A/N: Hey guys! I am so very sorry for not updating sooner but I have really had a lot of things going on for the last couple of weeks! I have been writing a book with my friend for a school project and that has been taking up a lot of time.

Anyway, I am back with a chapter of Tough Love because I pretty much have everything planned out now. After this chapter I believe there will be just six more chapters (don't know if I'm counting in the epilogue or not, but six). I hope you guys will enjoy it and review! The next two weeks will be hectic because of all the school work I need to finish before Winter break but then I'll take time to write and finish this story first of all!

Secondly, when it comes to my other TVD-fic "Meant To Be" I have alike three chapters planned for now and I'll get to writing those as soon as I finish this one.

For now however, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and for all of you Damon/Dani lovers out there (SPOILER ALERT) there si a moment in this chapter that I believe you'll like. ;)

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING!

Enjoy!

"Dani." It was just a whisper, but I heard it perfectly fine. "Wake up, Dani..." I muttered a simple 'go away' and pulled my pillow over my head. "Will you just get up already?" The person pulled my cover off and I snapped my eyes open. Jenna put her hands on her hips and glared back at me.

"Good morning." I said, sitting up on the couch I had slept on.

"Do you even know what day it is?" Jenna asked and I looked past her, to where both Elena and Jeremy were standing and motioning wildly with their hands. Elena was holding up two fingers and mouthing something, while Jeremy was showing his left, ring finger. I frowned for a moment until it finally clicked.

"Oh my God! Your wedding is in two weeks!" I exclaimed and she nodded.

"Yes, and we have to make some preparations Miss Brown." she told me as-a-matter-of-factly.

"I'm so sorry Jenna. I was so caught up in my own drama that I totally forgot. I am the worst Maid of Honor ever!" She smiled weakly at me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Yes, yes you are." she told me. "However, that can still change! We have exactly two weeks until the wonderful day and we have almost taken care of everything. The only thing that is left is finding a place for the ceremony, the reception, your dress, Elena's dress, rent a tux for Jeremy and my dress! Don't forget the decorations." I stared at her bewildered for a while.

"Exactly what have you taken care of?" I asked and she blushed.

"I have a few things picked out but I can't seem to chose between them... Elena has tried to help me, but she doesn't really understand the whole wedding thing because she's just so young and want's everything to be princess-y." Elena began to protest, but a look from Jenna and she stayed quiet. I stood up.

"Well, let me just get dressed and I'll see what I can do for you, my dear friend." I said.

A couple of minutes later I was dressed and stood brushing my teeth. I sighed deeply, looking myself in the mirror. My hair had grown quite a bit since I came back to Mystic Falls. I had actually allowed Jenna to help me get it back to my natural hair color, and now I was once again back to my dark brown... I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I rolled my eyes, already knowing it would be Mason...or Damon, since I had been avoiding them both for two whole weeks, since Nikolai's death. An awful feeling grew in my stomach, as I remembered how I had snuck out early in the morning before Damon woke up. I had taken Nikolai's body with me and buried it in the woods, far away from prying eyes. Damon had frantically texted me, asking if I was alright and where I was, and I had simply told Elena to tell him that I needed time to think. I knew it was true though. I had felt it for a while. That feeling of having every move I made watched and written down somewhere. I knew William was near and it was just a matter of time before he made his move. This time though, I will fight back, and this time, he will not win. For now, however, I had to concentrate on helping my friend and make her wedding the best wedding in the world.

"What do you mean 'there isn't a spot available for the ceremony'? It's a church for fu-"

"Language, young lady!" the Pastor exclaimed. "Remember, you are in God's house." I glared at him for a moment. Yes. It may be God's house, but I am an abomination anyway and damned, so what difference did it really do if I swore or not? However, I decided to be respectful, something that some humans are incapable of being.

"Please Sir. Isn't there any way to have the ceremony here?" I asked again. I looked towards the door, where Jenna stood with Elena, looking worried. I gave her a thumbs up and she smiled weakly at me.

"I really am sorry Miss Brown. It's impossible for us to arrange that in such short notice. You should have been here a long time ago. We simply can't be ready for a wedding in two weeks. However, if your friend would like to postpone it a couple of weeks, I may be able to-"

"No." I shook my head. "She's postponed it long enough. We'll just have to find somewhere else to have it." I shook the pastors hand and walked back to Elena and Jenna.

"It didn't work." Jenna stated, seeing my defeated look. I shook my head.

