'They were going to get married. Keith was going to be my dad'

'He was your dad. No matter what any science or paper said. He was the man who influenced your life more than anybody else. I saw it in you everyday'

'I just want him to come home'

'Lucas, be the man that Keith taught you to be. Anything less would make this a much greater tragedy than it already is.'

One Tree Hill –Who will survive and what would be left of them-

"Oh god Damon" He pounded harder into her without worrying about hurting her, she could handle it and besides it wasn't like he cared much about how she felt.

She took his face between his hands and tried to kiss him but he turned his head to the side, not being able to give that to her. Since his fight with Elena he was a mess and for a moment he just said fuck off, I don't need that. So he tried his best at turning off what he felt towards the brunette woman. This was exactly why he never let himself feel, it would never end well. The only time he let someone in was when he meet her so many years ago and now she was about to marry his brother, and that was crushing him, he couldn't let himself feel that way again.

"Harder" The blond woman panted against his neck and he sped up, urging to find the release that was waiting for him, he just needed to let out all of his frustration somewhere but it felt wrong to be doing this, to be with someone that wasn't her. But what the hell she was probably fucking his brother every night so who the hell cares and with that thought in mind he started to trust without mercy on her

"Oh my god, oh my god don't stop" The girl racked her nails on his back drawing bits of blood and he liked the pain, it made him feel alive. "I'm so close" the woman murmured against his ear and found her voice annoying, everything about her seemed wrong

How the hell did he come to this? He was so damn whipped. He was Damon Salvatore, he slept with countless woman without caring what they thought of him or how they'd feel if he left them alone the next morning, but right now he couldn't shake her face out of his mind and the look she would give him when she realized what he was doing right now and he couldn't take it.

After Elena left him so many years ago he thought he was never going to able to recover from that, he opened his heart to hear and she just spat it out on his face, he hated her and for so many years stayed angry at her, he would sleep with thousands of woman and drink himself to sleep, he was numb for so long, not feeling anything but the anger towards her. That was until he found out she was dating his brother, and the anger multiplied but a new feeling showed up, despair. It killed him to know that she was with Stefan and then he realized that no matter how hard he tried or how many drinks he had or how many women he slept with, he was never going to be able to forget about her. So when they said they were getting married, he knew that he had to do something, no matter what happened in the past, he had to fight for her.

But now he was hopeless, he could feel her slipping through of his fingers and he couldn't take it anymore, so he was doing what he knew how to do best, be self-destructive.

"Oh, oh" The blond girl said when she felt her orgasm coming and Damon felt her walls clamping around him sending him to oblivion as well, emptying himself in the condom.

"That was just amazing" She said still catching her breath when he rolled out of her

He stayed in silence just trying to catch his brain and feeling dirty somehow, he hated the feeling but he couldn't shake it off.

"I had forgotten how good you are" She purred close to him and planted a wet kiss against his cheek

"Please Rebekah, we both know that I'm not an easy man to forget about" He answered cockily and got up from the bed, trying to find his clothes

"Leaving so soon?" She said arching her brown "Come on Damon stay the night" She said with a sensual smile

"Sorry, Bex. We both know I don't do that" He gave her a quick smirk and started putting his pants on

"Oh Damon come on" She said getting up from the bed "Just for old time's sake" He could feel her breasts pressing against his back as she circled his waist with her arms

He was tempted, god he was more than temped to stay here and fuck her the entire night, just forget about everything and lose himself in the sensation, but he couldn't, he had something to do in the morning and he couldn't afford being self-destructive, not anymore. He wasn't only thinking about himself anymore.

"Sorry" He detangled her arms from around him "But I have important things to take care of" He said to her while he buttoned his black shirt

"Damon what can you possibly be doing on Saturday morning that is more important than this" She said while resting in the bed and caressing her leg sensually. Damon smirked at her before walking towards the door

"I have to take care of an eight year old" He said before opening the door and leaving a confused Rebekah Mikalson, naked and alone on the bed.

February 25, 2003

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Mason Lockwood said as he sat in the booth opposite Damon's at the Grill

"What do you mean?" Damon asked with a confused frown before biting into his double cheeseburger

"Rebekah is almost offering herself to you and you rejected her? Come on man the girl is smocking" The expression on his friend face was priceless, it was like if he was becoming the worst sin in the history on humanity by letting down that girl

"She's just not my type" Damon shrugged simply

"Not your style?" Mason said with a shocked expression "Then who's your type Damon? You've been single for months now. What the hell is wrong with you?

