So...I'm a bad, bad fan fiction writer for leaving this one hanging for, um, over a year. What can I say? The lemon part was done, the final chapter seemed less urgent, I suddenly had a big idea for a Teen Wolf fiction and I'm apparently not capable of multitasking.

So now I'm back writing a story for The 100, and it was really bugging me that this one wasn't finished, especially since I already knew what was going to happen in the chapter. So since I'm in a writing mood (I'm often not for long periods of time) I channeled my energy into writing this final chapter before getting back to my other story.

In the end I'm excited with how it turned out so I'm so happy I bit the bullet. Stuff appeared that I wasn't expecting, like humor. I mean sure, Damon has buckets of material to work with, but he also has buckets of angst and that's the part of his character I'd been channelling up until now.

Damon buttoned his jeans as he watched Elena slowly slide her sweater over her head. God! She was doing this on purpose; a reverse strip tease. "You drive me wild, you know."

She smirked at him, "I know."

When did she get so cocky? That was his signature trait. He started moving towards her, unable to keep from touching her for more than a few seconds at a time, but froze when Elena frowned. She'd changed her mind. Realized everything she thought she felt for him was just the sire bond after all. Shit!

"I called out your name," she said.

Huh?

"You told me to scream out to God when I was, you know." She blushed. Absolutely adorable that she could still blush after what they'd just done to each other. "But I called out your name instead."

He almost collapsed in relief, needing to hold her to convince himself she was real. He wrapped his arms around her waist. "If you want me to think up a suitable punishment for you, I will."

She slapped his chest. "I'm serious!"

"So am I. And I'm also apparently God-like, which I guess I always knew so I'm glad other people are starting to recognize it."

Elena rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut—" Her eyes went wide as she stopped herself from telling him to shut up. He could see the torment in her eyes at her realization of how easy it would be to slip.

"Hey, you caught yourself. And first day, too. It's only going to get easier to remember." Damon rubbed his hands down her arms, trying to sooth her worry away. "You obviously have a theory. Let's hear it. And I promise to shut up of my own free will." He held up his left hand. "Scout's honor."

Elena looked like she wanted to say something about the boy scout thing but thought better of it. Amazing how he could almost read her mind. That had nothing to do with any sire bond.

"Your request was very specific. Exactly what I was supposed to say and exactly when I was supposed to say it. And yet, I didn't do it." She paused for a moment, her scientific mind, processing the information. "Somehow, I didn't have to follow your orders while we were making love. Endorphins, or powerful emotions or maybe I just forgot in the heat of the moment. Whatever it was, something overwhelmed the sire bond."

"Elena, what difference does it make? Nice to know I don't have to worry about what I say during dirty talk, but unless you plan on us making love constantly…" He smirked and raised his eyebrows at her, which earned him another slap in the chest. "How does this affect us the rest of the time?"

She looked at him with sad eyes. "Because we're going to need every argument we can find to convince our friends and family to support our relationship."

Damon took a step back. Right. That was going to be awkward. "Maybe we could just turn off our phones for a couple of days. I'm not ready to have that conversa—"

Suddenly, he found himself slammed from the side, flying across the room to crash into the wall. Plaster rained down on his head, and as the dust cleared, he found himself staring into the very, very pissed off face of his brother.

"I'll kill you for what you did to her!" Stefan shouted before driving a fist into his gut.

Damon didn't fight back. If he was Stefan, he'd kill him, too.

"Stefan, let him go!" Elena shouted, grabbing Stefan's fist as he wound back to hit him again. "Damon didn't do anything wrong."

Stefan turned to her, his eyes wild. "He raped you!" It was like another punch to his gut.

There was a sharp intake of breath from Elena. "I know you don't want to hear this, Stefan, but I wanted this as much as Damon did."

"No, you didn't Elena. You're sired to him. There's no consent here. I could forgive him for the first time, when he didn't know, but now he does. You both know." Stefan turned back to Damon and slammed him against the wall. "Damn it! You were supposed to walk away."

The next part was going to be hard to explain. "Yeah, I'm afraid I couldn't do that, brother."

"Yes, you could. You just didn't want to."

Elena inserted herself between the two brothers. "No, he couldn't. I told Damon not to, and he couldn't." Elena hesitated, but then she glanced back at Damon and took his hand. "Damon is sired to me, too."

Stefan stumbled backwards. "That's impossible."

