Title: Streetlights

Author: Hush Hush Looks

Summary: Starts where Elena and Damon leave off in The New Deal. The song is Streetlights by Ludo, because I feel it fits with the storyline perfectly. The only difference is the time of day, because it's right before dark. I've been working on this one-shot for a couple of weeks now. This is also my first Vampire Diaries fanfic, and the first fanfic I've written in a few years. Soooo...I hope you like it. Please review.

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing.

When the streetlights come on

The pooling night is levied aside

And pressed in twilight, against our two rooms

I'll see you tonight.

"Good night, Elena." Damon said with a smirk as he stepped off the porch and made his way to his car parked at the curb. The setting sun played with the shadows on his face, making it impossible for Elena to tell what he was feeling.

Elena stood there on the porch for a moment, reaching up with briefly touch her lips. She hadn't expected Damon to kiss her. Yet, she wasn't upset about it at all. That kiss had been everything she had been missing.

"Damon!" Elena called out, almost too late as Damon was already getting into his car. She ran down the sidewalk to where he was now waiting, door half open.

As Elena reached the car, she realized that she had no idea what to say. She knew that she had feelings for Damon, she had just hoped that she wouldn't have to face them so soon. Not when she didn't know what they meant, or how he really felt about her.

Damon wasn't sure where Elena was going with this. He had hoped that he had stunned her enough to make a clean getaway. Apparently Elena was not as easily surprised as he had hoped, although in retrospect, he shouldn't have expected much given the past year.

"Look, I know what you're going to say. So can you spare the sob story of how you're still in love with my brother? Believe me, it wont be the first time someone's picked him over me." Damon said, remembering when Katherine had told him that Stefan was her first choice also.

Elena was taken aback. Because that was nowhere near where he mind was going. All she could really think of was how Stefan had never kissed her like that. Sure, they had kissed many times and had even had sex. But there was something completely raw and undiluted in Damon's kiss that was never fully there between her and Stefan.

Damon took Elena's silence as complacency. Although instead of getting in his car to drive away, he closed the door and started walking down the street. Knowing that a drive was not the best way for him to clear his mind, he figured a walk might do him one better.

The pavement is aching, cicadas are crying.

The wine-colored air, breathing thoughts through your hair

Breezing to me, leading me there.

"Damon, wait!" Elena said, running to catch up to him.

Damon didn't want to wait. He didn't want to have to listen to Elena go on about how wrong it was for him to kiss her. He didn't regret the kiss in the least, but he did wish that he had been allowed enough time to leave. He figured he had put enough 'wow factor' into that kiss to at least allow him enough time to make it to his car. Apparently he was getting rusty.

Elena rushed over to his side, noting the fact that he never changed his pace. "What is the deal? You can kiss me out of nowhere, but you can't stop and let me talk to you about it?" She said, slightly breathless.

Damon slowed his pace, then sighed and stopped altogether. They were a good block away from where he had parked his car. He knew that if he really wanted to, he could be out of here before she could even have time to blink. "I must be a glutton for punishment." He muttered under his breath.

"Huh?" Elena asked, not quite hearing what he said, but she was pretty sure he had something about punishment.

"Nothing." Damon smirked. "So if you're not going to confess your love for my brother, does that mean you want some more?"

Elena rolled her eyes. "No, actually I want to talk to you about what's going on in your mind. You're going on about guilt, but I haven't seen a reason for you to be guilty." She smiled at him. Damon had been there for her when Stefan hadn't. In reality, she realized, he had been there for her more than he had really ever been. Sometimes he just had a really horrible way of doing it.

I come alive as the shadows parade

My hot summer blood comes in floods and in waves

Curbside confessions, no longer afraid of what you'll say

"I don't have a reason to feel guilty?" Damon scoffed. This girl was seriously tugging on his hope. He figured he might as well dive in head first. If he got hurt, then oh well. "How should I not feel guilty for having feelings for my little brother's girl? For being glad that he went off the rails, so I could have this chance to get closer to you? What part of that is something I should not feel guilty about?"

Elena was slightly taken aback, but she knew that if she didn't say something that he would be gone before she was able to properly come up with a comeback. So she just went with what she was feeling. "Damon, you shouldn't feel guilty for wanting what you want, even if it wasn't realistic most of the time. But you shouldn't feel guilty over Stefan. He made his choices, and he chose to save Klaus. I know, you said it was because he was saving your life, but the sire bond between him and he hybrids would have been broken when he died." Elena reasoned in her mind. "The Stefan we used to know is gone."

"So you're saying that it's okay for me to want you?" Damon was trying to sort out everything that Elena had said in his mind. He was wondering if her theory on the hybrids was right. Although, part of him wanted to believe her, he also knew the thought had occurred to Stefan too. "It's too easy. Even if I want you, you're never going to be mine." With that last confession, Damon moved to get the hell out of there. He could deal with kissing Elena, he could not deal with having her know what he wanted, and not wanting him back.

