There was a knock on Damon's bedroom door, and he got up reluctantly to find Jeremy on the other side. "What?"

"Ric wants to talk to you about something." Jeremy stepped past Damon, looking around the room.

The familiar smell of Alaric filled the room again, making Damon smile. "He can talk to me about anything he wants, as long as I get to smell him." The vampire closed his eyes, loving the feeling of Alaric being around him again.

"He says it's serious."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Everything is always so serious now, why can't we just spend time together, Ric?"

"He says he wants to, he REALLY wants to, but he wants you to tell Elena about you two. He says she deserves to know how you were faking everything with her."

"Why can't Stefan tell her? He's been lying to her, too! She'll probably give him more shit for it than me!" Damon threw his hands in the air, frustrated. "I told you, Alaric, I don't care about Elena's feelings anymore. You've known that for a long time."

"Well, that's nice to know." Jeremy laughed sarcastically.

Damon scoffed. "Don't give me that self-righteous shit, Jeremy, she was doing the same crap to me before I started doing it to her. Your sister isn't the perfect little angel she makes herself out to be."

"Whatever, I'm out of here. You're a fucking dick." Jeremy started to walk out of the room, but the door slammed shut without him touching it, and the boy stared at the wood. He sighed, then turned around and looked at Damon again. "I'm sorry. Ric needs to talk to you, and I'm the only way he can. I'm doing it for him."

"Don't torture the boy, Ric. If he wants to leave, let him." Damon said. "I'll be fine alone, I guess."

Jeremy sighed again. "He says no, he's staying here with you."

"He's not staying anywhere if he wants me to go tell Elena anything." Damon took the keys to his Camaro out of his jacket pocket and exited the room. The smell of Alaric followed him down the stairs, as did Jeremy. Damon and the boy were silent most of the ride to the Gilbert house, but Damon became curious. "Is he in the car with us? I can't smell him anymore..."

"He said he'd meet us there." Jeremy answered quickly, and Damon sighed, wanting to be a prick to the boy, but not wanting to make Alaric mad. He kept his mouth shut the rest of the way to Elena's house, and knocked on the door a few times when they got on the porch. Elena answered, and Damon spoke before she could.

"I need to talk to you." He pushed past her into the house, and she closed the door behind Jeremy.

"About what?" The girl crossed her arms and glanced at Stefan, who was making his way down the stairs, but he didn't say anything.

Damon let out a breath. "Alaric and I were together. As a couple. That's why I'm so moody lately." When Elena stared at him, shocked, he continued. "Also, everything between you and I was one-sided, because I stopped caring on your birthday last year, and haven't cared since. I'm sorry if that hurts you, blah blah blah, fake apology I don't mean. I'm only telling you this because Ric is making me."

Elena's mouth was hanging open. "I-but…wait, so, why were you being romantic with me, then, if you didn't mean any of it?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "Use your brain, Elena. If I was suddenly completely uninterested in you, you'd think I had someone else, and of course you'd get jealous and wanna know who it was."

"But why couldn't you tell me you and Alaric were dating, I don't understand." Elena said, looking confused. "I wouldn't have gotten jealous, and I wouldn't have judged you two."

"Oh yes, you would have so gotten jealous!" Damon emphasized "so" much more than he needed to, which warranted a look from Elena.

Before she could say anything, Stefan stepped beside her. "He's right, Elena. You would have gotten jealous, which is why I kept it from you, too. I'm sorry."

"What? You knew?" The small girl was getting visibly angry. "Stefan, how could you?"

"Elena, I-"

"Don't get mad at him, get mad at me. It's my fault, I asked him to keep it from you." Damon interrupted Stefan, beginning to smell Alaric in the room. "And don't be mad at Ric, either, he was afraid of what you and everyone else was going to think of him."

"He says that's only partially true," Jeremy cut in. "He says he was mostly afraid of what people would say about you, Damon. He was afraid people would provoke you, and you'd get yourself in trouble. He says you have a bad temper."

"Well, thanks, Captain Obvious." Damon said, smiling a little. His spark of happiness was brought down by Elena's obnoxious voice.

