*Author's note: Hey, guys! Just in case anyone is curious, Mistletoe is a Maltese breed. Google them. They're pretty adorable. I know my chapters are pretty short. I don't usually write them this short, but I honestly feel that it's where they cut off the best. Hopefully the fact that I am updating frequently makes up for that? Anyway, this gets a little intense. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Three:

Elena was taken aback. She had just lost Stefan. He was God knows where and now she was expected to fall in love with his brother? In four days? Four days! How could she do that? She still loved Stefan and they were going to find him. What would he say if he knew about this? This was not going to happen. She was not going to let it.

This was the last thing that Damon wanted. Of course he loved her; there was no question about that. But it's always been Stefan. He loved Katherine, but it had always been Stefan. He loved Elena, but it had always been Stefan. Katherine was another story, but Elena really belonged with Stefan. As much as he cared for her, Damon had accepted that and he didn't want to take that from her. He would love for the two of them to fall madly in love and never look back, but it had to be her move. She had to be the one to say she loved him, not Stefan. For once, he needed to feel that love. He needed to feel it before anything happened with her. He did not want to do this to her. He also did not want to do this to himself.

After they both just stood there in their own little worlds for what felt like hours, Damon's reverie was broken by the sound of Elena's footsteps attempting to leave the room. "I'm sorry, Elena. I didn't want it to happen like this," he told her as her back was turned.

She froze in her spot on the floor as she listened to him. As she turned back around to face him, he didn't know what it was he expected to see on her face; but it wasn't what he saw. And he also didn't expect her to say what came next. "Is this some kind of game to you, Damon? You think that just because Stefan is gone, you have free reign to pull crap like this? I can't believe I almost fell for that."

"Elena, what are you talking about?"

"A dog named Mistletoe. I bet her name is actually Roxie and you compelled one of the neighbors to let you borrow her."

At this, Damon started walking toward her. "Wait a second. You think I'm making this up?" he questioned defensively.

"How stupid do you think I am, Damon? You're in love with me, but I'm in love with your brother. So naturally, as soon as Stefan goes MIA, you decide to make your move. It's what you do. You said you were going to help find him, Damon. Or were you just going to lead us on a wild vampire chase and make sure I never found him? Was that your plan all along?"

He was getting seriously angry now, and she could tell. He was breathing heavily and his shoulders were raising and lowering in an attempt to hold it in. His hands were balled in fists and his teeth were clenched. Suddenly, he walked away from her and punched a hole in the wall behind her. "Elena, I highly suggest you leave now. Leave before I do something that I regret."

"That's your problem, Damon. You have no regrets," she responded coldly as she turned around to go upstairs.

Damon took one big, deep breath in an attempt to stop seeing red. How could she think that? I mean sure, it does sound like something he would do, but he wouldn't do it to her. Not her. Surely she had to know that. As he went to go pour himself a drink and sit in his chair in the den, the puppy nipped at his ankles. Damon picked up the dog, stared into her eyes, and said "You are so lucky we are in between vampire take-downs right now. You've certainly got you're work cut out for you. Good thing I love her."

Even though this particular dog was supposed to be fine with vampires, that did not account for Damon's pre-vampire disdain toward dogs. This feeling was only amplified when Mistletoe decided to lick Damon's cheek. He immediately put the dog down on the ground to go wash his face in the bathroom. When he returned, he expected the dog to have found a nice spot on the floor to curl up for a nap, or maybe even one of Stefan's shoes to chew on. However, what he found was the dog sitting next to the book shelf.

When she discovered that he had walked back into the room, Mistletoe began barking and wagging her tail at him. He was about to sit in his chair when the dog barked again. It seemed as though the dog was not going to let Damon sit down until he had seen what she wanted him to see. Realizing this, he mumbled something about stupid dogs being so demanding and walked over to the book shelf.

"Fancy a bedtime story, dog?" Damon asked. The dog barked again in response. Just for fun, Damon decided to pull one of the books off of the shelf and put it down next to the dog. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on, so he just stood there and stared at the dog, waiting and wondering what she was going to do next.

When the dog saw the book Damon placed on the ground for her. She looked up at him and pushed the book forward with her paw. Damon stared at her quizzically and, as if she understood, she whined at him while pushing the book farther away from her.

Almost as if he understood her, Damon realized that this was not the book the dog was looking for. He picked the book up off the floor, replaced it, grabbed the one next to it, and set it on the floor next to the dog, only to get the same reaction. He did this several more times. Eventually, he got too tired of putting the book down and picking it back up, so he and the dog formed a new system: he would point to the book and if if wasn't what she wanted she wouldn't do anything. If it was what she wanted, she would bark. At least he hoped that they formed that system. He and this dog seemed to be pretty connected, so he could only hope she understood.

After going through several more books with responses of silence from Mistletoe, he finally realized what it was the puppy must want. "I'm such an idiot!" he proclaimed. The dog barked in agreement. "Yeah, thanks," he responded with his usual snark. "You're a supernatural dog. Of course you don't want to read Shakespeare. You want a supernatural book!" The dog barked again, so he knew that he was on the right track. Damon moved his hand up one shelf and a few books over until he pulled out a book on mythical and supernatural creatures. The dog stood on her hind legs in excitement as Damon lowered the book down to her. Mistletoe looked up at him, wagged her tail, barked at him as if to say thank you, grabbed the book by the corner of its binding, and dragged it up the stairs with her to see Elena.

There you go, guys! Three chapters down. I think that one was a little longer than the others? I hope so. Favorite, follow, review, whatever! I mean, not that I can compel you or anything ;)

~You'veGotMeAndJesus