stranded // d. salvatore au.

TWELVE

Chapter 12

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FLORENCE'S FEET WERE HURTING. She was tired from all the walking she and Damon did, and wanted nothing more than to take a nap somewhere soft.

So, instead of going to the plane, Florence sat down on the sand, making herself comfortable before lying down and looking up to the sky. Damon stared at her before moving to stand in front of her, blocking the sun like that. "What is this? Fight for your rights parade?" he questioned in annoyance.

The art student just smirked as she closed her eyes before letting soft breeze flow by her smooth skin and make it shiver. Damon, being a vampire, could feel her heart's rate fasten at that. "Florence, we have work to do."

"What work?" she asked uninterested before looking back at him. "Did you just say we?"

Damon knew she was messing around so he laughed dryly before walking over to her side and picking her up bridal style. "D-Damon," she groaned and placed her hands on his neck as he carried her towards the plane. "Let me rest."

The vampire was surprised by her reaction before smelling alcohol on her. "Wait? When did you get drunk?" he asked as they both jumped inside. He slowly let go of the girl, who giggled and almost fell but he caught her.

He sighed before making her sit down. Grabbing her backpack, Damon opened it up to see an empty bottle of bourbon. "You little sneaky girl," Damon looked at her in slight amusement as she closed her eyes, enjoying the silence. "Sharing is caring, Florence."

"Oh, shut up," Florence snapped as she opened her eyes to see Damon looking at her with narrowed eyes. "You hungry? Hungry for some bloody?" Florence laughed as she felt buzzed.

Damon shook his head. He never had to deal with such a girl before, and sure a lot of them were similar in a way, but not Florence. She was still a huge secret to him, and he felt like she knew that and kept something from him. "Damon..." Florence then trailed off as he sat down on the ground, not far from her.

"Hmm?"

She glanced at his blue eyes before smiling. "I'm a mess," she then said as Damon chuckled at that before shrugging his shoulders.

"At least you're fun," he commented, observing her movements, which were slow and lazy.

Florence pointed a finger at him before making a sober face. "Hey! Take that back, it's just because of the booze," Florence said with a playful look on her face. "Oh my God, what happens when all the booze ends?"

"We're screwed," Damon joked with a small smirk playing on his lips as Florence giggled once again before sighing deeply as if she was ready to cry. "Oh, please, not now."

"I just can't," Florence sniffed as Damon rolled his eyes expressively before looking away and smiling like an idiot. Florence noticed that smile and even though she felt drunk, that smile to her seemed genuine as if Damon was actually enjoying her company. She knew she was enjoying his. "You know what's weird? That I actually like your company right now. You may be a huge dick and a freaking vampire, but it's better than my collage friends. Ugh, especially Tiana. Girl would be tanning right now..."

Damon smirked lazily as he listened to her rambles. "Who else is there? Margaret... She has a phobia of motorcycles."

"Motorcycles?" Damon asked in surprise as Florence nodded with an evil laugh.

"Yep. Every time we're out and she hears a motorcycle going by, she covers her ears and says some stupid words I don't understand," Florence commented before shaking her head. "Ashley and Roger, super fun, but also dumb. Ashley doesn't even know what was the first president of this country... And then there's me. Florence, named after a city in Italy, with lots of chapels and other old stuff. It's like they expected me to be a saint and all," she pointed to herself while laughing. "Man, I miss my bed. This is so uncomfortable, Damon!"

Damon saw her squirm in her seat before she finally closed her eyes and went to sleep. The Salvatore remained awake as he watched her chest rise then go down. "You're staring and it's creeping me out," she suddenly said with her eyes still closed.

The Salvatore looked caught as he looked away before grabbing a bottle of whiskey. "I didn't know you had a third eye," he commented with a grumble as he took a swig of his drink. Alcohol did help him lower his hunger. But alcohol was ending, and soon all of the food they had would be gone too. "Just sleep."

"I can't," she admitted before looking at him. Florence frowned slightly. "Otherwise the nightmares come back."

Damon knew her nightmares from coming to her head, though he never told her that because she'd freak out. "How bad are they?"

Florence didn't know what to say. Of course he knew her secret because she told him that, but talking even deeper about it was hard. "Pretty bad to be called nightmares," she answered silently so Damon stood up and sat down next to her. He offered her a bottle of whiskey but she declined, having enough alcohol in her system. "He comes to me at nights. I lock myself in and then he goes downstairs. I hear my mom scream for me but I don't come out of my room, because I'm scared," she started as Damon looked at her with some kind of remorse. "I'm scared I'm not gonna wake up. That I'm gonna get the hit just like my mom did."

"Ah, getting stabbed isn't that bad if you ask me," he commented calmly so Florence rolled her eyes and looked down. "You know they're just dreams, right? You know, he will never hurt you again. And if he does, I can easily kill him."

Florence snapped her head up before raising her eyebrows in surprise. "What happened to the whole 'I'll kill you when we get outta here' thing?"

"I didn't forget about that," he said cockily before taking a sip of whiskey and bumping her side. "If he comes to your dreams, I will notice. When people have nightmares, their heart rate fasten. I hear that so I can come to your dream and kill him there."

"Why are you so nice?" Florence asked him. Damon knew she would either forget that or not, and a part of him wanted her to remember.

"Because like it or not, we are here together. Stuck, stranded, call it whatever you want. I don't need you dying from a nightmare," he told her calmly so Florence closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Damon just sat there until her head accidentally fell down on his shoulder. She snuggled closer while sleeping and Damon just placed his arm around her body before coming into her head and making the bad dream never appear.

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