Author's note: Somebody mentioned in their review that the last chapter was rushed. Yes, it was. I'm sorry. I guess I was too focused on getting to the end of the story/season. It's too late now, but I hope this chapter makes up for it a bit? Let me know what you think.

"You look very… Christmas-y," Damon commented, walking into the bedroom and setting down two heavy suitcases and a carry-on bag. They had returned to the States only the day prior. Stefan had picked them up at the airport, but they had to wait forever at the baggage claim for all of their luggage to arrive – Damon would have liked to blame it on Elena's excessive shopping trips, but he was just as much at fault for the additional suitcases. After finally getting all their luggage back, they drove by Bonnie's to drop her off, and it had gotten pretty late when they finally made it to the Salvatore Mansion. Exhausted after a day of travel, Damon decided the bags could wait until morning which had turned to midday as they both had slept in.

Elena turned away from the mirror where she had been debating whether she liked the outfit or not. "That's not what I was going for," she replied and pulled the red and gold striped dress over her head.

"Now, that is an outfit I approve of," Damon commented with an appreciative nod at her red bra and panties set.

"Yeah?" Elena struck a pose and challenged him, "You think the other guests will like it?"

"You could definitely pull it off, but I'm not falling for that trap. Not my place to tell a woman what she should and should not wear. But if you accept suggestions, I think the pale-yellow neck holder dress you got in Italy, the one with the brown belt, it would fit the occasion perfectly."

Elena gasped. "I can pair it with the knit cardigan and the brown leather boots I got in Amsterdam! You're a genius." She rushed over to kiss him. "Thank you."

"Hey, you got a minute?" he asked.

"Sure," she replied and went to rummage through her suitcase in search of said outfit. They still had a few hours before they had to leave for Jo's and Ric's but Elena wanted to have everything ready before then, to make sure they wouldn't be late or Alaric was going to be pissed.

Damon sat down on the bed and watched Elena pull one garment after the other out of her stuffed suitcase as he debated how to broach the subject that he was about to broach. "Elena?" he began.

"It's not here," Elena mumbled. "I know I packed it."

"Check my bag," Damon suggested and she did.

"Ha-ha! Got it!"

Elena, triumphant, held the dress up to her front and moved to the mirror, turning this way and that in front of it. She removed the bra – it wouldn't go with the cut of the dress.

Damon, still watching her, groaned loudly. "Babe, you're really making it hard for me to focus here." He paused. "Literally."

She grinned over her shoulder. "What's up?" At his plaintive look, she realized her poor choice of words. "I mean, what did you want to talk about?" she rephrased as she slipped into the new dress.

"This," Damon said and pulled something from his inside pocket.

Elena froze as she watched Damon's reflection in the mirror. She hadn't seen the vial since they left Mystic Falls. Damon had never told her where he'd stashed it and she'd never asked. It had made it easier to forget about it and pretend like it didn't exist. But now they were back and… wow. Elena focused on her breathing. In. Out. Repeat.

"No more discussions, no more negotiations, no more delays. Take it."

"I will," Elena said and sat down next to Damon.

"No, I mean right now. Drink it. Now."

"Why?"

"Because this is Mystic Falls and things have a tendency to not go as planned. The plan was to finish our world wind tour and become human. We're finished. So, come on. Before anything has the chance to fuck this up for us. Unless you want to do some more jumping out of planes or extreme wild-water rafting." They had done both, and more, during their 18-months long trip through most of Europe.

Elena glanced at the clock. "We don't know how I'll react to the cure. I remember it knocked Katherine out completely. I've no idea how long she was out. What if we're late for the party?"

"So what if we are. Ric's been pissed at me before; he'll get over it. Besides, it's a kids' birthday party. We wouldn't be missing much," Damon reasoned.

Elena took the vial and broke off the top. Her hands shook.

"Scared?" Damon teased.

Elena let her vampire years pass before her inner eye. "It's been a wild ride."

"That it has," Damon agreed.

"Ready for the boring part, Salvatore?"

"Like life with you could ever be boring," he scoffed.

"Here goes everything." Elena closed her eyes and was about to swallow the red liquid when Damon's palm closed around hers, keeping her from it. She opened her eyes and looked at him quizzically.

"I—" Damon began. "I love you."

Elena smiled and, holding his gaze, brought the vial to her lips and drank.

