than our gentle sin - nc-17 - bonnie/damon - 1b/1b
title: there is no sweeter innocence (than our gentle sin)
category: the vampire diaries (tv)
genre: romance
ship: damon/bonnie
rating: explicit/nc-17
prompt: vampire-bonnie and witch-damon - anonymous (Tumblr)
word count: 12,660
summary: If he'd had to describe Bonnie, it would have been the eye of the storm. The center of chaos; unrestrained beauty, power and control just waiting to explode and rain down vengeance and glory on all around her. [au where Bonnie is the vampire and Damon the witch | two-parter]
[return.]
"You know, now that I've heard all that, I've gotta say, your street cred is really shot."
She raised an eyebrow back at him. "Oh really?"
"Yeah, I mean… Poor, half-orphaned Bonnie back in the 15th century, just wants someone to love her, spends three-hundred-plus years running around in a semi-sapphic relationship with her best friend, then said bestie turns on her, nearly gets her killed, and she goes on to spend the next hundred and fifty years pathetically looking out for the family of the only man that cared about her, who she was too chicken to go after… Not looking so badass anymore, are you, Bennett?"
Bonnie turned abruptly and, before Damon had time to blink, she had him pinned to the couch he'd just left. She sat in his lap, her knees on either side of him, her hand balled up in his shirt, fist pressed atop his heart. "Do you know how easy it would be to kill you?" She stared at him searchingly. "You boast a good game with your grimoire and your little aneurysm spell, but remember something… I'm older and stronger than most of the vampires you've met. Those little games won't work on me." She leaned in, the tip of her nose dragging gently down his cheek. "If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead… I could paint the walls with your blood. I could bathe in it. Lick it from my fingers as I tell poor little Stefan that big brother just couldn't stop poking the bear."
"Last I checked, you were more kitten than bear," he answered, meeting her eyes. His hands fell to the tops of her thighs and slid up to her round hips, dipping into her narrow waist. "Do you think about him, huh? When you look at me, is it him you're seeing? Damian…"
She swallowed tightly. The fire flared up in the grate, twisting and turning with a sudden influx of feelings on his part. Jealousy never looked good on him, he knew that.
He stared at her searchingly, his brow furrowed. "Is that why you do it? Why you spend so much time around me. Why you constantly second guess me. Why you watch me, all the time. You think I haven't noticed? How your eyes follow me everywhere, how you step in front of me when there's danger. I don't need your protection, but that doesn't stop you from offering it up. So what is it? You making up for lost time, instinct, what?"
Bonnie let out a long, shaky breath. Her eyes darkened, veins rippling dangerously beneath them. Her brows were arched and her lips were drawn back from her teeth in a ghost of a snarl. It should have disgusted him, should have reminded him of her dark nature and stripped any desire he had to have more of her, but it only served to ignite the blood in his veins, sending it spiralling through him with an unfettered need for more. She always did this, intentionally or not. She made him want her, made him crave her. Made him miss her when all he wanted to do was forget about the pint-sized little vampire that had invaded his life and his head and, though he tried desperately not to admit it, his heart.
"I said you lived up to his name, Damon, I didn't say you were him. I may be old, but I don't have dementia. I can tell you two apart by a mile."
"Then why?" He tilted his chin forward, until his lips were just a whisper from hers.
"Maybe I just like fragile things pretending to be strong," she murmured, sliding a hand up to his chin, her fingers delicately tracing his lower lip. "Pretty little warlocks playing at games they've already lost." She flattened her other hand against his chest, tapping her fingers in tune with his rapid heartbeat. "What kind of answer were you hoping for, hm? Did you ask about my life so you could find a chink in the armor, something to use against me when you don't need my help anymore? I'm not so easy to get rid of."
"Who says I need your help now?"
Her mouth turned up, amused, showing off a sliver of fang. "Is that what you want, little warlock? You want me to leave town, leave you to watch out for your very breakable, very human friends? Hm?" Her eyes widened. "Let them drain you dry looking for a way to keep Elena alive? Because that's what they're doing, isn't it?"
