Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries. I wish I owned Damon, he's just so HAWT! Or at least Paul Wesley. I do, however, own this story and all the original characters that will appear in it as the story goes on. Thank you.

Chapter 3- Movin' In

"What the hell do you have in this box?"

"Books."

"Books? That's what's in this box? Just books?"

"Yup. And in that box, and that box too."

"Why the hell do you have so many books?"

"I like to read."

Stephen sighed as he hoisted a suitcase against his hip. "Will you shut up Damon. It's a good thing that she has books since we don't have cable or satellite. She's gotta have something entertaining to do."

Damon grunted as he followed Stephen to the staircase. Dani followed behind him while Elena brought up the rear. Each person had something to carry as they made their way up the stairs to the second floor.

After Dani's unusual acceptance into residence, she went to her car with Damon tailing behind her. She said that since he was kind enough to let her live in his house, she'd asked if it would be alright if she started moving in her stuff. Damon agreed and proceeded to call Stephen and Elena to help with the move.

"So Dani, what brings you to Mystic Falls anyway? Our town's pretty small, and we don't have a lot to offer."

Dani grunted as her hold slipped on the box, but quickly righted herself as she leaned against the banister. "Well, you're town offers one thing that I need, and that's a job. A few weeks ago, I got a call from this company that I signed on with after university. They send teachers overseas to teach English. I never thought that my first job would be in a small town in Virginia, USA. But apparently the English teacher at your school, Mrs. Lumley, is going on maternity leave and they were desperate to find someone to take her place. Like you said before, small town and all. They called my company, said that they needed someone to teach an English and a Spanish class, and my company called me."

"Oh, well that's cool. So you speak Spanish too?"

"Yeah, which reminds me that I need to contact my company and tell them that I have different living arrangements. They'll send you a check for a year's worth of rent."

"Good to know," Damon said from the top of the stairs.

Dani and Elena trudged behind the brothers, both a little out of breath from the climb. Damon motioned for them to follow him down the hall. He led them to a room that was at the very end of the hall. Stephen looked at Damon suspiciously. "Damon, isn't this-"

"Yeah." Damon turned to Dani, tilting his head towards the closed door. "This used to be our… uncle's room. It's one of the largest, and it has its own bathroom. Figured that you could use all the prep time you need. God knows I don't want to wait an hour to piss while you do your hair."

Dani smiled. "Thanks. That's very thoughtful of you Mr. Salvatore."

A grunt sounded from Damon. He reached out, balancing the box with one hand while he opened the door with the other. He stepped in, and then was followed by the other three.

Dani surveyed the space that she would be living in for the next year. The floor was done in wood, like the rest of the house. The walls were painted a vibrant red, and the ceiling was a light cream in color. The base boards were made from the same wood of the floors. A large four poster bed rested against the side wall to her right with a door that she guessed lead to the bathroom. A bookshelf stood to her left, along with a large armoire, and right across from her, a comfy looking window seat just tempted her to sit on the plush cushions and forget all her troubles.

Damon leaned against the wall, looking at her. He jerked his head to the room. "Well?"

Dani looked at him for a second before breaking out into a huge grin. Damon's eyes widened slightly at the change in her face. Her eyes lit up, her cheeks became pink with a light blush, and for lack of a better description, she glowed.

"Thank you Mr. Salvatore. This is… it's so much better than I expected. After that little spat between us, I was afraid that you'd stick me under the stairs or something."

Damon got over his surprise quickly, grunting. "I need that space for my collection of figurine unicorns. Let's get the rest of your stuff up here."

So for the next half hour, they brought the rest of Dani's things upstairs. Elena said that she had to go, so Dani thanked her for bringing her to the house and helping to move her stuff.

"It wasn't a problem. It was great meeting you, and we'll see each other again. I have English 5th period."

