Moonlit Seduction
DG32173

Sarah: an idea gotten from the song "Can't Fight the Moonlight" by LeAnn Rimes from the Coyote Ugly soundtrack. I do so hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER
I only own what I write! I don't make any money from my fanfics, nor do I ever want to. That means TVD, the cast, the settings, any musical references, anything you recognize that I hadn't claimed in another story of mine belongs to someone else. If it belongs to me, I'll claim it before the chapter it appears in. This is the only disclaimer for the whole fanfic.

WARNINGS
ALTERNATE UNIVERSE! Starts in Season 1 after Miss Mystic Falls but before Isobel. Rated M for my sanity, not that I have any. Elena's viewpoint.

SUMMARY
Elena's relationship with Stefan is dying due to his constant lies. Damon uses this as an excuse to visit her by moonlight in an attempt at seducing her completely away from his brother and into his arms. Much to his surprise, it's actually working. Damon/Elena

SHOUT-OUT
A great big shout-out goes to my amazing beta-reader, VDfan2107! Thanks so much for helping me out as you have been!

Chapter 1
Just the Beginning

I sigh as I stare up at the nearly full moon while I sip at the glass of bourbon I had poured myself from Damon's collection. I had told Jenna that Stefan is 'very sick' and that I am staying at the boarding house to help Damon take care of him. I don't feel that it's the right time to bring Jenna in on the secret about the supernatural. I have my earbuds in my ears and my IPod cranked up while playing Good Girl by Carrie Underwood on repeat. I am finally accepting the fact that I had been playing the role of the good girl in the song, trying to be with the 'good guy' when in reality, Stefan was actually the worst thing for me.

I stare up at the moon and wonder how I could have ever been stupid enough to believe Stefan would stop lying to me, particularly after finding that picture of Katherine and finding out that he lied about her looks. 'Blond hair, blue eyes he said. Yeah right,' I think. 'I should have known if he felt that was okay to lie about, then he would lie about anything when he didn't feel like being honest. From what I can tell, he's even lied about being able to trust Damon.'

My body suddenly relaxes, all the tension and stress lifting from me as it always does every damn time Damon enters the room I'm in. But I ignore his presence as I continue to sort through everything that's happened in the last several months and my feelings in regards to it all.

I had always been the good girl, doing what everyone expected of me. Breaking my promise to attend Family Night so I could go partying had ended up with my parents dead. It also ended up bringing Stefan into my life. Two terrible consequences of being selfish. I am quite certain that Damon and I would have crossed paths eventually. It's a small town, after all. He had come back to open the tomb. Our paths would have crossed, I'm positive of that. Just as I'm positive that day I first came to the boarding house is not the first time I had met him. Something has always told me I knew him from somewhere else, some other time that I had been forced to forget. Knowing what he is and what he can do, I know damn well why I have such a feeling: he had to have compelled me to forget our true first meeting.

I know I should be pissed that he hasn't returned the memory yet. But I know he has to have a good reason to continue to keep it from me. A strangled cry of pain from the basement is even louder than my music. I close my eyes against it and turn the volume up some more. I had always been the good girl. One break from that routine had cost my parents their lives. I had sworn to myself I would never stray from the good girl path again. That meant having the good guy boyfriend and keeping the bad boys at arms reach. It's a shame that I'm just now realizing that I had done the exact opposite. Admittedly, I had labeled Stefan as the good guy and Damon as the bad boy based off my first impressions of them. I never realized how drastically wrong first impressions can be.

Now I don't know if I should trust my own judgment ever again. My instincts are another thing entirely. My instincts had warned me that Stefan might not be the good guy he was trying to make me believe. And I would never have struck up the friendship I have with Damon if not for my instincts telling me that there is still a glimmer of good in him. I'm determined to bring that glimmer of good in Damon out into the open and nurture it so that it will grow and consume him. I can tell I'm already making a huge impact on him for my effort. I have a funny feeling that Damon hasn't had a friend, someone he would acknowledge as a friend, since the day Katherine waltzed into his and Stefan's life and set them at each others' throats.

I open my eyes and look down at the necklace in my hands. I know I should be keeping it around my neck. But … I just can't stand the thought of wearing something Stefan gave me. It's been getting more and more uncomfortable wearing the ancient amulet. When I'm in the boarding house, I just carry it around in my hands or a pocket. Damon hates it when I take it off. I'm still working up the courage to ask him to get me something to replace it. This latest lie Stefan told could have had horrible consequences. He could have killed Amber! She had done nothing! I turned a blind eye when I knew Damon was going to kill Bree. She had betrayed him, had nearly got him killed. I knew that he would repay such a betrayal with death. And, even then, I wanted her to die for trying to take Damon from me. The only reason I didn't disobey his order and go inside to watch him kill her was because I knew it would be messy. Knowing that he had killed her is one thing. Seeing the blood fly as he did whatever he did is something else entirely. He probably ripped her heart out. It seems to be his favorite way of getting rid of baddies who come to call.

