Her hands rested upon a small, withered book that had been abused and opened and tossed for what seems like a very long time. Her fingers softly trailed the letters embedded into its cover page. She had glanced at the letters many times in her life but it was different now. Different because she had seemed to forgotten about the precious object and what use it was to her at a time. She reads the word Diary.

Her feeble attempt to at least straighten up her bedroom was cut short by the discovery of this object. It had been stashed underneath her mattress and fell out when she tried to change the sheets. She flips through the pages, catching words like love, dark, afraid, and tired as she passes each entry. She won't read them. At least, not tonight. So many things were written in this little book and she can't bear to have all of her written thoughts and worries from the past come flooding back to her.

She sticks the book back underneath her mattress and quietly exits her bedroom, her destination the kitchen. As she walks she wonders how she ever found anything to write about before her life was so messed up. Before she found vampires and werewolves and hybrids. Before she knew Bonnie was a witch. Before Caroline was turned. When Vickie was still alive. When Matt was still her boyfriend. The memories of her old life are stored deeply in her brain, but she knows that she could resurface them if she truly wanted to. Unfortunately, she doesn't. She can't say that her life has been terrible the past year; because it hasn't. She has faced death and loss and pain, but she has also felt love. And friendship. And pure, honest trust. Elena almost smiles to herself as she opens the fridge to pull out a bottled water. She would rather have what she has now than have what she had back then. Because she really didn't have anything back then.

Yet one thing is for sure: she would not want Stefan. Not the Stefan that has broken promises and betrayed both his brother and her. Definitely not. An uncomfortable ache plants itself in her chest at the thought of him. How he acts like a total dick. He he betrayed them. How, even after his humanity was returned, he did not come back.

She clutches the water bottle tightly.

And then she thinks of Damon and how she would not change anything about him. How he promises to never leave her. How he has been with her throughout this entire Stefan and Klaus dilemma from the beginning. How understanding he is. How great of a friend. The ache in her chest slowly heals, a flutter of butterfly wings replacing it.

She shakes her head, hating that feeling. It always creeps on her whenever she thinks of Damon and she does her damn best to ignore it or push it away. She pushes it away now, deciding that this isn't the time to be thinking about Damon or Stefan. This is the time to be thinking about herself and how she is going to handle letting go.

"Elena?" She jumps, spinning around to face the person who has just called her name. It is a sleepy Alaric that seems to have just woken up.

"I'm sorry, Ric. I didn't mean to wake you."

He yawns loudly. "No, er, it's fine. I should of gotten up early today anyway. What time is it again?"

She glances at the clock. "8:30."

"Ah..right. And..what are you doing up?"

She blinks, opening the bottle to take a swig of it. "I was cleaning my room before I head over to Damon's."

Ric staggers over to the refridgerator and takes from it the gallon of white milk and the carton of eggs. "Damon's?" he asks curiously.

Elena doesn't meet his eyes. "Yep." She doesn't say anything more about it, and Ric decides not to press on it.

"Ah well..do you maybe want some breakfast before you go?" He offers quietly.

She smiles and shakes her head. "No. I'm not hungry. Thanks, though." and with water bottle in hand she retreats to her bedroom to prepare for her visit to the boarding house.

Once there, she decides that she has earned the privilege of walking in like she owns the place. Even though, at a time, she did own it. Nonetheless since Andie died she didn't really have to worry about walking in on something she really didn't need to see. Or want to.

The thought of Damon and Andie irked her a bit. She always wondered if Andie truly was what Damon claimed her to be: a distraction. A distraction from what, exactly? Damon's desire to feed off of innocence? Damon's boyish lust?

Don't even think about it, Elena..don't even consider it..

His love for her?

Positive that he wasn't going to be doing anything with anyone else, she walked in and immediately searched for him. Coming up short in the living room, hallway, and Stefan's room, she decided that he might still be sleeping in his bedroom. It was going for 9 o'clock. What vampire sleeps in late? Of course Damon would be that vampire. She huffed in irritation, climbing her way to his room.

When she got there her face clouded in confusion. He wasn't sleeping, either. "Damon?" she called out, wondering if he was even in the house at all. Well now I feel stupid, she thought. She should of called his cell phone first and asked his permission. Or maybe she should have knocked after all. The moment she spun around to exit the room, she was tackled by something. It flung her across his bedroom and she landed backwards against something very cold and hard. Someone's chest.

Struggling, she gasped to breathe. "Let me go!". She kicked backwards at her attacker, desperate to be free. "Let go of me!" The efforts were useless. Her attacker was of the supernatural with strength that couldn't even be compared to hers. She would lose any physical battle.

Now she felt lips at her ear, the chest she was pinned against began to vibrate against her back. There were throaty laughters erupting from it. "Come into my house uninvited, do you? That's going to cost you."

His lips moved to her throat now.

