bakerstreet | (no subject)

[After 1994, Bonnie can't say she fully minds road trips with Damon. The music isn't terrible (though she'd much prefer the songs from her iPod); the company's "not so bad," and they've got a wide open road ahead of them. For the first time in her life, they're not trying to seek some ancient artifact or find a cure for Elena's problem of the week either.

She's even brought a plethora of snacks - and of course, Damon's bourbon - for the ride. Leaning out a little to feel the wind, she tries (and fails) to hide the smile that's growing across her face.]

How'd I ever let you talk me into this?

“You didn’t. I compelled you,” Damon jokingly said as he glanced over at Bonnie. He hadn’t compelled her. The whole entire road trip was completely voluntary, although, he might have manipulated Bonnie with his words, but he didn’t mess with her mind with compulsion.

Who didn’t love road trips anyway? Anything interesting and/or fun could happen. Although, nothing fun or interesting had happened so far. Then again, they hadn’t been on the road for long either. Anything was bound to happen in the near future.

“Did you bring the whole kitchen cupboard with you?” he teased as he glanced over at the mountain of snacks that Bonnie had brought along with her.

"Maybe. I couldn't exactly fit the sink in here, or I would've brought it too." She scrunched up her whole face at him, reaching for a bag of Cheeto's and helping herself to those sinful cheese-snack things she adored too much.

Food was food, and she figured - it was either bring enough food to last them a week, or stop by some sketchy gas station (or three) and navigate slim pickings. If she were truly boring, she would've brought a crossword puzzle! Except this time, she didn't, because she was far more occupied with the travel notes sitting in her lap.

"You know they've got the world's biggest ball of yarn coming up ahead? Only fifty miles 'til the exit."

“I believe it.” He glanced over at her once again. “You’re not going to eat all of that by yourself, are you?”

Yes, food was food, but he also knew that Bonnie couldn’t survive on just a pile of junk food. He knew at some point they would have to stop and get real food, which meant they might not have to stop and pick through the shelves of a sketchy gas station, but they could end up in a sketchy restaurant.

He had seen the sign and ignored it. A giant ball of yarn didn’t seem like an impressive thing to him, but if Bonnie wanted to see it, he might actually suck it up and take her there. “Is this your subtle way of asking to go see this thing? Also,” he reached over and grabbed the notes from her lap, “what exactly do you have written down?”

Honestly? She really hoped not. Bonnie liked preparing for the worst, but in her haste to pack up everything they might possibly need - she might've packed everything.

"Maybe." Her shifty gaze probably didn't sell it, and she knew it. Grabbing a napkin to wipe off the cheesy goodness, she--hang on. Did he just take her notes?

They weren't terribly exciting: Bonnie doesn't trust her sense of direction, so it's various maps with her notes in the margins. Mostly places deemed "safe" for whatever reason - and most of the notes're dedicated to their destination. Museums, interesting restaurants... anything and everything Google might've provided. Noticeably? No giant ball of yarn. (She was actually kidding there.)

"Not much," she said, with a slightly resentful huff. "Just places and stuff that seemed interesting."

“Uh huh. Your look says otherwise.” This was Damon not buying what Bonnie was saying. “Next time you might not want to have shifty eyes when you say it.” He was messing with her. How could he not?

Damon glanced back and forth between the road and what Bonnie had written down. She had this road trip planned out. Or as planned out as somebody could make it. He handed her notes back to her. “You do realize that road trips are supposed to be a bit on the spontaneous side, right?” That was the fun with them. You could end up anywhere and seeing anything. “Out of all of those things on your list, what do you want to see most?” He might actually be nice enough to stop at the places that Bonnie wanted to check out.

Drat. He knew her too well. Bonnie almost slouched in her seat, because she knew better than to argue that one. Even if she did win, she'd win a fight over junk food. Not even the good kind, either - she was pretty sure she picked up generic "cookie sandwiches" by accident.

"I know." She sat up a little straighter at his question, though, because she honestly hadn't expected him to humor her numerous (and probably ill-conceived) plans. "Um... There was this second-hand bookstore around our halfway point. It's supposed to be one of the oldest in the country, and somehow, it's a weird bar-bookstore hybrid."

