"This thing that is happening right here? Can't ever happen! It just can't. Oh my gosh, if it did, I would I wouldn't be any better, Damon!" Elena shoved him away, away from his lips that felt the warmth from her breath a moment before was now bare.

She didn't need to finish the sentence, he knew what she meant. I wouldn't be any better than her, than Katherine.

You could never be like her. His words never made it to his mouth, even though he knew in his bones that Elena would never be like her, the similarities stopped at their shared appearance.

With Katherine, it was all forbidden, new and enticing, he was so sure that he was in love with her. He would've continued to believe that it was love for the rest of his death if he hadn't of met Elena. They were opposites and whatever it was he had with Katherine it didn't come close to the way he felt about the creature in front of him.

"I care about you, Damon, but I love Stephen." She looked directly at him as she spoke, clearly hoping he would get the message.

"Very convincing, Elena. I almost believed you." He held up his hand with an inch between his thumb and forefinger.

"I am serious, Damon. I love him, it will always be him."

"And I'm sure that a fruit fly thinks it will always be alive." He mutters so quickly Elena didn't understand.

"What are you saying?" She asks well crossing her arms.

Angered annoyance flashed across his face and a split second later he had Elena's back against the tree, his hand on the protecting the back of her head from the bark.

"Huh!"

"You actually believe in what you're saying but you don't understand!"

"Then tell me, Damon! Tell me what I don't get!" She yelled back at him.

"You love me, Elena. I feel it. And Stefan knows that what you feel for me goes deeper than 'caring''."

"No!" Anger jumped in her face and fresh tears slid down her cheek.

It was a lie, whether she knew it or not. She might love Stefan but she loved him as well, if not more. Why didn't she see that? Because she met him first? Is that why she felt so loyal to him?

In that moment, he wanted to make her remember. Remember how they really met the first time, how she had stunned him with her likeness to Katherine, how she somehow made him feel humble and curious for the first time in a while.

That would confuse her, he realized, it wouldn't make anything better.

She wasn't ready to admit it to herself, let alone anyone else, but Damon knew how she really felt. Who was he to rush her?

He let Elena go in a flash of movement and when she looked to for him, he stood ten feet away.

"I won't force you to a conclusion you're not ready to make. I'm better than that but I will not sit around waiting for you to come to your senses while you prance around and pretend with Stefan."

Before Elena can reply, Damon tosses the car keys at her.

"What? Damon, what are you doing?" She asks in a thick voice.

Damon nods towards her car at the end of the driveway, where it was waiting after they made sure the Originals had left town after Finn died.

"Go home, Elena. I need to be somewhere." Then he was gone from sight.

She stormed to the driver's side of the car and slammed it shut after getting in, even over the start of the engine roared to life, Damon could hear the phone call she was making.

"Elena? Everything all good at the Mikaelson's?" Stefan's voice came through the static of the phone.

"Yeah, that's fine. It's your brother, I'm having an issue with."

Stefan's voice lowered an octave.

"What did he do?"

"Nothing worth repeating. I just called to let you know I'm on my way home."

"Where 's Damon?"

"Probably looking for a drink in a skirt."

Elena pulled away from the driveway and headed back to towards town. Damon dropped down from the tree he had shamelessly hidden in and watched the brake lights disappear around the next bend.

He was leaving Mystic Falls, he had to. He should visit Yvette, it had been such a long time since he last seen her when he had almost killed her. But if Damon was going to avoid everyone he had tried to kill, or they him, he wouldn't be able to see anyone. Plus, he found that he missed this one friend a little more than he'd care to admit.