AN: Here we go with another chapter! I want to thank all of you for reading, favoriting, following and reviewing this story; it means so much to me seeing my efforts repaid so beautifully by all of you.

Buckle up and enjoy the ride because this is where things get interesting!

Chapter 9 – Alea Iacta Est

There was something awkward in the way they sat down around a table in the small restaurant where Damon had asked them to meet. The situation was only made worse by the fact that Caroline was the only one who had no idea where that awkwardness came from.

Elena – from her place beside Stefan – kept looking at Damon with expectant eyes. When Damon stared back at her pretending not to understand what she was trying to say, she narrowed her eyes at him and subtly nodded toward Stefan.

Damon knew what she wanted from him, which, coincidentally, was the same thing behind his request to meet up for lunch. However, while deciding to get to know Stefan had been a relatively easy decision for Damon, actually asking him questions was a lot harder than imagined.

The problem was that Damon had no idea how to even start a conversation with his brother.

He knew nothing about Stefan's life, and just asking him to give him a brief summary of the main events in the last 18 years they had spent apart was simply nuts. Not to mention that Caroline would probably figure out what was going on if Damon started to show an unhealthy interest in Stefan's life.

Damon couldn't even inquire about the guy's family – a usually safe topic in normal conversations – because he really didn't want to know anything about Stefan's other family.

He was momentarily saved from having to find something to say when a waiter stopped at their table.

Damon listened as Caroline ordered for everyone. His mind was still focused on the problem at hand and it was safe to say, he was not getting any closer to a solution.

Something brushed against his shin. He looked at Elena – she was the one sitting in front of him – and furrowed his brows at her. That was hardly the place or time to be playing footsies, although he really wouldn't mind it if those were her intentions.

The way she cocked her head to the side and stared at him made Damon realize that she was just reminding him what he needed to do.

He looked to his left; both Caroline and Stefan were looking at him. The attention was starting to make him uncomfortable and he decided to blame that for the way he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

"So Elena told me how the two of you will be going to Columbia in a few months. Will you be studying the same thing?"

Damon thought his to be a pretty lame way to start a conversation, but Stefan seemed to think otherwise.

"No, I'll be studying to become an architect while Elena will focus on become a writer slash journalist." He glanced at Elena.

"I've yet to decide what I really want to do after college."

Damon already knew that, but he appreciated all the same the way Elena, in her own way, helped to keep the conversation going.

From there, in great parts thanks to Caroline, the conversation started to flow. Every time Stefan shared stories about himself and Elena – Damon learned that the two had been friends since forever – Damon tried to share something about himself.

He steered clear of his childhood, and he never mentioned either one of his parents, but he did share moments of the life he'd shared with Kieran and his friends. They were small things, but Damon felt proud of the small step forward he had just taken.

A quick glance at Elena told him that she approved too. Somehow, knowing he had won her approval meant a lot.

"So were you guys rehearsing or something when you called us?" Stefan asked biting into his burger.

Caroline jumped up and down in her seat. "We were and we weren't! We were recording our first official song for our first official album!"

Elena dropped the fries she had just picked up on her plate. She looked at Caroline with her mouth gaping and then her eyes slid to Damon, as if to receive confirmation from him. Damon tried to play it cool but he knew there was no way he could contain the joy he was feeling.

Both Elena and Stefan laughed out of happiness for the two members of the band. Even though Stefan couldn't call himself a true fan, he was happy that things were going great for his brother and Caroline.

Stefan looked in his brother's eyes and subtly nodded at him, a smile always present on his lips. He wanted to say something meaningful, something that would show Damon that he cared about his brother's life, even if they didn't know each other yet.

He decided to keep silent though, that subtle nod the only gesture he allowed himself.

Damon responded in kind. He was thankful that Stefan had decided to keep things light between them, even after the way their conversation had gone the night before.

Damon's gaze snapped back to Elena when the brunette squeezed his hand in hers.

"I'm so happy for you guys! I can't wait to listen to your album; I'm sure it's going to be great!" She congratulated him with a genuine smile. "I know you don't need me to say this, but you really deserve this opportunity."

