Author's Note: Sorry for the wait on this chapter, I just really wanted it to be worth it. Also, life has been very, very busy. It will slow down in a little bit, but it's going to take some more time. I am not giving up on this story though! I hope you like the chapter. I listened to a great acoustic version of Come Around by Rosi Golan for most of this chapter. And if you're wanting some more insight into what I'm listening to right now for this story, I'm playing a lot of My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark by Fall Out Boy for Stefan. Take that how you will. Thank you for all of the awesome reviews for the last chapter and sticking with me through that hiatus. You all rock. Enjoy!

Chapter 7

There's something in between you and I
Come around, come around to me
You feel like breathing
Come around, come around, come around, come around to me

Elena had herself buried underneath a mountain of blankets on the couch watching some sappy Nicholas Sparks movie on television. It had been two days since she'd danced with Damon and he hadn't answered a call or text of hers since. He hadn't even been at any of his normal spots, and she'd checked everywhere, even the sorority houses. He was holed up in his house, which meant he didn't want to see her.

It was an odd tactic, but one that worked nonetheless. Hiding out in his house meant he wasn't trying to mask or bury his emotions. He was trying to make sense of them all, and she didn't know what would happen if she confronted him before he did that.

So, she subsequently found herself alone on the couch, wallowing in her sadness. Maybe it was dramatic or pathetic, but she was too tired to care. She had been exhausted for too long to even count now. She'd found it impossible to adjust to this life again. She didn't even think she wanted to. If she did that, it meant she had adapted to a life without him as her partner, and she could not do that. She couldn't go back to what that meant for her.

She would not be that person again. She needed him.

"I'm sensing a post-breakup depression." Jenna dropped onto the couch dramatically. Her green eyes were filled with compassion and love. "What's the matter?" she asked, rubbing a comforting hand over Elena's legs.

"What makes you think this is about a boy?" Elena questioned stubbornly.

"A girl does not spend two days in front of the television watching romance movies unless a boy is involved. Did something happen with you and Stefan?"

"No," she immediately denied. "He's not even in town for me to be upset about if I wanted to."

"What boy has you upset?"

"Trust me when I tell you that you do not want to know."

Jenna eyed her curiously for a few moments, a knowing look in her eyes. "Let me guess," she hedged slowly, "He's roughly 5'8, with jet black hair to match his leather jackets, perfectly pale skin, and piercing blue eyes." At Elena's look of utter surprise, she asked, "Am I right?"

"How did you know?"

"Just because I'm lenient and busy doesn't mean I'm a complete idiot. Besides, that tension between the two of you has been easier to read than the first line of a vision chart." Jenna gently rubbed Elena's leg under the blanket. "So, what did the oh so lovely Damon Salvatore do to make you this sad?"

"Surprisingly, this actually isn't his fault. He's trying to do the right thing."

"And what is the right thing?" Jenna questioned.

"Staying away from me," Elena said quietly. "And before you can even say it, I know you think he's really bad news, but he's not what he wants everyone to think he is. He's a good guy, and he just needs someone to believe that."

"And you do?"

Elena met Jenna's eyes with a determined glaze. "I do. He just needs a little help."

Jenna sighed and looked out the living room window for a moment, probably searching for the advice that would have come so easily to her sister, Elena's mom. After a long silence, she swung her gaze back to Elena, some semblance of confidence in her eyes. "Before I say any of this, I want you to know I think you are so wise beyond your years, more than you should be."

"But," Elena said slowly, knowing one was absolutely coming.

"But," Jenna said gently, "You're still so young. I know you don't feel that way, and you think you have so many things figured out, but things aren't always as simple as we tell ourselves they are. I do think Damon is a better guy than he probably wants people to believe, I really do. However, I also think he needs a lot of help, more help than you can give yet."

Elena knew there was a heavy dose of truth in Jenna's advice, and if she really were the seventeen-year-old Jenna believed her to be, the advice would be great. She wasn't a teenager though. So all the things Jenna thought she needed time for to understand them, she already did. She understood so much about Damon and what he needed from a partner. She also knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she could give Damon all the help he needed. She'd done it before, and was ready to do it again. He deserved every bit of it.

