This will be a series of separate one-shots when I feel like adding to them. But here is the first. Enjoy. Please do feel free to review.

Finding My Way Home

Elena lay on her bed with her eyes open listening to Damon chatting with Stefan downstairs. She suddenly sat upright and swung her feet over the side of the bed. Her hair hung down either side of her face in dark curtains and her thoughts began to take a definite shape. She couldn't do this any more. Couldn't be here with the two of them.

She got up and began to pack.

"Where are you going?" Stefan said as she dragged her heavy bag down the stairs. He went to pick it up but she wouldn't let him.

"Home."

Damon raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"Er, I don't think so." Stefan said, crossing his arms.

"Stefan, you can do what you like, but I am not staying in this house any longer."

"Fine. I'll come with you." He said, picking up her bag and slinging it over his shoulder as though it was a feather pillow.

"No. You will not." She replied with steel in her voice, wrestling the bag back from him, then immediately dropping it.

Damon smirked. He crossed his arms and enjoyed the show.

"You can sleep where you like, sweetheart, but I will be watching you all hours of the day." Stefan gave her a smile. He leaned towards her, "I hope you enjoy having a peeping Tom."

"I'm sure you'll do what you feel you have to, Stefan." Elena said. She deliberately didn't look at Damon, but could feel him watching her with interest.

She began to move towards the door, struggling with her bag. When she opened it, she looked back at Stefan. He motioned two fingers towards his eyes, then back to her.

"I'll be watching." He said.

She shut the door behind her.

"Jesus, Damon, you made me jump!" Elena exclaimed on finding the vampire lying on her bed with his arms behind his head.

"Okay, why have you really returned to the homestead, Miss O'Hara?" He asked with curiosity, sitting up to face her.

"Because I wanted my own space." She replied, busying herself by putting away the rest of her clothes and ignoring him.

Damon looked at her with suspicion. "In a boarding house with sixteen beds, you didn't have enough space? I'm not buying it."

"Can you please just leave, Damon?" She said, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips and looking exasperated.

Damon frowned. He had never seen her look so tired and frustrated. Normally he would do the exact opposite of what she wanted, but today he decided he would do as she asked.

"Okay, sure. Goodnight." He got up and left through her door like a normal person, rather than use her window as usual.

As soon as he was gone, Elena looked at her door.

When he left, it was as though all the air in the room had been sucked out with him.

She sat on her bed, the t-shirt still in her hands.

Damon had walked to Elena's house and now he began the long walk home. It was dusk and he thrust his hands into his overcoat pockets. Normally he never felt the cold, but today he shivered.

A father with his toddler walked past. The dad lifted the little boy high above his head and the child looked out in front of him with his arms spread wide. He laughed with pure joy because he was flying.

Damon stopped in his tracks as they passed him by.

Flying. She made him feel like he was flying.

Elena suddenly felt as alone as the day her parents died.

Once she started walking out of the house towards his, her walk became a jog.

As soon she began to jog, her jog became a sprint.

Damon turned around and began to retrace his steps. As each step took him closer back to Elena, he needed to move quicker. He broke into a run.

When she raced around the corner, they collided. He pulled her back at arms length, she was breathing hard.

"Why did you go?" She said. "You never go when I ask you to."

"I thought..."

"You thought wrong. You're always wrong." Her anger flared because she hated the way she felt inside. She looked up at him. "I, I..." She couldn't finish her sentence. He still gripped her upper arms, but now his thumb began to stroke her in little circular movements he couldn't control. It wasn't his fault, he just always wanted to touch her skin.

"You what, Elena?" He asked - his voice low.

She looked up at him and finally met his eyes. "I can't be there any more, under your roof with him always there - when I... When I..." He said nothing, his thumb stopped moving against her arm. "I want you, Damon." She said, the thoughts she had not dared to speak aloud now finally verbalized.

Damon's hands tightened on her arms and he pulled her closer to him. She went limp. "Don't say it if you don't mean it." He warned.

She shook her head as though incredulous that he would think she would say anything so dangerous without meaning it. "I can't breathe without you!" She shouted, half desperate, half furious. When she finally looked at him she was still breathing hard. If she was expecting to be kissed, she guessed wrong.

