"Relly, you're going to tire yourself out," Bonnie laughs, reaching for the bouncing six-year-old and pulling her close.

"Noooo, Mommy," she protests, still managing to bounce up and down on her ballet slippers, even within the confines of her mother's arms, "Too excited."

"At least she's self-aware," Damon murmurs.

Bonnie reaches for his hand and squeezes it, momentarily. She might as well have squeezed his heart.

The doorbell goes and Relly is unleashed in a blur of pink sparkles, the spiky green dinosaur headband nearly flying off her head. "It's Auntie Caroline!" she squeals and, reaching on her tip-topes, yanks open the front door.

"Hi birthday Princess!" Blondie exclaims, scooping the dino fairy into her arms. Her own kids are dressed in coloured poufy dresses and laden down with bags of presents (something Damon knows Relly is about to lose her shit over).

"I'll take those," he says smoothly, lifting the present bags high above Relly's head. "Do you girls want to come through into the living room?"

"I'll show them!" Relly hollers, any notion of 'inside voice' redundant on a six-year-old's birthday. He watches, fondly, as she grabs her cousin's hands and takes them into the confetti explosion that was once his brooding living room. When he looks up, Caroline is smiling at him.

"What?"

"Nothing," she says, still smiling, "Just…fatherhood. It suits you."

Damon's on door duty for the next half an hour, welcoming various children into his home. There was a time when a knock on the Salvatore Boarding House bore a werewolf or a thousand-year-old vampire with a revenge kink; now, he's like the pied piper of Mystic Falls.

It's a relief, though, seeing the house fill up with children from Relly's class and chatting parents. Helps to quell the sinking guilt in his stomach.

Relly is showing her friends the flower clip he gave her this morning, gently placing it in each of their cupped hands and proudly declaring that it shares her name. It can't possibly make up for what he's taken from her, all the lives and family members the monster has deprived her of, but it's a start.

It's a promise.

The last knock on the door is a familiar blonde and blue-eyed Matt Donovan: a pretty woman with straight black hair, holding the hand of a small boy, tucked next to him.

"Er, hi! Bonnie said-"

And then he does something entirely unexpected. He hugs him. Damon Salvatore, former vampire, hugs the great useless lump that is Matt Donovan. Maybe it's because they're both human, united in their mortality and aging metabolism. Maybe it's because he knows Matt was a fierce friend to Bonnie throughout the years and he never once said thank you.

"Er, wow, hi," Matt stumbles, awkwardly patting Damon's back.

Damon releases him, suddenly stiff, and focuses his attention on the woman and the kid. "You must be Matt's…"

"Wife," she says, with an accent, "I'm Nari. This is Maxwell, our son."

"Hey buddy."

Maxwell shoves his thumb in his mouth by way of greeting. Damon ruffles his hair.

It all must be pretty shocking to Donovan, who, until this moment, had only seen Damon as the (sometime) homicidal dick in (all the time) black jeans and a leather jacket.

"Matt!?" Bonnie comes hurtling down the corridor, much like her daughter, and practically pushes Damon aside to envelop her towering friend. "You came! It's so, so good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Bon," Matt chuckles, hugging her back, "I've got some people I want you to meet."

Damon leaves them to their introductions and steals away into the kitchen for another coffee (a habit which apparently will stain his teeth? Fuck, being human is one long descent). The sight of Blondie downing a blood bag in the corner freaks him out for a second.

"Oh, hey," she says, around the tube, "Sorry, it's been such a rush, I forgot to drink this morning."

"No judgement here."

Her eyes glint with a Caroline Forbes scheme and he braces himself. "When are you going to take her on a date?"

"Who?"

"Don't play dumb, Salvatore. You know Stefan would have kicked your ass by now."

Damon simultaneously relaxes and stiffens at the mention of his brother. The immediate comfort, the crushing absence, clenches in his stomach. "Yeah, I know."

"You love her, don't you?"

He walks towards the fridge, "Don't play dumb, Salvatore."

This makes her laugh. "What's the wait then?"

"DAMON!" He pivots to see Relly shouting in the kitchen doorway, her tiny face crumpled in distress.

"Relly, what-" she hurls herself into the room, into his waiting arms, and begins to sob against his shoulder.

