"Sorry, Elena. It's too late."

My hands froze on his face. My smile faltered and I jerked my hands away as if I'd been burned. I took a step back and shook my head, studying his emotionless expression and cold eyes. "No, it's not. It's only the third day," I said, desperately trying to look happy again.

Of course, Damon was wrong. He just believed it was too late, or maybe wanted me to believe it. I put my hand on his upper arm and it slid down until I could grasp his fingers. He didn't say a word, he only pulled his hand away.

"Damon, I know I've hurt you, and I'm so sorry, you have no idea. But please, will you forgive me?"

He shrugged carelessly. "I forgive you. But it doesn't change anything."

"What do you mean?" I asked incredulously. "I'm here because I want to be with you. You love me, and-"

Damon interrupted me and the words I was about to say died on my tongue.

"You don't understand, Elena. I don't love you any more."

For a moment I thought I would break down there and then, but instead I got angry. If Damon thought he could put me off with cruel words, he underestimated me. I closed the distance between us again, grabbing his neck and kissing him furiously. The kiss wasn't loving or tender, it was demanding – I was trying to remind him about me, about us. Damon wasn't very enthusiastic, but he didn't push me away, and I kissed his jaw, throat, biting his neck with blunt teeth. My hands slid under his shirt to feel the muscles in his back and then got busy with the top button of his shirt.

That was when he grabbed my wrists, his hold not painful, but firm.

"Stop," he said flatly. There was no fury in his eyes, just fatigue, and it crushed me.

"Damon, please," I begged. "I get it. You want to show me what I made you feel. I understand, I promise. Just-" I broke off, not knowing what to say. He winced like I'd just slapped him.

"That's what you think it is? A game? Some petty revenge?" he said quietly and smiled a sad smile. "There's nothing I can do." I didn't realize I'd started crying until he wiped my tears with his finger, the gesture careful, but not tender. "Now let's go home. Since it's safe to say the ritual is complete, we can both go back."

I turned away from him and walked out of the room, my hand pressed to my face in a futile attempt to stifle my sobs.

I didn't need to tell Caroline what happened – she'd heard the conversation, judging by her sympathetic expression. We stood in silence while Damon checked out, and then Care narrowed her eyes and smiled at me. She flashed to the car, opened the trunk and in a moment she was back at my side. I was too distracted to register what she had done, but her wink hinted she had a new plan.

In a minute Damon walked out of the hotel, pulling car keys out of his pocket.

"Hi, Barbie," he greeted Caroline. "Didn't know you worked as a part-time chauffeur."

"Not any more," she shrugged. "It seems my car decided to break down, so I guess I'll stay here and wait for the mechanic. You guys go home. Sorry, Elena."

I looked at Damon for a moment and then turned away. My friend had just arranged the most awkward car ride in history. Damon shrugged and pointed at a car next to Caroline's. "Get your stuff," he told me. "Blood bags, too, I don't have any."

I nodded, tears still welling up in my eyes, and I moved the little luggage that I had from Caroline's car to Damon's rented one. I said goodbye to Care, and she mouthed "Good luck."

If Damon knew what was going on, and he probably did, he said nothing. He got into the car without saying a word, waited for me to climb into the passenger seat and drove away from the hotel.

I tried not to cry, but traitorous tears kept welling up in my eyes, clouding my vision. I prayed Damon wouldn't notice.

I texted Caroline, asking her to call Stefan. I was afraid he would ask how everything went, and my quiet crying would turn into a full fledged hysterics. The tears stopped bothering me, and I just stared into the window while they rolled down my cheeks.

Of course, Damon noticed.

"Calm down, Elena," he said, reaching out to squeeze my hand briefly. I swallowed hard, tasting salt. In the past, Damon's voice would have been tender and loving. His fingers would have held mine a little longer than necessary, reveling in one of the few stolen moments we shared.

God, how much I had taken for granted.

"You'll be fine," he told me, and I shook my head vigorously and wiped new tears as they escaped my eyes.

"I don't know how to live without you," I managed to whisper, and Damon looked at me with a condescending smile.

"But I'm not going anywhere," he said reassuringly. "I'm your friend, remember? I'll be there as long as you need me."

He would be there, so close and out of reach. No. I wouldn't stand that.

I turned away from him and to the window. At some point, I cried myself to sleep.

