Chapter Twenty-Four

"I didn't love him, but I might've been falling for him."

The moment those words almost left his mouth, he recognized the truth of them. It seared through him, the heaviness of that emotion, and it settled over him like a weight in his chest. It was deeper than desire, a longing at the core of himself with Bonnie at the center of it all.

The feeling wasn't new, just unacknowledged, a part of himself that he hadn't connected with yet or a part of himself that he'd subconsciously refused to connect with. But somewhere between walking into her house earlier and the conversation in her kitchen, something clicked. Looking at her, all he could think about was how he would do anything to protect her, and that in his own twisted, misguided way, he had been trying to protect her ever since they'd been trapped together in 1994. He had wanted her too, then and in the present, in more ways than one. They'd had a level of friendship Damon had never experienced before, and he'd had feelings he now knew went beyond just wanting to be friends. He craved to be beside her, he craved affection from her, and he wanted to give his to her. To show her that he never meant to make her feel abandoned, that he never meant to be a part of her continued suffering. And finally, he wanted to admit that the seed of this emotion had frightened him before he desiccated, that it played a part in him choosing to desiccate because he wasn't sure how to let Elena go or if he even could.

Honestly, looking back, he couldn't even pinpoint where it all started, but after 1994, it had inevitably began to grow into something that was becoming harder and harder to ignore. His feelings for her were strong even then, but naming them back then would have torn him in half, and that made it easy to fall into his old habit of running away from anything that caused him significant emotional distress. He wasn't running away now though. Damon was willing to do whatever it took and wait however long it took for her to really let him back in again. And he knew everything would be right in his world when she finally did.

Hopefully, it wouldn't be long now. She was opening back up to him, albeit slowly. Earlier, she had teased him a bit, and the fact that he had been able to make her smile, even just a little, was a tiny crack in the wall she had built up to keep him out, and every time he saw one of those cracks, every time she let down her guard, it gave him a little high and filled him with triumph. It meant that all his efforts were paying off.

Back in the kitchen, when he was about to kiss her, he had seen one of those cracks. She had been expecting him to close the distance, and from the look on her face, she had wanted him to. But he didn't do it. He'd been distracted thinking about how even then, with his hands on her slender waist and her waiting for him to kiss her, how badly he wanted to tear down the wall he still felt between them. And wasn't that part of that emotion? Wanting someone to be completely open to you and to be able to be completely open to the other person. Recognizing that made him realize just how right Alaric had been.

He had wanted to pour out the realization once it washed over him, but the words wouldn't quite leave his throat. It wasn't really the time for confessions, and he wasn't certain it wouldn't upset her and make her shut him out entirely, so he chickened out. But from her reaction, he could tell she had an inkling as to what he was about to say. And the way her eyes widened, the way she became unable to look at him was so girlish and so much like that old, innocent Bonnie that the urge to kiss her rose up in him again. But instead of doing so, he had brushed it off and he went back to helping Bonnie go through more grimoires and plot out her spells.

Even as he currently stood next to her, in the middle of the memorial, Damon was thinking of what he wouldn't do for the girl standing next to him, and the list was pretty short.

Originally, they weren't going to go to this thing, but Bonnie decided to go anyway and Damon tagged along with her. She hadn't wanted him too. She'd wanted him to stay back in her apartment, but she was weak with her resistance when he insisted. Damon suspected the entire reason she wanted to go was because she needed a break from him. She had been distracted ever since their little moment and she'd been having trouble focusing.

By the bar, Marcel was ending a speech about not letting their sacrifice and their effort be in vein. "All of us have lost friends in this fight, and we are not alone in our grief. We honor those who have fallen," he was saying, "We celebrate their lives and what they've done for us, and we will avenge them in the coming weeks. So tonight, let's enjoy ourselves in remembrance of them." He held up his glass, and every one followed suit. Afterwards, conversations resumed and Marcel disappeared off somewhere.

The gathering wasn't very large. It was held in Rousseau's where of course pretty much everything supernatural related was held. Bonnie was leaning against the wall in a corner with Damon leaning against the wall next to her. From their position, they could see everyone in the room, but Damon recognized only a few faces. Only two of Bonnie's friends were there. The witch named Lauren and the vampire guy, Brendan, who was into her.

Said vampire stood across the room, eyeing Bonnie, looking as if he was about to approach, but when his eyes veered over to meet Damon's, Damon gave him a look and like a smart little vamp, he stayed right where he was. Bonnie noticed and glared at Damon for it, but he put on his best innocent look, and she seemed as if she couldn't be bothered to say something about it.

