I've had some free time, and these one shots keep popping into my head. Hope you like it!
Damon stumbles to his appartment. Well technically it was Ric's but Damon's been using it as a refugee. Kind of like Ric's dying gift to the pathetic man Damon had become.
It's almost dawn, and he's glad. He could always sleep better during the day. Especially when he spends the whole night drinking until the burborn stoped having a taste.
This is his everyday routine. A smart man would leave the damn girl, the one that he wasn't enough for, who didn't choose him. He could go anywhere in the world. He could have any girl he wanted, do whatever he felt like. Except he couldn't. He had to be sure she would be okay. Because lets face it his brother couldn't.
Sometimes Damon wonders what would have happen if he left town the night he met Elena. Decided Katherine wasn't worth it and got the hell out before things got complicated. He thinks that Elena would have died a long time ago. He knows that Stefan would have never been able to keep her alive as long as he did with Damon there to help, and sadly with out Damon's blood in her system she would have died and not come back after drowning.
Damon doesn't regret anything, yes he knows he's a glutton, but when it comes to Elena he doesn't care. He saved her, and she saved him. That's what really matters.
When he opens the door he automatically knows that someone else is there. He cautiously makes his way in, and finds his way to his room. Damon sees her there sleeping. How beautiful she looks is all he can think. He wonders why in the world she's here. Bonnie hasn't made her a daylight ring yet, well at least that's was what Caroline said a few days ago. He checks his watch and there is only about a half an hour left before the sun comes up.
Damon just looks at her for another minute. Taking in the fact that she came there. That maybe him being gone all the time isn't easy for her either. This is the only time they have been alone since before she turned. Hell it's one of the few times he's seen her.
"Damon?" She stirs awake before he even steps across the threshold into his room. She sounds like what you think an angel would, and he can't help but love the sound. For a second, then he steels himself off, and goes back to being who he has to be.
"Why are you here?" His voice is detached and he knows that she can probably see right through it.
"I haven't seen you lately."
"I know that Elena."
"Do you hate me Damon?" She sounds worn out, not much of a fight in her.
"What? No!"
"Then why are you staying here? Your never around anymore."
"I'm just keeping my distance."
"Why?"
"So you and Stefan can work things out. Be all in love again."
"Damon." She quickly gets up and smoothes out her clothes.
"Elena."
"Why?"
"Because I promised you and I made a deal with my brother. This is the only way to honor them both."
"What are you talking about?" He hears the old Elena. His fighter Elena breaking through.
"I promised you I wouldn't leave you, and I promised my brother I would if you didn't choose me. Watching out for you, and staying away is the only way to do both."
"You made a deal to leave me?" She's hurt, then again she hurts all the time anymore.
"I'm still here."
"As far away from me as possible. I thought you would be the one to help me."
"You are doing just fine Elena."
"Really? Is that why I don't have a daylight ring yet? Is that why I can't go out with out both Stefan and Caroline? Why I can't even hug my brother? I feel so much Damon and I don't know what to do with it all. I'm scared to death that I'm going to snap. I don't know if I can do this. I still feel like I'm in Matt's truck drowning. You were the one person I knew I could count on and where are you? Getting drunk and leaving me with a former ripper." She lets out a breath she doesn't need. Because she has told no one any of this. She sits back down on his bed and pulls his pillow to her.
He thinks she needs something to try and hold herself together.
She knows that's why she's doing it.
"Where's Stefan in all of this?"
"Breathing down my neck, suffocating me. I know I don't need to breathe Damon, but around him I fell like I can't. Caroline tells me to breathe in and out when the need for blood gets too overwhelming, that it helps to regulate yourself, but I just can't. He's waiting for me to kill someone and I'm not stupid I know I will. I feel like he will be disappointed in me if I stick to the way you and Care eat, and I feel like I'll end up like him if I go his way. I'm so confused, and I'm so sad Damon." He sits down next to her, keeping distance from her.
"Your stronger than you think Elena."
"I'm not Damon."
"Are you trying to convince yourself that you aren't? I trained with you last summer. I was with you everyday for months. You were the strongest human with the biggest heart I have ever met, and I've met a hell of a lot of people. You are more than capable of doing this Elena. You be who you want to be. Not what anyone else thinks. Who cares about them?"
"I do."
"Of course you do, but you have to do what you need. Be selfish for once in your life."
"I'm being selfish right now."
"How so?"
"By coming here. I told you I had to let you go, but I can't."
"Elena, the sun is going to be up in about two minutes. I gotta get these windows coverd."
"Can I stay with you?"
"Where else are you going to go? I'm not going to toss you out."
"You should."
"Maybe." He gives her a small smile, and that's all he can give her right now. The conversation was getting way too heavy for him. He doesn't need another 'I care about you.' speech. He closes the curtains, and hangs some blankets over them for extra precaution. He finds her laying in his bed again.
"Will you lay with me until I fall asleep?"
"Sure." He knows she needs this. So he lays down next to her, and she scoots closer to him and lays her head on his shoulder. It doesn't take him long to wrap his arm around her and she gets as close to him as possible. He thinks that this is heaven. The only times she has laid with him was when he way dying and then runing out of the hotel room. This time she asks him, she relaxes in his embrace, and it gives him satisfaction. He falls asleep too, until he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulls it out and checks the text message.
