Woohoo, now that the site is finally up again, here we go. My annual Christmas one shot... though because of the time I had today is now a two shot. Second part will be posted tomorrow sometime. Enjoy this and let me know what you think, as always. Consider it a slightly late Xmas gift.


"I really don't mind if you come to our Christmas dinner, Damon. You were practically family before everything happened between you and Elena." Alaric insisted as they sat at the Grill, pre-drinking before the Gilbert family dinner that Damon had no intention of going to now.

"It's not you welcoming me that I'm worried about." Damon muttered as he drained his class of bourbon. By this time he had already had his yearly dose of eggnog and nearly a bottle of bourbon between the two of them.

"Just because the two of you broke up doesn't mean that you can't hang around. You're my friend and I'm inviting you to dinner. No one should spend the holiday here drinking." He told him slapping him on the shoulder.

"But what is Elena going to say about that?" Damon asked sighing.

"Nothing. Even if she does, it's just because she's uncomfortable being around you." Alaric shrugged.

"Precisely why I shouldn't be there." Damon said shaking his head.

"You two are going to have to spend some time together at some point, you know that right? You can't avoid each other forever." He said.

"I'm not going to avoid her forever. Just until I get over her." He said draining another glass of the amber liquid.

"You're the one who broke up with her Damon." Alaric reminded him softly. He had never gotten the full details of the break up from either of them. He wanted to know what happened to make such a happy couple end things all of a sudden.

"She's human Ric. She's human and I'm not. What kind of future can she have with me? Not the one that she wants that's for sure." He said shaking his head.

"You broke up with her because you don't think you're enough for her?" Alaric asked.

"Essentially yes. Also because I'm dangerous. I don't want my evil to rub off on her. She's pure and good, untouched by

evil." He sighed.

"She doesn't see it that way Damon, and she's hurt that you ended things. Especially a week before Christmas. She misses

you. She doesn't know what she did wrong. You should give her that at least." Alaric urged.

"I told her all that I could when I ended things. I told her that I wasn't good for her and that it wasn't going to work out." Damon explained.

"You should tell her what you told me. Either she'll fight you on it or she'll finally be able to let it go." Alaric insisted.

"Either way doesn't make me happy. I would rather just leave it as it is." Damon sighed.

"But leaving it is hurting her." Alaric reminded him.

"Fine, I'll come. If only to make sure she understands why we can't be together." Damon gave in draining his glass for a third time.

"Well if you're coming you need to stop drinking right about now. I don't want you drunk at Christmas dinner." Alaric said.

"Do you think she would be upset with me if I give her the gift I bought her for Christmas before I made the decision to end things with her?" Damon asked cautiously.

"Did you really make the decision to break up with her that quickly? If it was a rash decision I will stake you with something hard and pointy. Possibly wooden." Alaric warned him.

"It wasn't a rash decision, technically. I bought her gift really early." He told him shrugging.

"Then fine, but don't you think that could be sending her mixed signals?" Alaric asked.

"No, because I'm going to talk to her at the same time." He decided, set on his plan.

"Alright, I'm going to let you do this your way. But I swear to God if you hurt her again I will hurt you." He said.

"Don't worry. Hurting her, hurts me. So I'm going to do whatever it takes to ensure that I don't." He promised.

"Good, but I better go. I've already surpassed my allotted pre-drinking time they offered me." Alaric said draining his glass

and getting ready to leave.

"What time should I be there?" He asked standing up and putting a couple bills on the counter. He decided that since it was Christmas, he should at least pay for some of his drinks.

"Dinner is at 5:30." Alaric told him putting his jacket on.

"I'll be there." Damon answered walking towards the doors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What am I supposed to do with Damon's Christmas present. I bought it the same day he unceremoniously dumped me." Elena sighed from her bedroom where Jeremy was standing at the door.

"I don't know Elena. You could always give it to him. Even just as a friend." Jeremy suggested coming into the room and sitting beside her on the bed.

"I don't want to just be his friend. And I'm not anywhere near ready to see him. I'm too embarrassed. I still don't understand what I did to make him break up with me. One second everything was fine, and then he just says that we need to talk. Then he dumps me and walks out." She said shaking her head sadly.

"I don't know Elena. But I just heard Alaric walk in and the turkey is almost ready. You should get ready." He told her.

"I'm not even in the mood to celebrate Christmas this year." Elena sighed falling back on her bed.

"I'm not going to let you skip Christmas Elena. It's not happening." He told her grabbing her arm and pulling her up again.

"Fine. I'm going to have a shower. Maybe then I'll have a little more Christmas spirit." She said as he walked to the door.

"We'll get everything ready downstairs so you can use the time to find your spirit. The Elena I know would never let a break up ruin her Christmas spirit." Jeremy told her.

