A/N: No copyright infringement intended. I don't own the characters. They are merely written in my own light, OOC. This is an AU.
Oblivion Chapter 2: Acquainted
Damon found himself not able to take his eyes off Bonnie. He didn't understand what was wrong with him, but he soon believed he'd figured it out. He promised to stand guard. He promised to watch over her. He didn't blink or look away for the fear that something might crawl on her or attack her. If that happened, she would be angry with him because he promised to keep an eye on things.
Yes, that was it, Damon convinced himself. After watching Bonnie for a full two hours without blinking, reading the watch on his wrist which oddly still worked after passing through a space time continuum, he decided to give his eyes and legs a break.
He stood and stretched as he looked to the sky, smiling He loved the way the stars seemed to twinkle in this new world. Damon never figured himself to be the sentimental type; he never had a reason to be. He spent a hundred plus years waiting for a comet to fly across the midnight sky, but he never thought to just gaze at it with anticipation because he knew when that would happen.
The night he needed to save his beloved Katherine Pierce was the only time he cared to look up. He then spent the rest of his time in Mystic Falls disrespecting Elena and bullying his way into her heart all whilst making his brother's life a living hell in the process by ignoring all his warnings and threats to stay away from Elena and her friends. He took his job of harassing Elena and her friends seriously; killing Stefan's best friend right in front of him was the icing on the cake.
He was quite the charming fellow when he first came back to Mystic Falls. He kept at his beautiful assaults, working on the flaky and disloyal Elena until he won her heart. The day she hissed her declaration of love to him in front of the fire place was the happiest of his life. He won Stefan's girl and he even got a chance to gloat about it. Their road to love was so epic that even Klaus, another sociopath, wanted to know how he was able to win Elena Gilbert over.
Deep in the back of his mind he knew that the sire bond had propelled Elena's feelings along, which is why he was leery about her love at first; but, after she lost her humanity and gained it back, he'd won her love fair and square, or so he believed. He smiled as he reminisced about all the sex, he and Elena had all summer long while his brother drowned continually in a safe, something he never thought about again after his brother was freed because he had the girl.
As Damon remembered his relationship, he began to feel sick at the stomach. He chalked it up to hunger pains. He really didn't want to admit that the road to winning Elena was a sick one, and not one to brag about at all.
Damon pushed his forehead into his hand and closed his eyes. Why did he decide to have a conscience, now? He supposed it was because his brother had died, or maybe it was because he had died. Even though Stefan had been brought back to life, he still couldn't shake the image of his gray and lifeless corpse lying on the couch in the living room in front of him.
Now, here he was, in a whole other world. His brother was alive, and he was trillions of miles away from him, he guessed. His brother, or even Elena for that matter, could be dead and he wouldn't even know it.
His thoughts shifted in a blink of an eye from his brother to Elena only once more. It pained him to think about all the hell she was currently going through. He wished like hell that he could be there. The last thing he wanted to do was leave her, the love of his life. As soon as he and Bonnie found a way home, he was going to rip her clothes off, sweep her up in his arms, and make mad, passionate love to her; and, after he finished, he was going to do it all over again.
Damon smiled when he thought of all the places, he and Elena made love, and then he thought about some places where they hadn't. As soon as he got back, he'd make sure to cross those places off his list. He soon forgot about all the heartache he caused Stefan as his thoughts spiraled deeper into his sexual fantasies. In fact, he was doing what he had always done, shifting his thoughts to sex to avoid facing the real issues before him.
Damon was pulled from his fantasies when he heard an animal in the woods. It sounded more like an alien than anything harmless. It sounded huge, scary—something he knew Bonnie wouldn't want to hear or see. He scanned the area, looking towards the woods with his vampire vision, which seemed quite magnificent in this new world. He sped back to Bonnie.
He kneeled over her body and looked around her, making sure nothing foreign or deadly-looking was crawling on or around her. He jumped stealthily into a tree, as high up as he could go. From here the view was nice. He scanned out as far as his eyes could see, seeing nothing. He looked back down at Bonnie.
It wasn't unknown for aliens to sneak in and grab someone while the lookout was preoccupied with something else. Damon snickered. He had watched way too many alien movies. In any case, he was glad to see that Bonnie was still there, just as he'd left her not minutes ago.
He jumped down out of the tree and sat back down against it. Pushing his knees to his chest, he rested his forearms on his knees and continued to watch over their little camp. Damon nodded off a few times throughout the night. He only woke when he heard snarling or things that seemed too close to their encampment.
