Written 2012 by VeGirl

We dropped Elena off at the Boarding House and lodged Lexi in my hotel room, where she took a well needed shower and borrowed some of my clothes till we could get her some new ones. We had made our best to keep her up to date to what had been going on during the year and what we were facing, and we were all anxious to know how things had worked out today.

"So Stefan knows nothing about me?" Lexi was amazed by this.

"No that was all me."

"Who are you?" she asked teasingly and laughed. "It's nice to meet this new and improved Damon. Is this your doing?" She turned towards me.

I was blown away. "Me? Absolutely not! We've only known each other for..." I tried to count the days, but couldn't.

"A couple of days," Damon said smiling at me and I gave him a demure smile back.

"Naaw... Damon in love!" she taunted. "I never thought I'd see the day."

Both Damon and I stared at each other and at her. She had really lost it! Love? Attraction and sex I could agree that we had, but this really screwed with our heads.

The three of us went shopping together and I was really happy to get to know Lexi. She had been one of my favourites on the Vampire Diaries and I rolled my eyes just thinking about me sitting at home watching these wonderful people.

"What happened to your master plan?" Lexi asked Damon. "Did you get Katherine out of the tomb; that was it, wasn't it?"

Damon drew a deep breath. "It turned out she was never in there."

"I told Stefan I'd kick her ass if I saw her," she laughed and recieved a face with barely raised brows from Damon. "The bitch! I'm so glad you've found someone to care for," she continued and hooked her arm in mine with a beeming smile.

Now and again there were questionable glances between Damon and me that hadn't been there before, and I knew it had to do with Lexis statement. I had a bit of trouble chewing it down, so clearly it was worse for Damon. It was sheer joy though to watch this gorgeous girl be ecstatic about feeling the sun on her skin. She was actually jumping around and just sparkled with joy.

"Damon, my hero!" she exclaimed and added a bit sourly. "That's something I never thought I would say; especially since the rooftop experience."

"I knew you would, sooner or later. But I didn't think it would be over a ring," he said in his best flirtatious tone. I felt a pang of jealousy over all they had experienced in their past together, but I had barely one week with him.

Lexi took me arm-in-arm again and we walked to the closest clothes store. That helped my jealousy; retail therapy.

Lexi was as feisty, sarcastic and funny as I remembered her and I really liked her in this real life, or what the heck this was; it sure felt real.

"So, what do you think I should wear for homecoming?" she asked me and I could only laugh.

"As long as we don't have to throw you a coming out-party," I joked.

She laughed. "Last I checked I was still into guys, one particular guy," she added with a serious expression.

She found some pants, tops, a skirt and new heels, but was surprised when Damon pulled out the wallet and paid for everything.

"What? Are you going for the guy-of-the-year award? Emma, we should pick something out for you too."

"Then we're going to the lingerie store." He finally gave me one of those flirting looks that I really had withdrawal symptoms from not getting the whole day.

Was it really just one day? God I was pathetic!

"Sure, I need some of those as well." She had me arm-in-arm again and we paraded on to the next store where she actually pick out some stuff for her and some really sexy lingerie for me.

"Damon, wouldn't she look good in this?" She stood behind me and held it out in front of me, I felt a little embarrassed. People around us were really checking her and me out and Damon gave us some appreciative looks.

"Come on, some feedback here, lover-boy," she called though the store for Damon to come join us.

"I think you better strip her down so I can really appreciate it," he replied wickedly and I saw more and more people looking curiously at the three of us. Lexi noticed it too and met his smile with a wicked one.

"Oh no, you are not stripping me down out here in the store!"

"Man, if you don't kiss her properly, I will!" she called out to Damon and then she whispered in my ear. "I think people are about to have a fit if we don't get out of here really soon."

I had to stop myself from giggle. But it felt a bit awkward as Damon came and gave me a light kiss while Lexi still had her arms around me. I was almost afraid to meet his eyes.

"I think we should get out of here," Lexi whispered giggling; I definitely agreed, this was getting way out of hand.

Damon paid for our clothes and we got out.

Lexi just laughed. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time! Being dead and all..."

"Don't pout. You were dead for three hundred and fifty years before that," Damon joked, but we could see the regret in his eyes. He drove us to the hotel and Lexi decided to stay there for the night while Damon and I got back to the boarding house to find out how things had worked out for Stefan and Elijah.

