Elena

I walked downstairs to find Stefan still sitting on the couch, and I told him I was ready to talk.

"Elena, I saw the way you were looking at Damon. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into…" he started, shaking his head.

"I've already gotten into it, Stefan," I said boldly, folding my arms.

"What do you mean?"

"I chose him. I'm not sorry for that, but I am sorry if I hurt you. I care about you, but in a different way than I care about him. I love him, Stefan," I said.

He scoffed. "You love him? And when did you figure that out?" he asked, eyes narrowing to angry, jealous slits. Knowing I had nothing to lose, I said the truth boldly and clearly.

"When we slept together."

"You what?" he asked, rising to his feet in a blur.

"Yeah, it happened. I think I made it pretty clear we were over," I said, knowing if Stefan tried anything stupid that Damon would be down here in an instant.

"How could the two of you sleep together?" he asked, shaking his head.

"The procedure is rather simple, brother. Lips press together, clothes are removed, I think you know the rest…"

I turned around to see Damon walking over to stand beside me, and Stefan's eyes darkened when Damon laced his fingers through mine.

"Look Stefan, I am still exhausted from my flight. Is there any way we can talk about all of this tomorrow?" I asked, leaning into Damon's shoulder.

"Yeah. Fine," he said, storming upstairs.

"Don't worry about him," Damon said, leading me upstairs.

"I'm not, he's just so frustrating," I said, sprawling out on the bed.

"Tell me about it. I've been dealing with it for over a century," he said, unbuttoning his shirt and making himself comfortable. A familiar surge of longing went through me at the sight of him, but I suppressed it the best I could. I didn't want my wanting him so much to make Damon think I was some kind of addict.

I felt my pulse pick up as he pressed his lips to my jaw line, trailing kisses up the side of my face. He resting his arm over my stomach, pulling me to him.

"Do you want to?" he whispered huskily in my ear.

In response, I turned to him and kissed him fiercely, pulling myself on top of him. This time, unlike others, things went very slow. For probably an hour, we kissed (okay, probably more like made out, but you know what I mean). Then he slowly unsnapped my jeans and slid them off, then pulled my tank top over my head. Unlike the last time, my fingers didn't shake as I unbuttoned, unsnapped and slid his jeans off. I guess I was growing confident. He took things very, very slow and by the time we were both finally undressed and he was kissing me again, my body was literally aching for him. Since he found it difficult to use words to express his feelings, he found an entirely different way to. The slow, gentle way he made love to me told me everything I ever needed to know. His caresses, while passionate, were unbelievably gentle.

Later, much later, as I lay in his arms falling asleep, I knew if I ever lost him I would lose myself. He was a part of me now.


The next day at school, Bonnie came right up to me, eyes narrowed to slits that reminded me of Stefan's.

"I take it you heard," I said, assuming she'd talked to Stefan and he'd told her about me and Damon being together.

"Heard about what? You and Damon sleeping together?" she almost yelled, causing Caroline, who was standing a few feet away, to turn to us with wide eyes.

"Yeah, Bonnie, we did. And I need you to understand that I care about him. And he's not who we thought he was," I explained, begging her with my eyes to understand.

"You talk about him like you love him," she said, looking disgusted at the prospect.

"I do," I said, my eyes filling at the thought of losing my best friend.

"Don't cry, Elena. You're like a sister to me. And I love you, even if I do seriously question your taste in men," she said. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tightly, relief flooding through me.

"Easy there on the mushy stuff," she said, smiling.

"Thank you, Bonnie," I said before going to class.

All through class, I thought about what had happened right before I'd left for school.

"Morning Stefan," I'd said awkwardly when I'd come downstairs.

"We need to talk," he said, obviously not in the mood for small talk.

"Really what's there to talk about? I'm pretty sure last night covered it," I said, no longer feeling angry, just tired and wary.

"No, this is something you need to know, something I didn't mention last night because it hadn't happened yet," he said much to my confusion.

"Would you please stop talking in riddles?" I asked as I finished my cereal.

"It's about something I overheard this morning," he said, sighing.

"Can we talk when I get home? I have to leave for school," I said, grabbing my jacket.

"Yeah, just please hear me out when we do talk," he begged, fixing me the green eyes that I used to love more than anything.

"Alright," I said, calling goodbye to Damon on my way out the door.

I snapped back to reality, sighing deeply. What could Stefan possibly want to talk to me about?

Stefan

I sat on the couch with a book in my hand, patiently waiting for Elena to get home. I had fabricated such a believable lie that even she would believe it even in spite of the fact it was about her beloved Damon. And conveniently, I had even compelled someone Elena trusted very much to back me up.

