A/N: I'm back. I'm still honored and amazed by my responses to Her Mother's Eyes. So thank you, again. But…I love writing too much to stop there. I wanted to start this one as soon as I could because I have so many great plans for Damon and Elena in this one. It's AU again, and begins with a prologue and chapters to follow leading up to that point…and then some. Same story format, but that's where it ends. This one's different. It's quite a change in personality for these two. We're looking at our favorite couple throughout a course of several years. They have a LOT of history to get through before they can deal with new challenges brought into their lives. We're going with them.

Hope you like it. I'm so excited to get this going. Please, let me know what you think. Reviews are awesome and they really, really mean so much to me. Many of you know that from reading HME.

Here we go again, readers. Hold on tight!

Somebody I Used To Know

Prologue

Damon leaned his head back against the shower wall and let the water soak into his neck. The stream was hot and hard and it worked to wash away the sweat from moments ago. But no amount of water could eliminate the feeling of her on his skin. His blood still burned from her. He'd been stupid, he told himself. How could he have let himself do it? He'd lost himself in her, for a few hours. But it had seemed soreal. She'd said his name…over and over again…moaned it wildly, as if it was the most important name on earth. She'd pressed her lips into him hard and rough and strongly, as if she'd been waiting a lifetime to be with him. Maybe she had…but she'd never admit it now…or at least not without taking a few jabs of guilt at him first…

No, by now the woman that lay naked and tangled in his sheets was probably disconnected, once again…if she was even still there. He'd seen it, for a moment...that familiar flash in her brown eyes. She'd been there…not the usual fucked up version she'd turned into so long ago.

He feared what she'd say…or what she wouldn't… Things were too complicated to ignore this…but he knew she would. She always ignored what was best for her. He'd learned that years ago…but he could stillwish…

Grief and alcohol could really screw with people. They shouldn't be mixed…especially with them. One minute he could easily remember why he didn't talk to her anymore…and the next, they couldn't rip each other's clothes off fast enough. He could only blame their grief and the alcohol for so long… he was a grown man now…he knew what he had done. He'd chosen this…it was his own fault he was about to be disappointed once again.

She'd been hot and warm and felt so good. Years of pent up everything were released in that heat…but it was only temporary, he was sure. That tension, that anger and bitterness would build back up, just as fast. Even at the peak of it all, he'd kept their past in the back of his mind. He couldn't forget…

He turned the water off and wrapped a towel around his waist, walking out into the hotel room once again. She was already dressed and the bed looked like nothing had happened. The sheets were pulled over the pillows and she was zipping up her boots. Frankly, he was surprised she was still there. She looked completely fine, to a stranger's eye. Her makeup was smudged and her curled hair laid flat in some places…but emotionally she looked untouched.

And it broke his stupid, naïve little heart. Even now.

She was far from the woman he used to know… and he absolutely should not have just slept with her. But for a sliver of a moment she'd tricked him. She'd looked like the Elena he knew so long ago. She looked like she still needed him in every way… but he should've known better. That sweet woman left years ago. Now she was coarse and jaded…she'd built a little fortress around herself long ago…but he could still remember when he was allowed in.

He knew what her problem was. She held everything against him and changed everything about herself in the blink of an eye. But she'd gotten it all wrong, back then…and she still had it all wrong. But he was older now, and wiser…

His problem, he knew, was that he wanted so badly to believe she was still in there, that girl he used to think he might have loved. Her face was the same. She was breathtakingly gorgeous…the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. She always had been. But her innocence was gone and all he could see was ice. Her deep brown eyes looked at him widely, but now it was as if they saw nothing. He used to see something close to love in them…and he'd have done anything for her. Who was he kidding? He still would. But she was so far gone now…

"Are you okay?" he hadn't said anything to her since the night before. It was early now…too early to argue…too early for bullshit and lies.