"I'll get Bonnie," Caroline says swiftly.

"No M-Mommy," her words tumble out between soggy breaths, "Don't g-get Mommy, on-only D- Damon."

"Okay, okay, kid," Damon whispers into her hair, "It's just me." He glances at Caroline over the top of Relly's head; she offers him a sympathetic smile and bows out the room. "You gonna tell me what's wrong, sweetheart?"

Relly's fingers dig into his shoulder blades. "You'll be upset with me," she chokes, "And you'll tell Mommy. Please, please, don't tell Mommy."

Damon gently lifts her from his chest, holding her so he can examine her tear-stained cheeks. "I won't be upset," he tells her.

"And Mommy-"

"I won't tell Mommy." She heaves a shuddery sigh, like an adult returning home from a long day at work. Damon adjusts the dino band atop her head, kisses her wet cheek. "It's your birthday, Relly, we can't have you crying." Her bottom lip wobbles again and Damon thrusts his finger in the air, just hovering above her tummy, where he knows she's most ticklish. "Does the Tickle Dino need to say Happy Birthday?" He warns.

Relly sucks in her stomach, wriggling away from him. "No, no, no, not now."

Damon lifts a brow. "Are you sure?" He risks one tiny poke; Relly squeals.

"No, Damon! No Tickle," she yelps, twisting away from him.

Damon folds the protruding finger into his palm. "Okay, he's gone," he says solemnly. There's a tiny smile in Relly's mouth and she's rubbing her hands over her eyes, where more tears had been gathering. "Will you tell me now?"

She nods. "Look," she breathes and thrusts a corner of her pink dress under Damon's nose.

He tilts his head back, having to adjust his eyes (more human delights). "What am I looking for?"

"Look," she says again, this time jabbing a finger at a tiny tear in the satin, then whispers, "I ripped it." Damon looks up at her wide, round, Bonnie-eyes and bundles her into him. "You not angry?"

"No," he says, "I just love you."

"Oh, I knew that," she replies simply and he hugs her tighter. He can't give her grandparents but love, love she knows.

He slips his hands away from her back, the kid still clinging on to him, and tears a tiny corner of his shirt. "Hey, Relly," he says softly, "Look what I just noticed?"

She looks down at his fingers on the rip in his shirt and gasps. "How?"

"Must have been an accident," he says, frowning, then, with a grin, "Never mind."

Relly thumbs over the tear in her own dress. "Never mind," she repeats and he hopes, one day, he'll have shown her enough years of love to believe it.

By the time they walk, hand in hand, back into the living room, everyone is gathered around a rather impressive stegosaurus birthday cake displaying six brightly burning candles along its back. Relly doesn't let go of him throughout the entire song, even when she reaches onto her tiptoes to blow out (aka spray spit over) the candles, her little hand stays fixed in his.

The remainder of Relly's sixth birthday party passes in a whirlwind of screams, glitter, dinosaurs and pink. Damon is the Ultimate Party Dad, rushing around the house, fetching band aids for cut fingers and endless coffee rounds for parents. Maxwell, Matt's four-year-old, attaches to Relly like a limpet, following her everywhere with a kind of wide-eyed adoration.

"They're so cute together," he overhears Bonnie telling Matt.

"Sure are. I'm so happy for you Bon," he says to her and Damon has the strange urge to bear hug him again.

The Donovan's are the last to leave the chaos, with Matt carrying his kid fireman style out the house with promises to visit again later in the week. Damon closes the door and looks back at his own family: how Relly hangs off Bonnie's hand, how her mother glows with a sleepy, contented happiness. This is how I want us to always feel, he thinks, with sudden fierceness, this is what we've all fought for.

"Did you have a good birthday, baby?"

"I got so many presents!" Damon hears the whispered reply from his position on the stairs. It makes his heart buzz.

"You know birthdays aren't all about presents, Relly."

"I know," the six-year-old replies, sounding suddenly very wise, "It's about the people who give you presents."

He peers through the crack in the door way, his smile, at Bonnie's hunched form hugging Miss Cuddles and stroking the birthday girl's hair, a reflex. "That's right," she murmurs and kisses her on the nose. "Sleep now, okay?"

"Night Mommy."

