Author's Note: Part two of 'Baring to Me' … Doesn't contain anything smutty. But still writing this particular chapter was very fun. I hope you enjoy!

Someone's secrets disclosure Warning!

Previously: Elena had tortured Damon viciously because he had kidnapped her and kept her captive. Out of rage, Damon raped her. Elena tried to murder Damon. But not only did Damon survived her fatal attack, But also he wrecked a tourist named James's car, by which Elena was trying to escape. He saved Elena but not James. Kaleidoscopes of vengeful events later, when Damon and Elena finally came to a good place, Elena started seeing James's horrible ghost. When Damon realized he was the reason she was being haunted, he asked her permission to let him compel the memory of those awful events, she refused him, because she had thought of another way forgetting in her mind. They made love and she confessed her guilt to Damon…


Chapter 12: Baring to Me Part II – It's Bitter, Sweet

"It's okay… it's okay… just sleep now."


Elena's POV


"Now what do you want? Seriously it's been more than two freaking hours… and all you've been doing is either humming irregular rhythms, or playing with your hair and twisting and turning on the bed. And on top of it you've changed your position like six times."

Damon scowls in a made up tough voice that makes me turn my head to him… We're lying besides each other, I'm on my back, eyes glued to the high ceiling and he's lying on his side, facing me, one folded hand tucked under his pillow and the other simply resting on my stomach.

Seriously It's been more than two hours, the addictive, mystical blue light from the moon that was only covering the place before the huge glass window, is spread all across the room now and the blue light is clearly showering upon us and flooding the entire room. And honestly speaking, I've been trying to sleep for the last couple of hours. But sleep won't just fucking come… My tear-swollen eyes are restless. So I've been twisting and turning on the bed that's gotten Damon asking me whether it's James's ghost disturbing me yet again within every five to ten minutes. But no… it's not James I'm worried about and right now it's not the overridden guilt that is eating my mind. Actually it's kinda creepy that right now all I'm thinking is about what to think now. It's hard to explain…

I don't answer him… just close my eyes. But as soon as I hear his sigh of relief, my eyes flickers open and I can't help it. Damon surely notices the mischievous glint in my eyes and the slight curling of my lips that's threatening to appear as a full naughty smirk. Another sigh releases from deep within him and he all the sudden pulls me towards him with a sharp tug on my middle, my back instantly hits the stone hard plane of his chest and makes me a startled captive in between his semi-moist bare chest and his steel bands of strong arms. I let out a small playful squeal and try to break free from his iron grip, but the harder I try the harder his embrace gets around my petite frame. Damon growls as he gives a playful nip on the curve of my neck, I squirm and I hear his chuckle of amusement.

"Now You want me to tell you bedtime stories and loll you to sleep? or you want me to go for round two or three and exhaust you to pass out, Princess?" he asks whispering in a ice-melting voice, while nuzzling the tip of his cold nose against my neck.

His action makes me giggle childishly. Then I control my laughter and say in a made up strict voice, "Nah… no need of round two or three… bedtime stories would do just fine."

"Really?", Damon asks astonished as I whirl my head to see his face.

Suppressing my laughter, I look him in the eye, puckering my lips in a thwarted pout and say "You're so old… I wouldn't want you with your back broken in between of round two and three, Oldman."

I smile inwardly seeing his reddening face, before finally laughing out loud… At this Damon narrows his eyes and a mischievous smirk spreads across his luscious lips. Looking directly into my eyes, he asks in a voice dangerously low, "Is that so?"

And within a heartbeat, I'm back on the bed on my back with a teased angry vampire on top of me, pinning me to the fluffy mattress deeply.

"AGHHH…"

I shriek at his sudden attacks… Damon mercilessly tickles my sides, making me yelp and cry out. I thrash my hands and legs in attempt to get free from underneath him, but he only presses me further down. He captures my both hands by my wrists and pins them above my head with one of his hands, while his other hand carries on tickling me. "Ah… Damon" I cry out giggling as Damon sucks and bites on my earlobe before thrusting his tongue inside. "No… nooo… leave me", I go on begging him as he presses his mouth flat against my neck and places open mouthed kisses and small nips there. Damon pauses his cruel assaults and lifts his face up from my neck… Damon flashes a beautiful dazzling smile that makes me smile too. As he releases his grip on my hands, I reach out and touch the stray strand of his mashed hair on his forehead that's draping over his darkened blue eyes and his smile brightens. His bare chest presses against my borrowed shirt clad breasts, my sharp inhalations of breaths constantly pushes my breasts up to him. His strong musky sent engulfs me… It's not like I don't like his smell. But my naughty mind won't miss this opportunity to tease him. "Meh… You're reeking", I complain angling my head aside in a fake disgust…

"Mmm… I reek of us", Damon murmurs trailing sweet kisses on my exposed neck, I could feel his lips twitching in a smile, "and so do you…"

"Get off… gettt off me", I say punching on his left upper arm. But his bicep is so strong that it feels like punching a damn brick wall.

"Mmm hmm… tell me I'm not old", he says pressing me down again, rocking his hips in a complete indecent manner. Okay, my mistake… in a complete arousing manner. "Say it", he presses more domineeringly.

"No… never… You. Are. Old. Damon Salvatore", I say and immediately regret my words as he presses himself so fully onto me that my body entirely dips into the mattress… My breath is whipped out of my lung and I'm a captive in my own ribs… Unable to take in a single ounce of air, I finally surrender to his stubbornness. I say giving up, "Okk… fine, fine… you're not old. Now get off me, you're choking me out of breath… Do you have any idea how heavy you are?"

"Really?"

Damon raises an eyebrow, but a satisfied grin is plastered on his lips at his recent victory. "You seemed to take this weight just fine, just hours ago… and you seemed to enjoy every second of it", he says in a innocent voice before throwing a challenging smile at me.

