Caroline is awesome...


Each a monster, part 12: Fluffy bunnies and cute butterflies

"I suppose I can't get you to change your decision?"

Theodoric Saltzman gave his cousin a patronizing smile before walking away.

Damon looked at Alaric's face, searching for the tiniest bit of information, but no, the man was like his cousin: unreadable when he wished to be so. And for sure, Ric hadn't been willing to give away anything in his conversation with Theo. So Damon had no idea of what was going on in his boyfriend's head.

What he had an idea about, was that Theodoric Saltzman was creepy for a human being. Not the good, weird kind of creepy, but the freezing, unpredictable kind of creepy. When compared to Alaric and Edward, the two other Falkenbachs Damon knew, the cousin was colder, less human. As if he had less feelings. A bit like a switched off vampire, actually.

Finally Ric relaxed a bit. The first thing he did was to tell Elena she could leave the kitchen, though she had to be careful. He then asked her if it was a problem if he was to stay at the boarding house for the night. The young woman crooked an eyebrow but told him it really wasn't.

At first the lovers spent some time outside, sharing a drink, and Ric said a memorable thing about being a hellish teacher and a shitty responsible adult, surely referring to the massive alcohol consumption in the house and his lack of action concerning it, as well as to the less important but existing anyway use of drugs they had spotted during the party.

But the hunter couldn't relax, after his discussion with his cousin, and they felt a bit out of place.

So Damon and Alaric ended up alone in the restricted area of the house, to the vampire's great pleasure, and to the hunter's relief. They could still hear loud music coming from the sitting room, and Damon wasn't really happy when some teenager began to shout in drunken stupor, but it was better than nothing.

They went to the vampire's room, lay down on the bed and stayed this way for a couple of minutes.

"Any idea what he wanted?"

Ric shook his head, staring in the shadows with his boyfriend's head on his chest. He wasn't sure when exactly during their trip the vampire had decided it would be a great habit to do that, but he had to admit it was comfortable. Couple habits, he mused, same thing as how Damon was always the one making breakfast while the hunter was handling the loundry.

"You heard him. He wishes to know what is 'proper'. The hell if I know what it means."

"Basically he's on his way to make your life hell, no?"

"Likely. Promise you won't try to kill him unless he himself tries to kill someone."

Damon chuckled. Obviously, he had thought of the possiblity to do that.

"Should I talk to Liz?"

Alaric took some time to think before answering. Telling the police was the dumbest thing to do for a Falkenbach, but they were talking about Elizabeth Forbes, not some random sheriff. The woman had a vampire daughter she was trying to hide from her vampire hunters deputies while being friend with the vampire spy in the Founder's Council. True, their friendship was a bit awkward lately, but.

The hunter sighed. Theo was so going to be a headache...

"Let me one or two days to think about it. I don't want to rush anything with this psycho, it could trigger him into doing something none of us will like."

Damon shrugged his shoulders and decided it was time for some cuddling.

His hands were already on the man's belt when Ric stopped him.

"What?"

"There are kids downstairs."

"And?"

"Do you really want me to spell it out for you?"

"They can come and watch for all I care."

Alaric's hands grabbed his tightly. It was no laughing matter, apparently, and the vampire should better remember it. It wasn't the first time the hunter had been angry at him for not being private enough, and each time, they had ended up fighting for at least three days.

"I was going to say you could perhaps lock your door in case, but since you're so open-minded, I could as well leave. It's not like I don't have an apartment or a house waiting for me."

The hunter was already standing at the door, and Damon panicked a little.

"Erm, wait. Ric? Hey! It was a joke. You know, I don't want anyone else to see what's mine. Well, I do kind of want everyone to see and be jealous of me for having someone as wonderful as you, but I don't want them to see your dick. I'm not the sharing type. And, wait, are you actually making fun of me right now or are you really angry? Because I can never tell with you..."

Ric turned to face him and rolled his eyes.

"I wasn't joking, but I wasn't really angry either. It's simply, Damon, that you need to be less sex driven. I don't think you only want this to be about the sex, do you?"

Ugh, tricky question. Of course he wanted more, but he had the feeling the man was going to pull a stunt he wouldn't like, such as, in order to prove his words, no sex for three weeks. He had had a girlfriend like that, around the Sixties. But with her, he didn't really want more, he only wanted to play a bit. In the end, he had drained her after an argument. Not something he was going to tell Ric.

"Damon."

No evading move, then. Hum. Hell, he had forgotten how being in love and being a couple could be difficult. Not that he had ever been in a real relationship with anyone before.

"Fine, I don't want your body only, I want you to love me, fluffy bunnies and cute butterflies. Now can we move on?"

Alaric laughed at that. The vampire was really one of a kind.

"Tomorrow."

Damon's features darkened, then lightened. It could have been worst.

"I want a kiss, then."

"A kiss it is."

The hunter's hand caressed his boyfriend's jaw, and when the fingertips left his chin, their lips were together. Alaric's tasted of bourbon, Damon's of blood, and really, none of them were bothered.