He wanted to say that he wasn't single and that the reason he didn't pay any attention to all those girls throwing themselves to him was because he already had someone, someone special who made him feel unique and the he loved her but he couldn't say those words, because he knew the moment his father realized it he was going to try to take her away from, just like he did with everything he loved, and well Mason wasn't known for his discretion, so that was a chance he wasn't going to take

"I don't know Mason; I just don't feel like dating right now"

"Then good, don't date her just fuck her" His friend answered nonchalantly

"I don't feel like it" Damon answered feeling exasperate by his friend insistence "Why are you pushing this?"

"Because man, you've been being boring lately" Mason said in a annoyed tone "You don't want to get drunk with us, or sleep with the girls and you disappear to god knows who and always bail on us"

"Well sorry if I'm actually growing up here" Damon answered in a hard tone, angry at the man's comment, "he was boring"? Just because he didn't wanted to throw his life into the garbage like they did.

"Come on don't get angry Damon" The man said in a lighter tone "We just want to let you know that, and that Bex is the best chance for you to join us again, to be part of the club" He said with a smug smile and that did it for Damon, he didn't want to be around Mason Lockwood anymore, he and the stupid frat boys he called friends could go straight to hell.

"You know what? Screw you Mason" Damon said getting up from his chair and throwing money into the table to play for his food "I don't need you or any of the guys. I'm going to fuck whoever I want to fuck, if I want to fuck them, you do not come here and tell me what to do. In fact I think that I'm better off without any of you, so go to hell" He said before storming out of the place leaving a startled Mason Lockwood behind.

"Oh my god is this is your house?" Julian asked as he observed with wide eyes Damon's apartment

"Yep" The man answered "You like it?"

"It's beautiful, I think our bedroom fits ten times in here" The kid said still startled at his surrounding

"I don't think it is that big" Damon shrugged nonchalantly

"What is this?" Julian said getting close to a model house that was resting on top of Damon's living room table

"That is a model home"

"You build them?" Julian asked exactly

"Something like that, I made the designs, I'm the architect but there are other people in charge of building them" Damon explained to the little kid who was looking at the house with wide eyes

"I think is beautiful" He said while examination every piece he could find "Maybe I want to be an architect too" He turned to look at Damon with a big smile on his lips, blue meting blue and Damon's heart melted at the kid's words

"I think you're going to be a great architect" He said smiling back at him "Come on kiddo, let's show you your bedroom" Damon said ruffling the kid hair and motioning for him to follow

"I get my own bedroom?" Julian asked with a surprised expression on his face

"Of course you do, we're best friends right? You need to have your own bedroom" Damon said smiling at the kid reaction, he was so innocent, so pure. He still didn't know how he managed to arrange everything in less than a week or why he did it, but he wanted to give the kid something special and having his own bedroom was exactly that.

They reached an oak door and Damon opened slowly revealing what was inside and Julian let out a gasp when he saw the interior of the place

"Is this my bedroom?" The kid asked with a startled expression on his face and Damon definitely felt proud for pulling of this in less than a week

"Do you like it?" He asked with a smile and Julian's eyes looked at him with surprise

"I…I love it" The blond kid said while entering and admiring everything meticulously. The room had wooden floors and blue walls, there was a wooden dresser and chair and he had an entire shelf full of toys and a white window, the bed was wooden too and it was decorated with yellow and blue bedspreads. "I can't believe you did this for me" Julian said in a whisper

"I'm your best friend right?" Damon said kneeling in front of the kid "I'm suppose to do nice things for you"

"But I didn't do anything for you" The kid said looking down

"Of course you did, you came" Damon said with a small smile "And you're going to make me have fun the entire weekend" As soon as the finished saying the words Julian launched himself at him and hugged him tightly

"Thank you, thank you, thank you" His voice was muffled against his shoulder and Damon could feel tears glistening in his eyes at the kid reaction "Nobody has ever done something like this for me"

"Well there's always a first time" Was Damon's only response. He really couldn't explain what happened to him with this kid but in some way it kind of remind him of himself and how much he wished someone would have helped him or showed him love after his mother death but the only thing he got instead was the coldness of his father, he wanted to make of Julian's childhood something worth of remembering "So you want to see what else I have planned?" Damon asked once the kid released him

Julian only nodded with a smile that showed all of his teeth

.