Other people came to say hello to Bonnie, and inevitably, the majority of them wondered who he was. Damon took it upon himself to introduce himself as her friend, here to help. She didn't make an effort to deny it which Damon counted as another small victory to be celebrated.

When her other friend, Lauren, came over to say hello. She was a bit too chipper, and it turned out she had gotten engaged to her boyfriend, some werewolf guy named Owen. That had Bonnie genuinely smiling as they hugged each other and Damon listened quietly as they both gushed over planning a wedding after everything was over. "With any luck, Collin and Sadie will be next since they're together now too. And then maybe you can find someone." She pointedly eyed Damon leaning against the wall, and the image of Bonnie in a wedding dress flashed in his mind. He pushed it out just as quickly as it came, ignoring the odd feeling in his stomach.

When she left, Damon leaned close to her so no one else could hear them. "Does she know about Vanessa?" It had struck him as odd the way Lauren interacted with Bonnie as if everything was okay with her.

"No," Bonnie said, folding her arms back across her chest. "No one except the Originals and Vincent know about the situation with Vanessa."

Speaking of, Rebekah was currently crossing the room to approach them. "Don't you two look cozy," she commented when she stopped in front of them.

Bonnie glared at her friend, but it held no animosity. "Unfortunately, he's attached himself to me at the hip."

"I can see that, and maybe it's a good thing he has." It annoyed him that they were talking as if he wasn't there, but he sat back and watched the two interact. They exchanged a strange look between them, a silent conversation where Rebekah arched a blonde eyebrow, and Bonnie denied something with a shake of her head. "Well, I'm glad you came," Rebekah said.

Damon's phone buzzed in his back pocket and he pulled it out. Seeing who it was, he moved away from Bonnie and walked out of the bar onto the sidewalk where it was quieter.

"Stefan," Damon greeted.

"So Elena is pretty messed up right now."

"Okay," He hadn't heard so much as a peep from her since they last argued in his hotel room.

"She's been crying and outside of going to school and work, she won't get out of bed."

Damon sighed. "And why are you calling me about this."

"Because Caroline is ready to rip your head off for the way you 'broke up' with her. And I told her I would try and talk some sense into you."

"Caroline needs to mind her own business."

"Elena's made it her business because Caroline's been roped into being the shoulder she cries on. You know, all this can be resolved, and she can start to move on if you just make it clear who it is you really want to be with. And let's not pretend like we both don't already know who that really is."

He leaned his head back to stare at the sky, exasperated. Stefan was starting to sound a lot like Alaric. "Have you been talking to Ric?"

"No, why?"

"No reason."

Damon looked back through the windows of Rousseau's where Bonnie was currently talking with Marcel and Vincent. As if she sensed him watching her, she looked out the window to meet his gaze. After a second, he turned away from her again.

"So is there something going on with you and Bonnie?"

"There might be," Damon confessed.

"What does that mean exactly?"

"It means I may or may not have feelings for her."

His brother paused. "In other words, you do have feelings for her. And it must be serious if you're admitting it to me."

"I didn't fully admit anything."

"Yeah, but you sort of did, which in Damon-speak is practically declaring that you're in love with her. Am I wrong?"

Damon was silent.

In the pause, Stefan chuckled. "It took you long enough."

"It took me long enough? How long do you think it's taken me?"

"I don't know. I've always suspected, but it's been pretty obvious since we rescued you guys a few months ago. From where I'm standing, it was only a matter of time. But you need to-"

Damon cut him off. "I know, I know. I need to deal with her and I will, eventually."

"Make that sooner rather than later."

"Yeah, yeah," he said, annoyed. "And next time you call me, Stefan, please let it be about something other than Elena."

Damon hung up the phone. He didn't even have a second to get fully irritated at his brother's unwelcome prodding because when he turned around, Bonnie was already standing a few feet behind him. He hadn't even heard her come out of the bar.

How much did she overhear?

Her face didn't tell him anything. Her expression was neutral as she stared at him with her arms folded across her chest. Moving her gaze away from him, she fixated it down the sparse sidewalk, her long ponytail waving behind her as she turned her head. "I'm heading back," she said simply, and started walking down the street in the direction of her apartment. Without another word, Damon sped up beside her, and they walked side by side in silence.

Back in her apartment, Bonnie immediately went to pour herself another drink. She maneuvered herself around the mess of grimoires and herbs sprawled across the floor to sit back down on the couch. Leaning her head on the back of it, Damon caught her watching him from the corner of his eye. "We didn't stay at that for long," he said, glancing at the clock on her wall.