In other words, while Bonnie browses the shelves in search of old grimoires, Damon's more than welcome to help himself to some locally brewed craft beer (or bourbon). Or both. She might be there a while. "I'm okay with missing pretty much everything else, but this seemed up our alley."

Damon just smiled when Bonnie slouched. He knew that she wasn’t going to try and argue with him because in the end he was right and she knew it. Even if it was over something as ridiculous as junk food. Still, he was right.

What he had seen on Bonnie’s list hadn’t grabbed his attention, but when she started to mention a bookstore with a bar in it, his interest was peaked. “I’ve seen a lot of places, but a bookstore slash bar, that’s a new one.”

It definitely seemed like a place that they both could get into. She could drown in the books and he could drown in liquor. Seemed like the perfect stop. “I think you might just be right. Give me the directions and we’re there.”

Yes! She hadn't exactly expected Damon to humor most of the stops (like the small kitschy restaurants that had been on the Food Network at some point), but the bookstore/bar had been high on her list. Resisting the urge to gloat, she reached over and plugged in the address on her phone's GPS.

"Hang on..." Sure, there was an old map somewhere around here, but this was the 21st century. Phone GPS'es and passenger navigators were here to stay. That, and well - Damon should've been well acquainted with her dismal sense of direction by now. "So we're good for now, but we're gonna turn off this highway in about 10 miles at [this exit]. I'll tell you when we get closer?"

Seriously, he might've just made her whole week. A whole evening to explore old grimoires and other witches' guidebooks? Without him peering over her shoulder (hopefully)? Best present ever.

If it were anyone else sitting next to him, Damon wouldn’t have thought to humor them with all of the weird places that had been listed. But, this wasn’t just some random person with him on this road trip. It was Bonnie. And that was pretty much why he was willing to drive her to at least a few of her kitschy places she had written down.

Damon glanced over at Bonnie as she input their destination into the GPS system. It was probably a good thing they had that because he honestly wouldn’t trust Bonnie to lead them in the right direction if they had to use a regular paper map. “Got it.” That meant they weren’t going to stay on the freeway for much longer. “You could do that.”

The bookstore slash bar better have a lot of alcohol when they get there. He had a feeling Bonnie was going to get lost in all the books that they had. “Do you want to get real food after you’re done getting lost in the bookstore?” He honestly didn’t care what they did after that, he just figured he’d be nice and ask Bonnie.

“Sure thing.” Bonnie doesn't trust herself with a paper map - especially not after she managed the impossible of getting lost with a map and a GPS. Still, as long as they're on the road, she'll navigate fine; her instincts don't suck so much when she knows the direction they're headed in.

The offer was a nice gesture - and one Bonnie appreciated. Tucking back strands of hair, she gave him a slight nod. “I'm sure I'll find my way out, but yeah. I can't exactly survive on books.”

But she'd made the accidental attempt, time and time again. A crossword puzzle got that intense, or she was too engrossed in the love story she'd picked up... Mealtimes slipped by her, and only the scent of food or the sight of something on the kitchen counter would remind her to eat. Maybe she should limit her browsing, just so she could get a decent meal before everything would close up for the night.

“There should be a legit restaurant next door. I'll check when we get there.”

Damon gave Bonnie a look that pretty much said that he didn’t believe her. He had a feeling that he will be the one having to find Bonnie once he was sick of the bookstore. “You could try to survive on books, but I don’t think it would turn out very well for you.”

He would make sure that Bonnie didn’t forget to eat. Especially since he had promised Elena that he wouldn’t let anything happen to her best friend. And he would hate to think of what she might do if he came back to Mystic Falls and reported that Bonnie wasn’t one hundred percent okay.

“If not, we’ll find something.”

And hour later and they were finally at their destination. “It doesn’t look like much,” he said as he stood beside Bonnie outside of the bookstore.

Whether it was a promise to Elena, or a long-forgotten one to her ancestor, Bonnie couldn't fully say she minded. As often as she clashed with Damon, she felt safe when they were together.

"We always do," she said with a nod, her gaze drifting towards her phone as she resumed navigation duty for the remaining hour.

