Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries. Don't sue.

A/N: Would you look at this? The first chapter of a real Delena story by me! I'm pretty excited about it, even though the plot is far from original. I just needed these two to be forced to be together. Pretty thin plot, but hopefully you'll enjoy it anyway. I'm not the most frequent of writers, so don't know how fast I'll update, but it'll happen. Promise.

Summary: Takes place after 2x03. Damon and Elena are locked up in the boarding house after an ancient spell is released. How will these once upon a time friends cope?

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Chapter 1

Elena very quietly made her way down the impressive stairs of the boarding house, checking from the corner of her eye for he-who-shall-not-be-named. She should've left the house with Stefan this morning when he left to hunt. That would've avoided all of this sneaking out. When she finally made it downstairs, she couldn't help but feel a little pleased with herself, knowing that even his vampire hearing hadn't been good enough to hear her, otherwise he would've showed up right in front of her in that incredibly annoying way by now. She tip-toed to the front door and was about to take the doorknob in her hand when the inevitable happened anyway. He was so close to her that she had to take a step back to stop their bodies from touching.

"Are my eyes deceiving me?" Damon asked with that amused tone in his voice.

"Damon." She sighed. "I'm in a hurry, okay? I have to get home and change clothes and I'm already late for school."

"I couldn't believe it when I heard you two come home last night. You haven't spend the night here since our little…incident. Probably in a failed attempt to avoid me. What's changed?"

"Nothing's changed."

"Yet you still try to sneak out without even saying goodbye to me. I'm hurt, Elena."

"You know where we stand, Damon. Will you just step aside? I really need to go."

"Well, I'm just going to take the fact that you feel safe enough to spend the night here, with me in the same house, as a first step in the right direction for us." Damon shrugged as he finally did what she asked of him and stepped aside.

"Don't." She warned him. "Like I said: nothing's changed."

Before Damon could respond to that, and she knew he would, considering his ever-present desire to have the last word, she felt a jolt of electricity go through her body when she took the doorknob in hand. The blast was forceful enough to send her flying through the air, bumping into Damon midway, who was standing between her and the back wall and the two of them landed against said wall with so much force, a big crack appeared in the middle of it. Elena's body had slammed into Damon's, making her landing a lot more softer than his, but still very uncomfortable. Damon groaned and Elena dared to open her eyes, realizing she was in his lap, her head resting on his chest. His arms moved and embraced her, startling Elena.

"You okay?" Damon's voice sounded as he carefully tried to sit up a little, holding on to her tightly.

"Yeah." She said softly. "You?"

"Nothing a nice massage won't solve." He answered, groaning as he moved his neck from left to right and obvious snapping could be heard.

She struggled to get out of his embrace and carefully got to her feet. "What happened? What was that?"

Damon tried to get up too, but was visibly struggling. Like some sort of reflex, Elena rushed to his side to assist him. She took him by the arm to lend him support, but immediately let go of him when he was standing up, fearing a typical Damon-comment about her rushing to his side. It didn't come though.

"Something or someone obviously doesn't want you to leave." Damon finally stated, eyeing the door.

"Like a spell?" Elena asked, frowning. "Who would do that?"

"I know only one witch. You?"

He stepped forward and walked over to the door with the intention to open it.

"Careful!" She managed to speak up, before another jolt of electricity seemed to take over the house. This time Damon was prepared though and he groaned, obviously in pain, but he didn't go flying backwards like Elena. He was forced to take a few steps back though, because of the impact of the jolt.

"Son of a…" He started, turning back to Elena. "I'm going to kill that little witch!"

"Why would Bonnie do this?" Elena spoke up. "She has no reason to do this. Why would she lock me up in a house with you?"

"Didn't we just agree that this was the first time you spend the night here in weeks? She probably had no idea you were here. She saw Stefan come out of the house this morning and figured this would be the perfect timing to lock me away forever."

"In your own gigantic house? Where Stefan lives too? That doesn't make sense, Damon, and you know it. If Bonnie wanted to do something like that she would've done it a long time ago and not in your own house, but probably in small, confined space, don't you think?"

Damon hesitated for a second, the anger still obvious in his face and posture. Elena could tell he was forcing himself to calm down.

"Then who did this?" He eventually asked, calmly.

"I don't know. We should try to find out. But it wasn't her, Damon. However, she might be the only one who can get us out of here."

Elena reached in the pocket of her jeans, praying the impact of the blast hadn't broken her phone. She was relieved to see it hadn't and immediately dialed her best friend's number, bringing the phone to her ear. From the corner of her eye she saw Damon pacing back and forth, every now and then walking up to different parts of the windows, touching them with one finger and swearing every time he got shoved backwards by the electric jolt.

