Stefan bestowed one last sweet, firm kiss on Elena's lips. "I'm going to go check out the perimeter again."

Elena, sad that he was about to leave her again to do an overly precautious safety patrol only contained her pout because she knew he was only trying to keep her safe. That, and it also helped that she could tell he didn't want to leave her. He'd say he was leaving and kiss her with resolve...only to kiss her again as if he couldn't bear to part from her. In the end, though, his desire to protect her overrode even his desire to be with her. It was a scary thought...if he ever thought he'd need to leave her to protect her...he would.

She shivered and decided she didn't want to wait for him on the crowded dance floor. As she was making her way—make that, trying to make her way—from the center of the floor, two figures grabbed her arms and all but dragged her back. "Hey!"

"Come on, Elena! Let's dance!" Caroline laughed as both her and Bonnie grabbed one of Elena's arms and danced around her, forcing her to move with them.

"I thought you guys were miserable?" Elena couldn't contain some laughter of her own.

"Why should we be? We don't need guys to have fun!" Caroline grabbed Bonnie's other arm—the one that didn't have Elena's in a death grip—and then they all started to twist and shake in a three person circle.

"Yeah, the music is getting better, too!" Bonnie erupted into laughter as Caroline did something that looked completely ridiculous, involving some odd shoulder up and down thing. Then she did it, too. Elena laughed and tried to copy them, studying them intently.

Her concentration was broken when she looked around her and saw a crowd had formed around them. They were all watching as they themselves danced. Elena, more than a little uncomfortable at all of the stares, was now acutely aware of the noise and how incredibly hot it was. It had started to look and sound less and less like a 50s dance. "Is this even a song from the 50s?" Elena barely got the words out and she found it increasingly hard to breath.

Her friends, unaware still, continued to dance and throw their heads back. "Who cares?" Bonnie looked happier than Elena had seen in a long time.

Not wishing to disrupt this new carefree fun for her, Elena managed to slip her hands from theirs a reasonably easy feat - their hands were sweaty. Or were her hands the sweaty ones? She couldn't tell. She only knew that it was too hot and she couldn't breathe. It seemed so dark, but that couldn't be right, could it? All the lights had been on before. She didn't care, only wanted to get out of there. She started to push her way out of the crowd, throwing one last look behind her. They were perfectly fine, doing that dance they saw in Princess Diaries together when they were younger. She continued to push through the moving bodies until she met one that was not so compliant.

Damon had been leaning against a wall, secretly staring at Elena while pretending he was merely scouting for the new vampire in town. The thought of him being in Elena's house, scaring her, and touching her made a wave of black fury ripple through his entire being. His fangs lengthened involuntarily and the veins under his eyes become more pronounced. He would destroy any creature who would try and take what was his. He scanned the room again, mentally and physically, using all the resources at his disposal. When he checked on Elena again his fury ebbed, but his hunger soon replaced it. Oh, his lovely Elena. His Princess of Darkness. He stared at her, mesmerized as she danced with her friends. But the way they moved...he was confused for a split second, and then he realized that the music had changed-had probably changed a while ago. It was now a pulse-pounding beat that echoed his hunger. This was most definitely not music from the 50s. He would know.

It snapped him out of his reverie. He really had to work on controlling his thoughts. If Stefan had picked up on Damon's thoughts of Elena...Damon grinned. He was in the mood for a fight. In fact, when wasn't he in the mood? He glanced at Elena. Yes, he was always in the mood. One way or the other.

He took another sweep of the room, but his eyes always went back to Elena, as if there were an unbreakable rubber band that would always snap his eyes back to where they were supposed to be. And, he supposed, I am supposed to be watching her. He could only see her back from here. It was a nice view, though, especially with her dancing.

The lights went out and Damon automatically scanned the room again. Then strobe lights went on, along with an even edgier beat. And, judging from the flashes of panicked teachers running around, it was an unplanned excitement. So, someone at this school actually knew how to have a little fun. He chuckled to himself as he watched a hectic adult he assumed was the principle yell at a younger teacher about this not being appropriate, controlled fun.

