A/N: All usual disclaimers (Willa belongs to my friend, C. who is Willa's master puppet) I had this idea that had been around for quite some time but always failed to find something to write about Witch! Asma. Up until this week end:D it just poured in, so here you are.
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« Leave your shop and explore life. You have been hiding for centuries and have been missing out life. I believe there is more to survival than hiding behind your counter and interacting as little as possible with humans... I know I haven't been the good friend I should have and I promised you I would make up to you but until the next time we see each other again, I suggest you to go out and live a little. » Elijah told her these words about a year ago. Her memory replaced a few words and romanticized the moment but it essentially was his advice. She had to stop being a recluse and some 800 years later, the witch decided that yes, indeed, she could try and step out of her shop.
Damon watched as the witch was quietly preparing a potion she intended to give to her friend Willa. The poor woman had been suffering from violent black outs and migraine for quite some time and the pink haired witch promised to help her find a solution. Those potions were temporary, it only removed the pain for a day or two but couldn't prevent Willa's black outs and God knew what happened during those events. Asma could feel the supernatural element in her friend but couldn't quite find what it was. She eliminated the possibility it had something to do with spirits, possessions, and witchcraft. She also eliminated the possibility she was a vampire since she walked just fine during broad daylight without any jewel or charm like the rings the Salvatore brothers wore all the time. Her bets were that Willa might have been a werewolf. She had no clue a for if she was fully transformed or if she had consumed human flesh yet. Of course, she could still be something else like Elena who was a doppelgänger after all.
It didn't matter as of now. Asma was brewing her mixture and kept glancing at the brunet who was drinking from a bottle of whiskey he brought with him. Her golden orbs stared at him before averting to focus on her cauldron. Damon unsettled her that peculiar night and she couldn't say why. They had met about 8 months ago, one night she visited her friend Willa who was a barmaid at Mystic Grill. Damon was drinking himself to death and if he hadn't been a supernatural creature, she knew he would have been dead by now. She had heard about him a few years earlier from that night, from the conversations she heard when Bonnie -another Witch- and Elena -her best friend- came to her shop one time to help Bonnie find the right herbs for a spell. Asma's quietness made it easier for her to listen to conversations and identify Damon quite easily. She felt his hunger that night and knew he would have tried to feed. He looked unhinged, distraught and broken and it attracted her to him. It wasn't so much because Damon was handsome but mostly because he was in pain and she was a healer. She heard his soul wail and cry and wanted to comfort it, so she came to him. They bantered and drank and eventually he took her back home and passed out on her couch.
Since then they frequently met each other for lunch, for dinner or accidentally at the bar when it wasn't because he needed her help with her white magic. Eventually, they became friends. It was a little too early to use that word, but they got along pretty well. Eventually, she came to know Bonnie and Elena on a more personal level without them realizing her secret just yet. Her hair colour wasn't an issue, thanks to young people dying theirs all the time but it was her eyes that was an inconvenience. Asma had to hide the fact she had been a cursed witch and carefully kept her secrets to herself, especially the one regarding her age or the reasons that had her be cursed in the first place. So she pretended to have an eye problem so she wouldn't have to remove her sunglasses but it only was a matter of time before everyone guessed the truth. Bonnie was the one ahead of the rest of the group. She was this close to discovering Asma was a witch but so far, only Damon knew and Asma wanted to keep it that way for now.
Things became a little more dangerous when Klaus came to town for a brief moment. Of course, it made the Salvatore brothers wonder what he was doing there and why he seemed to know Asma. She met Stefan the first night Klaus addressed her. He put himself between the witch and the original and succeeded in making him go away and spent the night trying to bond with the witch. It barely worked, she kept her secret to herself up until Damon learned about it and ran to her shop to confront Asma with the information. His insistence and her resistance had them bicker and fight for a good chunk of the night, with him threatening her with his fangs out and her using her magic to push him away. He kept asking over and over again, forcing the witch to crack and tell him everything. Yes ! She knew Klaus and yes he came to her because he needed her skills to save Elijah from a terrible spell cast upon him. They have been knowing each other for quite some time. Indeed, 800 years ago, Elijah Mikhaelson and his siblings raided her masters' plantation and killed everyone else save for the slaves and her. She told Damon that Elijah saved her from her masters who had planned to spend the night torturing her because she had the nerves to talk back and reject them publicly. Of course, she had no clues that Elijah would cross path with her in the future.
A couple of years later he found her again. The Mikaelsons were in the same town as hers and Elijah noticed her. He followed Asma and learned that she was a witch which came in handy when Klaus found himself in a predicament. He came to her, asked for help and she felt that she owed him so of course, she saved Klaus. Helping the vampires was the reason of her curse, a curse of immortality with the marks of her shame on her face. Every witch, at least the members of covens, knew about the cursed witch and avoided her like a plague so she hid. She ran away and survived for centuries with Elijah always knowing where she was and protecting her from afar and them only meeting when he needed her help with a spell. She told Damon about falling in love with her only friend, craving for his flesh, needing his presence only to be unable to say anything.. at least, up until he last showed up.
