Gasp! What's this? An early update? It is officially my last week in Australia, which means that I am busy trying to see everything and try everything I have on my list, so I decided to update tonight (it's Wednesday night here) instead of tomorrow, because I'm not sure I'll have time for it. Hopefully you guys won't mind too much! I will be back in Denmark next week, so updates will come at a different time.

NaNoWriMo is going great for me - I'm at 44 thousand words, all on this fic, so rest assured that updates will keep coming for a good while! We're actually getting near the end here. Here's chapter 25!

Chapter 25

December had come around once more and this time, I knew it was going to be different than last time. The funeral had had the effect I had hoped for.

It wasn't that she wasn't happy before, but it was like a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. She was more smiley and more open and as soon as we hit the first of December, she woke me up with a red santa hat on her head and eggnog in her hands.

"Happy Christmas!" she said, smiling at me. She was in a red silk robe I had gotten her a few months back and she looked adorable with the hat on her head.

"It's only December 1st, Elena… there's still 24 days until Christmas," I said, but took the cup from her anyway. She smiled and sat down in bed.

"Nooo, December equals Christmas, Damon! We have so much we need to do today! We need to do all the decorations and we need to get a tree and we need to decorate that, and oh, would you mind driving me to my parents' house so we can get my decorations from there? And then we gotta bake Christmas cookies and oh, there's so much we need to do, Damon! Get up!" she squaled. I laughed at her, thinking that she was the cutest thing I had ever seen. I may not really care about Christmas at all, but she did, so we would have to celebrate it to her satisfaction - there was nothing else to do.

"Elena, we have lots of time. What time is it?" I asked, when I noticed it was still dark outside.

"6.40am! You've slept in late!" she said, hopping off the bed and going to our dresser. She took her robe off on the way, which really tempted me to give us another 30 minutes delay.

"Why are we up this early again?" I asked, getting out of bed after having a sip of the eggnog. It was pretty delicious.

"Didn't you hear me, Damon? We have so much to do! Caroline has already been up for almost an hour!" she said, pulling out her long pj's from the dresser.

"Are we doing this with Blondie?" I asked with a groan. She turned around and gave me a strict look, one leg already in her sesame street pants.

"Don't complain! We're going to have fun and you're going to enjoy this with me!" she said, and then the adorable excited smile returned. Normally I would have been very opposed, but seeing her as happy as that meant so much to me, that I would have to get out of bed, get dressed and help her out with the decorations.

I didn't want her to hurt herself while putting them up anyway.

Caroline was waiting for us downstairs, with Stefan standing beside her. He looked like this was a great idea, which annoyed me even further.

"Good to see you here, brother," he said, as we came down the stairs, me having an arm around Elena. I smiled sarcastically to him, pulling Elena close.

"Same to you," I said shortly, dragging Elena into the direction of the front door.

"Damon, where are we going?" she asked, laughing. I frowned and looked down at her.

"I thought you wanted to get your decorations from your parents' house?" I asked, putting on my boots. She laughed.

"Not right now, Damon! Le's decorate inside first and get the first batch of cookies in the oven, and then we can do that later. Maybe on our way home from finding the perfect Christmas tree," she said, her eyes lighting up.

"We can just find one in the forest, Elena," I said, nodding towards the door.

"No! We have to find one at a Christmas tree place!" she said stubbornly. I raised my eyebrows at her. She smiled innocently.

"Or else it won't be real Christmas," she said, as though that was something everybody knew. I put my hands up in defeat and chuckled.

"Alright, sweetheart, if that's what the lady wants, that's what the lady is going to get," I said, taking off my boots again and kissing her gently, "this Christmas is all yours."

I would come to regret those words - I knew Elena loved Christmas, but I didn't know she cared that much. I had expected her to guide me to where she wanted the stuff that was going up high, so I could just jump up there and put it into place, but no. She insisted on climbing on ladders, and me lifting her up to places that were too high up for her to actually be.

She fell down the ladder once, and I, of course, caught her. I had expected that to stop her, but she had just been laughing, climbing up there again to put the rest of the decorations up.

Stefan and Caroline had already started on the cookies, so they were busy in the kitchen, where we were beginning to be able to smell them.

