Do You Trust Me?

Things were strained between the three as Elena knocked on the door of a house. The house belonged to the Martins, who had been very good friends to her parents when they were alive. They had been such good friends, in fact, that Elena had always considered them more of an aunt and uncle than anything, and their children her cousins.

As they all waited for a response, Stefan gave Damon a speaking glance and said "Try not to kill anyone."

Damon smirked and said "I will if you will, baby brother." When Stefan tensed, Damon almost laughed. His brother was still having guilt attacks over revisiting his ripper days with Klaus, but who could honestly blame him?

Elena gave Damon a speaking glance, but the snort that Damon sent back to Elena let her know that the days of him hungering after her approval were basically dead.

Before much more exchange could occur, Jeremy opened the door. He smiled in greeting at everyone, though his smile dimmed a little at the sight of Damon. Not that he wasn't happy to see Damon, but, well... it was Damon.

"Hey, guys," he said, going in to hug Elena. "I'm so happy to see you, Elena."

Elena hugged him extra tightly. "I missed you!"

As Jeremy pulled back, he reiterated the sentiment while clapping Stefan on the shoulder and nodding to Damon.

"Come on in," he said to everyone, but specifically, to the two vampires who couldn't enter otherwise.

Elena went in first, stepping over the threshold easily. But when the two Salvatore brothers tried to, they were still blocked by a barrier.

Jeremy looked questioningly at the two of them, as Elena noticed they weren't entering. "What's going on?"

Stefan shrugged. "I guess since Jeremy doesn't technically live here, he can't be the one to invite us in."

"JEREMY!" a voice hollered from inside the house. "JEREMY, DON'T THINK THAT I'M GOING TO LET YOU FORFEIT TO ME! COME BACK AND LET ME KICK YOUR ASS AT ROCKBAND LIKE A REAL MAN!"

Elena, smiling, turned to Jeremy, asking, "Poppy?"

Jeremy huffed, nodding. "Poppy."

"I'll go get Poppy to invite you guys in," Elena stated, already moving into the house.

Jeremy turned back to the two brothers. "How's she doing?" he asked seriously.

Stefan shrugged. Again. It was kind of his thing. "She's doing as well as anyone can expect. No mental breakdowns to speak of, but she's had her days."

Somewhere in the house, a scream reverberated through the rooms: "OH. MY. GAWSH. I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN TEN MILLION YEARS, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!?"

All three boys were amused. Jeremy shook his head. "Yeah, Poppy's kind of... kind of super exuberant."

Their talk was cut short as Elena came back into view, this time with a vibrant redhead, same height as Elena, a little curvier, with blue eyes and lips that were too wide. She was wearing bright green shorts and a white t-shirt, no shoes.

Little did Damon know that this was soon the vision he'd be comparing every girl to.

"Poppy, meet my friends," Elena was saying, and that was when Poppy locked eyes with Damon.

And Damon, being quite the ladies' man, recognized the signs of attraction; increased heart rate, dilated pupils, etc, etc. However, oddly enough, he recognized the same signs in himself. Well, minus the increased heart rate. His heart didn't exactly beat.

Poppy broke the eye contact first, glancing over at Stefan as Elena made introductions.

"We didn't want to be presumptuous and have Elena or Jeremy invite us in before you got to meet us," Damon explained, trying to speed this process along.

Poppy smiled like a true hostess. "Nonsense. Friends of Elena's and Jeremy's are automatically friends of ours!" She locked eyes with Damon again. "The real issue here is that you guys couldn't get in because Jeremy's not actually a resident here."

All four of the others looked shock. Elena recovered first. "What are you talking about, Poppy?"

Poppy just laughed. "Like these are my first vampires."