Author's Note: I'm sorry for the little delay on this chapter, things didn't quite flow, and then I've been super busy. I'm moving in these next couple weeks, so I'm going through the whole process of getting all of that sorted out. I'm going to try and write a little ahead of what I'm posting, just in case things get crazy busy right around the time of the move. Anyway, this is another long chapter, but I hope you will all enjoy it. As always, read and review!

Chapter 5

You're from a whole other world
A different dimension
You open my eyes
And I'm ready to go, lead me into the light

"Okay, I come baring rings!" Alaric Saltzman swooped into the hotel suite, a triumphant smile on his face. He took one look between Damon and Stefan separated on different sides of the room, a cold chill passing between the brothers, and the smile instantly fell from his face. "Did you call off the wedding?"

Damon lifted his head and glared at his best friend. "No, I did not call off the wedding."

"Then what did I miss?" he questioned, clearly at a loss as to what it was he'd walked in on.

"Elena asked Damon to call off the wedding," Stefan clarified after a moment of silence.

Alaric's eyes widened at the news, but he also didn't seem very shocked. "Well shit."

"I told her no and she left. Stefan seems to think there's more to this story, but there's not. You have the rings and I'm still getting married, and that's that."

"Damon," Alaric began, but quickly closed his mouth at the look Damon shot him. "Stefan, here are the rings, try not to lose them." He walked over to Stefan to pass off the rings before moving to the bar. "Things are way too serious in here. I think we could all use a drink right now. What do you say?"

"I don't think alcohol is really the best idea right now," Stefan spoke up from the other end of the room. Alaric lifted his head and gave his brother a look, which must have done the trick, because Stefan was quickly making his way toward the bar as well, a smile on his face. "Okay, shots? I think we could all use a shot."

Damon was silent as he looked around at the penthouse that had been his home for the past six years. It was the first house he'd ever really owned, and now it was going to Katherine. All of his clothes and a few pieces of furniture were moved out yesterday, and the rest he was leaving to Katherine. The divorce was final, and all of the money from the settlement was in her bank account. The only thing left to do was hand the keys over and they were officially done forever.

The thought still sounded foreign to him. He was divorced. Before the age of 30, he'd been married and divorced. It was a chilling realization to think about, and so he'd tried to avoid it in the past few days. He'd prepared himself for it, made peace with it, but it was fresh and still stung.

Katherine was currently walking the length of the black sectional, running her finger over the leather like she'd never been inside of the penthouse before. "I guess this is the end of the road for us."

"It would appear that way." He held up the silver key that he'd removed from his key chain and held it up high for her to see before dropping it onto the floor. "There's my key."

She paused at the end of the couch and pivoted on her heel to look at him. "Why did you do it? Why did you finally give in with this place? You wanted to keep it more than anything."

"I guess I wanted us to be over more," he told her honestly. He had intended to fight to the death for this penthouse, but during that final day of mediation, after four hours of constant back and forth arguments over every little thing, he realized that he didn't want to fight anymore. Things with them were ending on a bad enough note without dragging the divorce out for even longer.

And when he looked across that conference room table at the shell of a woman that used to be his wife, he knew that he was ready to end it all for good. He was ready to say goodbye to her and deal with the mess she'd left in her wake.

"I really thought you'd last longer. I was surprised."

"I was just tired. I was tired of hemorrhaging money. I was tired of having to explain to my father why we couldn't work anything out. I was tired of us being plastered all over Page Six. Most of all, I was just tired of fighting with you. It was exhausting and pointless, and I just wanted it to be over. I wanted us to be over."

Slowly, Katherine walked toward him, a cryptic look on her face. "You can't really be surprised with how it all went down. We loved hard and fought harder. It was inevitable that once the love was gone that this would all turn into a war."

"So you can admit that you did love me." For months she'd acted as if there had never been any love between them, that everything had all been one elaborate act. Some days he believed it. Other days, he didn't.

A dark shadow passed over her face, and the part of him that believed he could read her once upon a time would swear that he saw remorse swimming in her gaze. "I married you."

