**Author's note: The dialogue is directly from The Vampire Diaries, 1x22, the porch scene between Damon and Katherine/Elena. Obviously, I don't own the characters or any part of the show, I just took a little artistic merit and played around with this scene - making the scene between Damon & Elena, and adding in all sorts of fictitious emotional details. In my head, this is how it played out. Enjoy, and let me know if you liked it!
Elena stopped short as she saw Damon closing her front door behind him. She was instantly on guard, as she tilted her head and looked at him suspiciously.
"What are you doing here?" she asked abruptly, folding her arms across her chest and narrowing her eyes. She ignored the catch in her breathing as she took in the sight of him framed against her doorway. The defensiveness was a habit, and one that she slipped into without even thinking. She studied his face and allowed herself a few seconds to really look at him, not just as Damon, but also as a man. He really was beautiful, she mused. His hair, his eyes, his mouth… she sighed inwardly and sternly ordered herself to get a grip.
Damon hesitated as the door quietly shut behind him. He looked first at the ground, and then met her eyes briefly before he glanced away again.
"A failed, and feeble attempt at doing the right thing," he answered, the corner of his mouth lifting in a wry grin. His grin stayed in place even as he felt the slightest twinge of sadness at her obvious suspicion of his motives.
"Which was…?" Elena asked as she slowly started up the front steps of the porch. She watched Damon intently, sensing that there was something he wasn't telling her. The sarcasm, she expected, but his hesitation gave her a moment's pause. Damon was many things, but hesitant was not one of them. Her gaze moved back to his mouth where he had caught his lower lip in his teeth, biting it gently as he studied something in the distance.
"It's not important." He said dismissively as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, hoping that Elena would drop the subject. "Let me take this for you" he said, reaching for the bags piled in her arms as she reached the top step of the porch. As he moved closer to her and slid his arms under the heavy bags, his hand brushed against her own. Their eyes locked and he felt his heart constrict tightly in his chest. His desire for her, always simmering just below the surface, ignited swiftly before it settled with a slow burn low in his belly. He forced himself to take a step back, and then another, even though every fiber of his being urged him to move closer to her. Turning, his hands turned into fists around the bags as he fought the impulse to reach out and caress her face, even if only for a moment. Instead, he strode to the porch swing and heaped the bas into a pile. As he did so, he silently marveled at the effect she had on him. The depth of his desire made him feel foolish, which irritated him immensely. Damon was used to being in complete control, and the fact that Elena made him feel like a schoolboy with a crush sparked his temper. He focused on breathing deeply to try to regain some semblance of control over his emotions.
"Thank you," Elena said as she turned to watch him place her bags on the bench. She found herself tracing the outline of his broad shoulders with her eyes as he lifted her purse onto the pile of bags on the swing. His thick black hair brushed against the collar of his shirt and she briefly entertained the idea of stroking the back of his neck, touching first his hair then rubbing the muscles in the back of his neck, easing whatever stress he seemed to carry with him tonight. This was Damon, she told herself. This was Stefan's older brother: arrogant, aggressive and self-centered. She grudgingly added sexy as hell to the list as she tried to dismiss the flicker of desire she felt, but it persisted. She cocked her head to one side, watching him curiously as he kept his back to her.
Damon paused before turning around because he felt her gaze on him. Without turning around he knew she was studying him, trying to figure him out the way she always did. Even though every instinct told him to walk off of the porch, he found himself speaking again. He slowly turned. "You know, I came to this town wanting to destroy it. Tonight I found myself wanting to protect it," he said. "How does that happen?" His brow wrinkled, as he looked both angry and genuinely puzzled by his own question. Again he looked into her eyes, this time more boldly, daring her to answer.
"I'm not a hero, Elena. I don't do good." He said pointedly. "It's not in me."
Her shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. "Maybe it is." She held his gaze with her own as he went on.
"No. No, that's reserved for people like my brother and you, and Bonnie." He held up his hand as he ticked off the names on his fingers. "Even though Bonnie has every reason to hate me, she still helped Stefan save me."
