As promised, here is 4.5. I needed to finish up I'm Yours before we move on... They needed to clear some things up anyway...

So all that I'm asking

Is that you handle me with caution

'Cause I don't give myself often…

The return trip to Mystic Falls was uneventful. On the outside, anyway.

It was after midnight when they hit the road but Bonnie still put her shades on and didn't take them off the entire trip.

Damon wasn't panicking or anything. If he'd learned anything from watching Bonnie's fight with Caroline it was that she needed time and space before she'd want to talk about what happened.

And he was fine with not talking about it. It wasn't like he needed to analyze what happened in that elevator. Or figure out if it would happen again. Or if she wanted it to happen again. Or if she wanted more and that's why she stopped them. Or if he wanted more too…

No he didn't need to talk about it at all. Instead, he cranked the music loud enough to drown out his thoughts and put pedal to metal, hauling ass back home.

As soon as the car stopped in her driveway, Bonnie was out the door and digging her bag out of the backseat.

When she straightened and closed the car door she saw him watching her over the roof of his car. "So, I'll uh- talk to you later, right?"

"Bonnie-" he began, but she stopped him.

"Don't Damon. Not tonight, alright. We have made it this far, so just do me a favor and just- sleep on it. Okay?" She begged of him and finally lowered her glasses so he could see her face. She didn't look angry or hurt, just tired, and tired he could deal with.

"I was just gonna say have a good night," he told her.

"Oh," she sighed and gave him an embarrassed smile. "Right. You too, Damon."

He watched her go up the steps to her porch before she turned back and hollered, "And thanks for the dress."

"Don't thank me, I'm returning it tomorrow!" He promised.

"Like hell! This baby's mine!" Bonnie finally graced him with a real smile before she stuck her tongue out at him and slammed the door.

"We'll see about that," he chuckled.

…

Cause I've had my heart

Broken before

And I promised I would never let me hurt anymore...

Bonnie spent the following week avoiding Damon whenever she could. She talked to him and they joked whenever they ran into each other at the Grille or Elena's, but that was it. She kept it light, traded a few quips, made note of the weather and who died last night, and then quickly left.

She was still trying to work out how she felt about that kiss.

That night after the gala, Bonnie lay awake thinking about it and reliving it in her head over and over. She was about fifty percent sure it wasn't just a hot daydream she had.

It just didn't make sense. It wasn't adding up to her. How could her and Damon go from being super platonic best buddies to him dry humping her in an elevator?

The more she thought about it she kept coming back to one conclusion: the dress.

The dress made him do it. It was too sexy. Bonnie had never worn a dress like that one before in her life, so she had no idea men would respond the way Damon did. It was lust, plain and simple.

But Cinderella was back from the ball and the dress and shoes were hanging in the back of her closet and things could go back to normal now…

Except…

The dress explained Damon's behavior… but did it explain hers as well?

Maybe the dress made her feel sexy, she reasoned with herself. And that made her open and susceptible to Damon's unmasked attraction.

By morning she had decided that this whole thing was all his fault. He dragged her on another useless research mission. He picked out the dress for her and the fuck me pumps. He's the one who couldn't control himself! If he had just left her alone, none of this would have happened and she wouldn't be stuck avoiding another good friend.

Bonnie decided to do Damon a favor and let him off the hook. She could just forget the whole thing ever happened and try to go back to being just friends. They never had to talk about it. Ever.

And that plan almost worked for her. She was all geared up to go back to being friends- but when Damon texted her later the following day to see if she wanted to get food, she found she couldn't respond. She didn't know what to say or how to say it and by the time she came up with something, more than an hour had passed and her window was gone. Now it would look like she was avoiding him. So she just never responded. Crawled under her covers and said screw it.

