Elena walked into her bedroom, yawning. It was late and she should have been asleep. Sleep had been hard for her lately. Whenever she closed her eyes she saw flashbacks of the night she had seen Stefan.

"Boo." a voice said from behind her.
She gasped softly, "You came."

Elena turned around and was met face to face with Damon, his face so close to hers that she could feel his breath against her face. That was nothing new for either of them. Damon lacked the knowledge about personal space. If Elena was being honest, she would even admit that she didn't mind their constant intimacy. "I got your message. What's wrong?" he asked, his eyes boring into hers.

Elena held his stare, no emotion, only her lack of sleep, visible on her face. "I can't sleep." she admitted. "All I can think about is Stefan and when he tried to…" trailing off, she looked away. Damon didn't need to hear the rest of her sentence, he knew already. He was the one that walked in to catch Stefan's fangs about to penetrate Elena's neck.

He was silent. Seeing a tear escape Elena's eye, he swooped down and wiped it away and then placed a kiss on her forehead. Using the hand he had just wiped away her tear with, he gently lifted up her chin to look her in the eyes again. "What do you need?" he asked, worry filling his voice. The words sounded odd on his tongue. He wasn't the one that said the things like that, but to help a broken Elena, he would say anything.

Elena ever so quietly whispered "You". She hid her face in the crook of his neck and hugged him tightly to her. For the first time, he allowed himself to hug her back. Elena knew the part of him that had always kept his arms to himself, for fear of holding and never letting go, had fallen. She also knew that if he never let go of her, she wouldn't mind.