After Elena left, Dani felt a sudden blanket of awkwardness settle on her as she was left alone with the two Salvatores. She glanced at Stephen, who caught her eye and smiled. Dani smiled back at him. She glanced over at Damon, who caught her looking and scowled. He turned abruptly to the house. "If you think that I'll help you unpack, think again. Stephen," he said, addressing his brother, "The other tenants are coming tomorrow. Make sure that the rooms are clean and ready for them. I'm going out." Without another word, he sauntered off.

Beside her, Stephen sighed. "I wouldn't worry about him Ms. Court. He's like that all the time. Give him some time and I guarantee that he'll get bored with tormenting you. He has an attention span of magpie, always chasing after a shiny new toy." He sighed again and started to walk towards the house.

Dani followed Stephen into the house. "Would you mind if I helped?"

Stephen glanced over his shoulder in surprise. "You want to help me clean the other rooms?"

Dani shrugged. "Yeah. I wouldn't mind, and I would feel better if I helped around the house anyway. I'm not a freeloader, and even though I'm paying to stay here, I still like to earn my keep."

Stephen smiled at her. "Earn your keep?"

"I read a lot of historical romance."


Later that night, after Dani had finished unpacking and putting away her clothes, she heard a something scuffling down stairs. She cocked her head towards the door to see if she heard it again. There it was! Dani wiped her hands on the legs of pajama bottoms and went to the door.

She gasped in surprise when she found Stephen standing on the other side. "Stephen? What are you doing there?" Then suddenly remembering what had made her get up in the first place, she said, "I heard something downstairs! I was just going to check it out."

Stephen smiled. "Oh, don't worry about that. I already checked it out. It's just Damon and some…friends of his. I just came to tell you that they might make some noise, so you shouldn't worry about it."

"Oh." Dani glanced past Stephen, then smiled and nodded. "Ok, I understand. Thank you for telling me. Goodnight then Steph-"

A sudden crash sounded at the end of the hall. Dani poked her head through the door frame in time to see Damon and his…friends stumble up the stairs, two on each arm and giggling from too much alcohol.

One was blonde, the other brunette, and that's where the differences ended. Both were wearing the exact same outfit. Same shoes, same short dress, same gaudy necklace, same ridiculously large earrings. They even had the same face, tight and full of collagen.

To say the least, Dani was disappointed in Damon. From her first impression of him, Damon Salvatore had seemed like the kind of man who, even though rude and obnoxious, had shown unexpected bouts of intelligence and kindness. Sure he was rough around the edges, but she had seen something more to him than the callous attitude he had shown towards her. The man who had greeted Elena when she first arrived, the man who had forcibly taken a heavy box from her arms in exchange for a lighter one, the man who had retorted with whip lash sarcasm, was not the same man who was currently stumbling down the hall.

It took a moment for Damon to notice them standing there. When he did, he stopped in front of them, giving them a seemingly drunken smirk.

"Hello there. What are you two doing up so late? Something that I'd be up to, I hope," he winked.

"Actually, I just came over to see if Ms. Court was settling in alright," Stephen replied coldly. "And to tell her that she shouldn't worry if she hears any…strange noises. After all, she doesn't know how you can be with 'guests.'"

One of the twin's snuggled deeper into Damon's side, purring. "Damy, can we go to your room now? Mr. Cranky Pants and the Plaid Wonder are ruining my buzz."

Dani scowled and looked down at her green plaid pajama pants. She looked back at the post-hooker, giving her a once over. Not one to hide her emotions, her face gave away what she was thinking. With that outfit on, this chick was giving me fashion advice?

Seeing her comical expression of disbelief, Damon allowed his mouth to quirk up. Her openness was actually refreshing, and the amazing part was, she probably wasn't even aware that she was doing it.

Oblivious of Damon's current thoughts, when Dani glanced in his direction and saw the smirk on his face, she figured that he was laughing at her too. Her scowl deepened.

Seeing that Dani's hostility had now turned toward him, Damon decided to cut the 'Three's Company' rerun short.

Hugging the twins close, he walked them towards a door a few down from Dani's. "As much as s I would just love to stay and chat, I have some other important things to do. Sweet dreams kids. Remember no sugar before bed, or you might get sore tummies."

