Authors note: The parts that are in italics are flashbacks to the past. I'm writing this for my friend and posting it on here was the easiest way to share it with her. So, I hope she likes it and if anyone else happens to like it also then awesome :)

I'm having trouble figuring out how to format it though on this site so I can't seem to double space it or make the lines less close together, sorry for that; I'm not very tech savvy.

So, I don't own Damon Salvatore or Stefan or anything else from vampire diaries by the way.

When returning to mystical falls after such a great deal of time Damon Salvatore never expected the number of reminders of his past to reach as high as the number years spent away from home. Katherine's doppelgänger, his brother, the founding families but most of all he would have never imagined being able to see the only woman other than Katherine that he allowed himself to love again. But there she was, siting in the middle of town watching the people go by, no one paying her any mind as if she was a hallucination his mind. But as he watched on from afar, he realized it was unmistakably her who was sitting there in the flesh, impossible as it may have been. Even when aging slowly, witches didn't live this long and they certainly didn't look that good, as if no time had passed between the last time he saw her and now. He followed her as she walked around town, taking in the changes and the similarities from the time they had lived there. He wanted to stay hidden, he didn't want anyone in town paying attention to him or knowing he was there until it was closer to the night of the comet. Couldn't have Saint Stefan realizing his intentions of freeing Katherine, not that he could stop Damon from freeing his true love, but it would make it more difficult if his brother knew of his presence in town before planned. Even with his devotion to Katherine and his plan he couldn't help but to react when she dropped money on the ground accidentally as she was pulling out her phone. Before she was able to even fully turn around, Damon was standing there with her bill in hand, trying to contain his smirk as he waited for her expression to change into one of recognition. But it never came, instead she looked at him with surprise yes, but instead of knowing who he was she gave him a questioning stare as she wondered why he was gazing intensely at her while only inches from her face.

~1869~Damon walked along the darkened streets, hunting for the most rotten type of person he could find to eat. Although he knew he was choosing to rid the world of evil by targeting rapists, thieves, and other low forms of life he still felt ashamed, knowing that no matter what the man who he decided to choose to eat has done, he will still be more of a monster for feeding from them until their death. He could hear the men before he saw them, stumbling down a distant street, he headed for that direction only to nearly bump into a woman closing the door on a small corner store. Damon nodded his top hat politely only to stop in his tracks, no longer interested in the dinner he was after. She looked at him, squinting in shocked bewilderment, "Damon?" she questioningly gazed at him before recognition and amazement covered her features.

After clearing her throat, Damon finally snapped his attention back to reality. "I believe this is yours" holding out the money for her to take, but never once removing his eyes from her face as she thanked him with an uncertain expression before bidding him a good day and turning around to walk away. Damon hardly realized what he was doing until the woman snapped back around to face him, looking from his hand on her wrist to his face with a harsh interrogating glare. "What?" "Let me buy you a drink" "We're not even close to a bar and yet you still ask me that? No thank you" She tried to walk away but his grip was still on her, "Coffee then" "I don't drink coffee" "tea" "I'm not thirsty" "lunch then" Damon suggested with a playful smirk and slight tilt of his head. "let go" He released her arm and raised his eyebrows at her, still with a silly smirk on his lips "Oh come on Tonya" Her nose scrunched up as her eyes visibly darkened, black filling them completely as her body tensed up. Although not frightened Damon took a step back, taken off guard that the powerful witch he once knew was now a vampire. That explains the lack of aging he thought as her eyes went back to normal. "How do you know my name?" "Let me buy you a drink and I'll tell you" Damon's smirk grew as he mentally patted himself on the back for forever being the charmer he was. His eyes squinted with the stab at his ego as she once again denied him by telling him to go to hell and racing off before his eyes could follow where she ran off to. Cursing under his breath Damon looked around to see if anyone noticed before taking off himself, suddenly remembering his original plan of being inconspicuous.

~The amazement and friendliness disappeared from her face before she turned and stormed away from the young vampire. Snatching her hand with his own hand, Damon hadn't expected her to gasp and blankly stare at him for a minute. But as the seconds passed her expression flickered with an almost undetectable hint of concern before it became filled with hostility and he found himself wishing for her blank look again instead. "Don't touch me Damon" she snarled while attempting to rip her hand away but with no luck as Damon held it tightly. "Please Tonya" The pleading in his eyes was almost enough to cause her to falter, in the five years she had not seen him she had forgotten how consuming a simple look from him could be. "You have no right to lay your hands on me!" He released her hand, maintaining a sad but hopeful appearance similar to that of a beggar, "At least allow me to escort you to your home, you may abhor my presence now but as a gentleman I cannot leave you to roam the dangerous streets alone at night, I need to know you'll be safe." "You sir are no gentleman" Although hurt, Damon couldn't help but to gently smile at her, "surely you must think more of me than the drunk scums lurking around the cities corners?" "I would rather take my chances with the worst of them than be in your company." Allowing his hurt to get the best of him he could no longer speak to her calmly, "Don't be daft!" Instantly after yelling at her he fell to his knees, his tall hat tumbling on to the wet ground as he clutched his head in agony. He had never felt such a burning pain in his life and as quickly as it came it faded leaving him in a groggy state, "I can handle it." His dazed expression had a heartbreaking, defeated air as he glanced up at her, with one look she struggled to stay angry with him, she still loved him; his pain was her pain and as much as she hated it she was just as susceptible to him as she had been when she was 13. "Please Miss. Tonya, allow me to…" She had begun to stroll onwards, leaving Damon in a state of confusion until she called over her shoulder, "Are you accompanying me or not Mr. Salvatore?"~