The bookstore looked pretty unassuming on the outside, sure, but Bonnie knew better. With an all-too-satisfied smile on her face, she opened the door and walked through. The unassuming storefront gave way towards a cozy space, with a bar in the front separating it from the rest of its operations. Already, there were a couple of lazy patrons nursing a drink - and others browsing the large, open aisles in the back. The shelves were even neatly organized by section, with neatly written signs indicating subjects like History or Political Science or even Victorian novels, along with Bonnie's personal favorite, memoirs.

She couldn't quite find the energy to wipe the grin off her face as she leaned in closer. "You know what they say - can't judge a book, or a bar I guess, by its cover."

Damon walked in right after Bonnie. Okay, so the bookstore looked like it wouldn’t be all that great from the outside, but once they were inside…it didn’t look half bad.

He rolled his eyes and looked over at Bonnie. “How long have you been saving that one?” It was cheesy and it was pretty bad.

“Well, have fun in the land of books. I will be right over there,” he said as he started towards the bar area. It was definitely time to compel the bartender to hand over his best bourbon, so he could sit and drink it while Bonnie got lost in all of the books.

"All of five minutes." Bonnie folded her arms at him, unable to hide the pout on her face. "Unlike a certain someone, I'm not bad at this pun-thing."

She did, however, know a proper exit cue, so she gave him a wave before disappearing towards the back of the store. Sure, there were great secondhand novels (some Bonnie might've skimmed, before remembering exactly what she came here for), and even a few blank notebooks for purchase - but it was the memoirs she desired most.

Most witches' grimoires remained within their families. Every now and then, though, some clueless relative would inevitably sell a priceless treasure to a secondhand store and - and well, this was one of those stores. It took her about half an hour, but she found one. One belonging to some homemaker witch (boy, could she tell - it was like a soccer mom guide, but with magic), but an important one all the same.

She would've made a beeline for Damon, she would swear later. She would've - except then she found the supernatural young adult section, and well, Bonnie kind of needed a good laugh. Curling up with a thrilling romance between a mermaid and a werewolf, she sunk to the ground and started reading. Whenever Damon got bored, he'd call for her, right?

“I hope you’re not talking about me. Because I’d like to think that I’m pretty good with them,” he said, smiling as he watched Bonnie disappear into the books. Yep, he probably wouldn’t see her for a long while. That just meant he would have plenty of time to drink and possibly get a little bit drunk.

The few customers who had been sitting at the bar had already come and gone and Damon was already close to drinking half of the bottle. He knew Bonnie would get lost in the mountain of books, but he didn’t think she would take this damn long with them. Honestly, he thought she would be the one to come and find him so they could get going, but the longer he sat there the more he thought for sure that it would be him having to drag Bonnie out.

When he had enough, he finally stood up and started walking through the isle of books. It took him a few isles, but that’s when he finally found Bonnie. She was curled up in a corner, reading something cheesy looking. He walked over and sat down next to her. “I hope we didn’t come all the way here to read something as cheesy as that thing,” he sarcastically said as he flicked the pages of the book.

It took him a moment, but he did finally notice the other book that Bonnie had sitting beside her. He reached over and grabbed it. “What do we have here…?” He opened the book and instantly knew what it was. “Did you seriously find this thing here?” Were people that stupid that they would actually sell off a spell book? Actually, he knew they were stupid enough to do that. The world was full of idiots.

"Of course we didn't. But you really expect me to pass up this amazing best-seller?"

In her defense, the thrilling romance between the mermaid and the werewolf was also so terrible it was fantastic. Case in point: the current scene was werewolf prom. Where the werewolf's pack were trying to convince the werewolf protagonist that 'there were other fish in the sea.' (Somewhere, Tyler Lockwood was probably groaning about the inaccuracies, because Bonnie might've sent him pictures of the thrill that was Sailing in the Night.)

She doesn't even have the energy to fight Damon for her terrible romance, so she grabs it only when he finds her witch's grimoire.

"Uh-huh. Some poor relative of Miss Kimber Londonberry's going to want this in a few months, so I might call up her relatives and mail it." Once she's pilfered it of its secrets, she means. "You never sell a grimoire, or donate it, or however else it ended up here."

She pauses, leaning a little closer to him. "So? We buy these and then grab dinner?"

