Seven years ago

"Damon, please open the door." Stefan said softly from the other side.

"Go away Stef! How many times do I have to tell you to leave me alone?" Damon grumbled. He was desperate. He needed drugs to calm his nerves. He promised his parents that he would try his best to not touch drugs, but he was feeling as if his mind was about to explode. He didn't want Stefan to come. He might lose it.

"I will leave you alone, when I know that you are fine."

"You are not my mother and I can assure you that I'm far off from the drugs."

"I'm your brother Damon! For god sake just open the door. Those things are killing you. It doesn't matter how far away you are from them, they will still haunt your senses. By locking yourself from the world you're not fighting it. You are escaping it." Damon was stunned by his brother's knowledge of things. He didn't know Stefan could understand this at the age of 16. Who was he kidding? He was already high on drugs at the age of 18. Because of his mistakes, immaturity and suffering, Stefan became the smart one. He loved his brother dearly. They both did. Stefan would anything to get him back and make him the Damon he knew. "Please let me in."

Damon slowly cracked opens the door to face his brother. "Are you okay now? See I'm good. Now can you please let me go and let me solve my problems my way?"

"Sorry Damon. That's one thing I won't do."

"Why?"

"Because I know my brother is still there under the shade. Because if I was in your position you would have done the same." Damon was about to protest, but he cut him off. "Don't you dare try to deny that? I know you more than you know yourself. Just like you know me." Damon couldn't help but feel warmth rising in his chest. Stefan played a big part in his life when he was struggling. He would be forever grateful to him.

End of flashback

Damon woke up from his dream by the shrill noise of his phone.

"Hello?" his voice was still groggy.

"Sorry I didn't mean wake you up." The voice of the woman who's been haunting his heart called in the peaceful morning. Most beautiful way to start a day.

"Oh hey Elena. No I just slept late. It's not a problem. So… what's up?" They've been hanging around for 1 month now, causing them to be extremely close. They tried to meet at least 4 days a week.

"Well I wanted to tell you that the prom is tomorrow at 8. So are you still up for it?"

"Yeah I'm perfectly up for it."

"Thanks. So will I see you today?"

"Someone's eager beaver?" He could feel her blush from the other side of the phone.

"Nah. Just asking. It's safe to have someone who has the god-gifted ability to calm my nerves. Also I think Ric might need you too. I don't know what Jeremy must have put him through."

"Yeah, I'll be there by evening. I might have a company."

"Okay. See you later then." He smiled, before hanging up. He looked at the clock and saw that he has only one and a half hour before heading to the airport, to receive his British friend.

"So where are we going again, mate?" Klaus Mikaelson asked Damon. He was Stefan's best friend since high school. Sometimes Damon also used to hangout with Klaus and his little brother in high school and college after the rebellious stunt he played. Klaus never judged him and treated him like a normal person, when everyone either pitied him or disgusted him. Their friendship grew over the years as they both grieved Stefan and also the Mikaelson mechanical institute was his business partner for when they have joint projects. Klaus takes care of the company in Virginia, while his elder brother in New York. Their rivalry was no secret in the public. This is why Klaus decided to stay in Damon's house instead of his brother's.

"After lunch we are going to Ric's place and hangout with some people. Now if you follow me I'll show you your room." He went up the stairs with Klaus trailing behind him. He led him to one of the guest room. He helped him put his bags down, and then they were making their way down the hallway.

"Damon do you mind if I see Stefan before coming down for lunch?"

"Sure. This way." He led Klaus to Stefan's room. In the night of the disastrous event, Stefan was at Klaus's home getting drunk. Like Damon, Klaus also felt extreme guilt for Stefan's state, but he coped with it. "I'll go see whether everything is ready. Come when you're done." He patted Klaus's shoulder

"Will do, mate." Damon left the room leaving Klaus alone with Stefan.

"So isn't he your funny drunkard friend, who calls you buddy?" Klaus and Damon were on their way to Ric's place.

"Funny he said something exactly the same when I mentioned you." Damon commented sarcastically. God, they're so similar, although they don't even properly know each other. Damon thought.

"So alcohol is on the note today." Klaus said with his famous Cheshire cat smug.

"Unn…no. Don't get your hopes up."

"Well that's surprising."

"Did I mention Ric is on a father duty from now on?"

Klaus almost choked out. "Wow! So your friend managed to knock up someone and now is taking care of a child. That's impressive."

"Yeah well, he didn't exactly knock up someone. He got assigned as the legal guardian of a 17 year old teen and also his older girlfriend. So for the teen's health, his sister recommended not to drink like a whale but a fish."

"The sister seems to be a killjoy. Probably he's one of the over-protective siblings that lock up their brother or sister from the sun." Klaus snickered.