Elena had also insisted on putting on Christmas music, over our huge stereo, so the house was ringing with carols, Mariah Carey and Wham!.

And at some point during it all, the feeling of ridiculousness fell away and instead was replaced with the wonderful feeling of creating memories with Elena. Her own emotions were starting to flow to me, so I could literally feel her excitement of decorating - it wasn't like I was in doubt about which were mine and which were her emotions, but it was more like her emotions were pulsating around me, like a reminder of how my Singer was doing, and it was warming me up.

All the decorations were reminding me that I had yet to find her a Christmas gift and I knew I had to be better about it this year than I had been last year.

I'd had a few ideas, but some were too over the top and some were too little - I hadn't seemed to find the one that was just perfect for her yet.

I knew Caroline and Elena were going Christmas shopping the next day, which meant I had all day to see if I could figure out what the best present for her would be.

Later in the afternoon, Elena, Caroline, Stefan and I went looking for Christmas trees. Caroline and Stefan wanted one in their bedroom as well as in the parlor, so I knew we would have to get one in our bedroom as well, even though we were bound to get pines everywhere.

Caroline and Elena were walking ahead of us, arm in arm, talking about something and pointing out different Christmas trees that they liked. Stefan and I were walking behind, which I wasn't immediately happy about.

"They're adorable, aren't they?" Stefan asked, as we watched them walk ahead.

"Yeah… I guess they are," I said, looking at Elena. Every time she turned to point at a tree, I got a glimpse of her face and I loved the happy smile that was on there.

"You and Elena seem to be making progress," Stefan noted. I frowned at him and thought of it. I mean, we had been good for a while now, but she had seem even more secure in it ever since the funeral.

"Yeah, we're doing pretty good, I guess," I said, thinking about just how good we had been last night, when we had 'gone to bed early'.

A while after the funeral I had decided to introduce the blindfold into our sexlife and Elena had absolutely loved it. I had driven her completely insane with a feather, while she had been lying there, unable to see and thereby anticipate where I was going to stroke her next.

"It's good to see. You guys make a great couple," he said. I turned to look at him, a bit confused. We hadn't talked in ages, and here he was, talking as though we had been best buds for a while now.

"Thank you," I said, not wanting to pick a fight. I knew I should try to be better friends with him. Even Elena had become pretty good friends with Stefan, because she often hang out with him and Caroline after school - when she wasn't spending time with me, that was.

"I'm glad you found your Singer," he said, after a small hesitation. I turned my head around to look at him.

"Don't let Elena hear you," I said in a low voice. She and Caroline were still ahead of us and they were talking loudly about Christmas trees. I knew Elena wouldn't have heard, but I was getting paranoid.

"She won't. Her and Caroline are busy," Stefan said with a shrug. He was carrying an axe over his shoulder, and I had another one, so we could split if need be - Elena had insisted that we stayed together, but we both knew the girls could run off in each their direction at any time.

"Are you regretting that you didn't spend more time with her, when she was younger?" Stefan asked. I tightened my jaw, trying not to remember how hard it had been, leaving Elena behind, but how much I had felt like I needed it. It felt so selfish now. I had tried to be back for the major life events, but I had missed out on so much - and I could have lost her.

I knew that she hadn't exactly lived a dangerous life or anything, but I also knew that accidents happens everyday. I was lucky that our Singer bond had somehow let me know, something was going to happen when the car accident did. If I hadn't gotten there in time…

I shuddered to think of what would have happened. What it would have felt like, to feel my heart stopping, to never beat again. To know that I had failed my job as Elena's protector.

"You and Barbie kept me updated," I said shortly, not wanting to dive into my emotions, "are you regretting that you didn't safe Caroline's parents?"

He looked at me for a while, knowing that it was a low blow. Caroline's parents had both died from the Spanish Influenza, and she had to be removed from the house and taken away so she wouldn't be infected as well. Stefan had been on a ripper binge during that time, and hadn't noticed Caroline's frightened heart, because he'd been so obsessed with blood.

"I did research on that later, actually," Stefan said. I raised my eyebrows - this was news to me.