"Yes… I might have", I retort coyly, taking my eyes of his glimmering blue orbs… I could feel all my blood rushing to my face at the memory of it. Him on top of me… him inside of me… pounding gloriously inside of me, making me feel our every breath, every groan, every shiver, every pulse consuming each other…Mmmmmm… Then I shake off that thought as I regain my composure and continue, "But that was a complete different circumstances… Damon, seriously get off. I can't breathe…" Damon's usual steel blue eyes dance in a familiar mischievous glint but he doesn't get off me… He resumes laying flat on top of me, until I'm aware of his nude body is pressed firmly against every plane of my body. And on top of it, I'm well aware of the fact that he's completely naked on top of me. Only the fluffy duvet and the thin fabric of my pjs are the thin layers of barriers in between the two of us. My inhalation quickens and blood start to rushing at places, only he could make it go. I emit a deep frustrated sigh of defeat and state, "Huff… Fine, you're one very energetic, youthful mighty vampire. Happy? Can you get off now? Please?"

"Energetic youthful mighty vampire, huh?" asks Damon, wriggling his eyebrows, before bending down and planting a sweet chaste kiss on my lips.

"Yes… and heavy as a statue of rock", I say smiling as I part away from his lips. I then pound my small hands on his chest and push him off my body. Damon lets out a low growl as he smoothly rolls over and he lands on his back right besides me, with a soft thud and the mattress dips deeply. Gazing at his smiling face, I add, "and stubborn as a five year old child." Damon's smile brightens at my word… a smile that only makes me crave those lips on mine. I blush at the thought and clamp my teeth on my swollen bottom lip. I glance at him and he's unblinkingly staring at me with that sweet smile plastered across his lips.

Those eyes sometimes are so dreamy, that I swear I can see that he's been longing to see this for ages…

"Damon, how old are you?" I blurt out asking before I could even think.

"Hmm… I'm 24", he answers… then capturing my hand, he brings it to his lips and kisses on the back of my palm and adds boring his eyes on mine, "Forever."

Moving closer to him, I ask, "And how long have you been stuck on 24?"

"Whoa… Princess, I don't do back stories," says Damon shrugging his shoulders in a careless manner.

"Hey come on tell me… I just wanna know about you", I insist while getting up from my lying position and sitting besides him, "I'm just curious about you, about when were you born, were you like this from birth, or when did you got turned. You once told me that if a person dies with vampire blood in their system they come back to life and become vampire, did you turn like this? Then who turned you and what have been doing all this time, don't you get noticed by people that you don't age? Or you just compel them to forget? I wanna know all about your lifesty –"

"Stop… stop…"

Damon cuts me off, quickly raising from the bed, supporting on his elbows, "Christ, you're bombarding me with questions like a professional journalist... and you expect me to answer all that. What are your intentions, little miss Elena Gilbert?"

No… I definitely don't have any bad intentions at this moment at all… I'm just so very curious about him that I can't explain and I'm practically living with him for almost about a week now and yet I know so little about him, it disturbs me and he tends to surprise me everyday. Is it wrong for me wanting to get to know him? Nah, I don't think so…

So I continue insisting, this time sweetening my voice even more, "Come on… tell me. I'm going to keep all this a secret. It's not like I'm gonna write down an article on you on the high school magazine…"

"Seems a lot like that to me…" Damon says snickering but his eyes are very seriously and intensely observing me as if to uncover some kind of truth that I might be hiding. He gets up and sits besides me. It's both a torture and a practice of lust control, seeing the worked out muscles on his broad bare chest bulging as he leans back against the giant, magnificent headboard of his bed and he goes on saying, "And may be one day… I don't know… I'm driving my car with the roof open and suddenly a high school magazine flies out of nowhere and gets stamped on my windshield that features a cover picture of my smirking face and a pink highlighted title at the bottom- "Damon Salvatore: The Undead Sexgod" by Miss Elena Gilbert… read more dot. dot. dot…"

"It's not like that and you know it, Damon" I say laughing quietly at his sarcastic gestures, "It's just… I've been fancying my whole life that I'll meet a vampire someday. You know we had been told scary stories of bloodsucking monsters ever since we were kids. But I've never thought them to be monstrous… I fancied them to be mysterious lovers who'd creep through my bedroom window at nights and watch me sleep." Damon cocks his head to one side and studies me, while I move in closer to him and grip his hand in mine. I go on insisting as I stroke his hand with mine, "You know when I read Dracula stories, I didn't fear him like Care or Bonnie did when we were kids… I didn't tell anyone but I secretly liked him and then there was Edward Cullen…"

Damon's eyes voluntarily roll just the mention of Edward… He seems really dislike him… And he's not even hiding his distaste as he speaks, "Grhh… Edward Cullen, that whipped lover boy. Oh sorry. Shouldn't have said that out loud, I hear every teens' heart throb for that one these days and if I say this out loud, one day suddenly my heart won't be beating anymore," he murmurs almost incoherently, "Like it beats anyway."

"That's it, Damon… You're a vampire. You're the first vampire, I've come across… it's like my dream coming true. But you're so different. So different from the familiar ones I've known my whole life from those books… So I wanna know about you", I keep on insisting like a two and half year old little girl, "Is this wrong for me to want that? Is this wrong for me to be curious?" I ask him giving him the most Bambi look I could manage with dilating my eyeballs, jolting my pulp lips in a disappointed pout.

Damon looks at me and immediately takes his eyes off grunting in his defeat, "Fine… I'm convinced Ask me what do you wanna know"

"Everything…" I yelp almost jumping in delight. Clearly, I wasn't expecting this! I move in closer to his body and go on saying while holding out my fingers one by one, counting, "I wanna know everything about you. When you were born, where you were born, how was your parents, Did you two brothers always bicker like this and then how you got turned, who turned you…"

"1840"

Damon's deep masculine voice interrupts my blabbing in the midway.

What? I don't understand. "What?" I ask shaking my head, "You got turned on 1840 or you were born on 1840?"

"I was born here in Mystic Falls on 1840," states Damon, his eye glued to the dying flames of the elegant fireplace…

That makes him about ummm… about one hundred and sixty nine years. Wow he's that old!

"Date?" I intrude…

His head immediately snaps back at me as he says, "Seriously! You want me to be that specific?"

