Your fingertips across my skin, the palm trees swaying in the wind. Images. You sang me Spanish lullabies the sweetest sadness in your eyes, clever trick. Well I never wanna see you unhappy,

I thought you'd want the same, for me. Goodbye my almost lover, goodbye my hopeless

Dream, I'm trying not to think about you, can't you just let me be? So long

My luckless romance my back is turned on you, shoulda known you'd bring me heart ache; almost lovers always do. - Almost lover; A Fine Frenzy.

Damon could feel himself slowly starting to come round, the blackness that enveloped him was starting to fade and his thoughts were becoming coherent once again. They day's events were swirling around and around in his head, blurred images swimming one after the other leading up to the moment, that moment where his lips had touched hers and the fireworks and stars that had followed.

He really should wake up, wake up to see her, his Elena. But he was just so damn tired, all he wanted to do was let the darkness drag him back under and sleep, sleep for a while, just a little while. He hadn't stopped moving since he'd woken up, since he'd remembered her.

"Damon"

A voice was calling him, dragging him back from the blackness that consumed him now.

"Damon"

This person was persistent. He tried to recognise the voice, it sounded vaguely familiar, but it didn't really matter because it was the wrong voice, it wasn't her voice, his beloved's voice. He didn't want to wake up to this voice, he wanted her, he wanted her to be the first thing he saw when he woke up and the last thing he saw before going to sleep at night.

The darkness was fading now, he was regaining consciousness, he didn't really want to. He wanted to wait until Elena was with him; he would wake up for her, not for this person who meant nothing to him.

He opened his eyes slowly to blinding bright light, he buried his head under the soft blanket that was covering him and tried to go back to sleep, but a hand grabbed the blanket and pulled it so it came off his head. The bright light was coming through the window on the wall, bright winter light was streaming through, hitting him right in the face, he groaned softly and stretched his arms above his head.

"Damon! I'm so happy you're awake! How did you sleep? How are you feeling? Are you okay? Are you hungry?"

He looked to where the voice was coming from to see a small girl, around the same age as his Elena with red hair and brown eyes, the other face, the other face that had appeared in his mind but had been over-shadowed by Elena's. He looked at her for a second, staring into her wide brown eyes, searching for something, anything that would show him who this girl was, and why she'd been in his head. But all he saw was happiness, anticipation and maybe a little fear. He looked at her quizzically for a second longer and she spoke again.

"So… are you hungry? I fed you earlier, but I thought maybe you may be hungry again" She held up her wrist, which revealed a small scratch and two puncture marks, two teeth marks, his teeth marks.

He didn't answer for a second, just stared, still wondering just who this girl was, was she a friend of Elena's? That was probably it; they looked around the same age. But if she was just Elena's friend then why was she looking at him like that? Why was she here at all when Elena could be? A wave of longing shook him, he wanted Elena, and he wanted her now.

"Where's Elena?"

For a second the girl looked taken a back, then a small sad smile spread across her lips, a smile that didn't reach her eyes and looked forced.

"Why do you want Elena? Why is it always Elena? Why can you not just be happy with me?"

He frowned at her questions, what was she talking about? Of course it was always Elena, he loved her. He loved her with such intensity that it blinded him to everything else, even the most beautiful things seemed plain in comparison to her. As for her second question, of course it would always be Elena, love like this didn't happen more than once in a lifetime, you only got one soul mate. As for her last question, this left him completely flummoxed, why can't you just be happy with me? What was that even supposed to mean, he didn't know, so he just shook it off.

"Because I love her."

The answer left his lips without him even thinking about it, it was so simple. But so very true.

The girl looked angry for a moment but then another expression found its way onto her face, it looked something like defeat. She stared at him for a moment longer then she spoke very, very softly.

"But you shouldn't, I wish you wouldn't"

She stood slowly, and with one last, sad parting glance, she left. Damon stared stunned after her, who was that person?

Elena's P.O.V;

Elena was waiting agitatedly, waiting for Damon to wake up. She was upset that she was down here and he was up there; with Bonnie. He was only upstairs yet the distance was killing her. She was going to do it properly this time, she wasn't going to take him for granted, she wasn't going to waste his love and everything that went with it. She hated being apart from him, she'd just gotten him back and she was so, so afraid that she was going to lose him again. That he'd be ripped mercilessly from her again, leaving her with nothing again, nothing but a few memories of midnight eyes and a smile that was only given to her.

