I made wine from a lilac tree; put my heart in its recipe

-Nina Simone

The first time Bonnie saw the posters she was driving back from the downtown food market with Damon; several days after Katherine had left to go back to New York. The concert banners were mounted high outside Benaroya hall, green and yellow with Kol and Elijah's faces flapping in the wet breeze.

The battle of the pianists.

Her heart immediately kicked up, sitting up she tucked her hair behind both ears and craned her neck to get a better look at the duo.

"Why don't you roll down the window?" Damon said from the driver's seat, his eyes focused on the florists van in front of them "You'll get a better look"

"I'm good. Thanks"

"That piano music is like from the era of syphilis"

"You're such an idiot; you're from the era of syphilis" she groaned swatting at him with her left hand "you wrote the book on syphilis"

"Oh yeah, you invented syphilis" a smile tucked at the corners of his lips as he glanced at her sideways, hands fixed onto the steering wheel.

"You're an idiot" she rolled her eyes, fighting the giggle that was bubbling up inside her as she pictured Kol's colleagues discussing Romanov with their serious composure. She held her breathe and raised her chin to restrain herself as blood rushed up to her cheeks. Pressing her lips firmly together, Bonnie glared back at him through big watery eyes.

"You're the idiot" he grinned before they broke out in laughter passing the three blocks that encompassed Benaroya hall. She hadn't even noticed how far they had driven until they were curving up the road to Alaric's buttery yellow Tuscan villa, its gravel driveway fringed with imported cypress trees. Damon's truck groaned to a puttering halt along the crumbling courtyard as the housekeepers rushed out to haul the crates of fruits into the house.

Jenna, Alaric's wife had invited the band over for an Indian dinner and Bonnie had volunteered her services which meant that she could drink and chat in the kitchen while Jenna did everything else. She liked being out of her apartment, it helped her keep her mind off Kol and she found the eccentric group entertaining. Their wild antics were beginning to grow on her.

"You're going on tour with the band?" Jenna asked, hoisting her little blonde girl onto her hip with one hand while she sprinkled a heap of garam masala over a steaming rice pot before setting it aside.

"Oh yeah, looking forward to it!" Bonnie exclaimed, slapping the wooden table with her both hands.

"It's not as glamorous as you might think" Jenna shook her head in wry bemusement.

"Yeah, I still think it will suck way less than my life right now" Bonnie replied, her head suddenly feeling light, she gripped onto the cool timber of the thick table as everything zoomed in and out in dazed spirals.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I've just been feeling dizzy lately"

"Here," Jenna gave her a glass of cold water "I have a great ginger tea, it helps with vertigo"

"No, please. Water will be fine" she protested as Jenna began to toss red pickled ginger and coarsely dried chilies into a brass pan. The smell of chilies drifted into Bonnie's nose and mouth, making her eyes sting. "Ooh, I don't know if Damon's going to eat that, it looks hella hot!"

"You should give him a chance" Jenna said looking up at her with a bemused smile.

"Who?"

"Damon, I see the way you look at each other." she threw cauliflower florets into a mixture of fried lentils and chopped almonds" There's something there"

"Alabama?" she exclaimed shaking her head "we're just friends"

"And that's often the best way to start" Jenna said winking as she took a mosaic glass bowl out of the cupboard.

"Is that how you started with Alaric?"

"Hardly, we met in nineteen eighty three. It was the era of punk rock and I was young and insatiable. He was a young idealist who thought his music could transform pop culture"

"That's beautiful"

"We've been together for fifteen years" she said pausing briefly as if the magnitude of their relationship had suddenly hit her. She looked down at her hand clasped around the large wooden spoon, her eyes seemingly fixed on her antique wedding ring. Looking up, Bonnie saw Damon standing in the doorway looking like a rain-drenched Jack of hearts. His cerulean blue eyes seemed to sparkle against the engraved turquoise tiles on the kitchen walls.