'I know Elena is with you. I know she's okay, but we need to talk. I'll tell Stefan that she'll be back later. Meet me at the grill in ten.'
Bossy Blonde Barbie, he scoffs. He gives her props for not busting in here, for not bringing Stefan. So he gets out of bed, jots down he'd be back soon on a peice of paper and lays it on the bed for Elena to find.
"What do you want Blondie?"
"What's Elena doing?"
"Sleeping."
"She's sleeping?" Her eyes go big, as if sleeping is somehow an odd concept.
"Yep, passed right out."
"Oh."
"Oh? Oh, what? We still need sleep."
"How long has she been sleeping?"
"She was asleep in my bed when I got home, we talked some and then she went back to bed. We were sleeping peacefully until I was rudely woken up."
"How long Damon?" He rolls his eyes and checks the time on his phone.
"We went to bed just after six, and she was still asleep when I left. So how ever many hours before I got home and seven with me." He sees tears in Caroline's eyes and wonders what the hell is going on. "What?"
"She hasn't slept for more than two to three hours a day since the day you left." He's completely taken aback. What was he missing?
"She said she can't breathe, that she's suffocating."
"We're just trying to help her Damon, but nothing is working. I'm not sure if she can do this without you. I see the way she looks at Stefan, she's looking right through him. We all know it, we all see it, yet no one will admit it. We don't push her because we are afraid of what it will do."
"She's not going to break. She made it to my place with out killing anyone."
"She pretended she was sleeping, waited until she was sure Stefan was, and made her escape. It's because she was coming to you. I think she had a breakthrough yesterday. That's why she came to you."
"What happened?"
"Stefan was trying to teach her how to control her anger, how to find it, how to repress it, and how to use it. Nothing was working. So I told her about the day that I found it when she needed me to find you and Stefan after Mason outed the two of you. I told her to think about the night Rebekah took you hostage, to remember how bad she wanted to come after you, how she controlled it, and we figured out another way. All of a sudden she lost it, she slammed Stefan to the gound, she was choking him, I had to pry her off of him. Then all of a sudden she backed off. Stefan asked her what she was feeling, what happened? She said 'I wanted to kill you.' He asked her why, and she said because you almost died for Stefan so many times and Rebekah could have killed him in the time we wasted getting to him. She said is Rebekah would have killed you it would have been Stefan's fault." He's staring at Caroline, speechless again. He hopes she says something because he has no clue what to say to that. He gets lucky.
"She was ready to hurt Stefan, for you. I think what her and Stefan have is over."
"She didn't pick me."
"I think she knows now she should have. I know your hurt, and angry. You have every right, but please don't give up on her."
"I never gave up on her. Tell Judgey to make the damn right, tell Stefan to stop by my place tomorrow, I'm sure Elena will need to talk to him. She won't be home tonight." Caroline claps her hands together, her smile is radiant, and for some strange reason Damon can't help but smile back.
"Honey, I'm home!" He calls out throwing his jacket on the couch. She uses her speed to end up right in front of him before he blinks again.
"You left me alone."
"Um..yeah. It's daylight. You go out, you burn."
"No one has ever left me alone yet."
"What?"
"I always have Stefan or Caroline with me."
"What do they think you going to do in a house with two vampires?"
"Stefan said better safe than sorry."
"Stefan says blah...blah...blah. He's full of it. No wonder you ended up here."
"He was afraid I'd kill myself."
"Let me get this straight. You turned so you wouldn't leave Jeremy with no family at all, just to turn around and kill yourself, again?"
"Pretty much."
"Would you?"
"Dammit Damon, really?"
"I need to be sure."
"Why?"
"I asked first."
"If I tell you will you answer my question?"
"Answer me Elena."
"No. Maybe I was suicidal a while ago, but not anymore. Everyone has risked so much for me, done so much I refuse to let it be in vein."
"Good."
"Tell me."
"If I'm going to teach you lets get one thing straight you listen to me. You do what I say. You no longer call the shots."
"Who do you think you are? You can't just boss-wait did you say you were going to teach me?"
"Yep." She smiles so bright, and just as earlier he can't help but smile again.
"Why?"
"Because I want you to want to live, I want you to be able to sleep and breathe."
"Sleep?"
"I talked to Blondie."
"I see."
"Don't worry, Damon to the rescue. I'll fix you in no time."
"After everything I've done to hurt you, you would still do this for me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Is that all your favorite word?"
"No, but I still want to know."
"Do you really need to hear me say it?"
"I mean I know why. I remember Damon. You are so selfless with me and I keep being selfish with you. You are a much bigger person than people give you credit for."
"Because I can't help myself when it comes to you."
"Me either." She has tears in her eyes, she doesn't fight them, she just lets them fall. She takes a hold of his hand, and pulls him to the couch. She settles herself on his lap, and he holds her tight. He knows that right now she is fragile, she had to find that fighting spirit she had. It was just buried a little. "I made a mistake."
"I know."
"Am I too late?"
"I want to be angry. I want to say yes. I'm sure we'll fight about it once you see that your still you. This is what we do Elena, we forgive each other for things we shouldn't. This is no different."
"Thank you."
"Your welcome."