She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard footsteps on the stairs, they sounded heavy and dejected, defiantly not Damon, she thought to herself. Damon's steps made no noise, he moved with the grace of a stalking panther, and she was his prey; she had been since day one. She loved it. She always had really, the way his eyes always flicked hungrily to her face even when he was talking to someone else.

"He asked for you, he wants you"

Elena could sense the hostility that laced Bonnie's voice, like poison. She felt bad, maybe Bonnie did like Damon, in fact she knew that Bonnie liked Damon. Just not as much as her. She didn't love him like Elena did, Bonnie could live without Damon, and Elena couldn't.

"Okay, I'll go to him now"

"Right, well I'm going to go home for a while. I'll probably be back later"

"Right, well, bye"

Bonnie gave her a small, strained smile, then span around and walked out of the Boarding house, Elena watched her go, standing in the same spot until the door had slammed behind Bonnie. Things had changed, between her and Bonnie. But it wasn't her fault, she'd got there first, Damon had loved her first, there were things between her and Damon that Bonnie just couldn't comprehend. A boy shouldn't be the thing to tear their friendship apart. But then, Damon Salvatore was never just a boy. Not really.

Elena walked slowly up the stairs; she wanted to savour this. Savour the moment that she'd see his face again. She paused outside the door, and then walked in.

His scent was the first thing that hit her, his exquisite, sinful scent enveloping her. Her eyes flew around the room, it was just as it was last time she was in here, messy and full of books, ancient books. Her eyes slid across the room until they reached the bed. She took him in again, sliding up from the blanket that covered his lower half; her breath hitched as she saw his pale, beautiful chest showing over the blanket and then came his face. The most beautiful face in the world.

"How are you feeling? "She asked him softly.

"Better now you're hear"

A sob escaped her lips as she walked over to him; he shifted to make room, and then patted the space next to him, looking at her expectantly from under his eyelashes. She slid in next to him, pulling the blanket around her, his arm snaked around her shoulders; pulling her closer to him. She was once again engulfed in Damon's scent; she buried her head into his chest and took a few deep breaths.

"Elena, what are you doing?" Damon asked, looking down at her quizzically.

"Smelling you. Memorizing your scent; so that next time I lose you, I'll have more than just a few scattered memories and what if's. I want to do it properly this time Damon, I'm not going to waste our time and take it for granted."

He stared at her for a while, trying to make sense of what she'd just said, what did she mean, next time I lose you? He wasn't going anywhere. That's when it hit him, what did he really know about his and Elena's relationship? He didn't even know what had happened to him.

"Elena, what happened to us? What happened to me?"

She stared at him for a second, as if considering what to say. Her eyes held a glimpse of fear in their blue depths. She looked into his eyes, they showed pleading, she melted in that moment; she had to tell him, she owed him that at least.

"Before I say anything, all you need to know is that I love you, so, so much"

He nodded at her and smiled encouragingly at her. She took a deep breath, then spilled her heart out to him. She told him everything; everything about him, them, Stefan; all of it. She told him the small amount she knew about his childhood; about his mother. She told him about Catherine and how they looked almost exactly alike and how him and Stefan had both fallen for her, then they'd found out that she was a vampire, the choice they gave her; the choice between the two of them, the hardest choice in the world. She told him how Catherine had gone out in the sun without her ring and had burned, and the events that had followed, culminating in him and Stefan becoming vampires.

She told him a little bit about how she'd met Stefan and fallen in love with him; her heart broke when she saw the flash of pain in his eyes, yet she carried on going; she'd promised him, promised him the truth. She told him about their first meeting in the school gym, about how she'd lost herself in his eyes and how he'd tried to compel her to kiss him, then came their meeting at Bonnie's house and how she's almost let him bite her. She filled him in quickly about finding out about vampires and how him and Stefan had been turned, she went quickly through the events that had led up to her becoming a vampire, then the night with Catherine, the night she'd died.

The next part was the hardest to tell because she barely remembered it herself, she told him what she knew he'd done in the period she'd been a spirit, how he'd drank himself into a stupor every night and how all the women he'd bled had been blonde and how he'd never looked past the blonde hair, refusing to see that they weren't her. She told him about Klaus next and how when it had come down to it Damon had done the honourable thing and helped protect Fells Church from him, how in the end, even after Stefan, Bonnie, matt and Meredith had all shunned him, he'd still come back and fought, fought for her, because it's what she would have wanted. Next came the part where she'd come back, how he'd wrapped his leather jacket around her then left them all in that clearing.

