***I HAVEN'T EDITED THE STORY, JUST THE A/N - Just to quickly say that if you were reading 'Only Time Will Tell', check my profile, I explained some things.
Okay, I'm not sure how good this is, I don't particularly like writing cute stories but Delena always seem to bring this sort of thing out in me. I was originally going to call this little one-shot 'Close To Me', for no specific reason but I daydreamed the whole thing in the car while listening to Lady Antebellum so I believe they were my inspiration and decided to name it after their song 'Just a Kiss' instead. I thought I'd add that as a note in case you want to go and look up the lyrics, I think they fit.
Set during the night of 3x08, some things may or may not have been slightly altered or changed in order to fit my imagination however, unfortunately, I don't own The Vampire Diaries.
Elena shifted slightly in bed before lifting her heavy eyes to glance over at the digital clock on her bedside table. The luminous red numbers, which were glowing brightly in the pitch black of the night, told her it was 3:21 in the morning. Letting out an almost-silent yawn, she huddled the quilt up to her chin and rolled over.
At first glance she almost screamed at the top of her lungs from the sight of the black silhouette that was lying on the opposite side of the bed like he belonged there but, luckily, her thoughts began to quickly disentangle themselves as she recalled the night before.
"Can I tell you the rest tomorrow?" She softly spoke into Damon's general direction, knowing only where he was from the bright blue of his eyes that could be seen in even the blackest of nights.
"Sure," he replied in a hushed, and seemingly sympathetic, tone. However, by this point Elena's eyes had already drifted shut and her breathing had deepened although she could still feel the safety of his presence surrounding her being.
Elena's eyes adjusted to the dark as she scanned the body in front of her now, eyes travelling from his muscular, shirt clad, torso to the feathery locks of his hair while he lay, peacefully, facing the popcorn textured ceiling of her bedroom.
"I can feel you staring at me Elena." A deep voice raised her from her thoughts.
"Sorry," she muttered, feeling slightly embarrassed about being caught.
"Don't be." She could almost sense him doing that annoyingly cocky eyebrow thing of his (that she secretly loved) at her through the dark.
They lay in silence for two minutes or so before Elena realised this particular vampire had no business in her room at 3 in the morning. "Have you been here all this time?" She whispered over to him.
"Yup," his short, sweet reply came. Well, it was 3am, had she really been expecting a full conversation?
"Have you had any sleep at all?" His eyes opened at her unexpected concern and his face turned towards her, she thought she saw a surprised expression on it for a moment however it changed back to normal so fast that she may have simply just been imagining it.
"Don't worry about me. I'm a vampire, remember? We don't need to sleep." He kept his voice hushed as not to wake the other two people in the house even though it was easy to hear their obnoxious snoring through the thin walls.
"Damon…" Elena sighed.
"Yes, Elena, I've slept. I think I drifted off for a couple of hours. I'm sorry; I meant to leave before you woke up but… you're early." Damon reassured the girl next to him.
"Its fine," she nodded her head, knowing that with his keen, superhuman vision he would see the action perfectly through the night.
"Okay," he whispered back, unsure of what to do or say next. He turned his head over to the window at the other side of the room. "I'll just leave you to it then, I guess," he announced and lifted himself into a sitting position on the side of her bed.
"No." Her voice came out quicker and sounding more desperate than she had wanted it too.
"Huh?" Damon made a confused noise and turned his head back around to face her, simply expecting her to let him leave before going back to sleep.
"Stay." She mumbled.
"Are you sure?" Damon's brow furrowed as he questioned her sleepy state.
"I mean, if you want to." Great, Elena thought to herself, now she had made it awkward.
"Okay," he breathed. Hell, if she was giving him the opportunity to sleep with her in bed, he was going to take it.
Instead of lying back down on top of the covers, Damon lifted the corner of the floral, cream quilt and climbed under it.
They were so close to each other but so far away, neither yet daring to touch the other or even brush by, accidentally, for fear of one wrong move. The invisible barrier between them remained in place, for now.
