Disclaimer: well, you know that rant. No ownership over canon-series, just my thoughts of how I play along with it.

If before he thought he was giving himself too much credit to be able to change her, then it was surely an understatement. Apparently he didn't give Her enough credit thinking that she would wait for him forever and forgive any and every of his so called bumps.

He screwed it up.

And this time it was final.

Outside he was lashing out on her, telling her to not defend him but clearly inside he was counting on her to accept his most darkest past. With Augustine and Enzo deal over, followed by Katherine's death (which was about time, really), he thought it was finally over.

And he was right, it was finally over just not in the way he expected to. She judged him over what he did to Katherine.

Don't misunderstand him, he understood that it was a perfectly understandable reaction, especially coming from Elena, her compassionate heart just saw no ends. Even after all Kat did to...all of them... Still, maybe it was his love-struck heart or his plain stupidness that he hoped Elena would never give up on him. On him ever changing, on his goodness...

But reality hit and here he was. Right where he started. His unredeemable self.

"Damon's teaching me a little game. See, he assured me you'd be on this road, heading out of town," Enzo said playfully. Aaron's head turned around to face Damon, leisurely leaning on the car.

"You said that you were gonna let me go," Aaron said in a small voice.

"I did," Damon agreed, nodding in a fake-seriousness. "I tried," he formed an apologetic smile.

"Does Elena know that you're here?" Aaron narrowed his eyes at him.

"She's the reason that I'm here!" Damon cried. Then he thought better. "No, scratch that, I'm the reason I'm here." No more Elena's influence on him. It was all his decisions now. And he was gonna love it.

"What do you want, Damon?" Aaron asked.

"I want the same thing you want, Aaron. Go back in time, fix the past, get someone back I've lost." He talked in a nonchalant way but his words were still giving way too much away for his liking.

"Everyone I've lost was because of you. Who murdered my entire family? YOU." Aaron pointed at him accusingly, making Damon gasp in a mocked expression.

"Justifiably," Enzo cut in.

"Either way, I did it. I tore them apart. I liked the sounds they made… because I realized they deserved it. Like you..." He smiled at Aaron in a pitying way. The clock is ticking away for you. No more running.

"Elena was too good for you." Aaron shook his head, his eyes giving out daggers in Damon's direction.

"I used to think that. Yeah." He turned his head to the side, catching himself in the thought but it was a short moment. "I had to be better to deserve her love, or she had to be worse to accept mine..." He advanced towards Aaron with bouncing steps. " I'd lay in the middle of the road, looking up at the stars and having conversations with people like you, trying to convince myself that killing them was a bad instinct and that sparing their lives was the right thing to do." He looked at Aaron with mock-seriousness.

Aaron closed the narrow already gap between the two of them, challenging him to the fight he should have known better than to think he would win. "So. What'd you do? Did you kill them?"

"It doesn't matter." Damon shrugged his shoulders. "The point is, I was conflicted. Right now, in this very, very moment…" He locked his gaze to Enzo's smirking one. "I am crystal clear. You see, Elena thinks I'm a monster. You know what? She's right." His face twisted in a huge grin, his vampire teeth showing.

Just the next moment was not what he expected it to be.

Instead of a warm skin and blood running through his mouth, he was greeted with a night's breeze and a hard slam on his back.

He groaned. He could feel a weight of something against him, pushing him on the ground. If he thought he was angry before, he was beyond furious now. He snapped his eyes open, ready to pounce when he was welcomed with a delicate features of a person responsible for his very outburst.

„Elena..." he breathed, momentary speechless to find her so close to him so soon. He soon snapped out of his thoughts, his features changing to defence. He tried pushing her away.

„Damon, you need to calm down." She pushed him back on the ground. She had him trapped under her and if it was any other time or situation he would surely had found it hot but things were different now...

„What the hell, Elena! I thought you said you were backing out of your patrol duty on me. What are you doing here?"

Her brows furrowed in a pained expression but she soon relaxed her muscles. „I'm not your Elena," she said softly, sending a pang to his heart.

He scoffed. „Oh, I'm aware of that. You made it perfectly clear that we were through. Don't worry, I get it." He thought he saw a flash of guilt pass down her features but he was not so sure and he refused to dwell on false hopes any longer. He quickly stood up, preparing to launch on his prey which was being kept at bay by Enzo.

„Unfinished business, mate?" Enzo quipped, receiving a grimace from Damon.

„Oh, I think we're finished here.