"It wasn't just a break up. I loved him more than I've ever loved anyone else, ever. And I'm still in love with him. I can't get over him." She whispered, a few tears leaking out of the corner of her eyes. Jeremy walked forward and hugged her tightly before letting her go.

"I know you'll be fine. Just remember that old saying, "If you love something let it go, if it comes back it was meant to be."" Jeremy told her.

"Alright, but I should go get ready. It may just be us for Christmas, but I still enjoy dressing up." She said walking towards the bathroom.

"I'll be downstairs." He said walking out of the room and shutting her door behind her.

When Elena got out of the shower she walked to the mirror and wiped the steam away. She sighed and went about brushing and straightening her hair. She applied some makeup and left the room quickly, going to her closet and finding something to wear. She settled on a pair of black pants that she had had forever and a white lacy shirt that she had bought a few weeks ago for a date with Damon. She slipped on some shoes before changing her mind and putting on a pair of slippers instead. It was just Christmas dinner and presents with her family. As she was walking down the stairs she heard the doorbell chime.

"I'll get it." Elena called as Alaric came through the kitchen.

"Elena..." He started just as she opened the door to reveal Damon.

"Damon, what are you doing here?" She asked as he stood there in his typical black clothing and leather jacket carrying a couple gifts.

"Alaric invited me. If you don't want me here, I can leave." He offered her. Alaric gave Elena a stern look and she smiled briefly.

"Come on in." She said stepping aside so he could come in. She didn't miss the spark that went through her body when he accidentally touched her as he brushed past her.

"You can put the gifts under the tree." Alaric told him as Elena shut the door. She stayed by the door for a second before walking into the kitchen.

"Were you going to tell me he was coming? Or did you just want me to have the shock of a lifetime, finding him on my doorstep?" Elena asked softly.

"I was trying to tell you when you opened the door. You were upstairs getting ready when I got back here." He reminded her.

"Do you want me to do anything?" Damon asked coming into the kitchen a couple seconds later.

"No it's all done. Both of you can go into the dining room. I'm bringing the food out now." He said. Elena turned and walked into the dining room taking the seat beside Jeremy, as Damon took the one across from her.

"So why did you even bother coming here tonight?" Elena asked knowing she needed an answer.

"Alaric invited me. He said that no one should have to spend Christmas at the Grill drinking." Damon shrugged.

"That's the only reason?" She asked realizing after that she was being entirely transparent.

"Yeah." He answered as Alaric brought the turkey out of the kitchen with a proud expression on his face.

"Oh." She answered focusing her attention instead on the array of food sitting before them.

"You guys can start dishing up." Alaric told them as everyone started passing dishes around the table. There wasn't much conversation from that point on until Alaric brought out the homemade pumpkin pie that he had made earlier in the day.

"Alaric you're turning into quite the little housewife aren't you buddy?" Damon asked laughing at the proud expression on his face.

"I happen to think I did amazing on tonight's dinner." Alaric muttered.

"It's delicious. I'm wondering where you got it all." He added on laughing.

"For your information Damon, I made it all myself.." Alaric alerted him as he kept on eating.

"I think we should do gifts right after this." Jeremy suggested. He was still a child when it came to Christmas presents. He could never wait to see what he got.

"After we all work together to clean up." Alaric answered.

"Elena can I talk to you for a minute?" Damon asked when they were all finished eating.

"Uh I think we have to help with dishes." Elena answered looking at Alaric.

"No you can talk to him. Come and help when you're done." Alaric answered. He knew this was a conversation they

needed to have in order for Elena to be alright again.

"Okay." She said following him to the stairs where he sat down. He wanted to be out of earshot of the other two but he wanted to sit down to tell her what he needed to say. He tapped his fingers on his legs a few times absentmindedly trying to figure out what to say to her.

"I realize I never gave you an explanation for ending things between us, so I'm going to explain to you." He told her.

"You're choosing now to tell me why you broke up with me?" She asked completely deflated.

"I have to tell you. It had nothing to do with you or my feelings for you. It's just you're human and you have a future that I can't take from you. You're going to get married and have a family in the future. You don't need me to screw up your life

Elena." He told her.

"You don't get to choose what will screw up my life. If you don't want to be with me then don't be with me. But don't you dare say you don't want to be with me because you want me to get everything I want out of life. Don't say that." She told

him firmly.

"Elena..." He started. This conversation was not going the way he thought it would and he wasn't liking the direction it was taking.

"No! This is what happened, okay. You realized that I wasn't enough for you. Or you only wanted sex with me. You got that so you bailed. That's all there is to it." She said before getting up and going into the kitchen. After a moment or two he got up and followed her.

"That didn't take very long." Alaric said as he handed Damon a towel to dry the dishes. He started drying the dishes, and silently handing them to Elena to put away. They didn't speak at all during the process, Elena hurt after her conversation with Damon.