Damon knew she meant every word. It surprised him the way this girl – a stranger he had only officially met the day before – cared so much about his band. He'd met a lot of girls who pretended to be interested in his band just to have sex with him, and if he was being honest, he'd played the rockstar card more than once when picking up girls – a sure win in his experience.

Elena was a whole different story.

When she said they deserved the opportunity to record their first album, Damon didn't get the impression she was saying it because the thought she had to make an impression on him. She said it because she believed it to be true.

He thought back to the night before, when their eyes had locked as he sang one of their new songs.

Elena had responded in such a magnificent way to his music that he'd felt a current of excitement grow more and more inside of him. With every word he had sung, he'd felt that excitement grow. When Elena had started to laugh while looking at him, that current had reached an unbearable height.

He'd had to break their heated stare to focus back on his music, on his one purpose in life.

Damon smiled tightly at Elena and retreated his hand, bringing their physical contact to an end. She threw him a confused look, unsure as to why he was putting distance between them when she had simply been congratulating him on his success.

When he didn't offer an explanation, Damon noticed the hurt look in her eyes before she could hide it.

He didn't relish in causing her pain – Elena had been nothing but kind and sympathetic in their previous interaction. Damon simply didn't know how to deal with the array of emotions she was evoking in him; that meant that he needed to put some distance between them before things got worse.

Damon had never been one to form friendships with people he barely knew. He needed time to see whether becoming friends – or even acquainted – with someone was even worth it. He needed to know that he could trust someone before he could feel comfortable in their presence.

Elena – with her warm smile and easy personality – was plunging him into uncharted territory. It was not something he particularly liked.

"Do you guys want to come back to the studio with us? We could give you an exclusive sneak-peek into our debut album!"

Caroline spoke excitedly, clearly overjoyed by the Stefan and Elena's apparent interest in their band. She had thought they were simply Father's Kieran distant acquaintances but if they were fans she definitely wanted to get to know them better.

"I would really like that, thank you. What do you say, Stefan?" Elena looked at her friend.

"Sure, sounds like the perfect way to spend out afternoon. If Damon's okay with it, of course."

Damon really wanted to say that he wasn't okay with it. He'd just decided he needed to stay away from Elena, and now they wanted him to spend the entire afternoon in her presence. However, Stefan was looking at him with such unbridled hope in his eyes that he couldn't simply stomp all over it in good conscience. Stefan wasn't such a bad guy, after all.

He flashed his most convincing smile – one of his dashing ones.

"Sure. We should probably head back now. I'm sure Bonnie and Enzo are cursing the long break Caroline and I took."

Damon threw some crumpled bills on the table and stood up, quickly followed by the others.

They made their way back toward the studio. Caroline and Stefan spoke all the way back to the studio. Damon walked ahead of them, set on his plan to avoid Elena. From his solitary place at the front of their little group, he did hear her clear voice intervening in the conversation once or twice.

At some point, he felt the burning sensation of someone staring intently at the back of his head. It took a concentrated effort on his part not to turn around.

When they arrived back at the studio, they found Bonnie and Enzo slumped on the sofa in the little living room where they had met in the morning. There were paper bags and empty plastic cups on the table, evidence that they had ordered take-out.

"I see you brought guests back with you. I wonder what Marcel will say about that."

Bonnie stood up and got closer to greet Stefan and Elena.

"He can say whatever he wants, it's not like they will wreak havoc on our studio."

Enzo mirrored his friend and walked closer to the four newcomers.

As it turned out, Marcel did not look particularly happy about Stefan and Elena's presence in the studio. Initially, he told Alaric to make them leave, claiming they would represent a source of distraction for the band, and a distraction was the last thing they needed at the moment.

Marcel had made sure to stress how important their work was, how it was imperative for the band to impress Meredith with their first album if they wanted there to be a second. Alaric had been on the verge of doing what Marcel proposed – as much as he had nothing against Stefan and Elena, the band was his number one priority.

In the end, Damon had been the one to put an end to the argument. He had simply stated that both Elena and Stefan were going to stay exactly where they were. If Marcel didn't like that, he could call someone else to help the band with the recording. Surely, there were other people capable of helping?

Marcel's eyes had narrowed dangerously, even as he complied with Damon's request.