You are a brilliant man, I praised myself mentally with a small smile.

I'd have Elena back by the end of the day.

Elena

"Hey Stefan. You ready to talk?" I asked when I walked in and saw him stretched out on the couch with a book, as usual. I'd called Damon on the way home and told him that I had to talk to Stefan, and he said that he was going to swing by Mystic Grill and grab a drink so Stefan and I could have our privacy.

"Yeah. Elena, this is going to hurt," he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. My eyes widened and I started backing up, my entire body tensing to run, even though I knew it wouldn't do any good because he was a vampire."I didn't mean physically," he said tartly, eyes narrowing.

"Oh. Sorry. Then what's going to hurt?" I asked, swallowing back my humiliation. Stefan may be jealous and angry, but it had been stupid to think he would hurt me.

"I overheard Damon on the phone this morning while you were still asleep. He was talking to Bonnie…" his voice trailed off and he shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"And?" I prompted.

"He was talking to her about the tomb. Wanted to meet up with her at the Grill tonight to talk to her about it, see if she knew any way to open it."

"What?" I said, my eyes filling as I realized Damon was probably talking to Bonnie right now about getting Katherine back. I had been used, played.

"I'm so sorry, Elena. He said he wanted her back, I heard it myself," he said sympathetically.

"Oh my god," I whispered, my heart breaking when I realized that the love he'd expressed for me had been completely fabricated.

Stefan reached out to hold me, but I shrugged him off and ran upstairs, going through the first open door I found and throwing myself on the bed, sobbing uncontrollably. I had been right. I was nothing but a Katherine look alike to Damon. I was his plaything. And Bonnie knew it, she had been in on it. I sobbed for what felt like hours but it probably only a few minutes.

"Sweetheart, are you okay?" asked a sweet, loving voice that I knew all too well. But I knew better. He was fronting. I was nothing to him.

"Go to hell, Damon," I said, getting up off the bed and brushing right by him.

"Elena what's wrong?" he asked, following me down the hallway.

"You. You're the same bastard I thought you were, it just took me a little longer than it should've to figure it out," I spat, then cringed when he took my wrists in his hands and pushed me against the wall. It didn't seem forceful or violent, more like he was just trying to get me to be still, but I knew that he could end my life my simply taking my face in his hands and twisting. I opened my mouth to scream, and he suddenly looked deeply and profoundly hurt.

"You actually think I would hurt you?" he asked, dropping my wrists and stepping back.

"Why not? You'll have Katherine back soon enough, you don't need me anymore," I said, knowing he was a wonderful actor.

"What are you talking about? I would never hurt you, Elena. You know that," he said, shaking his head.

"Why would you not hurt me? Because you don't want to be bored until you get Katherine back?" I asked, my eyes filling. I blinked away my tears, refusing to appear weak.

"I still have no idea what you're talking about. I thought you would know I was giving up on opening that tomb," he said.

"Really? Then why were you talking to Bonnie this morning about opening it? Why did you go meet her at the Grill just now?" I fired, my jaw clenching.

"I never left your side this morning. I was still asleep when you got up to go to school, I was just waking up when you said bye as you were going out the door. I would never do that to you," he said, looking crushed.

"Yeah right, Damon," I spat, brushing by him.

"How could you doubt me? After last night?" he called after me, his voice thick with emotion.

"Because Stefan overheard you on the phone, talking to Bonnie," I said, folding my arms. Lifting one eyebrow, Damon pulled out his cell phone, brought up the list of incoming and outgoing calls, and showed me that Bonnie was on neither list, which both went back two weeks.

"For one, you could have been using a different phone. Two, you could have deleted the call of your phone. I don't even know why I'm still standing here. We're done, Damon," I said, going downstairs. I got in my car and went home, ignoring my Aunt Jenna, who asked me what was wrong.

I ran upstairs and was going to throw myself on the bed, but the whole reason I was heartbroken was sitting on the edge of it.

"Go away," I said tiredly.

"No," he said, walking over to me.

"Stefan lied to you, Elena," he said, taking my face in his hands.

"No he didn't. I called Bonnie on my way over here, she confirmed everything," I said, meeting his eyes.

"Compulsion. She doesn't have vervain anywhere on her or in her," he reminded me.

"But…" I fumbled, my heart breaking all over again as I realized Stefan had lied to me.

"God I'm sorry, I am so sorry," I cried, collapsing into his arms.

"Shh…it's okay…" He murmured words of comfort into my ear, and I was overwhelmed with the desire to show him how much I really did love him.

