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The Grill.
The gathering place for humans, vampires and werewolves.
Not like the humans knew about the 'fairytale creatures' among them. Well, most of the humans didn't.

But Alaric did.

The history teacher sat next to Damon by the bar, sneering over the counter to watch the male bartender mix their drinks. His professional hands touched the different bottles, shook them and poured liquids into their glasses. It was done in a matter of seconds.
He then put the two full glasses down on two round coasters on the stainless counter.

"Here you go," the bartender said with a smile and wiped his slightly wet hands dry on the legs of his tight jeans. Alaric nodded towards him, the simplest gesture of appreciation.

Damon waved at the bartender to go someplace else. The vampire did not want to deal with an eavesdropper. The bartender's smile dropped and he hurried to get to other costumers, pulling beers up like rabbits from a wizard's sleeve.

Waiters and waitresses with silly aprons ran back and forth from the tables back to the kitchen with orders, food and bills. Damon's nose could pick out even the tiniest smells so he knew that someone had burnt something in the kitchen.
He smirked slightly, hoping that a costumer would find a completely black piece of chicken in his salad.

Damon had called Alaric and told him that they needed to talk. The Grill was the obvious place to do so in.
It was a natural place to get together. You could not suspect that anything weird was happening in there.
It suited Damon's needs perfectly.

Damon needed Alaric's advice. The advice of a friend.
Or, to call Alaric one of Damon's friends would probably be to stretch their relationship to a brand new level, which they hadn't achieved yet.
But Alaric was the closest thing that Damon had that he could even call a friend, so the history teacher had to do.

Damon didn't think that their "friendship" had a future though. The first reason for that was that Damon once had fucked Alaric's wife and you simply can't forget things like that.
The second reason was that Alaric was a human. And humans have a tendency of dying.

Today Damon needed Alaric. He needed help. Help to get Elena.

Damon's new plan was to find things about Stefan, Damon's brother and Elena's boyfriend, that wasn't perfect. As the older brother he had to find ways of making Stefan look like a douche bag and a monster.
At least more of a monster than Damon was.

Hopefully that would lead Elena into jumping into Damon's arms. It wasn't a completely waterproof idea but definitely better than nothing.

Damon's body was aching for Elena. He had cravings for her. Her smell, her hair, her eyes, her body and her voice. Everything about the petite lady was appealing to him.
Much because he had once fallen in love with Katherine, a physical copy of Elena.
Seeing her was like coming home from a long day of working in the sun without water to drink.

Damon watched Alaric's body language. The history teacher was well composed and looked alert. That wasn't good enough.
Damon needed Alaric to be a bit drunk. In that state he would probably be able to suck more information out of him.

Alaric sipped at the contents of his glass carefully.
"Drink," Damon said and pierced Alaric with his blue stare. The history teacher shook his head softly.
"Only if you give me company in my drinking," he replied and his eyes sparkled.

"Fine," Damon agreed and raised his glass a couple of inches above the counter.
"Cheers!" Alaric called and chugged the alcohol. Damon brought the glass up to his lips but tilted it to the side, making the alcohol slip right past his shoulder and down on the floor.

No one seemed to notice the small puddle of alcohol next to Damon's chair. Most importantly was that Alaric had no idea about what was happening.
He could have never guessed that Damon was fooling him into getting drunk.

Damon snapped his fingers to get the attention of the bartender. The young man came stumbling to the pair of grown men.
"You need to refill these glasses," Damon purred to the bartender who immediately started mixing the same drinks again.

"Damon, I don't know..." Alaric started but got hushed by the old vampire.
"It's on me. Enjoy!" he said and smirked, fully aware of the fact that his plan was working.

A couple of drinks later, Alaric was ready to talk.

Alaric was actually the one who brought the topic of Elena up. It spared Damon some efforts.
"You know, Elena gets freaked out by you when you flirt with her," the history teacher spluttered and grinned, stretching his hand into the air to salute the air.

"It's not my fault that she can't admit to herself that she wants me," Damon said and it was the truth according to him. He felt like they had a connection.
Alaric threw his head back and laughed merrily. Damon frowned as he didn't like that reaction.

It was now past midnight and The Grill was almost empty, except for Alaric, Damon and the bartender.

"Have you ever seen Stefan act... badly?" Damon asked curiously, leaning towards the drunk Alaric. The history teacher first shook his head then froze.

"Yeah, one time," he said slowly.

"When?" Damon asked and put a hand on Alaric's shoulder to make sure that the man was focused.

"That time when he got hooked on human blood. He was like an animal then," Alaric said and it was like a light had been lit in Damon's head.
Of course! That was the answer!

All Damon had to do was to get Stefan a blood-addict again. Then catching Elena would be a piece of cake.

The vampire grinned widely and his eyes glistened. It was time for the older brother to regain the control.

But first he had to drive Alaric home.