"You did," he agreed. That had been one of the happiest days of his life. Things were still good with them then. In fact, things had always been good with them until one day, they just weren't. It took him months to realize that things had gone horribly wrong somewhere along the way, but one day, he woke up and looked at her lying next to him in bed and realized that he didn't even know her anymore. It had been one of the most painful realizations in his life. "God, what happened to us, Katherine? Was I really delusional for the entire five years we were together? Did I imagine everything?"

Katherine looked down at her feet for a few moments, a war raging inside of her. A part of her was fighting to be honest, and another part was battling to inflict as much pain as possible. She lifted her head to meet his gaze again. "You weren't delusional," she said quietly.

"So what happened? Where did it all go wrong?"

"What does it matter? You hate me, and the divorce is final. It's all over now."

"Most days I do hate you," Damon acknowledged. "I hate everything about you some days, but I think what I always hate most, is knowing we did love each other and you gave up on us."

"You threw me out, Damon. While I was naked in bed, no less."

Damon shook his head. "We were done before I served you with divorce papers. You'd been running around for months acting like you were single."

"I never cheated on you."

"That's debatable." They'd gone around in circles about her fidelity or infidelity for months. She said she never crossed the line from flirting. He didn't believe her. In his mind, anyone who had the balls to hit on her husband's brother had the balls to cheat on her husband as well.

She looked at him, her eyes fierce and unwavering. "I never cheated on you."

"You didn't have to!" he yelled at her. "One minute you were fine and normal, and the next you were stabbing me in the back. Maybe you didn't physically cheat on me before I handed you divorce papers, but you threw yourself at every man in sight for months. Then, some nights you'd be like you were when I married you. That's what I can't figure out Katherine. Some days, everything was fine, and you acted as if you did love me, but others, you acted like you couldn't stand the sight of me, telling me that you never really wanted me, and I was just a fun time."

"I have my reasons for why I do what I do." She shrugged her shoulders, back to being completely casual, like nothing truly affected her.

"Care to share them?"

A flurry of a smile passed over Katherine's lips before she spoke. "You've been spending a lot of time with Elena Gilbert."

Damon stiffened at Katherine's words. "What are you talking about?"

"People talk, Damon. Did you really think people weren't going to notice you running around with a little girl that could pass for my sister?"

"She's the maid of honor in Stefan's wedding, that's all. And she's not a little girl, she's 22."

Katherine raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Really? Are you going to tell me you're not sleeping with her?"

"I am single as single can be, Katherine."

"You brought her to your favorite club the other night." At his curious look, she continued on. "I was there. I saw you."

"She needed a friend. That's all we are." Three nights ago, after dinner at Stefan's, he'd dragged Elena out with him. She and Matt were in the awkward phase where they weren't broken up, but they weren't together. According to her, most of their things had been removed from the other's places, but they were still having talks about the relationship.

He couldn't exactly blame her for dragging her feet on ending the relationship. Sometimes, even after you knew it was over, it was hard to officially end it, because then it was real. He'd done the exact same thing with Katherine. By the time he had divorce papers drawn up, he'd known for almost a month that there was no chance of reconciliation for them. He'd known the truth, but it had still taken time to follow through on what he knew needed to be done.

Elena would end her relationship with Matt soon; it was just taking time. So, after she'd mentioned that Matt and her had spent nearly all of the night before talking in circles about their relationship, he told her that she had to come out with him because she had a night off and she deserved to get away with it all. The night had been fun – they'd had fun, and nothing immoral happened. He was a gentleman that had kept his hands to himself, as much as he hadn't always wanted to.

"Whatever you say," Katherine finally conceded. "But just so you know, she likes you."

"Okay, let's just stop talking about this. We were married, this is weird." Damon wanted the conversation over, and he wanted it over quickly. The last thing he needed Katherine to see was that he was genuinely intrigued to know if she really thought Elena liked him. It was stupid though. She still hadn't broken up with Matt, and even if she had, Caroline would murder him if they slept together.

She'd just agreed to let him back in the wedding yesterday. He couldn't go and blow it this soon. He also didn't want to discuss anything that could even remotely relate to his love life with Katherine. There were some lines that didn't need to be crossed and that was certainly one of them.

