Principles of Better Men

…

a/n: Honestly, I want to see D/E endgame, but I'd be happy if this happened in the end of the show. Because, honestly, I don't like Elena anymore and I don't think she deserves either Salvatore brother. Stelena shippers: the moment he leaves town she falls for Damon and then goes back and forth between the two. Delena shippers: She doesn't care all that much about Damon. She plays with him, then crawls back to Stefan the moment he's available. I feel like she's become petty. In other news, Elijah is such a freaking bamf. I was cheering in my head when he confronted Elena about lying to him. :D Anyways, I hope you enjoy! Please review.

summary: "One of us has to get Elena in the end," Stefan murmurs. Damon swallows hard and asks in a painful whisper, "Do we?"

…

"Damon, answer your phone," Elena mutters angrily to herself as she paces about her room. She'd already tried calling Stefan twice, to no avail – which meant he was avoiding her, considering he always had his phone charged and on his person – and the guilt gnaws at her the moment she realizes she's unconsciously put Damon as her secondary resort. Both she and Damon knew that the only times she approached him in the past few weeks was because Stefan wasn't giving her what she wanted.

It's not fair to Damon, what you're doing. She tries to dismiss the thought, but it clings to her.

Elena knows that this is how she is. She needs people to love and appreciate her or she crumples like rose petals past their prime, scentless and shriveling. Being forced to keep away from Bonnie these past few days has already hurt her enough. She can't lose the Salvatore brothers too.

Pressing Damon's number again – she'd never admit she has it on speed-dial, but she does – Elena presses her phone to her ear and huffs worriedly, wondering how much longer he is going to be angry with her. She's already jealous, hurt more than she should be, watching him do things like sleep with Rebekah and waste his life away. She can't – won't – lose him for good. Damon wouldn't do that to her.

Why not? You've given him no indication that you need him in your life.

Sometimes Elena hates her thoughts.

She inhales shakily and sits down on the bed, covering her face in her hands.

…

"Your phone is buzzing again," Stefan comments off-handedly as he raises a glass of rabbit blood to his lips and takes a slow sip. Swallowing, he savors the taste before turning to his older brother. "I'll give you three guesses as to who it is."

Damon shrugs, "She's probably just wondering why one of us didn't go to comfort her last night. Don't think it'll kill her if we ignore her just this once." He shifts from his position on the couch, lounging out further to try and dispense the tautness in his muscles. "And by one of us, I mean you."

"You know that's not true," Stefan answers slowly. "She cares about you too."

"Not enough," Damon mutters, cradling his own glass and gulping down some bourbon, needing to drown the world away in a blur of colors. "I'm getting really tired of caring about her."

"It's only because you love her," Stefan points out, moving towards the empty fire-pit and resting his elbow on the mantle. "The moment she comes crying…just watch. You'll run back into her arms like she never hurt you in the first place."

"I was not hurt," Damon spits, the lie written across his face. "You'd do the same."

"I'm not good for Elena," Stefan repeats, the response always the same, always monotone with longing buried in his eyes. "But it doesn't matter in the end. One of us has to protect her."

"Why?" Damon breathes, feeling something crack deep within him.

"She'll die otherwise," Stefan answers, turning his back on his brother as he watches the embers die in the crackling coals. "As much as she claims to be fearless, she's all too vulnerable."

"Maybe she'll be in danger," Damon concedes, "but why do we have to be the ones protecting her, Stefan? Since when did we start revolving our lives about her, huh?" When his brother makes no comment, he barrels on ahead, hating his own words. "We're so in love with Elena that we've lost who we are without her by our side."

"You make it sound so grim," Stefan mumbles, his side profile pensive.

Damon laughs mirthlessly, "It's hardly a fairy tale, brother. Look what she does to us."

"It's not her fault –" Stefan begins, automatically protecting her honor. His face is dripping with doubt, however.

"Not directly," Damon admits, "but look at us, Stefan. Take a good, hard look, because when Elena is around, we turn into brutes consumed with fighting each other over her love."

Neither man says anything for a good long minute. Stefan's glass slips from his hand and hits the floor, rolling out of sight and staining the carpet.

