TRANSPIRE - 3

DAMON SALVATORE

Watching the young boys playing football made Damon feel a little weird. An old memory of him and his younger brother Stefan flashed in the corner of his mind. Katherine had entered the scene back when both brothers were still clueless humans.

But it was not the memory of Katherine that bothered Damon. It was the human ignorance and bliss he'd lived his life with. So careless, and the only pain he'd known was a black eye he'd receive after fights.

He almost envied these boys...

Almost.

After all, none of them had the prettiest girl in this entire town looking their direction. Her attention belonged to Damon. It made him feel so confident, but so nervous at the same time. She was too much like his Elena. Alive, of course, but there was something that made her exactly like the girl he had once met on a parking lot. A beautiful girl with hopes to find a love that would consume her.

The game was finally over. Pretending to be interested in watching them was quite annoying, but the gaze-exchanging between him and the angelic blonde was over too soon.

Gathering the extra football gear, Damon started to follow the coach, unitl he felt her presence, demanding his attention.

He turned around, smiling friendly. "Hey. Again."

Elena appeared to be a bit flustered for a moment, Damon noticed with joy. "Hi. We ran into each other the other day, right?"

"Yeah. Sorry about that again, Elena."

"How did you know my name?" She asked, the confusion apparent in her large blue eyes, though she was still smiling shyly at him.

Uh oh. How would he explain that? Remaining calm, he answered, "I didn't. You just reminded me of someone."

It seemed to be the wrong answer; Elena folded her arms and frowned deeply. The field was starting to clear up, and some of the students eyed them curiously. Especially the Matt-guy who had tried to stop the group of idiots kicking Damon while he was on the ground, suffering from withdrawal and hunger.

"Let me guess, I look like your ex-girlfriend, Elena," she said in a stern voice.

Surprised, Damon stared intensely into her eyes. How did she now? Elena hadn't really been his girlfriend, but with Stefan out of the scene, he would've most definitely been.

"How do you know about her?"

"I met a guy named Stefan in France who was exactly like you." Elena looked very unhappy. And Damon was furious now - his brother, of course, had discovered her before him. What kind of stories did he fill her head with? As far as Damon knew, Stefan was no longer himself anymore. After Elena's death, he shut down for a while, and then left Mystic Falls.

"That was my brother. We had been in love with the same girl. She died a while ago. We both had trouble dealing with it," he explained, his voice smooth and gentle, despite his anger.

Elena looked away for a moment. "So, does that mean that you were both interested in me just because I remind you of her?"

"What?" The word anger didn't justify what he felt at that moment. "What did my brother say to you?"

"He was being weird, mostly, but he'd follow me around and show up at my hotel room almost every morning."

Damon exhaled. This wasn't very Stefan. And considering how emotionally unstable he was, Damon was glad that she was back in Mystic Falls, where Damon would now be able to keep an eye on her.

The field was almost empty, apart from Elena's two friends, a tall dark-haired girl and a short red-head. The wind blew strands of Elena's blonde face into her face. Damon gently took a strand and tucked it carefully her behind her ear.

Elena's eyes largened, but she didn't say anything. Damon had always been very forward, and he certainly wasn't going to stop now.

"I know that it seems that way, but I want to get to know you and find out how much you're not like that Elena. I'm a very selfish person, and ever that day that I ran into you, I started feeling better. Getting over...it, isn't easy."

Honesty seemed to work well on her. Smiling, Elena gave him a kiss on the cheek and turned around to join her friends.

"See you tomorrow, Damon," she said, turning to face him one last time before walking off.

"See you tomorrow," replied Damon, a little stunned from the kiss.

ELENA GILBERT

If what she felt wasn't falling, then Elena didn't know how to describe this feeling. Elevated and floating. Her heart was soaring towards the sky. Was it possible that Damon was the one she'd been searching for?

Lying on her bed, she replayed every moment she had spent talking to Damon Salvatore so far. He was nothing like his brother, Stefan.

Elena glanced at the textbooks piled on her desk and frowned. Homework was the last thing she wanted to worry about, but she couldn't spend the rest of the day longing for him. It drove her nuts, not being able to see him and talk to him, but maybe focusing on Math would help her get through this day until she'd see him again.

Once she made it halfway through her the math questions she'd get stuck in every now and then, her eyelids became heavier and she dozed off.

"Wake up, Elena."

Startled, she sat up and looked around disoriented. Her window was open, and the room darkened from the night. Her only source of light came from the lone moon, shining brightly from afar.

But she'd recognized that voice. "Stefan."

Her heart was beating fast. How the heck did he get here? Was she dreaming? Another nightmare about him?

"Yes, it's me." He walked towards her slowly, one side of his face lit by the moon's light. There was a menacing smile playing on his face.

"What do you want?" Asked Elena, teeth gritting.

Leaning in, he inhaled the scent of her blood. She didn't understand how she knew it, but there was something really wrong with Stefan. She could feel something sharp pressing into her neck.

"Time to wake up," said Stefan, facing her again and gazing into her eyes. Elena was confused for a moment, until...

WAM!

This time, Elena woke up for real. But it wasn't dark out. It was bright out, and Elena was lying in her bed. She couldn't remember how she had gotten there, but she supposed that she must've crawled into her bed at one point at night. It had been one of the longest naps she'd ever taken. More than twelve hours, to be precise, but she still felt restless.

Her dreams had been crazy last night. It wasn't the first time she'd dreamt about him since he was back. No. At least once a week or so, she'd have a nightmare. Elena had been trying to block him out of her thoughts.

It was as if Stefan no longer had anymore emotions. He was like a psychopath now. And he kept coming after her. What the heck did he want from her?

Elena finally climbed out of her bed and walked towards the window. Someone had been throwing rocks at her window. Matt.

Opening the window confused, she wondered what had made him show up by her backyard after all those weeks of ignoring her.

"Matt? What are you doing here?" She called out.

"Hey, you realize that school is going to start in fifeteen minutes?"

Elena looked at the clock hanging above her desk. Shoot. "I'll be down soon!"

She was about to walk away from the window, until she realized something. "Wait, why are you here?" Matt had been mad at her for breaking up with him. Something had to be up.

"Damon wants to talk to you today at lunch time during football practice. He asked me to tell you that."