Nothing happened. She was about to express her doubts that the potion had worked when all of a sudden, a barrage of images flooded her mind. There were flashes of memories – both recovered and those she thought were lost to her forever; snippets of conversations, music, laughter, fights, whispered moments in the dark, warm arms around her that held her and made her feel safe, soundbites, fast forwards, flashbacks, bright lights, an unraveling of the mind. It was a maelstrom and she was caught in the middle, being pulled over and under and in every direction at once. It was dizzying. She heard a scream and then her name, but it was too far away and she was slipping further into the darkness. Oblivion. And finally, blessed silence.

Damon's panicked voice was the first thing that came back to her.

"Elena? Elena, no. Please, please, please. No. Come back. I'm sorry. Please, please come back. Elena, baby, please."

"'s okay. 'M okay."

"Elena?"

Careful fingers stroked back the hair from her face, lips pressed tightly to her forehead.

"Oh, thank god. I thought—"

"Damon," Elena managed to breathe. Her vision was clearing and when his face came into focus, she lifted her arms to wrap them around his neck. She sobbed into his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Damon pulled away and asked, alarmed. "Do you hurt anywhere? What's wrong?"

"Yes, I mean, no," she replied, or hiccupped more like. "I mean, I'm okay. I'm good." Then laughter broke out of her, a mix of relief and joy. "I love you. Oh, god, I love you so much."

Damon pulled her into his arms again before lifting his head to be able to look her in the eyes. "It worked?" he asked, voice awed.

"Yeah, but—" Elena nodded but still looked around for something sharp to test the truth, just to be sure. "Care to volunteer a sharp fang?" she asked Damon when she couldn't see anything that would do.

She held a finger up for him. Damon's fangs dropped and he bit through the skin as gently as he could. Elena gasped at the sharp sting and waited. A small drop of blood formed and grew bigger as the wound didn't heal.

Elena's smile grew wide and excited. She looked into Damon's eyes. "I'm human again," she whispered. She stared in fascination at the tiny not-healing wound on her finger.

Damon leaned in to kiss it but Elena stopped him before he could. "Don't!"

He lifted his head in confusion.

"Do you still want to wait until—"

"Yes," Damon replied, not letting her finish the question.

"Then don't drink it. Not yet at least."

"Right. Things to do, people to compel before I join the human club," Damon muttered.

They fell quiet for a moment, just staring at each other, smiles growing on both of their faces at the prospect of the future that lay ahead of them until another hit of memories jolted Elena. She groaned a little under the onslaught and Damon's face darkened with concern.

"I remember," she offered as an explanation. "Damon, I remember everything. It's all coming back, all at once."

"Everything?"

"Yeah." While a lot of her memories had come back following the months of Damon's return, it had slowly petered out. In the past year she hadn't recovered a single new memory from her previous life with Damon. She had resigned herself that what she had was all she would get.

"The cure broke the compulsion," Damon commented.

Elena nodded.

"It's all back again?"

Elena nodded again. "I think so, yes."

"First time I kissed you?" Damon quizzed.

"In my room. And it was against my will because you were an ass and therefore it doesn't count. Then here in your room, in this bed, actually. When you were dying from the werewolf bite. Though, technically, that was me kissing you. So, it probably doesn't count either. On my porch, after telling me that if you were going to feel guilty about something, you were going to feel guilty about that. Although I don't believe you felt all that much guilt about it."

Damon simply grinned in response. "First time you told me you loved me?"

"On the phone while you were away at the lake house, training Jeremy. But I loved you long before that."

"Favorite sexual position?"

"Damon!" Elena slapped his chest, laughing.

Damon's hands slipped from her shoulders down her arms, checking her over as if scanning for physical injuries. "You're really okay?"

"I'm really okay. A little dizzy, but that's just from the onslaught of memories."

Damon still looked a little skeptical, so Elena grabbed his face in both hands and did the thing she had wanted to do since opening her eyes. She kissed him with all the love and passion that was running wild inside her, searching for an outlet. After a moment's hesitation, Damon returned her kiss and slid on top of her when she pulled him down.

She hadn't yet zipped up the dress and he easily pulled it over her head, leaving her only in a red nothing of a thong. Damon pulled back a little, letting his eyes wander down her beautiful body. She waited more or less patiently while he looked his fill before smiling softly and leaning down to kiss a straight line down the center of her body. His fingers followed every curve and dip in a gentle caress.

Elena waited till he had made the trek back up again and reached for his lips. He kissed her back, slow and thorough, before pulling back and nipping gently on her lips.

