Say you love me (A vampire diaries fan fiction) ***Watty 2013***

Forming Triangles

*** Thal's P.O.V. ***

I turned to Damon who only tilted his drink in my direction. He was pissed off, and I knew that I probably had something to do with that.

"I'm going to a bar now that you're awake." He stood from the couch, placed his drink on the coffee table and turned towards the door. I maneuvered my way out from under Ulrik and jogged to catch up with him.

"Damon, wait!" He was putting on his jacket by the door when I finally got him to pause. "We have to talk." I placed my hand on his shoulder, but he promptly shook it off.

"No, Thal. The time to talk was before you began to desiccate and almost died. Now is the time for me to go to the bar." He pulled his keys out of his pocket. "Why don't you go talk to your ex? It'll take a while for you guys to catch up, and all that." He walked out the door and it slammed shut before I could say anything else. There was a small twinge in my chest as if my heart recoiled from the blow that his words dealt.

"Don't mind him, he's just mad he couldn't be the one to pull you out of the trance." Stefan rested a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"Whatever, let him wallow. I don't really care." I turned away from the door and Stefan and I walked back to the living room where Elena and Caroline were still with Ulrik. I glanced back at the door just before stepping down into the room, half hoping Damon would walk through it, half knowing that he wouldn't. I put on my best smile and pulled back my shoulders as I entered the living room.

"Everything alright Thal?" My head snapped back to the living room, thinking Damon was sitting there, even though he had just left. Then I remembered Ulrik, and that he had called me Thal when we were young.

"She lets you call her that?" Caroline asked surprised. Ulrik's eyebrows creased as he turned to her.

"Of course. I created the nickname. She hates it but I use it anyway," Ulrik winked at me and I offered him a half smile. I should have been happier but it seemed that Damon's absence was just making me wary.

"That's funny, I thought Damon made the nickname, he's the only one that I've ever seen call her that." Stefan sat next to Caroline

"Ulrik and I were childhood friends and he wanted to give me a special nickname that only he could use." I explained it but it felt like I wasn't the one speaking. The guilt of keeping Damon in the dark about my issues was weighing heavily on me.

"Thal, what's going on?" I came back down when I heard my nickname, again thinking that it was Damon. Again however, my eyes met Ulrik's and I felt disappointment. Not that seeing Ulrik was disappointing, but I had grown so used to that name being associated with Damon that seeing someone else use it caught me off guard.

"I'm going to go find Damon." I turned to look in the direction of the door. "I'm sorry guys, but I'll be right back,"

"It's alright." Caroline piped in almost too quickly. "And don't freak too much, it's Damon, he kind of loves you." I forced a smile as I walked out of the house.

I was not even two miles down the road when my phone vibrated with a text from Caroline: This is so awkward. Ulrik and Stefan are talking about the books in the study. I shook my head as I pulled into the parking lot of the first bar. Since Mystic Falls was shut down it was harder to find Damon when he was sulking. He wouldn't just be at the Grill anymore, this town was bigger and had five or six bars. I parked and got out, this one was quieter and as of late it seemed like just the type of bar Damon would hide out in.

*** Stefan's P.O.V.***

"So..." Caroline, Elena, Ulrik and I sat in a haphazard circle in the parlor, silently staring at each other. Both Caroline and Elena had made several attempts to break the awkward tension but had failed miserably each time.