"Here, hold her for me "Jenna told Damon as she handed him the baby "I promise she won't bite" she assured him, patting him on the back and winking at a perplexed Bonnie before exiting the kitchen.

"Help!" he whined struggling to hold the flailing child.

"No way, you're on your own" Bonnie laughed mixing green beans into the salad "how can you be awkward around babies, I thought you said you practically raised your brother"

He looked up at her with a furrowed brow and she knew that she was crossing the line. His brother and his Alabama were things he did not feel comfortable discussing with her.

"Stephan wasn't quite so stinky" he finally said crinkling his nose and holding the baby out, amused by the wiggle of her little arms and legs.

"So, he's name is Stephan?" Bonnie asked, hesitating with her chopping and crushing of pungent coriander.

Damon smiled down at the baby, still holding her at arm's length.

"You got any sisters or brothers?" he asked not looking up at Bonnie.

"No, I was raised by my grams" she replied, her voice sounding throatier than she had intended. She cleared her throat and poured a hefty amount of burgundy red wine into a bejewelled glass goblet.

"She was a music teacher," she croaked before taking a guzzle from the shimmering wine "she died from cancer a few years ago, I sold my cello after that" she stalled, shaking her head and wondering why she was sharing so much of herself with Damon.

"I'm sorry"

"There's just so uhm- many things I wish I'd... said to her before, you know…"

"Yeah, it was the same with my mom" his voice caught as he cradled the baby closer, cupping her head with his shaky hand.

They stood for a moment, looking at each other before Jenna breezed back into the kitchen, with her oldest daughter in tow.

###

They all dined outside, seated in cushioned wrought iron chairs around a long rustic wooden table overlooking a salt water pool. Safe under a canopy, they watched a steady rain fall on cypress trees and drum on the veranda. Bonnie's eyes drifted along the table and its boisterous guests, lingering on Damon time and time again.

#

Flashback

#

The beast in me is caged by frail and fragile bars

-Johnny Cash

#

15 July 1986

Alabama

Damon sat perched comfortably in the tree watching the front of the old farm as the sun-drenched parishioners from his mother's church trickled into the farmstead carrying baskets of corn and bruised apples, cast-offs from their own lush gardens. He'd always known his family was poor, he could tell by those grieving stares the folks gave him and his brother whenever they accompanied his mother into town. He'd hated those gawps so much that he once let loose an army of fire ants in the back row at church one Sunday.

He hadn't been to church since.

Damon was preparing his slingshot, teasing the rubber with a grooved nugget when he saw his little brother skipping toward him and the big tree.

"What ya doin Stephan?"he peered down at him.

"I'm fixing to climb up"

"Quit it, go back in the house, d'ye hear!"

"No"

"Quit it this instant!"

Stephan was never one to listen; quickly he gripped the rough bark of the tree with his soft hands then swung his tiny body around the trunk grasping the soles of his feet against the furrowed husk. Right foot, left foot, huffing until he was at least a quarter of the way on the big damn tree.

"Awww heck!" Damon cried scaling down a few branches to help his little brother.

"Easy now," Damon called as the sandy haired boy scampered up the tree, red-faced and wheezing. He waited; watching as Stephan struggled with each ascent and Damon's heart thudded faster when Stephan began to lose his grip on the weak bark.

"Damon!" Stephan cried as he hurled to the ground with such astonishing force that the ground cracked in a flurry of brown dust and smoke.

###

"You're useless Damon, useless!" his father spat as Damon struggled with him. Giuseppe used his hand to push away his face, smudging the blood across his son's crumpling face. Damon tore his eyes away from his father as Giuseppe backhanded him, hard and square across his face. Damon kicked, grappling toward the door before his father yanked him back effortlessly. Stephan was hunkered down in the dim alcove under the stove, quaking irrevocably.

The punches were all consuming, never ending and Damon crouched down, and knees pressed against his tight chest as his father hit him. He didn't mind taking it, he'd take it for his mother and he'd take it for Stephan.

