Greetings readers! I finally finished this chapter. I've been picking at it and working at it in little bits here and there when I just had to get my head away from nursing school.

Right now, this may seem like just filler - but we had to get our characters in the right spot, so to speak.

I hope you all enjoy! As always, I want to know what you think. Love it, hate it, just want to see more, review please! They make my day.

Also, I'm starting to use twitter - the name is " ChihuahuamomKim". I'd love to get tweets about things you see that might kick in an idea for a story or scene.

~OFANV~

The alarm went off, and they both stirred. Elena slowly sat up, pushing her hair back from her face and looked over at Damon.

He smiled that lazy sexy smile, and for a moment, the way his head lay on the pillow, the way the sheets were half pulled up, it took her back to that first morning – when she'd asked him what that face was. He'd told her he was happy.

She'd never really seen that face before that day. The genuinely happy, content Damon. But he hadn't had much to be happy about.

That had changed over the last 30 years, and she intended to keep it that way. This morning she had set her alarm early to get up and work on a paper that was due Monday. They still had a few house guests, so she wanted to get it out of the way while they were probably still asleep.

Damon reached out, gently grasped her arm, "come back to bed – it's way too early to get up."

She let him pull her back down, smiling as she recognized the way the look on his face changed. It would be a little while before she got to that paper.

Damon moved over her, moving on his hands and knees, his gaze sweeping down her body. She had on one the short slinky nightgowns she tended to favor. The material was thin and slinky, moved easily across her skin, and came off just as easily.

He lifted the hem up to just below her breasts, and pressed his mouth to her skin, pressing gentle wet kisses to her flesh, moving slowly down her body. Her skin always tasted good to him. Sometimes just a hint of salt – especially if they'd worked up a goods sweat the night before. Sometimes it was just that hint of musk and spice that was uniquely Elena.

She sighed softly under him, that soft sound that told him she was enjoying what he was doing. He felt her hands in his hair a moment later, and he kept kissing her, blazing a trail down her stomach, and then further.

He slid down the bed a little, and lifted one leg, hooking her knee over his shoulder. He could smell the faint tang of her arousal, and when he parted her, she was wet and ready for him. He traced his tongue along the moist folds of flesh, reveling in the fact that it was him that turned her on like this. She'd been anticipating his mouth on her, him tasting her. A few more firm strokes with his tongue, and then he parted the folds of moist flesh with his fingers, and concentrated on her clit.

She trembled under him, moaned again as his tongue encircled the tiny bud, and he did it again, then sucked just a little, and then stroked again with his tongue. He knew that got her, every time. Each moan of pleasure spurred him on, he tenderly worked the sensitive flesh, until she was bucking and spasming under him.

He was well aware that he and Elena were not exactly quite when they made love. He was also well aware that with Stephen and Katherine still in the house, by now they knew exactly what he and Elena were doing.

All this time later, he still felt a little better being able to prove Elena was truly his.

He rose up, and grasped his own swollen hard cock and stroked it along her swollen sensitive flesh, enjoying the hot wet slick feel. She moaned again, and he moaned with her, sliding inside her slick sheath.

She gasped, her body flexing and arching, inviting him in, inviting him to push in deeper. She reached up, pulling him down, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Kiss me," she said, her voice soft and husky.

He brought his mouth to hers, lips brushing, tongues stroking. He knew she could taste herself on him, and she kissed him, hungrily, deeply. Her arms went around his neck, and then moved down to his back as the thrust into her, again and again. Her legs had wrapped around his hips, and she held him tight and close.

At some point though, she wanted to take over. He knew it was coming, she loosed her grip with her legs and arms, and turned them, so he was on his back, and she sat up, rocking back, her long hair trailing down.

She rocked forward and back, riding him slowly, focused totally on how he felt inside her. He grasped her hips, urging her on, and then after a few minutes he reached between them, rubbing his thumb over her clit.

That was all it took. She came again, cried out some strangled satisfied sound, and then her pace changed, her focus then on making him come.

She lowered her body down his then, his breasts rubbing against his chest, and she kissed him. Then she pulled her mouth from his, and she sank her teeth into his neck, drinking deeply.

It was so intense! But it always was when she drank from him. He could feel what she felt, and there was that intense pull that went straight to his soul.

It only took a moment, and he came, gasping and groaning, "Ah, Elena . . ."
Another long sip, and she pulled her mouth from his neck, and she sat up, and gazed down at him, so he could see his blood on her lips. She slowly licked her lips clean, watching him watch her.

