Elena

As I slept that night, I was haunted by strange, disconcerting dreams. I dreamt of my wedding, my perfect wedding. I walked down the aisle, my heart pounding wildly. My groom, as beautiful as always, smiled at me as I walked towards him.

The vows passed effortlessly, and when he was told he could kiss the bride, he pushed my veil back and leaned forward, pressing his lips to mine. My arms wrapped tightly around his neck, but we kept the kiss respectful for public. As we pulled away, I felt myself go dizzy with anticipation. Tonight would be perfect, tonight he could take me as many times as he pleased.

We gazed at each other, lost in the prospect of our future together.

"I love you Elena," he whispered, lacing our fingers together.

I smiled and kissed his cheek, telling him "I love you too, Damon."

I awoke with a start, gasping, unable to inhale enough oxygen. I pushed my hair out of my face, shaking and broken out in a cold sweat. I shivered, suddenly cold.

"You okay?" Damon asked, sitting up at vampire speed. And trust me, after that dream, he was the last person I wanted to see.

"No. I mean yes…no. I don't know," I finally said, getting out of bed and grabbing his jacket off the desk chair and sliding it on, trying to control my shivering. After I sat down on the edge of the bed, he absently began trailing his fingers down my spine.

"Stop that!" I snapped.

"Sorry," he mumbled, settling back onto the pillows.

"Sorry I snapped at you," I said, cursing myself for my inability to stay mad at him.

"It's fine. You're under a lot of stress right now," he said, reaching forward and wrapping an arm around my waist, pulling me backwards onto the bed beside him. I rested my head against his shoulder, draping one arm over his stomach.

"Go ahead and go to sleep. Everything's okay," he whispered, and I immediately drifted back into unconsciousness.

When I woke up, I heard the soft rustling of fabric and opened my eyes to see that Damon wasn't in bed with me. I pushed myself up on my elbows and immediately felt my breath catch in my throat.

Damon was standing by his dresser, pulling clothes out, with a black towel wrapped low around his waist. I was shocked at the desire that slid through me, and felt embarrassed. I bit my lip and tried to squeeze my eyes shut as he pulled the towel from his waist and hung it over the desk chair to his right. But even though I could see far more than I needed to, I found myself unable to stop watching him.

He was turned half towards me and seemingly not paying attention, because he didn't seem to notice that I was awake. I tried not to, but I found myself studying him. My eyes traveled from his muscled, lean chest and stomach to the trail of dark hair underneath his navel that trailed down to…oh my. I blushed immediately, feeling my pulse pick up. He had Anberlin's cover of "Enjoy the Silence" playing softly from the speakers, and I thankfully realized that he couldn't hear my rapidly beating heart.

He began getting dressed, and I finally managed to tear my gaze from his, ah…yeah, never mind about what I tore my gaze from. Let's just say I shouldn't have been staring there in the first place.

"Like what you see?" he asked, turning to face me.

I jumped, feeling color flood my cheeks. Hell, he'd known I was watching him the whole time. He was wearing only black boxers, and I bit down on my lip, embarrassed beyond belief. It would figure that he would notice.

"You didn't answer me," he laughed walking over and standing in front of me as I lay there on the bed.

"I- um, sorry, I-"

"You act like I'm offended. I have no problem with you watching me," he shrugged, his lips lifting in the half smile I was begrudgingly growing to love.

I nodded, trying to calm myself. "Right. Okay. Well, um, I need a shower." A cold shower, I added mentally. My body was flooded with heat that was not only from embarrassment.

"Would you like some company?" he asked, his lips tilting up in his signature half smile.

"No thanks," I said sarcastically, grabbing some clothes out of the dresser drawer Damon had given me and dashing into the bathroom.

I was dizzy in the head, and as soon as I closed the door behind me I sunk backwards against it, sliding down to the floor. My heart pounded because of Damon even as it ached because of Stefan.

"You okay?" Damon asked from he other side of the door. Great. I guess he'd heard me sink down to the floor.

"I'm fine," I lied.

"Okay then. Well, I'm going out for a little while. You going to be okay here on your own?"

"I don't need a babysitter," I snapped harshly.

"Well I am so sorry for caring," he snapped back icily.

I wanted to call out to him as I heard him leave, but I just couldn't. I didn't have the energy left in me. But now, thanks to the fact I was on edge and not thinking, I've hurt his feelings. Or at least I'm pretty sure I have.

"Damon wait!" I called out, suddenly realizing I couldn't just leave it like that. Couldn't just hurt him like that and let him leave.

I ran outside and saw him walking towards his blue GTO, and I grabbed his arm before he could go any further.

"Wait!" I said, tightening my grip on his arm.

"What?" he said, fixing his glacial blue gaze on me. Though he looked angry, I could also tell his feelings were, just as I had thought, hurt.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you. You were only trying to take care of me, and I bit your head off. I really am sorry," I said, meeting his eyes. For awhile, he just studied me, and then when he spoke his voice was soft and husky.

"You really think I don't know what's going on? I can see it, Elena. This thing we have, this…companionship, means something and you know it. I have seen the way you've looked at me. And I know you see how I look at you. You care about me. And not just as a friend," he added, walking so close that I could feel his body touch mine.

"I came out here to apologize, not for you to say things like that to me. You are my friend, Damon, and I do care about you. I care about you a lot. But I don't want you like that. Not to mention I'm still hurt because of what Stefan did, and even through all of that, I still love him a little. And I'm sorry that I don't love you Damon, but I don't," I finally finished, realizing I had just put all of my recently conflicted feelings for him into words. It was true that in the end, he was only my friend. Nothing more, nothing less.

"You're lying. You are lying and I'll prove it," he said, doing something that was completely unexpected.

He cupped my face in his hands, pulled me against him, and pressed his lips hard against mine. Shocked, I shoved him off. What had gotten into him? Yes, I cared about him, and yes, there were times when I was haunted by memories of his kiss before he left to find Katherine, but never had I wanted him to kiss me. Not right after I said I didn't care for him that way.

"You know that you want this," he said, again trying to kiss me.

"Stop, Damon!" I said, giving him a hard shove.

"Why? I can feel your response, Elena. You liked it. It felt good and you know it."

"And I didn't kiss you back. Not before you left to find Katherine, not now. Shouldn't that send some sort of message?" I said, knowing I may be being a little harsher than needed.

He studied me, all emotion draining from his eyes. "I suppose it does. It says that I was wrong to think you cared about me. I suppose I was wrong when I thought that after over a century and a half, I had finally found someone that gave a damn," he said, getting into his car before I could stop him.

He pulled out and I watched miserably, wondering why the hell I couldn't have been more sensitive. Why had I hurt him that way?

"I'm sorry," I whispered, knowing he couldn't hear me. Yet even as I stood there, alone, my eyes filling, I knew sorry wasn't enough. Not anymore. I had watched him tell me how he felt, just stood there while he implied that I cared about him as more than a friend and that he felt the same way, and then acted like I could care less.

I knew that deep down, he was the only one that really understood me, understood my wants, my needs. He knew how attached I was to him, and he hadn't thought I would just treat him like he didn't have any feelings. He had trusted me not to hurt him, and I had anyway. Now I had to find a way to make it right.

"You, you got me thinking it will be alright. You, you told me 'come and take a look inside.' You believed me, every single lie. But I, I failed you this time. And it feels like tonight. I can't believe I'm broken inside. Can't you see that there's nothing that I wanna do but try to make it up to you? And it feels like tonight."

~Daughtry