When dawn was finally upon them, Damon opened his lids, as the sun beating down on his face. Just as he woke, so did Bonnie.
"Good morning, sleeping beauty." Damon smiled.
"What's so good about it?" Bonnie stated groggily.
He laughed. "I always took you for a morning person, Bonnie Bennett."
"It's hard to be a morning person when you've slept on dirt and rocks and God knows what else all night." Bonnie smiled then got to her feet and turned to face Damon. "Did you sleep last night?" She asked.
"I slept on and off," he answered.
"Ugh, you were supposed to be watching me," Bonnie teased.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Damon laughed. He quickly got to his feet and dusted off the back of his pants.
"Well, we better head out and try to take advantage of the sunlight." He rushed to the still burning fire, stomped it out, and then looked back at Bonnie. They gazed into each other's eyes, staring at one another affectionately. Damon finally decided to look away, grabbing his jacket. "You ready?"
Bonnie nodded, and Damon gestured in the direction he wanted them to go. She followed. They walked for two hours straight, not saying a word to each other. Hunger was beginning to take hold on Damon to the point that he was praying for a squirrel or a doe, anything with four legs and fur.
It was in this moment he wished he and Bonnie were drinking buddies or that they had hung out together more often; then, he would feel more comfortable asking her for her blood.
"Damon, do you think we can stop for a bit?"
"Yeah, sure." He turned to face her.
Bonnie fell back against the tree. She tilted her head back against it and gently wiped the sweat away from her brow and her neck. Damon watched her carefully. His eyes shifted from her forehead and down to her neck, his eyes widening at the sight of Bonnie's fast pulsating vein. He licked his lips mindlessly before leaning against a tree.
As Damon homed in on the sound of Bonnie's heartbeat and her vivacious vein he thought back to the night in the woods when Emily had possession over her body. He remembered that night vividly as he'd flashed to Bonnie and viciously plunge his deadly fangs in to her slender neck. He blinked rapidly as Bonnie's shrill from that night vibrated through his consciousness. He turned away from her, fear on his face. He grabbed his temple and closed his eyes tightly, trying to shake the awful night from his memory bank.
"Damon, are you okay?" Bonnie asked concerned.
"Yeah," Damon answered worriedly before turning back to her. He wished that he could tell Bonnie what he was thinking but the last thing he wanted to do was push her away by making her relive that awful night all over again. "Get some rest. I'll see if I can find something for you to eat."
"Okay." Bonnie nodded.
Damon flashed away and looked high and low for something he could feed on. He still had a little life in him but if he didn't feed soon, he wasn't sure if he could be of any use to Bonnie, or himself for that matter.
Bonnie drifted down to the forest floor, laid her head on her knees, and thought about Jeremy and the rest of the Mystic Falls gang. She was sure that Caroline was probably a basket case over her. She was positive that Elena felt the same over Damon but maybe thought about her in passing, too.
She was happy to know that they had each other, though, even if she was sure that Stefan was mad with grief. She worried about him a lot. Without Damon, Stefan would probably turn off his memory and just walk away from it all. She was really hoping that Caroline would be the moral compass in his life and help him to be strong.
She then thought about the time that she and Jeremy first made love. Everything between them before she left was so perfect. They were stuck to each other like glue. She never once thought about how bad their relationship was, like how they withheld important things from each other, or their trust issues. She could only see the good times they'd shared, all the glimmer of their relationship.
As Bonnie rested her head on her knees, she felt something wet hit the back of her neck. She quickly looked up. It was rain. This world had rain, but of course, she thought.
"Can this get any better?" Bonnie stood up and slapped her hands against her thighs. The raindrops grew bigger and they began to fall faster and harder. Within minutes there was a torrential downpour. She held her arms over her head for a lot of good that it would do her. She then hurriedly untied her jacket from around her waist and held it over her head. Damon quickly flashed back to her.
"I found water," he joked.
"Thank you." Bonnie laughed.
"You ready to go?" Damon asked.
Bonnie nodded, and they began their journey again. They walked in the pouring rain for over thirty minutes not speaking to each other. Bonnie wondered if it would always be like this between them. The one liner responses. The looks, but no deep conversation or even general conversation about anything.
She watched as Damon grabbed and beat branches and limbs out of their way with a stick. She was noticing so much about him now; the way he walked, his intensity, and many facial expressions. For the first time ever, Bonnie was noticing Damon and she didn't seem to mind.
