Strawberry Milk Dont Taste Like Strawberry But It Sure As Hell Tastes Like Pink

strawberry milk don’t taste like strawberry but it sure as hell tastes like pink

house of cards ; damon salvatore [part 2]

part 2 to you’re looking at me like you don’t know who i am

prompt: a girl found her way into the eldest salvatore brothers’ heart, but sometimes the hardest thing to do is know when to walk away

songs i listened to while writing to set the vibe: sweater weather – the neighborhood, adore you – harry styles, perfect 10 – red velvet

word count: 5,100 words

-

“카드로 만든 집 바보같이 우린 헛된 꿈이래도 이대로 조금 더 stay”

“a house made of cards, we’re like idiots . . . even if it’s a vain dream, stay like this a little more”

-

Winter was approaching, and everyone in Mystic Falls knew it. Coats were being put in shop windows and mannequins in the mall donned knit hats and gloves. Angel Robicheaux’s arm was linked with her best friend Caroline’s as they walked towards the exit, bags in their hands. It was barely 8 PM, but it looked like it was midnight outside.

“Bye, Caroline. Drive safe.”

“You too. Tell your brother I said hi, will you?” Angel agreed and the two hugged goodbye. Caroline drove away as Angel hurried to get in her car and turn the heater on. She was wearing a on oversized pumpkin spice colored pullover tucked into a light grey plaid skirt. The skirt’s grey matched the pair of long, suede boots she was wearing. She was dressed for the weather, but it was still biting cold to her. If this is how cold it was now, what would it be like later on?

Angel sighed and shook the cold off, dumping her bags into the passenger seat before turning her headlights on. She let out a scream at the sight before her: a man was standing in front of her car with a hoodie on. He was gone a second later, leaving her to wonder if she was going crazy. Angel gripped the steering wheel hard; she had to be seeing things, right? She wanted to believe it so bad, but the fear that was climbing in her chest told her it was real. She hadn’t been this scared since she saw Damon kill that sophomore outside The Grill. She shook her head and put her car in drive. Even if it was real, the man was gone; nothing she could do about it now.

She pulled out of the parking lot and began her journey home, thoughts racing.

Was this someone Damon sent to stalk her? Would Damon really do that? Angel knew practically nothing about Damon; she didn’t even know if Stefan was aware his brother was a vampire. Angel had tried her best to keep Caroline away from the Salvatores, but there was only so much she could do without saying “hey, by the way, he’s a vampire. He kills people for fun. Saw him kill someone from our school a month ago and that’s why we broke up!” So, unsurprisingly, Caroline was hanging around with him often. There were too many times that she had walked into The Grill only to turn around and walk right back out at the sight of Damon sitting at the bar, often downing three fingers of whiskey.

She was scared of him; she didn’t know what he was capable of. The night they had broken up and she had dropped the bracelet he gave her on the sidewalk, it was back on her vanity before she had even gotten home. She knew that meant Damon could get into her house, so she became obsessed with locking every door and window behind her, no matter how many times her brother had to bang on the front door for her to let him in after work. When anyone asked why the two had broken up, she just responded with a “he felt a little too old for me.” She never mentioned her fear of him to anyone besides herself.

Because of this, The Grill had an atmosphere Angel didn’t like, but it was the only place in Mystic Falls that she could hang out with her friends regularly, so she had to get over her discomfort. Eventually, as the month passed, Damon caught on to her lowering fears and began to back off. Instead of her walking out at the sight of him, he walked out at the sight of her. Her friends stopped pointing him out to her whenever he entered, as they knew he was just going to turn right back around. Slowly, Angel’s life returned to normal – well as normal as possible with the knowledge that her ex-boyfriend was a vampire.

-

Angel turned her car off after she pulled into her spot in the garage. She grabbed her bags from the passenger seat and headed in, her car letting out a small honk to signal she had locked it. She twisted the doorknob open and pushed the door in with her foot so that her bags wouldn’t get crushed. She had almost forgotten about the man in the parking lot until she saw him holding her brother at the base of the stairs, a knife to his neck. Her bags hit the ground in shock and the sound echoed through the house.

