A/N: Thank you for the love, guys, seriously... *group hug*

Ready to finally find out where Damon is taking Maya? A little birdie told me that their trip there is going to be a bit rocky. I had so much fun writing this chapter, I hope you guys will enjoy it! Happy reading (:

PS. I posted a pic of the clothes Maya's wearing for Damon's little secret escapade on my Tumblr and my Twitter! The links are on my profile page. ;) Oh, and keep telling me if you want to see a pic of what Maya could look like. ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. This is a work of fiction written for entertainment purposes, but the original characters and original storylines present in "My Paper Heart" are my own work.

"You're taking me to a gay nightclub?" I realized a few seconds after my jaw had dropped. I quickly closed my mouth and recomposed myself.

"How can you tell it's a gay club from here?"

"We're barely five hundred feet away from the building, Damon. And if the 'Pandora's Box' neon sign didn't give it away, the rainbow flag flapping underneath it would definitely have been a huge hint," I replied, a sarcastic expression plastered on my face. "The question is how do you know this place?"

"There are those incredible little things called cell phones. You should try. They even have Internet access now…"

"Ha ha ha," I articulated dryly. "Well, maybe you should've been more thorough in your research, because from what I can see of the line, this is girls night only access today." I bit my lip discreetly, trying my best to restrain a laugh. "And even if I put a lot of make up on your face, you're not going to fool anyone."

"My manhood couldn't be more flattered," he declared, full of himself. I rolled my eyes over the man's ego but to be honest, I was a bit thankful for this hitch. I was pretty sure I knew what Damon had in mind, and I wasn't exactly comfortable with this dubious idea.

"A point for effort, but we can go somewhere else, Damon. It's fine."

"We're not going anywhere! The goal is for you to have fun, remember?"

"Guess what? I can have fun dancing in a straight club too! Shocking, I know…"

"Oh but we're talking about a whole different kind of fun here." He flashed me a wicked grin, effectively changing the atmosphere in the car.

His innuendo confirmed that my intuition had been right. Damon had depraved plans for me, and I couldn't imagine how they would not end in a painful mess. For him. For the both of us. I needed to get this plan out of his thick head.

"You're talking about a whole different kind of fun. How do you picture this, huh? You're going to play the third wheel? Or my chaperon, waiting patiently for me to be ready to go home?" I crossed my arms over my chest and raised a daring eyebrow.

"Don't worry about me. I have all the time in the world to have fun. This is your night."

"This is ridiculous, Damon. Let's go somewhere else where the both of us can have fun," I insisted, not wanting to even step foot in that club and trigger a situation I would rather avoid.

"Nuh uh." He waved a finger in front of my face. "I'm not going to let you chicken out!"

"I'm not chickening out! How do you expect to get into that club Mister Manliness, huh?"

"Do I really have to tell you that again? I am a vampire, Maya. Compulsion!"

"And we all saw how well that worked out last time..." I muttered under my breath.

"Once the bouncer realizes there's a man in the line, trust me, he'll come right over." He was acting all cocky about this, like nothing could ever stand in his way.

"You're planning to use compulsion on every single girl in and out of the club too? Because they're not going to be happy with you in there."

"I'm going to do what I always do with women."

"Be a dick?"

"Use my natural charm." I snorted dryly.

"Good luck with that..."

"Have a little faith, woman! I have a plan."

"Oookay, I'm out!" I opened the door and stepped out of the car. This whole idea was a very bad one. Damon didn't seem to be aware of what was so tricky about it, but he wasn't going to make me change my mind about going into that club.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, getting out of the car too. "You're planning to walk your way back to Mystic Falls?" He let his arm drop casually on the top of the car, a teasing smile on his lips.

"If I have to." I turned on my heel and started walking in the opposite direction. I had no intention of actually hiking to Mystic Falls, but I was hoping my reaction would make Damon compliant.

"What happened to 'I'll do whatever I'm told'?" The reminder of the promise I had made caused me to feel a hint of guilt, but I ignored it and kept my brisk pace.