"What's on your mind?" She asked.
Damon kept walking. It took him a minute to answer. "Uh…not too much. Yours?"
"I'm hungry. I'm thirsty." She giggled. "Did you feed?" she asked.
"Uh…yeah," Damon lied.
"Well, you should have brought it back and cooked it for me." She chuckled again.
"I doubt you would want to eat what I had," he replied.
"What was it like?" Bonnie asked.
"I think it was the same animal that tried to make friends with you last night." He snickered.
"Ewwww!" Bonnie turned up her nose and Damon laughed.
"Yup, it tasted just like it looked." He continued to laugh.
Their awkward silence began again, and with it more rain along with roaring thunder. Bonnie's heart beat faster, and every time lightning would strike, she would jump, anticipating the sound of thunder to follow. Damon grew wearier as the storm raged on. The strings of electricity seemed to be heading right for them and the ground was too full to absorb the insurmountable amounts of rain still falling from the purplish gray sky.
"Come on." Damon flashed around to Bonnie and picked her up bridal style.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Bonnie chanted frantically as she clung tightly to her jacket. Damon looked down to their feet and Bonnie's eyes followed. They were ankle deep in water, and she was so preoccupied with her fear she didn't even notice. "Oh shit!" Bonnie exclaimed.
"Hold on tight, Bon Bon."
Bonnie swung her left arm around him and buried her head in his neck as she closed her eyes. Damon sped away from their current location. As the vampire flashed through the forest fighting against the weight of the water on his feet, branches and limbs brutally assaulted his face. For the first time in his life Damon prayed to a higher power that it would just give them a break.
He kept his eyes open to everything in front of him. Before he knew it, a steep drop was upon them, but he was confident that he could make the jump to the other side, so he full-steamed straight ahead. He knew he shouldn't take chances with Bonnie's life, but he had to get her to safety if it was the last thing he did with his pathetic life. He prayed to whatever higher power was listening to him, again that he'd make it. Damon pushed his foot against the ground and propelled himself forward.
He was soaring through the air with his legs waving wildly in the wind and Bonnie screamed at the top of her lungs along the way. Within seconds Damon landed on the ball of his feet right on the edge. His body rocked back towards the drop off. He tossed Bonnie up into the air and rocked his body forward and flashed underneath her, catching her as she fell back to the earth.
"Oh, my God!" Bonnie screamed in relief when she met Damon's arms and not the ground. The man's eyes widened at the woman in astonishment. They looked at each other and then burst into a fit of laughter. Damon quickly sobered when he saw an opening in a rock face ahead of them.
He took off, startling Bonnie as his body jerked forward. Damon had run for what seemed like forever. The cave looked so close before, but it was much further than he needed it to be. Thirty minutes later, they had finally made it. Now was the hard part, climbing the side of the rocky hillside to get to what was their salvation.
"Come on. You first!" Damon yelled against the thunder and the raging rain as water poured down his face.
"Okay!" Bonnie shouted back. She quickly put on her drenched jacket. She speedily felt around for a place in the rock facing to grip onto. She slowly began her climb and Damon took after her. An hour later they had finally made it to the opening. Bonnie climbed inside before grabbing the back of Damon's jacket, helping to pull him inside.
"Thank God! Thank God!" Bonnie smiled as her chest lifted and fell from her exertion. She was sated from their little adventure.
Damon stood up and looked out into the cave with his vampire sight. He was pleased to see that it was clear of any predators or foreign visitors and that there weren't any openings for anyone to sneak up on them, but he was sad to see that there were no rodents. What he wouldn't give for a juicy rat right now. He got to his knees and lay down. He smiled and then closed his eyes, glad to be out of the rain.
They slept until the next morning without flinching in their drenched clothes. Damon was the first to wake, sensing that the rain had stopped. The rain was enemy number one whilst he was out amongst it, but once inside the shelter of the cave it became a sleeping aid for him.
He looked over at Bonnie and listened in on her heartbeat to make sure she was okay. Once he knew she was alright, he took off to find them more food and water.
Getting down the rock face was much easier. Damon used his vampire abilities and leapt right out of the cave, landing on his feet. Once on the ground, he looked back up to the opening, worried. His need to protect Bonnie was instinct. He hated leaving her alone, but it was imperative that he find her food and water, and himself, too.
Without Bonnie he'd be all alone on his journey, and the thought of him returning home without Elena's best friend worried him. He needed to keep her safe…for Elena. He had convinced himself of this, and on more than one occasion.