The next day was similar. She pumped herself up to go out and be the best friend she knew she could be and when she ran into Damon and Stefan at the Grille after school she played it so cool she came off like a total asshole. Like she didn't have the time of day to sit and talk to him for five minutes! That wasn't the plan at all, she wasn't intentionally blowing him off, she was trying to make things right but she was ruining it. She left the Grille hungry, didn't even stay to order food, she was so embarrassed.

Day three she was dealing with actual drama of the Mikaelson variety. Not Klaus, but Esther. She was intent on having Bonnie kill her children. She more or less kidnapped Bonnie to fill her in on her plan. Bonnie was out of cell range for hours since the Original Witch felt it necessary to drag her out to the woods to talk.

When she made it back to town her cell showed she had two missed calls from Damon. Bonnie sent him a lame apology text explaining that she hadn't seen he called till now. He didn't respond to that and she couldn't blame him.

But she did have to call a meeting of the minds to deal with the Esther situation.

Bonnie stopped at Elena's house, not even thinking of Jeremy when she rang the bell and was surprised when he showed up at the door.

It was every bit the awkward encounter she was avoiding. He hugged her and told her he missed her and she looked good and blah blah blah.

Bonnie made small talk until Elena came in from the kitchen and saved her.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" she exclaimed once they were alone in her room. "I don't think he would have let me leave if you hadn't showed up when you did."

Elena smirked, "He wants you back Bonnie, he's going to keep trying."

"It's not gonna happen. You should tell him that," Bonnie said.

"I've tried but he won't believe me. He thinks you guys are meant to be."

"I can't deal with him today. I came to tell you about something else." She filled Elena in on what Esther was planning and they talked a while and Elena said she was on her way to see Stefan, might as well fill him in. She offered to give Bonnie a ride over to the boarding house, but Bonnie claimed she had an errand to run and told Elena to call her with details.

Elena didn't think anything of it until she got to the boarding house and Damon grilled her about why Bonnie wasn't delivering this news herself.

"She said she had errands to run and couldn't come, what's the big deal?"

"It's no big deal," he ran a hand over his hair. "Tell me what she wants to do about Esther again."

And so the week went on like this until Damon decided he'd had enough of playing phone tag with the witch. They had actual business to handle and he needed her to get her shit together and actually talk to him.

I'm mad at you

For being so cute

And changing my mood

And altering my rude

What's wrong with you?

He tracked her down on Saturday morning but when he arrived at her house she wouldn't answer the door.

He figured he had two options here; break the door down and force her to her look him in the face, or he could try again later.

No, he was tired of later.

He let himself in, half expecting to find her hiding behind the door, but she wasn't there. He called to her upstairs and got no response, he searched the kitchen and found nothing.

He was ready to leave when he heard a hum from outside in the backyard. He pushed his hearing further and heard her soft singing. He stepped out the backdoor and found her.

He watched her a moment as she kneeled in her garden, fingers sunk deep into the earth, earbuds nestled in her ears.

Now or never, he thought before he went and stood over her.

Bonnie jumped and screamed at his shadow, fell to her butt. When she saw it was him her reaction wasn't much better.

"What's wrong Bonnie? You look like you've seen a ghost," he kept his face neutral, he would give nothing away, just like she had given him nothing all week.

"What the hell, Damon? You scared the crap outta me!" Bonnie stood up to brush dirt off her knees and backside. Damon found it a little harder to remain impassive when he saw she was wearing cutoff shorts and a tank top that had to be at least two sizes too small. Eyes up, he told himself.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Well, apparently I have to hunt you down and break into your house if I want to see you. You've had a whole week to avoid me, and play your war games, but now I'm done playing."

"I haven't been playing any games, Damon. It's just been a weird week," she was having trouble looking him in the face. He looked good today. His dark henley was pushed up his forearms and his jeans were just right and … Okay, Bonnie thought, he looks the exact same as always, but somehow different.

