❝i'll have her in my dreams❞

GIUSEPPE SALVATORE STOOD ON HIS FRONT STOOP, HIS TWO YOUNG SONS STANDING OBEDIENTLY BEFORE HIM. He had a hand on each of their shoulders, gripping them ever so tightly in a silent reminder to act as they'd been taught.

Stefan stood straight, the perfect picture of the Salvatore name. Damon stood straight, with a devious smirk on his fourteen-year-old face. He'd lost all of his baby fat and turned into a charming young man, and he had started to gain a bit of a reputation in Mystic Falls– something his father wasn't very happy about.

But today, they were meeting someone new. A girl their age, supposedly, who had lived in Mystic Falls her whole life but was rather sheltered. Damon wasn't interested in learning about the mystery girl, but his father demanded his presence.

As the cart pulled up, Damon looked on in confusion. Only well-off families were able to afford personal carriages, but it made sense that his father was so avid about looking presentable if they were one of the wealthier families in Mystic Falls. 

The two adults, parents, he assumed, stepped towards Giuseppe and greeted him familiarly. When they stepped away, the girl was revealed and Damon felt his smirk fall into a look of surprise that Stefan stifled a laugh at. Damon hit Stefan's side and stepped forward off the stoop, swaggering towards the girl with false confidence.

"I'm Damon Salvatore, and that is my younger, very boring brother, Stefan." Damon's smirk lifted upwards as she laughed, hiding her crooked smile behind her satin-gloved hand.

She offered said hand to him and Damon took it gingerly, pressing a kiss to the back of the lavish material. He looked up at her with his icy blue eyes, examining her pretty features.

"It's lovely to meet you, Mr. Salvatore, and you as well." She nodded at Stefan, who had his hands respectively tucked behind his back as he bowed slightly before her. "I'm Rosemary Montgomery."

Damon straightened and adjusted his collared shirt. Rosemary. He looked at her as she struck up a conversation with Stefan, examining her sharp features. They were all at the age where the roundness from their younger years traveled elsewhere, and Damon could tell that her face had hollowed out recently because she seemed oblivious to how striking she was.

Her hat was shielding the bright sun from her face, giving him the perfect shadow to look her over. Sharp cheekbones with heavily defined eyebrows arched above her youthful eyes, wide and innocent. Her lips were pretty and pouty, but pulled back into a smile as she spoke to Stefan.

Damon looked down at the ground briefly, breaking himself from his close observation. He cleared his throat lowly and stepped forward, making himself known to the two again. He offered an arm to Rosemary, who took it and tucked her hand gently against his arm.

"Care for a walk in the gardens, Rosemary?" 

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Damon had recently turned eighteen and had celebrated his birthday at the tavern in town with his friends and family. There'd been a formal celebration, but because he could take the Salvatore name on into the world now, his father had allowed him to celebrate in the tavern with Stefan and Rosemary as well.

He'd gotten plastered, singing along to the piano with unintelligible words as Rosemary cheered him on from her place standing atop the bar. She'd lifted her skirt and tapped her boots in a drunken rhythm against the surface, her head thrown back in pure glee.

The bar stayed lit up all night, and Damon remembered stumbling home drunkenly with Rosemary glued to his side as they traveled the dirt roads. She'd run ahead of him, spinning in circles and shouting his name while he looked on adoringly.

"You'll get us shot, shouting like that!" He called back, pushing some of his dark curls off of his forehead where they'd been matted down with sweat.

Rosemary had simply grinned and shrugged at him. "I wouldn't die with anyone else, Damon Salvatore."

Damon, even in his inebriated mind, felt his breath hitch at the impact of her words. "Ro, come on." He gestured for her to come back to his side and she did so, thankfully, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders to keep her there this time. "You shouldn't say stuff like that, you know. With the war, you never know who's listening."

Rosemary looked up at him through her drunken haze and promptly laughed. She shrugged against him, oblivious to his surprise. "Damon, I meant what I said. War or not, you are the one person I would die beside. If they allowed it I would follow you onto that battlefield just to make sure you didn't die. Although, I'm not happy about you joining the Confederacy."

Damon sighed and nodded, though didn't throw her words aside. "Father did it. He said if any son of his was going to enlist, it'd be for the 'right' side."

Rosemary rolled her eyes and leaned more of her weight against him. "Your father is ridiculous. My father said he's trying to start enforcing strict laws to out vampires in Mystic Falls. As if there are vampires here." She scoffed.

"This town is so full of hunters I'd feel bad for any vampires that came here." Damon winced but backtracked a bit. "Ro, what has you thinking about me dying? Or dying with me?"

She let out a long sigh. "I'm just worried. I don't want you to get hurt fighting a battle you didn't even want to sign up for. It's ridiculous that you have to leave in the first place, but I just don't want to be here wondering if you're still alive or if you were blown to bits in some field where I'd never find you."

Damon stopped their easy pace and stood in front of her, his face riddled with concern. "Rosemary, I'm going to be fine. I'll serve one or two years and they'll send me home 'cause we lost. You don't have to worry about me, ever."

"Of course I do, Damon. I love you."

Damon's eyes widened and even though he'd sobered slightly, he couldn't stop himself from surging forward and kissing her like he was dying. She reciprocated easily, slinging her arms around his neck and pulling herself on her tiptoes to press their mouths together fiercely.