He wasn't the only person making sure certain people in the house knew someone belonged to someone else.

~OFANV~

They'd come together again in the shower, and then while Elena started on her paper, Damon went downstairs to the kitchen. They did have guests after all.

He found Darren sitting at the breakfast bar, tipping a dollop of Kahlua into his coffee.

"Alex up?" Damon asked, seeing Darren doctor up his coffee.

Darren laughed, "Oh she's up all right – but she didn't make the coffee. Don't worry, it's tame this morning."

Damon poured himself a cup, sighed deeply, contentedly.

"Quite the performance you put on last night - and this morning," Darren commented, sipping his coffee, "I should thank you, because hearing it puts Alex in the mood, but hey, I kiss Alex and she's in the mood, so maybe I won't thank you."

Damon smirked, "Glad we could help."

"While I'm sure your brother and Katherine heard too, I don't think the people that live at the end of the block heard – so maybe you should turn it up a little next time."

Damon shrugged, smirked, "Maybe we will."

Darren shook his head. He knew what was going on, and Damon knew he knew it. Damon was being territorial.

Alexandra strolled into the kitchen, a definite spring in her step, her hair had that freshly tousled look to it. Darren smiled over his coffee watching her. She glanced in his direction, sent him one of those satisfied looks, and then poured herself a cup of coffee.

When she tasted it a moment later the look faltered a little, but then she shrugged, and drank it straight, no cream or sugar.

"What? A spoon doesn't stand up in it so it's not good enough?"

She smiled at him as she slid onto the bar stool next to him, and pressed a kiss to his lips, lingering for just a moment.

"I really can't complain about anything this morning," she said, practically purring, and then she looked over at Damon, "I'd ask how you slept, but I'm fairly sure you didn't take much time to sleep last night."

Damon only smiled that self-satisfied smile, leaning back against the counter, "Get some earplugs."
She laughed, "I wasn't complaining. I'm kinda twisted that way."

Damon laughed. She wasn't even close to twisted, but he'd let her enjoy the idea at least.

Darren brushed her hair back from her face, pressed a kiss to her temple, and then he looked over at Damon, "is there a plan for today? Anything going on?"

"Nothing," Damon said, "just more bonding with my brother time. You got something in mind?"
Darren shook his head, "Nothing major. I was thinking about taking Alex out clubbing tonight, but then I wasn't sure. I don't want to put your brother into a bad spot."

As if on cue, Stephan walked in, "Relax, I can handle it. It really isn't a problem anymore."

Damon managed a tight smile, "Blood bags are a little different than a warm body with warm blood coursing through its veins."

Stefan shook his head, poured a bag of blood into a mug, and sipped, and settled his gaze on Alex, "How is our baby vamp handling the blood lust?"

"I handle it," Alexandra said, taking a deep breath, "I struggle sometimes, but I'm handling it."

Stefan sipped from the mug, and laughed, "So… how many people have you accidently killed so far?"

"Jesus Stephen! Let it go!" Damon snapped, "Fine! You're a rock star on human blood! Don't be such an asshole!"

Darren took a deep breath, and put his hand over Alexandra's, "Dude! Back off! We're trying to not fuck things up for you!"

Alexandra gave Darren a small smile, then turned her gaze back to Stephan, "Accidently? No one. I targeted scumbags, so no one really misses them. I wasn't trying to not kill them."

She turned her hand over, slid her fingers into Darren's, "Let's go out for the day, give them some family time."

Darren nodded, gave Stefan a glance that told him he thought he was an asshole, and he let Alexandra lead him out of the kitchen.

"Little touchy," Stefan commented, and went back to sipping his mug of blood.

Damon shook his head, "find a mirror brother."

They were both quiet for a few moments.

"Katherine is sleeping in," Stefan said, "I think she drank a little too much last night."

Damon wanted to say something snide, like did Katherine really know what too much was, but he let it go.

"Elena is working on a paper," Damon said, "Her anthropology professor is a perv. They're using a text book he wrote and half the pictures have women in them with nothing covering their breasts."

Stefan snorted, "Since when do you have a problem with naked pictures?"
"He's old enough to be their grandfather – and I get that it's a cultural thing, but you have to meet this guy to know what I mean. I'd bet money he's probably always got some young student he's nailing on the side."

Stefan shrugged, "We got one of those at the university I teach at too. It doesn't help that there is always some young student ready to throw herself at you."

Damon shrugged, considering it, and sipped his coffee again, "At least you don't look like you're damn near 200."

