You Lost Me

Chapter Thirty-Five - Changed

The blissful feeling that guided Elena through her slumber was still there when her eyes fluttered opened. There were no words that could describe how she felt after she shared something so big with Damon. The feeling of having him inside of her was still fresh in her mind and she knew if she had a beating heart it would be skipping several beats now.

She was still in his arms but it seemed like he was the one sleeping now. She tilted her head up as slow and softly as possible because she didn't want him to wake up. She was successful in her attempt and enjoyed watching him be so peaceful after their love making session. She was so insanely in love with him. She just wanted to bring him to her arms and hold him tight and protectively and be with him the rest of eternity. Elena never felt like this before. She couldn't explain. It was like a giant force inside of her kept pushing her to be close to him. She had an urgency to touch him and be with him all the times. This need, this hunger couldn't be satisfied. The more she got from him, the more she wanted him.

"Want to take a picture?" he muttered with his eyes still closed.

"You're so beautiful, I can't stop staring" she chuckled as she felt his arms bringing her closer to him, if that was even possible.

"How lucky you are for having such a fine specimen of man, huh?" his trademark smirk was plastered on his face while she rolled her eyes.

"Maybe I should look for someone more suitable to my humble features" she offered as she dropped her face, so he couldn't see the smile she had showing.

"You're the most beautiful, hottest and sexiest woman I've laid eyes on" he turned their bodies around so she was underneath his toned frame.

"Good to know I'm a match for your greatness" she smiled and his answer was to bring his lips to hers and kiss her, taking his time savoring her delicious taste.

"We're a match made in heaven"

"That we are" she agreed resuming their make-out.

"But I'm going to take my muse to my bed because that is where you belong" he said bringing her to his arms, bridal style and disappearing in the dark of night, to another love making session.

The next morning was something Damon and Elena had never experienced before. There were no words to describe how they felt after the night they had. They knew their relationship was finally cemented and their bodies finally merged into one. Damon couldn't take his arms off of her. Every now and then he found his arms wrapping around her or simply touching her. He was never this happy and it was all because of who Elena Gilbert was.

"So I was exchanging some e-mails with Jeremy yesterday" she mentioned as they sat on the couch after they got lunch. Their feeding routine was well established now. The first thing they had in the morning when they woke up was some blood, enough for the rest of the day. They spent some time in bed or doing something else and not much later they'd settle for breakfast. They had lunch every day and sometimes, when they craved, they had a blood snack in the afternoon but they didn't eat human food. They didn't have dinner every night but every time they felt up to, he cooked something for them or they went out. It worked perfectly and after little time Damon was thankful for her wanting to keep her human roots so badly. It was a nice change for him after a century and a half of taking the vampire style of living too deeply.

"How is he?" he asked politely but not entirely interested in the answer. It wasn't that he didn't care about her brother but he felt like he had everything and everyone he needed with him already and that was her.

"He's going to get married"

"Wow, why so fast? How old is he anyway? Nineteen?" Damon offered honestly.

"Yes, but he says he found the perfect girl for him and he doesn't want to waste any time"

"I know the feeling" he once again found himself wrapping his arms around her.

"I wish I could be there but I told him that's not a risk I could take" she looked slightly sad and he was sad for her. There were things that would never change in her life as a vampire and he knew it would always bring sadness to her heart.

"Does he understand?"

"Completely"

"Good, give the kid my best wishes"

"Stefan is the only family you have now Damon and I feel like it's the only family I have too. I know I have Jeremy but I'm not part of his life as much as I want to be because I can't be. But with Stefan it could be different, you know?" she knew she was playing low again but she was very honest. It was great to be with him but it was sort of depressing and sad that they would never have anyone else to share their life with. What if someday they had an argument? She wouldn't have a friend or a relative to talk to about it. She loved him but she wasn't ready for it to be only the two of them the rest of their days.

"This thing again?" he asked breaking the contact of their bodies and straightening his back against the couch.

"It's important to me for you two to fix it but it's also important to me to have someone other than you"

"And here I thought I was the only one you needed"

"You're the only one I need. It just doesn't mean you're the only person I want to be part of my life. I don't have any friends, you don't seem to have any either. It's just weird. When you get out to get blood in the hospital or do whatever you need to do I'm all alone and even when we're together. I don't have a job, I don't study, I don't have friends. There's a lot lacking but you still fulfill all my needs but just because you're enough it doesn't have to be only you"

"I was thinking about it the other day. I want you to go to college"

"What?" she asked shocked.

"Actually we're both going to college next summer" he said more as a statement than a suggestion.

"I didn't even finish high school. Died in the process, remember?" she was shocked but she had been with him too long the past weeks. She quickly acquired his humor and sarcasm.

"It can be worked around"

"Like compelling people"

"Do you want to go back to high school?" he asked her raising one of his eyebrows.

"Not really but…"

"So it's settled. We are close enough to Raleigh to attend Duke"

"Whoa. Just because we're compelling our way in it doesn't mean we need to go to an Ivy university"

"Who said anything about compelling? I'm getting your high school completion certificate but you can start working your ass off studying because I'm not compelling anyone to get us inside. SAT's aren't that hard" he offered and she was really shocked now.

"Come on, you want to know that you're capable. And I like this human thing we have going on. So no compelling into college, Missy" he brought her to his arms again, hoping she wouldn't bring Stefan up again but he knew she would.

