AN: Here's Chapter 16 for all of you wonderful readers! I can't thank you enough for the amount of reviews I got for the last chapter! They made me so happy! Although I take an awful lot of time to update, you should know that your reviews are what keeps me going. I hope that this chapter won't disappoint!

Elena woke up with a smile on her face. The events of last night were replaying in her head. The way they were holding each other on the steps as if it was the most natural feeling in the world. Right after that, they were kissing. It was passionate and full of lust. Elena never wanted that kiss to end; she wanted to stay on Stefan's lap forever. When they both pulled back for a much-needed breath, Stefan still held Elena close to him, pressing his forward to hers.

"I'm glad that this time you're not leaving me the next day," he said and smiled slightly.

Elena pecked him quickly before answering "I'm not going anywhere for another 3 weeks, Stef. I promise I'm not lying about when I'm really leaving either." She stood from his lap and turned around to once again look at the view lit by the moonlight.

"Good, because I don't want you to go anywhere," he answered standing up as well. He encircled her waist from behind and Elena leaned against his strong chest while intertwining her fingers with his. She winced slightly from the pain she felt in her hand. He held her tight and rested his chin on her head.

"Get that cut checked out when we get home, okay?" he said.

She simply nodded. Neither of them could stop themselves from thinking at how perfect they were together. They both felt so comfortable in the silence that followed; they didn't feel the need to talk.

"I promised to sort everything out, didn't I?" he asked in a low voice as if not to disturb the silence of the night.

"You didn't give up," she answered smiling and remembering the night they had danced to "I Won't Give Up" by Jason Mraz.

"And deep down, neither did you," he said and kissed her temple. Elena closed her eyes at the touch trying to remember it forever.

Elena sat up and saw that everyone was still sleeping. She silently got out of her sleeping bag and took her bag to the bathroom. She quickly showered and put on white shorts and a turquoise tank top. She went into the kitchen and realized that someone else was awake. She saw his back and could have recognized it anywhere! Hearing something behind him, Stefan turned around, away from the oven, and saw Elena leaning against the doorframe. Her hair was damp and was framing her face perfectly. It was slightly wavy and fell like a chocolate fountain.

"Morning 'Lena," he said while taking a few steps towards her, spatula in hand. He bent down and kissed her softly on her lips.

"Morning Stefan," she answered and kissed him once more. They smiled at each other before he went back to the oven where he was making a huge pan of scrambled eggs.

"Stefan…" Elena started.

"I know what you're going to say. What are we? It's too soon after the break up with Caroline. We're going to destroy her if she find out, dot dot dot," stated Stefan. Elena chuckled lightly as that was exactly what she was thinking about.

"Stefan, last night was incredible. We talked and it was epic, but then the sun came up and reality set it," Elena said avoiding his gaze.

"Hey," he said and placed a warm hand on her cool cheek, forcing her to make eye contact. "This is reality 'Lena. Right here. Right now," he finished by kissing her lightly. Elena smiled because she knew what Stefan meant. Even though they couldn't be open to everyone about what was happening between them, to themselves however, they knew it was more than real. Elena leaned against the counter next to the oven and she watched Stefan scramble the eggs. They talked about nothing in particular until Matt and Tyler came and joined them in the kitchen. Before they knew it, everyone was more or less up already. Elena and Caroline set the table and soon enough scrambled eggs were being served. They all sat down randomly and as a coincidence, Stefan happened to be sitting next to Elena. Everyone was chatting cheerfully and planning the day out loud. Stefan discretely placed his hand on Elena's knee under the table. Stefan felt like a little kid all over again, trying to hide something that was so obvious. Opposite the couple, Elijah was sitting next to Caroline and well, Tyler. Elijah who saw what had happened between the couple the previous night thought that they were doing quite a good job at hiding it. But since he knew, he looked for any signs and that's when he noticed Stefan's hand under the table. It was at a slight angle from his body meaning that it was obviously placed on Elena's leg. He smiled slightly and just wished that Damon were there too, he would be happy right now.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!

The day came and went and it was already time to go back to Mystic Falls. Everyone kept on talking about how amazing it was even if they didn't spend a long time at all in the camping house. Like Elijah said: "it was short enough to keep us busy all the day, but not long enough for us to get bored".

They arrived at the boarding house and Damon welcomed them. They had dropped everyone off to their houses along the way, so it was only Stefan, Elijah, Elena and Damon when they got to the Salvatore's. Elijah was the first one out of the car and already opening the boot to take out some of the supplies. Stefan and Elena got out of the car together; he was going towards the boot while she was walking to Damon. As they crossed path, Stefan gently squeezed her shoulder before carrying one. Elena smiled slightly and then she jumped into Damon's arm.