She shook her head knowingly. "Caroline left you for Stefan and Elena wanted you but loved Stefan but just as quickly fell into Donovan's arms. Don't get me wrong, I'll save her neck from the chopping block any day of the week. But at least I know that at the end of the day, any one of you would let me burn in the sun if it meant saving her. And there you are, so willing and eager to put yourself on the line for a girl you're not even sure you love. For a girl who's already moved on. It's a cycle with you, isn't it? It's like you look for ways to hurt yourself, to prove to yourself that nobody could ever love damaged Damon. Not since mommy dearest died."
He flinched, but Bonnie merely nodded. "You think I don't know your story? You were my job. Keeping you and Stefan and your uncle alive, it was all Damian asked of me. So I did it. And when things got tough, I showed up. I might want Katherine to pay for what she did, but I gave my word to keep you alive. So you can push and push yourself to save Elena Gilbert, and I will pull you away from the edge, every single time. No matter the cost."
Damon stared up at her, clenching his teeth tightly. "So that's it, huh? My own little guardian vampire?"
"A 'thank you' wouldn't be misplaced," she told him, pushing up so she was sitting atop his knees. "Didn't you have work to do?"
Before she could leave his lap, he squeezed her waist and pulled her back in. "Is that all it is? Huh?" he demanded, sneering with a misplaced flood of anger and jealousy. "Loyalty to him? Holding up a promise made over a hundred years ago?"
"What are you looking for, Damon?" she sighed. "A declaration of undying love?"
He shrugged. "If you have one to offer, sure."
Bonnie's eyes narrowed. She reached for him, hands falling to his shoulders and very slowly gliding up his neck. One hand buried at his nape, teasing his hair, while the other slid around to the front, her fingers tracing down his throat. "Is that what you want? Hm? You want me to love you?"
He watched her, his brows furrowed. "Would that be so crazy?" He raised a hand to twine a lock of her hair around his finger. "We have chemistry, sexual tension you could cut with a knife… We both just want someone we can rely on, who we can trust to stick around…"
Her eyes hardened along with the steely set of her mouth. "I'm not your consolation prize. I'm not going to fit into that Elena-shaped hole by your side. I can't be that sacrificial; if I was, I wouldn't have lived this long. The world is full of choices, some that benefit and some that hurt. When it comes down to it, I have to make the choice that lets me live another day."
"See, you say that… You say you're not the martyr, but I've seen you go head to head with your best friend of five hundred years to save Caroline. I've seen you tackle a werewolf so Stefan wouldn't be hurt. You've faced off against the Original vampires to keep Elena alive. You've stepped into the ring anytime anyone so much as glared in my direction. If it came down to it, admit it, you'd take a stake to the heart for any of us." He tucked his hand in her hair, curved around her neck. "You want to be strong, you want to keep your distance, you want to believe you can walk away from us, but the truth is, you can't. You spent too long wanting a family, wanting friends who would have your back, and now you have them. We're not perfect, some of us make really stupid decisions and do really stupid things to save each other, but we're all we have. And you're a part of that. You always will be."
"I can walk away." She breathed quickly through her nose, her chin wobbling. "I can leave you."
"You could…" He stroked his thumb over her skin delicately. "But you don't want to."
Bonnie dragged her tongue along her bottom lip, long and slow, before she bit down on it, staring at him. "You know what the funny thing is, Damon… You have a fickle heart. You want love, you're desperate for love, but you always pick people who are destined to leave you. You knew Caroline liked your brother, but you dated her anyway. You knew Elena wasn't over Stefan, but you still tried to get her to love you more. I'd put money down that every one of your girlfriends left you with a broken heart that you expected long before you were ever together. So this, you, wanting something with me… That's just an omen. A flashing neon sign. Maybe we'll last a few months or a few years, but eventually, something is going to happen. You'll sabotage us or you'll convince yourself that I love someone else. And then that family I had, those friends I gained, they'll all have to pick sides."
He shook his head, but she didn't let him argue.