But how could she express that to Jenna without telling her the whole story?

It was a tough situation she was in, and she knew she needed to choose her words very carefully. She couldn't dismiss Jenna's advice, but she also couldn't pretend that she was going to take it. She had to find something in the middle.

Slowly, she started, "I wish I didn't already know that things aren't as simple as I want them to be. Unfortunately, I've already had to learn that lesson many times over. And I know that Damon is a complicated person. I really understand he's a hard guy to deal with, but there's so much more under the surface. If he could just stop and breathe for a few moments, I think it would help him out a lot. You might be correct though, I might not be able to give him what he needs right now. But I think I can give him what he ultimately needs. He just has to let me."

"You make it sound simple," Jenna mused.

"Trust me, it's not."

Jenna smiled gently and ran a loving hand down Elena's arm. "Just whatever you do, be careful."

If only one could be careful with Damon.

"Where's your shadow?"

Damon briefly glanced at Alaric as he slid into the seat next to him at the bar. "I don't know. Where's yours?"

"Probably consoling yours," Alaric said bluntly, catching Damon by surprise.

He turned his full attention toward his friend, though he still had no idea how they had become friends, they somehow were now. "What does that mean?"

"It means that for starters, you and Elena don't have Jenna as fooled as you think you do, and second, Elena is apparently enjoying her days switching between her bed and the couch. Want to tell me what that's all about?"

Damon turned back to his drink, feigning ignorance and disinterest. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Really?" Alaric challenged. "Cause I'm thinking it maybe has something to do with the steamy session I interrupted between the two of you not too many days ago."

"I'm thinking it's none of your business," Damon shot back.

He did not want to talk to Elena right now, and he absolutely did not want to talk about her with Ric. There was talking about the girls you hooked up with and then there was talking about the girl to her aunt's boyfriend. Thanks, but no thanks. It was a road he felt absolutely no desire to travel down any time soon – or ever.

"God help me," Alaric sighed before he took a large gulp from the bottle of whiskey in front of Damon and turned so he was fully facing the vampire. "I don't know what is happening between you and Elena, I don't really want to, but I do know she's obviously fallen for you. And for a reason totally unknown to me, you apparently have for her. I may think it's a mistake and a disaster waiting to happen, but I think you owe the girl more than your cold shoulder."

"You make it sound like I'm ignoring her."

"Aren't you?"

"I'm just busy at the moment."

So that was a complete lie, but they tended to be his forte. Honesty was too much of a hassle, especially when it involved girls. Right now, he needed a breather, a long one. He couldn't process what was happening between him and Elena and how it even came to be.

"Okay, is it just the alcohol that makes you a bad liar?"

"Maybe I'm just not trying," he pointed out the obvious.

"Is it because of your brother?" Alaric asked bluntly. "Is that why you're avoiding Elena? You think you'll rock the boat more than you want to?"

"Trust me when I tell you that my brother has nothing to do with this. Being with the same women is so not a taboo for us."

"You two need therapy – a lot of therapy," Alaric grimaced.

"You asked." Damon smirked at Alaric and held up his drink in a mock toast before swallowing the remainder of the contents.

"If it's not Stefan, then what is it? Cause let's be honest, we both know it's not her age that's stopping you."

Damon sighed and rolled his eyes. "Why do you care, Ric? Weren't you pretty much telling me to stay away from her a few weeks ago?"

"I believe I told you I hoped you both knew what you were doing, and from the looks of things, you are both failing spectacularly."

"Again, if you thought I needed to stay away from Elena, why are we discussing this?"

Ric's only option appeared to be to shrug and say, "The alcohol has finally short-circuited my brain."

"Obviously."

"Look, I can't tell you what to do, and I can't even really support this, so I don't know why I'm trying. I think you are far too much for her to handle at her age, but she seems to have some effect on you, a good one. I don't know why, and I wish it could be someone else, but that isn't the hand we've been dealt. So, maybe you should take a step back, push away some of that pain that consumes 80% of your being, and talk to her. She cares about you, Damon, and if nothing else, I think she could use you as her friend right now. It would be great if you two stayed strictly platonic forever, but I won't hold my breath on that. So, talk to her?"