At this I shake my head slightly and clamp my teeth on my pouted bottom lip. I say gullibly, "No… I'm just asking"

"Why? So you can crash my house on that date and wish me my hundred and seventy something-th birthday?" Damon says… but I can say from his voice that he's greatly disturbed. So I just keep my big, ugly, stupid mouth shut and my head bent downwards. I hear him release a deep elongated sigh then continue, "It's 28th June, but I'm not too sure." This time his voice softer and smoldering as before…

I glance up at him and he smiles…That's The Damon Salvatore I like… I smile back and almost giggling I say, "Tsk… tsk… Too bad it's already gone this year."

"Yeah, gone for good and hopefully, I won't be stuck here in this small town the next year for you to celebrate my birthday", he replies pensively.

Won't be stuck here the next year? I don't know why but I feel a twinge of pain. I should be happy about the fact that he'd leave town before the year ends… because lets face the truth, he's a deathly, dangerous predatory species with strong command over human conscious and unconscious mind. The sooner he gets out of the town the better. For everyone. But deep down I don't why I feel like I'd get hurt if or when he leaves. "Okay… go on", I murmur clutching a fluffy, giant pillow to my chest… as I try not to focus on his forth coming departure.

"My birthmother died after a few hours of my birth", Damon says keeping his voice and eyes down.

"Oh…" a small incoherent gasps voluntarily escapes my lips, I murmur, "I'm sorry, Damon."

"I'm not…" Damon states clearly, raising his eyes to meet mine. My eyebrows knit on my forehead in a strange confusion.

Licking his full bottom lip he continues, "If I didn't even know her, I wouldn't be sorry for her… All I knew was, Mary, my mother. She used to work as a maid in the manor and she didn't hesitate to take me as her own son after the woman that gave birth to me had died." The clear-cut confession from him almost makes my jaws drop. Damon studies my features for a while before barking, "What? I barely knew her to love her, or feel anything about her…" he paused and his ice blue orb became vague once again, "My father did."

"Your father?" I ask in a bare whisper.

Damon draws in a big lungful air before saying. "My father Giuseppe Salvatore… a very proud honorable businessman he was… with all of my bad traits in him like anger issues, sadism, arrogance, violence et cetera… et cetera…" he emphasizes on each word, "Plus that man never saw me more than as his liability to be the heir to his business and estates. He never saw me as a living person… I used to get hurt by his impassive nature towards me, when I was a kid, I used to cry when he'd beat me with cane for no reason, but eventually I got used to it…"

"But this is wrong… abusing their own child? Why would someone do that?" I mutter shaking my head. In all my life, I have never been physically punished by my parents.

"I used to ask my mother the same question but she couldn't tell… You know, my father used to say I was a walking talking carbon copy of my birthmother. But what both me and my mother couldn't get is how a man loving his dead wife so much couldn't even look at the child, who resembled his dead wife…" Damon says letting out a bitter chuckle.

My eyes locks with his as I stare at his face in absolute wonder… his eyes are glued to my face with such a intensity that I couldn't take off my eyes even if I want to.

Those ocean blue eyes that held stars and universes in them stare back at me with such an intensity that I don't even realize when I reaches out and his knuckles lovingly graze across my left cheek. "My therapy says, if I suddenly find someone, who resembles someone that I loved and someone that I lost, then I could never hate this new person", he says in a breathy murmur as his cool hand lazily strokes my cheek. I shiver in an unknown delight as if he's making love to me… but he's only barely touching me and I feel butterflies in my stomach. His gaze as if memorizing me from centuries ago… "I'd always take care of this person for it's the reminder of what someone that I cared about, someone I loved, used to be…" The intensity of his eyes holds my gaze captive for what it seems like an eternity. The connection breaks on the instant pulls his hand back with a small smile.

Playing with my fingers, I say awkwardly, "But clearly your father didn't think that way…"

"Yes, otherwise I wouldn't have had the experience of being beaten by every possible things canes, belts, short tree branches… and there's always his bare hands", Damon says chuckling.

A gasp of absolute horror escapes my lips as I look at his sarcastic face… a face that tells how much he's hiding… how much pain he had to undergo, just because he's sick excuse of a father thought he was the dead-ringer of his beloved wife. I reach out and take his right hand in both of mine. "I feel sad for you, Damon", I murmur rubbing his cold hand.

"But my mother never let me feel anywhere near sad in her presence. Later Giuseppe married her and three years after that Stef was born. I was really happy… I really was and never did I for once feared or thought of the fact that he could be closer to my mother than I was and he could replace me. At that moment Stefan was the best thing that could happen to me", I keep my eyes locked on his… his face as if he's reminiscing things from a dream, "But my mother never recovered after giving birth to my brother and with time only got worse and eventually died within two more agonizing years. I guess it ruined the bonding between my brother and me… Anyway we grew up, finished schools. I attended Harvard University, but no need saying that I didn't finish… Then I joined the confederacy soldiers and life went on…", Damon finishes… With a grin plastered across my lips and eyes open wide with eagerness I look at him yarning for more. But he gives me an annoyed frown of his dark eyebrows and says in a stern voice, "Now go to sleep."

"That's it?" I yell in disappointment. "But the ending doesn't sound that interesting. There could be more", I beg clutching and shaking his hand with mine.

"Well, of course there's a lot more…", Damon says wriggling his eyebrows annoyingly, "But hearing over hundred and seventy years of life story can be boring as hell. Do you really want me to get into those boring parts?" he asks cocking his head to one side.

"No", I retort jolting my lips outwards.

"So now… go to sleep then", he says, then skids the butter silk sheets until he's laying on his back and huffs rolling his eyes.

Not wanting to give up, I lie down right beside him. He lets out a deep breath as my body presses against his bicep and the right side of his chest. Facing him, I place my palms flat on his bare chest and rest my chin on top of the back of my hand. I ask timidly, "I hear vampires are really romantic"

Damon raises his face to gaze at me and his free hand reaches out and caresses my stray strands of hair and tucks them tenderly behind my ear. He looks down at me lovingly for a moment then he speaks softly, "Who in there right mind would say such things to you… See, I'm a vampire. Do I look romantic to you?"

Leaning my cheek to the loving caress of his hand like a meowling kitten, I mumble, "Hmmm… sometimes you really do."