Damon turned her around and pulled her under his coat, bringing her tight against his side. Immediately he set off at a brisk pace back towards her house. She stumbled along beside - forced to keep her arms around him, or take a tumble. Under his wool coat it seemed like a cocoon of him; his scent, his proximity, his protection. She felt safe.

Her hand around Damon's back slipped under the fabric of his sweater so her fingers felt his skin. The touch seemed illicit - dangerous. As soon as he felt it, his pace picked up.

As they entered her drive Elena tried to take her hand away to feel for her keys, but Damon strode on ahead and broke the door with his hand without even missing a step. As soon as they were inside she found herself lifted like a child. Her hair fell over Damon's shoulder as he sped upstairs with her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

He pushed open her bedroom door, turned and fell back on the bed so that she landed on top of him. She moved so she straddled him and pulled her long-sleeve tee over her head. He wriggled out of his coat and undid his shirt. She put her hands behind her back to unclasp her bra and he stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm.

She smiled shyly. He pulled out from under her and moved onto his knees and tugged his shirt completely free, dropping it to the floor. He moved forwards closing the gap between them, his naked chest only millimeters from her body. She tucked her hair behind her ears nervously.

Slowly and gently he reached around her back with his right hand and she felt his fingers under her bra, pulling it taut to release the tension, then unclasping it.

At first he didn't let go, but when he finally did, the fabric fell open and he ran his fingers very very lightly down her back to the band of her jeans, then back up her spine to her hairline, where his fingers caressed the back of her neck. She looked into his eyes. The goosebumps on her body were not because she was cold.

He moved both his hands onto her shoulders and with his fingers slowly and very gently pushed the bra straps from her shoulders. Her instinctive response was to grab the falling lingerie to her body shyly as she looked anywhere but at him. He ran his fingers slowly down her shoulder and arm and when they reached the hand clutching at her bra, he softly placed them over hers and she relaxed her fingers beneath his.

Elena, his fingers seemed to say, it's okay to let go.

The bra slipped off her shoulders and she let it fall away. He moved his hand to her face and from there he let his fingers brush down her neck across her collarbone and down to her breast. When he was there, he tenderly cupped it and let his thumb trail softly over her sleek nipple, causing it to gather and harden.

She let her head roll back as he touched her. He took his time, using both his hands to stroke and fondle every part of her upper body. She closed her eyes and felt his fingers trace the space behind her armpits, and the place where her hair was soft and downy at the back of her neck, to the tiniest curve of her belly and the whorls of her fingertips. She wanted to reach out and touch him, but she was afraid to interrupt his tender examination. She wanted him to kiss her, but although he stayed tantalizingly close, his lips never brushed hers. She opened her eyes and looked at him.

Suddenly he met her gaze. He slid his hand into the strands of her hair and with his fingers on the back of her head pulled her gently in to his lips at last. She slid her arms around his cool naked shoulders, pressed herself against his body until she found herself falling backwards with him into oblivion, or maybe just into her bed sheets, it all seemed the same.

It wasn't just a kiss. It was the smell of Spring rain on asphalt, it was the light after a storm, the taste of the perfect strawberry, her first footfall in the snow, the first time she held her baby brother in her arms, and it was kissing Damon... Kissing Damon. Kissing Damon.

He pulled away, his eyes almost scared. He was overwhelmed with the sense that she was the one - the one who gave his long life meaning. The one he never knew he was looking for. His head buzzed with the thought 'I am home'.

Their bodies were electric with the need that passed between them. He was hard for her, his erection pressing insistently into her thigh. She was too shy to take his jeans off for him, her hand circled the well at the base of his spine instead. He briefly moved away from her and disrobed before coming back to unzip her jeans, and pulling them slowly from her hips. She shyly looked at his naked body as he did so, his erection an almost feral expression of his longing that seemed such a mismatch with the gentle tenderness he was showing her. She was slick with desire already, but to see him so eager to be inside her made her pulsate with need.

He kissed her secret places. His tongue traced through the dark tangle of hair between her legs until it slipped between her folds and found her burning center. He placed his arms under her thighs and teased her with increasing urgency. She felt like she had no substance any more, she was just instinct and response. The realities of the world happened around her, but they were distant echoes whose ripples could not stir her. All there was was Damon - dark brother, damaged soul, mercurial demon, and the light with which she lit her life, making her moan until there was nothing else that existed outside of this feeling.

