Chapter Text
Bonnie calls him in the middle of the night.
“I want to leave,” she says.
“I’ll pack my bags,” Damon says. “I’m coming with you.”
He gathers things he’ll need into a bag and then writes a note for Stefan to find in the morning.
Going on a road trip with Bon-Bon. Don’t let your hero hair get droopy while I’m gone!
XOXO Damon
Bonnie is waiting in his Camaro like she belongs there. She used his car a lot back in 1994, he knows, both when he was still there and after.
He puts his bag in the back and then slides into the passenger seat. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know,” she says, her jaw tense, something wild in her eyes. He gets it. She’s had a hell of a time trapped alone with Kai, and then trapped alone period.
It’s been a month since they killed Kai in a way that felt almost poetic; this all started with the three of them, and it ended with the three of them. Bonnie and Damon killed Kai together, Bonnie’s magic acting as an overwhelming force giving Damon an opening to decapitate him.
But Kai still haunts her. The prison world still haunts her. Bonnie has trouble fitting back into her old life, filled with people and sound and obligations. Caroline tried to help her in a way true to her MO of shoving Stefan in the safe he drowned in along with Katherine freaking Pierce—by throwing parties. There, they all tried to pretend. Damon pretended Elena didn’t forget him, and Bonnie pretended she was fine. But she wasn’t.
“You pick,” she adds.
“Let’s start with Blue Ridge and see where we’ll go from there,” he suggests.
“Works for me,” she says, trying to sound casual. She puts Ms. Cuddles on his side of the dashboard.
They drive all night, wanting to put as much distance between them and Mystic Falls as possible. Sometime around four, he insists Bonnie pulls over so they can switch seats.
“I knew it was bothering you that I drove your car,” she says. “You’re that guy.”
“If you mean I am a guy who would like for his friend to get some well-deserved rest, then yes. I am that guy.”
“You’re being weirdly nice,” Bonnie says, squinting her eyes at him as she takes the passenger seat. “Are you sick?” She gasps, and then, dramatically and with fake concern: “Did you get another werewolf bite?”
“Well-needed rest, too, because you look exhausted,” he says without missing a beat. “Your eyes have been planning this vacation looong before you did.”
“Because I have bags under them!” she mocks, smiling brightly. “You’re so funny.”
“Glad you finally noticed,” he says, ignoring her sarcasm. “Because I am a hoot.”
“You’re a nuisance, is what you are.”
The words are unmistakably fond.
At the crack of dawn, he stops by a hospital to get snacks of the vampire variety. Shortly after, they stop by a grocery store to get human snacks.
“Wait, I almost forgot. Look what I brought back from ’94,” Bonnie says teasingly while bringing out their sunglasses.
Damon does a dramatic gasp and accepts his pair.
“Well, how do I look?” he asks after putting them on.
“Like an idiot.” She puts on her own pair.
“Perfect.”
They bicker over who gets to hold the cart (he wins), buy a bunch of stuff that doesn’t require refrigeration (because he insists the coolbox is for blood bags only), then bicker over which candy is superior: Chupa Chups or Red Vines (obviously the latter, she’s out of her mind).
He gets a concerned phone call from Stefan just as they’re exiting the store, checking if ‘road trip’ isn’t code for ‘die and get sucked into an alternate dimension via hand-holding, again’. Damon assures him this is not the case, and the call ends soon after that.
About an hour later, and Bonnie’s phone keeps buzzing incessantly while they drive through Blue Ridge. Caroline and Elena and Jeremy, but mostly Caroline.
“Did you want me to answer that?” Damon asks generously since Bonnie is driving again.
“No,” she says stiffly.
“Did you even tell them you were leaving?”
“Wow, you talk to me with that tone, and you had the audacity to call me Judgy?”
“Deflecting, huh?” he says knowingly.
“Yeah, you’ve been rubbing off on me.”
He smirks. “Say the word, Bonnie, and I’ll—“
“Nope. No,” Bonnie cuts him off, rightly sensing that his words were going to be an innuendo.
Her phone buzzes again. Caroline.
Damon sighs, puts Ms. Cuddles in his lap, and stares off into the distance. “Poor Blondie. Lost you, just got you back, only for you to leave without a goodbye. How lost and confused she must feel.”
“Look, I couldn’t deal with her concern, okay?” Bonnie snaps. “If I told her, there would have been a million questions. I just wanted to go.”
More annoying buzzing.
“Can I just answer it?” he asks, exasperated.
“Of course you can,” she says dryly. “That’s your phone.”
“Oh.”
He answers without looking at the display.
“Salvatore Travel Agency, how may I help you?”
