Read This Truth

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Summary: Established Bamon. Caroline confronts a drunken Damon before he's about to make the biggest mistake of his life, leading to them deconstructing just what he could possibly have done to upset Bonnie this time. FLUFFY BAMON, with a side bit of angst. For this story's purpose, let's assume most of the major characters – aside from a few, who you'll learn about in time – stay in Mystic Falls after graduating.

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"You're pathetic, you know that right?"

Damon raised his eyes, his eyebrows skyrocketing into his hairline, well aware Caroline was giving him the right incentive to snap her neck right now. She was giving him a look that seemed to go beyond the realms of normal evil; she was looking at him like she wanted to rip out his heart, forcing him to eat it before she aimed a well aimed kick towards another precious part of his body.

He gave a tight smile.

"Hey, Blondie, you were the one dragging me from a good time. Maybe you're the pathetic one."

Caroline reached out and grabbed his ear, giving it a sharp twist.

"You're with Bonnie, you ass! And yet you were talking to those girls there, wearing your sex eyes."

"My sex eyes?"

"Those eyes you have when you want to rip someone's clothes off, no matter where the hell you are," she snapped. "Believe me, if anyone knows about the sex eyes, it's me." She suddenly faltered, blushing. "I may have...um...initiated some...um...intimate moments with Ty because of those eyes."

"I may need more to drink if I'm going to accept those words actually came out of your mouth."

"Seriously, Damon! I get you're former Manslut of the Year, but Bonnie is just... She deserves more than you throwing away what you guys spend years building over a girl who," she peered around Damon, "has a seriously issue with how much make up she's wearing as opposed to actual clothes." She smacked his arm. "Why are you such an ass?"

"Why are you such a nosy little - ?"

"Enough!" She clapped her hands loudly, blocking out the sound of his insult. "What's really going on here, Damon?"

Damon glared at her.

"Nothing. Look, I love Bonnie, I do, but sometimes a vampire's gotta get a little snack, and a blood bag just won't do sometimes..."

"Bull. This is what you do when something or someone hurts you. You revert to your old ways, searching for the next pretty girl to use and manipulate into doing whatever the hell it is you want." She gave him a dark look. "Kinda an expert on that, remember?"

He cringed.

"You really have to bring that up again?"

"Until I get an apology – and an entire new wardrobe, I know how loaded you actually are – from you, you'll be getting more guilt from me than you know what to do with," she chided. "Now spill."

He sighed into his hands, necking back his drink, and glaring at her, his cerulean eyes glowing with an intensity that almost, almost, made Caroline flinch. Luckily, she knew how to hold her own ground, and returned his stare with one of her own, one that spoke of a lot of still painful memories that he'd been the sole cause of. She'd only really approved Bonnie and Damon's relationship because she knew Bonnie could take Damon down if he put a single foot out of line, but other than that, she'd confessed she'd never envisioned them ever working before.

He could understand that. The appeal of the witch had never really become clear to him until a few years back. The cure had been found, at the expense of a lot of people, as it had turned out. Along the way, Tyler's mother had been killed, and so had a lot of hybrids, and Professor Shane, whose motives had always been questionable at best, had also met a sticky end at the hands of the Originals. The end result – meaning finding the cure – had not quite justified the means they'd all gone to in order to secure it; Stefan had made sure Elena had taken the cure, but in a twist that had been highly unexpected, it hadn't turned her human. Instead, it had taken her to a dark place which even Damon couldn't save her from, so to try and save her, Stefan had agreed to take her out of town to try and seek help from another witch, given the fact Bonnie's part in retrieving the cure, and at the same time trying to stop an ancient evil bursting to like, had had serious consequences similar to what had happened to Abby. Her magic had simply disappeared, taken from her by the witches, or nature, and though it had destroyed her, slowly but surely Damon had built her up again, at first doing it because he felt he owed it to Elena to fix her broken friend. Somewhere along the way, that reason had changed, leading to a strange new development between himself and Bonnie.

He mused over it now, debating how much to reveal to Caroline. The girl had heart, he wouldn't deny that, but she was also famous for interfering in matters that didn't concern her.

"Bonnie's been moody today. Moodier than normal," he eventually confessed. "Figure if she's heading towards Break Up City, I'd head to Hot Girl Havana to make it easier for her."

Caroline rolled her eyes.

"You're an idiot," she told him matter-of-factly. "If there's something wrong with Bonnie, you're supposed to work out what it is and fix it. Bonnie's the kind of girl who likes to suffer in silence, and if you wanna be with her, you're gonna have to get her to break that habit."

"How?" he snorted. "She's not likely to open up to me, is she?"

