When Aurora woke up the next morning, she found her mom and dad sitting at the kitchen table deep in conversation.
"What's up?" she asked.
"Planning our summer vacation." Damon said of the annual tradition of taking the kids somewhere for the month of July.
"Oooh, where are we going this year?" she asked clapping her hands.
"That is still in question. We are deciding. There are so many places we haven't taken you yet." he said.
"Let me guess you're putting slips of paper in a bowl and drawing the name of our July trip." she said.
"That would be correct. You are slightly genius, you think like me." he said.
"That scares me a little bit." Aurora admitted.
"It should. So this year we've already been to Mexico, Germany, and Spain. This year its going to be..." he said handing the bowl to Elena.
"Italy." Elena said holding out the slip of paper.
"Yes. I've wanted to take the brats to Italy." Damon said excited.
"Well now we get to." Elena said liking Damon's excitement.
"This is awesome. I've always wanted to see Italy." Aurora said.
"Well now that that's settled I'm going to check into flights for July 1st, return July 31st." Damon said leaving the room and going into the office.
"Now I'm excited. Only a month until holidays again." Aurora said just as a frustrated Aiden came downstairs.
"What's wrong with you?" Elena asked her son who looked beyond glum.
"Just tell me why in the hell I try. Nothing works out for me." he said.
"What do you mean?" Elena asked.
"I tried to do something nice for Lilah, but it blew up in my f-ing face." he said.
"What happened?" Elena asked concerned for her son.
"I asked her to go out for dinner with me tonight, plan an entirely romantic evening but she turned me down. She said she wanted to spend tonight at home. She didn't want to go for dinner with me. Now I have dinner reservations and flowers, and a freaking necklace for a girl that doesn't give a shit." he ranted.
"Whoa, what about Lilah?" Aurora asked.
"Nothing." he said standing up.
"Well how about this, we're going to Italy in a month." Damon said returning from the office with the ticket confirmations in hand.
"That sounds amazing." Aiden said grinning.
"I'm so excited." Aurora said clapping her hands. Elena smiled at her kids, who were both smiling now before wrapping her arms around her husbands waist.
"Let's count down. Only thirty days left." Elena said wistfully.
"Yes, only thirty days left." he agreed kissing her temple.
The next morning, Aiden was downstairs sulking into his Capn Crunch when Elena walked in.
"How are you doing?" she asked placing her hand on her sons shoulder.
"Let's see here, I had a fight with Lilah last night about the date I had planned for her. And now she's not talking to me." he said sighing.
"Well I'm sure it'll work out." Elena attempted as Damon walked into the kitchen.
"Morning." he said kissing Elena.
"Morning." she responded kissing him back.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked Aiden.
"Fighting with Lilah." he said.
"I'll talk to her." Aurora said walking into the room with her backpack slung over her shoulder.
"No. I'll talk to her. She's my girlfriend. I have to go." he said finishing his bowl of cereal and putting it in the sink.
"Wait for me." Aurora called after him, running after her brother wanting to get a ride with him to conserve gas.
"Come with me." Damon said taking her hand and pulling her towards the stairs.
"No Damon. We don't have to start every morning with sex. No." she said.
"We have to take advantage of any time we got. We have annoying teenagers, one who's going through relationship issues and one who is going through teenage girl issues." he said.
"But Damon... I'm supposed to meet my mom and Carole for lunch. They're both retiring from Miss Mystic committee and want me to take over." she said.
"You have a little while before you have to meet them. How about a little quickie in the shower?" he asked running his hands down her back until his hands were sliding down to cup her ass.
"I'm sure I have enough time for a quickie." she agreed.
"Good. Let's go." he said kissing her quickly and vamp sped them up to their bedroom, into the spacious bathroom. He turned the shower on as Elena undressed. When they were both naked they both slipped into the shower and he pressed her against the tiled wall. She moaned when he slipped into her and rocking them slowly to completion.
"Lilah! We need to talk." Aiden called out to his girlfriend.
"Aiden, I can't talk to you right now. I'm busy." she said.
"Lilah, talk to me. You have five minutes to spare."he said grabbing her hand and pulling her to a stop.
"Fine, then I don't want to talk to you." she said pulling her hand out of his and walking away.
"Lilah!" he called after her, but she walked away.
"Let me talk to her? I might be able to get some answers for you." she said.
"Thanks Aurora. I just want to know what happened?" he asked.
"Don't worry about it. I'll figure it out." she said.
"Thanks Ror." he said before walking away. Aurora chased after best friend and stopped her.
"Lilah, what's going on with you and Aiden?" she asked.
"I can't talk about this with you. It's your brother that's causing all of these issues." she said.
"It doesn't matter, you're my best friend. You can tell me anything."she said.
"I'll think about it." she said hugging Aurora before walking to her class.
"Just talk to him please Lilah. Aiden loves you." Aurora begged.
