DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
After dropping off their luggage and having a quick look at their new home, the two girls made their way into the centre of Rome, keeping their eyes out for a cool bar where they could drink to celebrate. One of the perks of Europe, they thought, they didn't have to wait another year to consume alcoholic beverages.
The warm summer breeze kissed their bare arms and legs, the rush of the city's nightlife, the myriad of voices echoing, the sound of muffled music coming from different places, and the reflecting lights caused their pulse to rise and eyes to shine bright.
They had never truly experienced something so vibrant, the only nightlife they had back home was the occasional house party or town event. This made them feel.. Alive.
The square they were exploring was filled with bars, a couple of restaurants, and a few small cafes. Many different kinds of people were roaming about, from adolescents to students, to even middle aged people. There was one place that stood out from the rest, it was exactly what they were looking for; crowded, but not to the point where you would have to squeeze your way to the bar, good music, and good looking guys.
"Hey," Elena pulled on Caroline's arm to get her attention, "that place looks nice, don't you think?"
Caroline turned her head to where her friend was pointing, judging the bar for a second before agreeing with Elena.
Smiling widely, she grabbed her friend's arm and started walking towards the place.
"Why exactly are we here, Damon?" Stefan asked, staring at his glass, which had a small sip of bourbon left in it.
"Because I just love spending time with my baby brother." Damon answered sarcastically.
"Yeah, because we always enjoy each others company so much," Stefan rolled his eyes, "Someone owes you money, right?"
Damon let out a deep sigh and grabbed his drink, swallowing the content of the glass in one go.
"All right, all right, you got me. Yeah, someone owes me money." He admitted.
Stefan clenched his teeth, he was disappointed. He knew he shouldn't ever expect anything from Damon, but still he hoped there was something of what used to be his brother left in him.
They used to be close, when they were still kids, and not yet introduced to what the Salvatore family name really meant. Once Damon was old enough to learn everything about the family business, he slowly started growing more and more detached, eventually his only care in the world being money, just like the rest of his family.
There was one thing he didn't understand, though. Damon always took care of his business by himself, why would he bring him along with him now?
"So, why do you need me? You know I don't want any part of it, not anymore."
"Because," Damon started, carefully choosing his next words, "I actually did want to hang out with you for once. Keep an eye on you. Happy now?"
Just as Stefan thought his brother would actually be able to say something sincere, Damon ruined it by adding the last two words to the sentence and giving him yet again a sarcastic smile. Oh well, it was a start, he thought.
"All right," Stefan said, "I'll take it. You want another drink?"
Damon nodded, gesturing to his empty glass noting he wanted another bourbon.
As Stefan stood up from the couch and made his way to the bar, Damon actually cringed upon thinking what he had just said. Really, Damon? This was a horrible idea. He should've never brought Stefan along with him, emotions only made things complicated.
His thoughts faded swiftly as he saw two girls enter the bar. He didn't recognize them, seeing as this was his go to bar, which surely meant they weren't from around here. Damon kept an eye on them as they headed towards the bar. One of them was breathtakingly beautiful, leaving him mesmerized for a moment. The other girl was pretty, too, but he had never seen anyone quite like her before.
Just before he wanted to get up to approach them, Stefan returned with his bourbon, noticing how Damon was checking the girls out.
"Hey, brother, I think it's time that we should have some fun." Damon raised his eyebrows, a smirk appeared on his face. He accepted the drink Stefan handed him, not taking his eyes off of the two girls.
"What? No way, you know I'm with Katerina."
Katerina. Ugh. Damon's expression turned to disgust, he never liked that girl. She was a manipulative bitch and he couldn't understand what his brother saw in her.
"Oh my god," Caroline said as she moved closer to Elena, "those guys sitting there are totally checking us out!"
Elena slowly turned her head to see which guys her friend was talking about, and as she spotted them, one of them winked at her, causing her to quickly turn her head back to Caroline.
"One of them winked at me, I think they're coming over here." she said, her eyes widening.
Her heart started beating faster, she was so not used to this, she didn't even know how to flirt anymore. The last time she did was when she had a crush on Matt, which was four years ago. To make things worse, the guy who winked at her was gorgeous. She was so going to screw this up.
Just act casual, she thought. Remember to breathe and you'll be fine.
The girls were startled for a second when they each felt an arm resting on their shoulder. The guy who winked at Elena, was standing between them. The other guy settled for a barstool next to Caroline, waving the bartender over.
"Buonasera, ladies," the guy said, he was wearing a slight Italian accent, "can I get you anything to drink?"
The two girls looked at each other for a split second, Elena slightly opened her mouth to say 'No thanks', but was quickly interrupted by Caroline who, of course, said "We'd love to!"
He turned to look at Stefan, gesturing to order two drinks by holding up two fingers. His attention turned to Elena, he studied her for a moment before introducing himself to both girls.
"I'm Damon, that is my brother Stefan, and who might you lovely ladies be?"
He was charming, no doubt about that, also gorgeous and he smelled extremely nice. Most likely a douchebag as well, Elena thought as she observed Damon.
"I'm Caroline, and this is Elena." Caroline said, as she snapped her fingers in front of Elena's face. She promptly snapped out of her train of thoughts and smiled at Damon, who had noticed she was observing him. The corner of his mouth curled upwards and he winked at her.