Damon woke me up a few hours later in Nashville, where he had to return the rental car and get his Camaro. I wasn't crying any more. We had lunch in a diner; Damon tried to ask polite questions about MysticFalls, I gave one syllable answers. We shared a blood bag in the car; I wiped a drop of blood from the corner of his mouth with my forefinger, and he didn't recoil from my touch. That gave me a new sense of power.

"Damon," I started, grabbing his hand and intertwining our fingers. He shook his head slightly.

"Don't."

"I don't believe it's all gone," I said passionately, caressing his face with my free hand. "I know how much you loved me. This feeling is indestructible. You may believe you don't love me any more, but that's not true."

I sounded a lot more confident than I really was.

"Elena-" he said, but I didn't let him speak another word.

"Just give me a chance, okay?" I begged, leaning in to kiss him. He didn't pull back. "Give me just a little time to prove it to you. Please," I whispered against his lips, and he sighed, his breath tickling my skin.

"Okay."

When we started driving from Nashville to Mystic Falls, Elena couldn't stop smiling. She talked with Caroline animatedly over the phone, sang along to a few songs on the radio and eventually closed her eyes and relaxed. I was wary, expecting her to start kissing me or begging me again. I hated having to turn her down every time; I felt awful. In a moment of weakness and sympathy, I gave her a new hope that I would inevitably have to destroy, and that would break her irrevocably. But she didn't try anything, and it both confused and pleased me.

Since the moment Elena had leapt into my arms in the hotel room I had been carefully watching my feelings, making sure her proximity didn't affect me. Even when we were alone in the car and she cried and cried, I couldn't offer anything but sympathy and understanding. I relaxed and let my guard down for a moment. When she chose this moment to ask me for another chance, I heard myself blurting "Okay" before I even knew what I agreed to.

I didn't like it at all.

"Remember when we first met?" Elena's voice brought me out of my reverie.

"Which time? When I was thinking whether or not to eat you or when I was trying to piss off Stefan?" I asked, and she laughed quietly.

"Whichever. You were so charming, so… fascinating," she said, and I smirked.

"So?"

"Then there was Georgia," Elena went on, ignoring my question. "The most fun I'd had in months."

"You drank 'til you could barely stand and I almost got killed. Fun," I agreed.

"You said I did well," she argued, and I let out a laugh. Elena smiled and turned up the radio, not saying anything else. There was a strange warm sensation in my chest, but I decided to ignore it.

"Do you know when I realized we were more than friends?" she asked in a while, eyes closed, like she was trying to picture that moment. I sighed.

"We've never been more than friends, Elena," I tried to reason with her, but she didn't seem affected at all.

"Fine. When I realized we could be more than friends," she edited.

"When?"

"When I told you to compel me to tell you the truth and you chose to trust me instead," she said. "You had no reason. I had just betrayed your trust, and yet you decided I was worth it again. Nobody's ever had as much faith in me as you do, did you know that?" She finally opened her eyes and looked at me from under her eyelashes. My heart skipped a beat, and I cursed myself for letting myself get caught, for agreeing to this car ride and, first and foremost, for giving her another chance. Idiot.

"Don't. Not now," I pleaded. Maybe the spell was still too insecure and I was still too weak. Maybe in a few hours it would be easier to deal with her. Surprisingly, Elena didn't even put up a fight, just smiled.

"Okay. Sure. Later."

Elena kept her word and didn't say a thing about us in the next few hours. She chose safer subjects: books she'd recently read (like I didn't know she was going through my library), movies she'd seen (according to Stefan, movie theaters are the best place to practice being around people) and the newest members of the Council. We shared another blood bag and Elena decided to try again.

"Do you know when I realized you loved me?" she asked, grinning again. I sighed heavily, not daring to look her in the eye. I could swear Elena beamed. I had no idea what was going on any more.

"When?" I stubbornly kept my eyes on the road.

"When you stepped in for Stefan and danced with me."

I shrugged. "I just thought it would be nice to save you from judgy people."

"That, too, but that's not what I mean," said Elena softly. "When I was walking down the stairs and saw you there waiting for me, one look into your eyes took my breath away. They were so full of devotion, care, love… Nobody has ever looked at me like that," she was almost whispering now. "Nobody but you."

I turned away slightly; I couldn't let her see my face. Forget the Originals, forget witches and their spells – Elena Gilbert was the most dangerous thing on the face of the earth. Fuck, I was afraid. Afraid that my eyes would give away something even I wasn't aware of.

