Chapter 4: Honest of the Confessional Sort

As Paramore so eloquently put it, let the flames begin.

"After Stefan left, you disappeared for almost two months. Why did you come to me when you finally stopped sulking over St. Stefan?" Damon asked after a couple of minutes of enjoying the food. Damon seemed to realize how much weakness he had been showing that night. She realized that he was trying to push her away again.

"Don't do that" she blurted. "Don't try to push me away now. You want to know something about me, that's fine. But don't pretend like everything that has happened tonight didn't because that's just gonna make me leave" she asserted. She recognized his behavior. He was trying to push her away because of the venerability he had been showing earlier and it infuriated her. He was so good at it. That was what really got under her skin; he knew exactly how to push her away and make her hesitant to come back.

"Look Elena, I'm sorry. Old habits I guess. I honestly want to know why you came to me. I just didn't know how to ask without coming off like a dick" he apologized. "Okay, that's all you needed to say" she rationalized, "Georgia. That was the reason I came to you when I finally wanted to move on from Stefan". He raised one eyebrow at her words. He couldn't help thinking about the kind of "moving on" she was talking about, but her continued explanation pulled him from his thoughts.

"I remembered how fun it all was. We'll aside from you getting drenched in gasoline and me having to save you from getting burned to death, well non-existence" she chuckled. "I wanted it to be effortless. To not have to explain anything or make you understand anything. I just had to show up, put on some music and start drinking and you just knew what I needed. That's why I came to you". Damon was surprised by her confession. He never realized what he had supplied for the girl in front of him, but if he continued to think about it, it would drive him nuts so he changed the subject.

"Well, I know this is a bad time. But I think I'm confused by this game. Are we asking twenty questions total or are we each asking twenty questions? Because I thought we were each asking twenty, but that would make us only half way done" Damon asked.

"We could compromise. We could each ask 13 questions and make it a truthful 26 questions in total. The idea of this game only being half over is exhausting but at the same time…" she paused, looking up at him hesitantly, "I don't want it to end" she shocked him by saying.

"Okay. That leaves us with four questions each. And it's your turn" he answered, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Well, if I only have four questions left then I need to make them count" she contemplated before blurting out the question that had been in the back of her mind for months. "Was what Isobel said right before founders day true?" she said just louder than a whisper, her eyes determined to accept the possible reality that he might actually love her.

"Elena, please. Please don't make me do this" he practically begged, the flashlight turning on because of his avoidance of the question but they both ignored it. His eyes closed. He didn't want her to try and read him like she always did. He had spent a lot of time trying to keep his feelings from her for her own good. He knew she could never love him back and she would feel guilty and awkward around him if the truth came out. He wanted to keep the relationship the way it was out of pure fear of losing her friendship. His eyes didn't dare open; he couldn't let her see his internal conflict.

Then he felt her soft fingers brush his cheek and felt her cool breath on his face. He couldn't help it anymore. He opened his eyes to see her kneeling by this chair, her forehead reaching to his chin. He looked down at her pleading eyes as she continued to stroke his cheek. "Please Damon. Just tell me" she begged as he brought his face to be level with hers. Then abruptly he stopped and rose from his chair, leaving her kneeling beside his chair in shock that he actually walked away. She had seen the fear in his eyes seconds before he walked away but right now she was too infuriated to care.

"Damn it Damon. Can't you just be honest with yourself for once in your life" she implored.

"Elena, don't you see this is for your own good. Admitting this would ruin everything" he yelled.

"Ruin everything? God you're infuriating. I must be an idiot to think that you would just let this happen. It wouldn't be you if it wasn't difficult right? Is it because I'm actually here, standing in front of you. That's your reputation isn't it? Damon Salvatore, the guy that will spend forever working for something he could never have. You did everything in your power to earn your fathers approval. That never happened. You spent a hundred and forty five years chasing after a woman who didn't even want you and now what? You're a hundred and seventy and miserable." She was really yelling now. She had had enough. She didn't even feel bad for the horrible things she said, because they were the truth. The flashlight never flicked during her rant, not that either of them noticed. They were to busy staring each other down.

"Oh fuck you Elena. You do not get to shinkify me. I am not something you can figure out okay. Why don't you just stop trying? Go on, leave!" he screamed.

"No" she shouted back, not at all scared of him. She had never really been scared of him, just what he was capably of making her feel and right now she was the most frustrated she had ever been in her whole life.

"I'm not leaving Damon so why don't you curse at me some more or explain to me how wrong I am because the last thing you are going to get me to do is leave" she asserted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"God damn it!" he yelled in frustration throwing his glass against the brick fireplace. Elena's eyes heard the glass shatter but she never let her eyes leave his face. She saw everything he had been trying to hide since she'd helped him when the tomb was opened. The fear, pain, guilt and love were all there.