.

"Dude this is so not possible" Alaric muttered as Julian kicked his ass on 'When you were young' by the killers

"Told you, the kid is a genius" Damon answered with a smirk as he watched his best friend competing against the child on the Guitar Hero

"Yeah but I'm awesome at this" Rick said startled.

"Yeah buddy, truth be told you're not that good" Damon answered and winked at Julian who was still smiling at Alaric comment

After he showed Julian his room he had taken him for ice cream just like he did that time with Elena and then they went to the park. After that returning home to make pizzas and play guitar hero with Alaric. The man was the one true friend Damon had, he was the one who could rely on, always, not like those jerks of Mason and Klaus who pretend to be his friends

He found himself surprised that he had barely though about Elena in the whole day, guess having Julian over did help him, even when it should have had the opposite effect since he only knew the kid because of Elena but it was quite therapeutic being around him. He actually enjoyed himself today

"Fine, I give up" He heard Alaric mutter and turned to look at the score, the kid was really good at this game

"Are you tired already J-boy" Damon asked to the blond kid as he threw himself on one of the couches in the living room right next to Alaric

"I guess so" He said while rubbing his tired eyes and Alaric smiled at him

"You guess so?" The blonde man asked "You're already falling sleep"

"No I'm not" The younger one protested and both man laughed at him because they could see how tired he was

"Come on let's get you to bed. It's already 11:30" Damon got up from the couch and Julian did the exact same thing

"Damn, Salvatore you're already corrupting eight year olds'" Rick said teasingly

"Shut up Rick" Damon responded with a smirk as he leaded Julian into his room

Once they reached the room Julian went straight to getting into Pj's and brushing his teeth when he emerged from the bathroom Damon's was waiting for him, leaning casually against the bed.

"Will you tuck me in?" Julian asked with tired eyes and even thought he wasn't used to being around kids Damon just couldn't deny it to him

"Sure" He answered nonchalantly while Julian climbed into the bed. Damon put the covers on him and tucked him in safely marvelling at how easy it was for him to be gentle with this kid and also how much he reminded him of Elena, there was something about his eyes that hid the same sadness that hers, but at the same time a fiery glow behind them. He was about to get up when Julian's voice stopped him

"I don't want to sleep" Julian said with distress on his voice

"Why not?" The brunette man asked

"Because if I fall asleep it'll means that this day is over" The kid looking down with a sad expression on his face "And then we'll just have one more day before I have to leave"

"But hey" Damon said lifting his chin so he could look into his eyes "We're going to keep seeing each other, I'm not abandoning you" He stated sincerely

"But my parents abandoned me" The kids eyes were glossing with unshed tears "How can I be sure that you won't?"

"Because Julian, I never break a promise" Damon looked deeply into his eyes "And I'm promising you right now, I'm not leaving you Julian, ever. You're stuck with me" He caressed his blonde hair lovingly "You can trust me"

Julian only nodded and wiped his eyes from the tears that had gathered in there "Would you sing me a song?"

"What?"

"Yeah when Lena goes to see me and puts me into bed, she always sings a song to me" The child explained "Would you?" He asked with hope on his voice and he blue eyes pleaded at him

"All right, all right" Damon complained almost too dramatically "How do you feel about Johnny Cash?"

"About who?" Julian asked confused

"I cannot believe you don't know who Johnny Cash is" Damon said with a roll of his eyes "My mom loved this guy and she used to sing his songs to me every night when I was little, and this one is my favorite from all times" He explained softly to the kid and he only looked at him patently waiting to hear the song coming out of his lips

I'll always love you and make you happy
And nothing else could come between us
But now you let me to love another
You have shattered all of my dreams

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away

In all my dreams, dear, you seem to leave me
When I awake my poor heart pains.
So when you come back and make me happy
I'll forgive you dear, I'll take all the blame.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You'll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away

He sang the song with such emotion on his voice, remembering the first time he sang it to someone and it made his heart ache at the memory, at her memory. He couldn't take it anymore, there was only so much pain a man could take and he didn't know if he was ever going to recover from losing her. When he pulled himself out of his thoughts he noticed that Julian was already fast asleep so he got up from the bed and before exiting the room he gave him a small kiss on the forehead.