Note: I just had to (this is for what happened the night before Bonnie and Damon leave Mystic Falls)

Between "Forever" and "Tomorrow with You"

Oh, my love how it pains me to tell you, but forever with you is not what I want. That greed will not sate me, only you, only this, only now.

"We need to get away from all this." Damon said his voice hoarse and soft. Bonnie nodded as she took a tentative step out of his arms. Her hand was immediately in his and it sent something shooting through her; warmth, adrenaline, horror…she couldn't tell.

"Sure." She mumbled, looking down at herself, "I mean, we are covered in blood." When she looked up his gaze was locked on her and it caused her breath to lodge in her throat. "…Damon…Are you –"

"No." He answered, "But that's not it…I, I almost lost you today, twice." She didn't know what to say, what could she say?

"But you saved me…twice." She reminded him, "So…thank you." Her blinks were rapid as she tried to rein her tears in. "When Kai…I, god it took me back, you know? To that feeling." Damon's face contorted in the pain of his understanding, "I think that's going to stay with me forever." His jaw clenched, if he could kill the bastard again he would, but he doubted it would ever sate the hatred that burned inside of him at the knowledge of what Kai had done to Bonnie…what the memory of him would always do to her. She looked so sad in that moment; it left him feeling so helpless.

"Bonnie I'm sorry." She frowned. "For not trying harder to get to you, for not being there when you needed me…for not making a pact to protect you instead of making one to just die with you…you needed more and I didn't give it to you."

"Damon, you're… my friend, you did what friends do," Bonnie countered, "You tried for me." His expression turned incredulous for multiple reasons.

"One," he said, stepping closer to her, "We're not friends," the way he said it made her heart warm for some reason, she knew he didn't mean it as an insult, "Two," he moved an errant lock of hair matted with dried blood out of her face, "Friends do more than try Bonnie, they do more than say they tried. That's what your friends do," he gave her a meaningful look, "Me, I want to be the person who fights, the person that, even if I fail, no one can tell me it wasn't worth the shot…and it always is with you. Trust me." She held his gaze for a moment, tear stains still lining her cheeks.

"Damon, what you said earlier –"

"Not here." He cut her off and before she could ask him what he meant they were flying through the night sky, hurtling at that inhuman speed she doubted she'd ever get used to.

She wasn't sure what she'd expected but when they landed outside of her Grams' house, she was glad he'd chosen to come here and not the Boarding House, where Kai's body was still likely to be, or her house, where nothing but the ghost of her life remained. Wordlessly, the two of them trudged up the steps and took pause in front of the door.

"Come in." Bonnie said, softly, tiredly, "Close the door behind you." He did. She switched on a light here and there and made her way upstairs while Damon watched and lingered. He noted how her hands were shaking, how her eyes were going in and out of focus as she orchestrated these mundane tasks. "Do you wanna get cleaned up?"

"I don't have anything to change into." He noted offhandedly. Giving him a once over she began to chant with her eyes fluttering closed and before he could ask her what she was doing a pile of his things reappeared in her waiting hands.

"The dark checked shirt is mine." She said with a pointed finger, "And I don't wanna hear anything about it." He tried to smile, but she was still splashed with blood, still pale from the day's events. He had no doubt that it was all still running through her head at high speeds, flashes of violence; of blood and mangled bodies littering the streets of her home town.

"It looks better on you anyway." He replied as he took the pile of things from her and followed her upstairs to the bathroom. He watched as she stepped into her bedroom in her Grams' house, grabbed a tattered but comfy-looking pair of slippers and short-shorts, what he assumed was underwear from the quick flash of lace she hid from his line of vision.

"I, do, do you want to go first?" She stammered, he tilted his head at her, watching her struggle to hold his gaze. He freed up his hands and rolled up his sleeves as he walked around her into the bathroom. Turning on the light he left the door wide open and headed straight for the claw footed bathtub in the dead centre of the room. His gaze ran over the assortment of bath-things before he settled on the last few drops of lavender bath oil and ran a bath. He flashed to his feet while the water ran and stopped in front of Bonnie.