He turned around to face the vast forest and then began his hunt. He had been walking for four hours and still hadn't found anything. He stopped for a spell and closed his eyes as he rested against a tree. He looked up at it. It was the first time he had noticed how ugly some of the trees in this place were.
The leaves on this tree looked like long green worms and the bark was much richer and darker in color than the ones he was familiar with. As he looked up at the tree, he finally noticed a creature that would be perfect to feed on, but there was one problem. It was twice his size.
He got to his feet and glared up at the thing. It looked like a primate, but its belly was made of reptilian skin and it had four legs instead of two. Its similar features were its two arms and two hands, but they had six fingers instead of five. The animal's face was somewhat flat, and it had a long ugly scar, two long teeth which looked like fangs which sat over its bottom lip, and it had round, beady black eyes. "You are one ugly looking thing," Damon murmured.
The creature roared at him as if it knew exactly what he had said.
"Oh yeah, why don't you come down here and say that to my face." Damon wiggled his eyes at the animal.
The creature looked at him and then took off. It jumped from tree to tree faster than any primate Damon had ever seen. He was sure that catching it would be next to impossible and even if he did catch the thing, feeding from it would be his next challenge. Damon decided to follow it to find out where it lived and what it ate. After several minutes, his little mission paid off. The tree the creature landed in looked much different than the others and it seemed to yield yellow-looking fruit.
The baboon-looking creature pulled a yellow ball from the tree and took a huge bite out of it, almost eating the entire fruit in one bite. Damon didn't know what it was, perhaps he was delirious, going crazy, or he was becoming suicidal, but he leapt up into the tree and landed not five feet away from the creature.
The animal looked at him and he looked at it. "You're not afraid of me," he uttered astoundingly. The stare off lasted for another two minutes before the animal became bored with Damon and then took off.
He decided to follow it a little longer to see what else it ate. After watching the animal for over an hour, Damon rushed back to the first tree. He liked the smell of the yellow fruit the most.
Damon took of his jacket and grabbed some of the fruit from the tree, placed a few pieces of the mysterious lovely-smelling food in his jacket, and took to the ground again. He searched around a little longer, finding more fruit of different shapes, sizes, and textures and finally stumbled upon a small lake. He grinned from ear to ear as he rubbed his hand feverishly over his mouth with excitement.
Finding the water was almost like finding gold. He knew there was no way Bonnie could live much longer without it and he wasn't ready to be without her. He made sure his jacket was tied securely and made his way back to Bonnie.
Back in the cave, Bonnie had woken up soon after Damon left. She paced worriedly for hours, nothing but morbid thoughts running through her mind. She imagined Damon being pulled from the cave and eaten. She then envisioned him searching for food and being accidentally impaled. So much had happened to all of them in the last few days in Mystic Falls that one couldn't help but always think the worst.
"Heads up!" Damon yelled and then swung his jacket over his head, throwing the provisional backpack roughly into the cave. It missed Bonnie by inches. He jumped inside and stood at the cave entrance smirking proudly at his accomplishment as he rested his hands on his hips. Bonnie beamed immediately, flashing him a dazzling smile. She ran to him, swinging her arms around him.
"Thank god you're okay!"
Damon stood paralyzed, astounded by the warm reception as he held his hands in the air not sure of what to do with them. He quickly wrapped his arms around Bonnie as he closed his eyes. He partially smiled as he rocked her in his arms. He didn't know why, but it felt good being wrapped in her embrace. Being accepted by Bonnie Bennett made Damon feel like he had arrived. If she, an angel, could care about him, how could he not feel special?
"So, what did you get?" Bonnie pulled away from him, rudely jarring Damon back to the present before she rushed back to the food.
"Uh…uh…uh," Damon stuttered. He hurriedly shook himself back to reality and then rushed over to Bonnie to inspect the fruits with her.
"Okay…let's see what we have," he dragged out as he kneeled in front of the produce.
"I saw some weird primate looking thing eating on this one, but I don't want you to eat any of it until I taste it first. I need to make sure it's not poisonous," he explained.
"Poisonous? But what if it is and you die?" Bonnie widened her eyes in horror.
"I'm a vampire sweetheart. I'll just come back to life," Damon said nonchalantly.
"No, Damon, what if it kills you, kills you?"
"Then, I'll be dead," Damon mocked.
"Damon," Bonnie grunted, leaning her head to the side as she gave the man an annoyed look.
"Don't worry, Bon Bon. It's cool. Be cool." Damon tried to ease her mind.
