Oh, the summer night
Has a smile of light
And she sits on a sapphire throne.
- Barry Cornwall

"Just… come home. Please." He pleaded, and she turned to look at him, pulling her sweater over her head. She was undecided about Damon. Was all of this really something she could count on? Could she trust he genuinely wanted her back, or was it just some elaborate plan to get a jealous Caroline back?

"Why? It was awful there, I needed to get out. Everyone hates me, I can just stay there and watch their glares as I enter the room."

"And how do you think I feel, Elena?" He asked. "I was stuck there all by myself. You weren't there. You just up and left me."

"I didn't leave you. I left. There's a difference." She cut in.

"Not to me, there isn't. Call it what you like but it felt like you were leaving me." He shrugged, looking over at her. She met his gaze reluctantly.

"We were never a thing." She whispered.

"No, but we had something. If you thought we were such a bad idea you never would have kept coming back. You would have ended it that first night, but you didn't."

"I was high, and drunk."

"But you weren't incapable. Even when you lost your high you let me touch you. Jeremy was the only thing stopping me that night."

"Shut up." She snarled, storming back into the house. Damon was aggravating her. He could never… shut up, and leave things as they were. He followed her inside and she cursed.

"Okay. Look, I'm sorry. Maybe I don't know everything about you, Elena, but help me. Let me get to know you."

"Is that a good idea?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because last time we 'got to know each other' we hurt a lot of people."

"No sex. Let me be around you for a week. You learn about me, I learn about you. There will be no sex at all." Damon suggested.

"You can't kiss me." She said. Damon's expression fell.

"But..." He started.

"Then no." Elena cut off whatever he was about to say.

"Fine. No kissing. No sex. Anymore ground rules?" He asked sarcastically, and Elena threw a pillow at him, which he caught effortlessly.

"No lying." She whispered and Damon nodded.

"I can do that." He said confidently.

"Okay. One week."

The phone rang and both Elena and Damon's gazes fell to the little brown telephone on the kitchen counter. Elena shot him a look, but Damon was faster and stronger, and he beat her to it.

"Gilbert family lake house, how may I help you?" Damon sounded polite, but it was just a mocking tone.

"Is Elena there?" The male voice asked.

"Depends, who am I speaking to?" Damon shot back. The whole time, Elena was frantically trying to grab the phone from him, and he held her back with one hand.

"It's Sam."

"Sorry Scam, Elena… had to pee. I'll get her to call you back never." Damon finished, hanging up the phone quickly. Elena hit him, but he pushed gently at her forehead and she stumbled backwards.

"Damon!" she complained, "Why didn't you let me talk to him?" She asked.

"Uh, because faze one of 'Dig into Elena's Life' commences at exactly…now." He stated smoothly.

"Well can I just tell him everything is okay and you're not going to murder me in some creepy, disgusting way?" She gave him a look.

"Nope." He popped the 'P'. "Come on little one." He sung, pushing her into the living room.

"Number four: I hate cake." She shrugged at his confused and utterly unimpressed look. "I just don't like it."

"Okay, first of all, do you have problems? And second of all, what is your life's purpose?" He asked sarcastically, and his swatted him on the shoulder.

Damon had suggested they start out by giving stupid and useless facts about each other in list form. Even things the other already knew, and they would discuss it if they wanted to. Sometimes, Elena wouldn't even bother waiting for him to list something, she'd just ask him a question, and vice versa. She was actually intrigued by their little game now.

"What's with you and your brother? When you guys blew into town I never really got to ask Stefan about you. He didn't like to be in the same room as you, much less talk about you." Elena stated, leaning against the couch and watching the fire Damon had built.

"It's a long story." Damon said, but when he looked up to meet Elena's doe eyes, they told him that he had to talk. "Before our father died, Stefan was his favorite. Everyone loved Saint Stefan. He was a model child: helped out dad, followed in his footsteps. Never quit anything, never broke a toy. I, on the other hand…" Damon shrugged. Elena smiled lightly. Damon was always the bad boy, wasn't he? "I dropped out of school, broke everything, argued father over everything. He and Stefan had an unrealistic idea of life, I always threw in my two cents but they ended up back at my feet." Damon took in a breath. "When our father died, Stefan sort of took on his role. Even though I was the older brother, he was the mature one. Little Steffy did everything father would have asked. When we moved into our Uncle Zack's house, Stefan did everything he could to fix me. I was like one of my broken toys. I had no emotions, did nothing, said nothing."

"You were upset about your father's death, that's reasonable." She cut in, placing one of her hands on his. The last thing he wanted was her sympathy but he gave her a slight smile.