Damon listened to her story without interrupting that night. He understood how she felt, how alone she felt and how important Elijah was to her.He was her only friend in the world and the only one who truly knew her. Of course, he also rejected her love and she was heartbroken. That was the reason why she was drinking at night with Damon at the bar, to bury her feelings and trying to move on from her heartbreak. Since Asma broke into tears in his arms, Damon wasn't the same with her. She had noticed the intense stares he gave her, especially when he thought she wasn't looking at him. She had noticed him trying to have her get along with his brother and the rest of the gang. She had seen him show concern when she didn't ask any and it made her feel uneased and weird. It was something she wasn't used to and couldn't decode. It distracted her and confused her. Right now, as she brewed her potion and felt Damon's eyes on her, she felt her heart race against her ribcage.
« What are you looking at, Damon? »
« You. » He said, still sitting in the chair next to her counter. She gave him a sheepish smile and then looked away from him. « What? »
« Well... You never really did that before. » She said as she leaned into the counter and looked at him with a soft smile on her lips. « What's new? »
« Nothing. » He lifted a brow and took another sip from his bottle of whiskey. He then put it on the counter and smirked at her. His blue eyes were intensely staring at her, sending shivers down her spine. She bit her bottom lip and tucked some hair behind her ear. « What? » He chuckled at her because she still had this insisting gaze on her face. Her eyes were so lively at this instant that if he didn't know better, Damon would have lost his balance.
« I don't know. You tell me. » She chuckled and dropped her head and entwined her fingers. « I'm kidding! I'm kidding. I just... You never looked at me this way before. » She gave him a sheepish smile and moistened her plump lips.
« Okay... I'll tell you what.» He paused for a minute. « You've been out of your shop for 8 months now. »
« Go on? » She asked, curious about what he wanted to say. He felt her heart beat faster and goose bumps cover her skin. She was nervous, he could tell.
« Do you regret it? »
« It was a risk to take. » She replied her eyes were still shifting from left to right and then she bit her bottom lip. « I don't think I regret it. »
« And why is that? »
He asked as he leaned into the counter, his face suddenly being closer to hers. There were moments when Damon was dangerously close to her frame, making her feel uncomfortable and aroused at the same time. Wait for what ? She had felt desire before for Elijah. She had felt her body shiver, her folds becoming wet and warmer by his mere presence. She felt her knees becoming weak when the Original whispered in her ear so Asma knew what desire was. She experienced it enough to recognize it when it happened in front of her and Damon made her feel this way. However, it didn't matter because she wasn't ready to acknowledge any of it.
« You're sitting right in front of me. » -It was true, he was her friend and so was Willa-
« I'm bad luck and you know it. Nothing to be excited about. » He said furrowing his brows.
« Damon... » she bit her bottom lip and outstretched her hand so she could cup his cheek. « You are an idiot. » She said with a soft grin.
« You're hurting my feelings here Asma. » He teased her with, chuckling to himself as he grabbed her wrist and stroked the back of it.
« Well, you deserved it. You're not bad luck. You make mistakes. »
« Too many bloody mistakes Asma! » He said as he stroked the back of her hand once again and pressed a light kiss on her inner wrist. He never actually noticed how peculiar her scent was. How intoxicating. She smelled like fresh grass and wet ground, a lot like nature at dawn. He felt her blush and picked how confused she was to be this close to him. « Relax. I am not going to bite you. »
« I never was scared of that. Of you biting me... » She said, biting her bottom lip.
« Oh yeah? » She nodded and then jumped on the counter so she could sit on it. « You're not afraid of me? » Asma shook her head and removed her hand from his cheek to put them on the counter. « That's new. »
« I could say the same about you. » She said glancing at her cauldron. He chuckled at her, prompting her to furrow her brows. « What's funny? »
« That I could be afraid of you. »
« I am a witch Damon. I am a powerful witch and while I use my powers to heal and protect, I could very much hurt if I decided to. » She closed her eyes and then stood back up to watch after her brew and stir some of it.
« Someday you'd tell me. We'd trade stories while drinking! »
She knew he meant his words, he was curious about her claims but believed her words. So far he'd seen her handle herself pretty well. He gulped down his whiskey and leaned his chin on his crossed arms. Truth be told, Damon realized she was still troubled by their previous proximity. He could hear her heart beating harder than usual, he could hear her muffled sighs and grunts of frustration and more importantly, he could smell arousal from her. She might have been a witch, she still was human and he quickly picked up on her feelings. Part of him was flattered and wanted to act on it. It wouldn't be the first time his charms worked on someone. She was beautiful, guarded and for all he knew, inexperienced but eager.
