Down – Jason Walker

"And I'm tired of waiting,

Waiting here in line, hoping I'll find what I've been chasing."

He was tired of slip ups. The split second he would catch her staring; or see her pull her hand away at the last second. Over a week she'd been broken up with Stefan and now Damon was noticing the 'slip ups' were becoming deliberate.

Now he was walking in her door in a tux because he was her date to the Lockwood's. Naturally he walked in unannounced. When was the last time he'd knocked on her door? Probably never, and he wasn't about to start just because he was her escort to yet another Mystic Falls dance.

Damon had never been so nervous for anything in his life. His hands were fidgety and his breaths were shallow, because this was not a slip up. This was real.

He'd left as soon as the decision flickered in her eyes, as she moved just a fraction of an inch closer. He decided that he couldn't do that anymore. Taunt her. Because now the taunting was going somewhere and the taunting, flirty advances were working, and he wasn't sure what to do about it.

He made his way up the stairs faster than he should have, but he couldn't wait. When he peeked into her room, Elena stood in front of her mirror, trying to zip up the back of her dress. Damon's jaw almost dropped; she looked absolutely stunning. She was wearing a sky blue lace dress, cut at just above the knee. Her hair was curled and pinned to the side, sweeping over her shoulder.

He barely had time to take her in before she noticed him leaning up against her door frame.

"You're early." She seemed flustered, trying to get ready on time. Quicker than he got up the stairs, Damon moved behind her; gingerly he zipped up the dress, lingering probably a little longer than he should have, his fingers gently running up her bare back.

God she looked beautiful.

Elena turned to look at him, and Damon's insides just about flipped. Would there be another 'accident', or something meaningful? At the moment he wasn't sure which one he was more afraid of.

"Thanks." She whispered.

They stayed from for a few seconds before Damon saw something flicker out of the corner of his eye. The time, changing to exactly seven o clock. "I'm precisely on time." He flashed her a smirk.

He could see each of her movements so clearly: the quick glance down to his lips that she retracted before even half a second, the nervous, shallow breaths that matched his.

It had never been like this between them before. The air was electric, and the possibilities scared the wits out of Damon. He could never show that of course, he was the cocky, sarcastic brother, he had to maintain his image after all.

Internally, he mulled over the curiosity if she wanted to kiss him as bad as he wanted to kiss her. It took all of his restraint not to bring his hand up to her face, and subconsciously he found his arm raising to do so.

To mask his intentions, he placed his hand on her waist. Still not as subtle as he would have liked, but still. "I might have bought you flowers. Seeing as I'm supposed to be your date and all." She playfully smacked him. He never planned on letting her live this day down. The day that Elena Gilbert acknowledged that Damon Salvatore was her date. "I left them in the car, but I'll go and grab them quickly, okay?" She nodded, and he took off at a human pace to his car.

It'd been a last minute decision, grabbing her flowers. He made sure to avoid roses though, because that seemed so... Romantic. Not his style at all.

As he slammed the door, a smash came from the house, and he ran inside, flowers in hand. Elena was on the ground in the kitchen, clutching her hand which was visibly cut. Shattered glass littered the floor; a large shard was covered in droplets of blood.

He dropped the bouquet of flowers on the island and knelt down beside her. "Shit Elena, why'd you try and pick it up?"

"I don't know Damon, shut up." His teeth were clenched together, and her eyebrows were furrowed together; it was obvious she was in a lot of pain.

"We have two options here, Elena. We can either get you to the hospital and try and not get any of your blood on that pretty dress while we do so, or I could heal you." Elena's eyes looked up at him, pleading. "If you just want to skip out on this whole fundraiser dance thing, I'm cool with it." As if that wasn't the biggest lie he'd ever told.

"Heal me." She said.

Damon nodded and pushed the sleeve of his tux up just above his wrist. Without any haste, he bit into his skin, puncturing it with his teeth. As soon as he drew blood, he sat next to Elena and proffered his arm towards her.

She looked at him for a second before sitting down beside him. Damon tried to stay focused as she drank from him. He was healing her, that's all. It wasn't meant to mean anything more than that. After what felt like an eternity, she brought her mouth off his hand. "Thank you." The wound on her palm was sealed up; the only evidence of anything being wrong was the blood stains down her arm and on the floor.

"No problem. I'll clean up this mess; you should probably wash your hands."

The perks of being a vampire came in handy; in what would have taken a human fifteen minutes; Damon did in about a minute. The glass was swept up and disposed of and the flowers were put in a vase. By the time Elena was back, the kitchen was mess free.