"Now, take care of your Emma, Damon. Love has made you a better man, I'm sorry I wasn't around to see the change." I saw how Damon squinted his eyes in confusion again. We turned and started to walk away, when Damon turned and called;

"Oh, and you should call your boyfriend. He's... pissed at me..."

We had promised her not to tell Stefan anything so that she could make an entrance, so none was the word. The trip to the boarding house was a quiet ride. None of us said anything about Lexi's statement about love and we were further away from each other than we had been this whole awful and amazing day.

Stefan was home again when we got there. Elijah sat in the parlour with a blond girl I had never seen before, Katherine and Elena in the other couch.

Klaus and Rebekah were gone.

"The happy couple returns," Stefan said tauntingly as he came down the stairs to meet us.

Damon and I exchanged looks; the way we had acted as the happy couple had been more fun than this pondering over what we actually had together. He couldn't love me, this was just a fantasy!

"So, how was your day, brother?" Damon asked curious.

"Interesting. I had people in my car today that had never before seen a car. That was an interesting experience."

We walked into the parlour and Elijah got on his feet to meet us, with a kiss on my cheek before he introduced us to his sister Amariya, who seemed rather shy as she looked curious at me. She was dressed in a long dress with an empire-cut and I was suddenly aware of how short my skirt was.

"Hey, my fav' girls!" Damon plopped down on the couch between Katherine and Elena. Elena looked confused at me and I felt a bit hurt.

Elijah wasn't talking English to the blond girl; he spoke something that to my ears sounded east-European. Not that I was familiar with it, but it was something about the hardness of the consonants especially the d:s and the r:s.

I did my best to block out Damon who was trying his best to be an asshole, so I focused on Elijah and Amariya.

"I'm guessing you two haven't seen each other in quite a long time," I told Elijah.

He smiled at me and the two siblings looked at each other and smiled. "Around four hundred year."

My mouth almost fell open as I quickly counted what year that that might have been. I was wondering how people were dressed in the beginning of the sixteenth century. No wonder she was looking curious at our clothes.

Elijah looked up and a man entered the room.

He was tall and had long blond hair in a bundle in the back of his neck. He looked up at Elijah with a frustrated look and said something to him in the same language he spoke to his sister in. He reminded me of Alexander Skarsgård, who plays Eric the 'vampire Viking king' on True Blood and I couldn't keep from smiling.

Elijah smiled, walked up and helped him with the shirt and seemed to reassure him that the pants and shirt was supposed to be worn like that. Elijah took him by the elbow and they went up to us to be properly introduced to Damon and me.

"This is Yonah, my brother." Damon rose and shook his hand and Elijah bought him to me. "And this is the lovely Emma," he smiled at me.

Yonah took my hand and kissed it and then gave his brother a questioningly look and then leaned in to kiss my cheek.

That was what I thought.

"No!" In a split second Elijah had his arm around my shoulders and pulled me away from his brother with a hand on Yonah's chest. His face showed a man with full vampire-red eyes and fangs, but with a surprised look in his veined face.

Did he think I was some kind of offering?

I stood dead still while Elijah apologised to me and tried to explain the cultural difference between a vampire in the early sixteen hundreds and now.

"Yonah, Emma is a friend, she's not lunch," he said with a smile to his brother and all of a sudden the danger seemed to be getting to me. My knees were a bit wobbly and I had to sit down on the couch.

"I'm sorry," he said and inclined his head in a bow to me.

I couldn't even speak. I had not noticed the tension and the horrid look in Elena's eyes. When I met Damon's eyes, they were black and it was impossible for me to read anything in them, but his back didn't touch the backrest of the couch.

Yonah took a seat in an armchair on safe distance and he kept looking at me with yet another look I could not interpret.

I kept glancing at him and thought again about Eric, the vampire-Viking.

Stefan came and gave me a glass of whiskey. "Emma, you look a little pale," he said with a teasing smile. Whiskey is not my thing, but due to the circumstances I swallowed a big gulp and tried hard not to cough.

We sat there for a while, talking. Elijah interpreted mostly to English from his sister; she seemed to understand listening to the English better and it wasn't long before she even spoke a few words that didn't need to be translated.

Mostly the three siblings were trying to catch up and to share memories from the past. I apparently was right about the language; they had lived in Bulgaria together before they were separated.

It was fascinating to listen to them and I really needed a distraction from Damon's and mine little dispute. I knew I had to deal with it sooner or later so after dinner I excused myself and got up to his room.

As soon as I stood up Elijah and Yonah also rose and I smiled at the chivalry.

.