Summary: Set in S6, when Elena's good memories of Damon had been compelled away from her upon her request. What if, upon opening the door to him finally, her memories returned, instead of her memories not returning?
A/N: This came to me after rewatching a little bit of S6.
Damon had recently come back to life, having escaped Kai's prison world, only to find out that Elena had requested for Ric to compel away her good memories of him. Ric had explained to him why, but that didn't mean he was very happy. If their positions were reversed, he hadn't done that. He would've rather kept those memories, despite the pain. But then again, he'd been through a lot of pain throughout the centuries, so he kinda knew how to deal with pain. Elena was different. Now that her good memories were gone of him, all she remembered were the bad ones.
Currently, Damon stood in front of her dorm room door, a hand on her door. Even though she didn't remember the good memories, he hoped that she'd open the door and at least talk to him.
"I just want to talk," he said through the door.
"I can't," Elena stated. "Not now."
"Look, I know why you did what you did. It's not real. You know what's real? What you felt for me. You once told me it was the most real thing you ever felt in your life," he replied.
"Those feelings are gone," she reminded him.
"Come on, Elena. You've compelled enough people to know, it's just a way to cover up the truth. No matter how badly you want it gone, that doesn't make it any less of a lie."
Elena slowly approached the door, but didn't open it. Instead, she just put her hand on the door on her end where Damon's was on his end of the door.
"Just open the door, Elena," he encouraged her, sensing her on the other side of the door. "Everything can go back to the way it was."
She removed her hand from the door.
"Just...open the door, Elena. Please. At the very least step aside, because I'm going to kick this door in."
She unlatched the door, but just as Damon began to open it, she blurred out of the room and out the window, before he could fully open the door.
A few days later, after figuring out what she wanted to do finally, she decided to take a chance, and invited Damon over to her dorm room, so they could actually meet this time. She was afraid of remembering what they had, but was taking the chance.
Damon, just like last time, knocked on the door, as she was looking at stuff that she'd kept of Damon's in a cardboard box. When he knocked, she stopped what she was doing and approached the door, this time, opening it.
He was relieved when she finally opened the door, and they looked at each other in silence, him waiting and hoping that she'd remember.
"Okay. I'll start," he said after they stood there in silence, wanting to break the silence. "I know Alaric compelled away your good memories of me, but please tell me you remember. Or, at least, part of it, because imagining this exact moment is what got me through the last few months."
As they stood there, memories began to resurface. Flashes of moments they'd shared with each other through the last several years, as well as when they'd first met.
"I do. I remember," she replied with a smile, which gave him relief that it had worked.
He approached, and, after a moment, they began to kiss, the feeling of her love for him having come back.