"Come here." His voice was soft, even to his own ears, "Just, do it." He added, noting the apprehension in her eyes. With slow, delicate fingers he moved more of her short wispy hair out of her face, tugged on the cardigan she'd managed to keep on throughout it all and tossed it aside. She stepped out of her shoes as he held onto her to steady her and huffed as she averted her eyes from him. Lifting her shaking hands and dropping them she sighed as they fell from the hem of her shirt. "I just want to help you." He promised her, "That's all." With that, he lifted her shirt up and over her head and swallowed back any other emotion his body was begging to feel outside of care for the woman in front of him. Right now she needed him to be gentle; she didn't need him to show her what was really going on inside of his head. How desperately he just wanted to close the space between them and surpass an explanation for his declaration earlier. He flicked open the button of her jeans and dropped down to tug them off of her legs, which were also shaking as she held onto his shoulders for balance while stepping out of them. He took her hand and led her to the filled tub and turned the taps off. "Do you want me to leave?"

"N, no." Her nails were scraping anxious trails up and down the sides of her arms as she stood there, half naked in front of him. "But if you want to leave, then –" Seconds later he was only in his underwear and back in front of her, lifting her into his arms. Slowly he walked until they stepped into the tub and he lowered her into the warm water. They sat still for a while; Bonnie between his legs, until he began to run his hands over her shoulders as she leaned into his chest. He washed off the dried blood where he could find it and then settled on running his fingers across her skin, hoping to calm her some. She brought up her knees after a few moments and turned on her side, pressing her forehead to his jaw. She was so small.

"Why am I still shaking?" She breathed raggedly, "Why won't it stop?" His arms circled her small waist as he tried and failed to think of something, anything to say to her to create an ebb in the continuous lulling of her pain. She took a breath, "I'm so sorry Damon, this, right now, shouldn't even be about me, you, you've lost so much and I, I couldn't even help you, I just stood there –"

"Ssh," he stopped her, "Please," he chose to keep his eyes on the way the dried blood mixed with the warm bathwater and circled her body as it washed away, "I'd rather not talk about that right now."

"I want to help you, too."

"You are." One of her arms wound around his and he felt something slide quietly into place within him.

"We've crossed so boundaries." Bonnie murmured, her breath tickling his throat. A ghost of a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"We're not friends Bonnie, there are no boundaries."

"You're dating my best friend." She said. The sentence made no impact on him, much like the thought of Elena in that moment. He didn't care about anything else anymore; nothing outside of this moment could capture his attention quite like the witch in his arms.

"We died together," he countered, "Fought like hell for each other," he took a deep breath, "There's something to be said about wanting to die with someone, you know? Living… it doesn't take much, and forever sounds like much of the same, dying…dying takes it all and I wanted to die with you, I still do." He felt her body tense.

"…What do you mean?" Damon let her move so that she could look him in the eye. He felt the weight of his words on his chest before his mouth had even formed them.

"Bonnie, the cure, I want to take it." Her face was expertly devoid of a reaction, a part of him commended her, "I want to be human…but, I, I want to do it, with you." She gulped and looked away, "I know that's a lot to process, believe me, but, everything we've been through, all of it left me feeling like we were living in fast forward and I don't want that, I want it slower, I want it quieter, like when it was just us."

"It wasn't quieter with just us, we argued too much." He smiled at that.

"And it was like music to my ears."

"Liar." She chewed on her bottom lip, "But, I," she took a breath as she settled back against him, still curled in the foetal position, "I mean I get it. I know that we changed together, we literally went through hell with and for each other and that means something…but Damon, love for you in the past has always been this all-consuming thing and I don't think I can live up to that. At all."

"I don't want it to consume me." Damon said, "I want it to do what you already do for me, I want it to soothe me, to make me more of who I want to be, and the closest I've ever gotten to that, the closest I've ever gotten to being a man I myself can be proud of was because of you, directly or indirectly."

"You love Elena." Bonnie countered.

"So do you, if not more than me." He pointed out. "Bonnie, I need you, in whatever capacity I can have you, but I also happen to want you, in every capacity there is to want another person." He took one of her hands in his and intertwined their fingers. "I don't think relationships are meant to start the way ours did and, I don't know where I'm going from here, all I know is that I want you with me."