Damon finally gets tired of my ignoring him. He yanks on the cord to the earbud in my right ear, successfully pulling it out. "You're going to get brood lines on par with St. Stefan's if you keep going down the path your thoughts are heading," he says. "So spill. What's troubling that pretty head of yours?"

I sigh, turn off my IPod and turn towards him. "No one can ever get brood lines to match your brother's," I tell him. "But if I'm not going to sink into despair, I need to vent to someone. And right now, you're the only one I can vent to. My journal's not helping. Bonnie's not speaking to me because I refuse to cut you two out of my life. And Caroline's busy dating Matt. Her help in picking out my dress for Miss Mystic Falls was the most time I've spent with her in ages. Jeremy's not talking to me because I had you erase his memories of the night Vicki died."

Damon turns me towards one of the sofas and puts his hand at the small of my back. I flop on the sofa and Damon lifts my feet so he can sit there and put my feet in his lap. "You said you need to vent, so vent," he says, fiddling with the strings of my sneakers. "I'm all ears."

I sigh and rake a hand through my hair. "Where to even begin? There's only so much I can take and my stress meter is so far past the red zone it's a miracle I haven't cracked," I tell him.

"Why don't you start at the beginning," he suggests.

I close my eyes. "Well, the first event, the one I feel started the snowball effect on the stress-o-meter, was my decision on May 23rd. I chose to break a promise for the first time in my life. I didn't want to be the 'good girl' who attended Family Night because that was expected of her. I had been getting the ever-increasing feeling of being trapped by the 'good girl' routine I had spent my whole life perfecting. I wanted to break free, kick up my heels. I wanted a taste of what it would be like if I lived my life for me rather than everyone else. I wanted to go to a party with my boyfriend of the time. So I did. Then Matt ruined the whole damn night by talking about the future he envisioned for us. And I got that feeling of being trapped again. Because this whole damn town expected me to fall in love with Matt, marry him, have his kids, and all that crap. I had been having a blast until he started down that line. I told him exactly how that line of talking made me feel. I demanded to know where he got the damn idea that I even wanted that life he had planned out all the way to what would be on our tombstones. I told him that, sure, I was dating him. But I only did it because I had fallen into the habit of being the 'good girl' who did what everyone else expected of me. I chewed him up and spat him out. Then I turned on my heel and called my parents for a ride home and then I called Bonnie to vent my frustrations. In the end, I wanted out of the 'good girl' life I had habituated myself into. And my parents lost their lives for what? A party that had been ruined because I started feeling trapped all over again? If I had chosen to go with Caroline instead of asking Matt to go, I would have had a blast, lived it up, and it would have probably been close to sunrise when we finally called it quits. Or I could have just stayed home for Family Night like I had promised. Either way, my parents would probably still be alive. And I probably would never have met your damn brother. Both of which would have been pluses."

"What about me?" he asks.

I open my eyes to see he's raised an eyebrow at me. "I get the feeling that you and I would have met no matter what I chose to do that night," I tell him honestly. "You had come back to open that tomb. That means you would have been sticking around after you arrived in town, whenever that was. Mystic Falls is a very small town. We would have crossed paths, I'm sure of it. Who knows? I could have lost my virginity to you had I done that night differently." Damon smirks at that thought. I close my eyes again. "All Stefan has ever done was lie to my face time and again. I should have known from the instant I found that picture of Katherine in his room that I could never trust him to tell me the truth. I foolishly thought that maybe, just maybe, he'd see that the consequences of lying to me can be pretty severe. I should have known that going back to him would have made him think that I'd always forgive his lies." I take a shaky breath, on the verge of tears. "I can't handle any more lies. I'm already lying to everyone I know about what's going on with my life. I need people to tell me the damn truth so I know what I need to do to protect my loved ones. My parents raised Jeremy and me on the basis of 'Trust for Trust'. To be able to give your trust to someone, you have to be able to receive their trust in return. Jeremy repeated those words to me when I found out he read my journal. He pointed out that, as the saying points out, trust works both ways. I couldn't trust him with the knowledge of what's going on. And he couldn't trust me to tell him the damn truth. When he pointed that out, I realized I was getting as bad as Stefan. I was getting to the point of becoming a compulsive liar. And that's one thought that scares the hell out of me. When you told me Stefan lied about being back on the animal blood diet and I saw for myself that I just can't believe a word he says, I felt my heart breaking. I'm no longer certain about anything he's told me. I know he told the truth about my adoption, but I had to pry it out of him in a manner that made me feel like I was pulling his nails out to get to the truth. I should have realized then that he doesn't think I'm strong enough to handle it when someone makes me face the bitter truth about something in my life. Well, seeing him throw you into a tree when you were trying to pull him off Amber was like getting ice water thrown on me. The rose-tinted glasses were snatched off and I could see the bleak reality: Stefan Salvatore can't be trusted. It's as simple as that."

