Chapter 9, Roads Untraveled.


She tilts the glass back against her lips in a rush, to quickly drink up the alcoholic content in one go. She doesn't have the luxury of taking in small sips or even savouring the taste, because she still has a long way to go with her magic. She has a long way to go...

Once she has swallowed the alcohol, she then sets the glass atop Qetsiyah's headstone and looks at Damon. She should feel bad about putting alcohol on her dead ancestor's grave, but she doesn't.

'You're going to turn me into a drunk,' she says to him.

If it wasn't for him, she wouldn't have taken the first, the second or the third shot of whisky today. Or the glasses dating back to when he started the challenge two days ago. She's had at least one full bottle of whisky to drink between two days ago and now. And it's all his fault.

'No,' he refuses to take the blame, 'you're turning yourself into a drinker. You could easily stop drinking if you just took my blood.'

There he goes with the same suggestion that she doesn't like again. When will he give up on that?

'I don't like the taste of blood,' she decides to tell him, because evidently straight out refusing hasn't gotten the point across.

'Is the excuse she gives today,' Damon narrates in a different voice from his own, 'but Damon knows what the real problem is. She always seems to forget that he knows her!'

He likes to brag that he knows her, and she wishes she could say the same to him. One day, she will, though, she'll tell him that she knows him too, and she'll brag about it just like he does. It's just she hasn't had the chance to yet.

To ignore what he said, she gathers herself up again, to start trying her powers. She's determined to do this on her own, so she will.

'I'm trying again,' she tells him.

'You know what to do,' he reminds her with a smirk.

Either he wants to rub it in her face that she's going nowhere with her magic, or he just wants her to feel irritated enough to take his blood, because his smirk -and his challenging crossed arms- are clearly provoking her to one of those two things.

Whatever he wants of a reaction from her, however, she stubbornly thinks, she won't let him have it. She won't let him win.

She was the one who showed him the book that glowed whenever she put her hand on its cover, and she was the one who decided to work on her magic since he told her about the glowing book as a book of spells, so she will not be cowered into doing things his way.

Thinking that, she pours a little whisky into her glass, and sets it down to wait for her to inevitably fail.

She'll fail this attempt too, she knows that, but she wants to be stubborn for a while. While she does feel the presence of magic within her, she also knows that it's only at its potential stage, not its working stage yet. Damon has a theory that if she takes his blood, she might be able to actually start using her magic. He's told her about how he thinks that his blood is responsible for her even being awake in the first place, starting from the time that her heartbeat changed when he gave her his blood, to how her powers suddenly sparked to life after the last time that he gave her blood. The frustrating part is, she actually sees the sense in his theory, but at least with her magic, she has to push herself and refuse help. If it takes forever, she'll keep trying.

'Ava...' she begins behind closed eyes. 'Munero...'

Like the previous times, the powers thrum inside her, but nothing happens. Even as she thinks to say the next word, she knows that she won't get anything to happen. It's just as well that she feels Damon's hand on her wrist then, because now she has an excuse to open her eyes.

'Drink?' he offers, presenting the glass in her face as his other hand lets go of her.

Grabbing the glass, she knocks it back into her mouth and then responds with, 'You're just enjoying this, aren't you?'

'Pride is hard to swallow, I know,' he shrugs like what he said is nothing. 'I get that you want to hold on to it, but sometimes you just have to let it go.'

'You're making,' she starts and then makes a zero sign with her thumb and index finger, to continue saying, 'sense.'

'I'm talking about you,' he flatly says. 'You're fine with me telling you about everything that you don't remember, but you have too much pride to let me help you regain full use of your magic. Am I wrong?'

As a matter of fact, he nailed it, that's what he did. That's why he always brags about knowing her, because he does know her.

But to be fair, he wouldn't like it either if he barely had control over his vampirism, and she offered to fix that with her magic. It would be like stripping away what little bit of power he had over himself. In short, her help would say to him, that he's incompetent. She sees his blood offer in the same light.

'Do I have to answer that or can I just drink?' she tries to avert his confirmation question.

It's not that she doesn't want to answer the question, it's more that she can't make them travel on that specific road just now.

'And she says I'm turning her into a drunk...' he muses as she reaches out for the bottle on the headstone.