I grabbed his shoulders and pushed him backwards until we both tumbled onto the bed. I shed his clothing immediately, and he removed mine just as swiftly. I reciprocated what he had done for me last night, I expressed my emotions in a way that words could never compare to. Where last night he'd made love to me, now I was making love to him.

"I'm sorry," I whispered again as he held me hours later.

"It's okay," he whispered back, stroking my hair.

Suddenly I started giggling, finding something rather amusing in what had just happened.

"What?" he asked, rolling into his side to face me.

"Well…it's um, girl stuff," I explained, blushing.

"What 'girl stuff?'" he asked persuasively.

"Think about all great chick flicks. Two people fall in love, they argue, and…" I trailed off, lifting my eyebrows.

"Have make up sex?" he asked bluntly.

"Well you don't have to be crude about it," I mumbled.

"No, crude would be me saying-"

"No thank you. I don't want to hear that, thank you very much," I said, getting up and getting dressed.

"Hey, wait a second," he said, getting to his feet.

I turned around to face him, and saw him fumbling for something in his pocket. Apparently he'd gotten dressed at vampire speed.

"And before you freak out, this is not an engagement ring," he said, and I was glad he'd told me ahead of time, because he was holding a black velvet ring box, and I can't say I wouldn't have jumped to conclusions.

"What is it?" I asked, and then gasped quietly when he opened the box. Inside was a diamond and lapis lazuli ring, set on a platinum band. It sparkled, the light catching the tiny flecks of gold in the lapis.

"It's…a promise ring," he said, taking a deep breath and suddenly looking very scared, very vulnerable.

"It's amazing, Damon. When did you get it?" I asked, trying to figure out when he could've gotten it.

"Well, I kind of lied to you. I wasn't at the Grill earlier. I went and picked this out," he explained, blue eyes betraying his vulnerability where the rest of his features did not.

"I love it," I said, handing it back to him and then holding my left hand out.

He smiled and slid the ring on my ring finger, and I leaned up to kiss him. It didn't even occur to me that we'd only been together for a couple days and that I already had a promise ring, it actually didn't bother me at all.

"Elena, I need you to listen to me," he said, looking deep into my eyes.

"Okay," I nodded, knowing he wasn't compelling me, just trying to get me to listen.

"Stefan will try to break us apart at all costs, so I need you to promise me that you won't let him come between us," he said, absently fingering my ring.

"I promise," I said, knowing that nothing could ever come between us now.

"So I was thinking about something," I began, "why is it that the girl is the only one who wears a ring to show commitment?"

"Well…good question. Is that a hint?" he asked, arching one eyebrow.

"The only problem is you have your lapis ring already. If you start wearing any more rings you're going to look like you have a jewelry fetish," I said, absently taking his hand and running my finger over the surface of the ring that protected him from sunlight.

"How about I move this to my ring finger?" he suggested.

"But if something was to ever happen - and I really pray it doesn't - and we were to separate, then it's not like you could just stop wearing your promise ring. Without that ring you can't go out in daylight," I reminded him.

"I would stop wearing it if something was to ever happen and we would, god forbid, separate," he said simply, shrugging his shoulders under his leather jacket.

"But then you couldn't go out in daylight," I said, knowing he would go crazy if he wasn't a daywalker.

"Yes I could," he said hoarsely.

"What do you mean, Damon? You can't go out in daylight without your ring, you'd die," I said, my eyebrows lifting.

"Exactly," he said.

He then disappeared out the window, leaving nothing but my billowing curtains in his place.


"I have found a paradox. If you love until it hurts, then there can be no more hurt. Only more love."

~Mother Teresa


Author's Note:

Hi again! I wasn't expecting to update so soon, but I got inspired to write more and thought I would make Stefan try to break them up. And of course, I couldn't let him succeed. I know it's rather soon for a promise ring, and Damon was probably way too sappy there at the end, but I like expressing his vulnerabilities, and most of those are derived from Elena, so I apologize if he was a little too OOC. And thank you for all of the kind reviews on the last chapter, the encouragement always helps. For once I didn't use a song quote at the end, but one I heard on a really great show called Criminal Minds. It's from episode 18, season 5, "The Fight."

I know that this story doesn't have much of a storyline, but I wanted it to be mostly pure, straight Delena without a lot of complications. I decided that I will probably end it at ten chapters, one reason is I can only write so much pure Delena, and the second I have another Delena fic in progress called "The Objection." Which, I will soon be updating, hopefully.

As always, thank you so much to all of my awesome readers: you guys are wonderful!