Disclaimer: TVD is owned by LJ Smith and the fine folks at the CW. The title is taken by Joanna Newsom's "Soft as Chalk."
A/N: My last TVD fic, written a month ago and I finally decided to get it in before Tuesday. Might be a little mistake-y. Try not to judge too terribly hard.
A year ago their roles were reversed. Elena gripped Caroline's slack hand a little tighter at that thought. The Mystic Falls hospital was always bustling, it seemed. On the other side of the bed Matt laid his head at the foot of the bed. He left her side for work and when the orderlies kicked him out after visiting hours were over (though sometimes they let him stay a little longer, depending on how distraught he looked that day).
The doctors could not figure out what was wrong with her, which only strengthened Bonnie's assertion that it was a mystical problem. At least, that was what she'd told Elena the couple times they'd ran into each other at the hospital. Otherwise Bonnie mostly steered clear of Elena, especially after everything that had happened with Katherine.
Elena's phone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out. Speaking of... Elena sighed and hit the ignore button. Of all the people she would talk to right now, Damon was at the bottom of that list. Another aftermath of Hurricane Katherine. She gave Caroline's hand one last squeeze and left the hospital room. She was meeting Stefan and hopefully Jeremy in thirty minutes.
"You're avoiding me."
The heat was sweltering. Her hair was sticky and her shirt clung to her back. This was not how she wanted to step outside. "I'm not avoiding you."
"I watched you ignore my phone call."
Elena quirked an eyebrow at the elder Salvatore. "Embracing your inner stalker, I see." She opened her purse to fish for her keys as she walked towards her car. Why had she parked so far away?
Damon stepped into stride with her. "You hold a grudge mighty well. I'm impressed with your dedication."
She let out a long sigh. "I'm not in the mood for this, Damon. I'm late to meet Stefan."
"Jeremy's fine, Stefan is still torturing himself and dining on kittens. You're not missing anything."
Elena whirled around to face him. He was smirking at her and she wanted to hurt him. "What do you want, Damon? Are you here to apologize for Katherine, for thinking she was me? To maybe see how Caroline is doing? What is it?"
"Is it so hard to believe that I missed my best friend?" He gave her the most innocent look he could muster. "Oh, if looks could kill, Miss Elena, I would be pierced through the heart by your wrath."
"So you think you can come here and confront me in the hospital parking lot and be cute to get your way out of this?" She shook her head. "You really thought that this was a good idea?"
Damon grinned at her. "You do think I'm cute! I knew it, but it's nice to hear it out loud once in a while, make a guy think you're still interested."
"You're incorrigible," she muttered.
"Someone's been studying for the SATs," he sang.
Elena resisted the urge to stamp her foot and tear her hair out. "Damon, seriously, do you have anything of importance to say? Or is this another tactic to infuriate me, and possibly have me die of heat stroke?"
"Oh, come on, Elena, you're not really that mad."
"That mad? Are you kidding me?" Elena stormed over to him and looked him dead in the eye, invading his personal space as he seemed to love to do to her. "You told me over and over about how Katherine and I are nothing alike, yet you mistook her for me – twice! And now Bonnie won't talk to me again and Caroline is in the hospital and my brother is a vampire and Stefan acts like I might shatter at any moment and it's all your fault!" As she ranted, the tears that gathered in her eyes spilled over onto her cheeks.
Damon sighed and kicked himself as he gathered her up in his arms. This feeling crap was what had gotten them in this mess in the first place, yet here he was, letting them take over his life for the first time in a century and a half. As she continued to heave into his chest – and damn, her hair smelled like coconut and hospital, wasn't that an interesting combination? – he slipped the car keys out of her hand and led her to the passenger seat of her car.
He started the car and let the cool air of the air condition fill up the tiny space. "It's like a million degrees in here," she muttered.
"That's a bit of an overstatement, wouldn't you say?"
She turned her head sharply to glare at him. "Sorry, I can still feel temperature," she snapped.