"If you say so," Katherine conceded, probably for the first and last time in her life. "Well, I guess this is it."

The cold reality fell upon them as she motioned to the door. This was it, the end of it all. Once he walked out this door, it was all over. After months of fighting and refusing to fully let go on either side, everything was finally settled. Legally, they were nothing to each other. Romantically, they were now only former lovers who communicated far better in bed than they ever had out of it. And psychologically, none of those other things mattered. In some ways, she would always be his wife, and he would always remember the contours of her body and just where her most sensitive spots were. He might be able to look at her without pain and longing, but he'd still always know.

"I'll be on my way now." Damon walked over to the front door and opened it for the last time. He could hear Katherine trailing closely behind him, her heels tapping softly on the hardwood floors. He stopped and turned around to face her. "We were good once, Katherine," he told her softly, leaning against the doorframe.

The smile that stretched her lips was one he had not seen in years on her face. She reached out to cup his cheek softly in her hand. "We were great." Slowly, she closed the space between them and placed a gentle kiss on his lips, the final one they would ever share. It was a small, whisper of a kiss and then she was pulling back, her hand falling down to her side. "Goodbye Damon."

"Goodbye, Katherine." And with that he stepped into the hallway as Katherine closed the door, not only to the first home he'd ever owned, but also to the chapter of his life that had been devoted to her. That time was over, and it was now time to move forward.

So that was what he was going to do tonight. He was going to round everyone up and go out. There would be drinks and women and drinks. He needed lots of alcohol. Tonight, Katherine's memory would haunt him; he knew that. As much as he prepared himself for this day, the cool night would still unveil the failure of it all. His failure. Her failure. Their failure.

He pulled out his phone and quickly located his best friend's number in his cell phone and pressed send. It took a few rings, but Alaric finally answered. "No, yes, and one hour."

"I didn't even say anything."

"No, I'm not introducing you to any of my students. Yes, you can crash at my place again, and I'll meet you at our spot in an hour."

Damon smiled at Ric's words. "You know me so well."

"I know, it's getting a little scary."

"I'm going to ignore that and hang up now. See you in an hour." He rolled his eyes as he disconnected the call. Damon wasn't a man that had very many friends; he really didn't like people enough to have friends. Ric, had been his friend since college, and he was always ready to have a drink, or five.

While they might be worlds different, the friendship had actually managed to work for almost 10 years. Ric probably let him get away with more than he should, much like Stefan, but he knew how to rein Damon in when necessary. Overall, Ric was a good friend to him. He'd learned through his life that good friends were in short supply, so he actually tried not to piss Alaric off too much most of the time. And most of the time he failed.

Tonight he would try to not do that though, because he needed to get his mind off of everything running through his head. Katherine hadn't been too far off base when she'd hinted around about him and Elena. She might not like him, but he did like her. There was something about her that intrigued him. When she talked, he couldn't help but listen. And when she moved, he couldn't look away.

The other night, as he'd watched her dance, her narrow hips swaying and gyrating to the beat, his hands had burned with the desire to reach out and pull her body against his. He wanted to feel her hips against his, her hands sliding down his chest and under his shirt. He never did though. He watched and admired, because she didn't need for him to hit on her, and he needed to not piss off his future sister-in-law. Again.

He needed Alaric to tell him to keep it in his pants and keep his thoughts platonic. The last thing he needed was to drag someone like Elena into the mess of his life. He had no business with her. She was nice and kind. She genuinely cared about people. He, on the other hand, was rude and arrogant. The only person he could bring himself to treat with some amount of love was Stefan. He was a black hole that nobody deserved to get sucked into.

He told himself that this was what he needed Alaric to remind him of as he walked into DeSantos, a little Italian restaurant down in the West Village. He found Ric already sitting at a table, a drink in hand. He smiled and motioned toward the waiter as Damon made his way to the table. After he sat down and ordered his drink, Ric looked him over before speaking. "So, is this a celebration dinner or a "What the hell have I done with my life?" dinner?"

"Mixture of both?"

"So double the alcohol?"

Damon laughed and shook his head. "I like where your head is at."

