I hate this whole sire bond crap so I decided to spin it. I hope you like it! :)

Part 1

It has been years. So many long tumultuous years, that neither of them had expected this.

They just wanted to go to a place that they could be alone in their memories with the other.

Guess that was the thing about fate - it always led you to where you were suppose to be.

And that hope that they held onto, sparingly?

Hope that one day this would happen. Well it finally came.

They don't touch.

And when they come face to face they don't even need words. They both silently move to the table in the corner away from the small afternoon crowd.

"It's good to see you Damon."

"It's good to be seen." That smirk, his beautiful smirk that she hates and loves at the same time? Needless to say she has missed it.

"You look good."

"Obviously. I've looked the same for almost two hundred years. Hot as hell." Cocky son of a bitch. It's the exact way she remembers him. Just the way she likes...loves him.

"One hundred and ninety one to be exact."

"You keep track of my age?" He's bewildered. She totally gets it. Why wouldn't he be, after all shouldn't she still be with Stefan? The one she claimed was her best choice until all of a sudden he wasn't? It wasn't all of a sudden but he doesn't believe that. Hell her friends didn't either. Since when do people need to endlessly prove their love to anyone but whom they love? The truth of the matter is she would have done it. If he would have let her. She would have proven it to everyone, to him most of all, but he left her before she could do that.

"No. Well...kind of. Mostly of how long we've been apart."

He's completely taken aback by her response. So he deflects in his own not so subtle to her but subtle to him way.

"You look good too Elena."

"God I've missed you. Hence why I'm here...except I didn't expect for you to be here. I just came to feel close to you. To remember something we shared that no one else was apart of."

"I didn't expect you to be here either."

"Great minds think alike." She does her best to give him a confident smirk. Only she is anything but confident. He has stayed away for almost twenty years.

"Really?"

"Really. You've been avoiding me. Avoiding Mystic Falls."

"I'm just doing what I said I'd do."

"And what's that? Because it sure as hell isn't 'I promise I will never leave you again.' is it?"

"You know why I left." He snaps at her, and she can see his whole body is tense now. She doesn't want to do this. She wants to talk to him like they did that summer Stefan was gone and she wants to laugh the way only he can make her. But they can't. At least not yet. Too much has to be said and it's past overdue.

"One day you were just gone. Not there anymore Damon, do you get what that feels like? You were a constant in my life, I depended on you. I trusted you and then you just weren't there anymore."

"You had Stefan. Speaking of him, where is my baby brother?"

"We weren't speaking of Stefan. Damon things changed. I changed and you never gave me the chance to show you. All because of that damn sire bond."

"Where's Stefan?" He doesn't know why he feels the need to ask again, but he does.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"You know what that means Damon. Stupid doesn't look well on you. You left me the day after we found the cure, and I left him the night of it."

"You mean that all these years you-"

"Yes. I've been looking for you. A long time ago Damon you gave me your blood you knew what it meant to you and yet you didn't even bother to see what it meant to me. When Stefan confronted me about it he told me that it might not have meant something to me but it sure as hell meant something to the two of you. He was partly wrong. It meant the world to me. That's when I knew. Skrew the sire bond. That moment in the bathroom was everything because I felt everything. All of your love, your need to keep me safe, the sadness you felt for not being able to save me. I knew I was making a rash choice the night we thought you were going to die but I did it because I knew I loved Stefan already. I just didn't know I loved you too. I know that I chose wrong."

"Why?"

"Because you would have let me drain you dry if it meant I could live. I felt it Damon. Your love, it was consuming, and I wanted to be consumed. I thought being around you before I turned was consuming but the truth was I had to idea. It's why I turned to you, not Stefan. I knew you would understand and not judge. I knew you would have my back, and you would love me human or vampire. That's when I knew that nothing else mattered to me but to feel that love forever. That was when forever hit me Damon. So I told Stefan. I told him that I was so sorry but I needed your love, that it had nothing to do with the sire bond. You know what he told me?" He shakes his head because he can't even formulate a response. He is completely overwhelmed.

"That he knew the minute I transitioned and went after you to stop from hurting Matt that him and I would never work. I asked him how he knew that from a simple instinct to protect my friend. Stefan told me that it was impulsive, and that was something you perfected and as the days went on he saw more of you in me. It was all true Damon. I wanted to take more risks, be more selfish, and my actions were impulsive more often than not. The worst part about the fact he was just noticing that is that it's been there all along he just never saw me the way you did. It wasn't the sire bond Damon. You need to understand that. I am still like that. That part of me I thought died when my parents did. You brought it back Damon."

He stares at her. She's sure he has no idea where to go with all that but she hopes he catches on to the part where her and Stefan had a talk. That what she felt had nothing to do with the sire bond. That is what matters right now.

"How old are you Elena?" He hits the nail on the head. Even without that stupid sire bond they are still completely in tune with each other.

"What you really mean is human? Vampire? Because you hear a faint heartbeat like yours but I'm older. You want to know if I took the cure."

"Sure."

"You left as soon as we found the cure. I thought you had just went home. That you were too afraid that what I felt wasn't real."

"Well?"