"You have no idea. Elena is a very compassionate woman. She tries her best to give her brother what he wants and keep him away from things, which might corrupt him. She wants to be there for him so he doesn't need the necessity of parents. Both Ric and her are going to try their best and I'm going to help them. Before you think anything, let me tell you she's a really amazing woman. She proved that to me in the first 2 days we met." He didn't like when people judged someone without seeing him or her, especially when it comes to Elena.

"Someone has a crush on her," he said wiggling his eyebrow. "What's her name again? Elena, right?"

"Shut up, Klaus." He glared at him.

"Ok, I won't discuss it anymore, mate?" he raised his hand in the air, showing that he surrendered. But by the look in his face it was clear that he wasn't done yet. After 10 more minutes they reached their destination.

"We're here."

They could hear the noises of laughing and gossiping. Damon didn't know that they had more company. When they rang the bell the laughter decreased a little. The door swung open and Blondie greeted them.

"Hey Damon. Come on in. Now who is this friend of yours?" Before Damon could speak Klaus interrupted him.

"Well I'm Niklaus Mikaelson. Nice to meet you Elena." He took her hand to his lips and turned his British charm on.

"Sorry I'm Caroline, Elena's best friend. Nice to meet you too Klaus." Caroline said in her bubbly form. Klaus was already into her, and Damon knew that he wouldn't stop talking about her once they leave. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Elena approaching them. He quickly turned towards her.

"Hey you." She greeted Damon so warmly that it crept to his heart.

"Hey back." Without warning he pulled her into a hug, something they grew accustomed to over time.

Elena pulled back from the hug and had a light shade of blush. "Come everyone is waiting." She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the living room. Leaving the other two couples who were prying on them.

"I think both Damon and Elena likes each other." Klaus spoke up after they disappeared.

"Like? I bet its love now. I'm pretty sure it was love at first sight."

"Maybe."

When Damon reached the living room. He saw both Jeremy and Anna and Ric. What caught his attention was a middle-aged blond similar to Ric. She was sitting next to him and they both were laughing and chatting.

"Hey Damon! Glad that you came bro." Jeremy spoke up and fist pumped with Damon. Damon liked the kid a lot. He sure as hell knew how to interact.

"Since when did you start calling your uncle's friend 'bro'?'' Ric asked.

"Well he's kind of cool and young for the title of 'uncle'." Jeremy replied earning a high five from Damon and death glare from Ric.

"Enough teasing, boys. Now Damon I'd like you to meet Jenna, Elena's high school teacher and my friend." He indicated the blond sitting next to him. He looked at him questioningly. Ric's eyes told him that he would explain after party.

"Nice to meet you Jenna. I'm Damon Salvatore, by the way."

"Nice to meet you too, Damon." he shook hands with her. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Blondie approaching with Klaus.

"Oh Ric I know you guys met before, but let me introduce him to everyone. Everyone, this is Klaus. My old friend from hometown and business partner."

"Hello new friends." His voice at first used to creep Damon out when he first heard him. He spoke so huskily and roughly. Almost like a villain. But he knew that Klaus was nowhere near villain.

"Klaus you already know Ric right?" he nodded his head.

"Nice to see you again Klaus." Ric held out his hands.

"You too, mate." Klaus gladly shook it. They were interrupted by the low chuckle from Jeremy.

"Mate? Seriously? Which decade do you live in?" Jeremy cried out.

"I believe in the fact that words don't have age. I feel comfortable using it." Klaus said playfully and Jeremy also took it lightly.

"I'm Jeremy."

"I already guessed that." Jeremy cocked his eyebrow questioningly and a little bit accusingly. "My friend Damon here couldn't stop bickering about you guys. I assume you are Elena?" He asked the brunette now sitting next to Damon.

"Yes."

"Damon won't stop talking about you." There was a slight blush on her cheeks. Damon knew Klaus too well for figuring out where it was heading. Klaus had a habit of disclosing private talks. Sometimes it helped, other times…let's just say it bites you in the ass.

"Stop bragging Klaus. You're the one who started the conversation and I ended it." He tried his best to stop it. But the smug on Klaus's face told him 'your gone mister'.

"No, you just said shut up when I figured out about your little crush on her."

There was a dramatic gasp from Caroline who was covering her mouth with her hand to not show the smile. Alaric and Anna had a knowing smirk, while Jenna was smiling genuinely and Jeremy had a mischievous smirk. If Elena's blush wasn't visible, it was now.

"Bad move Klaus." Damon growled but he didn't say it was wrong. Now he wasn't going to back off easily. "However it gives me the chance to disclose your dirty little secret."

His eyes went wide as realization dawned to him. "Come on. It isn't half as bad as what you're about tell."

"Klaus you're list of secrets are quite long. I think I can cover that."

"Okay let's play a drinking game, where we'll tell all about our dirty little secrets." Caroline spoke up.