"There is your first problem, Damon. You underestimate her," Caroline replied. "You forget she's not just a witch, she's also human. She has moments, just like the rest of us, where she just wants to be held and told everything's okay even if it's not. Even if the advice you give her sucks, at least you'll have tried, and that's the first step in fixing things with Bonnie."

"It's more than that. I think she's mad at me for something, but I don't know what," he said, scowling at the table.

"Must be hard to narrow it down," Caroline couldn't help but snipe, earning her an evil look. "Okay, let's try and break it down. Have you made any particular nasty comments about anything lately?"

"No."

"Your definition of nasty might be different from hers," she reminded him, but she continued anyway, when it seemed like his patience with her was running thin. "Fine. Did you undermine her in any way? Mention a former girlfriend during sex? Any of these ringing a bell?"

"No, but your head will make contact with a bell if you don't hurry up and find a damn solution," he growled at her. "I have been a perfect gentleman, which explains why my mood seems to have declined recently, but not hers."

Caroline sighed.

"Then she's upset about something else."

"So...I'm off the hook?" Damon asked hopefully, sobering up slightly, although there was still a glazed expression in his eyes.

Caroline rolled her eyes.

"How any woman finds you perfect, I will never understand. At least Bonnie isn't blind to your faults." She tucked her chin against her palm, deliberating for a moment. "It's gotta be something important if Bonnie's blanking you. I mean, as crazy as that girl is for doing so, she loves you."

Damon gave a small smirk at that.

"Hard to blame her for that."

Again, Caroline rolled her eyes.

"Easy, Ego-Man, tone down that superpower of yours and face reality. Bonnie is warm and sweet and caring, so to turn her into an ice queen must've taken some work. I once accidentally made out with her ex seconds after she broke up with him, and she didn't talk to me for a week, so I know how you're feeling."

"This is all fascinating, Barbie, but can you skip ahead to something that doesn't want to make me reach down my throat and pull out my own heart?"

"See, you always do this, Damon! You deflect when you're hurt."

"And you insult when you try and help." Damon pushed his glass away, sour as anything. "Look, if she's gonna break up with me, I'd rather her do it now than have it build up to a fight where I know she is physically capable of killing me." He coughed nervously. "I know her magic isn't back just yet..."

"That's a sore subject with her, just FYI," Caroline suddenly mused, shivering as if remembering an unpleasant memory. "But on the bright side, she's taking a tip out of Abby's book and working with nature rather than against it. Maybe that'll help."

"It also helps that she doesn't have to keep saving someone's life," Damon pointed out, suddenly uncomfortable as this meant their conversation had reached an area they'd all silently agreed not to talk about.

After Elena and Stefan had left town, it had been agony for him. He'd had a sweet taste of heaven for the briefest of moments, only to have it ripped away by his own doubts and fears that the sire bond meant Elena hadn't been acting on her own instincts when she'd slept with him. Ironically then, that was how he'd gotten over her. Slowly but surely, he'd told himself something would happen with Stefan while he was fixing her, and when she was back to normal, sparks would fly, and that fairytale would be concluded.

He'd spent time trying to help Bonnie, Jeremy hovering around him like an irritating fly. Eventually, Bonnie had reached a better place, and she'd thanked him for helping her, which had led to them spending a surprising night together talking into the late hours about everything, from Elena to Jeremy to magic to their strangely civil relationship. By the next morning, it had been clear to them nothing between them would ever be the same, and they could either choose to ignore that fact, or do something about it, and their mutual choice had been the latter.

Life with Bonnie wasn't easy; even without her magic, she was tough, and one glare was enough to silence him, but sometimes he would fight back, pushing her against a wall until something had to give. But her fiery look, and his smouldering gaze usually resolved the situation within minutes, and they would succumb to the passion which fuelled their arguments. It was a good system until they realised after the passion died for the moment, they were left in the same situation as before, and it usually ended with one of them walking away until they'd both cooled down enough to talk about it.

"Have you heard from them at all?" Caroline asked, her voice remarkably tender.

"Last I heard from Stefan, they were somewhere in Canada," Damon responded, his voice suitably detached so he could cope with this conversation. "I didn't speak to Elena, but from I gather they found a way of helping her."

"Well, that's good," Caroline remarked cautiously.

Damon gave a non-committal shrug.

"She's alive and safe. All I need to know," he said, and that was the end of the matter on that subject.

"So..." Caroline gave him another one of her looks. "Are you going to talk to Bonnie?"

"Nope." Damon popped the 'p' lazily, his eyes averting back to the bar. "I could go for another drink though."

She slapped his arm.

"Dick," she hissed.

"Why, yes, I do own one," he smirked.

She actually gave a growl at that.

"Fix things with Bonnie, or I – "she suddenly faltered, her face paling in colour.

Damon slowly turned, watching Bonnie who seemed to have a look of a special kind of hatred on her face. It was a look which said she was going to kill him the moment she got her magic back.