“I was kind of hoping you had better taste than that.”

He didn’t need to know what the story was about. Just the picture on the front of the book gave it away. That was enough proof that it was some ridiculous thing aimed at hormonal teenaged girls. “If people only knew that a lot of these things actually exist…they might look at these books a little differently.” Or maybe they’d actually write better ones.

He flicked through the pages a moment more before closing it and handing it back over to Bonnie. “You mean you’re not going to keep it? Add it to your collection?” If it were him, he’d keep it. Finder’s keepers and all that. But that was him and not Bonnie. “Well, they did. I say it’s their loss and your gain. You should keep it.” It was a suggestion. It was up to Bonnie if she listened or not.

“Sounds good to me.” He stood up and then held a hand out to Bonnie so he could help her get up. He was done with this place. It was time for something new.

Everyone has their guilty pleasures, her included. She shrugged, taking both the grimoire and the trashy romance in her hands.

"Or we'd get even worse angsty novels. Can you imagine someone trying to write about us?"

She shook her head at his next question. "It doesn't seem right. I'd want mine returned, and it's not hard to find people thanks to Facebook and cell phones... so if I can reunite this with someone, I will." However, she said absolutely nothing about reading it, or stealing its secrets for her own before returning it. Bonnie'd brought some blank notebooks with her! She could easily re-write the needed notes before sending this back through the mail.

Taking Damon's hand, she rose to her feet and- and well, she'd almost tripped straight into him. Barely regaining her composure, she maintained a faint smile as she headed to the front to buy her novels.

"They said the place next door's still open," she said, taking her books and putting them in her purse. "If uh, it would be easier - we could just grab it to go."

Damon thought about it for a moment and shook his head. “No, and I don’t think I would want anyone to read about our lives.”

That was the difference between Damon and Bonnie. She would be willing to give somebody something back even if they were the ones who lost it. Damon, on the other hand, would keep it. Finders keepers and all that good stuff. But Bonnie was the one who found the book, so it was all up to her what happened to the damn thing.

While Bonnie paid for the books, Damon had already started heading towards the door. He was definitely ready to get the hell out of there. “I guess we’re going next door then.” It just meant they wouldn’t have to search for a place to eat. “We can stay or we can go. It’s up to you.” He didn’t care which they did. He’d let Bonnie choose.

That was a dangerous power, Damon - letting her choose so willy-nilly? Bonnie takes a second to think about it, before saying, "Can we stay, then? If they take too long, then that's that, but it'd be nice."

More like, it was nice that he chose to do these human things with her, despite not actually being human anymore. She wasn't usually much for affection, but as she pulled on his hand to lead the way, she figured, if there was any time she could get away with it, it would be now.

The restaurant next door was nothing fancy, but also far better than the sketchy restaurants in Bonnie's nightmares: it served mostly American fare, and so Bonnie sighed of relief as they were escorted to a corner booth. They weren't alone (there were customers scattered around), nor was the bar empty. There were people, maybe even someone Damon could grab and feed before the night was over.

Not that she still fully approved (she'd brought blood bags!), but considering that he'd tolerated her bookstore visit... she could be persuaded to turn a blind eye for a night.

“We can stay.” He really saw no problem in it, so why not just stick around just a bit longer?

Damon let Bonnie lead the way even though they were just going next door. There was no way they could lose one another in just a few feet.

It was a hole in the wall, which meant the food was probably decent. He followed after Bonnie and the hostess and sat down at the booth that they had been given. The hostess left and it was just him and Bonnie again until the waitress comes around. “Are we having fun yet?” he asked with a slight sarcastic tone in his voice. “I still say you should keep that book.” Yeah, she was still kind of stuck on the fact that Bonnie wanted to return the thing even though she was the one who found it and bought it.

"More fun than expected," she admitted, ignoring the color that might've appeared on her cheeks as she leaned forward.

Okay, if he was gonna keep harping on her about the book, she might as well admit her real plans. "I'm not keeping it. I am, however, gonna write down everything in it before shipping it back to its rightful owners. I get new spells, they get their priceless grimoire back. Win-win, right?"

Plus, it was the 21st century. It didn't take that long to scan an entire grimoire.