Author's note: This is for a friend who crafted a lovely signature for me with very little "help" from me.
Yes, this is JUST a one-shot...it will not merge into another full-blown story. Writing three at a time on top of my "day job" is my limit.
Enjoy!
Damon thrust his hands deeper into his pockets as he rounded the overly familiar corner. Just like every night, the Gilbert house came into view as he stepped from beneath the glow of the street light.
Just like every night, he wasn't sure why he was here.
The first brown leaves of fall crunched under his feet as a black cat darted across his path. Shaking his head, he glared at the furry creature. He didn't need any more bad luck.
Ric's car was in the driveway. Of course, he could count on a single finger the number of nights that Ric hadn't been with the Gilberts since they'd lost Jenna. He only stayed away on Jenna's birthday...his pain still to raw to share that night.
He waved to Sheriff Forbes as her cruiser crawled by mid-patrol. When your daughter was a vampire, suddenly it wasn't as important to be home at night. The first few times Liz had happened upon him during his evening constitutional, she'd stopped him to see what he was doing. However, as the nights went on and no animal attacks happened on the streets surrounding the Gilbert house, she seemed to realize that a different kind of hunger drew him here each evening.
Damon leaned against the oak tree just below Elena's window. It wasn't as if he didn't get to see her. No, she'd spent most of the days of the summer at the boardinghouse. Her home had too many ghosts - literally and figuratively.
Elena's thoughts were haunted by Stefan. That was easy to see. If she had to go upstairs, she never touched the door to the room where she'd spent so many nights over the past year. Instead, her heart sped as she darted like a cat across the span of the doorway. She froze each time the news mentioned the rising body count from the serial killer who'd announced his presence by killing one of their own. Elena stood at Damon's side when he'd visited Andie's grave.
Elena wasn't all doom and gloom though.
Throughout the summer, as she looked over college application packets, he'd caught a glimpse of his Elena - the one he'd met in Georgia...the person Caroline said she'd missed.
As the days went on, Elena stopped turning expectantly at every creak of the old house. She smiled more. She seemed to actually believe she had a future.
And, despite those nine little words she'd said to him that night before she'd kissed him, he knew it didn't include him. But that's where she was wrong. His life would always be entangled with hers - even if she didn't know it. Until her last breath, he'd be there for her.
That's why he was here now. Just like every night, he stood sentry beneath her window...waiting. His brother might be caught up in the intensity of the blood, but someday her face would break through the haze. And Damon would be ready.
The sheets tangled around her legs, preventing her from wrapping them around his back. He growled in frustration as he flipped them over, his hands never leaving their home on her skin. Caught up in the heat of the moment, he gave her neck a final lick before allowing his teeth to lightly graze her skin. A soft moan escaped her lips as she tangled her fingers in his raven-black hair.
Raven-black hair?
Elena shot up in bed, heart still pounding from the dream. She pulled her knees into her chest and cradled her head down to meet them. After waiting for her head to separate fantasy from reality, she slid out of bed and stared out the window, searching for the shadow she knew lurked in the darkness.
Without even stopping to pull on a jacket, she stormed down the stairs and silently cracked the door open so she didn't wake Alaric. Then, she turned and unleashed her fury on the man standing in the middle of her side yard. "This has to stop, Damon." Her voice echoed through the quiet street.
Damon's eyebrows shot up as he tried to settle on an appropriate line-of-sight. Dressed only in a camisole and barely-there boy shorts with sweaty curls spilling over her shoulders, Damon finally settled on staring at the front door instead of looking at Elena. "Stop what?" His eyes flashed as he smirked.
"You know what." She crossed her arms and puffed out her chest. Damon focused on her flushed cheeks and not the hint of a crevice leading down into her camisole.
He leapt onto the porch. "Actually, I don't."
Elena blinked in shock as she backed away from him until her calves brushed up against the cushioned porch swing. She ran her fingers through her hair as she brushed it out of her face. Clearly caught off-guard, she stammered. "I'm so sorry."
