Set in 3x04
Obviously, ignore any scene of the show about the growing relationship between Damon and Elena. I don't even know why I bother writing this, since it's obvious.
They're friends.

All in all, the story is the same, but some details aren't the same. Just a reminder, in case you forgot.

You know how you think that holidays are great because you have time, and so you'll be able to work on your fanfic? Those thoughts are lies. During holidays, you won't want to "work". So you won't "work" on your fanfic half as much as you do when you're busy.

Each a monster, part 21: Like a crash of thunder in the night

Alaric closed the door behind him and went to sit on the bed. Damon was searching his clothes for something to wear for the party, and Ric certainly didn't want to interrupt the vampire as he dived into his sea of costly clothes.

Caroline's father was in town, and he was from one of the founding families, and he knew about vampires, and he was able to torture his own daughter thinking it was for her own good, and Damon had had to compel the crackpot. Bill Forbes was proving to be a pain in the ass...

And as always, Damon was being way too thoughtless about that.

The vampire's head appeared out of his closet.

"I hope you won't be going to the party wearing that. I want to show off my sexy boyfriend, you know."

Alaric arched an eyebrow.

"I thought we were being discreet about that?"

"You're ashamed of me? I'm hurt, Ric. No, seriously, it's just that your being a proper teacher also means you have to look good at social events, especially when the Sheriff' Office knows you're secretly hunting vampires with the awesome and definitely-not-vampiric me."

The teacher rolled his eyes and left to get himself ready.

When they finally got to the party that was supposed to conceal a Council meeting but was just being fancy in their opinion, Alaric and Damon got a very unpleasant surprise.

Bill Forbes was there, and from what he said, he clearly remembered everything, even what he wasn't supposed to. How he did it, they had no idea, and Damon was clearly upset. Never before had a human resisted his compulsion.

When the man walked away Damon was in a foul mood. Alaric gently put his hand on his boyfriend's arm, intimating him to stay calm and not do anything harsh.

"You're not killing him, Damon."

Ric's tone was cool, and Damon should have known he was being more than serious about it.

But Forbes had been an asshole to his daughter, to him, and worst of all, to Alaric. The man had dared to threaten the two of them, and the vampire wouldn't take it. Who did Forbes think he was? He had no right to question their friendship, or the hunter's acceptance of his boyfriend's nature. It wasn't as if he could help it, that he was a vampire.

"You heard him, Ric. He will tell the Council who I am if I only piss him off a bit. And I always piss people off. I don't even do it on purpose, most of the time."

Seeing that Damon was joking, Alaric thought that maybe, he'd get him to calm down enough and not kill anyone tonight. So he went on joking. Everything for a calm night.

"As if I'd believe that."

"I don't know, Ric. Maybe it's because I'm so handsome. Men fear for their girls, as if I am responsible for them drooling all over me. And the girls who don't fall for my good looks thinks I use women and toss them aside afterwards."

At that point he was almost whining, and Alaric had good hopes.

"That's only because they never saw you and me together. I hope you enjoy our entertainment sessions too much to risk it by playing around. And no, don't answer that, because I know you will only be an ass about it even if you don't think it."

To the teacher's surprise, Damon blushed.

"Don't mention it..."

The vampire's mind was drifting to the most awkward sex moments they had had since they had gotten together. His first not-so-manly orgasm as Ric's length had hit his prostate, the one time he had cried out his boyfriend's name when they usually weren't so vocal, the way he sometimes got so horny waiting for his lover that he just had to take care of it himself and that time Ric had walked on him doing... well. Sure, guys shouldn't be worried about him going after their chicks. He was literally addicted to Ric's cock, it seemed.

But it wasn't the point, not now, not with Forbes out there, threatening him, saying that Ric was even worse than a vampire because he was a human tolerating bloodsuckers as friends. And he had that way of his to ignore compulsion...

Tensing again, the vampire went back to the first topic of the conversation.

Bill Forbes.

"How can he be immune to compulsion?"

Alaric felt that the discussion was drifting back into dangerous waters, but Damon had a point, so he couldn't exactly brush it aside.

"No idea. Apparently Forbes simply has a mind of steel. I guess compulsion is the same as hypnosis, one with enough self-control can ignore it. The only other option would be if he wasn't just a human. Caroline would have been a witch if he was a warlock, he's definitely not a werewolf, and there's just no way he's a vampire."

Or if he was, he was also a bloody hypocrite.

Yeah, no way.

Thinking about it...

Damon eyed his boyfriend suspisciously. A Falkenbach wasn't exactly a regular human being...

"You ignored my compulsion that time during the 50's Decade Dance."

Alaric rolled his eyes at that.

"I was holding onto vervain as if on dear life, Damon."

"Oh. But maybe I should give it a try, just for us to know."

The teacher didn't like the turn the conversation was taking, because he knew that if he let the vampire try and actually wasn't immune to compulsion, Damon would come up with ideas, sexual or not, that he was certain he wouldn't enjoy being reminded of. But if it could keep the vampire's mind away from Forbes, he'd gladly sacrifice himself.

"Erm, well, maybe. Another time. And I'll allow you to make me do anything you want."

Damon smirked, arched an eyebrow, and Ric knew he was in future deep shit.

