AN: so...I misjudged once again the length of this chapter and I had to split it in two. Good news is you get another chapter and an epilogue! Also, I know that this ends with an evil cliffhanger, but it was necessary to stop there, otherwise this chapter would have become incredibly long.
Now I just want to say that I freakingly loved the first episode of TVD and, while I don't necessarily like the way they're going with this compulsion thing, I have faith in Delena so I decided not to worry!
"Are you going to tell me what's your so called 'Plan B'?" Asked Damon patiently while pouring himself a drink from the decanter.
He and Elena were in the parlor of the Boarding House, waiting for Enzo and Rick to arrive. After leaving the abandoned house the previous evening, they had gone back home leaving the others to do whatever it was they wanted to do. Once they had stopped at the Boarding House, Elena had immediately made a call to arrange things for the following day.
Damon had decided against eavesdropping her conversation since it was clear she wanted things to remain quiet until she deemed the moment right. He had, however, tried asking her if she wanted to give him a little hint about her plan. After a few moments in which Elena had considered his question, she had only said 'It involves something that you'll love'.
Needless to say, Damon had spent the rest of the evening and great part of the night thinking about what she could have possibly meant. He couldn't reach a plausible conclusion since he continuously got distracted by one simple thought: his two best friends had spent the last few weeks fighting for his attention.
He wasn't sure how to feel about that. Was he supposed to feel annoyed that they wanted him to choose? He thought his behavior had clearly demonstrated that he considered both of them to be his best friends. Maybe he should feel elated? He had never had a lot of friends, not even when he was human. Sure, he had a lot of guys with whom he liked to pass his free time, but he had never met someone like Enzo or Rick.
At first, he had been doubtful. He simply couldn't believe that someone would want to be considered his first choice when it came to friends. But then he had started to feel, dare he say it, happy. It was great knowing that they both cared so much about him. Maybe Elena was right. Maybe now that things had finally gone back to normal, he could start a new life with the love of his life and his two friends. Which brought him back to that morning.
"I already told you." Smiled Elena. "You'll know what my plan is when it's time." She said, sitting down on the sofa.
Damon finished pouring himself, and her, a drink and moved to sit beside her. Elena reached out for her drink and smiled softly at him before taking a sip. She slightly grimaced when the alcohol went down her throat, burning all the way down. How he managed to guzzle down industrial quantities of that thing she didn't know.
Damon smugly smirked noticing her reaction. He liked that she had gained sort of an acquired taste for Bourbon, but it still made him laugh seeing her scrunch up her cute little nose. God, he was totally whipped. A couple of years ago, he would have felt ridiculous for even thinking the word 'cute', now it was just part of his everyday life.
He suddenly realized that this is what he had been searching all along. Domesticity, love, acceptance. He liked that he knew that when Elena woke up in the morning she didn't like to talk, she preferred to 'speak' through actions. A subtle caress here, a nudge there. He loved knowing that when she furrowed her brows while reading her textbook, it was because sometimes human anatomy simply disgusted her.
"Why are you so sure that whatever you have planned will make the three of us 'besties'?" Wanted to know Damon finishing his drink and putting it down on the coffee table.
Elena took another sip and cradled her tumbler between her hands, as if what she was holding wasn't Bourbon but a cup of hot chocolate. "First of all don't say 'besties', it sounds unnatural coming out of your mouth." She started with an exaggerated shiver at the word 'besties'. "Second of all, it's a gut feeling." She finished with shrug.
Damon looked at her trying to gauge her seriousness. "And you're willing to risk everything on a gut feeling?" He was amazed. "That sounds awfully like something I would do."
Elena smiled proudly. "Maybe you rubbed off on me."
Damon moved closer to her on the sofa and whispered against her lips, "Really, and what else did I rub off on you?"
Elena closed the distance between the two of them, fully kissing him on the lips. Oh, how she enjoyed kissing him. For so many months she had believed that this moment would have never come again. She would never take these little gestures for granted, ever again.
Just when things were getting heavy and Damon was starting to gently push her down on the sofa, a voice interrupted them. A voice with a distinct British accent.
"Don't stop on my account, you two." Chimed Enzo in the silence of the parlor.
Damon and Elena immediately separated turning to look at the just arrived vampire. They couldn't help but be surprised when they saw an embarrassed looking Alaric by his side. Damon immediately rose to go greet his friends, while Elena put down her tumbler on the coffee table and tried to comb her hair with her fingers.
"Is it too much to ask to knock before entering?" Inquired Damon, irked that his fun time with Elena had been interrupted so soon.
Alaric cleared his throat before answering. "We did knock, but apparently you were too distracted to hear it."
"Clearly." Added Enzo wiggling his eyebrow up and down with malice shining in his eyes.
Before they could start a back and forth of innuendos Elena decided to intervene.
"So are you ready to go ahead with Plan B?" She happily asked.
The three men turned toward her, clearly interested in what they were supposed to be doing.
"Are you ready to tell us what the bloody hell are we doing here?" Fired back Enzo still a bit upset by the fact that he had been blackmailed in this...whatever the hell it was.
Elena decided to ignore him without so much as batting an eye. She moved to exit the Boarding House leaving them with no choice but to follow her outside. Once in the open air, Elena moved toward her SUV tailed by the three vampires. Once stopping by it, she turned to them and, with her hand, gestured for them to climb inside it.
