Alright guys, here's another update! I'm currently in Australia and my internet down here sucks - that means updates will be a bit scattered, since my computer won't always let me upload when I want to.

My muse is still awake and active, so hopefully I can finish this story within the next few years - hopefully you won't have to go almost three years without an update again.

So without furher ado:

Chapter 12:

-One month later

One month passed faster than I'd expected. I was more than surprised to find snow had started falling outside, and the temperatures had dropped below the freezing point. Lucky for Elena, currently the only human being in our household, Stefan and Caroline had decided to get the boarding house renewed a couple of decades back. That didn't keep her from wearing my sweatshirt all the time, though. Ever since I'd found her curled up in it, she'd kept it and worn it when she'd been somewhat cold.
I'd been surprised she wanted to wear it, but honestly, I didn't mind at all. It wasn't like I got cold or anything, and she looked good in it, so why should I be grumpy and take it away from her?

Something else was wrong, though. I usually found her sitting by one of the windows, curling up with a cup of tea and looking at the snow. She never looked happy. Actually, she looked pretty much like she was sulking, every single time I saw her around. But as soon as I said something or made my presence known, she plastered a fake smile on her lips and told me she liked looking at snow.

You didn't have to be a genius to see she wasn't looking at the snow – something was on her mind, and she was keeping it from me for some reason.

I got that we weren't exactly "besties" or anything like that. Hell, she didn't even know what she meant to me. To her, I was just the big bad vampire that had kidnapped her after her family had died in a car crash. But that didn't mean she couldn't confine in me. I would be there, and even though the problem would probably be silly, I would listen to her. She knew that, right?

As I once again walked in on her sitting in the library, her journal in her lap, just staring out the window with a sad expression, I'd had enough.

"So, are you ever going to tell me what's wrong?" I asked, pouring a glass of bourbon from the wet bar we kept in the library. Her head snapped up, as she shut the journal close and pulled it to her chest. I raised an eyebrow at her, sitting down in one of the chairs.

"What makes you think something's wrong?" she said, narrowing her eyes at me. I laughed and downed the bourbon. This was going to be a long conversation. How stupid did she think I was?

"You want the list?" I asked, standing up from my chair. As I started walking closer, I felt our synchronized hearts speed up. She pulled her knees up to her body, and scooted further away from me, keeping her eyes locked at me.

"What list?" she asked, hugging the journal close to her chest. I raised the other eyebrow as well, smirking at her.

"The list of reasons why it's clear that you are completely miserable," I said, putting my glass down and crossing my arms over the chest. The defiant look returned to her eyes, and I fought not to smirk at it.

"Oh, you think I'm miserable? Let's see what the reasons might be... There's the fact that my entire family died in a car crash less than a month ago, I got kidnapped by a fucking vampire, and am still being held hostage by that vampire, who may or may not kill me, every time his mood shifts... But I'm sure you're right, I should be singing show tunes, because it's not like any of those things are turning my life over," she said, cocking her head and raising one eyebrow at me.

"I told you, I'm not going to kill you," I said, letting the smirk come out. She rolled her eyes at me, standing up from where she'd been sitting.

"What does it matter? I'd be better off dead," she said, still hugging her journal tight to her body. As I felt rage fire inside me, I sped to stand in front of her, my nose only inches from her.

"You are not better off dead. Don't ever say that! And second, I am not gonna let you die," I said, my voice low, cold and threatening. She looked frightened for less than a minute, before she narrowed her eyes, and let her nose touch mine.

"It's not your decision."

Then she hurried past me, and disappeared from the library. I groaned and sank down in one of the chairs, reaching for the flask of bourbon. Screw the glass, I needed a bigger amount right now.

How could a teenage girl be this much trouble? I knew she had been through a lot, and that her family's death would be hard on her, but shouldn't she be coping now?

"Things not going the way you want them to?" I stood up quickly, looking at the door. Caroline was standing there, leaning up against the door frame, her arms crossed over her chest and her head slightly cocked.

"Fuck off," I said, taking a swig from the bourbon bottle.

"Oh, I don't think you want me to 'fuck off'. I mean, I'm the only one that can help you with this little problem," she said, walking into the room, her blonde hair bobbing slightly on top of her head. I raised one eyebrow at her.

"I'm listening."

She sat down opposite of me, crossing her legs and smiling at me.