"Why do you sound so surprised?" Elena pushed, wanting to hear a further explanation, silently willing Damon to go there. She was terrified of it, but she knew that there was a truth that she had yet to acknowledge to herself. A truth that she had never put into a fully formed thought, but one that she knew deep down with unwavering certainty: she was in love with him. It was terrifying, but at the same time she welcomed the moment of clarity and complete honesty with herself. She was in love with Damon. She repeated it to herself, testing it, turning it over in her mind.
Damon fell silent for a moment as he searched Elena's eyes, then felt his irritation shift as awareness dawned on him. "Because she did it for you. Which means that somewhere along the way… you decided that I was worth saving."
As Damon took a step closer, she felt her heart skip a beat before it began a strong, slow pounding in her chest. Elena felt her cheeks redden as her gaze slid to the length of floor still between them. He had said it. He had spoken the truth that she had been unable to put into words, but had felt down to the marrow of her bones. He was worth saving. He was worth saving because she loved him desperately.
Damon saw the blush spreading across Elena's cheeks and knew with certainty that he had found the truth. He hesitated to believe it, but he pushed further, willing her to say something, anything out loud to confirm it. "Thank you," he said softly, bending his head to try to meet her gaze again.
Elena felt his intense scrutiny and lifted her eyes to meet his. "You're welcome," she said just as softly, feeling a sense of boldness begin to creep over her. She knew that something subtle had shifted between them in that moment. She lifted her chin and fully met his gaze, searching his eyes with her own.
Damon had narrowed the gap between them to mere inches and he felt the warmth of her body radiating across the space. He felt a sense of calm steal over him even in the midst of his quickly shifting emotions. His eyes slid over her face and hair, memorizing every detail of the moment. He could see the pulse that throbbed gently in her neck and he felt himself lean forward, as some unseen force inexorably drew him to her. He kept his gaze on hers as he leaned in, and then turned his head and kissed her cheek. His lips parted slightly as he gently inhaled, breathing in her intoxicating scent and committing it to memory. Damon felt his head become cloudy with desire and he slowly, regretfully began to draw his head back. He knew he had crossed a line with the kiss, innocent as it was. Knowing that she might have an inkling of a feeling for him was one thing, but acting on it was something completely different. He steeled himself for the look of shock, or worse, of reproach that he expected to find in her eyes.
As Damon began to draw back, Elena felt herself sway ever so slightly toward him, her body silently willing him to stay close to her. Every cell in her body was alert and attuned to Damon's every move. As he moved, she moved. She turned her head so that the rough stubble on his cheek grazed against her own smooth skin. The slow drag of his skin on hers causes a frisson of heat to shiver down her spine.
Damon paused, his mouth so close to hers that their breath mingled. He tipped his head back ever so slightly to look at her. Rather than censure, he saw her lips half parted and her eyelids lowered. Seeing such blatant longing on her face caused the slow burn of desire he felt lodged in his gut to turn into a hot ball of need, gripping him so swiftly that his breath caught in his throat. He slowly, incrementally lowered his head, experimentally bringing his lips once again closer to her own. He moved slowly enough that she could pull back, but Elena offered no resistance.
He hesitated a moment longer, savoring the delicious torment of knowing they were about to kiss, and being so close, but yet not touching. He knew without a doubt that this was a pivotal moment in his life; possibly the most important one yet. After this moment, his life would forever be split into two parts – the time before his kissed Elena, and the time after.
With that last, fleeting thought, Damon gently grazed her lips with his own, once, then twice, before sinking deeper into the kiss, pressing his lips fully against hers.
As his lips touched hers, one hand other stole through her hair, feeling the silken strands slide through his fingers as he had imagined doing for so long. He cupped the back of her head as his other hand slid around her waist, pressing her pliant body against his.
Elena was no longer thinking coherent thoughts, and had given herself completely over to the kiss. She gently tugged on Damon's lower lip with her teeth and dipped her tongue into his mouth when he groaned with desire. The intensity of the kiss flared as their tongues met simultaneously, their mouths slanting over each other and growing increasingly greedy.
*Woo! I'm ending it there, because it took me quite a while to get to that point. Let me know if you want more. xo -greenveggies2