He saw the way she prepared her potions or unguents. He surprised himself imagining her handling a different kind of thing and it brought a smirk to his face. Yet, another part of him didn't want to act on her attraction towards him. It wasn't because she was « his friend » and he wanted to preserve their friendship or some bullshit like that. He wanted her to come out of her shell, acknowledge her attraction and make a move on him. It would benefit both of them. Her, because she would come out of her shell and assume more and more her emotions. It would benefit him because, for the first time since Elena, he would take his time. He wouldn't rush into anything, his mind wasn't even set on « moving on » right now. He was still upset and heartbroken that Elena decided to be with his brother once again but he had it coming. His destructive behaviour was to blame first and foremost. He sabotaged himself like usual so there should be no surprise as to why Elena decided to give up on him.
« That would be a good idea. I'd buy the first drinks if you're nice to me. » Asma joked.
« As if you would. » He teased her and watched as she stirred the brewage again and turned off the fire with a simple gesture of the hand – a silent spell -. He then watched her pour her brewage into a large glass container.
Asma stayed by his sides despite knowing the truth about him. He hadn't said much but what she knew of him was enough to make anyone leave. Damon wasn't blind, he knew that she had this immense urge to help others and fix them. He had taken his time observing her and being a good judge of character, realized that the witch was actually attracted to him for his misery first. It wasn't negative as in she didn't ask for anything from him, but this kind of behaviour let him know that she actually wouldn't care about herself. Damon was known as somehow be a little selfish. He would have taken the opportunity of having someone sacrificing so much for his sake without caring about their safety or mental health.
He could have used Asma but he didn't want to. Not her. Maybe it was her kindness and warmth that got to his lonely heart or maybe it was the selfish reason of wanting to keep her friends and not ruining everything like he always did. The vampire was on the fence about what truly motivated him but it didn't matter because ultimately, all that did matter was that she was safe, even from him and especially from her tendencies to ignore her own needs. Look at that, Damon was playing the savior. How weird life could be at times. She made him feel good that was sure. She was a breath of fresh air and he welcomed her presence there.
« Oh, I would alright! I would not get drunk though, we should make it a date. We first drink and then you take me to a restaurant and we would end the night with a nice walk? » She wasn't focused when she asked him this, her attention was on filling the glass container but he could catch the excitement she had about going on a date with him. It was nothing extraordinary nor their first « date ». It was just two friends spending time together. « And eventually I could try to spend more time with your friends too. Bonnie and Elena very often come to my shop. I know your brother and I know you. I was thinking... maybe someday when you think it's the right time you could introduce me to your friends? »
« Well, first of all, yes definitely. It's a date! Then...About my friends, I guess we could make it happen when you feel comfortable enough with the idea of meeting new people. Elena is very warm and accepting. Bonnie is my best friend...you'd get along well I think. She's very friendly with people. Stefan is.... You've met already so it could be easier than I think it'll be. »
« I know the Salvatore Brothers are kinda special. I have noticed how Stefan was. »
« Special? Should I feel insulted or not? » He asked, standing up and helping her close the container.
« Don't be an idiot! It wasn't an insult. Jeez, Damon, I swear to the goddess... » She said, using her hands to cover his. « You don't need to bother yourself with this. » She looked up to his face and smiled. His blue eyes stared into her perfect white smile and he returned a smirk of his to her.
« I was teasing you. I know you didn't insult me. I just love messing with you. »
« I've noticed! » She said hitting his shoulder with her hand before she removed her apron and put it on the counter. « The potion is ready, I suggest you go back home. It's late. »
« I'm toasted! » He fake-complained and pouted. Asma swallowed a lump and rubbed her arms, unease at the idea that he actually wanted to sleep at her place. « Let me sleep on the couch tonight. I don't feel like going home. »
« Did you have an argument with your brother? » She asked, her hand gently brushing over his toned arm.
« You can say that. We don't see eye to eye about something... »
« Klaus? » Damon shook his head. « Elena? » He nodded.
« I can't see his face right now so I'd rather just sleep at your place unless you don't want me around. » She looked up to his face and gently squeezed his arm.
« Of course you can stay. I'm sorry things aren't going well with your brother but my home is yours for the night. I just need to fix dinner and I'll show you around okay? Come on. »
She said grabbing his arm and taking him upstairs where was her apartment. Elijah advised the witch to go out and see the World. She knew that Damon Salvatore was "troubles" and being further involved with him and his friends would mean being more exposed to cruelty and danger than she wanted to. For about 400 years, she had to run for her life in a country that wasn't accepting of the colour of her skin. For 400 more years, she had to accommodate herself to a more dangerous life due to a certain level of proximity and access to information that didn't exist in the past. She had to deal with people still being less accepting of her due to her hair colour, her skin colour and her reclusive tendencies. She had to deal with people who were hunting modern witches and the werewolves and the vampires who were anything BUT good news to the witch. And for 800 years she did survive. Spending time with Willa, Damon and the likes put her life in jeopardy but Elijah told her that she needed to experience life. What was the point of her being immortal if she spent eternity on her own in her ivory tower ? Asma had to break the cycle and take more risks and bonding with Damon was almost a guarantee that her life was about to be turned upside down. It was just a matter of time.
(TBC)
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