“How dare you kidnap my friend?!” Caroline snaps. He winces at the shrill voice. “She literally just came back from the dead!”
“Blondie, how are you today?” he asks pleasantly while smiling at Bonnie, who sends him an alarmed look.
“How am I?” Caroline hisses. “How am I?! Bonnie is gone!”
He rolls his eyes. “She’s fine. And I didn’t kidnap her, by the way,” he stresses. “Leaving was her idea. How’d you even find out I went with her?”
“I can’t reveal the identity of my sources,” Caroline says primly.
“Stefan told you,” he concludes. “What did you do, bribe him with the blood of Bambi’s mother?”
“Cupcakes, actually,” she admits smugly. “He was acting weird when I told him Bonnie left, so I brought out the vanilla frosting and the sprinkles, and then he sang like a canary.”
“That's low, using cupcakes,” Damon says. “You know Stefan can't resist them.”
“Bye, Damon,” she sings. “Tell Bonnie to call me!”
She hangs up.
Damon turns to look at Bonnie, who is steadfastly looking at the road.
“I left a note,” she finally defends when he keeps staring. “It’s not like I didn’t leave a note.”
“I didn’t say anything,” he says innocently.
“Ugh. I hate you.”
He grabs a Red Vine. “You really know how to pump up a man’s ego, Bon.”
“If your ego got any bigger, you would explode,” she says. “And it would be good riddance to you and your terrible candy choices.”
He sucks on the Red Vine as obscenely as he can. Bonnie’s eyes dart to him before quickly returning to the road.
They do the hiking trail of Roanoke Mountain.
It’s a quiet walk, at least on Bonnie’s part. Damon chatters enough to keep them from falling into silence, talking about ridiculous things he’s seen in his long life, anecdotes from when he was human, and reciting some of Stefan’s funnier diary entries from memory.
“I didn’t tell Jeremy I was back,” Bonnie finally blurts.
He hums, quiet, inviting her to keep talking but not pressing her.
“I mean, he was at art school. He was finally living a normal life. I didn’t want to ruin that,” she says. “He had to find out from Caroline.”
“He didn’t look for you,” he says. “He gave up. You didn’t owe him anything.”
“Didn’t I?” She laughs. “I was his girlfriend when the Other Side collapsed. Now, though… I just can’t do it anymore.”
“Have you told him that?” he asks despite suspecting the answer already.
“Yeah.” She blows out a breath. “I broke up with him yesterday.”
“Broke his little stoner heart in two,” he says dramatically.
She gives him a shove. “You’re such an ass. And no, I didn’t. He’s moved on, you know.”
“Well then, maybe you should too. You could always get yourself a Salvatore.” He waggles his eyebrows.
She laughs. “You know, I would, but I think Stefan is taken.”
“Offer retracted, if that’s how it’s going to be.”
They get to a particularly beautiful spot and Bonnie can’t resist taking a few pictures. Serene, he watches her do it, and then she photo bombs him.
They’re both laughing when it’s over, the breathless kind of laughter they heard a lot when they were in ’94. He’s glad to hear it from Bonnie again.
“I have moved on,” she says quietly when their laughter has finally petered down. “I’m not sad or anything, that’s the frustrating part. Because I brought him back from the dead multiple times, and I’ve…moved on.”
“That’s good,” Damon says, voice soft to match hers. “It’s good.”
The sun is dipping low and reflecting specks of gold into Bonnie’s eyes.
“Yeah.” Her voice is somehow hoarse.
While they’re heading back to the car later that evening, Bonnie calls Caroline and apologizes for leaving so abrubtly. When the call ends, Bonnie looks a little overwhelmed.
“You just got Care Bear’d, didn’t you?” He pitches his voice in a high falsetto: “‘Oh, of course I’m not mad, Bonnie. You take as much time as you need. Don’t forget to drinks lots of water, and take plenty of pictures that I can put in my scrapbook!’”
“That was horrifying,” Bonnie informs him. “Never do that again. Speaking of pictures, though, let’s take a look…”
They look at the pictures she took on her phone. A few artfully taken scenery shots. The rest from her photo bomb—one with her grinning at the camera while he looks surprised; a lot of shaky photos as she chases him with her camera and tries to get him to look into it; one (grudging, on his part) photo of them in front of the scenery, his face neutral, hers pulled into a radiant smile.
“I’m sending that last one to Caroline. And Stefan, too, if that’s okay?”
“Knock yourself out.”
They sleep in a sketchy motel in the middle of nowhere. It’s got all of the clichés, like a neon sign where some of the letters are broken, and only one bed.
They’ve shared a bed before, so neither of them comment on it.
