A/N: Yes. Yes. Yes. I suck. Move on from my shitty updating schedule and just be ridiculously pleased that I'm horny for Damon and I'm getting let loose on the next chapter.

But this is the last one I'm working on with a schedule… so… You might be waiting a while for the next one. Not this long. But a while.

Enjoy! (and SORRY!)

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Top Five – Part 7

A little more than irritated by the events of the night so far, Damon balanced neatly onto Bonnie's balcony, stepping back into his bedroom and lay on top of his bed, his body a live wire, tuned right into listening for the sounds of sadness from his Little Witch's bedroom. The witch in question was laid back on her bed, trying to separate her dream from reality – and to get a firm hold on the feeling that she felt when Damon had wrapped his arms around her, chasing the nightmare away.

Fearing that she would once more fall asleep and find herself in the grip of another nightmare, Bonnie softly called Damon's name, hoping and praying that her voice would reach him before anyone else.

Thinking he was going insane, but willing to swear blind that he had just heard her call his name, Damon jumped up and stepped back into Bonnie's doorway, poking his head around her door.

"Bonnie?" Softly, softly. If she had been sleeping, he couldn't wake her.

"Damon?" She sounded more excited to see his form in the doorway than she had earlier. "W-would you come in?" Closing the door so that the click of the lock falling into place wouldn't wake his brother, Damon complied, stepping into her room and sitting beside her on the bed.

"Are you okay, little one?"

"W-would you stay with me tonight?" Bonnie asked innocently, though when she saw the smirk on Damon's face, she knew she had to backtrack as fast as her words would allow. "Not like that, you jerk! I just… I don't want to be alone…" She dropped her voice and looked back up at him, "And you chase away the bad dreams."

Damon tempered his glee at the look on her face, seeing her genuine fear and suddenly feeling desperate and determined to make it stop. He nodded quickly and climbed onto the bed, pulling the heavy curtains closed behind him.

"Fine, fine." He relented after a few seconds of kneeling over the covers and watching her face, "No funny business. Scout's honour." As she pulled back the covers and smiled at him, offering him the space, he smiled and wrapped his arms around her. A few seconds of adjustment, and she let herself relax against him, burying her face into his bare chest and inhaling a smell that was most definitely Damon. Liquor, leather, and danger.

As her breathing evened out, Damon smiled to himself and pressed a light kiss to the mess of curls at the top of her hair, closing his eyes as well, and letting the lavender lull him into a sleep so dreamless that even he was surprised.

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Downstairs on the sofa, Stefan tossed and turned. It wasn't comfortable, it was lumpy and horrible and he missed his bed and he missed holding Elena and… he rolled over and fell off of the sofa, landing flat on his face and groaning at the sudden pain that shot through him.

A Gross Injustice. That's what this was. How could Elena kick him out of his own room… well their room? What had he done wrong? He had just tried to comfort a friend who had been frightened, a friend who had been in his brother's arms.

He was just about to retreat into his usual I'm-so-broody position, all scowly with forehead wrinkles, when Meredith came down the stairs. She took one look at him and turned from her path to the kitchen to sit in an armchair opposite him.

"Okay, I'm bored of all this now, what's going on Stefan?" Ah, Meredith. She could always be counted on to be direct and a little bit angry. No wonder she frightened Damon.

"I'm not sure Meredith." With a heavy sigh and a whole load of frown lines, Stefan looked up at her and shrugged, "I guess… when I was talking to Damon and you guys were at the spa, some… things came up."

"Things?"

"Feelingsy things."

"Right." She nodded disbelievingly, "Firstoff, feelingsy is not a word. And second, you think you're in love with Bonnie, right?" Direct and to the point, once again. Ding ding, ten points to Miss Sulez.

"Well… Yes." He answered simply, looking up at his friend when she snorted, a frown on his face.

"God, you are stupid Stef." Meredith answered, and he looked up at her again, she was now cross-legged on the floor in front of him, holding out her hand to take his. As he gave her his hand, she smiled and gently patted his fingers. "Stefan, you lost Elena for a while and Bonnie did an amazing thing for you. She let you share some… well, some intimate moments when you had thought that you had lost Elena forever. To be honest, I'd think there was something wrong with you if you didn't feel something for her… but… you have just mixed it up after Elena being away. And it doesn't help that your relationship with Damon is naturally competive, and Damon is in love with Bonnie." She smirked and rolled her eyes, "Because he is, you want what he's got. Which means, you now think you love little red. You need to sit back and think, have a coffee, get your idiot brain working." Meredith took a deep breath – hell, it was a lot to say in about thirty seconds – and stood up, releasing Stefan's hand with a smile.

