I'm so sorry! I suck. I meant to get this chapter out a week ago but RL kicked my arse! so here's the chapter, I really hope that you enjoy it, I loved writing this one.

As always others own these characters, ArabellaWhitlock owns any good grammar you see here, and I own my vivid imagination. :)

Firework

The Deal

I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing again, I reached for it without opening my eyes and pulled it under the covers with me. My head was pounding, my mouth tasted like shit, I was feeling sick, and I was never, ever drinking again. It caused the strangest dreams I'd ever had.

"Hello?" I answered, god my mouth was so dry.

"Morning kiddo! You okay, you don't sound so good." Charlie said down the line, his voice holding a smile in it.

"I'm not." I moaned, speaking without thinking, in my defence my head was thumping so loudly it drowned my thoughts out. "I'm hungover."

"Hungover?" Dad said sternly. Shit! I'd not even thought! Oh crap. Now I was in for a lecture. "You were drinking?" He sounded angry now.

"Erm... I only had a couple dad. I'm sorry, I was just at a party and... I... Er... I'm sorry." I pleaded, feeling like crap.

Charlie's laugh came swimming down the line to me, warm and soothing. "I'm just pulling your leg kiddo, it was about time you broke a rule or two, you're eighteen in a couple of weeks after all. Just don't make a habit out of it and let your hangover be the lesson okay?"

"Sure." I mumbled, feeling slightly put out. I'd thought he was gonna shout at me and here he was laughing.

"Now get some paracetamol, some greasy food, water and some more sleep. Then ring me after your first day at school tomorrow okay kiddo?" Charlie said, his voice full of humour and love.

"Sure dad. Love you." I say.

"Love you too Bells." Dad replied before hanging up the phone.

I stayed under the covers and closed my eyes. More sleep sounded like really good advice right about now.

"Your dad's right you know. You really should eat something and have some water. From what I can remember hangovers are a bitch." I sat straight up, my heart pounding in my throat to look at Damon who was watching me with a smirk.

"Damon! What the hell are you doing in my...?" I trailed off from my angry shouting when I realised I wasn't actually in my room. I didn't know where I was. The room was really elegant, everything in it was dark wood and looked really old, it gave me a feeling of being cosy and safe. Which considering I didn't know how the hell I'd ended up here or even where here was, was a little odd. "Where am I?" I managed to ask, my heart rate calming down to an almost normal pace when I noticed that I was still in my clothes from last night. I was guessing that meant I hadn't done anything too stupid. I was never drinking again.

"You are in my bedroom wild cat... Hmmm... I like one." Was he insane, how did he flip from one subject to another so quickly, it was enough to make my head pound even harder.

"How am I in your bedroom? What happened? Oh god we didn't...?" I couldn't even finish that sentence, worry and dread filling me. I didn't want my first time to be with an asshole who couldn't have cared less about me, and I wanted to be able to remember it. Never, ever drinking again.

"Don't freak out on me, we didn't do anything." Damon drawled while rolling his eyes, leaning against an old looking chest of draws. "You fell asleep downstairs and I carried you to bed."

"You carried me to bed?" I asked, slightly embarrassed but more confused, why would he do something so nice? That really wasn't an action that I would expect from Damon.

"Well yeah. You were sleeping in my chair and I wanted to sit down." Damon shrugged it off.

"Right..." I said sarcastically back. "Okay well thanks, but I guess I better go home." I tried moving from the bed but every little movement sent pain flooding through my head. God dammit, hangovers really hurt! No wonder people bitched about them.

"I'll go get you some paracetamol and some water Wild Cat, just relax." Damon said walking to the door, he then turned back and smirked at me. "You look good in my bed Klutz, but you'd look better without those clothes on. So get them off before I get back." He winked and then left the room. I groaned and collapsed back onto the pillows. My brain wasn't working nearly fast enough to be verbally sparring with Damon this morning, and he just wasn't going to give up was he?

Damon was either back quicker than humanly possible or I'd fallen back to sleep for a minute or five, as when I opened my eyes again he was walking across the room towards me with a glass of water, a bottle of painkillers and a plate of toast. He placed them on the bedside table closest to me and sat on the end of the bed watching as I greedily downed the water, like a man in the desert dying of thirst.

