AN: Thank you so so so much for all your alerts and reviews. You always manage to put a smile on my face and inspire me to write. A special shout-out to my guest reviewers; I can't reply to you personally so I just want to thank you for your very kind words. Here you have the next chapter of Intertwined.

Love you all,

Mydarkside975

Chapter 15: Hidden Talent

Elena

Never in her life did she imagine the mighty Damon Salvatore with his custom-made all black clothes wearing a bright green T-shirt with the biggest logo printed on the back; hands holding each other to form a circle with a big heart in the middle. The Hand In Hand Foundation was written in bold letters to the right on the front and in the middle above the logo on the back.

When she first reached inside a box and grabbed two T-shirts for the both of them then passed one to him, he took it with a disgusted look. "Are you kidding?"

"Suck it up, Mister," she said laughing at his expression. "…besides; green might suit you."

He sighed loudly then took off his hoodie and put the T-shirt on without any more complaining. She averted her eyes pulling her own T-shirt over her head on top of her tank top.

They were in a huge mall on the outskirts of the city. It was close to neighborhoods that were considered wealthy so there was a bigger chance of finding people willing to donate.

They took a taxi and it took ages for them to get there because of the hellish traffic but he would probably never take the subway again and honestly, she did not want to ask him to. They spent the whole ride staring out of each their window and when they finally got there, he insisted on paying for the ride.

It was so strange watching him there in their tiny little stand when they replaced Sandra who had the stand before them. Elena could not help but notice the extra look, Sandra shot his way when she saw them before she informed them that things were slow during her shift and they should not expect a lot of donations.

Elena took a stack of leaflets, split it in half and gave him his own stack. "So, we're gonna try to get people's attention and if they seem interested we tell them about the cause and how they can make a contribution. Everything is already in the leaflets so you might want to read one." He looked at the top leaflet in his stack.

"For the homeless?"

"Yes, there are more than 50,000 homeless people who sleep in the New York shelters every night. More than 20,000 of them are kids."

"How do people donate?"

"Well, there is more than one way you can tell people about. They can do it with their phones, on our website or they can do it now, in cash."

"Got it, so where should I stand?"

Yeah, she had thought about that and found that the best thing to do was for them to stand on each side of the stand. Just to cover more space, she told herself. The truth was; she could not stand too close to him for a longer period of time. It was too exhausting to be this aware of him next to her all the time and keeping a safe six-foot distance between them was the only way, she could get through this day.

Things started up slow. There were not many people walking past their stand and the few who did were in a hurry and did not even spare them a glance as they rushed to do whatever it was they needed to do. Elena kept looking behind her to see how he was doing but he seemed fine. A couple of times, she caught him watching her but she told herself, he was just trying to learn from her how to get people to stop and listen for a minute.

After an hour of no donations to speak off, Elena thought they could just stay for an hour more because this was a waste of time. She turned around to check on Damon and found him talking to a woman. She was wearing a formal suit, her shoes and handbag a fancy designer label that Caroline would go crazy over. She was staring at him and nodding her head eagerly. He handed her a leaflet and pointed at some of the information in it while he talked. 20 seconds later, the woman grabbed a checkbook from her bag and started writing on it.

He was focused on the woman and her check but then he turned his head and caught her looking. His eyes locked with hers and he smiled then he lifted his eyebrows and shifted his eyes in the direction of the woman as he mouthed "5.000 dollars" to her. Her own eyebrows shot in the air at the ridiculously amazing amount and he shot her that infuriatingly arrogant smirk of his.

When the woman finished writing her check, he winked and returned his focus to her, leaving Elena shocked and a little bit annoyed because she had never gotten such a huge donation before even though she had always prided herself on being one of the best in that field.

She needed to step up her game.

After that woman, things started to flow more easily and Elena found herself getting really great donations out of people but she did not manage anything close to 5,000 dollars.

Whenever she looked at Damon, she found him talking with someone or a group of someones, most of them usually women. He did not tell her how much they donated but she could tell that he got some great amounts by the looks of hose women and his frequent use of their little box for cash and checks.

Time flew by and when the stores started closing up, Elena looked at the time; 10 pm. They had been working for more than 8 hours without breaks or food. Right then her stomach made itself known with the loudest growl ever. She was hungry and her feet hurt like hell but she felt great about what they had achieved; 12,000 dollars. The majority of which came through Damon and that was without counting in the electronic transactions.

She was in their stand with the donations box in her lap as she counted and rearranged the money and checks. He appeared in front of her and leaned on the tiny round table. "How are you this good at this?" She asked looking up from her counting and meeting his gaze.

"You weren't that bad yourself," he said lightly.

"Yeah, I'm good at it but you can make miracles."

He turned a bit more serious as he contemplated her question then he said: "In my world, you have to be a good speaker to survive." His voice was low and it had a sort of heaviness to it. That sentence was loaded with much more meaning than what the actual words conveyed. She felt that he did not want to say more about that so she did not press.

She slammed the lid back on the box and locked it getting ready to leave. "Should we go grab some food?" She asked casually.

His head snapped to her. "Sure, why not," he said.

Damon

She said she knew a good place to eat. He did not know what he expected but it was definitely not that; a small hole-in-the-wall place across the road from the mall. It said Shawarma House with bold fluorescent letters on the front and inside there were three round tables and one long high table with high stools to match. Everything looked greasy and a guy was wiping one of the tables with an old rag that seemed to spread the grease rather than remove it.

How did people eat here?

But all three tables were actually occupied and a few people were scattered along the long table.