"You want to make Elena more happy, and I happen to know why she's miserable as fuck – and I know how to make her better," she said, smirking at me, as she crossed her arms across her chest. I narrowed my eyes at her, knowing her too well for this.

"What's the catch?" I asked, taking another swig from the bottle. She smirked at me, and I knew there was one, and I probably wasn't going to like it.

"You have to do it. Whatever I tell you will make her better, you have to go through with it," she said, looking at me with a hard look. I leaned back in my chair, raising one eyebrow and then nodding slowly. It couldn't be too bad, could it?

"Ah, not just nodding. I want your word, Salvatore," she said, pointing a finger at me. I sped in front of her, catching her hand in my grip.

"Fine, Caroline, I promise," I said, narrowing my eyes at her. The bubbly smile returned, as she pulled her hand away from me.

"Honestly, I have a hard time accepting the fact you haven't thought of it yourself. Tell me, what month are we currently in?" she said, staring at me as if I was stupid. I frowned at her.

"December."

She raised both her eyebrows, looking at me as if I should've figured it out by now. I rolled my eyes at her, and hardened my look.

"You need to tell me what I can do, right now," I said, my voice low and threatening.

"It's Christmas, idiot! And who do you celebrate Christmas with? Your family," she deadpanned. For a few minutes, I actually forgot about being mad at her.

Christmas... Of course! I'd forgotten all about the silly human tradition, since I hadn't celebrated it for centuries – why should I? Wasn't as if I was a religious man, and it was a stupid tradition. Americans especially had a way of overdoing it, so I hadn't even been in the country for the past 200 Christmas eves.

"Right, I forgot about Christmas. So, what can I do to make it up to her? Buy her a Christmas card?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. Truly, I had no idea what I could do. How do you make up something like that to a teenage girl? A part of me told me I shouldn't care – I mean, she was still just some human girl, but I didn't like seeing her sad. I hadn't seen anywhere near enough of her smile.

"Ugh, I forgot you have the emotional range of a teaspoon... I'll find the decorations for you, and then I'll take Elena out shopping. When we return, this house better be screaming Christmas, Salvatore," she said, pointing at me. My mouth fell open.

"You want me to decorate the boarding house?" I asked, not believing her for one second.

"And find her a Christmas present... Doesn't have to be a ton of stuff or anything, just something nice... Something, special. That's how you do Christmas, Damon, and it's the only thing I can think of you can do to cheer her up."
A present? Something special? Was that what girls liked now? Gifts... But what could I get her? Back in 1744, I'd known just what to get her, but I had no idea what girls in 2010 liked.

I groaned, knowing Caroline would be the only one able to help me find something. And that meant I had to ask her for help. Again.

Thing is, Caroline has a way of making people do exactly as she wants. That's why I didn't say anything, when she put three boxes of Christmas decorations in my room, and why I didn't have anything against her taking Elena out.

This was going to be the first time she was outside the boarding house, and I was kind of nervous Caroline was going to either let her go or lose her. She didn't quite understand just how much Elena hated vampires – and if she outed us all, we were going to have a serious problem.

Killing an entire city wasn't exactly quiet.

But on the other hand, she and Stefan had been able to keep quiet for the past few decades. Would she let a little girl spoil what they had fought so hard to build?

Didn't think so.

So, I eventually gave in and let the girls go. Caroline had told her, while I'd been listening outside the door, and honestly, it wasn't what I expected.

"Eleeeeeena?" Caroline said, as she walked into her room, "how do you feel about going Christmas shopping?"

I stood outside the view of the open door, my ears tuned in on Elena. I could even smell her from here, and I felt the way her heart sped up at Blondie's words.

"Are you serious?" she asked, and Caroline laughed.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, shopping could be a code word for burying my body in the woods?" she asked, putting something down on her bed – probably her diary.

"Burying your body? What are you talking about?" Caroline asked, dumbfounded. I rolled my eyes at them. Of course Elena would still think we were going to off her. How the hell did I get her to see we weren't going to touch a hair on her head?

"Damon's gonna kill me, isn't he?" she sighed, "so I'm guessing you've got the dirty job of getting rid of my body."

Her voice was completely calm. I clenched my fists, angry she really seemed to believe I would kill her one day, as if her death wouldn't be the worst part of my pathetic life. And besides, I'd never let someone else clean up my mess. I bury my own damn bodies.

Caroline's voice ranged out, shocked.

