Okay this is my new two-shot, and its so much different than anything I've ever written before. the smut comes in next chapter. This chapter is highly angsty. I hope you enjoy this, and let me know what you think. I was supposed to have this out a long time ago, but it just wouldnt work out. I think it turned out pretty good considering.

PS I only own my ideas.

"So who are you asking to the decade dance?" Caroline asked Elena as the three girls were lying across her bed on one of their weekend sleepovers, that happened far to rarely for any of them.

"Stefan." Elena answered without hesitance.

"Really? You are still hung up on Stefan?" Caroline asked.

"Not really. I just figured we could go as friends." Elena replied shrugging her shoulders.

"Elena come on. You cant be as blind as you pretend to be. Damon is in love with you." she said clearly questioning her sanity.

"It doesn't matter, I don't love him." Elena said shrugging her shoulders.

"He's not going to wait around forever." Caroline said.

"What happened to you not liking him?" Elena demanded, tired of everyone telling her she was stupid, or that she was blind. Of course she knew of Damon's feelings, but that didn't mean she could do anything about them.

" I don't like him. But I can see how much he loves you and how he would do anything for you. For you Damon is one of the good guys." Caroline said.

"I hate to agree with Caroline about Bonnie, but its true. I hate Damon, but the way he cares for you is incredible. I've never seen anything like it." Bonnie said defending Damon. Elena turned to stare at her other best friend as if she was crazy, Bonnie defending Damon was unheard of. It had never happened before and it would probably never happen again.

"You too?" Elena demanded.

"I'm sorry but yes. Under any other circumstances I would never defend Damon. But I know how he feels about you, hell the entire world knows how he feels about you. Maybe you should give him a shot." she suggested softly. Elena stared between her two best friends unsure of how to respond to them.

"I cant." she said.

Damon walked in the front door of the boarding house and found Stefan practically singing happy tunes and dancing around the parlour.

"What the hell is up with you?" he demanded. He had a sick feeling in his stomach about what Stefan was happy about. And he wasn't sure if he could take anymore. He had been holding out hope that Elena- aka the women he loved more than anything on the entire planet- would ask him to the decade dance. He didn't know if his heart could take anymore. He had tried begging, he had tried pleading, he had tried reverting to his bad boy persona. He had tried everything to make her take a chance on him, but she resisted continuously.

"Elena and I are going to the decade dance together. It's the first step to us getting back together." he said. Those words managed to completely crush him. He knew now that when Stefan and Elena got together there was no hope for him anymore.

"I'm happy for you." he said faking a smile.

"Thanks. I always knew we'd end up together." he said grinning. If he noticed his brothers turmoil he never said anything. Damon turned and left the house making his way over to Elena's house. He only needed to hear her say it one more time to know that it was completely over and that there was no reason for him to hang around. He heard the happy laughter of Elena, Caroline and Bonnie upstairs. He sure wouldn't miss them when he was gone. He rang the doorbell and waited for her to answer. When she came down and opened the door she sighed audibly.

"Damon what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I hear congratulations are in order." he said.

"About?" she asked.

"You and Stefan are on the road to a reunion." he said.

"Yeah. We are." she lied.

"I'm going to tell you one last time, and if you don't say it back then I'll stop. I love you Elena." he said pouring all of his heart into those three words.

"Damon... I don't have those feelings for you. And I never will." she said trying to let him down easy. She could see that he was crushed, so she turned back into the house shutting the door in his face. She walked back upstairs to rejoin her friends and Bonnie looked ashen beside Caroline, who was desperately trying to comfort her friend. Damon left the house and got back into his car. It hurt so much more this time. He knew now that he would never get the girl. He felt cold. He knew that leaving town would not fix what he was feeling. He knew that he could run to as many places as he wanted, go to the most beautiful places, sleep with the most beautiful women but it wouldn't shut off the pain. He knew there was only one option.

"Bon, what's wrong?" Elena asked worried.

"Elena. Damon." she whispered.

"What about Damon?" Elena demanded. She was tired of hearing his name, it was all she heard at the moment.

"I had a vision. I kind of think Damon is going to kill himself." she said.

"You think?" Elena demanded sitting next to her friend.

"Yes. It was clear he walks into the sun and takes off his ring. You find out the next day when you see a note left on your pillow. I've never seen you more broken Elena. He leaves you his ring and you wear it around your neck forever. The the entire vision you are a shell of your former self, you cut yourself off from everyone, and you're telling everyone that you lost the love of your life." Bonnie explained still looking shaken.

"Come on, of course I'm upset in the vision. We're friends." Elena said.

"No you said he was the love of your life. My visions have never been wrong before Elena." she said.

"If Damon kills himself because of me then that's his choice. I would miss him sure." she said trying to brush it off.