Someone opened the room's door, the man and the vampire heard a shriek, and a click informed them that someone had taken a picture with their cellphone. Damon waited a second then got off Ric to glare at the intruder.

Caroline was grinning as if she had just won the lottery, her phone at arms length. Now they knew how the intruder had been so fast to snap a picture: she was a vampire.

"What do you want, blondie?!"

Alaric watched, a bit bewildered, as Damon snarled at the young miss Forbes. He had no idea where all this was going, but he felt in his guts he would hear about it for years. One did not simply kiss Damon Salvatore without having to endure some giggling from the overbearing blonde of Mystic Falls. Especially if they were the high school history teacher and legal guardian of the authoritarian vampire's best friend. If only he had been completely drunk, he'd have an excuse, but no, he wasn't.

It wasn't that he wanted to keep their relationship a secret. Okay, maybe a little, but he had no problem with it being known. He wasn't sure about the school, though, about the students' parents, about almost everyone in the small town.

As if dating Damon and having Theo in town wasn't enough of a headache.

Caroline invited herself inside the room and closed the door, locking it this time, as if she was planning to hear everything from how they had fallen in love with each other to how they did it, not forgetting what was their favorite colors. That might have scared the teacher a little.

Damon tried to shoo her away, but the younger vampire glared at him and sat down on the bed.

"I don't do heart to heart, Barbie."

"I don't care, I only want to threaten you to be correct with him or I'll make sure you don't get anyone else in your bed for the next fifty years."

Damon stared at her, not sure of what to think, stared at Ric, not sure of what to do, and stared at the door, not sure of when to run. Caroline turned to her teacher and asked, sparkles in her eyes.

"Now, what I want to know, is how much you're ready to pay so that I won't tell everyone downstairs."

"What?!"

The two lovers had almost screamed together, and the blonde rolled her eyes as if they didn't know how to tell a joke from the truth. Which was, apparently, the case.

"No, seriously, I need to know, I am, after all, the queen of gossip around here."

"You're not gossiping about us."

The tone in Damon's voice was clear. He wouldn't allow her to do so, and Ric felt a bit better. He had feared the vampire would find it hilarious and even worsen the rumors.

Caroline shrugged. Those adults could really be thick-headed, couldn't they?

"I won't. But when the gossiping begins, and it will, trust me about that, I can't be seen as a queen of gossip who doesn't know anything about you two, especially since we know each other pretty well."

"Ric, me, together, happy, forever and ever, no kids intended obviously, now get out and leave us alone."

"Fine. But don't complain if Elena attacks you tomorrow morning thinking it's a complicated plot to get to her through Alaric."

And with that said, she left.

The vampire and the hunter stared at the door some more time, then stared at each other, then at the door once again, and finally at each other again. Damon stated blankly that he had no idea what was the deal with today's teenagers, Alaric told him he had no clue either. Somehow, the noise from downstairs sounded really threatening at the moment, and they were both waiting for the door to burst open and Elena to rush at them with a stake and some duct tape.

"I guess that means we're going to be outed?"

Ric nodded slowly. This was becoming harder by the minute not to laugh loudly. All of a sudden, his stress had disappeared and he could only see how comical his life had turned in less then twenty minutes. Caroline Forbes was a peculiar savior, but a savior nonetheless.

That's when he saw the very serious expression on his boyfriend's face.

Damon seemed to be really concerned with the hunter's reaction to the soon-to-be-news of their relationship. It was a bit unsettling. After all, he wasn't a basic boyfriend, but the vampire flirt of Mystic Falls.

Ric smiled softly.

When Damon loved, he loved deeply.

And for that, he would never put his relationship in jeopardy by overlooking his loved one's point of view. He had done too many errors in the past, loving someone he shouldn't have, destroying his brother's life, going after a girl who was already taken.

"You're sure you're all right with it?"

Ric chuckled lightly. A concerned vampire just for him was very cute. He refrained from frowning at the thought. Lately he was having this kind of ideas more often than not. But Damon wasn't exactly the definition of cute. More like handsome, awesome and deadly.

Love could do wonders to the brain.

Alaric collected his thoughts and went back to the matter at hand.

"As long as it's only our relationship that is outed, I don't care. I love you, Damon. Doesn't matter if you're you. Doesn't matter if you're a man. Doesn't matter if everyone knows about us."

Yes, exactly. It didn't matter, even if Damon had some problems of self-restraint. The hunter was working on that. A little love was all the vampire needed, someone to care for him. Many people, if possible. If Damon coud get better at dealing with his life, Stefan would eventually open up to his brother, maybe even trust him – that is, if Ric and the vampire could get the little brother to be a bit more human than he was at the time. But first things first. Caroline was already being carefree around Damon, which was a bit astonishing.

Hopefully, Alaric could get the vampire to be a better person, if a not a perfect one.

Then again, the Falkenbach wasn't an example. He wouldn't try to transform the vampire in a grass-eating sheep. Only to turn the rabid wolf into a healthy wolf.

Yes.

Love could do wonders to the brain, you only had to give it a chance.

For Damon and him, Alaric was more than willing to give it several chances.