Response to the TVD Be My Valentine exchange

Prompt by aj81writing: Ok, I'm cheesy, you know that... so nothing says romance to me more than Paris. I'm thinking Elena (and Caroline (optional)) is staying at a hostel for the week, feeling bummed she doesn't have someone in her life. Mason (not optional :P ) is backpacking through Europe and staying at the same hostel. Damon can either be traveling with Mason, or he's staying somewhere else (fancy hotel suits him) and they meet on a guided tour of [insert place here], where Caroline [for example) invites him along for a pub crawl. Mason (again, not optional) is pursuing Elena, but over the course of the night, sparks fly between Damon and Elena and he makes a romantic gesture of some sort...

Language rated T, content is optional rating.

Author's note: I've had to take this in a little bit different of a direction than the original prompt. (I've never done a pub crawl...and I don't think I could really do that aspect of the story justice.) Hoping this is close enough to the original prompt. I'll admit that I had trouble working Mason and Caroline in as much as I'd originally hoped. I gave it my best shot.

Warnings: mild language, overly cheesy dialogue

"Ok, everybody, check the time. You have five hours before we meet back here." Alaric Saltzman surveyed the small group of high school seniors clustered around him as he passed out the guide maps to the Louvre. "That doesn't mean in five hours you decide you'd better be starting to make your way back to the lobby. At five o'clock, you're here...in the lobby. We're not going to stand around waiting for any of you." He gave a pointed look at Elena. "Understood?"

"We understand."

"We get it."

"Right, Mr. Saltzman."

The dozen members of the Mystic Falls High school senior class who'd made the trip to Paris over Christmas break began to pair off as they sought out areas of the museum that interested them.

"So..." Caroline unfolded her map and tapped it with her index finger. "What do we want to see first? Mona Lisa?"

Elena frowned and shook her head. "I think that's everyone's first stop." Elena closed her eyes and waved her finger above Caroline's map. Keeping her eyes shut, she plunged her finger down onto the page. "Let's start here." She slid her finger back and looked at where she pointed. "The pyramid thing."

"Works for me." Caroline folded the map and began walking toward the correct corridor with Elena at her side. "So...it seems like things are going better between y'all." She took a quick glance behind her at Mr. Saltzman.

"Ric's ok. Jenna's happy, and I can't be mad at that. I still wish I wasn't the only one here with their own personal chaperone. Matt and Dana were late last night too and they didn't get their own personal lecture." Elena rolled her eyes and reached for the stair rails as she climbed the short flight of stairs leading into the next section of the building. She breathed a sigh of relief as she saw her now step-guardian walking in the opposite direction with the rest of the teachers on the trip.

Caroline nodded as they stepped into the crowded corridor. "Jenna's probably warned him within an inch of his life not to loose sight of you. You don't really have the world's best sense of direction."

"Look who's talking." Elena gave Caroline a playful shove on the shoulder.

Caroline's cheeks flushed pink. "It's not my fault. I got Rive Droit and Rive Gauche confused."

"One means right and the other one means left." Elena laughed. "You're in your fourth year of French...how can you get those confused?"

"You were with me."

"But I've been taking Spanish." Elena hesitated as they walked into a busy open space. Oversized landscapes lined the walls and it appeared a senior citizen's tour group had gathered to view the touring exhibit of American landscape paintings. "Which way?"

"I'm not sure." Caroline raised one shoulder in confusion. "But I do know one thing." She pointed to two doors mostly hidden down a darkened hallway. "I'll be right back." She skirted through the crowd on her quest to seek out a bathroom.

"I'll be here." Elena spoke mostly to herself as she stepped to the edge of the crowd. As she moved more fully into the almost completely empty exhibit hall at the end of the corridor, she wandered the periphery of the room...taking her time to study one that caught her interest.

As she toyed with her ponytail draped over her shoulder, she stood fully-engaged in the study of the landscape in front of her. A pastoral scene, a little boy wearing torn overalls stood next to a creek while a dog sat at his side as they both overlooked a herd of cattle on the opposite shore. Soon she'd found herself completely engrossed in the painting, noticing the way the artist had mastered blending different shades of green to give the painting more depth.

But the painting wasn't the only thing under scrutiny in the room. Elena had gotten so swept up in her study of the piece, she didn't notice the two young men who'd joined her in the oversized room.

Soon, the clicking of heels echoed into the room. "Way to stay in one spot, Elena." Caroline let out an exasperated sigh as she approached her friend's side. "Do you know how big this place is?"

Elena cringed. "Sorry. I just..."