Elena blew out a tired sigh as she opened her bathroom door and shut off the lights. With Jenna and Jeremy gone, the house was silent and dark, leaving her with only her thoughts to keep her company. They wouldn't though. She knew the routine by now. She'd toss and turn all night. It felt stupid and pathetic that she still hadn't been able to adjust enough to sleep for a night without him in bed with her.

"Cute PJs." A sense of déjà vu fell over Elena at the sound of Damon's voice, and her eyes swung around to his still body sitting on her window seat, tense with stress.

"Damon," she whispered and immediately hated herself for the evident joy in her voice. He came to her. She didn't know what for yet, but he came. "What are you doing here?"

The moment felt all too familiar to her, only she hoped it would end far differently than it had the first time it started out this way. She had no vervain in her system right now, so he could compel her to do or believe anything he wanted, but she was trusting he wouldn't. She was trusting that the look in his eyes was what she thought it was. She was trusting that he was here for her in all the ways she needed him to be.

Slowly, he stood and took a few steps toward her, but stopped before he could get too close. "I'm not the good guy, Elena," he said quietly, "And I never will be. I'll never be what you think Stefan is. I do bad things, and most of the time I do them just because I can."

Her breath caught in her throat at his words.

"What are you saying, Damon?" she asked, wanting to hear it clearly.

"That I'm selfish, and you have no idea what you're getting yourself into with me. If I were a better guy, I'd try to do the right thing. But I'm not."

"I don't want you to," she murmured, and with that, she went to him, closing the distance between them with every step. They came together effortlessly, the same way they always had. He may not have been able to remember them the way she did, but he knew how right it was deep down.

His hands snaked down her back to her thighs. With a simple ease, he lifted her into his arms, and her legs instinctually wrapped themselves around his body. She felt like she was finally coming home. Her world felt full again, like everything was falling into place, just as it always did when she was in his arms. There was nothing his touch couldn't fix.

She gasped as her back hit the mattress and he fell on top of her, barely catching himself enough to not crush her beneath him. He didn't let the moment give him much pause, and before she could allow him to even try to pull off her shirt, she felt him rip the cotton material in his hands, the fabric shredding up her torso until her breasts were bare beneath his gaze.

His eyes darkened ever so slightly as he took in her breasts for the first time, and apparently deciding he liked what he was seeing. His tongue ran hungrily over his full lips. "You should let them out to play more often," her murmured as his fingers gently rubbed over one of her taut nipples.

"Give me a reason to and I will," she challenged with a smile.

As he let his hands teasingly move down her body, her eyes fell closed at his supple touch. The familiar desire and overwhelming need she knew to be all consuming and life altering took hold of her for the first time in months, and she allowed herself to fall into the endless depths of it.

She was bare before she could even realize everything that was happening, her willing body writhing beneath him as he played a delicate game of cat and mouse with her. Even though he'd never been with her before, his body still somehow knew all the right spots to hit and just the right amount of time to linger on them to drive her wild to the point of near explosion.

A shiver ran through her body, tiny goosebumps popping up over her skin when she felt his breath on the apex of her thighs. It seemed to take every bit of strength she had to pry her eyes open enough to glance down at his head between her legs, his lust-filled eyes staring up at her as he parted her legs on the bed, opening her like a present he'd waited years for.

Up was down and left was right, and her entire world was spinning around her. She couldn't tell where she ended and he began anymore, lost in the sea of desire she felt only for him. It was just the two of them and her dark bedroom tonight, no one around to ruin the moment. She could get lost in him in a way she hadn't been able to in far too long.

She could finally be herself, if only for a few hours.

He was her world, her center. He grounded her in a way that no one else and nothing else could. As he moved over her and in her, she clung to him like a lifeline, desperate to feel every inch of him against her skin.

She hissed when he brought a hand between their bodies and rubbed her sensitive bud. "Oh god," she nearly whimpered, pulling him in even closer with her legs. Her head fell back, leaving her neck exposed to him, something he gladly took advantage of with his tongue. He managed to somehow instinctively find the delicate spot beneath her ear that could drive her wild when applied with the right pressure.

