Bittersweet Memories

The room fell silent, I could clearly hear the hearts of many people beating rapidly. Oh no, that couldn't be Savannah, could it? I knew Damon was standing right in front of me and I knew I couldn't avoid this much longer. I tried though, I looked right through him, avoiding his gaze. I stared back at Niklaus and gave him a smile.

"Savannah?" Damon's voice bringing me back to the moment. I looked at him and his facial expression was unreadable. "I thought...I thought you were dead."

"I know you did." I replied, no expression on my face whatsoever. I wanted him to think I didn't care at all, even if I might a little.

"You were alive this whole time?" He repeated himself once he came to realize the truth. I could tell by the way his eyebrows furrowed, he wasn't just pissed. He was livid. "YOU WERE ALIVE THIS WHOLE TIME?!"

"Don't make a scene, Damon. I know that's what you do best, but please. This night isn't about you."

"But Savannah-" The expression on his face was clearly readable by now, he was beyond angry, he was beyond angry with me. I can't seem to understand why, though. Before I 'died', it was all about Elena. Once everyone found out the news about my 'death', Damon seemed to change his tune.

"You have no reason to be angry with me, Damon." I stated as I started walking past him, headed right towards Niklaus. "You can thank yourself."

I pushed past him and was face to face with Klaus. I got stares for a few more moments before the music picked back up. Aside from Caroline, I saw all my former friends just staring, completely gobsmacked. I knew I had some major explaining to do. Once I did, I hoped they would forgive me and accept me back into their lives, even if I didn't deserve it.

"You look beautiful, love." Klaus took my hand and spun me, getting a full view of the gorgeous dress on me.

"Thank you for the dress, Niklaus. It's beautiful."

"Oh, Savannah. You can make any dress look beautiful." Klaus pressed a soft kiss against my forehead as he looked back at Damon, who was currently staring a hole into his forehead. "I take it Damon isn't taking the news very well."

"He doesn't appear to be, no." I couldn't help but let out a little grin. It was bad enough faking my death, now Damon has to deal with the fact that I'm actually alive, and 'with' Klaus. "But that's his problem, lets not talk about him."

"We're ready." Rebekah informed Klaus. "Mother says to meet on the stairs."

"I'll be right back, lovely." Niklaus said, pecking my cheek and disappearing with his sister. I was all alone now, so I assumed somebody would be coming up to me, ready for my explanation. Ah, we have a winner. An arm stretched out holding a champagne glass, gesturing for me to take it.

"It's not laced with vervain, is it?" I asked suspiciously before accepting the glass. Curling the side of my lip up as I sniffed it.

"Savannah what the fuck is going on?" Bonnie spoke through her teeth, trying to keep a smile on her face. I don't know why she's pretending, I don't expect any of them to be smiling at me right now. "What are you doing here and with Klaus of all people!"

"It's complicated, but I know I owe you and everyone else an explanation."

"Try me." Bonnie let out a sarcastic laugh as she downed the contents of her glass. "I think I can handle it."

"Damon and Elena, even if she didn't realize it, they were hurting me. Damon was breaking my heart. Instead of dealing with the whole thing, I took the cowards way out and ran away." I breathed out, taking another sip of my drink. Which was vervain free, by the way.

"But why fake your own death? Why do that to us?" Bonnie questioned.

I pulled Bonnie outside to get some fresh air with me, I didn't want to talk about this in front of a crowded room either. "I really did want to die, I actually asked Klaus to kill me. But we made a deal, he was right so I decided to live and just run away with him. I faked my death because I wanted to hurt Damon and Elena, I wanted them to feel the way I did." I admitted, which seems really pathetic now, looking back on it.

"Well, it worked." Bonnie's arms crossed over her chest. "But you didn't just hurt Elena and Damon, you hurt your friends and family too. We were devastated, we really thought you were gone forever."

"Bonnie, I didn't realize I'd be hurting all these people. All I was focused on was hurting Damon. But I did this, I put everyone through this. Now I have to live with the consequences, and I completely understand if none of you talk to me ever again. I have nobody to blame but myself."