"Fine…why wouldn't I be?" Her eyes were blank and he realized the girl he once knew had crawled back into a hole and gone away again. At least for that moment. He hated when she did that. She was shutting him out.

"Don't be like that. You can't pretend…." He frowned. "They're dead…Elena. They aren't coming back. This isn't a dream, it's a real life nightmare…" he caught her eye for a moment. He used to have a way, he remembered, to get her to break...to get her to feel… "You can be cold and distant toward me, but you loved your parents, and mine…" he should've just stopped when he saw them coming…the moist drops in her pretty brown eyes, but he couldn't. "For Christ's sake we just buried them yesterday."

"I'm fully aware," she said, her eyes filling with tears, but not for him, he knew. In the grand scheme of things what they'd done was nothing compared to their real problems…

He had to remind himself not everything was about him and Elena.

All the anger, grief and regret couldn't exist between them. There wasn't room for it if they wanted to succeed…

"And what we did, last night," he shook his head. "It wasn't right…we shouldn't have done that..."

"It was just sex," she shrugged. It was always just sex to her, he knew. She hadn't been in a committed relationship since…ever. "Now it's over and we can go back to how things were."

She could just be so infuriating sometimes. Even ten years of nothing hadn't changed that.

"And what exactly does that mean? How things were?" He laughed sarcastically. "You mean like yesterday or do you mean like in high school?" He shook his head. "We can never go back… our parents are dead…you and I are a pile of shit that's been untouched for years…yet you're completely fine just pretending nothing happened?"

"If that's what it takes to get us through this, yeah…" she said seriously. "Look, we fell into bed because of grief. We were drunk, Damon… I get it. It would never have happened otherwise, right? You're right…okay? We shouldn't have done this… not if this was going to be the result…"

"I agree…but not for the same reasons. We were drunk, yes. But that's not why I shouldn't have slept with you. I think you know what I'm getting at, here…we haven't even spoken in two years, and that was practically nothing… and all the sudden you're in my bed…"

"You didn't exactly stop me…" her hands were on her lips and she was getting that pout. She'd had it since she was little. He remembered the first time he'd seen it. It was those memories, those feelings that he couldn't fight off. It was those moments that made him still want her.

"I know," he swallowed. "Because I wanted to believe you were still in there, somewhere."

"Don't start all that again, Damon...okay? Maybe it was goodbye sex, I don't know…" her fingers toyed with the buttons of her coat.

"It didn't feel that way. It felt like you wanted it just as badly as I did. Besides, you can't have goodbye sex without having regular sex first. This isn't exactly what I envisioned as the morning after our first night together. As soon as it was over, you shut me out again. How? How can you pretend something like that between us couldn't mean anything?"

"You didn't want me ten years ago, if I remember it correctly. It can't mean anything because the second it does, it gets messy all over again. We're adults. We can have sex and leave it at that. Trust me, it's better that way."

"No, we can't. Maybe some people can, but not you and I," he smiled angrily. "And we aren't doing this anymore. You just admitted you thought it was a mistake, Elena! People who know each other for twenty years can't just randomly have drunken sex and forget it ever happened. Especially not in our condition…But you've forgotten a lot about us, haven't you? A decade of absolutely nothing between us has really wiped your memory…"

"Well we're in for a shitload of problems, then, aren't we…." The words fell out of her mouth rapidly. "Because we don't have a choice. We have to see each other every day. It's what part of owning a business together means…"

"That's exactly why we shouldn't have done this. I regret last night," he said sadly. "But not for the reasons you'd think. I thought I saw someone different last night," he shook his head, disappointed. "I thought I saw the old you. That's who I slept with. I wouldn't regret anything with her." He swallowed, he knew he was being harsh, but he thought it might strike a chord with her. "But I was wrong…the old you really is gone and I am sorry that it happened like this. Twenty years of knowing someone is too long to just have a one-night-stand, regardless of the circumstance…"

"It wasn't a one-night-stand, we know each other." She said, offended. "You throw that term around so loosely…I don't have one night stands!"