"No, I was upset that I failed him, and Stefan and my mother for that matter." Damon looked at her thoroughly, catching a light whimper come from deep in her throat. "I met a girl, Katherine. She was… amazing." Damon looked down. "Katherine was full of life and exciting. A brand new toy. But she was also a bitch, and selfish and didn't care about a lot. I fell in love with her. Turns out, so did Stefan." Elena's face dropped immediately. Everything really does come down to the love of a woman, she recalled something Damon had said to her around when they first met. "She was also dating my brother. Or not dating exactly, none of us were every really dating. Just…"

"Having sex." Elena finished in a small voice.

"Well, yes, but it was just like we hung out. Nothing ever established us as a couple, same with Stefan. It was a game we were playing, for her affection. We both fell in love with her, and fought over her. She. Chose. Stefan." His sentence was choppy, he was recalling things now, and it hurt him. Emotion. This was progress. "She told me herself. She wanted Stefan and not me. Surely I was better in bed than my brother, so I just didn't understand what it was. Why she was breaking me. All over again." Damon looked up at her. "Then she died."

That hit Elena hard. She wasn't expecting yet another death. "How?" She whispered.

"She died in a church fire. With twenty seven other people." Damon said.

"I'm sorry." Elena felt awful about everything. His whole life was a bad novel.

"I don't want your charity, Elena." He said huskily.

"I'm not giving you my charity, I giving you my compassion. My human emotion, Damon. Don't be afraid of emotions. No matter how crappy your life was, the hardest part is over, but you need to let yourself feel." She said, placing a hand on his forearm.

"I do feel, Elena. And it sucks."

Elena looked over at him sadly. "What was your mother like?" She asked. Damon smiled a genuine smile. "Mama's boy?" She asked, returning the smile.

"Guilty. She was amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better mother. She was beautiful and she cared so much. She made me feel like I was actually loved. It's too bad her life was cut short." Damon was smiling the whole time. "What about you? What happened to your parents?" He asked. She cringed slightly and he moved closer to her, facing her more. "Sore subject? You don't have to talk about." He shrugged.

"No. you're demons are out, why can mine be? I was at a party, late during the night. Some sketchy stuff was going on, so I called my parents to pick me up. On the way home, the car skipped and slid off Wickery Bridge. We crashed into the water. I survived, but they didn't. So my aunt took in Jeremy and I. Frankly, I feel bad for the girl, she never asked for any of this. She was trying to make it in school, and enjoy her life. She's not much older than you, you know." Elena looked up at him. He nodded silently. "I just… If I hadn't gone to that party, then my parents wouldn't be dead." She blamed herself.

"Don't talk like that. Fate is fate. We all die eventually, they just cashed in early." He said. "It happens."

Jenna looked over to Jeremy, who sat at the table eating cereal.

"It's been quiet around here." She muttered, pouring herself some Orange Juice. "Where's Damon?"

Jeremy snorted out a laugh, and Jenna joined in. But then they stopped laughing.

"No but really. No phone calls, no door knocks. It's been two days; shouldn't he be holding us hostage for information on Elena?" Jenna was serious.

"Or maybe…" Jeremy started.

"He found her." Jenna finished.

"Shiiiiiit." Jeremy drew out, and Jenna shrugged, continuing to drink her juice.

"Number seven: I refuse to swim in oceans." Elena stated. She and Damon had been playing Beer Pong, minus the beer for a half hour now. The red, plastic cups were filled a third of the way up with water, which they just didn't bother to drink after a while. Damon wasn't prepared to lose to a girl, but he was having his ass handed to him. Repeatedly.

"Sharks?" Damon asked, followed by a nod from Elena. "Hmm. Number seven: I have never been to the zoo."

Elena giggled, shooting the ball, hitting the back left cup. It plopped in and she raised her arms in victory. "I'll take you. My dad used to always bring me and Jer." Elena set up for her second shot, aiming for one of the three cups left. It bounced off, and Damon obtained both ping pong balls.

"Jeremy. Is he cool?" Damon asked, lining up for the shot. It failed miserably, luckily rolling back to him. "Yay. Trick shot!" he threw it behind his back, and Elena laughed because it was an awful throw and didn't even stay on the table.

"Yeah, He just likes to keep to himself." Damon took another shot, and it hit her first cup. She removed the cup and gathered the two balls.

"I need to find him a girl." He chuckled.

"Uh no. Knowing you, you'll find some high end stripper." Elena laughed, shooting.

"I found you didn't I?" He asked. She smiled up at him. He could be so cute sometimes.

ssoo; chapter eleven, hope you liked it. damon and elena are making an effort to get to know each other now. stay tuned for a lighter chapter next, then the following one (which i have all planned out) will be fluffy with a side of drama/tragedy. thanks for reading; pleeease review!