❝nobody hurts me like you do❞
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

THE SUN HAS GONE DOWN BY THE TIME CHARLOTTE'S PHONE FINALLY GOES OFF. She scrambles to get it, unable to stop the disappointment from growing when she sees her sister's name and not Damon's.

Answering it nonetheless, she lifts her phone to her ear. "Hey, Elena,"

"Charlie, where are you? I thought you were gonna be home for dinner. Cory came over, too, and he said you told him you'd hang out tonight, but now he's just harassing me,"

"Yeah, something, uh... came up," She huffs, pressing her hand to her forehead. "Actually, Elena, I need you to do me a huge favor."

"What? Is everything okay? Where even are you?"

"No, I'm– I'm at Damon's, it's fine. I'm helping him with something and I'm starving, so you should make Cory bring me something to eat."

"Uh... okay," Elena trails off, her frown audible in her voice. "I can just bring you some of what Jenna made if you want."

"No!" Charlotte winces, immediately shaking her head. "No, that's fine, Elena. Just, have Cory bring me something. I promised him we'd hang out and I don't want to bail on him again just because of Damon."

Elena takes a moment to respond and Charlotte prays that her sister actually listens to her for once.

Elena sighs, the sound hitting the speaker roughly. "Okay, I guess. Cory said he'll be there soon,"

"Okay, thank you. I'll– I'll be home later. Don't wait up."

"Alright, just... be safe. I'll see you later."

Charlotte nods, pulling her phone away after she hangs up, setting it on the floor beside her. She purses her lips, helplessly checking the time every two minutes, knowing she's making it worse for herself.

It only takes 20 more minutes for Cory to show up, his voice echoing through the house as he calls her name.

"Charlie? Where are you?"

Charlotte scrambles to her feet, pushing the dresser away from the door and unlocking it, nearly falling down the stairs in her haste to get to Cory.

"Oh, thank god," She breathes out, still holding her makeshift stake in her hand.

Cory's confusion immediately warps into concern at the sight of her brandishing a weapon and he drops the to-go bag of food on the table near the door. "Jesus, Charlie, what the hell is going on?"

"Rose," Charlotte swallows roughly, shaking her head. "The– the vampire that kidnapped me and Elena, she got bit by a werewolf."

"Isn't that–"

"Fatal to vampires? Yeah," Charlotte nods. "She was just sick at first, like she had a stomach bug or something. But she started hallucinating and she thought I was Katherine, and I had to run. I have no idea if she's lucid right now or not, and I needed backup that could actually help me, because Damon's not answering his phone."

Cory nods, looking past her down the hallway. "Okay, well, I'm here to help but I can't say it was the smartest idea to leave the front door wide open for a hallucinating vampire."

Charlotte's face scrunches up in confusion. "What? The door wasn't open. I mean, it was unlocked, but that's because I tried to escape earlier,"

Cory gestures behind him, shaking his head. "Uh, no, the front door was open. I just walked in,"

"Oh," Charlotte breathes out, looking past him into the darkness that stretches into the woods that surround the house. "Oh, no,"

"Charlotte?"

The girl spins around, hair flying as she faces Damon, his eyes filled with concern as she raises the stake up, stopping herself when she realizes it's him. "Damon,"

He holds his hands up, looking at her with increasing amounts of worry and bewilderment. "What's that for? What's going on? Are you okay?"

She lowers the stake, letting it drop to the floor at her feet. "No, it's..."

Damon looks around, realization dawning on him at the sight of the things that were strewn about amidst Charlotte's escape attempts. "Where's Rose?"

Charlotte shakes her head, looking up at him. "I don't know."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Stefan's still not answering his phone,"

Damon rolled his eyes, standing before Cory and Charlotte. "Baby brother's not really my priority right now. Do you have a real weapon on you or did you deface more of my furniture?"

Charlotte rolls her eyes right back, turning away from him. "None of your furniture would've gotten hurt if you'd answered your phone when I called you half a dozen times,"

"We're fine," Cory cuts in before Damon can respond, looking between them oddly, his eyes lingering on Charlotte's unhappy look. "I've got it covered."

Damon nods, gesturing for them to follow. "Come on. This way,"

It doesn't take them long to find Rose in the parking lot only dimly lit by the festivities happening in the distance. Charlotte's eyes skate over the body thrown onto the car windshield, and she quickly looks away, watching Damon rush over to Rose, pulling her off of the blonde girl.

He tackles her to the ground and Cory kneels down, checking the pulse on the blonde to no avail, his face full of disappointment as he shakes his head up at Charlotte.

"Rose, it's me," Damon grunts, not letting her move from where he has her pinned. "It's Damon."

The vampire's struggles cease as her awareness comes back to her, and she writhes in pain, her eyes catching the limp body on the ground, Charlotte and Cory standing around it.

"Did I do this?" Her voice breaks, a sob catching in her throat. "Oh, my god. I didn't mean to hurt anybody, I never wanted to hurt anybody,"

Damon shakes his head, looking down at her with wide, pity-filled eyes. "I know. I know,"

Rose turns, her gaze locking onto Charlotte's. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry,"

Charlotte shakes her head, hurrying over to her as Damon loosens his grip slightly. "No, it's okay, Rose. It's fine,"

"Come on," Damon sighs. "Let's get you home."

