A/N: A while ago I had someone ask me if I would write Damon as a vampire again. I have been unmotivated to go there, but this story is TVD therapy for me. I'm really just sort of using this as a venting story, and using it to work out some of my issues. So I'm not really going for realism here. I've tried writing a couple of one shots that haven't worked out, and have decided I can't do one-shots. This is my alternative. It will probably be no longer that 3 to 5 short parts.

Set sometime after the season 2 finale.

Tonight We Tell The Truth

"It was never meant for you, Damon. You opened the bottle without…"

"Don't try to make this my fault. You put the bottle right here. You're not that stupid."

"I thought you were out of town," she told him, hoping he would accept the explanation for what it was - the truth.

"So you intended this for my brother? Wonder what he'll make of that…"

Damon turned to walk away, but Elena's hand shot out and wrapped itself around his wrist. He raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for her explanation.

"No, Damon, just forget it. I'll take it home. It was a stupid idea, anyway."

"Well, I won't argue with you, but you're not leaving until you tell me why you had this made. Do I detect trouble in paradise?"

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" she asked, before she could stop herself.

It wasn't exactly the smartest idea to taunt an already angry vampire, especially one who had just had Bonnie's special brew, but she wasn't afraid of him. He was the reason she lived today. He would never let anything happen to her; and that was the exact reason why she desperately needed to keep the lines drawn between them right now. Their arguments were by far the easiest part of their friendship.

"You know I would Elena; a fact that you have played upon for the past how ever many months now, a fact you and Stefan relied upon in the battle against Klaus."

"You can't honestly believe that," she said to him, stung by what he was suggesting about her, and horrified by the raw pain and emotion she could hear in his voice.

She already knew, however, that what he said was very much the truth. His face was taught, and his eyes were filled with an emotion she didn't want to look at too closely. Elena wondered for the umpteenth time if she would ever be able to avoid being like Katherine; if she would ever stop hurting these brothers.

"I care about you, Damon…"

"You care about me, you do, but you love Stefan. It's always going to be Stefan," he said in a sing-song voice that was filled with so much pain, she couldn't help but feel it in every cell of her body. It didn't, however, erase the anger that she still held onto from the night he was referencing.

"I hurt you that night, and you hurt me; I'd say we're about even."

"Even," Damon said, with a shake of his head.

Damon wondered if love and pain could be measured. If they could, who would win the medal for most pain inflicted? Perhaps it was too close to call. All he knew was that it always hurt to look at her; it always hurt to have her close, but out of reach, it always hurt to know she'd never be his. He was sick of hurting; he was tired of feeling like his heart had been yanked from his rib cage and put through a grinder every time she looked at him.

He would have died for her. He had willingly stepped out of his brother's way so they could stand side by side and protect her. Now she expected him to be happy that she 'cared'. Yeah, he was fucking ecstatic.

She'd come here with her bottle of tainted alcohol, opening him up, and ripping the truth from him; and the ridiculous part of it was that she didn't even want to know what he was feeling. She'd come to find out Stefan's feelings. It would always be Stefan. It would ALWAYS be Stefan. What would it take for him to stop deluding himself?

Some part of him had hoped that by the end of the bloody battle with Klaus, she would see something in him that might change her mind; that she might realize she belonged with him after all. It wasn't the reason he'd fought the battle, but he'd held on to that hope regardless. Now, he saw, it was very much time to let hope go and move on. Before he did, though, he knew exactly how he would spend tonight.

"Damon," she said tentatively.

She gasped with surprise when he reached for the glass bottle in her hands; the bottle which held the tainted alcohol she'd intended for his brother. He took a large sip, before placing it on the surface behind him.

"What are you…?"

He cut her off from talking by kissing her. His kiss was crushing and brutal, and she tried to fight him off, pushing against him. His arms anchored her to him, so she couldn't move away from him. The moment she opened her mouth to protest, he swept his tongue into her mouth, brushing it along hers. She moaned, and he had no idea if she was more of a protest or if she was enjoying it, and he didn't care. This wasn't for her. Most of what he'd done for the past few months had been for her; but this, this was for him. Once he'd painted her mouth with the alcohol on his tongue, he released her and stepped back, only to let her hand crack against his cheekbone.

Damon thought she looked like some kind of wild animal. "I warned you not to do that."