"Come on…don't be an idiot! What's wrong with this club anyway?" I heard him slamming the car door and taking a few steps behind me.

"What's wrong with going to another club?" I replied over my shoulder. I suddenly felt air moving around, and perceived a faint whooshing sound. Damon had caught up with me and grabbed my elbow, forcing me to turn around.

"What's going on here, exactly?" he inquired, his eyes shining with confusion and a bit of anger.

"Let me go." I struggled to release my arm from his grip, but that only made him squeeze it harder. I winced at the pain and shot him a deadly glare.

"What is it, Maya?" His features softened, his voice coming out more gentle.

"Don't make me say it, Damon…" I whispered in a plea, breaking eye contact with him and trying to free myself of his hold once again. He seemed to debate what to do next for a second, then finally let go of my arm. He stepped closer to hover over me and stared down at me with an intent expression on his face.

"I swear to God that if you don't tell me what this is about, I'm going to throw you over my shoulder and take you into that club against your will!" I searched his face, trying to figure out if that was something he could do, and realized I was speaking with Damon. Of course he would do it.

I knew I should have talked about it earlier. I should have clarified things as soon as I started to have doubts. But I kept clinging to the idea that it was all in my head. I had hoped that it would go away before we even had to deal with it.

I sighed resignedly, and lifted my head to meet those blue eyes that looked identical to mine.

"I always knew that you had my back when situations got messy…and it always has been fun to bicker with you from day one." I was aware that I was beating around the bush, but I couldn't resolve myself to just simply drop the bomb on him. "But ever since this whole Katherine thing started, we've finally become friends. Even close friends…" He agreed with a quick nod, obviously not wanting to interrupt me. "That's when I started to realize some things…" I trailed off and looked at the ground for a second, trying to find some courage. "The way you're being overprotective with me…always rushing to my house to check if I'm okay. And not just physically. You're sweet, thoughtful and soothing with me. You're even a good fucking listener! No matter how crazy my rambling is." I chuckled slightly as an attempt to lighten the mood, but Damon was too focused on what I was trying to say to join me. I cleared my throat and became serious again. "You behave like my very own knight in shining armor, and you even call me sweetie. The only other person I ever saw you acting like that with was…Elena." I almost whispered her name, afraid of its consequence. And I was right to be. He looked like I had slapped him hard in the face. He took a step backward, and I felt him closing himself off from me.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Maya." He turned around and started to walk away. I was the one this time who grabbed his arm and made him look at me.

"Damon, please. You're the one who wanted me to talk about this. So let's talk about it!" I sighed and stared him straight in the eye. "The way you leered at me earlier, at the restaurant. The jealousy, the compliments? I'm not an idiot, and you're not one either…" I remarked in a calm voice, wanting for him to see that this was an open, heart-to-heart talk. "I don't know what this is about- if it's you repeating history again by falling for the wrong girl again, or if I'm just some kind of rebound from Elena…but you can't do this to yourself, Damon!"

"Do what?" he asked, his voice coming out hoarse. I knew my words were upsetting him. Not only were his eyebrows deeply wrinkled, but sadness and hurt were written all over his face. And yet, he hadn't denied anything, so I decided to rip off the band-aid once and for all. I stepped closer and stopped right in front of him.

"You deserve someone better!" I hit his chest with a flat hand and pushed him a little to knock some sense into him. "You'd be my very first choice, Damon, if I were straight. Even though I would never admit that out loud, if I was actually straight…" I joked lightly. He seemed to be stuck between being happy about my revelation, and laughing at the statement that followed. "But that's not enough! Why would you want to settle for that, or even torture yourself like that? If only you let people see the real you…"

"You mean the impulsive, murderous dick that I am?" The small smile that appeared on his lips while he was saying those words never reached his eyes.

"Well, you are an unpredictable asshole, but that's only a small part of you. You just choose to show that side of yourself so you can keep people away from you," I pointed out, raising a knowing eyebrow at him. "If you were willing to let a girl know not only your dark side, but your good side as well, you wouldn't have to act so reckless in fear that she could reject you."

