Chapter 4: Spray

Elena pulled towards the back, giving him room and keeping out the way of at least most of the wetness at the same time. At first, she simply let the water run down on him, keeping her arms round his waist.

Damon did not dare to move or make one, even as much as putting his hands around her, but he buried his head on her shoulder and nuzzled his nose into her hair. He inhaled her scent deeply, closing his eyes, concentrating on the feel of her voluntary closeness and the emotions that stirred, the experience of having her care for him so much. The older Salvatore had to enjoy it till it lasted, here and now, cause it wouldn't last. It couldn't. He needed her so much more than the other way round.

Was it over that quickly? Damon started as she pulled back away from him, but it turned out it was only to pick up the soap bottle. As she lathered her hands briskly so she didn't leave Damon standing unaided for long, he had a hard time repressing a smile of anticipation. Standing in the shower with her was one thing, but she was actually going to wash him clean?

Her soapy hands started at his shoulders and arms and he watched her focused, pursed lips for a while, she concentrated on the spot of skin she was cleaning as if her field of vision could take in no more. When the girl started rubbing his chest, he closed his eyes as well, just as embarrassed as she was.

"Hold on," Elena turned away to gather more soap and when she turned back she slapped the sticky liquid onto his tummy a little abruptly, surprising him. The sensation on his skin was electric. Her fingers trailed down a little, but then a strongly self-conscious look flitted across her face and her arms went round him instead, washing his waist. She swallowed, "feeling any better?" She was supposed to give attention to his wellbeing, wasn't she?

The naked vampire sort of growled, sort of moaned in response, some part of his brain acknowledging he had been spoken to. Words escaped him, he could not answer, could not rise above the tantalizing sensations and vibrations her touch initiated. It mimicked petting too much. As if the water running down on them would've made his tactile senses heightened, cold and warmth, fleeting and intense mingled in a single stroke. The rising, tingling sensation stemmed from under her hands, but it quickly stretched out and enveloped his whole body and the flesh below. Warning lights flashed in his mind once again, he became rigid and pulled himself out of her reach.

"Damon?" She wondered taken aback, still coaxing him for an answer. Her mouth opened as she still tried to find out how he was, but the schoolgirl remained speechless instead. The way he was standing, a little further away from her, gave her the perfect view of his front. Of all of his front, his chest dotted lightly with smooth little hairs, his curvilinear stomach and his very much alive and well straining manhood, twitching upwards into a firm, thick and long shape right in front of her eyes, hard and erect and ready for action. Eager, her head bent down inevitably a little to study it from an inch or so closer. Elena really felt like touching it. "Wow," she breathed, her mind's eye automatically imagining its entry into her hot, pulsating pussy. She couldn't think of anything else this shapely and big and heavenly.

"Normal reaction…" Damon whispered casually, resisting a smirk at her reaction, "its natural I wouldn't stop loving you and my body would not stop wanting you just because I'm not feeling a hundred percent."

Elena crossed her arms self consciously. She could only guess how her contours would show under the wet garments. "Maybe I should.." She gestured towards the bedroom, hesitating. Seemed like her own desires and sexual fantasies were getting in the way of her commitment to her friend's wellbeing and she felt guilt-ridden again.

"Yes, you should," Damon nodded at her decisively, turning away from her more to conceal his exposed privates than take the shampoo. Disregarding her as if she wasn't there, the vampire started washing his hair in a purposeful manner, steady on his feet.

He was okay, Elena was convincing herself, or the very least, he would be very soon. And if so, she was intruding, staring at the smooth skin of his bare bottom cheeks in a very improper manner for his brother's girlfriend. She settled for, "call if you need me, I'll leave the doors open," and she ran as fast as she could, away from temptation and into Stefan's room, as much as for fetching the extra clothes she kept at the boarding house, as for reminding herself of her loyalties in the space that belonged to her boyfriend.

Changing her outfit took her absolute ages. She found herself stalled, either standing or sitting, trousers or underwear frozen in her hands. Elena did listen out to the sounds coming from Damon's suite at first and she knew that he had finished his shower safely and was in all probability back in his bed she hoped, but that simply stalled her some more. Given the desire and the need she felt to comfort him in every way over the last twentyfour hours, the young woman could not imagine being able to keep the signs of her hankering to herself. They would not only inflate Damon's ego, the truth regarding her feelings towards him will be out of the bag once and forever and there would be no going back after that. Elena sat on the edge of Stefan's bed confused. Katherine had said it was okay to love them both, and she did, but there was no way that could work in reality, could it?

It was unusual for her not to notice new noise, her nerves have been on edge ever since she discovered vampires, so she was startled by Bonnie's voice and somewhat surprised to find she spent the last hour or so merely thinking herself into a corner.

"Elena?" The little witch slowly pushed the ajar door more open, "are you in here? Alaric said there was something you wanted to talk to me about? Are you all right?" She stepped up to her once she could see her, "have you been crying?"

"No, no," her friend rubbed her eyes, "just tired. Was up half the night trying to help Damon. And that's why I wanted to see you, to check whether there was any chance some witch power or spell could alleviate his condition?"

Bonnie narrowed her eyes, confounded, "I though he was saved and getting better?"