"Bonnie," Caroline said, giving her voice a false note of cheerfulness.

"Will you excuse us please, Care, while I talk to this asshole?" Bonnie asked, her voice strained, her eyes darkening in colour.

"Sure." Caroline practically bounced out of her seat, giving Damon the tiniest of smirks, as if to say, good luck wriggling yourself out of this one, jerk, "See ya later."

Damon closed his eyes, opening them afterwards to present Bonnie with the sweetest of smiles.

"And hello to you too, Miss Firecracker."

"Don't start. You think I didn't hear all of that?" Bonnie scowled. "You think I didn't see that display of yours by the counter?"

"Well if you weren't the suffer-in-silence type, perhaps I wouldn't feel like you're shutting me out, Bonnie," he retorted. "Maybe you should go home and have a glass of wine or something. Chill the hell out."

She actually looked as if she was going to exhale smoke, so demented with rage did she look. He was actually a little turned on, if he was so brazen to admit it. Something about the spark in her eyes, and the way her lips visibly shrunk into the cutest of positions, just had him all kinds of flustered, because even without her magic, Bonnie was powerful, never to be underestimated.

"You realise what today is, don't you?" she demanded.

"Tuesday?"

She suddenly looked mortified.

"You don't keep track do you? Oh, God, it's just me. What an idiot." She pushed a dark lock from her eyes. "Never mind, Damon. Perhaps I'm the idiot for thinking a romantic bone existed in your body." She pushed out a breath, visibly enraged, but the rage seemed to be directed both at herself and him. "I'm going."

He reached out to grab her hand, and the gesture momentarily unsettled her. She glanced at him, mingled rage and anguish dancing in her eyes like flames, and for the briefest of moments, their eyes remained locked together, like they were partners in every sense of the word.

Then the moment passed, and she shrugged off his grip, and the flicker of warmth was gone.

"One year, Damon," she spoke heavily. "One. Year." She looked at him disgustedly. "How could you even - ? Ugh. Never mind. Should never trust a vampire to do a human's job."

And she was off just like that, leaving him alone, his eyes averting downwards, his mind chewing over the words she'd just said, and then Caroline suddenly slid into view, a dangerous smile hovering on her lips.

"I think I figured out the problem, Damon, and if that doesn't make you the closest to human I've ever seen you be, I don't know what will."

He gave her a confused look, and then it registered.

"Oh... oh."

...

Bonnie stormed back to hers and Damon's abode, fully prepared to just abandon this weird relationship thing they had between them. They sort of lived together in the Boarding House, although she occasionally went back to her dad's after a big row. Somehow, however, she felt drawn here tonight, and that was probably because Damon housed a collection of wine no other bar in the world could match.

She pushed herself down to the cellar, finding her way to the room which housed all the liquor, all the while muttering obscenities under her breath.

Damon had completely reverted back to who he was, which perhaps she should've expected. She'd kind of got used to the charming-on-occasion Damon, though, and that's what probably made this whole day just a complete disaster from start to finish.

Why should a stupid anniversary mean anything to a vampire anyway? It was a first one, too. The day they'd stupidly decided that fighting as a couple seemed to trump fighting as enemies, and that she'd marked on her calendar, not because she cared about remembering, but because in her heart she'd wanted to be a teenage girl and do little things like this.

Damon had never done romantic things with Elena, so why should she expect any better treatment? Then again, he'd never gotten to, because the sire bond and so many other obstacles had broken them up. The bittersweet story of a girl and a boy never meant to be. She'd tried to get him through that, but turns out he'd found his own methods for getting over her, and on some level, she'd felt proud of him for that, although his methods turned out to be binging and sleeping around with any pretty face he could find, so while his methods sucked, she could appreciate the effort.

All bitterness aside, she'd never deemed Damon a suitable match for Elena anyway. They were all angst and nothing more. But at the time, she'd never considered him a match for her. It was just too horrible to even consider, given all the horrible acts he'd committed with such callousness. But...well... he'd won her over. And now she was paying the price for putting her faith that he could change.

Why should she have expected him to remember? Men in human relationships never remembered anniversaries and such, so why make Damon the exception to the rule?

Maybe because she believed he was different. Maybe because on the days they weren't fighting, the way he looked at her sold her on the idea that he could be a romantic. Maybe because she'd been dumb enough to put her faith in a man who had little in himself.

Bonnie searched for her favourite bottle of wine, frowning slightly as it had already been removed from the stack.

Searching for it, she glanced around, before concluding she must've taken it already herself. Trailing back upstairs, she went to the kitchen, surprised it was on the side, a glass at the ready, but something else waited there for her too. She approached the counter, glanced down, and scanned at what accompanied the wine.

Then her heart stopped.