“Close the door and lock it.” He threatened, the knife pressing closer to her brother’s neck. Angel nodded and slowly made her way to close the door.

“Don’t listen to him, sis! Run!” The man took her brother’s head and hit it against the railing before placing the knife back to his throat.

It was very clear that this man was a vampire, and if Angel tried to run, she had a feeling both she and her brother would die. So, the door closed, and the lock made a clicking sound when she turned it.

“What do you want?” Angel asked, swallowing the fear in her throat, “Did Damon send you to watch me?”

“Mention his name again and I will kill both of you.” Angel nodded, tears beginning to prick at the corner of her eyes.

He motioned her to walk up the stairs, turning him and his hostage around as they followed her to her room. “Give me it.”

Angel shook her head, tears falling on her cheeks, “Please let him go. We don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Blood dripped down her brother’s throat from the pressure of the knife. She could see his chest heaving. The man was not going to believe her, and she could tell. “Give me the journal. I know you have it.”

“Look,” Angel sobbed, throwing all the books she could find onto her bed. “I don’t have any journal. Please let him go.”

The vampire grew angry, not understanding that she really didn’t have it. He motioned his head towards her cork board; the pictures of the two of them kissing in the photo booth were still up. Every time Angel tried to take them down to forget about him, she couldn’t help but think of Caroline telling her that Damon had never done that for anyone else. “You obviously are his partner. He gave you the journal to hide. Now give it to me.”

An idea popped into Angel’s head at that moment. She just had to hope it would work; nevertheless, it would at least buy her more time. “You’re right.”

Her brother went to say something, but she silenced him with a look. “I knew it. Give it to me now.”

She made her way over to her vanity where the bracelet sat, untouched. She held it up to him, making things up as she went along, “This is like a key. If you give this to Damon, then he’ll know he can trust you. He’ll tell you where the journal is. All I know is that it’s buried somewhere in the woods. He wouldn’t tell me more.”

He held his hand open to catch the bracelet. Angel threw it to him, not wanting to get any closer than needed. Before he left, he made eye contact with Angel before dropping the knife in his hand and piercing her brother’s neck with his fangs, making him drop to the floor. “Can’t have any witnesses, right?”

Angel screamed, falling to her knees at her brother’s side. She placed her ear to his chest and, upon hearing a faint heartbeat, she stood up and called 911. She was sobbing as she talked to the female dispatcher. She closed her door and made sure every entrance to her room was locked. She paced back and forth, waiting for the ambulance to get there, checking on her brother every few seconds. The fainter his heartbeat got, the more she cried. It felt like hours once she finally heard the sirens. She unlocked her door and ran downstairs, unlocking the front door. “He’s upstairs, please hurry.”

Two policemen kept her from entering her room, saying that they needed room to move him. She watched, tears streaming down her face as the ambulance pulled out of her driveway and sped away. She wasn’t allowed to go with him because she had to give a statement to the police. Angel had never been so angry at authority.

Caroline’s mother, the sheriff, was asking her about what had happened. The two were sitting at her dining room table; Angel’s eyes were empty, and she hadn’t touched the glass of water she had given her when they sat down. “Please, honey, I know it’s hard, but we can’t catch whoever did this without your input.”

Angel recounted the story, making up him wanting a diamond bracelet and him stabbing a fire poker into her brother’s neck instead of biting him. Angel had enough on her plate, she didn’t need to be sent to a psych ward. Neither of the women knew that the other was aware of the existence of vampires; if they did, this whole situation would be a lot easier. For Angel, though, she thought she was the only one aware vampires existed in Mystic Falls, and she thought she was unlucky enough to meet 2 of them.

The sheriff nodded, writing everything down, “I’ll drive you to the hospital honey. Do you want me to call Caroline to wait with you?”