"Definitely yes to the drink." Jeremy added.

"Nice try mister." Elena warned Jeremy.

"Come on Elena, its not like I don't drink alcohol. I'm seventeen. Nearly an adult, don't be such a party pooper. Please in the late celebration of my arrival at New York." He was giving best puppy face.

She looked at Damon questioningly. He shrugged. "I'm the worst sister ever for agreeing."

"Yes!" He threw his fist in the air making everyone laugh.

"So I think it's my cue to bring alcohol."

Few minutes later Ric arrived with a bottle of bourbon and glasses

"It will be like this. We will go in alphabetical order. The person has to say a secret about any person in this room. Then the second person has drink in agreement. Clear?" the bubbly blond gave out the instructions. I didn't know there was a drinking game like this.

"Care did you just make a new type of drinking game?" Elena asked. At least I'm not the only person, Damon thought.

"Of course I did. Now let's start the game. So first up is I. I'm gonna tell an embarrassing secret of Elena." She started to clap her hand.

"Can't say I didn't see that coming?" Elena muttered under her breath.

"So in college, Elena had a huge crush on guy from class. One day he asked her out to be his date. She was over the moon about it. They laughed, talked, danced and in the end of the day when she was expecting a perfect kiss, the guy turned around and rushed to another guy who was his best friend, and kisses him. Turns out he's gay, and was using her to make his lover jealous. But Elena was both drunk and angry. So she went to another girl who was a lesbian, and kissed the hell out of the girl and almost slept with her." Imagining Elena kissing another girl was making Damon's pants uncomfortable. "The next day, she barely remembered a thing. This left the poor girl heartbroken. So Elena, now drink up."

Elena drank the contents of her glass. "I had to write a full page apology to her for this. So now Forbes, it's my turn to beat you." She cleared her throat and started. "Caroline was the queen bee of middle school. One day she lost her paper clip. She made the whole school search for it, day and night. It was actually in her side pocket. So when she found it she dropped it in the water in fear that everyone will be grumpy with her. Someone had to dive into the water to get it." Caroline took a gulp of the alcohol. Both of their stories were hilarious and everyone was laughing their gut out.

It was Jeremy's turn then. "I want to say something about Alaric."

"Ooh. Now I'm listening. Hope it's something I don't know." Damon interjected.

"I highly doubt that Ric would say that." I turned towards Ric to see he was red with embarrassment. "Ric once puked all over his previous boss' million dollar shoes and had got fired." Everyone was laughing hysterically.

"Oh my god Ric! How can you not say this to me? I'm hurt." Damon clutched his heart. "And P.S don't you dare puke on my shoes because I can't fire you." He said as seriously as he could.

"How did you remember all these? It was more than 10 yeas ago." He said taking the glass of bourbon. Jeremy simply shrugged.

It was now Klaus's turn. Since he didn't know anything about anyone else except Damon. He told them a story what showed how mischievous he was. "Everyone was brought in the field for injection towards diseases. Little Damon here was afraid of injections."

"Hey Little Damon is the name of my important anatomy. Don't call me that." Damon said seriously.

"Which part do you call Little Damon?" Ric asked. An evil glint flashed him and everyone knew what it was. "Wait please don't say it!" Ric abruptly stopped him. Everyone erupted into laughter.

"Little Damon?" Elena asked in almost whisper and was trying to suppress the laughter. Damon shrugged.

"Okay where was I? Right so as he was afraid, when the nurse went to inject him he ran out of the room with the nurse on the tail. When the teacher asked him whether he was afraid? Damon being Damon told her that the nurse was trying to seduce him, that's why he ran." Everyone was now on tears for laughing so much. Imagining an eight-year-old Damon telling this stuff was something. Damon chimed down the bourbon.

Ric also decided to also go against Damon. He knew by the end of the day he would probably get drunk because both of his friends have a lot to say about him. "From what I heard Damon was a womanizer. Every girl would drool over him. But now he is a man who doesn't quite have that type of life-style. One day a woman whom he had slept with came up to him looking for pleasure. When he rejected her. She was still nagging and seducing him, telling him that the Damon she knew would jump in bed with her at the first opportunity. So out of his drunken haze he blurted out that he is gay."

"Not only out of my drunken haze, it's because I saw you standing there." He took another gulp.

"Ha ha very funny." Ric said as the people erupted in another wave of laughter.

"It actually is kind of funny." Caroline said between laughs.

"Hey there is no way my man is gay." Jenna said catching everyone in surprise.

"Your man?" Damon asked with wide eye almost taking it as a joke.

"Yeah we've been dating for 2 month now." Jenna replied.

That shocked Damon. He looked at Ric. "You didn't tell me." Damon asked Ric, who was looking down guiltily.

"Sorry Damon. I just figured you would feel bad with everything around."