His smile broadens as Bonnie moves away from her head, exposing the Amaryllis flower clip still fastened in her hair. "She wouldn't take it off," Bonnie whispers to him, squeezing through the door and closing it behind her. She nudges his slipper with her sock, "Thank you for today."

He kisses her forehead, lips lingering a little longer on the softness of her skin. He thinks about what Caroline had said in the kitchen. "Bon, I want to-"

"Damon," a voice tiptoes out from the bedroom.

Bonnie rolls her eyes, "You're her favourite, you know that."

"Aren't I everyone's?"

She flaps her hand at his chest playfully, though the impact makes them both stall. He wants to hold her fingers against his heart.

"Damon," the little voice is more insistent.

"Go," Bonnie says, steering him towards the door.

"You okay, Relly?" he asks softly, into the darkness. She is sitting up in bed, the whites of her eyes like stars. He treads across the floorboards over to her and she snatches Cuddles from Bonnie's pillow, crushing the bear against her Frozen pyjama top.

"Why didn't Daddy come?"

Damon's heart thumps. He swallows thickly, lubricating his suddenly dry throat. "You wanted to him come?"

Relly flops back against the pillows and speaks into Miss Cuddles ears. "I thought he would. That's why I cried about my dress."

A rise of hatred burns through him – the kind that he would sink teeth into flesh to pacify. "You thought he'd be angry at you?"

The bear nods its head. "And Mommy."

Damon nudges Cuddles away from Relly's face but she is insistent. "You don't need to worry about him being angry anymore," he tells the fluffy face of the bear instead, "I mean it."

Wide brown eyes peak out from behind the fur. "Damon," she asks, hesitant, "Are you my daddy now?"

"I'll be whoever you want me to be. A prince," he kisses her hand around the bear's neck, "Or a dinosaur." Relly giggles as he snaps his hands into dino like claws and begins pecking Cuddles' fur.

"Stop," she says, laughing, wriggling underneath the covers so only the curls of her hair poke out.

"A prince then," Damon confirms and peels back the duvet to leave another princely kiss on her skin.

"I think," she says, yawning, "I think Daddy is good."

Damon stares, in simmering wonder, at Relly's closed eyelids. He's failed at a lot of things over the years but he vows to himself, here, sitting on her bed, that he will never fail at being her dad.


Bonnie looks up from her book to see her daughter (she recognises the fluffy koala socks, at least) hidden behind a red dress she hasn't seen in years.

"Relly? What have you got there?"

She shuffles over to her and throws the dress on the blanket giggling. "You have to wear it, Mommy."

"When?"

This makes her daughter giggle more. "Now."

"Amaryllis Bennett," she says, mock sternly, "What are you up to."

"You'll look very, very, very, very, very, very, very pretty."

Bonnie picks at the dress in confusion. "Where did you even get this, baby?"

"Auntie Caroline."

Ah. "But why do I need to wear it now?"

Relly releases an exasperated sigh. "You're going on a date, silly Mommy."

"A date?"

Damon. Her heart picks up, a smile flittering in her next words. "Where?"

"The garden," Relly says simply and jumps up onto the bed behind her, taking her hair in tiny fingers and twirling it, "Auntie Caroline has been helping me."

"Helping you do what?" She flips her daughter over into her lap, "Why are you being so secretive, missy?"

"Uncle Matty and Maxy are coming to get me. We are going to the cinema."

Bonnie shakes her head in amazement. "Since when did my Saturday night get taken over by a six-year-old?"

Relly leaps out of her arms. "For Daddy!" Then she bites her lip, glancing at Bonnie worriedly.

Daddy. Bonnie tucks a curl behind Relly's ear, "Ah, I see. It's a date for me and Daddy."

The sky hangs in the dusky kiss of sunset. Relly had insisted Bonnie wear a pair of outrageously high heels, also a gift from Caroline, and she totters out into the garden, feeling like a new-born giraffe. She sees Damon and almost slips completely.

He waves at her from a picnic blanket laden in food. "Need some help there, Bon-bon?"

Fuck this, she thinks and frees her poor feet from her daughter's misguided shoe choice. She pads, barefoot, over to the blanket and Damon stands, brushing down his suit (as his gaze brushes all the way down her body).

