a/n: So, I guess I wrote this awhile ago and completely forgot about it. I want to say that this is Damon/Elena, but it kind of ended up Damon/Katherine (to me anyway). So I'll just let you guys decide for yourself.

For this oneshot, Elena did not get kidnapped after the Masquerade and the rest is explained below. Enjoy :)

ps. I decided to make this a two-shot. You're welcome ;)

ONE

Damon heard them talking from down the hall. He couldn't help himself; curiosity mixed with superhuman hearing made eavesdropping extremely easy. He couldn't help but gag a little at their sappiness and yet, he couldn't stop himself from listening to their conversation. His interest peaked when he heard Stefan say that he was leaving for a little while, that he needed to feed. Elena barely put up a fight and Damon could hear the exhaustion in her voice. The next few words from her lips made him smile with victory.

"Damon's here. I'll be safe if anything happens."

At least she was admitting that he could keep her safe. That was a step in the right direction...wasn't it? Damon shook those thoughts away and forced himself to stop listening as he heard the sounds of kissing. He waited for a few minutes after Stefan had left before exiting his own room to talk to the Elena. He tapped on the door with his knuckles and pushed it open.

Elena gave him a half smile as she stood with her night clothes in her arms. "Are you okay?" she asked.

A smirk tugged at his lips as his eyes flickered down to the blood stains on her shirt. "I should be asking you that."

She gave another nervous smile before looking down and clearing her throat. "Stefan-"

"I heard. He went out to feed. I just wanted to let you know that I'll be up if you need anything."

Slowly, her gaze moved upwards until it locked with his. They both saw the longing in each other's eyes, but neither of them commented on it. Instead, they looked away and ignored it like they always did. "Thank you," she said and turned in the direction of Stefan's bathroom.

Without a word, he turned and walked out of the room. He closed the door softly behind him and made his way down the hall to his own room. He paused outside his door and looked back at Stefan's room. With a heavy sigh, he stepped over the threshold only to pause again, this time, his entire body locked up with surprise and a myriad of other emotions. There, standing in front of the large windows on the opposite side of the room, was the woman he had just spend half the day trying to kill. "Katherine?"

She looked over her shoulder, a sly smile of victory on her face. In a blur, she was behind him, shutting the door and leaning her back against it. Damon whipped around, not wanting her behind him. "Damon," she returned, canting her head to the side, giving him that expression he had always succumbed to.

"What are... How did you..." He shook his head, trying to think of how in the world she was standing before him. It had only been a couple of hours at the most that he had put her into the tomb. The tomb that Bonnie had sealed off so that Katherine could not get out. Or so they thought.

"I'm surprised at all of you," she said, still leaning against the door. "Surprised that you would actually think Lucy would betray me."

"She-"

"I know what she did, Damon, but she came back to me." Her grin widened and she slowly straightened up. "That's the thing about having people fear you; they come back when they know you'll be out for revenge."

Damon was instantly brought out of his daze at the realization. "She removed the barrier. She set you free."

Katherine smiled and nodded. "She set me free," she repeated. Her head tilted as she heard the water turn on from Stefan's room. "My my, you're all alone with Elena. She almost died today and Stefan left her alone. She must be needy." Katherine took a step forward, causing Damon to take a step back. "And it must be killing you that you can't give her what she needs. We both know Stefan isn't."

Damon felt his lips curl into a snarl as his face began to take on the shape of the demon inside him. "What are you doing here Katherine? You're free. You could be anywhere in the world right now so why are you here, torturing me?"

Katherine continued to smile in the way a predator would while toying with its prey as she stepped closer to Damon. This time, she advanced until he backed into the bed. She reached up and placed one hand on his chest. "Now that is the question isn't it?"

Damon's hand rose to quickly take hers, holding it away from his body. He stared down into her eyes, hoping she would see the hatred he felt for her as well as the fact that he didn't want to play this game with her. Not now. "Katherine," he said, his voice dangerously even. "I don't know what you're getting at, but I am not in the mood."

Her gaze flickered down between their bodies, her smirk widening when she looked up again. "Something tells me otherwise."

Damon refused to lash out like she wanted him to. Instead, he remained motionless as he stared at her. "Katherine-"

"What in the world is wrong with you Damon Salvatore?" Katherine asked, her voice filled with sorrow.

"Excuse me?"

"Since when did you become so pathetic? The man, the vampire, that I met was always more than ready to take what he wanted, consequences be damned. Where did he go? Now you just stand on the sidelines and do absolutely nothing." She shook her head and gave chuckled. "At least when it was me you fought back. Nothing could have kept you from loving me the way you did, not even Stefan. It makes me wonder why you're backing down now when everyone knows the love you have for her is actually real."