And that was how Elena and Stefan spent an entire afternoon sitting next to Marcel in the recording room, listening as The Nobodies played an array of their songs to decide which ones would go into the album.

Both Ric and Marcel had made her – and Stefan – swear that they would not speak of the album The Nobodies were recording, or the songs they were playing.

Neither of them had needed any encouragement to agree.

Elena was glad that Room to Breathe had been chosen to be the first song to be officially recorded; that song had a special place in her heart, seeing as it was the first song she had ever heard the band play.

Apart from all the great songs she loved – and the ones she knew she was going to learn by heart in a matter of hours – the greatest thing about that day was the possibility to enjoy the band playing mere meters from where she was sitting. Elena had lost count of the times she had snickered when one of the band members had cracked a joke during a pause between songs.

The more she observed them, the more Elena thought they behaved like a family and not like a simple rock band. Damon never missed a chance to tease Caroline, who was always ready with a scathing reply that either made Damon laugh in victory or grit his teeth when she struck a nerve. Bonnie and Enzo covered the role of the peacekeepers, though Elena had seen the smirks Enzo directed at Damon after a particularly funny jibe at Caroline.

Elena didn't fail to notice how the sudden tension that had taken a hold of Damon during their lunch, disappeared when he was with his friends.

"They seem really close, don't they?" Stefan ask, his eyes trained on the four people on the other side of the glass window.

Elena leaned back in her chair, glad for the phone call that meant Marcel had to leave the room for a while.

"They probably spend all their time together so of course they're close. Aren't you and I close?"

Stefan laughed through his nose. "I suppose you're right. Being a member of a rock band probably means playing together for hours on end every day, until you get the song right."

For a moment, they remained in silence. On the other side of the window, Bonnie was trying to keep Caroline from jumping on Damon.

"Do you think Damon and I will ever be like that?" Stefan nodded toward the window.

"You need to stop thinking like that." Elena sighed. "Damon needs some time to get used to the way things are changing. You had months to wrap your head around Damon's existence while he only had hours."

"I just wish things could move faster."

"I know. But he has made some progress, yes? Yesterday, he ran away; today, he asked us to eat lunch together."

Neither of them pointed out that Damon had decided to keep the fact that Stefan was his brother a secret.

Stefan rubbed his eyes with his fingers, blowing out a long breath. When he looked up at her, Elena noticed the way his eyes seemed a bit brighter.

"You know what? I'm done worrying about how things will be between me and Damon." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. "From now on, I'll just focus on trying to be his friend, and I'll think about us being family only when I'll have to."

Elena regarded him with a surprised look. For the first time in months, Stefan was starting to resemble the positive-thinking, carefree man she loved so dearly. She had thought that that part of him had been stomped down by the continuous dead-ends he had hit while looking for his brother; looks like she had been wrong, after all.

She nodded at him with a proud smile. "Now you sound more like yourself, Stef!" She leaned forward and slapped him on the shoulder.

Marcel chose that moment to come back inside the recording room.

Elena and Stefan offered him a tight-lipped smile. The awkward atmosphere created by the first tense moments of their meeting made it hard to be at ease in the room. Still the two friends had soldiered through just to have the opportunity to be close to The Nobodies.

Marcel pushed a button on the console and spoke to the four band members in the adjacent room. "Alright, guys! Back to recording."

"How long do we have to keep going?" Bonnie voiced the question everyone had been thinking about. "We've been playing for hours. Can't we wrap this up?"

"Let's just finish recording this song and then we can call it a day. Deal?"

The members of The Nobodies glanced at each other before looking at Marcel through the window and nodding as one.

An hour later, they had finally finished for the day. Marcel had transferred all the data he needed on his laptop and left in search of Alaric to discuss some things. Stefan had approached Damon to congratulate him on how he had sung. The two had been conversing quietly for a couple of minutes, when Caroline had whisked Stefan away. Damon had observed the scene with a small smile.

Elena saw the opportunity to talk with Damon and quickly moved closer to him.

"Hey." She said a little apprehensive. The way Damon had distanced himself from her since lunch had been hard to miss.

Damon looked up and smiled tightly at her.

"Hey!" He seemed unsure what to say. "So how did you like spending the afternoon watching four people you don't really know play their music? I'm sure you're regretting agreeing to stay."

