He'd come around soon enough, she was sure of it. This silly little playing hard to get, he'd get tired of it soon and he'd remember how they used to be.

lf only they could go back to how they used to be.

Besides, once you loved somebody - really, loved somebody, you couldn't just erase that. (And she knew he loved her, she knew it) It was only a matter of time.

Did she feel bad that she cheated on him all those summer nights ago? Sometimes she wondered herself. But it was a thought too far, and a feeling she'd already removed herself from. Though she rarely admitted it to herself, she liked the attention. She fed off of it like a starved neglected child. The idea of being fought over and loved, really loved and wanted. And they loved her, those silly boys and their crooked smiles and empty, meaningless flowery words murmured into the ear of the next beauty that happened to pass by. None of them, really cared, that much she knew. Not really. Not like Damon.

It was only a matter of time.

So with a smile, she entered the Salvatore household. A faint memory of one starry night on the roof and talks of forever flitting through her mind; before the spiral of wrong decisions and artificial, superficial happiness, back to when things were real.

She was going to salvage it. She was going to get back to the start and reclaim the one man who ever really loved her.

She had to. She needed to.

So when she first heard the murmurings from inside Damon's room, she paused. The click of her heels losing it's rhythm on the wooden floor, hiccuping for a second before coming to a complete stop. Pearl earring touching wood. It sounded like ...? A moan, reverberated through the door.

No...no...it can't be.

But the way he looked when he ran after her that night.

She should've known.

It was a crumbling feeling at the pit of her stomach, a blind cut too swift to feel right away. She didn't know why she was reacting so hard. This was fucking Damon. Nonetheless she turned the door knob, hearing the slight creak with every rotated inch.

And sure enough there was the pristine, perfect little thief squirming under her boyfriend. THE BITCH.

Her lower lip quivered.

She just wasn't happy enough, huh? Her parents hadn't been enough? The attention? The way the little whore destroyed her marriage by tattling to the sorry excuse of a father John had been?

And now, Damon? Pure unfiltered anger surged hotly through her veins.

No, she's not taking anything from her anymore. Not this fucking time.

Riing Riiing

It all seemed so far away in the midst of the kisses. Elena was drowning in them, surrounded in his kisses and the feel of his tongue expertly curling against hers. It was like she was on hyper alert and every feel of him was magnified tenfold against her heated skin. She didn't know how they made it to his silk covers but somehow they did. All tangled limbs, until he ended up on top of her, leaning down for a kiss.

Riiiiiing Riiiing

"You...you should...probably get...that," she said in between laughter and colliding lips. He sighed, giving her a peck before laying down beside her with a plop, chest moving up and down. It was crazy how empty she suddenly felt, like the disappointing feeling of waking up from a good dream. Except it wasn't a dream, and she couldn't for the hell of it wipe off the goofy smile or the heart jackhammering in her chest. This was bliss, and she for the fucking life of her could not remember a moment when she felt happier.

From the side she vaguely saw his arm reach out for his phone.

"Stefan," she heard him say, words slipping from his lips like gravel and it took only that to send her world tumbling down and her naive moment of happiness to shatter in splendid fashion on the wooden floor. I'm going to hell, I'm going to hell, she couldn't help but repeat the mantra in her head as she sat up suddenly, her limbs frozen. Alarm bells and paranoia suddenly rang in her head. She watched his crystal eyes, the stark redness of the sheets colliding with its apparent innocence, the disappointment in them already poised and ready to go as he eyed her warily. "Why?...Right now?...Sure, uhm...let me just get ready, I'll meet you there...alright...see you..." The alarms rang louder with every word, Damon's eyes never leaving hers as he said them. He knows! Of course he knows!

"What...what is it?" she asked, eyes wide with panic.

"He just...he wants to hang out." He sat up with her, eyeing her. How the hell is he so calm right now?

"Damon...what if..."

"Don't worry, Elena. I'm not telling Stefan anything," he said with a scoff, getting off the bed without so much as a backward glance. "You'll be able to go back to him."

"Damon-" Elena began, her heart sinking further than she thought it could go. This was his power over her, making her feel like she's flying in heaven one moment, or crashing down the next.

"What? That's what you wanted right?"

"No, Damon..." Elena said, scooting down the bed. Arms encircling his waist from behind, she felt him soften a little under her touch. "That's ...that's not what I want."