Stefan laughed, "Katherine would go on a killing spree. I don't even let the students close the door when they walk into my office. I generally compel them to lose interest in me. It's just easier that way."

"This old perv pays a little too much attention to Elena, but I think he's figured out by now it's a lost cause. That, and I make sure I go to any college events he might be at too."

Stefan laughed, "How did she go from Literature to Anthropology?"
Damon shrugged, "More than just a pretty face brother. Eventually she got bored talking about Keats."

Stefan tossed back the remaining blood, rinsed the mug, and filled it with coffee. Damon topped his coffee cup off, and they walked into the living room

They both sank down into overstuffed chairs, facing each other. It was quiet for a few moments.

"So how are things going," Damon asked, "Really going?"

Stefan managed to shrug, "Fine – I enjoy teaching, I enjoy the students, most of them. Grading papers sucks. I find I have to be careful about what I teach because sometimes the history books are not all that accurate."

Damon nodded, "No big surprise there. People don't want to hear that we all got stupid, killed each other, decimated families for stupid reasons."

"Yet we do it again and again and again," Stefan said, "200 years and we still haven't learned much."

"Except how to make bigger weapons to kill more people at once," Damon said, "God help us all if they find out vamps really existed."

Stefan nodded, sipped his coffee, "It would have made that fiasco in the middle east pretty damn short . . . so the ripper like murders in New York . . . Is that Alex's work?"

Damon sighed, "Not the way you'd think. The first few – we figured it would be easier for her to practice on someone no one would miss. So we thought hey – no one cares if a serial killer goes missing. We hunted him, Alex and Elena compelled him to follow them into an alley – and we pretty much shoved Alex into the deep end of the pool. Drained him dry – which was the idea. It was Darren and I that took him apart. We figured if we spread him out over the city someone would think it was a victim or their family member getting even. We did that few times and then it made the papers, except that there were a few more bodies than there should have been."

Stefan nodded, "so she's hunting on her own now."

"No," Damon said, "She hasn't had the chance, trust me, Darren kept her on a damn tight leash for weeks. I did some checking, there are some slight differences. Another vampire is playing copycat and he's still doing it."

"Body count is up to 14," Stefan said, "that attracts a lot of attention."

Damon nodded, "I know. Talked with two other Vampires who are in the know, they think it's Vlad – Russian guy. Not really good with self-control."

Stefan shook his head, "Great . . . where'd you meet him?"

"Florida," Damon said, "he's young. Well, sorta young, he's only been a vampire for about 60 years – and he was 19 when he died. From what I hear, he didn't have much of a conscious when he was human either."

"This is the kind of thing that attracts hunters," Stefan said, "Does this guy know where you live?"

Damon shook his head, "funny that you mentioned the hunter part, according to Richard and Leo, Vlad killed and ate a hunter's wife in Russia somewhere. He's been moving through Europe with that hunter hot on his tail for a while. No one is anxious to see him here."

Stefan sipped his coffee, glanced around his brother's home, "Does he know you well? Or where you live?"

"He knows of me, he doesn't know where I live, and I wouldn't say we were ever really friends. Not that we'd be hard to find, but Vlad has no reason to visit. We weren't friends. We tolerated each other at best," Damon said.

They were both quiet for a few moments.

"What if it's not Vlad," Stefan said, "what if . . ."

"It's not her," Damon said, "Trust me, she hasn't been alone hardly at all and the days the attacks occurred – we were with her, several of us were."

"Either way you've got the makings of a ripper," Stefan said, "and rippers attract hunters."

"I know," Damon said, "believe me brother, I know. We're gonna keep a very low profile. I don't know if this hunter is supernatural or human, but either way I'd just as soon we go unnoticed," Damon said, "As for Alex, she'll be fine. She's managing, she wants to have as normal of a life as possible."

~OFANV~

Darren sat back and watched her as she got ready. With or without makeup, he thought she was totally hot. But she liked to fix her makeup, so he was cool with that. Sometimes it was all glammed up, other times it was all low key.

Today, she was going in between. Elena had talked her into some kind of airbrush makeup thing – and lately it seemed to be Alexandra's favorite thing. Darren's favorite thing was to just watch her. She played up her eyes, delicately worked on her mascara and then just a hint of lip gloss. She added just a little bit of something to her hair, but left it all out of control curly. That was his favorite way of seeing her hair anyhow.

She pulled on jeans, a scoop neck top and the heavy leather coat he'd bought her last winter. She shoved a pair of gloves in her purse, added earrings and then looked over at him.