"Okay. I'll talk to him." she finally agreed.
At the end of the day Lilah caught up with Aiden.
"I'm sorry." she said.
"Lilah, what's wrong?" he asked.
"I'm sorry. We've been together for months now, and we're getting serious. I got scared. I got scared of what could happen. I know you were talking about wanting to make love with me." she said.
"Don't worry about it Lilah. I would never pressure you into that. I learned that from my dad. He never pressured my mom into it and I would never pressure you into it." Aiden assured her.
"But if its any consolation I want to do that with you. I'm just not ready." she said.
"So all of this, was because you were scared of what you were feeling for me?" he asked.
"Yes." she answered dropping her gaze.
"I love you Lilah. So don't ever worry about coming to me for anything." he said.
"I love you too Aiden." she said reaching up to kiss him.
"If you love me and I love you. If you want to, I'm not afraid anymore." she said.
"That was fast." he said kissing her once more.
"I'll come over tonight. Are your parents going to be home?" she asked worried.
"I think tonight is one of those nights they go out." he assured her.
"I'll come over." she said kissing him. Aiden grinned and left the school handing the keys over to Aurora and walking to the drug store.
Aiden walked into the drug store and went over to the condom section. He wanted to be prepared just in case something happened with Lilah tonight. The older lady at the cash desk looked at him concerned as he purchased the condoms.
"Thank you." he said as he walked away. He walked home walking in the front door before walking up the stairs to his room and shutting the door. He hid the condoms in his bedside table, it wasn't like it was the first time he had had sex, but he still didn't like talking about it. He didn't want his parents to know about it. As far as they knew he formerly womanized but he didn't think his mom actually knew he had sex. He heard the phone ring downstairs, but instead of running after the phone he heard his mom answer it downstairs.
"Carole, how are you?" Elena asked, after spending the afternoon with her.
"I'm fine. I just heard something curious." she said going into full on gossip mode.
"About?" Elena asked resigned to hearing her gossip. She had learned long ago that if Carole wanted to gossip, she wouldn't stop until she told everyone she had to.
"Well Marion said that Janie told her she seen Aiden in the drug store today." she said.
"Yeah? Come on its not a reason for gossip if a teenage boy is in a drug store." she scoffed.
"Elena, he was buying condoms." Carole said like it was a huge sin.
"He was what?" she asked.
"He was buying condoms." Carole explained.
"Thank you." she said hanging up the phone. Elena put the phone down and Damon walked into the house just as Elena called Aiden downstairs angrily.
"What's wrong?" Damon asked, the last time Elena had yelled at Aiden like this, Aurora caught him in his room with drugs and girls.
"What's up mom?" he asked sitting down on the couch.
"Why in the hell were you buying condoms?" she screeched.
"Oh. Um how did you find out about that?" Aiden asked knowing to ask partially embarrassed.
"You're mad at him for buying condoms?" Damon asked.
"Yes I am. And Carole called me, after she talked to a couple other people." she said placing her hands on her hips, and pacing back and forth at vampire speed.
"Elena. Stop." he said placing his hands on her hips.
"Our son is buying condoms and you're not worried?" she demanded.
"No, at least he's being safe Elena." he told her.
"Yes but. Oh God I don't know. I'm just uncomfortable knowing my son is having sex." she said sitting down on the couch.
"For the record this is the first time I've ever planned something like this. But we both know its not the first time I've had sex." he said gauging his moms reaction. His dad looked not at all flustered by his sons words.
"I just want you to be careful. You're my son, and I'm far too young to be a grandmother." she said smiling.
"Okay. Now would it be okay, if I asked you guys to leave tonight. I'm planning a special night for Lilah and I want to be alone with her." he said.
"Aiden..." she said.
"I promise I'll be safe. I'm being safer with Lilah than I ever did with any of the other girls." he begged.
"I would hope so. Fine, we'll stay at the boarding house." she said giving in uncertainly.
"Thanks mom. I'll be careful." he said getting up and hugging his mom. She hugged him back and Damon kissed her temple.
"Good work." he whispered in her ear far too low for Aiden to hear. She nodded and took a deep breath.
"You'll be okay for dinner?" she asked.
"Yeah. Besides Aurora will be here. I just didn't want you and dad to hear with your exceptional abilities." he said wincing.
"We'll leave. Besides alone time is always good. I know your father is aching for alone time." she said nudging her husband. He nodded eagerly not even bothering to cover it up.
"So I'll see you guys tomorrow sometime?" he asked clearly hinting that he wanted them to leave.
"I guess we'll leave now then." Elena said rushing upstairs to grab a change of clothes.
"See you tomorrow. And thank you." he said winking at his son.
"Yeah. No problem dad." Aiden said smirking at his dad.
When they walked into the boarding house both released a sigh. They said hello to the current tenants before taking the stairs up to the master bedroom.
"Alone at last." Damon said immediately pulling his wife into his arms.