Bonnie nodded, and Damon picked up one of the yellow fruits that he picked from the tree and then bit in to it. He chewed on it slowly before swallowing. He looked at Bonnie seriously, not flinching or moving a muscle. He then grabbed his neck and began to choke.
"Oh God, I'm dying," he strained.
"Damon! Damon!" Bonnie panicked.
But he could no longer keep up the act. He burst into a fit of laughter and Bonnie started beating him across the back.
"Really, Damon," Bonnie grumbled.
Damon continued to laugh as he laid on the floor grabbing his gut. "Oh God, you should have seen the look on your face." He sobered as he propped himself upon his elbow.
"Don't talk to me for the next hour," Bonnie warned angrily.
"Awwww, don't be that way, Bon Bon."
"Give me this damn fruit." Bonnie snatched the fruit away from Damon and then took a big bite. "Wow, it's really good." She chewed greedily.
"You will also be happy to know that I found a tiny lake, too. We can clean the meat out of this fruit and use it to bring you back some water," Damon suggested as he pointed to a large oval shaped fruit with black thick skin. It felt as hard as a rock. If he hadn't seen the animal eat the fruit, he would have never guessed it were edible.
"Is it edible?"
"The animal ate it so I'm going to go with yes," Damon answered.
Bonnie ate her fill before they left the cave to gather up water and wood and anything else that would make the cave more comfortable.
"Are we almost there?" Bonnie asked.
"Yes, it's just a few more yards up," Damon responded.
"Have you fed?" Bonnie asked.
Damon squinted in thought; his back was to Bonnie. He couldn't quite understand why she cared so much about his wellbeing, but it made him smile. He never thought in a million years that she would care about him. It was comforting to know that someone other than his brother and Elena cared about whether he lived or died.
His thoughts quickly went from Bonnie caring for him to more negative ones, like Bonnie only caring because he was the muscle. She couldn't make it on this planet alone, so of course she wanted to make sure he was well fed. He rolled his eyes. "Okay, we're here," he stated unemotionally, his thoughts manipulating his once happy demeanor.
"Oh wow." Bonnie beamed. "It's beautiful, Damon." Bonnie looked at him and smiled. All her beautiful pearly white teeth on display.
Damon looked at her with a scowl, her smile immediately instigated a much more pleasant disposition and his scowling appearance was soon one of yearning and affection. Bonnie sighed nervously under his intense, intimidating gaze. They stared at each for a moment, Bonnie's face childlike and Damon's one of desire.
He was so oblivious to what he was doing. Bonnie bashfully cut her eyes away and then walked towards the water. Damon's eyes traveled with her. She kneeled and dipped her fingers down in to the lake. The vampire quickly regained his senses, his protective instincts kicking in instantly. He didn't trust anything with Bonnie unless he had a trial run at it first.
"Be careful. We don't know what lurks beneath." Damon wriggled his eyebrows at her, a smirk flashing across his face.
Bonnie looked back at him before snatching her fingers from the water.
"Well, are you going to taste the water, today, or wait until I die of dehydration?" Bonnie joked.
Damon moved over to the water and dipped the shell of the black fruit down into it before taking a big gulp.
"Ooh, wow. Delicious." He closed his eyes and licked his lips.
"Give me some," Bonnie scuttled out.
"Wait, wait. We need to boil all the impurities out first before you drink it," Damon cautioned.
"This water looks gorgeous. There is nothing wrong with it," Bonnie said in frustration.
"You're not drinking the water until we boil it. Now help me collect some wood."
"Ugh," Bonnie grunted.
They spent the better part of the day collecting materials for the cave. Damon even made a rope out of vines to help carry up Bonnie's water. Growing up in the early 1800's came in handy.
While Bonnie collected some of the large leaves that grew on a rather weird looking bush, Damon decided to hunt for something to feed on. He ran into his little friend, again. The creature seemed to take a liking to Damon. He was sure if it was the exact same beast as before because it had the same scar across its cheek, in the same place.
The vampire finally lucked up and found one of the creatures that tried to befriend Bonnie two nights ago. The animal moved slowly about the ground. It was two feet long and about five inches around. It had no eyes, but it had antenna. It was like a snail or a leech. Damon didn't want to feed from the thing, but it was his only option, that or desiccate which would make him of no use to himself or Bonnie. He finally decided to act, but sadly, this animal was faster than the blink of an eye.
It could sense the vibrations on the forest floor. As soon as Damon's foot hit ground the creature took off. It was gone without a trace.
