Morning had proven to be an awkward endeavor. I had been woken to the sound of someone calling my name and after a minute or so I realized, it was Elena's voice. The second thing that was brought to my attention was the feeling of a body pressed up against mine, one that I had a tight hold on.

Quickly releasing Elena, I apologized profusely. To which she answered with an embarrassed nod and exited the bedroom to take a shower.

Lying in bed I wondered what had possessed me to spoon the poor girl in my sleep. I had made her uncomfortable with my unintentional affections and possibly given her mixed signals. Or had I?

Was this some unconscious way of telling me I was as interested in her as she was me?

Pushing those thoughts to the side I focused on the more important matters at hand. First, I had to call Bree up and see if she had made the daylight ring for Elena. Then I would worry about taking the girl shopping for some clothes. Although I did thoroughly enjoy seeing her in my clothes-nope I was not going there.

Later Lee, think about this later.

The water had stopped running, so I set about trying to find her something to change into. After rummaging through my drawers I realized I had many shirts just nothing pants wise to offer. So I picked her jeans off the floor from the previous night to assess the damage, they were still in one piece just dirty. Her shirt however was ripped and stained so I left one of mine out for her to wear.

"Hey Elena, there's a shirt for you lying on the bed and I'm going to throw your jeans in the wash." I said loud enough for her to hear.

I heard the door open slightly; "Could you possibly wash these and my bra?" she asked bashfully, tossing out a pair of red boy shorts.

My mouth went dry as an unbidden image of her in the red underthings came to mind. I shook the thoughts away and searched the floor for her bra, which I found out was lacy and black.

Perfect.

I hurried out of the room as my thoughts reminded me that behind the door, she was completely naked.

After throwing everything in the wash, I pulled out my phone to call Bree.

"Hello Lee." She greeted.

"Hey, did you happen to get the ring for Elena? She needs to get some clothes." I hated how desperate I sounded. I mean you would think I had never been around a girl before.

"Yeah, I'll be over in a few." She replied with a smile in her tone.

She hung up leaving me to my thoughts once more.

As I sat on the couch trying to rein in my unruly thoughts, Elena walked in. I forced myself to either look at the floor or directly at her face because I knew I couldn't handle looking at her knowing she was wearing nothing but my shirt.

She walked quietly over to the only other piece of furniture in the room, a small, mauve arm chair.

Once she was settled, I snuck a glance at her face. She seemed if she had something that she wanted to say.

"I'm sorry about last night." She whispered softly.

My head shot up, "Elena, how many times do I have to tell you that everything you are going through is normal. It will take time for you to get used to the heightened senses and emotions. So don't apologize for something you have no control over, ok?"

She nodded, but I could tell that she really didn't believe my words.

I sighed, "Bree's coming by with your daylight ring then we can go shopping. But first…" I got up from the couch and headed to the tiny kitchen. Opening the refrigerator, I picked out two bags from the bottom drawer.

Taking a moment to give a mental pep talk to myself, I headed back into the sparsely decorated living room.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

I couldn't believe it when I woke up wrapped up in Lee's arms. It freaked me out that he was so close but at the same time the action felt so right, like I was at home. But then the thought of Lexi hit me, feeling like a punch to the gut. He would never want to be with anyone else, Lexi was his everything, his true love. How in the world could I compete with that?

Why was I even thinking this way? Didn't I love Stefan?

No, he always treated you like a fragile doll, never letting you make your own choices. Lee lets you be Elena, nothing more, nothing less.

The words were true, but I couldn't do that to Lee or myself.

After the story Lexi told me about being unable to live without him and changing him, I knew what they had would withstand the tests of time, including death.

So my, infatuation with him couldn't go any farther, I wouldn't let it.

I spent the next few minutes curled in his embrace, savoring the feeling of being safe before I regrettably woke him. He seemed confused for a brief second, and then he realized the compromising situation we were in and quickly let go. I had to admit that it hurt a little to have him apologizing for something I so thoroughly enjoyed. So I retreated to the safety of the bathroom to take a shower, hoping it would sooth the depression that was slowly setting in. For a moment I wished I had Caroline or Bonnie to have girl talk but I knew that they wouldn't understand. Then a thought struck, maybe I could talk to Bree. She seemed to understand that my feelings would be like a twelve car pileup. I took comfort in the idea that I had someone I could spill my guts to.

I jumped out of the shower and wrapped a white towel around me.

Great Elena, you didn't think the whole shower thing through. What are you going to wear?

Just then Lee said he was washing my jeans. I looked down on the floor, with a certain amount of embarrassment at what I was about to ask of him.