"I did that already, Maya. Look where it got me!" he snapped bitterly.

"Oh please…you've done it only with girls you already knew were unavailable. Elena was already your brother's girlfriend when you decided to move on from Katherine, and you figured out I was gay before we even became that close! Your behavior can only be excused with Katherine, since she was your first love- but that's all, buddy." I fixed my gaze on him, daring him to refute this statement.

"Do you really think I enjoy falling for the wrong girls?" He clenched his jaw, his eyes burning with fire.

"I think you're punishing yourself for some reason…maybe for believing, back in 1864, that she was really in love with you. I don't know. What I'm sure of is that you're not afraid to love. You're afraid to be loved. And that's crazy, Damon! If only you were willing to let an available, straight, funny, smart girl know you, she'd fall for you in an instant!" I shouted, my voice laced with both anger and laughter.

"Yeah…because there are so many Mayas out there. Well, available and straight versions of you, anyway."

"There are. They're just a little bit more difficult to find and charm than your usual drunk one-night stands…but they won't make it look like you're dating your own sister. Which is a huge bonus." I managed to get a laugh out of him this time. "I'm your friend, Damon, and I'm not going anywhere. But you need to forget about me…I don't know when you started to believe it, but you're not a second choice. You have to give yourself a chance," I stated in a serious, honest tone. A lot of emotions passed through his wide eyes until he did something that I didn't expect at all. He stepped closer, wrapped his big arms around me, and hugged me tightly against his hard chest. I wasn't sure why. Maybe he had needed to hear those words for a very long time.

"You realize you're kind of ruining the effect of my 'let's just be friends' monologue right now, right?" I asked, my voice muffled by his shoulder. He chuckled in my hair but didn't budge. I was afraid to hurt the raw feelings he was experiencing at the moment by breaking his hug, but I didn't want to contradict my earlier statement either. I wasn't sure what the right thing to do was. So I remained stuck awkwardly to his chest, my arms hanging at my sides, for as long as he needed.

He eventually loosened his arms and let go, but stayed close to me. He looked down and gave me a simple and genuine smile.

"Now that we've crossed out 'drama' from the 'night of your life' list, we can start the fun part. Come on, let's go!"

"Damon! I told you that-" He raised a hand and pressed his finger against my lips, denying me the chance to finish my sentence.

"I heard you, Maya." He spoke softly before removing his finger from my mouth. "You're my friend, too. To be honest, you're my only friend since…" he trailed off, but I didn't need him to say more to understand that he was referring to Alaric. "I don't know when I started to fall for you or why I've been so stupid, but I value your friendship more than anything else. I'm not going to do anything to screw that up." His words caused a pang of hurt to boom in my chest. They were echoing the words I had said to Elena too perfectly, before she kissed me in my living room. The black haired man standing in front of me was known to be self-absorbed, careless and even more dangerous. So why was he able to get it? Why was he able to be wise and selfless, and take my personal feelings into consideration, when my own best friend- my soul mate- hadn't been able to?

The pressure of his thumb and finger on my chin snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked up at him and met the soft expression radiating off his face. "I needed to hear it, Maya but I'm fine now. And I think it's time for you to be as well…"

"What?" I croaked quietly, looking at him in confusion.

"What goes for me goes for you too, sweetie." He winked at me, making it obvious that this term of endearment was going to become an inside joke. "You've stayed a freaking nun for way too long! You've kept yourself from meeting someone because of your feelings for her…you need to stop doing that right now. And if that means going wild with a perfect stranger or falling for a highly disreputable bitch, then so be it...you deserve some fun, Maya. You deserve to be carefree for a while and to enjoy yourself. But most of all, you deserve to be happy." He poured his eyes into mine with such intensity that it felt like he was staring right into my soul. I gulped down the dry lump in my throat and broke eye contact with him, trying to gather myself back together after his unexpected speech. "So, we're going into that club, and you're going to have the night of your life."

