"I didn't know you were taking band this semester," Damon said, not looking up from his book. They sat tucked into a booth at the Grille. Elena was supposed to be studying trig, but her thoughts were far away from hypotenuses.

"What? I'm not taking band," she said.

"Oh, good. Then you can stop practicing your drumming." Damon stared pointedly at her hand. Elena hadn't even noticed the incessant tapping of her pencil against her notebook. She dropped the thing with a sigh.

"Sorry. Maybe we shouldn't have come after all." Elena knew it was a mistake, even though she'd begged Damon to come. It was out of sheer stubbornness that they were there: she refused to stop living her life simply because a homicidal immortal vampire/werewolf whatever was trying to kill her. Damon had said it was too dangerous, but she'd won him over in the end. And now she wanted only to be somewhere safe, somewhere they could hide. "I just keep thinking we're being watched."

"We are. Tyler's shooting pool. You know he's just waiting to report back to Klaus" Damon glanced at the boy briefly before his gaze settled on Elena. "But I have a feeling that's not what you mean."

"Have you always been this perceptive, or is this new?" Was she really that transparent? Could he see right through her like that?

"Mmm. I always pay attention where you're concerned, Elena." He did that eye thing, the one that made the lump in her stomach explode into butterflies. Then he shut his book with a sharp snap. "C'mon. If we're going to talk, we better do it away from wolfie." Damon pitched his voice so Tyler could hear, even from across the room. Tyler flipped Damon the bird.

Elena slipped her notebook into her bag while Damon dropped a stack of bills onto the table. As they walked out, she was aware of how close he stood to her, how their arms brushed as they walked, the heat of his gaze as he held the door.

The sun was just slipping below the horizon as they left, the world bathed in dusky blue. They walked without any particular destination, hands nearly touching. Elena wanted to reach out, to take his hand in hers, to stroll hand-in-hand with him like a normal couple. But there was nothing normal about them. She jerked her hand away, casting a worried glance over her shoulder.

Damon's brow quirked. "So. You wanna tell me why you keep jumping whenever we come within two feet of each other?"

No, she didn't really want to tell him. How did you tell the man you were with, the man you cared for (Love? Was it possible? So soon?), the man you couldn't get off your mind that you were terrified for your friends to know you were together?

She saw all the reactions now. Caroline would remind her how he'd used her, sucked her, fucked her, tried to kill her. "Don't you remember what he did, Elena?"

Alaric would stage an intervention, all earnestness and fatherly concern. "Do you know what you're doing, Elena? Because I don't think you do."

Bonnie would look at her aghast, her dark eyes full of righteous indignation. "Elena, are you crazy? It's Damon."

And what if Klaus knew? With Jeremy safely out of the picture, if he learned that hurting Damon was the best way to hurt her...well, she didn't know what would happen then. She truly didn't.

"This is happening really fast, Damon." She swallowed hard. "I mean, it's been happening for a long time, but it's all kinda come to a head, you know? And I just don't want people to find out before I figure out how to tell them. About us."

Damon kicked a stone. It ricocheted out of sight. "Are you ashamed to be with me?" His voice was quiet, his tone urgent.

"No! No, Damon. It's nothing like that. It's just..." she groped for the words. "You want to tell Stefan when the time is right. You don't want him finding out from someone else, or at the wrong time. It's the same thing. And you know, you haven't exactly endeared yourself to my friends."

His mouth twitched into a half-smile. "No, I guess I haven't."

"But you said this wasn't going to be easy, Damon. And it's not.. But I'm trying. I'm really, really trying."

Being with Stefan hadn't been easy, exactly, but it had been simple. He loved her. She loved him. They got along well, genuinely loved each other on some level. But it had been shallow and simplistic, with some deeper, undefined something that was always missing. With Damon, nothing was easy. The very act of choosing to be with him was a challenge. But every moment they spent together confirmed the very rightness of the choice. Being with Damon was never going to be boring, but it was always going to be difficult.

Damon looked left and right, like a child about to cross the street. Confident that the coast was clear, he pushed Elena behind a gnarled live oak tree, a curtain of Spanish moss shielding them from sight. Her back was pressed against the rough bark, his lips hovering above hers.

"I had to keep what I felt for you a secret for so long, Elena. For the first time, I feel like someone sees me." He started to speak again, but broke off, frustrated. "Fuck. I don't have the right words, Elena. But no matter how I tried to hide from you, you saw who I really was. And you thought I was worth seeing, worth saving. So I want to be with you, in front of the whole world."

"And I want to be with you too, Damon. I'm trying to figure out a way to tell them." She ran her fingers through his long hair, mustering a faint smile. "Any suggestions?"

"Get 'em drunk. At least Ric. That always works. But they'll come around, Elena. If they see that I make you happy, they won't be able to argue." A hint of anxiety, a dash of doubt crept into his eyes. "I do make you happy, don't I?"

Elena laughed, her breath soft against his cheek. "Is Damon Salvatore insecure? About a girl?" She pressed her laughing lips to his in a long, deep kiss, arms twining around his neck. "Yes. You make me happy."

Damon's eyes remained closed after the kiss. He pressed his lean body against hers, and she felt his arousal against her leg. "God, Elena. You're making this gentleman thing hard." His voice was a low growl.

She kissed him again, soft and sweet. "I promise we'll tell them. Soon. And you are being quite the perfect gentleman. Thank you, Damon. Thank you for that."

"For you? I can even try to be nice to Caroline. If that doesn't prove I'm serious, then nothing will."

Laughing, the two strolled into the night.