"They're beautiful Damon." She had a genuine smile on her face.

He stuck his arm out for her to grasp. "Shall we go?"

She grabbed his arm and nodded.

They'd decided to take her car after Damon put up a very convincing argument about how likely his camaro would get scratched if they took it. So they pulled in the driveway of the Lockwood's and parked the car, running a bit behind everyone else. By the looks of it, the majority of Mystic Falls was already inside.

Hopefully they had missed the speech that Carol was bound to give at the beginning of the event, but unfortunately that kind of luck wasn't common with them. The entire room was silent when they walked in, Elena's heels clicking against the floor.

Damon could feel her arm tighten around his, as they entered the room, completely silent except for the click of her heels. It was unsettling to have most of the eyes in the room on them. But still, Damon made sure to keep his head held high and gave Elena a comforting glance. She looked a little shaky and her breathing was erratic.

"It's okay." He mouthed at her.

While Carol went on with her speech, Elena focused on Damon, trying to make the fact that most likely every single person in town was now going to be judging her. Hopping between the Salvatore boys, how history repeats itself; even if almost nobody in the room was up to date on that kind of history. She closed her eyes, trying to shake the thought out of her mind. She was not Katherine. She never was going to be Katherine. None of this could bother her now. And with that, all her cares were pushed out the window.

Thankfully they caught the tail end of the introduction, and the music started up right after Mrs. Lockwood stepped down off the small stage.

Immediately, her gaze flew back to Damon.

"Care to dance?" His hand was offered forward, and Elena had never wanted to say yes to anything so badly in her life. Without missing a beat, she wrapped her hand in his as he led her to the dance floor.

It was evident of peoples surprise that she attended the Lockwood's with the older Salvatore on her arm, but the stares and whispers of the people around her didn't bother Elena; she felt comfortable being there with Damon.

The music started and so did the dance. Her hand found its way to Damon's shoulder and the other entwined itself with Damon's.

They twirled around the dance floor as if they were the only people in the world; her brown eyes were locked with his blue ones in a way that wasn't foreign to her. He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen, and being with him everything felt different.

She wasn't nervous with him; the butterflies in her stomach were reassuring rather than nerve racking. He hand fit perfectly with his and their steps were evenly matched, and truth be told she wished she could live in that moment forever; there was no reality outside the two of them, no impending conversations, no ex boyfriends or best friends to get in their way. It was just Damon and Elena, and nothing felt better.

"It's not polite to stare, Ms. Gilbert."

She shot him a questioning look as he pulled her in close, his lips at her ear, swaying back and forth to the music. "You've been staring at my lips for longer than necessary Elena, and I was starting to get the wrong impression." She swallowed hard; the comforting butterflies had come to life at a much more violent pace, making her mouth go dry.

But before she could say a single word, Damon's hands were off of her and she was in the arms of another man. It took her a second to forget the pressure that Damon's hand had put on her lower back and how well their hands fit together compared to this guy- Klaus.

"Good evening Elena."

She looked at him and for once she felt safe in his presence. Neither of them felt the need to overpower the other, and neither was threatened. It was like a pause from how things normally were.

"Good evening Klaus." She made sure to be polite; there was no reason to not be.

"I've been told that you're the reason why I'm here with Caroline tonight," Elena's attention started to drift as she saw Damon dancing with Caroline, both of them looking remarkably unhappy. Her jealousy was quelled when Damon looked up and winked, a knowing smirk oh his face. "And so I'd like to thank you."

Klaus thanking someone? It was time to wake up, because there was no way any of this was happening. "You're welcome."

He clearly caught the suspicious tone in her voice and then continued. "I have one shot with her, I know that. And I've done things in the past that I can't change, but I have the future to make it up to her."

Elena nodded. "I understand. Forgiveness is a hard thing to patch up more than once, and each time it gets harder and harder."

As they spun around, Klaus looked... Uneasy, for lack of a better word. "I'm sorry for any pain I've cause you, Elena. Especially Jenna and Stefan."

Elena almost froze in her tracks. This was so unlike him, she was worried that maybe he was leading her somewhere to kill her or something, but when no danger came to be, she shot him a sceptical glare.

He chuckled. "I'm not sorry for what I did, but I'm sorry that it caused you trauma. I did what had to be done, sorry love." It was a kind of apology, at best. Definitely not anything to convince her that Klaus was going to start hunting bunnies with Stefan and become the prime model of good vampire behaviour, but enough that it left her thinking about just how hard he was trying for Caroline. In his own way.

