A. Russo

"Um. Excuse me. What are you doing in my kitchen?" Asked a voice directly behind me. I didn't even hear anyone come in. I was currently looking for something to eat in Damon's fridge. He was off somewhere in his house doing God knows what. He said nothing was off limits to me - what a sweetie - and I assumed that extended to the food in his fridge. I mean, come on, he was a vamp, he didn't need it like I did. He also warned me that his kid brother would be in and out of the house, since they lived together. I couldn't imagine living with my brothers after spending childhood through adolescence with them. Remembering I needed to answer this guy's question, I turned around to face him, carton of orange juice in hand, and bagel between my teeth for safe-keeping. I took the bagel out of my mouth so I could speak.

"Clearly, I'm raiding your fridge." I told him, looking him up and down. He was a looker, that's for sure. Good genes ran through the Salvatore family as well. Reddish-brown hair, brooding forehead, green eyes, fit body. In terms of facial structure, he looked nothing like his brother. Not a bad thing, he looked a bit like a superhero. But I appreciated the darker things in life, dark chocolate, night-time, dark beauty. You know how it is.

"Yes. Clearly." He said tightly. It was then I knew that he would be so much fun to mess with if taking food from his fridge wound him up this much. "I guess I mean, who are you, and why are you raiding my fridge." I had to suppress a smirk. It was hard.

"You guess? Or you know?" I asked, the grammar Nazi was coming out. It happens sometimes after you write a best-seller. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. It was almost too easy.

"Who are you, and why are you raiding my fridge?" He amended.

"Well then, you should've asked that first." I shook my head. "I'm here because - assuming you are Stefan - your older brother invited me over. I'm taking food from your fridge because I'm hungry. Again, that was an obvious answer but, some people require more explanations that others." I shrugged, taking a bite from the bagel. Hmmm. It needed some fixins.

"Yes." Stefan said sharply. Apparently, he deciphered my thinly veiled insult. I wondered what was going to happen now. Too bad I didn't get to find out, because Damon and all his bad-assery strolled in the kitchen. Where had he been?

"Now cara, are you harassing my little bro?" Damon asked me, laughter in his eyes.

"More like he's harassing me. I was just trying to get a little snack, and he pops up with the tenth-degree..." I say, innocently. He turns his gaze to Stefan.

"Now, Steffie, you know you're supposed to treat guests with what little manners you still have." Damon admonished. Stefan just gave him a blank look. This was entertaining, but it'd be more entertaining if I had more food in my stomach. So I turned back to get a better look at the contents of the fridge.

"So she's one of you're new toys then?" Stefan asked. I popped back up from inside of the fridge.

"Why I never!" I started. "A toy? Is that all I'm am to you Damon Salvatore? And one of many? You mean to say, Stefan, that Damon is cheating on me?!" Stefan looked flabbergasted, and looked over to Damon for help, who ran along with my plot and looked shocked. I returned to my previous position. They had a lot of good stuff in the fridge. They must have humans over a lot.

"Uhhh..." Started Stefan.

"Way to go Stefan!" Damon said. "Now she's mad at me! And when she's mad, no one around her can be happy."

"I'm just going to leave you two to talk." Stefan said, before hurrying out of the kitchen and probably out of the house.

"Wow. I've never gotten him to leave so quickly. We make a good team, Alejandra."

"Ugh. Never call me that again. Only my mother used to call me that when I was in trouble. Or when she forces me to come and visit for Christmas. Remember, Alex or Mistress, nothing else."

"Mistress...?" He asked, lifting an eyebrow, I nodded. "Nah. Everyone else calls you Alex. Since I'm special, I get to use your full name. And that's that." I looked at him for a long while. He wasn't budging.

"Fine."

"Fine?"

"Yep."

"For some reason, I pictured an argument happening about this. I would've still won, but it was going to happen. What's going on in your conniving little mind?" He asked.

"Call me Alejandra all you want. But once I find out you're middle name, it's so on." He scoffed.

"Good luck with that." I just hummed. I closed the refrigerator door, arms full of food.

"Is it time to watch that movie yet? I'm totally ready now." He just cracked a smile.

"Sure, follow me." He walked away, and I followed with all my spoils.

"So I get that since you're the town drunk, your job requires you to be at the bar pretty much all day, everyday, but what do you do when you're not there, or dealing with your weird doppleganger-slash-vampire biz?" I asked from my place on the couch. We were between movies, and I had gotten comfortable on his old couch, legs thrown up on the back, almost completely upside down, tossing Cheetoh's Puffs up and catching them in my mouth. What can I say? It felt like home. He just looked at me amusedly.

"Well, you've pretty much got my life all figured out." He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes, and taking a sip from his glass. Which made me roll my eyes because I really did want to know the answer.

"I'm serious, what do you do with your life?"

"I'm old right?" He started.

"Hell yeah, seriously old." I agreed. He gave me a look, but I just shrugged it off, he started it.

"Anyway, I've been around a while, and learned to invest stocks and good ideas when I see them and such. So if you're asking what my day job is, really all I do is manage all the money I'm making without lifting a finger."

"Nice. So it's like your living off of Daddy's paycheck, but you are Daddy. I can dig it. But you gotta tell me some good things to invest in, because I don't know how long this book thing is gonna last, and I can continue my job as Harper's manager, but it's just so much work and I'd rather not. It's so tiring."

"Oh, I gotta, huh?" He smirked at me.

"Yeah. We're bros, and bros help each other out. Either that, or I mooch off of all your not-so-hard-earned money."

"So that's how it's gonna be then? You only want me for my money?" He asked, I could hear the amusement in his voice.

"Not only your money, I also like surrounding myself with similarly attractive people. I have no problem whatsoever with you being my sugar daddy in addition to that." I shrugged.

"Have you no shame?" Damon asked in mock-shock.

"No shame, just canvases that want to be painted and taste-buds that want to be tantalized." I punctuated the end of my statement with a crunch of a puff.

"Is that so?"

"Yup, now put that next DVD in Papi. I'm ready to see some more cars explode." I said, dismissively.

"Papi, huh? I think I could get used to that." Damon said, pressing the play button on his remote.