"Hey, how's it going?" Damon greeted Elena when he picked up her call.
"It's going. Just left the library, headed towards the cafeteria now. I hope there's some food left, because I'm too tired to go out and get something to eat."
"Look at you," Damon replied, "sounding all like a real college student."
"I am a real college student."
"Heh. Just occurred to me – I'm dating a college girl. Hey," he added, face alight with the idea, "maybe you could join a sorority, so I can be dating a sorority girl? I've eaten a few, but I don't think I've ever dated one."
"Ha-ha. Very funny, Damon." Elena yawned wide and thought she heard chains rustling. "What are you doing?"
"Stefan and I are checking the restraints in the basement," he replied.
"Why?"
"Because we have officially run out of ideas on how to keep Mommy Dearest from exacting her revenge on the innocent citizens of Mystic Falls. The next chance we get, we're going to vervain the hell out of her and put her in time-out down here."
Lily had grown more volatile the longer Stefan and Damon refused to help her get her so called family back. She had threatened to start killing off people in Mystic Falls and they all knew not to take her threats lightly.
"Well, don't let me keep you," Elena said. "Call me later?"
"Will do."
Damon disconnected the call and Elena stashed her phone away when something in her mind rang with recognition.
Elena walked into the Salvatore house. "Damon?"
"Basement," came the voice from downstairs.
Elena followed the voice that led her to the holding cell in the cellar. "What are you doing here?"
"Some maintenance," Damon replied while checking on the chains and the restraints. "Reinforcing the bolts."
"Why?" Elena asked skeptically.
"To be prepared for the next big bad that descends upon this unluckiest of all small towns."
"Oh," Elena replied. It bothered her that this was a legitimate concern. "Our lives are so weird."
Damon nodded towards the restraints. "Care to add some more weird to it?" he asked with a lascivious grin.
Elena pulled a face. "You know I enjoy all our little experiments, but I draw the line at sex dungeon."
Damon laughed. "Noted." He pulled her into his side with one arm. "Just as well. I prefer to have my hands free to touch you. And vice versa." He paused to kiss her cheek. "How was your sibling bonding date with Jeremy?"
"Good," Elena replied. "I think he misses Bonnie. It's a bit strange that she left without saying goodbye to anyone, but Jeremy assured me they talk almost every night and that she's having fun. Anyway, look what I found."
Damon took the flyer she pulled from her bag. It was an ad for a drive-in movie theater. "You want to go?"
"Yeah. Look, they're playing one of your favorites tonight. Could be fun."
"How do you know I like Casablanca?"
"You love Gone with the Wind. I extrapolated. So, what do you say?"
"One of the best movies of all time and I get to make out with my girlfriend in the privacy of my own car? You got yourself a date."
Elena sighed as the credits rolled. She lifted her head to kiss Damon. Nestled as she was into his side, her legs up on the dashboard, the angle was a little awkward, but they made do.
"Are you crying?" Damon asked her, pulling back.
"A little," she sniffed. "This was a great movie."
"I know. They don't make them like that anymore."
They cuddled and occasionally kissed as they waited for the majority of the cars to empty out before Damon put the car in drive and turned towards the exit as well.
"Let's get ice cream," Elena suggested.
"Where would you get ice cream this time of night?"
"There's a great ice cream place in the mall. I bet they're still open." Elena knew full well Damon's aversion to malls and she bit down on her lip in amusement seeing the reluctance war on his face. But he did change the lanes to take the turn towards the mall which made Elena grin.
"You're shameless," Damon commented dryly on her quiet amusement. "You know I can't say no to you."
Elena grinned in response and leaned back into her seat. The night air was still warm from the hot summer day and they drove with the top down. Feeling happy and giddy, Elena scooted further down in her seat and leaning slightly against Damon's shoulder as he drove, she pushed her legs out the side window.
Damon glanced down at her and laced their fingers together.
"What about a beach vacation?" he suggested, out of the blue.
Elena's eyes lit up. "Yes. When?" she eagerly asked.
"There's still a few weeks of summer left, aren't there?"
"Where would you want to go?"
"You pick," Damon replied.
"Anywhere I want?"
"Anywhere accessible by modern means of transportation."
"Look," Elena exclaimed, pointing at something with all the excitement of a child on Christmas morning.
Damon followed her finger and his face fell. "No. Absolutely not. You know I love you but even I have my limits."
Elena looked up at him with sad Bambi eyes.
"Nope," Damon said, "not gonna work."
She added a shaking lower lip.
"No. Not this time."
Elena pulled in her pout, now just looking sad. "Really?" she asked, dispirited. She looked at the floor, shoulders sagging, a perfect picture of misery.
"God, I hate you," Damon groaned, rolling his eyes, knowing full well he was being manipulated but absolutely powerless against it. "You manipulative, little minx."
