Title: The Great Escape
Rating: K
Summary: He lets go of any life he knew before. Now it's just them and the eternity ahead.
Pairing: Damon/Caroline(Friendship with maybe a little extra implied)
They disappear one night just get in the car and go. She'd been expecting it, already had her bags packed. The council wanted her head, their heads and if Elena hadn't turned they would have been gone weeks ago. She doesn't ask him where they're going, it doesn't matter. Nothing mattered much to either of them anymore. Maybe that's why she's not surprised when he tosses his phone out the window. Or why she doesn't bat an eye when they abandon the car at the airport. It should scare her to leave everything behind, but life had never gone the way it should for her.
Damon wants to flip his switch, it wouldn't be so hard keeping it off not anymore and the temptation is nearly crippling. But then he turns his head just so and sees her fighting sleep beside him. He's not so nice turned on, turned off he's a nightmare and she doesn't deserve that. She deserves so much better than the life he's offering, better than the life he put her through when he first arrived in mystic falls. Instead he decides to let go of his old life, of all his old lives. He can be anyone he wants to be, and he wants to be good to her. Mostly because if he isn't she'll leave, and he needs someone to stay, for once.
It isn't a full twenty-four hours before Elena calls, just like she knew she would. Skipping over pleasantries like 'hello' demanding to speak to him. Damon doesn't even give her a chance to ask before he throws her phone over the balcony. A part of her wants to get upset, but she doesn't have the strength to deal with Elena either so she lets it go. A few weeks later she buys a new phone, calls her (former?) best friend and makes it clear that Damon was off limits. It's her job to protect him now; she was all he had left. And he was all she had, solely hers… by circumstance? By choice?
They stumble into Italy, she stays in the home where his mother grew up. He closes himself off the entire time. Showing her the sights during the day and disappearing at night. He swears that she isn't the problem; no, he hasn't grown tired of her company. The explanation comes without warning while his eyes are clued to the shoreline, it's a story about the first woman to ever love him and how he failed her. After that the air tastes like misery so they leave the next day. She tells him they'll come back when he can really show it to her. She needs a friend not a tour guide. Damon wants to give her Italia he just isn't ready yet. But someday, he promised.
She asks him once, only once… why her? Those impossibly blue eyes stare at her for hours. He doesn't breathe, or move, just stares. She almost gives into him, almost lets him off the hook but this is forever they're dealing with. It was imperative for her to know, to be sure he wasn't just going to abandon her too. "You were the only one left I cared about… that cared about me back." She wants to call bullshit would remind him of Elena but doesn't. She wants to say that Stefan loves him but they've been gone for years and Stefan's name had yet to appear on her phone. Maybe when the Elena-fog cleared from his mind Stefan would remember he had a brother.
After a few decades she starts getting lazy with her phone. He stays out of it for a while but eventually he's the one to pick it up, to put it to her ear and force the words out of her mouth. He doesn't want her to deny the companionship of others simply because she's all he's got. Damon makes it a point to tell her it's okay to care about people other than him. The words don't make much of a difference though, because one day her phone is nowhere to be found. It's not their first fight, it won't be their last but it means the most to them. She loves her friends, could never forget them but she doesn't need them nor do they need her. And frankly she had better things to do with their eternity than sit on the phone and make nice with people she doesn't need. Selfishly, he's never loved her more.
She falls in love with Germany. It's probably the happiest place on earth. Damon makes a quip about their need to make up for the war. Apparently after your ancestors try and 'cleanse' the populous the young make amends by becoming hippies. They hunt at sunset, party in the streets at dawn. They end the night by getting day drunk before rolling into bed at noon. Her life changes one afternoon when they joined in a game of double dutch by a pair of drag queens. She's never heard Damon laugh from his soul, never seen him smile from his heart… she doesn't think anyone has. A part of her falls in love in Germany too.
When enough time has passed he reluctantly offers to take her back to Mystic Falls. It was a big mistake on his part considering she doesn't talk to him for days. After that she refuses to plan ahead, to think past what they are doing as they do it. They agree to never go back, to never look back. The days start to blend together, the months lose their meaning. There are moments when the sun is high and others where millions of stars shine. She always buys him a cake before the harvest not caring how close together some of his birthdays seem. He watches her dance under the full moon, on beaches or cliffs or hillsides. They lose track of time or maybe time loses track of them.