Author's Note: Hey, it's another Dalaric fic! This takes place in an AU where Damon and Alaric are a perfectly normal couple (no vampires!) They have a pretty decent life together. Elena is their teenaged daughter (you'll get the whole story if you read on). They still live in Mystic Falls, there's just nothing supernatural going on.

"Damon, could you help me with these groceries?" Alaric leaned against the hood of his car.

"Could you say please?" Damon asked teasingly.

"Dayyyyyyyyy!" Alaric whined playfully.

Damon sniggered and hung up. He rushed to the door, threw it open, and went to meet Ric in the drive. He gave his awaiting lover a kiss on the cheek before opening the door of the back seat to retrieve the paper bags filled with food.

"I'm so glad finals are over," Ric said grabbing an armful of groceries from the trunk. "We can finally have a decent family dinner."

"I'd hate to say it, Ric. I think I actually missed your cooking."

The two men laughed and carried the groceries into the house. "I'll grab the rest, do you think you could stick some of this crap in the fridge?" Ric asked Damon.

"I may be young, but I'm perfectly capable of putting a few groceries away," Damon said rolling his eyes.

"Whatever you say," Ric said smiling as he turned to retrieve the rest of the groceries.

Damon began to place all the items that needed to be chilled into the fridge. This required him to move around some of the Chinese takeout from last night, and throw away a few undesirable left overs. His hands were completely focused on the task, however his mind was going through all the things he needed to do.

This weekend is the big day, he thought to himself. It was Alaric's thirtieth birthday and Damon was going to make sure it was the best day of his life. Each night, after tucking Ric in, Damon would sit up until the wee hours writing invitations. It had taken him three nights to write all the invitations since he was inviting the whole town. Mrs. Lockwood was a family friend and she was more than happy to lend her mansion for the special occasion. He wasn't going to tell Ric anything. He was simply going to claim that they were going to visit Mrs. Lockwood for a small birthday lunch. Damon smiled to himself as he imagined the surprised look on Ric's face.

"Here, let me help," Alaric said quietly behind Damon as he began to help Damon sort through the new additions to the fridge.

"Thanks, boo," Damon said in his best faux ghetto accent.

Ric giggled. When they were finished stocking the fridge, Ric retreated to the living room and collapsed on the white leather sofa. Damon poured two tall glasses of lemonade and followed. He placed the glasses on twin coasters on the coffee table and plopped down beside Ric.

"How's Elena doing?" he casually asked. He reached over to grab his glass of lemonade and took a long sip from it.

Alaric folded his arms across his chest, "It's hard for her. We lost our best friends six months ago, right? Well she lost her parents."

Damon nodded, "Are we doing a good job? I mean, I know we'll never really compare, but are we at least, doing okay?"

Alaric sat up and wrapped an arm around Damon's shoulder, "We're doing the best we can, Day. If the Gilberts hadn't thought we could do this, they wouldn't have made us godparents."

Damon rested his head in the natural niche between Alaric's shoulder and head. He took another sip of lemonade, "It's just hard."

"Well finals are over. I have a lot more free time. The founder's party was a success, so you've got a clear schedule until the next founder's event. We're going to have time to be a family," Alaric said reassuringly.

Damon bit his lower lip, "What if Elena doesn't want to be a family?"

"Of course she'll want to be a family."

x~x~x~x~x~x

"Elena!" Elena turned at the sound of her voice being called. Caroline was speed walking toward her. Elena turned back to her locker and continued to sort out her books. The last thing she wanted to do right now was to pretend to be okay. All she wanted was to go home and curl up in her room and take a nap.

Caroline stopped in front of her and crossed her arms over her chest, "Elena Gilbert, I am about to share some incredibly exciting news with you. Can you at least pretend to be interested?" Caroline asked.

Elena turned and her lips curled into the most convincing fake smile she could manage, "Sorry Caroline, a lot on my mind. What's up?"

"I just heard word of the first really big party of the school year. It's going to be up by the lake. Lot's of booze. The football team is going to be there," she winked.

Elena felt her stomach drop. She really didn't want to spend an evening trying to duck away from Matt. "When is it?" she asked despite of herself.

"This Saturday. There's going to be a bonfire at sundown, so don't miss it."

"I dunno Caroline, it's Ric's birthday," Elena said drearily.

"You're going to bail on the best time of your life to go to Mr. Saltzman's birthday party? Really Elena, you need to sort your priorities out."

"Look, I don't want to be there as much as you don't want me to be there. If I don't go, Damon'll probably try to ground me or something," Elena said.

"Seriously? It's not like he's your dad…or mom. How does that even work anyway?" Caroline was obviously confused. Elena wanted to laugh but she didn't want to hurt Caroline's fragile feelings.

"I know that. Okay? I just feel like I owe them-"

"You don't owe them shit. You're coming to the party. If not I'm disowning you. Okay. That's final," Caroline turned and walked away down the hall.

Great, Elena thought, What's the lesser of two evils? Do I want to spend the night with a bunch of friends and pretend to have fun? Or Do I want to spend the night with my adoptive parents and pretend to have fun