"Fuck! Fuck!" Damon shouted and kicked a tree.
He looked to the tree and his other friend was still there. "What the hell are you looking at?!" Damon yelled. The creature didn't flinch.
As Bonnie collected items for their cave, she thought about Damon and giving him her blood. She stopped in the middle of what she was doing as her mind went back to the night, he attacked her. She swallowed hard and rubbed the side of her neck where Damon had bit her.
She'd never been so afraid in all her life. Seeing Damon flash to her with his red eyes and long fangs made her shiver. She then perked up a bit. He had found other sources to supply himself with the things his body needed so he really didn't need her blood. She sighed in relief.
"Are you ready?" Damon came marching up on Bonnie, a scowl on his face.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, why?" He halted, turning quickly to her and pushing his brow into his forehead.
"You seem angry?" Bonnie asked worriedly.
"It's nothing. I just can't stand the taste of the creatures, here," Damon lied and then forced a smile.
"Well…maybe you could-," Bonnie stopped mid-sentence. She didn't want to open that door. The thought of Damon feeding on her not only frightened her somewhat, but she was afraid that she might like it, and it would make things for them awkward once they found a way back home.
"Yeah, what is it?" Damon squinted his eyes in thought. He was hoping that Bonnie would plead with him to feed from her. He was so ready for her to open that door, so he could apologize to her and promise to be gentle with her. "Bonnie," he called sweetly to her again, trying to coach the words out of Bonnie's mouth.
"I was going to say that maybe we'll get lucky and you'll run into some different animals," Bonnie said hesitantly.
"Yeah," Damon slightly nodded. "Maybe I should scout a little further out," he said disappointedly.
"Well we better go. It's starting to get dark." Bonnie swung her makeshift backpack over her shoulder and swiftly walked passed Damon en-route to their cave.
Damon stared out into the forest with a wounded look on his face before following her.
::::::
Later that night, Damon built them a nice small fire in the center of the cave. He didn't want to make it too big because of the heat it generated, but it was enough to give them a little light and to boil Bonnie's water. The shell of the black fruit was perfect for heating it up. Bonnie sacrificed her cell phone so that Damon could make a blade with the parts, and they both built up a nice pallet on the ground with the leaves they collected, using their jackets for pillows.
They remained quiet for the better part of the evening and spent most of the night staring at each other and making their little cave a temporary home. Bonnie smiled, all the while, and hummed to herself as she cut up her fruit on a large piece of bark from one of the trees. Damon was inventive and had worked so hard to make life comfortable for them.
The little woman sat up against the cave wall and ate while Damon watched. She became nervous under his gaze, immediately stopping and putting her food down beside her.
Damon cocked a brow curiously. "What's wrong?"
"You're staring," Bonnie murmured.
"My bad." Damon held his hands up in defense before crawling over to their produce, checking their inventory.
Bonnie was amused. "What are you doing?"
"I'm bored." Damon widened and narrowed his eyes incredulously at Bonnie's question.
"Have you tried this purple fruit?" he asked.
"No, it's too cute to eat."
Damon pushed his brow in to his forehead as she giggled her amusement.
"It's too cute to eat? I'll have to remember that one. Well, I'm going to try it, make sure it's safe for you," Damon replied.
"Okay," Bonnie nodded.
Damon rinsed the fruit off with a little water and then took a small bite of it. "Hmm, it's pretty good," he said and then sat back up against the wall. They both sat quietly for a nice, long, pleasant moment.
Bonnie went back to eating her food and Damon continued to eat the fruit, and the more he ate the blurrier his vision became. "Oh, wow." Damon shook his head and blinked his eyes rapidly trying to shake off the weird feeling.
"Hey, hey, try this," Damon said, slurring his words as he crawled drunkenly over to Bonnie.
"Uh…are you okay?" Bonnie looked at him oddly.
"Oh yeah." Damon wiggled his eyes. "Here, just eat it; eat it Bonnie." Damon all but pushed the fruit in to her mouth.
"Oh, my God. Are you high?" she stated in a high-pitched voice.
"Only, only a little." He pushed his finger and thumb together showing Bonnie how intoxicated he was.
"I am not eating that," she argued.
Damon glared at Bonnie. "You have always been a little uptight bitch," he stammered for words.
Bonnie gasped. She crawled quickly to the produce and grabbed one of the fruits and took a big bite of it. She then took another, and Damon did the same. Fifteen minutes later Bonnie was feeling woozy and her vision was blurred.