"We are going on a road trip?" Asked Damon not sure of where she was going with this.
"Something like that." She answered. "Don't worry we just have to drive for a while until we reach our destination. Once we get there everything will be clear." That said, she pushed a button on her car keys and with a click the doors of the SUV unlocked.
She climbed inside the driver side since she was the only one who knew where they had to drive. The three men looked at each other, one more confused than the others. None of them had any idea what was going to happen. Suddenly the silence was broken by Damon's voice.
"Shotgun!" He exclaimed before dashing for the door on the passenger side.
"Oh come on!" Yelled Alaric, while Enzo shook his head. He was going to stake his claim on the passenger side, but had been played by Damon.
When nothing but Damon's laugh could be heard, Alaric tried again. "Damon, you know I get carsick in the back seat." Enzo turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"It's not my problem." Smugly said Damon. "It's Enzo's." He added, throwing a smile at said vampire.
Grumbling under his breath Alaric stomped over to the car and climbed inside. Enzo begrudgingly followed him climbing in by the other side of the car. Once inside Alaric's build proved to be some sort of a problem, mostly because he had taken the seat behind Damon, who clearly had no intention of moving forward since he liked to stretch his legs when he wasn't driving.
When Alaric tried to move a little to the left, he inadvertently stepped on Enzo's foot.
"Hey, that was my foot!" Immediately barked Enzo shoving Alaric on the shoulder to push him back.
Alaric growled low in the back of his throat swatting his hand away. "Stop shoving me, dammit!"
"It's your fault for trespassing on my side of the car." Swiftly replied Enzo getting back to shoving him away.
Alaric gritted his teeth trying to reign in his anger. "Not everyone is pocket-size like you!"
"What did you just call me you bloody giant?" Screeched Enzo offended by Alaric's remark on his height. "Need I remind you that I'm just a couple of inches shorter than Damon? You're offending him too!"
Fed up with his continued attempt at shoving him away Alaric decided to retaliate. With one mighty shove, he sent Enzo banging against the door on his side of the car. However, having misjudged his strength, the force behind his shove almost made him fly off the car taking the door with him.
"Stop it immediately!" Shouted Elena from her seat behind the wheel.
At first she had simply ignored the two bantering men in the back. They didn't have to go that far so she thought she could simply pretend that two grown men weren't shoving each other around over such a stupid thing. She had to admit that hearing Alaric complain about his discomfort and seeing him seated with his knees almost up to his throat for lack of space, was quite hilarious.
What wasn't hilarious was the shove that had sent Enzo against the side of the car, making her swerve dangerously into the other lane in a storm of screeching tires and resounding horns. She knew that a car accident couldn't kill her, but she still didn't want to end up in a wreck against a tree just because Alaric couldn't control himself.
After her shout silence had descended on the car. Everyone was looking at her, even Enzo while massaging his shoulder with a grimace. Elena stopped the car on the side of the road and turned to look at the two men in the back.
She pointed a threatening finger at them. "You two better stop this nonsense right now or, so help me God, I will spank you like the children you evidently are!" She said in a commanding voice throwing an icy glare at Enzo, daring him to make an innuendo.
Rick and Enzo rapidly nodded in her direction, looking at her with wide eyes. Elena sighed and started the car again.
The rest of the road passed in silence, except for the songs softly coming out of the radio. After about twenty minutes Elena took a right that led them in the middle of the forest toward what looked like an abandoned barn. What as an abandoned barn doing in the middle of nowhere, no one dared to ask.
Elena parked the car and got off, silently followed by the other three. The barn, while abandoned, was well kept almost as if someone had just finished working on renovating it. A locket kept the doors of the barn from being opened by anyone. Just to the right of the structure, there were the remains of what must have been the main building. Whoever owned the barn had little interest in keeping that building in good conditions.
"Elena, what are we doing here exactly?" Asked Alaric closing the door of the car behind him. "You're not thinking of trapping us in there, right?"
Elena sighed. "While I'm tempted, especially after that little scene in the back of the car, that's not what I intend to do." She said inserting the key in the locket and opening it, but keeping closed the doors of the barn. Putting the key back in her pocket, she turned to look at them. "I figured that what you three need is a bonding experience."
"And being here is a bonding experience why?" Asked Enzo, still not understanding. Damon in the meantime decided to simply listen to what his girlfriend had to say. If there was one thing he knew, was to not rush her.
"I thought about something that could be of interest for all the three of you." She explained. "Since going on a murdering spree is not Alaric's way of doing things, nor is it mine, I went for the classic male bonding experience." She continued moving her gaze from Damon to Enzo to Alaric.
"Which is?" Wanted to know Alaric. The waiting was killing him.
Elena bit her lower lip and looked at Damon. "I wanted to keep this as a surprise for your birthday, when I had finished working on it." She shyly said. "I always knew that you would come back and I figured that, since I'm not that great at these sorts of things, I would need a lot of time to prepare everything."
At this Damon cocked his head to the side furrowing his brows. What was she talking about?
Elena went on with her speech. "However, it's clear that you guys need this so I will have to find something else or your birthday."
Once she finished what she had to say she turned and grabbed the handles to open the doors. When she stepped aside to let them see what was inside, the three of them gasped.
"My Baby." Whispered Damon gazing lovingly at the remains of his most prized possession.