Vampies in Love

2. A Surprise Appearance

   "Are you done?" A smooth voice sounded from the end of the alley.

   Damon turned around quickly. He had just finished feeding on the  poor girl who fell for his dreaminess in the bar, and his face was  covered in blood.

   Damon didn't hesitate. He ran up to the man, aiming to attack his  neck. Quicker than he could comprehend, however, he was slammed against  the side of the alley.

   Bricks digged into Damon's back, and there was a hand wrapped around his throat.

   "That was quite a rude response to a simple question." The man looked Damon in the eyes calmly and curiously.

   Damon tried to speak, but he could only make choked sounds. He  pawed helplessly at the man's wrist. In one of the rare moments of his  vampire existence, Damon was afraid.

   "You're upset," The man said simply. He brought his free hand up  to wipe away tears Damon hadn't even realized he had shed. It was  strange, Damon thought, that one hand could show such kindness while the  other showed such aggression. "I'm not going to hurt you."

   The man let go of him, and Damon fell to the ground, gasping.

   "Who are you?" Damon barely choked out.

   "My name is Elijah, and I was hoping you would be able to assist me,"

~~~~~~~~

That night, Damon found himself at  Mystic Grill downing drink after drink. He wanted to forget everything  that had happened. He didn't think he ever would.

Elijah hadn't  even crossed his mind in decades. When he thought of past lovers, the  only one that had ever come to mind was Katherine. He spent all this  time thinking about unattainable Katherine when Elijah was still out  there roaming around.

Not anymore, Damon thought. And then, What the fuck happened?

Alaric sat down to his left and ordered his usual. Damon was drunk enough that it didn't really register.

"I heard what happened today," Damon heard nothing. "Elena told me you and Stefan had to go save her."

"I  fucked up, Ric," Damon smiled sadly. "I really fucked up, and I'm  trying to pretend it didn't happen, and you bringing it up is making  that impossible." He downed another drink.

"Elena is safe, Damon.  You killed the vampire responsible. How did you fuck up?" Alaric looked  at Damon's profile, obviously expecting an answer.

"Night, Ric." Damon stood up from his stool and made his way out of the grill.

Damon was done talking for tonight.

~~~~~~~~

Laying  on his back in the middle of a road outside of town was most likely not  the best idea for a drunk vampire trying to repress his feelings. But  hell, Damon didn't give a fuck about anything right now except  contemplating turning his humanity off. Elena wouldn't like it, but why  should he care about that? She's never going to love him back. Damon  just killed the only person who had ever actually loved him back. He was  going to end up alone. Forever.

   God, I really killed him.

What drove Damon mad was not just the that he had driven a stake  through Elijah's heart, but the fact that Damon seemed to have forgotten  him until now. They were in love. His memories of the two together were  so vivid it was as if they had just happened. The feelings were so raw  and intense. Someone didn't just forget a love that intense.

Elijah.

Nobody  was around. It was so dark that he was sure no human would be able to  see and so quiet that he would be able to hear anything approach him. He  was drunk enough that he allowed himself this moment to feel  everything.

Damon started to cry, which felt good. He'd gone hours  holding everything back. It felt good to let everything go. Once he  started, however, it seemed impossible to stop. He was sobbing at this  point, making horrible sounds that he would never let anyone hear.

He  didn't know how long he laid there, releasing every negative feeling  from sorrow and guilt to anger and frustration. Not a single car had  gone by.

When he felt that he had gotten his fill of feeling, Damon composed himself, stood up, and started walking towards town.

~~~~~~~~

The  next day went by in a blur. Damon felt numb to everything. Night found  him back at the grill drinking more. Alaric tried to ask him about what  happened again, but Damon just ignored him. He didn't want to think. He  didn't want to feel. He didn't want to do anything anymore. What was the  point when he felt so horrible about everything all the time?

Even  the littlest things reminded Damon of Elijah. He saw someone eat the  olive out of their martini. He finished off another drink.

He  didn't want to, but going home would be unbearable, leading Damon to the  same road outside of town as the previous night. He laid down again,  but instead of letting himself cry and feel everything, he looked up at  the stars and felt nothing.

Pretty soon, headlights interrupted  his melancholy. The car had come from town. A girl got out of the car,  the only passenger. She couldn't be much older than he had been when he  turned. She seemed nice enough, but that wouldn't really matter to  Damon.

Damon compelled her not to scream, so she didn't. Not when  he first bit her, not when she was so weak she couldn't hold herself up,  and not when Damon drank the last of her blood. It was all over Damon's  face, but it seemed like such an insignificant detail.

He was  just getting ready to take care of the body when another pair of  headlights lit up in the opposite direction. Damon dropped the limb he  had grabbed and waited for whoever was in the car to stop. He was  starving from not feeding in almost two days, so he welcomed a second  meal.

This time it was a man. He expected to hear something accusatory, but instead he was met with a question.

"Are you done?"

Damon started at the voice. It was too familiar, too similar. He had to be imagining things.

Daring himself to hope, Damon turned around.

Standing  a couple yards away, impossibly alive, with a hand casually placed on  his car door was none other than Elijah Mikaelson.

"Elijah?" Elijah nodded, walking towards the stunned Damon. "You're... you're alive?"

Elijah gently placed his hand on the back of Damon's neck and touched their foreheads together.

"We have got to stop meeting like this."