"I'm not going to break; you don't have to treat me like one of your Chinese vases in the den," Elena told him when he let her come up for air.

"It's been a few years since I've been with a human," Damon explained.

"Well, then let me remind you," Elena said and rolled them over until she was on top.

A little over an hour later, Damon was still lounging on the bed, watching as Elena stepped out of the shower. She stopped midway through wrapping a fluffy towel around herself. "Damon!" she exclaimed.

"Okay, okay, I'm getting up. Don't worry; unlike you, I can get ready in vamp-speed."

"Not that," Elena replied with a throwaway gesture. "Look!" She lifted a corner of the towel that came down to almost mid-thigh and pointed at a darkening spot. "You gave me a hickey," she said accusingly. Then, with a slight panic in her voice, she turned towards the mirror. "Are there more?"

Damon stood behind her as she turned this way and that, inspecting her reflection for any more marks and love bites. But aside from a slight razor burn on her neck – Damon still hadn't shaved yet – there were no more telltale signs of their recent bedroom activities.

"Okay, new rule," Elena said. "You're not allowed to leave marks."

"Got it." Damon saluted and she punched his shoulder.

"I mean it, Damon."

"I know you do," he placated. "I guess I need to adjust to the current strength imbalance in our relationship."

"You're lucky the dress will cover this," Elena muttered, rubbing at the spot on the inside of her thigh.

Damon smirked but quickly hid it, not wanting to earn himself another punch from Elena.

After his shower, a freshly shaved Damon pulled on a pair of drawstring pants, then grabbed his towel again to rub his hair dry. He glanced over to Elena who was sitting in the middle of the bed, head buried in a book and several others lying open around her.

"What are you reading?" Damon asked.

She looked up at him and held up the book in question. "It's my diary. The only one that didn't burn. I found it between my things in the closet."

Damon threw away the towel and came to sit at the foot of the bed. There were also a few photo albums and a box of things where she had collected mementos of their time together.

"I started this one when I got my emotions back. Why didn't you give this to me to read when I didn't have my memories?"

"Didn't know what was in it. Actually, I didn't know it was there at all."

"Would you have read it if you had known?" Elena asked.

Damon shrugged. "I probably would have been seriously tempted."

Elena paused, biting her lip, then held the open journal out for him to take. He studied her face before reaching for it. But instead of reading it, he closed the book and handed it back to her.

"I'd be more interested to read one of the earlier ones," he joked.

"Anything in particular you're especially interested in?" she played along.

"Mhmm," he said, "all the entries where you pined for me while denying that you were attracted to me."

Elena laughed and tried to swat him with a pillow. "You'll be disappointed then. Because that number is zero."

"Liar," Damon exclaimed, ducking her assassination attempts.

"I swear," Elena pushed away the books and keepsakes and rose up on her knees, holding up her right hand as if taking a vow, "I never wrote anything remotely resembling an expression of attraction to you in any of my journals." At Damon's skeptical stare, she explained, "If I had let the feelings in, even for a second, it would have ruined everything I tried so hard to rebuilt after my parents died."

"Now I wish I hadn't compelled you to forget our meeting. Imagine your journal entry of that," he said and continued in a slightly higher pitch, "Dear Diary, today I met the hottest guy I ever laid eyes on. I tried flirting with him so he would give me his number, but I am so very bad at it." Damon grinned, barely holding back a laugh.

Elena gasped, eyes wide and reached for the pillow again, launching it at his head. "That is not what I sound like. And also, I did not flirt with you!"

"'Oh, dark and mysterious stranger who has all the answers, what is it that I want?'" Damon continued in the high-pitched voice, mocking her. In his normal voice, he added, "You just itched to hear me say, 'me. You want me.'"

"Shut up," Elena exclaimed between laughs, "I did not."

Elena launched himself at Damon, but he evaded her attack and scrambled to the other side of the bed.

Damon brought out the high-pitched voice again, "'Oh, I so wish he'd asked me for my number. I offered, but—'"

"That is a flat out lie!" She sat back on her haunches and crossed her arms, acting offended, but her own face betrayed her. The corners of her mouth refused to stay down and her upper body shook with suppressed laughs.

"Oh really?" he challenged. "You were throwing yourself at me. Shamelessly, might I add. Making sure to tell me you had a fight with your boyfriend, so I'd know you were available." And in the voice that sounded nothing like Elena's, he continued, "'Oh, dark and sexy stranger, what is it that you want?'" Damon cackled. "You just wanted me to say I wanted your number so that you could brag to your friends about the hot, older guy you met out there in the woods."