"Tell me about it," Damon said. When she didn't respond he continued, "No, I mean actually tell me about your week. Because I used to talk to you every day before and now I have to find out that you were kidnapped by the Original Bitch Witch secondhand! What gives?" If he could just focus on how mad he made her he could get through this. He wouldn't be tempted to wipe at that smudge of dirt on her shoulder…

Okay, she guessed they were done ignoring the elephant in the room. "What happened between us…" she paused trying to find the right words to begin.

"We kissed," Damon supplied helpfully.

"Yeah no, we more than kissed," Bonnie was blushing now just thinking about the elevator. "If it had been just a kiss maybe I could handle that, but it's the 'more than a kiss' that I keep getting hung up on."

"Yeah," Damon agreed. He'd been thinking about what could've happened in that elevator all week. "But you stopped us from going any further…"

"I did," she bobbed her head.

Damon stared at her hard, eyebrows raised, not wanting to verbally ask why.

"Because I had to," Bonnie gave up on trying to look at him without wanting to touch him. She went back to kneeling at the edge of her garden. But Damon wasn't letting her off so easy; he sat on his butt right beside her.

"You weren't into it?" he asked lowly, trying not to let that bother him.

"It's not that," she told him. "Did you really think I wasn't into it?"

"Don't know what to think since you won't even look at me…" he hinted.

She turned her head to look at him dead on, just to prove him wrong like he knew she would. He quickly put his hand on her cheek to keep her there where he could see her. He heard her heart speed up and her reaction pleased him.

"You've got to give me something here, Bon. Tell me what you're thinking, anything, please," he even added a smile so it wouldn't sound quite so much like he was begging.

Oh god that smile! Since when does his smile make her feel this way? She tried to pull her face from his grip but he wasn't having it. She sighed and asked the first thing that came to mind, "Were you really into it?"

"Me? Was I-? I was-" he stammered. He took a breath, "How can you think I wasn't really into it?"

"That's not an answer," she batted his hand away and this time he let her go.

"Well, I thought it was pretty clear how into it I was," he smirked. "If you hadn't stopped me when you did I would have shown you just how deep into it I can get…"

Bonnie giggled at that and covered her eyes. "Ohmygod, that is not what I mean." But it was good to have her suspicion confirmed: if she hadn't stopped him they definitely would have fucked.

Damon was glad to see her laugh, but he was being dead serious. "Then what do you mean?"

"I mean, were you really into it with me?"

"I wasn't on that elevator with anybody else, was I?" He couldn't understand what she was asking.

She sensed he was frustrated with her obscure line of questioning. She had to be frank, "What made you kiss me? And I don't mean Katherine and her shenanigans, I mean the way you kissed me… Why did you kiss the second time? " She peeked over at him and watched him run his tongue over his lips like he could still taste her there. Her stomach clenched, Damn that was hot.

"It just... felt right," he shrugged. "I wanted to."

"Right, but why then? Why that night and not two nights before? Or any other time we've hung out in the past two months?"

He didn't answer that. He finally had a clue as to where her questions were leading.

"I'll tell you why, Damon. Because of that damn dress!"

"Okay, you lost me again. You're saying the dress made me kiss you?"

"Yes! And it made me kiss you back, and that whole elevator thing wouldn't have happened if not for that dress," she concluded.

"That's some...interesting logic you got there Bennett, you wanna break that down for me?"

"Come on, Damon. That dress was hot. I was like, smokin' hot in that dress. And you had a physical and chemical reaction to seeing me in that smoking hot dress. And I had a physical and chemical reaction to your reaction."

Damon just blinked at her.

"Ergo," she continued, "It wasn't even up to either of us. It was the dress. And lust."

Damon nodded his head like he was following what she was telling him.

"And maybe the shoes," she added, "'cause they were really hot, too. So. Yeah." Bonnie waited for him to respond or agree or thank her for coming up with the answer as to why they had lost their minds the other night and almost slept together… but he was very still and very quiet as he studied her.

"Damon?"

"No."

"No? What do you mean, no?"

