I pushed open the large oak door to the Boarding House, hearing nothing except for a slight crackle and pop from the fire place. Even with the silence, I knew he was in here. Something about mine and his relationship allowed me to feel more of him and right now I was feeling anger washing over me in waves.

I had only seen Damon angry a handful of times, mostly at myself or Stefan, but every time he was angry his emotions ran away from any logic and he acted out in ways to hurt those who had hurt him. I knew he had seen Stefan kiss me, what I didn't know is if he had stuck around long enough to see me immediately pull away.

Stefan had wanted to talk privately with me after seeing the affection between Damon and me and while it had started as seeking closure, it ended with him attempting to rekindle a fire that had long gone cold. When I pulled away and he saw the look in my eyes, he immediately apologized as sadness came over him. I had pulled him into a hug, surprising him, and told him that I forgave him and without me needing to say so we both knew it was for him attempting to kiss me and for the months prior he had put me through.

I had stood up on my toes and whispered that I wanted him to be happy, that he deserved to be happy, and that he was a good man. I brushed a kiss across his cheek and turned away, intent on tracking Damon down.

To tell the truth, I was surprised he hadn't marched over and none so gently pulled his brother away from me and taken the opportunity to announce to Stefan who I was now with. When I looked over to where I had felt him standing only to see air, my heart pumped in fear as to where had gone off to. Something, however, led me to where exactly I was standing.

He had a glass of something in his left hand, which was more than likely alcohol, and was leaning his right hand above the fireplace. Even from where I was standing, I could feel the tension in his body and saw his fingers tighten around the glass.

Rather than saying anything, I walked forward and stood a couple of feet behind him and laid a hand gently on his back. I felt his back muscles tense and he stood up causing my hand to drop and my heart to fall with it.

"Damon."

He turned towards me and even in his current state, I couldn't help but smile as I saw those blue eyes look at me with licks of fire reflected in his irises.

"How'd your chat with Stefan go?" He asked while taking a sip from his drink, an act which didn't mute the sarcastic tone to his voice.

"I know you saw, Damon."

I went to reach my hand up to his cheek but he turned his head to thrust the poker in the fire and with his anger propelling him, he sent some logs flying into the back of the fireplace.

I sighed, looking at his form in front of me and knowing what was going through his mind. Our relationship, if that's what we were going to call it, had been going rather smoothly since our first night truly being together. We had hit a couple of snags here and there, what with Damon being his snarky self and me being my stubborn self, but at the end of the night it was always his arms I collapsed into and it was my lips pressing against his chest.

He wouldn't ever admit it, but I knew Damon still had his insecurities over how this had all transpired. He had once whispered quietly after a night of love-making that it just seemed to easy how we now found ourselves together. I remembered I had just smiled and whispered back that it was fate that brought us to that point.

My love for him was growing deeper every day and our friendship grew stronger as we were able to no longer tip-toe around the elephant that had always been in the room with us before. When feelings of love or desire took over either of us, we were able to reach out for one another and lay claim to those feelings.

I could reach up and brush the hair out of his striking eyes and he could wrap an arm around my waist to bring our bodies closer together. The moments I loved the most were when he would dip his lips to my ear and whisper so sweetly I could almost feel them,

"I love you."

To the rest of the world he hadn't changed a bit, other than his arms and hands were never too far from mine. But to me, in those soft moments we shared, I felt like we laid our clothes and skin bare at the door and we found what we needed in each other every second of every day.

His walls came down, my fears and insecurities vanished, and it was him and I and the love we took and gave from and to each other. The moments he would whisper those words to me and I would softly repeat them he would say back,

"The words don't do justice."

I would always feel my heart pick up speed when he said that because it was in those moments that it was completely just him and I. Damon wasn't a hopeless romantic, he didn't suddenly bring me flowers every day or throw rose petals on my bed for a romantic evening in. No, Damon just knew how to love me and I knew how to love him back and we did it so completely that no other acts were needed.

It was for all these reasons and more that I was able to whisper to him as he stood still facing the fire,

"I'm not Katherine."

My words purposely echoed his from our first night together and he turned towards me, his eyes now open and exposed as I continued with,

"I loved Stefan, I loved him in a time of my life that he fit into and made better. But that time is over now both in my heart and my mind. I am different from the Elena that loved Stefan and wanted his love in return."

His eyes shined as he kept quiet, knowing that he needed and wanted to hear what I had to say as tears streamed freely down my cheeks as I finally opened up and expressed with words how I felt.

"You are my heart and without you my heart doesn't beat the same. I want you in my life because I love you, only you, and because I want you to be the one there to share the moments with me that makes me realize how many more moments I want to have with you. I just want you, always."

I let the last word out on a breath as he rushed forward and grabbed the sides of my face with both hands, his forehead coming to rest on mine and I could see his eyes pulsing with love and devotion and completion.

"I don't deserve you." He told me.

I smiled and reached up, resting my fingers on his wrist and told him in response,

"Yes you do. But more than that, we deserve us."

He stared at me as we let my words wrap around us, slowly building cocoon and my eyes closed as words from a poem he had read to me weeks back came out from his mouth, low and gravelly and so full of love and warmth I had to lean against his solid form to keep standing,

"Sleep from my soul began retreating, and here you once again appear before me like a vision fleeing, a beauty's angel pure and clear."

He leaned forward, kissing me so slowly and with so much love that I felt more tears squeeze from my eyes as his hands desperately held me close, not wanting the intoxicating intimacy we were sharing to escape from between us.

It was in this moment that old wounds and insecurities were buried, and from it the two of us and our love grew.