Angel accepted the ride but declined Caroline. No reason to drag her out of bed on a Sunday night to sit in the hospital. Besides, she wanted some alone time; the vampire wouldn’t try to reach out to Damon or her again tonight. They still must’ve thought the two were together, and if Damon was confronted with her bracelet, they would know that Damon would want to check on her first. It was a risk on their part to not wait, and even she knew that.

-

Angel had never thrown up from nerves before, but tonight she was close. The unknowing was what got to her; she didn’t know what Damon was up to, she didn’t know why a vampire showed up at her house, and most of all, she didn’t know if her brother was going to survive.

So, when the doctor came out of the emergency surgery room, Angel had to take her time standing up. “Is he okay?”

Her pulled his mask down and looked at his charts, “He’ll survive, but that attack was nasty. He lost a lot of blood. I don’t think we can allow you to see him tonight, since he’ll be resting, and we can’t let him have any distractions. But, like I said, he’ll survive. Can you by chance make a blood donation?”

Angel nodded immediately, following a nurse the doctor called over into a room to make sure she matched his blood type.

-

It was midnight by the time she left the hospital; she was wearing the same clothes as she was 4 hours ago when she was leaving the mall. Her nerves had calmed down for the most part, but she was too scared to go back to her house and she was too nervous to wake up any of her friends. That’s how she ended up dialing a number she hadn’t dialed in a month; a number she had deleted from her contacts. She just didn’t know what else to do.

He picked up three rings in; his voice was husky from sleep, yet angry from being woken up. It was clear he hadn’t checked the caller ID, “Hello? What could be so important at midnight?”

He seemed to wake up at the sound of Angel’s voice and sniffles, “I – I didn’t know who else to call, I’m sorry.”

Angel could hear him sitting up in bed, his voice filling with concern. This is not how he thought he would talk to Angel again, “No, no, baby. What’s wrong?”

She didn’t comment on him calling her ‘baby,’ mostly because it felt so right that she didn’t even notice it. “I’m at the hospital and I’m – I’m so scared. Please, just, I need someone right now and everyone else is asleep and wouldn’t understand.”

The sound of her crying hurt more than he thought it would; he had never actually heard her cry when they were dating. She was flirty and happy the entire time, only showing negative emotions the night she had broken up with him. “I promise I’ll be there as soon as possible, just stay put. Okay?”

Her voice cracked as she whispered out an agreement.

The pedal was to the floor as Damon backed out of the boarding house. He hadn’t heard her voice in a month, and once he did, it was coated in pain. He was going to kill whatever hurt her. But, that was a promise he had made a while ago as well, and he ended up being the thing that hurt her.

-

Once Damon pulled up to the hospital, he saw her crying form on the bench outside, the streetlight hanging overhead. He was out the front seat in an instant and was standing in front of her the second she stood. Had they been in a different situation, he would’ve commented on how beautiful she looked. However, he was staring at her, her eyes glassy and mascara and eyeliner running down her cheeks. She looked up into his eyes and he pushed a piece of her hair behind her ear. Her heeled boots weren’t enough to bring her up farther than his neck, so when she wrapped her arms around him, she was still buried in his chest. He missed the feeling of her arms wrapped around him, but the way they squeezed him with so much hurt felt wrong. He wrapped his arms around her and gently stroked her hair as she sobbed.

After a few minutes, she was able to calm down, and he opened the passenger side door to let her in. She took in the familiar smell of old cologne and leather polish; she felt like she had transported herself back to a month ago. If you asked her, that would be her excuse as to why she intertwined her fingers with Damon’s when he got in and started to drive. The drive was silent, Damon not wanting to say something that would cause her to take her hand from his. He thought he had gotten over her 4 Tri-Delts ago, but the fact her voice on the phone was enough for him to drop everything for at midnight was an indicator that he was not, in fact, over her.