Her breathing became labored and she grasped onto his slick back with her fingers. The edge was rapidly approaching and she knew she could not hold on for much longer before she tumbled over. It had been too long, and she couldn't wait anymore. She'd make it last later on in the night, but now she needed her release, and he knew it.

"Come for me," he whispered into her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. "Let it out, Elena."

With one more thrust of his hips, he had her screaming out in ecstasy, welcoming the orgasmic waves that rolled over her. She relished in them, but they soon faded, and she was left wanting more. They couldn't stop yet. She wouldn't let them. So in a surprising move, she flipped them over, pushing Damon down onto his back with a soft giggle. "My turn on top."

He openly stared at her perky breasts above him. "Be my fucking guest."

"Don't worry, I plan to," she assured him as she nestled herself over him, she couldn't help but moan as he filled her once again.

"God, you feel amazing."

He gripped her hips in his hands, letting his fingers skim over her backside. "Right back at you."

As she looked down at him, the moonlight dancing over his milky white skin, she felt overwhelmed with her love for him. The emotions she was feeling were becoming all too consuming. She wouldn't be able to hide it anymore. She couldn't hide what he did to her –all the things he made her feel.

As she twisted her hips around his shaft, she reached down and pulled him flush against her. "Come here," she murmured against his lips, her body still moving in unison with his.

"You are a woman of magic," he whispered, searing her with a kiss that scorched her down into her core. She felt more in love with him now than she'd ever known possible.

The pace slowed to a tortuously slow rhythm. She knew it went against his normal routine with women, but she was not his other conquests. He would not sleep with her like she was. She would make sure of that. This was going to be a night he couldn't and wouldn't forget, no matter how badly she knew he would try once reality sunk in for him. The moment he truly acknowledged his feelings, he'd try to flee, but she was already ahead of him, ready to make sure he was hers again.

So she allowed herself to give into every emotion she felt coursing through her blood. She didn't hold a single ounce of it back as she moved with him. They flooded her in a way she hadn't felt in too long to count. She felt so much love and need that she couldn't stop the tears from clouding her gaze. It was only now, with him inside of her for the first time in months, that she realized how utterly alone and empty she'd felt.

And though she so desperately ached to tell him she loved him, words she always told him during moments like these, she knew she couldn't. So she held it in. She kept the words locked in her heart, knowing they would only send him in the complete opposite direction if she brought them to life tonight. He needed time to ease into everything, and she'd give it to him. She'd hold the words in, because she knew he'd be ready for them soon. He'd crave them before long, and she'd give them to him every time he needed to hear the words. But tonight, she'd stay solely in the moment, rejoicing in the fact that she had him in her arms.

She needed him like she needed air, and she wasn't about to let him go again.

"Oh my god," he gasped some hours later, collapsing next to her body on the disarrayed bed. "Who would have guessed you were hiding all of that under the good girl exterior?"

Elena giggled and rolled onto her side, running a teasing finger over his damp chest. "You underestimated me."

"No shit," he blew out with a laugh.

He did not know where she had picked up half the moves she'd pulled in the past few hours, and he was certain he did not want to know. He was certainly happy she knew them though.

With a quiet sigh, Elena rolled over and nestled herself into his side, bringing her hand up to trail gently over his chest. "Still thinking about doing the right thing?"

"What if I said I was?" he tried her.

"I'd say, if you knew half as much about me as you think you do, you'd know you couldn't take advantage of me if you tried. And ignoring this wouldn't be doing the right thing. It would be the absolute wrong thing."

"Why is that?"

"Because we have something. I don't know why. I don't know if I ever will, but I know we do. I know that you get me in a way I never thought possible. I know that you are just about the exact opposite of everything you want people to believe you are. I know so much you think I don't know or can't know, and all of it leads me to you. Trying to make sense of it will never get you anywhere, and the quicker you stop trying, the quicker you'll let so many things go." She pressed a gentle kiss to his chest that filled him with an emotion he didn't think he'd felt in over a hundred years, an emotion he didn't want to put a word to any time soon. "So, are you still thinking about doing the right thing now?"