"I don't like to dwell on how many friends I've lost or think too much about death. Reminds me of how many times I've died and that I'm still technically dead," was her explanation.

"You know, you never told me how you died," he prompted, moving around the couch to sit beside her. There was maybe a foot between their legs, but Damon could already sense her tensing from either the question or his proximity.

Almost immediately, she let go of that tension with a forced sigh and took another long drink. "There's really not much to tell."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Then you won't mind indulging me with story-time."

Looking away from him, she raked a hand over her hair, pulling at the band that kept it in a ponytail until it released. Her brown waves fell across her shoulders and she pulled her fingers through it again while her beautiful facial features went from slightly annoyed to resigned. He waited for her to start. "There was a party at the Mikaelson Mansion. Everyone was there, and Elijah was hosting and giving a speech when some hunters attacked. Hayley and Klaus were standing near him. Rebekah and I stood next to Hope off to the side, and when the first shots went off, I told Rebekah I would get Hope out of there while she went off to help fight the hunters. As I grabbed Hope and started to run, one of the hunters appeared in front of us. I handled him, but a second one snuck up on me and managed to shoot me in the back. The moment I fell, I could tell I was going to die, that I was bleeding out way too fast to heal anything, and I used those last few seconds to protect Hope from the hunter who shot me. As I laid dying, I remember hearing Hope crying and being flipped over to see Hayley panicking above me as she bit her wrist. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in transition." She told the story in a very matter-of-fact manner.

"So you died trying to save the Mikaelson kid." Damon noted, "That explains why you have Klaus so wrapped around your finger."

Kicking off her boots, she tucked her feet underneath her, shifting her body slightly towards Damon. "Klaus has been indebted to me for a lot of things since I arrived, though mostly since I saved the city from the Hollow creature. I saved Hope then too, and Hope saved me from being tainted by it. He did think he owed me for that night though, but I didn't exactly jump in front of the bullet for her. I was just trying to get her to safety."

"And I'm assuming it was Hayley's blood that turned you?"

She shook her head. "No. Apparently, I was gone before Hayley tried to feed me her blood. It was a lucky coincidence that Rebekah healed me the day before after a fight I got into with another vampire." Her hand tightened around her glass. "Or maybe unlucky."

"If you think that way then why did you decide to complete the transition?"

She hesitated before she answered. "I just...wasn't ready to die for good."

"For what it's worth, I'm glad you didn't."

She played with the glass in her hand, biting the corner of her lip before she raised her eyes back to his. "Would you have been sad if you had woken up and I was gone?" When the question left her mouth, her expression recoiled slightly as if she regretted asking it.

"Honestly, knowing you were dead and how it happened would probably make me miserable."

"But you'd get over it, continue on with your life, marry Elena, take the cure, and probably start a little family." She didn't hide the resentment in her voice.

Damon was sick of her bringing up Elena. "You don't know that. And why do you keep bringing her up?"

"Because you seem to keep forgetting that you're with her."

"Were you listening to anything I said earlier? I'm not with her right now."

She scoffed, pulling her legs tighter under her with the hand that wasn't holding her drink. "Does that even really mean anything?"

"You know it does."

She tilted her head. "How am I supposed to know when you can't even say how you feel." Now, he was more than certain she had heard him and Stefan earlier.

"Why do I need to say it when you already know?" He shot back.

She balked, placing her drink on the table and moving to storm off, but Damon grabbed her wrist, stopping her and pulling her back onto the couch. She fell beside him, their knees brushing, and Damon used his grip on her wrist to pull her even closer, angling his body towards hers.

"Fine." His face was a short distance away from hers, their eyes locked. She was still, bracing herself, and his own traitorous heart was picking up speed. A beat passed. "I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you."

Her eyes widened the same way they had earlier, and the blood rose to her cheeks as her own steady heartbeat quickened. She obviously hadn't expected him to give in so easily, but Damon relished in the surprise on her face, in catching her off guard. And damn if he wasn't tempted to kiss her again.

The corner of his mouth tipped up. "Your turn."

"What do you mean it's my turn?" She breathed, eyes still wide.

His thumb brushed across the veins of the wrist he still held, his smirk widening. "You know what I mean. It's only fair."

She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

"I thought you said you were tired of ignoring this."

"I am."

"Then stop."

She looked down at his lips, inches away from hers, and chewed on her own. There was a brief glance back up to his eyes where she seemed to finally say "fuck it" to herself and eliminated that final distance between them. Her green eyes fluttered shut as her lips met his, and releasing her wrist, her hands rose to his cheeks, tracing his jawline. His arm slipped around her waist as she twisted further towards him and sunk into him, her lips languidly moving against his.