"What are you going to do about it?" Damon asks.

"There's only one thing I can do about it and be able to live with myself afterwards: I have to cut him out of my life. He could so easily turn on me and lie to my face about it. And he's such a good liar that I won't be able to know whether I should believe him or not. You've done horrible things to people I've known my whole life. You've omitted huge parts of the truth at times. But you have never looked me in the eye and outright lied to my face. In my opinion, telling someone the truth is a sign of respect. You have always respected me enough to tell me as much of the truth as you could at the time. I sometimes wonder if Stefan even knows what the truth is anymore or if he believes even his own lies. I'll help get Stefan back on the animal blood, but then I'm going to tell him to get out of my life before I completely lose all patience with him and stake him myself. One way or another, I need to get him out of my life. I don't want to kill your brother because even with all that lies between the two of you, you're still brothers. You're all the family the other has left. Family is a powerful bond and not one that should be taken lightly. I don't want to take him from you Damon, but I can't handle hearing anymore of his lies." I bite my lip as I debate whether I should tell Damon this or not. I decide that I've been honest with him and he should know this. "Stefan was behind my lie about being able to trust him to help you get the grimiore. He half-strangled me with the necklace and I was so terrified he would yank it completely from my neck and compel me to lie to you that I promised to lie. After what happened the night my parents died, I swore to myself that I would never break another promise. But that was one promise I shouldn't have held up."

"I figured he had something to do with your lies," Damon admits. "At the time, I only wanted to make you understand just how betrayed I felt because of your lie. But later, when I calmed down, I realized that you would not have broken my trust in you unless Stefan somehow had his fingers on the strings. I've seen just how much you hate lying and liars. I've been wondering when you would finally reach your limit with Stefan's lies."

"I've been playing the role of the good girl," I say. "I've been doing what everyone expected of me. 'Date the good guy. Keep the bad boys at arms reach. The more miserable you are, the brighter your smile.' Well, the one everyone was fooled into believing was the 'good guy' is nothing but a compulsive liar who's probably forgotten how to tell the truth without having someone rip into him to get it. You're the one everyone thinks is a bad boy. Even you've come to believe that. But you're not as bad as you like to think you are. There's good in you. As for hiding my misery … I'm not going to let myself continue down this miserable dead-end road. I'm going to take my life back in my own hands and stop doing what others expect of me. I'm going to live my life in a way that makes me happy."

"And what makes you happy?" he asks.

I frown when my mind comes up blank. "To be perfectly honest, I don't really know. I've spent so much of my life doing what will make everyone else happy that I have no idea what makes me happy," I tell him with a sigh.

"Well, you seemed to be having a blast in Georgia," he says. I open my eyes to see he's smirking at me. "C'mon, Elena, you just got through saying that you want to live your life for yourself. What do you want to do right now? Take it from someone who knows, life is best lived in the moment. Tell me the very first thing that pops in your head."

"Dancing," I tell him. "I always loved dancing. I miss it."

Damon smirks and slides out from under my feet so that he's standing in front of me. He holds out a hand. "Dance with me?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.

"We need music," I tell him, placing my hand in his.

"Elena," he says, pulling me to my feet. "We do not need music. You and I, we have our own little song that no one else hears." He pulls me against him, his left hand on my hip and his right hand holding my left. I place my right hand on his shoulder. "Close your eyes and listen." I obediently close my eyes and listen. First thing I notice is the almost matching rhythm of our breathing. I get the feeling that's not what he's talking about. I listen harder. I feel my heart pounding in my chest and I'm startled that I can hear the much slower thump-thump-thump of his heart. "Elena, you're doing it wrong. Don't listen with your ears. Listen for the song with your heart."

I frown in confusion but obediently try it his way. He starts guiding me in a slow dance that goes to a rhythm that feels familiar, somehow. After a moment, I recognize the rhythm. It's a melody that constantly plays in the back of my head when I'm around Damon. I've tried my damnedest to find a song that matches the melody but after listening to thousands of songs, I gave up. Now I realize why I couldn't find a song to match: there isn't one. This is the kind of melody only found when two hearts in the same space recognize each other as a match. Damon starts humming the melody as we continue to dance. I open my eyes to meet his ice blue gaze with a warm smile. He winks at me before spinning me out and pulling me back in. After our dance together at Miss Mystic Falls today, I knew that Damon happens to be an exceptionally skilled dancer. Now he shows me the full extent of his skills. We continue dancing to the melody he's humming, the same melody that's been at the back of both our minds whenever we were in the same room as each other.

I have a strong feeling that tonight is just the beginning of something wonderful.

Sarah: that was much harder to get out than it should have been. My muse was really stubborn and refused to cooperate up until the very end.