"Do I?" Damon grunts… I look up at him and giggle girlishly nodding my head. He breaks into laughter, until there's little crinkles appear by the corner of his eyes and continues to stroke my head. Our smile eventually fades and Damon says pouting, "Well, that sucks… Now can you please go back to sleep?"

"No…" I immediately raise up in a stubborn sitting position. "Hey come on, I just wanna know more and you're yet to tell me about how you and your brother became vampires", I insist poking on his upper arm and sway on the bed persistently.

"Ufff…" groans Damon annoyingly and turns over so his back is facing me. I try to tug at his upper arm, so I could make him sit up once again, but he's just unyielding… Frustrated I carry on poking and pushing at his shoulders. He groans louder, "Jesus, I am never kidnapping a kid like you ever again. Hundred years of hiding in the shadows should be far far better than babysitting you."

"Should have thought of that before you decided to house arrest me, genius", I say while giving a playful punch on his broad shoulder. He groans and I bend my head, so my mouth is at the same level with his ear, then insist him, "Now tell me about you love life… you were obviously in love with someone in your "hundred and seventy years" of lifetime and you obviously have been married atleast once, right?"

"No", he says immediately snapping his head at my direction, "I never got married… That's the one of few things that's in the what-I-haven't-done-yet-in-my-existence's list."

Wow! That's kind of a record for a man… Living on this planet for over a century and half but never getting married. I smile at his confession… "But you love women, right?" I blurt out.

At this Damon turns around, so he's lying on his back. "Seriously, now you wanna discuss about the women of my past?" he says and gives me the look. "Elena, there are so many of them, would probably trump the sum total of the hair on your head and mine."

That many? My mouth gapes in a big O in awe for a moment. Then regaining my composure, I lower my gaze concentrating on my knitted fingers and mumble, "No… only the special ones"

"The special ones?" he raises a quick eyebrow as he props himself up on his elbow.

Ughhh… I give up. Rolling my eyes, I try out another question, "Ok… fine. Leave it… Tell me when did you loose your virginity."

Hearing my question Damon immediately flops back grunting. "God… Even lamest question", Damon mutters hiding his face with his palms, his large palms muffling his sound slightly. Then straightening up, Damon presses his hands on his temple and replies, "Fourteen."

"WHATTT?", I shout. My eyes almost leap to my forehead as I burst out questioning, "Ohmygod… is it true? You lost your virginity so young and at that era?"

Damon muses at my curiosity as he rolls his eyes big time and tries to hold back a snicker. I narrow my eyes at suspicion that cracks an amused laughter from Damon. "God! look at you", he chuckles flashing his pearl white teeth. "No… it's not true. I was eighteen and quite frankly, I'm ashamed about that fact, so I lie to everybody who dare ask me this question", he says adding a little seriousness to his voice.

I keep my eyes focused at his face, as if searching for any sign of mockery. Satisfied when I realized this time he didn't fooled me again… I let my mind drift to another sets of queries that are very much related to the previous one. The obviously related questions… Obviously Damon doesn't seem that romantic type. So basically it'd be a joke if I think that it was with his lover. Even though I don't know it yet how was he like back in those days, but I can absolutely picture him as a playboy even at that age. And he himself confirmed it moments ago that he hadn't married anyone. So that leaves only a few options – eager prostitutes or reluctant maids… What are the chances?

My face must have been reflecting some of my thoughts as he speaks up, "Look. I know what's on your mind and the answer is- no… it wasn't with a brothel whore or our house maid. If I had to do that then I probably wouldn't have waited that long. I too wanted it to be with someone special."

Again, Damon Salvatore makes me soundless with my mouth agape in absolute wonder.

"Cliché. I know…" Damon says waggling his eyebrows as he studies my astounded state. I lock my gaze on his face as he continues, "But Alicia Saltzman was the one hell worth the wait, or so I thought at that time… because I was so dramatically in love with her. She was a new comer in town, her family just moved here from Germany and I thought it was love at the first sight… Anyway, it was the same repeat of every other dramatic teen lovestories, we loved each other, parents were strictly against us, specially my father couldn't take the fact that he's son was almost about to marry an European, where as our own bloodline is originated from Italy… So he threatened to throw me out from my inheritance and banish me from his place", he takes a small pause and steals a gaze at me. At this point, I'm almost sitting straight in anticipation as he goes on speaking, "But yet, I was so love stuck that I proposed to her to marry me and run away with me… But at the end of the fairytale she very unpredictably refused and gave me a well long lecture about the importance family bonding and then the following week she and her family was headed back to Germany. She was gone for good and then I never saw her again…"

A long exaggerated breath elicits from deep within his chest. His features harden, eyes unfocused and jaws tighten. "Oww… that sucks", I say leaning close to him in a comforting manner. I know how it must feel like to get turned down by someone. Technically – no, I don't, cause I've never felt that pain in my young life. But I've seen the look on the boys' faces whom I turned down and I've turned down numerous… But I've never received a marriage proposal yet, of curse! It doesn't feel good to see the sorrow, the pain in their faces, it never did. But what could I have done? I couldn't have agreed to their proposals just because I felt sorry for them… Anyway, I close the distance between our bodies and lean my head against his broad shoulder. "You must be very hurt by her rejection", I murmur looking up, while patting his moist chest lightly.

Without glancing down at me he says matter of factly, "I was… so I quickly got drunk in my sorrow and started visiting the brothels and ever so soon became their hot favorite customer… You might wanna give fifty percent credits of my infamous bedding skills to them…"

Damon huffs before throwing his arm around me. Grabbing me by my shoulder, he pulls me even closer to his naked bed-sheet clad body and I let him draw me towards him without any resistance. "Then, two year after that my father arranged my marriage to the local school teacher's daughter, Claria Gordell…" Damon says.