"Your idea was most definitely a fail." Damon hissed to Alaric, regarding him telling Damon that telling Elena would make her feel better.

"I'm sorry." Alaric said softly as he continued to wash the dishes.

When dishes were all finished they all walked to the living room and sat down.

"Alright, I'll hand out everyone's gifts. You have to wait to open them until everyone has theirs." Alaric said handing out gifts. Alaric handed Damon two gifts one from him and the one from Elena. "Go ahead."

"Well thank you Ric. A new bottle of bourbon. You know me so well." Damon said to Ric when he unwrapped his favourite brand of good bourbon.

"I expect at least one glass out of that bottle before you demolish the whole thing." Alaric told him firmly.

"Well I think you should open the gift from me now." Damon said pointing to the surprisingly enough, elegantly wrapped gift.

"Who knew you could wrap gifts?" Alaric asked impressed.

"I didn't. Elena wrapped it a couple weeks ago." Damon said lowly. Alaric opened the package to find a bottle of his favourite brand of scotch.

"Oh great now you two can be alcoholics together." Jeremy muttered dryly as he opened the gift that he had been surprised

to get from Damon.

"Your sister said I had to buy you a gift." Damon said as Jeremy unwrapped an assortment of games for his xbox.

"Well thank you. I don't have any of those games." He said.

"I know. Elena played spy to find out which games you had." Damon answered.

"I don't think you should open my gift. I got it before you dumped me." Elena told Damon as he picked up the package that was wrapped by Elena.

"I'm sure it's great, whatever it is." Damon said as he savoured opening the package. He opened the package and found an overly cheesy photo of the two of them with their arms wrapped around each other and him kissing her temple. The frame was engraved with their names and the date they officially got together. He loved it. Also in the box was a watch, he remembered when she had complained that he never had a watch to tell the time and it was too much of a pain in the ass to pull her phone from her pocket. He lifted the watch out of the box and looked at it. When he looked at the bottom, he found it was engraved with the words "To Damon. I love you so much. Love, Elena."

"Thank you. This is great." He said putting the watch on automatically.

"You don't have to wear that. There's really no point. You don't have to humour me." She told him sadly.

"I'm not humouring you. I love the gift. Both parts." He told her from across the room.

"It doesn't really matter now." She said sadly.

"Open my gift." He said. She picked up the carefully wrapped box, that she knew he had done himself. It was small and rectangular, and had they still been together she would have been excited to see what was inside it. She carefully unwrapped the gift, slowly tearing the paper. She wanted to pretend for a couple more minutes that everything was still normal and her whole world wasn't in the process of ending.

"Actually just wait to open that. I want you to open it when I'm not here." He said grabbing his gifts and walking out. He wasn't sure what he would do with her reaction to the gift. He knew had they still been together she would have loved it. But they weren't so she may not appreciate the gift too much. She watched him walk out sadly before she proceeded unwrapping the gift. Alaric and Jeremy watched carefully, having already finished open up their gifts. When she lifted the lid she almost started crying.

"What is it?" They asked simultaneously.

"I asked him a few weeks ago to not spend any money on me. I never thought for a second he would listen to me." She said picking up the obviously antique necklace carefully. There was a tiny note underneath the necklace, she recognized the writing immediately as Damon's.

"Worry not baby. But I didn't spend a single cent on this gift. It was my mothers and I want you to have it. I know she would have loved you. I love you." Elena read out loud with tears in her eyes.

"Do you want me to put it on you?" Alaric asked.

"No. I can't take this. We're not together anymore so I shouldn't have a piece of his mother." Elena said standing up sure of her decision to head over to his house.

"I think he knew what he was giving you regardless of your current relationship status. I don't think he wants it back. You don't want to offend him." Alaric insisted.

"I don't care. If he doesn't want to be with me, then I don't want a piece of his mother either. It's not right. He should have it." She said certainly.

"Alright then." He said shaking his head as Jeremy went to play some of his new video games.

Elena left the house and sped over to the Boarding House faster than she probably should have. When she got there she opted out of knocking on the door, deciding to just walk in.

"What are you doing here Elena?" Damon asked walking out of the parlour to see who just barged into his house uninvited.

"I can't accept this." She said holding out the box.

"Yes you can. It was a gift." He said pushing her hand back towards her body.

"I don't want it. I don't want something that's going to remind me of losing you for the rest of my life." She said. Against her will a few tears escaped the corner of her eyes and she angrily brushed them away.

"Elena, it wasn't meant to be that kind of gift. I just wanted you to have a part of me still. It will look beautiful on you." He said refusing to take the box from her.

"I don't want a part of you. All that's going to do is keep breaking my heart over and over again. If you want me to forget you, then stay away from me. But if I had my say I wouldn't want to stay away from you at all." She said sadly.