"I'm no good the way I am, Damon," her voice was sad, "All I have to offer are night terrors, erratic magic, bad memories and PTSD."

"Wrong," he half sang, "You offer me loyalty, love, hope and peace. How could I not want those things?" He dipped his head a little, "We're both broken Bonnie, but we survived before, we can do it again. Look at the facts, every time you and I work together it all works out – how could this be any different?"

"You'll be human, alive, with me, trying to live with everything we've been through while we figure out what we've been feeling since hell swallowed us whole." He nodded.

"I can't do forever anymore Bon, I want every day to have that finality attached to it, I want it to mean more to me, like you do." She pressed her eyes closed.

"You know I love you," she said, "I know you love me, we've known this for a while now without giving it a name, without defining what form love took with us; friendship, something more…?" She sighed, "But this is real Damon, if you take the cure everything changes."

"It's about damn time too."

Once they were cleaned up and she was in his checked shirt and a pair of black tights he stepped into her room dressed all in black as he always was. Without saying anything he raised a hand and wiggled the cure with his fingers. Despite it all, she smiled.

"Are you sure?" She asked again as he held his other hand out to her. He nodded as they walked down to the living room and settled on one of the couches.

"As long as you stay with me and make sure nothing goes wrong after I take it."

"I promise." She said easily as she turned her body to face him. He held her eyes for a long time. "Damon, I promise I'll stay, for as long as you'll need me."

"Bonnie I've always needed you and I'm pretty sure I'm always going to need you."

"Then I'll always be there." She said with a small smile. "I promise." He kissed her knuckles, lifting her hand to his lips with quick, vampire speed. She couldn't help the blush that coloured her skin.

"Okay," he exhaled purposefully, "Here goes everything." Using his free hand, Damon cracked through the crystalline structure of the cure and poured the content down in his mouth as Bonnie held her breath. He sucked in a sharp, sudden breath and his hold on Bonnie's hand tightened. Grunting his back arched into the upholstery and Bonnie leaned forward, closer to him and her free hand cupped his cheek.

"Damon, talk to me." She didn't want to panic, but between the vampire blood in her system and the cure coursing through Damon's veins they both had to stay close to the realm of safety; they couldn't afford anything going wrong right now. "Damon?"

"Unggh," He gasped, "Bonnie, it…it burns."

"Ssh, ssh, ssh, I'm here, I'm right here." He nodded jerkily as he began to spasm. "Hold on to me Damon, you'll be fine." He whimpered a little and hissed before one final yelp left him and he slumped over on himself; unconscious. "Damon…" Bonnie's heartrate tripled as she tapped the sides of his face, "Damon, can you hear me? Damon!" She pressed her ear to his chest and held her breath. For five whole minutes; the longest five minutes of her life, she kept checking for a pulse, a beat, a breath. And then… "Oh thank god!" There, thrumming against her ear, was the beautiful sound of Damon Salvatore's heartbeat.

"We should call everyone." Bonnie murmured through a tired smile as Damon nuzzled her neck, she giggled and wriggled away, "Damon, stop."

"You know," his voice vibrated off of the skin of her neck where he was still buried, "It's weird." He raised his head, "You still smell amazing to me."

"Amazing?" She echoed dubiously. He hummed in response.

"Like fire and sugar and warm cinnamon." He moved closer to her. "It was exhausting trying to ignore it." She shuddered. "Bonnie?"

"Damon?"

"…Kiss me." Her eyes snapped to his and she swore her lungs caved in. Her mouth plopped open helplessly as she tried to articulate the thousands of reasons why that would be an awful idea. "I want you to be the first person I kiss as a human," His voice dropped to a mere whisper as he inched closer to her, "The first person who makes my heart speed, makes my breath catch," He turned her face to his by her chin, "The first person to make me blush."

"You? Blush?" She asked, her voice shaking.

"Bonnie," His mouth curved upward, "If you can't give me anything more, just give me a kiss. That's all."

"You know that's not me," she said seriously and she watched his face falter but she moved her hands to settle on his shoulders, "I'm an all-in kind of girl, I can't just kiss you, you Damon, and then walk away."

"Then kiss me," his mouth was a breath from hers, "And stay."

So she did.