"We'll just have to try somewhere else." I told her. "We should have done this ages ago and it's all my fault that we haven't. I'm so, so sorry Jenna." I told her. She stepped forward and hugged me.

"It's okay, Dani." she told me, but something in her voice told me she regretted leaving all of this for the last minute. I pulled away as my determination took over.

"You know what? First of all, I don't understand how these people don't have space for one, small wedding. It's not as if this is L.A or something; it's Mystic Falls! Secondly, I am going to make this the most memorable wedding, in the history of weddings! Come on!" I grabbed her hand and pulled her with me towards her car as we began driving to the dress-shop instead.

All of this wedding planning made me forget about my problems for a while. For a moment or two, I managed to completely forget about Nikolai's decaying body in the woods, Mason's constant phone calls and Damon's text messages. Jenna was feeling better. She had tried on over twenty dresses and loved each and every one of them, which made the decision just a little tougher.

"I really like this one," she said, holding up a simple gown, "although,I loved the last one." She pointed at the ivory, satin dress without straps that she had tried on earlier.

"Well, I'll take a picture of this one and you'll try the other one again and then you'll choose." I told her and snapped a picture. Jenna nodded and the shop assistant took the dress and walked off with her to help her get changed. Elena turned to look at me.

"How can you be so calm about everything?" she asked me, her tone hushed. I raised an eyebrow.

"Be so calm about what exactly, Elena?" I asked and she made a motion with her hands.

"Everything." she stated. "Your friend died last week. You have been pretty much isolated for a week and a half, except for when Stefan and I have brought over blood bags for you. Now you're trying to plan a wedding that is supposed to happen in just two weeks. You do know that it is impossible, right?" I looked at her as she stopped her rambling.

"Look, Elena," I began, "vampires don't have time to stop and mourn our dead ones. Those of us who haven't switched off our emotions might feel pain, but we do not show them. We might mourn for a while, but we know that life moves on. When you are immortal you know you can't just sit around and mope about something that is unchangeable." I told her. "As to planning Jenna's wedding: I have it all under control. Nothing is impossible." I said calmly.

"Why haven't you been talking to Mason then? Or Damon?" she pushed and I shrugged.

"I can't deal with either of them right now. Mason basically killed my friend, even though I know that he didn't mean to. I have forgiven him, but I have other things going on with him that even he doesn't know about..." I trailed off.

"And Damon?" Elena inquired. I sighed once again.

"Complicated." Just as I said the word, Jenna walked out, a bright smile on her face. The dress hugged her perfectly as it fell to the floor. She twirled around in it once.

"Well, what do you think?" she asked and I let out a deep breath.

"I think you've found your dress." I told her, grinning widely at her. She smiled, just as her eyes filled with tears.

"Oh, I can't believe I finally found it!" she cried, covering her face with her hands. "I was so worried that nothing would work out now that we are so last minute on everything." I stood up and walked over to her. I put my arms out and she walked into my embrace.

"We'll make everything work, Jenna. Everything will be just like you want it to be, I'll make sure of that."

Later that evening, Elena, Jenna and I were sitting on the couch in their house.

"I'm exhausted." Elena exclaimed, throwing her feet up on the table.

"My head hurts!" Jenna complained. "Too much shopping for one day." She pushed away Elena's feet and put up her own.

"Oh you two... I don't get how you can be so tired after this wonderful day." I said, putting down the bags I had carried from the car. Elena was glaring at Jenna for shoving her feet off the table and I had to chuckle at her. "Besides, we managed to fix a lot of things today. First of all, your dress Jenna and secondly the whole design of the wedding is done." Both of them nodded.

"All we have to do now, is find a dress for you and for me and a place for the ceremony." Elena stated.

"Told you we could pull this off. Tomorrow we'll just have to find a place for the ceremony and go dress shopping for me, which will be easy, since I'm not as picky as you Jenna." I laughed when she threw a pillow at me. "How about we make it an only-girls-aloud-movie-night?" I suggested and Jenna jumped excitedly, forgetting all about her tiredness.

"I'll go get The Notebook. She said and ran upstairs." Elena and I were left alone. She looked at me funnily.

"I can't believe you're actually able to pull all of this off." she told me and I shrugged.

"I'm just amazing." I joked, but she frowned slightly.

"You haven't used any compulsion, which is pretty impressive." she stated and I looked at her.

"Elena, us women can be persuasive in other ways. There is absolutely no need for me to compel anyone to pull off the most amazing wedding in Mystic Falls' history." She bit her lip and I looked at her strangely. "Did you want me to compel someone?" I asked and she blushed.