"No, I don't have a home," Rose shakes her head, sobbing as Damon tries to pull her to her feet. "I haven't had a home in so long. Oh, make it stop. Please, make it stop, I hate it. Make it stop,"

Damon looks away from Rose, catching a glimpse of the tears in Charlotte's eyes, and he shakes his head, moving so he can pick Rose up, holding her carefully in his arms.

Charlotte follows suit, grabbing the stake he'd been holding, and she hands it off to Cory, wiping her face off with the back of her hand as they turn to follow Damon back to the car.

"Charlie," Cory starts, voice quiet. "I think we should go back to your place."

Charlotte immediately shakes her head. "No, no, I need– I have to help him. She's just going to get worse."

"Yeah, and you've done enough. She nearly killed you tonight, more than once,"

"She didn't mean to."

"That doesn't really matter when you've got blood drying on your neck,"

Charlotte's hand quickly comes up to cover the barely-there pricks from Rose's fangs earlier and she glares at Cory when he gives her a knowing look. "It's fine, I'm fine."

"You don't expect me to believe that," Cory scoffs, gesturing at Damon's back as the vampire gets further and further away. "You've blown me off all week, I've barely seen you since the Lockwood party, and all of the sudden you're fighting with Damon, and dealing with werewolves and dying vampires? What the hell is going on, Charlotte?"

"Nothing is going on, Cory!" Charlotte throws her hands out, walking away from him to catch up with Damon. "You're either coming back to Damon's with me or you're not, I don't care."

Charlotte doesn't look back to see if Cory follows her.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"I'm sorry, Charlotte,"

The girl straightens her shoulders, face shuddering when Rose addresses her without looking her way. She'd been somewhat hiding in the hallway outside of Damon's room, under no impression that either vampire didn't know she was there, but she wasn't trying to get in the middle of anything at the moment.

That ever-growing pit in her stomach had only gotten worse as the night went on, and even though Rose had scared her at one point, she didn't want the woman to know it. She didn't want her to die thinking she was terrible, and that everything she did was for nothing.

She didn't want to think about why she was so determined to make Rose feel that way.

"I don't like taking human life. I never have."

Damon stands up, turning around to look at her. "You were supposed to go home."

Charlotte looks away from him, crossing her arms over her chest as she slowly walks over to the bed.

"That's the worse part about it, the hunt," Rose whispers, looking past them at nothing in particular. "The need to kill, the thirst. The pleasure it brings you afterwards. I wasn't meant to be evil. It hurts."

"Then stop talking about it," Damon tells her sternly, earning a tired eye roll from the woman as he steps past Charlotte, giving her a lingering glare that she throws right back at him.

Rose scoffs out something close to a laugh in her weak state. "Damon's a lot like me. He wants to care. The minute he does, he runs away from it."

Charlotte pushes her hair back behind her ears, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry for what I've done today," Rose says, voice breaking.

Charlotte purses her lips, feeling her throat tighten. "I know, Rose."

"You need to fight," She says, looking Charlotte in the eyes despite the tears in her own. "I know that you're tired, but you have to do it anyway."

Charlotte lets out a shaky breath, her soft platitude cut off by a round of painful coughs wracking Rose's body. Charlotte bends down, steadying her with a gentle hand, letting the woman clasp their palms together, a hum leaving her hoarse throat.

"Why are you so nice to me?"

The teenager huffs, smiling wryly as she shakes her head. "Humanity. Stupidity. You can pick whichever one you want,"

Rose's tired smile widens, but she quickly grows serious again, looking at Charlotte. "You can never forget it. What it's like to be human. It haunts me," She presses her cheek into the pillow damp with her sweat. "But it's the only thing that's kept me going."

Rose begins to say something else, but she gets caught up with a tickle in her throat that quickly turns into her clutching at her stomach, writhing in pain and yelling.

Charlotte snaps her head around, looking at Damon helplessly. "What do I do?"

He shakes his head, moving to push her away from the bed and take her place. "Go,"

"Damon–"

"Just go, Charlotte."

She lets out a shaky breath and turns away, ignoring the burn behind her eyes as she goes downstairs, stumbling past the familiar rooms. She stops in the living room to grab her bag and her movements fumble, the strap going loose in her hold as she realizes what Damon's just spared her from seeing.

She closes her eyes, feeling tears finally spill over onto her cheeks, leaving a ticklish trail in their wake as she wipes them off her jaw before they can drip down to her shirt.

She abandons her things on the couch and crosses the room to the bar cart, grabbing a glass and the bottle of bourbon, pouring a hefty amount into it. She grimaces as she lifts it to her lips, taking two big gulps out of it that she swallows without really tasting.

With a shudder, she lets the alcohol settle in her chest, warming up the space between her ribs like a warm hug from the inside out. She drops down onto the couch like deadweight, clutching the bottle and the glass in each hand, and stares at the wall, decidedly ignoring every part in her that's screaming at her to stop.