"But Damon…I don't want to hurt yo-"

"No discussion!" he declared, cutting me off once more. "And stop flattering yourself…it's not like I'm in love with you." His usual smug grin found its way back to his lips. "It's going to be just fine. Now let's go!" He wrapped a strong arm around my waist and pulled me along with him, giving me no choice other than to follow him towards the club.

He stopped at the car on his way, though. Letting go of me for a minute, he pulled the door open and stripped his shirt over his shoulders to throw it on the back sit. He smoothed out the black V-neck tee-shirt he was wearing underneath, making it hug his muscled chest perfectly. When he ran his fingers randomly through his hair to make it look disheveled, our frightening resemblance hit me all over again. We really had the same thick raven mane. And the same way of styling it. He tucked the T-shirt into his tight jeans, and to my utter surprise, he actually checked if it was emphasizing his ass.

That was when I realized what he was doing. The ease with which he arranged his outfit to look fashionably gay was astonishing. And a bit confusing. He smirked knowingly when he noticed my expression and grabbed my waist again before I could react, leading me to the entrance of the club.

"I don't know what you have in mind, but pretending to be gay is not going to be enough…" I murmured as we arrived at the end of the line. The club was clearly going to be crowded. We had barely been there for a minute when a group of girls was already standing in line behind us.

"Trust me." He whispered the words into my ear before pulling out his phone. After a few seconds, I felt mine vibrating in my back pocket. When I checked the screen, the text message on it made me frown deeply. There were only two words, - "Call me"- and the sender was Damon. I glared at him sideways, asking him silently with my eyes what game he was playing. He raised his eyebrows in response and gave me a pointed look. I sighed in exasperation and dialed his number. When his phone started to ring, he gestured at me discreetly to put my phone away in my pocket.

"Hi, hon…to what do I owe the honor?" Damon said, like he was actually talking to someone through his phone. I had no clue what he was up to, but he was speaking rather loudly. He turned his head towards me, and mouthed me quietly something while pointing at the device glued to his ear. He was acting like I knew who was on this other side of the line, and obviously, we weren't supposed to like her...or him.

"Why do you suddenly care? I thought you had plans!" He waved his hand around in a dramatic manner and balanced his weight on one leg. "Oh! They've been canceled? Poor baby. Well, I have plans on my own, so…" he trailed off and remained silent for a few seconds, pretending to listen what the other person had to say. If I didn't have super hearing abilities, and if I didn't know that he was actually talking to my butt, he would have totally fooled me. A lot of the girls started to realize that there was a man in the line, and were paying really close attention to his conversation.

"No, I'm with Molly!" he suddenly declared in a loud tone before winking at me. Molly? Oooh, that was definitely payback for calling him Dave earlier at the hospital. "And we're about to have a lot of fun in that new nightclub we picked!" He bumped my side with his hip playfully, and almost drove me through the wall as I was completely unprepared for it. I was about to scowl at him and punch his arm in retaliation when I remembered in time that I was supposed to play along. Even though I had no idea where all of this was going.

"No, I'm not going to ditch her to spend the night with you!" He straightened his body to take a convincing and extremely feminine offended pose. "Because she's my best friend! And she was actually excited to go out with me! Not like someone else I know, who is so ashamed to date me that I'm not even allowed to go to his friends' parties." I caught some girls shaking their heads in disapproval out of the corner of my eye. "No, I do not exaggerate! And you don't get to be jealous, darling! You should've made some plans with me when you knew that I was free." All of his muscles tensed, like he was being yelled at. He looked at me with his eyes full of panic and insecurity, personifying perfectly the typical girl in need of emotional support.

The situation was really disturbing. His act was so good that it was difficult for me to keep up. I was constantly fighting my tendency to just stand there dumbstruck and watch the play happening in front of me. I finally clenched my fist and raised it in front of me, plastering a determined expression on my face to silently encourage him to hold his own. I was very aware that none of our moves were going unnoticed by the audience around us.