The taste of her was heavenly, like sweetness and liquor, and Damon pulled her tighter against him, but let her have control. She was the one more prone to running away from this, so whatever she wanted, he would let her take. It wasn't as if he could refuse her anyway. At this point, Bonnie's hold over him was fixed, and there was no chance of it breaking. Hell, since the moment he'd woken up, she'd had him under her thumb.

After a minute or so, withdrawing her tongue from his, she lightly dragged her teeth along his bottom lip, when her fangs suddenly dropped and sank into his skin, ripping a small cut. Without missing a beat, she licked up the blood, then froze. Pulling her head back slightly, her cheeks briefly went veiny as a hungry look passed over her features, but she apologized. "Sorry," she said, the hand on his cheek dropped to his neck, her fingers resting near his pulse.

The instinct to bite was often intertwined with sex, and after having her drink from him all those months ago, Damon hardly cared if she bit him. In fact, he wanted the intimacy of it, and he wouldn't mind sinking his teeth into her either. Briefly, he wondered if she could still feel his emotions, but then decided he didn't care. The last thing he wanted was for this to end, so he brought her head back to his with a hand at the nape of her neck. Once more she parted her lips for him, and he pressed his tongue back inside.

They continued as if the interruption hadn't happened and with every second that passed, the kiss grew more heated. Damon allowed himself to get caught up in the moment, running his hands up and down her body, slipping them under her shirt to find whatever skin he could reach while she devoured him.

Eventually, one hand slipped down her thigh and he used it to pull her on top of him so that she straddled his waist. As he did so, the black skirt she had on rode up to reveal the thin black panties she wore underneath and a groan left his mouth as the delicious weight of her settled on the tent in his pants. She sighed a moan as he went for her neck, her hands running through his hair as he sucked on her sensitive skin. His palms massaged her bare thighs, and with a low hum, she began to roll her hips into his.

He groaned again as he reached the curve of her ass and followed the line of her underwear to the front of her where he lingered at the edge of slipping his thumb under the thin fabric. The friction of her rolling her hips had her gasping into his ear, and he moved his own hips in time with her rhythm, trying to elicit an even louder response. Bonnie didn't disappoint.

That he could listen to her forever was the thought that crossed his mind as he moved his head back to look at her neck, the hickeys he'd given her already healed. At this point, he longed to bite into her, to give into a carnal desire to really taste her, and for a second, he let the vampire in him react. The veins ran below her eyes as his fangs threatened to descend, but he held himself back, unsure of whether or not it would be welcome and not wanting to ruin wherever this was headed.

Slowly, he dragged his gaze away from her neck and back to her eyes. Her breath came heavy and her pupils were dilated from the arousal. He could smell her clearly, the tantalizing scent clouding his brain and making his pants tighter than they already were. Pausing her movement to kiss him again, her nails dragged against his neck, and he gave her thighs a squeeze, already missing the friction. Then she pulled away once more, and her eyes met his again.

Damon was waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Bonnie to back off like usual. But if anything, Bonnie didn't seem the least bit inclined to stop. She seemed lost in the pull of their attraction, desire the only thing in her expression as her tongue darted out to wet her lips. With one hand perched on his shoulder, she let the other trace his collar for a second, then dipped her fingers underneath and tugged it upwards. Damon lifted his arms to help her get it off of him, and once she had it off, she threw it somewhere to the side. Her hands immediately slid down his chest, electricity shooting through through his body as her fingers fanned across his muscles, stopping at the line of his pants.

She looked sure and unsure at the same time, and something about that was alluring. Damon waited to see what she would do next, but at the same time, he was already imagining having his way with her, his fingers tightening their grip on her ass so he wouldn't give in to the desire to rip off her panties and rush things along. With Bonnie, he'd learned that patience was key.

Her heartrate heightened further as her fingers rested at the waistline of his pants. She stared at the bulge resting against the wet fabric of her panties then leaned in to bring her mouth back to his. She kissed him once, then twice, and then things were moving fast. Damon wasn't even sure she realized she was using her vampire speed, but by the time he did, her cheek was leaning against his, her underwear was pulled to the side, and the tip of him sat at her entrance. The slightest inch downward and he would be inside of her. Damon caught her before that happened though, his grip firm on her perfect ass, halting her movement.

"Slow down. What's the rush?" His voice was low and gruff as he spoke into her ear, and his lower back muscles were pulled taught. It was taking a lot of restraint for him not to just raise his hips and plunge inside of her.

