Title: Ignorance is Bliss

Summary: "You can't ignore this forever," she said softly. "Well, it's a good thing that I'll outlive you then, huh?" Damon/Elena one-shot. Minor spoilers from "Crying Wolf" (2x14).

Rating: T, for sexual references and language (I went back and forth on this rating. If it's too low, give me a heads-up and I'll raise it to M.)

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

A/N: Hey everyone! This is a random one-shot, set at no particular time in the future. Most of this is based on the first half of the season 2, although Elena and Stefan do not reconcile at the end of 'The Sacrifice." A part of this kind of just popped into my head and I went from there, so I'm not sure how this turned out. This is my first TVD story, and I'm kind of rusty with non-fluff fanfic. In other words, please leave a review!

Klaus didn't show up immediately. Elijah had disappeared, rescinding his offer of protection once Jonas and Luka had discovered Klaus was holding their loved ones captive in an isolated cabin. Elijah retreated without the necessary witches to go up against Klaus. Instead, it was Klaus' surprisingly beautiful, yet maniacal pawn, Alexandra, who compelled Jenna to invite her into the house. But Alexandra had obviously underestimated Elena as she barricaded herself in her room, turned on every lamp and flashlight, and poured all the vervain she had all over her bed sheets before diving underneath them. Predictably, Alexandra forced her way in and rushed to grab Elena before the light could burn her skin, only to stagger backwards at the contact with the vervain-stained sheets.

Elena took this opportunity to run out the door with the sheets still draped around her body. She quickly pulled out her phone, when she heard a loud crash in her room. She cautiously glanced behind her to find Damon, fully vamped out, losing the battle against the female vampire.

"Damon!" she screamed, dropping her phone and rushing back into her room.

"What the hell are you doing? Get the fuck out of here!" he roared, rolling Alexandra over. Elena quickly glanced around the ravaged room, finally settling her eyes on an old picture frame. She smashed it against her table, effectively breaking it into two. When she looked up, the two vampires were on opposite sides of the room.

"Get out!" he yelled, his eyes shooting daggers at her. Alexandra took this moment to attack Damon again, throwing him against Elena's dresser. The glass shards from the broken mirror exploded all over, causing Damon to wince in pain as multiple pieces drove into his skin. Elena refused to listen to Damon's demand and grasped the piece of wood tighter as she moved closer to the action.

But as Elena got closer, Alexandra started shifting her attention to her main objective: Elena. Alexandra leapt off of Damon and went after Elena, forcing the make-shift stake out of her hands. Elena shrieked as Alexandra grabbed her and hoisted her over her shoulders. Elena saw her house flash by her eyes, and the next thing she knew, she was being stuffed into the back of a car…again.

It was pitch black in the trunk; she could barely see her hand in front of her face. She instead focused on the sound of the gravelly pavement below her and the smell of gasoline and burnt rubber from the tires. It seemed like hours had passed, when the car stopped suddenly. She put her ear against the cold lining of the interior of the trunk, making out a heated exchange several feet away. Whatever was going on was not in Alexandra's plan.

The next thing she knew, she felt the ground tremble underneath her and the sounds of a violent battle going on outside of the car. She shivered and curled her body up, closing her eyes as she tried to block out the terrible sounds coming from outside the car. And then everything stopped.

"Damon?...Stefan?" Elena hesitantly called out. The only things she heard were some crickets. The trunk flew off without warning and she retreated, squinting her eyes to adjust to the bright lights, as a dark figure approached her.

"Damon," she sighed with relief.

"I'm slightly offended. You seriously thought my little brother could simultaneously beat up and kill two formidable vampires?" He offered his hand to her. Elena took Damon's hand and lifted herself out of the trunk with his help.

"Two?" she asked.

"One was probably the getaway driver. He seemed new," he shrugged. "Now will you listen to me when I tell you to leave and let me deal with the vampires?"

"Yes," she conceded, staring at the ground.

"I don't believe you," he shook his head, "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" His tone and demeanor changed in an instant.

"No, I'm fine. I'm just glad it's over." She closed her eyes and inched closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Come on. Let's get you home."

"Thanks for bringing me home." Damon nodded, as they entered her room.

"You should get some sleep. You've had a rough day."

She nodded and looked at his wounds. His body was covered in blood, including some dried blood that was probably from the first encounter in her room.