"I'm surprised Wild Cat." Damon smirked at me as I saved a little of the water to take my tablets with.

"About what?" I asked after I'd swallowed two of the little white pills, hoping that they'd stop the thumping pain behind my eyeballs.

"That you aren't asking me a hundred and one questions." Damon smirked at me again.

I shrugged before speaking and picking up the toast. "I probably will do once I've woken up." I admitted, curiosity edging in as I started feeling slightly more human.

We sat in silence while I ate my toast, I used that time to look around the room more. The one thing I noticed was that there wasn't really any personal belongings in the room. Sure there were his clothes, and more books than I owned (which was saying something) but there weren't any pictures, no little trinkets or keepsakes, nothing that would have shown me that Damon lived here. With a slight pang I realised that it was almost exactly like my room back at Alaric's house. You could tell someone lived there, but not who they were. Like they were living but without a reason, without any life behind it. Maybe Damon and I were more alike than I'd thought?

"How did we get here last night? Why didn't I go home?" I asked after my toast was finished. That bugged me slightly, not having any memories. I didn't like knowing that I was missing some of my life, and some of my actions.

"You can't be serious!" Damon exclaimed to me wide-eyed.

"What!?" I asked panicking again, what had I done?

"You are serious aren't you Bella?" Damon said looking shocked and sounding serious which worried me a little. That and he'd used my actual name without it sounding sarcastic for once.

"What!? What did I do?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" He asked me.

"We were at the party, you'd gone outside because there was a fight, you told me to wait... I got talking to some people... Then Caroline came to get me... Hang no, I think that bit was a dream." I said, struggling to remember when my night had actually stopped and when it had merged with my crazy ass dream from last night.

Damon sighed and rolled his eyes before laying out on the bed, a little too close to me for me to be comfortable. But I was, his closeness made me feel safe for some unfathomable reason. "It wasn't a dream Isabella. Last night, all real." Huh, what was real? "You're dream, I'm guessing it was about vampires, werewolves and witches right?" I nodded with my mouth open how did he know? "It wasn't a dream Klutz, it happened. The whole who's a vampire and who's not mystery reveal, you sharing your secrets about shiny boy ex, it was all real."

"Shit." I mumbled.

Damon gasped making me look up at him quickly, his face was arranged to look shocked but his eyes were burning with amusement. "Surely not! The sweet, innocent Isabella Swan didn't just curse then did she? That would be scandalous!"

"Funny." I rolled my eyes at him, but inside I was burning with anger. Why was it that everyone assumed I was so sweet and innocent? So breakable and fragile, not able to handle this world? I could swear, I could drink and I could deal with vampires!

"Thanks, I like to think I'm hilarious." Damon smirked at me.

"So you're really a vampire?" I asked, not as scared as I should be. Not scared at all to be honest. I'd always had odd reactions to supernatural elements when they were brought into my life though.

"Yup." Damon popped the 'p'. "And you really dated a cold one."

"Yup." I answered exactly the same as he did, a little shocked when I realised that thinking about him didn't hurt as much as it had done yesterday. "You never explained how you can walk in the sun yesterday, you said that your type of vampires burn in it?"

"I did explain, but you'd fallen asleep." Damon said sounding exasperated with me, but the light in his eyes told me differently. I thought that maybe Damon was enjoying having someone to talk who didn't actively and openly dislike him. He must have been quite lonely, I knew I had been when I'd had no-one to speak to.

"You want to tell me now?" I asked hopefully. "I promise not to fall asleep and everything." I smiled at him.

"You should do that more often." Damon said thoughtfully while looking at me.

"What ask you questions or tease you. Cause that second one I've been doing everytime I speak to you." I quipped.

"No smile. Makes you look ravishing." Damon said, his cocky tone missing.

"Thanks, I'll try. Now are you gonna tell me or am I going to have to guess?" I asked interested in his answer. Interested in everything to do with this new type of vampire that I was just learning existed. You think the Cullen's could have told me that other mythical creatures existed, at least then I'd have been prepared. After all I was so much a danger magnet that I was bound to encounter them one day.

"I'll tell you, but you might wanna shower first Wild Cat." Damon told me while wrinkling his nose. He had a point, I'd been sleeping in these clothes and I felt horrible, I must have smelt worse, especially to a vampire.