He turned around in her arms to face her, his cool eyes ablaze, "Then what do you want?"

What do you want? The million dollar question. But in a sense it wasn't really hard at all, because in the back of her mind there's only ever been one face imprinted there, always. And the fact that his kiss was still burning her lips helped to move things further along. There's only ever really been one answer. Her face broke into a sweet smile, "Is that even a question?"

His eyes were still hard, but she was beginning to see cracks on the surface, the tentative wall coming down. "What are you saying?"

"Damon, I - I really, really like you," she said. "I don't think that there was ever really a time when I didn't. Even with…with Stefan…I-I still, I can't imagine myself with anyone else."

He smiled, a true genuine smile, those rare ones that Elena always, always felt special to have witnessed. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, that...I'm gonna break it to Stef," Elena bit her lip, this was the part she hated.

"You are?"

"Yeah."

"You want me to be there?"

"I don't think that, that's a good idea. This is gonna be between him and me." She looked up at him, the dim light casting a greenish hue to his eyes. "Damon?"

And then he began laughing this beautiful laugh, if laughter can be considered beautiful and he kissed her all over. "Okay."

"Alright?"

"Okay." Then they just smiled at each other, reveling at the feeling of such mutual affection.

"Now go get ready! I have to go meet Jeremy," she said, picking up the keys from its place on the floor, lips quirking upwards from the memory. "Tell me what happens. Okay?"

Damon nodded just as Elena left the room with a somber smile.

Damon couldn't seem to help the hop in each step, as he walked up the concrete steps to the Mystic Grill. But at the same time, there was that feeling stuck in his chest, fermenting there, polluting his happy thoughts. Guilt, that's what they called it. And he was saturated with it now, his steps growing heavier the moment he entered the place. He walked through the bobbing heads, and the upbeat jazz music blasting through the place, as he looked around for his brother, the brother who's girlfriend he just knowingly stole. It was an odd feeling, this mixture of utter bliss and guilt. He didn't know which way it was pulling him.

"Damon!" His head snapped to his brother sitting at bar.

But what got his attention was the familiar brunette curls beside him, and the devilish smile, which only Katherine could manage. And that scared the shit out of him, her eyes seeming darker than they were before. "Why don't you sit down next to us, lover boy."

A jolt of electricity shot through him. Did she know? Of course she did, she's fucking Katherine. But Stefan was still smiling at him, so that's not a bad sign.

"Hey…"

"Have a drink," Stefan smiled handing him a shot.

He took it warily, before settling down at the cracked leather stool next to him. "So what brought this…occasion about?"

"What? I can't just have a drink with my brother anymore?"

"Never seemed to bother you before."

"Here you go again, spoiling the mood. Why so tense, Damon?"

"What are you talking about? I'm cool as a cucumber. The question is… what is she doing here?"

"Play nice," Stefan said. "Come on, Damon. It's just like old times, us three."

"And why the hell would we want to remember that?"

Stefan took a deep breath. "This is exactly what I'm talking about."

"What?"

"Why did you come back to Mystic Falls, Damon?"

"To get drunk off my ass, without being hounded by my boss."

Stefan didn't flinch, repeating they question. "Why did you come to my birthday?"

"Because…" he glanced at Katherine, watching him with intent and something else..

"-Because you want us to be brothers again. Is that not right?" Stefan said a hint too loudly, the alcohol in his system becoming more apparent. "So let's be brothers, Damon! Let's put the past behind us. And just for tonight, let's be brothers again. You've been here what? Two weeks? And we've barely hung out!"

Damon laughed, "That's because you can't keep up." He grabbed another shot, but he couldn't help but notice Katherine's grin on the other side.

"To brothers," Katherine raised her glass.

"To brothers."

Author's Note: So this fic was pretty much indefinitely on hiatus. I was just kind of losing interest and I'm a perfectionist, and I just wasn't feelin' it especially with all the plot bunnies in my head. I started this probably around summer before Sophomore Year and now it's Senior Year and it's like all these disjointed plot lines are yelling out at me, and like I said: I'm a perfectionist. But then I went through some things that helped me gain a better insight on certain characters and I will definitely try to trudge on for you guys. (: (even if it turns out terrible, through which I apologize in advance :P )