his intoxication

15

So you have a coven of witches after you for a magical jewel?"

"Well, I don't know about a coven, Bonnie, but there's at least two. Unless that guy's boss isn't actually a witch... or wizard or whatever."

"Hm. What kind of things can this jewel do?"

"Well, to be honest, I'm not sure what it can't do. It's immensely powerful. I've had all kinds of beings after it for all sort of different reasons... I mean, I brought someone back to life who'd been dead for 50 years with it. I fought a man who gave his soul to demons and used just the shards of it to create powerful minions to do his bidding for him. It's why, once the forces for good that are inside it found a pure enough heart in me, they decided to keep me around to protect it forever. But the darkness in it still calls to darkness, which is how we end up in these situations."

"I see. Well if it's that powerful then anyone could want it for any reason."

"You haven't heard anything about any dark covens looking for more power in your little witchy chat-rooms Bon Bon?"

Bonnie chuckled and rolled her eyes. Despite how happy Stefan was with the changes he'd seen in his either lately, it seemed some parts of Damon would never change.

"It doesn't really work that way Damon. I can keep an eye and ear out though."

"And no matter what, we'll absolutely help you guys when the time comes."

"Thank you Elena, that means a lot to me."

"Of course Kagome."

"So Damon," Stefan spoke up, and his brother narrowed his eyes at him in suspicion.

"Yeeeeees?"

"You're moving out today?"

"Technically I moved out yesterday."

"Oh, you found an apartment?" Elena asked a little sadly. As much as she understood his desire to create some space between them all, she still cared about him, and was sad to see him leave.

"No actually, I'm moving in with Kagome. At least until all of this shit passes."

"And after, probably. There's really no sense in you moving out if you don't want too."

Damon felt warmth spread through his heart, and Elena felt relief that he wouldn't be moving out to live alone.

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"I really don't want any of this stuff, I'm only here for clothes."

"Are you sure? But it's all yours. And you don't have to leave it just because-"

"Kagome this stuff has been in here for ages. I don't really care about it, I assure you."

"Ok... it's just.. alright, never mind."

Damon glanced back at her, sitting on his bed and picking at the edges of his comforter. He left his task of gathering his clothing and grabbed her fidgeting hands, grabbing her attention from whatever dark thoughts she'd been wrapped up in. He lifted her chin to make her eyes meet his, staring in them intently and reading her obvious hesitation and anxiety.

"What's this really about?"

"You're giving up a lot here. Your brother lives here, this is your home. And you're leaving it because I've brought this troublesome jewel into your life. If you decided it's too much, I would understand."

Damon cocked a brow and tilted his head, confusion plain on his face. He wasn't sure where this was coming from all of a sudden. Perhaps she'd been feeling this way for a while and had just hid it well. He'd have to disabuse her of the notion that being with her was any sort of difficult sacrifice.

"There are a lot of troubles and inconveniences I'm bringing into your life just by being with you. I've caused a lot of chaos over the course of my life, and sometimes it comes back to bite me in the ass. I've tried many times to get away from it, and being with you makes me feel like that might actually be possible. So unless you want to let me go for similar reasons, you're stuck with me babe."

Kagome's smile in that moment was breathtaking, and when her arms wrapped around him he cradled her close , with no hesitation or uncertainty between them. That sense of 'home' that he felt with her intensified, and he knew that giving her up for any reason hadn't been an option in quite some time. They were a team now, and a team was how they would stay.

"Thank you Damon."

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"I don't like this wench. All this sittin' around and waitin' on some sneaky bastards to finally make a move." Inuyasha sulked from his place in front of the living room window, peeking through the blinds and into the darkness as if willing whoever was targeting them to just hurry up and get it over with. Damon reached into Kagome's popcorn bowl and took a large handful before stuffing it into his mouth. She glared at him and stuck her bottom lip out in a childish pout, moving the bowl away from him.

"You know, for someone who doesn't even need to eat people food anymore, you sure still eat a lot of it." He smirked and leaned over her, making her shrink into the couch cushions. He kissed her nose, then snaked his arm around her, grabbing another handful of popcorn and retreating back to his cushion, turning back to the movie on the TV screen. Kagome shot him another glare before turning to face Inuyasha's tense back on the other side of the living room.

"Well there's not much else we can do right now, Inuyasha."

"I thought you'd all done this before." Damon said as he snatched another handful of popcorn from Kagome as she tried to keep the bowl from him. Inuyasha finally left the window, coming over to sit on Kagome's other side, taking his own handful of popcorn and causing Kagome to throw her hands up in defeat and give up on her snack all together.

"That don't mean it ever gets any easier waitin' on people to form their little plots before they strike." Inuyasha grumped around his mouthful of popcorn.

"Inuyasha's not much of a planner. He'd prefer to charge in swinging tessaiga without even looking where he's going."

"Tessaiga?"

"It's this giant sword made from his father's fang. It's pretty ridiculous looking." Inuyasha pinged a piece of popcorn off of Kagome's cheek and her eye twitched in indignation.

"Don't remember hearin' you call it ridiculous when it was savin' your ass every time you got kidnapped, wench."

"Oh that's IT!"

Damon grabbed the discarded bowl of popcorn and settled back to enjoy it all to himself as Kagome chased the laughing hanyou across the house.