He stayed silent as he stared at her, taking in her face in the little moonlight that was still left in the sky. She was filled with so much certainty that he almost believed she really knew what she was saying. It was as if she knew all the answers to his questions, and he didn't know how. He didn't know if he needed to. Did it really matter how or why she felt the way she did? He knew better than anyone there was often no rhyme or reason to why you found yourself consumed by some emotions. Who would he be to fault her for that or hold them against her? He couldn't do it.

"Not even close," he said softly and watched the smile spread over Elena's face. She turned her head so her chin was resting on his chest and she could stare up at him. Her eyes were filled with that same look he'd caught so many times over the past months. Now, he finally had the courage to ask about it. "What's going through your head when you look at me like that?"

She slowly exhaled before she nearly whispered, "I don't think you'd believe me if I told you."

With a softness he didn't know he had in him, he brushed damp hair from her forehead and allowed his fingers to linger on her face for longer than needed, all too content to touch her for as long as possible. "Try me."

He didn't know where the feelings for Elena had come from, but they felt somewhat like a freight train that hit him when he wasn't even looking. One moment, he was still hung up on Katherine and sleeping with as many women as possible to drown out the pain. The next, she was barely a thought in the recesses of his mind, and Elena captivated his thoughts. He found himself wanting to know more about her, and then the thoughts started going places they shouldn't. He wondered what sounds she'd make beneath him, what it would feel like to be inside of her, and how her body would move with his.

They weren't right and he knew it, but that didn't stop him for long. He'd come here tonight because he couldn't be left to wonder anymore. He had to know. He had to have her, and not just her body. For the first time in too long for him to remember, he wanted all of her. He cared – beyond the superficial, down to the core of her being.

He cared.

"It's not always the same thing," she said carefully. "Sometimes, it's simple, just me wanting to touch you or kiss you, but knowing I can't. Other times, it runs so deep and so intense I can't even put it into words in my own head." A small laugh escaped from her lips. "You have this innate ability to consume me in ways I don't understand. I could spend forever trying to, but I don't think I ever will."

"So it's my fault that this is all happening?" he inquired lightheartedly. Well, as lightheartedly as he could.

She shrugged her bare shoulders. "I wouldn't say that, but" she emphasized the word with a bright smile, "I wouldn't exactly say you were blameless either."

His eyebrows rose in amusement. "I never am, am I?"

"I wouldn't want it any other way," she said happily, no hesitation present in her tired yet lively voice.

The natural uncertainty that almost seemed to be second nature to him at this point in his life came over him at her words. She seemed so certain of everything with him. There hadn't been one moment of hesitation for her tonight, no indication of any doubt about what they were doing. In fact, he might even say she was more certain of him than he'd been of anything in his entire existence. The only question was why.

Why was she so certain of him?

"Stop it," she said insistently, interrupting his inner monologue. "Whatever self-depreciating thoughts you have going through your head right now, stop." She moved herself up higher on the bed so she could easily hold his face between her soft hands. "This is all real. I'm all real, and I know exactly what I'm getting into. You're not my second option or my option by default. You're my only option. I want this, and I want you."

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"This," she said before swiftly capturing his lips.

She kissed him as if he held the answers to every question in her existence, as if he was her reason for breathing. She kissed him like he made everything make sense. He didn't know why he could do that for her, and he didn't know how, but she seemed to think so. So naturally, being the opportunistic vampire he was, he knew he wouldn't turn her away any time soon. Who was he to deny her what she so obviously felt was the explanation to life?

When she pulled back, he followed her, grabbing onto her neck and keeping her close. "I think I need a little more convincing."

She smirked, but didn't pull away. "You do, do you?"

"Yup."

"Well, in that case." Taking him by complete surprise, she pushed him back down to the mattress. "I hope you've got one more round in you."

"Baby," he practically purred, "I've got more stamina in me than anyone you'll ever meet."

Damon's lips froze against Elena's, and she practically groaned at the sudden stop in the kiss. She started to open her mouth to ask what the hell he was doing, when his hand quickly covered her mouth and he whispered, "Your brother just came in through his bedroom window."