I look up and see a ghost of smile playing upon his lips as he remembers his old days. "Point to be noted Princess, I wasn't a picture of innocence anymore, gone was the good obedient perfect son. Alicia's ghost and the rejection was still haunting me day and night and I was an infamous spoiled brat and a rebel and a kicked out from the Harvard back at the time, so getting the school teacher to allow to give me her daughter's hand in marriage was a damn lot arrangements for my dear father. Claria, she was … really nice and sweet, even though I treated her like shit at the beginning, but she never complained and eventually I too started caring for her", he pauses and runs his hand up and down the length of my upper arm in feather soft touches. I listen stunned as he goes on, "I remember when she confessed her love for me on a sunny garden picnic. I firmly told her that I could never return her love, for what I thought at that time my heart still belonged to Alicia. She didn't mind, she didn't slap me in the face and ran away, hell! she didn't even shed a single drop of tear… But I knew that I'd hurt her bad, it was written allover in her face… But she never gave up though. She was always attempting to make me happy, make me smile… and I never hid the truth, I liked her company very freaking much…" his voice tighten and his eyes narrow as his gaze drifts away to the memory of his past.

"So you never loved her?" I ask in a small voice as if I'm afraid to ask him this.

"I did…" he breaths, "I only realized it when I had to go to Atlanta to run a few errands of our family business for a month. She used to write to me in every three to four days. It was already almost a week and I didn't get anything from her, it made me impatient at first, then angry and then it made me realize that I was in love with her", his voice tense and the last few words are bare whispers.

Something tells me not to jump in excitement… That something might be his voice… or maybe the hollow look in his eyes. So I keep my curiosity tucked inside of me. "What happened then?" I ask timidly…

"Another tragic turn of my fate… I decided not to write it to her, I wanted to see her face when I tell her that I was in love with her. So I finished my work there and headed home as soon as I could… Only she wasn't alive anymore to hear my confession", he says shaking his head. My eyelids voluntarily close themselves. "When I got home, I was told she died of consumption a few days ago and my father didn't approve them writing me about her death, so I won't get hurt while I was afar from home and they had already buried her", a bitter chuckle escapes Damon's lips as he finishes. By the time I could almost feel the moisture pooling in my eyes.

Damon glances down and our eyes lock… His darkened blue orbs hold my gaze. In the dim moonlight and the unsteady flickers of the fireplace, I devour his painstricken face. He murmurs running his fingers through my hair, "Tragedy, isn't it? only if I had written to her then I think she could have died knowing that I loved her… But what difference would it have made anyway, right?"

Shaking my head, I reach up and capture his lips with mine in a gentle kiss. My sudden gesture startles him at first… Then smiling lightly against my lips he kisses back. I draw back and shyly look at him. He's frowning in confussion.

"What was that for?"

"You've been through so much pain in your life Damon", I reply stroking his cheek.

He leans his face in my palm. Brushing his luscious lips on the inside of my palm, he plants a soft kiss there and looks deeply into my eyes. "Trust me that was nothing… A century and a half is long time to see pain. Actual pain", he mutters.

I pull back from him a bit and put a small distance between the two of us. "Ok, it seems total pointless to ask, but did you two have um… I mean were you intimate with her?" I say while tucking my stray hair behind my ear, blushing crimson.

Damon's quick to answer. "Yes. We were very intimate… Wait!" but he pauses with his eyebrows frowned, "What do you mean – intimate?" he asks emphasizing on the word intimate, as a naughty smirk appears on his lips.

Son of a devil! He knows exactly what I mean by "intimate". I know that plotting smirk very well. But he's still so arrogantly denying that he understands it. "Well, you know…" I mumble coyly, hanging my head low.

"Uh hu… Enlighten me", Damon say equally lowering his head to catch my gaze.

"Um… I mean", I hesitate, "Did you um… have sex with her?"

Understanding my query, his mouth gapes in a silent oh as he struggles to hold back his grin. He speaks up shortly after, "No, we weren't. Although my first and foremost intention was to screw her until before I started caring for her. And I did try my best to seduce her to my bed. And I won't lie it affected me more than it did to her, but she was indeed affected. I'm fucking Damon Salvatore after all…" he says stretching out his arms in a noble gesture as he flashes his trademark 250 kilowatt grin. Then continued with a disappointed grimace, "But she not only controlled herself, but also tamed me and somehow she managed to maintain her virtue. But then I started caring for her and a lot things changed. We both came to a mutual decision of making love for the first time on our marriage bed, which now sounds a little melodramatic to me…"

What? Melodramatic? It almost brought me back to the brink of tears. I give him a scowling look and he immediately inquires, "What? What's that look for?"

"You know what…" I say, pushing a fluffy pillow at his chest. "It wasn't melodramatic. Claria was your epic love, Damon", I say… my voice sounds like moaning.

"Bullshit", he snorts looking away.

"No… you two were epic. And you two could have gotten married and had lots of loving babies and you would have the chance to grow old with her…", I say dreamily, eyes closed, hugging one fluffy pillow to my chest.

I feel Damon's cool finger touch under my chin as he lifts my chin and urges me to look at him. Slowly I flutter my eyes open and see his smiling face. "Then, my Princess… how would I have met you?" he says, captiving my gaze, doing that trademark eye-thing of his. Damon bends his head and plants a little peak onto my lips. I smile cheekily against his lips. He leans back and relaxes against the chubby pillow. He clears his thought before continuing to say, "Well, then I joined the Confederacy. I served very well and honorary for almost three years. Until there was this orphan girl from Atlanta…"

His gaze becomes vague once again. Observing him closely, I inquire quietly, "Orphan girl from Atlanta?"

"Yeah!" Damon speaks up, "Stefan wrote to me in his 11 paged, novel sized long letter that a seventeen year old orphan girl from Atlanta had came to town… And our father was not only kind enough to give her a place to stay, but also my father was quite smitten by her that he had almost conspiring to arrange one of his sons' marriage to this beautiful young woman. And the rest of the ten pages were elongated details of her excruciating beauty and extraordinary wit and every crappy detail of the precious moments my brother spent with her…"

"I almost came running back to home just to see this excruciating creature…" He says… his voice getting excited. So am I. "And when I came back… I wouldn't dare lie she was quite beautiful. Not the best woman I've ever laid my eyes upon, but she was beautiful and gradually after a few formal conversations with her, I was certain that my brother didn't brag about one thing and that was her wit. She really was very smart and had quite the thorough knowledge about everything else – whether that is politics, business or feminine things like fashion, gossip et cetera… and everyone of our town except for some envious girls of her age, were so smitten by her, that her rivals often accused her of practicing witchcrafts. No one had the courage to say it in her face though…"

Wow! Who ever she was she's getting me very interested in her. Having such wits on so many trades at that era was definitely pretty impressive. "She seems like quite the charmer", I say impressed.