Damon wrapped his hands around her waist and deepened the kiss that was taking his breath away, pushing all four years of his teenage pining into it. He pulled back reluctantly, having to take in a deep breath as Rosemary did the same.

He looked down at her incredulously before a breathless smile broke on his face. "I love you, too, Ro. I always have."

She smiled, her eyes a bit watery as she thought about his nearing departure. "Come back to me?"

"Always."

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Damon removed his brimmed regulation hat and wrung the fabric with an anxious sigh. Stefan stepped up behind him, clapping a hand down on his shoulder with a proud smile. "She's going to be so happy, Damon. She's had a rough few years."

Damon sighed, but nodded, looking at his brother for reassurance. "You're sure she still wants anything to do with me?"

Stefan gave him a look that his anxiety ignored. "Of course! She's written to you practically every day and has done nothing but talk about when you're getting home to all of us."

"Has she been keeping herself busy?" 

Being drafted was one thing, but fighting for a side of the country he wanted nothing to do with was another. He was gone for four years, four long years where all he could do was write to Rosemary and hope that his desperation to hear her voice was expressed through his words.

He knew his father wouldn't be happy with his desertion, but he couldn't stand another day where he fought against people that were being killed for simply being people. And he couldn't stand to be away from his Rosemary any longer.

He told Stefan of his return but asked to keep it a surprise for Rosemary. He'd been excited up until now, when he knew she was just outside sitting in the gardens in the gazebo at his house mere yards away from him after four years of miles upon miles. Now, the nerves had settled in.

"She's been doing alright. She's been volunteering at the school, helping with the children during the day. She cleans the tavern at night to make extra money."

"Have you spent time with her lately?" Her letters had gotten sparse, and he knew the distance was getting to her as much as it was to him.

Stefan shook his head. "I've been with Katherine most of the time."

He rolled his eyes. "Katherine isn't as important as making sure your best friend is alright, brother. I'd love to meet the woman that has so easily captured all of your attention, she must be some kind of witch." 

Damon threw his cap to the side and swung the back door open, not waiting for a response from his brother as he went. The velvet box tucked in his uniform pocket shifting from its resting place made a smile break out on his face. He didn't waste time storming towards Rosemary who remained unaware of his presence.

"Hey, stranger!" He called out, watching her drop her book in surprise and look up at the deep voice calling out to her.

Rosemary's eyes widened as she saw Damon rushing towards her and she stood from the gazebo and ran towards him with tears already bubbling in her eyes. She jumped at him and he caught her easily, spinning her around as she hid her face in his neck and shed her tears silently.

Damon cradled the back of her head and wrapped an arm around her waist, keeping her pressed against him as they settled in the yard again, relishing in one another's presence.

"You're here." She cried, pulling back to look at him. Rosemary cupped his cheeks and looked at his aged features in disbelief. "How are you here!"

"I left." He shrugged, watching her eyes widen. "I couldn't stay, Ro. It was wrong, and no matter what my father says, I'm not going to fight for something I don't believe in."

Rosemary let out a watery laugh and nodded, looking proud of him. "You're here. I can't believe you're here."

Damon shook his head, looking down at her. She had grown up so much, her face showing she was as much as an adult as he was now. He had three-day-old scruff and uncombed hair, but she looked radiant.

Her lips were painted red, and she had black coal smudged on her eyes. Somehow, her jaw had sharpened even more and so had her cheekbones and she looked equal parts stunning and seductive without even trying to. "I missed you so much, Rosemary." He sighed, pressing his forehead to hers.

She nodded against his forehead, the action somewhat awkward. "I missed you so much, Damon. I can't believe you're home."

"I told you I'd come back to you."

She smiled at his words, the same ones from so many years ago, but looked at him confusedly when he took a step back from her. Her hands came up over her mouth as he kneeled down on the ground on one knee and she felt tears well up all over again.

"Rosemary Leanne Montgomery, I've known you for eight long years, and from the moment you first arrived at my house, I've loved every single thing about you. You're my best friend, and I want nothing more than to grow old with you and to live a wonderful life at your side. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?"

Rosemary nods, stifling sobs as he stands up and hugs her again. She cries against his chest, twisting her hands in the fabric of his uniform. She pulls away, giving Damon her hand to put the ring on. She smiles at the glinting diamond and looks up at him with a grin.

She looks over, seeing Stefan approaching with Katherine.

"I see the reunion went well, brother, assuming those are happy tears." Stefan smiles, seeing the glee in Rosemary's eyes.

Rosemary jumps towards him, missing the way Katherine roams her eyes over Damon. "We're getting married, Stefan!" She exclaims, making Stefan drop Katherine's arm so he could lift Rosemary up in a hug.

Stefan and Rosemary squeeze one another, laughing breathlessly at the glee of the news. Stefan looks at his brother disbelievingly. "Was this why you were nervous?"

Damon shrugs him off, but Stefan and he both know the answer to his question. He eyes the dark-haired woman at his brother's side and frowns at the look of disinterest on the woman's face, but shrugs it off as Rosemary bounds towards him again. "Come on, Ro. We should inform Father."

"Of course, love." She grins and skirts off with him, the couple completely unassuming of the poisonous thoughts running rampant through Katherine Pierce's mind.

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author's note; idk what hurts more, the chapter titles or the chapters themselves. ya know? (I say as if I don't have complete control over this entire book lmao like wow liz)

edited and published; 8.15.21.

- liz