"I've had a long day, and I just want to go home," I said to Alaric, who was talking about training the next day.

"Alright," Alaric replied.

I drove home without a worry in my mind. Damon would lock Stefan up for the night after my little staking escapade, and all I had to do now was stay safe and at home.

By the time I got home, it was a bit past two in the morning and I could almost hear my bed calling my name. I was definitely sleep deprived.

"Elena…" I heard my bed call.

Wait…

Something was definitely wrong. Beds don't talk, and I clearly heard something call my name…

Or rather, some one.

I turned around to make a run for my front door, but was quickly stopped cold when my wrist was grabbed and I was pulled into a wall. Well, whoever's chest this was felt like a wall.

I didn't have to look up. The smell and feel of this person automatically gave his identity away.

Stefan…

I tried pulling away to no avail.

"You of all people should know by now that trying to get away from a vampire will never end successfully," he said in an emotionless tone. The tone of his voice made me want to break the most. It used to hold so much compassion and empathy, and now—nothing.

"Let go of me, Stefan," I did my best to sound as much angry as I was hurt.

"Why?" he asked. "Are you going to stake me again?"

I didn't answer. Instead, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and stood perfectly still. I needed to call Damon.

"Hey, maybe you'll play it up again and surprise me with a vervain bomb."

Shut up, shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!

After near thirty seconds of his babbling, I finally spoke.

"I guess I've learned my first lesson tonight," I started. "Never leave just one person, supernatural or not, alone with an emotionless Stefan the Ripper." I locked my doors with the little button on my keychain and pretended that what I had said wasn't the most important piece of information I had so far.

"True," he began. "Of course, since you only left Damon to handle me, all I had to do was throw him in the cellar with that freezer full of old, bagged blood. It's much better if it's fresh."

"You would know," I mumbled quietly, but I knew he could hear me nonetheless.

"And now that you've become Little Miss Vampire Hunter in Training," Stefan started again, "I have to keep a very close watch on you." He picked me up and started running towards the door, but stopped at the threshold.

"Of course," he mumbled. "Jenna's dead and ownership has rolled over to somebody else. Oh well, I guess we can't stay here." He started running again.

I tried to fight against him, but it didn't help. We ended up in a foreclosed home somewhere across town, and it was still completely furnished.

"We'll stay here tonight," he said, entering the home and locking the door behind us.

"Put me down, Stefan!" I yelled. Like I'd pictured, though, he didn't.

"Now now, Elena," he said. "There's no need to throw a hissy fit from lethargy. I'm just putting you to bed." With that, he ran up the stairs and into a room with a bed twice my size. I didn't like it.

Stefan plopped me on the bed and pulled up a chair beside it, "Go to sleep now. I'll watch over you."

I glared at him with as much hatred as I could muster, but his expressionless face remained just that—expressionless.

I decided to give up fighting and go with it. It's not like he was going to hurt me. Klaus was making him protect me. Well, not me, but the precious "human blood bag". That bastard!

"Whatever," I said as I turned my back to him and laid down on the bed.

After what seemed like ages, but I'm sure measured around five minutes, he began to speak.

"Is there anything I can do to make this short stay more comfortable?" he asked, still emotionless.

I began to say "No, leave me alone" until an idea popped into my head.

"It'd be nice if you at least acted like you still cared about something other than blood and fulfilling Klaus's needs."

It was meant to be a sarcastic remark, but he answered with an, "okay."

It made me turn on my side to face him, "Really?".

"Whatever will make you more comfortable," he said.

Well, it's not like I didn't want the old Stefan back—my Stefan, but I wanted it to be genuine and not a façade, but I figured that I would take what I could get. Tonight, at least.

"Fine," I said, challenging him with my eyes. "Then let's play pretend. Let's go back to when you loved me, and we knew nothing about an original named Klaus, or any sort of moonstone—back to when I knew nothing about your ex-love, Katerina Petrova, and Damon was still a heartless demon that didn't much bother us except when bored and needing to see torment." I was on the verge of crying, but kept my challenging stare on my face.

"Won't it hurt when you wake up and find that I'm back to my original self?" he asked.

"I'm living by your morals tonight." I said. "You live for the moment and don't seem to care about the future consequences. Time to pretend, Stefan. Starting now."

Within a blink of an eye, Stefan was in my bed and holding me close while stroking my cheek and kissing my forehead.

He was definitely a good actor, but since I was going to regret this in the morning, a few more stabs in the gut wouldn't seem to make a difference. Besides, I wanted more, and I was being deprived for the whole summer.

I grabbed his face and full-on kissed him. I had missed him, and now I didn't want this night to end, but I was going to take full advantage while I still had it.

The kiss wasn't short. It lasted, and I was relieved when he had kissed me back, playing along.

The night went like that, until I fell asleep from exhaustion, but he stayed. He held me, and I absentmindedly curled the tips of his hair in the back around my fingers, playing with it.

Eventually, I heard the birds chirp into the early morning and the first bit of light streak the sky, and then Stefan did something that near broke my heart.

"I love you," he whispered into my ear, and then he kissed my hair.

Just as I was about to close my eyes and prepare to be back to hating him, my phone rang and I decided that there was no time to prepare. It was time to wake up.

I jumped out of the bed—out of Stefan's arms—and went to answer my phone. It had fallen onto the floor when I was being carried into the room. I realized that it was just a text from Caroline and decided to ignore it.

Just as I turned around, Stefan stood right behind me, and I looked up at him.

Time for your acting skills to kick in, Elena, my mind said.

"Did that make your night more comfortable?" he asked with his emotionless face back.

"Whatever," I replied.

I began my journey down the stairs when I heard him give me a heartless chuckle. I turned back around to see why he was laughing, but he already answered that as he passed me going down the stairs.

"I guess I'm not the only one who can turn my emotions off," he mumbled just loud enough for me to hear.

With that, I was to go out in the world and pretend that this night had never happened.

Though that didn't mean I wouldn't remember it.

I smiled to myself as I passed Stefan at the threshold and began running back to the boarding house to let Damon out of his jail.

I didn't look at Stefan the whole way as he followed me, staying at least twenty feet away from me the whole way.

Sadly, the whole way back, I was thinking about those few short hours with him.

I silently cried as I ran.