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"Your hand is clammy," he said. Bonnie rolled her eyes, and when she made to tug her hand away from his, he clucked his tongue and gripped it hard. "Didn’t say for you to take it away."
"For the record," she said as she peered up at him, "you’re the one with the clammy hands, not me." She forced a smile as Damon rolled his eyes.
Contrary to what she told him, she liked this routine better than the Prison World’s idea of one. She liked that he took her hand every time they ventured into the creepy woods. She liked that he always walked into the low-hanging branch an hour into their trek to find the door that’d lead them home. She knew he did it because it made her laugh.
She liked the fact he tried to make her laugh. He often succeeded, even if she mostly laughed at him.
When she stumbled into a dip in the earth, he gripped her hand tightly and pulled her closer to him. "Watch it," he murmured. He held his other hand out, ready to steady her. Bonnie had grown clumsier since being kidnapped by magic. "We can’t have you falling down any rabbit holes, Miss Bennett."
"If I do, I’ll be sure to not drink anything that says 'Shrink me'."
Damon furrowed his brows together as he looked affronted. "But you should. That’s the first lesson of falling down any rabbit hole, Bon-Bon. Drink the good stuff, even if it makes you bigger than a house." He clucked his tongue and shook his head incredulously. "Amateur."
Bonnie smiled and squeezed his hand. "Would you follow?" she asked, glancing at him. She laughed when he stepped into the low-hanging branch, spitting and scrunching his nose up tightly. "If I was to fall down," she continued, ignoring the racing of her heart and the fact he could hear it like a loud bell, "would you fall down with me?"
The Prison World had been bearable because Damon had made it so. It didn’t matter to her how irritating his presence could sometimes be. What mattered to her was that she wasn’t alone, and he refused to let her be.
Damon remained quiet for a long moment, looking ahead as he guided them around another sharp dip in the earth. "Yeah," he said, smiling lopsidedly as he looked at her. "In a heartbeat."