Set on Elena and Damon's first meeting.

Unshakeable

I'm hungry. It was the only concious thought that surged constantly through Damon Salvatore's mind as he strolled casually down the desolate winding road. Instantly, he dropped to the floor, lying on the cold tarmac face-up. He kept his eyes wide, fixing them on the open night sky that spread far and wide above him. Although he would never be able to say it out loud, he find the sky intriguing. So much open air. So much freedom. Humans, vampire and witches alike were bound to the prison that was earth. It had been a childish dream of his, over a century ago to be able to fly like a bird. The thought brought a tiny, almost unnoticeable smirk to his face. Children were stupid. Humans were stupid. Dreaming was stupid.

He caught himself then. No, dreaming wasn't stupid. Particularly when you had dreamed of one thing for an entire century and you were so close to getting it that you could taste it - taste her lips, soft warm against his as they claimed his soul in a passionate, open mouthed kiss. Feel her mouth move to his throat as her teeth grazed against the exposed skin, plunging into him as she fed like a child dying from hunger... The desire to feel that pleasure, the wonders of giving blood so easily and readily to the woman he loved was enough to take over his senses. The cold floor beneath his back melted away, his sight was ripped from him as all he saw was her, her, her. Everything, gone.

Aside from the hunger.

It was still there. That incessant burn at the back of his throat was agonizingly relentless. The dry ache was the only thing that tugged him cruelly back to reality: he, Damon Salvatore, was lying in the centre of a lonely road, his limbs arranged in the spread-eagled fashion he had been taught to do it in, his shoulders twisted as if he had just been hit by some sort of vehicle. It was always enough. A twisted lump of body right in front of a driver that made the breaks squeal as the tyres skidded and screeched on the road, drawing to a halt just before him. Then, the driver would get out. He or she would rush to him, frantic and warbling as they patted themselves down trying to locate a cell phone. Damon would hear their blood pumping through their veins as adrenaline kicked in, smell the desperation and the desire to help clinging on their skin.

That's when he'd get up.

That's when he'd whet his appetite.

Feet scuffing carelessly across the road brought Damon back to reality. As his senses honed into the noise, he easily picked up the sound of blood pounding through the veins of a human. Breathing deeply, he listened carefully. The fluttery, fast breathing meant his victim was definitely female... female, and upset. Using the speed he had been blessed with when he had been cursed as a vampire, Damon propelled himself toward her. As he stopped, just short of her, his entire body numbed. For an instant, he felt paralysed.

Unable to stop himself, he let the gasp of recognition fall from his lips. "Katherine?"

She just looked at him, a vague expression of bewilderment and surprise unable to fully penetrate the lingering sadness that surrounded her. Brown eyes blinked at Damon, showing no signs of understanding. She just stood, long dark hair falling down her back, impossibly straight and shiny. "Um, no..." she said eventually, her voice trailing off. "I'm Elena."

"Oh. You... you just look exactly like-" Damon paused caught off guard. Squinting as he stared at her, he tried to work out how what he was witness could even be possible. "I'm sorry. You just really remind me of someone..." he half-smiled, more out of awkwardness than anything else. Awkwardness? He found himself internally laughing. Since when had anyone ever had the ability to make him, of all people, feel awkward? "I'm Damon."

"Not to be rude, Damon, but it's kinda creepy that you're out here... in the middle of nowhere." Elena gestured around her at the lone road surrounded by dense foliage. Damon took note of her slender fingers loosely holding onto a cell phone. It was odd, at how readily she displayed her emotions to a stranger. There was no pretence that he was used to seeing from materialising from what appeared to be thin air. She just outwardly admitted how jittery it made her feel.

"You're one to talk." He paused to smirk before adding in a sing-song, taunting tone of voice: "You're out here, all by yourself."

A snort of laughter exploded from Elena, all tension just dropping from her body as she flapped an arm, completely unconcerned. "It's Mystic Falls," she said matter of factly. "Nothing bad ever happens here."