"You're cold." Elena stated.
"Sorry," Damon said, not quite sure how else to reply.
"No, I like it. It's too warm tonight." She assured him.
"Oh." He said, still unsure. He rolled over onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow so that he could look at her properly, the way she had been looking at him only minutes earlier.
Unconsciously, Elena's hand reached out to brush a few stray stands of Damon's hair out the way of his eyes, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Her breath hitched at the skin on skin contact and their eyes locked in a silent exchange.
Just as Elena was about to pull her hand away from his face, his hand came up to cover hers, locking their fingers and caressing her skin with the pad of his thumb. "Here," he whispered, resting their locked hands on his shoulder and shuffling closer to her. He felt her leg brush his under the covers and moved so he was no longer propped up by his elbow, but his arm was wrapped loosely around the back of Elena's head, his fingers were gently running through her hair and lulling her to sleep.
He knew she missed being taken care of. She was still so young and her parents had been taken from her all too soon, she was in the middle of all this drama and she no one to come home to any more to cook her homemade meals and make her hot chocolate before bed and tell her everything would be okay in the morning. He could see that it was difficult for her, to be involved in so much and have to grow up so fast with next to no time to just be herself and be free, for every time she tried a new incident would occur and put everything to a halt.
Damon continued to lightly grasp her hand in his as their fingers began to playfully battle each other. They ended up with their arms stretched up into the air, fingers intertwining and their bodies every so often nudging each other's under the safety of the covers.
Elena let out a sigh of contentment and a delicate smile graced her lips.
"What?" Damon wondered.
"Nothing… just with everything bad that's been going on lately, here we are, lying in bed, messing around like a couple of kids and it's as if we have no troubles in the world." She lowered their arms back down to their comfortable, original position against Damon's shoulder.
"That's because right now, we have no troubles." He told her.
Damon felt Elena relaxing into him then and when her cheek rested on his shoulder he became aware of just how little space there was between the two of them. He looked down at her and his nose brushed against the delicate skin on her forehead in an upwards motion until they were replaced by his lips.
"Goodnight, Elena." He breathed onto her skin, feeling the hot air between them.
"Mm," she mumbled incoherently, head nuzzling further into the crook of his neck, right where it seemed to belong.
Elena could feel every slight movement that Damon was making as he placed a friendly goodnight kiss against her head. As friendly as it was and although it lasted merely a second, Elena instantly missed the contact.
Almost immediately, Elena lifted her head slightly and placed a similar kiss to the one he had given her onto Damon's neck. She couldn't help it, he was so close and it was intoxicating her senses. She had resisted him for too long and there were always a whole load of distractions that got in the way, but now, just like he had told her, right now they had no troubles. As far as the world was concerned, right now they were just any two people lying in bed.
Damon's grip on her hand tightened with her action as she surprised him again and like earlier, they locked eyes. Without even knowing it, their bodies had moved closer than what should have been possible and after a few long, excruciating moments, their lips brushed so gently that if they hadn't both been anticipating it, they probably wouldn't have even noticed it.
Elena's eyes fluttered shut as the leaned into Damon. Slowly, he captured her bottom lip between his own and a feeling of pure bliss swept through her whole body. At first, as their mouths moved together, Elena wondered how she had put off kissing him properly for so long when it felt so right, so perfect, like she had been shot up in a rocket, gone to heaven and been brought home at the same time.
But then she felt his tongue press against her lips and she opened her mouth and it began to slowly slide along her own and she forgot how to think, in fact she was pretty sure she had forgotten everything, including her own name and when he finally let her come back up for air she was still struggling to remember how to form words.
Instead, she made sure she was rested against him so that there was no chance of him moving before she woke up again and took a few long, deep, breaths which were necessary to calm her frantic heart and regain some composure. Finally, when she could once again manage it, she spoke into the darkness, in the direction of the two beautiful, blue orbs.
"Goodnight, Damon."
If you have any thoughts, please hit the review button, I appreciate your time! :}
