Holy cow, we're on chapter ten! To think this all started as a one-shot drabble of less than 500 words. Thank you all so much for your subscriptions, your reviews, your encouragement and your criticism. I'm having so much fun—I hope you are, too.

Elena slammed the door with all her might, taking some small satisfaction as the house rattled. She threw her book bag into a corner and stomped into the living room, her face a storm cloud.

Damon was rifling through a bookcase, looking for something. He glanced up in surprise at her little tantrum. "Bad day?"

"You could say that," she muttered, throwing herself onto the couch.

His eyebrows knit together in concern as he abandoned his search, crossing the room towards her. "Was it Bonnie? Surely she didn't try anything at school."

"No, she wasn't even there." Elena wasn't sure if she was relieved or frightened by Bonnie's absence. She knew it wasn't over between them. Bonnie could hold a grudge forever. Sooner or later they'd have to finish what they started. Elena could only hope that Bonnie could get the insane idea of compulsion out of her head. Or at least cut the witch bullshit.

"And it wasn't Klaus, right? Last thing he would do right now is hurt you, after all the trouble he went through to save you," Damon said, sitting on the other end of the couch, giving her some space.

"No sign of Klaus," Elena confirmed bitterly. "He wouldn't want to hurt his little blood bag, after all."

Damon's face darkened. "It was Stefan, wasn't it? I swear, I'll-"

"I haven't seen Stefan since the night on the bridge, Damon." So many enemies. It was like living with a bundle of swords suspended over her head. At any moment, on any day, any one of them could drop and strike her dead. Every day that passed without one falling was worse than the last, the incredible anticipation and anxiety building and building, stretching her tight like a wire. "Look, it's nothing. You'll think it's stupid. Let's talk about something else. How was your day?" She tried to push her irritation aside, to pull herself together.

"My day? It was fine. Great. Stupendous. Elena," he said, scooting closer to her. "Just tell me what's wrong, I'll go kick its ass, and you and I can enjoy a rare evening in which neither one of us has a brush with death." Damon knocked on the wooden coffee table, just in case.

Elena hesitated. "It is stupid. Compared to everything you just mentioned, it's so tiny."

"Spit it out, Elena," Damon ordered impatiently.

"I got a D," Elena admitted. "There. See how stupid it is? I got a D." She turned to bury her face against a couch cushion.

"You got...a D? In school? On a paper?" Damon asked, puzzled.

"A test," Elena said, voice muffled by the pillow.

Damon was silent. When she needed comforting after nearly being driven off a bridge? Damon was all over it. But dealing with high school issues? He was a little out of his depth. He rested his hand on her back. "It can't be that bad."

She turned towards him. "It's exactly that bad. I had okay grades my first two years of high school, but then with my parents and...everything else, they've fallen. But they were still good enough, but I just bombed that Bio test. And if I can't keep my grades up, I can't go to college. And that means I'll be flipping burgers the rest of my pathetic life." She hid in the pillow again. There. He was going to think she was so stupid. Like any of this mattered-she probably wouldn't survive the week.

"Now, stop that." Damon gently pulled her out of the pillow. "I don't think one test has totally ruined your life."

"Oh, what do you know? You didn't even go to high school," Elena said. Her eyes widened suddenly, and she clamped a hand over her mouth. "Oh my gosh, Damon. I didn't mean it like that."

He smiled, eyes a little wistful. "Yeah. You're right. I had governesses and tutors. They just hit me with rods when I got the answer wrong. That's nothing compared with having to flip burgers forever." He poked her gently in the ribs. "Go get your Bio stuff. Go on."

Eying him warily, she stood and got her book bag, dragging it back to him. She produced a battered exam, a giant D scrawled in red. For a long moment, she hid the paper, clutching it to her chest. What if he thought she was dumb? She sighed and pushed it towards him.

"A scarlet letter. How poetic." He examined the test in detail, flipping through every page. "There's no reason you can't do this, Elena. It's just Linnaean taxonomy. It's straight memorization. You just didn't have enough time to study."

Elena gaped at him. "You...you know Biology?"

Damon grinned. "Some of it. The parts that interested me. Or the parts my cute governess taught me. Mmm, Miss Patmore..." He smiled at some long-ago memory. "But yeah, I liked Biology. I read On the Origin of Species right after it came out. Survival of the fittest got a lot more interesting after I was turned, that's for sure." He threw the test onto the table. "So here's what we're gonna do. You are going to make flash cards and I am going to quiz you on them." His eyes lit up. "Ooh, we could play strip flash cards! Every time you get an answer wrong, you have to remove an article of clothing." He tugged playfully at the hem of her shirt. "And when you get an answer right-"

Elena looked at him, head canted to the side. "You...you'd do that? For me?"

"Elena, I'd do anything with you that involved the word strip." His eye-thinging was out of control.

"Well, obviously. But you'd study with me? You'd help me with something that's so...mundane?"

Damon brushed a strand of hair out of her face, letting the long strands glide through his fingers. "There's going to come a day when we aren't going to have to fight anymore, Elena. When we don't have to spend every day out of our minds with fear or every night just trying to make it until sunrise. And I can't wait for that day, when we can just be together and do normal, boring things. Because it will never, ever be mundane or boring if I'm with you. You asked me if I'd follow you to college? Elena, I'll follow you to that burger joint you see in your future or anywhere else you want to lead. It doesn't matter what we're doing or where we are. Any day with you is worth a hundred years of the life I've led up 'til now."

Elena stared at his earnest, honest face. He meant it. He meant every word. It wasn't the danger he loved, not the adrenaline that seemed to follow whenever they were together. He genuinely wanted to be with her, when times were good and when times were bad and when times just were. He really did.

She pushed him back onto the couch with one hand, pressing her body against his. And she kissed him, earnestly and honestly. Damon's hands ran up and down her sides, tracing her curves, his weight solid and steady beneath her. When they finally broke for air, he smirked up at her.

"So that's a 'yes' to strip flash cards?"