"You had a rough one, too. Are you okay?" Elena touched the newer wounds on his face and arms. His body went stiff.

"Of course," he assured her, bringing her hands down to her sides, "It looks worse than it feels. A nice, long shower and a pint of blood will make me good as new."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"If I weren't the doppelganger and everything, none of this would've happened," she said sadly, stroking the side of his face. "You would've never gotten hurt."

"You don't have to be sorry about anything. It's not your fault you're part of a fucked up supernatural curse."

"Yeah, but now everyone is trying to save me from what seems inevitable."

"It's not inevitable. We'll get through this. All of us," he promised.

"It doesn't seem that way," she spoke softly, tears threatening to fall. He gingerly held her in his arms.

"It's okay, Elena," he soothed, rubbing a hand on her back, "Everything will be okay." She lifted her head a bit and gave him a soft smile, as she wiped the stray tears away with her hands. She looked from his eyes to his lips and back to his eyes. Her heartbeat was thumping wildly.

"Stop, Elena," Damon reluctantly pulled away, knowing where this thing between them was headed.

"You saved me…again," she said, barely above a whisper.

"All of your friends and family would've tried to save you. If I don't save you, every one of your goddamn friends would have a bounty for my head by tomorrow morning. I have to save you by default."

"You're a terrible liar."

"I made a promise to Stefan a long time ago that I would protect you."

"That's not the only reason and you know it," she said pointedly.

"Elena, you deserve someone good, someone considerate and caring. Someone like my little brother."

"Has anyone ever considered what I want?" Elena burst out suddenly. Damon stared at her in surprise. "Why does everyone think I want Stefan? We're not together for a reason. That ship has sailed, okay?"

"We know you, Elena. And we know that you're the kind of person who puts others before yourself. I mean, you volunteer at the hospital because you feel guilty that we steal blood bags from them. This thing we have…you know it's not right."

"Who ever said love has anything to do with right?"

He paused, taking in her partial confession. The night was taking an unexpected turn. Elena stared back defiantly, not regretting a single word she said.

"You're the kind of person who stares death in the face to save the people you love. And I know you hide behind that mask, but you love people to a fault and you give them everything you have in you. Who says you're not the kind of person I want?"

A beat.

"What? No one-liners?" she scoffed.

"I kill people to get what I want, Elena. It's my first instinct. I'm not the person you want."

"Why are you so stubborn?"

"Guess I learned it from the best." Damon tried to turn away, but Elena grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Stop trying to deny this…us," she said, entwining her hands into his.

"Stop trying to push it," he pulled away abruptly.

"Why? I thought you were the one who wanted this in the first place."

"You're just hysterical because of what happened tonight."

"No. No, I'm not. I'm saying that I want you, not Stefan, not anyone else. Forever." The last word was barely audible, but it was loud enough for Damon to pick up.

"Forever, Elena?" he scoffed. "Do you even know what that means?"

"I could," she whispered, staring into his eyes.

"Elena," Damon sighed, "You have no idea what you're talking about. Shut up and get some rest. You're obviously mental right now."

"You think this is the first time I've thought about turning, Damon?" she challenged, standing her ground, hands on her hips.

"No, but I think that the first time you thought about turning, you did it because you loved my brother. Now, you're doing it because you're overreacting, trying to get a rise out of me."

"You think I'm trying to get a rise out of you?" She took a bold step forward. "There are other ways to do that, Damon, and they don't involve yelling at each other," she implied, suggestively raising an eyebrow.

Damon was in front of her in a flash. His lips were parted and his eyes were almost black.

"You're toeing a very fine line," he hissed. "Goodnight, Elena," he grinded out with as much restraint as possible.

"You can't ignore this forever," she said softly. He stepped away from her.

"Well, it's a good thing that I'll outlive you then, huh?" he said, as he climbed out the window.

"Damon!" she yelled, as he sped off into the night.

The next day, he appeared on her doorstep. He motioned for her to let him in, and she grudgingly moved aside.

"Maybe you'll outlive me, but you can't ignore me…not when you're intent on protecting me." Elena crossed her arms over her chest, still slightly annoyed at him for bolting out of her room the day before.

"I beg to differ. I can ignore all of your incessant talking and pouting, all the while saving your sorry little ass from Klaus," he said, as he sauntered over to her and tapped his finger on her nose.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?" he asked, feigning innocence.

"Act like you don't care about this…about me."

"Someone is on their high horse today," he grinned.

