Elena tiptoed downstairs carefully. Living with vampires made it close to impossible to sneak in and out of places. Now that she was a vampire though, she was stealthier and had heightened senses; all she needed to do was tap into them. As she edged past Stefan's room, she heard him stir. Using vampire speed, she raced down to the couch that she started out on the night before and quickly plopped down on it.

She was searching the cushions for her phone when Stefan descended the staircase. That was when Elena realized that she left her phone on Damon's bed. She silently cursed herself for making such an amateur mistake…but considering that she was an amateur, she gave herself some slack. She had never behaved so promiscuously before in her life. Stefan walked over to her and kissed her on the top of her head.

"Hey, why didn't you come to bed last night?" Stefan asked.

"Couldn't sleep," Elena responded passively.

"Ah, I'm sorry," Stefan sat down next to her, "Why couldn't you?"

Because I was making out with your brother, Elena instantly thought, but instead she said, "Just thinking."

"Hmm, anything interesting?" It was obvious that Stefan was attempting to bring them closer together and repair their damaged relationship, but Elena didn't engage it.

"Nothing new," She responded, running her fingers through her hair.

"Well, we should be getting to school," Stefan said, standing up and picking up his backpack from the ground.

"I'm not going," Elena said straight-forwardly.

"What? Why?" Stefan inquired, sitting back down and leaning forward to examine Elena like she was some broken doll. Elena knew that he was just worried about her, but she was really tired of people looking at her like that.

"It's nothing; I just want to take a day off."

"Okay," Stefan threw off his backpack, "Then I'll stay with you."

"No!" Elena responded a little too quickly. Stefan raised his eyebrows suspiciously, and Elena questioned momentarily if her decision to keep him in the dark was actually the right one. "I'm sorry, it's just that…I want some 'me time,' to just rash some things out…alone." Elena reached over and grabbed Stefan's hand to distill any suspicion, "Can you respect that?"

"Yes, of course," Stefan said, stroking the back of her hand, "But I want you to know that whatever it is you feel you need to rash out, you don't need to go about it alone. " Stefan looked up, and Elena followed his eyes. Then it hit her that Stefan was indicating that he thought she needed time to rash out her feelings for Damon. He wasn't exactly wrong in his presumption.

"Yes I do," Elena countered and Stefan nodded in response. He stood up just when Damon descended the stairs. He wasn't wearing a shirt and was slowly descending the stairs with mussed up hair, probably caused by Elena's fingers running through his hair. Elena temporarily lost herself, remembering what it felt like to run her hands over his body and feel his lips against hers. Elena wondered if he appeared like this to torture her on purpose.

Stefan watched Elena watch Damon and felt a pang of jealousy because during the entire duration of their relationship Elena had never looked at him like that. Stefan knew that Elena had feelings for Damon, but he wasn't sure if he realized the extent to which they existed.

"Ohhhh, Elena," Damon purred. He leaned against the edge of the couch and dropped Elena's cellphone on to her lap, "You forgot something."

Elena glared at Damon with wide eyes, fearing that Stefan would find out about their nighttime activities. But, she quickly backpedaled.

"Oh, thanks," Elena said, picking up her cell and looking at the screen, "Where did you find it?"

"On the table in the upstairs hallway," Damon lied and Elena mentally sighed in relief. She felt Stefan relax next to her.

"What are you doing today, brother?" Stefan asked.

"Stealing your girlfriend," Damon said matter-of-factly. Elena felt like time stopped and she felt her heart beat quicken in fear. There's that impulsive side of Damon again, Elena thought.

"Hmm, okay," Stefan said. Elena looked at him questioningly and when she saw the expression on his face, it occurred to her that Stefan thought Damon was just being his typical cocky self. And it would make sense. Elena remembered back to all the times that Damon referred to Elena in front of Stefan as "our girlfriend" and realized that the only reason she was nervous by his statement was because it now held truth. "But what are you actually going to be doing?" Stefan asked.

Damon smiled his cocky half smile and shrugged his shoulders.

"Spend some quality time with my bourbon. I might do some digging on the Mikaelson ball, just to see if it's all safe for our girlfriend to attend." Damon replied.

"Alright," Stefan stood back up and grabbed his backpack again, "If you get yourself into any trouble, call me or Caroline or something and we'll help out."

Damon nodded in recognition and together, Damon and Elena watched as Stefan left the house. They remained still until they heard Stefan get on his motorcycle and leave down the driveway.

AN: Well, obviously, this was a transition chapter. It will improve. I just needed to set up some stuff. It was originally going to be included in a bigger chapter, but the chapter ended up being like 3000+ words and that's a lot to trudge through for a reader, so I decided to split it up.

Reviews are greatly appreciated. I tend to post chapters after three reviews. Enjoy this chapter and good luck with the hiatus!