She waited until his breathing calmed and then she walked up and got in his face. "Let me in Damon" she demanded. "I'm not going anywhere so you might as well let me in. The longer you fight it…" she was interrupted by his lips crushing down on hers. She never even hesitated; she immediately threw her whole self into the kiss. She parted her lips and ran her tongue along his bottom lip, asking for entrance. He parted his lips and wove his hands up into her hair. She tilted her head even farther to the side and deepened the kiss even more, basking in its intensity. She had never been kissed like this and it felt like her body was on fire. He removed his hands from her hair and grabbed her hips pulling her body flush against him and getting lost in the feeling of every line of her body pressed against his. She didn't know how long they had been kissing, it could have been 3 minutes, it could have been three hours but finally she pulled away her lips to catch her breath.

Her eyes never opened as she pressed her forehead to his, her arms snugly wrapped around his neck and started taking deep breaths. She was internally satisfied by the fact that she wasn't the only one gasping for air.

"See, now was that so hard?" she asked with a cocky grin on her face.

"Yes Elena. What Isobel said was true. I'm in love with you" he finally admitted. His eyes were still closed when she opened hers with a large smile plastered on her face.

She removed her hands from his shoulders and placed one hand on each cheek, cradling his face. "Damon look at me" she breathed, begging him to open his eyes. He finally did and his expression took her breath away. His beautiful pale blue eyes held a look of pure venerability and love. If she had any doubts moments before, they were completely wiped away by that look. "I love you too" she breathed. His face displayed complete and utter shock at her declaration. He never thought it was possible. She was everything he wasn't. She was good and kind and warm and he was cold and distant and cynical. But the look in her eyes made her statement fact. Her eyes, the ones he had become so good at reading like a book showed nothing but love and he was shocked.

"Damon, say something" she begged. His silence was causing internal insanity for her. So many ideas passed through her mind. Her doubts were taking over. 'Maybe he really doesn't love me, maybe he is just now realizing he was wrong' she thought to her self.

"Say it again" he whispered, pulling her from her chaotic thoughts that were on the verge of telling her to run.

"I love you Damon. I thought I had been in love before, but I had no idea what the word meant until you" she seemed to be reassuring him that she wasn't kidding. That it was all real.

"Again" he begged.

"I love you. Damon, you're it for me. I have never been more sure of anything in my entire life" she murmured, her forehead still securely pressed against his.

"I love you so much Elena" he said grabbing her hands from his face and interlacing their fingers. Then he leaned forward, closing the small gap between their lips. He planted the softest kiss imaginable on her lips. This kiss was polar opposite from the first one. The first one was needy and desperate, like they were inhaling each other but this one, this kiss was sweet and filled with love and devotion. She had never felt more loved in her entire life.

Elena chuckled when she pulled away. "We still haven't finished our game" she reminded, causing Damon to smile.

"We can finish tomorrow. Right now I just want to fall asleep holding you. Maybe waking up with you in my arms tomorrow will convince me that I'm not dreaming right now" he breathed. He kissed one of her hands before letting it go then he softly kissed her lips one last time before leading her upstairs to his bedroom.

Elena walked into Damon's wing of the house for the first time in her life and immediately felt at home there. The whole area smelled like him and it looked exactly the way she thought it would, beautifully dark. He walked her into his room and led her to his bed. She let go of his hand and watched as he rifled through his dresser looking for pajamas. He grabbed two pairs of flannel pants and one black v-neck t-shirt. He handed her one pair of pants and the t-shirt and pointed her in the direction of the bathroom.

Elena came back to the bedroom after changing her clothes and washing her face to find a shirtless Damon lying on his bed staring at the ceiling above his bed. He took her breath away. Her eyes appreciatively scanned over his muscular arms, strong chest and toned abs, ending in a heart wrenching v just above the line of his flannel pajamas. Beautiful was the only word that could describe him, the man was beautiful.

Damon looked from the ceiling to the door way where Elena was standing just staring at him. He looked in her eyes before he scanned her body. The site of her in his clothes was enough to make his dead heart jump. Her face was freshly washed and her hair hung loose and untamed around her face. Even in the extra large shirt that seemed to swallow her and the flannel pants that needed to be tied extra tight to stay on her slim hips she was beautiful. She was probably the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"Come here" he whispered. As much as he loved to stare at her and really appreciate her beauty, the distance was slowly killing him. She crawled onto the bed a curled up into his side, taking in his calming scent as she snuggled her face into his chest and he wrapped an arm around her, placing a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Good night my love" he said while switching off the light with his remote and listening to her breathing that immediately began to even out the second she settled in next to him. For the first time in his life he felt lucky. He felt completely loved and needed. It scared the hell out of him how easily she had broken down all of his walls but he trusted her. She was the only person he loved enough to completely trust with the real him and that was something he wasn't going to give up for the world. Damon fell asleep feeling complete for the first time in his very long life and that feeling made him as happy as it did terrified.

A.N. Wow. That was chapter 4. I feel so accomplished right now. I'm sorry to those of you who look forward to the sarcasm and jokes in my writing but I couldn't really control this chapter. It really did write itself. I should probably change my description to romance/drama but this whole chapter kind of snuck up on me and exploded onto the page. Oh, and I would like to thank Stateless for writing and distributing the song Bloodstream and Trapt for doing the same with the song Echo because without those songs this chapter would have taken forever to write and probably turned out a lot different. I hope you all love it as much as I do. Please boost my ego and let me know I'm doing okay. Thank you- Ashley