"Da-mon!" She shrieked, her efforts to break free now less wild than before. She continued to kick and rid herself of his grasp but his arms were too strong. She was trapped. His warm breath on her neck made her shudder. "Come on! Let me go!"

And then he released her, spinning her back around to face him. She scowled as she tried to regain her balance. Glaring at him, she shouted, "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

The smirk on his face was insanely irritating. He laughed, enjoying every part of the scene before him. Enjoying every part of her. He dressed in a casual black, long sleeved T-shirt that clung to his muscled chest outstandingly with dark jeans. Clearly he did not just wake up, she realized. Her own chest heaved as her heart pounded and her breaths came short.

"Oh, come on…" he smiled. "Don't be dramatic."

"I'm not kidding!" she said stubbornly. "I thought you were.." She shook her head, trailing off.

He simply ignored her and whoever she thought he was, though he had a nice guess in what direction her mind was going. "So. What are you doing here?"

She sighed. "I came to talk to you about Rebekah."

Damon moved now, striding out of the room away from her. She followed him quickly. "What about her?"

"Well..we can't leave her dead, Damon. It's not right."

"Who says?" he asks, approaching his collection of bourbon to pour himself a good drink.

"Damon." she says cautiously, watching him bring a glass to his lips and swallow its contents. "It's not right. We needed her gone for one night, not forever."

"If you pull that stake out of her back she's going to wake up one pissed homecoming princess." he warned her obviously.

Elena shook her head. "I explained to her. She won't. She will understand."

"No, she won't. She stays dead at least until we can figure out the appropriate time to get rid of her."

She shakes her head, annoyed that he even thought this. Didn't he know that Rebekah helped them? She wasn't going to wake up and betray them, even though Elena had betrayed her. Rebekah understood. Elena shook her head slowly.

Damon was suddenly in front of her, eyes staring into hers. "Elena. Promise me you will not pull that stake out of her back."

She jumped unexpectedly as Damon suddenly stood in front of her. The heat off of his body radiating toward her and she leaned in, her eyes unable to hold his. Instead, they moved to his lips.

Then to his face. "Damon..you need to trust me." she whispered.

He frowned. "I can't trust you with this, Elena. Promise me."

She located the fear and uncertainty in his eyes. He didn't want her to risk it, that's all. It wasn't about trust, it was about her safety. Damon simply didn't want her to get hurt. She felt those wings again.

Sighing, she murmurs, "I promise."

He nods once, turning away from her to take another sip of his drink. She walked in front of him, catching his attention again. "As long as you promise me that you won't pull it out of her."

He places his drink down on the table and looks at her again. "Why?"

"In case she wakes up angry. I'm not the only one able to get hurt." she says softly, staring into his eyes.

He feels …. strange. This is strange. Her, worrying about him. Caring for him. Caring about what might happen to him. She takes a step closer to him. "Promise me."

His face softens. "I promise you."

She doesn't say anything, only trails down his face and meets his lips with her eyes. She doesn't know why she does it, only that his lips are interesting to look at. The color. The texture. The plump roundness of them. They weren't like Stefan's lips. His lips were thin and pale. Damon's were rich and full. She finds herself wondering what they feel like.

"You always do that." he whispers suddenly, light accusation in his voice.

She swallows thickly, her eyes innocently meeting his. "Do what?"

Damon does not look away. "You look at my lips."

Elena blushes a bright pink. "It's just… how I am. That's..what I do when I talk to people."

His eyebrows pull together and he shakes his head slightly. "It's different with me though..isn't it? You haven't been careful, have you? This is exactly what you've been dreading; that I'd notice. And I have. I have always noticed." He says intensely, lowering his face to hers. His lips are so close to hers and she feels frightened. What is he doing? What is she doing? Why is she allowing this!

"I..Damon, don't be ridiculous." she stammers.

"Why is it ridiculous, Elena? Because I've out rightly called you out on something you are thinking about?" He challenges, exhaling hugely. She can taste his breath.

"Damon.." she warns. "Why are you doing this?"

"I'm right here, Elena." he says genuinely. "Anything you've wanted to know. I'm right here."

And it's the truth. He is right here. But then again, he's been right here all along. From the beginning. He was always there.

And now she can't stop herself from leaning toward him. She reaches up her fingers to trail his mouth softly, running the tips of her hands over his upper and bottom lip. She traces them, studying how they feel and how warm they are. He closes his eyes and his breathing becomes ragged. "Elena.." he whispers. Her hands tangle themselves into his dark, thick hair and he finds refuge on her waist.

She presses herself to him and steals back her name from his lips.

I know, you're probably thinking "WTF?" because of the ending. But, it is what it is. I hope you enjoyed at least a little bit and you haven't smashed in your computer screen with your fist…

One-shot inspired by onerepublic- tumblr . Thank you! :) Might continue as a fic, might not. I don't know yet.