"My visions are never wrong Elena, and I need to do something. I'm sure that you love him as he loves you, so I'm going to do a spell and send you to an alternate universe so to speak. In this place you will be in love with Damon and Damon will be avoiding it like you are. More or less you will be in his place and he in yours. I think you need this." she said.

"Fine. How exactly does this work?" Elena asked, willing to do just about anything to get them off her back.

"Well, its more of a dream that me sending you somewhere else. I will put you to sleep, and you will dream what would be if you were in Damon's spot and vice versa." she said.

"So what's to say its going to be true?" Elena asked.

"Because the emotions that you will be feeling will be what is in your heart. What you are too afraid to feel." she said.

"Fine. Let's do this, because then I can finally be free of all of this." she said laying back on the bed. Bonnie started chanting in Latin and Elena felt her eyes grow heavy. When her eyes shut an extremely vivid Mystic Falls appeared and she seen Damon flirting with a pretty waitress in the Grille, and she felt her heart break a little bit.

Meanwhile Damon drove home and immediately wrote out the goodbye note for Elena. When he went to drop it off he seen that Bonnie and Caroline were gone. On her bed side table was a note from them telling her to call them when she woke up. He pulled his ring from his finger and laid it on top of the folded piece of paper laying on the pillow beside the one she was laying on. He kissed her forehead and walked out of the room. She was deeply asleep and he was glad he didn't have to have the awkward goodbye talk with her.

Back in Elena's dream, she saw herself walking up the front walk to the boarding house and pounding on the door. She felt a mixture of pain, love, and annoyance mixed together, a feeling of confusion she often had around him but had never associated with love before. He answered the door with a towel wrapped around his waist and two women hanging off of each arm.

"We need to talk." she said firmly although her heart was breaking a little more each time.

"Can it wait for a few more minutes?" he asked.

"Not really." she said brushing past him into the house.

"Well it will happen. I need to please my friends first. Take a seat, make yourself comfortable. We will be back." he said walking up the stairs with his followers close behind him. Elena sighed and let a couple tears fall as she watched him walk away. For the next few minutes she heard the sounds of passion coming from upstairs and each time she heard it it made her heart break a little bit more. When he finally returned, she found herself getting up and slapping him hard across the face. The anger was something she was used to feeling around him along with the jealousy she felt whenever he was with another woman. She had always ignored that part. The jealousy she had always pretended didn't exist.

"What the fuck Elena?" he demanded.

"How could you sleep with them?" she demanded through tears coursing down her face.

"Quite easily. You know since I'm not involved with anyone. It's really easy to sleep with whomever I want." he said that infuriatingly sexy smirk on his face.

"But how? When you know how I feel about you?" she demanded, the traitorous tears still coursing down her face.

"See its simple. Because I don't feel the same way about you. You just need to get over it." he said.

"But I cant. I love you Damon." she said.

"I don't love you." he told her before walking back upstairs. Her heart broke a little bit more and Elena grew resolved. She was going to make him love her. He wouldn't be able to avoid his feelings forever.

Caroline and Bonnie drove to the Grille and found themselves seated in a booth facing each other.

"Should we have left her there alone?" Caroline asked.

"It's fine. She's just sleeping. She'll wake up and she'll know what she feels. End of story. And besides we cant interfere with fate. Damon will be dropping that note off at some point along with his ring. If she doesn't smarten up, he'll be dead tomorrow morning." she said.

"You actually sound upset about that." Caroline noted.

"I am. I may not like the guy all that much, but I seen how broken Elena was in the vision. He needs to live or else we will lose Elena. I didn't tell her this part, but sometime after he dies, she dies too. She kills herself with her grief from knowing she could have saved him. That is why I'm making such a big deal about this." Bonnie explained. They seen Stefan come in whistling and they seen him walk over to them.

"Hey, can I join you?" he asked grinning happily.

"We wont be staying long. Elena will be calling us soon." she said.

"Why would Elena be calling you?" he asked.

"We did something tonight. Have you talked to your brother lately?" Caroline asked.

"Only today when I told him that me and Elena were on the track to getting back together." he said confused.

"Oh." Caroline said staring at Stefan.

"Oh what?" he demanded not liking the look on the girl's faces.

"Nothing. I cannot interfere with fate. Its already written unless Elena changes her mind." was all Bonnie would say about it.

Back in Elena's dream world she found herself purchasing a bottle of Damon's favourite bourbon using the fake ID Caroline had gotten her for her 16th birthday. And then returning to the Boarding house and placing it on the table with a big red bow tied to it with a tag that said "with love, Elena." She hoped that would finally change his mind about her. She loved him too much to leave him. When Damon came home and seen her and the bottle there he sighed

"This doesn't change anything Elena. I don't love you. It will always be Katherine." he said.