"One of us has to get Elena in the end," Stefan murmurs at last, glancing down at the spreading stain. Crossing his arms, he tries to keep the vulnerability of all this off his face, but fails.

Damon swallows hard and asks in a painful whisper, "Do we?" The question sparks with questions they're not willing to answer, possibilities they haven't dared consider.

"You think Klaus was right at the dinner party," Stefan muses, "when he said that both of us are hindering her. You think –"

"I don't know what I think," Damon answers, another lie. "I'm going out. I think you have a call to make." He gives his brother a meaningful look and Stefan nods slowly, as though understanding. His lips slope down tightly.

…

Damon listens to his phone buzz for the thousandth time since this morning and finally, growing irritated, he fishes the device out of his pocket. "Hello?" he asks cordially.

"Where have you been?" Elena squawks, her voice so filled with hurt that Damon is nearly driven away from his decision. It's almost enough to make him go in and comfort her and promise that he'll be here forever.

"About," he answers vaguely. "Look, we need to talk."

"About what?" Elena shoots back sharply. "I'm sorry about what I said at the ball, Damon, but it gave you no reason to sleep with Rebekah, of all people, the little –"

"I'm not ashamed of sleeping with Rebekah," Damon cuts her off smoothly. There isn't much sound from her end for a few minutes, save Elena choking on her words and probably thinking about what a dick he is. The thought stings, but it makes him realize yet again how little she really appreciates him.

"What?" Elena chokes out finally, sniffling. "Are you trying to hurt me, Damon? Is that it?"

"You should know me better than that," he chastises, his voice tightening with rage as he continues walking up her front lawn towards the tree outside her window. "Part of me wanted to get back at you, because the moment Stefan came back into the picture you threw me away like I was worthless, but –"

"You know that I love Stefan," Elena interjects. "Don't use that against me."

"Don't act like the victim in all of this," Damon growls, letting all of his frustration pour out. "I told you how I felt, Elena. I stuck around when you were a mess, I helped you find and bring back my brother. You could have at least had the decency to let me know that there was no chance between us. But instead, you led me along like some kind of stupid pet."

"I didn't want this," is her soft response. She still hasn't apologized, Damon realizes with a heavy heart.

"What did you want, then, Elena?" Damon challenges. "I know you're not perfect. None of us are. But lately, I haven't been able to see the old Elena. You've become manipulative, sneaky, and seductive. You're the opposite of what you used to be, too much like Katherine." He can practically imagine her flinching as he brings up Katherine and he'd like to call it a low blow, but it's not. It's just the cold hard truth and she needs to hear it.

"Look, I'm sorry," Elena begins again, tears trembling in her tone. "I don't want to be like that."

"I don't think you know what you want," Damon answers steadily, biting his lip as he listens to her cry.

Elena lets out a particularly heartbreaking sob and whispers, "What are you saying, Damon? Would you at least have the decency to do it face-to-face?"

He doesn't want to see her face, but he knows he has to. "Open your window," Damon mutters, fingers tightening around the phone as she gets off her bed and swings open the window, her face drenched in tears.

"What are you doing, Damon?" Elena asks again, brushing at the tears rolling down her round cheeks. "I thought you loved me."

"I do love you Elena," Damon whispers, heart breaking again at her expression, "but that's not enough, is it? Because no matter what you say, you just keep hurting people. You make everyone feel like they can't live without you because you're scared of being alone. Klaus says the same thing, Elena. We're supposed to be fighting for justice, not acting like the ones we're condemning."

"But I do love you," Elena chokes out, covering her mouth with her hand.

"You're lying," Damon answers sadly, reaching out and touching her cheek tenderly. "You just don't want me to leave. You don't want Stefan to leave either."

"What about Stefan?" Elena asks, face paling as though she'll fall over with the news. Damon prepares to catch her if she passes out and happens to tumble over the window-still. Her fingertips grip the window-still tightly, knuckles bleaching.