"Stefan will pick you because you're his brother, Caroline will too, because she loves Stefan. Elena will try to stay neutral, but she knew you first, and, despite everything, she did love you. And then poor little Bonnie Bennett gets left out in the rain until some Big Bad rolls into town that your grimoire can't explain or get rid of. And you'll be knocking on my door, begging me to help because I have to still care. Because they're my friends too." She scoffed. "I don't need magical powers to see where that road leads. And the last thing I'm going to do is indulge it." She skimmed her hand up and ran her thumb along the line of his jaw. "But, because I'm a creature of curiosity…"
She pressed herself in close, her front fitting against him, back arched. She kissed his chin first, nipped at it, before she slid up and hovered just over his lips, breath warm against his mouth. She stared into his eyes before she tipped her head and leaned in. Their lips slanted together, warm and gentle, feeling each other out. And then he let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and her tongue dabbed at the seam of his mouth. Soft and coaxing became hard and demanding in a split second. He slid a hand down her back, the barest skim of his fingers making her shiver, and then pressed his palm down flat against her, drawing her impossibly closer.
The pictures rattled against the walls, the furniture seemed to bounce in place, and the fire licked up the chimney chute, sending off bursting sparks.
Bonnie sucked on his top lip, her teeth lightly scraping, followed by the soothing sweep of her tongue. She tugged on his hair, directing his head where she wanted it, only to grin when he did the same to her. Give and take, back and forth, yin and yang. His hand slid beneath her tank top, fingers warm against her skin, and moved up her back.
He paused in kissing her, opened his eyes, and said, "Braless? You naughty vampire."
"Considering you spend ninety percent of your time going commando, I'm not sure you get to judge," she replied.
His mouth ticked up at the corner, lips swollen and red from their kissing. "Should I be flattered you pay so much attention to what's going on under my clothes?"
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "You should be flattered I pay you any attention at all."
He chuckled to himself, a low rumble from his chest, and watched her pupils dilate. He stared up at her as he started dragging her top up her body. "How far does this curiosity go, anyway?"
"How far do you want it to go?" she answered, watching his progress as her shirt paused just under the swell of her breasts.
"Well, since you've already mapped out the course of our doomed relationship…" His eyed widened for emphasis. "I'm guessing this is a one-time thing. What I'm wondering is if it ends at a really hot make-out that you quickly pretend didn't happen, no matter how many references I make in front of people. Or if this is a one night deal… No regrets, no take backs, no 'we never should have done this' in the morning…" He pressed his hands flat against her shoulder blades and brought her forward, until they were eye to eye again. "So what's it going to be, Bon…?" Entirely too serious, he wondered, "Are you going to regret me?"
Bonnie stared at his mouth for a long moment before she raised her eyes to meet his. "Regret and love go hand in hand. At least if I regret you, you'll know I really cared." With that, she took her own top off, tossed it to the floor, and leaned back in to kiss him.
He could have, probably should have, stopped her, told her that he didn't plan on being a name added to the list of people who hadn't been what she wanted or needed. That he wouldn't be like the father who was never home or the best friend who sacrificed her for herself or the man she could have, but never had a chance to, love. He wouldn't be the guy who only called on her when he needed her, or the friend who saw her as the wild card that would save them from any jam they got into. He wouldn't show up on her doorstep one day, years down the line, using old friendships or old promises to guilt her into helping him. And he wouldn't throw what time they did have back in her face so she wouldn't take her much deserved revenge.
He didn't know where this thing between them was going. He didn't know why he could always feel her in the room, like a bolt of energy connected them and pulsed every time she was near. He didn't know why, when shit hit the fan, his first instinct wasn't to make sure Stefan or Caroline or Elena were safe, but to see if their resident vampire, who was, by all standards, a lot more durable than any of them, was holding her own against whatever enemy they were facing that week. He didn't know why arguing with her felt so damn good. Or why hearing her voice simultaneously put him on edge and put him at ease. He didn't know why finally being able to touch her felt like a weight was lifting off of his chest, or why hearing her tell him their relationship was doomed before it started made him want to prove her wrong.