"Wow. I haven't seen you in a suit in years."

He fiddles with his collar, at once both endearingly awkward and… incredibly sexy. "Relly picked it out."

"I'll have to thank her," she says, following the lines of the jacket, to the white cuffs ending before his veined hands, "I remember when I first saw you in a suit."

"You do?"

They sit down on the blanket, making space for themselves amongst the plates of Relly influenced and Caroline executed snacks.

"Of course. I was instantly angry at how irrationally hot you looked."

There's a hint of the old, seductive vampire in his smirk. "Are you angry now?"

"No. I'm stupidly happy."

His smirk melts into a wonky, unabashed smile.

Fuck, I love you, she thinks, the wonderful, piercing clarity of it almost calming. "I know we're meant to be eating right now but can I just-"

"Yes."

She leans towards him; her hand curls around his tie. "You don't even know what I'm going to ask, Mr Salvatore?"

"Bonnie," he whispers, whimpers even and her heart proliferates in the sudden power, "Please."

She tugs on his tie, guiding his face to hers. "Have you been imagining this?"

He speaks directly to her mouth. "For longer than I should have been."

Bonnie draws her tongue along her bottom lip, teasing his gaze. "And what might that be?" She lifts her eyes to his – the want in them pushes a fervent heat all around her body.

"If you don't kiss me right now, Bonnie Bennett, I will-"

"What?" she asks, releasing his tie suddenly and falling back onto her elbows, "You'll do what, Damon?"

He stares down at her, wild with lust and...love. So much love. She barely has a second to settle in that feeling, though, because he's pushed her back against the picnic blanket, squishing the mini sausage rolls her daughter lovingly picked out, and kissing her senseless.

"I'll take matters into my own hands," he breathes, his mouth moving to her neck, along her exposed collarbone.

"Damon...we're… in your…garden," she manages, her words nipped by each kiss he leaves along her skin.

"Good job I don't have any neighbours."

She laughs as he shifts his weight, trying to gain access to the zipper on her dress, and shoves his hand in the purple jello bowl – Relly's second favourite dessert after pancakes.

"Is this what sex is like, having a kid?" He groans, shaking his fingers.

"It's not glamorous."

"No," he licks at his finger, laughing now too, "but I wouldn't want it any other way."

"Really? Even with the jello?"

He lowers his body down towards hers again, "Especially with the jello."

Bonnie cups his face in her hands and holds all of him, the vampire he was, the human he is now: "I am so, completely in love with you. We both are. You know that right?"

Bonnie's never seen Damon cry. All those times death ripped his heart, she never saw tears; a vulnerability he kept hidden, even from himself. His cloudless eyes have glassed over and she keeps her fingers on his face, ready to catch, to kiss away whatever falls. "You're her dad, Damon," she whispers, as his eyes flicker shut and the moisture rains over his pale skin, "I think you've always meant to be."

He kisses her again, softer this time, his cheeks a little damp against hers. Bonnie curls her hand around his neck, plays with the wispy strands of hair she needs to trim, and he leaves a whispering moan along her jaw.

"Relly, wait! Don't go out-"

Damon's weight lifts off Bonnie's immediately, at the sound of their little girl running into the garden, Matt calling after her.

"Mommy! Mommy! Do you like it?" She leaps onto the picnic blanket like a puppy then her eyes round suddenly, comically even. "Mommy!" she scolds, "You're meant to eat the sausages, not lie on them!"

Damon pulls Relly onto his lap and nuzzles into her curls, chuckling softly. He looks at Bonnie over her head, the suspicion in the six-year-old's voice as she surveys the uneaten, half destroyed picnic food and mouths, "Later," with a wink.

"Later," says her returned grin.

/

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A/N: I have truly loved writing this family. Out of all the Bamon stories I've ever written, this, their happiness here, is my favourite. I hope their story will be a comfort for you.

Thank you, as always, for your reviews. It's really not an exaggeration when I say they make my day.

Here's to more Bamon…

(Oh, and to the reviewer – Chonnenuff - that asked for some loving in the next chapter, I hope this suffices. I suck at writing smut but the illusion is there lol.

I do have a rough idea about a story set a few years in the future, when Relly is a teenager, I may write eventually. I can't completely close the door on this family. They're too special.)