Damon fought back the urge to laugh, but was unable to stop a maddening smile from fixing itself on his lips as a series of disjointed images flashed through his head: Katherine, Pearl, fires, fangs, screams filling the night air as John Gilbert hurried to round up the vampires...

As Damon resurfaced from his memories, Elena's eyes dropped awkwardly to her hand that was holding her cell phone. With a sheepish smile, she lifted the phone, presenting it to him. "Got in a fight with my boyfriend."

"'Bout what?" Damon asked, instantly intrigued. He caught himself, once again. Why was it that he even cared? He was supposed to be eating her, not making friends. Her uncanny resemblance to the woman he was heading into his old home to search for had him functioning all wrong. He was aware, that he shouldn't be doing what he was doing. But there was a wrenching motion that started in his gut and travelled firmly down his legs and to his feet, rooting him to the spot like an anchor. He didn't want to leave her. Not yet.

Again, Elena's eyes dropped as she spoke, shaking her head a little with each reason. "Life. The future..." she paused before adding in a slightly drawling voice. "He's got all mapped out."

Damon raised his eyebrows, pursing his lips. "And you don't want it?"

"I don't know what I want," Elena sighed, half-shrugging. Her brow creased in obvious frustration as her shoulders sagged in defeat. Damon's stomach churned as he observed her distress. For some reason, the urge to comfort her surged through him.

"Well that's not true," With a half shrug and a small smile, he took a step closer to her. "You want what everybody wants."

Elena cocked her head to the side. Her narrows slightly as her lips lifted at the corners, a beautiful and inadvertently seductive smile forming on her perfect features. "What? Mysterious stranger with all the answers..."

"Let's just say I've been around for a long time and learned a few things." Damon responded to her flirting nature, his face scrunching up as he nodded in an overly assuring way. He was enjoying it. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, he was enjoying the company of another individual.

"So Damon. Tell me. What is it that I want?"

As her eyes settled on his, a strangely hypnotic feeling took over him. Damon couldn't work out what it was, or why it was happening. But it was. "You want a love that consumes you. You want passion, an adventure... and even a little danger."

Elena paused, unable to mask the fact that she was taken aback. Smugly, Damon continued to smile at her whilst he tried to work why she had him completely thrown. For a moment, he just let himself believe that it wasn't because of Katherine. Had he never seen Katherine before, would he be feeling the same way now? Forcing back the confusion, he just let himself hang onto the feeling that this stranger was giving him. "What is it that you want?" Elena managed to regain her composure, countering him with a question that had him stumped.

Two minutes before hand, he would have said he wanted an eternity with Katherine Pierce. But this had happened. Faced with the love of his life's doppelgänger, he felt like everything was changing. Cogs and gears were clicking into place under the layers of flesh, blood, skin and muscle. He could feel Elena's presence inside him, coursing and pulsing through his very core. It was certainly disconcerting. He'd even go as far to say frightening... but it was comfortable. Like she was supposed to be there, a presence of light and power that beamed through his very soul.

Then, with the sound of a car horn, the comfort, safety and pleasure that Elena brought was shattered. She turned her shoulders towards the headlights of the car that was speeding toward them, mumbling something about parents under her breath. Over come with affection, he stepped so he was right in front of her, their eyes clashing as they stared deeply into each other's faces. "I want you, to get everything that you're looking for. But right now, I want you to forget that this happened. Can't have people knowing that I'm in town yet."

He paused, stealing a few seconds of her face, guileless, innocent and completely pure just looking back at him, dazed. God, she was beautiful. "Good night, Elena."

And with that, he was gone, speeding through the night, detouring through the dense forest, letting the cold blast him, throwing off his jacket as he tried to blast away any of the warmth that she had brought him, for letting anything get under his skin was a way to make him vulnerable.

But why does it feel like she's unshakeable?