She sticks her tongue out at him and he responds by taking hold of it in between his thumb and index finger.

'Heeey!' she protests sourly. He should let go of her tongue!

Damon seems to interpret her protest, because he lets go of his tongue, takes a step back and starts laughing.

Seriously, she thinks, trying to keep herself from being infected by his laughter, this Damon!


26Chapters


With the necklace she found in the storeroom, safely clutched in her left hand, Bonnie makes a quiet excited dash to the kitchen, to where she knows Damon is.

After these three weeks, she's become a pro at knowing where Damon's likely to be when he's not with her. In spending as much time as she has been spending with him, she's come to know so much about him that at times, she doesn't even need to hear him speak, she only needs to see his face and deduce from that, what he could possibly make to come out of his mouth.

If she's being completely real with herself, she knows that she's never (not from what she can remember anyway) had as much fun with anyone else. She can't say that she's fully had the chance to be a little wild and extravagant and herself at the same exact time. She'll admit that Damon's spontaneity has rubbed off on her, and well, she can't remember ever feeling like she's been feeling these last three weeks since she discovered that she's a witch.

She guesses that's why he's her best friend.

When she appears in the kitchen with a smile on her face, ready to make Damon guess what she found, the sight of Damon in an apron, holding a bowl in one hand and a manual whisk in the other, stops her in her tracks. Stunned, she halts and pulls a frowning face.

What in the world is Damon doing, mixing something in a bowl an hour after they just had dinner?

'What are you doing?' she asks from where she is.

She's a little sceptical to go any further, in the event that he somehow… She doesn't, she just doesn't want to move to him just yet.

Damon looks up at her with what looks like a secret smile on his face. It makes him look incredibly cute, but she's more concerned that he has it on his face in the first place. What is he doing?

'Making cupcakes,' he tells her and then returns to what he was busy with.

She's seen him in the kitchen before. She's seen him when he's making something in the kitchen before, which is the reason that his current behaviour makes her have a little sceptical to approach him.

When he makes pancakes, –as he insists on doing every-single-day- he's usually got the CD player on, and partly dances and hums along to the songs, while he takes swigs from his alcohol bottle in between breaks.

When they make either toast or pop-tarts together, he usually deliberately gets in her way, with a big sneaky smile on his face, just because he knows he'll be getting in her way on purpose.

And sometimes when he makes lunch, he's as serious as serious can be, as if one smile from him, will determine the entire failure of preparing the food.

All in all, she's never seen him with a secretive smile on his face while preparing food, like he's in on a secret that will surprise the life out of her. It's not unpleasant to see it on him, but it is a little suspicion arousing. Apart from cute, of course.

'Cupcakes at nine in the evening?' she questions, not really expecting an answer, not with that smile on his face anyway.

But, as intrigued as she is she to find out what's gotten into him that he's randomly making cupcakes, she won't ask him, much less ask him about the meaning behind his secret smile. Instead, she decides to walk to him.

Balling the necklace in the palm of her hand, she closes her hand into a fist while she quickly makes her way to stand next to Damon behind the counter. To mess with him, she sticks her finger into the bowl to get a little fill of the batter, and she then pulls it out to pop it into her mouth.

'A little more sugar,' she jokes, because she finds the batter perfect as it is.

For a response, he only looks at her sideways without giving her a verbal answer.

'Well, anyway,' she fully faces him, moving on, 'guess what I found.'

Although he doesn't stop his mixing, Damon does narrow his eyes as if he's trying to think. In the end, after three seconds, he apparently gives up trying to think about it, because he finally asks, 'What?'

'You're supposed to guess,' she sulks a little bit. Sometimes, he really does things on purpose with her.

'Just tell me,' he says.

It's like he's interested, but just not interested enough to stop mixing his precious cupcakes and look at her. Damon sometimes...

'Look what I found,' she happily announces, bringing her left fist in between them.

For the first time since she came in the kitchen, Damon actually stops his mixing to look at what she's presenting.

'Your fist?' he wonders dryly.

Why didn't she see that one coming? Would it kill him to have a little enthusiasm? Can't he tell that she's excited about what she found?