"I wasn't going to bite you for moving on Ric. That's what everyone should do. Doesn't matter if I'm weak to move on." Damon stood up in frustration. He wasn't angry that his friend moved on even after everything. This proved how strong he could be. He was frustrated because Ric thought so small of him and thought he would be angry with him. If there is one thing he hated the most, it was pity.

"I didn't want you to feel left out!" Ric shouted at him.

"I won't be left out Ric. You will always be my best friend. I'm thrilled that you are still so strong to find someone. I'm angry that you think so small of me. It's not your fault that I swore off love when I got betrayed and drugged to hell by Katherine. It's not your fault that I swore off going in any sort of relationship when Rose was burned to death in the fire with my parents. It's not your fault that Stefan is in coma for 2 years. It's not…your fault that I'm not strong enough to move on. And I don't want you to hold on for me. It makes me feel selfish. It makes me feel like the weak person that I hate to be." With that he grabbed his jacket and made his way out. He can't breathe in that room. He just rehashes all those memories in front of so many people. Now they would give him the one thing he despises. Pity. He couldn't breathe. He was feeling nauseas and having a panic attack. He was about to faint. His knees gave out and he landed on the hard pavement. The last thing he could see was Elena rushing towards him before everything turned hazy to black.

Meanwhile inside the house

Everyone was still trying to recover from the shock. How did such playful environment turned out like this? Few seconds ago, no one was able to breathe because of laughter.

"I'm so sorry, Ric. I shouldn't have said anything. It just went out of my mind that you told me not to say anything about our relationship." Jenna looked genuinely apologetic about what happened.

"No. It's my entire fault. I shouldn't have hidden this from him. I shouldn't have kept you hidden." Ric said shaking his head and downed a whole glass of bourbon. Then suddenly something clicked in his mind. "Did that brain dead moron told everything about his past?" Everyone except Klaus looked him with confusion written over their face.

"Oh no. We have to go." Klaus said making his way towards the door.

"Why what's wrong?" Caroline asked.

"Whenever Damon tells anyone about his past, he would be drunk or really depressed. Either way when he tells too many people about it at the same time the outcome is not good." Klaus said while going for the door to get to Damon. He remembered the first time after he came to school after his therapy. He was okay with disgust, but the weirdo can't stand pity and sympathy. So when he saw that, one minute he was saying every miserable thing he went through the next was he fainting.

"Guys have you seen Elena?" Jeremy asked them.

"Damon, open your eyes." Elena said with stinging eyes. He was down on the floor with his head on her lap. She was devastated when she heard about his past. She knew bits and pieces about how bad his situation was. But seeing his face while he was saying them…made her heart ache. She felt something deeply for this man. She was sure of it now.

The moment he lashed out, her first instinct was to follow him. So she did. Once she made it to the ground floor. She could see Damon struggling to hold himself upright. She began to run towards him screaming his name. He didn't turn towards her. The moment she saw him fall, it's like her something inside of her was falling apart. She started yelling his name but he was unconscious. She brought her bag closer, which was laying a few feet away. Fiddling through it, she found a bottle of water. She poured it down her hand then sprinkled some on his face. He was wincing and his eyebrows furrowed together. "Damon, please open your eyes. It's me, Elena. I'm here."

"Elena?" he finally said with his raspy throat, once he was able to make out the beautiful angel.

"Oh thank god." She let out a sigh of relief.

All of a sudden everything came crushing down again. He again found himself unable to breathe. Elena notices the discomfort. She quickly grabbed his face, forcing his eyes to look into hers. "Damon, look at me." Damon's eyes bored into hers. She slightly gasped at how beautifully dark blue his eyes that were looking because of the dark sky. "Now take a deep breath and slowly let it out." He did as she said. She grabbed his face closer to her, to look more deeply in his soul. "Now listen to me. You have nothing to be worried about. I'm here with you. Everyone upstairs cares about you and the last thing they want is to hurt you." Damon searched her eyes for any sign of sympathy or pity. However he only came up with two somewhat opposite things. Understanding and determination. Her words caught him in her heavenly net. They were impossibly close. If one moved even slightly their lips would be touching.

"God mate! Here you are! You scared the crap out of me." The guy with the British accent said running towards them with Blondie in the trail.

Perfect timing.

Hey guys. Tell me how you felt about the chapter. At first I thought about getting funny stories about their friends from everyone. Then something in me was starving for drama. So I settled with this plot. Tell me which story made you laugh the most by clicking the review box below. As I'm going to US for one month, I might delay a bit. Or worst I might not be able to write at all for entire one month. So how do you feel about Klaus's friendship with both Damon and Stefan? Hopefully in the next chapter I'll give a flashback about them. The song I used for the title is "My Immortal" by Evanescence. Every time I hear it I cry. PLEASE REVIEW.