"What? No. Damon isn't going to kill you, and neither am I. I was talking about taking you out to the mall to do a little Christmas shopping. You'd probably like some new clothes, and I know a great place for coffee," she said, sitting down on her bed. Was that seriously what girls liked? Buying clothes and then drinking coffee?

Well, if that made her happy, and gave me time to decorate the house, I wasn't going to complain. Wasn't like we lacked money or anything.

"Am I even allowed out of the house?" Elena asked, probably narrowing her eyes, "have you cleared this with Damon?"

I smirked as I leaned my head against the wall. I liked that she needed my permission before leaving the house.

"I don't have to clear this with Damon. I can take you out for Christmas shopping if I want to," Caroline stated, her voice defiant. I raised an eyebrow, knowing she would never have done this without my permission.

"You know, he'll probably kill both of us if he finds out," Elena mused, "he wants to keep me here. I'm his little prisoner, or something like that. I don't really know what his fantasies all include."

Once again, I clenched my fists.

"Damon isn't going to hurt any of us, and he doesn't want to keep you here. He was just worried you wouldn't be able to keep our secret," Caroline said with a sweet voice.

I knew that was my chance to go in, pretending I'd never heard any of their conversation. So I opened the door and my eyes instantly going to Elena. She was standing with her back against one of the walls, her arms crossed over her chest.

She was wearing my sweatshirt again.

One of her small hands fisted around it, hugging it tightly to her body, as she looked at me.

"What's going on in here?" I asked, looking from Elena to Caroline. The blonde smiled at me, as Elena stiffened.

"I was just asking if Elena wanted to come Christmas shopping with me. She needs some time out of the house," she said, clearly trying to hint I should let them go. Way to play the role, Caroline...

"Well, that's for her to decide, Barbie. Don't wanna suffocate her with your shopping habits," I said, winking at Elena. Her mouth opened slightly, and her arms fell down.

"You'll let me go?" she asked, the defiant attitude all gone. At that moment, she was just a fragile girl that'd been through way too much, and I wanted to take her into my arms. God, how I wanted to hug her and tell her everything was going to be okay.

"Of course, I'll let you go with Caroline. I just don't want you going on your own, though, you get that?" I said, tilting my head forward a bit.

The worry about her going out with Caroline was all worth it, when I saw how her face lit up. A real smile spread on her lips, as she brought her hands up to her torso again. If going out shopping made her this happy, I would gladly take her myself. I liked seeing that smile on her face.

"Get dressed, then we'll drive into town! Maybe we'll meet some of your friends," Caroline said, ushering me out of the room. I stiffened as soon as I heard the word 'friends'. Would Elena be able to keep quiet around them? Sure, Caroline was with her, but she could easily escape if she wanted to. Would she really keep our secret, or would she tell them?

She'd gotten used to living with vampires, and she'd even become friends with Caroline and a bit with Stefan. She wouldn't out them, would she?

I would just have to trust Caroline with her. I mean, she wasn't that incapable of staying in control, and even though I hated to admit it, Caroline had gotten the vampire life under control in record time. Cravings had never been a problem to her, nor had she had any trouble being in the presence of human blood. Her transition had gone smoothly, and even Stefan had been impressed just how well she handled everything once she had turned.

"Try not to lose her," I whispered to Caroline, as I left the room. I could almost feel her roll her eyes at me.

Once the girls were out of the house, I started the long job of decorating the house. Not that I knew anything at all about that sort of stuff. Caroline had carefully instructed me where to put things, so nothing would be out of place.

Stefan eventually joined me, speeding around along with me, trying to make everything look like Caroline wanted it to.

"Can I take it things are going better between you and Elena?" he asked, fastening some glittering shit to the wall.

"I have no idea how things are going between us, little brother," I said, not bothering to look his way.

"What do you mean? You have been talking to her, haven't you?" Stefan said with a judging voice. I rolled my eyes, focusing on hanging the glassballs on the Christmas tree.

"Of course I have been talking to her. I haven't just been ignoring her," I deadpanned, speeding around the tree with the decorations.

"Then your relationship must be progressing," he answered,sounding all analytic and stuff.

"I am so not having this conversation with you," I said, finishing up the tree, and grabbing the outdoor decorations. Stefan stopped speeding around, looking at me as I went to the front door.

"Why do you insist on hating me?" he asked, looking at me with an expression I'd never seen on his face before.