Elena nodded curtly. She had nothing to say to him really, how does someone respond to an apology for killing their aunt and causing their ex boyfriend to go off the deep end? It wasn't something you can find in a greeting card. While they danced in silence, a sly grin broke across Klaus' face, and he chuckled to himself quietly.

"What?"

With a quick nod of his head, he motioned towards Damon and Caroline. "You probably shouldn't have told her about your feelings for Damon before you told him. She's got a bit of a mouth on her, you know." His eyes were twinkling. "He's getting an earful."

Elena's eyes narrowed. "Liar."

"Oh really? Then you didn't 'really want to kiss him after the whole car incident thing?' because from the sounds of it you were going on about it in quite a lot of detail. And how you made Caroline go dress shopping with you for hours, 'not that she's complaining'."

Elena felt her face pale. "Shit. Want to tell her to stop talking?"

He shook his head as he twirled her around. "Not really, it's quite amusing." He stayed silent for another second, listening to their conversation. "It's alright; supposedly he thinks it's cute how you're getting all flustered around him."

"God sometimes I wish I had vampire hearing." She muttered to herself. It would come in handy at a time like this, when she wasn't sure just how much Caroline was embellishing her story.

Elena knew she had a few more seconds of dancing with Klaus before he was going to have to pass her on. It was obvious that the two pairs were drifting back together, eager to get back to their original partner, no matter if that wasn't the point. A few more beats.

"Thanks for the dance Klaus. Take good care of her."

Five.

She knew what she was going to do.

Four.

There was no turning back after this

Three.

She'd wanted this for so long.

Two.

Take a breath.

One.

Go.

She felt herself fall into Damon's arms, his hand finding its way back to the small of her back. But she didn't put her hand in his, as every other couple in the room did. Instead, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, tenderly, but with each second the fervour increased.

"Elena." Then she snapped out of it. Shit. She'd chickened out, and was completely zoned out while Damon had his hand held out at her, a knowing smile on his face. "Are we going to dance, or do you have something else in mind?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. Every word coming out of his mouth sounded like a sexual innuendo.

So not helpful.

"Of course we are." She placed her hand in his again, and they stepped as one. There was something obviously different about this dance then their one earlier in the evening. Damon was holding her much closer than before. As in any closer and they'd probably be called out on public indecency. And their eyes were matched in a fierce battle, neither of them wanted to be the one to look away.

"So Caroline and I were talking..." He said nonchalantly, breaking eye contact with her and looking around the room. Cheater, he was going to try and blackmail her into confessing. "It explains an awful lot of what's been happening."

She looked at him, pursing her lips. "Do tell." She wasn't going to let him rattle her, or she wasn't going to show it at the very least.

"There's a reason why every time I come near you, your heart does this." He leaned in, so there was a sliver of space between them. Elena cringed as she felt her heart start beating faster and faster. "And why all of a sudden you're so eager to try and beat me at my own game." Slowly they stopped dancing, as Damon took his hand off Elena's waist and rested it on her cheek. "Let's face it Elena, I'm a much better tease than you. You slip up, you stare for that moment too long, you give your intentions away. I can have you begging for me if I wanted to." Elena swallowed hard, her mouth was completely dry, and her words were lost along with her capability to function properly. The funny thing was, he didn't even have to tease her into begging, she'd probably do it all on her own.

But if she told him would her replicate her affections? She'd hurt him so many times, watched his heart break with little regard for anything other than her own feelings. A part of her felt like she didn't deserve his love. She'd tainted his heart, but yet the look in his eyes said otherwise.

It was hypnotic, the way his eyes looked into hers.

"You two are clogging up the dance floor; can you go get a room or something? That level of eye sex is not suitable for the general public." Elena's head whipped around and saw Caroline and Klaus looking at them like they were animals in a zoo.

"Shut up Caroline." Elena said, as she took a step away from Damon, thankful for the breather. She had no doubt that within a few seconds eye sex would have been the least of Mystic Falls' worries. "I think we need to talk, Damon." He nodded and the two headed for the front doors to talk on the porch.

"Yeah right, Blondie." Damon muttered under his breath. When Elena inquired about it, he shrugged. "Her and Klaus are taking bets." When she gave him the look, he rolled his eyes. "Trust me, live in ignorance." He said as he held the door open for her.

The night was cool, with a warm breeze flowing through the air. Damon went and leaned up against one of the large pillars on the porch. "So what do you want to talk about?" Again his voice sounded as if he was implying something. It seemed like he was always implying something, but now Elena had just gotten used to ignoring it. "Caroline was telling me an awfully interesting story."