Damon's hold on her hand tightened to the point where she started to feel the bones cracking under the pressure. "I'm warning you..."

"Then go ahead. Take your best shot," she said defiantly. She gave a curt nod when he just stood there, fuming silently. "That's because hurting me is not what you want to do. You can hate me all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that you want me." Slowly, her free hand slid down their bodies until it cupped the growing bulge of his pants. She reveled in the way his jaw clenched and the way his pupils darkened out of lust. "If it helps, you can even pretend I'm her," she whispered, knowing that that would send him over the edge.

In the blink of an eye, his resistance failed him. He let go of her hand and grabbed her sides roughly, pulling her to him as his lips descended to hers. In that moment, she had won, because even though it was twisted, he was going to think of Elena as she suggested. He figured it was the closest he was ever going to get to the human doppelganger and he was tired of sitting on the sidelines. It was time to take charge, even if it was Katherine and not Elena.

Elena stood in front of the mirror, staring at herself. Her eyes jumped from one blood stain to the next, followed by her face before they stopped at the pair of eyes staring back at her. They were sad and lonely; hollow. She shuddered to think that she had truly almost died today. It was even worse that Katherine had been so clever to have the bonding spell cast on her before going to the masquerade. Even Elena couldn't help but feel impressed at the very thing that had almost ended her.

Slowly, she pulled herself out of her thoughts and began to undress. Her movements were sluggish from the physical and mental exhaustion. Not only was her body worn down from constantly being on guard, but her emotions were getting the best of her. The fact that she had looked at Damon with a hint of desire in her eyes before coming into the bathroom was enough to make her feel drained. She lacked the energy required for processing those kinds of feelings.

With a sigh, she headed towards the shower stall and reached in to turn the knob. The moment she grasped it, a shooting pain went up her arm. Her jaw dropped in a silent scream as she felt the bones in her hand cracking from an unknown pressure build up. Just as she began to panic, it stopped, leaving her completely dumbstruck. The water hit her arm, bouncing off the numbness that remained.

The moment she stepped under the calming spray of the water, she gasped as the sensation of the ghost of a kiss swept over her lips followed by the feeling of fingers digging into her sides. It caused her to stumble, hitting the wall of the shower behind her. She turned to claw at the tile in an attempt to brace herself, but the assault of sensations kept hitting her. She closed her eyes to try and get a hold of herself, but she was rewarded with the sight of Damon before her. He was kissing her with such passion as he held her close in a bruising grip. She could even feel the material of his jeans beneath one of her hands while the other clenched his shirt so that she could hold him there.

Elena opened her eyes, but the scene continued. Her chest rose and fell as the waves of pleasure coursed through her. A light moan escaped her lips as she felt hands skimming up her sides. She knew he wasn't standing there before her; she could see the shower and feel the water, but he was still there. There was nothing she could do to stop herself from watching the scene unfold before her, leaving her to wonder if it was a dream or reality. Maybe even a little bit of both.

Damon's hands moved up Katherine's sides until they reached her shoulders. From there, his fingers hooked around the straps of her dress and began to guide the garment down her arms. Without any help, it floated down her body and pooled around her feet, leaving her in nothing put a sheer pair of panties and her heels. Katherine moaned into the kiss as his hands cupped her breasts, his thumbs brushing over her hardened nipples. Her moan turned into a light laugh as she tore her lips from his for a brief moment.

Her hands went to his shirt, tearing it open as if it were made of paper. She shoved the pieces off of his shoulders before letting her hands roam over the hard planes of his sculpted body. "How I've missed you," she cooed as she nuzzled his neck. Her nails raked over his skin lightly before working on removing his pants. "We were always good together. Our trysts were always my favorite."

Damon cupped her face, applying enough pressure to where if she had been human, she would have been in serious pain. "Stop talking," he demanded.

She gave a curt nod, as best she could, and sighed with satisfaction as his lips crashed down on hers again. For as much as she claimed not to love him, there was a part of her that did. He had always reminded him of her in some ways and she truly had enjoyed their time together; sexual or otherwise. She could feel the built up tension as well as other emotions coming out in their frenzy and they weren't all coming from him. Being with Damon was one of the few times that Katherine had never had to hide who or what she was. He had always let her be herself and for that she had truly loved him.

