Warning: Mentions of vomiting

2009

A very bored crow sat on top of a street sign waiting for the opportune moment. Damon watches as Bonnie and the bitch drive down the street, soon to be passing the sign he is perched on. If crows could smirk, this one would be as he swooped down to spook the occupants of the vehicle.

Perching back on the sign, Damon listens to the teenage girls. "Oh my god, Elena. Are you alright?" Bonnie asked. Elena internally smirked before putting on a 'brave' face, "I'm fine. I can't be afraid of cars for the rest of my life." The crow cawed loudly before flying towards his home.

As he was flying, Damon was thinking over the past few days. He had watched his brother stalk the Doppelganger. Damon could feel the rage building every time he saw Elena. He wanted to rip her heart out before she could do the same to him and his brother. But alas, Fate. That's another thing...Fate has intervened once again. Damon had learned Zach, Gail, and little Sarah went on a family holiday to France for Christmas the previous year. Unfortunately, the return flight had gone down over the Atlantic with no survivors. Both Damon and Stefan were sad to learn the last living members of the Salvatore family were gone.

Damon shifted out of his crow form as he landed on the front stoop of the Boarding House. He went straight to the bar and poured himself a drink. It was going to be a long day.

When the front door finally opened letting Damon know Stefan was back, he whooshed to the foyer, "Hello, Brother." Stefan was startled, "Damon! When did you get here?" "I couldn't miss your first day of school. Like the hair, so much better than that grunge look. You know it's important to stay away from fads," Damon teased Stefan. The brothers moved into the sitting room while Damon questioned, "So? Did you meet Katherine's carbon copy?" He already knew the answer but waited for a reply. Stefan nodded, "I did." "And?" Damon raised an eyebrow. "And, nothing. I thought I wanted to get to know her but after I witnessed her treatment of her younger brother, I lost interest. She did spend the whole day trying to get my attention," Stefan had surprised Damon.

Stefan could see the shocked expression, "What? Something else happened last time, didn't it?" Damon poured another glass of Bourbon and handed it to Stefan, "You two fell so hard for each other it was sickening. After being together for a few weeks, she figured out we were vampires. She snooped and poked and prodded until she learned the truth, then you gave her our whole backstory." Stefan can feel Damon is getting agitated. Stefan accepted the glass of Bourbon, "You don't like Elena, do you?" Damon scoffed, "She was my wife."

Stefan choked on his drink, "What?" "Oh, yeah. Elena and I married less than a year after you died. Eight years later, she put a bullet in my brain. So, no, I don't like the bitch. She can rot in hell with the rest of the Doppelgangers," Damon slammed his drink before refilling it. Stefan's forehead gained another frown line, "Doppelgangers?" Damon paused. Here is a conversation that is unavoidable. Damon set his glass down, "Yeah, that is what Katherine and Elena are...Doppelgangers. There were several throughout history, we have only met a few. But that is a story for another time. Just know Katherine and Elena are alike in many ways, not just looks."

With the knowledge from living this life already, Damon thought to speed certain things up. However, when he tried to voice this to his brother, he would forget what he was trying to say. Damn it, Fate! But who's to say Damon couldn't have a little fun in the meantime. Send the useless council on a wild goose chase.

Later that night both Salvatore brothers walked into the Grill. They took a seat at the bar and listened to the teenage girls at one of the tables. "Oh, there he is. Who is with him? He's hot." The bubbly blonde exclaimed. "Caroline! I thought you were interested in Stefan?" Damon smirked when he recognized Bonnie's voice. Then the one voice he can do without hearing ever again, "Well, I'd take either one." Stefan angled towards his brother, "There's our proof." "Yep," Damon said, popping the "p". Stefan drank his coffee, "So, what's next?" Damon set down some cash for their drinks and stood, "Grave robbing."

The next couple of hours were spent digging up their father's grave while mocking the old man. Damon's impression was spot on, "DAMON! You're such a disappointment. You're just like your whore of a mother!" Stefan's shovel hit the hard surface of a casket first. They cleared away the last layer of dirt and pried open Giuseppe Salvatore's coffin. "There it is. Emily Bennett's grimoire. We'll hold on to this until after the Founder's Party." Stefan asks, "Why then?" Damon picks up the Grimoire after he yanks his father's skeletal arm off, "There's something else I need to retrieve first." He playfully waves at Stefan using the bony arm. Stefan doesn't laugh but Damon can tell he is trying to hold it in. There was absolutely no love lost for their father.