They were silent for a moment as Alaric watched him, possibly waiting for him to say something. When Damon stayed quiet, he finally asked, "So, you're officially out of the penthouse?"

"Yup," he nodded. "Gave her my key and everything."

"Well, I don't see any bruises, so it went okay? I was kind of expecting World War III from the two of you."

Damon shrugged as he picked up his drink that the waiter just set down in front of him. "As well as it can go, I guess. I'm officially a divorced man." The words felt slightly awkward on his tongue. It was the first time he'd ever said it out loud to anyone other than Katherine. "We talked. We had a halfway decent conversation."

"Like with words and no yelling?"

"Yeah, surprisingly enough. We actually talked and it wasn't bad. She was kind of normal. She was almost Katherine."

"Okay," Alaric cut in, a worried tone in his voice. "I'm gonna end this before it begins. You and Katherine are a horrible idea. So, don't even go there, just shut it out. She may have been normal tonight, but the girl is still out of her mind, bat shit crazy."

"She wasn't always like that, Ric. You know she wasn't." He immediately fell back into the habit of defending Katherine, no matter what she'd done, but after the words were out of his mouth, he quickly realized he didn't need to. He didn't really need to defend her or protect her. "Okay, I didn't mean it like that. I don't want to get back together with Katherine, that ship has long since sailed. I'm just saying I think it helped. I think ending things like this, acknowledging that there were good times, makes things easier. Plus, being angry with her is just too exhausting."

Ric eyed him skeptically for a few moments. "You sure you're not running through possible scenarios of you two getting back together?" Damon opened his mouth to speak, but before he could talk, Ric warned him, "Do not lie to me."

His first instinct was to tell Ric to screw off, but he caught himself before he bit his friend's head off. This was what he wanted, right? He needed a healthy dose of honesty and reality right now, which meant he needed to bite his tongue for an hour or two. "I'm being honest when I say that I don't want to get back together with Katherine. We had a good run before things got bad, but I know that we can never go back to that. What happened, happened, and we're done."

"And you're completely okay with that? I know you, Damon. If you're not completely sure that you're done with Katherine, you will go right back down this road in a few months. You did it when you were separated, and you'd do it even if you're divorced."

He tried not to cringe at the reminder of the brief period of time that he and Katherine spent sleeping together after they'd already split up. He hadn't filed for divorce yet, but she had already moved out. After a month, he got beyond wasted one night and showed up at her hotel room, where they proceeded to sleep together. For the following two weeks they made a brief stab at reconciliation, but everything was still falling apart. When he couldn't deny the truth anymore, he had the divorce papers drawn up, and the next night, she was gone.

Once he filed for divorce though, there was no turning back for him. He hadn't taken that move lightly. Divorce had been the absolute last thing he ever wanted for his marriage, but he'd known that they couldn't stay married, not when their relationship had deteriorated to fights and angry sex. That was how he knew that he was not going to go back down that road with Katherine again. When he said that he was done, he meant it.

"I don't know if I'd say that I'm completely okay with it all. I'm divorced, and it sucks. I just know that I'm done with Katherine. There's no way I'm going back to try my chances at losing another 20 million dollars."

Alaric looked up and saw that the waiter was coming toward their table. "On that note, let's order some food."

Damon opened his menu to glance down at his options even though he knew what he would most likely order. "You're paying tonight. I need to start saving my money."

Ric smiled and shook his head at the suggestion. "You don't think I'm stupid enough to buy that, do you?"

"I'm homeless. Be nice to me."

This time, Ric laughed in his face. "Even down 20 million dollars and a house, you still have more money than I will ever make in a lifetime. You're buying me dinner."

"Asshole," Damon muttered as the waiter reached their table.

"So, is anyone else coming out tonight?" Ric asked some time after their food had been delivered.

"I called Stefan on my way here and told him that he should come out with Caroline. She just let me back in the wedding. I guess I should buy some drinks for her or something."

Ric's eyes narrowed suspiciously as he looked at Damon. "Wanna tell me the real reason you want to invite your brother and Caroline?"

"I need to play nice."

"You never play nice with Caroline."