"Stefan had a conversation with Elijah," Damon tells her kindly, stroking his thumb over her cheek and wishing that he didn't want her so badly right now. All he's dreamed about in the past number of months is holding this girl in his arms, only she's not the girl he fell in love with. Elena's been twisted with fear, with regret, with anger, and he can't recognize this girl crying in front of him. "In exchange for peace and forgiveness, Stefan asked Elijah to protect you here in Mystic Falls."

"You actually think that's going to work?" Elena asks with a terrifying laugh, her face morbid. "Rebekah told me herself that she wants to prolong her revenge and watch me suffer. The moment you leave, she'll kill me and you know it. Her brothers won't be able to keep her back and Esther is most likely lurking around waiting to use my blood again."

"Why are you so determined to hate them?" Damon asks, watching her face fall. "Technically, you did stab Rebekah, and we both know what kind of temper she has when trifled with. But that doesn't mean that she, Elijah and Klaus don't want peace. They're as tired of running as we are, except we know how to settle down once all the danger is gone. They've spent their whole life running, Elena. It's not as easy for them."

"But why would they help us?" Elena asks, much more subdued this time. "We've betrayed them so many times."

"We're creatures of the night," Damon comments with a taut smirk. "It's kind of a part of our repertoire, the whole threatening to rip everyone's heart out. That doesn't mean they don't want to live life. You just have to know how to persuade them."

"That's why you send Stefan," Elena replies, wiping her cheeks. "He's always been the more eloquent one."

"I'm hurt," Damon jokes wryly, giving her a look which makes the smile flee those plump lips. "Rebekah agreed not to touch you. They'll keep an eye out for Esther or any danger, protect you even at the risk of their own life. Elijah promised."

"If any part of his family is threatened," Elena says, "he'll betray me. He even admits to it." She waves a cream envelope in the air. "He left me a little letter apologizing for his loyalty to his family." She gives Damon a searching look, as if asking if she really set the two Salvatore brothers against each other. He nods in response to her silent inquiry and she bites her lip, looking tortured.

"What about you?" Elena asks weakly. "What about Stefan? Why can't you just stay here like you always have. I can stop coming over if that's what you really want." She sounds completely against the idea. Not surprising.

"It's time for us to go," Damon tells her honestly. "If we stay in this town any longer, we'll kill ourselves fighting over you and that's not right. I don't want to hurt you, but I can't just keep the truth from you. I'm sorry." He leans forward, unable to help himself, unable to keep the emotions tangling like cobras in his heart silenced. Elena watches him draw close and Damon sighs with some kind of complicated feeling as his lips brush hers.

"Please stay," Elena begs softly when he pulls back. "Please don't go. I don't want you to go."

"I know you don't want us to go," Damon answers, running a hand through her luscious hair. "This is for you too, Elena. I can't stand seeing you hurt like this, and it was all caused the moment we moved into town. Having us gone will give you a chance to rebuild your life with normal people."

"What about Caroline and Bonnie?" Elena cries, anger finally beginning to sink in. "I can't just forget that all of this happened. I'll never – I'll never recover from it."

He meets her hopeless, traumatized brown eyes and asks clearly, "Would you like me to compel you to forget?"

Elena shakes her head vigorously. She begins to cry so hard Damon really is scared that she'll going to fall out of the window. "I don't want to be this person," she repeats brokenly. "I don't like this person."

"Neither do I," Damon says, kissing her forehead. "I love you."

"We always survive," she whispers into his ear, clutching his left hand tightly in hers for just a second and reminding him of the old, beautiful Elena. "I promise that to you. I'll try to find myself again."

"I can't promise I'll be back," Damon tells her, needing her to understand the gravity of the situation.

As he disappears into the night, his ears drumming with the sound of her heart-wrenching sobs, Damon feels like the worst person in the world. He briefly considers driving a stake through his heart, but knows that it won't only counteract what he's trying to prove in this moment as he walks away. Stefan is supposed to meet him with the car at the outskirts of town, hopefully, and then they'll just drive. They'll get away from this mess, find themselves and what they're fighting for again.

But Damon doesn't think he'll ever be able to get Elena's last broken look, last soundless cry out of his head.

…