Title: Ready or Not

Rating: T

Summary: He said he wanted her to get everything she wanted. So why is he being so damn difficult?

Pairing: Damon/Elena

AN: got the idea from the last lines of Heart of Darkness by Kerribethh "I can do what I want" "No, you can't"

There have been bangs and booms and crashes echoing through the house for hours now, or at least Bonnie thinks it's been hours. It could have been minutes. Or it could have been days. In the last few months she had become desensitized to the sounds emitted from the west hallway. She wonders, not for the first time, how the walls are still standing. "So they're awake then" she says by way of greeting.

"They are always awake." Jeremy can't help the bitterness that leaks into the statement. He was tired, cranky and frankly going a little deaf. Regardless, it was the truth; they were always awake. He's about a hundred percent sure they've both boycott sleep rather than waste precious fighting time. It had been this way for months, ever since Elena turned, ever since they all moved into the Boarding house, ever since Stefan left with Klausentyler. Ever since Elena had cornered Damon demanding answers to questions she had no right to ask.

"And just where the hell do you think you're going?" With or without vampire hearing it's impossible to miss the disbelief in Elena's voice, as if Damon's walking out on her had been scientifically disproven. Selfishly Jeremy can only think of the few precious hours he'll be able to sleep while Damon is gone.

"Out! Not that it concerns you." No really, Bonnie is astounded by the structural integrity of the century old home, the walls don't even shake as Damon slammed the door behind him. No one flinches, in this house quiet was more disruptive.

Caroline doesn't know who started this fight, but she knew he'd end it; he always ends it. She sits in the couch with her cosmo and tries valiantly to disappear beneath the cushions while Damon charges down the stairs. She just got home and really wasn't in the mood to play confidant to her enraged sire. Apparently she hadn't hid well enough because Damon's hand is around her wrist dragging her out of the front door.

Elena watches from the top of the stairs and it takes everything in her not to rip Caroline's heart out. Every. Single. Time. After a fight he storms off, grabs Care and disappears for hours. She knows he misses Ric; knows that Caroline is one of the few people he can more than tolerate. She knows that Caroline is her best friend, and would never cross that line, but it's still hard. So hard to see him with anyone when he can barely look at her without contempt in his eyes. The tears are uncontrolled, same as the rage, and the jealously and the love. She did this to them, and he won't talk to her long enough to let her fix it.

"He doesn't want you by default" Matt doesn't want to get involved, but no one else has the balls to put Elena in her place anymore. "You chose Stefan. That 'met you first' bullshit you threw at him? Weak. Technically you met me before either of them and I wasn't even in the running. Then you turned, and magically two memories changed your entire outlook on what love is." Matt looks at Bonnie for a little assistance, because he really doesn't know where he's going with this. Thankfully she backs him up.

"You knew he loved you sweetie, and everyone could see the instant connection between you… so those memories were nothing and yet they changed everything. And Stefan left while you were still trying to sort it all out. He feels like a fall back, and you're asking for forever." They're smart enough to leave her to her thoughts. There was a reason no one had broached the subject with her before. Hell hath no fury…

It's hours before she can admit any wrong doing. They were right, for Damon those memories meant nothing. But they meant something to her. That even when he showed up cold and murderous he was still nice to her. That Stefan had to follow her for months making sure she wasn't Katherine, while Damon had just trusted her word. It means something that Damon had been willing to let her go, that he loved her enough to shoulder all the guilt. Damon tried to save her, from everything, even from herself. Before he almost died, before Stefan left, before they spent months relying on each other, he had plagued her mind. Consumed her heart without ever trying. So yeah, those two memories changed everything.

Elena finds him at the grill, Caroline nowhere to be found instead a lovely whore sits firmly in his lap. He might was well paint a target on her back. Her instincts take over and before she can realize it, the redheaded skank is on the floor a few feet away. She should probably be appalled by her behaviour but considering that what she really wanted to do was reach down the bitch's throat and rip out her spinal cord… well she just can't bring herself to care much. No one touched what was hers.

"Look, I know you may not agree or like the way I came to this decision but too bad. I'm here, and I chose and it's you. You love me and I love you. So you can fight that, and fight me but you're mine" she growls the last part, territorial and possessive in a way only he can appreciate. His eyes go black with lust and something inside her begins to purr with anticipation. "Now let's go home before I start eliminating the competition." She turns her back walking out the way she came in. There is barely enough blood left in his brain to message Barbie. It would be in everyone's best interests if they found somewhere else to sleep tonight.