He'd always known he was different from the rest of his family, where Giuseppe and Stephan were fair with chestnut eyes, he was dark with eyes the colour of a raging Mediterranean sea. Some nights after a long beating from his father, he'd toss and turn in his bed trying to figure out the root of his father's hate and rage toward him. He never could but he'd hear the hushed rumours from those colourfully cheerful ladies by the sweetshop after school, Damon Salvatore was not Giuseppe's son.

He never believed them.

Later that evening as he lay in his lumpy bed, sapped and swollen, he listened to Stephan's uneven breathing in the bed next to his. Damon vowed there and there to slay the monster as soon as he could construct the perfect slingshot.

#

Maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me and after all, you're my wonderwall...

-Oasis

Bass beats thumped behind her wall making the entire room vibrate. The loud voices and laughter were driving her crazy and she couldn't work, let alone think. The band had booked an entire floor of the elaborate hotel after a massive sold out night. The tour was going better than Bonnie had expected and with merrier crowds came merrier groupies. She was about to dive into bed and cover her ears with at least four pillows when the heard the loud bang on her door.

Flinging the door open, Damon slammed against it in a stagger before he drew back to rake a hand through his tousled hair. Bonnie's heart raced as she tried to steady herself.

"Damon, "she croaked, her cheeks turning scarlet "What do you want?"

"Here, "he grinned, leaning into the wide door "put this on" he added handing her a red silk scarf. Bonnie looked up at him trying to figure out why the hell he was standing outside her door at three in the morning when the rest of his crew was busy gyrating with random girls in the various party rooms.

"It's a blindfold, dummy" he smirked yanking the cloth from her hands and turning her around so that his chest was pressed against her back.

"What are you doing?"

"Shhh…" his whisper was a heated dance against her cheek, simmering down to her quivering neck" it's a surprise, you'll have to trust me" he said as he tied a lose knot behind her head. For the briefest of moments, Bonnie sank against him, feeling the warmth of his chest and the pound of his hammering heartbeat against her back. The instant passed and was confounded by a bigger one when he took her hand in his and led her out of the door into the long passage. She could map out the dim lights of the hallway behind her blindfold as she followed him to the exit doors and up the fire escape.

Finally he removed her blindfold, carefully peeling it from her eyes. Bonnie blinked a few times as her eyes focused on the new sphere around them. They were ankle deep in a sea of snow-white rose petals, a few scattering and flying off in the wind. Bonnie watched, entranced as soft petals swirled around them, falling on her face and into her tousled hair. Her eyes coasted to the blanket in the middle of the roof, candles swaying in the evening wind.

"Damon," she began as her voice quivered "this is uhm…this…"

"Don't worry, "he smiled crossing his fingers, "it's purely platonic"

"I wanted to bring you a bit of New York, that's all" he said ushering her to the plaid picnic blanket fretting in the wind.

"New York?" her brow vaulted as she scanned the silver beer bucket, pizza boxes and napkins set on the blanket.

"The best pizza in New York, Joe and Pat's in –"

"Staten island" they spoke at the same time.

"Jinx, you owe me a soda" she laughed and Damon opened his mouth to speak but snapped it shut again. Bonnie gazed at him with wide eyes, she was grinning so hard her face began to hurt.

They took their dripping pizza slices and cold beer to the edge of the roof where Chicago lay before them, a crackling neon fire.

"And the roses?" her eyes cruised to the whirl of petals blowing around them, soaring into the night sky like exotic moths "Seasons tickets to the Knicks would have done it for me"

"Think of it as a…white Christmas in New York" he chuckled, long legs swinging over the roof edge tickling the railing.

"A Christmas with beer and pizza?"

"But of course"

"There's just one thing missing, "he said fishing a scrap of withered mistletoe from his back pocket.

"You are persistent"

"Come on, Santa's had me on his nice list all year"

"You promise not to kiss me back?"

