Note: chapter title from "hunger" by ross copperman.

11. look into my eyes and say you want me too

… … …

Caroline's a little preoccupied when she makes it to school Monday morning. She has a big history quiz today (that, rudely, Mr. Saltzman refused to excuse her from, even despite yesterday's revelations) and a new cheer routine to choreograph, not to mention her new… arrangement with Klaus and Bonnie's drama from yesterday. God, she still can't believe Enzo has a kid. She wonders how he managed to keep it a secret for so long. Although, from what Bonnie told them, she's only about six months old, but still. A baby. How did that one never make it through the gossip mill?

"Miss Forbes," Klaus purrs in her ear.

She knew he wouldn't be able to resist approaching her at her locker, even despite her warnings. She rolls her eyes. "Can I help you?"

Klaus leans against the locker next to her. "I just thought someone should tell you how absolutely ravishing you look today," he comments, smirking wolfishly.

She shuts her locker, turns to face him. "And you thought that someone should be you."

He snakes his arm around her waist, pulls her toward him. "Well, I-"

"Stop that," she hisses, smacking his arm and wrenching herself out of his arms. "This was not in our agreement."

Klaus scowls at her. "Don't you think you're being a tad unreasonable, love?"

"No, love, I don't," she scoffs. "I thought I made myself clear as a bell. This," she gestures between them with a finger, "doesn't carry over outside of the bedroom. Okay?"

Klaus has the decency to look wounded for a split second before his smirk is back in place. "You sure know how to make a man feel used."

"Yes, well, I'm sure it's timely payback for previous transgressions," she smirks. "Excuse me."

She pushes past him and makes her way down the hall. She knows he'll be watching, and she makes sure to sway her hips just a little bit more than necessary. There, she chuckles to herself, biting her lip. That should give him something to think about for later.

… … …

Damon's waiting on the field in their normal warm-up spot when Enzo shows up late to practice on Monday afternoon. He looks like complete shit, if Damon's being honest. He knows he had his date with Bonnie this weekend. He hopes that's not the reason for his sour mood.

"What happened to you?" Damon asks as Enzo approaches him. "You look like shit."

Enzo ignores his comment. "Had to go home and check on… things… after school for a minute." He sets his bag down, backs up. "Just throw the damn ball."

Damon furrows his brow, but he does as he's asked. "Seriously, man, what happened? Is everything okay?"

"It's fine now," Enzo says shortly. He holds the ball in his hands, sighs, crumbles just a little bit. "She got sick while I was out with Bonnie on Saturday night."

"Uh oh."

"Yeah," Enzo agrees. "Uh oh. So long story short, Bonnie knows everything now."

Damon's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. He catches the ball Enzo throws his way. "Like… everything?"

"I didn't have a choice," Enzo shrugs. "She showed up to the house on Sunday morning wanting an explanation, and my dad came to the door with Cassie like an idiot, and naturally I had some explaining to do."

"Wow." Damon throws the ball back to his friend. "And how are you dealing with that?"

"I don't know." Enzo frowns. "I know she won't say anything to anyone, but… it's weird. Having someone else know things about me that not many people know."

"Did she seem okay with it?"

Enzo scoffs, lets out a laugh. "She took it about as well as I could have expected. But she did call me later to promise that she wouldn't rat me out, and she said she's willing to try again if I am."

"See?" Damon smirks. "No harm, no foul."

Enzo rolls his eyes, throws the ball back to Damon. "I would rather have told her on my own terms, but I guess it's not so bad this way. At least everything's out in the open."

"So do you think you're gonna try again?" Damon leans down to tie his cleat, and Enzo walks toward him.

"Hell yeah," Enzo smirks. "I like her a lot."

And later, when Damon's spying on cheerleading practice (Elena) and catches sight of Bonnie watching Enzo, he thinks that the feeling is definitely mutual.

… … …

Elena fidgets nervously as she waits for Damon to make his way to the tutor center. Football practice ended half an hour ago, so she knows it won't be long now. She has so many questions. Does he know about Enzo's baby? And if he does, why the hell would he let her set Bonnie up with him without telling her?

"Hey," Damon says when he finally walks in, shuts the door behind him. "Sorry, I was just-"

Elena holds a hand up to stop him. "Did you know?"

Damon's face goes blank for a moment, then relaxes when he realizes what she's talking about. He sits down beside her, smirks. "Of course I knew."

Elena's mouth drops open, and she whacks his shoulder, ignoring his cry of surprise. "What the hell, Damon!"

"What?" he laughs. He has the audacity to look innocent. Jerk. "I tried to tell you."

"No you didn't!"

"It wasn't my secret to tell," he says. "Enzo doesn't want anybody to know."

Elena softens just a little bit. "I can't even imagine how hard it must be for him."

Damon shrugs. "He manages. His family is pretty awesome about it, actually. He still has to work part time to help offset the costs, but they help him out a lot more than he asks them to."