She told him next about Shinichi, who had come when Damon had been at his most vulnerable and promised him things, got inside his head and made him trust him, then took control; possessing him to do horrible things, things that Damon had never really forgiven himself for. She told him briefly about their time in the Old Wood, the time Shinichi had stolen from him; she was giving it back now. She told him of their time together in the Dark Dimension, how she'd seen the good in him, the good side of him that no one ever saw, she'd given into her feelings in the Dark Dimension, she told him of all the kisses they'd shared, how she'd seen his soul; his chained up, lonely soul. She told him of how they'd saved Stefan and the repercussions; Damon becoming human. She told him how he'd hated being human, he'd forgotten how to be human about five centuries ago. She reluctantly told him about what she knew of his time in the Dark Dimension with Bonnie, they'd become close, too close for Elena's taste.

She'd been wrong before; this part was going to be the hardest, telling Damon of his own death, telling him of just how he'd ended up lying alone in the Dark Dimension. Damon froze in her arms as she told him of his own death, how he'd lay dying in her arms and finally admitted his love for her.

Damon looked at her for a long moment, she couldn't read the unfathomable look on his face, his walls were back up, and the armour was back on.

"I- I remember"

He spoke hoarsely, barely above a whisper. Her heart broke in that moment, he sounded truly haunted, and she couldn't really blame him, it had all just come back to him, all the things he'd seen, all the things he'd done. Damon before had had five centuries to perfect living with all he's seen, Damon now had had about five minutes; and five minutes was definitely not long enough to learn how to cope with all Damon had seen.

"It's okay though Elena" He said, obviously spying her broken expression "It's not all bad because I remember you princess, I remember you and I remember us and I remember that I love you"

His lips crashed on hers then and everything else was forgotten. He kissed her with such a raw passion, he kissed her like a starving man falling on his first meal in months. He rolled ontop of her, supporting his weight with his knees, his hands place on under her breasts, fingers splayed in the grooves of her ribs, fitting perfectly.

His lips left hers and trailed onto her cheek, leaving a trail of fire in its wake, his kisses burning her skin yet sending shivers down her spine. He nibbled her earlobe softly, nipping it with his un-retracted fangs, locking his lips around it and sucking, ever so softly. His lips left her ear and she heard him breathing deeply, breath tickling her ear.

"Mio" He growled softly in her ear.

In that moment she was even more his, if that was possible. She moaned softly at his words, he knew she loved it when he spoke Italian. His lips kissed a path down from her ear, past her jaw and onto her neck and she encouraged him all the way; threading her fingers in that perfect soft hair, now perfectly messy. His lips rested on the base of her throat for a minute, his breath blowing softly, while he nuzzled his nose into the crook of her neck, driving himself wild with her intoxicating scent.

He bit down hard, placing his hand over her mouth to cover her scream; which quickly became a moan; a moan of unexplainable pleasure as he began to suck and lick her neck. It had felt good in her dreams, but right now was everything, everything in the world, wrapped up in the passion wrought between two people.

Elena felt herself fading, smiling softly to herself, because it was so Damon; he always took a little bit too much, he was never careful, he was greedy when it came to her, blood and body; he was greedy. She didn't mind though, she would happily die right now, in Damon's arms, feeling this exquisite form of pleasure.

Just when she was about to pass out, she felt the slight sting of his fangs slipping out of his skin. She watched him from under heavy eyelids as he bit into his own wrist, bringing two perfect droplets of blood the colour of black magic roses to the skin.

He held his wrist out to her and she happily brought her lips to it, kissing it softly as she licked off the blood that marred his perfect skin; tasting his blood that was so Damon, so exciting, so wild and so sweet. She pulled away slowly and smiled softly as she noticed the blood that sat on the corner of Damon's exquisite lips; she leaned in slowly and closed her lips around it in the softest kiss.

She leaned back slightly, wanting to see his eyes, she gazed into them, they were as dark as the most terrifying nightmare and as beautiful as the midnight sky which they so resembled. She smiled in satisfaction as she saw the stars in those eyes, the stars that only she got the privilege to see. Damon responded by smiling that smile, the smile only she got to see, that beautiful, wild smile that reminded her of a rainbow in the middle of a hurricane. That was Damon though, everything about him was beautiful and wild, Damon could never be tamed, she'd long since given up trying, and anyway, she didn't want to change a thing about Damon Salvatore. He was perfect.