Opening the door a crack I tossed out my underwear, "Could you possibly wash these and my bra?"

I hated the fact that he was seeing my garments but to hell with it, he was a grown man and sooner or later I had to get over being self-conscious all the time.

I heard him make a quick escape from the room, saying there was a shirt for me laid out on the bed. I stood at the door for a few more seconds, making positive he was out room before I reentered the bedroom. Sure enough there was a green long-sleeved shirt lying on the bed.

Quickly throwing it on I was relieved to find it was long enough to cover the important areas and I could walk around without being completely mortified. Even though I had no plans to leave the safety of the bedroom until my clothes were clean.

Come on laundry

I waited, sitting on the bed, for a total of four minutes and 19 seconds before I realized that I was starving. Making my way to the living room, I unconsciously tugged at the hem of the shirt, trying to make it cover more of my legs, to no avail.

Lee never looked up at me, just stared at the floor like it was the most interesting thing his eyes had been greeted with. When I sat down, he finally spared me his attention.

I knew he was still a little shaken up about this morning's events so I set out to make things less, awkward.

"I'm sorry about last night." Even as I said it my heart lurched at the lie. In truth I wasn't sorry, I had enjoyed being in his arms, his smell, his mere presence. But I couldn't let him know that. It was better that he just believe the lie, for both our sakes.

His eyes, that at some point looked away, were locked on mine in less than a second.

"Elena, how many times do I have to tell you that everything you are going through is normal? It will take time for you to get used to the heightened senses and emotions. So don't apologize for something you have no control over, ok?"

I nodded but knew that what I was feeling was anything but typical vampire transformation.

After that tense conversation, things relaxed minutely as we discussed what we would be doing today and him bringing me a blood bag that I almost forgot I was craving.

Shortly after, Bree showed up with my ring.

I desperately wanted to talk with her but I had no opening to, it wasn't like Lee was leaving the house anytime soon. Maybe he would allow Bree to take me shopping.

"Hey Lee?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah?" he replied glancing up from his glass of brandy.

"If Bree doesn't have anything to do today, could she take me shopping?" I asked looking over to Bree who gave me a warm smile and a nod.

"If Bree's ok with it I don't see why not." He said with a relieved expression.

I had to admit it stung a little to have him happy to be out of my presence but like I had been telling myself all morning, it was better off this way. He didn't need to know my feelings towards him but judging by Bree's not so subtle glances, I was being pretty obvious with my affections.

"Thank you." I felt the need to say to cut through the silence that suddenly hung in the room.

That seemed to startle Lee from his inner thoughts as he fumbled-not a word I thought I'd ever use to describe a vampire-for his wallet and pulled out a credit card from one of the many card filled slots.

"Here, get whatever you need and don't worry about how much you spend." He said while handing me the golden card. I knew he added the last part because of the look I had given him. I didn't want to spend his money, I just wanted to go home and pretend that this all wasn't real. That I wasn't a vampire falling for a 'committed' vampire, that a man I considered my friend hadn't left me alone in Georgia after kidnapping me in the first place. The tell-tale sting formed in the corner of my eyes and my heart burned with a mixture of anger and pain.

Maybe going shopping with such raging emotions wasn't a good idea. I glanced down at the ring that now decorated my right hand. It really was lovely, with its silver finish and a solitary lapis lazuli which glowed, a beautiful blue in the sunshine.

This is what my life had become dependent upon, well at least during the daylight hours. Without the ring I would burn to a crisp in a matter of minutes, all because I had opened my mouth to Damon.

"Never mind, I really don't feel like I'm ready to go anywhere." I said before I raced back to the safety of the bedroom.

I sat on the comfy bed that was laced with Lee's scent with my knees touching my chin and my arms curled protectively around my legs, as if I could hide from the world. I couldn't help but think back to my life before my parents had died, I was outgoing and involved in school and most importantly I was happy. Those days seemed like they were few and far in between anymore. I did a mental recap of all the bad that had happened since my parent's untimely end, which also happened to be my fault.

I had lost the people I cared about the most, I had been sucked into a world with mystical beings-vampires, werewolves and witches-and now I was without my brother, aunt Jenna and my friends all because I had mouthed off to Damon.

Once again, I cried, more than I had done when my parents died. I screamed to the heavens, about the unfairness of my life, how I always seemed to get the shitty end of the stick that was called life. And finally after the sun no longer shone through the dark blue curtains, I accepted that this was now my life and one way or another I was going to live it.

A/N Sorry this took so long, Call of Duty has been taking up my writing time. Anywho here it is and I hope you liked it.