"No! I mean- Yes? I don't know..." she trailed off and I looked at her for a while.

"You are obviously talking about the Pastor." I stated and she shrugged.

"Jenna has never specifically said that she wanted the ceremony to be held in a church, but since the wedding is getting colder and colder we might not have another choice than to have it inside. Besides, it might have made the Pastor re-check if they had time for one ceremony..." I shrugged.

"Elena, don't worry about it. I will not use any compulsion on anyone for this. I don't need to. Besides, I already have an idea for the place of the wedding. I just need to talk to someone before I make the arrangements..." Elena smiled at me.

"Have I told you how amazing you are?" she asked and I shrugged.

"You don't have to, I already know. However, it doesn't hurt to remind me sometimes." I winked, just as the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Elena said, walking off. I smiled and walked over to sit on the couch. Jenna was talking awfully long with that movie of hers... "Dani? There's someone here to see you." Elena said, walking back to the living room. I raised an eyebrow and stood up, walking towards the door. My eyes widened as they met with the icy-blue ones. Damon looked at me and I stared back at him.

"Hi." he said after letting out a breath. I stared at him and bit my lip.

"Hey." I said silently. We stared at each other for a while. He was wearing a pair of black jeans, black boots and a black jacket. His dark hair was tussled, almost as if he had spent a lot of time just running his fingers through it. It suited him though... I couldn't really understand why he was here. Of course, I had been ignoring him for two weeks straight and hadn't replied to a single text or call from him. I heard footsteps behind me and heard them stop abruptly.

"Damon? What are you doing here?" Jenna asked. She didn't sound as annoyed as she used to when she greeted him. Instead she sounded surprised. Reluctantly he moved his eyes towards Jenna and smirked (obviously keeping up an appearance).

"I came here to talk to Danielle." he stated, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, which I suppose it was.

"Oh." Jenna said. "I'll leave the two of you alone then..." She walked away. I still hadn't taken my eyes off of Damon, who once again turned his attention back on me.

"Can we talk outside?" he asked after a good minute of staring again. I nodded and picked up my coat.

"Sure." I told him. "We can take a walk." We stepped outside and I felt the cold air hit me. It was incredible how quickly the weather changed here in Mystic Falls. It had been a simple Winter day, but once again I could feel how it was about to snow. It hadn't snowed since Mason and I had gotten together for this first time, but earlier this week it had been snowing a bit. People had begun decorating their houses and were Christmas shopping like crazy. At the moment however, Damon and I walked silently through the neighborhood where Elena lived. Our hands brushed once or twice and I constantly felt the urge to take his hand in mine, but at the same time, I couldn't help but think of Mason. It was unfair to him. Everything that I was doing was unfair to him. Sure, I did have some kind of feelings for him, but I knew that he wasn't the one for me... The man that at the moment was walking beside me, with his hands so close to mine, yet so far away, had that special place in my heart... That was why it was so unfair. Mason had genuine feelings for me while I mostly pretended. Not only that, but now I was also planning to use him as a pawn to get rid of William, putting his life in danger as well...

Damon pulled me to a stop. We looked at each other again.

"How are you doing?" he asked and I felt how my heart swelled.

"Fine." I told him, although I didn't sound very convincing.

"It is okay to admit that you aren't fine you know." he told me and I nodded.

"I know, but I am fine... Really. I spent the whole day with Elena and Jenna, shopping for Jenna's and Ric's wedding. I had a good time." He looked at me, looked away and shook his head. "What?" I asked and he shrugged.

"And here I was, being worried about you and your mental stability." he said and I saw a slight smirk form on his lips.

"My mental stability? Really Damon?" I asked skeptically and he shrugged.

"Yeah."

"You were worried about me?"

"Yeah..." he trailed off and I looked away.

"Well, you know that you don't have to worry about me. I can take care of myself." I told him and he turned back to look at me.

"Why have you been ignoring me completely?" he asked bluntly, probably moving on to the conversation he had wanted to have with me from the beginning.

"I thought you understood the whole meaning with me moving out of the Boarding house. It was to keep you and Stefan safe. I have just been doing what I should have done from the very beginning." He glared at me.

"You have never been able to stay away. Even when your purpose was to stay away from us, you talked to both Stefan and me-"

"Because I didn't have a choice." I interrupted. "Every time an issue came up, I had to speak to you because you are the only other vampires I know in town. There aren't any others now Damon. That is why I had to turn to you."