The girls beside him giggled as he talked to his brother and Dani as if they were children. He grinned along with them, and that grin would have stayed on his face too, if it hadn't been for the sight of Dani's face shadowed in disappointment right before he walked into his room.


Dani watched as Damon walked into his room after the inflatable bimbos. She shook her head in disappointment, then turned to Stephen to say goodnight. Stephen bid her goodnight, and walked away to his own room. She gave Damon's door one more glance before retreating to her room, closing the door quietly behind her.

She walked over to the bed, turning the sheets up. She had already replaced the old sheets with her own a little while ago, putting the others away in the closet. She climbed into bed, settling herself in the soft mattress. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. A smiled stretched on her face. It didn't matter that she was almost homeless, or that her landlord was a pompous, arrogant, sexy gigolo, and it certainly didn't bother her that she would have to live under a roof with him for year. No, that didn't matter. Not a bit.

A sudden knock broke her train of thought. "Who is it?"

"It's Damon."

Confused at his sudden appearance, Dani swung her legs down to the floor, and padded to the door. Cracking it open, she looked up at Damon's shadowed face.

"Can I help you?"

Damon smiled devilishly. "You know that I can hear you talking to yourself two doors down? You're pretty loud you know."

Dani blushed. "I was saying that out loud?" She was aghast with embarrassment. She closed her eyes in anguish as she moaned, "Oh god…"

Damon chuckled. "You know, I'm sort of glad that you moved in. You're a lot more interesting then Stephen anyway." He leaned in close so that when he spoke his next words, his breath fanned over her face. "I hope that you can stand living with a pompous, arrogant, sexy gigolo for a little while. Heaven knows that I'll be having a lot of fun. Well, night."

With mouth open and silent, Dani watched as Damon walked back to his own room. He gave her a smile and a wink before disappearing inside his own room. She stood there for a few more seconds in embarrassed silence before she made her way to her own bed. She turned off the lights, and lay her head against her pillow. As sleep closed in on her, her thoughts turned to a vision of ice blue eyes. It was the last thing she remembered before she fell into a deep sleep.


With "Animal I Have Become" by Three Days Grace playing on the stereo, Damon sighed with boredom.

The girls he had dubbed 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2' had taken off their identical dresses-thank god- around the same second that they entered the room. They were now gyrating and swaying to the music, trying to seduce Damon over. Rather unsuccessfully actually.

Damon sighed. He was getting hungry. He got up and wrapped an arm around each girl. They let out high pitched giggles that were almost enough to make his ears bleed. He turned to the one on his right, giving her a tired smile before focusing on her eyes.

"Go sit on the bed, and don't move," he commanded.

The girl's eyes went blank. She did as she was told and went to sit on the bed. He repeated, rinsed and washed the same command with the other, and she soon sat beside her friend.

He knelt before 'Thing 1' and lifted her leg so that the beck of her knee rested on top of his shoulder. He looked up at the girl and commanded, "You are not to make any noise." He turned to 'Thing 2' and said, "You are not to make any noise either. Understand?"

"Yes," they said together.

He bent his head and opened his mouth. The veins around his eyes bunched up, and his canine teeth elongating as he sunk his fangs into the soft flesh of 'Thing 1's thigh. She didn't make a sound as he drank his fill of her blood. After a few minutes, he withdrew and moved on to 'Thing 2'. When he was done with the both of them, he commanded them to forget everything that had happened that night and to go home to their own beds. Robotically, they got dressed and walked downstairs and out the door. To make sure that they got home, Damon followed them, not really in the mood to have Stephen lecture him on responsibility or some other righteous crap.

After they entered their own separate homes, which was somewhat of a surprise, Damon headed back to the boarding house. He was about to go back into his own room, but he paused, looking down the hall to Dani's door. He stood there debating with himself whether or not he should look in on her, but in the end decided against it. He stepped into his room and went to bed, wondering what the next day would bring.