"I've missed you," she said. He lifted her from the ground and squeezed her more.

"I've missed you too," he said while putting her back on the ground. "What happened to your hand? I feel like I've missed only two freaking days of the summer and so much has happened!"

"What do you mean?" asked Elena. He couldn't possibly know. No one was with Stefan and Elena when anything happened, they were all asleep.

"First off you cut your hand, which by the way I'll take you to the doctor because I don't like the look of this bandage, and second of all..uhhhh, Stefan?"

Elena giggled before she could stop herself. "How do you know about that?" She wasn't going to deny it, not with Damon. He's been dealing with her crappy emotional self for the entire holidays, he deserved to know about them.

"Elijah saw it happening and he sent me a text. He said it started off quite cute, but then it kind of got disturbing to watch," sneered Damon.

She playfully hit his shoulder with her good hand before saying: "Of course Elijah would have been there! That would also explain why Elijah have been giving me weird looks all morning."

"Truth be told, I was disappointed you didn't tell me anything, Lena," came Elijah's voice from behind.

"Well I couldn't just announce it to you with everyone around. It was still all new to me too, I wanted a minute or two to actually let the situation sink in," Elena defended herself.

Stefan who was still at the car knew exactly what the three best friends were talking about. He didn't exactly know how they came upon the subject, but seeing Elena's face while she was getting picked on by her "two brothers" was adorable. He made his way to them with a stack of chairs in his arms. "Please leave my girl alone," he said and smiled at the thought that he could call Elena like that now. Just as the words came out of Stefan's mouth, Elena smiled like she never had before. Did he just call her "his girl"? She could live with that, she thought.

"Your girl?" both Elijah and Damon asked, pretending all of a sudden to not known anything at all.

"Don't pretend like you don't know anything. We're talking about you guys and Elena, nothing can remain a secret between you three," explained Stefan.

"Good point," Damon answered and nodded. Stefan went to the back of the house to drop the stack of chairs. The older Salvatore swung an arm around Elena's shoulder, "His girl huh?" he asked her.

"First time I've heard of it," she answered honestly. This morning they were both thinking how their relationship should remain kind of hidden at the moment and here he was calling her 'his girl' in front of Damon and Elijah.

"Remember that night at your house when I told you: Never say never?!" asked Damon with a smirk on his face.

"Thank you, Damon. Seriously, I don't know how you've managed to keep up with all of my crap throughout this summer."

"Hey, it's okay. What are friends for huh? It's absolutely fine. And you have no idea how happy I am for you guys. After everything you've both been through, I'm glad everything finally worked out," Damon said.

Elena placed a hand on his upper arm as a sign of appreciation and he nodded slightly. They both then turned and made their way to the car to help Elijah and Stefan unpack everything. After an hour or so of going back and forth between the car and the back of the boarding house, everything has been unpacked and cleaned.

"I'm exhausted," said Damon. "Who's up for a movie?"

"Damon, it's your last week in Mystic Falls, don't you want to be doing something a little more exciting. Like I don't know, go out?" said Stefan.

Damon looked at his watch and saw the time.

"Baby bro, it's 5:30, no one goes out this early, not even kids. So here's what I'm thinking. Movie, which will end at about 7ish, 7:30, dinner here will follow and then pre-drinks before we go out? Yeah?"

"Sounds good to me," answered Elena and the other two boys nodded.

"I'll text the group," said Elijah while taking his phone out of his back pocket. Simultaneously, Elena took her phone and decided to text Jeremy.

Elena: Hey Jer. Back from camp. Staying at D and S's. Dinner at 730 here. Going out after. Come :) xx

Jeremy: Glad you're back. So tired, won't come out. But will come for dinner ! :) love ya

The four friends went inside the living room and got comfortable. They all sat on the huge sofa facing the TV. Stefan was sitting on one side of the sofa and Elena made herself comfortable right next to him. His arm was around her shoulder and she had her back half pressed towards his side. One hand was placed on his leg while the other was playing with his fingers that were just on her shoulder. Damon and Elijah couldn't help but smile at the newly formed couple.

As none of them could pick out a movie to watch, they decided to settle for reruns of 'How I Met Your Mother'. They didn't want a movie that would require a lot of concentration as they were all pretty exhausted from the day and they needed to rest if they were going to go out that night. Throughout the first 15 minutes of the first episode, Elijah's phone kept on buzzing from texts he was receiving from people about tonight.

"Guys, looks like tonight is going to be only the four of us. Everyone is exhausted, apparently," he said after reading the final text.

"Well, we'll make it a good one, trust me here!" said Damon.