Bonnie

7 Years Ago

Bonnie Bennett gasped awake, her every sense on fire. A pressure-cooker kind of fire, building up and up straight into her ears. That's where she started to sense it at first, the change. Everything was amplified; the fear coiling around her stomach like a blown balloon, the freshly-baked toast in the toaster smelled thicker, too burnt. The Bennett witch almost smiled. Almost.

Then she saw it. The fireplace crackled, fizzled with an orange-golden glow and just the tiniest bit of blue. "I never noticed that before," she breathed, thinking not a soul would hear. Bonnie should have known better. Prickles of unease zipped up her neck.

Bonnie spun around, teeth elongating, sharpening like knives in her mouth. She snarled, loud and deep and monstrous. Blindingly, Bonnie reached out, foreign instincts taking route inside her. In a matter of moments, she had a body thrusted over her shoulder, hitting the coffee table in front of her with a sickening smash of glass.

Yellow liquid poured out of a green Styrofoam cup, gathering near Bonnie's feet. Damon's raven hair was streaked in crimson blood, raining down his face like paint. Ravenous hunger made Bonnie dizzy with its effects, and it was practically all she could do not to lean down and lick-

Bonnie leaped, coming back to herself. "Damon?! What the hell are you doing sneaking up on me like that?" Her anger was a storm, until she saw the blood on her best friend's tie, which Bonnie guessed he still wore because his brother's wedding passed only a few hours before.

Stefan. Even thinking his name twisted her stomach. Bonnie knew her love's wishes-her Enzo's wishes-for her to forgive Stefan for killing him. Stefan had his humanity shut off, was coerced into doing so by Sybil, a Siren who terrorized Bonnie and her friend's lives for months, especially Damon's, Stefan's, and Enzo's himself.

Knowing that, though, doesn't stave off the piercing ache in her chest or the simmering, seeping anger that at times dripped out of Bonnie like a well. The only thing that soothed the pain just a little bit was seeing Caroline happy. At the thought of Caroline and Stefan's wedding, a memory Bonnie struggled to hold onto clutched her brain. She lost it almost immediately after the thought took shape.

"I'm guessing you don't want tea," Damon sighed, rising up from the now blood-soaked brown rug. "Dammit, Bon, I just cleaned that rug!" He rolled his eyes, sitting down on the bed. Bonnie's face was drawn, uncharacteristically blank.

"Bonnie?" Damon always knew when she was upset, and in what situations to use a softer tone with her. Usually Bonnie found it excruciatingly annoying; she'd hated this man for years, with good reason. Damon Salvatore had killed her friends ten times over and admitted as such, but when spending months that were more like years in a Prison World with someone, that tended to muddle the waters a bit, Bonnie supposed.

Besides, she still had yet to beat him at a game of Scrabble. Bonnie chuckled low, tears streaming down her face. Bonnie found she couldn't stop laughing, her laughter an unfathomable abyss. Then she was crying, sobbing as if she somehow absorbed all the ocean water through her eyes.

Hey," Bonnie's head fell against Damon's, and he kissed it, gentle as a summer breeze. "No tears, you."

"What's happening to me, Damon?" Whispered Bonnie, rubbing her throat. Her itching, burning throat, so dry it was like sand paper.

Damon assessed Bonnie; dark hair tucked into a woven braid, green shirt over a brown jacket accentuating the planes of her heart-shaped face. The roaring flames reflected off Bonnie's Black skin, therefore illuminating the determination lurking in her gaze.

The resolve in Damon's expression scared Bonnie far more acutely than whatever went on with her body. "Damon?"

But her best friend didn't answer right away, which amped up Bonnie's fear further. Damon wasn't one to beat around the bush, especially not with her. He knew what she could and couldn't handle better than nearly anyone. Damon spoke, but it was as if the words had clawed themselves out of his throat. "You're in transition,"

Everything hit Bonnie at once. The fire during Caroline and Stefan's Reception, Bonnie jumping in to save Caroline's twins, Caroline in turn feeding Bonnie her blood in order to save her life. Then, hours later, Bonnie holding back hellfire with the assistance of her entire witch ancestry and passing out soon after.

"Oh, my God, oh, my God!" Bonnie gasped, her mind spinning. Damon's left arm swept over Bonnie's shoulder, expression reassuringly calm. "Hey, what do you want to do?"

Bonnie sighed, letting out a breath while staring into the icy-blue depths of her best friend's eyes. "Losing Enzo was like losing a lim or a piece of myself that I didn't know existed until he showed me. Seeing him, lying there on my porch, that was the worst moment of my life."

Damon's expression pinched, an unidentifiable emotion crossing his face. "Bonnie, why-?"

Bonnie wasn't done. She held up a hand. "In that moment, I wanted to die. I saw no other way out. I was a captive to my grief," Bonnie swallowed thickly.

Damon stayed silent after that, his empathy a shield at Bonnie's back. "So, what are you saying, Bon?"

