𝑻𝑽𝑫 & 𝑻𝑶 𝑩𝑶𝒀𝑺 𝑰𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 & 𝑺𝒎𝒖𝒕𝒔

10. Damon Salvatore

"Stop it, Damon! You're such an ass!" you huffed angrily shoving him away from you. Or more accurately, trying to shove him away from you. He took about a half-step back, clearly unaffected by your lashing out.

You were standing in the living room of the Salvatore house, having what felt like your tenth argument this week. Damon might be your best friend, but lately, it had felt like the two of you couldn't even speak without getting into an argument. So much for the "casual night to unwind" that you'd had planned.

"What do you mean?" Damon protested, probably thinking your rage was funny. He was sensitive like that. Bastard, you thought to yourself. "I'm just being honest with you, Y/n/n. I just think you're being a little over the top about this whole Stefan/Elena thing," he tried again.

Stefan and Elena had broken up and gotten back together for the thousandth time, and as Elena's best friend, of course you felt obligated to try and protect her in any way possible. She was tired of getting hurt, and you were tired of it, too.

"Oh don't 'Y/n/n' me," you snapped at him, frustrated beyond belief. "You're being mean, and I--"

Damon cut you off before you could continue, "I'm not, actually. But I could be mean, if that's what you're into..." His eyes narrowed in a smirk, and his eyebrows rose slightly at your flustered expression.

Could he possibly--? No, that's impossible. He couldn't know. Your mind was racing about a million miles a minute, but no matter how you felt about him, you certainly weren't about to let him win that easily. No, he's probably just flirting as he does with everything that has legs. That man-whore.

"Shut up, Damon. Not everyone's in love with you, ya know," you informed him snarkily, recovering pretty quickly for how taken aback you'd been a second ago. You turned and started to storm out of the room, fed up since clearly you weren't going to get anywhere with him. Insufferable prick. What a--

His voice interrupted your thoughts yet again. "Maybe not," he sneered, catching your wrist and yanking gently so you were forced to face him, "but you are." You felt the blood rise to your face immediately at his words, and you found yourself looking anywhere except his face.

His hand went to your jaw forcing your gaze upwards slowly. God, no, no, no! Why is he doing this? And why is he dragging it out so long? He's gonna reject me anyway. Can't he just get it over with? You were fully looking him in the face now, and you stared hard to your right, refusing to meet his electric blue eyes.

You felt tears prick in the corners of your eyes. God, Y/n, get it together! Are you seriously about to cry right now? In front of him?

"Babe, look at me." Babe? Uh, what? Did he just call me that for real? Or is he making fun of me instead? God, this is humiliating. I gotta get outta here. You tried to pull away from his grip again, still refusing to meet his eyes. But he wasn't having it.

"Y/n," Damon sighed, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean--" He hesitated again, shaking his head at himself for a second. His cocky attitude seemed to have evaporated along with his joking tone. Recovering, he tried again, "What I mean is-- I like you, uh, a lot. And I think-- I know you like me too, right?" His eyes searched yours as he faltered, his forehead crinkled in an uncharacteristically worried expression.

You didn't know what to say. Was this really happening? Was the Damon Salvatore, wild, unpredictable, big-bad-vampire, king-of-impulsivity, that Damon Salvatore, confessing his feelings to you right now? Hand still pressed gently to your jaw, full-on movie confessing the way he felt about you?

You blinked once at him, stunned and taken aback. His head tilted slightly to one side, just barely. Enough to shake you out of your stupor, at least.

"Uhh--" Smooth, Y/n. He tells you he likes you and the best you've got is "Uhh." Nice. "Um, sorry, I do like you, yes. How did you--?" You thought you'd done a pretty good job of hiding it. Apparently not. His lips began to curl upward again in a smile, a soft one, comforting. Not at all unkind, though slightly amused, as if he could hear your thoughts.

His gaze dropped slightly down, from your eyes to where his hand rested lightly on your cheek. His hand and his gaze lowered slowly as he trailed his fingertips down to your shoulder and down your arm as he reached for your hand. His fingers closed around yours and brought your palm to rest lightly on his chest, right over his heart.

"Your heartbeat gave you away. It's giving you away now. It always speeds up when I come near you." Your brow furrowed, and you opened your mouth to protest, but he continued on, "It's okay, Y/n. Had you been able to hear it, mine would've given me away too."

You looked from his chest, where he had your hand pressed with both of his, to his eyes. Seeing nothing but sincerity there, you allowed him to pull you closer. He moved slowly, almost as if he was trying not to startle you, giving you easily enough time to protest, and you knew he'd back off at any sign of discomfort from you. Giving him none, you let him embrace you in his arms, pressing both hands and your cheek to his chest now.

Sure enough, you could hear his heartbeat thudding away ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump much faster than it should've been. He reached up and smoothed your hair, running his fingers through it, comforting you and calming himself. His chest rumbled against your cheek as he spoke.

"Hey, I'm sorry for being an ass to you. I wasn't trying to be. You were just so worried about Stefan, but I wanted you to worry about me, and-- I should've just told you, huh?" he explained before trailing off.

You sighed against him, "Stefan and Elena are two of my best friends, and I hate seeing them hurt. That's why I was a little upset to find out they're dating again. Not because I have feelings for Stefan. How could I? I'm too preoccupied with my feelings for you. Clearly, you knew that already." You laughed softly, still embarrassed, and hid your face in his chest.

"Hey, hey--" he stepped back, forcing you to look at him. "I did know, but that didn't stop me from being jealous that you seemed to care so much about who Stefan was dating. I didn't have any right to be. You aren't mine, but--" His hands slid down your back to your waist, as he looked you straight in the eyes. "I wanted you to be."

You sucked in a breath as he waited for you to speak. That's the bold, confident vampire I know, you thought. Maybe it's my turn to tease him a bit.

"Is that your way of asking me, Damon?" you raised your eyebrow questioningly at him. "Cause, I didn't hear a question, so--"

"Let me take you on a date," he said quickly. Realizing that still wasn't a question, he added, "Please?"

You smiled up at him. He suddenly looked worried again. As if I'm gonna say no! you thought, but you didn't have it in you to tease him any further.

Your arms moved up to wrap loosely around his neck, and you laughed, "Yes, Damon. You can take me on a date. I'd like that a lot."

He combed his fingers through your hair once again and smiled, "How about tonight at 7?"

"Damon, that's in an hour! I still have to get ready. How about 8?"

"7:30," he countered.

"Fine," you agreed. "But let me go then, so I can go get ready. I gotta take a shower real quick," you whined, trying to squirm out of the grip he still had on your waist.

"Hmm, I could join you if you'd like," he winked, back to his old confident, cocky self.

"Not a chance, Damon," you laughed, finally succeeding in getting him off you. That was ridiculous of you to say. You both knew there was a very good chance of him joining you eventually. It made your thighs clench just thinking about it. Yeah, he'd probably join you soon enough. Not this time though.

"Okay, next time then," Damon smirked along with you, undeterred of course. You were sure that he knew you'd be more than willing to comply with all his fantasies soon enough. And him with yours. "See you at 7:30, Y/n," he called over his shoulder as he turned and started for the stairs. "Oh, and don't be late."

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