ꜱᴡᴇᴇᴛ ʜᴏᴍᴇ ⇴ ᴛᴠᴅ ² ✓

forty three

Billie paced back and forth in her boots, dutifully ignoring the vampire sitting quietly on the bed. 

"I don't hear any conflict resolution in there!" 

Billie paused her pacing, letting her head fall back and her eyes shut tiredly before she answered Caroline. "That's because there isn't any."

Caroline frowned softly, glancing to Stefan for a moment and starting to rethink her plan. The younger Salvatore pursed his lips in thought before whispering to her. "Maybe... it would help if we weren't out here listening in."

She narrowed her eyes slightly, initially going to protest before thinking it over and clearing her throat to speak to the two inside. "Stefan and I are going... figure skating, so... work it out in there."

Billie scrunched her brows together, but resumed her pacing once more, listening to the two vampires outside going down the stairs, bickering softly amongst themselves and leaving the Salvatore boarding house.

Damon fidgeted subtly, uncomfortable with the idea of apologising. His words were hesitant and carefully spoken. "I'm sorry for... not listening to you, Blue. You were right about the originals." He finally admitted.

She didn't look at him, but was absolutely baffled that he'd stopped there like that was all he needed to apologise for. "That's it?" Her tone was testy, warning him of what he said next.

He straightened up a little and crossed his arms loosely over his chest. "And... I'm sorry for what I said about you and Klaus, that was uncalled for."

Billie nodded approvingly and the two fell into silence for a moment before she broke it. "Thank you for apologising, Damon."

The air turned quite awkward after that as Billie stopped moving outside the window, trying to think of what to say. "I'm not- It isn't..." Sighing in frustration, she stepped timidly towards the vampire, sitting down softly beside him on the covers, Harper shook her head to try and form her words better.

"I just don't want to see you get hurt." She admitted finally. The way he quickly looked to her made Billie refine her words again. "Any of you. I don't want to see anyone get hurt."

He saved her the sarcastic remark and just nodded with a tiny smile. They were quiet again for a second.

"I'm sorry about Sage."

He raised his brows slightly, surprised that she'd went that way with the conversation before shaking his head nonchalantly. "It's alright. She had the hots for some other dude anyway."

Billie laughed small, realising how much she'd missed him and his dumb little quips that always lifted her heart, no matter the situation.

There was a long silence that followed his words. Suddenly, her heart started to beat just a little faster, like it was warming up for a marathon and the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood on their ends.

She turned to face the only other person in the room, only to find him already looking right at her.

Clouded eyes and the smallest remnants of a smile on his lips, Damon reached forward, hand threading through her soft hair as he kissed her for the first time.

He was gentler than she'd imagined. There was a time when she'd thought often about kissing him, and more. But, it was never right. The chaos around them would never have allowed it. Besides, Harper had assumed he'd fallen head over heels for Elena. Her mind was lost and the slight chill of his fingers were the only thing that dragged her from her haze.

Billie snapped into reality, pulling swiftly away from him with wide eyes. "Damon... w-what are you doing?"

He froze in place, flitting his gaze between her hazel. He was utterly speechless. The vampire was so sure in his action, but now, the way she was looking at him made Damon want to run far away and never come back.

She stood quickly to her feet. Running her hands anxiously through her hair. He started getting defensive and stepped up too. "What? Is it that surprising that I'd want to kiss you?"

"No! I... we-we're friends Damon." She choked out the word, not wanting to meet his intense eyes again before she spilled more than she'd like. "Maybe I want more than that."

Billie paused abruptly in her erratic movements. She'd be lying if she said that she didn't want that too. She'd wanted it for a while and the thought had crossed her mind often, but it just couldn't happen. Because of Klaus, Mickey, her boss. The list was long and she could never explain it to him without revealing secrets she'd rather keep to herself. Billie whirled on her feet to go to the bedroom door, desperately rattling the locked doorknob like it would give way for her.

"You're... in love with Elena, we can't-"

He laughed humourlessly. "Don't lie to me, Blue. This isn't about Elena and you know it."

Billie rested her head tiredly on the wooden door, still refusing to look at him. "You don't have to keep your cards so close to your chest. Just... trust me, goddammit."

Grunting out of immense frustration she finally turned. "There's no future for us. I told you, I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Why, because you can't manage to not put your life in danger every other week? Because there's a solution to that, Blue." He countered.

Billie froze, shaking her head quickly. "I'm not turning Damon, I-I'm sorry... I can't do it."

His brows scrunched together in confusion and he took a moment to respond. "Well why the hell not? Billie, you don't think Klaus is going to let you live out a normal human life forever, do you? I could help you, we could do it together-"

The suddenly nervous clairvoyant rushed to the other side of the room, pressing her palms to the window pane, trying to figure out how the outdated mechanism worked since she couldn't open the door and the vampire didn't look like he'd let her escape the conversation that easily. 

She understood where he was coming from, he was only trying to help her, but he just couldn't know the real reason she wasn't able to turn. She knew for certain that he would look differently at her if he knew she'd never become a vampire.

Damon sighed deeply behind her. "Blue, we're on the second floor, you're not gonna jump out the goddamn window."

She scoffed quietly, scanning the window quickly for some sort of latch. "You underestimate me, Damon."

He pursed his lips, stepping forward and putting a hand on her shoulder, forcing Billie to look at him. "Please, just talk to me, Billie. I'm trying to help you." At that point, the kiss wasn't even the reason he pressed so hard on this. If Billie was taught by Klaus how to be a vampire, there was no way of knowing how she'd turn out. If she'd ever be like the same girl he cared so much for now.

Her anxiety skyrocketed. Mickey's words replaying like a broken record over her thoughts, the image of her charred eyes searing her mind.

Billie's heart was thumping out of her chest and in a moment of absolute desperation, she stuck her elbow through the window, surprising even Damon as she quickly cleared away some glass and jumped out, not stopping to look below in case she got scared.

⇴

"You think it worked?" Caroline asked nervously, unbuckling her seatbelt but staying put for a moment, looking up at the boarding house with apprehension. 

Stefan shrugged. "I can't imagine they just sat there in silence for half an hour."

She nodded at the assumption. Something had to have happened, now it was only a question of whether it was good or bad.

Finally getting out of the car, it took all of five seconds for the two to hear the shattering of glass and obscene yelling that immediately followed.

tiny disclaimer to yall, i'm trying to keep updates fairly regular, but summer exams are in like five weeks and i probably won't be able to update as often since i don't even know like half of my course lmaoo.

i WILL say though, that this story is slowly coming to its end 😭😭. obviously there's still a few more chapters left to squeeze out and i'm trying my best to savour these last little ones. thank you to everyone that's read this far and stuck with my flaky ass. <333