Chapter 10

"You have a microwave?"

Damon asked trailing past the bar to the kitchen. Bella replied without turning around to face him

"Of course, why?"

He stared at her neck.

"I prefer my blood hot."

Bella swallowed hard barely holding in a flinch. It's different knowing something and actually seeing it. Blinking rapidly she wiped her wet hands and handed him a coffee mug.

Damon smirked at the stamp. It depicted a black stallion with the words 'Save a horse, ride a cowboy' printed under it. Bella blushed and smiled self consciously

"My mom has a collection of shot glasses and weird mugs"

She explained and watched with morbid fascination as Damon emptied the blood bag in the mug and stuck it to the microwave.

"I've heard about microwave dinners and dinners in a cup before but..."

She trailed shaking her head. Damon threw his head back and began laughing. Truly laughing the laughter that you feel will give you abs if you keep it up. The timer beeped and he took the warm blood. It tasted like cardboard. Dead and warmed blood was always disgusting.

"Where is your mother?"

He asked taking a seat on one of the bar stools watching her as she made a green salad that she stuck in the humming fridge and then walked to the living room and started a fire on which she put two steaks.

"Florida, with her new husband"

"And you live by yourself?"

He didn't know why he cared.

"Actually no. I moved in Washington state with my dad"

"Couldn't put any more distance between you two?"

Damon deadpanned refusing to think how the same question could be made about him and Stefan. Bella shook her head as if reading his mind.

"I love my mom but she can't be tied down. She needed time with her husband so I chose to spend time with my dad"

"You're lying"

Damon said perceptively. He saw a small frown before she could school her expression

"I can't lie. I get all flushed up and all the blood from my body resides on my face. I look like a traffic light!"

Damon let a chuckle allowing her to not answer him. Once dinner was made she set two plates in the small table in the kitchen and looked at him expectantly.

"I don't like human food"

"Not my problem. I don't like feeling like an animal in the zoo while I eat so... take a seat. I made yours rare"

Damon sat down across from her and took a bite from a steak that barely held the blood inside it. Just how he liked it

"He made a real number on you, didn't he?"

He muttered thinking she wouldn't hear him. But she did

"Just like she made a real number on you"

She replied. Damon's head snapped up so fast that the bite in his throat got a bruise.

"My parents divorced when I was two and my dad still hasn't gotten over her. He looks as empty as you do"

'as empty as I look' she left unsaid holding the melted icy pools he called eyes for a moment and turned to her much better cooked meal. They both were eating quietly for a while.

"Have you ever fallen so deeply in love that you didn't care what the outcome would be?"

"Knowing I was alienating everyone in my need to be with him?"

"Hearing whispers from everyone that had an opinion about it but never caring"

"Wearing blinders and being deeply selfish?"

"Losing everything"

"Realizing too late what you sacrificed"

"Being unable to fix it because your own brother chose to believe his own version"

"Feeling guilty over it ever since"

"And then, a century and a half later you do the same thing all over again"

the pain in Damon's voice was palpable, raw, honest. Bella said nothing letting him let it all out surprised that he'd trust her, a stranger, with his story.

Damon shifted his gaze to hers and held it, trapping her in the story with him. Using words to paint images as vivid as his memories.

He spoke to her about the first love of his life. Her name was Katherine Pierce and she was a vampire. She taught him how to be one even though he was human still and he fell for her hard. What he didn't know what that she had a far more innocent act with his brother at the same time. When their town leaders began a vampire hunt and caught her the two brothers tried to get her away.

"Our father shot us both. What no one knew was that Katherine had fed us her blood before she was taken. She was planning on changing us both and being with us. Both"

Damon and his brother made a pact to let the 24 hours of transitioning go by and die. Stefan was a daddy's boy and went back home to make peace with the man before they died.

"Our emotions get highlighted when we change or begin the transition and when Father"

Damon spat the word

"Told him we were better off dead, Stefan snapped. He killed him and fed. Then he shut off his humanity and brought me one of our servants to feed. I did."

That was the last time the two brothers were brothers first and vampires later. Even though they had worked on their brotherhood, every time the two would make progress something happened that pushed them apart.

"Stefan became a ripper"

He would kill left and write and make a spectacle of their killings mercilessly

"Then Stefan became a saint"

His brother found animal diet and preached on how much better it was.

"I killed a lot caring about today and only about myself"

Damon acted like a hormonal teenage boy as his brother became even nicer leading to their complete transforming to strangers.

"And then it was Elena. She's Katherine's doppelganger and Stefan found her first. I waited not patiently enough until it was time to find a way to release Katherine from the tomb the founders put them and when I met Elena and how happy Stefan was I wanted to hurt him and ruin it for them"

He began flirting with his brother's girl, pulling all stops to ruin their relationship. He even compelled one of Elena's best friends to fall for him and he used her as snack bar drinking from her.

"And I succeeded. I got under Elena's skin and it felt good... It was a good way to pass the time Until I could get Katherine"

Only Katherine wasn't in the tomb as she was supposed to be. She tricked them

"And I hit my lowest point. Stefan was happy with his Elena and I was a wreck. So I tried harder to steal her as he stole Katherine from me. He wasn't supposed to die with me and become a vampire. It was supposed to be Katherine and me"

And that was it. Damon put more and more of himself between the happy couple to the point he began falling for Elena and Elena began falling for him.

"It was a mess. A mess that got messier when trouble knocked our door and Elena became a vampire. But now she made a choice"

She chose Damon. And once they slept together they both realized who she truly picked

"We made a pact that whoever Elena didn't choose, would leave Mystic Falls"

Bella bit her lip

"Your brother and you never left toddlerhood, did you?"

At Damon's raised eyebrow she explained

"You were born almost 150 years ago and yet the two still fight over the same toy. Neither truly wants it but neither wants the other to have it"

She shrugged one shoulder hitting it on the head. But the emotion well in Damon had lidded again.

"What's your sob story? He got bored of being with a human?"