Title: Love Hurts

Rating: K+

Summary: Apparently she missed the memo where honesty became any kind of policy much less the best.

Pairing: Damon/Elena

AN: so there's no confusion, Elena's been a vampire for five years, with Damon for four.

Rule number one of keeping secrets from your boyfriend; do not! leave your phone lying around. She learned that in middle school, it was a rookie mistake. Now her relationship was hanging on the thinnest thread of life. When Stefan first started calling her Elena really had meant to tell Damon. No, really she had. The timing was just off. That had been a busy time for them and they couldn't avoid to waste any time fighting. So she waited for a lull, granted it took longer than she anticipated. By then it was be too late, the small disagreement she'd hope for was a pipe dream once he found out that she had kept something like that from him for weeks. So instead she resolved to not tell him, may have demanded Stefan do the same.

Months of duplicity all brought to an end by one trip to the bathroom. Why was Stefan calling her in the middle of the night anyways? He'd never done that before. Not that Damon believed her. Words like, harmless and friendship meant nothing to him. Now she's crying and screaming and pleading whlie Damon can't even bring himself to look at her.

Ever the fool, he honestly thought they were passed this. It was laughable really, that after all his years on earth he could be fooled by an 18 year old new born. Things had been hard in the beginning, and they'd had to work through so much. The doubts, the insecurities. He'd let them all go for her so that he could be with her. So they would finally finally have a real shot. Stefan left not long after that, wanted to give them time he said. Damon was so blind. She was still test driving him. Giving him a chance at a relationship with Stefan in the wings waiting for it to fail. Because of course it would. Of course he would.

But she could have just told him that. It wasn't like he had any pride left, any dignity or self-respect. Not when it came to her. She could have told him and he would have leapt at the chance. Would have convinced himself that he could change her mind. Delusional is what he was, how could he expect her to ever move passed Stefan; her one true love, her perfect future, her saviour. He should have taken Katherine up on her offer. It wasn't too late, she said told him to find her whenever he got tired of being second best. And boy was he tired.

Damon started packing on autopilot. Somewhere in his mind he could hear her, could feel his heart break with every sob but he couldn't allow himself to care. Not anymore, he would never care again. He doesn't spare her a single glance. Maybe he owed her more, owed their relationship more but all he can think about is all the things she owed him. For the last eight years he'd given everything for her, and yes he'd made mistakes, egregious mistakes but everything he had, everything he was belonged to her. He deserved for that to work both ways.

Elena throws her phone against the door when he goes to open it. He pauses just long enough for her to fit herself between him and his departure. She was just starting to feel like she deserved him. For four years she had made it her mission to love him the way he loved her, to make up for all the heartache she had put him through. And she threw that all away for what? Ten minute conversations a few days a month. Threw away her forever because when she was human the world revolved around Stefan and she was afraid of what it meant to completely stray from that life? She didn't owe her past anything, she owed Damon.

She unclasps the chain around her neck. It's the first time she's been without it, and the loss leaves her feeling naked and vulnerable. All the same she holds it out to him. It's dramatic, but rightly so. Vampire emotions are a different world entirely, her devotion, her guilt, her love for him… she would never move on from that. Its emotional blackmail of the highest order but it's all she has. Message clearly sent.

"I won't love anyone else. And I won't spend eternity missing you." She refused to spend an eternity in misery, missing him, hating herself, imagining other women in his bed. It would drive her mad.

He wants to call her bluff, but there isn't one. Elena doesn't believe in empty threats. Sometimes he truly hates how alike they were. How she knows with certainty that they would both rather walk into the light than live in a world without each other.

"I don't want you talking to him." Stefan was his brother, and there would come a time when they could stand to be around each other again. Elena could have a friendship with him when there was no doubt about where the lines were drawn.

"I wont." She doesn't need Stefan.

He fits the necklace back into place. Message received.

"I don't forgive you." How sick is that, how twisted. He knows he may never be able to forgive her for this and yet still he takes her by the hand leading the way back to their bed. A part of her heart would never be his, forever his brother's; always Stefan's. So really he should let her go, let her have that. Too bad he wasn't built that way. A part of her heart was his. He owned her body. Knew her mind. He would never relinquish his claim to her. A fact he makes sure she never forgets.

"Just don't ever leave." Those are her only terms. He didn't have to forgive her, never had to trust her again. So long as he stayed she would spend forever making amends. She knows it isn't healthy, knows that if she was truly good she would let him go. There was someone, maybe thousands of someones out in the world more worthy of him, that would never think to hurt him. Unfortunately for them they would never get the chance. True to her nature Elena would sooner kill ten thousand faceless strangers than surrender his love.