Elena reached out and grabbed Damon's arm, knowing full well that he was planning on running out on her before they sorted all of this out. "I'm already yours." She said slowly so that he couldn't misinterpret what exactly she was saying.

And I find you, twilit beyond all the cars.

In driveways they sleep, but streetlights will keep watch over me.

They flicker like stars

Damon was completely taken aback. He had been expecting a number of different outcomes, but never in a million years did he see that coming. "Okay, Elena, you're starting to talk crazy. Would you care to elaborate a little for me, cause I'm just not following."

"I'm already yours." Elena repeated. She knew that there was no going back after saying this, but for some reason she didn't seem to care. "I am because of how much of you that you've let me see. You're not the same arrogant jerk that you used to be. You've opened up to me so much, and it's let me see the wonderful man that you truly are. And if you didn't put up such a pain in the ass front all the time, the rest of the world may see you the same way that I've grown to see you."

"What exactly are you saying, Elena?" Damon could feel his hopes starting to rise, and he severely hoped that this whole conversation was going to be in his favor.

"I'm saying that I love you." Elena said, wrapping her arms around Damon's neck and pulling him in for another kiss. This one different from the one on the porch, because she instigated it and put more emotion into it.

Damon wasn't sure how to react at first, but his vampire reflexes were quicker than Elena's. It didn't take long for him to kiss her back, putting all of his own feelings into this kiss. After a few moments though, he realized that while he didn't need to come up for air, she did.

And now the secrets carefully kept inside

Run the streets red.

Our chemicals spread, washing us through.

Making you mine

"What if Stefan decides to turn his humanity back on and comes back to you, confessing his undying love for you again?" Damon knew that he should know better than to ask this question, but he truly was a glutton for punishment. He also knew that his heart couldn't take it if she wasn't fully in this. He took a few steps back, waiting for her reply.

"Stefan had his chance. I've been slowly losing him for a long time now, even before he decided to go off the rails and join 'Team Klaus'. The feelings that I have for Stefan now are nothing like the feelings that I have for you." Elena wasn't sure how to put that in a way for Damon to get.

It wasn't that Elena didn't love Stefan anymore. She knew a part of her always would, but that's how it always is with your first love. No matter how much time goes by, you will always have that special place in your heart for them. The thing with first loves is how they are always the precursor for all the loves yet to come, and that somehow you just outgrow them. And Elena had outgrown Stefan.

"So I'm your second choice?" Damon was starting to feel like he would always come in second to his brother. It had happened before, and Katherine had even admitted it to him.

Elena stepped in closer to Damon, reaching up to cup his cheek in her hand. "Damon, I never had a choice with you. I know you think that I am choosing you because I no longer have Stefan, but it's not true. If I had never met Stefan, I never would have come to know you, the real you. The you that I love." She explained, hoping that her point was able to come across in the way that she had been trying to say.

I come alive as the shadows parade

My hot summer blood comes in floods and in waves

Curbside confessions, no longer afraid of what you'll say

With that Damon leaned down and kissed her one more time. He was sure that he had to be dreaming now. Because not only had he managed to kiss Elena three times in the past fifteen minutes, but she had also confessed to being in love with him. This night was definitely going in his favor. This time he kept the kiss short and sweet, pulling back and smiling a genuine smile at the girl he loved.

"I love you too, Elena." He kept it short and simple, stating the fact that he was sure she already knew. "I love the way that you always put everyone else's needs before your own. I love the fact that you're so feisty and don't ever take any of my crap, cause I know that I usually dish out the very best for you." Damon said, smiling the biggest smile that he could fit on his face.

Elena smiled, already knowing that Damon loved her, but knowing that hearing it out loud was so much better than assuming it in her mind. "Too bad we can't just move on and live happily ever after. We still have to figure out Klaus' next move, and see just how far Stefan is really willing take this power struggle between them." Elena sighed, wishing that there was a way to escape from the crazy life that they were in and just enjoy being with the man she loved. Correction, the vampire that she loved.

Damon reached up and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. "Let's just deal with that stuff tomorrow. We'll deal with Stefan and his new found love for war games, Klaus and his hybrid mess, and Jeremy leaving tomorrow. What do you say you and me go back to the boarding house and just talk for a while?" He knew that they would never be able to avoid the real world, as crazy as it was, but he did hope that he would be able to postpone it for as long as possible.

Elena nodded her head yes, reaching down and taking Damon's hand in hers. "Yes, let's do that." She said, turning them around so they could walk back to Damon's car. "We'll deal with the real world tomorrow."

Now there are no words

Only the glow in our wires

And so we will be, you turn slow to me.

Our lips set the sun (I'll never leave you.)

The hills are on fire

THE END