"Maybe not anymore…" his voice rose in accusation and hurt. He put his hand in the air and began counting on his fingers. The gesture was familiar to her, and she almost smiled. Almost.

"One, you could've fooled me," he began, "If my memory serves me right, the reason we stopped talking is because of your little one-night-stand. And two, yes, we were a one night stand, because I don't know you anymore. You're as good as a stranger to me, and it won't be happening again." He meant it, but he wished he didn't. He never wanted to feel that way toward her. But all he could feel was jealousy…even so many years after the fact….

"You had no right to call me out on that. You and I weren't together. It's not my fault you're still upset. You said you didn't want me." She started rifling through her purse, looking for her lipstick.

Didn't want her? She was so very wrong about that. It was more like couldn't have her…shouldn't have her…

"No…I said…ugh, Elena, it doesn't matter what I said. You read everything wrong. Now you're acting like a closed up bitch who won't so much as look at me when you talk to me." He swallowed and his heart dropped into his stomach. He could be mad at her, furious even…but he shouldn't have called her that.

She bit her lip and stared at him, willing herself not to cry. He was the only one who could break her down, and she knew that. But he wouldn't. She was too strong and she had to stay distant if she wanted it to remain that way.

"I'm sorry…I didn't mean to call you that…" he tried to explain, but it was all too late. She frustrated him to know end…but he'd never intentionally really hurt her.

"No, I get it," she laughed sadly. "That's how you see me….after twenty years, that's all I am to you, because you can't get past something so stupid…"

"Stupid to you, maybe…" he shook his head. "You made bad choices that I couldn't agree with."

Her eyes locked on his, and he saw something sad in them, for just a second. "You see…you blame me for everything. You carry around this 'woe is me' attitude, but you're your own demise, Damon. Face it. We had sex. We screwed everything up. Now we have to go to work tomorrow and pretend it didn't happen because otherwise this business is going to tank. And that's not what our parents wanted for us…now isit?"

He stayed silent, unsure of what to say. He couldn't read her at all, and he absolutely hated it. "I have to go, Damon," she said without even a flash of hurt in her voice. How could she act like this? He'd giveanything to have the old her back…really back…

"I wish you wouldn't," he walked toward her, pleading. "I heard it in your voice, you know. You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool me. You're terrified," after all the hurt, after all these years, he still found himself trying to beat this… "Of this, of us…of the business…"

"I'm not afraid of anything. That's the way it has to be. We have a lot to live up to….this is our legacy, Damon…"

"And this is Damon," Giuseppe Salvatore guided his little dark haired son in front of him. "He's your age, Elena. Eight." Elena had never seen eyes so clear and blue. They were marvelous, even to a little girl. "You should've met ages ago..."

She reached out to shake his little hand, as her dad has always told her to do when meeting someone for the first time. He shook it goofily and the two kids were soon giggling and waving their arms up and down in a crazy hand shake "I'm Elena."

"You're cute," he said seriously. He could be a charmer, but he meant it.

"You're eight," his dad reminded him.

"Thanks...?" she smiled, blushing a little.

"Yep, you were right, they'll get along just fine," John Gilbert said, patting his dear friend on the shoulder. "Good thing, too, because they'll be spending all summer together from here on out."

"I'm still nervous about this whole thing," Miranda Gilbert said softly. "What if it doesn't work? You and Giuseppe get the most random ideas sometimes, but a bookstore? How will you compete with the large chains just down the block? This is not New York and you guys are not kids anymore."

"Honey, you worry too much. Have a little faith. This town needs a place like this and we're just the guys to run it. I love books, Giuseppe's a great businessman… it works…"

Miranda's eyes floated over to the two little heads popping out on opposite sides of the books shelf aisles. Elena took off down one aisle and Damon caught her right on the other side.