When he stopped the car in the boarding house’s driveway, Angel released his hand to let him turn off the car. The two sat there, the outside lamp nearby the only thing giving light. Despite the shadows on her face, Damon could tell she was looking at him as her body turned to the driver’s side of the car. She broke the silence, her voice barely a whisper, “A vampire almost killed my brother tonight.”

Damon’s eyes widened, not knowing what to say, “What?”

She recounted the story, a few tears falling as she talked about her brother almost dying, “I’m sorry for waking you up, but I – I knew you would listen, and I knew you wouldn’t make me go back there. Part of me needed to see you again, and this gave me an excuse to. And, I just don’t know what to do, Damon.”

Damon wiped her tears away, gently grabbing her head and facing it towards him, “Baby, listen to me, you did the right thing.”

She sniffled as she looked up to make eye contact with him, “I need answers, Damon. I don’t want to believe you’re a killer, but I know what I saw, and I know what happened tonight with another vampire.”

He nodded, knowing this time would eventually come. “Let’s get you inside.”

-

Angel emerged from the bathroom, freshly showered, when she saw her clothes were folded on the couch in Damon’s room; she never expected to be wearing his clothes again, but here she was, one of his white tee shirts dangling off her body again. He had to stop himself from letting his jaw drop at the sight of her in his clothes once more.

Everything that belonged to her that she kept in Damon’s room hadn’t been touched since she left. Her shampoo was still in the shower, her drawer full of clothes she had ‘just in case’ was still there, and even her Physics notebook she had left on his desk accidentally one day was sitting there, frozen in time. In hindsight, Damon didn’t know how he had managed to convince himself he was over Angel; at least she only had one set of pictures of the two still up.

She sat cross legged at the foot of his bed, looking up to him. He was shirtless, leaving him in just the black sweatpants he had left in; his back was propped up against the headboard, looking back at her. She asked him how he had been turned, and thus began the story of Katherine, Stefan, the church, and Emily Bennett’s spell. Once he finished, an onslaught of questions began.

“How many innocent people have you killed?”

The first question was not an easy one, but Damon knew now was not the time to lie, “Probably in the thousands.”

“Why?”

“I found it fun. Made me feel evil.”

Her response stung a little, but he knew she was telling the truth, “Because it did make you evil. Were all these ‘animal attacks’ you?”

“In the beginning, yes. But, as time went on, more vampires have arrived, and they turned more people. I haven’t killed anyone since that night.”

Angel’s eye contact faltered, remembering the fear she felt that night. How did she not feel it now? “When you, well, – bite – someone do they turn into a vampire?”

“If you’re asking if your brother is going to wake up like me, no. He’ll be human. Normal. In order to turn, you have to have vampire blood in your system, die, and then feed on a human in the next 24 hours, or you’ll fade from existence.”

Damon took notice of her shoulders falling in relief, but she soon followed up with another question, “How old are you?”

“Well, I was born on June 18th, 1839, so over 150 years old.”

Angel’s eyes bulged, “So I was barely 18 when we were dating and you were, like, nine times my age . . . uh, anyway. Why did someone come to me looking for a journal you have?”

Damon’s jaw clenched, angry that it was once again him who caused her harm in the long run. “That’s the question I have.” He looked right into her eyes, bringing back their eye contact, “He won’t be able to even think about hurting you. I’ll see to that.”

Angel scooted a few centimeters back. Damon’s tone and eyes told her that the two vampires wouldn’t be talking out their differences.

“One last question,” her voice was soft, and he saw her once more swallow her fear. He nodded, prodding her to go on, “Were your feelings for me ever real, or was I just something to play with until you got Katherine back?”

Damon couldn’t keep himself seated away from her, and in a second he was sitting across from her, his hands on the side of her head like they were when he had asked her out. “From the second we stopped on that bridge and I saw your smile that went up to your eyes, I was in love with you. I didn’t know it, because at the time I had only ever felt love for one woman. I didn’t know what to do with myself, but I always knew I felt – normal – next to you. When I would throw rocks at your window or when you would hold my hand on the days you dragged me to the park because the sun was out, times like those were what reminded me I had humanity left. You made me forget that I wasn’t human; you made me feel emotions I hadn’t felt in years. When I was with you, I didn’t want to put my fangs in you. I wanted to protect you.”