"Damon…" she warned.

"Elena…" he mimicked, wagging a finger at her.

"You're impossible!" She threw her hands up into the air. This conversation was not going how she expected or wanted it to go.

"I try," he smirked.

"Stop trying, Damon. Why do you always want to complicate things?" she sighed exasperatedly. Sometimes she just couldn't understand him, but at times like these, she just couldn't understand how she could possibly like him.

"It makes things interesting," he smirked.

"You're going after the oldest vampire in the world, fighting werewolves, and pretending to be an upstanding citizen while you're burying dead bodies. Don't you think things are interesting enough already?"

"Nope," he quipped, "Needs more bloodshed. Gore, guts and glory, all that good stuff."

Elena groaned. "What do you want, Damon?"

"Your aunt did a very stupid thing yesterday," he said seriously.

"Don't you dare," Elena cautioned.

"Relax," he said, putting his hands up in a show of surrender. "Alaric is taking her on a little vacation while we fight the big baddies. He's basically useless anyway, though I do have dibs on all his cool toys while he's away."

"What's going to happen?"

"Hopefully nothing, but we can't take that chance. With Alexandra dead, Klaus will find someone else to come get you, and it could be Klaus himself."

"So you came here to tell me that my life is in danger."

"Yep."

"Anything new?" she rolled her eyes.

"You know, there is actually," he started, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I ate a grapefruit for the first time in years this morning. Doesn't mix with A-negative very well…"

"Can we talk about yesterday?" She tapped her foot, impatiently.

"I know, I know. I'm a legend in the making. Taking down a 500-year old vampire all by myself? It must be a record," he boasted. Elena abruptly grabbed his face in her hands.

"Damon, you know what I'm talking about," looking straight into his eyes. She wouldn't…couldn't look away.

"Drop it, Elena," he glared at her, his tone changing suddenly.

"Why?" she demanded.

"Because you're opening up a subject that I don't want to discuss."

"What? Your feelings? Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot Damon Salvatore doesn't feel anything," she said louder now, rolling her eyes and finally letting go of him.

"I'll let it slide this time." He pretended to dust off his jacket, before straightening it out.

"But you do feel, Damon. I've seen it. And I see it now; you can't hide behind this facade forever," she softened. "Don't shut me out. Especially not me," she whispered the last phrase.

"I'm not shutting anyone out. This is who I am, Elena."

"That's bs and you know it," she said pointedly.

"Elena, I'm a vampire. I do bad things."

"We've all done some bad things but we've all done some good things, too. That includes you." She touched his arm gently. "Not everything is black and white, Damon. Not you and not us."

"Can't you just accept the fact that I want to protect you? Is it that fucking hard?" He threw his hands in the air and started moving towards the front door.

"It's not the fact that you want to protect me. Everyone wants to protect me. It's the fact that you're willing to risk your life for me for absolutely nothing," she started, meeting his anger with some of her own. "You think you can keep fighting off vampires hundreds of years older than you? What if you die? What if I die? Have you ever thought that your illogical sacrifice won't matter in the end?" Elena continued.

"I'm not doing this for nothing. I'm doing this because you matter to me. You know that." he said firmly, turning back to face her. "And even if I don't make it out alive, at least I know, as lame as it sounds, that I died trying to save you." There was a long silence after those words.

"This thing between us, Damon…" she began, trying to find her voice, "It won't go away. I don't want…I can't live with myself if I knew you died trying to save me and I never told you that I would do the same for you," she breathed.

He moved closer to her and took her hands into his. He held them to his chest, where his heart used to be.

"You never have to say anything with me. I know."

Elena bit her lip and nodded. He squeezed her hands reassuringly and kissed her forehead. Before she could say or do anything in response, she heard the front door close. She frowned.

He always seemed to be leaving whenever they were getting somewhere.

He couldn't bother with Elena. Not now.

The whole doppelganger-moonstone-thing had been looming over their heads for months now, and it didn't seem to be going away anytime soon. And even if they were to defeat Klaus, she would still be in danger from god knows what, if the past couple of years were any indication.

He couldn't protect her if she kept insisting that he turn on his switch and admit his feelings for her. He couldn't be that animal if he started giving into her.

Of course he loved her; he had already told her technically speaking. But that was when his brother was still in the picture, when Elena hadn't figured out that "It will always be Stefan" really meant "Stefan will always be there for her, but her heart won't always stay with him."