"Who's the uptight bitch, now? You, dumbass?" Bonnie stated through gritted teeth.
"Oh, my God. You are so violent," Damon said unbelievably.
The fruit not only made them high it began to lower their inhibitions, forcing them to reveal their deepest desires, the thoughts running around in the four corners of their minds.
"I'm never going to see Jeremy, again," she sniveled.
"I'm never going to see Elena, again. I want to have sex with her," he revealed gloomily.
"You two have sex a lot?" she asked.
"Yeah, she's not good in bed. She's a selfish lover, but it's Elena," Damon answered.
"Jeremy's not good in bed either," Bonnie said sadly.
Their conversation suddenly took a turn for the worst.
"Jeremy is a lying, cheating dog. I should have killed him when I had the chance," he avowed, infuriated.
Bonnie's mouth went ajar. She stared at Damon before getting to her knees and slapping him with all her strength across the face.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Damon yelled as he jumped to his feet.
"You tried to kill me!" Bonnie screamed before tackling the unsuspecting vampire. Damon went flying into the wall. He pushed Bonnie away from him by her head and held her at arm's length as she swung wildly at him.
"I saved your life! Stop punishing me!" Damon shoved her to the floor.
"Everything you've done for me was for Elena! I've saved all of your lives repeatedly, and none of you even care if I died!" Bonnie screamed at the top of her lungs.
"I brought you back to life for me! You are so damn ungrateful! You are no saint, Bonnie!" Damon shouted back, his face flushed with anger as spittle shot from his mouth.
"Elena is not your light! She hasn't changed you! She's a selfish bitch and you care more about her than your own brother!" Bonnie jumped to her feet, shouting, her eyes moistened with anger.
Just as soon as their anger started, it stopped.
Bonnie looked at Damon vacantly and began laughing. She dropped to the floor, grabbing her gut and Damon followed. They laughed violently for over ten minutes for no apparent reason as the fruit played with the chemicals in their brains.
"Why are we laughing?" Bonnie asked, trying to sober herself.
"I have no idea." Damon laughed. "It hurts. It hurts." He rocked his body on the floor, trying to work out the pain in his abdomen before crashing back to the wall.
A different feeling began to work its way over them. Bonnie felt hot and flustered. She pulled off her blouse and quickly crawled over to Damon and straddled him.
"I've always wanted you," she panted in his face as she feverishly touched his lips. "Don't you want me? Please say you want me?"
Damon quickly rolled Bonnie onto her back and ran his hand feverishly over her face and rubbed his thumb roughly over her lips, pulling at them with such passion and force as Bonnie rotated her hips feverishly underneath him.
"I want you so bad. I want you, Bonnie. I want you," he revealed, weakly, his eyes moistened. He drifted down to Bonnie for a kiss and before his lips could touch hers, they both passed out.
When they came to, it was the next day. Damon was the first to wake, again. He saw Bonnie and himself shirtless and he freaked. All he could remember from last night was counting produce, everything else was a blank. He spotted two pieces of half eaten fruit, laying in the dirt.
"Ugh," he growled at it before throwing them out the cave. He hurriedly put on his shirt and then Bonnie's.
She moaned a little, but he was so quick that she went easily back to sleep. He picked her up and laid her down on her leaves after removing the plate of fruit from her provisional bed. He then gathered up the remainder of the fruit and stood at the edge of the cave to throw all of it out as far as it would go.
Damon instantly began to wonder what had happened between him and Bonnie. Their pants were still on, so he was thankful for that. The last thing he wanted to do was cheat on Elena. But he still couldn't shake the fact that something happened. He wanted to know so badly, needed to know. Then he wondered why he needed to know.
If they shared a passionate kiss or if they declared that they loved each other because of some poisonous fruit, then so what. How would that change anything? Damon laughed hilariously in thought. There was no way Bonnie Bennett could love him, and the only woman for him was Elena, because no other woman could.
Damon scratched his head, then looked back at Bonnie before slowly walking over to her. He kneeled and without thought he threaded his fingers through her hair, and then trailed them down her face. He smiled as he caressed her.
"God, you are so beautiful," he said languorously. The words had escaped his lips, but he never knew that he felt that way.
She began to stir, moaning and then snapping her head to the opposite side. Damon speeded away from her and back to the edge of the cave.
"Oh, my God. Why does my mouth taste like I've been eating sewage?" Bonnie sat up slowly and looked out into the cave, still tired.
