Author's Note: I don't own anything. I make no profit. Reviews and helpful suggestions are desired and loved. Flaming is not. Thanks for taking the time! -Alex
Damon listened as Elena's breathing slowed. He was sure now that she had fallen asleep. Stefan, though, he knew was awake. Damon could hear him lying still in the cell, probably attempting to suffocate himself with guilt. Not having anything supportive to say to his broody little brother, Damon stood up and touched Elena's shoulder to stir her awake.
"Hmmm" was Elena's only response. Damon looked down at her for a moment and sighed, remembering how long she had slept after passing out on their road trip to Georgia. He was tired of being down here in the dank basement that had been his prison not so many months ago, but he wasn't leaving Elena alone with his half-vervain/half-human blood filled brother. Even if Stefan was behind bars, Damon still wasn't sure which elixir was more potent in the vampire's system.
Damon reached down, scooped Elena up, and in her sleep she curled herself to him as he carried her up the stairs into the main house. Holding her close against him, Damon inhaled her shampoo and recalled what it was like dancing with her earlier that very night. He had stepped in for his missing/contestant-munching brother because he couldn't bear the thought of Elena's face at being stood-up and embarrassed by her perfect boyfriend. But when Damon saw her come down the stairs in that blue dress with her hair in curls, only his sharp intake of breath and the immediate scent of Elena that flooded through him, reminded him that she was not Katherine.
She looked so much like his lost love that Damon almost lost his focus as he tried to remember the dance steps that Elena and Stefan had spent the past week rehearsing. As Damon stared into her eyes, seeking some acknowledgement of what she was doing to him, of what Katherine had done to him, he heard her heartbeat speed up. Just a small reminder that the woman dancing across from him, the woman he was almost touching, was not Katherine. She was Elena, and Elena was afraid of something- that was the emotion he was reading off her. What was she afraid of? She was dancing with the scariest monster here. He wouldn't hurt her. Not now anyway. She was his last physical link to Katherine, his lover, his tormentor, the only woman to ever control Damon Salvatore.
As the couples finally embraced, beginning to waltz across the dance floor, Damon shivered at Elena's touch. It was soft, delicate, and waiting to be lead. This was a dance after all, and Elena was looking to Damon to lead it. Gathering his composure quickly so that no one but Elena even noticed its absence, Damon made Elena feel like she was flying across the balcony. He heard her laugh as they danced and met her eyes. There was nothing but happiness in them. She was delighted to be dancing in his arms, and her smile told him there was no other place she'd rather be. In that instant Damon knew that she wasn't Katherine, and he was glad.
When he reached the living room, Damon paused, torn between putting his slumbering load down on the sofa for the night or taking her upstairs to bed. He chuckled at the thought of her waking up in his bed, lost and unaware of her surroundings. That settled it. A gentleman would never make his lady sleep on the couch when there was such a luxurious and potentially sinful alternative. Damon sped up the stairs careful not to stir his precious bundle. Elena murmured something incomprehensible in her sleep as he carried her down the hall to his bedroom.
"What was that?" Damon whispered, trying to find out what Elena was dreaming. Damon stopped as she wrapped her arms more tightly around him and nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, breathing him in. When she didn't move herself anymore, Damon took a deep breath then moved at vampire speed to get her into bed. He untangled her from himself and laid her carefully out on the bed just as the bedroom door swung shut a loud thud.
Cursing his hurry, Damon looked down just as Elena's eyes opened. It was amazing, almost like having Katherine back in his bedroom after so long. His heart lifted a little as Elena smiled. Then her eyes focused, and she became aware of her surroundings. Damon turned around and busied himself in the closet.
"Am I in your bedroom Damon?"
"I couldn't very well leave you to sleep on the basement floor, could I? What if Saint Stefan woke up with a craving for Elena-blood and I'd gone off to find my own town council approved breakfast?" Damon replied as he rummaged through the top shelf of the closet. The night's events came flooding back to Elena, and she shivered, just in time for Damon to turn around with an extra blanket. "Sorry if it's a bit dusty," Damon said with a smirk, unfolding the deep green plush-looking fabric, "I don't really get cold."
Elena sat up and scooted back into the pillows at the head of the bed. "Stefan could have killed that girl," she said in horror.
Damon put the blanket on top of her and began tucking it in around her. "He would have eaten her for dinner and tried to have you for dessert if your little witch friend hadn't come along," Damon said frowning.
"Oh I had big bad Damon there to protect me, remember?" Damon smiled a little as he sat on the bed at Elena's feet.
"I would have joyfully kicked his ass, too, but this way I didn't have to worry about getting my pretty face mangled," Damon said as he flashed a sexy leer at her. Elena shivered and burrowed herself further into the blanket as Damon's eyes sparkled. "Still cold?" he asked.
Elena nodded, and Damon stood up. Instead of doing the chivalrous thing and going to get more blankets, he bent down and took off his shoes. Before Elena had the chance to blink, Damon had pulled back the covers of the bed and situated them both underneath. He spooned his body against hers as Elena processed what just happened.
"Damon!"
"Yes Elena?" he crooned in her ear as she began struggling to get away.
"Let go! I'm your brother's girlfriend!"
"That's never been a problem before," he said referring to her doppelganger as he held her tighter against him. "Mmmm. Yeah, wiggle just like that."
"Ugh!" Elena cried out in frustration as she rolled onto her back. "What's it going to take for you to get that I'm not Katherine? I'm Elena, and I'm not some floozy you can bring up here and compel!"
Damon turned so that his arms still caged her, but he was looming over her and looking her in the eyes. "I know who you are Elena. And I didn't have compulsion in mind actually," he examined her face as her breathing hitched and her heart began to race. He leaned down so that his lips grazed her ear as he continued, "You're going to want to remember everything. I promise." Damon licked the outer shell of her ear, causing her entire body to spasm. He laughed softly, bringing his head back so that he could see her face.
Elena was looking at his lush red lips with a hunger he'd never seen on her. She must have wanted this for almost as long as he had. Maybe since Georgia? Heat was radiating off her body. He licked his lips, tempting her to taste them. She moaned and looked up from his lips to find his bright blue eyes.
Her moan brought him back to reality. As much as he'd love a carefree tumble in the sheets with Elena Gilbert, Damon knew it would never be that easy. He looked down into the eyes of the woman below him, and he wanted her. He didn't just want her body, and he didn't just want to get back at Stefan. He wanted Elena for Elena. He stared mutely down into her eyes, not knowing how to tell her the feelings he'd just discovered.
Finally Elena raised her head and took Damon's mouth for herself. This kiss was slow and chaste, but fire built up in his lips and exploded throughout his entire body. He followed Elena's lead as she lay back on the pillows. His entire body was humming. Damon let out a deep groan when the kiss ended.
As Elena began kissing her way down his neck, Damon pulled back to find her eyes. If he couldn't say out loud how he felt, he would show her. The look they shared told him everything. She wasn't Katherine, and he wasn't Stefan. There were no illusions left. They weren't perfect for each other, but Damon knew she would never betray him or hurt him the way Katherine had. That was more important than anything.
Elena arched up and captured his lips again just as he let the rest of his body fall down onto hers. For the rest of the night his heightened vampire senses were filled with everything Elena. Only in the morning would he realize that neither of them had said the three words each of them wanted to hear. "I love you" was saved for another day.