"Why do you want to be with me?" He asked finally.

"Because I'm in love you. You're a good man Damon, and I know that you don't see it but I do. All the times that you saved

my life, risking your own for me. You've always known just what I need, when I need it and that means something. I've never had that before. I know you think you're bad for me but you're not. You're the best for me. There's no one better. I know you think that I have some sort of future with a human guy but I don't. I could never feel the things I feel for you, for anyone else. Even if it means I will never have children, I don't care. I don't want them if they can't be with you. The things I feel for you, should be impossible. I don't know what you want me to say, but I love you. I don't want you to break up with me, especially not for my own good." She told him hoping he would finally see her point of view.

"Elena.." He started, it sounding like he was in pain.

"Please don't leave me." She pleaded once more, her eyes filling up with tears once again. Damon's resolve snapped then and he erased the distance between them in two steps, taking her face between his hands and kissing her with everything he had. Her hands found his chest and she clutched his shirt refusing to let him pull away from her. His lips crushed against hers and she needed more. She opened her mouth under his and his tongue slipped inside. Their tongues melded together and teeth clanged against one another.

"Elena." He sighed against her lips, still clutching her face to his. Now that she was back in his arms, he couldn't bare to let her leave. He just couldn't do it. He needed her like she was a cool drink of water and he had just been lost in the desert for days.

"Take me upstairs. Please." She pleaded with him. He picked her up bridal style and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he carried her up the stairs. He kicked open the door to his room and kicked it shut behind him, placing her on the floor so he could kiss her passionately. He had his arms locked around her back, his hands resting on the small of her back. Her arms were locked around his neck playing with the hair at the back of his neck while they kissed. She worked on the

buttons on his shirt, never breaking the kiss while they undressed each other.

"Are you sure?" He asked her. He didn't want to force her into sleeping with him tonight, even though it was her idea. He needed to be sure.

"Yes, I need you." She promised him. She needed to experience everything with him tonight, she needed every part of him with her. She stepped back from him and he pulled her shirt over her head leaving her in just her bra before him.

"You are so beautiful." He said as he quickly pulled her bra off leaving her bare for his viewing pleasure.

"Please." She pleaded again. He was taking far too much time undressing them. She just needed him already. He wasted no more time in the tender removal of clothing. He quickly freed her from her pants and panties before unceremoniously dropping his pants revealing his manhood. She smiled up at him and backed to the bed, falling on to the blanket and sliding across the bed, beckoning him forward. He smirked at her and followed her onto the bed pressing her into the mattress as he lay between her open thighs. She kissed him with her hands on either side of his face, touching him gently.

"I love you Damon. I'm so in love with you." She told him as she reached between their bodies and took a hold of his firm erection, guiding it to where she needed it most. He allowed his body to shift forward, sliding into her warmth slowly.

"You feel so good. It's been far too long." He told her as he slowly started moving.

"It has been too long. I need it harder. Faster." She pleaded as she dug her nails into his back.

"I don't want to rush it." He insisted as he kept at his pace.

"We have all night to not rush things. I need you too bad right now for slow." She begged him. Not able to say no to her, he picked up his pace considerably. He slammed his hips into her making her scream.

"Yes... like that." She moaned when he hit that elusive spot inside her. The one that made her scream and cry out. Happy he had her approval he kept going at the pace he was going. Her body clenched around him. This was not going to be his finest moment, he knew he wasn't going to last too long with her this time. But like she said, they had all night to be together.

"I'm close. God I don't think I can hold on much longer." He insisted, knowing he was dangerously close to the edge. He reached between them and stroked her clit with the pad of his thumb. She had to go over the edge before him. Damon Salvatore never came before his partner. As always, his efforts paid off and she went off like a firecracker with her eyes shut tight. He followed directly after her, continuing to pump into her until the waves finished crashing through him. Damon crushed against her when he was done and rolled over, pulling her with him so she was sprawled over him with her legs on either side of his hips.

"I'm so happy you followed me back here." He whispered against her hair.

"Like I had a choice." She said with her head against his chest.

"I love you." He told her.

"I love you too. Thank you for giving me exactly what I needed for Christmas." She told him.

"What was that exactly? A mind-blowing orgasm?" He asked cheekily.

"That too." She laughed. "But you gave me you. I missed you so much." She told him kissing the base of his neck.

"Will you wear the necklace for me?" He asked. He needed to make sure she liked the present he gave her.

"Of course. I love it. It's beautiful, but I like it best because of the history it has. It's a part of you." She told hm.

"It's getting late, we should get some sleep." He suggested.

"Well yeah, since we have to be back at my house first thing in the morning to see what Santa brought me." She told him rolling off of him to lie beside him.

"Do you want me to come with you?" He asked.

"Absolutely. How else are they going to know that I got all I want for Christmas?" She asked rhetorically.