"And two weeks ago? When we were in my living room?" he asked. I knew he was talking about our moment on the couch. The time I had thought he was going to tell me the three little special words I had wanted to hear ever since I fell in love with him...

"That was nothing Damon... We were wrong to think we could have one happy moment together. There is always going to be something that comes in the way." I told him and he put his hands on my cheeks. They were warm, compared to the cold wind blowing through the street.

"Not now." he told me. "We are all alone in the street. There isn't a soul in sight and it's dark. No one would be able to see anything..." he trailed off, his eyes traveling down to my lips. His one hand went down to take my hand in his. I felt tingles run through my fingers... "I just need to tell you..." he whispered and leaned his forehead against mine. I shook my head.

"Don't say anything Damon." I told him. "It will just make things-"

"Shut up." he told me, silencing me. "For once Danielle, you are not the one in control of the situation. There is no one here to interrupt us and I am going to kiss you, because I am selfish. I am going to kiss you, just because I want to and I don't care whether you're together with the Dog or not. I'll leave you alone, as long as I get to kiss you tonight." I didn't say anything, but very soon, I felt his lips brush against mine. The kiss was soft and slow, as if he was trying to remember every second of it. I kissed him back slightly but he pulled away. We stared at each other for a while.

"I have to get back home..." I whispered after a while and he nodded.

"I'll walk you there."

We arrived at the house a few minutes later. Standing on the steps, I turned back to him. Once again, we were just looking at each other.

"You are not selfish Damon," I told him, "and I'm glad that you still care." I told him. He didn't reply. "I am the selfish one. You are right. If I really did want to protect you, I wouldn't have come over to you all the time. It's like I said, I am selfish." He looked at me and smiled slightly.

"We are pretty similar, you and I, aren't we?" he asked and I laughed.

"Yeah. That's probably what has pulled us together." I told him.

"Excuse me, you mean pulled you towards me." he said and I smacked him on the shoulder lightly.

"Good night Damon." I said and he smiled at me.

"Good night Danielle, I'll see you around." he said and took my hand in his, kissing my knuckles lightly, before walking away. He walked backwards, still keeping his eyes on me, until he reached the street and vamp-sped out of there. I sighed deeply, not knowing how to react or what to do. I walked inside and was met by Jenna, standing with her arms crossed over her chest. A small smile was playing on her lips.

"So?" she asked and I shrugged.

"So what?" I asked.

"Well, I saw that the two of you were having eye-sex and now I'm wondering whether or not he decided to proclaim his love for you." I grinned at her and shook my head.

"We were so not having eye-sex." I said. She raised her eyebrows at me.

"Tell that to him. He was eying you like a piece of meat."

"Well, nothing happened. We talked, that's all." I decided to lie.

"You have been ignoring Mason for two week now. Why am I thinking it may have something to do with Damon?" she asked me and I shook my head.

"Look, Jenna. I don't want to hurt Mason's feeling, but I don't really know what I feel about him. That is why I have been ignoring and staying away from him for two weeks." Once again with all the lying.

"So it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that you still love Damon?" she asked and I looked down.

"Maybe..." I replied and looked back at her. "I'm so sorry Jenna. I just don't feel the same way about Mason... He's so very sweet and I am going to break his heart if I break up with him. I don't want to do that to him." Jenna looked at me for a while before sighing deeply.

"Well, at least you're being honest. Maybe I was wrong to set you up with him. Maybe you and Damon really are meant to be together." she said and I shook my head.

"Maybe I am supposed to stay single for a while. It might be easier for me. To clear my head you know?" She nodded and I bit my lip. "You aren't mad, are you?" She shook her head and smiled at me.

"Of course not. I mean, Mason is my friend and all, but so are you. Besides, girl-code says I need to be on your side no matter what. Don't stress about it, but you need to talk to-" The doorbell rang again. We looked at the door for a while before Jenna walked over to open it."Mason?" I sighed deeply. Could this day get any more stressful? I walked over to the door and looked at Mason, who much like Damon had tussled hair. His cheeks were however red from the cold.

"Hi." I said and he looked at me.

"Can we talk?" he asked, ignoring Jenna completely. She turned to look at me.

"Good luck." she whispered as she passed me. I nodded at Mason and once again grabbed my coat. As soon as I was outside and had closed the door, he began rambling on about how sorry he was for what had happened to Nikolai. I listened to him and didn't stop him until he finished.

"I don't really know what to say Mason." I told him honestly.

"Please just say that you forgive me. I can't handle having you hate me any longer." he said and grabbed my hands in his. I looked at him for a while and frowned.