Angel’s hands were small compared to Damon’s but were warm compared to his. Her hands wrapped around his wrists and pulled his hands off her face. She rested their hands in between the two. “Then why did you try and made me forget that night?”

“Because you were the only person I’ve ever felt the want to grow old with, and I wanted to feel like that forever.”

Angel knew it was wrong. She knew she’d regret it in the morning. But that didn’t stop her. She placed a hand on the back of Damon’s neck and pulled him to her and pressed their lips together. Damon’s hands found themselves tangled in her wet hair and hers were wrapped around his neck. Dear God, he didn’t even remember how much he had missed this. All he knew was that he wanted it to last forever.

But all good things must come to an end. She pulled away, needing to breathe. Their eyes were locked for a few seconds before he kissed her on the forehead. “Go to sleep, you need it.”

She went to move off the bed, but he grabbed her wrist and sent her a confused look.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

She pointed her thumb in the direction of the other side of the room, “The couch . . .”

He pulled her back on the bed, “No, you’re taking the bed. I’m taking the couch. Nothing you will say will make me change my mind.”

Angel nodded, sleep pulling at the back of her eyes, telling her not to argue. She nodded, sliding under the covers she hadn’t been under in what felt like forever. The sheets smelled like Damon, and she wanted so badly to grab his wrist before he walked away and have him hold her like old time, she knew there was a line she couldn’t cross, and that was it. This wasn’t the Damon she knew; this one was the same type of creature who tried to kill her brother.

When she heard Damon lay on the couch, she was out.

-

Angel woke up to a stream of sunlight and hushed voices that mentioned her name. She didn’t move, wanting to know what they were talking about.

“Damon, she was finally getting away from all of this! You can’t just bring her back into it.” Angel recognized the voice as Stefan’s.

“Don’t you think I know that? But as of now, she’s still a target, so I have to do what it takes to protect her.”

“You’re either going to have to let her go or stay with her forever. You can’t have both.” Stefan left the room after this, the door closing loudly behind him. Angel used this as a ploy to pretend she had just woken up. She looked over to the alarm clock: 6:30 AM. She let out a small groan before the events of last night came flooding back to her in mass. The headboard was cool as she sat against it.

“Can you make him forget?” Angel asked, causing Damon to look up from buttoning his shirt. He pulled it down and worked on rolling his sleeves as he responded.

“Angel – are you sure?”

She nodded solemnly, “I don’t want my brother living in fear. There’s nothing he could do about it anyway; I just want him to think the guy was some intruder, not a vampire.”

-

After Damon made her brother forget the vampireness of his attacker, the two found their way outside. The hospital courtyard was less depressing than the pair thought it would be. They were sitting at a bench surrounded by flowers. Angel was holding a cup of water. She relaxed into Damon’s side as he had his arm wrapped around her. Two old ladies in wheelchairs rolled up to the two.

One looked warmly onto them and spoke to Damon, “Now, she looks like a catch! Don’t be letting her get away.”

Angel couldn’t help the small smile that formed on her face as Damon responded, “Yes, ma’am. Trust me, I won’t.”

The other lady let out a small sigh and spoke as the two rolled away, “Oh, young love . . . I remember times like that.”

Damon placed a kiss to her head and began running his fingers through her hair. These were the times he missed.

-

The wind was blowing as the sun began to set. Damon and Angel were standing at the stop sign near The Grill. Caroline had called her over to help get her mind off things; she insisted no boys. Not listening to Caroline was a death wish.

She was dressed in a pair of dark jeans with a black belt; a white tee shirt with a picture of a girl in a sunflower field that looked like it was drawn by the same people who animated Spirited Away was, as always, loosely tucked into her jeans. She was wearing a pair of regular black converse high tops. Her hair was down in waves and she had a pair of fake diamond earrings on; her black choker brought attention to her slim neck. She kept her arms covered with a fleece lined denim jacket. She seemed like a rainbow standing next to him, dressed in all black. They were complete opposites of each other in every way, besides in their love.