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too, until she had me doing a pirouette in the living room. So please believe her, bro, before she has me doing the Macarena and drinking milk instead of bourbon just to convince you." He shivered at the thought of drinking milk.

Stefan shook his head. "This isn't healthy. Tell him to walk away, Elena." He looked at her with pleading eyes.

"No, I can't do that." She paused. "Sorry, I said that wrong. I could do it, but I won't." She squeezed his hand tighter. "I love Damon, I loved him before the sire bond and I will keep loving him if we figure out a way to break it." She turned to smile at him. "You're stuck with me until you decide you don't want to be stuck with me any more."

Damon felt his breath hitch in his throat. How did he, of all people, get this lucky? "If I live to be 1000, I will always want to be stuck with you."

Stefan cleared his throat. "Brother / ex-boyfriend still in the room here."

"I'm sorry, Stefan!" Elena said, letting go of Damon's hand. He missed it already.

She continued. "I hate that this is hurting you, I really do, but we need to convince you that this is real because we need your support."

Stefan ran a hand down his face. "My support? You've got to be kidding!" he shouted. "Are you forgetting about the red dress? How will either of you ever be sure that your opinion is your own, and not just a projection of the other person?"

"I already thought of that," she said. "We'll give each other permission to speak freely, like in the military. And we'll have our friends and family watching over us, supporting us, and keeping us honest."

His brilliant, beautiful Elena. She'd thought of everything.

Stefan stared between the two of them. He was close to being convinced. He just needed that extra nudge.

"Is this where we tell him about the sex thing?"

"Damon!" Elena shrieked.

"What? You said we needed to convince people."

"I was saving that tidbit for Bonnie and Caroline after some alcohol, not Stefan! And if you even think of telling Jeremy I will snap your neck!"

Damon smirked. "Damon and Elena. Even sire bonded, just as argumentative as ever." He turned to his brother who dropped heavily to the couch. "Elena thinks the sire bond turns off or something during sex. So it was totally consensual. Of course we'll need to do more research."

Stefan pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh, God!"

"Funny you should mention that. That's what Elena said. Or, at least she was supposed to say-"

Elena slapped her hand over his mouth. "I won't tell you to shut up, even though I really, really want to."

He kissed the hand that was covering her mouth. She sighed and as she pulled her hand away he took it in both of his and interlaced her slender fingers through his. It was amazing really; Elena even had beautiful fingers.

He glanced back up at Stefan to see that he was staring at their interlaced hands. "It really is more than the sire bond between you two, isn't it?"

"You know I've loved Elena for a long time, Stefan. I would die for her." Damon said.

Elena continued his thought. "The sire bond is because we love each other, not the other way around. And if a sire bond is incredibly rare, it's because a love like ours is incredibly rare."

Stefan stood up and ran his hands through his hair. "Fine, I'll support you. But I'm going to be watching both of you like a hawk to make sure you don't screw up. First time I suspect one of you is sire bonding the other into something they don't want to do, you're in separate cells in the basement until we figure out how to deprogram you."

"Thank you, Stefan," Elena's eyes were glistening.

"Yeah, thanks bro. I know this can't be easy for you."

"Easy?" Stefan scoffed. "This is a piece of cake compared to what you're going to have face from everyone else. Bonnie is probably going to witch chokehold you, Damon. And Jeremy, the vampire hunter, is just looking for an excuse to run you through. And don't even get me started on Caroline..."

"Oh, Blondie will be the toughest," Damon realized with dread.

Stefan sighed. "Let me worry about Caroline. You've got enough on your plate with the other two."

"Together we stand, or divide and conquer, Gorgeous?" Damon asked Elena. "I could maybe talk to your brother?" Even as he said it, he hated the idea.

"No," Stefan headed towards the front door. "Let them see you together. That's what will convince them. It convinced me. Now I'd better go find Caroline before she finds you first." He paused at the door. "Good luck, you're going to need it."

Then they were alone. "So, who do we want to tell first, witchy voodoo magic, or über vampire killer?"

Elena was wide eyed. "That's a really tough call."

Damon wrapped his arms around his girlfriend...soul mate...love of his life...reason for living. "Just remember, whatever we do, we do together."

Elena smiled that smile she shared only with him and kissed him, a searing kiss that made him feel they could conquer anything - even talk to Bonnie and Jeremy at the same time.

OK, maybe not that.

THE END