"Even profess your undying love for me in front of the whole school?"

The hunter's face hardened and Damon knew there was no way his boyfriend would not resent him if he made him do that. But that would be so fun too watch... He could dream, couldn't he?

"Do you really want to lose your genitals, Damon?"

Definitely not. It would stay a dream and nothing more. After all, those parts of the vampire's anatomy would grow back – right? – but that didn't mean he was willing to experience the pain and effects of castration, even temporary.

So they went inside, and the party happened. After a while, the council members locked themselves out of sight, and Alaric waited with Elena for Damon to return. They could only hope that both Damon and Bill Forbes would stay civil, that no death threats would be exchanged post-meeting.

A fool's hope, they knew, but they tried to be optimist.

Yet again, they should have known that Mystics Falls never made it easy for its residents.

When Damon joined them, he was fuming with anger.

"That son of a bitch! He knows nothing, and will never know anything since I'm going to kill him now. Right, I don't even know why I came back here, since I have to go and murder the bastard."

And the vampire was already walking away, but Ric got in his way.

"Damon..."

"He threatened you, your job, he insulted your honor as a human being, your intellect, he said that it didn't matter since I didn't care anyway, because vampires don't have feelings, because I'm ready to drop you any time I want!"

That's when Alaric realized it. Damon wasn't listening anymore, and he wouldn't listen again until he got rid of Bill Forbes, the man who had dared to question his humanity, his newly found anchor to sanity. The fact that Caroline's father was exactly that, Caroline's father, didn't matter. The fact that the man didn't know what Damon's feelings for Alaric really were didn't matter.

Bill Forbes would die that night, forget the consequences, forget Alaric's opinion on the matter, even if the teacher may come to hate him because of the vampire's actions, it didn't matter as long as Alaric could be safe.

And there was no way the hunter would let that happen.

"Damon, you won't."

A manic smile spread on the vampire's face.

"Oh yes I will."

One step.

Alaric didn't bulge. He wouldn't. And Damon knew it. He looked at the hunter's hand. It was here.

A tear rolled down his cheek, a drop of salted water broke in his smirk, and in the end his face wasn't so truthful anymore. It was only a mask of self-hatred, a ridiculous, farcical mask.

"I'm sorry, Ric."

Alaric and Damon had forgotten Elena, but she hadn't forgotten she was there. She tried, really, she tried, but what could she do if even Alaric couldn't stop Damon? The teacher was the one the vampire loved, he was the one who had influence over Damon. But the hunter couldn't do a thing.

Elena would have liked to be able to do something, but as always, she wasn't able to do anything. She hated herself for that. But it was true nonetheless.

Before she could even move, before she could even talk, Damon had moved.

Alaric was faster than any human. But he wasn't as fast as a vampire.

The sound it made when the teacher's neck broke wasn't loud. But that was all Elena and Damon could hear, like a crash of thunder in the night.

A body fell to the ground. The corpse of a man whose spine had been broken with a single move. A man whose blue eyes, even dead, were tearing into Damon with the coldness of inhumanity. For a second, Damon froze. He knew that look in the eyes of the hunter. And not because he had already seen him dead twice. Both times, he hadn't looked at the man's eyes.

That look of coldness in Ric's eyes, those dead eyes, with no consciousness behind them, those dead eyes, with no humanity behind them, they were the eyes Alaric displayed when his Falkenbach side took over, when his oddness as a human being made itself known, when every feeling he had couldn't matter anymore, when he was able to kill without a second thought.

Sometimes, Alaric had the eyes of a dead man while being alive.

This was why he could be frightening. And this was why no one could be allowed to come near the hunter with bad intentions. If Forbes had any idea who the vampire-tolerating human really was...

Damon's tears had stopped.

He looked at his boyfriend's still body, his face a mask of steel.

And he walked away, to the Lockwoods' house, to where Bill Forbes was awaiting his demise, even if unknowingly. Now that he had done the irrevocable, he wouldn't stop. If he did, he'd have killed Ric for nothing. He'd have destroyed his relationship for nothing.

Once again, he had lost everything.

And this time, it was because of Bill Forbes, a man who was nothing to him, a man who had no right to meddle in his life. The first time, it had been because of Katherine, whom he had loved, and because of his father, who would never stop, no matter how much he hated him, to be his father. This second time...

It wasn't something that'd be forgiven.

He knew deep down he was to blame too. He knew he had let his tamper get the better of him, he knew his rashness had worsened the situation. But that wasn't something he could change, or at least not so quickly.

Killing Forbes, on the other hand, could be done pretty quickly. So he would do it.

Because it was easier to act than to think right now. To take his mind off the sound of Alaric's neck cracking under his own hand. To forget that he had killed the man he loved so much he couldn't find another way to protect him, no matter how twisted it really was.

Everything after that happened in a haze.

Damon let his anger control him, and he didn't care at all when he bit into Bill Forbes' neck, he didn't care at all when Caroline got in his way, he didn't care at all when he finally walked away.

Elena saw him come back to them bloody and angry, she saw him pick up delicately his lover's body, and she saw him leave for the boarding house with a dazed look on his face. She said nothing. There was nothing to say.