Damon took a step closer to the blonde girl, brushing a piece of hair that got caught on her jacket behind her ear and looking into her eyes. “Angel, please be mine again.”

She gave him a soft smile, and Damon knew her answer. She never gave that smile unless she was about to let someone down gently. She grabbed his hands in hers and looked up at him, “I’d love to, but we both know that’s not possible. Even though you say you’ve changed, it’s only been a month. You’ve hurt people, Damon. You lied. And I know you’ve been hurt and lied to, too, but that doesn’t excuse it. I’m barely 18; I’m going to college next year. But, my mom always taught me the biggest part of growing up is learning when to walk away. I don’t want this to be my life. It sounds selfish, I know, but I deserve my young adult years. Everyone does. I’m sorry you never really had them because of Katherine, and I’m glad I’m the one who helped you experience them, even if it was about 125 years too late. I want to pull all nighters with my college roommate and adopt a dog or something; I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in fear of something like last night happening again. You said it yourself, you’re trying to get Katherine back; she’s the one you need. She knows what you’ve been through. I’m sorry, but that’s not me, Damon.”

“I don’t want someone who understands me, Angel, I want you.” His grip on her hands tightened, showing his desperation to be with her again.

Angel placed a kiss to his cheek, “I’ll always love you, Damon Salvatore.”

Damon knew that when Angel decided on something, there was no convincing her otherwise. He placed a kiss to her forehead before she let their hands drop. She turned away, meeting up with Caroline at the end of the walkway to The Grill, the bad atmosphere Angel once felt disappearing.He didn’t move as he watched her walk into the sunset. Angel sent him one last smile, watching as the wind blew his hair into his face. She couldn’t see the tears that he blinked back.

Two things in life were certain. Damon Salvatore would always hate sunsets and he would always love Angel Robicheaux.

-

After the party, Angel finally had the courage to go home. Damon had gotten rid of the vampire that had been invited in. Her brother was set to be discharged the next morning. Things were slowly sinking back to normal.

When she opened her room door, she noticed that the previously blood-stained carpet had been pulled and replaced – most likely Caroline’s mom’s doing. She kicked her shoes off and threw her jacket onto her vanity chair. As she was taking off her earrings, she made eye contact with the photo booth cards pinned to her cork board. The first photo out of 4 showed her and Damon in a normal picture; she was leaning against him, both of them smiling. The second showed her looking up at him from her spot on his shoulder. The third was of them kissing, both clearly happy. The last was supposed to be a normal photo, but instead showed Angel looking at the camera and Damon looking adoringly at her.

Angel let out a small, innocent sigh and reached up and unpinned the photo reel. She dug through her drawer and pulled out a photo she had been too pained to look at in the prior months. The photo held her smiling family on her first day, and her brother’s last day, of high school. She was wearing a pair of jean shorts and a plain yellow tee shirt with her makeup done and her hair pulled up into buns on either side of her head; her brother wore a regular pair of jeans and a white tee shirt. Their mom was dressed in a pantsuit and there was a bright smile on her face. Even if you didn’t know her, you could tell she was proud of her kids.

“I love you, mom.”

She leaned up and used the tack that once held up her and Damon to now hold up her family. The photos of the pair taking the new photo’s place in the drawer.

Angel closed her curtains before climbing into bed but didn’t see the figure that was watching sink back into the shadows. Damon dropped the rock he was holding, knowing that even if he threw it at her window, the old Angel wouldn’t answer and jump down into his arms.

It was time to move on.

Feeling highly ambiguous tonight

OT5!

literally any true crime doc will just straight up tell you that almost every unsolved case in history is due to police incompetence or outright intentional negligence 

RED VELVET ♡ FEEL MY RHYTHM