He doesn't need to push his luck, he knows that, yet he opens the door of his bedroom once he's sure she can't notice it and watches her descend the stairs and stop abruptly when she catches Stefan standing on the side and looking at her.
"Bonnie-" his voice is half choked, and his expression sobers up fast as she turns her face like she can't stand the very sight of him and walks out of the house.
Maybe it's petty of him, but Damon is glad that for once his little brother takes the shorter end of the stick too.
"So, it seems like Saint Stefan gets the cold treatment too…" he's quite marveled about that, and if he was a more mature person he would not pry right now, but maturity is so boring. He'll leave that to his brother.
"What did you expect? We did bet her life on a coin toss," he reminds him, bitterly, "Not really our brighter moment," Stefan says with regret darkening his face.
"Yeah, well, she always had a soft spot for the brooding ones," Damon admits between his teeth. To be painfully true about this, Stefan had a way with her – like with the rest of the world, mind you – and he never did, and it bothers him.
"Yeah, but she always had a spine, too,"
"Don't I know it?" Damon asks letting himself fall on the red sofa, "You can't teach me anything in the Bonnie department. You could beat people unconscious with that spine of hers," he comments rolling his eyes, "But I have to say, she's quite flexible too. The cheerleading training should be constitutional. If the occasion requires it, she bends so well that-"
"Yeah, I get the picture," Stefan cuts him to stop his game; his brother looks at him with a grin like he has the upper hand and he shakes his head with a resigned sigh.
"Glad you do," he says with a wink, "It is one hell of a picture."
"Oh, I see," Stefan says aloud, nodding at his brother's childish, territorial attitude, and flaunting a mocking grin spread on his lips.
Damon does his best to ignore it but his brother is very good at keeping up an expression for a long time; maybe because his repertoire is quite limited so he must make the best of the few he's got.
"What?" Damon finally asks, annoyed.
"Nothing," Stefan replies with a shrug, "I was just thinking…you do realize that I never dated Bonnie, right?" The implication is clear, and Damon's jaw tightens as he adds, "But I could fix that if it can make things easier for you."
"I will play domino with your bones if you don't stop this pitiful attempt at showing some sort of sense of humor," he warns him.
He rationally knows his brother is just messing with him; he's sure Stefan would never be able to love anyone else but Elena, but there was a time Damon shared this same mentality regarding Elena, and look at him now. So the joke fails at being funny and a nerve under his jaw begins to pull in a very unpleasant way. He'll be damned if he admits it, but this thing is hard enough right now as it is, without the competition, and he'd like for it to stay that way, thank you very much.
Damon's cellphone rings in his pocket and when he looks at the flashing screen it takes him a moment to connect the dots.
"Who is it?" Stefan asks as he puts the phone next to his ear.
His voice is not completely firm as he speaks but the man on the other side doesn't catch the difference.
"Hey, Rick," he says and his conversational skills lack from there on; by the end of the call he's not sure if he accepted to meet him later that night for a drink or a shrink –whom could be kind of useful at this point - or whatever. The mere concept of talking to his deceased friend left him unable to concentrate enough to process the actual words and when he turns to tell Stefan- whom got out of his sight at some point - he finds himself staring at Lucy and Abby Bennett in all their witchy glory.
"Ladies," he greets them with a fake smile, standing up from the sofa "what displeasure to see you again…let me guess, you're here to bring some good news."
Lucy looks at him with a dangerously serene expression, like she's mentally counting the ways she could kill him and is having fun at that.
"Let's not waste time," Abby says, "We shouldn't be here."
"I knew there was something we could agree on," he quips.
"You bloodsucker-"
"Let's focus," Lucy cuts in, "Shall we?" she asks, but doesn't really wait for an answer as she turns to Stefan to talk to the more sensible Salvatore, "I'm sure you noticed that things didn't go quite as predicted."
"You could say that."
"Yes and why is that?" Damon asks.
Lucy sighs, "During the invocation I heard voices and bits of conversations, so my guess is that the witches are trying to stop Bonnie from doing something they didn't agree with," she explains looking back at Damon.
"You have any idea what it is exactly?"
There are many options to choose from: a pact with the hybrid's daddy, a murder, a hot exchange of body fluids with a vampire. Pick one; he's tempted to tell her.
"No idea," he answers instead.
She's clearly unsure whether to believe him or not but she has no time to waste.
"Okay, listen, we can't stay too long because the balance is delicate. It turns out, bending time was a better option than to deny nature resurrecting her but this doesn't mean we can do as we please. We need to change as few things as possible and we can't stay. It's on you now. Whatever it is, they want her to stay clean of it. She shamed our legacy."
"So we stop her from having too much fun with dark magic, Bonnie won't die and the witches will be happy," Damon piques.
"I don't know about that," Lucy says.
"You don't know about part exactly?" he asks arching one eyebrow.
"There's only so much we can do. There's no guarantee that the outcome of it all will be any different."
"Come again?" There's a bitter, angry laugh underneath his words and Damon must strive to hold himself back. The universe must think his heart is some kind of joke, obviously, but he's not laughing.