"That's good," Elena murmurs. "Do you know…" she clears her throat, tries to decide how to phrase her question. "Is she…"

Damon shakes his head with a smirk. "He hooked up with a girl at a Whitmore party last summer, and nine months later, she left the baby on his doorstep with a note."

Elena gasps. "That's… awful."

"It's not ideal," Damon clarifies, "but it's not awful. He'd do anything for her."

"And he hasn't even tried to find the mother?"

"The way Enzo sees it, if she didn't want to be around, then Cassie doesn't need her in her life anyway," Damon explains. "He's not one to dwell on what could have been."

"She's so lucky she has him," Elena comments.

"She's a pretty fucking cute kid, too," Damon smirks. "She's gonna break some hearts of her own when she grows up."

Elena rests her chin in her hand, smiles at him dreamily. "I bet you're so good with her."

"Yeah, the few times Enzo's actually allowed me to come over, she seemed to like me," he grins.

She watches him for a moment, can't seem to wipe the smile off her face. "I think it's really sweet that you're so protective of him and his secret."

Damon shrugs. "He's my best friend," he reminds her. "You'd do the same for Stefan, wouldn't you?"

Elena nods her agreement. "Of course I would. I guess I'm just…"

"What?" he smirks. "Surprised?"

Elena shakes her head. "Impressed, I guess. That's a pretty big secret to keep to yourself, especially considering you're probably the only person in the whole school who knew."

"The one and only." Damon smiles. "He's kept plenty of secrets for me over the last few years. He's one of the only people who's ever seen an altercation between me and my dad first hand."

Her grin melts into a frown. "Have there been many of them?"

He shakes his head. "Not enough to make it an issue."

Elena scowls. "I'd say it's an issue regardless of how frequently they happen."

"Yeah, well." Damon shrugs. "I'll be out of here in a few months, so I can deal with it."

Elena bites her lip. Yes, he's right, he will be out of here in a few months. Yet another topic of discussion she doesn't want to think about. She takes a deep breath, smiles. She sets her hands down on the table emphatically. "Okay, Mr. Salvatore, let's see that calculus quiz you aced last week."

… … …

It's Thursday evening before Stefan's able to finally get Elena to hang out with him again. She really has gotten busier lately; she's probably overrun with tutoring business, because she's definitely the best tutor they have. He selfishly doesn't like it, but he knows she loves it. She's always loved tutoring for a myriad of reasons he won't ever understand.

"Have you talked to Caroline lately?" Elena asks as she takes a bite of her ice cream. He brought over a tub of her favorite - mint chocolate chip - as a secondary peace offering from their fight the weekend before.

"No," Stefan frowns, looking up at her. What does she know that she's not telling him? "Spill."

She hesitates, looks him in the eye. "First you have to tell me how you really feel about her."

"No way. You're baiting me."

"You bet your ass I am," she laughs. "You've hardly said two words about her in the last few weeks, but I know things have happened between the two of you. So you spill. What's really going on?"

He puts his spoon down in his bowl, considers his words carefully. "Caroline is… intriguing."

"Intriguing." Elena mulls it over. "That's one word for her. What do you find so intriguing about her?"

"She's…" he pauses. "She's not who she wants everyone to think she is. She cares, a lot more than she wants people to know she does. She cares about what people think of her, about how people perceive her."

"Yeah, so does everyone else," Elena laughs. "Come on, Stefan. Do you like her or not?"

"Of course I like her," he blurts. "She's cute and funny and sexy and smart. Other than her temper and her stubborn streak, what's not to like?"

"Something tells me you even like those parts of her," Elena murmurs. "Okay. In the interest of full best friend disclosure, I have to tell you something now." He watches as she takes a deep breath, lets it out. "Caroline's sleeping with Klaus."

Stefan reels back like he's been slapped. "What?"

Elena nods sympathetically. "She had some sort of epiphany last weekend, and they have some sort of arrangement worked out."

"Huh." He wishes he could be more articulate, but honestly, he doesn't know what to say. He put himself out there, told her how he really felt, and she ran in the opposite direction. He supposes he shouldn't be surprised, really. He doesn't know what he ever thought a girl like her would want with a guy like him.

"Guess you're off the hook," Elena says carefully, watching him closely.

"Guess so," he mutters.

He feels like he's been punched in the stomach. He thought they'd made some progress in the past few weeks, thought they were moving in the right direction, thought they were on the same page. He should have figured she'd be on a completely different page in a completely different book. In what world do Stefan Salvatore and Caroline Forbes fit together?

Not this one, that's for sure.

(When Rebekah texts him later that night and asks if he's free Saturday night, he decides if Caroline's gonna move on, he's entitled to do the same.)

… … …

Damon figures if Stefan's gonna start dating Rebekah, it potentially benefits him in two ways. One, maybe he'll get laid and stop being so uptight about everything all the damn time. And two, it frees up Elena's Saturday nights to invite him over. Okay, so technically, this is supposed to be a tutoring session, but who the hell wants to do schoolwork with a hot girl on a Saturday night? Not Damon Salvatore, that's for sure.