"I'm not mad at anyone, I'm just upset that you guys thought I'd get jealous, for some reason."

"I'm not having this conversation with you anymore, I've done my duty, and I'm going home." Damon opened the front door. "Ric can follow me there, if he'd like." With that, the black-haired man ignored everyone on the other side of the door, and walked back out to his car. As he drove home, he tried to push everything out of his mind, but it didn't work. The pain in his heart creeped all through his body. He ached for any kind of contact with Alaric, as it was starting to become an addiction; smelling Ric's scent, feeling the ghost-like kisses on his neck. Damon wondered if it would be like that forever.

\\/

"You have no idea how addicting your lips are." Damon spoke seductively in Alaric's ear, causing the human to smile while on top of the vampire. The two had gotten back from the Smoky Mountains with Elena about an hour before, and they were on Damon's bed in the boarding house.

Alaric leaned back down and placed soft, warm kisses down Damon's jaw, and then to his neck. "You have no idea how ridiculously attractive you are."

"Ric, wait." Damon sounded serious.

Alaric stopped what he was doing, leaning up again. "What?" Damon said nothing more, he only smiled before pushing Alaric under him so quickly that the human barely even noticed. Ric's lips turned up in a grin. "I like this."

"I like you." Damon kissed Alaric deeply. His body was filled with warmth as opposed to its normal coolness, and Ric heated things up more by sliding his hands down Damon's sides, then up the vampire's shirt. Damon's back tingled under Alaric's touch. His entire body wanted more, but his mind was for some reason telling him to slow down, and he found that strange. He was always the person who did what he wanted first, and damned the consequences after...but with Alaric, Damon found himself wanting to be careful. He didn't want to move too fast, because he definitely didn't know what he was doing, and he didn't want to end up hurting Ric. The man he was kissing was his best friend, and he had to remember that.

So, with great reluctance, Damon pulled away from Alaric's lips. He lightly kissed the man's neck a few time, then dropped off of him, leaning up against the headboard of the bed. Alaric sat up, too, and looked confused. "What's wrong?"

"I'm gonna sound like a pansy, so I will leave you blissfully ignorant of my thoughts." Damon said, smiling at Ric. "Just know it's a noble cause."

The human laughed. "You know I'm not gonna think you're a pansy."

"Alright, alright," Damon smiled, then sighed. He wasn't so into the whole sharing his thoughts thing. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Like, physically?"

"No," The vampire replied. "Emotionally. You've been through a hell of a lot lately, and I don't want to make you hurt even worse. I found it odd that you were so quick to move on after Jenna died, especially with such a fuck up as myself."

"We're getting into some deep shit, here, aren't we?" Ric chuckled again.

Damon shrugged. "You don't have to talk to me about it if you don't want. It was just something that kept crossing my mind, and preventing me from doing further things with you." He waggled his eyebrows, hoping to make Alaric laugh again, and it worked.

"It's not that I don't want to talk to you about it, I just don't think I can. I'm barely keeping myself together as it is, and you're a big part of that." Ric said. "I don't really know what I want from this. All I know is you're making it a lot easier to live right now."

\\/

When he was inside his house, Damon poured himself some whiskey and went up to his room again. He sat on his bed, not knowing what to do to get Alaric there with him. "Am I supposed to call to you, or something? How is this supposed to work, Ric?" When there wasn't an answer, or a smell, or a feeling, Damon sighed. "Alaric? Please come here. I think I've earned some alone time with you."

As if on some kind of queue, Damon's room slowly started to smell like Alaric, and the vampire smiled. "Hey, stud." The air around Damon got warmer, and he felt a soft, hot tingling sensation on his forehead. He couldn't help but smile; he had always loved it when Alaric kissed his forehead. "You're making it a lot easier to live right now, I hope you know."

(A/N: This chapter was mostly in the present, so I'm sorry if you were getting attached to the flashbacks :p PLEASE REVIEW, IT WOULD MAKE ME THE HAPPIEST PERSON IN THE WORLD)