"I mean, okay. Yeah, you were smoking hot in that dress, but no, I'm not buying the 'my dress made me do it' excuse."

"Why not?" She was a little miffed that he was poking holes in her theory.

"Because Bonnie. You're sitting there in shorts and a tank, covered in dirt, barefoot, and I keep thinking how good that dirt would taste if I licked it off of you!" He was yelling by the time he finished.

Now Bonnie sat blinking at him. "'You want to lick the dirt off of me?'" she asked to clarify if she had heard that right.

"I know it sounds crazy, it is crazy," Damon admitted. "But it's not just the sexy outfit. That I picked out because I have uh-mazing taste, you're welcome by the way." she grinned and rolled her eyes. "You're right, that night may have been the first time I saw sexy Bonnie, but it's not the first time I've been attracted to you. It was just the first time I said fuck the friend zone. The first time I got to hold you in my arms and slow dance with you. The first time I felt the way your body responded to my touch." He ghosted his fingers over her shoulder as if needing to confirm his statement, and sure enough she shivered and broke out in goosebumps in the midst of the hot summer morning. He heard her heart race again, heard her sharp intake of breath. "The first time I stopped pretending I only saw you as a friend."

Bonnie found it hard to speak around the crashing of her heart. This had taken a sharp turn for the surreal. She had prepared a lot of speeches for when they finally had this talk, but none of them were made for this outcome.

"So what are you saying?" she asked him.

He shrugged. He had just told he wanted to lick dirt off her body, that wasn't clear enough?

Screw it. He leaned in and captured her face, watched her eyes widen, listened as her heartbeat sped up yet again. He barely touched his lips to hers, he was being so careful not to scare her away.

When Damon kissed her the world slowly melted down to nothing. He was so soft. How can he be that soft, he's a vampire! But he softly kissed her bottom lip, softly pulled on it with his own.

She couldn't not explore his lips back; she sucked on his upper lip and sighed. It was better than she remembered. She felt like all week she had been waiting for this. She was a little pissed at herself for avoiding him so long.

Her head shifted and her tongue slipped out to taste his lips and Damon tried to let her lead. Let her do what she wanted, but she was too slow. The hand not holding her face gripped her knee and slid up to her waist and he pulled her closer. Her hands landed on his chest and worked up to his neck where she held onto him. Her lips and tongue were fire and cinnamon and he couldn't get enough.

She gasped for air and his lips moved to her cheek and chin, tasting as much of her as he could.

Holy shit, he tastes so good. She was already wetter than a slip 'n slide and they were only kissing.

"See? Not the dress," he rested his forehead against hers, pecking her lips here and there.

"You're sure it wasn't the shoes?" she grinned and kissed him again.

He chuckled, "They were great shoes." (You make me sick for being so perfect What did I do? What can I do, oh?)

As much as she was enjoying his lips she had a couple questions for him.

'Cause I've had my heart

Broken before

And I promised I would never let me hurt anymore…

She wasn't sure what this meant for them. He said he saw her as more than a friend, but that didn't necessarily mean he wanted to date her. And if they started sleeping together could they remain friends like they had been? She didn't see how they could avoid it now that she knew how they felt about each other. But then again, attraction didn't mean he was in love or anything. And how did she feel?

"Damon," she whispered.

He recognized that sigh. And it wasn't a good one.

He stopped kissing her neck and looked up into her bright jade eyes. She looked like she was ready to talk some more.

"Yep, there it is."

"There what is?"

"You're all freaked out now and about to run from me like a chicken."

"Hey, I do not run like a chicken!" She interpreted the look he gave her as him calling bullshit. "Okay that was me trying to take control of the situation before things escalated. I'm not running chicken."

"Sure…"

"I just want to to know what I'm walking into," she reasoned.

He sighed and let go of her altogether. He leaned back and stretched out in the grass, his arms folded under his head.

Bonnie lay back next to him, close but not touching.