"Stop that." She ordered him. "I think it's obvious we're locked in."

"There has to be a weak spot in here somewhere." Damon murmured, continuing his quest, eventually leaving the room to check the other windows and doors.

It was only then that Elena realized she wasn't hearing anything on her phone. She looked down at the screen and sighed in frustration. No reception. She held her phone up in the air and wandered through the large hallway. No luck.

"Just great." She whispered, hearing Damon's creative swear words from other parts of the house.

She followed where the swearing came from and entered the large living room.

"Damon, where's your phone? I don't have any reception."

Damon reached into his pocket and got out his phone, throwing it her way from the other side of the room, Elena barely catching it. He didn't even look up as he continued his useless attempt to find a weak spot in the electric shield.

"We're like kettle." Damon announced, annoyed. "Surrounded by electric fences."

Elena looked down at Damon's phone and sighed as she brushed through her hair with her free hand.

"No reception."

This caused him to look up. "What kind of freaky spell is this?"

"We'll just wait until Stefan comes back." Elena rationalized. "He probably can't come in, but we'll talk to him through the window and he'll get Bonnie to fix this. Let's just calm down, okay?"

"Oh, I'm calm, alright." Damon assured her, his appearance suggesting the opposite. "Calm and collected. Ready to very calmly kill whoever had the nerve to lock us in here."

"I still don't understand who would…" Elena started, stopping mid-sentence as the obvious popped into her head. She looked up at Damon. "Katherine."

Their gazes locked and Damon seemed to consider this for a moment. "…This is not really her style. And you need a witch to perform this kind of spell…unless…"

"Unless what?" Elena asked, eagerly. She wanted to know who did this, even though it wouldn't solve anything. She figured she'd be calmer if she could put a face on who was responsible for this. The unknown was much scarier, even if that meant that the person who was responsible for this was her biggest nightmare; Katherine.

"There's are certain objects and artifacts that witches can curse. It's like locking a spell inside of it and the objects can be triggered into unleashing the spell." Damon explained. "Katherine could have an object like that, maybe Emily made it for her back in the day."

"..Okay…" Elena nodded, walking over to the couch and sitting down, contemplating this. "So it could be Katherine. But why?"

"Easy." Damon shrugged, walking over to her. "She wants Stefan and this keeps us out of her way."

"That's a bit too easy." Elena objected.

Damon nodded. "You're right. Like I said: not her style. Katherine would've been more…violent…about it. You know, get us out of her way by ensuring our gruesome deaths."

Elena shuddered involuntarily at Damon's words. Katherine scared the crap out of her.

"So…not Katherine."

"Not Katherine." Damon decided, arms crossed, a big frown appearing in his forehead.

Suddenly the sound of another electric jolt seemed to go through the house and Elena jumped up from the couch. She looked up at Damon.

"That wasn't one of us." She stated, as she hurried back into the large hallway and was just in time to see Stefan get back on his feet through the window.

"Stefan!" She called out, rushing to the window, stopping herself just in time from placing her hands on it.

Stefan walked up to the window with a confused look on his face. Elena saw he was saying something, because his mouth was moving, but she couldn't hear anything and didn't catch it.

"What's he saying?" Elena asked, turning around to face Damon who had followed her into the hallway.

"Not a clue." Damon shrugged carelessly.

"Come on, Damon! Don't tell me your vampire hearing doesn't work through one window."

"It should work, but it's not for some reason." He explained, obviously also surprised by this. "The spell successfully locked us out from the outside world. How's your sign language?"

For some reason Elena was a little relieved to see Damon had gone back to his teasing, unimpressed ways. While he annoyed her like this, she preferred this version of him over the angry, uncontrolled one. She hurried over to the big cabinet against one of the walls and got out some paper and a pen that she knew was in there.

"My sign language's a little rusty. My writing skills are as perfect as ever though." She told Damon as she started to write.

"Huh. Clever." He responded monotonously as he stood in front of the window, waving at his brother with his signature smirk plastered to his face.

Elena sighed when she saw this as she looked up. "Cut that out. There's nothing funny about this."

"There really isn't." Damon agreed. "But sometimes you've got to make the best out of a bad situation."

She walked back over to the window, pushing Damon aside a little as she held up the piece of paper.

Locked in. Spell. Get Bonnie.

"So efficient with so few words." Damon remarked, sarcastically.

Stefan nodded though and mouthed something the locked up twosome easily caught. Who did this?

They shrugged simultaneously. Elena scribbled something else on the paper, then held it up again.

Not Katherine.

"But a witch has to be involved in this." Damon spoke to Elena. "It's a strong spell. I must have been right about an object containing the spell. Any idea what it could be?"