"Yes, she was", he says grinning ear to ear, "But that's not the reason I was so drawn to her."

"No?" I ask in confusion.

Damon replies instantly, "She had me chasing after her like a dog with a bone after she showed me her extracurricular activities in bed."

What? "Eww… you pervert, you screwed an orphan innocent girl", I say grabbing my pillow and hitting him with it a good couple of times.

"Hey… she was anything but innocent", Damon says holding out his hands in front of him in a defensive manner.

"She wasn't?" my eyes narrow to slits, "But wait, you said you never got married. So you must have bedded her before she was married to you… Then you did corrupt her." Two plus two equals four.

"It was more like she was the one that corrupted me", says Damon calmly studying expressions, "You see, I was quite the Casanova back at that time, but with her damn amazing bed skills, even I felt like a virgin teen"

"Oh my God… she was that good?" an incoherent murmur leaves my lips. There all the impression she had made only a short while ago is fading fast. But why? Bed skills or what… skills are skills, right? I shouldn't be suddenly feeling so dispassionate about someone that totally impressed me only a few minutes ago. But seems like it's really hard to picture someone having so much power over my almighty vampire Damon, let alone imagining him naked spiraling up with a naked nineteen century beauty that made even a playboy like him feel like a virgin teen. Oh god, why did he say Even him? Pushing the stomach cringing images of him and that faceless beauty away from my mind, I ask him with concern, "Wait… did you say even you? Who else was with her like you then?"

"Who do you think?" he questions back crossing his masculine arms over his bare chest, eyes directly bored on mine, the corner of his lips is curling up in a smirk. Biting his bottom lip lightly, he gawks my expression… But I'm honestly totally clueless. Seeing me in dilemma, he lifts his hand up to his lips. Averting his eyes from me and tapping his slender forefinger on his lips in a thoughtful manner, he adds, "All though He was definitely deflowered by her…"

Then it clicks in my head. Who was the person walking on this earth at that time, for whom Damon would so creatively tease me… "Stefan?" I growl, "Stefan was the other one that bedded her?"

"Ding, ding, ding… Ten points to Slytherine", Damon says chuckling… Clearly having his moments enjoying my discomfort.

"You brothers suck, you know", I say rolling my eyes, "Your father had given a poor orphan girl a place to stay and you brothers couldn't have left her, you guys had to creep into her rooms at night and –"

Damon barks out before letting me finish, "Who the hell told you that we were the ones that crept into her rooms at night?" pausing shortly Damon gives me a stern look, before speaking again, "She came to us. And not to mention, it screwed with the remaining bonding of us brothers." My jaw goes slack… Surely it hits the floor, then goes deeper, into the ground floor and doesn't stop until it hits the muddy floors of the basement cellars.

What a Bitch! "O.M.G… now she sounds like a classy prostitute to me", I spit out in absolute distaste.

Damon snickers at my vulgar remark. "There… and you started judging me without even hearing the whole story", he says reaching out and caressing a few strands of hairs out of my face.

"So what happened to her then…" I ask in a cold voice, totally dispassionately. Right at that moment, I felt I was irked at her with passion. For an instant, I thought I shouldn't have asked. I'm really not sure if I want to hear more about that "poor orphan girl from Atlanta". My foot.

"Well, then there was the battle", Damon sighs straightening up.

The battle? What is he talking about… I keep thinking before suddenly remembering it from our history class. "Yes… the battle of Willow Creeks, I remember", I reply reminding Mr. Tanners lectures. Confederate soldiers fired on a church with twenty-seven civilians left inside. Yeah! I remember correctly.

Whoa… whoa… Wait! Damon told me more about this at the founders' party at Lockwood estate only a couple of weeks ago. He said that history book left out that the people that were killed, weren't there by accident. It was conspired by some of the founders… I stop dead on my track as I remember exactly what else he said that night. Snapping my head at his direction, I gasp out, "Oh my God! the story you told me at the Lockwood's founder's party about Stefan and Damon dying in the battle… that was your story, wasn't it? There were no original Salvatore brothers… it was you. You and Stefan, weren't you?"

"Yes… you did the mental sum right. It was us", he says looking directly at me. There's something else in his eyes – a strange expression that I can't read, almost sorrowful but not quite… a dark gleam in those ocean blue eyes.

Doesn't it always come down to the love of a woman? I remember him say it, I remember his eyes, I remember his faint broken voice from that night…

"Then who was the woman that you were trying to save from the burning church?" I ask memorizing his earlier said heart-wrecking story about the brothers getting murdered while trying rescue some woman. "Was that the poor orphan girl from Atlanta?"

Damon nods his head in a silent confirmation.

"What was her name?"

His head drops to his lap, hiding a miserable smile. "Any guesses?" Damon asks raising an eyebrow.

A shiver runs down my spine, chilling every drop of my blood on it's way down.

"Katherine…" I say breathlessly. It's a unmistaken statement, not a question.

In a fire. Tragic fire. I remember him answer as I asked him how did Katherine die the night I had a small dinner party with Stefan and Bonnie at our home and then Damon unexpectedly showed up along with Caroline.

"You said she died in a tragic fire… It was Katherine who was seized in the church and you brothers tried to save her and then you were shoot?", I ask in a hurry trying to wrap my head around this whole new turn of events.

"You remembered the story", he says and I nod my head miserably.

But this couldn't be possible… They were killed during the battle of Willow Creeks, but then how did they become vampire. I ask shaking my head, "I don't understand… you were murdered. Both of you were dead… then how you two became vampires?"

"Katherine Pierce wasn't just any girl", replies Damon chuckling. There's a smug grin plastered across his arrogant face.

What's that supposed to mean? Curiosity takes over me. "What do you mean?" I ask closing our distance.