"What are you going to do about it?" she asked him angrily.

She didn't think he would touch her, but she was wrong. He would make her pay for that…later. Right now he could hear baby bro making his way down the stairs, with their house guest who had refused to leave. Suddenly he put it together in his head. That was why Elena had brought her 'present'. The look on her face told him that not only was he right, but that she didn't like the fact that he'd worked it out.

"Worried about Katherine, are we?"

"Please, Damon, don't…"

"Elena? What are you doing here? I didn't know you were coming over," Stefan said, surprised.

Elena had already registered the fact that Stefan didn't entirely sound happy to see her, as she watched Damon reach behind him and pick up the bottle she'd brought over.

"Elena brought over a drink to share," Damon told them, already working on pouring four glasses.

"What…"

"You should be wary of humans bearing gifts, Damon," Katherine told him.

Elena tried not to think about the fact that Stefan and Katherine had come down the stairs together. Instead she focused on glaring at Damon, while ignoring Stefan's curious glances, and Katherine's look of daggers. She was stuck; there was nothing she could do to stop Damon from doing what he was doing, and he knew it. How was she supposed to ask Stefan the questions she needed to know now? The idea had been that Stefan would answer her questions without knowing what was in the bottle. She hated not knowing if Damon would keep her secret or let the cat out of the bag. Damon wouldn't understand her reasons for doing this. Bonnie had had a similar reaction.

"I have to know," Elena told her friend. "I don't know what else to do."

"Elena, I really think you need to ask him yourself."

"I did ask him."

"And?"

"And he said he stopped loving her a long time ago."

"Then…"

"I don't believe him."

"Then that should tell you everything you need to know right there. Elena, if you can't believe him; if you don't trust him, then the relationship has reached its conclusion. Don't you agree?"

Elena had asked herself the same question over and over again. It wasn't so much that she thought Stefan was lying to her; it was just that she didn't know if he himself knew the truth. From the time Katherine had left the tomb and started working with them to defeat Klaus, Stefan had been growing more and more distant by the day. Now Klaus was dead, and Katherine was still hanging around. Why the hell was she still in Mystic Falls? The potion that Bonnie had made for her would bring all buried feelings to the surface, and force people to tell the truth.

"Tell me this has nothing to do with all the time you've been spending with Damon lately," Bonnie had said to her.

It was bad enough Katherine would be joining them, but adding Damon to the mix of truth-bearing seemed far too dangerous. Elena had thought their friendship was on its way to being completely repaired, but judging by what he'd said today, and that kiss, they still had unresolved issues. His kiss had taken her by surprise, and just like the last time he had kissed her like that, she had fought tooth and nail not to give in and surrender to it.

She smiled weakly at Stefan as he frowned at her. Guilt was making its way through her system now, pervading her body like poison. She would have taken the bottle home, but Damon was making her go through with this.

"To the truth, and all its glory," Damon toasted, before downing his tumbler like a shot.

Elena tried not to choke on the liquid she was now being forced to drink. She had already tasted the odd flavor when Damon kissed her. It actually tasted less potent when drinking it from a glass.

"This smells…strange," Stefan said, unimpressed by the contents of his glass.

"Something's off, and I don't think it's just the alcohol." Katherine said, her eyes flicking between the tumbler in her hand and Elena.

"I believe it would be offensive to Elena, if you choose not to drink the gift she so lovingly bought you, Stefan," Damon told Stefan.

Stefan nodded, smiled apologetically at Elena, and then drank up. Damon was wondering how he could get Katherine to drink hers when Stefan put a hand on her arm, and gave her a look. Apparently a look from Stefan was all she needed. Damon looked at Elena, who had also seen their quiet exchange and was looking on with such insecurity he almost felt sorry for her. Well, she had come here with the intention of finding out the truth. Soon she would know. Damon hoped she could handle the truth, because he wasn't going to stick around and comfort her.

"Does this stuff kick in straight away?" he asked her.

Elena glared at him, but nodded.

"What's going on here?" Stefan asked, looking between Damon and Elena.

"Elena wants to play a game," Damon explained helpfully, seeing Elena at a loss for words.

"I like games," Katherine said to no-one in particular.

"Good," Damon said. "I'm hoping this one will be an all-nighter."