****3/16 UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this, I received a PM saying that this story is being plagiarized. This person didn't know the title of the story but it was either published and/or updated recently. Please let me know if you come across this story. If the culprit is reading this: plagiarism is a disgusting invasion of someone's personal creative mind. I will not let this go until I locate your account and report you.****

A/N: Ever have one of those weeks where you are so busy that when you try to go to sleep your body won't shut down? That would be this week. I really want to the big Corsica chapter to be good for you all, so I am going to take some time to work on that hopefully this weekend (which is also insanely busy), but I wanted to get this up, I think it's an important piece of the story we need to know before they meet again.


Damon reached into the bottom shelf of the liquor cabinet, stretching his arm to see what was left. His fingers closed a bottle neck and he pulled it out, wiping dust off the front of it. His eyes widened and he nearly dropped the bottle, reading the label and feeling a memory surface through the haze in his mind.

It was a Friday night and Elena had decided she was going to work her way through Damon's liquor selection, tasting each one to see what he loved so much. She had so far tried at least 4 or 5 bourbons, 3 whiskeys, and her hand settled on a bottle in the back, pulling it out.

"Aqua Vita Cedrat?" She asked.

Damon felt his heart explode as she leaned into him, tipsy, and he wrapped his arm reflexively around her waist, pulling her closer. He waited for a moment, to see if she would comment on his hand resting low on her hip, but her response was to lean into him further and he smiled to himself.

"It's from an island, Corsica. The cedrat is sort of a cross between a lemon and a lime. Aqua Vita is what Corsicans call brandy. It's quite good, but only a small sip for you, babe, it's quite pricey and it's my last bottle from the stash I brought back."

Elena's arm made its way across Damon's lower abdomen, and she pulled him even closer to her, settling her head on his chest. Damon was pretty sure if she held him any more tightly he would die from joy.

"You've been there?" Elena asked him, her eyes half closed.

"I've lived there, on and off, over the past century. It's a quiet place, good to get away and hide from the world." Damon replied, his hand finding the back of neck, stroking her hair softly. He rested his head on top of Elena's gently, and longed to tell her that he would take her there someday if she wanted him to, he would take her anywhere she asked.

"Damon?" Elena said softly, her voice muffled by his shirt.

"Yea?" The proximity of their bodies was sending him into a foggy state. Her heartbeat thumping against his body, her fingers loosely gripping his shirt, her hair wrapped around his own fingers, the feel of her hip beneath his other hand. It was all too much, she was his brother's ex-girlfriend, untouchable, yet she was his best friend, the love of his life. He had made the first move on her porch that night, and it was her turn now. He couldn't bear to put himself out there again so openly.

Elena lifted her head to look at him, and Damon felt like the world had stopped around them.

"I love you."

The words tumbled out of her mouth and hit him harder than any words had ever before. Not when she had said she hated him, not when she had said he had lost her. This moment, this monumental moment, was finally here, and he was terrified.

"Elena ... you're drunk." Damon replied, mentally cursing himself for so reflexively pushing away her words.

"I'm not drunk Damon. Ok, maybe tipsy, but not drunk. I know what I'm doing and I know what I'm saying. You and I ..."

"You and I what?" Damon responded, his eyebrow arched, the rest of his body perfectly still, not wanting to take a chance of breaking the moment.

"You and are right. After everything we've been through, we are still here, together, and I love you. Let me love you." She whispered back, eyes searching his for validation, for a response, for the love she knew was always in his gaze when his eyes were upon her.

Damon could feel his heart constricting, his vision blurring, as she shifted against him, bringing both her arms around his neck. Her fingers gripped his hair and he was sure he had died.

"Damon?" Elena said, her own heart beating wildly as she took in his stunned expression. His hands had accommodated her movement, and now one rested on her left hip and the other on her lower back, as he held her tightly, afraid she would drift away.

"Why?" Damon finally replied, his voice raspy as he felt her seep into him, under his skin, but he still didn't know if he could believe it.

"Because after all that we've done to each other, all the hurt and the pain and the deceit, things I'm not proud of and things I know you wish you could take back, at the end of the day, we can't let the other go. You unnerve me, Damon, you scare me and excite me and somewhere along the way, I fell for you. No one has ever made me feel the way I do when I'm around you, it's like I can't breathe for the fear that you might walk away someday. So I'm saying it again. Let me love you, Damon, let me in all the way."

Elena took a deep breath after her long winded rush of words and she could feel his fingers digging into her back, she could feel his eyes piercing through her soul.

And how could he deny her request? He knew from the moment they met he'd do anything for her, die for her, leave town for her, torture himself for her finding his brother, be her rock when she lost Stefan. Didn't she know that she was the only one to really reach him? To see all the pain and anger that had built up over a century and a half and still love him in spite of, or maybe partially because of it?

"I already have." Damon replied, his voice low as his hands moved up her side, slowly, and came to rest on her cheek. Elena's breath hitched in her throat as his thumb traced over her bottom lip.

His head dropped lower and lower, and he could hear her blood racing as his lips stopped just an inch from hers.

"I'll love you forever." He whispered, meeting his lips with hers as his knees gave out and they sank to the floor.