He was waiting for her in her room.

Slipping inside of the door, Elena Gilbert didn't even have to look at her window to know that he was quite near it, leaning - very casually she might add, against the wall there. He lurked in the shadows beside its sill so that half of his face shone in the moonlight fed through the double paned glass. Careful not to look at him, she untied the thick, red-fringed scarf around her neck and tossed it rather forcefully to the ground.

"What, Damon?" she abruptly demanded after several long moments of silence. She resented being the first one to talk - as if she was the one who owed any explanation for what had happened that day… as if it hadn't already been long and emotionally challenging enough. Now she had to deal with this. Gritting her teeth together, Elena crossed her arms and waited for his response.

The man called Damon wasn't even looking at her to begin with. He studied the carpet, a muscle in his angled jaw working furiously. He was beautiful – so beautiful in fact that Elena tried to muffle the quickening beat of her heart for fear of him hearing it. Her breath came in short gasps as the moments passed in silence, and still he did nothing to acknowledge her existence, never mind her previous outburst. She decided to count the time passing away in continuous nothing.

Ten seconds…

Thirty seconds…

Ninety seconds…

Elena eventually sighed, uncrossing her arms. "Whatever it is Damon, I don't have time for this. I'm going to bed." Turning away from him, she went to remove her jacket.

"Elena, I need to talk to you."

Of course he did. She knew that this was coming and no matter how hard she tried to avoid it she wasn't going to be able to escape it.

Giving up her former pretense, her expression softened as she shuffled over to him. "I know."

Damon smiled, as if to encourage her. However, the usual sarcastic grimace seemed to falter shortly after its erection, and he proceeded to chew the inside of his lower lip. Whatever it was, Elena could tell that he was struggling with himself. Struggling with what though? Love? Humanity? Anger? Did he even feel those anymore?

When he opened his mouth to speak, Damon suddenly closed it again, unsure of how to proceed. Not a second passed and he quickly recovered, folding his hands across his perfect chest. "So, how was your day?" His eyes swept in her direction as she shrugged out of her jacket, placing it against her vanity.

She sighed rather quietly, though she knew that he could hear it. He could hear anything. One of the few prime advantages (and perhaps a disadvantage) of being a vampire. Realizing that Damon was waiting for her expectantly, Elena pressed her lips together as she always did when she was nervous and began to speak. "Listen, we don't have to be so formal about this."

Damon's mouth then broke open once more and uttered a quiet laugh, sending chills down Elena's spine. God, he was attractive. Now, if only he wasn't so arrogant…

"What's so funny?"

He put up his hands as if to offer peace, and said, "No, no, nothing. I just really wanted to know how your day with Stefan went."

Uh-oh. So he did know that she had gone to see Stefan.

Viewing the horror suddenly dawning on her face, Damon's own softened with concern. "I didn't mean it like that… I'm sorry. Just… forget it." When Elena said nothing, a growl seemed to emanate from deep within his chest and he flopped on the top of her bed, grabbing a pillow only to drag it across his head.

"Damon…"

She proceeded to kneel next to where he lay, removing his hands on the pillow. "Hey." She spotted his eyes peeking at her behind its frills.

He said nothing.

"Damon, what's really wrong?"

Nothing.

"Damon!" Now, she was getting frustrated again. Couldn't they talk like the adults they were? How old was he again?

Suddenly, he wasn't near, but there, by the giant mirror of her vanity. He was pacing the floor in front of it, throwing his hands up into the air as he talked. "I wanted this to be different! Every time I try to have a serious conversation with you it winds up so freaking terrible, and then we stay angry at each other for what seems like an eternity. And then I always do something stupid to make myself feel better about it! I can't handle it." When Elena opened her mouth to protest, he continued on. "No, Elena. I don't know what it's like for you but it sucks, okay? You mean the world to me and to have that feeling unrequited is… is… well, it's painful. I've been waiting hundreds of years for someone to chose me… to love me back.But, I don't want just anybody… I want it to be you."

Elena wasn't sure of the moment when she stopped breathing, though when Damon was finally done with his verbal rampage she could barely think straight. A thin layer of sweat covered her palms and she had just enough sense to wipe them on the thighs of her jeans to look as if she was calm.

"Elena? I can't hear your heartbeat anymore. Elena! Elena… breathe."

Though her vision went cloudy, she was still able to hear. Breathe? Oxygen? Oh, right. She inhaled through her nose and practically dropped from air deprivation.

"Elena," he began again.

"Stefan thinks I have feelings for you."

Oh, god. Ohgodohgodohgodohgod there she went. There she goes blurting out stupid things again. Crap.

It took about a fraction of a millisecond for Damon's face to register her words. His face crumpled in defeat, while the muscles in his jaw started working up again.

"Do you?" he breathed. He had almost choked it out.

The moment of truth. This is what he's been waiting for all along, wasn't it?

Moments went by in silence just as before. But they were more this time. They were more… everything. More quiet, more intense, more breath-taking. Nothing from either of them.

"I… see."

Damon Salvatore prepared to make his final exit from this woman's life. She had made her choice, and had made it very clear. It was obvious in the lack of her words. Agonizingly obvious. He shrugged up his shoulders and allowed a generic smile to touch his lips before turning to walk out her bedroom door. The first step out seemed to take a whole eternity. The second even more so. He had just begun to find his stride when something interrupted him.

"Damon, wait!"

His body angled at the slightest measure towards the sound of her voice, but he never got the chance to see what was going on inside of her face. Elena Gilbert was suddenly everywhere around him. Her arms wound around his shoulders while his immediately tightened around her slender waist, touching the skin there. Her mouth, pressed so hard against his, made him dizzy, for she seemed to be sucking the air right out of his lungs. Oh, her lips tasted so good. They made him hungry for more, and the only response that seemed to make sense to him was to pull her even more tightly against his chiseled body. Her hair! How could he forget the softness of it? Damon brought one hand to her hair, tracing her spine up all the way meanwhile. He almost smiled when she shivered underneath him.

He didn't know how long that they stood like that in her doorway, but it didn't seem to last long. With the door closed, they moved back towards her bed, where he pulled her back on to himself. There was no way that he'd ever let her go now. Not now, not ever. As she writhed on top of his warm skin, he knew that she had finally made her choice. Deep down, he knew that she loved him, and that maybe she always had.

What a hell of a way to show it, though.