Shea Butter Baby// D.S

19

Chapter 19: Marking My Territory

        Three sharp knocks rasped against the large wooden entrance before a tall and slim brunette broke past the threshold. Two curious mahogany eyes scanned the room before locking on the duo in the living room. One look and Elena knew that they'd been with each other, they were both scrambling to button their jeans—a faint blush evident on their cheeks but it was clear they were anything but ashamed.

"You should really remember to lock that," Nala grumbled in her lovers direction, eyes peering over at the approaching doppelgänger with faint regard.

Damon hummed in acknowledgment, bending over to grab his fallen shirt and return it onto his body.

"Did you know?"

        Damon's thick brows raised, slightly taken aback at the sudden hostility in the lanky brunette. "I know a lot, you're going to need to clarify."

        "About Stefan stealing Klaus' coffins?" Elena stalked down the stairs, her scuffed converse patting gently on the hardwood. "Bonnie told me that you were with him last night conspiring on how to gain leverage over Klaus and don't lie because she showed them to me."

        Nala bit her lip, the pieces clicking together on what Damon was really doing when he'd come back so late a couple nights ago. She wasn't mad but definitely on guard, she hadn't expected Damon to be associated with such recklessness.

Maybe it was the afterglow from the perfect sex her and Damon partook in just a handful of minutes ago that made Nala want to egg on the doppelgänger. As her feelings grew deeper for the eldest onyx-haired Salvatore, so did her budding need to get Elena's never ending drama out of the way. "You didn't know?" A small smirk crept in the corner of Nala's perfect caramel toned skin. "Don't worry about it, it's getting handled."

        "Exactly, I didnt think it was a big deal."

        Elena was fuming, nimble fingers flexing into a tight fist. "Of course you don't, Damon because your family isn't the one being threatened by Klaus' hybrids."

        Damon raised a finger before she could continue yelling, accepting moral defeat. "Fine, I knew. So what?"

        "So what? Damon, my brother nearly died," Ric did die and he barely came back. You aren't doing anything and Stefan is ruining everything!"

        "Will you relax?" He calmly retorts, long jean clan legs sauntering over to the mini bar to make himself a drink. Clutching a glass of bourbon and fishing around his left pocket, he finally pulled out the potion that Nala made. "We were busy finding a way to deactivate Klaus."

        Elena paused, brain seeming to glitch as she processed the information. She leaned on the arm of the couch, one hand raising to rub her forehead. "Deactivate Klaus? What does that even mean?"

        "Nala used her witchy woo to make a potion that will temporarily immobilize him." Damon briefly pulled out the jar from his pocket, the brunette's attention focused solely on the object until he swiftly tucked it back within the confines of his expensive denim jeans. "All I have to do is figure out the right time to make him inject it and boom—one sleeping original hybrid ready to be dumped at the bottom of the Altantic."

        Brown eyes slid over to the curly haired woman beside Damon, her mouth slightly agape in wonder. "How did you—Bonnie never said anything about—"

        "I don't know how many times I have to tell you, I am not Bonnie." Nala was gentle in her volume yet stern in tone, making it clear to the doppelgänger that she was capable to holding her own against the human girl. "It won't last forever but it'll work for long enough."

        "How did you make it?"

      Nala and Damon shared a glanced, one the didn't go unnoticed; but the ever so fleeting reminder of their time away from here—together, had them desperate and yearning to find out the full extent of their budding romance. "Some things are best kept a secret."

Elena Gilbert shifted her weight from foot to foot, skinny fingers nervously carding through her silky chocolate tresses. "Are you sure it'll work?"

"I've never had a spell not work before," Laveau says, ringed fingers gently pushing back coiled curls. "I don't see why it would start now."

        The doppelgänger was stunned to silence, grateful for the solution yet slightly too prideful to offer a thanks. Brown eyes slid from Nala to Damon, then settled on the ground. "Thank you," She offers sheepishly, a blush of her own fanning over her olive complexion. The embarrassment of barging into a home that didn't belong to her seemed to set in, her safety blanket, Stefan not present to swiftly whisk her to somewhere less awkward. "I should get going," Six steps backwards and a stiff wave goodbye, Elena was out the door and probably exhaling a much needed breath.

          "What did you see in her?"

          Damon expels a deep laugh, one laced by the spice of bourbon. "Do you really want the answer to that?"

          Nala crossed her arms, posture relaxed yet prying, curious of him and how he worked. "Yes, actually."

          "She just looked like someone I hadn't let go of yet," He soon admits after finishing his glass. "Once I'd gotten over the other woman, Elena just wasn't sparking my fire anymore. Chasing her seemed pointless."

          "But you loved her."

          He raised a finger, something she noticed he did often—and the therapist in her made her wonder if his father had those same mannerisms. "I loved a version of her I'd created in my head. Elena's pretty, that's obvious, but she never measured up to the girl I imagined she could be."

Satisfied with the sincerity of his answer, Nala stepped forward, a gentle hand raising to rest on his bicep as one hand snaked around her waist, his fingers tickling the base of her back. The air was charged, for once not with sexual energy but just charged with the electricity of their chemistry.

His muscles relaxed under her touch, senses going into a frenzy over her scent, he felt at peace with her hair tickling his nose as they simply embraced, ocean eyes examining her earth toned beauty with appreciation. "I have feelings for you."

"Tell me," Her smile spread smooth, like jam on toast. "—about those feelings."

Damon raised a finger, the tip of it sliding against the slick, plush pink of her bottom lip. His voice was a whisper, his spicy breath fanning in her nose like cinnamon. "How about I show you
instead?

Nala couldn't deny him even if she wanted to.