Elena's whole demeanor changed within a second. She perked up, smiled wide and happy and pulled Damon towards the photo booth. "Thank you."
Elena, back in her dorm room, pulled her diary out from its hiding place under her bed and removed the photo strip that she was using to mark the page. She stared at herself and Damon in the pictures. For someone who was so reluctant to get into the booth, he looked perfectly at ease in the pictures. She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the photo strip, sending it off to Damon. She thought about how to caption it and wrote,
I love you for indulging me. Thank you. For the movie, the ice cream, the photo booth. And the memories.
She added a kissy face smiley.
Her phone rang minutes later.
"Did you manage to get some food in you?" Damon asked instead of a greeting.
"I did," Elena replied. "I ate, I fed, and I am beat."
"And the memory?"
Elena yawned, snuggling down into her pillow. "Came back right after we hung up."
"Anything else?"
"No." She yawned again, loudly. "God, I'm tired."
"Go to bed, Elena," Damon said, indulgently.
"I am in bed."
"Then go to sleep."
"In a minute." She didn't want to hang up yet. "Did we go on that beach vacation you suggested?"
"Yes, we did."
"Hmm. Where did we go?"
"You don't remember?"
Elena shook her head, then her sleepy mind reminded her that he couldn't see her. "No."
"Florida. We flew to Miami, then drove south to the Keys in a rental. You really can't remember?"
"No, why?"
"The airline lost your suitcase. We had to go shop for all the necessities before we could start our vacation. You were complaining the entire time while I had the time of my life watching you model bikini after bikini."
Elena chuckled quietly. "I bet," she murmured.
"We took a snorkeling trip the next morning and we saw dolphins and you couldn't stop smiling. You said it was the best day of your life."
"It sounds amazing, Damon." There was a pause and Damon listened to her breathe, thinking she had fallen asleep. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"Taking me? Telling me? Just… thank you."
Her voice sounded deep with exhaustion, raw and raspy and it was doing things to Damon's insides. "Good night, Elena," he quietly said, lulling her to sleep.
"Night. Love you," she mumbled, barely awake.
"Love you too, babe."
In the dream, Elena was looking out at the bluest turquoise water she had ever seen. The sun burned hot from a clear blue sky the color of Damon's eyes but in the shade, under the cabana roof, she was perfectly content, sipping from a cool drink.
"Where do you want to have dinner tonight?"
Elena's head rolled lazily in his direction. "Surprise me."
"French?" Damon asked.
Elena pulled a face. "Again? You can feed me oysters all you want, I won't magically just start liking them."
"You liked the onion soup."
"I said it's passable, compared to everything else you made me try. I wouldn't go so far to say I liked it."
Damon huffed. That's the thanks he got for trying to expand her tastes. Elena and fast food was a love story he was not going to get in-between, apparently.
"Can't we just grab a pizza?" Elena suggested.
"Should have taken you to Italy," Damon mumbled.
"What?" When Damon didn't respond, she asked again, "You wanted to take me to Italy?"
Damon sighed. "Not just Italy," he said. "Europe. I wanted to take you to Europe for the summer. Isn't that what all high school graduates are supposed to do before college?"
"You wanted to take me to Europe?" Elena's mouth fell open. "But you never said anything."
"You'd just gotten Jeremy back. Figured, you wouldn't want to leave so soon after getting him back."
Elena just stared at him, blinking quickly to prevent herself from crying at the thoughtful gesture. "I would've loved to go. But you're right, not after Bonnie brought him back. Maybe we can do that some time still?"
"Maybe," Damon replied.
Elena, still smiling softly, reached for Damon's hand but before their fingers could touch, she woke up.
Elena, mind still fuzzy with sleep, sat up in her bed. The beautiful dream still played on her mind and she sighed wistfully. She often had trouble holding on to the things she dreamt about and she hoped she wouldn't forget this one until morning. She reached for the glass of water on her nightstand before turning over and going back to sleep.
Instead of falling asleep, however, her dream continued. She saw herself and Damon getting ready for dinner, both dressed in white; she saw herself taking Damon's arm as they walked into the restaurant. As the waitress showed them to their table Elena finally realized that she wasn't watching a dream, she was remembering. When she remembered the waitress offering to take their picture, something clicked in Elena's brain.
Quietly, so as not to wake Bonnie and Caroline, Elena pulled out the Damon box from under her bed and took out one of the framed pictures of her and Damon. She touched its surface, remembering the evening it was taken. It was a perfect moment on a perfect day during a perfect summer and it had been so easy to believe that this was going to be the rest of her life. Just one perfect day after another.
Instead of returning it to the box, Elena placed the picture on her nightstand. Come morning, she would unpack the Damon box. She didn't need it anymore to remind her of what she had given up. Damon was part of her life again and she would fight whatever came in between them to keep it that way.