"Well, yeah, yeah, he is I guess," Elena gave hesitantly, "but I don't trust Klaus all the same. He wants his cake and eat it too, with everything being a little game for him as a bonus. I bet I'd even be sceptical if Damon was a hundred percent. But he isn't, Bonnie. He's weak and he's still got residual cramping. I though maybe if you could do a trick like accessing a blood vessel in his brain, you could also have access to the rest of his body inside?"

"What do you mean, like a magical x ray?" Bonnie could hardly suppress a little laugh, despite the hardship of the days before.

"Could you do something like that?" Elena pressed.

Bonnie shrugged, "yeah, that might work, but I don't know what else you're expecting of me. If something needs done, you know I'm not really all that versed in vampire healing potions and such. Its very feasible that our witch magic wouldn't even work to help his kind, if it was, I could've tried healing him earlier and Stefan didn't have to go off into Klaus' trap."

"Never mind that just now," Elena dragged the hesitant witch with her towards Damon's room, "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Anything your ancestors said about Klaus by the way?"

"Not much, other than that we should not meddle with what it doesn't concern us. I'm clearly not a favourite after my last few requests, they didn't really like this one either."

"Obviously we have exhausted every source that is in Mystic Falls, we gotta search the history of the first vampires if we want to get more clues to Klaus' next move," Damon gave his opinion from his bed they've reached while conversing. He had of course heard every word and was not looking forward to Bonnie's examination, not sure how much the witch could see through him. "And I can't think of a better place to do it than East Europe. We should just pack a few things, check some things out quickly while everyone else could keep an eye on the situation around here. I do have an old suitcase somewhere, and Elena could pop back home for a bigger backpack on our way."

"Damon, we talked about this, you're are going to rest till you're all better."

"You want me just to sit tight while my brother performs every kind of service some primal wolf would require?"

Elena stalled, putting a hand to her mouth and quickly decided what could be happening to Stefan was best not thinking about for the sake of her sanity and the chance to retain her ability to act, "no. That's why I thought of Bonnie. We could give her magic a shot."

"I'm fine," Damon declared and stood in a flash, "see?" He jumped up and down, flexed all his muscles and made little punches in the air like a boxer warming up, then walked over to his closet, trying to avoid the magical examination. "All parts in working order," he winked at them. "thriving, in shape, and emotionally stable, right on the ball!"

Bonnie and Elena exchanged and amused look, with the witch frowning in disbelief, "emotionally stable. If I believe that, I guess I'll believe anything."

Damon found the bag he was searching for and faced them, rolling his eyes, "look, I'm touched by the mighty witch goddess giving a shit about my wellbeing, but I'm fine," he insisted.

Bonnie gave him a look that told him aneurysm would be next, "I'm doing Elena a favour cause I don't like to see her worried. Bed and hold still."

Damon bit his lip inside. The pleading expression on the face of the girl he loved standing next to Bonnie gave him no choice. The charade was on. "I said my stomach doesn't hurt, but since everyone's so intent on undressing me," she smiled slyly at the young women and lifted his shirt.

"I wouldn't trust you as far as I can throw you," Bonnie commented, somewhat caught up in the sight of what was under his shirt. It wasn't as much the perfectness of the curves, or the cute shape of his bellybutton, it was more so because now she was sure she recognised the sight. There were several drawings of such a pleasure trail and outline of muscles randomly strewn on the side of Emily Bennett's spell books. What's with that?

"You can actually throw me quite far if you try, can't you not?" Damon challenged. However, the young witch was still a bit shaken by the insight she just got.

"Do you not know how to start?" Elena tried to make sense of her friend's absent-minded demeanour, "maybe if you put a hand on him," she suggested.

"What do you think I am? A faith healer?" Bonnie shook her head, but followed the advice nevertheless lacking a better idea. Keeping a light hand on his stomach, she closed her eyes, hardly able to concentrate on sensing out weaknesses of supernatural beings.

"Bonnie?" Elena had to attract her best friend's attention again after patiently waiting for a while with nothing happening. Damon was raising his eyebrows, very much wishing the same. Any answer was better than no answer. He had made up his plan, if the petite girl declared him fit, he could just say, I told you so.

"Oh…uhm," Bonnie waved her free hand wildly about in frustration, "well, he's quite weak," she's reported on her grasp of his strength. Damn right, I'm weak, the vampire rolled his eyes, I haven't had much blood for days!

Bonnie's hands went on floating across his firm, tensed and nervous stomach, probing and pressing against his naked flesh, somewhere in between an abdominal examination and supernatural sensing.

Seeing her indecision and shilly-shallying, Damon thought a good idea to wince and flex his abs protectively, "ow! Elena! Your friend is one of the most likely people to want to torture me and you want her to be of my attending physician? Seriously?"

Bonnie shrugged and removed her fingers from the thin line of pubic hair they were brushing over, "Damon's right. I'm not a doctor. I can tell that he's not fighting fit and I would guess he's a little sore, but not much else." Apart from the little detail that my legendary ancestor seemed to have had a thing for him. Did Emily sleep with Damon? And in what circumstances could she just ask that question without it being embarrassing for herself? "If you really want me to do something useful, I could go home and consult the books for a witches' brew that might do. But I have to warn you, I'll give no guarantees what such an elixir would do to a vampire."

"Just try your best. It'll do, I'm sure," Elena moved to hug her friend, "thank you so much for trying."

Tbc