"You just saw a painting. I know." Caroline had already endured the unexpected pain of coming to Paris with her best friend who planned to major in art history in college. While Caroline's plan for the senior trip over Christmas break had involved more sightseeing of available Parisian young men...Elena actually was interested in the history of the town - not exactly a match made in heaven. She shook her head as she unzipped her purse to drop her phone back into its pouch.

"Caroline Forbes?" A somewhat familiar voice echoed in the room. A slightly scruffy young man with curly brown hair turned and looked at the two girls. As his lips parted in a grin, he revealed the hint of a gap between his front two teeth.

"Mason?" Caroline's eyes widened to half-dollars as she approached the young men. Mason's rumpled appearance stood out in contrast against his companion. With raven-black hair, and a soft leather jacket equally dark, his electric blue eyes were his most noticeable aspect of his appearance.

And those eyes were fixed on Elena. Elena felt her cheeks flush as she faced the detailed inspection as if she were one of the sculptures meant to be adored in the museum.

Mason nodded. "What are you doing here?"

"It's Christmas. I'm a senior." Caroline paused. "That means senior class trip to Paris."

"How could I forget?" Mason gave a hesitant shrug. "Of course, I was already gone by then." He stepped closer to Caroline and wrapped his arms around her...his hug lasting a little too long to be just friends. "I haven't seen you in."

"Three years." Caroline stepped back and smoothed her jacket into place. As her elbow brushed Elena's side, she was reminded that she and Mason weren't alone. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes flicked to his companion's face, she stole a glance at Elena and smiled. Ever since Elena and Matt had decided they were best when they didn't try to change their friendship into something deeper, her closest friend had been very much alone. Elena hadn't complained - much. Now, looking at the expression on Elena's face...well, perhaps they could get back to Caroline's original plan for the trip. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh." Mason adjusted his careworn backpack over his shoulder. "I'm an idiot." He cleared his throat as he turned in his friend's direction. "Sorry." Noticing the smitten look on the other young man's face, Mason stifled a laugh. "This is my friend, Damon Salvatore. He was my roommate at Camden." Elena allowed her eyes to drift slowly over Damon's appearance. He didn't exactly look the military school type. "Damon, this is Caroline Forbes and Elena..."

"Gilbert." Her chocolate brown eyes threatened to melt under the inspection of his blue ones.

"Pleasure to meet you." Damon extended his hand first to Caroline and gave it a quick shake. Then he turned to address Elena. Taking her hand in his, he held it for an instant too long for a casual greeting. His thumb caressed the back of her hand before he released it. "You like art?"

"Oh, don't even get her started..." Caroline rolled her eyes as she positioned herself closer to Mason's side. "We came here for fun...and it's like she actually wants to learn something."

Mason's laughter shook his shoulders as he reached out and patted Elena's back, his laughter deepened when he saw Damon visibly stiffen at Mason's contact with Elena. "That's the Elena I remember."

"What are you doing here?" Caroline's exuberance was immediately shushed by the museum docent who appeared in the room. She giggled as Mason wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Whispering into his ear, she repeated the question. "What are you doing here?"

Mason began to lead Caroline through the opening at the far side of the room and toward the glass double doors leading to the snow-covered courtyard in the distance. "Just made a stop to visit my good friend, Damon." Mason looked back over his shoulder to make certain Elena and Damon were following closely behind. "My father and I decided that taking a year off from college to allow myself a chance to ... mature and decide exactly what I wanted in life would be a good idea - and it would keep me from wasting more of the family money on classes when I keep changing majors."

Damon slowed his steps to allow Caroline and Mason to walk a bit ahead of them. He stopped when he noticed Elena's hesitation to leave. "You want to stay?" He motioned to the corridors lined with paintings.

Elena chewed at her bottom lip. "I don't know if I'll ever have a chance to see anything like this again."

"Well, then, maybe you'd like a guided tour?" His eyebrow arched into a hypnotizing gaze. "I happen to come here a lot." He offered his arm to her. When she took it, his smile almost melted Elena on the spot. "Mason, you two go on ahead. We'll catch up."

Caroline looked back at Elena in surprise. Her friend was always more of a playing hard to get kind of girl, so she never thought she'd discover Elena with her arm casually linked through Damon's. "Meet you back in the foyer?"

"At five." Elena nodded as she watched Caroline step into the outer courtyard. She took a hesitant breath realizing that she'd just done exactly what she'd promised Jenna she'd avoid. She was now alone...with a guy who was quite definitely older than she was, but something about his manners hastened back to the old South.

"That painting you were looking at earlier..." Damon began, "I grew up not too far from that creek."

"Really?" The Spanish moss hanging like fingers down from the trees hinted that Elena's suspicion that he was from the South might be correct.