„Damon, stop. Did you hear what I just said? I need-„

„I heard you, alright? No need to rub it in!?" he yelled, his eyes betraying him with a look of pain in them. He tried to compose himself but it was too much, too soon to hold in.

„You're not hearing me, Damon!" she yelled back in desperation. „Now calm down a bit. I need you to calm down and listen to me. It's important."

Damon grimaced at her expression. He didn't want to see those eyes. Not anytime soon. It reminded him too much of his pathetic and pitiful self at the moment. Fighting with himself to get over one girl. „We're past important, Elena. Now back away, because like it or not, that guy over there's loosing his head tonight." He smirked, his features starting to transform into a blood-lusting vampire.

He was so concentrated on the shivering body which he would soon pierce his fangs into that he failed to notice a movement beside himself until he felt two soft hands on his cheeks. He blinked sharply at her.

„Elena..." he started out warningly, his eyes momentary shutting.

„No, you listen to me." Her voice sounded firm. „What I said about me not being your Elena is absolutely true, but not in the way you think it is. I'm Elena, but not from your time."

Damon narrowed his eyes at her, shaking his head in the slightest. All this popping out information giving him the headache. „What the hell are you saying?"

„I'm from your future," she whispered softly, boring her eyes deeply into his.

He groaned. „Oh, please, Elena. Seriously? Could you come up with a more pathetic excuse to stop me from killing Aaron?" He extracted himself from her, his features back to normal but his expression was anything but calm.

„Is there a problem, Damon? I could surely fix it," Enzo offered lightly, showing his vampire teeth to him.

Damon swatted him away. „Stay out of it," he shot at him, looking back to Elena. „I don't know what game you're playing, but I'm getting tired of it." He took a step towards her, looking her deeply in the eyes. „ I bared my soul for you because for one moment I thought, I really believed in what we had and that despite all the shit I done in my past that you could look through it." He tried desperately to sound harsh but it was more pained if anything. Elena tried opening her mouth but he cut her short. „But you pushed me away. You made your decision, Elena. So stay with it. Because I sure as hell am sticking to mine," he ended coldly and turned to look at a quivering Aaron.

Before he could do anything much as to blink, Elena flashed before him and Aaron, taking his face in her hold.
„You'll forget this ever happened and leave town, never coming back until I tell you otherwise." Her eyes dilated with her words and she spun around to the face of the raged Damon.

„Think that trick will work out? I'm gonna hunt him down."

„Leave it to me," Enzo said casually and started his advance on Aaron who was climbing back into his car. He soon found himself pushed on the cold cement, with a very fiery-faced Elena gritting her teeth on him. This lovers spat was getting on his nerves and he sure as hell didn't want to postpone his hunt any longer. Enzo soon changed their positions so that he was on top of Elena, gripping her wrists firmly and preparing to rip her throat out if needed. Elena was struggling in his grip but he was having none of that. His eyes turned bloody red and veins were sticking out from his face. In another moment he felt his back cracking from the impact towards the tree with a tight grip on his throat.

„Don't touch her," Damon breathed into his face, his eyes dark with fury. Enzo choked in his grip, his eyes squeezing tight.

„Damon, that's enough. I'm alright," Elena's voice could be heard somewhere in the distance.

Somehow they send him a wholly different message to his brain and his fingers enclosed even firmer on his so called friend's throat. He was not thinking straight and clearly not seeing what was happening around himself. Going all out on instinct.

„Damon..." A soft hand on his forearm snapped his attention back to the woman who captured his heart in such a painful way. His eyes locked to her deep brown pupils, seeing the slight fear for what he was about to do, fear if she could stop him. He could say that it was fear of him but from many years of experience he knew when he saw her look of unselfish care and pity. Care. Now that made him laugh inside. Wasn't she the one just earlier today giving him cold looks? How could she give him care now?!

He released the throat from his iron grip, sending the gasping Enzo on the ground.

„You both clearly have some issues. Don't make me go in between, man." He attempted to stand up but Damon turned to him.

„Where're you going?" he asked incredulously. „We're not done yet!"

„Oh, I think we're. That compulsion was over a while ago."

Damon looked at him confusedly before it clicked him, his gaze traveling to the empty space on the road.
„Damn it," he cursed under his breath, running a hand through his hair.

„Damon we need to talk," Elena said.

to be continued...

A/N: tell me if you would like to see more. And any thoughts on it ^^ After all, reviews give the push to continue.