you and me, forever.

14. Masks

Caroline and Katie had moved to the back of the room, Carter once again joining them.

Caroline stood at the center of the room, going to make a toast.

"Can I have everyone's attention!" She asks, getting everyone in the same area, before quickly thanking Carol for hosting and suggesting a dance.

The music started blaring, making it hard for the guests to hear anything going on elsewhere in the house.

"Dance with me?" Carter asks, smiling and reaching his hand out to Katie.

"Yeah, lemme just grab a drink first," she says, quickly going to get something strong to calm herself. She needed to relax, and build up some courage to tell him it wasn't going to work between them.

"Tequila shots, keep them coming," she says to the bartender, who got out a glass and filled it up, which she quickly downed followed with a lime.

"Me too! Keep it coming," she heard from her side, turning to see Caroline.

"You're lucky you have certain advantages now..." Katie laughs, suggesting to her compulsion given she is underage.

"Damn right," she says throwing her shot back.

"So your method is to get drunk and not be worried about the Damon Carter dynamic?"

"How did you know!" She says sarcastically, downing a second and third shot somewhat easily.

"I'm watching you," she says, pointing her fingers to her eyes than Katie's. She rolled her eyes, taking one last shot before returning to Carter, who was talking to someone, patiently waiting for her to return.

They had been dancing for the slow song, only few words being exchanged. She wondered if he was feeling the same way she was.

"I'm really happy to be here with you," he smiles down at her.

Okay, definitely not on the same page, she thought to herself.

"I-" just as she was about to respond, she sees Damon angrily headed for the back door to go outside.

"I- I will be right back," she says, breaking contact with Carter before following Damon outside.

"Damon?" She asks, seeing him pacing along the pond in the back of the Lockwood Estate.

"It failed. The plan FAILED!" He yelled, his frustration coming out all at once.

"Hey, what happened?" She says coming closer and trying to calm him down.

"Stefan just HAD to protect Klaus. So pathetic. He's free now, but Klaus probably has a death wish for me now that Katherine ran for the hills and he knows I tried to get him with Michael. Not to mention he brought hybrid back up!" He yells out again.

"Damon, it's gonna be okay, we can figure it out" she tried to reason with him before he turned to her, his face filled with anger.

"THERE IS NOTHING TO FIGURE OUT! ITS OVER!" He yells at her, but she is somehow unfazed.

"Damon."

"WHAT? WHAT COULD WE POSSIBLY DO?"

"I....I don't know yet but we-"

"No," he says no longer shouting, but his voice still laced with anger.

"WE won't figure it out. I will, like I always do..." he trails off.

"Stop being proud, I'm gonna help you figure this out it's not the end of the world-" she starts but he snaps.

"You know what, I'm sorry! It's not the end of the world! I'll just go buy Klaus an apology card and some flowers then all will be forgiven! Sorry I'm overreacting!" He says, staring daggers into her eyes.

"Stop-" she says, getting annoyed at his lashing out.

He got closer to her, jaw clenched, looking her up and down, making her subconsciously hold her breath.

"You distracted me." He says.

"You're really going to blame this on me? What the HELL did I do?" Katie now started yelling. She wasn't about to let him put his frustrations on her.

"What did you do?" He laughed.

"I don't know, maybe it's the fact that you were staring at me, looking at me when you brought another guy here. Maybe it's the fact that you continue to shut me down when you continue to show me otherwise. Maybe it's the fact that when you're around, all I think about is you..."

He gets even closer, their bodies almost touching. His nose was less than inch away from making contact with hers.

Her breath hitched, not knowing what to say for the first time in a while.

"Maybe it's the fact that seeing you dance with him makes me sick. Seeing him kiss you makes me sick. The thought of another man touching you makes me sick..." he whispers, still laced with anger.

"Damon-" she sighs, before he interrupts.

"You know what? I'm not gonna be sorry about how I feel. If I'm going to be sorry about something I'm going to be sorry about this-" he rushes out before smashing his lips on hers.

His lips moved in perfect sync with her own, quickly and rushed, like he didn't know how long he had until she would break the contact. His hand was on her neck, the other around her waist.

It was fiery and passionate, full of lust. She couldn't think of anything but Damon. She lost any sense of where she was, what this could mean, because all that mattered was being close to him. Being consumed by him. Every part of her body he was touching was on fire. She had never felt this much passion with anyone before.

The kiss seemed to end as quickly as it begun, but in reality they had been lost in one another, only breaking apart to gasp for air. Any amount of time seemed to be not enough for both of them.

The two were out of breath, flustered, and staring deeply into the others eyes, trying to make sense of what just happened.

"I'm sorry-" Damon goes to apologize before Katie pulled him back towards her, enveloping him into another passionate kiss.