"Where're you going?" He pouted, needing a little bit more of a helping hand to sort out his 'idiot brain'.

"I'm going to make myself some hot milk. And then I'm going to bed. I suggest you try and do the same." And she was gone, toward the kitchen, grinning and shaking her head.

Since the sofa was ridiculously uncomfortable, Stefan was up ridiculously early. He had decided, as his last thought of the night, that his first task would be to make Bonnie a cup of lemon tea and tell her how sorry he was for how he had been acting. He knocked on the door, and heard no answer, instead barely picking up on her low breathing. She was still asleep.

Pushing the door open a little bit, he set the tea down on her bedside table and pulled back her curtains. He nearly choked on his own tongue. There was Bonnie, a mass of red curls, and buried against her was his brother.

Damon.

They looked naked.

Stefan probably would have died again, if it had been possible.

"What the-Damon!" Stefan gasped, waking his brother but not the redhead beside him.

"What do you want, brother?" Damon lifted himself onto his elbows, Bonnie tucking herself further against his chest and knocking the duvet half to the floor. As it moved, Stefan noted that Bonnie was still in the same silk shorts and top as the night before, and Damon was wearing black bottoms. As if sensing Stefan was looking at Bonnie, Damon pulled the cover over her shoulders. She shifted again, further into his arms, and snuffled in her sleep.

"Stefan! What the hell do you think you are doing? She could have been naked, or anything!" Damon growled through his morning fuzz, trying to keep his voice low and calm, hoping to keep Bonnie in her morning stupor. He didn't want her scared after the night she had just had. She'd had three more nightmares, and he just wasn't in the mood to stay calm anymore. Before Stefan could begin to answer, Meredith and Elena burst in.

"Again! Really?" Meredith was genuinely exasperated about witnessing the same scene as the night before. Déjà vu was genuinely quite disturbing, it seemed.

"They're in bed together!" Elena sounded utterly aghast.

"Well observant there, aren't we blondie?" Damon rolled his eyes and Bonnie shifted against him, her hand tightening on his neck and her eyes fluttering slowly open.

"Wh-what's going on?" She murmured, "Where's the duvet?"

"Looks like she's not ready to get up yet," Damon ran a hand through Bonnie's hair and smiled as she yawned on cue, "Take your little dramas elsewhere, please. She's had a late… night." A small smirk, and Meredith willingly yanked a furious Elena and a confused Stefan out into the corridor. She closed the door and looked between them.

"What the hell was that? We have to put an end to this before it starts!" Elena fumed, tugging at her hair and turning an elegant shade of red. Then she rounded on Stefan, "And you! What the hell were you doing in there?"

"I was taking Bonnie a cup of tea to apologise for my horrendous behaviour…" He paused and smiled, "And I wanted to… warn her about Damon."

"And you couldn't do that in… say the kitchen instead of her bedroom?" Elena said her fury manifesting itself into a shout at the end of her sentence. Meredith couldn't help but snort in a less than subtle fashion at her words.

"What's so funny?" asked Elena, still scowling and looking like she was going to cut a bitch.

"I don't know, this whole situation maybe?" Meredith quirked an eyebrow, gesturing between Bonnie's door, herself and the couple before her, "We are arguing because a couple of consenting adults decided to spend the night together and they didn't approve it with their friends first!" She snorted at the pair of them and shook her head, "Look at it from a different point of view, and stop interfering in their lives. Perhaps more importantly, you should sort your own out." She let out another sigh and yawned loudly, "I never thought that I would agree with Damon, but to be honest, he's right. It's too early for all this. Go back to bed together and talk this out. I'm going back to bed and will see you at a reasonable time for breakfast." Meredith waved at them, turned and walked away.

Stefan and Elena watched her go, then Stefan smiled at Elena and held out his hand. She slapped it away, but smiled as he held the bedroom door open for her and followed her inside.

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