12 days of christmas

Day 4

"What the fuck is that God awful sound?" Damon groaned. They had gotten to bed so late last night, and he didn't know exactly how early it was, but it was most definitely too early for loud noises like that.

"It's my alarm," Elena said, sounding just as tired as he felt.

"Alarm?"

"Yeah, we have plans for today. Get up," she said, throwing the covers to the bottom of the bed, leaving him extremely cold. He hadn't ever needed an alarm, and he had no clue why Elena felt like she had to set one for today.

"I'm not a vampire anymore, I get cold, you know," he said, sitting up in bed. Elena was already halfway into the bathroom, getting ready for a shower.

"Well, hurry up and get in the shower, then," she said, turning around and smirking. All of a sudden he felt wide awake and had plenty of ideas on how to get warm.

After a good amount of breakfast and a whole shit ton of coffee, Damon and Elena were in her car, heading somewhere that he could only guess..

"Are you ever gonna tell me where we're going?" he asked, as they turned onto the interstate.

"That would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?" Elena said, smiling at him. This felt very odd - usually Damon was the one who surprised her, she was the one that was upset that he wouldn't tell her where they were going.. He wasn't entirely sure he liked it being the other way around.

"How long will we be driving for?" he asked, looking at her suspiciously. Usually, whenever Elena was driving, they had the GPS on. She had a special knack for getting lost.

"You might as well stop asking, I'm not gonna tell you anything," she smirked at him, "You can take a nap, if you're still tired though. I mean...you are over one hundred and seventy...old men need their sleep." Damon grunted, "I think this morning, not to mention last night, proved that I am in peak physical condition, thank you very much." Elena only smiled in response, kindly ignoring the yawn he tried to hide a mere few minutes later.

"Did we seriously drive two hours, just to go to Target?" Damon asked incredulously , as Elena parked the car. There were plenty of perfectly good stores near Mystic Falls , so he really didn't understand why they had traveled so far.

"Well, this way we'll get to spend even more quality time together! And we get to see something new," Elena said encouragingly, getting out of the car, "Come on, Damon, where is your sense of adventure?"

Damon chuckled and put his arm around her, as they walked up towards the store.

"Alright. I'll play along," he said, kissing the top of her head, "So what are we getting here?"

Elena smiled secretively at him as they entered the store. He should have guessed that she wasn't going to say anything until it was obvious. She grabbed a cart from the entrance and they walked down a few aisles together, until Elena found what she was looking for.

"Sweaters!" she exclaimed, as she stood in front of the Christmas collection, "Ugly Christmas sweaters!"

"That is actually a thing?" Damon looked horrified, as Elena started walking amongst the racks, pulling out sweaters.

"It sure is! Oh, look at this one, that's funny," Elena laughed, as she pulled out a sweater with a gingerbread-man whose leg was snapped off. It had the caption "oh snap" on the bottom.

Damon shook his head, then flipped through a few himself, slightly intrigued.

"I like this one better," he smirked as he pulled out a sweater that said "kiss me under the mistletoe" and pointed towards the groin of the wearer. Oh yeah, if Elena was going to insist on this particular tradition, then he was definitely getting that sweater.

"Of course you would," she laughed, before continuing her search, "Come on, find some more! Christmas is a season, not just one day, and I vote we wear a new sweater every single day until the 25th!"

"Every day? Really, Elena? You know, we're in Virginia. It doesn't really get cold here," Damon chuckled , as she continued her woman-on-a-mission search.

"We can still wear sweaters! And we're going to," Elena insisted. Damon smiled at her determination and followed her lead. After all, he would do anything for her.

They spent almost an hour trying on sweaters and choosing which ones were coming home with them. Damon was reluctant to admit it, but he had a good time. He loved seeing Elena as happy and silly as she had been while they were shopping. He loved the way being with her being with her made him feel, each and every day. Part of him had expected things to change as time passed; for their happiness to be short lived. That was what they'd been used to for so long. But no, this time was different. There wasn't anyone out to get them anymore, they weren't vampires; there were no more curses, or travellers, or moonstones, or sirens, or evil doppelgangers, or other sides to worry about... It was just them, and years of their perfect human life ahead, and he loved it.