She distantly hears Damon leave, no doubt with Rose's body in tow, but he doesn't stop to talk to her and she doesn't move.

She doesn't know how much time has passed by the time she tilts her head back far enough to meet Damon's confused look from where he stands in front of her.

"You were supposed to go home."

She hums, looking away from him. She wets her lips, getting a taste of the bourbon that lingers on them. "Didn't make it that far."

"Charlotte," He starts, looking at her state of silent disarray. "Why are you still here?"

"I don't know," She lets him take the glass and the bottle away from her, dropping down on the couch beside her. "I don't know why I keep ending up here, Damon. Sitting on your couch, wishing you'd look at me, or talk to me."

"You don't want me to talk to you right now. You told me that yourself,"

She scoffs, turning to look at him now that he's closer. Her vision blurs in the corners and she takes a moment to catch up with herself, the tips of her fingers feeling like static as she drags them against her jeans. "Can't blame me for that."

Damon's face twitches with irritation. "That doesn't mean you get to blame me for everything,"

"I'm not," She spits out. "Just the things that you're actually responsible for. Like giving up on yourself, and giving up on me. On us."

Damon's icy blue eyes meet her dark brown ones, colder than they ever are when he looks at her. "You gave up on yourself a long time ago. Your continuous attempts at getting killed prove that,"

Charlotte clenches her jaw, a mean gleam in her eye. "So why won't you let me do it again? Why won't you let me put an end to this entire mess and save you?"

"Because I'm selfish," He bites out, eyes burning with fire and tears he refuses to shed. "And if it means you're alive and you hate me for saving you, at least I'll have saved you. It's the only thing I seem to be good at these days."

Charlotte's lips quiver and she bites her tongue to stop it. She looks away from him, taking a deep breath as she attempts to regain what little composure she has in her drunken state. "Tonight wasn't your fault. None of it."

"That's not the conversation we're having right now,"

"Well, maybe it should be," She shifts, turning to face him more head-on on the couch. "Rose wasn't your fault. Yeah, that stupid werewolf was coming after you, but Rose took that bite because she cared about you. You were her friend, and I'm sorry that you had to do that to your friend, Damon. I'm sorry."

Damon clenches his jaw, shaking his head. "You're drunk, Charlotte. You need to go to sleep."

"Don't patronize me. I let you sit on my bed in a drunken haze and talk about Katherine more times than I can count and I never made you stop. I'm allowed to give you my sincere condolences over the loss of your friend."

"Why are you doing this?" He says suddenly, voice full of bewilderment. "Two days ago, you told me you didn't want to see me or have anything to do with me because you don't trust me anymore and now you're sitting on my couch, drinking my bourbon, trying to play drunk therapist with me. News flash, I don't want to talk about it. Yeah, Rose was my friend, and now she's dead. The deed is done, let's move on."

"She was right. When she said you want to care, but you run away the second it gets too real. That's why I don't want to be around you right now, Damon. Because I don't want to be something you run away from."

Damon moves before she can blink, grabbing her cheeks softly in his hands despite the speed of his movements and the burning gleam in his eyes. "Don't you get it? I have tried running away from you– it doesn't work. You are a living, breathing person, yet you haunt me every day of my life. So, yeah, maybe I want to drink an entire bottle of bourbon right now and feel sad about my friend dying, but I'm not going to because it's the only thing I can run away from. You– I can't get rid of you."

She looks up at him with wide, bleary eyes, brows knitting together at the desperation in his voice.

"I can't get rid of you," He repeats, voice softer. "So I'm going to save your life, and I'm going to do whatever I can to keep you around me, even if you hate me and don't trust me. I spent a hundred years loving someone who hated me, I can do it again. Especially if it's you."

Charlotte's nose scrunches up as tears slip down her cheeks, pooling in the curve of Damon's hands on her cheeks. She squeezes her eyes closed, breaking off more tears that clump in her eyelashes as she opens them again. "I don't," She says weakly. "I don't hate you. I never will."

"Give it time,"

She shakes her head, leaning forward to drop her cheek onto his shoulder and wrap her arms around him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry about Rose,"

Damon's arms tighten around her waist where he'd instinctively held onto her when she pitched forward against him and he inhales sharply. "Don't,"

She squeezes him tighter, ignoring his weak plea. "I'm sorry," Her hands come up, one running through his hair as she presses their entangled bodies impossibly closer. "I'm sorry, Damon."

Damon closes his eyes, pressing his chin into her shoulder. "Please don't,"

Charlotte falls silent then, but doesn't move from where she's halfway in Damon's lap, the two of them clinging to each other like it's the only thing keeping them on earth.

It's hard to tell which one of them falls asleep first after such a long day, but neither of them wake up when Cory walks into the house in search of his best friend, something complicated on his face that only deepens when he sees the way she and Damon are intertwined on the couch.

Cory sighs in resignation and unfolds a blanket, draping it over them before he practically throws himself down on the other couch, crossing his arms over his chest as he closes his eyes.

It is, if nothing else, a peaceful end to the day. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

author's note; if you think things are gonna get better... don't ❤️

edited and published; 8.3.24.

- liz