Elena went to make her order talking to a middle-aged man with a round belly and a strong accent standing next to a tall shish kebab, he believed it was called. "Two rolls please… and what do you want to drink?" The last part was directed at him.

"Whatever you're getting," he said as he wondered how he could skip the eating part without hurting her feelings.

"Okay two rolls, a bowl of fries and two cokes, thank you."

Five minutes later, they were already perched on two stools with a large bowl of fries in between them and each a wrap in their hand. She was already peeling the paper cover off the top of her wrap getting ready to eat.

He was holding his in one hand looking at it suspiciously. Who knew what kind of germs were hiding inside that thing?

"Aren't you going to eat?" She asked but what would he say? That he was too scared of little invisible creatures that could give him all kinds of horrible diseases? No way in hell.

He started peeling the paper off his own wrap and brought it to his mouth. "It's good I promise," she said with a strange twinkle in her eyes. Great, he must have made a face. He gathered his courage and took a healthy bite.

Wow, that was good; meat, bread and whole lot of flavor. He had not eaten anything since early morning so he dug in and it was the most satisfying meal in his life.

They ate in comfortable silence enjoying the food. That girl could eat, he thought. She finished her roll in ten minutes and ordered two new ones for them. He tried not to watch her too much but she was so enticing. Concentrating on her roll like it was the most important thing for her at the moment. She took another bite leaving a blotch of white sauce on the corner of her mouth. She did not notice though as she kept eating but he kept staring at her lips. His hand seemed to move on its own towards her and when she noticed it slowly reaching for her, her gaze left the roll in her hand and landed on his hand then traveled all the way up to his lips and then to his eyes.

He finally reached the corner of her mouth and with his thumb, he wiped the sauce away. Then like in a trance, he brought his hand to his own mouth and licked the sauce off. All this time, their eyes stayed locked on each other. Time stood still for that moment like the world was holding a breath. She was certainly holding her breath because suddenly she released it shakily but then the spell broke when she wrenched her gaze away.

She grabbed their empty roll paper and used napkins and went to throw them in the trash. Then she took her purse and went to pay the bill but he had already expected her to do that and beat her to it, paying the bill himself.

She tried to object but he refused to listen so she accepted defeat and they left the place. They tried to find a taxi with no luck and she suggested that they walk to the subway station but he had a better idea. He had already called his driver to come pick him up before they went to eat and he was already on the way. They just needed to wait a little.

She agreed reluctantly to wait with him instead of taking the subway on her own and they were just walking in silence when she said it.

"I'm sorry about your problem with your brother. I found out that my friend went to his office and told him about the food without telling me."

He did not say anything. Her words surprised him. He never expected any apology from her, especially not about something that was not her fault. Yes, he believed that there were drugs in the food and that she did not know about her friend talking to his brother. Maybe he should not trust her but he did believe she was honest with him. He was a dick to her back then and there was no reason for her to spare his feelings. If she wanted to tell his brother or write about it in the article, she would have done it.

"My brother and I, we fixed things," he said after a couple of minutes of silence.

"Really? That's amazing." She sounded happy; really honestly happy for him.

"Yeah… can I ask you something?" Maybe he should not ask her. He was not even sure that he wanted to know.

"Sure," she said pulling her cardigan tighter around her tiny frame. It was a bit chilly and she was still only wearing a tank top underneath her cardigan that looked too thin to keep her warm.

He took off that hideous hoodie; he somehow decided on wearing that morning and covered her shoulders with it. She tried to object but he gave her a stern look. "Please." Her objections died on her tongue and she tucked her arms through the sleeves pulling the zipper all the way up to her chin.

She looked so small in it. He could probably fit two of her inside and it would still be too big. The sleeves covered her hands but she did not seem to mind. She stuck her fingers out and grabbed the fabric on the end of the sleeves to prevent it from covering her hands completely.

"What did you want to ask?" She said and it took him a moment to remember what they were talking about.

"Why didn't you write about the drugs in your article?" There, he said it. He steeled himself to hear her answer. She stayed silent. When he looked at her, he found her deep in thought. That was not very promising.

"Honestly, I don't know. There was just this voice in my head that told me not to," she finally said.

Thank the heavens for the voices in her head, he thought. But then she probably still thought that he had put those drugs in the food and he did not like that. For some reason, he wanted her to know it was not him, that he actually was not that horrible.

Stefan had already talked to him about his theory. He thought someone wanted to hurt him or their father so they drugged the food and planted journalists to discover it and put the blame on him. He had to give it to him; that actually made sense and he was furious for not figuring it out himself.

"I know it's probably not my business but I have to know, Damon. Why would you do something like that? Why hurt other people even though they seemed to do whatever you wanted?" She stopped walking and turned to look at him with those big Bambi eyes. "I just don't understand because you don't seem like a person who would do such a thing."

How could he not tell her anything she wanted to know when she looked at him like that? There was no judgment, just open curiosity and maybe a little worry. But why would she worry about him? She barely knew him? Their only interactions consisted of screaming matches and a one-night-stand. How could she possibly feel anything for him other than resentment?

"I didn't," he said quietly but she heard him because her face flashed from surprise to disbelieve then back to surprise. "What?"

"Yeah, you probably don't believe it but it's the truth. Stefan and I think that someone must have drugged the food and made sure that you would find out so you would write about it in your article."

"But who would want to do that? Do you have any enemies?"

"Sure, everyone has enemies but the trick is to find the one who hates me more than all the others."

AN: Thank you for reading. I hope you liked the chapter and in any case please tell me what you thought about it.

What did you think about Elena's charity work?

Did you like Elena's choice of a place to eat?

What did you think of Damon's thoughts about her?

What about that little moment in the Shawarma place?