"Oh, you should not give me an ultimatum, honey…because she loves me for who I am, and she never treated me like a disposable sex toy!" Some of the girls in the line started to voice their approval by giving him some words of encouragement. "No one should be treated like that. Ever. I deserve respect!" The crowd was shouting their support loudly now, and a woman in the front of the line even yelled "you tell him, sista!" in our direction.

"You're not breaking up with me, I'm breaking up with you!" Damon said in a stage voice before hanging up quickly. He turned around to face me, acting like he had been impulsive and wasn't sure if he had done the right thing. I thought about what I would do if this whole situation had actually been real, and threw my arms around his shoulders to hug him tightly. That was all it took for the entire line to cheer for us enthusiastically.

"If I knew you were such a drama queen, I would've never been your friend," I whispered slyly in his ear, careful to keep the act going. "Your lying skills are frightening."

"I have an excellent teacher," he replied in the same tone and squeezed my back once to make sure I understood that he was talking about me. I disentangled myself from his arms and shot him a fake annoyed glance. He turned on his heel to face the girls surrounding us.

"Thank you, ladies, for your support. We need to stick together, am I right? Girl Power!" And with those words came another cheering wave from the crowd. I rolled my eyes in disbelief. The gay version of himself was really too much.

I suddenly realized that, while Damon was entertaining the female population around, we had made our way somehow to standing in front of the bouncer. Damon had in fact managed to charm the girls like he had planned, but compelling the sinister hulk blocking the entrance was going to be another ball of wax.

"Where do you think you're going, pal?" the bouncer asked sternly, flattening his giant hand on Damon's chest.

"Inside the club to have fun with my girl…" He used such an innocent tone to answer that it was almost cute.

"In case you didn't notice, this is girls' night only." Damon looked over his shoulder for a while and faced the bouncer again with a sheepish expression on his face.

"Oh…"

"Yeah. So I suggest you to step out of my line and go dance somewhere else."

"Oh, come on! It's not like I'm going to hassle those ladies…" he pointed out, giving a conniving wink to the hulk in front of him. "I'm not a problem, on the contrary."

"You're a guy?" The bouncer asked, impassive.

"Last time I checked."

"Then you don't get in the club." Damon looked at him and remained silent for a while. His previous little show might have turned the girls in his favor, but that also inconveniently made them pay a lot of attention to us. Compelling the bouncer with all of those eyes on us was impossible. I had the feeling that his compulsion plan was going to be an epic fail once again.

"Look. All we want is to have a nice and fun night, okay? We're not looking for trouble. My best friend here is heartbroken," he explained seriously, pointing at me. "And I just got dumped by my boyfriend! Is it possible to make an exception, just this time?"

"There is no exception. The women who come here look for privacy and intimacy. Letting you in would ruin that for them, so step out of my line." He stepped dangerously close to Damon in a threatening manner, and if I didn't know he was a vampire, I would have been worried for his health. I expected him to react to the threat by playing the 'who's going to be the more intimidating' game, but to my surprise, Damon chose seduction instead.

"Come on, I'm sure that a steamy guy like you has already had his big heart broken! So please, help us out here…we need to cheer ourselves up." He gave the bouncer a genuinely sad smile, hovering his impressive figure like he wanted nothing more than to touch his chest. Suddenly, a girl behind us spoke up.

"Let them go inside! They just want to have some fun. We all want to have fun!" Her intervention seemed to wake up the eavesdropping crowd and a supportive hubbub raised from the line. Damon took the distraction as an opportunity to look straight into the bouncer's eyes.

"Since the ladies seem to not mind my presence, you're going to let us both get in," he whispered quickly.

"Since the customers seem to be okay with you in there, you can go in," the bouncer repeated, compelled. Snapping out of the hypnotic haze, he added in a powerful voice, "But if you cause any trouble, I'll kick your ass out of the club."

"I'm sure I would not mind that so much…" Damon replied suggestively, trailing a finger along the hulk's muscular arm. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from laughing and dragged him hurriedly toward the club doors, before the entire evening left me psychological scars for life.