Hey!

Yes, yes, I am working on my other stories (especially Dark Angel) but I was suddenly struck by inspiration, and I just had to write it. I heard the song Living in a moment, and it kinda made me want to write this. It's a great song; if you're a Leyton fan then you should definitely go on Youtube and look this video up (Leyton – Living in a moment).

I hope you like this!

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Diaries or the song Living in a moment by Ty Herndon

Living in a moment

Damon Salvatore was a monster.

Everyone said so, even his brother. He killed so many people he had lost count. He would never admit this, but he even felt guilty because he sometimes didn't even kill people because he was hungry; he did it for fun.

He hadn't been a bad person, not before Katherine. In fact, apart from a cheeky mouth, Damon would have said he was a good kid, better than most of the younger adults these days. But of course, that didn't matter, did it? People didn't look at what he had done before; all they saw was the people he killed, and that immediately made up their minds.

He was a monster, end of.

Well the world just lost two lonely people

The world just lost, two broken hearts

The odds were against it but baby, here were are

In our own little place in our own little corner

This old cold world just got a little warmer

For the rest of my life I'm gonna hold you in my arms

When he was a child, Damon had never been the favourite. Maybe that would have been different if his mother was alive, but she had died due to an infection after giving birth to Stefan.

Not that Damon had resented Stefan for that. Though it was Damon's first loss and his second worst, he didn't blame Stefan. As soon as he had been born, Damon knew he had to be a brother to him. After all, he didn't have a mother.

But Damon's father favoured Stefan. Throughout his childhood Damon was forced to swallow back his resentment towards his brother. Damon and his father constantly got into arguments about how he should behave, how disobedient he was being. Of course, Stefan never had this problem: he was always the good, obedient son. His father doted on the youngest Salvatore, holding him up as a shining example. Oh, how Damon hated his father! His rage still burnt a hole in his stomach, even now. Nonetheless Damon pushed it away, his desire to be a good brother outweighing everything else. After all, it still wasn't Stefan's fault.

But then she came.

When Damon returned from the army (after vowing never to go back) he was met happily by his brother. Then, to his surprise, a young woman appeared. She was absolutely stunning, with her dark brown haired in ringlets, matching her intoxicating coffee coloured eyes. She swayed her hips as she walked, taunting every man in sight.

And, just like that, Damon fell in love.

Even when she revealed to be a vampire, Damon didn't care, he was so far gone in love with her. All he wanted was to be with her forever.

But so did Stefan. Stefan, his perfect, younger brother, wanted Katherine. Though it bothered Damon, it didn't matter; Katherine loved him. But then Stefan hinted to their father – their father – that Katherine was a vampire. She got taken away, and believed to be dead.

That moment Damon felt his heart break, and the resentment inside of it overwhelmed him, changing him into the monster he was now.

If I never get rich, on what money can buy

It don't matter to me and I'll tell you why

I got it all when I'm holding you this way

I'll live to love you, I'd die to keep ya

Safe inside these arms that need you

I'll be loving you with the very last breath I take

When Katherine was gone, Damon believed his life was over. It was amazing how something so small and sleek as a bullet could kill you, yet something as big such as a broken heart still enables you to live, though by all rights you should be dead.

For years, a century even, Damon pined for her. Attempting to force the memories away, he drank, gambled, slept with women – and killed. Yes, he killed many people. At first he did it because he was hungry, then he did it because it got to Stefan – then he did it because he couldn't think of any reason not to. Hence, he was a monster, but he'd already explained that.

After opening the tomb, he had come to the conclusion that Stefan was (urgh!) right: Katherine was a bad person; worse than being a vampire. She had used Stefan and toyed with Damon for her own amusement. He hated her and Damon hated himself. He hated her because of what she did to him, and he hated himself because he still loved her.

And yet...

Elena Gilbert had somehow got mixed into all this. Elena, who could be Katherine's twin. Elena, who set aflame something inside of him that he had believed to have long since died.

