Damon couldn't help but feel robbed of the life he had been working so meticulously to manifest with Elena before everything changed. It was all a blur.
Elena hadn't been a vampire for long when Stefan finally confessed that Klaus had revealed there was a cure for vampirism.
The Gilbert house had burned into the night angrily before their eyes when they returned to Mystic Falls from their failed excursion to retrieve the mythical cure from Nova Scotia.

They'd lost Jeremy.

Elena had lost Jeremy to Katherine's selfishness and self-preservation. Elena had lost the last of her family searching for a cure they couldn't even be sure truly existed.
Damon had hoped it was another lie from Klaus.
A cure couldn't be real. It was too convenient and too cruel.
But now Katherine had disappeared again, taking Jeremy's life, the cure, and the last of Elena's grip on humanity.

All roads lead back to Katherine.

Elena was asleep in Damon's bed, but the reality didn't quite live up to the fantasy he had once imagined.
He could hear the gentle pattern of her breathing even though he was in the kitchen.

She'd showered twice.
Once to wash away the tears that dried on her face and to rid herself of the smell of kerosene and smoke that clung to her body.

Damon would have to call the home insurance company tomorrow morning and file a claim.
He hadn't decided what type of claim he would make.
Accidental fire? Suspected arson? Suicide? What would the police say when they found Jeremy's ashes mixed with the ashes from the dining room table?
Stefan had stayed behind to talk with the fire chief and the sheriff.

The second shower had happened because she hadn't liked the way Damon looked at her when he walked into the room to check on her.
Displeasure had filled Elena's otherwise angry, vacant eyes and she'd reached for Damon's hand, pulling him roughly on top of her slight body, shoving her robe and his clothes aside angrily, fighting to establish dominance.
He had let her.

From the kitchen, he could smell traces of his shampoo in her still damp hair.
He would feel guilty about the vulnerability of the moment later, but he hadn't been thinking straight when Elena pushed him into the shower.

Hadn't flinched when scalding water cascaded on them, the glass enclosure that surrounded them slowly filling with steam.
He'd kissed her back with the same urgency and desperation that she was seeking.
Elena wrapped her legs around his torso as he pushed her against the slippery glass, pulling her closer as she whispered commands into his ear.
He kissed along her neck and she sprinkled shallow bites across his shoulder as she used his body to forget. And he'd let her.

And now he was surrounded by the darkness of the kitchen, waiting for Stefan to come home, the only light source was the laptop screen in front of him and he had dimmed the brightness to a dull glow.
Damon closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair as the front door opened and closed quietly.

Stefan turned the light on and Damon blinked his eyes open.

"Sorry," Stefan said as he reached for a glass and filled it with water. "Where is she?"

"What do you mean 'where'? Upstairs," Damon gestured with a nod of his head.

Stefan drained the glass and set it down in the empty sink.

A long pause stretched out from Stefan to Damon.

"Upstairs as in your bed ? Unbelievable, Damon," Stefan said as he leaned against the counter, crossing his arms defensively.

Fuck.

"She's sleeping," Damon said, stretching out his arms.
The tension, maybe the guilt, was starting to weigh heavily on his shoulders.
He rolled his shoulders back.
He could feel a fight coming.
He'd never really gotten around to telling Stefan about the development between him and Elena.

This hardly seemed like the time to do it, but Stefan wasn't going to back down.

"I don't want to come home to hear you fucking my girlfriend."

"She's not your girlfriend anymore, Stefan," Damon sighed.

"You're right. Not that it mattered when she was anyway. You still fucked her," Stefan said casually.

Fuck.

"How-," Damon started but Stefan raised a hand sharply to cut him off.

"Elena told me before we left for Nova Scotia. But even if she hadn't, you really think I haven't noticed the way you look at her? You think I don't feel her spine straighten when you walk by? You think I don't hear her breath stall when you talk? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"I love her."

"Fuck, Damon. Not this again. Jesus Christ," Stefan hissed, running an angry hand through his hair. "I can't do this again with you. She's not Katherine."

The two brothers had looked at each other with renewed rivalry and a sadness they'd felt before.

"I know she's not Katherine. You're the one who can't see that," Damon said standing up.
He closed the laptop and pushed his chair back.

In the two years that Damon had known and loved Elena Gilbert, he'd managed to cultivate a precious collection of stolen moments and glances.
That collection belonged to Damon and Stefan was trying to it them away. Stefan was trying to weaponize and reduce Damon's love for Elena down to nothing but a sad comparison to Katherine.

"You know I've been trying to fix things between her and me," Stefan said in a low voice. "But you didn't give a fuck. Just like with Katherine. You had to swoop in and corrupt her."

"Do you hear yourself?" Damon asked. "You've been fighting with me over a version of Elena that doesn't exist. You did the same thing to Katherine. Once you realized who Katherine was, you tried to convince me that what Katherine and I had wasn't real. You're doing the same thing with Elena right now. You've never known the real Elena. You don't know what she was like before the accident that took her parents."

"And you do?" Stefan countered.

"I do, Stefan," Damon confirmed seriously. "But the difference between you and me is that I walked away. Something in me recognized something in her the night I met her. I've always seen her for who she is."

Stefan laughed humorlessly, looking up at the dark sky through the skylight in the kitchen.

"Let's not pretend like this isn't the best day of your fucking life," Stefan said.

Damon frowned at his brother.

"Stefan. You love Elena for the same reason you loved Katherine. One, an orphan who came to our home looking for shelter. The other needed to be rescued from a tragic accident. You saved them both. But after some time, they were both different. Neither was the version you desperately wanted to believe they were. Their pain was already part of them. Some people have a darkness inside them, Stefan, and it doesn't mean they're broken. It's just who they are. You can't fix people who aren't broken. You couldn't fix Katherine and you certainly can't fix Elena. They're not broken, brother."

"Enjoy your fairy tale, Damon," Stefan said as he walked out of the kitchen.

Damon switched the light off and let the darkness envelop him.