"Oh come on, do the mental math Elena… She came to stay at our place and got involved with both me and my brother. How many daring lasses at the age of only seventeen had the courage to seduce both brothers at the same time at that time?", he asks narrowing his eyes as if to throw me a challenge, "And with all the experiences I had gathered for all those years, became only virginal and missionary after I did with her. Can you believe a seventeen year old made me feel like I was a virgin, even when I was quite proud about my reputation?" Oh my God! How come I've never thought about that before? I listen to him awestruck as he goes on, "It's only because she was far more experienced than me and she was lying… Because she aged over three hundred at that time not seventeen. Yes, she was a vampire, Elena… In fact she was The vampire that turned us brothers."

Damon's gaze becomes blurry once again as he speaks in a low tone, "She was lying, she was manipulative and she was cruel and she taught me everything… how to kill… how to enjoy it. She made me what I am today. The monster I've become today. But God the end was so… so…" He pauses, he couldn't find the right word. His eyesight remains distant, even in the dim brightness of the room, I could see he wasn't himself.

Attempting to break the silence, I cough clearing my throat. But seeing that doesn't bring him back from his trance, I ask out awkwardly, "You two must have had her blood in your system before you were shot, am I right?"

Damon glances down at me. "100%, my Princess", he smiles, clearly amused by my intelligence. He once told me when he had me imprisoned in one of the basement cellars not too long ago, that when someone dies with vampire blood in their body then the blood brings them back to live… Well technically they're not fully alive. They're kind of living dead thing. But anyway I did the mental math correct, otherwise Stefan and Damon would have been dead for real when they got shot and couldn't have been alive to see this day. I throw a smile back at him. Snickering he leans in and whispers in my ear, "I hear she had been compelling my little brother to drink from her…"

"And you?", I ask too eager to know if that manipulative vampire bitch had forced Damon to do such thing too…

"Well, I drunk willingly… no compulsion was necessary", Damon gives me that annoying smug grin yet again, "So after our deaths, we both came back to life and we have been like this ever since. We haven't aged a single day since then and as long as we have blood in our system, oh yeah the sunlight ring attached to our body and our head and heart un-staked, intact, we remain this way…" he pauses before adding one small word, "Forever."

"So do you have any special powers?" I ask enthusiastically.

Widening his eyes Damon stares at me before speaking, "Ahm, you mean can I change myself into Robert Pattison? No. That'd be stupid and creepy." He lets out hearty chuckle and I giggle along with him.

"Umm you can run fast, your senses are heightened, you heal super fast, your blood helps healing and you can compel people to do things with your eyes, that I know. But can't you do anything else?" I inquire, my mind occupying itself with remembering what else he can do.

"Actually yeah… I can do this…" he murmurs before drawing his hand that was draped over my shoulder and resting it on his lap. He does weird patterns with his fingers in the air… but is anything really happening?

Isn't it feeling a bit colder? Ummm maybe not. Maybe the flames in the fireplace are flickering brighter? Impatient, I turn my head side to side to see what is he trying to do… Just when I'm about to ask him, I notice something…

Dense spirals of fogs are creeping inside the room from under the closed door of the threshold, turning I notice fog creeping in from the small gape under the windows and the bathroom too… The entire room starts filling with dense white fog only except for the area around the bed. The fog becomes denser and it approaches to engulf us. For a second I panic and cling closer to his body. Seeing me tensed, he stops his fingers dancing in the air and the fog instantly freezes where it is, then Damon moves his fingers once more and slowly it starts to dissolve in the air.

Reaching out I touch the thin diluting fog in wonder, then turning to him I almost yell in excitement, "You can make fog!"

"Correction I can control fog… I do not make it. We're not Gods", Damon exclaims holding out his pointer finger, "But some of us can control the elements – air, earth, fire, water. Though it takes several years or I might say several centuries to learn such controls."

"So vampires are control freaks?" I say grinning.

"Yes. We pretty much are", Damon says giving me a naughty wink. "There're stronger vampires, usually old ones, they can even compel newbie weaker ones", Damon informs.

"Damon, do vampires really turn into bats?" I ask out of curiosity.

"You still believe in Bram Striker stories, don't you Princess?", Damon replies snickering, "Very strong vampires can turn themselves into animals. Comes very handy while stalking… and yes I've seen a few Vamp-Bats"

"Cool" I exclaim in joy, "Does that mean there are lots of vampires out there in different animal disguise?"

"First of all there aren't "lots" of vampires as you say it out to be", Damon says air quoting the word "lots" with his fingers, "We are predatory species and more crowds mean more competition aka the risk of exposure maximizes and source of food decreases. So we make sure that our kind is always limited in number and it's a blessing in disguise that we're naturally infertile", I roll my eyes at the information, "And no. Vampires can't just turn themselves into any kind of animal they like. Our power has limits too… A powerful vampire can only turn himself into one maximum two different animals. You know Katherine could turn herself into a little white kitten."

"A kitten?" I spit out.

"Yeah… a little adorable Kitty-Kat", he says grinning ear to ear, "In her kitten disguise, she would walk and sneak into our rooms from right under our father's nose and he didn't suspect a thing. It was very funny actually, Stefan didn't use to like kittens… then suddenly a small white fur-ball appears into the mansion and he's cuddling it, feeding it milk. My father was so shocked. I remember I and Stefan often used to fight over the little kitten and we didn't stop until Katherine would have scratched either or both of us."

"She sounds like very special", I say as I let out a small sigh. I hope he didn't hear me sighing.

"Yeah she was," he speaks too obsessed. Isn't it obvious!

"Well wasn't there anyone special after you turned into a vampire?" I ask fidgeting with my fingers..

He seems a little edgy as he hears me. "A lot of things changed after the transition, you know… Things that I used to feel got heightened and at times I couldn't feel anything at all – no love, no kindness, no remorse", he replies, his voice low, tensed and kinda grumpy. "And maybe after a lot of heartbreaks I finally realized that love was for fools… it's painful, pointless and overrated… So no, I guess there isn't anyone special since I turned", he says before turning his eyes to me sheepishly.

"Oh", I say silently, before I pull away from him and lie back, placing a considerable distance between the two of us. A suffocating bile in my throat is immediately formed and my breathing halts. Turning my head from him, I find myself with my eyes glued to the ceiling once more. There's a strange pang inside of my chest… Why should I feel like this? Pathetic…

"Hey…", I'm drawn back to the reality as I hear him call out… I look up only to get mesmerized by his angelic face hovering over me.