No, he'd much rather kick her ass at MarioKart.

"You're such a cheater!" she cries, shoving him away from her with her elbow.

"Throwing a banana peel is not cheating," Damon laughs, elbowing her back. "It's a perfectly legal strategy."

"Well it's not fair," Elena pouts when he crosses the finish line first once again. "You're better than me at this game anyway. I should be the only one allowed to use banana peels."

"Don't pout," he smirks, throwing the controller onto the coffee table. "It makes you look like a sore loser."

"I'm not a sore loser," she insists, standing up and heading for the kitchen. "You don't play fair."

He follows her into the kitchen, reaches into the pizza box for another slice of pepperoni, and she swats his hand away, glaring at him. "Feisty," he chuckles.

"You already ate half the pizza by yourself," she whines. "At least let me have a slice or two before you demolish the rest."

"What can I say?" he smirks again, lets her take her fill before he grabs another slice for himself. "Throwing for over four hundred yards in a game works up a bit of an appetite."

Elena rolls her eyes. "Yeah, except that was almost 24 hours ago, you egomaniac."

Damon shrugs. "Delayed side effects." He takes another bite of his slice. "Good thing Rebekah's keeping Stefan occupied so I can have my fill of pizza and ice cream."

She scowls. "Yeah, thank God for Rebekah," she mutters sarcastically.

Damon furrows his brow, studies her expression. "You don't like Rebekah?"

"It's not that I don't like her," Elena clarifies. "I don't like that Stefan's hiding out with her just because things didn't work out with Caroline."

"You wouldn't also happen to be feeling guilty because you basically told Caroline to get with Klaus, would you?"

Elena glares at him. "You're not helping. I already feel like I've failed him as a best friend."

Damon just watches her quietly for a moment. "Remember what you said the other day? About how I'm a good friend?"

Elena tilts her head at him, furrows her brow. "Well, you are."

"Yeah, well, so are you. And I know you still feel weird about keeping this from Stefan, but I don't want you to ever doubt what a great friend you are."

Her lips part in surprise, and he feels an overwhelming urge to kiss her. Down, boy. "Damon."

"I'm serious," he insists, covering her hand with hers where it rests on the counter. "Not just to Stefan, but to me. You've been so understanding about everything. I can't say that if the roles were reversed I'd be able to forgive and forget as easily as you have."

Her cheeks turn a pretty shade of pink, and she looks away from him, bites her lip. "There was nothing to forgive," she tells him. "It was all a big misunderstanding. Once I knew that, there wasn't really anything to hold over you anymore. You don't give yourself enough credit."

"Neither do you," he counters. He moves around the island so they're standing face to face, and she links their fingers together on the counter. "If I haven't said it enough times already, I'm sorry. About everything."

"I know you are."

"Do you?" He tilts her chin up, forces her to meet his eyes. "Do you know how much it kills me to know that I hurt you? That I said so many horrible things to you and you didn't deserve any of it?"

"Damon, it's okay," she insists, her pretty eyes searching his own. "I told you. There's nothing to forgive. I just want to move on."

"Me too," he whispers, watching her carefully. He moves in just a little bit closer. "I'm ready if you are."

It's a loaded statement, and he knows she recognizes what he really means. He searches her eyes for any signs of hesitation, of apprehension. He gives her every opportunity to stop him, to push him away, to tell him what an idiot he is. But she just watches him, waits for him. He moves in a fraction of an inch, hears the way her breath catches in her throat, and he's a goner.

Her lips are soft, pliant, and it only takes a second for her to respond to him. She presses her lips more firmly against his, drapes her arms over his shoulders to pull him closer. He resists the urge to deepen the kiss, decides to just enjoy this moment right here. He lets his hands fall to her hips, then wraps his arms around the small of her back, pulls her against him. She sighs into his mouth, and fuck, she doesn't even know what she does to him, does she?

"Elena!"

They break apart suddenly as if they've been shocked with an electric current. He looks over his shoulder just as Alaric comes around the corner and into the kitchen. "Hey, Jeremy's on the phone. He wants to talk to you."

Damon looks back at Elena, who looks like she's not quite processing at full speed. He smirks. "Uh, can you tell him I'll call him back?"

Alaric eyes the two of them suspiciously for a moment. "Sure," he says, shoots Elena what must be a meaningful look, and disappears again.

Elena lets out a long breath, and he turns back to face her. Their eyes lock, and he can't help the grin that spreads across his face when he sees the coy smile on hers. "You sure you don't wanna go talk to Jeremy?" he teases.

"No," she says breathlessly.

He steps toward her once more. "No?" he murmurs. "What do you want to do, then?"

Her eyes bore into his for one long, intense moment. Then her smile turns into a smirk, just like that. "I want a rematch."

She pushes past him and skips into the living room, and he just stands there for a moment, his mouth hanging open. Then he smirks. Damn. She's cute as a button and sexy as hell, all rolled into one. He's definitely met his match.

… … …

Note: merry christmas eve! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!