Nonetheless, despite Damon's lack of enthusiasm, she opens her hand to reveal a simple necklace.

'Ta-da!' she exclaims, thrusting her open palm up for him to get a better look. 'I found this necklace.'

She bets that to the average person, it wouldn't make sense why she's hyped up about a single gemmed-necklace, but to her, it's the perfect thing in the world. She loves it so much, that she can't hold it in. Simple, is her kind of style, simplicity is the kind of thing that she loves with all her heart.

Because she's attentively watching his face for a reaction, she sees the immediate change of expression on his face.

He must recognise it, she thinks, that can be the only explanation. Seeing as this is his home, he must know who it belonged to.

Without a word to her, he reaches for it and takes it between his fingers to uncoil and hang it down his fingers, while he seemingly examines it with a slanted head.

'Is it yours?' she asks with a little disappointment, just then realising what his recognising it means for her.

She had been hoping that it was just an abandoned trinket that no one cared about, and she could claim it for herself, but if he recognises it, then it means that she can't have it anymore. She really wanted to keep it as her own.

'My mother's,' he replies thoughtfully.

Oh, she internally thinks.

She doesn't verbalise it, because his thoughtful tone makes her realise that this is one of those times that they've been having recently. They haven't really had them often, but she knows the beginnings of a vulnerable moment, and this is definitely one of those baring-your-heart moments. She needs to remain quiet until he needs her to talk.

'I wanted to give this to El- my girlfriend,' he starts. 'It's the only thing that mother left behind when she died, and I was going to give it to the woman that I loved. It's what I've always wanted.'

His silence following his confession, is an indication that he needs for her to ask or say something to him before he gets carried with his narration and goes too deep.

'Why can't you give it to her now?' she asks, regretting it almost immediately.

For one thing, he probably lost it in the store room and could never find it, and for another, the most important of both of them, is that they're stuck in this world and he doesn't have access to the woman that he supposedly loves.

To her luck, however, Damon doesn't seem to consider her insensitivity, because he gives her a fluid answer anyway.

'Because my brother already gave it to her.'

That can't be right, she thinks, what does one thing to do the other? Why is he making it sound like he and Stefan shared the same girl, and because Stefan gave it to her first, he can't give her the same gift?

Unless he literally can't carry this necklace to their timeline when she gets her magic under control, she doesn't see why he can't take this necklace to his girlfriend. Never mind that she wants it, because it's technically Damon's to give to whoever he wants; she'll just have to do without it. So what if two girls in Mystic Falls have the same necklace? It won't be like they got it from the same guy.

'It just sounded like you and your brother fell for the same girl,' she tries to make him see how wrong he sounded. 'That can't be right, because that isn't like you at all.'

He gives a look that she can't interpret as she says, 'Then maybe you don't know me.'

'I know you,' she counters, pulling a face.

'Trust me,' he sternly insists, 'you don't know me.'

The way he says it, is like he's convinced to the last letter that she really doesn't know him. That may have been true in the first ten days since her memory loss, but it's been a month since then and she's gotten to know him pretty well. He can't tell her otherwise.

'I know three very obvious things about you,' she says, attempting to lighten the topic.

'Please,' he mockingly begs, 'name these obvious things.'

'Um...' she begins, 'I know you have black hair. I know you have blue eyes. And I know you're a vampire.'

If that doesn't lighten him up, then she doesn't know what will.

'Wow,' he flatly replies, returning his eyes to the necklace between his fingers, 'you really do know me.'

What is wrong with him, she wonders. Is it the necklace, or does he really believe that she doesn't know him like she's supposed to? Why is he downhearted all of a sudden, like he's disappointed? Does he for some reason believe that he's not a good person? Because that's just not true.

Maybe it's time that she stopped joking and gave him the truth.

'I know you're patient. I know you love with all your heart. And I know that as much as you love being a vampire, you'd sacrifice it if...'

From there, she can't think of anything to continue with, so she just trails off, hoping that he believes her.

'You're delusional,' is his flat answer.

Wow, then he does believe that he's not a good guy. What makes him think that he's not a good guy, she wonders.

'No, Damon,' she counters, slightly miffed with him for not believing her. 'I know you.'