The rush of air tickling her bare skin brought Katherine out of her thoughts to find herself on the bed beneath Damon. He was taking charge and she was going to let him. She smirked up at him as she cradled his body between her thighs. Her hips arched up as she felt his arousal against stomach, awakening the hunger inside of her. Damon looked down at her, staring into her brown eyes, now glazed over with passion. A part of him was disgusted with himself for doing this, but the other part was imaging that this was Elena. Either way, he was in too far to simply turn back now. With that, he shut off his emotions and leaned forward to kiss her roughly.

Katherine's nails dug into his back as he thrust inside of her. She hissed into the kiss and then groaned low in her throat with satisfaction. She kissed him back with a frenzy and met his pace evenly without any effort. She couldn't help but revel in the way her body remembered him. Every touch, every kiss ignited the fire within her and urged her on. She knew that he was remembering their trysts together too because he wasted no time in finding her spot. A shudder coursed through her as Damon continued to bring her closer to the edge with each thrust. He kissed her harder and thrust deeper, the hunger having awakened in him as well.

Unable to take it any longer, Katherine exerted her strength and rolled so that Damon was beneath her. She sat up, her hair cascading down her back, as she rode him with as much intensity. His hands were immediately on her hips, his fingers digging into her skin to keep her there. Katherine grinned down at him before he surged forward to kiss the grin right off. A growl escaped her lips and into the kiss from his assertiveness. Just when she thought she had him figured out, one of his hands rose and grabbed a fist full of her hair. He yanked her head back and exposed her throat. In the next instant, his fangs were lodged inside her throat and Katherine was hurtling towards the stars.

When she came down from her high, Damon was on top of her again. She could taste her own blood on his lips. She broke the kiss and craned her neck so she could bite him in turn. He grunted as her teeth sank into his shoulder, hitting muscle. His blood tasted every bit as good as she remembered. When she removed her fangs, she kissed her way up to his ear, her tongue tracing the shell of it. "I told you we were good together. We're even better now that I can't break you."

Damon did his best to ignore her and turned his face so that he could capture her lips again. This time their blood mingled together, creating a taste that drove them both wild. Katherine groaned again as he hit her spot with vampire speed. It didn't take much to come again.

Damon heard Katherine's moans as she came for him hard and fast, but this time there was something else. He could hear the same sounds coming from down the hall. Suddenly it hit him; the realization of what Katherine had done. Before he could say anything, she rotated her hips and Damon came after her. When they had both finished, he lay beside her, both of them reflecting over what had transpired between them. The moment he was in control of himself again, he pulled away from Katherine, getting to his feet so that he could hoist her up by her shoulders. "What have you done?" he snarled.

"Think of it as a favor," she said, easily slipping from his grasp. She fought to hide the disappointment of not being able to enjoy his company post-coitus as she redressed with speed. Damon tugged on his jeans, not caring how uncomfortable the material felt. "You'll thank me later."

"Thank you? For what?" he asked, following her as she turned towards the door and opened it to let herself out. Katherine's eyes flickered down the hall as she heard the soft click of Stefan's door being opened, a smile forming on her lips. He grabbed her bicep as she stepped into the hall. "This is sick and twisted, even for you."

Her face hardened as her smile vanished. "You're the one who just fucked me pretending I was your brother's girlfriend!" she snapped, shoving him away from her. She rolled her shoulders as she shook her head at him. "Yes, I am still under the spell that Lucy cast on me, binding me with Elena. She felt everything, isn't that right, Elena?" she asked, calling out to the human down the hall.

Damon turned to look, his eyes meeting hers as she stepped into view. She had a long shirt on to cover her body and her hair clung to her shoulders in soaking wet curls. "Leave. Now," Damon demanded, looking back at Katherine.

"I gave you what you both wanted; what you needed. I did you both a favor," she said before turning to look at Elena, a smug smile on her face. "Now you know what it's like to be with both of them. Only you don't have to be guilty because I did all the work. Stop putting your feelings aside to spare someone else's. Kindness will only get you killed faster." When Katherine looked at Damon again, her eyes had gone soft. This was the woman he had met in 1864; the woman who had captured his heart. "You have a choice now. You can either take what you want or sit back and watch from the sidelines as if nothing ever happened."

Damon held her gaze his emotions became too overwhelming to even shut them off. Katherine shrugged winked at him before vanishing from sight. Slowly, Damon looked at Elena again. The look on her face surprised him. For the first time, she wasn't looking at him in horror. She wasn't even in shock. Instead, she was staring at him as if she had never seen him before, like she was seeing him in a new light. It opened up a world he never thought he would see, a chance he never thought he would have. Now, all they had to do was figure out where to go from here.