At eight o'clock sharp Alaric pulled into the driveway in front of the Salvatore boarding house. Suddenly feeling a bit nervous he quickly checked himself in the rear-view mirror before getting out and heading towards the front door. He'd wanted to bring something over as a thank you for dinner but Damon had insisted that all he needed to bring was himself.
When he rang the doorbell the door almost immediately flung open to reveal a smiling Jeremy, who looked like he'd been expecting him rather than surprised or confused as to why his history teacher was at his house on a Saturday night. Damon must've already spilled the beans that he was coming over and, most likely, that they were together.
"About time you got here Alaric! I'm starving and the food smells amazing but Damon kept saying we had to wait for you so he wouldn't let me taste anything. Don't tell him this but I snuck some sauce when he went upstairs to change a little while ago."
The last part Jeremy whispered to him conspiratorially, glancing over his shoulder nervously to make sure Damon hadn't come up behind him and heard what he'd said.
Alaric chuckled as he stepped into the house and he couldn't help but let out a low, impressed whistle when he got a good look at the interior. The house was very traditional with high ceilings and polished wood but still felt very cozy despite being so spacious.
Jeremy noticed his wandering gaze and commented, "It really is a lot to take in when you first see the place from the inside. I'd had no idea that houses like this till existed in Mystic Falls until I moved in here. Even with all of the modern additions this place still looks like it could've come straight out of the 1800s."
They walked through the study which allowed Alaric to catch a glance at the extensive library that Damon had mentioned on their first date, tall wooden shelves filled end to end with undoubtedly very old and valuable books collected by generations of Salvatores. He grinned when he caught sight of a liquor cabinet in the corner of the room, certain that it housed only bourbon.
When they entered the kitchen Damon was bent over in front of the oven obviously checking its contents; Alaric had to very consciously avert his gaze from his boyfriend's backside lest he ended up in a very awkward situation with one of his students in the room.
"Damon, Alaric's here! Can we eat now?"
Damon stood back up and turned around with a bright grin, "Hey Ric! Dinner's gonna be ready in about ten minutes so just take a seat. You want anything to drink?"
As they sat down Jeremy leaned across the island to grab a bun but was stopped when Damon hit his hand lightly with a dish towel.
"What did I just say?"
"C'mon Damon, I'm starving!"
Damon huffed but caved under Jeremy's puppy eyes and pushed the bread basket towards him causing the brunet teen to let out a cheer and Alaric shoot his boyfriend a knowing grin.
For all his bravado and snark, Damon was a real softie at heart.
"I'll take a glass of bourbon, if the offer's still on the table?"
Damon put both Alaric and Jeremy to work bringing all the food from the kitchen to the dining room. He joined them a moment later with his and Jeremy's drinks in hand (a bourbon for him and Coke for Jeremy) only to find them both already in the middle of piling food high onto their plates.
Rather impressed Damon quipped, "And here I was thinking that maybe I'd made too much."
Both males' responses were muffled by the food in their mouths which made Damon simultaneously roll his eyes and feel unfathomably fond of both of them. The meal passed comfortably with idle conversation broken only when Alaric and Jeremy went for seconds, much to Damon's pleasure.
"Don't fill yourselves up too much; I made a cake for dessert."
Jeremy's eyes lit up and he hastily swallowed his mouthful of chicken, "Is it that triple chocolate one you were talking about the other day?"
When Damon nodded the teen let out an excited whoop and turned to Alaric, "Damon makes the most amazing desserts Alaric, you have no idea. Don't get me wrong all his food is delicious but when I tried the lemon meringue pie he made a couple weeks ago I swear I'd died and gone to dessert heaven."
Damon flushed from the sudden praise, "I'm really not that good-"
Alaric cut him off, unwilling to allow his boyfriend to downplay his talent, "Damon I've only eaten your cooking once and I can confidently say that it's probably some of the best food I've ever eaten. Where did you learn to cook like this?"
The dark haired man shrugged, uncharacteristically shy, "After my mother died my father started working a lot more and didn't come home until dark most days. I decided to learn to cook at least a little so that Stefan wouldn't have to live off of takeout and frozen meals. I went to the library in town and took out a bunch of different books on cooking and recipe books and... I guess I just really took to it. I always found it relaxing, being able to lose myself in working on a recipe until I perfected it."
Alaric reached across the table and took one of Damon's smaller hands, giving him a gentle smile, "Well it definitely paid off."
The couple gazed at each other affectionately and the fuzzy atmosphere lingered until Jeremy cut in, "Oh my God! Damon I'm totally, 100% okay with you and Alaric dating but if you guys start making out in front of me I'm afraid I'm gonna have to leave."
Damon rolled his eyes and tossed a balled-up napkin at the teen's face, "Just wait until you bring a date over to the house, you little punk! Then I'll have my revenge."
"I'll never let you meet them then."
One slender dark eyebrow lifted and Damon smirked triumphantly, "You do remember that my boyfriend works at your school, right?"
The brunet froze and his eyes went comically wide in realization, "...Crap."
The couple couldn't help but burst into laughter at the dumbfounded look on the teen's face and it wasn't long before Jeremy's laughter joined theirs.
After the laughter calmed down Jeremy and Alaric made quick work of the remaining food on their plates; Damon didn't want the night to be over so soon and suggested that they watch a movie together.
"We can have the cake while we're watching."
Jeremy quickly chimed in, "Can I pick the movie?"
Damon chuckled, "Only if you help me with the dishes, kid."
The pair began to clear the table and Damon startled when Alaric also stood up and began collecting plates.
"You're our guest Ric, you don't have to help clean up."
The history teacher gave his boyfriend a dry look, "Damon you invited me over, you cooked dinner, made a dessert and I don't doubt cleaned up the house at some point. Helping with the dishes is the least I can do."