Damon groaned and rolled his eyes, knowing that he was busted. "If Caroline comes, that means she'll bring her maid of honor."

"Tell me you're not sleeping with the maid of honor."

"I'm not sleeping with her," he insisted. "We're just friends."

"You don't have female friends that you haven't slept with."

"I resent that."

Ric raised an eyebrow. "Name one girl that you are friends with that you haven't slept with. One."

Suddenly, as Damon thought through his female friends, he realized Ric was right. He'd slept with every woman that he associated with. "Well," he sighed, "I guess this is why I shouldn't sleep with Elena."

"Knowing you, I'm sure there are about 50 reasons while you shouldn't. Most of them are about you." Ric set his fork down on his plate and leaned back in his chair. "I know you're not going to listen to me, but I'm going to offer some advice anyway. Do yourself a favor and keep it in your pants for a little bit. Things got really ugly between you and Katherine, and you need some time to recover from it all. Just be single and enjoy it. The women will still be throwing themselves at you in a few months. And hey, to make it more appealing, the longer you stay off the market, the more they'll want you."

"God," Damon groaned and rolled his eyes. "You and Stefan should have skipped the whole teaching thing and studied psychology. You two hand out more advice than anyone could ever ask for."

"We wouldn't give it out so much if you didn't need it," Ric teased him.

"Whatever, let's just pay for our meal and leave." He might want Ric to talk some sense into him, but Ric didn't need to know that.

It was easy enough to get Ric off the topic of things he shouldn't be doing for the next few months, and soon they were having drinks delivered to them in his booth in the VIP area of a club he frequented.

"There better not be a speech accompanying that drink." Caroline's voice sliced through the loud noise as she dropped down in the booth, pulling Stefan along with her.

"No speeches tonight," he promised her. "I will be on my best behavior."

"That's not comforting," Caroline grimaced. "But in all seriousness, I do need you to be nice tonight. Elena is coming and she just broke up with Matt, so no rude jokes."

Damon froze at the news that Elena had finally broken up with Matt. He'd known it was coming, but he was expecting it to take a few more days. "How exciting, now we can bond over our newly single statuses."

"Comments like that are exactly what I'm talking about," Caroline snapped. "Be nice or I will punch you."

"You wouldn't punch a homeless man."

Stefan's face fell at his words. "You actually went through with it?" He knew that Stefan was disappointed with how everything turned out in the divorce. His brother hadn't wanted him to give up his house. He'd thought that Katherine didn't deserve it, which she didn't, but he'd had enough of the fighting.

"Yup, gave her the key this afternoon."

"Well, you can crash at my place if you don't want to stay at a hotel."

Caroline immediately began shaking her head and protesting. "No he cannot." She jerked a finger in his direction. "I'm not sharing a place with him. No way."

"You have your own apartment, Caroline. Go stay there." He smirked and tilted his head, mostly just to piss her off. He may be on his best behavior, but that still involved some fun at Caroline's expense.

"He's my brother, Care. If he wants to stay then he can," Stefan tried to rationalize with her, but Caroline rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, I see Elena coming in. I'm going to go talk to her for a minute." She bolted up from the couch and ran off in the direction of Elena. She was pushing her way through the crowd, a grim expression on her face that didn't even brighten when Caroline appeared in front of her and launched her entire body at her friend.

"Can you please be nice to her for one night?" Stefan asked him. "She had a rough day at work and she was up with Elena all night last night."

"The breakup was that bad?"

Alaric, who had been preoccupied with a blonde at another booth, turned back to the brothers, when he heard Damon's question. "What did we discuss 30 minutes ago?"

"That you dole out far more advice than needed?" Damon deadpanned.

"For you to stop sleeping with women for a little bit," Ric clarified, even though he knew it wasn't needed. "Have a few drinks and make out with someone, then leave it at that."

"Making out is no fun unless it ends in sex."

"Making out certainly has its perks," Stefan reasoned. "Gives you something to look forward to at the end of the day."

Damon made a whipping motion, accompanied with sound effects, in Stefan's direction. "You're completely whipped by Caroline. Your idea of fun is not real fun."

