"It's not a joke, Damon," Elena huffed. "Stop laughing!"
"Come on, Elena! How am I not supposed to laugh?" he said as he walked past her, picking up his discarded glass and swallowing the contents swiftly. He was going to need this. Clearly. "You're a smart girl, but God, your plans - they're really just terrible. I've seen macaroni necklaces crafted with more care."
"Listen, stop being an ass for just one minute, okay?" she said, jutting her hip out defiantly to the side.
"You say ass, I say honest," Damon muttered into his glass with was in dire need of a refill. "Where did you even come up with this cock-eyed idea?"
"Where else? You," she said with a triumphant sneer.
"Me? Elena, my dear, I am a schemer. I am an artist who weaves elaborate webs - and you're trying to tell me this... scrambled egg of an idea is mine?" he said, not turning, as he poured himself another drink.
"Stefan is gone and he's not coming back. Not in your lifetime," Elena repeated back the words Damon had flung at her bitterly on her 18th birthday. The same words that had been echoing in her head the last week.
Inwardly, Damon groaned - actually, it was probably outwardly as well. The level of frustration was mounting to new heights within him, and he never really handled his frustration all that well. Broken tumblers, shouting matches, snapped necks. That kind of thing.
"I didn't mean it like that," Damon said, snarling. "You damn well know I didn't mean it like that, Elena."
"Stefan is holding onto his humanity by a thread, Damon. And like it or not, I am that thread. He called me, Damon. He needs me and if that takes a year or if it takes one hundred, I need to be here. I need you to change me."
"No way," Damon said. "There is no way I'm going to do that to you, Elena. This isn't what you want. You've said it a million times yourself. If you happen to remember, your stance on that exact topic was a harsh lesson for yours truly."
"I'm telling you it's what I want," she said, her eyes alight with determination.
"It isn't what you want," he shot back quickly. "It's what you think you have to do."
"I do have to do it," Elena said softly. "He needs me, Damon. He needs us."
"Elena," he said, striding forward to cup her face. Her breath caught in her throat as he stared at her - into her, "I promise you, we will find him. In your lifetime. I will find him."
"Please, Damon," Elena said, cupping her hands over his. "Do this for me."
"No," he said with an air of finality. "I won't. Not now, not ever. Don't ask me again. I'll find him, and I'll bring him back. Okay?"
"No," she said, removing his hands from her face and taking a step away from him, "it's not enough. I came to you because I trust you, Damon. Can you please just trust me about this? Please?"
"Come hell or high water, all the effort we put in to keeping you human is not going to go to waste," he said in a hard, unyielding voice.
"Fine," Elena snapped. "You're not exactly the only vampire in my life, anyways."