Elena thought about this, suddenly remembering something. The thought caused her heart to stop beating for a second. Damon easily picked up on this.

"What is it?" He asked, feigning annoyance.

"I'll be right back." She announced as she turned around and ran up the stairs. Could it be?

She entered Stefan's bedroom and immediately walked up to the bookcases. This morning she'd been drawn to several silver little boxes standing on the shelves. She hadn't been able to contain herself and had opened a few, just to see if there was anything inside. She wasn't one to snoop around, but the boxes had been so pretty and shiny and she'd gotten curious. She reached out to the smallest box that she'd also opened this morning. She remembered the spark that went through her body when she had. She hadn't thought anything of it this morning, but unfortunately the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fall into place now. She sighed. Had she caused this? Had her snooping around gotten them in trouble? She didn't allow herself to get into it as she rushed back down the stairs. She saw how Damon was still standing in front of the window, making weird faces.

"What are you doing?" She asked, stopping on the last step.

"Trying to play charades with my brother. He's no fun though. I already guessed what he's acting out: Dr. Seuss' The Grinch who stole Christmas, but he won't break character. Don't get me wrong, he's got the disapproving, angry look down to a tee and even added a sixth wrinkle to his brooding forehead, so really, the resemblance is uncanny, but it's my turn now and he insists on being the Grinch the whole time. I don't think he gets the rules."

Elena rolled her eyes. "Glad you're enjoying yourself."

"Oh, me too. It's much better than me snapping and doing something rash out of frustration."

She ignored this last comment, realizing she'd almost forgotten about the 'incident' as he'd so lovingly called it earlier, in all the commotion.

"Could this be it?" She asked him instead, walking up to him, showing him the box.

"Katherine's jewelry box." Damon spoke up when he saw it and took the box from her. "You've been snooping around Stefan's room." He realized, mockingly.

"I opened it this morning and something happened. Could this have caused it?"

"This most certainly could've caused it. Emily must have locked a spell in there."

"So this box has been around since 1864, cursed and everything and nobody ever opened it?"

"Not until the lovely Elena Gilbert stepped in and decided to snoop around." Damon smirked, obviously pleased with this fact. "You locked us in here, Elena. You know, if you wanted to spend time with me, you could've just asked. There was no need for something so drastic."

"It was an accident, okay? How was I supposed to know something like this would happen?"

"You were supposed to know that it's rude to go through people's stuff." He responded, turning back to the window and holding up the box for Stefan to see. "Your girlfriend's been snooping!" He practically yelled, as if that would make Stefan hear him, a smirk from ear to ear.

"He can't hear you."

"Oh, but I think he gets the message."

Stefan obviously understood what was going on. He turned his attention to Elena and mouthed something to her.

"I'm fine." She assured him, nodding.

Stefan focused on Damon and shot him a look.

"Oh! Was that a warning look by the one and only Saint Stefan? I'm shaking in my boots, little brother."

Stefan shook his head and mouthed something they couldn't miss: I'll be back.

With that the youngest Salvatore turned around and ran off.

"There he goes. Our big hero." Damon stated, still smirking and amused by the whole thing, before turning to Elena. "So, looks like you and I are going to be stuck in here for a while. What are we going to do to pass the time?"

"This is a nightmare." Elena sighed, ignoring Damon as she walked back to the stairs and seated herself on one of the steps.

Damon walked over to her. "Wait. Let me get this straight: after everything you've been through these past few months, all the unsettling occurrences, the death and mayhem, you call being locked up in a gigantic house with yours truly a nightmare? Really, Elena? Are you ever going to be done with kicking me when I'm already down?"

"I'm not saying this to hurt you." She spoke up, looking right at him. "I can just think of more fun things than this, Damon."

"But a nightmare? Really? Pretty strong word don't you think? You couldn't think of a word a little more mellow?"

"Oh, nightmare was the mellow choice." She assured him, getting up again so they were face to face. "The death and mayhem were hell, Damon. So yes, nightmare is the only correct choice of words here. I'm stuck in a gigantic house with an evil vampire who killed my little brother. I think you should be pleased that only qualifies as a nightmare in my messed up life."

She turned around and started to head up the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Damon called after her.

"This is not a nice gathering of two friends." She told him, turning around. "We're not going to sit together and have meaningful conversations or play silly games. We might be stuck in here together, but it really is a gigantic house and if I'm lucky I won't even have to see you until the spell is lifted. I'll be upstairs, taking a shower and doing some studying."

"Fine. Do whatever you want." Damon agreed, shrugging.

"Thank you."

With that she disappeared up the stairs.

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A/N: There it is! The first chapter. Please drop me a few lines to let me know what you think and if you'd like to see this continued. Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it.

Steffanie