"Scouts honour" he grinned squeezing his eyes shut. Bonnie inched closer to him, gently cupping his bristled chin in her hand, titling his face up toward her. She swallowed hard feeling the rapid beat of her heart as she closed her eyes. It felt like a whole swarm of butterflies was fluttering around them as the white petals spun in the icy cold air tickling their cheeks and falling into their hair. After an eternity, her lips brushed his, a fleeting whirr like the flutter of broken wings. Bonnie bit her lip, tasting the ephemeral spell before she drew back and pressed her forehead against his.

Her breath hitched as Chicago drowned in the sounds of their pounding hearts and elevated breathing. The city buzzed, the air hissed and Damon's eyes fluttered open only to trace her reddened lips.

"You're trembling" he murmured, cupping both hands around her nape before he kissed her again. His kiss had no beginning, no end; it was an infinite flutter of the thousand butterflies spinning inside her heaving chest. The fire in her belly spread, rising higher and higher until everything around them caught in their spirited flame.

#

Damon's POV

She played the yin pretty convincingly. She was the push to his pull, always unaware of the agitation it caused him when she vaulted an eyebrow every time he tried to get closer to her. It felt like the kiss had been a fluke, some psychedelic dream he'd had one evening sitting on a rooftop in windy Chicago.

"Things are not going to be awkward between us, right Alabama?" she pressed, her form dancing like a mirage in that brilliant Nevada sunlight.

"Don't see why it should be" Damon lurched to his feet, staggering to the balcony to get closer to her again.

"I mean it was just a kiss, it meant nothing"

"Yeah, nothing at all"

The New Yorker in him wanted to throw in the towel, seek alternative entertainment in Vegas but the Southerner in him bucked with tenacious zeal. Oh dear God, how he wanted her, how he craved her. There had been so much truth in her kiss, unapologetic fragility that had now dispersed with the hissing Nevada heat.

"I don't need you but I want you" he said, her gaze following his hand as it slid down her arm to her frail wrist. He traced a circle along her palm, gliding back up to her wildly beating pulse. "And I'm praying that want grows to need very soon"

"I like you and I know you like me liking you" he continued, not waiting for a response. He drew her closer with a tiny tug of her wrist and whispered against her ear. "It makes your eyes spark, this knowing that I want you"

She opened her mouth to protest, he guessed but he quickly hushed her.

"No yesterdays, no tomorrows, just here and now" he said tracing her parted lips. Nothing else mattered but kissing her in that instance, he was so close as she stared into his eyes but Damon held back. She had to want him or at least need him.

"Lose yourself in the now, lose yourself in us" he said holding her face warm and steady in his hands "Bonnie…Evergreen" his eyes danced on her, a lazy beat to counter his heartbeat.

"No, Damon" She shook her head, prying his warm hands from her face. He held his breath for the longest of moments before he let it out. He felt her move, saw her run from the corner of his eye but he dared not look up lest it was real and she was running out on him. Damon blinked out at the blazing sun that singed his eyes. He wanted to make that call for some Las Vegas entertainment as soon as she left but he knew he wouldn't, he couldn't.

The Alabama moon would soon fall out of the big damn sky before he'd give up on her. He ached for her, even now with her sandalwood perfume lingering in his hotel room.

#

The rioting butterflies in Bonnie's chest had grown into big black magpies, wings beating heavily and tearing her up inside lest she burst down his door and crash into him.

Suddenly everything felt so all consuming, her standing outside that damn door, face pressed to the cold trunk of its maple wood. Her fingers traced its polished timber before clenching into weak quivering fists that rested on the wood. She wanted to knock; crash and break down his door. She wanted to feel what she had felt back in Chicago. Pressing her quaking body to the door, her hankering ignited and her fist hammered against the lumber, a deafening aching plea until the door flew open. The rush of flapping wings grew louder inside her as she crashed into him, respiration forgotten as she sank into Damon's unbridled kiss.