"I couldn't have saved them. My blood wouldn't have healed them. It was too late… but I could have stepped in and saved Caroline… I could have taken her away from that club, so she wouldn't have to get involved with so many shady people. I know they kept her mostly out of the mafia stuff, because she was so young, but just the thought of her hanging around mobsters and gorillas…"

I could see the pain in my brother's face and for the first time in decades, I felt sorry for him. I knew that hadn't been easy - if Elena had ever gotten involved with anybody bad, I would have stepped in immediately and pulled her out, whether she wanted to or not, but Stefan had wanted to do it the quiet and slow way - and given her the choice to say no.

"You did what you thought was right, Stefan… and I'm sure Caroline appreciates the way you did it. You changed for her later and even though she's never seen you go completely ripper, I know she understands how big of a deal that is."

Stefan stopped dead in his tracks and I could hear the thud of the ax hitting the ground, before I turned around. He was looking at me, his eyes emotional and so young for the first time in decades. I wasn't sure exactly what brought this on, but he took two steps and then he was hugging me. It took me a few seconds before I put my arms around him and hugged him back, and only then did I realize that I hadn't hugged him since all that shit with Katherine went down. And I also realized that I missed having a little brother.

In the end we got four Christmas trees. One for the living room, one for Stefan and Caroline's room, one for mine and Elena's and one for Ric's room. Yep, Ric was moving in with us. After the funeral he had kept the promise he made to Elena - he was going to be her guardian and he was going to take care of her. I thought I would have minded, even though I wasn't exactly Elena's guardian, but surprisingly enough I thought it was a really good idea. Elena needed some sort of parent figure, and I didn't want to be that person.

So I had supported the idea of Ric moving in - well, in another wing than ours, of course, I didn't want him to listen to us having sex at night and I didn't want him complaining about anything like that. He would have to make the drive to the college every day, but he seemed okay with that - as long as he got to stay close to Elena.

Elena was all over the idea of decorating his room and the tree in his room before he got here, so that was what we spent the evening doing. It was well past 11pm when we were done and Elena was ready to pass out in Alaric's bed, so I carried her to bed, her sleeping in my arms.

It had been a good day, but a little weird for me to be preparing for Christmas. I did it alone, last year, just to make Elena happy, but that had been like… following instructions to put together a filing cabinet. This, however, had been a lot more homey and I wasn't sure how I felt about that. It felt a little too human for me to be comfortable with it, but on the other hand, seeing Elena so happy and cute in her pj's, running around, eating cookies and putting decorations everywhere, had been the cutest thing I had ever seen. It had given me a fake sense of being human again - of caring about things as trivial as Christmas and decorating a house. I shouldn't be too surprised by it, since Elena often made me feel like I was human again, but not in the bad way. I had never regretted becoming a vampire - it may not have been my choice to turn back then, and I had definitely been confused when I woke up far away from where I had been killed, with Stefan there, telling me Katherine was dead and we had to make a choice, but I knew we had made the right one. We were both curious about the world, we both wanted to explore and we both wanted to see what the future had in store for the world.

I had planned on doing it with Katherine, even though my brother would have hated me for it, but I couldn't let it stop me.

How young and naive I had been.

Sure, there are many things to see around the world, but there is so much pain, so much torment in a human life. I hadn't been the asshole I am today, in the beginning of my vampire life. I had tried to keep it on the down-low and be a normal tourist. Katherine had had rings made for us years before we turned, so I didn't have to worry about the rumors of the horrible demons of the night who were at large all over the world and while it was cool to see all the different cultures, there was one thing I noticed everywhere I went - humans are assholes. After less than 40 years around humans, seeing them die and hate each other, I turned colder, and I had been that way up until the moment I met Elena.

She changed everything and she showed me all the good in human beings. And as I was lying there, with her sleeping on my chest, I knew that even though I had thought my Singer coming was the worst thing that could ever happen to me, it was actually the best thing that had ever happened to me. I would never live my life without her, and I didn't even want to imagine what my life would have been like, if I hadn't gone to Elena that fateful day when she was born.

I looked down at her sleeping form, pulled her closer and kissed the top of her hair.

"I love you so much," I whispered, not wanting to wake her. I wasn't sure if I was imagining things, but I felt like she smiled against me chest and pulled me closer as well.