But he knew that it felt good, it felt right, to have her in his arms. He knew kissing her felt different from his previous girlfriends, it felt somehow new and comfortable at the same time. It felt like home and tasted like fire. He knew, as much as she was stronger and older and far wiser about all things supernatural, he felt equal to her in ways that he never had with others. He didn't feel lesser, like he wasn't quite enough, but instead like she was holding him up to a standard and he always met it. It wasn't that he could do no wrong, but that he actively tried to be the best of himself and she recognized it.
And he knew, if given the chance, he could fall in love with her. He was already halfway there.
There was a weird contrast between the heat coming off the fire and the cool quality of her skin. She was smooth and soft, despite her supernatural strength. There was a scar by her belly button that she must have gotten before she was turned. He rubbed his thumb over it affectionately, wondered how she might react if he laid her down and searched out every scar on her skin just to kiss them, to feel what old vulnerabilities tasted like on his lips, to suss out the stories between each very human interaction with the world.
She was so tiny compared to him, small and seemingly delicate, like lace interwoven with invisible threads of steel. He stripped her shorts off of her and the flimsy black underwear she wore beneath them before letting her sit, nude and beautiful, in his lap once more. His hands skimmed over her shoulders, tracing down her arms, his thumbs rubbing circles around the points of her elbows and the absent pulse at her wrists. He dragged his fingertips down her palms and traced the lengths of her fingers. He smoothed his palms down her sides, from her underarms to her hips, before he slid his hands up her front, over her flat stomach and up, up, to cup under her breasts. She arched into him, covered his hands with her own, their fingers slotting in between each other's. He briefly wondered what her heart might have sounded like, what it would have felt like under his hands or his cheek pressed to her chest. He wondered how warm she would have been when she was alive and if there was anything that scared her, anything that made her humanity shine all the brighter.
She released his hands so she could walk her fingers over his chest, her teeth pressed into her bottom lip. Her exploration was slow, her eyes taking him in with the reverence of someone who wanted to remember every small detail. She touched him like his skin was braille and her fingers were reading every line of him, the knowable and the unknowable. The parts of him he kept hidden behind bravado and sarcasm. The weaknesses he pretended didn't exist, like fear and want and hope.
Bonnie was confident, perched in his lap without insecurity or uncertainty. She was proud and beautiful and stunningly real. There was perfection in the imperfections. Honesty in old, long healed, scars. Her dark hair fell down her back, curling around her shoulders, soft around her face. She looked young. Even her eyes, usually shadowed with a past he couldn't begin to truly fathom. But there, in front of him, with her fingers memorizing the arch of his cheeks and the stubborn lines of his jaw, her eyes were bright with the kind of joy he'd long learned not to associate with himself.
He'd seen love. He'd seen it in Caroline and Stefan when they looked at each other. In Elena, first with Stefan and now, more recently, building slowly with Matt. He saw it in Vicki whenever Jeremy made her laugh. And he wondered, as he looked up at Bonnie, if his eyes were as bright as hers, as hopeful as hers were now. He wondered if his smile was as goofy as it felt, or if people looked at him looking at her and knew it was only a matter of time. He wondered if she'd been right all along, that he'd picked girlfriends knowing they would break his heart. And if maybe he'd done it because he was always meant to end up here, to find her, to love her.
Maybe that was life's fucked up offering for screwing them both over. Maybe it was life's way of giving her someone who would love her without reservation, who wouldn't turn on her to save their own skin, who would be there whenever she needed them. And maybe it was life's way of giving him someone who could love him as completely and as deeply as he needed. Who wouldn't turn their eye toward Stefan or somebody else. Who wouldn't run from the weirdness that was his magic. Who could, and would, survive anything the supernatural world had to throw at them and, judging the last two years, it was a lot. Maybe this was as close to balance as they could get. A vampire with a warlock, yin and yang, light and dark.