"I don't hate you, brother. Go back to work. We're kind of behind on schedule. I don't know how long Caroline's distracting Elena," I said, disappearing out the door.

What was with Stefan and getting all sentimental now? We hadn't been close since the 1740's, and we weren't going to rekindle our relationship now. There was no going back to being the way we used to be back then. What had happened with the bitch back then had ruined everything permanently.

Not that it had been Stefan's fault – actually, it hadn't really been anyone's fault. It had just been fucked up and extremely unfortunately. Hell, I'd even go as far as to say it wasn't even Katherine's fault.

I shook her out of my head, as I started fastening the light chains to the outside of the house. I didn't want to go back there now. I hadn't thought about what happened in almost two decades, and I didn't want to get all sentimental now. I didn't have the time to think about stuff like that. I needed to make Elena happy, or at least make her a little bit more comfortable. She was, after all, going to live with us for a long time. And it was clear she wasn't just going to love it instantly. The big house and almost unlimited amount of money didn't really attract her, for some reason.

Maybe because she wasn't shallow enough to be happy with just those things. Elena had been used to having a real home. She'd obviously loved her parents, and I'd seen the way she'd been with Miranda. They'd been close, and she'd have someone she could trust with her problems.

Now she didn't. She was building up a relationship with Caroline, and eventually she would trust her enough to go to her with her problems, but I had a feeling that was far off right now.

Eventually she would be happy she lived here.

And what a timing it was, when Caroline's car pulled into the driveway, just as I fastened the end of the very last chain. If I wasn't a vampire, I would've missed the way Elena's mouth opened, and the way her eyes lit up, when she saw the house.

But I was a vampire, and I took an embarrassing amount of pleasure in seeing her as happy as she was, because of something I had done.

She and Caroline got out of the car, Caroline's smirk discreet, but there. As she fetched their shopping bags from the trunk, Elena just stood and looked at the house.

Eventually, she looked up at me, smiling at me, before returning her gaze to the house.

I hadn't overdone it – I hate walking around cities when it's Christmas, and seeing buildings that's glowing more than fireworks. My house wasn't going to look like that. Instead I'd done it the classy way, letting green, red and blue lights follow the roof top.

It'd taken a long time, even with my vampire speed, but I needed to make things better for Elena. Even though I hated it, I really didn't like seeing her sad.

I shouldn't care about her like that – should I? I mean, sure, she was my Singer, and I cared if she was alive or dead. I wanted to keep her alive. But I shouldn't be caring about her mood, should I?
But then why the fuck had I spent all day decorating the house, in a way I'd never do if she hadn't been here?

"This looks amazing," Elena said, still not moving her eyes from the house. I smirked and jumped down from the roof, landing on the ground. Elena let out a shriek and placed her hands over her mouth.

"You should see the inside of the house," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. As she got over the shock of seeing me jump down from the roof, she let her arms fall down.

"Then I'll go and do that," she said, quickly moving around me. I grabbed her wrist, turning her around. Her heart sped up the instant my skin touched hers, but I didn't care.

"I hope you had a nice trip," I said, smirking before letting her go inside. She didn't look back, as she hurried inside.

"It's always one step forward and two steps back with you, isn't it?" Caroline hissed, as she walked past me, easily caring all of their shopping bags.

Finding a present for Elena was a lot harder than I'd first expected. I'd figured I'd just find some kind of jewelry – I mean, girls like jewelry, don't they? I'd seen her wear necklaces, and I'd seen rings on her fingers. So a ring or a necklace would be ideal, wouldn't it?
Once again, Caroline had taken care of Elena, keeping her entertained at home, while I tried finding something she would like. I started out at the jewelry store and found 3 pairs of earrings and 4 necklaces I figured she'd like. After that, I headed to some of the shops that had clothes, and bought her some gift cards – with all the weight she was losing from not really eating, she was gonna need new clothes soon, so I might as well pay for a shopping spree.

After I'd bought her 5 gift cards, I went to the bookstore. I went around looking at all the classics for a while, before I realized that I wasn't sure what books she had at home – nor did I know which she'd be interested in.

So I ended up going to the checkout lady and bought her a $1000 gift card, to use whenever she wanted to. This had to make her feel happy, right?

Thank you SO much for reading and if you have the time to leave me a review, I'd be thrilled - I always like hearing what you guys think about the chapter or what's in store for Damon and Elena. I have a ton of planning done for this, but who knows where Delena might take me?

See you next time!