Love without Affection is Hate without the Pain…

This is more so based somewhere before Founder's Day.

Title is from the song "The Past" by KoRn.

She was using him. She knew it, but she didn't care – he let her.

Prologue:Damon let out a soft growl as he felt the frail body underneath him tense and her nails rake down the corded muscles of his back. Satisfied, he gently moved away from her and laid his head on the cool pillow. He looked over at the girl beside him. Her heavy eyelids, her semi-wild hair (no doubt from his fingers running through it) and her olive skin, glistening with sweat. Relishing in her beauty, he suddenly thought to himself, how did we get here, Elena?

Chapter 1

"Love you, too, Stefan." Elena smiled as she hung up the phone. She set it on her nightstand before reaching over and clicking the lamp off, setting underneath the covers in the absolute darkness. She sighed and closed her eyes.

As she began to drift off into Dreamland, she began thinking about the elder Salvatore brother. Elena didn't hate what he was – duh, Stefan was a Vampire, too – but sometimes she hated his actions, his attitude, and his outlook on life and humanity. She almost wished that Damon would let her in – see who he was before Katherine.

But of course, that wasn't happening. Damon didn't let anyone in; didn't care, didn't love, didn't trust…

Didn't feel.

It was all built in to his warped philosophy. Feeling led to caring, caring led to trusting, trusting led to loving, and loving led to getting hurt. Elena took a deep breath and sleep took over.

Elena's bedroom window was open, the cool breeze rippling around her, blowing the curtains open, the bright moonlight shining through. She lay there, staring at the moon for a while before she realized that she didn't leave it open. At that thought, a shadowy figure appeared before her.

She sat up. "Damon?" She wasn't sure why exactly she expected it to be him, but sure enough; Damon's face appeared as he neared closer to her. He smiled. "Hello."

"Hi…?" Slices of moonlight that shown through the open windows cast across his features, making his skin pale and his ebony hair a dark contrast to the shadows of his face.

When he didn't say anything more, she sat up to find that she was wearing a thin red silk nightgown. She looked into Damon's crystalline eyes and saw a faint smile touch his lips. He began to crawl up the bed to her like a stalking tiger and Elena's breathing became erratic, but not from fear.

Damon gently pressed a small kiss to her lips and leaned back to look at her. He brushed her hair away from her face and began to slide her nightgown over her head. It wasn't until then that Elena realized he wasn't wearing clothes, either.

Elena woke up with a jolt and she looked down to make sure she was wearing what she went to bed in. Why the hell-

"Hell-ooo, Elena."

With a scream, Elena turned quickly to her open window and then became tangled in her sheets, falling out of the bed completely.

"Well, that was graceful." He quipped, smirking down at her from his place at the window sill.

Then it clicked. Glaring, Elena stood up and started for Damon, who looked amused yet curious as he, too, stood, wondering what she was doing. Having no conscious thought of doing it beforehand, she suddenly slapped him across his left cheek. He slowly turned to face her, smirk on his lips, anger in his eyes.

"What was that for?"

"What the hell is wrong with you!"

"Me?" Damon grinned wolfishly. "You're the one that slapped me."

"For making me dream about you like that!" She exclaimed, her face reddening in both anger and embarrassment.

He chuckled and reached out in front of him to hook his finger under the vervain locket. He tugged in it slightly before he let it drop back into place. Then he leaned close to her and whispered, "I didn't." He moved close enough to her to where their bodies were almost touching. "You want me," He sing-songed.

Elena put his hands on her chest and tried to roughly push him away, with no luck. "Get away from me!" She tried to sound angry, but the truth was that though her mind was out of the oh-so vivid dream, her body wasn't, and he was not helping.

Damon chuckled, his cool breath hitting Elena's lips as he stepped back. "So," He turned around and let his fingers skim across various items on her dresser, before turning to face her, arms crossed, leaning on the dresser. "How was I?"

Elena rolled her eyes.

"Well, I know how good I am in reality, but I want to know what goes on in that little head of yours." He smirked.

She shook her head at Damon's familiar cockiness and turned to pick the blankets up off of the floor.

"Hello? Anyone home?" She turned to tell him off, but gasped when she saw that he was right in front of her.

"Jeez, Damon, Don't you know the meaning of personal space?"

"Mm…nope."

"Smart-ass."

"Oh, come on. We both know you love my ass." He smirked. "At least, now we do."

"Shut up, Damon!"

"Ooh, touchy are we?" He mocked.

She sighed in frustration and turn around to make her bed. Damon just stood and watched her, making her a little uneasy. "Don't you have anything else to look at besides me?" She snapped.

"Don't you have anyone else to dream about?" He quipped.

"Yeah – your brother!" She shot back, glaring at him.

Before Elena could quite catch it, a brief flash of emotion crossed Damon's face, but was gone before she could register it. "Da-"

He smirked at her. "Well, Miss Elena." He stalked closer to her. "You have become awfully brave to be able to talk to a Vampire like that."

"I'm sor-" Before she could finish her apology, Damon was out the window. She sighed.

Suddenly Damon's voice came from behind her. He brushed her brown hair off of her shoulder and whispered, "Sweet Dreams, Elena."

And was gone before Elena could react.

I know, short beginning but I promise it will get better! :D Thanks for reading!