"Oh, yeah, sure." I agreed slightly embarrassed. "Erm..."

"Bathrooms through that door, there are clean towels and the spare toothbrushes are under the sink." Damon smirked at me.

"Spare toothbrushes?" I asked confused.

"Well ladies don't usually think to bring one when they come home with me." Damon told me with a wink. I blushed when I worked out what he meant, which made his smile grow even wider.

I got out of the bed and into the bathroom as quickly as I could, closing the door firmly behind me and leaning my head against it with a sigh. How did Damon hold so much power over my reactions? I didn't like it, it was starting to feel unhealthy for me.

Though at least I felt like I could be myself around him, unlike the last vampires that I'd known.

I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings. The only word was wow. This was the most amazing bathroom I'd ever seen.

There was his and hers sinks, a walk in power shower wet room thing and a huge tub that looked like it had a jacuzzi feature. The whole room was done out in luxurious terracotta marble tiles. It was beautiful. And at complete odds to what I'd think Damon would have, then again he was all about image, so maybe it did make sense.

I climbed into the shower quickly and started washing, it was the most relaxing shower I'd ever taken. The stress that I didn't even know I had washed away along with the remainder of my hangover.

When I eventually got out I grabbed a towel and found myself one of Damon's spare toothbrushes, he had piles of them. How lucky did he think he was going to get? I also used his brush to try and tame my unruly hair.

After I finished my bathroom routine and dried myself I turned for my clothes. Only to find they weren't there.

I looked around the vast bathroom confused. I was sure I'd put them... Anger burned fiery red in my veins as I realised what had happened. I helped myself to a silk red robe that was hung on the back of the door before storming out of the room, as pissed as I'd ever been.

"What the hell Damon! Where are my clothes! And why the fuck did you think you could come into the bathroom while I was in the shower!?" I shouted at the vampire who was lying on the bed with his hands behind his head. He turned to look at me with a smirk on his face and opened his mouth, but before he could give me a cocky or smart ass reply I started shouting again. "And don't give me any shit about how it's your bathroom and therefore you can go in when ever you like! It was a complete invasion of privacy! You fucking pervert!" I was as mad as hell.

"Chill Wild Cat, I didn't go in there." Damon smirked at me, his eyes rolling as he spoke.

"Really?" I asked sarcastically while crossing my arms over my chest. "Then my clothes just magically walked out did they?"

"I asked Blondie to get them so I could wash them. You really stank Klutz." Damon explained making me blush bright red.

"Sorry." I muttered looking at the floor feeling mortified.

"Stop saying sorry, it's really annoying. And besides I did think about it." He said to me while patting the bed next to him with another smirk.

I looked at him and weighed my options, I could sit down and maybe get some answers, after all Damon did say that he would tell me. Or I could walk home in the red robe that I'd borrowed and hope everyone had gone temporarily blind. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen was it? With a sigh I sat the other end to Damon pulling my legs up to my chest and faced him.

"So you were going to tell me about how you can walk in the sun?" I asked after we'd sat looking at each other in silence for a few minutes, the smirk never leaving Damon's face, the blush that I couldn't prevent never leaving mine.

Damon looked at me, his face turning serious, he studied my face, looking for something. "We can walk in the sun because of these." He told me carefully while extending his hand and showing me a ring that he wore. It was a dark blue colour, one that was almost unique, it sat in a handsome gold casing, one that was totally Damon.

"So you've got a magical ring?" I asked, wanting to make sure that I understood correctly.

"Yup." Damon agreed while laughing, I didn't get the joke so I ignored him, still studying the blue stone on his finger.

"So a witch made this for you?" I looked back at him.

"Yeah." I was starting to get annoyed with the one word answers, it was like trying to get answers out of them in the beginning.

"So let me make sure I've got this straight. Bonnie's a witch. Tyler's a werewolf. You, Stefan and Caroline are vampires?" I asked.

"In a nut shell Wild Cat." Damon wasn't taking his eyes off me, it was like he was waiting to see when I'd freak out. He'd be waiting a long time for that, it had yet to happen.

