Word: Denial
Set: Late season one (think around 1x21 to early 1x22)

Chapter Ten: Denial

Damon wasn't really sure when it happened. Maybe it was when he saved her and took her to Georgia for a day, or maybe it was when she comforted him after he discovered that Katherine hadn't been in the tomb like he'd thought all those years. It could have been when he stepped in to dance with her at the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, or even when he'd realised how infuriated he was at Isobel for threatening her.

He didn't want to put a label on what he felt for her, though. After all, he was still very much in love with Katherine. Sure, she hadn't been where he thought she'd been for the past century and a half, but maybe she thought that he had simply died back in 1864? How was he supposed to know, until he confronted her and found out for himself?

But then there was Elena. If it wasn't for that girl, Damon probably would have upped town and left a long time ago in search of his beloved Katherine.

Something about Elena was keeping him in Mystic Falls. He wasn't sure what it was about her that kept him there, but he was in serious danger of becoming whipped, and Damon Salvatore didn't do whipped.

Okay, that's a total lie. Damon Salvatore didn't do whipped unless the woman in question was a Petrova doppelgänger. It didn't even make sense though - Damon believed he wasn't in love with Elena, so how come he felt he was in danger of becoming whipped?

If this were 1864 and Damon was his human self, he probably would have realised that he was in love with Elena a long time ago. Now, he was simply in denial. Not even in denial, he just didn't even believe it could be possible to fall in love with someone who looked exactly the same as Katherine.

It was just that Elena was so nice to him – nicer than Katherine had ever been – and she was so stubborn and so naïve and so precious and so perfect.

With a long sigh, Damon pounded the last of his bourbon and set the empty glass on his bedside table. He was definitely not in love with Elena. Not one bit.

He was her friend, he knew that. He'd told Stefan that. He'd helped her on more than one occasion, but that's what friends did for each other, and deep down Damon knew that he was as loyal as a fucking golden retriever when it came to friendships.

Damon liked being Elena's friend. She was nice to him, she asked him how he was and was genuinely interested in his answers. Of course they'd had their fair share of fights - which he suspected they would keep having - but something kept bringing them back together. He knew Stefan didn't approve of their friendship, which only made him want to be her friend more.

He knew that Elena had these looks that she pulled out only when speaking to him, such as her I'm-so-annoyed-with-you and her I-can't-believe-you-just-said-that looks. It was nice to see parts of her that nobody else had ever seen, which of course was true. In a way. Sure her friends had known her far longer than him and Stefan had, but he'd met a side of her that he was sure few people had ever seen.

The girl he'd naturally thought was Katherine at first glance that dark night, months ago. She'd flirted with him, he'd given her advice, told her what she wanted out of love and then he'd compelled her to forget the entire thing. He'd never seen that girl again after that.

It was very hard not to compare Elena to Katherine though. He tried not to, as the thought of Katherine still confused him. He still loved her, he knew he did. But that denial over his feelings about Elena was getting harder and harder to ignore. The comment that Isobel had made earlier that evening didn't help the situation either.

"But you took a risk with Damon. How did you know that he was going to give it to me?"

"Because he's in love with you."

Damon had no idea how she'd come to that conclusion without even seeing them in the same room together, but she had, and now it left his mind reeling. Stefan certainly believed what she'd said, to a degree anyway.

Did he?

Reaching out with his vampire hearing, Damon listened to the quiet sounds of Stefan and Elena talking. After the warning he'd given him, Stefan had left the boarding house to get Elena who apparently 'didn't want to be alone'. Damon didn't understand why Stefan had brought her back there, but he suspected it was because he was trying to make him jealous.

Was it possible for Damon to fall in love with someone else? Or someone new? He'd only ever truly loved two women in his life - his mother and Katherine. Could Elena be the third?

He knew she was amazing. Hell, she was as much an angel as Katherine was a demon. He'd always thought that he would always love Katherine...but could that be changing?

Getting up out of his bed, Damon headed off down the hallway to Stefan's wing of the house.

Stefan and Elena were on his bed, talking. It was too boring for Damon's taste, but then again he knew he'd probably sit and talk with Elena all night if she asked him to.

Whipped, his brain told him. He rolled his eyes.

"Good evening, lovebirds." Damon said mockingly, forcing them to focus their attention on him.

Stefan scowled when he saw him, looking just as annoyed with him as ever. Elena on the other hand, looked at him differently. Like she was looking at him for the first time.

This didn't surprise him. It didn't appear that she had taken what Isobel had said to heart when she had said it, but of course she would have thought about it. They both had.

That look on her face, though...that look was going to kill him one day. Elena could probably bring every man on the planet to his knees with that look, and unlike Katherine, she probably had no idea she was doing it. Then again, Katherine could never give an innocent, doe-eyed look to anyone - and pull it off like Elena - if she tried.

He could imagine being in love with her without even trying, but that didn't mean he was. Not one bit.

A/N: The Vampire Diaries premieres in four days! Who's excited? I'M EXCITED! I bet you are, too :)

Leave a review if you enjoyed the new chapter, and like always, I'll be back in a few days.