Suzanne was on the couch watching Shark Week reruns and learning all about the illusive Megalodon. Nik had been adamant that they were extinct and had made fun of her for almost ten minutes when she'd said she wasn't positive that the Loch Ness Monster was a hoax. Bigfoot was bullshit, obviously. And the chupacabra was probably a deformed coyote.

But c'mon, if vampires were real, who was she to say every other myth or legend was false? Of course she couldn't tell Nik this, but it was irritating all the same to have to look at his stupidly handsome, smug face when she knew the supernatural actually existed. In the last few weeks, they'd been talking almost every day whether by text or actual calls. Apparently he'd been traveling in and around Virginia for the last month, and seeing as Nik was apparently richer than God, he made it seem like no big deal when he traveled to meet in the middle with her.

Unfortunately, Suzanne was having feelings.

It was disgusting. But Nik was a fucking charming asshole and goddamnit he was fantastic in bed. The sex was amazing. Even she hadn't known she was as flexible as some of their positions required -

But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that she'd started believing him when he called her beautiful, or told her he looked forward to spending time with her. Suzanne knew she was gangly as hell and that it was somehow considered fashionable, but her sharp features and somewhat crooked teeth didn't exactly appeal to everyone, something she didn't actually care that much about. But the last time they'd had dinner then stayed the night in his hotel, he'd gotten a call the next day from his 'irritatingly noble older brother'. When the aforementioned man had apparently asked either where he was or what he was doing, Nik had answered that he was 'having breakfast with the girl I fancy.' When she'd gaped at him, he'd only shrugged.

Suzanne had been waiting for the gotcha! moment, when he'd joke around and say that he was messing with his sibling. But the moment hadn't come, and when Suzanne had gone home that afternoon she'd had to watch three different horror movies to stop the mushy, fond feelings that were steadily becoming more and more of a problem, even now that she was at home and only communicating with him over the phone.

Of course just when the leading expert on the maybe-extinct shark species started talking, her phone went off. To say Suzanne was 'confused' when she saw that Stefan of all people was calling her in the middle of the night would be a massive understatement. The only reason she even had his number was because Damon had admitted it might be useful as his plans and plotting had become more and more convoluted leading up to the dumbass comet.

Damon was going to open the tomb and save Katherine as some point tonight, but Suzanne hadn't thought she'd be hearing from him this early. Her first concrete thought after seeing the wrong brother's name displayed on her phone's screen was that maybe Damon was getting physically reacquainted with Katherine. Maybe he was too busy to call her and had asked Stefan to fill her in. Maybe –

"We opened the tomb and Katherine wasn't in it. Damon left. Can you- "

Suzanne immediately felt a pit of dread in her stomach and cut him off, already throwing herself off the couch and going into her room, tearing through her drawers to put on some pants.

"I'm on it."

Hanging up on the younger Salvatore, Suzanne rooted around her bedside drawer, hoping to find her keys. Simultaneously looking for a jacket and scrolling through her phone's contacts, it only took her a moment before she was calling her best friend. When he didn't pick up, she immediately dialed again. This time, the call was answered after two rings.

"Had to find my phone, princess. It was underneath two sorority sisters' bodies."

Suzanne took a deep breath in and out, trying to remind herself that he was most likely emotionally traumatized, and she should be giving him some leeway for being a dick. Except –

"You're a dick."

Damon laughed on the other end of the phone, and even if it was a cynical sound, Suzanne latched on to it, putting on her best fake-peppy voice when she said, "Let's meet up and do something fun. I'm better than corpses for company, or so I've heard."

Damon made an annoyed sound on the other end of the phone, but Suzanne counted it as a victory when he said, "You're so damn transparent. But I would prefer some unjudgy company as I spiral. I'll come over to your place."

At that, Suzanne let out a sigh of relief and kicked off the tight jeans she'd been pulling on, putting her grimy sweatpants from college back on. Like she was going to try to impress Damon. Damon spoke glibly before he hung up when he sang over the line, "Gotta finish my meal. I'll be over in an hour."

