12 days of christmas

Day 8

"Damon." Elena's sweet voice was a whisper waking him up from his sleep. It was still dark outside, so he couldn't have been asleep for long. She was sitting next to him on the bed, wearing pj's, with her hair up in a very messy bun on her head. It seemed like she had been awake for a while, but he wasn't entirely sure why.

"Is everything okay?" he whispered back, sitting up to look around the room for anything suspicious. Everything seemed normal.

"Yes, don't you dare get that sword out again!" she grinned, kissing his forehead, "Get up, and get dressed."

"Why am I getting dressed? It's the middle of the night," he asked, feeling much more awake now.

"So many questions," Elena teased, "Just get dressed, I'll explain in the car." Damon's mouth fell open, as she walked out of their room.

"Car?!"

Twenty minutes later, Damon was dressed and ready to go. Since Elena was in her pj's, he figured he could just put on a pair of sweatpants and the first t-shirt he could find. He had no idea why, but after seven different Christmas themed surprises, he'd gotten used to just kind of following her lead. However in those other cases, it hadn't been half an hour till midnight on a Thursday.

"Alright, let's go!" Elena said, already in her shoes and jacket and had her purse and car-keys all ready. Damon made sure his wallet was in his jacket as he grabbed it. They walked to her car together, and she got behind the wheel. She turned on the radio to a channel that played non-stop Christmas music as they pulled out of the driveway.

"I'm guessing you're not telling me where we're going?" Damon asked, putting his hand on her thigh.

"Of course not! It's a surprise. I can say that we're not going to be driving for very long," she teased.

"So, we're not taking another 2-hour road trip to get to Target?" Damon smirked. Elena slapped his upper arm.

"Don't be mean," she said, not hiding her smile.

Ten minutes later, Damon understood where they were going. They'd been driving around on small streets for a while, and now Elena had turned down a residential road, where every single house was covered in Christmas decorations and lights. Over the years, he had seen neighborhoods with big houses go all out for the holidays, as these clearly had, but at the time it had seemed like something to roll his eyes at. Stupid humans with their stupid need to show how much better they were than their neighbors. Now, however, looking at the gleaming happiness in Elena's eyes, he understood that it had never been about that at all.

"Is this a thing you used to do with your family?" Damon guessed, as she drove down the street, going a maximum of 10 mph.

"Yep! I love these decorations, but I don't think I'd ever get sleep if my house looked like that," Elena said, reaching to the backseat. Damon frowned.

"What do you need from the back?" he asked, keeping an eye on the road, as she was rummaging around.

"Ah, found them! Snacks," she said, handing him a tin can. He took it and opened it and saw the results of their baking adventure - lots of sugar cookies. "Go on, have one."

Damon chuckled at her and grabbed one from the can.

"You need one too," he said, handing her one of the tree-shaped ones. She took it and instantly bit into it, her eyes big as she looked at all the houses. Damon put the lid back on the can and put it on the floor, joining Elena in looking at the decorations.

Some of the houses were straight up outrageous - he wasn't sure how anyone in the entire neighborhood slept. But some of them, he had to admit, were actually nicely decorated.

"Did you decorate your house at all, when you were a kid?" Damon asked.

"A little bit. Sort of like the lights around the gavel of that house," Elena said, and pointed to one that had the classic lights, "Nothing more than that, really. We focused a lot more on the inside than the outside. Hanging lights up that high isn't really a kid-friendly task."

"Yeah, that's a long way down from the roof," Damon smirked, giving her another cookie. This was a part of Christmas that he didn't have to make an effort to like - driving around at night, with music on the radio and snacks, looking at decorated houses was kind of nice. Plus it gave them time to just spend time together and talk, with minimal distractions. One thing was for sure - he loved each and every moment with his girl.