𝐀𝐁𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 | 𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐄 [𝟑]

𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄

CHAPTER FIVE | THE MORE YOU IGNORE ME, THE CLOSER I GET

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

BEGRUDGINGLY, AFTER RILEY HAD LEARNED THAT DAMON WAS NOT DEAD, SHE HAD CALLED STEFAN. She knew that, despite how he had treated her when Damon was gone, he deserved to know that his brother was alive. Once the Salvatore arrived he seemed utterly shocked to see his older brother stood before him. After a moment of denial and confusion, Stefan finally accepted that Damon was alive, and the two pulled each other in for a hug.

"I missed you too, buddy." Damon breathed out as he held his little brother in his embrace.

"I can't believe it." Stefan pulled away and looked at his brother one more time as a smile crept onto his face. "I thought you were gone."

"Well, you didn't think I was gone gone, huh? I promised you an eternity of misery." Damon clapped his hands onto his little brother's shoulders and then turned around to see Riley. "And, I promised you a future. I'm not one to break promises."

"Wait a minute. If you're back, then what about Bonnie?" Riley quietly asked with a raised eyebrow just as Damon pulled her into his embrace. She couldn't quite believe that the man she loved was holding her once again.

"She sacrificed herself so I could come back. But, I don't want anyone to know. No sense making this harder than it already is." The Salvatore simply shrugged toward the pair of them. Riley exhaled deeply and closed her eyes as she thought back to the Bennett witch. She hoped to God that somehow, somewhere Bonnie was still alive.

Stefan's eyes furrowed in his brother's direction. "What are we gonna tell people?"

"That's simple." Damon muttered as he pressed his lips against Riley's forehead. "She wasn't over there. There being Mystic Falls, 1994."

"Mystic Falls 1994?" Riley peeled herself from Damon's embrace and looked up at him with wide, confused eyes. "I don't understand."

"I know. If a bunch of witches were gonna get together, and create some space-time purgatory, you'd think they'd pick a better year than the one that Kurt Cobain killed himself. The whole thing was just very depressing." Damon took a sip from the bottle of bourbon that Riley had been previously drinking from.

"So, how did you get back?" Stefan pressed once more. It was obvious that Damon was insistent on being vague about his answers about how he managed to return back home.

"Long story. Big flash of light, two decades worth of jet lag. I will explain my adventure in that flannel hell-scape but first—" Damon patted Stefan upon the shoulders once more than twirled himself around to face his girlfriend. "I need some alone time with my girl."

It was then that Damon took his girlfriend by the hand, and led her out from the crypt as the two took a slow walk any no particular direction. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to be able to hold your hand."