But telling her now, when so much was at stake, was out of the question. It could've mean life or death.

It was better this way.

At least, that's what he constantly told himself every night.

Klaus never came; they were now playing a waiting game. Which was just fine by Elena. Even though they were dealing with the whole vampires-versus-werewolves thing, she tried to go back to living a normal life.

And that included trying to talk to Damon about whatever was going on between them.

Maybe he could ignore it, but she couldn't. Literally. He had been plaguing her mind non-stop for weeks.

She walked up to the boarding house and knocked on the door. Damon answered the door in a black, long-sleeved button-down and fitted dark blue jeans, with his patented smirk in place. This was exactly why she couldn't get him off her mind.

"We need to talk."

"Hello to you too," he rolled his eyes, letting her in. They moved towards the fireplace.

"About us. About what we're going to do about this thing between us," she continued.

"Klaus is out to get you. You're part of a centuries-old curse involving supernatural beings. Don't you have more things to worry about?"

"I can handle Klaus. Hell, I can even handle dying. What I can't handle is you ignoring me because of what you feel. I can't handle the fact that I've thought about you – us – all day and all night and I still don't know where we stand."

"You thought about me last night?" Damon grinned, giving her that look. Her face went white.

"You're ignoring the subject," she waved off finally.

"You're ignoring the question," he countered, smirking, satisfied at her lack of answer.

"Don't even try to pretend you haven't thought about us," she huffed.

She placed her hands on the chair's armrests and pressed her body against him, effectively trapping him between her body and the leather chair. He reacted as if her touch had burnt him; that it physically hurt to be close to her.

"Three little words, Damon."

"Leave. Right. Now."

"You know I'm not going to stop until you admit that what we have is more than just care and friendship."

"You first," he crossed his arms.

"I told you I was willing to die for you. I think that implies that I more than care about you," she said softly, "I'm in love with you, Damon. I have been for a while now."

There was a long pause. Damon hadn't expected for her to say it so easily.

"I've accepted it; I've embraced it. It's your turn to do the same, Damon."

"Can't we just leave everything the way it is? You care about me. I care about you. End of story."

Elena opened her mouth to speak, but at that exact moment, they heard the door open, followed by Stefan walking into the boarding house. Elena looked up, and Damon stared into the fire. Stefan hesitated, and Elena suddenly noticed her compromising position. She withdrew her hands back to her side and moved off of Damon, blushing, as Damon let out a breath at the sudden lack of contact. Stefan approached them cautiously.

"Is everything okay here?"

"Just peachy," Damon replied, not bothering to look at his brother. Despite getting off of him, Elena hadn't really moved away from him.

"I should get going. Jenna is expecting me," Elena said hurriedly.

"Right…okay, then," Stefan said, not believing a word. Stefan's eyes were on Elena. After all, they may not have been together anymore, but he was still very protective of her. Instead, Elena looked at Damon.

"The story doesn't end that way," she said pointedly. She passed by him, grazing his body in the process, as she headed for the door. She turned around as her hand grabbed the doorknob, whispering softly, but loud enough for both brothers to hear.

"Not this one at least."

She spotted him the minute she walked into the Grill. She strode up to him, her hands on her hips and hair swept over her shoulders. After his refusal to answer his phone and door for the last couple of days, she was on a mission. She had had enough.

"Elena. To what do I owe th-" he began, before being cut off by her lips on his own. His reaction was instantaneous and instinctual, as she kissed him without inhibition, prying his lips open and moving her tongue in tandem with his own. She leaned her body into his own and wrapped her hands around his neck, while his hands were around her waist in a second. His touch was like wildfire, warmth and desire spreading to every inch of her body. This was what she always thought they would be like...what they always were.

Electric. Magnetic. Explosive.

She had to pull away once the lack of oxygen became a problem.

"Why'd you do that?" he asked in a haze, his lips still lingering over hers.

Her eyes were still slightly closed, but she grinned triumphantly. "You can't ignore me anymore. I love you Damon, and you don't have to say it, but I know you love me, too. Screw Klaus and everything coming for me. The only thing I want coming for me is you." And just like that, she turned on her heel and left.

He could have sworn his innocent Elena would never say what she just said, but the slight hitch in her voice and wild pounding of her heart gave her away. She wanted him and she was willing to do anything to get him.

Which really meant one thing.

He was so fucked.

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