No matter how much he wants to convince her otherwise, she does know him, and she knows that he's the best friend that she wouldn't trade for anything in the world.

'I know you're patient,' she continues before he has the chance to contradict her, 'because you were the one who told me that my magic can get us out of here, but you haven't been pushing me to get my powers right.'

Sure, he's been telling her to take his blood, but he hasn't been forcing it on her at every turn, of every minute, of every day.

'Maybe I just like to see you drinking,' he answers. 'Maybe I find it entertaining. That's not patience.'

He would say that to ignore that she's right, she quickly reasons, it's not surprising. He's apparently got in his head that she doesn't know the real him, and that's a mistake, because she knows him very well.

'And I know you love with all of your heart,' she carries on, 'because any other guy would've made a move on me by now, regardless of whether they find me attractive or not.'

'Did you ever consider that I didn't make a move on you, because you're not my type?'

That's a load of trash.

'Please, Damon,' she dismisses, unimpressed by his weak response. 'Guys are guys, and sex for them doesn't necessarily have to be with the ideal person. Especially when they're out of options.'

'Then maybe sex isn't the centre of my world,' he tries.

'Ha!' she snorts. 'You're a guy, aren't you? And a vampire at that.'

She still remembers what he told her about vampires and the extremity of their feelings and passions, and of course, desires and cravings. She won't believe his 'not really interested in sex story.'

'Come on, Damon,' she bounces on her feet, 'just admit that I know you. I am your best friend for a reason, you know.'

He looks at her for a second and then, 'I said you're my best friend. And anyway, why do you want me to admit something that's not true?'

'Because I do know you. And I also like being right,' she adds as an afterthought.

'Okay,' he seems to accept, 'I'll admit it, if you can convince me. Why do you think I'd give up being the one thing I love being the most?'

'Actually…' she starts thoughtfully, only to realise that she doesn't know why she said it. 'I don't really know why I said that.'

She believes what she said, that he would trade his vampirism, but she doesn't know why she said it. It's just that something in her heart tells her that if he had the right reason, he wouldn't hesitate to give up his vampirism.

'Then you don't really know me,' he concludes, sounding very proud of himself.

Og, he has such little faith in her, she huffs and then takes the necklace back from him. Why can't he just give her credit?

'Fine, whatever,' she chooses to let go. 'But as your best friend, can I at least wear the necklace? I like it.'

She turns so that her back is facing him. It's not just that she likes the necklace, it's that she really loves it, and she wants to wear it. Since they've established that he can't give it to the person that he wants, he might as well hand it down to her. There's no point in something that precious going to waste. She only hopes that he agrees.

'Put it on me,' she instructs, taking in a breath to hold in right after that.

She throws her hand with the necklace over her shoulder, so that he can put the necklace on her. While she realises that he would rather be doing this with the woman that he loves and not her, she really, really, really wants to wear it.

Surprising her, he takes the necklace out of her hand and easily slides it around her neck and then fastens it at the back with ease. It surprises her, because at the very least, she thought she would hear him make a comment about how it's not be worn by just anyone.

'It's yours now,' he whispers in her ear.

Provoked by his words, a soft chill runs down her neck, that she automatically finds herself rotating on the spot and standing on the tip of her toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. She allows for her lips to linger on his cheek as a way of silently saying, 'Thank you,' to him and then pulls away. She finds him looking at her pensively.

'You surprise me sometimes, Bonnie Bennett,' he says like he's in awe of her.

'Right back at ya,' she happily replies.

She didn't think that he'd let her have the necklace, knowing that he wanted to give it to the woman that he loves.

He raises his eyebrows and then draws them together to show that he doesn't get what she means by him surprising her sometimes.

'Cupcakes!' she points at the bowl on the counter.

She still doesn't know what the deal with the cupcakes is, but she mostly means that he let her have the necklace without a word of protest.

'Ah! The mystery cupcakes,' is all he replies with before going back to pick up his bowl.

She watches him closely for a second, before asking, 'Do you need any help?'

'With this? No. Just stand there and bother me. I like it when you do that.'

For his response, she socks his side with her elbow, as a gooey feeling forms in her heart and travels all the way down to her stomach. Ah, this Damon...


Chapter 10, Ride The Wave.