Damon shrugged and searched for Elena again. He wondered if she would begin dancing to match this beat. In between flashes of light—surprisingly annoying to a light-sensitive vampire—he saw her and immediately straightened and tried pushing through the crowd. Damned humans, they were actually proving a difficult obstacle. He was delicately nudging through them, trying to get to Elena, seeing the expression on her face over and over again. As if she was going to pass out. He could hardly shove them aside; he might accidentally maim them with his superior strength. Even so, he was starting to lose patience with the crowd when the very person he sought slammed into him and all but fainted.

Even if she retained consciousness, he didn't think she could get out of there on her own, panting weakly against his chest as her legs gave out. Keeping her from falling, Damon held her up in a way he hoped didn't look like he was carrying an unconscious girl. Then, he started out of the crowd, not pushing and not drawing attention to himself. He stopped at the very edge of the dance floor, it probably wouldn't look good to carry an unmoving girl around off it. As a matter of fact, it probably wouldn't look so good on it, either. He started swaying her slightly, ignoring the fact that this was not currently swaying music. One arm still wrapped around her waist, he moved his hand across her forehead—burning—and then settled it under the left side of her chin to tilt her head up to him so he could examine her. Her eyes were closed and her slightly parted lips expelling short, shallow breaths. He tilted her head to the right and then to the left, closely scrutinizing her neck for any bite marks. Finding none, he pressed her head into his chest and held her close. Sighing, he placed his own head atop hers and shamelessly enjoyed the feeling of her in his arms. He didn't know what was wrong with her, but she felt so right.

Elena had stumbled into a hard, immovable chest and collapsed. She was breathing heavily and she didn't have to strength to stop him from carrying her away from the noise. She probably wouldn't have stopped him anyway; she needed to get out of there. After a few quick controlled steps, they stopped near the edge of the dance floor. Then his hand touched her face and something inside of her calmed. His hand felt like a cold compress and she could have sighed at how it seemed to make everything stop. She stopped sweating, and breathing came easier. She couldn't even hear the music anymore, which was a godsend. When he tucked her into his chest with his head atop hers, she had never felt anything like it. It was like floating upon a cloud of cold comfort. The world was blue and still and silent and she could have been content to go on like that forever. Then, she was swaying ever so slightly and it only increased the feeling of being on a cloud. Heaven...

She regained strength and her arms wrapped around him like she would never let go, could never let go. Won't ever let go.

Damon felt that her strength had returned to her and slowly lowered her down, letting her feet get used to holding her up in increments. He didn't let go of her though, and she seemed grateful.

She sighed and pressed against him. While looking up her breath caught. "Damon?"

"Who did you think it was, princess?" His words were angry, but his eyes were sad.

"An angel." Elena responded, whispering the truth, afraid he'd laugh.

His eyes widened and his mouth parted. She went up on her tiptoes to kiss his surprise away. He didn't pull away, or respond with wild aggression. He just kissed her back with an unstoppable passion. Slow and steady, tasting, consuming. She pulled away only because she ran out of breath, but Damon must not have realized because he pulled away like he thought she had wanted it. She wasn't sure how she could get him back. She wasn't sure she should. She swayed, unsteady and unsure. Damon was back instantly to keep her from folding over.

What was happening? She loved Stefan, not... Her mind didn't complete the thought.

"What happened on the floor earlier?" Damon asked, cutting off her thoughts, and completely ignoring what had just happened.

"I-I don't know. I guess I got crowd-sick." It had never actually happened before. She had never even been claustrophobic before.

Damon laughed. "Is that like car sickness?"

She laughed with him and smiled as she nodded her head weakly until she dropped it back down to his chest and closed her eyes.

She must have fallen asleep because she awoke to a quiet rumbling against her neck. "Lips as sweet as candy. Their taste stays on my mind. Girl you got me thirsty." Damon was singing along to the song.

Elena opened her eyes and smiled. The lights were back on and "Hooked on a Feeling" was playing. The dance had returned to normal. Only, Damon hadn't. He was singing the lyrics in her ears, grinning, only it was more a gentle smiling grin, not naughty or empty. She smiled back up at him and hid her face into his chest out of some strange new timidity. Strange, she thought. She was fine now, and the atmosphere had returned to normal. She should have been rid of the euphoric feeling being in his arms, but she still felt like she was in some cool place wrapped in the warm arms of an angel. Floating. Only now she was aware of the music, too, and the people, though they held little interest to her.