"I just don't get what you enjoy about watching me do the whole primping thing, I'm glad you don't get antsy, but I just don't get it."

Darren laughed, and stood up, "I just like watching you enjoy yourself."

He leaned down, brushed his lips across hers, "Where do we want to go?"

"Well, I figured we could browse some big box store, look at tubs and shower stuff and all that. I have a few ideas for our master bathroom."

Darren smiled, stroked his fingers along the side of her face, down her neck, "I'm glad you're looking forward to this now."

"Yeah well, let's just see if you're still thrilled with me getting into this when it's done. Your best bud's girlfriend is turning me into one of those compulsive shopper types – I'm starting a shoe collection and a purse collection."

With that, she picked up the purse she was going to carry today from the small desk in their room, and they headed out. They browsed through a few big box stores, looking at different jetted tubs, listening to the pro's and con's from the salesmen, went into a few specialty shops well. Towards the end of the day, they headed into a Hispanic neighborhood. Alexandra wanted something close to real Mexican food. They found themselves in a little small mom and pop café that Darren had heard about. They sat at a table, ordered some beer, their dinner, and were just sitting back and relaxing, enjoying watching the world around them. The café had a huge take out business, their tables filled up fast. While they were enjoying their meal, two women came in, took the small table next to them. They were both Hispanic, spoke Spanish, and looked very similar. It was easy to eavesdrop on their conversation, not only because of the very sensitive vampire hearing, but both Darren and Alexandra spoke Spanish.

One of the women had recently lost her husband, in some kind of accident. She had young kids at home, she was looking for a second job. She had been going to school at night to be a medical assistant, and was going to drop out because she couldn't afford the tuition now, let alone keep up on the rent if she didn't find a second job. They didn't have much in savings. The other sister was telling her she should move in with her and her husband, finish school. The sister who had lost her husband didn't want to, said her sister didn't have the room and she didn't want to be a burden.

Alexandra sighed, looked over at Darren, and the look on her face said everything. She knew what it was like to be that worried about how to keep a roof over your head, not wanting to be a burden to someone. She'd grown up dirt poor, she'd and her mother had been homeless more than once.

They were just finishing their beer, and it was time to go. Darren brushed a kiss across Alexandra's lips, and then headed up the to the cashier's desk. She knew what he was going to do, even before he did it. He paid for their dinner.

~OFANV~

Elena could hear what was going on in her home. She heard Katherine making a lot of noise when she got up, irritable because of her hangover, and she left to go shopping pretty fast. She could here Damon and Stefan in the living room, watching a college football game, debating on the plays, the players and the coaches. They were relaxed, comfortable, and it was a feeling she treasured. She was sorely tempted to go down stairs and join them, but she stayed up in the bedroom and studied a little longer. Damon and Stefan didn't get much time together, and tomorrow Stefan would have to fly home.

When Katherine came back, Elena gave up studying. Brother bonding time was over.

Katherine was dressed in tight fitting skinny jeans, designer high heeled boots, a snug top that was low cut, and her hair was curled up and teased out, her eye makeup all glammed up too.

It occurred to Elena that Katherine probably envied Alexandra's naturally curly hair. That made Elena smile a little.

Katherine had several shopping bags in hand, and was going on and on about how insane the crowds were.

"It is the weekend right after thanksgiving, biggest shopping weekend of the year," Elena commented.

Katherine rolled her eyes, "Still . . ."

Katherine stomped up the stairs, headed towards the bedroom she and Stefan were sharing.

Her boys – and they really were hers as far as she was concerned, were drinking beer, and now Elena wanted one.

"I'm getting myself a beer, either of you need another?"

"Thank you, my lovely wife," Damon said, and then downed the last bit in his bottle, and handed her the empty bottle, "I have no idea what we're doing about dinner – sorry."

Elena shrugged, "sounds like a good night for takeout, or delivery."

She disappeared into the kitchen, pulled out a couple of beers from the fridge, grabbed the delivery menu's from the kitchen drawer and headed back into the living room, and sat down next to her husband.

"How's your new major really going?" Stefan asked her.

"Interesting," Elena said, "Really interesting actually. I love it! Sometime in the next ten or fifteen years I'm going to bully your brother into moving to someplace near an archeology dig."

Stefan nodded, "just a different viewpoint of history really."

"It is!" Elena said, "It's so fascinating!"

Katherine came down the stairs again, "Please don't start talking all academic stuff! There's so much more to live than reliving the past!"

She slid onto Stephan's lap, wriggled around a little, "After all, we do have so much to look forward to here, and now."