Was Suzanne a really, really bad person for being a little happy she'd get to finish her documentary?

By the time Damon arrived, Suzanne had already arranged her place to be the best 'undead cloned girlfriend turned out to be an uncaring bitch just like Suzanne said' set up she could. There wasn't a 'blanket fort' per se, but her futon had been extended and there were a shitload of pillows and duvets on the thing's mattress. DVDs were stacked on the coffee table ranging from Legally Blonde to Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Cruel Intentions was in there too, mostly because Suzanne figured that maybe Damon would want to watch a movie where the manipulative, bitchy brunette got fucked over in the end.

Regardless, Suzanne was determined to do the best she could to make Damon feel better. She wasn't disillusioned - one night of fun couldn't even come close to completely healing the massive wound that had to be in place. But if she could give him even one night to forget about Katherine, she would. There wasn't any booze set out, because Suzanne knew that when Damon or her drank while emotional it often got much too honest and led to angry regret for revealing more than they'd wanted to in the morning.

When she heard someone overly-aggressively shove a key into her door, she knew that Damon had shown up.

Damon really wished he was less of a sap around Suze, but when Killer and Louie immediately rushed up to him and started jumping and licking him, he basically dissolved into one of those suburban mothers who regularly ate brunch and cooed at dogs. Though of course if Suze ever pointed out the slight change in tone he used around her dogs, he'd be sure to remind her of the time she'd drunkenly sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" to Killer before bursting into tears when the dog didn't take over for the second part of the duet.

Having a best friend who was also a borderline alcoholic came in handy when he needed blackmail material.

To his surprise, Suze looked as though she was attempting nonchalance when he finally looked at her. He'd half been expecting her to gloat, something that he now felt bad about for underestimating her character. Instead, she walked over to him and laced their fingers together as she said, "You're the best. I'm here. Do you want to have a normal night?"

Damon immediately nodded in response. This was why he fucking loved her. If he had spent even a second around Stefan or Elena when he had found out Katherine didn't give a shit about him they would have tried to hug him and console him with pity in their expressions. Suze just - she understood what he needed. And what he needed tonight was a night where he could pretend everything was normal. It wasn't denial exactly, but it was easier to talk about what he was feeling when there wasn't the slow violin background music and shit.

Suze strode over to the futon and practically dove onto the right side of the mattress - she'd made it clear that it was her side months ago - and smacked her hand against the unoccupied side of the bed. Damon of course got with the program immediately and silently sorted through the 17 DVDs she handed him right away. Who the hell still bought DVDs? Suze, obviously, but she was pretty technology-stupid. It should embarrass her that a guy more than a century old had to teach her how to properly use hashtags, but Suze had quickly flicked his nose when he'd said so. Of course she'd ranted for twenty minutes about the fact that 'kids these days' were constantly around technology, making them intolerable.

Suze always thought kids were intolerable. But Damon hadn't been in the mood to point it out.

Damon finally picked out the movie 'Step Brothers' and Suze practically squealed with excitement when she saw his selection. A minute later the two of them were laughing their asses off at Will Ferrell. Each time a particularly memorable line came on Damon would repeat it word for word, making Suze laugh even harder.

When his best friend's phone started ringing, he completely expected her to get up and wander the kitchen to take the call, seeing as it was probably Nik. Suze had been filling him in about how their weird relationship was going, their last conversation being about her uncertainty about the difference between 'dating, and then being girlfriend-boyfriend.'

Instead, Suze grabbed her phone, turned it off, and tossed it to the side before turning back to him and grinning at him before nudging him back towards the movie.

Damon had no idea what he'd done to deserve her.

I'm writing two thesis papers currently and after this whole story was deleted it's been rough remembering/rewriting it, so I'm sorry for the delay! xx as always please let me know what you think, if the characters are accurate, etc! Reviews are always welcome