You are my Freedom

Someplace only we know

A/N: There has been a lot of debate on Clara's age, here Damon is 18 and I put Clara at 12/13 which means if Damon was changed when he was 25, and in this story Clara was killed/changed around the same time, she was 19/20 years old before becoming a vampire

Mystic Falls Summer 1858,

Young Damon was of courting age and his Mother and Father had been trying their best to make a gentleman out of him.

He thought the whole thing was absurd... bowing and curtseying to walk around each other in a dance where you don't touch. It was stuffy and pretentious and everything he hated about being a Salvatore. But he put up with it mostly for his mother's sake, she was sick and had to stay in bed most of the time.

He remembered a conversation they had a few days before that made him realize why this was all so important,

"Mother, must I go? I don't even like any of these girls."

"Please Damon, for me... for you brother, you must try," Lily implored of her son.

"Why it's nothing to do with you or Stefan, it's about father wanting to make a match that will secure him more business. We don't need any more money and I shouldn't have to sell myself to make him richer!"

"Damon! you mustn't speak so freely, what if your father had heard?"

"There's nothing he hasn't already done to me, you know this... you just pretend otherwise, I've seen you turn away so you don't have to face what a monster he is."

Lily sighs, "Damon come here, please son." Damon now sat on the bed with his mother,

"I know things haven't always been very fair on you but the reason I want you to secure a fine young woman for yourself, one your father approves of is so you can stay close by, for Stefan. I don't know how much longer I'll be around."

"Mother..."

"Let me finish, I haven't always protected you, your right, but you've been very brave, braver than I and protected your bother... he needs you. If you don't find someone from a good family your father will insist you join the army and then who will be left to take care of Stefan? Please, you must try to behave for the sake of our family I need you to do this."

Damon looked down at his lap sadly, "I understand mother."

Later that night after Damon's first dance he snuck out to go for a walk.

He hated all those girls even more now that if felt he'd be letting down his mother and brother if he didn't end up with one. It wasn't fair, nothing seemed fair to him. He ended up walking to the tree where he and Clara had buried Sammy, he smiled at the memory. He heard sniffling noise coming from above, it was hard to see but with the little bit of light coming off the moon he managed to make out the outline of Clara's face, she had climbed up into the tree. He shrugged off his jacket and slipped off his shoes and made his way up to join her.

"Hey, what is it? what's wrong?"

Clara wouldn't look at him, she couldn't, she had overheard what his mother had said to him and even tho nothing romantic had ever happened between them the thought of him with someone else made her heartache like she had never known it could.

Damon not knowing what was wrong or what to do just brought her closer and held her in a hug.

"Whatever it is, I'll make it better, I swear. If it's a spider that's scared you... I'll go stomp it, if you didn't get enough to eat... I'd steal from the pastor himself to feed you if some boy teased you... I'd wait till he was sleeping and shave off his eyebrows," that last one got a giggle out of her, "Come on Clara, whatever it is... your my best friend, you can tell me."

"That's just it Damon, I'm your friend, that's all I can be."

"What do you mean?"

Clara sighed and turned towards him, "I was bringing your mom more cool rags for her head, and I heard you both talking. I know you have to start looking for a wife or your father will send you to fight. And I'm too young, and just a servant, I'll never be your wife, you'll wind up with those pretty girls who never get dirty or say the wrong thing and you'll have your own house and I'll never see you again!"

Damon was shocked that Clara thought this way about him, it was true she was too young for him to think about that way but it made him feel proud knowing he was her first crush. And the thought of her getting older and winding up with another man, it filled him with a rage he couldn't understand. Truth is, he'd take the unpolished kid over any of those glove wearing tea drinking phonies any day.

"Hey, listen to me. No matter what happens, we will always be best friends. Even if they manage to settle me with a wife, she won't even come close to you, and anytime you need to be reminded, just come here. I'll meet you anytime... this is our place, the one place in the whole damn world where there are no masters or fathers or even mothers to answer to, where society and doing what's right can't reach us, this is where we can be free, and its just for us."