Hello one and all, welcome to my brand new Vampire Diaries fic! This is my first ever VD fic and I decided to give it a go after I just randomly thought up the idea for this one night. Dalaric is my OTP to end all OTPs in Vampire Diaries so of course I was gonna write about them! Plus I adore Jeremy (I hope he does come back at some point in the future) and his relationship with both Alaric and Damon has always been one of my favorite things throughout the seasons.

AN: So just to get this out of the way right at the beginning I'll tell you the ages for everyone since this is an AU: Damon- 25, Alaric- 26, Jeremy- 15, Stefan- 17, Elena- 17 and Jenna- 30. I obviously do not own the characters, I just really love them.

Upon hearing the knock at his door Damon Salvatore opened it, entirely unsurprised to find Jeremy Gilbert standing on his doorstep with a sour look on his face.

He took a step out of the way and beckoned the teenager inside, bending down to grab one of the bags the kid had brought with him. He put the bag down at the foot of the staircase and turned back to face the newest addition to the Salvatore house, who just stared at him in obvious displeasure. The older man merely arched a brow in response and scoffed when the teen heaved a put-out sigh.

"Welcome to your new home, you little punk."

Jeremy didn't say anything and Damon couldn't help but roll his eyes.

It had all started when Jeremy got into a fight with a few jocks from his school and the police had to get involved in order to break it up, thus ending with the brunette teen in the principal's office...

*FLASHBACK*

Jeremy, his sister Elena and their aunt Jenna were all sat in the principal's office at Mystic Falls high school.

"Now Mr. Gilbert you must understand the seriousness of the situation. Not only was your safety in jeopardy but also the safety of the students surrounding you, not to mention the others boys involved in the fight!"

Jeremy groaned, "I didn't even start the fight! Those assholes-"

"Mr. Gilbert! You're already in enough trouble as it is; I advise that you don't make it worse."

Jeremy slumped back into his seat and crossed his arms across his chest. Sighing the principal turned to speak to Elena and Jenna.

"Ms. Sommers, Ms. Gilbert I understand that this last year has been very hard on your family but there's only so much leeway I can give here. This is the fifth fight that Jeremy has been involved in since the start of the term. That's five fights in two months. I'm afraid that if things are going to continue like this I'll have no choice but to expel Jeremy."

Both Jenna and Elena's eyes widened.

Jenna pleaded, "Please, you can't expel him. Is there anything we could possibly do to make things better?"

The principal considered this, "Mr. Gilbert, could you please go wait in the hall? I'd like to speak to your sister and aunt privately."

Jeremy grumbled and left the room without a word to anyone.

After the door shut the principal sighed heavily, "Do you perhaps have any relatives that Jeremy could go stay with?"

Jenna and Elena exchanged a confused look.

"Why?"

"In cases like this I've heard that changes of scenery can help troubled teenagers cope. Living in the same house that you lived in with your parents could potentially be causing Jeremy pain, what with it being full of reminders of your family. Like I said, something has to be done because if another incident like this happens Jeremy could very realistically be expelled."

Elena panicked, she didn't want her little brother to be expelled or have him move far away, and blurted out, "What if he stays with someone else in town? Like a family friend."

"...That could work, I suppose. It would give Jeremy a reprieve from the constant reminders of your parents but still keeping him in Mystic Falls, where he has grown up and feels comfortable. Who did you have in mind?"

Elena looked hopefully to her aunt but Jenna was shaking her head, "I don't know anyone that has the room to take in a teenager right now."

For a moment Elena feared that all hope was lost, that Jeremy was going to be lost, but just then a name popped into her head, "Damon Salvatore!"

*END FLASHBACK*

"So here's your room. You can decorate it however you like and-"

Before Damon could complete his sentence Jeremy slammed the door shut, effectively cutting off any further conversation with his new guardian.

Damon growled under his breath and stalked downstairs to the study where he opened up the liquor cabinet and grabbed a bottle of bourbon. He picked up one of the tumblers on the desk, poured himself a generous amount of the amber liquid and took a long drink from it.

As he did this Stefan entered the room and leaned against the doorjamb. The younger Salvatore watched his older brother drink and shook his head, "Really Damon, drinking before the sun goes down? And with Jeremy just upstairs..."

Damon snarled at his smirking little brother, "It wouldn't matter when I drink, brother, if it weren't for your little girlfriend!"

*FLASHBACK*

For a long while Damon just stared at the two women sitting across from him, trying to comprehend what they'd just said.

"...You want me to do what?"

Jenna sighed, wringing her hands nervously in her lap, "I know it's a lot to take in, Damon."