"Why the hesitation?," she countered, "Don't you want this?" With her cheek resting against his, her voice was in his ear, a husk to it that had his dick twitching while her fingers gripped his shoulders tightly. Of course it was what he wanted. And he had wanted this for longer than he cared to admit, but if they did this, he didn't want her to regret it.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

She leaned back to look at him, heat still in her eyes as she scoffed a small chuckle. "I'm sure it's the opposite of a good idea, but I think- I think I need to get this out of my system." Her words knocked at something inside him, and in his distraction, she pressed downward, managing to get an inch inside her. Damon was gone then. He moaned at the feel of her slick heat, and she moaned in tandem as she slowly took all of him in until he bottomed out inside her. The fit was perfect, and she felt amazing wrapped around him. Whimpering and panting in his ear, she squeezed him. Then, all of a sudden, Damon could swear her skin turned electric. Everywhere she touched, set him on fire and sent tingles down his spine and his dick was feeling the most of it. Damon gritted his teeth as his whole body tensed up, over-sensitized.

"Bonnie," he groaned out. "Fuck."

"Sorry." Whatever her magic was doing became less intense, and he was able to relax for a second, but then she started to move, and he let out a more guttural groan at the way she grinded on top of him, slowly picking up speed. Bracing herself on the back of the couch behind him, she began to raise her hips higher, moving even faster, and Damon slipped his hands underneath her shirt, lifting it off her, then undid her bra and tossed it somewhere behind him. His eyes slid down her skin, admiring how beautiful she looked atop him. Then, with free reign of her torso, Damon ran his hands along her skin, across the scars on her stomach, then wrapped his mouth around a nipple. He licked, sucked, and teased with teeth, drawing another loud moan out of her before he moved to the other side.

With what she did earlier, Damon found himself already close, and while he lavished her breast with attention, he slid his hand down her front to where they joined, circling her clit and pushing her closer to the edge. He raised his hips in time with hers, easily finding her rhythm, and Bonnie's moans became sharper and higher. It wasn't long before she was quivering on top of him and around him. Her movements became slightly erratic as she buried her face into the crook of his neck, kissing him, and letting her teeth scrape teasingly against his skin. Damon raised a hand to the back of her head while she did so, grabbing her hair and pushing her face into his neck, encouraging her to bite. Her body slid up and down his, and when her orgasm came, he felt her fangs sink into him. His body flooded with heat as she drank from him with a long moan and the lights flickered in her apartment. Instinctively, he released his own fangs, bringing his mouth around her shoulder, but not biting down in the way that she had bit down on him. Still, the tip of his fang cut into her skin and a bit of her blood trickled into his mouth. That sweet taste of her, the feel of her fangs in his neck, of her wrapped around him set him off, and he let himself go, spilling inside her as she clamped down on him.

As she rode it out, she removed her fangs from his neck and hesitantly looked at Damon. His blood stained her mouth and she looked apologetic again, but before she could say anything, Damon tangled his hand in her hair, and brought her mouth to his in a slow kiss where he purposefully let his own fangs sink into her lips just enough to get another taste of her blood. When he moved back, she licked at the spot on her bottom lip where his fang had nicked her, the heat returning to her eyes.

He let his nose run along her jawline and planted a kiss on her pulse point. "Well, am I out of your system?" He pulled back to look at her.

Still snug inside of her, she squeezed him in answer and pulled herself tighter against him. "Not yet," she admitted, looking away in a manner too demure for how she had just been riding him.

"Good."

He picked her up, kicking his pants off in the process and sped her into the bedroom. Placing himself above her across her bed spread, their naked chests brushed, and when he lifted himself slightly, she arched into him as if she couldn't get enough contact. Pausing for a second, he marveled at how flawlessly beautiful she looked underneath him, and she returned his gaze hotly, fluttering her muscles around him. Inside of her, he was already getting hard again, and not wanting to disconnect from her, he quickly ripped off her skirt and panties, leaving her fully naked. Bringing his hands around her waist, he lifted her, and at the same time pulled out slightly and snapped his hips back into hers in a quick movement that had her gasping. On the couch, he had let her have most of the control, but this time, Damon had plans to have her screaming his name, to make her feel so good she wouldn't be able to think straight. He smirked. "You know what they say Bon-bon, once you go Damon…"

She rolled her eyes, an annoyed smile flashing across her face that had his smirk widening. "I swear if you don't just shut up and fuck me again..."

He grinned. "Oh don't worry, I don't plan on letting you leave this bed for a while."

A/N: It's been a while, but hopefully you guys enjoyed this one. Thanks to everyone still reading!