"You alright?" Damon smiled as he turned around to her.
"Ask me after I've had my morning coffee." Bonnie snickered. Damon laughed.
"I'm going hunting. You need anything?"
"I'm good, but thank you, Damon." Bonnie got up and walked towards him. "I mean, thank you for everything. I don't know what or how I would have managed without you," she declared sweetly as they stared in each other's eyes.
"No need to thank me," Damon replied softly.
Bonnie swung her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly to her. Damon quickly returned the embrace before rubbing the back of her head tenderly. He pulled away and took her by the shoulders.
"I'm going to build you a shower." Damon winked.
Bonnie grabbed her chest, astounded, her mouth ajar.
Damon leapt from the cave and landed on his feet. He looked back up and waved at Bonnie before flashing away.
::::::
A month later, going by Damon's watch, he still had not fed. He was incredibly weak. His skin had turned a greyish color and his lips were cracked and dry. But he kept up the act that he was feeding, and Bonnie wanted to believe this because she, too, like Damon, was afraid. They still had not expressed those fears to each other.
Besides Damon's feeding problem. Things seemed to be going quite well. They still hadn't run in to any hostile animals or people, but they hadn't really explored too far away from the cave, either.
Damon's little friend still followed him. There were some days when the animal sat on the forest floor not five feet away from him and watched while Damon worked on Bonnie's shower. It was taking him much longer to construct it than he thought. The fact that he couldn't function because of his unbelievable hunger was solely to blame.
"Damon, have you fed, today?" Bonnie asked uneasily as she sat on her leaf bed trying to make a basket out of twigs and vines.
"Uh, yeah," he answered. "Um…um." Damon cleared his dry throat as he rested on his own bed.
"If you're feeding, then why does your skin look so lifeless?" Bonnie stated disbelievingly.
"I think it's the animals on this planet. Once I find something different to feed on, I should be okay, but I do feel strong." He smiled at her.
"Well, maybe…" Bonnie's suggestion for him to feed from her was right at the tip of her tongue, but the binding fear and guilt that dwelled in her kept her from making that giant leap forward and doing what was necessary to help both her and Damon.
"Maybe what?" Damon asked in a weakened voice.
"Maybe you should…you should venture further out." Bonnie blasted herself in thought. Why was she being such a wimp?
Damon looked at her with sad eyes. "Yeah, I will. I better go and work on your shower." He smiled and then got to his feet and walked slowly to the entrance of the cave.
"Damon," Bonnie quickly got to her feet. "Please, hurry home, and take care of yourself."
Damon nodded and then leaped out of the cave. He stood frozen once his feet hit the ground. He felt like passing out, but he couldn't do it in front of the cave. He flashed away from the rock face and this time he ventured out further than he had ever been since they had taken refuge in the cave.
This part of the forest was much thicker. The trees were more beautiful. Here he found more of those primates, and they didn't seem to mind him being in their territory. He finally spotted his friend. He had just arrived. Damon smiled because he was sure that the creature had been following him.
Damon kept going. He didn't stop. He had to feed. He had to. Sadly, he was down to his last drops. He stopped abruptly; he fell against the tree. "No. no." His eyelids became heavy as his body drifted down to the ground.
Back in the cave, Bonnie paced the floor frantically. Damon had been gone for hours. There was no way to tell how long, but night had fallen. In this moment, Bonnie could swear that she heard her grams blasting her for her behavior. Bonnie grabbed a stick and the makeshift knife.
She bravely climbed down the rock face. Once on the ground, she stared out into the night. She sighed as she closed her eyes and ran as fast as her feet would carry her. She was thankful for the three moons hanging in the sky.
They gave her the much-needed light to make her way through the forest on a trail that she and Damon had traveled many times before, another thing she felt grateful for. Bonnie had run for over two hours, frantically looking for Damon. She stopped dead in her tracks, forcefully grabbing her hair and then hit the ground.
"Grams, please! I need you!" Bonnie cried. "Damon!" She screamed. "Damon, I need you! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! Please, be okay." Bonnie violently cried in the middle of the forest, spittle shooting from her mouth, and liquid dripping from her nose as she bawled her eyes out. It wasn't all about being alone. It wasn't only about needing Damon. There was something deeper driving her to find him, to save him.
Back on the other side of the forest, Damon was fighting to stay awake.
"Bonnie." A tear escaped his left eye and rolled down the side of his temple and in to his ear. "Bonnie, I need you. Please," he pleaded.