Having explained myself, I left this up in the air for Bonnie to decide on. I'm not gonna beg my friends to take me back, I'm too proud for that. Besides, if they choose not to forgive me, it's something I'll have to accept. I turned away to walk back inside, but Bonnie pulled me back.

"I'm glad you're alive, Savannah." she smiled a warm smile at me. "Even if I'm mad at you, I'd rather have you alive and be pissed with you, rather than have you dead."

"So..what does this mean?"

"It means I'm completely pissed at you. But we've been through a lot. You forgave me for trying to kill you ex-boyfriend, multiple times. I guess I can forgive you for hurting us. Besides, we need to seriously talk. This whole 'Klaus thing', I do not approve. I'm gonna have to lecture you!"

I smiled widely and pulled her into a tight hug, careful not to crush the life out of her. "I love you, Bon Bon."

"I love you too, Sav. Let's go back inside, it's cold."

I nodded my head and we walked our way back up the driveway. The Mikaelson family stood on the wrap around stairs of the house and Elijah started to speak.

"Welcome, thank you for joining us." The room fell silent as all eyes were fixated on Elijah and the rest of the Mikaelson family. I caught Klaus' eye and he gave me a slight smile. I might of even found myself swooning over him, which I received a slap from Bonnie for.

Elijah said a few kind words about his mother before suggesting we all join in for a dance, The Waltz. I glanced over at Elena and Damon, who were sharing a few choice words with each other. Damon then held out his hand to offer her a dance, taking a quick look at me. Asshole.

I spotted Stefan across the room and a pained expression hung on his face. While only feeling sorry for myself this whole time, I had completely forgotten about Stefan and his feelings in all of this. Sure, that was my former boyfriend and former best friend. But Stefan had it worse, that was his girl and his brother.

"Ready?" Niklaus asked, suddenly appearing at my side and offering me his hand.

We got in a line with the rest of the guests and I was just following his every move. "You know I don't know this dance, right?"

"It's okay, I happen to know it." Klaus stared at me, which was kind of making me uncomfortable. In a good way. I wasn't sure what he was getting at but he appeared to be in complete admiration of me, which I found mind blowing. As we switched sides with the other guests, I bumped into Elena's shoulder. Hard. You can decide for yourselves it it was purposely or not.

Niklaus spun me around before my hands found his shoulders, resting them there as we started dancing. I followed his every move, hoping I'd soon get the hang out it. I blocked Damon and Elena dancing out of my mind and just focused on Klaus. We stared into each others eyes as we danced, it was like he was staring into my soul, trying to read me. I know I was trying to read him, trying to figure out just what the hell was going through his head.

"Stop staring at me."

"Why? A young woman as lovely as you should be admired, always."

Why is he saying all the right things? No wonder I'm swooning over this man, he's been alive since forever, meaning he's had a lot of practice at this. I swore off vampire bad boys, so Niklaus isn't even an option. Before I could collect my thoughts to say something that remotely made sense, we switched partners. Just my luck, I was partnered with Damon.

"Great.." I mumbled as Damon's hand wrapped around my back and he took one of my hands. Reluctantly, I placed my free hand on his shoulder, making sure to slam down as hard as I could.

"We have to talk, Savannah." Damon said, trying to start up a conversation before the dance ended.

"We have nothing to discuss, Damon."

"We do." Damon pulled me in closer as I tried to walk away. "You nearly destroyed me with your whole fake death. I wanted to die!"

"HA!" I let out loud laugh, right in his face. Onlookers would probably think we're enjoying each others company, but that wasn't the case here. At least one of us was enjoying ourselves. "Doesn't feel good, does it? Because I actually did, too. I begged Klaus to end my suffering."

"Clearly, he didn't." Damon said through his teeth. "Nobody has ended my suffering, Savannah. I wake up and go to bed thinking about you, every single fucking day. Wishing that I could some way bring you back."

"And here I am."

Damon nodded his head in agreement, wanting to say more but we've ran out of time. "This isn't over."