"At least my sex doesn't come with the worry of an STD." Coming from anyone but Stefan, the comment might have actually angered Damon. However, he always found some weird sense of pleasure from Stefan trying to make a joke about him.

"Aw," he laughed as he reached out to ruffle Stefan's hair. "You're all grown up."

Stefan groaned and roughly shoved Damon's hand away from his head. "Shut up."

"Here, I got you a drink." Caroline interrupted Stefan and Damon before they could delve into the brotherly routine of shoving each other. She handed Stefan a drink as she dropped herself into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Ric, this is my maid of honor Elena. Elena, this is Damon's best friend, Ric, but don't let that scare you, he's actually normal."

With a drink in hand, Elena sat down next to Caroline and Stefan and smiled at Ric. "Hi," she called out over the noise. "Nice to meet you."

"Don't hold my choice of friends against me," Ric said to her.

Damon rolled his eyes as Elena's gaze moved over to him. The corners of her mouth tugged upward at his look of annoyance. "Hi, Damon."

"Hey."

The song changed to a particularly loud number at the moment Elena said something and her voice was rendered silent to his ears. "What?" he shouted, while pointing to his ear. "I can't hear you."

She quickly looked at Caroline, who had her mouth attached to Stefan's ear, and Ric, who had been drawn back into a conversation by the blonde from before. Realizing, that there would be no conversations carried on with anyone else, she stood up and moved next to him on the couch. "Better?" she questioned, and when he nodded his head, she repeated the question. "How did today go?"

He shrugged his shoulders. He was tired of talking about how things with Katherine had gone. Recounting things was getting far too annoying. "Well enough, but I don't want to talk about that. Caroline told me you and Matt broke up."

Elena shook her head. "If you don't have to talk about Katherine, then I'm not talking about Matt. No talking about exes."

Damon grabbed her glass and set it on the table in front of them. "I have a better idea."

Elena looked nervously at her drink then back at him. "Why does this scare me?"

"Shots," he said, and motioned toward the bar. "We're both single for the first time in years, and neither of us wants to talk about it, but that doesn't mean we can't celebrate."

"I don't know if this is something I want to celebrate, Damon."

"Then we'll drown our sorrows in the shot glasses. It's a brilliant idea."

She bit her lip and apprehensively looked toward the crowded bar. "I don't always make the best decisions when I've been doing shots."

Damon looked over at Caroline and Stefan, who now had their mouths latched together and Stefan's hands disappeared somewhere beneath Caroline's shirt. "You really want to be the one to pry them apart? You know how testy Caroline gets when a foreplay session with Stefan is interrupted."

Elena cringed as she looked at her best friend. "God, they're so gross sometimes."

"You think that's gross? He's my brother. I still remember him in diapers."

Elena giggled and covered her eyes. "Make me unsee that mental image."

Damon jumped to his feet and held his hand out for Elena. "Alright, come on. You want to forget, let's do it."

With one last apprehensive look in Caroline's direction she placed her hand in his and allowed him to pull her to her feet. "You better not abandon me for some hot blonde."

His first instinct was to tell her that no matter the hair color, he wouldn't abandon her, but he settled for a simple, "As long as you don't abandon me."

She slid her arm through his as she pressed herself into his side to move through the thick crowd. "I don't know. I am single and ready to mingle," she teased him.

Before she knew what was happening, he'd spun her around and had her maneuvered between two women sipping on cocktails and pressed her back against the cool bar. He leaned forward until his hips were pressed against hers and she was staring up at him, wide eyed and surprised. "No mingling tonight. Only one-on-one interaction for the rest of the evening." She stared at him, her eyes still doubled in size, stunned silent by his actions. He quickly dropped his hands from her hips and moved beside her. "I'll just order the drinks."

He mentally cursed his stupidity, as she stayed glued to her spot. He couldn't do things like that to Elena. He couldn't be arrogant and abrasive. Caroline had drawn that line very clearly when she told him he was back in the wedding. And even if there wasn't that, he'd just walked out of his home for the last time today. He was just caught up in wanting to shut things out of his mind for a night, but he couldn't use Elena for that. She wasn't the kind of girl you rebounded with. She was the kind of girl you married.