"Don't run!" Arianna Salvatore called out. Her son could be so rambunctious sometimes. And while she was discouraging him, she was happy to see he could make friends with someone so quickly. He hadn't exactly been friendly since his little brother had died last year.

"Got ya," he teased. "But you run fast, for a girl. You almost knocked all these books over. Then we'd be spending all summer cleaning up…" he stuck his tongue out.

"You're a troublemaker," she said seriously. "I'm a good girl. I never get in trouble, so you better watch it." She could hear her mother's laughter in the background. She pictured her rolling her eyes. Elena wasgreat at convincing people of the things she wanted them to believe.

"Yeah well if you're gonna be my friend, you've got a few things to learn, too." He raised his fingers in the air and began to list them. "One, don't tattle. Two, don't go around pretending to be all goody goody and stuck up, and three… have fun!" He ran up to her and tried tickling her sides, but she clawed him off quickly, laughing.

"It's good to see him smiling," Giuseppe said to John. "Stefan's death came down hard on all of us, but especially him. Elena could be good for him…and she seems sweet."

"Our daughter can be sweet. But she's stubborn, too." Miranda said.

"Feisty is more like it," John laughed. "But it's time they met. We've lost too many years, Giuseppe." The old college friends had moved to separate parts of the country after graduation and married woman the other hadn't ever met. But when Stefan passed and John lost his job, the two men wanted a change. They'd taken on a new endeavor.

That project, that crazy business that had started on a whim had grown. It had prospered beyond anything they could've initially imagined. And because of it, their families had grown to love one another. It was the reason Damon and Elena had spent endless days and endless nights as children and teenagers together...

But Arianna's life was cut short. She would die from cancer three years after that bookstore was opened. Her cancer hadn't only killed her…everything about the Salvatore and Gilbert dynamic changed after that. Some of it wasn't for the good... And in turn, everything about Damon and Elena had changed, too…

It was a catalyst...even now...

They loved that little bookstore. But they'd never have guessed, when they'd die in a car accident going to a business meeting about its future. All three parents…just…gone, like that.

Now as Damon looked at Elena, his heart ached. Everything that had happened between them in the last twenty years had led up to this moment. They'd practically grown up in that bookstore…they had a responsibility to take care of it. But all he could see was the broken, screwed up version of the girl he used to love but could never have. He'd had her last night… but he wished now, that he hadn't. It hadn't been the way he'd always wanted. He'd pictured her laying in his arms all night and all morning...not throwing on her boots and walking out the door nonchalantly. He was Damon, for God's sakes. He wasn't like the rest of them she'd...

He stopped himself from thinking about that.

Everything was toxic. But she was right, they had to try to get along. Everything that happened before couldn't ruin this now. It was too important.

He'd never really understood how his Dad could put the business before his mother, those few years before her death. Damon wasn't sure he'd ever really been in love with anyone but Elena so long ago. If things had been different then, things would be, could be so different now…

But they weren't.

"Pretend all you want, but I won't. We had sex and it could've meant something…if you let."

"And it could just mean nothing if you'd let it," he poked him in the chest. It reminded him for a moment of how she used to tease him, back when they were teenagers. He shook it off. "I'm going back to my room. I'll see you tomorrow, at the lawyers…"

"Yeah, sure…" he frowned for a moment, and nodded as she closed the door behind her, pulling her little rolling suitcase behind her. She didn't stop to look back at him over her shoulder, like she used to so long ago. Maybe it was better that way. There was just no getting through to that woman right now, he knew. But he would, someday. Stupidly, he'd let himself try…she was in there, somewhere… the girl he used to know. And he'd find her again.

A/N: And there we have it. It's a shorter chapter than the rest will be, most likely, but it's fitting as a starting point. I have to lay down a foundation with bits and pieces of story that won't completely give the whole plot away. Please let me know what you thought. I'm so curious to hear your opinions on this one. It's always nerve-wrecking starting a new story, but I've got big intentions and high hopes for this one. Thank you!