Freedom

"Coming?" she asked over her shoulder with that flirtatious smirk that broke a thousand hearts. And with a flip of that long dark hair, she sashayed out of the room, pausing at the door to deliver a heart wrenching wink.

It landed. Her scent, her warmth, everything about this girl, this young woman, drove him wild. And he was powerless against her. Denying her anything was utterly out of the question. So, sadly and with much trepidation he followed her from the room.

Damon glanced to his left and right, checking to make sure the yard was empty before he stepped off the back porch. They were alone. Good. This was an unavoidable conversation and the vampire did not want to be overheard.

"So?" he drawled, "you were saying?"

"Was I?" Bonnie asked with a look of pretend confusion. "What was I saying, Damon?" Her hazel eyes traversed Damon's body, taking in everything. From those size eleven black motorcycle boots to the black jeans that hugged his muscled thighs in all the right ways. Her eyes took in the black button down shirt, open at the collar. They caught the movement of the hem as his shirt lifted in the gentle breeze of the warm night. Her eyes excitedly watched that strip of exposed abdomen, once again appreciating the jeans that rode dangerously low on those defined hips. She could scarcely tear her eyes away, but he was talking again- had he always talked this much? Oh yeah, he had.

"You were saying you had information on the oracle. A location, perhaps?" he reminded her, trying with all his might to ignore the way she licked her lips with her eyes trained somewhere down by his belt. What the hell is going on with her? Something's not right when I'm on the receiving end of the little witch's googly eyes… "Bonnie?" he raised his voice and her eyes snapped up to meet his.

"Sorry!" Bonnie giggled. "I-I guess I'm just a little distracted." She stepped shyly away from Damon and turned in a circle with her arms spread wide. She let her head fall back and she looked up at the starry sky. "Can you believe this night? I mean, it's amazing! Do you feel that?" she turned to look at the man across from her. "It's like… Damon, it's like the earth is singing for me. It's like nothing I've ever felt before, it's truly amazing."

Bonnie spun in circles, creating a breeze that lifted the edges of her skirt away from her legs. She spun until she was dizzy and then let herself drop to the ground, out of breath from the exhilaration of finally letting herself be free, be in the moment. Just be a 20 year old girl with an inappropriate crush on her best friend's 150-something year old vampire ex-boyfriend. It was ridiculous! She knew that crushing on Damon would lead to nothing good and yet in this moment she allowed herself the freedom to give in to it. To let it be. I have a crush on Damon Salvatore! Just thinking it left her feeling like a stack of cement cinderblocks had been lifted from her belly. She felt so light and breathless, she feared she may float away.

Damon, for his part, took the whole scene in stride. He seemed to understand that Bonnie was going through some things. Like maybe a nervous breakdown. He had a feeling that this conversation was going to head in a direction he wasn't ready to go and so he counted to 10. And then he counted to 15 and then to 20 as he let Bonnie have her moment of delirium. But Damon, as always, was on a mission. He didn't have time for this little melt down or identity crisis or whatever was going on with his resident witch. He needed answers. So for 20 seconds he indulged Bonnie in her moment of fun and watched her spin like a 6 year old on a playground. He even enjoyed watching the witch enjoy herself, she obviously needed it. She spent so much time protecting this God forsaken town and the people who lived here that Damon had never seen her like this, loose, wild, and free, with her skirt flying around her showing off her gorgeous legs. Spontaneous and, almost, fun. She was unrecognizable. Where was the annoying, judgy, little witch that argued with him every day for 4 months in the prison world, ruining his fun at every turn? Not that he had minded as much as he put on…

After her 20 seconds were up, Damon walked over to stand above the ebony witch, gazing down at her curiously.

"Are we finished?" he asked, "I've got a crystal ball to steal, witchy."

She just grinned up at him and laughed, her toned, strong arms reaching out to him.

"Come on, Damon. Sit with me."

And with a deep breath, a gusty sigh, and huge eye roll, Damon lowered himself to the ground.

"Happy?"

"Extremely," she giggled.

"Okay, Bon-Bon, what the hell is this? What did that channeling spell do to you? We don't have time for you be taking some weird trip to the land of flower power or whatever, so you have to snap out of it, now, okay? Stefan is waiting on us, and if we don't tell him where this so-called oracle is who knows what that psycho vamp will do to Blondie and then- "

"Stop," Bonnie sat up and put a gentle hand over Damon's mouth, interrupting his ranting. The action, innocent enough evoked a reaction in the both of them, but one that Damon was trying to squelch and Bonnie was finally allowing herself to feel. She raised an eyebrow at Damon who smirked underneath her soft fingertips. She felt her chest rise and fall as her breath came faster, her heart racing.

Bonnie was touching his lips, something she had thought about, dreamed about, over the course of their unorthodox relationship. She felt those lips curve upwards in a cocky grin that she had seen a thousand times and was subsequently burned into her memory.

Slowly, reluctantly, she pulled her hand away, meeting his grin with a mischievous one of her own.

"Just sit here, Damon. Sit here with me," she whispered.

Speechless and finding, once again, that he could not deny her, he hesitated, looking at his best friend before he laid back on the grass and gazed up at the familiar constellations. Bonnie lay back beside him and settled herself so that her arm was snuggled underneath his, her head resting on his shoulder.

Damon took a deep breath through his nose and breathed out a sigh. For six years now he had grown close to this girl. They had developed a friendship that he cherished. And every day of the last six years he had to remind himself that Bonnie was one of the good ones, if not the best, and Damon didn't deserve to get the good ones. Every day for six years Damon trained himself to shut down his urges when he was around Bonnie. He'd learned to lock down his muscles to keep his hands from compulsively roaming her face, arms, shoulders, back. He'd trained himself to hold his breath whenever she approached, so that her sweet unique scent, jasmine and lavender and something herbal, wouldn't overpower him and make him lose what small shred of control he had left. He was mostly able to stand being in her presence only by resorting to picking fights with her- like some childish schoolboy!- and antagonizing her; watching her aggravation seemed to keep him in his right mind and reminded him of how much she was disgusted and repelled by him. Yes, childish, but it worked for him.

So, Damon lay there beside the lovely little witch, body tensed, breathing through his mouth, and counting the seconds until they were no longer touching and he could relax again.

"Damon?" Bonnie said without looking away from the bright stars overhead.

"Bon-Bon?" Damon replied, oozing fake nonchalance.

He heard it when her heartbeat sped up and her breathing hitched. She cleared her throat and swallowed loudly.

"I need to tell you something."