*2 years later*

Damon woke up to sunlight shining directly in his eyes. He flinched slightly at the rude interruption of his sleep and rolled over until he was able to bury his face in his bedmate's chest to block out the light, incidentally waking the other man up as well.

The larger man groaned at the invasion of his space, his chest rumbling under Damon's ear, "Good morning to you too, Damon."

The younger man mumbled something unintelligible in response but he smiled against that broad chest when a large hand took his own and tugged it up to kiss his fingers affectionately. Finally he allowed his eyes to open and felt his heart leap in his chest when they caught Alaric's stormy blue gaze, full of love.

His voice was hoarse from sleep, "Morning, Ric."

Alaric watched him lazily stretch like a cat in the morning light, the dark silk sheets slipping down to his hips to reveal more tantalizing pale skin just above the curve of his backside. Sleepy blue eyes gazed up at him from beneath wild dark hair that had fallen into that pretty face, and a soft curved Damon's pink lips when Alaric pressed another kiss to the back of the hand he was still holding.

The feel of the cool metal band around his ring finger against his sleep-warm skin made Damon smile into his pillow. The band was simple, made of silver and just a little bit thinner than the matching one resting on Alaric's hand. Damon kissed his husband chastely (or as chastely as Damon could manage, which is to say not at all) before rolling out of bed and walking unashamedly naked over to their dresser, giving his husband an early morning treat.

The raven haired man shot a teasing grin over his shoulder as he pulled out a pair of black boxer briefs, "I'm gonna go take a shower. Care to join me, oh husband of mine?"

Even after two years of being with Damon- and eight months of that time being married to him- the teasing challenge in the younger man's eyes never failed to rile Alaric up and so the history teacher found himself following his husband into their bathroom within seconds. He barely paused to grab a pair of underwear for himself, far too focussed on the heated promise in Damon's eyes, and quickly joined the smaller man in the running shower intent on wiping the smirk of off Damon's face.

After a nice long shower (which was lengthened a couple other fun things) and getting dressed Damon and Alaric made their way downstairs to start on breakfast. Damon took a quick peek into Jeremy's room to find their adoptive son still asleep, entirely unsurprising since it was 8 o'clock on a Saturday and the teen didn't have to get up early for school.

Upon entering the kitchen Alaric went straight for the coffee maker as per usual, no one in the Salvatore/Saltzman/Gilbert house could function properly without at least one cup of coffee in the morning. As his husband filled the machine Damon rooted around in their fridge for ingredients before inevitably deciding on making a family-sized omelette, bacon and pancakes for breakfast.

Pancakes were a hallowed thing in their house...

*FLASHBACK*

About a week after Damon and Alaric had outed themselves as a couple to Jeremy the teen had joined Damon to do the weekly grocery shopping.

When Damon hadn't been looking Jeremy had tossed a box of pancake mix in the cart only for his guardian to immediately put it back on the shelf once he caught sight of it.

The teen moaned when Damon steered the cart out of the aisle, "C'mon Damon, can I get it please? I'll even pay for it myself."

Damon shot him a deadpan look and gestured to the bag of flour located on the top shelf just out of his reach, "Grab the flour for me, kid. If you want pancakes I'll show you how to make them instead of using some crappy mix out of a box."

"Boxed mix isn't that bad."

"Trust me, these will be better."

From that day on boxed pancake mix had been made a taboo item and they had homemade pancakes once a week, usually on the weekends. They were the lightest, fluffiest pancakes Jeremy had ever tasted and the teen had been hooked ever since.

*END FLASHBACK*

Within ten minutes Damon was done mixing the pancake batter and he left Alaric in charge of cooking them while he prepared the omelette. As they worked a sleep-rumpled Jeremy wandered into the kitchen and planted himself in a seat at the island, raising his tired brown eyes to meet his adoptive dad's (although he insisted that Damon behaved more like a mom than anything).

"I smelled pancakes."

Damon snorted in amusement at the short answer as he took over pancake duty from his husband so that the older man could go pour a cup of coffee. The older man set the mug down in front of the seventeen year old and ruffled his hair in greeting, earning a sleepy whine of complaint from the boy.

"Morning, Jer."

The brunet took a swig from his mug as he used his free hand to try and fix his messy hair, "Morning, Ric."

As the pair launched into a conversation Damon couldn't help the small grin that crossed his lips, the smile only widening when Jeremy and Alaric broke into loud laughter after something Jeremy said. He startled slightly when a large hand patted him on the shoulder and he glanced over his shoulder to smile at Stefan as his little brother made a beeline for the coffeemaker.

He flipped over the pancakes and turned around to happily accept the mug Stefan held out to him before the younger Salvatore quickly hurried past Jeremy and Alaric, shouting morning greetings as he went- he was meeting up with some college friends for a group study session that morning. Damon took a sip of his coffee and sighed contentedly at the taste, Stefan had remembered to add sugar for him.