He held up his hands in a protective manner. "I'm here on a peace mission." She looked at him quizzically, but let him continue. "I can't believe I'm actually about to say this, but I'm sorry."
"You're sorry?" she repeated skeptically.
"Well, kind of. It's all kind of new, to be honest. But that thing with Katherine... Elena, I didn't think she'd come back. You know I'd never intentionally hurt you. And I wanted..." he trailed off and looked away, "I wanted it to be you," he finished.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
"Well, yes."
"Damon, the reason she came here was because of you. You told Isobel to come here herself. And then you wanted her to be me? It's flattering, but it's not enough," she replied, sounding defeated as she said it. He opened his mouth to respond to what she'd said, but at her look he closed it again. "And don't even get me started on selfish it is that you would want to ruin mine and Stefan's relationship."
His eyes met her sharply. Between a rock and a hard place – tell the girl you want her for different selfish reasons, or let her believe it was part of a convoluted Evil Plan to make Stefan rue the day.
Damon chose option C. "You caught me. I wanted to ruin the relationship with the one person in this town who will stand up to a pissed off vamp to save me." He made a show of rolling his eyes at the absurdity of what he'd just said.
"But you just admitted to kissing Katherine thinking it was me," Elena protested.
He groaned. "Are you ever going to give this up?"
Despite her frustration with Damon, she felt it easy to slip back into old habits with him, and couldn't help but smile a little as she shot back, "I thought you of all people would know how stubborn I am."
"A trait I once found cute is now becoming wearisome." But he smirked at her all the same.
"That flirty eye thing is not going to get you out of this one."
"But it has an effect, otherwise you wouldn't mention it all the time." He leaned back in his seat triumphantly.
"Whatever you need to feel better." The tone was light, but she sobered it up once the words had been said aloud. "Damon, you've never lied to me."
He shrugged, face impassive. "No time like the present."
"That's not funny." And she glared at him again. She was really good at that, he noted. Almost too good.
And what was it that doctor on TV said like it was his catchphrase? Ah yes, everybody lies. Dead or alive, eventually someone lies to spare another person. So he did. "I went to see Jeremy that night, to tell him about Anna – which you already know, thanks to his big undead mouth – and when I was leaving, you were on the porch. So in a rare moment of weakness that I can only attribute to the vervain and smoke inhalation, I told you that I was grateful that I had somehow ended up on the list of people in this one horse town that you fight to save."
Damon paused for dramatic effort, hoping to really sell it, when Elena jumped in. "You kissed me because you were feeling sentimental? I mean, her. That narrative is really confusing."
"I wanted to know if you kissed like her. When you showed up to Founder's Day wearing that period dress, I just had to know." With more playfulness in his voice than during his confession he added, "For the record, you totally do."
Elena rolled her eyes, but cracked a smile. It was small, but a smile nonetheless. "I see it hasn't affected your dark sense of humor."
"Oh, you know me, Elena, my humor is the only thing keeping my facade up. Underneath this cool exterior, I'm just a lost little boy waiting-" he cut himself off and snapped his fingers "-oh right, that's my brother I'm thinking of. My bad, I'm always getting us confused." He smirked at her again.
"You're an ass," she muttered.
"Guilty as charged," he sang as he started up her car and put it into reverse, then almost crashed it when he felt her hand on his.
"This hasn't changed anything," she told him. "I'm still upset. And now more confused than I was ten minutes ago. We're never going to be anything but friends, I hope you know. But it's a start."
He did the eye-thing again, just to watch her crinkle her nose in that adorable way, and brought her hand up to his lips. "Just friends. Bestie."
"Bestie?"
"I'm down with the slang the kids use these days."
She laughed. "Sure you are, old man."
"Who are you calling old? In my day, we didn't disrespect our elders like that, young lady. I oughta bend you over my knee," he playfully threatened, leering at her.
"And this is the part where you take me to Stefan," she replied with another eye roll, finally removing her hand from his.
"As you wish, Ms. Daisy." He backed the car out of the parking lot. Just friends, sure. Elena would be his by the end of the summer, he all but guaranteed it.