"So what was I being accused of doing?"
She hid her face behind her hand. "Nothing. Ugh. I was still asleep. Pretend like this didn't just happen."
"Nope." His curiosity piqued, he wasn't going to let it drop. "How did you even know I was out here?"
Elena inclined her head in his direction. "That one I'll answer." She flashed a shy smile. "I spent a lot of time looking over my shoulder last year, Damon. Sleep..." she shrugged her shoulders, "never came easily, even after Klaus was gone. One night, I was pacing in my room, and I saw you out here. I looked for you the next night...and the next...and the one after that." She bit her lip. "I could finally sleep. I knew you were here."
His ice blue eyes stared into hers. "So why were you mad at me?"
Elena frowned. "Really. It was a mistake. You wouldn't do that."
"Do what?"
"I was dreaming." Elena's face flushed scarlet to match her shirt, and her heart threatened to explode out of her chest.
Damon gave a naughty smile. "Must have been some dream."
Elena coughed as her eyes widened. "It was."
"That's all I need to hear." He held up his hand. "I don't need to know what you and Stefan were doing."
Elena chewed her lip as her cheeks threatened to invent a new shade of red. "Stefan...wasn't there." Her chocolate brown eyes fixed on him. "Hence my outburst." Damon began to protest until she plunged on. "But that's why I know I was wrong. You wouldn't do that. Everything between us has been real...unlike your brother." The flush left her cheeks as a wounded expression filled her eyes. "Did I ever really know him?"
"You knew the man he wanted to be." Damon shrugged his shoulders, wishing he had a better answer for her.
Elena shook her head. "I don't think I ever really knew him at all." She swallowed, emboldened by the cool night air and the lingering aftereffects of her dream. "But I know you." She reached for his hand. "I meant what I said that night."
Now they were in dangerous territory. As if by unspoken agreement, whether from guilt or something else, they'd never mentioned that discussion as they both thought he was dying.
Elena's eyes held him captive as she squeezed his fingers. "I didn't know him, but I do know you."
Damon frowned and shook his head. His voice took on a gravelly edge. "You don't know me."
She nodded. "I do. You're passionate, and you don't always think before you act. You're the one everyone turns to when they're too afraid to do something." Elena turned her doe eyes on him. "You loved me so much you were willing to let me hate you to keep me alive." She swallowed thickly and shifted closer to him on the bench. Tilting her face ever so slightly to the side, she brought her face closer to his. "How'd I do?"
Her pupils wide in the darkness of the night, she fixed her eyes on his as she waited - her lips puckered slightly with anticipation. Damon couldn't find words appropriate for an answer. He'd always been a man of action, and he didn't hesitate.
His lips crashed against hers with a fire and intensity borne of a man long-denied satisfaction. Her fingers tangled in his hair as her lips turned up in the barest hint of a grin. His hands caressed her cheeks and she sighed into his embrace.
Reluctantly, he pulled away. "When did this happen?"
"I don't know." She looked so innocent. "But tonight, I didn't see you out the window for a minute. I thought you were gone...and I realized something. The thought of losing you hurt more than it did to lose Stefan."
Damon shook his head. "You haven't lost him."
Elena shrugged. "I'm not sure if I ever really had him." She took a breath. "That last day...I told Stefan that I didn't know what love is, but I was wrong. Love is stepping back and watching to see if someone is about to crumble. It's standing eight hours in the rain under someone's window to make sure nothing goes bump in the night." She placed a kiss on Damon's lips. "It's the way I feel I feel about you."
Damon started to speak, but she held a finger to his lips.
"Once I told you that it would always be Stefan. I was wrong. I was fighting so hard to hold onto what I thought love was that I didn't realize what was real." She rested her palm on his cheek. "I didn't want to be Katherine. And I'm not. She wanted both of you. I don't." Her eyes widened and pooled with emotion. "I love you, Damon."