Her whole body felt that familiar, sudden and blissful release. She knew she convulsed in her heart as much as in her body. Her eyes were tight-shut. She felt his hands move away from her thighs as he pulled his body up and rested between her open legs. He moved his hand down to guide himself into her and when he entered her it was the only time he cried out. It came from deep inside him. His arms on either side of her body took his weight, and he looked down on her and said, "I love you." He captured her open mouth with a kiss, sliding his tongue over hers so that she tasted herself on his moist lips. Inside he eased open her walls that were slick with wetness.

Her hands slid down his back and felt the texture of his skin. They gripped his flexing behind as he rocked his hips to move himself deeper inside her. She found his rhythm and matched it with her own. He increased his speed. In the following moment, she let out a long and deep sigh of pleasure - her lips tickling his ear - and he came, shuddering and roaring to his sweet finish.

Lying together, their perspiration mingling and their arms looped lazily around each other, he enjoyed the sound of her breathing. When she could bring herself to move again she looked at him and he lay half a dozen quick kisses on her lips, before collapsing back on the bed.

"I'm sorry, I needed you too much. Wanted you for so long." He said.

She shook her head. "Don't apologize for the way you love me." She said.

But he was solemn. Inside her he had come so quickly. Everything was too much, too much hunger, too much need.

He pulled out his arm from under her. "I need to go take care of something. I'll be right back." He said.

She grabbed at his arm. "Don't leave."

"Elena, I have to feed."

"Then feed from me."

He shook his head. "I might not be able to stop."

"You'll stop." He looked at her doubtfully. "Damon. I know you'll stop."

He looked at her, nodded and felt his face change, she never moved from her position wrapped in his arms. He pulled her wrist to his lips and she shook her head and pulled away.

"You've changed your mind? That's okay, I can-"

"No, take it from my throat."

"Really?"

She nodded. "I love the feel of you right here." She indicated her neck.

He hesitated for a moment longer, then he moved on top of her. He looked at her, his red eyes staring down into hers. She wasn't afraid. She smiled.

He kissed her throat and then he placed his teeth near her vein, bit down, and felt his teeth sliding into her flesh and direct into her rushing, gushing life force. She gave a little cry of pain, but then the tension left her body and she moved her arms around him until she was hugging him, and stroking his back as he fed from her. He pulled out with a start.

"What's wrong?" She said.

He looked at her with surprise, his human face returning again. He spoke so quietly she had to strain to hear him, "Nobody's ever held me before when I have fed from them."

"Damon, I will always hold you when you are near me." She said with surprise.

He rolled away and climbed off the bed, striding to the corner of the room. She sat up, looking worried. "Did I say something wrong?" When he didn't respond she followed him. "Damon?" She said hesitantly touching his shoulder. He turned around and pulled her tightly into his arms. "Damon, are you upset?" She was in a state of shock, she had never seen him cry before. Not ever. She wasn't even sure that he could.

She held him even more closely, biting her bottom lip and feeling bad that somehow she had upset him. Her hand wove into his hair and she pulled his head in to her.

"Come back to bed." She said, kissing his cheek. He didn't say anything, but let himself be lead by the hand. She slid under the duvet and wiggled over making room for him. He stepped in, seeming to be more himself now his moment of emotion had passed.

"Hold me." She asked, and he moved towards her so she could snuggle into his arms. He kissed her forehead and stroked her hair. He began to pepper her face with little kisses. She smiled, as his lips found hers. She began to stroke her hand down his body, and very soon, he was hard again. He pulled away, holding her face in his hands.

"Elena, one day I'm going to ask you to stay with me forever, and if the answer is no, I can't do this with you again."

"My forever, or your forever?"

"Whichever one you want."

"Then one day, I will answer yes."

Damon smiled. He rolled over on top of her, and slipped his tongue into her mouth. She moved her legs until they were around him. And he whispered to her that this time, with her blood to fuel him, he could go on all night.

Outside Elena's window, Stefan's hands pressed so hard on the wood that his knuckles went white. He couldn't really look, but neither could he look away.

And as the couple made love again, his fingernails carved divots in the windowsill.