"I don't think Elena necessarily came into my life to be my soulmate. I mean - she was - we loved each other, but she was also the only person I've ever met who actually believed that my brother was worth loving. And she reminded me that I used to believe that about him too. Her faith in him - it brought Damon and me back together. And yeah - I loved her, more than I ever thought I could love somebody else, but I think in the end I needed him more than I needed her."

-Stefan-
6x22

It was early on - almost from the very beginning in fact, that I started to worry about the possibility of history repeating itself (at least where my brother's feelings were concerned). It wasn't a conscious thought, at first - more just a tiny flicker in the back of my mind.

Elena was kind - to the core. She had a genuine sweetness about her that was hard to resist. It was that night, the night that she invited me over for dinner so I could get to know Bonnie better and Damon crashed the party with Caroline in tow - that was the first time (at least that I was aware of) that she had turned her innate compassion on him.

I didn't know what Damon's game was, but I didn't trust him.

I kept one ear on him as he followed Elena to the kitchen, trying not to seem like I was tuning out of my conversation with Bonnie and Caroline (which I was).

"I like you," he'd said to her, "you know how to laugh - and you make Stefan smile, which is something I haven't seen in a very long time." He sounded genuine, but Damon was a master of deception.

With my heightened hearing turned on the kitchen, I caught every sound. Every breath, every heartbeat, the scraping of dishes in the sink. I told myself I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, I was just worried about them being alone together. Damon couldn't be trusted with her safety, I told myself. I was protecting her; looking out for her. (A thought that was almost - but not quite funny, in hindsight. Considering the number of times he would eventually come to her rescue - even from me.)

"Earlier - did you mean… Katherine?" She'd asked, and I suppressed a groan - worried about how much he was going to tell her. And more than a little concerned that he might tell her the truth rather than a lie.

"Mmm-hmm."

"How did she die?"

I was angry with myself, I should have given her some version of the story - by not doing it I had risked that she would hear it from Damon first.

"A fire - tragic fire." I heard him say.

"Recently?"

"Seems like it was yesterday."

"What was she like?"

"She was beautiful - a lot like you in that department." Real subtle, Damon. "She was also very complicated, and selfish, and at times not very kind - but very sexy and seductive."

"So, which one of you dated her first?" I hated how surprised I was that she'd figured it out so quickly - I knew she was intelligent, and it's not like Damon was really trying to hide it.

I heard him chuckle. "Nicely deduced."

There was a pause, and when he spoke next the humor was gone from his voice. "Ask Stefan… I'm sure his answer differs from mine."

There was a sound of glass clanging, and then what I assumed was the dishwasher closing.

"I'd quit cheer-leading if I were you." He suggested suddenly.

"Why do you say that?" She asked, and I was comforted by the fact that she sounded as confused as I was - but the feeling was short lived.

"I saw you at practice, you looked miserable." He managed to sound both amused and concerned at the same time.

Had she looked miserable? I hadn't picked up on that. But then maybe Damon was just imagining things.

"You saw that?" She sounded surprised.

Then again, maybe he wasn't.

"Am I wrong?"

"I used to love it," she admitted. "It was fun… but things are different this year - everything that used to matter doesn't anymore."

"So don't let it. Quit. Move on. Problem solved. Ta-Da!" Of course, Damon's solution would be to just quit.

"Some things could matter again." She didn't sound like she actually believed what she was saying.

"Maybe, but… seems a little unrealistic to me."

There was another pause in their conversation - long enough that I worried what might have been going on that I couldn't see. When I turned to look over the back of the couch, I had a direct line of sight down the hallway to both of their faces.

"I'm sorry," Elena suddenly said, everything about her was so sincere, "…about Katherine. You lost her, too."

Damon's face in that moment was more vulnerable than I think I'd ever seen it - even as a human. Something about Elena dredging up emotions from the depths of him that had long been buried.

I should have known it then, that it was only a matter of time - and not much of it - before he would fall for her.

But it was so very early, still… and I had convinced myself years before that Damon was a monster; someone not only unworthy of love, but who had actually lost the capacity to care, to connect, to love.

Looking back - remembering how those forgotten emotions bled into his face until every thought he had was written onto it - and somehow looking both incredibly young, and every single one of his 170 years - I think that was the moment he realized she was different, special; Someone worth caring for, feeling for. Over the years Damon had learned to insulate himself from that sort of thing - caring for someone gave them the ability to hurt you - it made you vulnerable. But she was worth it.

When Elena told me the next day that she had decided to quit cheer-leading I was more bothered than I let myself realize at the time. I didn't want to think about the ramifications of Damon being the one to notice that she was miserable and offering up a solution to her problem - or of her thinking his advice was worth listening to at all.

I should have known then that I was in trouble. (Hindsight, right?) But I didn't.

Not yet.