"How old are you all?" They way they spoke and their mannerisms at times made me believe that maybe Damon and Stefan were fairly old, maybe not as old as him, but still in the grand scheme of things quite old. Caroline though... She just seemed seventeen to me in every way.

"Caroline is seventeen, I'm twenty-four and Stefan is seventeen as well." Damon told me with an eye roll.

"Funny." I repeated myself from earlier. "How old are you all really?" I was unconsciously leaning forward while waiting for the answer.

"Stefan and I are around the five hundred mark. Caroline is still seventeen. How old are you?" Damon asked me while cocking an eyebrow.

"Seventeen, I told you." I said before carrying on my inquest, I wasn't interesting, he was and I wanted to know more. I wanted to know everything. "So Caroline's been recently turned then? How did that happen? Are you and Stefan really brothers or just saying you are? How did you get turned?" I was finding it so hard to believe that Stefan and Damon were over five hundred years old. They sure didn't act it. Five hundred years, what must they have seen in that time? What was their favourite era? I wanted to know it all. I knew there was something strange about Damon, that he was a puzzle, but I wasn't expecting this.

"And there it is." Damon sighed and rolled his eyes as though he was disappointed in me.

"What?" I asked feeling slightly self conscious. What had I done wrong? Was it bad etiquette to ask those questions? I wouldn't know he use to hate me asking any type of question about his life at all. Maybe all vampires were the same, even different species.

"The hundred and one questions. It's like the Spanish inquisition all over again." Damon told me with another roll of his amazing blue eyes.

"Sorry." I muttered, I didn't want to annoy him with my questions. I liked annoying him but that was when we were joking around, not like this.

"That's even more infuriating." Damon said, his voice holding frustration. "How about we make a deal?"

I didn't quite trust his voice, it held too much mischief, just like his eyes did. "What deal?" I wasn't agreeing to anything unless I knew all the details, and the loopholes. I wanted to see the strings before he attached them.

"First off you don't say sorry for the rest of the day and I'll answer any questions you have. Unless I don't want to of course." He smirked at me.

"Okay, no deal. What if you don't want to answer any of them?" I could see his get out clause there.

"Alright, I'll answer any questions you have about vampires either ones, and I'll tell you some of our stories. But not everything." Damon negotiated.

"Why?"

"I've got to have some mystery otherwise you might find me boring Miss Swan." Again with the smirk.

"Yeah right." I muttered.

"You are right. That's never gonna happen, I am amazing."

"Amazingly arrogant." I quipped back with a smile, at ease again now. I knew this part, I knew what was expected of me and I knew how to react.

"So do we have a deal?" Damon asked ignoring my comment.

"Not until you tell me what the rest of the conditions are." I wasn't falling for that, he said first of all, that meant there was more, and as much as I was beginning to like Damon, or at least not dislike him, I didn't trust vampires. I wasn't sure if I ever would again.

"You're observant even with a hangover. I don't think I like that." Damon smiled at me, impressed it looked like.

"The conditions..." I prompted.

"You're no fun when you're demanding, or not like this anyway." His eyebrows rose and his smirk got wider, I didn't change my expression though, not falling for his trap. "Fine. My other condition is that you come out with me for a night after you first week of school."

Huh? That one I didn't get. Why would that be a condition? "What do you mean, like as friends or...?" I couldn't finish my sentence. Please let it be as friends, please let it be as friends.

"No not on a date don't panic Wild Cat. But you're fun when you're drunk. And I could use a night out without having to compel someone after or have someone nag me about my actions." Damon said, there was truth in his words, but something else hidden behind them as well. If I didn't know any better I'd assume that Damon was as lonely as I was.

"No funny business?" I asked with a frown.

Damon laughed at me. "No funny business." He drawled out sarcastically with his smirk. "Unless you ask me for it Isabella."

"Yeah, that one right there, not gonna happen." I responded. "Okay you've got yourself a deal."

"What do you want to know first then Klutz?"

~0~

3rd Person P.O.V.

Stefan had been keeping an ear trained on the noises coming from Damon's room ever since Bella had received the phone call from her father. He and Elena were sat in the lounge with Caroline and Jeremy talking about the events from last night and the girl that they all considered a friend.

"How's she handling everything?" Elena asked her boyfriend when he started staring at the ceiling.