Stefan came home the day before the Founder's Party with more frown lines. Damon was reading through Emily's Grimoire when Stefan came into the study, "What's got your panties in a bunch?" Stefan was pacing, "Elena knows. How she figured it out, I don't know. I haven't even spoken two words to her since you told me about her. She just came up to me at the end of class and blurted out, "I know you're a vampire."" Damon closed the witch's cookbook, "This was about the time she figured it out originally. Though it was after the Founder's Party. She was suspicious of me because I was feeding off her friend, Caroline." Stefan had stopped getting upset when Damon would bring up the other timeline since Damon is not following it.

Damon stood from his seat and walked to the bar. He reached down to the bottom shelf and brought a small, clear vial out. Pour a few drops into two glasses and mix it with water, then poured two separate glasses of Bourbon. "Come on. Time we start building up a tolerance to Vervain. If Elena or anybody ever blabs to the council, they will probably test us with spiked drinks." Damon remembers when Mason had convinced the sheriff to spike Lemonade and they were caught. He knows this may not happen this time since Mason did not meet Katherine, but they can't be too careful. Both downing the Vervain and coughing from the burn then quickly downing the Bourbon.

The night of the Founder's Party, the Salvatore brothers went without dates. Surprisingly, Mrs. Lockwood invited them in. I mean, why wouldn't she? They were the last surviving members of the Salvatore Founding family. The brothers walked around the party speaking quietly to each other, "Caroline, Bonnie, and the other one came together. I saw Elena try to ask her ex to go with her, but he had asked his new girlfriend, Amber." Damon snorted, "That's a change. Matty Blue was pining for Katherine 2.0 until he started dating Caroline." Damon saw his opportunity, "I'll be right back." He snuck down the hallway next to the stairs then whooshed up the stairs into the room where Emily's talisman is hidden.

The talisman didn't shock him when he picked it up. Damon felt like an idiot when he spoke to the talisman, "I'm returning you to the Bennetts. Please don't disappear." He put it in his tux inner pocket then whooshed out of the room and back to the party. He gave a subtle nod to this brother. Damon gave a teasing smirk when he noticed Elena trying to rub against his brother.

He sighed and thought, "Might as well rescue little bro." Damon grabbed a Champagne chute, took a sip then 'spilled the rest on his tux. He 'stumbled' his way over to Stefan, "Heeyyyy, little bro." Damon threw an arm around Stefan's shoulder putting all weight into it, so it seemed like Damon was too intoxicated to hold himself up. Stefan steadied the both of them, "Alright Damon. I think it is time to get you home." "Awe, but the party isn't over," Damon pouted. Stefan knew what he was doing, "Damon, you're drunk." "I am not. I feel fine. I've never felt better," Damon then proceeded to make himself vomit all over the front of Elena's dress. "Okay, now I've never felt better." The Salvatore brothers left the party without so much as an apology.

Elena had never felt so embarrassed in all her life. She wanted to seduce Stefan then maybe his brother later on. But that went out the window when she was puked on by Damon. Elena became angry at Bonnie, Caroline, Matt, Jeremy, her aunt Jenna, and Tyler since they were laughing at her. She got them to stop laughing when her eyes teared up. Her aunt Jenna took pity on Elena and took her home. Elena was going to confront Stefan about his brother at school on Monday and convince him to get rid of Damon.

The next day, Damon knocked on Sheila Bennett's door with Emily's talisman and Grimoire in a backpack. The older witch opened the door to the snarky vampire, "Yes?" "Hi, I'm Damon Salvatore. I have something that belongs to your family. May I come in?" Damon could see Sheila was not going to invite him in. "Okay." He took off the backpack and opened it, "Here. These belonged to Emily." Damon held out the Grimoire after laying the talisman on the top. Sheila carefully grabbed both items, nodding her head in thanks, and tried to close the door but Damon stopped her. "Emily had me promise to keep her bloodline safe, and I will continue to do so.

"On that note, she had sealed 26 vampires in the Fell tomb the night of the Comet in 1864. There will be a few vampires who want to open Fell tomb when the comet passes over again. I will try my best to keep them from opening it, but these vampires are older and stronger than me." Sheila smirked, "How badly did that hurt your ego to admit?" "A lot," Damon sassed. "I'll keep that in mind, Mr. Salvatore. Good day," Sheila closed the door, dismissing the vampire. Damon walked down the front steps, "Well, I did my good deed for the day. Time to pester my brother." The rest of the day was spent unfolding all of Stefan's clothes and shoving them back into the wrong drawers, then super gluing them shut. Because, why not?