Bonnie inhaled, nodding her head and rolling her shoulders. "Well, a very stubborn man once told me that he admired, loved,and envied me for the ways I'd survived. I've been a witch, a human, a corpse, a ghost, an anchor to The Other Side, the woman who almost killed you, and now-" she shrugged, absolute incredulity cutting through her words. "A vampire."

Damon's shock nearly rivaled Bonnie's. "Are you sure?"

Bonnie clasped her hands. "Damon, I fought hellfire with my witch bloodline today and won. Death can't have me."

Damon smiled, and Bonnie swore she saw pride in his eyes. "Well, in that case," he stood up from the brown bed, lowering his tie and exposing his neck. Instead of hearing a heartbeat, Bonnie heard what she could assume was blood sloshing around, judging by the way her fangs abruptly extended out. "Bon Appetite."

Before she lost her nerve, Bonnie tugged Damon back down. Damon stared at their interlocked hands, but Bonnie couldn't decode her friend's expression. "Just so you know, blood sharing is, um-" Damon' squinted-"intimate for vampires. So if you're not comfortable, I can-"

Bonnie cut Damon's words short by letting go of his hand and holding hers up again. "First, I know. Elena told me, and second, I have to-"

Damon whistled, cutting her off this time. " Not sure how I feel about that, but alright," he gave a tiny shrug. Bonnie, however, waved a dismissive hand. "No other details were shared. Now, I have something to ask you."

God, Bonnie loved that Damon so easily adapted to her mood shifts. "Anything."

Bracing herself and leaning forward, she whispered her question into his left ear. Damon's body went rigid, his blue eyes rounding in shock as Bonnie pulled back, fearing the worst. But Bonnie gasped when she saw Damon's rapidly blinking eyes, like he held back tears.

Bonnie decided then and there that she didn't need an answer right now. "I'll give you some time. "It's a big decision." That, at least, she knew.

Damon cleared his throat, looking away a moment. "Thank you," he whispered. She nodded, hunger gnawing at her insides so powerfully Bonnie was on the verge of collapse.

"Drink," Damon ordered. Bonnie complied, her fangs sinking smoothly into Damon's neck. Matalic blood traveled down Bonnie's throat, stiicky and naturally, rather wet. Dimly, Bonnie thought her human self would've registered that she was drinking metal again, much like the other times she'd drank blood in order to save herself.

Vampire Bonnie, however, found the taste sickly sweet. More. She needed more. And so, Bonnie drank deeper. All the while, Damon's hand cradled her head, the force of Bonnie's bite combined with her strength pulled the two down together and left Bonnie and Damon falling towards the white pillows.

Bonnie, still clinging to Damon's throat with her right hand; heard a distant moan escape his lips as her fangs rolled across his neck. Echoing Damon's moan, she dove in for seconds. His hand caressed her hair now, meticulously needling his way through the strands and massaging back and forth.

Bonnie moaned again, rolling herself and Damon's bodies up so she was straddling him. Satisfied with her work, Bonnie was stunned but nowhere near displeased when Damon sat upright, plunging his own fangs inside her neck and sucking as greedily as she had moments ago.

Then something strange happened. Elena's voice sounded in Bonnie's head. "That's not a mystery guy. That's Damon Salvatore."

Bonnie's own voice rang out, younger than she'd heard it in a long time. "Salvatore? As in Stefan?"

Bonnie reeled back, groaning in dazed pleasure when Damon sucked harder, his fangs soaked in a deep red. Damon pressed his body closer, rubbing Bonnie's back. He threw her jacket on the ground and she ripped his suit, watching it fall to pieces

Bonnie's fingers roamed over Damon's finely-toned chest, flicking her fangs out, scraping over the hollow of his neck. Damon hissed.

Seeing an opening, Bonnie pinned Damon by the throat, gaining the upper hand again. Damon laughed, eyes rolling back. "Gotcha," she murmured, her mouth around his neck again in an instant. Damon sighed, rolling the two of them over and sending shockwaves through Bonnie's body as he bit down.

The voices returned, but this time, they overlapped. "Careful, Damon. I might start to think you actually care."

"Wouldn't want that."

"I'm doing this for Bonnie, Elena. Not you."

"Thank you. The device that Emily spelled could've killed me. I don't take what you did lightly, so...thank you."

"I could actually hug you right now."

"So, yes, Bonnie. I do know how long three seconds are."

"I'm sure there are a million people we'd both rather be with right now, but..."

"Bonnie?"

"The one and only."

Bonnie stopped feeding. She stared at Damon sprawled out on his bed, like he was an alien. He, to his credit, was slack-jawed. "Did you hear-?"

He nodded. Very slowly. "Us."

Bonnie shook her head. "A-and that's never-?"

"Nope," Damon replied. Bonnie covered her mouth, realization crashing over her like a truck. "D-Damon, we almost-"

Damon dragged a hand over his face, "I can't say that's never happened before, but it's never been...that intense."

Bonnie drew her knees up to her chest. "Oh, my God!"