When I woke up the next morning, Elena wasn't by my side, once again. It was odd, but I guess I would have to get used to it, for the duration of December month. I knew she loved Christmas, so I figured she would be up at the crack of dawn most days, to get to experience as many of the days as possible.

I could feel her presence downstairs and I could hear her talking to Caroline, vaguely, so I got up and took a shower, knowing she would be fine without me. I was in the middle of washing my hair, when an excited Elena came running into the room, pulling the shower door open and pulling me out.

"You know I don't mind you joining me in the shower, but I think you should get naked first. You don't want your pj's to get wet," I said, laughing.

"Come on, Damon, hurry!" she said, pushing a towel into my hands and motioning for me to dry myself. I chuckled at her and marveled at the fact that I was actually doing exactly what she said, even though I had no idea what was going on.

"Are you going to tell me what is so important I had to interrupt my very nice shower?" I asked, drying off my hair.

"Just get dressed, come on, quickly!" she said and pushed me back into the bedroom. I was now full on laughing as I grabbed a long sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans from the dresser. She started pacing across the floor, occasionally looking out the window.

"No information, huh? Elena Gilbert, are you dragging me to a sex club?" I asked. She stopped dead in her tracks, and looked at me with a shocked face. I laughed even more, as I closed my pants and put my shirt on.

"Don't worry, I'm kidding. Alright, where are we going?" I asked. I should have known better than to actually expect an answer from her. She just grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the bedroom, down the stairs to the parlor and to the front door. From there we both put our shoes on and I was shocked to see that she opened the door without taking her coat on. It was freezing outside and I knew that her cute little human butt was going to fall off if she didn't put proper clothing on.

"Elena, you need a jack-"

"Come on, Damon!" she yelled and ran out the front door. I sighed and grabbed her jacket, following her outside. She ran down to the garden and stood on the lawn, looking up to the sky, as though she was expecting a UFO to land any time.

"Are you going to tell me what we're doing out here? I've seen the garden before, you know," I said, putting her jacket on her, without her looking away from the sky.

"Just wait! Trust me, it'll be worth it!" she said, still not giving any explanation at all. Had it been anyone else, I would have called them crazy and gone inside where it was nice and warm again, but this was Elena, so I, of course, stayed right by her side, even though I was positive she had gone at least a little bit mad.

But after a few minutes, something cold started dropping from the clouds above us and I finally understood what she had been waiting for. Somehow, she had known it was going to snow and she had wanted me to be there with her for the first snow of the year.

"Merry Christmas, Damon," she said, as she finally looked down from the sky, and back on me. I smiled at her.

"You're crazy, do you know that?" I said, stepping closer and putting my arms around her. She leaned her head against my chest and breathed in the cold and clear air, obviously content with the way it filled her lungs.

"Yeah, I know… but you love me for it," she said as a matter of fact. I chuckled and kissed the crown of her head.

"Merry Christmas, Elena."

Christmas with Elena turned out to give me a lot of new experiences and impressions of Christmas. Through the years I had of course experienced Christmas in human eyes, wherever I had been on that one night, but it was so different from being a part of it with Elena.

One afternoon I came back from grocery shopping with Elena sitting on the couch, eating cookies and drinking hot cocoa, while watching a Christmas movie and putting popcorn on string. I thought it was the strangest thing I had ever seen, but she had been confused when I told her it was odd - apparently that was a thing everybody did now.

And I almost made the mistake of putting the star on the top of the Christmas tree, when Elena made a noise that resembled an upset 5-year old and continued to tell me that she was going to put it on top of the tree. Apparently, putting a silver star on the top of a Christmas tree was a great honor and I hadn't deserved that yet, so she had to put it on.

I also failed, when I tried to grab one of the cookies Elena and Caroline were making, and I had Elena tell me, in a very serious voice, that they were for the 24th and that I couldn't eat them. What kind of bullshit is that? When my girlfriend has made the most delicious cookies in the world, I expect to be allowed to eat them while they're still hot. But apparently sleeping with the baker in charge won't get you proper benefits.

I didn't know how to react, when I came down to the parlor one morning and saw 5 Christmas stockings hanging above the chimney. I knew Elena liked that part of Christmas, but I had never expected her to get a stocking for me as well. And I certainly hadn't expected her to leave little candies in them throughout December, but it was a nice thing to have.