It was not love at first sight, like it had been with Katherine. He regarded her with curiosity, but not love. His motive was to annoy Stefan, drive him crazy thinking history was repeating itself. And yet it actually was repeating itself, as he slowly began to fall in love with her. Seeing her upside down in a car had his heart hammering, had him checking over her for broken bones; watching her dance round half drunk in Atlanta caused him to have more fun than he'd had in weeks; having her betray his trust hurt more than anything else in a long time; and having her come to him, offering to help, meant more to him than anything else in his life.

Damon found the wall, the shield he had constructed, quietly and carefully begin to crumble. Before he knew it, once again he found himself drowning in coffee coloured eyes.

Ashes to ashes, dust into dust

I'll lay beside you, forever in love

Elena was not expecting it when Damon flew into her bedroom. Papers from her desk scattered over the floor, jumbling together. "Damon!" Elena thundered, jumping off her bed. "I organised those!"

Damon rolled his cobalt eyes. "C'mon Elena, it's only schoolwork."

"It's important, Damon."

"There are more important things." His eyes rested on her.

Elena didn't say anything – how could she rebut it? Instead she swiftly changed the topic. They talked throughout the night, about anything and everything. By midnight they had laughed so many times their stomachs hurt and their eyes watered. "You have to go home," Elena informed him, leading Damon downstairs.

"Come on Elena, who cares? Live a little."

"How ironic, coming from you."

Standing in the hall, Elena tried to shove Damon towards the door. He dragged his feet, reluctant. Turning to her, he couldn't see her eyes. More than anything, he needed to see those eyes; those coffee coloured eyes that held so much innocence and love; that held the hope of something better.

"Wait." Elena glanced up, as if she had been expecting it. He lifted his hand and pulled the hair from her face. She looked up at him, and their eyes met. He could see her desire for him inside them, and was sure she could see his eagerness inside his.

They wanted each other.

But pride and loyalty stood in the way. Elena's pride and her loyalty to Stefan. "You should go, Damon." It was not a demand by any means, but Damon felt himself walking to the door. If she didn't want to, then he couldn't.

Half behind the door, he turned back to her. "Goodnight Elena."

She sent him a small smile, filled with regret. "Goodnight Damon."

A few minutes after he left, Elena heard a knock on the door. She opened it to find Damon on the other side.

He looked up at her, and she saw in his eyes something that she hadn't expected: adoration, need, desire...love? She wasn't sure at the last one, but no words needed to be spoken between them.

Nothing mattered; there was no time line anymore. They were simply living in a moment, and in the moments after that. For them, time was nothing more than a string of moments.

And when they carve my stone all they'll need to write on it
Is once lived a man who got all he ever wanted
Tell me something, who could ask for more
Then to be living in a moment
Loving every minute
Tell me something, who could ask for more
Then to be living in a moment you would die for

Early that morning Damon woke up. A little dazed, he glanced round the bedroom. He immediately recognised it to be Elena's bedroom, a room that he knew off by heart: from the cigarette marks on the wooden floor when Caroline and Elena tried smoking for the first (and last) time; to the tiny heart that she had marked on the skirting board of her bedroom when she was little.

Looking to the side, he couldn't believe his eyes. Was it...? Elena was lying next to him, her hair a beautiful mess. Before he could stop himself, he smiled, unable to believe his good fortune.

His arm was underneath her. Being careful not to wake her, he tugged her towards him. She rolled over, her head resting on his chest. Her eyes fluttered and she frowned, but then she took a deep breath and relaxed, her mouth forming a satisfied smile.

Okay, so Damon Salvatore was a monster. But right now, he was living in the moment. And you couldn't be a monster if you were living in the moment, right?

It was then that Damon knew, immediately, that nothing else mattered anymore; not being a monster, not Katherine, not even the half life he lived. He could say with certainty that he would die, time after time, just so he could have one moment with Elena.

Living in a moment

I would die for