The next morning Elena woke to find Damon lounging in a chair next to the window. When he heard the blankets wrinkle and rub against each other, he glanced over at Elena.

"What are you doing in here?" Elena grumbled, still getting used to being conscious.

"You're so peaceful and relaxed when you sleep. I got up early and decided to watch for a bit since there was nothing else to do. You even smiled once or twice. Dreaming about me?"

"Sorry," Elena said sarcastically, rolling her eyes, "I don't remember."

"Well, I wanted to do something fun today since it's kind of like our first real day together. First date sort of thing. Meet me downstairs when you're ready to go."

"You planned something to do?" Elena said in disbelief.

Damon's eyebrows crinkled and his eyes mellowed. "Was that a bad idea? Too soon?"

"No, it's fine. I just wasn't aware you were so...romantic."

Damon's cheeky smiled returned to his face and he chuckled. "Well what can I say?"

Elena threw the blankets across the bed and began opening and closing drawers to her dresser. Damon took that as a confirmation that she would come and went downstairs to wait.

Within a couple minutes, but what seemed like hours to Damon, Elena descended the stairs wearing a purple sundress and flip-flops, her hair straight and down as always. It was casual but stunning.

"I've never seen that before."

"I've never been on a first date with you before. I thought I'd try something new. How do I look?" she whispered, spinning in a circle.

Damon's eyes couldn't stray from her face and her legs in that short dress. "Beautiful. Ready?" he breathed.

She nodded, inhaled sharply, and smiled up at him, her inner conflict resolved. "Yes."

They automatically fell into their normal pattern of constant teasing, some funny some not. "So are you going to tell me where exactly we're going?"

"You'll just have to wait and see."

Elena shrugged her shoulders, feigning disinterest and turned the knob on the volume of the stereo in his car. "Lifehouse, huh? I would've figured Frank Sinatra or Billy Joel or something."

"I figured something more modern would be more fitting. And just because I was born a long time ago doesn't mean I don't appreciate the music made today."

"My parents didn't."

"Do I look like your dad to you?"

Elena laughed and gave Damon another smile.

"Touché."

Damon drove them through various country roads with farms growing wheat and cotton bathed in sunlight, until they reached a parking lot with no apparent destination in mind.

"Why's there a parking lot here?"

"One of the many mysteries of this place."

"What does that even mean? Why can't you be straightforward like..." she automatically trailed off, turning away from him to shield the utter stupidity reflected in her eyes.

"Like Stefan? I guess we're just different people. I thought you might have figured that out by now," he whispered.

"Damon," she breathed, desperately trying to reach his shoulder which he kept swiveling away from her, "I'm sorry. That won't happen again."

Damon pretended he hadn't heard her and strode away to enter the woods surrounding the parking lot. Elena hurried after him until she was able to string her arm through his. He tensed, clearly considering pulling away, but didn't.

"Here we are."

Elena glanced around at a small square of land not overgrown with trees. In the middle was a little red picnic table completely decked out in foods traditionally seen at brunch buffets. The sunlight was barely able to filter through the trees, but the determined rays that did, fell perfectly, making the whole thing seem that more magical. Butterflies were everywhere even though there were no wildflowers in sight. Elena's mouth dropped open and she couldn't help herself from asking more questions.

"How'd you find this place?"

"I didn't, Lexi did. We had a very strenuous relationship as you know, but she cared deeply about Stefan. So she told me that this was the place to bring him to calm him down if he was getting out of control. She must have gotten through to him at this very place because he would always remember something, relax, and start purposefully lowering his self-esteem through a constant cycle of guilt. Don't ask me what he recalled, because I don't know. He wouldn't ever tell me. But ever since I've been here, there's always a rope trying to tug me back. It's so gorgeous, it's hard to stay away. This is where I spend a lot of alone time in the summer. Not recently, since you've been around, but I thought it was time to come back. Is that straightforward enough for you?"

"Yes...of course. It's beautiful. Is that all for us?"

"Yep. Laid it out this morning." He led Elena to one side of the bench and set her down there to move and sit across from her.

"So what do I not know about you Damon Salvatore?" Elena giggled, as she attempted to shove a huge bite of chocolate chip pancakes in her mouth.

"I can play the guitar but I can't sing. Stefan would always wonder what the point of being able to play the guitar was if you couldn't sing along, because most guitar music is just chords for the background music. No melody, you know. My vice, other than a good bottle of bourbon, is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and I can't stand hypocrites."

"Aren't you kind of one?"

"Give me three examples."

"Um," Elena mumbled, racking her brain for any type of retort to fire back. Her mind flipped through memories of dances, kisses, hugs, fights, murders, fires, and flirtatious smiles. "Alright, I can't think of any now, but I'll tell you when I do," she conceded.

Damon smiled. "You do that." They ate the rest of the meal in silence but Elena couldn't help but notice how lovely Damon's long slender fingers looked gripping his fork, and how stunningly piercing his bright blue eyes were no matter the expression on his face.

"You're staring at me."

Elena shook her head slightly escaping her trance. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I look at you like that on a regular basis."

"Wait, how exactly did I look at you?"

"Like I was not only the most beautiful thing here, which we know can't be true, but that you wouldn't have wanted to be with anyone else. Maybe I'm optimistic, but kind of like you loved me."

"Damon..."

"Optimism..." he whispered, "It's a killer."

"Didn't I say I loved you?" Elena breathed.

Damon rested his elbow on the table grasped Elena's face between his hands. He leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead, than just below her mouth. Elena gripped his wrists and clenched harder when he wouldn't kiss her. She didn't realize that his teasing would affect her but it did. He slowly traced his way back and forth around her mouth with his lips before kissing her quickly and pulling away slightly, rubbing circles with his thumb on her cheek. Elena gasped and brought her hand to the back of his head, wrenching it forward her lips finally meeting his. The kisses rapidly deepened and Damon tugged on her lower lip with his teeth before his tongue began exploring from the bottom to the roof of her mouth. Elena pulled away and lifted her hands in the air.

"I'm so sorry, I'm not sure..."

"I understand."

"Forgive me?"

"When haven't I?"