She screamed. Obviously. Half a second later Suzanne slapped both of her hands over her mouth, hoping to muffle the shrieks still escaping her lips as nearly two months of memories of conversations about casual murder were replayed – with an immense amount of fear added to the equation.

Damon wore a blank expression but seemed to be watching her closely, measuring her actions with careful eyes. He was definitely one edge and holy fucking shit he was a VAMPIRE there was a BLOOD DRINKING VAMPIRE in her home and she had asked him last week if he preferred O Negative to anything else –

Hell. Suzanne had her suspicions before but yup, definitely going to hell.

Suzanne stopped yelling and paused, taking a deep breath in and out. She averted her eyes from the vampire's – Damon's, her best friend's – and carefully put down the jelly covered knife that had probably just made her hair sticky when she'd held it up next to her face by accident. Both of her hands gripped the counter and she continued to stay quiet, only focusing on inhaling and then exhaling.

A minute or two later Suzanne finally spoke while turning to face Damon once more.

"Are you planning on killing me?"

Damon looked absolutely floored. But come on, he really was so shocked at the question when they'd had countless philosophical arguments about the moral permissibility of his murderous tendencies? Suzanne felt a flash of fondness for the idiotic man in front of her before trying to steel herself. She needed answers, and she needed them now.

Damon leaned against the kitchen counter nonchalantly but the white knuckles of his balled fists gave away his tension.

"Not on my agenda, princess."

Suzanne was so close to kicking him in the crotch. Jesus fucking Christ, Damon Salvatore was the poster boy of fear of rejection. Pushing her away so obviously wasn't going to work, and – huh. Okay. It seemed like her subconscious was recognizing the serial killer as her best friend again.

Of course at the thought of her best friend having been a serial killer with victims added on as recently as last weekend Suzanne started hyperventilating. She slowly tried lowering herself to the kitchen floor's tiles, eventually just slumping down with her back pressed against the dishwasher.

"This is my cue to go."

Suzanne kicked out at his shin and indignantly whined, "What the hell! You can't leave you fuckwit! I've fallen and I can't get up, you're my only available Life Alert!"

Damon snorted but crouched down so they were on eye level. Surprisingly carefully he reached forward and drew her into his chest, gently cradling her shoulders as Suzanne continued breathing far too quickly into his chest. The familiar smell of his cologne was immensely comforting and after a few minutes of Damon patting her back and mumbling random insults aimed at her lungs she relaxed.

Still pressed against his chest, Suzanne mumbled, "Okay. Okay, I've got this. We're just gonna have to give the human a brief adjustment period to acknowledge that her pet vampire is, you know, a vampire."

Damon stilled and shoved her away from him, standing fluidly and glaring down at her confused expression.

"What the ever loving fuck is wrong with you?"

Suzanne shrugged and shakily pulled herself up, no thanks to the dick in front of her. Reaching for the orange juice on her table she took a few gulps. After she felt a bit better she finally answered.

"You're the one that picked a best friend who lacks a strong moral compass. So really, you're the one who has something wrong with you."

Damon was still glaring at her and his voice was barely more than a hiss when he said, "Suze. I kill people."

Suzanne couldn't really refute that, so she simply shrugged and tried to appear more calm than she actually felt as she said, "Well, yeah. Your species needs blood. You've gotta eat."

Damon looked pissed off, but before he could speak she continued, "I'm pretty sure I'm in shock. Almost 100% sure. Let's go to the lake. We already started making lunch. I'm not going swimming though. Fuck that shit."

The vampire next to her took a step back and seemed to be assessing her. From the way his tense stance had loosened, Suzanne guessed that he'd realized she was serious.

A relieved look covered Damon's face before he quickly changed his expression to the default bored-yet-amused, but his relief was still incredibly easy for Suzanne to pick up on when he let out a low whistle and said, "I think you're a sociopath."

She took a minute to seriously consider that. After all, Suzanne could honestly say that she wasn't repulsed by Damon or his actions. She probably should have been but really – humans killed humans every day for wars and claimed it was necessary. Vampire had to kill – okay, theoretically they didn't have to kill them but whatever – for survival. Who the fuck was she to question evolution?

Suzanne reached her conclusion and shook her head to indicate her disagreement.

"There's a distinct possibility I've got sociopathic tendencies, but not quite. I love my mom and dad and Scotty. And I adore you, too. Even if you are a complete ass sometimes."

Damon cleared his throat and looked so freaking awkward that Suzanne almost started laughing at him. But when he quietly muttered, "Yeah, yeah. You too" she couldn't do anything but smile.

"Then it's settled. We're still best friends, we're still going to have a kickass summer, and we'll ignore my mini mental breakdowns that are sure to pop up in the next few weeks."

Damon nodded decisively and turned back to the spread of half-finished food, picking up a knife and dicing tomatoes and mozzarella as if nothing had happened.

"So the killing people thing… doesn't apply to me, right?"

Damon let out an annoyed huff, offended by the totally legitimate question.

"Course not, princess. You and yours are off limits."

"Well then. Time to get on with our summer plans. Can't have you getting bored before infiltrating your baby brother's Cullen-esque extravaganza."