Elena shook her head with a smile. "Actually, I loved watching you guys play."

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah, I'm kind of a fan of yours." Elena blushed at her own admission. Well, now that the cat was out of the bag, she might as well keep talking. "I heard one of your songs a few weeks ago over the radio and I liked it. A lot. I looked you up and I admit I knew half of your songs by heart in less than 2 hours."

She expected him to look at her with wide eyes and slowly back away, creeped out by the level she had reached in her clear obsession with his band.

Instead, Damon only said, "Which song was it?"

"Pardon me?" She couldn't have heard him right.

Damon moved closer to her and crossed his arms on his chest. "The song you heard over the radio, the one you liked. Which song was it?"

"Oh, it was Room to Breathe."

Damon nodded to himself, almost as if confirming a suspicion he'd had for a while. "I knew I was right when I pushed to play that song and not the one the others wanted."

Elena was glad that Damon seemed to have gone back to the man she had met the night before. She didn't know what had made him clam up during lunch, but she wanted to avoid causing that reaction again. Maybe she shouldn't have taken his hand while congratulating him. She was a touchy-feely kind of person when it came to expressing her emotions, but not everyone was like that.

"So, I need to ask." Damon leaned closer and lowered his voice. "Am I meeting my actual number one fan?"

Elena sputtered, thrown off-guard by the way the low timbre of his voice made her feel uncomfortably warm. Why did she keep reacting like this to him?

"Why do you want to know?" She tried to gain some time to get herself back under control.

"Are you kidding me? Every artist wants to meet his one true fan! You always meet the fan that says he's your number one fan, but you never actually know whether this guy is the real deal or not." He leaned back onto the wall behind him. "I'm actually getting the chance to know my holy-grail of fans, I'm officially blessed."

Elena saw how his eyes travelled down her body and came back up, stopping at her lips.

The warmth she had felt before was now invading her whole body, making her feel like she was on fire. She didn't know what he was doing to her, but she sure as hell did not want him to stop doing it. She had never felt so weak and yet so powerful at the same time. It was an intoxicating feeling.

She didn't know how she found the voice to speak, but she did.

"Well if things are like that, you can consider me your number one fan. Far be it from me to deprive you of the pleasure of knowing who it is."

She was sure that not even in a million years she would be able to willingly reproduce the voice that had just come out of her mouth. She hadn't done it on purpose. She had expected her voice to come out sort of strangled since she was so nervous. What had come out, instead, was a low murmur that qualified with full marks for an HBO series.

She blushed harder than she thought possible when she noticed how Damon's eyes darkened.

"Elena, you coming?"

Stefan's voice broke whatever spell had been hanging over them, although his choice of words made Elena wish for the earth to just open up and swallow her whole. Where did he get off shouting stuff like that?

"I'll be right there!" She shouted back. She forced herself to meet Damon's eyes. "Sorry, I've got to go."

Damon pushed off from the wall he had been leaning against. "Me and the others are going to Transition tonight. We won't stay there long since we'll likely have to be back here pretty early tomorrow, but it'll be a good chance to blow off some steam. You and Stefan are invited, obviously."

Elena knew the smart move would be to politely refuse his offer. It was clear there was something going on between them, but Damon was Stefan's brother; it wasn't right of her to get close to him while Stefan struggled to get a few minutes with him.

Elena totally blamed the way Damon's eyes appeared just a little bluer than normal under the light of the studio for how she answered.

"Yeah, we'll be there. Text me the time and we'll catch up with you."

It was unfair how Damon's half-smile made her stomach somersault.

She turned around to join Stefan where he was waiting for her at the entrance, but she turned back around when she remembered something she needed to say.

"Damon?" He raised an eyebrow. "I just wanted to tell you that I saw how you made an effort to talk to Stefan today. I realize it can't have been easy for you and I wanted to thank you for that. I really appreciate it, and I know Stefan does too."

She sent him a small smile as a last thank you before turning around – for good this time – and walking up to Stefan. As she left with her friend, she couldn't help but feel like someone's eyes where following her. She resisted the urge to look back and lock eyes with Damon, turning instead toward her friend and telling him of their invitation to Transition.