He was sure she wouldn't believe that. She was too jaded, too sure that love would only end in loss. So as he turned them over, pressing her down into the couch and settling comfortably in the cradle of her thighs, he decided that the only way to tell her would be to prove it to her. They would have tonight, with no regrets, and come tomorrow he would show her that he could be dependable, he could pick her first, he could trust and be trusted, he could love her and stand by her and never falter.
And he got that it was a big order to fill. It was a huge role for him to fit into. But it was one he'd always wanted. One he'd thought he was taking on but never actively put himself into for his previous girlfriends. Because he expected them to want someone else, to leave him in the end, so why put any real effort into being what they wanted or deserved when it would end in him on his own? It was a shitty way of looking at it and that was why he never tried to analyze it before. But that was what it was. There was no point in sugar coating it. He didn't want to make the same mistakes this time. He didn't want drop the ball before he ever picked it up.
Bonnie's legs wrapped around his waist, her ankles crossing at his back. She smiled up at him, one of her rare smiles; not a smirk or a grin, but a soft, genuine, happy smile. She laughed when he kissed her neck, teasing her skin with his lips and his teeth, nipping at her collar bone. She skimmed her fingers through his hair and stroked his shoulders as he kissed down her chest, licking circles around her nipples and tugging on them gently with his teeth. She arched up into his mouth, letting out a stuttered breath as he kissed around the curve of each breast, nuzzling against her as he licked down her stomach and kissed the scar on her tummy. She bit her lip as he untangled her legs from him and spread them open for him to nip at her thighs, kissing down, down, down, until he reached her center. Her head fell back as his warm breath fanned over her and he closed his eyes for a moment, just drinking in the scent of her. Her arousal was intoxicating and, for a moment, he was lost in a ripple of energy that made its way through his body and left him in a pulse, making the fire roar up briefly and the window panes rattle. She shivered, and he wondered if it was from anticipation or from the power surge she'd felt leave him and echo around them.
Pressing her knees back against her chest, he focused his mouth on her, licking up her slit and teasing her open, pressing suckling kisses to her warm, wet pussy. He liked the way she tasted, salty with a faint tang. He especially liked how she reacted to each flick of his tongue, on a mission to become intimately familiar with every inch of her. Damon had always been more about his pleasure than his partner's, but he recognized early on that it was always better to give if he wanted the return to be as good. In this instance, however, he wasn't thinking about how Bonnie might return the favor; instead, he was thinking about how beautiful her face looked when she was right on the edge. She watched him, her teeth digging deep into her lip, her fingers twisting around his hair, her hips rocking up to meet his tongue. She was all tensed up, every muscle coiled, and the more he licked her, the more he knew that her release was going to be stunning.
Bonnie was a master at restraint. She was stubborn to the point of confining herself. Be it blood or protection or sex, she held control. She never killed unless necessary, she always had a Plan B and a Plan C for any situation they got themselves into. And right then, as he was eating her out like a champ, she was trying desperately not to give up complete control and let him wring every last bit of pleasure he could from her. But if there was one thing they were evenly matched on, it was tenacity. Damon made it an art form, his tongue swirling and tracing and drawing across every inch of her, suckling her clit as he curled two fingers inside her and pumped them slowly. His chin glistened with her, his tongue firmly imprinted with her taste, and he stared up at her, his eyes bright and promising as he slid a hand over her stomach soothingly and focused every bit of his energy on making her fall apart.
Eventually, she gave in; she twisted and writhed, panting his name as he made her come, once, and then again, before he climbed back up her.
She hummed as he kissed her, tasting herself on his tongue, and wrapped her arms around him, gripping his back as she pressed herself to him, her skin warming from his body heat and the fire. He kissed her cheeks and her nose and her eyebrows, he kissed her chin and her neck and her shoulders, before he slid inside her slowly, inch by inch. And her mouth fell open on a sigh, her head pressed back against the couch, her eyes briefly closing.
"Beautiful. You're beautiful," he said against her mouth, tugging on her bottom lip with his teeth as he pulled out, only to dive back in, deeper and quicker.