He could tell her he just wanted to be with her, and however they could make that happen he was good with it. But that wasn't entirely true.

"You know, I saw you the other day, having dinner with the quarterback…"

"Okay… And? You didn't come say anything."

"I couldn't. I probably would've broken his face if I had," he admitted sourly.

"Why? What did he do?" Bonnie looked over at him.

"Nothing. He was just sitting there, making you laugh and blush, and stealing your fries. But I wanted to murder him in that moment. I almost vamped out on the spot, I was so furious," he could feel the rage rising again just thinking about it. "What was so damn funny anyway?"

"You were furious that I was talking to Matt?" she ignored his question.

Damon rolled his eyes, "I was furious that another guy was sitting in my seat, eating my fries. Okay, not my fries, but you know what I mean."

"Are you trying to tell me you were jealous?" she gasped.

"No, I was just mad!"

"Mad 'cause you were jealous," she teased him.

He looked at her trying not to laugh at him out right. "The point is, I didn't like it. I don't like thinking about you with another guy."

Bonnie wasn't sure what to say to that. It oddly made her feel good to know that he wanted to punch Matt's light out. It made her feel special. She tried to think what she would have done in the same situation.

"Elena asked me what was up with you this week. She said you were being weird.

"I haven't even talked to Elena this week. Except to learn that you were kidnapped again," he glared at her. "Don't think we aren't gonna circle back to that."

"Well, that's my point. She told me you weren't talking to her and I was happy about that. I think I liked knowing you weren't thinking about her, because just maybe you were thinking about me." She hadn't realized it at the time, or hadn't wanted to explore it deeper, but it was true.

"I was thinking about you. All week." He opened his arm and she wiggled closer to rest her head on his bicep.

"I really tried not to. That's why I'm out here playing in the dirt, trying to distract myself. Like I know anything about gardening."

"Yeah, what were you doing? Since when do you garden?"

"I don't! Not yet anyway. But I had to do something, I couldn't spend another day in that house daydreaming about elevators…"

"Hmmm," he purred. He rolled to his side and looked down at her, "Sounds oddly similar to how I spent my week."

"Really?" She wanted to so badly to believe him. Believe he wanted this like she wanted this.

"Yep."

And when he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head, she felt it again. That safety she felt right before their first kiss.

"Can I tell you something?" she murmured into his chest.

"Sure," he said warily.

"I don't think I can take another heartbreak…" she whispered. "You already know what I gave to Jeremy and how that turned out, but I can't do that again."

Damon didn't want to say anything rash. So he spoke slowly, so she would know he meant it. "First off, I am not Jeremy. He is an absolute idiot for cheating on you. I am an absolute idiot in my rights, so don't compare me to Gilbert."

"But-"

"And I can't promise not to break your heart, just like you can't promise not to break mine. We don't know what's going to happen. But I'm willing to chance it. If you are?"

He was asking her to trust him, and she could admit she's got her issues with that concept. The guys in her past haven't exactly left her with the best impression of relationships.

Oh, I used to be so used to boys just using me

For you to be you to me

Feels new to me...

But Damon was different. He was always straight with her, to the point she wished he would keep some things to himself.

So, could she do the same? Be just as honest with him?

And I wasn't trying

To melt this heart of iron

But the way you hold me makes the old me pass away

And I would be lying

If I said I wasn't scared to fall again...

"Neither of us has a great track record of relationships, huh?" she smirked.

"That probably means this is terrible idea," he smirked right back. "Blondie definitely wouldn't approve…" he goaded, knowing she didn't like being told what not to do.

"Well, in that case…" she rolled on top of him and sealed it with a kiss.

But I tore down my walls

And opened my doors

And made room for one

So, baby, I'm yours…

A/N: Aww! They are gonna work things out after all! If you've listened to the album, by now you may guess what happens next. I'll give you a hint: those pink walls aren't referring to just Bonnie's bedroom…