Xxxx

Klaus didn't return that night but Elijah relayed that he wished for them all to stay put until he returned with his witch of choice that was currently hung up in New Orleans.

There was one room left in the boarding house but it was used as storage for the random things the brothers had accumulated through the years. After little discussion, Elijah and Tatia ended up in Damon's room because he knew he wouldn't be sleeping anyway. He took his bottle of bourbon and laid in the driveway under the moon. He couldn't really see the moon through the thickness of the clouds that were rolling in, but he felt it there.

Maybe it was because he was a creature of the night, but he felt his best outside in the moonlight.

Just like he suspected, and half hoped for, Elena came crunching along the cement in her little navy TOMS and blue jean shorts. Wordlessly, she laid beside him and took his hand that lay on his chest and moved it to grasp hers between their sides.

He didn't squeeze back when she gave him a few tight grasps.

"Stef mad at me?" Damon asked, slurring a little. Damn he might be a little drunk.

Elena sighed and admitted, "I don't know…maybe."

"Fucked up as usual…" Damon managed to say clearly.

She said nothing then and he took it as her agreement. That was fine. He was used to being punished for being the only damn one that says the truth half the time.

"Do you think my life is a curse?" Elena finally asked delicately towards the sky.

His head scraped a little against the cement as he turned to look at her profile. She was a little blurry but he could still make out that she was deflated.

"No, I don't think that. Do you think that?" he responded, moving the bottle with his free hand to rest on his chest.

"Don't you think it's strange that Tatia had a child out of wedlock and then fell in love with two brothers. Katherine had a child out of wedlock and fell in love with two brothers…was I destined to do the same? Is it a curse or just part of who we are?"

Damon let out a sputter of laughter and by the look it earned him, he knew it was the wrong thing to do. But damn this child cracked him up sometimes. Her and Stefan could seriously have made an army of brooding babies had their stories been written differently.

"No Elena. I don' t think that your life was to be played out like some poorly written romance novel. Plus, you fell in love with Stefan without a child and turned. Just because I may or may not love you to the moon and back doesn't mean that you are in love with two brothers. You simply got put into some terrible situations and I happen to be incredibly handsome. Your hormones ran amuck as a human and that carried over a little as a vampire. Your story is nothing like theirs. Plus, Katherine didn't love me."

Elena let go of his hand then and placed it over her eyes. She licked her lips and said, "Katherine did love you, just not in the same way you loved her. I felt it sometimes in her memories. It was there even if she buried it before she got a chance to realize it fully."

"And that pertains to you how?" Damon prodded. Damn this alcohol.

"I know I'm young and I haven't lived and I haven't loved that many people…but I do understand that there are different kinds of love and sometimes even two at once. I think it's unfair and wrong and at one time unthinkable, but I'm starting to get it and that scares me. I feel like I'm powerless and just a game piece in this strange curse of being a doppelganger and a vampire," she admitted hurriedly.

"Did you just admit that you love me?" Damon teased, just wanting her to stop with the over analyzing and to see her smile again.

"I care about you Damon and when I care about someone I genuinely love them. I'm just struggling with what kind of love that is…"

He swallowed hard and heard himself mutter, "The love that dies or the love that survives…"

She sighed at that and moved her head uncomfortably on the cement. He tugged her closer until she rested on his shoulder and his hand dangled above her chest. He wiggled his fingers a little until she laced her hand into his.

"So does that make me Klaus and Stefan Elijah. Would I really sacrifice someone's life to keep you alive?" Damon mused lightly.

Elena chuckled a little and said, "I think you are definitely a Klaus kind of love. But you're an Elijah kind of man…"

Damon smiled at that, "I hope that's a compliment."

"I hope it is too. Can we go sleep in a bed now?" she asked, standing up and offering her hand.

"Together?" He asked, waggling his eyebrows.

She rolled her eyes and said, "Don't push it. Stefan is still ominous in the shadows of the hallway."

Damon let out a bark of laughter, "I won't tell him you said that…"

She tossed him a smile over her shoulder and started walking towards the house but he stopped short, the bottle dangling by the neck at his side.

"Elena?"

She stopped and turned slowly, head tilted in question.

"Should I be worried?" he asked, a pleading in his voice that he couldn't quite mask.

She stared at him for a moment and he knew she was thinking about this secret that she couldn't talk about and he watched her face transform from relaxed to tense and back to relaxed again and she shook her head no.

"Don't be worried," she whispered before turning and walking towards the house again.

He knew a lie when he saw one. He knew in that moment he'd do whatever it would take to ensure she survived this. Even if it pushed her away from him forever.

Xxxx

He was tired after all and ended up plopping into bed next to Stefan who was wide awake and staring at the ceiling.

"Mad?" Damon asked

"Just because I love her differently than you, it doesn't mean that I love her wrongly or any less," Stefan stated.

Jesus Christ.

"Ok, I'm sorry. I go into douche mode under duress. Let's just focus on how we're going to keep the Bobsey twins from dying at the hands of their hot mother's boyfriend," Damon mumbled.

"They're going to pull off a switch. If you listened to half of what they were trying to tell us tonight, I'd say they have a pretty good plan going," Stefan retorted.

"If I listened to half of what they were trying to tell us, I'd already be asleep. Their plan has so many terrible possible outcomes that result in numerous death and blood splurting this way and that…I just couldn't tune in for long. I mean does anyone really think Klaus of all people would think anyone but Tatia is Tatia. Can you imagine Elena pulling that off. No, me either."

"Elijah thinks she can do it," Stefan said.

"Elijah is a love-struck idiot and I don't care. Klaus is going to slaughter him along with the rest of us."