Stefan slid his hand up her back, brushed a kiss across her lips, "We can learn a lot from the past."

Katherine rolled her eyes, "You let me know when that actually works out."

"We do have a unique perspective on history," Stefan pointed out, "We actually get to see it play out."

Katherine sighed indulgently, "I suppose. I don't see your houseguests Elena. What happened?"

"They're out for the day," Damon said, "Couple time or something like that."

Stefan managed a tight smile, but didn't add anything.

"So exactly how long are they going to be living here?" Katherine asked, "They did just buy a house, didn't they?"
"Well, it needs to be painted," Elena said, "Alex and I will do most of that, some of my friends from the college will probably pitch in, so that won't take more than a week. But we have finals next week, so painting won't happen until after that."

"Darren and I are tearing out the master bathroom and remodeling it, and the kitchen," Damon added, "Alex likes to cook, so the kitchen definitely needs to be upgraded. We might get them in by Christmas – maybe. Really depends on how fast we can get the fixtures."

"Christmas is a little ambitious," Stefan said, "didn't they arrive here with like a few boxes and a few suitcases and that's it? Furniture takes weeks, trust me. We waited 6 weeks for our living room set."

Katherine smiled, "It was worth it. My coffee tables are all mahogany. They'll last for centuries."
"Our TV arrived before anything else did," Stefan said, "Well, that and a bed. But everything else . . . takes forever. I don't remember it taking that long before."

Elena patted the sofa she and Damon were sitting on, "This took about a month and a half to get. Damon was able to order the wood for our dining room table, build it and finish it, along with the chairs before the sofa arrived, but it should all hold up reasonably well over time."

"Is Darren handy with tools?" Stefan asked.

"Yeah," Damon said, "I think. He and I did some repair work on a witch's house in New Orleans once. The roof didn't leak when we were done."

"She seems a little timid to be a vampire," Katherine said, "Think it will last?"
"She's still getting used to it," Damon said, "And yeah – I think it will last. They're serious."

Katherine shrugged, and turned her attention back to Stephan, "I'm hungry and I'm debating on a bag or hunting."

"I know you'd rather hunt," Stephan said, "We'll go out for a bit."

They both got up to get their coats.

Elena looked over at Damon, "Should we go with them?"

Damon sighed, "Damnit! . . . Yes! . . . I know he says he's fine, but . . ."

~OFANV~

Darren stood back, watching closely. They'd found themselves in a local bar in the same Hispanic neighborhood, and they were just enjoying the music, relaxing with a drink in hand – just like they used to. On the other side of the bar, there was a man sitting in the middle of the bar, being a jackass. He was rude to the waitresses, generally belligerent, and hitting on half the women in the bar even though he clearly had a wedding ring on.

At one point, he stood up and told the bar tender to save his seat at the bar if he wanted a decent tip, and crudely announced he was going to go drain the lizard.

Alexandra glanced at Darren, "I'll be back in a minute."

Darren nodded, not thrilled with the idea that she was going alone.

He watched her disappear down the back hallway the belligerent drunk had gone down, where the bathrooms were.

It took about 30 seconds, and he couldn't stand it. He turned to the people at the next table.

"Hey – would you watch our table? I want to see what happened to my girlfriend."

He went down the hall, and into the men's room, found it empty. Then he went out the back door.

Alexandra had him pinned against the brick wall with one hand.

"Don't move, don't make a sound," She said, her gaze intent on his.

She bit into him, drank deeply, and just at the point where Darren was about to intervene, she pulled her mouth away suddenly, gasping. She licked her lips, and focused her gaze on his again.

"You're going to forget all this. You came out here to piss, and fell because you drank too much, and now you're going to go in, pay your tab, and leave the bartender a decent tip, and then you're going to go home."

With that she shoved him away, and then turned to look at Darren.

"No body to get rid of this time," she said after the guy disappeared back in, and she swallowed hard, "It's getting easier . . . I guess that's a good thing."

"It is," Darren said, reaching out and offering his hand, "You got this baby."

She took it, and they went back inside and reclaimed their table.

The belligerent drunk was thumbing out some cash from his wallet, and left it on the bar under his glass, and he left.

The waitress came around, they ordered another round, ordered a round of poppers, and just sat back and relaxed again. It felt a lot like their old life in Seattle. The only thing missing was a crowd of friends, but they'd find that here too, and with Elena and Damon, they had already started.

~OFANV~

I hope you all enjoy! As always, I want to know what you think. Love it, hate it, just want to see more, review please! They make my day.