Stefan's beaming smile was as much predictable as it was a genuine delight to see. She was glad she was getting her carefree friend back one small gesture at a time.

~.~

Damon made his way through the crowd at Transition, balancing drinks in both hands. When he reached the table he and the others had claimed at the beginning of their night-out, he slid in his seat with a graceful movement born out of pure luck.

"Alright, here we have a Cosmo for you Caroline; I swear if you make me order this kind of girly drink again I will stop speaking to you." He said pushing the bright-colored cocktail to his friend. "A bourbon neat for you, Enzo. A nice, cool beer for you, Bonnie." He pushed the two drinks towards his friends.

Finally, he turned to his right where Elena and Stefan were waiting somehow anxiously to see what he had ordered for them.

"A Piña Colada for you, Stefan. You said you like coconuts, right? You're gonna love this." He handed the drink to his brother reaching behind Elena's back. "And for you, Elena I picked a Malibù Cola. You said you wanted something simple so here you go."

Elena thanked him as her hands closed around the tall glass he was handing her. Their fingers brushed against each other as the drink passed from one to the other. Damon couldn't pretend he wasn't aware of the brief contact their skin made, nor could he ignore the thrill that shoot through him when he noticed Elena's eyes sliding to where their hands had brushed one against the other.

It was frustrating how he seemed hyperaware of this slip of a girl he barely knew. Just that morning he had promised himself to keep some distance between them, and then that afternoon he had flirted like crazy without even realizing it. Who was he? Some kind of hormonal teenage high-schooler?

Next to him, Elena took a first sip of her Malibù Cola and damn him if he didn't stare at those lips as they closed over the brim of the glass.

The fact was that everything in her seemed to attract his attention. He wasn't blind, the girl was hot. Her body was simply perfect on all accounts as far as he was concerned. She was the perfect height; not short to the point he felt like he was staring at a child, but short enough that he could comfortably rest his chin on top of her if she got close enough to him. Not that he thought about that kind of stuff.

Her brown doe eyes were like black-holes, swallowing him whole every time he stared at them. To hell with people who said brown eyes were dull, Elena's eyes were the best eyes he had ever seen. They made him think of hot cocoa in the middle of winter, of Enzo's morning coffee and when the light hit them right, they reminded him of the sunset light streaming through the majestic stained glass of Father Kieran's church.

And that hair. God, he couldn't lie and say the image of those straight brown locks wrapped around his fingers hadn't crossed him mind. He knew Elena's hair was exactly the right length to grab and slightly pull during sex.

At that image, Damon had to close his eyes and force himself to halt that train of thought. He shifted in his seat and subtly adjusted his suddenly too-tight jeans, hoping to God no one would look at him.

To his side, Elena smacked her lips and she savored the taste of her drink.

"So how do you like it?" Damon was surprised by how steady his voice was.

"I like it. I can definitely taste the Coke in it but there's also a sort of fresh after-taste that's just amazing!" She said, smiling at him.

"I'm glad you like it." He answered with a tight-lipped smile. She needed to stop looking at him like that.

Damon tried to keep himself busy by talking to Stefan. To his surprise, he found that his brother was actually a pretty interesting guy. Damon listened as he and Elena told some stories from their high-school years – different stories they hadn't shared during lunch – and he discovered that Stefan had a pretty funny sense of humor. He was more sarcastic than straight up funny, but Damon was a pretty sarcastic guy himself so he was fine with it.

An hour into their night out, Caroline decided it was time for the girls to have some alone time. She practically dragged Bonnie and Elena – who was already on her third Malibù Cola of the night – to the dance floor.

Damon studiously turned in his seat so that he wouldn't be tempted to look at the dance floor. He made it look like he wanted to focus on Enzo and his brother – the only two still sitting with him at the table – and it wasn't like he didn't want to spend time with them; things were just a little more complicated than that.

It was the perfect moment to relax and take a break from the increasingly R-rated thoughts that wouldn't leave him alone.

"So you guys come here often?" Stefan asked.

Damon welcomed the chance to distract himself. "It's sort of our unofficial hangout. When we had just created the band this is the first place we scored for a night session."