"Hmmm…", I mumble.

"I think you're special, you know", he murmurs boring his eyes down on my ones, bringing his hand to stroke my cheek tenderly.

"I am?" I ask meekly, batting my eyelashes. I swear my face looks like a Bambi's right now… with my big brown eyes and the gloomy expressions.

"Yes. Because I've never been with anyone for so long during all my vampire years. You can say that we're stuck because of a stupid arrangement, but I see it as the perfect chance of getting to know each other", Yeah! it's true… I got to see a total different side of Damon Salvatore, a person who doesn't hurt and kill people for no reason, a person who's more friendly and nice than he himself acknowledges, a person who's the man of his words... either it's in case of punishing or rewarding. "Never did I thought that I'd like to be stuck with one single human for almost a week and I won't get bored and won't eat her. You're stubborn as a hell-cat and a spoiled little child at most of times, yet I like your company. You've awakened a lot of emotions in me that I haven't felt in decades… That's what makes you very special too, my Princess", he says tapping his forefinger on my nose.

"Thanks…" I smile dearly.

"You're welcome", he says. He keeps hovering, studying my features. Stretching my limbs, I let out a yawn. "Now you're yawning… Perfect. Now go to sleep", Damon declares as soon as I'm caught on the act.

"No… that wasn't yawning. It was a little sigh. I don't wanna sleep… I wanna hear more", I keep whining but another treacherous big yawn drops iced water on my attempts to get to know more about him.

"I'll tell you tomorrow night… now sleep" he says lying down besides me and wrapping his arm around my middle. I still try to wriggle out of his grasp. This flares him up and he clutches me tighter. "Or else I'm seriously going for round two, three and more…" he says nibbling on the sensitive skin under my ear, "…. and more."

"No…" I say giggling to his ministrations. As much as I'd like to be taken by him once again, Damon is actually quite the energetic vampire. I'm a mere baby doll compared to his super stamina and he'd long ago exhausted me. I was only awake because I couldn't sleep, but my body is quite sore. Sore enough to give me the warning that I might even pass out if we do…um fuck again. "Ok. Ok…I'm sleeping but promise me you'll tell tomorrow", I say turning my head around a bit to see him face.

"Promise", Damon says smiling before lean forward and capturing my lips in a gentle kiss. I kiss back gleefully. He breaks the kiss and nudging his nose against mine playfully, he bids, "Goodnight my little Princess."

"Goodnight to you too…", I reply smiling before turning my head back around. I let out a small squeak as Damon suddenly embraces me tighter. Giggling I wrap my hands around his as he groans and pulls me closer to him and nuzzles his face on the nape of my neck. I relax as his warm embrace engulfs me. Hearing to the soft sound of our breathing, slowly I feel myself drifting to sleep.

But there's something going on in my head. I probably already know what the answer would be. I can't sleep without knowing it for sure. "Damon", I mumble sleepily.

"Hmm?" Damon hums pressing his lips close to my ear.

My fatigued brain faintly works as I attempt to think. They knew Katherine so many years ago. But Damon made it sound like it was very recent. In fact, I even recognize him saying that it seemed like it was yesterday to him. But when I asked Stefan, ummm back at the night of the comet, he clearly said that it was a long time ago. Stefan accused that Damon filled all this things about Katherine only because he was trying to get me turned against Stefan. That he only did it to make it seem like Stefan was still not over Katherine. But the way Damon spoke, every time it's concerning Katherine, he never for once let me realize it was that long ago. It seems like it's to Damon, who considers by heart that it hadn't happened long ago, and it's Damon who still hasn't let go of her memories, even if it's been 145 years… not Stefan.

"You loved her?" I ask softly, trying to remain my drooping eyelids open for a little longer... I need not mention her name. I knew Damon'd understand perfectly who I meant by 'her'. I'm too sleepy to even look back at him, but I feel Damon's body tense at my question. His grip around me tightens a bit uncomfortably. Even when I'm not looking at him, I could almost visualize his eyes drifting away to somewhere beyond time.

"Yes, I loved her", I hear him exhale deeply… My eyes drifts shut in a soul consuming tiredness. I vaguely feel his lips pressed against the top of my head, arms clutching me tightly to his chest, as if he doesn't want to be part from me, making every curves our bodies fit perfectly as if lost pieces of a puzzle.

Slowly, silently it's all going black. Sleep starts to consume me as I hear Damon whisper, "I loved her very much, Elena."


Author's Note: So… how was there little chit-chat? – Yeh! Or Meh…! I hope you didn't get bored. I know there were some plain facts, which many of us already know. So please don't think it was stupid for me to wrote them just to extend the chapter. But if you think so, I must remind you that the timing of this story is the beginning of the season 1. She got kidnapped by Damon, even before she learnt about vampires and all the related stuffs from Stefan at the episode 1x06. So I tried to keep it as natural as possible as she comes to know all of these from Damon.

Please review and let me know what you're thinking…

P.S- The scene where Damon was kissing Elena senseless trying to prove that he's not that old and exhausted, I imagined the scene from the beginning scene of 5x01, where Damon and Elena was having the summer of their lives and that made Elena feel like she "got nothing done".

O… and the fact that Damon's birthmother died after giving birth to him and he and Stefan are technically step-brothers, not siblings, is mentioned in 'The Shadow Souls' from the original vampire diaries book series written by L.J. Smith.

Now my lovelies, I need a beta immediately and I know it… but the thing is that I'm at the moment very busy. I have a few life-determining exams starting on mid April and I'm studying heart and soul for it. So morally speaking, I shouldn't be writing my stories right now at the first place. But the love of you people overwhelm me, even when I'm this faulty you guys love me so, so much that I don't dream of leaving you all hanging for the next 2 months… that's the only reason I'm writing. I humbly request all of you please bear with my errors and mistakes for these months, it'll be only one or two more faulty updates like this until my exams and then I promise, I'll have an amazing beta and I'll repost these faulty-piece-of-shit updates and one day my stuffs too will reach the level of near perfection with his/her blessing :)

Until then, you and I neither one amongst us has a choice but to suck it up…