"I don't hate you." I stated.

"Then why have you been ignoring me for two weeks straight?" he asked, confused.

"Well, one of my best friends died because of you, but you couldn't control yourself at the moment, so it wasn't really your fault." I told him. "I've just been very confused about what I feel and I didn't really know what to do when I met you again after Nikolai's death. That's why I have been ignoring you." He looked at me.

"You're confused about your feelings?" he asked. "Is this about Damon?" I shook my head.

"Damon has nothing to do with my confusion over my feeling for you." I told him. "It's just that I have a lot going on in my life and I don't really know where you fit in yet." He frowned at me.

"I am your boyfriend Danielle. You haven't exactly broken up with me so we are still officially together."

"Mason. This isn't about us either. This is about me, just me. I think I need to explain..." I told him to sit down and then proceeded to tell him about William and everything that worried me. It was easy to talk to him. He was a good friend, but that was pretty much all that I felt about him I realized. After a while he spoke.

"So, what you're trying to tell me is that your ex-boyfriend is hunting you down and killing everyone you care about in the process, just to make you love him and marry him?" he asked and I nodded.

"Unbelievable, isn't it?" I said sarcastically and he shrugged.

"Sounds like a drama show. Although, it does make a lot of sense. That is why you broke up with Damon in the first place, isn't it? Because you wanted to protect him from this William-guy?" I looked away.

"I am so sorry Mason." I told him. "I really like you, but that is the truth. I can't even imagine what you must be thinking about me now." I buried my face in my hands. Mason however, put his hand on my back.

"It's okay Danielle." he told me. "I understand." I knew that it was official now. We had broken up without even having to say the words. I looked up at him.

"I really am sorry." I told him and he shrugged.

"Well, it's not as if I'm in love with you, Danielle." he said. "I just really like you. If you just want to be friends, that's all right with me. As long as you don't shut me out of your life." He told me and took my hand in his. "Besides, if William really has figured out where you are, you need all the help that you can use." he grinned at me. I grinned back at him.

"Would you get mad if told you I already have a plan that involves you?" I asked and he shook his head.

"Does it involve Damon?" he asked and I shook my head. "Then I am on board. However, I only ask one thing from you..." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?" I asked.

"Please don't break up with me just yet." I stared at him, my eyes wide as saucers. After everything I had just told him, he was still willing to be together with me?

"What?" I asked, this time confused.

"Well, I figured that since you don't hate me, but you aren't together with Damon either, you may actually come to have deeper feelings for me. Maybe we should still give it a shot?" he suggested. I thought about it for a while. I understood that it made sense to him, but for me it was absurd. I also knew that I would be even more unfair if I just broke up with him without really giving it a try. I remembered the night he turned into a wolf in front of me. His agony and pain. He would have been alone if it wasn't for me. If I broke up with him now, he wouldn't have anyone that understood him and he would probably become isolated. I felt sorry for him.

"Okay." I said, before I could think any deeper into the matter. He smiled at me and leaned in, pressing his lips to mine in a soft kiss. It really was unfair to him though, considering that all I could think of was my last kiss with Damon, just half an hour earlier.

A/N: Ooooooh! Dani is still thinking about Damon! Well, you got your little Damon/Dani kiss that I interrupted when Niko came over with his werewolf-bite. I hope you enjoyed it, even if Dani in the end stayed with Mason.

Damon might have been a bit OOC, although I do believe that he has been a bit softer in the series lately too, don't you think? I mean, he isn't a COMPLETE a*shole... And I really do believe that he likes Dani, A LOT.

When it comes to Dani staying with Mason. We all know that she actually did it out of pity for him. And another thing, now that Mason know about William, do you think he'll be willing to help Danielle? I mean, he did seem pretty up for it in this chapter, didn't he?

Please tell me what you thought of the chapter! I will love you to bits and I'll write the next chapter as soon as I'm done with school!

Also: Do you think I should write A Klaroline one-shot? I am a huge Klaroline shipper, eventhough I love Forwood! Sorry, I still love Tyler but there is just something about Klaus... It's probably the accent; I'm a sucker for British people! ;)

Well, I hope you enjoyed. Please review and feel free to ask questions!

Lots of love!

Spicy

P.S. The next chapter will involve some Damon/Dani moments too! ;) Just to inspire you to review.

P.P.S. What did you think of Jenna's "Eye-sex" comment? Could you imagine that look from Damon, all like: "I am imagining tearing your clothes of right now..."