Ruins || The Vampire Diaries [2]

27: Do You Remember the First Time?

   After going to morning classes, I decided to visit a very-human Alaric at the Whitmore Hospital. I didn't go empty handed, or alone. My arms were full of several get-well cards that a few classes had signed, flowers that I had bought for him, and two balloons from other professors. Why were they given to me? They knew that Alaric and I were friends, and a few students had an imagination that thought we were more than that. I let those stupid thoughts pass, ignoring how unimaginative they were.

   "So, you're in a relationship with Alaric that I don't know about?" Damon teased, ambling besides me. He tried to help, and in helping he only held the balloons. 

   I rolled my eyes and looked at him with an incredulous expression. "Yes, because in the past four months we fell irrevocably in love. We plan to move down to Dallas and have several children that will bear the name of our family members."

   Damon let out a sarcastic laugh and rolled his eyes, but there was amusement there. "Just how close did you two get while I was gone?"

   I arched a brow and smiled. "Jealous much?" I shook my head and looked down at the flowers in my arms, the thought of the past four months immediately downing the mood. "We were drinking buddies, Damon. I wasn't my very best while you were gone."

   "Aw, I knew I was the person that made you be a better person!" he chortled, taking a step in front of me. There was a wide grin on his face, one that I had missed so much. It felt so strange to see Damon in front of me after thinking that he was dead, stranger to actually see him smiling when the woman he loved didn't remember loving him. But, my heart swelled up when he smiled. 

   "I didn't kill anyone," I loudly said. People around us stared, and I innocently smiled. I threw Damon a glare and pushed him with my shoulder as I began to walk again. "But, I almost did. I refused to feed because I focused more on studying, on losing myself on something other than the thought that Stefan was gone and you were..."

   "Dead," he finished for me. "If you haven't noticed, Clara, I'm very much alive. I'm standing in front of you, so open those pond scum coloured eyes and look." He gave me a small smile, touched my chin with his fingers, and turned around to go to Alaric's room.

   I stared after him, a smile forming around my lips. There was a thing about Damon, that he made me feel okay even when I was feeling the worst. Part of me hated him for that, for the comfort that he brought me whenever I needed it. It was as if he knew that I needed it, and it was when he appeared.

   I took a deep breath and followed after him, entering Alaric's room. It was a private room, the window with the curtains open and a bright light coming in. I smiled at the man on the hospital bed as I laid the flowers besides the window, then handed him the cards. "You've been gone for, like, a few hours and everyone already misses you."

   "Uh, thanks," Alaric said with an awkward tone, staring at the cards in discomfort. At the sound of several things beeping, he let out a sigh and turned to look at Damon, who was playing with the heart monitor. "Hey, I don't think you're supposed to be playing with all that stuff."

   "Keep going," Damon said in annoyance, still pressing buttons. "We are on a roll. All the terrible things I did to people that Elena cared about. Let's see: I turned Caroline into my own personal blood juice box, I turned Matt's sister into a vampire, and threatened to kill Bon-Bon a couple of times."

   "More than a couple," Alaric nodded. 

   "Subjective," Damon said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Sometimes, I was being funny."

   "And you killed Stefan's best friend at his birthday party," Alaric continued. 

   Damon  pushed him back and began to play with the ophthalmoscope, looking into Alaric's eyes."Unfortunate coincidence."