Composed and ready to brush the previous moment off, Elena spun around and leaned against the bar. "I only shoot clear liquids. Don't get me a shot of whiskey."

Taking the cue from her, he teased her, "Such a girl."

"I could be asking you to order me a creamsicle shot. Most girls don't like to shoot straight liquor."

The bartender appeared in front of them and he ordered them three rounds of tequila shots before he turned to look at her. "The second you ask me to order you anything girly I am jumping ship. And don't you puke on my shoes."

"Excuse me." She reared back and held her hand to her chest, acting offended by his words. "I can hold my liquor, thank you very much. I might be small, but I have a high tolerance."

The shots were delivered to him right at that moment. He pushed one in her direction and then lifted one in his hand. With a raised eyebrow, he tilted his head in her direction and said, "That's what they all say. Now show me what you've got, Gilbert."

Thirty minutes later, Elena was fully loosened up and shimmying her hips to the beat of the music as Damon pushed more empty shot glasses to the bartender. Thanks to his drinks at dinner, and the one he'd had before they started the shots, he was now feeling the full effects of the alcohol he'd consumed. His movements were slower than normal, and he found that his hands couldn't quite stay by his side. Every few minutes they would drift across the small space that separated his body from Elena's, and run his fingers over a newly exposed piece of skin when her shirt would drift up from her tight brown skirt.

Any nervousness or feelings of uncertainty she might have had when they first got to the bar now seemed to be a thing of the past. She welcomed his touches, and even returned the favor occasionally, by pressing her body flush against his and running her hands along his back. Somehow, this night was getting away from him, but every time she reached out and he felt her soft fingers pressing against him, all rational thoughts seemed to flee his brain.

"I've just had the most brilliant idea," he announced as the bartender delivered another round of shots. "We're both single for the first time in years. That means, for ages, we've been used to getting sex regularly, and now, it's not guaranteed. Do you know how much that's going to suck?"

Elena didn't appear to believe much of what he was saying. "Somehow I doubt you've had any trouble getting anyone to have sex with you since you and Katherine split up. And also, that's not a plan, just an observation."

"I'm getting to it," he insisted. "Before you so rudely interrupted me, I was going to say –"

"You asked a question. I was just answering it."

"Anyway! As I was saying, we're used to sex whenever we want it, and now that's not going to happen. So, I say we should be each other's sex. Whenever we need sex, we just call the other one up, and then there we go, problem solved."

There was no valid or logical reason for the plan he was presenting to Elena, but the alcohol was prohibiting him from caring in the slightest how absurd it might sound. He just knew that whatever was happening right now, he really liked it, and he wanted more of it.

"That plan is so wrong on so many levels." Elena told him, but she couldn't keep the smile from her face as she attempted to shoot him down. "You're Stefan's brother! Caroline would kill me if I had sex with you!"

"Caroline flips out about flowers nowadays. I don't think I'd be looking to her reactions as reasonable ones."

Elena jokingly slapped his shoulder. "She's planning a wedding, that's stressful."

"Breathing is stressful to that girl."

"Stop it! She's my friend."

He smirked and leaned down until his forehead was resting against hers. "I say it all out of love."

A new song came through the speakers in the club and Elena immediately perked up. "Oh my god! I love this song!" she exclaimed. She grabbed his hand and dragged him out onto the dance floor. "Dance with me."

She pulled him through the sweaty throng of people that all seemed to be pressed together, some moving to the beat of the music, and some moving to a beat inside their own head. Once they found a spot big enough, she stopped and began dancing. She lifted her arms above her head as she let the music take over her body, her hips rolling seductively, and her ass grinding against him.

More than happy to accept the invitation she was offering him, he wrapped his arms around her waist, bringing his palms to rest low on her stomach. He pulled her against him and began moving to the music as well, allowing himself to get lost in the moment. Her scent was completely intoxicating as she leaned her head back against him, her face hanging next to his. Her eyes were closed as she happily sang out the words, never missing a beat.