At first, when they were trapped in ’94, Bonnie had been very insistent on boundaries and what she called “much-needed time away from you”. But as time passed, the isolation grew, and neither of them could bear being alone anymore. Neither of them said anything about it when they started sharing a bed more often than not.
He could have said something back then, a suggestive comment about getting her in bed with him, but it didn’t feel right when he was missing Elena. Even though, the more time passed in that prison world, the less passionate he felt about her. Now he’s still missing Elena, but in a different way.
The first time Elena truly kissed him was in a motel.
Not that she remembers it.
While Bonnie takes a shower, he decides to call Stefan.
Damon doesn’t bother with a greeting. “You told Caroline?”
“She kept giving me cupcakes, with vanilla frosting, and sprinkles, Damon,” Stefan says. “I might have said something about Bonnie, I don’t know.”
“It’s like the human blood all over again,” Damon says with disbelief.
“This is nothing like my human blood addiction,” Stefan snaps. “Everyone likes cupcakes.”
“Sure they do, Stefan,” he says. “How are things with Blondie, anyway? Has that relationship crashed and burned yet?”
“No, it hasn’t, but thank you for the brotherly support, Damon,” Stefan says dryly. “Speaking of, I thought I should let you know that you have mine.”
“What?”
“My support.”
“What?” Damon repeats.
“You and Bonnie,” Stefan says teasingly.
Damon closes his eyes. “I really hope that you mean the fact that we’re road tripping together.”
“I mean the fact that you clearly have feelings for her.” Stefan sounds amused.
“Platonic, friendship feelings!” Damon insists.
“That’s how I thought I felt about Caroline, too,” Stefan assures obnoxiously.
“This is so not the same thing,” Damon scoffs. “You are way off base, brother. It’s embarassing.”
The water shuts off from the bathroom.
“Look, all I’m saying is, you going on a road trip to help Bonnie work through her issues is a very loud gesture,” Stefan says, somehow sounding both placating and smug at the same time.
“Yes, it is. It says, ‘You’re my best friend and I will help you through this’! God.”
“Best friends don’t look at each other the way you two do,” Stefan says knowingly.
“I liked it better when you brooded.”
“You know I’m right!” Stefan says quickly before Damon manages to hang up.
Bonnie comes out of the bathroom, already wearing sleep clothes, her hair in a towel crown.
“How’s Stefan?” she asks. “Did he like the picture I sent?”
“Oh, he’s a big fan,” Damon mutters. Feelings. Ridiculous.
They get in the sketchy motel bed.
“You better not kick again,” Bonnie warns.
“At least I don’t talk in my sleep like you do,” he counters, before stressing: “I’m a light sleeper, Bonnie.”
She rolls her eyes. “Stop whining about it.”
Unlike the previous times he shared a bed with her, he’s now hyper aware of the fact that she’s lying next to him. Her body heat. The soft sound of her breathing. The rise and fall of her chest.
Damn Stefan.
“Do you think Elena will ever get her memories back?”
Bonnie stiffens next to him.
“I don’t know,” she says, her voice gentle. “Alaric can’t compel her anymore. The anti-magic border is gone. I don’t see how else she could get them back…”
“I think I’ve moved on, too,” Damon blurts, then winces. “I mean, even saying that sounds wrong, because it’s Elena, and she’s supposed to be the love of my life, but…”
“But?” Bonnie prompts when he doesn’t continue.
“I don’t know, I think breaking up with her, back before the Other Side collapsed, was the right move after all. We’re not good for each other,” he says, frustrated. “I think we bring out the worst in each other, and I never wanted that for her! She’s happy now.”
“She’s living a lie, now,” Bonnie reminds him. “She lost all of her positive memories of you. She’s been texting me, thinking I’m crazy for going on this trip with you.”
“I’m not upset that she doesn’t want to be with me,” he says, surprising himself with the realization. “I’m just hurt that she doesn’t have the memories. There were good ones. Special ones.”
Bonnie makes a noise of sympathy. “I know it sucks, but you can’t change what she did. You just have to…make new memories that are special to you.”
There are other differences to sharing a bed with her outside of a retro pocket dimension. There’s actual noise. Cars honking outside, loud partying, arguing from people in neighbouring rooms.
He scoots closer to her and tugs her into his arms. He expects to get smacked for the audacity, it happened often enough in ’94, but she skips straight to the soft sigh, pliant in his hold.
He swallows, and neatly compartmentalizes away any feelings of the non-platonic variety. She’s his best friend, and that’s it, and Stefan is wrong.
Bonnie’s been having nightmares since Kai, he knows, and he fully expects to be woken up by one.
They both sleep through the night.