look of pure disappointment in his eyes that he tried to shake off when I reached out for him. He pushed my hands away and stepped back from me, the glare on his lips almost too much. "Damon, I'm sorry..."
"You are a stupid, stupid human." He said before he disappeared in a flash and I was left alone with a hole in the wall and frenzied heartbeat.
A/N: so mr damon lost his temper there at the end. thats to be expected, he is a hot head after all...but i love writting about him and i hope you all loved reading it. Anyway, just to give you a heads up, there will be another chapter posted tomorrow night and it is a turning point chapter. Within it, you will find out the reason why there is a sequel and why Allison was drawn to Mystic Falls. And more importantly, you find out the identity of that voice she is sure she knows. And let me tell you, alot of you will be very excited. Please review