The longer we got into December, the more I panicked. I still had no clue on what to get her for Christmas and I knew I needed to find something before it was too late. Elena loved this holiday so much that it couldn't be any less than perfect. It wasn't until I walked past a shop in the mall that I knew exactly what I was going to get her. It would have to be in private, but hopefully she wouldn't mind too much, as soon as she figured out what it was.

On the 24th, I had another one of those moments where I realized that human holiday traditions were the weirdest thing ever. Elena and I had been getting cozy in bed, her in her bra and her pj pants, on top of me, licking my neck and grinding against my raging erection, when she suddenly sat out and exclaimed she had forgotten the cookies.

I was confused as hell, especially why it had to be right now, but she threw my shirt on and hurried out the door and I felt like I had no choice but to follow her. We ended up in the kitchen, where she hurried to grab a plate and put a bunch of the cookies on and then reached into the fridge for carrots. I frowned as she got a peeler out and started peeling them.

"Uhm, Elena, if you were hungry, you should have said so earlier. I thought the dinner we had tonight was enough, but we could have found you something proper," I said, as she put the carrots on the plate.

"They're not for me! They're for Santa!" she said, hurrying to peel at least 5 carrots and arranging them on the plate, so it looked all fancy. I thought for a moment she was kidding, but she hurried into the living room and pulled one of the coffee tables next to the chimney and then proudly placed the plate on top of it.

"You're serious?" I asked, as she made sure it was turned to the right side.

"Of course! Santa has a long way to go, I don't want him or the reindeer to be hungry on the way! We always did this with our parents and we would always wake up to the cookies being gone and the carrots half-eaten. It's tradition," she said, and as soon as it was in place, she pulled me back to our room.

I was confused as hell, but all of that soon disappeared, because as soon as we were back in bed, she took the clothes off again and continued right where we left off. I soon forgot all about how weird that had just been, but as soon as we were lying in bed, all sweaty and her passed out from at least 4 orgasms, I remembered it again. I figured Elena's parents had been the one to eat all the cookies and bitten off the carrots, but now they weren't here to do it. So, instead of them, I would do it.

I knew it was a little bit silly, but I had sensed how much it meant for Elena to put those cookies out, so I knew it would mean a lot to her. That was why I was sneaking out of bed a few hours later, when I knew Elena was asleep and sat down in the living room, eating her cookies and biting off each carrot.

I hoped she knew how much I loved her.

The next morning, she woke up at the crack of dawn, but she woke me up as well, this time. She knew it was time for gifts, which meant that her eyes were lit up, much like the tree downstairs, and she was jumping around while getting dressed in yet another Christmas themed pj. I was about to put my normal jeans and shirt on, but she was looking at me with the cutest pouty face and holding up a pair of matching sweatpants. I was about to protest, when she let out the cutest 'please' I have ever heard, and for some reason I succumbed.

Ric almost fell off the couch when we came downstairs, because he was laughing so bad. I was tempted to bury one of the decorations in his shoulder and see how much he was laughing then, but Elena pulled me to the chimney with her, so I had to leave it for later.

When she saw the half-empty plate, with crumbs and a bit of carrot left, she turned around to look at me with tears in her eyes.

"Did you…" she started, but her voice was so vulnerable, that I don't think she was able to continue. I just leaned down and placed a loving kiss on her lips, then stroking her cheek gently with my thumb.

"Santa must have been here last night. Why don't you check your stocking," I said softly. She immediately put her arms around me and give me a big hug, whispered thank you in my ear and then she was off to check her stocking. Caroline had given her a very nice and very soft scarf, which Elena had been pointing at for weeks in the shops. I had wanted to buy it for her, but Caroline had strictly said no personal shopping during December, and then told me later that she wanted to get that one for her.

Ric had given her a new thermo cup, so she could bring coffee to school, Stefan gave her a new protective sleeve for her laptop and then there was my gift. I had seen a notebook in the nearest book shop that I knew would be just perfect for her - on every page was a new prompt for a short story and on the outside were quotes from some of her favorite authors.

She was very taken with it and spent a long time reading over the prompts and almost beginning to write, when she realized that we still had to open the actual presents.