"I like the idea"

"Good. We could pursue a real career you know? We can move from time to time but if you put on the right makeup I suppose we could live in the same place for even ten years"

"Makeup is usually used to keep you young" she chuckled.

"Makeup can do everything"

"I guess you're right"

"And if we ever get tired of our profession. We start it all over again with a new major and a new career"

"We might live forever keeping such a low profile and being so human"

"I can't think of anything better than spending eternity with you"

"Neither can I"

"So we have a plan"

"But just because we're doing something with our lives it doesn't mean I don't want you to have Stefan around. I'm not asking you to invite him to move in or live by the bed and breakfast but to keep in touch. I'd love to travel around and know the places you talk about. We could meet them a few times on some of those occasions. They could come visit, we could go visit. I know you miss him. You've lived with him again for over a year in Mystic Falls and despite all the problems you had, you got along just fine"

"I can get over what Stefan did but I'll never be able to be around Katherine again without trying to kill her and I'm not sure my brother would be happy if I killed his girl" he was uncomfortable by the conversation again but he now realized it was important to her. Her arguments were strong and if he was really honest with himself he missed his brother and being close as he was the remaining family he had. But Katherine was more than he could take.

"It doesn't need to be now, but I want them to be part of our lives somehow. And I made no mistake. I want them, not only Stefan. So I guess you should get used to the idea" Elena was bold in her statement as she left him on the couch. She knew she wasn't going to convince him, so she would have to force it. She really wanted him to be close to his brother and she missed having some family around. Katherine was her family, they had the same blood in their veins and Stefan was his brother. They were what they had left and she had come to terms to Katherine's decisions a long time ago.

And now as they contemplated a life together, a very long maybe never ending life, she knew Katherine was responsible for it. Not only because she had turned her but because of her plan to kill Klaus. Even if Elena was a vampire by her own desire at some point who knew if she would never cross paths with Klaus during her undead life? And she couldn't predict what his reaction would be or if she would even have time to convince him she wasn't Katherine but a second doppelganger he missed.

Months passed and Damon could see that Elena was already getting tired of their monotonous life. They were just a month away of starting at Duke, where both of them, by their own effort, were happily accepted. Surely Damon had to compel a few people to create them some documents and get all the red tape they needed to do the SAT's but they got in by their own merit.

He knew what he needed to do to complete her happiness and as much as it hurt him to do it he would deal with the woman he hated the most in his life.

"Thank you for meeting me" he said to the vampire that sat across him at the table.

"Always a pleasure" Katherine offered her trademark childish smirk.

"Seeing you just at my arm's length makes me think of the many ways I could kill you right here, right now" he bitterly retorted and her smile quickly dropped from her face. She was happy when he contacted his brother and then her. She knew the biggest regret of Stefan's life was to lose his brother. He was happy with her but she knew some days he wondered if it was worthy cutting relations with his brother, who he turned because he wanted to spend the eternity with Damon by his side. She felt guilty and when Damon contacted them she was relieved that it could change, though she knew things wouldn't be easy.

"You should thank me for what I did to you. If Elena wasn't a vampire whatever she felt for you wouldn't have been magnified along with her other emotions and she certainly wouldn't be with you right now" she played her first card and seeing how disgusted he looked she knew it didn't work at all.

"And that's the difference between us, Katherine. I'm not a selfish jerk anymore. I would never turn Elena for my advantage"

"And what if she decided to turn herself? Don't you know about all the issues in a relationship of a vampire and a human?" she challenged and they both knew she had a point.

"Then it would be her decision and she would take it after I made it clear that I'd rather die with her than pass this curse to her" he honestly answered. He would never push the curse over Elena if she was still a human.

"You really have changed" she exclaimed mildly surprised and her tone was somewhat soft.

"Love changes people Katherine; which is why I don't believe at all you love my brother"

"I'm just reasoning here, Damon, what's done is done and there's a hell of a lot of positive things for you to look at. Do you really think of all places in the world I could be with Stefan now that I really want to be in a freezing beach in North Carolina? We were in Europe when you called; going to places we've been before because we wanted to be there with each other. I have no drama in my life anymore. There's no curse, there's no Original trying to kill me. I'm free and I'm with the guy I love. Now if you think what I had in mind for me and for Stefan was to be with you and Elena then you don't know me at all. I'm here because this is important to him, because I can see how hard it is for him to know that to have me he lost you. I don't want anything to do with you. I don't need your friendship, your forgiveness or your acceptance but Stefan needs it and that's why I'm telling you this. I'll do whatever it takes. If that's being in the same city as you, then so be it. If that's about begging you, tell me when I should be on my knees. If what you want is for me to be dead all I ask is a few decades with him then I'm all yours" she looked tortured and hurt as she spoke and Damon was actually taken aback by her reaction but still he looked suspiciously at her. Damon didn't say anything until she spoke again, her voice low and vulnerable like he never heard before.

"I just want him to be happy; I just want to be there with him while it happens" she offered and he watched her carefully.

"Okay" he said a few minutes later, breaking the brief silence.

"Okay what?"

"We'll keep it civil. For Stefan and Elena" he explained as he stood up to walk away.

"Thank you" she said after him.

He stopped in his tracks but didn't look back. "You're welcome"

AN: It took me long enough but turns out I was still busy. I hope you enjoy the chapter though.

Thanks a lot for all the reviews and also thanks to May my beta.

xoxo, Babi