With that he snatched the plates out of a dumbstruck Damon's hands and joined Jeremy at the kitchen sink. He and the teen exchanged pleasant small talk as they rinsed the dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher. As they worked Alaric snuck a glance over his shoulder and found Damon watching them with a soft look in his pale blue eyes.
It was a look that the history teacher recognized from lazy nights in loft curled up on the couch with Damon tucked against his chest and the times when Damon would talk about Stefan and Jeremy, even when it was about annoying things they'd done recently. It's a look that just screams fondness and love.
The thought made Alaric's heart pound and he couldn't help but think, "God, I love him so much."
The realization caught him by surprise but not so much as the feeling of rightness that settled in his chest afterwards. It was like the words had filled some part of him that he'd never realized was empty all these years.
He was in love with Damon Salvatore.
God, he was so fucked.
Between Jeremy and Alaric the dishes were finished in no time and were put away in their proper cabinets. Damon fetched the cake from the downstairs basement and served each of them a slice before cutting his own and following them into the den.
Damon and Alaric settled down on the couch as Jeremy claimed one of the armchairs as his own before he went over to the shelf to peruse the movie collection. The adults watched him mull over the choices for a minute or two before he selected one and popped it into the player, pressing play before he settled into his chair with his slice of cake in his lap.
Damon smiled when the menu for "The Avengers" came up and nudged Alaric gratefully when the older man leaned forward to use the remote to hit "Play Movie".
As the opening Marvel logo filled the big screen the three men settled in, all of them content and eager to watch some badass superhero action.
By the time Loki began his siege on New York City Jeremy had dozed off in the armchair, sprawled out with his mouth hanging open slightly.
Damon laughed quietly at the teen's awkward sleeping position but he reluctantly pulled himself from Alaric's side to go readjust him. If the kid stayed like that all night he'd undoubtedly wake up with a killer backache.
Alaric lazily rolled his gaze from the TV to watch his boyfriend adjust the sleeping teen and cover him with a blanket. When Damon sat back down next to him Alaric tugged him against his chest, curling an arm around the younger man's slender waist to keep him there.
Damon peered up but was only able to see his boyfriend's jaw from his position, "Not that I don't love it when you get handsy but might I ask why you're doing it right now? It's not like we can do anything really fun with the kid in the room."
Alaric didn't respond for a few moments, instead watching Loki and Thor's confrontation outside of Stark Tower, before he commented, "You really love Jeremy."
Damon sat up ramrod straight and stared at Alaric with wide electric blue eyes, "Where the hell did that come from?!"
Alaric shrugged and tugged at Damon's waist to pull the younger back down, "It's just... The way you look at him has changed over the past month. When I first met you, you looked at him like he was an annoying little brother. But now when you look at him it's similar to the way a father would look at his son."
Damon said nothing for a long while, long enough that Alaric began to worry that he'd stepped on a landmine with his observation. After a long silence- only broken by the sounds of The Hulk beating up the God of Lies- Damon finally, quietly, answered him.
"...Yeah, I love him. I didn't really mean to, y'know? I mean, when came here it wasn't because he wanted to, he had to. And I had to take care of him because I promised I would. But somewhere along the line it became less of a chore to look after him and more of a need to. Jeremy's a good kid, he's smart and funny and even though he can be a little shit sometimes he's probably the most sensible teenager I've ever met. And that's including my stick-in-the-mud little brother."
A small, genuine smile crossed Damon's lips as he glanced over at the sleeping brunet, "This place used to be just a house to me, somewhere for Stefan and I to stay. When I came back to Mystic Falls Stefan and I had drifted so far apart that we barely glanced at each other when we were here at the same time. But since Jeremy came it's started to feel more like a home, probably the best home I've ever had. Stefan and I actually hold conversations now and we can just... be brothers again. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed that."
Alaric smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of his head, "I'm glad that you're happy, Damon."
Damon beamed up at him, eyes playful, "And don't forget: if Jeremy hadn't come to live here then I might never have met a certain tall, unbelievably sexy history teacher."
Alaric raised an eyebrow teasingly, "Oh? And who might that be?"
The smaller man laughed and kissed the blonde soundly, curling his arms around the older man's neck to pull him closer as they kissed. They kept it relatively tame though, neither of them wanted to risk Jeremy waking up and getting an eyeful of something that could potentially scar him for life. After a few minutes of making out they settled back into their original positions: Alaric leaning against the arm of the couch with Damon curled up against his front. They watched the closing moments of the movie in companionable silence before Damon's voice, nervous yet determined, broke it.
"I... I love you, Ric."
Alaric's eyes widened at the sudden admission but school his expression, knowing just how much nerve Damon had to have worked up to put himself out there like that first. Instead he simply tilted Damon's head up so he could kiss him long, slow and sweet to allow his boyfriend to feel the depth of his emotions.
When they broke apart Alaric whispered into the little space between their mouths, "I love you too, Damon."
So I'd like to apologize for the insane amount of time between this chapter and the last! DX For a while I decided not to update because there was an outbreak of mirror sites that were stealing works from this site a couple months ago- something that only I found out about from a reblogged post on a tumblr page I regularly visit- and I decided not to post until the sites were taken down, which they have been from what I've seen. (I recently verified that my works are solely here by typing in a quote from my stories in quotation marks in Google and the only result that came up for each story were the proper links to this site.) The other reason was that I just kind of got lost in other fandoms for a while, it happens to the best of us. XD (That reminds me, I can finally put my Jurassic World story up!) But I've got the next/final chapter done as well, so you won't have to wait much longer for this story to finally be completed!
Thank you for being so patient in waiting for this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! And thank you for everyone who has followed, faved, reviewed or has just plain read the story so far. See you all soon for the epilogue!