"And by night session, he means that they let us play a song late at night." Enzo added gaining himself a hard glare by Damon.

"So that's why a lot of people were singing with you during last night concert."

Damon nodded. "That's right. More or less, the people who usually come at Transition know who we are. We're sort of their friendly neighborhood rock band."

"You've come so far from that first night."

Enzo nodded. "And we still have a long way to cover."

"But that's what makes it worth it." Damon smiled at his brother. "When you love something the way we love playing our music, getting to the top is half the fun."

The three of them kept talking among themselves. Stefan relished in the opportunity to learn something knew about Damon, and he didn't miss the chance to let his brother talk. He'd learned that if he asked Damon a direct question about his life – particularly about his past – his brother would close in on himself. The trick was to let Damon do all the talking, occasionally encouraging him without sounding too obvious.

Damon was in the middle of telling him the story of how Enzo smashed his first guitar on a stage because he thought he'd look cool, when Caroline reappeared at their table and dragged Stefan to his feet. She was obviously a little tipsy but even so, her grip was surprisingly strong.

Damon laughed as he watched her disappear back on the dance floor with a fumbling Stefan.

"Well, I need to go to the bathroom. You okay all by yourself, mate?" Enzo asked him standing up.

Damon finished drinking his third glass of bourbon and nodded to his friend. "Sure, but make it quick. You know how much I miss you when you're not here." He looked at Enzo with dramatic eyes while trying not to laugh.

Enzo blew him a kiss and left him alone at the table.

Damon laughed as he relaxed against the back of his chair. This night out with the band was exactly what he had needed in the midst of all the changes happening around him. It felt like only yesterday he and the others had decided to form a band, and now they were actually recording an album. He felt a shock of excitement run through his body at the mere thought of their first official album.

He looked at the dance floor in search of Caroline and Bonnie; he wanted to make sure they were having fun and shacking off the stress of playing one song over and over again all afternoon.

His eyes did not find his two friends in the midst of the throng of people dancing their hearts out on the dance floor. What they found, instead, was Elena.

Damon felt the ease he had just found practically flee from his body, waving goodbye to him as it disappeared to never return. What replaced that ease was a dark, swirling pool of lust coiling in his abdomen.

Elena was a vision. She moved around in the knee-length, dark red dress she had chosen for the night and if before – when Damon had been sitting next to her – he had managed not to stare at the way that piece of cloth hugged her forms, now he could do nothing but drink her in. He felt his pants get uncomfortably tight when his eyes took in the high-heeled black shoes that made her legs look like they went on for miles.

Damon groaned as he imagined those heels dig into his back as he fucked Elena into the mattress.

A man approached Elena on the dance floor and Damon clenched his fist as he watched how that waste of space tried to grind against the brunette. Elena barely glanced at him, sidestepping him with grace.

Damon didn't see how the man reacted because before he could even realize it, he was already on his feet and walking toward Elena.

She didn't see him coming – she was turned away from him – and Damon took full advantage of this. He slipped behind her and settled his hands on her hips, pulling her back into him as he matched her rhythm without missing a beat.

He felt her tense in his arms – no doubt she thought the man she had ignored before had come back – and he observed as she turned her head to look over her shoulder. Her eyes widened when she realized who was dancing with her.

Damon expected her to step out of his embrace and ask him what he thought he was doing. Instead, she relaxed against him and leaned her head against his shoulder. Her back was plastered against his front and her hands were covering his own where they were clenching her hips.

Neither of them said anything. They world around them disappeared and only they remained, dancing on that dance-floor as if they were one.

When he thought back to that moment, Damon blamed what he said half to the alcohol they had both ingested that night, and half to the maelstrom of emotions cursing through him. He knew exactly what Elena would answer because he could see in her eyes how much she wanted him, could feel in the way she grinded back against the bulge in his pants how much she was craving him the way he craved her.

He knew what would happen and he still chose to speak. Because he was a bit drunk, and frustrated with everything that was happening around him and with this slip of a girl that evoked in him things he didn't even know how to name. Because maybe this would solve everything. He would give in to the lust they both felt and get her out of his system. Things would go back the way they were before; before Stefan and before her.

He told himself that was why he decided to utter those words.

"Do you want to get out of here?"

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