"She's fine, she just wants to know more." Stefan reassured her, but Elena thought he was holding back. Stefan was, he wasn't telling Elena how Bella and Damon seemed to be forming a close friendship based on insults and wit. How Bella was more damaged than anyone of them had previously realised.

"They really messed her up didn't they?" Jeremy intruded on Stefan's thoughts, the young man was more intuitive than anyone ever gave him credit for. He saw things that most other people missed.

"Yeah, they did." Stefan replied with a sigh. He wasn't going to tell them just how much though, he didn't want to betray Bella like that. Not when she'd accepted what they were without judging them, even after everything that she'd been through. Bella was strong, that was something Stefan was certain of.

"How could he leave her like that, say those things to her?" Elena asked quietly, her voice holding upset for her new friend, someone she was almost as close to as Bonnie and Caroline after only a week. At least now she had an idea of why, of why she felt so at ease around Bella. They were more similar, shared more than either of them could have possibly guessed.

"I don't know. But it's not true! Grr! I swear if I ever meet him, I'm gonna... Well I don't know what I'm gonna do but it's going to be really mean!" Caroline snapped out, her eyes furious.

Elena's phone started ringing cutting off any more conversation for a minute.

"Hello?" She answered. "Oh hi Ric. Yeah we're at the Salvatores... Sorry, I completely forgot...! No, but there's something that we should probably tell you and Jenna, and we're gonna need your help..." Elena started thinking about Jeremy's idea to train up Bella, it was a good plan, knowing how to defend yourself was never a bad idea, especially not when you lived in the supernatural world like her and Bella did.

"We'll come home and talk to you about it..." Elena glanced at Stefan in response to a question that Alaric asked on the other end, something that Jeremy couldn't hear. Stefan looked at the ceiling and smiled before turning back to Elena and shaking his head. "No, she's staying here for a little while longer..."

"How long?" Stefan asked no one in particular, looking at the ceiling once more. "He'll have her back in time for dinner." Stefan told Elena who repeated when Bella would be back for Alaric's sake.

When Elena hung up Jeremy turned with a frown on his face to Stefan. "What's up with them? Why's Damon being so... Not a dick? I don't get it."

Elena and Caroline looked to Stefan too, neither of them could understand the reasoning behind Damon and Bella's relationship either. Damon was still being an ass, more bearable than usual but still, and Bella seemed so nice, she was so nice, they'd both seen that. So how did they get along?

"They understand each other I guess." Stefan said thoughtfully, but in truth he wasn't quite so sure himself. All he knew was that Damon better watch his back, because if he played with Bella, if he hurt her, then Damon was going to have to face the rath of Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Jeremy and Tyler, even Stefan himself would defend the girl. She was too nice for his brothers game, too nice and too broken.

"Come on then, guess we better fill in Alaric and Jenna. That's gonna be a fun conversation." Jeremy said sarcastically while standing up.

~0~

Damon sat opposite Bella and talked, he talked for longer than he'd done in centuries. Every time he stopped talking Bella asked him another question.

He had to admit to himself that she was intersting. She was asking questions that no-one else had ever thought to ask him before. How did he feel about humans knowing his secrets? Did eternity ever get boring? What was his favourite era? These questions intersted Damon. She interested him.

After an hour or two Damon found himself doing something he hadn't done since Katherine. He found himself letting his guard down and enjoying talking to another being.

Damon eventually took Bella home in her freshly washed and dried clothes from last night. When they parted he reminded her of their deal, she wasn't to say sorry to anyone for the rest of today. And she also would be going out with him this weekend.

He was sure he'd see her before then, he was going to have to babysit her at some point after all. But still going home and sitting alone, even sitting with his little brother, now seemed dull and sad after the day he'd spent with Isabella.

Damon mentally berated himself. He was Damon fucking Salvatore for gods sake, he didn't need anyone but himself, blood and some bourbon.

Speaking of which... Maybe he'd stop by the sorority house tonight...?

So? I hope you liked that one, another one coming really soon this time, I almost promise. :) any questions, comments leave me a review, I'm crap at replying to anything other than the questions but I read and love each one. Plus I'm about ten minutes away from my first ever kickboxing match so your reviews will be my luck ;)

until next time, love always Tametiger x