"Damon, you have to look in your stocking too!" she said in excitement, when she realizes that everyone but me had looked in theirs. I raised my eyebrow at her, because she had a very mischievous smile on her face, but went with it anyway.

I quickly realized there was a pattern to it - the first gift was a Twilight book from Stefan, who tried hard, but couldn't quite contain his laughter. Number two, from Ric, was a form to donate blood to the hospital. Caroline's was the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the last one, from Elena, was sunscreen.

All four of them were laughing so hard Elena actually fell down from the couch, as I was looking confused at the sunscreen. The other three had clearly had a vampire theme over them, but this one I didn't get. It wasn't until Elena was able to get air enough that she managed to talk.

"I wouldn't want you to burn in the sun," she gasped and then succumbed to her laughter again. I smirked at her and rolled my eyes. I could see the joke in it and while I didn't think it was hilarious, I enjoyed seeing Elena laugh so much she was complaining about her stomach hurting.

Opening the actual presents were a lot more fun than I had thought it would be. We all helped each other out to make breakfast, eat some of the cookies from last night and drink hot cocoa and coffee (some of them were spiked with blood as well). Everything was brought together in the parlor where we all sat down on the floor, taking turns to open gifts. I had gotten Elena a bunch of small gifts as well, ranging from gift cards to books. In one of them I had left a little card, saying that her real present was in the bedroom and she'd get it later, and as soon as she read it, she frowned and looked at me with her head cocked. It was obvious that she was curious about what it could be, that she couldn't open in front of the others.

We ended up hanging most of the day, until the afternoon, where we all decided to take a break before eating another delicious dinner.

That was my chance to give Elena my gift.

I was more nervous than the time when we had gone on our first date, and it was a weird feeling. She was very obviously curious as soon as we got back, but she tried to not mention it. I drew in a big breath and sat her down on the bed, while I fetched the little box in the bottom of my dresser. Then I sat across from her.

"Before I do this, I want you to remember that I'm not a very romantic person… but, one year ago, we were here and that was the first time I actually let you see my emotional side, when I gave you that necklace from my mother," I began, looking at the necklace that was nestled underneath her shirt, "it's only fitting that I try to do something alike this year, so here goes… I may not tell you very often, but you mean a lot to me. You're practically my whole world. I never thought that… that I would find my special someone, but I have. And I know that it's quick and we've been together for a short time, but I wanted to give you this…"

I opened the box and let her see the ring with the blue stone nestled in the velvet.

"It's not an engagement ring… but it's a promise ring. It's a silly thing that I don't think anybody ever does anymore, but they were quite popular for a while and I want to give this one for you. It's a promise, that even though I have a shady past… and even though I'm a monster for the most part and a horrible person… I love you more than anything else and I want to be with you for as long as I can. I don't ever want to live my life without you."

I looked up to see tears falling down her cheeks and her eyes filled with so much love I had no idea how to react to it.

"I'm sorry, baby, I didn't mean to make you cry…" I said, wiping her tears away with my thumb. She held her hand in front of her mouth and shook her head, before she took the ring out of the box and looked at it. It was quite elegant, with a blue stone wrapped in the silver. I had recognized the type of stone as soon as I saw it and something had clicked in my head. I didn't want to tell her what we could use this ring for, because I didn't want her to feel pushed into becoming a vampire for me, but now I knew that she had a ring that meant something to her, that we could use, if she chose.

"I love you," she croaked and handed me the ring, "thank you, Damon."

She then held out her hand, which was shaking. I was surprised to see that mine was as well, but I still managed to put it on her finger, in one smooth motion. After that, she jumped into my lap and continued sobbing over my shoulder. I felt a little bad for making her cry, but I also felt good. Because now I knew that she loved my just as much as I loved her, and hopefully, I would get to be with her forever.

But I knew, that however long I could get with her would never be enough, so for now, I was going to enjoy the time we had together.

And there we are! I wish this would have been timed with December, but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting - hopefully it'll just make you even more excited for Christmas! I was channeling my best friend here, to make Elena so Christmas crazy and I had a lot of fun writing this. I hope you all enjoyed it.
What did you think of Damon's gift? was it too cheesy? And did you catch onto what the ring might be? I can't wait to hear from you guys in your reviews and then I will see you next week! Merry early Christmas!