She hated that he knew. Fully and completely aware of her infatuation with him. "Do you want to hear me say it?" She was annoyed now, it hadn't been Caroline's place to spill Elena's secrets to Damon. "Or you can just ask Caroline and I'm sure she'll tell you."

Damon's demure changed, it was no longer cocky and arrogant, based off his courage spurred with the knowledge of Elena's feelings. He pushed off the pillar with his back and brought himself close to Elena. God if he kept doing this Elena was going to get what she wanted, and quickly. Tenderly he brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Don't be angry, Elena. Like I said, I'm a much better tease than you. You slip up."

"So you knew."

He shrugged. "To an extent." His thumb traced gentle circles on her cheek.

"So did you figure out that I broke up with Stefan because of you? Because every time I was with him I was thinking of you? I'm tired of keeping things inside Damon. I'm tired of trying to control myself around you, but I'm afraid that if I don't things will get out of hand." Her hand held his in place, and she was sure he could tell how hard her heart was beating. He didn't say anything, but his expression said it all. The way he was looking at her made her heart swell. "And I don't want to be Katherine, I don't want to be the girl who had both the Salvatore brothers..."

"You. Are not. Katherine." He whispered. "You're selfless, and caring, and you will always put others before yourself. You are the exact opposite of Katherine, Elena. And it's because of these reasons that I love-"

His sentence was cut off when Elena pressed her lips to his. It wasn't a soft kiss, it was hungry and impatient; she'd been waiting for this moment for so long. Her hands knotted themselves in his hair, their tongues entangled with each other. In a flash she was pressed up against one of the pillars, and Damon was kissing down her neck, biting gently with his blunt teeth as he did so. He didn't draw blood but the action was enough to make Elena tug his hair roughly upwards, her lips aching for his own.

They flew apart when they heard a slow clap from the other side of the porch.

"Very good brother, looks like you're going for my seconds again!" Stefan was at the bottom of the porch, his expression was murderous. "And you're pulling an awful Katherine like move, if I do say so myself Elena. I mean it's been what, a week and you're already trying to get into Damon's pants?"

Damon stepped slightly in front of Elena, his body rigid and defensive. "Shut the hell up Stefan. Don't you have some bunnies to terrorize?"

"I was coming to talk to Elena, but you were too busy shoving your tongue down her throat, so I guess that's out the window." He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to leave. "Katherine would be proud Elena, playing us both like this."

Tears brimmed in Elena's eyes; that was her biggest insecurity, being like Katherine, and Stefan had found her weakness and exploited it, for no other reason than revenge. But the words bounced around in her skull, echoing through her mind. What'd she been thinking? She couldn't be with Damon like that, after a week?

She felt broken inside; while she no longer was in love with Stefan, she did love him, and his words still stung.

"Hey, look at me Elena." Her eyes snapped up to Damon's. "Don't listen to him; he's a self righteous dick with way too much product in his hair. Green isn't his colour, alright? You are nothing like her, and if you were I wouldn't be in love with you like I am now. You are not Katherine." She tried to fight his point, but he shushed her and held her in his arms, patting the back of her head. "And it's been a lot longer than a week that you've had feelings for me Elena, he knows that. Don't let him get to you."

She nodded but let the tears fall anyways.

"I want to go home." She whispered.

Damon pulled back and wiped her tears away, placing a kiss on her forehead. "All right, I'll drive you home."

"No, I need to be alone right now Damon." Her breaths were shaky as she tried to regain her composure. "I'm sorry." She needed time to think, if her and Damon would be worth it. Could she risk hurting him again? She didn't want to put him in a bad position, she didn't want to be the second Petrova to completely break his heart.

"You're not going alone Elena, you're crying, and you shouldn't be driving if you're upset. Just let me drive you home."

She shook her head. "I'll be fine. I'll text you later, okay?" She quickly pecked his cheek and walked towards her car as fast as she could, trying to stop the tears from streaming down her face. By the time she got to her car she was a complete mess.

Deep breaths.

Damon was still standing at the front door, looking at her while she started the car and pulled away. She needed just a few hours to herself and then she would phone him. Just enough time to regain her composure and get Stefan's venomous accusations out of her mind.

Then she'd tell him everything.

So of course now that things are going kind of okay, stuff has to get a little rocky, in true Delena style. I can't wait for you guys to read the next chapter ;) Thanks so much for the reviews you guys, keep them coming, lemme know what you think! :)