He snickered when he heard Stefan curse as he rushed out of the house, slamming the door behind him- little brother was going to be late!

Oh how he loved Saturday mornings.

The remainder of their little family chatted comfortably as Damon started piling pancakes onto a plate and Alaric began frying off the bacon while the omelette cooked in another pan.

Jeremy had just started is final year of high school, his grades had only gone up after the disastrous year when his parents died and he now had his eye on a university just outside of Mystic Falls where he could study art. Damon and Alaric had thoroughly encouraged Jeremy to pursue his passion after Damon had received a call from the school during Jeremy's junior year, telling Damon how proud they were of Jeremy for placing first in a district-wide art competition.

The teen had been so grateful for their wholehearted support and from then on had always made a point to bring them (as well as Stefan, Elena and Jenna) to any art shows he participated in.

Another thing that had also drastically changed over the past couple of years was Jeremy's social standing at Mystic Falls High. In his junior year he had inexplicably become friends with the then-senior Tyler Lockwood, the mayor's son and ironically one of the boys Jeremy had almost gotten expelled for fighting with as a sophomore.

It was three months before Damon and Alaric had learned that their "friendship" was actually much more than just that.

*FLASHBACK*

One Sunday morning Alaric had decided to get up early in order to finish grading some papers he had to hand out the following Monday; imagine his surprise when, at just after 6, Tyler Lockwood came creeping down the stairs of the former boarding house with sneakers in hand and his shirt rumpled.

Just as the teen had reached the front door the history teacher had loudly cleared his throat, making the young man jump almost a foot in the air from the shock.

Slowly the football player turned around and had given his teacher a sheepish grin, "Uh... m-morning, Mr. Saltzman. I was just-"

"I think I have a pretty good idea of what you were doing, Mr. Lockwood."

Red crept across the teenager's cheeks and Alaric heaved a sigh, "You want a cup of coffee? I think we have a couple things we need to discuss."

For a second Tyler tried to fumble for an excuse before he gave up and let out a resigned sigh of his own, "I'll take the coffee if wouldn't mind, sir."

*END FLASHBACK*

Of course Alaric had woken up Damon (who was just his fiancé at the time) who had in turn dragged a red-faced Jeremy out of bed down to the living room, depositing him on the couch next to Tyler. They (well, Alaric mostly) gave the teenagers a long lecture about them being in the house together without either of them knowing as well as the seriousness of Tyler not telling his parents that he would be spending the night somewhere else.

Damon had gotten the final word in, eyes both serious and teasing at the same time, "And you two better have been using protection!"

Jeremy had made an embarrassed sound and buried his face in his hands and Tyler's cheeks turned pink as Alaric has stared wide-eyed at his lover, questioning his sanity.

Damon despite all his teasing had firmly laid down ground rules for when Tyler came over: Jeremy's bedroom door was to be kept open if they went into his room, no blasting loud music so that they couldn't hear them, to always make sure that either one of them knew if Tyler was coming over and if Tyler were to stay the night, he'd do so in a guest bedroom.

The young couple had found the arrangement more than fair and after that had all been smoothed over it had quickly become tradition for Tyler to join them for dinner at least once a week . Damon had nearly died laughing at Stefan's baffled expression when his teammate had shown up for dinner the first time.

After eating plenty of pancakes Jeremy took a sip of his freshly poured glass of orange juice, "Tyler's coming over later and we're gonna go out for a bit, is it alright if he stays over tonight?"

Damon nodded as he swallowed a bite of omelette, "Of course he can. We're having burgers tonight so I'll make a couple extra since the three of you eat like horses."

Alaric chuckled and smiled at Jeremy, "You guys gonna do anything special today?"

"There's a movie Ty wants to go see, some action/thriller thing I can't remember the name of."

They finished their breakfast and Damon began collecting their dishes before Jeremy quickly scrambled to his feet and offered to do it himself. The older man happily allowed his adopted son to take the plates from his hands and watched him head into the kitchen while humming under his breath.

The raven haired man startled when he was pulled against a warm, broad chest but tilted his head back to kiss his husband's stubbly jaw as he leaned back into him.

"I love you, Ric."

Strong arms squeezed him tenderly, "I love you too, Damon."

From the kitchen there was a loud splash before Jeremy shouted, "Love you guys too!"

The pair laughed but paused when Jeremy called out hesitantly, "Um... can someone grab the mop? I kinda spilt water all over the floor."

Laughter filled the house once again.

And that's all she wrote folks! XD It took me quite some time but I finally delivered the end of this fic to all of you lovely people. I'm kinda sad to see it go, this was my first Vampire Diaries fic and I think it's the longest fic I've ever written. But I'm very glad that so many people enjoyed the story and took the time to read each and every chapter and waited for me to update even through the long gap that I left between chapters 8 and 9.

So again thank you to everyone who's faved, reviewed, followed and read the story I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did! Maybe I'll do more Dalaric in the future, who knows?