"It's just outside of Atlanta." Damon led her back to the painting. "In the summer, when the wind blows, the grass looks like someone poured every imaginable shade of green paint onto the field. I used to sit on that little overhang," he pointed to a cliff in the distance, "with my video camera and try to capture it, but I never really could get the essence of just how alive everything was like Tilson did."

Elena stood, trying to make certain that her mouth didn't gape open. Caroline had visited the different museums reluctantly, but here she found herself with someone who knew more about the paintings than she did. "I spent a lot of time here. Our professor thought that we could only make art if we understood the work of the artists that had come before us. Sorry. I majored in film studies. " His cheeks flushed the palest shade of pink. "My father says that film studies is only good for wasting my trust fund my grandparents left me."

"That's what my aunt says about me. I'm majoring in art history. Hence..."

"The reason you want to actually look at the paintings and not make-out in the courtyard." Damon turned as he gazed out the window at Mason and Caroline who were now doing a great impression of a statue he'd seen once entitled The Two Lovers.

This time it was Elena's turn to blush. Right now, despite the once-in-a-lifetime chance to study all the paintings she'd dreamed about for the better part of two years, the only thing she wanted to examine in more detail was how soft Damon's dark hair was beneath her fingers and if his lips were really as velvety smooth as they appeared. She blinked and realized she'd been holding her breath. "Um." She licked her lips. "Right. You said you'd take me on a tour."

Elena's phone buzzed in her pocket as she wandered through the exhibit on the oldest existing section of the Louvre. She dropped her hand from Damon's arm as she dug in the topmost jacket pocket.

"Where are you?" Caroline sounded a little more than mildly irritated.

"What?"

"Did you look at the time?" Caroline's words of accusation made Elena realize she really didn't need to look at the clock, but she did anyway. Five minutes till five.

"Crap!" Elena winced as an elderly British couple whipped their heads around at her exclamation. "I have to be back in the lobby in five minutes."

Damon studied the panicked look on her face. "We'll make it." He headed straight for an unmarked door and pushed it open, revealing a staircase Elena would never have known existed. "I told you...I'm a tour guide. Really. We have to volunteer here five hours a week for one of my classes." He laced his fingers through hers as they sped up the narrow stairwell.

Elena was breathless as they exited the stairs, but she sighed with relief when she realized she was most definitely not the last member of the high school group to arrive. "Thank you." She hesitated as she looked up at Damon, not really certain how to end the fastest five hours of her life.

"It was a pleasure." Before he released her hand, he brought it to his lips and lightly brushed a kiss over her knuckles. "How much longer are you in Paris?"

Elena's face fell, giving him the answer before she spoke. "Just tonight. We fly home first thing tomorrow." She twirled a free strand of hair around her finger. "But we have two hours free for sight seeing tonight starting at eight. We don't have to stay with the group."

"Tell me where to pick you up."

"Alright, you can open your eyes now."

From the sound of Damon's voice, he'd leaned over to place the wicker basket on the ground by Elena's feet. From the time they began to walk up the hill at the Champ de Mars, he'd asked her to close her eyes and allow him to guide her. Elena blinked her eyes in an attempt to let her vision clear. A bright red blanket covered the grass beneath their feet. Since snow had begun to fall at a brisk pace around them, the normally crowded attraction was almost deserted.

"Turn a little to the left."

And then she saw it. Elena didn't know how she hadn't noticed it before. The Eiffel Tower stood proudly in the distance bedecked with white lights for the Christmas season. "It's beautiful."

"The best view in Paris." Damon's eyes traced the length of the monument. "You can't really appreciate it as well up close. It's only from here that you can really see all the detail that went into its construction." He motioned to the ground. "It'll have to be fast, but you can't come to Paris without a picnic." He opened the basket and pulled out a flask. "Don't worry, it's just hot chocolate." As he poured the steaming beverage into plastic mugs, he handed one to her. "I didn't have a lot of time to shop." Damon nodded to the contents of the basket. Grapes, cheese, and a miniature loaf of French bread were tucked inside.

"This is...perfect." Elena spread some type of soft cheese on the still-warm bread. He had to have a tiny heater in that basket somewhere. They'd spent the past hour slowly touring La Rive Gauche, the old Paris that the tour guides for the week had somehow forgotten. Along the way, Damon pointed out the actual spot along the river where Picasso sat and painted.

Also along the way, Elena discovered just how perfectly her fingers entwined with Damon's...and his step matched alongside hers. It had been the most perfect day she'd experienced in her life, and as he handed her a cluster of grapes, she realized just how soon it would be ending. Despite her best attempt to fight it, she felt her lip begin to quiver.