She reached for another pillow to throw at him but he snatched it out of her hands and dropped it beside the bed. When she tried to kick him next, he grabbed her ankle and a second later tackled her to the bed. She retaliated by pushing her fingers between his ribs, starting a tickle fight.

He screamed in a highly unmanly fashion as he squirmed away from her fingers. But Elena wouldn't let up. Her merciless hands knew all the spots he was particularly ticklish and she was determined to have her revenge.

His only form of defense was to retaliate the same way. She laugh-shrieked when he got to her most ticklish areas and the fight was fully on.

They rolled all over the bed, alternately attacking and evading. The few pillows that had remained on the bed now slipped to the floor, the sheets coming loose, but neither noticed as they continued to squeal, yell, tickle, roll, and laugh hysterically.

Damon's strength gave out and he capitulated with a victorious Elena on top of him. Hair in complete disarray, clothes rumpled and twisted, eyes shining, and the biggest smile on her face, she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. She looked so happy and carefree, Damon's breath hitched.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Damon let his head drop and from his position he saw an upside-down version of Stefan in the doorway. Elena, a clear line of vision from her perch astride Damon, met his eyes and explained, "You're looking at the 2014 reigning tickle champion."

"Nuh-uh, as if," Damon protested. "It was pretty obvious I let you win."

Elena put a palm across his mouth. "He meant to say 'Congratulations'," she told Stefan, still laughing.

Stefan looked at them both, then around the mess in the room. Shaking his head at their antics, he said, "Whatever. I actually came up her to ask if we're taking two cars or if we're driving up to Alaric's together. But you two aren't even dressed yet."

"Oh, we'll be ready in no time," Elena replied. "Don't worry."

Damon looked at Elena and she removed her hand to let him speak. "We can all fit in my car. Unless we're picking up Bonnie too?"

"Bonnie texted me earlier. She's catching a ride with Caroline," Elena said. "You okay with the back seat?" she asked Stefan.

"Sure, but hurry. We're going to be late. I'll wait downstairs for you guys."

With a last glance at them both and a shake of his head, Stefan left.

Damon watched the upside-down version of him walk away before he rolled Elena over and leaned in to kiss her. She returned the kiss and they almost got lost in it again when they heard Stefan yell from somewhere out in the hall, "Ten minutes or I'm leaving without you."

Elena slid out from under Damon and got up. They got dressed quickly. While Elena went through a light version of her make-up routine, Damon straightened up the room and redid the bed. Exactly ten minutes later they were both ready to leave.

Elena held out her hand to Damon. "Let's go tell our friends." A moment later she seemed to reconsider. "Or, no, wait. We should probably do it some other day. This is Ric and Jo's kids' party."

"The little rug rats are turning one. I don't think they'll mind if we crash their party."

"But still," Elena protested as she pulled on a knit cardigan and followed Damon downstairs, "I wouldn't mind keeping it between us for a little while longer. And you should probably talk to Stefan before you turn. He didn't appreciate being left out of the decision last time, if I remember correctly."

Damon groaned. Even though Stefan had come to accept Damon's decision to turn human – as long as the idea was something that would be happening some time in the future, however, it remained only that: an idea.

Outside, at the car, Damon held the door open for Elena. She paused before she got in and cupped his cheek. "I'm going to tell you the same thing you told me in Italy. You can change your mind, Damon. I won't hold it against you."

For a second, Damon didn't understand what she was talking about. But when it dawned, he grabbed her face in both hands. "I want this. I'm not going to change my mind."

Elena was about to kiss him when both their phones rang simultaneously.

"Caroline," Elena said with a glance at the display.

Damon fished out his phone and held it up. "Ric."

They answered.

"You're late."

"Where are you?!"

Damon and Elena grinned at each other and replied, "On our way."

"Stefan?" Damon called out. Wasn't his brother supposed to be waiting for them?

"Just grabbed the housewarming gift from my car," Stefan explained, holding up a wrapped package.

"It better not be Bourbon. 'Cause that's what I got them," Damon said, waiting for Stefan to climb into the back seat of the car before they sped off.

"How exactly is Jo who is nursing two babies supposed to enjoy your gift?" Stefan wondered aloud in the car.

"Jo is getting a special present," Damon replied. "Something we got in Amsterdam."

Damon and Elena shared a look and Stefan decided he didn't want to know.