The witch doesn't seem eager to indulge in this conversation but she speaks anyway.
"The witches want her to honor their legacy and that's why they gave us a chance, but it doesn't mean she can win her destiny. Some things are bound to happen one way or another. I'm telling you that if it's really her fate to die then it will find another way to accomplish itself."
Abby looks away and swallows and that's how Damon knows that this is not a bad joke. That he might still lose her again.
He bats his lashes taking in her words.
"It's not," he protests, like he's trying to convince himself, "She won't die again," I won't let her, he swears, and he doesn't need to add the words for everyone to hear them.
"Let's hope so," Lucy simply says.
#
"Did you beg?" he asks listening to his brother steps as he enters the house.
"Profusely," he answers, as Damon plays with the glass in his hand.
The silence is telling and Stefan sits opposite his brother, "Let's worry about one thing at a time, okay?" he asks, and Damon only raises his eyes on him, "You know what the witches are angry about."
"There's a large variety of fool deeds she might have soiled her hands with, considering the witches tight ass."
"And you think your recent… affinity might be one of them?"
"So very delicate of you, little brother," he almost laughs looking at Stefan's expression, "You don't think so?"
"It may come as a shock to you, but the world doesn't revolve around you," he says, with a light smile.
"Well, too bad. It should," he decides, "But I supposed befriending Klaus and skinning alive a man can be placed higher on the list."
"What?" the way he burst the question is almost comical and Damon looks at him with a bit of relief. Yes, maybe the witches will not notice such a tiny thing as fucking a vampire compared to that.
"Yeah, I forgot to tell you, I suppose," he says with a shrug.
"You forgot to tell me Bonnie killed a man?" Stefan asks back, "I can easily believe that," he says, sarcastically, "When did that happen?"
"Four months ago, or two weeks from now. I don't know, I'm still confused over this Back to the Future situation. Maybe we should make a diagram or something."
Stefan is incredulous about this, but Damon's too casual behavior about this is a clear indication that he's lying about it. It's obvious he's only tried to protect Bonnie.
"She was often sad," Stefan says, like he understands her better now, "I can imagine how it was for her to live with that burden."
"She didn't kill anybody yet," he says, "She will have no need to cry or hate herself anymore."
He gulps down what remains of his scotch and bites his tongue to hold himself back. Stefan knows that Damon doesn't need to imagine anything; he was there when he could be, when she let him.
"That sounds like a plan," his little brother says, "No pacts, no killings, no angry witches."
"No Bennett stuck in my house," Damon says with a bitter smile, "No addict to fight with. This calls for a celebration, doesn't it?" he asks, jovially.
Stefan just looks at him as he ignores him.
Stopping Bonnie from following that path means they will never live under the same roof, they will never come to an understanding. She will never be forced to put up with Damon, to share a second more than necessary with him. She will never love him, while he'll still love her.
"I'm sorry," he says weakly, and the words fuel Damon's anger.
"About what? That she is alive?" he asks, "Are you really going to look a gift in the horse's mouth?" his voice is a growl, because he is petty and he is sorry too, and he doesn't want to be, "Twenty four hours ago she was a lovely corpse lying six feet under a white gravestone and now she's as annoying and righteous as ever."
Damon gets up and walks away, but Stefan stops him, "Some things are bound to happen, right?" he asks.
"What?" Damon asks back, confused, turning around to look at him.
"Lucy told us, some things are bound to happen one way or another. Maybe this is one of those things. Maybe she will love you again."
"I don't even know if she loved me in the first place," he says shaking his head.
She had decided that they didn't love each other, and he had been so eager to jump on that train. So now he cannot know that she felt just the same as him, and was just as scared as he was about it.
"You really don't?" Stefan asks, like he's just heard something hilarious.
"I'm so glad one of us is having fun here!"
The younger Salvatore raises his hands, showing his palms in surrender, "Sorry man, I was just surprised from your lack of confidence. It's not something I can enjoy often."
"Well, opening your legs is not the same as opening your heart," he answers, "And it's not like there were all that many options available other than me, really."
"Well, I was around often," Stefan shrugs.
"Exactly. No other option, at all," he says flatly.
"Listen Damon, I didn't talk to Bonnie about this because I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable, but I think I can say that she's not one to act on impulse in this kind of things. And certainly not with you."
It makes sense, doesn't it? Her moral compass wouldn't let her sleep over a skinned pig she killed when she was in her Dexter mode, how could it let her do the deed with him when there were no feelings on her part? And that' a good point to start, isn't it?
"Well," Damon says pushing his fists in his pockets, "I can't disagree on that" he nods, "And she should be blind to not fall at my feet," he says with a nod, "I mean, look at me, I'm a stud."
Stefan rolls his eyes, recognizing his brother's usual attitude. He wasn't missing it.
Stefan really hopes his courtship repertoire doesn't include that line because in that case Bonnie will kick his ass, and then some.
"You're right," Damon says, "for once."
His brother watches him leave with a renewed good spirit, and just a bit cockier then ever. This is either going to be a disaster or-
He shakes his head.
"Bonnie is going to kill him."