"Something wrong?"

"No." Elena was frustrated with the husky sound of her voice. Even though Damon had known her for less than 12 hours, he had to be able to tell something was wrong.

"Elena?" He gave her a crooked grin that caused her heart to lurch in her chest.

She sighed and leaned back into his outstretched arm. "I'm just not ready to leave."

Damon nodded slowly. This wasn't him. He didn't fall fast and hard...at least it had never been him before. But now, with Elena tucked into his arm to fight the chill in the air, he had to admit that part of him wished that he hadn't loaned Mason the keys to his apartment. Then he studied Elena. No, that wouldn't do. She wasn't a one night stand kind of girl - he could tell that from just the few moments they'd spent together. "Just remember...we'll always have Paris." He expected a groan or a fake laugh...nothing. Elena simply smiled and looked back at him. "We'll always have Paris?"

Elena hesitated, realizing she was probably supposed to understand the reference.

"Casablanca." Damon's eyes widened. "You've never seen Casablanca?"

Shaking her head, Elena frowned. "My parents were never very fond of older movies."

"That should almost be a crime." He leaned down close enough to her face that he could smell the faintest hint of rose scented perfume. She looked back at him, even in the dim evening light, he could tell that her pupils were widening with desire. He cupped her cheek in his hand and skimmed his thumb over her jaw. "I promise you...someday I'll fix that."

"You can't be serious." Caroline stalked into Elena's room and peeled off her raincoat. Her strapless fuchsia dress swirled just above her knees. "When were you planning on telling me you were skipping the Valentine's dance?"

"I thought once you got there and didn't see me, you'd figure that out for yourself." Elena lay on her belly in the midst of her bed using her teddy bear for a pillow.

"What kind of friend would I be if I let you do this?" Caroline placed a hand on her hip and shook her head.

Elena rolled her eyes up to meet Caroline's gaze. "Do what?"

"Wallow...sulk...brood...take your pick." Pulling the desk chair next to the bed, Caroline took as seat and leaned her elbows on her knees. "You have to go. You were the head of the planning committee. You spent hours decorating and picking out the playlist. And now you're not going?"

Elena reached out and squeezed Caroline's hand. "You're a great friend. And you're right...most of the time, but not today. I'm not going by myself, and I'm kind of out of options. You're going with Tyler. I could be part of a threesome with Bonnie and my brother. Or...I could be Matt's pity date since Rebekah has mono." Elena rolled her eyes. "Trust me. I'm fine. Teddy and I are planning an exciting night of watching movies."

"You're sure?" Caroline stood and hesitated in the doorway.

"Positive." Elena nodded. "I'm fine. I know Tyler's waiting, don't waste your time here. Go. Have fun." She waved goodbye as Caroline picked up her jacket and made her way out of the room.

"Elena!" Jenna's voice echoed up the stairwell as the front door closed with a chirp. "Delivery for you."

"What?" Elena wiped a single tear off her cheek as she listened to Tyler's car drive away.

"There's a package for you. Come on, don't make me walk up the stairs." Elena stepped out of her room and looked down over the half-wall at her aunt who was absently rubbing her extremely rounded belly while holding up a brown envelope. "Caroline couldn't convince you to go?" Jenna looked at her niece with concern.

"I wasn't going to the Valentine's dance alone." Elena shook her head and reached for the package. No name. No address. Strangely light. Raindrops dotted the package and fell to the floor as Elena hesitantly tore open the top of the package.

"What is it?" Jenna leaned over to try to see inside the envelope.

Elena's forehead furrowed. "A DVD." She slid the movie in to her palm and her breath caught in her chest. Casablanca. "Jenna, who delivered this?"

"A delivery guy."

Elena's heart sped in her chest. "What delivery guy?"

Jenna shrugged her shoulders. "A delivery guy...black leather jacket...dark hair."

"His eyes? Did you see his eyes?" Elena was already walking to the front door.

"Now that you mention it, they were the bluest eyes I've ever seen."

Elena didn't hear her. She was already on the porch peering into the pounding rain...and that's when she saw him. Almost a shadow under the broad expanse of the oak tree in the front porch, his lips turned up in a grin as she practically flew down the steps. He met her halfway across the yard and caught her up in his arms. "What..." Her question went unasked as his lips crashed against hers.

Her fingers tangled in his hair as he pulled her fully against him - neither felt the rain peppering down atop them. Only when her knees threatened to give out from lack of oxygen did she allow him to separate his lips from hers.

"I told you. You've never seen Casablanca. I had to fix that." He whispered against her lips as his fingers tangled in her now-dripping hair. "Happy Valentine's Day."