Chapter 3-First Kiss

Damon's POV

Elena's text was very strange-"Out of town for awhile, will be back soon." None of those words sat well with me.

Something must have happened to her!

As always, I worried about her constantly. It wasn't like her to go wandering off by herself, given her experience with the supernatural elements. And she would know better than to wander off by herself!

God, if something had happened to her, he would never be able to forgive himself.

He had to find her!

Flashback

Mystic Falls was hardly large and everybody knew everybody in town. The afternoon greetings seemed to chime around everywhere he went. It was absolutely dismal.

10-year-old Damon was seen walking through town on his way back from school. His father had insisted that he be given a good education, which was all Damon had received from his father since his mother had died.

His initial grief and fear had replaced itself with anger and hatred for his father. He had come to realize his father had never wanted him and never will accept him.

At least he had his younger brother who loved him and depended on him to look after him. He had somewhat of a home to go back to everyday at least.

As he continued to walk down the long path to his house, he heard a noise coming from his right.

"Damon!...pst, Damon!"

Looking over, he saw a girl emerge from behind a tree. She had long curly, red hair, freckles, and a long green dress.

"Lucy? What are you doing here?" He was even surprised he remembered her name, they went to the same school though. He thought she was very pretty but knew he didn't stand a chance with her. None of the girls liked him.

"I wanted to show you something, follow me!" and before he could respond, she disappeared in the forest.

Not knowing where he was going but also now wanting her to get lost, he reluctantly followed.

He followed the sound of her laughter until he reached a large log sitting in the middle of the forest, surrounded by trees. Lucy sat upon the log, smiling at him.

The little Damon sat down next to Lucy on the log, twiddling his thumbs in nervousness.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" Lucy asked quietly.

"What is?" he turned to look at her.

"The forest…so eternally green, unmovable. It's magical," Lucy practically swooned when she turned around to look at Damon.

That's when she looked up Damon did the same. The sun shone brightly in the sky and was casting a beautiful glow over the two of them. Without realizing it, he closed his eyes, forgetting about his troubled life for once. He loved the feeling of peace it brought him.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Lucy staring at him.

Without warning, she leaned forward and placed a soft, warm kiss on his lips.

It was a full minute before she pulled back. She smiled when she saw a big grin erupt on Damon's face, making him look like the little devil that he was. His cheeks turned a bright shade of pink.

He knew he should be freaked out, but he wasn't. His first kiss was a magical one and one he would not soon forget.

Elena woke up again for the third time that day.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Ashley asked her.

Still processing all the memories she had seen, Elena looked up at Ashley with a somewhat vague expression.

"I guess I'm…still processing all of it."

"Not all of his memories are bad, granted they are few and far in-between. He had a horrible childhood but he had a few good moments, I promise. You'll have to ask him about his good memories."

Elena could only nod.

"I wish you could have known what Damon was like when he was a boy, you would have adored him," Ashley gushed smiling.

"Ashley, me not liking Damon has never been the problem."

"Oh really? When you first found out what he was, you hated him for many months. So what happened? What changed your mind?"

"I don't know, I-"

"I think that's enough for one day. We will finish the rest of them tomorrow. Will you be ready for them by then? I have to warn you some of them are harder to watch than the ones I've shown you today." The elder vampire gave her a sympathetic look.

"Yeah, I'll just sleep for a few hours," Elena answered before laying down on the bed.

When she heard Ashley leaving the room, Elena let a few tears escape.

She had never know how Damon's life had been in his past because he never talked about it. And part of her thought that he didn't want to, and she couldn't blame him. She felt so sorry for him but she didn't want to pity him. What kind of emotion was that?

All she could think about before she fell asleep was "Damon…what happened to you? What made you snap and become a monster?"