He didn't know how long they stayed like that, their bodies moving as one to the music. Some time later, as Katy Perry sang about wanting to be abducted, Elena twisted around in his arms, a lazy smile on her face, and then she was kissing him. Everything disappeared in that moment as her lips melted into his. Her fingers slid deftly into his hair and she held his face against hers, making sure he wouldn't go anywhere. As if he would ever try.

"Oh my god!" A shriek that could never belong to anyone but Caroline Forbes had Damon and Elena quickly pulling apart from each other. His breathing was ragged as they turned to see Caroline gawking at them with Stefan looking stunned and confused behind her. "Elena, what are you doing?"

"Shit," Damon mumbled beneath his breath. "Your friends have the worst timing in the world."

Caught in an unfortunate situation, Elena looked nervously between Caroline and Damon. "Well, come on, Elena." Caroline motioned for Elena to come over to her. "I think I need to take you home."

"Just give me a second with Damon. We need to talk for a moment."

Caroline groaned. "You have got to be kidding me."

Elena grabbed Damon's arm and pulled him further away from Caroline and Stefan. She led them to a dark corner off the back of the dance floor. Once there, she dropped Damon's hand and buried her head in her hands. "I don't know what the hell just happened."

"We danced and kissed."

From the look in her eyes, it was apparent that she had come crashing back down to earth, and the carefree feeling the alcohol had brought her did not return with her. "Why do we keep doing this?"

"Because it's fun?" he offered with a small smile. He didn't know what he could say to Elena that would make any bit of difference. She didn't seem like she knew what was going on in her own head, how was he supposed to know?

Lost in her own confusion, she didn't even notice what he just said to her. "We're both going through a rough ending of a very long relationship. It was only natural that we'd bond over that, and of course, we would confuse attraction somewhere along the way. I just broke up with Matt a few hours ago, and you just finalized everything with your divorce. We're confused and looking for something to help it all make sense, but we can't do that with each other." Somewhere during her rambling, she'd tilted her head up to look at him, her eyes wide and pleading. "This has the potential to be the disaster of a lifetime. You're Stefan's brother, and I'm Caroline's best friend. All we'd do is drag them into this whole thing if it blows up in our faces. So, I think we need to stop doing things like these."

Damon stood, confused for a moment as to what exactly Elena was trying to say to him. "I'm not going to pretend I understood even half of that. However, I'll say that we're adults and I know that I have fun with you, and I'm not opposed to having more fun with you. I'm not asking you to be my girlfriend; I don't even want one. I just want easy and fun, and I think you want that too. So, after Caroline spends her whole night lecturing you, let me know what you come up with. We've had a miserable few months, and if we can find something fun out of all of it, that would be great, and once it stops being fun, we can end it and just be friends."

"Your argument is good, but you're missing the piece where that never works out. Situations like these never end well. Someone always falls too hard and gets hurt, and our track record doesn't speak well for us. Let's just say we got caught up in the alcohol and confusion again, and leave it at that. This doesn't need to happen again." Elena stepped away from the wall and looked out toward the crowd. "I'm going to go find Caroline now. Bye Damon."

He didn't say anything as she disappeared into the crowd. What was there to say? Her logic had had valid points sprinkled throughout it. His so called brilliant idea would probably implode at the absolute worst time possible, but it could also be easy. She was fun to talk to, and she actually had a brain. What was so wrong with wanting to spend time with someone who was an actual person, as opposed to a caricature of what most women thought that men like him wanted? She didn't give a damn if she offended him. If she felt it needed to be said, she'd say it to him. That's why he liked spending time with her.

Now that she was single too, it was the perfect time for them to explore the attraction between them. He hadn't wanted to acknowledge it for a while, but it was there, and tonight proved that with enough alcohol to lower their inhibitions, it was undeniable. The only things stopping them were the thoughts of how it could end badly or involve those that didn't need to be involved. If they could get through those roadblocks he saw no reason why this idea couldn't work.

They needed time to figure out who they were again outside of a relationship. They needed time to figure out what they still wanted. They were perfect for that for each other. They could help each other navigate the confusing path of being single after such a long time, and then part ways when they reached the end of the road. His plan was brilliant after all.