It wasn't her fault that he had these incredible cerulean eyes you could easily drown in, if he would have looked at Caroline as long as he looked at her, she would have found herself in the same position, possibly even worse, she'd be drooling all over him.
After a few drinks, a lot of laughter and sharing stories, including the one explaining why they're in Rome, Damon detected his client had arrived. He excused himself and walked up to the stranger, motioning him to go outside.
"That was.. weird." Elena noted, taking another sip of her 4th cocktail. After putting it down, she looked at it and started using the straw to play with the icecubes floating in her drink.
"Excuse me, I'm gonna have to go see what Damon's doing." Stefan quickly followed after his brother, knowing all too well what he was doing.
Elena started to feel tired, remembering that she hadn't slept in almost 20 hours. Well, she had slept for a bit on the plane, but she soon figured out that only made her more tired.
"Care, look! This drink, it's as blue as Damon's eyes. See?" She held up the drink and started waving it in front of Caroline's face.
"Yeah, you've definitely had enough." The blonde said, taking the drink from her friend's hand and placing it on the bar, away from her.
"I warned you multiple times, you better give me my money!" Damon growled as he grabbed the unknown guy by his collar and threw him against the wall.
"I'm sorry, I promise I'll get it! Please, just let me go!" The guy pleaded.
As Stefan sneaked around the corner to see what was going on, he focused on the stone cold look in Damon's eyes, it was so cold, he could practically smell the bloodlust.
Damon had never killed someone before, but the way he was staring at this guy, the fury and adrenaline flowing through his blood, he knew this wasn't good. He had to step in before someone got hurt.
"Damon!" he yelled, "Please, brother, you don't have to do this."
Damon tilted his head, "Really, Stefan? I don't have to do this?"
He slowly let go of the guy, before turning to look at his brother, "This guy," he said, tapping the stranger's chest with his index finger, turning back to look at him, his eyes widening and filling with rage, "owes me 2 grand, so yes, Stefan, I have to do this."
Damon laughingly stroked his face, he felt the blood pumping through his veins as he bawled his fist and punched the guy right on the nose.
Shocked, Stefan ran up to his brother, who was letting out all of his rage by bashing the stranger's face in, trying to pull him off of him. While struggling to keep his brother still, he received an elbow in the face, causing him to flinch and let go. The stranger, who was bleeding heavily from his injuries, quickly ran off to escape the situation he had found himself in. Before Damon could chase after him, Stefan tackled him, making sure he wouldn't.
"Hey!" he yelled, pinning Damon's arms down on the ground, "Snap out of it, brother!"
"They so left us." Elena muttered, placing her elbow on the bar so she could rest her head in her hand.
"I'm not so sure about that." Caroline said, her eyes moving towards the bar's entrance.
Elena turned her head to see the two brothers heading back to where they were sitting. They didn't look as enthusiastic as they did fifteen minutes ago.
"We're sorry for just leaving you here by yourselves," Stefan said, "but something happened, and it's probably best if we head home."
"That's all right," Elena said smilingly, "we were just about to leave as well."
She tilted her head slightly to get a look at Damon, who was standing just behind Stefan, studying his body language and facial expression she could see that something wasn't right. He looked extremely angry, could he have possibly gotten into a fight or something? She wasn't sure, but the vibe he gave off left her slightly confused.
Damon caught her staring at him and he couldn't help but smile a little at her. What was it about this girl? He had only just met her and he was already intrigued by her. This wasn't what happened to him, usually he'd meet a girl at a bar, buy her a drink and take her home with him to fuck her senseless, but this was different. He didn't just want to fuck her, he wanted to get to know her.
Realizing what he was thinking, he forced himself to snap out of it, this wasn't him. This couldn't happen, not now, not ever. He was right before, emotions just made matters worse.
Forbes & Gilbert residence, Rome, Italy
"I'm sleeping next to you tonight, whether you like it or not!" Caroline yelled from the bathroom while cleaning off her makeup.
After changing into her pajamas, Elena threw herself onto the queensized bed, in what she had decided to be her room for the next year. She found herself thinking about Damon, wondering if she'd ever see him again. He did seem interested in her, but who was she kidding, as if he wasn't interested in any other girl he'd met at a bar. He probably just wanted to screw her.
Caroline dried off her face and tied her hair in a messy bun as she walked to Elena's room.
"Okay, first of all, he was so into you." She said, taking off her high waisted shorts and changing into her pajama pants.
Elena couldn't help but get a warm feeling when her friend said that, though also thinking it was probably the alcohol she consumed.
"Yeah, so into getting in my pants." She added, shrugging off the possibilty of there being any truth to Caroline's statement.
"Even so, would you really mind?" the blonde asked, raising her eyebrows.
Would she really mind? No. She did want to have some fun while being here, and he would be a good distraction from Matt, but it wasn't like she would see him again.
"I'm really tired, we'll have a detailed discussion about this tomorrow, okay?" Elena mumbled, feeling herself doze off.
"Okay. Goodnight 'Lena."
"Night, Care."
AN: And chapter 2! I was so excited about writing the brothers into this chapter!
I have a lot of cool ideas I want to include in their storyline, so I can only hope you'll like it as well :)
(And yay for Delena!)