"Damon." She grunted, digging her nails into his shoulders. "Like that. Just like that."
Bonnie knew what she wanted. She knew what she liked and what didn't work for and she wasn't afraid to tell him. She didn't muffle the noises she was making, letting herself get loud, cursing under her breath. She enjoyed herself, unapologetically, seeking out pleasure with every twist and roll of her hips. She grabbed his hips and directed them exactly how she wanted them, quickening and slowing his pace at her leisure.
If Damon believed in heaven, and he was never quite sure he did, but if he did, he would describe it as what he was feeling right then. Buried inside her, wrapped up in her arms and her legs, her breathy voice crying out against his ear, his mouth kissing her neck and her shoulders, panting against her. Her nails leaving little crescent moons in his skin and the way her heels dug into his back and his thigh. How tightly she squeezed around him when she came, the look on her face as her head fell back, and the silent scream as her orgasm tore through her.
Heaven was knowing that he gave her that blissed out look on her face, that satisfied smile that stole her mouth. It was how she kept moving under him, so eager for more, her hands digging into his and pulling him as deep as he would go while her teeth bit at his lips. It was how she stretched underneath him, hand curled around her breast, tugging at her nipple in time with his thrusts. It was knowing that they had all night, that eventually they would leave this couch and climb the stairs to her room. That he would be able to spread her out over that huge bed she called her own and taste every inch of her, from her ankles to her ears. And he was going to; he was going to make the absolute most of all the time they had before reality came swooping back in.
Bonnie gave as good as she got, turning them over on the couch so she was perched in his lap, riding him through her own orgasm and teasing him close to, but not quite letting him have, his orgasm. She kept it going, squeezing around him, her fingers smoothing over her clit and circling around his shaft at random. She watched his face for any sign that he was about to tumble over the edge and then she would slow down, rub her hands over his stomach and his chest and down his arms, soothing him even while she kept him teetering on the cliff of his climax.
It felt like it went on forever, the muscles in his legs and abdomen strained. And then she would pick up her pace again, moving her hips just right, until he was nearly desperate, fingers digging into her thighs, her name leaving his mouth, a litany. Finally, when he was incoherent with pleasure, she let him have it. She fucked him hoarse, their hands gripped together, her mouth working down his neck, incisors scraping but not breaking his skin. And he came whimpering her name, one arm gripped around her back, hand squeezing her shoulder so tightly it would have bruised a human.
Sweat cooling on their skin, they collapsed back to the couch, her head pillowed on his chest, ear over his heart. He stroked his fingers down her arm, his free hand peeling her hair back from where it was stuck to her skin, holding it up off her neck as he pressed a somewhat sloppy kiss to her forehead.
It was a few minutes before they could talk; his tongue felt heavy, stuck to the roof of his mouth, while the rest of his body was completely loose. He felt light enough, he wouldn't be surprised if he started hovering mid-air. It wouldn't be the first time. The last time it happened, he'd been dreaming about her, a hazy memory he couldn't quite remember when he woke, except for the way she smiled up at him.
"Your heart skips," she murmured.
"Hm?"
"Your heart, it skips when I walk into the room. It's a thing." She half-smiled, raising an eyebrow. "Should I be flattered?"
He stared down at her. "Do you always listen to my heart?"
"It's a good lie detector." Her nose wrinkled in the same way it always did when she was getting defensive.
"You didn't answer the question…" He traced his finger around her ear. "Mine specifically, or everyone's?"
There was a pause before she admitted, "I used to listen to all of them, in the beginning. But lately… Yours. Just yours."
"Hmm." His fingertips dipped down beneath her cheek and around the shape of her mouth. "What does Stefan's do when Caroline walks into the room?"
She went still for a moment.
"Or Donovan's, when he sees Elena."
He could feel the tension in her body, like stone on top of him.
