This is my first story, and I was nervous, so thank you for the reviews!

"Earth to Elena!"

She looks up from her laptop to see that he had sat down across from her, wearing his usual smirk.

"Hey Damon."

"Whatcha reading?" He asks her stealing a fry off of her barely eaten plate.

"Not reading per say, I'm trying to work on my new book."

"How's it going?"

"Not so good. I've only gotten one chapter written, I have no idea what I'm doing with these characters."

"You could always write about me, and my devilishly handsome good looks." He gives her a wink and takes the pickle off of her plate. He never did understand how someone could not like pickles.

"Yuck. And what would I call said book? How to become an asshole in ten days?"

"Touche Elena. But speaking of characters, have you heard from my baby brother?"

"I got a letter from him the other day he's still in Botswana. Right now he doesn't have the best service where he's at so he'll call when he can."

"Uh-huh." He says glancing at the letter she pulled out of her bag and handed to him. Not one word in his letter about anything but what he's been up to. Not a 'how's Mom?', not about Elena, and sure as hell nothing about him.

"Have you written him?"

"Nope."

"I'm sure he'd love to hear from you."

"You are probably correct, but I'm still not going to write him."

"Why?"

"Leave it alone Elena."

"No, not until you tell me what happened before he left."

"For what purpose?"

"Because I care, I'm your friend Damon." She lays her hand on top of his and gives it a light squeeze, and he looks down to their hands resting on top of one another with furrowed brows. She can't fully understand where his pensive look is coming from, but if there one thing she knows about Damon it's that he doesn't get emotional with anyone. Not Katherine, who had been his longest relationship, or Rose who has been his best friend. Even with Stefan, they could be best friends one minute and enemies the next. She sees him frown and the next thing she knows he's pulling his hand back.

"Sure you are."

"Hey, don't do that. It's not fair. You know I am."

"Didn't our local hero fill you in?"

"No, he didn't have time when he got back from the boarding house. The cab was waiting."

"Of course he didn't."

"Damon, come on. Talk to me."

"I asked him to stop going."

"You did? Why?" Her jaw drops, she wasn't expecting that. She's not even sure if he's going to continue so she just waits until he's ready. That was one of the main difference between the Salvatore brothers, Stefan wore his heart on his sleeve, and Damon said he didn't have one. She blames that on Mr. Salvatore, but she'd never say that out loud especially now. He never let Damon live down his mistakes, or the fact that he never wanted to be a doctor. Thank god for Lily, she was the only woman that Damon had ever really loved and that he showcased to the world.

"Because Mom and Dad put everything into their practice, they wanted us to take over, and I'm a screw-up Elena, I'm no doctor."

"You need to give yourself credit Damon, you are one of the best photographers out there. Your covers for National Geographic and Time get you so much recognition. You sell yourself short."

"Blah, blah, anyway, Mom wants to retire, but she wants the practice to stay with the family, they built that from scratch. She can't bare to part with it. So she keeps holding out for Stefan to finally want to settle down. He's doing great work, I get that, but he's been at it almost constantly for four years. Maybe it's noble to him, but it's selfish when he knows what Mom needs. Everything is all on her without Dad and I can't do a damn thing to help her."

"I didn't know, but Damon you do help her. Just by being here."

"Of course you didn't know, baby brother only has time to make a name for him."

"That's not true."

"Says the girl who's been his shadow without a voice for years now." He regrets it as soon as he sees the tears form in her eyes.

"Screw you Damon."

"Shit, I'm sorry Elena, I didn't mean it."

"No, you did."

"No, all I meant was that everyone takes a back seat to Stefan and his needs."

"He had a hard time after your Dad passed away, and helping people has helped him."

"Yeah, this helped him, and he forgot about everyone else."

"So that's what this is about." She can hear the hurt in his voice. He'd never admit it, that much she knows.

"This is about our mother. And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You haven't released a book in over three years, all you do is wait. What are you waiting for?"

She wants to give him an answer but the truth is she can't. Because she has no idea anymore. That's what hurts her the most. All of her future plans had been long forgotten about. She had wanted to travel, write about other countries, about other cultures, swim with dolphins, visit the Vatican and so much more. The life she wanted had changed for the man who forgot about her.

"Look Elena." He says pulling her out of her thoughts. "The answer is simple, if you don't have it maybe you should ask yourself why."

"I know what I'm doing."

"And what's that?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you."

"No, you don't but I don't think you have an answer either."

"Stop Damon."

"Fine, you can't handle the truth that's not my problem. I just came to tell you I was leaving this weekend."

"For work?"

"Yep, new gig in Aspen."

"How long will you be gone?"

"Maybe two weeks, give or take. Why, going to miss me?"

"Haha."

"You could always come."

"I can't do that."

"And why not?"

"Because I have to work on my book."

"And you can do that anywhere can't you? Come on Elena, live a little. Or is a little adventure too much for you to handle after all these years of sitting in boredom?"

A part of her knows he's right. He's always called her out on her bullshit, and she's always been able to figure him out more than anyone else. They had some sort of understanding. Maybe right now he just needed a friend, and maybe she did need a vacation.

"You know what? I'd love to go."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Wow I wasn't expecting that."

"Did you not mean it when you invited me?"

"Sure I did, I meant it the last twenty times too. You never say yes, so I just wasn't expecting it. Be ready Sunday night, I have a red eye booked; I'll get you a ticket."

"I can buy my own ticket."

"I invited you, my treat. But I have to go, dinner with mom."

"Tell her I said hello."

"Will do."

"Damon?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks, I think maybe I need to get out of here for a while, clear my head."

"As always Elena, glad to be of service."

He gives her a genuine smile before he leaves the grille, and she realizes that she's going to have to tell Jeremy and Caroline, well more like explain to Care, that she's going away with Damon Salvatore. Jer had always thought that there was something going on between her and Damon, and this would just fuel that. Damon and Jer never use to be friends, Damon had always treated Jer like an annoying little brother, but ever since Damon's dad had died him and Jeremy got closer, one day she saw them walking home sharing a bottle of bourbon, she had no idea where they were coming from but Jer just came straight inside after they shared a quick nod, and Damon kept going. But Caroline? Caroline was a totally different story. She had the biggest crush on Damon in high school, and she was so sure she'd be the one to change him. To no ones surprise not soon after she had slept with him he had dumped her. And Caroline never let go of that. She's hated him ever since. A small part of her does understands where Care is coming from, but the bigger part? It knows that Damon never pretended to be anything but who he was, he had even warned her that she would be let down if she expected more that what he was offering. That's one of the things she admired about Damon, he never made any apologies for who he was, he owned every part of him. Sometimes she envied that too.

Instead of thinking about the outcome of both conversations when she went home, she opens up her email and decides to send one to Stefan in case he's able to check his email before he gets the letter she had sent out earlier.

Stefan,

Hi stranger. Is that rude? I didn't mean it to be, it just feels like that. I hope your doing okay. Are you getting enough sleep? I started working on a new book but I'm having some trouble finding inspiration, and I happen to run into Damon earlier who asked if I was up for a quick trip to Aspen. I'm going to go. I think it might help with my writer's block. I hope you're not mad. When do you think you'll be back? Well I'm going to get going, I have a lot to do before we leave. T minus 5 days!

Take Care of you, and Love you!