"Katherine isn't even here." she wailed.

"I know, but that doesn't change the fact that I love her and I always will." he said solemnly.

"She loves Stefan, Damon. Katherine chose Stefan. Why cant you choose me?" she begged with tears in her eyes.

"That doesn't matter. I will wait forever if I have to." he said.

"If you love her so much then why do you sleep around so much?" she demanded hoping to find a chink in his armour.

"Because I need to have some fun while I'm waiting around for her." he said shrugging his shoulders. It seemed that no matter how many time he turned her down, and how many times her heart broke she still kept coming back. The parallels weren't lost on her. When dream Elena woke up the next morning she got up and decided on one last ditch effort to make him love her. If this didn't work she would give up on him for good. She got dressed and drove over to the boarding house and when she walked in he was making out with a girl in Elena's class at school against the wall.

"Elena?" he questioned moving back from the girl slightly.

"Damon I need to talk to you." she said.

"About what? Cant it wait? I was kind of in the middle of something here." he said gesturing between himself and Bianca. "No it cant wait. I need to talk to you alone." she said.

"Fine. Let's go outside." he said opening the front door and following her onto the front step.

"I'm just going to say this one last time. I love you. I'm in love with you. And I hoped that would be enough. So now if its what you want, I will sacrifice my happiness to make sure you are happy. I will give up if it's what you really want. I love you so much and if its what you need then I will let you go." she said clearly waiting for an answer.

"I think that would be a good idea." he said before turning and walking back into the house shutting the door in her face. The world went fuzzy around her and she opened her eyes in her own bedroom. She rolled over rubbing her eyes and rolled onto a piece of paper and something cold and metal on top of it. The dream had been enlightening to say the least and everything she felt in the dream was still present inside her. She just wanted some time to come to terms with it. She seen Damon's ring laying on the pillow and she gasped. This was one part of Bonnie's vision and she hoped to God it didn't say what she knew it would inside. She unfolded the crisp white piece of paper and read the words in front of her.

Elena

I cant do this anymore. I've went through this for my entire existence, and I wont do it anymore. There is only so much pain a man can take. I wish you happiness with Stefan and I apologize that I wont be there to witness your happiness. Please keep in mind that I will love you long after my death. "It will always be Stefan"? I guess it will be, because I am taking myself out of it. I'd thought about running away, but I knew that wouldn't solve anything. I knew that I would still feel like this anyways. I left you my ring as a token of me and my love for you. I would love it if you would wear it for me on a chain around your neck. I know its not the most beautiful piece of jewelry you'll ever wear, but if I meant anything to you. Please give me just that. I love you, and how I wished you'd love me. Goodbye.

Yours eternally.

Damon.

Elena was crying hard when she finished reading the note and she immediately called Bonnie and Caroline needing their help to make sense of all this. They appeared minutes later.

"He left the note. The note in your vision. I don't know what to do." she cried.

"You need to follow your heart." Bonnie said.

"I cant let him die." she said.

"I know. How do you feel about him?" she asked knowingly.

"I love him." she admitted.

"You know that now?" she asked.

"Yes. I love him more than anything. I cant lose him." she sobbed.

"Then don't. It's not morning yet. You can still save him." Bonnie urged. Knowing the sun was going to come back up in a matter of a half hour Elena grabbed the ring and rushed out of the house heading to the boarding house. Hoping to God that he was still there.

Damon looked out his window and he could see the sunrise low on the horizon. He knew it was a matter of time and he knew it was a matter of time until Elena woke up to find his note. He hoped it would be over quick. He wanted these feelings gone.

"What are you doing Damon?" Stefan asked walking into the room.
"Leaving Elena to you permanently. Consider it my final gift to you." he said trying to insert some of his trademark snark into it.

"I got your note." he said waving a piece of paper in front of him.

"You should be happy. I will no longer be trying to steal your girl." he said turning to face the window yet again.

"Isn't this more than a little melodramatic?" he asked trying to save his brother still.

"I don't think so. I don't want to be saddled with these emotions and as long as I'm alive, I will be." he said.

"You're going to let the sun take you. Why not a stake to the chest? Or something else that will kill you faster. You'll suffer more this way." he asked.

"Maybe I will. But I deserve to suffer. I've hurt so many people." he said before turning away from his brother one last time.

Elena pulled into the driveway and didn't even bother shutting the car off. She was surprised she even made it to the boarding house with the tears that were coursing down her face. She rushed into the house and upstairs to Damon's room where she was sure that he would be. She was relieved that she was right. She seen Stefan standing across from Damon with a resolved look on his face and she seen Damon's face look pained as she appeared.

"Damon don't do this." she begged as she walked over to him.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because I love you." she said as she took hold of his hand.