"So you're telling me that you need me to take in your nephew or else he'll probably end up getting expelled?"

"Yes. He's been in too much trouble over the past couple of months and this is pretty much our last resort."

"How would it even work? I'm not related to him."

At this Elena chimed in, "Actually it's pretty easy. All you have to do is sign a few forms and Jenna can have you named as Jeremy's legal guardian. Please Damon, I know this is sudden but we really need your help. I don't want to see my little brother get expelled or shipped halfway across the country."

The eldest Salvatore put his head in his hands.

Taking in a kid, really?

He already had a little brother to look after- although Stefan would argue that point- and he wasn't exactly a model for good behavior himself, not that Elena or Jenna needed to know that.

On the other hand, he understood what it was like to lose your parents at a young age. He understood what it was like to feel so lonely, even when you had people around you. He knew how easy it was to let your emotions get the best of you when it felt like everything was falling apart. He didn't want Jeremy to ruin his future over making mistakes while acting out in his grief...

"I'll do it."

Jenna, Elena and especially Stefan were surprised by the quiet but determined answer.

The women's faces broke out in identical relieved smiles and they both began to profusely thank the blue-eyed young man for agreeing to help Jeremy.

Jenna pulled out all the paperwork for Damon to sign but made a few things clear as he started to fill them out.

Number one: If Jeremy didn't start improving within a couple of months then they'd have to figure something else out, even if it meant sending Jeremy off to Colorado.

Number two: Jeremy was to join her and Elena for dinner at least once a week.

And number three: He could stay over on weekends whenever he wanted.

Damon readily agreed to all of them, just glad that there weren't more.

After he put his signature on the last page the older woman let out a sigh of relief and smiled thankfully at Damon, "We'll drop him off on Friday after school. Thanks again for agreeing to this, Damon."

*END FLASHBACK*

Damon started preparing dinner at around 5:30.

Stefan had left half an hour ago for a date with Elena. They'd be out until late so that just left Damon and Jeremy to eat together.

He decided on something simple, it had been a long day and he didn't want to spend too long cooking. Pasta and a Caesar salad with a couple pieces of garlic bread sounded perfect.

It took about half an hour for him to put everything together, he just went with a simple meat sauce for the pasta, and he left the pasta and the garlic bread on the stove to keep warm while he went upstairs to fetch Jeremy for dinner.

A heavy ball of nervousness settled in his stomach as he climbed the staircase.

He took a deep breath when he reached the door and knocked gently, "Jeremy? Dinner's ready."

There was no response for a long time and Damon prepared to knock again, thinking that maybe Jeremy had fallen asleep or something, when he heard the muffled reply through the door, "Not hungry."

The dark-haired man sighed, "You haven't eaten in hours, kid."

This time there was no response at all, even after he waited a few minutes, and Damon began to get frustrated, "Look Jeremy, this can be easy or it can be hard. Now you can either come out or I'll just unlock the door and drag you downstairs myself. I'm not gonna let you starve yourself just because you feel like pouting all night."

There was another long silence and Damon was prepared to just give up entirely when the door swung open to reveal a stormy faced Jeremy who silently stalked past him and down the stairs.

Holding back another heavy sigh Damon followed the brunette downstairs and went over to the stove to get the food, placing it on the island alongside the plates and utensils he'd set out earlier.

They served themselves in tense silence and they ate like that for a while before Damon couldn't take it any longer and decided to attempt conversation.

"So uh... how do you like your room?"

Jeremy glanced up at him with an unimpressed look, "'s fine."

"Did you get anything unpacked yet?"

Jeremy just answered with a grunt and didn't bother looking up from his plate.

The awkward, stilted conversation (if it could even be called that) continued for another five minutes before Jeremy put his fork down and pushed himself away from the table.

"I'm done."

And before Damon could say anything Jeremy was gone, disappearing back upstairs, and the sound of a door slamming notified Damon of when he reached his room again.

Evidently dinner was over.

Suddenly without an appetite, Damon pushed his plate away and dropped his head into his hands, "What the hell have I gotten myself into?"

Chapter one, done. So the chapters will vary in length, especially at the beginning I'm finding so far, but there will be 10 chapters in total. And I never have a very strict update schedule so this will just be updated as I write it but it should be quite regular with no huge spaces betweens chapters (I hope).

Also just to let you know, as of the beginning of this story Stefan has lived in Mystic Falls for 6 years and Damon has lived there for 4 (this will be explained in later chapters, I can't give everything away right off the bat) and Stefan and Elena met at a party during the summer before the school year started and have been dating since. Thanks for reading!