"That little shit," she said from behind his hand. What the hell was he doing sneaking in at five in the morning? Jenna was gone, and Elena certainly didn't give a damn how long Jeremy stayed out with Anna. He shouldn't have even been coming home until the sun was up.

"As much as I would love to stay and torment your brother some, I'd prefer to not end all of our sex with the image of your brother staring at our naked bodies. That's too much for me."

"No," she whimpered, not ready to let him leave her bed. "It's not fair."

"Tell me about it."

She knew that their night was over, at least for now, no matter how much she hated it. He had to go home, and she had to let him. But she didn't plan on letting it be for long. Now that she'd gotten a taste of him again, she wasn't stopping for a long time. She had months of no sex to make up for, and considering it was her and Damon she was talking about, that was a lot of sex – a lot.

"I'll come over with breakfast. In the meantime, you should get some blood and get a power nap, cause I'm coming for round two in a few hours. Got it?"

He smirked down at her. "Maybe you should go back to school instead. I think your math is a little off. We passed round two eight rounds ago."

She grinned. "One day is one round, baby. Get used to it and get ready."

He glanced at her bathroom door, probably hearing movement from Jeremy somewhere on the other side. Once satisfied that they were still safe, he turned amused eyes back to her. "Know what I said about having all that stamina? I might have to retract that statement in the near future. You might actually kill me."

She cupped his face in her hands and smiled up at him. "At least you'll die happy." And with that, she pressed her lips to his, making sure to give him a kiss that would leave him counting down the moments until he was inside of her again. "Four hours," she said as they parted breathlessly. "That's all you got."

"See you then."

Damon rolled over in his bed, lost somewhere between being asleep and awake, not yet ready to call it quits and open his eyes to the world. Elena had exhausted him in ways he did not know a human could, and though he'd agreed to the four-hour break, he didn't know if it had been enough time.

It took only a moment for him to realize he was not alone. He opened his eyes and soon he was focusing on Elena lying next to him, her eyes locked on his. He realized the break would obviously need to be enough as she said "Morning, sunshine."

"Ugh," he groaned, quickly closing his eyes and rolling onto his back after the light flooding in over Elena's shoulder blinded him. "Did you have to open my curtains on your way in? Speaking of," he cautiously pried his eyes open once again, "How are you already here and this perky when I'm still recovering?"

"I'm just that good," she smirked, one of her perfectly arched eyebrows raising in amusement.

"So, your brother have any clue what he interrupted this morning?" he inquired with a smile. "Is baby Gilbert scarred for life? Is he going to spend two decades in therapy dealing with the hot sex his sister has?"

She casually shrugged her shoulders. "Perhaps."

"You're a sneaky little thing." He smirked at her, slowly brushing her hair out of her face. "I must say, I'm an observant guy, but I had not seen any of this coming, not by a long shot."

She gazed at him for several moments, her eyes masked by something he couldn't quite read. "I can honestly say I didn't either."

"So, give it up already. Why are you in my bed this early in the morning? I'm the one practically dragging you out of bed nowadays. I know we agreed to this earlier, but I don't think I thought you'd really stick to it."

"Maybe I couldn't stay away." One of her gentle fingers ran its way slowly down his chest.

"Well, since you're here." He lifted up enough to meet her lips in a slow, sensual kiss. Not a bad way to start his day off, if he did say so himself.

It felt off almost instantly though. There was something different, something colder to the kiss. Her lips didn't move against his the way they had over the past night. There was no giddy smile on her lips that would fade as soon as the desire hit. No, there was none of that.

The moment he put it together in his head he pulled away. "Katherine," he nearly spat in disgust.

As the slow smile began to spread over her face his bedroom door swung open, and in his doorway was none other than Elena, the girl he'd thought he'd been kissing – the girl he wanted to kiss. Her eyes filled with pain and betrayal as she laid eyes on their close bodies, but in an instant a look of sheer hatred flooded her features.

"You little bitch!" And with that, she came flying across the room, straight toward Katerina Petrova.