Night had already fallen and it was raining outside, the sound of raindrops lulling, and Elena yawned. For a moment I wondered how much sleep she'd been getting lately, with the whole Find Damon thing. I refused to feel guilty about it. Or at least I tried not to.

"Sleep," I said, and she nodded, closing her eyes.

Elena woke up three hours later – the three hours that I spent repeating my previous conclusions over and over. That I had to be strong. That freedom and independence were much, much easier and better than love. She smiled at me, trying to stretch in the limited space. "How much time until we're home?"

"Almost there. Fifteen minutes at most," I said

"Good. Because there's still something I haven't told you."

I braced myself for whatever it was Elena was going to use to break me completely. "What?"

"Do you know when I fell in love with you?"

And I was destroyed.

I gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles were white. I fell in love with you. She was in love with me? No. Impossible. No way. This was just another game, right? Maybe she just decided to take pity on me?

But what if it was the truth?

"When?" I asked, still not daring to look at Elena.

"Last summer," she said. Really? She'd spent that summer grieving because of Stefan. I was a friend. An ally. A shoulder to cry on. With my brother out of the picture, there was still nothing romantic between us.

"Summer?" I echoed, my eyes never leaving the road.

"You were there for me all the time. Telling me stories before I went to bed so I would feel a little better. Taking me out when I was too gloomy. Rushing to my side whenever I needed it just to kiss my forehead and promise I'd be fine. Trying to find Stefan for me and never demanding anything in return. I guess nobody has ever loved me as much as you do, but you know what? I love you just as much, Damon. I'm in love with you."

After all the pain, denial and rejection, Elena still decided to say that. I was dumbstruck, but she smiled. She knew what I wanted to say – after all, we had never needed words. I turned to look at her, trying to see a trace of doubt or regret in her eyes, but there was none.

I sped up. Fuck the speed limit; there were so, so many reasons we needed to get out of the car as soon as possible. We drove the last five minutes in silence. We passed by the Welcome to Mystic Falls sign and in a couple of minutes I pulled up to her house.

Elena had hardly gotten out of the car when I flashed in front of her, putting my hands on the door next to her hips, trapping her. Her gaze was steady, showing nothing but love and acceptance. Was it my wishful thinking?

"Elena, if you don't mean it…"

"I love you," she repeated, interrupting me.

Fuck it. It didn't matter that we had hurt each other. It didn't matter that we were bound to do something stupid and ruin everything. It didn't even matter that three days ago I had been ready to destroy what I felt for her. The only thing that mattered to me was Elena.

God, I could have lost her. Idiot. I winced, and Elena thought it was about her. "If I have to, I'll do anything to pr-"

I silenced her with a kiss. She responded passionately but tenderly, her fingers tangling in my hair.

We stumbled to the front door and Elena almost broke the key in her haste to open it. When she finally did, we flashed upstairs together, and I pressed her to the mattress with my body. I kissed her again, and she made the most beautiful sound I've ever heard in my life. My lips found her neck, and I was just about to get rid of our clothes when Elena whispered: "Wait."

I froze. What? Did she-

"You never said it back," she reminded. I sighed in relief and pulled back to stare at her incredulously. This girl. Elena grinned and I couldn't help kissing her again.

"I love you. I can't help it. I love you too much for my own good."

"Don't run away ever again," she asked, and I could see she wasn't joking. I nodded.

"I have to warn you, though: I'll never be able to let you go now," I said, suddenly fearful. What if it was too much? What if she wasn't ready? But Elena just pulled me closer.

"Good. Then don't," she answered, and I kissed her again, starting a new page of our forever.

THE END

A/N: Okay, guys. This has been "Extinguish." Thanks for reading and reviewing. Now to the Special Thanks section.

Firstly, of course, CreepingMuse. I wouldn't be able to do it without her help and support.

Thanks to one of my favorite reviewers kat st james for continued support and reviewing almost every chapter of the story. Hope you'll like the final. Thanks to Darla for being so involved and emotional about the story, to tukct81, who is also a great writer, and, basically, to each of you guys.

Special thanks 2 - to Google Maps. This story wouldn't have been written without this service, I'm telling you.

Last but not least: my Extinguish playlist on YouTube. Most songs are in Ukrainian (my native language), but they are all subtitled in English. playlist?list=PLeuEo6trLaYtaWMrf22ERLS0dlR oSMW66&feature=mh_lolz