And she forgot how to breathe.

...

"So, what are you going to do now?" Caroline murmured, looking at Damon's anguished face.

He looked at her and then, in perfect synchronicity, they smiled.

"First, I'm gonna drop the pathetic whipped-boyfriend act," he began, "and next, I'm gonna share some celebratory champagne with my co-conspirator."

Caroline beamed.

"So, you think she bought it?"

"One hundred percent." He grinned. "Operation Be-A-Douchebag-Boyfriend worked like a charm."

"That's because you've had practice."

He scowled.

"I'll make the champagne cheap, Blondie. Don't think I won't."

She smiled.

"So, you booked the tickets then?"

"Yep."

"And the other thing?"

"Wasn't easy. Took a lot of persuading – no compulsion, I swear – but I found a few other Bennetts, rounded them up – shockingly, they didn't trust me at first – and persuaded them to come."

Caroline clapped her hands with glee.

"Bonnie didn't think she had any other family left on her Grams' side. She's going to go crazy when she finds out she has!"

"Most are just distant relatives," Damon warned. "And there was the odd obnoxious aunt who set my eyebrows on fire, because, apparently, being a pain in the ass to Salvatores is a Bennett thing, but they seem like good people."

"How come they never tried to find her out before?"

"They had their own lives to live, I presume. I guess they assumed Bonnie and her family were happy and healthy. The witchy community is not like Facebook, surprisingly; they don't all know each other's business."

Letting out a tender sigh, Caroline gave Damon a warm smile.

"I cannot believe we did this. I cannot believe we teamed up and did something that Bonnie will kill us for." She saw Damon raise an eyebrow and added, "What? You know she'll have hated the way we pulled it off, even if the end result was for her benefit."

"Yeah, maybe," Damon agreed. "But she'll have to get off her high horse and just go with it. Bennett could use some fun."

"So, to surmise: it's a romantic trip for two in Italy for a long weekend, and then, when you get back, family reunion." Caroline sighed contentedly. "Now why couldn't I have gotten this treatment?"

"If I promise to at least buy you a year's worth of clothing, will that stop you talking about that forever?"

"It was a dark period of my life, Damon. It caused me to question everything, and everyone, and gave me severe trust issues. You're looking at five years' worth at least."

Damon gave an irritated sigh.

"Remind me why I didn't undertake this project solo?"

"Because I'm a ray of sunshine your life just cannot do without?" Caroline guessed cheekily.

Damon just rolled his eyes.

...

One year today, an annoying witch and an ass of a vampire decided to screw up each other's lives by being in a relationship, just having awesome hot sex all the time. Happy anniversary, Little Bird. We're going to Italy.

Bonnie held the letter in her hand, scrunching up her mouth, unsure what the stronger urge was – to cry, or to kill him.

She'd told him on their fourth date she'd been to Italy once as a child, and most of her memories of her mother were of them exploring all the quaint little villages, the fresh smell of Italian food wafting along every side street, their hands entwined as they skipped their way towards the coast, the sight of the sea causing them to inhale as one.

She never thought he'd remember, let alone do something like this for her.

"So..." Damon's voice suddenly caught her off guard, and he was there, staring at her, smiling in that way which he'd once reserved only for Elena. "I believe if we look in an x-ray, my romantic bone should be just about – "

"I can't believe you did this," she interrupted, before he could turn his comment into a rude one.

"Caroline and I saw you sitting on your own in one of those booths sulking. At first, I had this whole big thing planned where I'd leave it until the last possible second to give you the plane tickets, but I figured, why not go the extra mile and completely throw you off the scent entirely?" He smirked. "Why'd you take so long to intervene anyway? I was using some of my best lines on that girl."

She didn't smile.

"So you and Caroline concocted this up? Just the two of you? Damon, I hate being manipulated this way. It's just selfish. It's rude. It's..." She sighed. "It's you to a tee."

"We were going to call it off if it went too far," he assured her. "I just needed to push you to the point where all that could chill you out was your favourite wine."

Bonnie had to smile a little at that.

"You know, for someone who couldn't put me first once not so long ago, the fact you did all this kinda makes me love you even more," she confessed, a deep flush colouring her cheeks.

"There's a part two to your surprise," he said, smiling. "But it can wait until after our trip."

"Okay."

"Okay? What, you're not gonna interrogate me for answers? What kind of girl are you?" he mocked.

"One who tamed Damon Salvatore," she fired, and ran towards him, throwing her arms around his neck, kissing him passionately.

"Now that's a girl worth keeping," he murmured against her lips, unable to help himself from steering them both away from the kitchen, and in the direction of the stairs.

A/n: For xthesebonesx. Sorry I couldn't finish your appreciation week, but hopefully you'll love this. May include a part two showing them on holiday, but that's up to you guys