"When I was growing up, my dad told me I was a dreamer," he told her. "I'm not like Damian. I wasn't practical. I was never happy with normal; I wanted something bigger than what life had to offer me. So I was glad when I found out I was a warlock, because that meant I was special, different, that I could make things happen that wouldn't if I was just some boring schmo… I bet you weren't like that. You never wondered about vampires or witches, you just wanted to exist, to be happy. And then Katherine came along and she offered you the world, and for the first time in your life, you wanted something for yourself, something you never let yourself imagine before. So you took it, you took the world by the horns and you bled that sucker dry.
"Then reality came knocking and all good things came to an end; Katherine turned on you and you realized that you weren't as free as you wanted to be. The one constant you had was gone and you had to figure out how to make it out there on your own. Which is why Damian mattered, because he showed you that people could still love you, could still be loyal to you, only he died and all you had was a promise you made to him and a house too big and too empty for you to stand being in for too long. So you wandered and you lived on your vengeance and you came home to check up on the Salvatores out of duty.
"Fast-forward a hundred and fifty years to where you see Elena, and it was like a second chance staring you in the face. She looked like your bestie, but she was better than her, kind like Katherine wasn't, sacrificial like Katherine couldn't be. The type of person who wouldn't let you take the blame for her mistakes. And you met me, someone named after the only guy you ever trusted, only I wasn't steady and predictable like good old Damian, so you weren't sure what to make of me. You weren't sure you could trust me… But I'm still here. Even if I know you could kill me, promise or not. Even if being with you means being just a little bit closer to death and danger. Even if I've spent my whole life expecting every woman I fell in love with to look for someone better. Even though I know getting you to fall in love with me is going to take work and I'm probably going to make a lot of mistakes that make you second guess whether I'm worth sticking around for."
He stroked a hand down her back and drew circles around her shoulder. "My heart skips when you walk into a room. I can feel you there before I see you. And I think, if your heart could, it'd do the same for me."
Bonnie turned her head, her chin balanced on his chest. "That's what you think this is? Happily ever after tied with a bright red bow? History's taught me it's never that simple, and as soon as you start to think it is, that's when it proves you different."
She tried to get up, but he pressed a hand to her back to stop her. In his defense, it wouldn't take much for her to get up, whether he wanted her to or not. She was stronger than him by a mile and, despite how much he wanted her to stay and talk, he wouldn't use his magic to force her. Still, when she chose to yield to his hand, it said a lot.
"I'm not saying it's perfect or it won't get complicated or that we won't fight, because it's not, it will, and we always argue, it's part of who we are. But I am saying that if you gave us a chance, we could be good. Better than good." He stared at her searchingly. "You don't need to decide right now. We have tonight even if you want to forget it tomorrow."
"You say that, but I know you, once you set your mind to something, you're a bloodhound." She pressed a finger to his lips to stop him from interrupting, "Pun fully recognized and ignored, shut up."
His mouth twitched in amusement, but he let it slide, nipping at her finger all the same. She raised an eyebrow, but merely tapped his mouth before drawing her hand away.
"I can be a little more focused than the average person," he admitted.
She snorted.
"It's part of my charm."
Bonnie rolled her eyes and tucked a hand under her chin, palm flat against his chest. "It would be smarter to just get this out of our systems and move on. We have bigger things to focus us. If you haven't noticed, this town is like a bad guy magnet."
"I have picked up on that, yeah… Which means we should probably enjoy the good things while we have them."
"Careful, Damon, I might start to think you actually care."
His expression was entirely serious as he stared at her. "Would that be so bad?"
"History tells me yes."
"Well, history blows. So why not make a new history, starting here, with us."
She smiled down at him faintly. "It's a tempting offer."
"I sense a 'but' coming, but I'd rather pretend it wasn't. So…" He reached up and brought her head back down to her chest. "Rest. We'll get a shower in a little bit, maybe something to eat, and then you can introduce me to that giant bed you have upstairs."
She was silent for a long moment. "And then?"
"Either we have one night, or we make history… You can decide in the morning."
She hummed quietly, but didn't say anything more. She did, however, snuggle a little closer, and he took that as a good sign.
[end]
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- Lee | Fina