"Ah, the good love, when we're all alone." Elena looked up at him, an unstoppable smile lighting her face as she watched him sing. "Keep it up girl, yeah, you turn me on..." An admittedly naughtier smile lit his face this time.

"IiiiiIiiII'm hooked on a feelin.." Elena contributed, and both their smiles stretched even farther. Then he led her into a faster sway, but it wasn't fast at all. He held her close and she found his sweeping movements easy and...fun. They went with the beat of the song until it was over.

After it ended, she held on a little tighter, afraid that with the end of a song, the moment was over, too. She shouldn't have worried. He held her tight and gave no inclination of ever releasing her. A smile touched her lips once again as the opening lines of another song played and as Damon started dancing again.

Damon couldn't bring himself to sing the lines of the next song: "It's Not Unusual" by Tom Jones. Instead he grabbed her waist to weave her from side to side and was pleased when she took hold of his shoulders and laughed. When he sang her the last line, he thought she would stiffen in anger or discomfort. But instead she stayed in his arms and he felt he could not continue. The ground was still too unstable between them. So, he continued to dance and stayed quiet.

He never thought he'd have her in his arms, and to have her there in the moment was heaven. He showed off some classically lame moves from the fifties – quick ridiculous steps, leaning towards her and away, leading with one shoulder. He never thought he'd ever do it again, but it made her laugh. Even if she wasn't sure how to mirror or complement his movements, seeing her laugh was all he needed. It encouraged him to continue. He wasn't sure what his face looked like, but Elena looked at him and her breath caught and she pulled her hands away from his shoulders. At first he was afraid she was going to pull away, but his own breath caught when she grasped the backs of his hands in her smaller ones and pulled away, only to use his arms to pull herself even closer. She grinned up at him.

"Oh, you think you have all the moves, don't you?" he asked, looking down at her with a smile.

She opened her mouth to reply, but a little shriek of delight escaped instead as he twirled her around high in the air and let her slide down his body to the floor. "Again!" she laughed.

He laughed right along as he lifted her up higher into the air for longer this time. After her twirl he let go-and caught her a split second before she hit the ground so that the impact wasn't much of one. They continued to dance all throughout the song, her doing her best to dance like he was, with him lifting her every now again at irregular intervals so that she would always squeal with delight and surprise when he did. The words seemed unusually cruel. 'Love will never do what you want it to.' Another twirl and her laughs washed away the pain. He was laughing with her until he saw his brother staring at them from the gym entrance. He stopped for just a millisecond, Elena didn't even notice the pause, he stifled his reaction so quickly. 'Why can't this crazy love be mine?' Determined to hear Elena laugh again, he continued to dance, ignoring his annoying brother. Elena was his, if only 'til the end of the song. He lifted her into the air and circled again, but this time he didn't let her down, only hugged her closer to him and swung her around more. Hearing her laugh, feeling her cling tightly to him when he spun her, made him forget all about his baby brother.

He was, however, impossible to ignore as Damon sensed him getting closer. With a sigh, Damon held Elena even tighter and inhaled her scent, just as Stefan walked up and the last notes of the song sounded. One more inward sigh and he set her down. She looked up at him with a look that made Damon think of the kind of look she'd have if she ever woke up in the morning in his arms. He couldn't help but smile back, Stefan forgotten again.

"Elena, the perimeter's clear."

Elena looked up, startled to hear Stefan's voice. She looked confused for just a second, but seemed to shake that off. Damon looked at her neck and was pleased to note she was wearing her vervain necklace. Stefan held out a hand for her. She reached out and grasped his outstretched hand. Just like that she was pulled from Damon's arms. He felt his fangs lengthen and he wanted to growl at Stefan. His. However, he held back and watched her latch onto his brother.

"The lights went out, I got scared, Stefan." She buried her face into his jacket. Stefan threw him an inquiring look.

"Some kid playing a prank. Freaked her out pretty bad. Easy prey for a hungry vampire. I needed to protect her and dancing calmed her. So, why not kill two birds with one stone?" Damon shrugged as he started back towards his spot at the wall.

"Damon." Stefan's voice stopped him and he turned around. "Thank you for protecting her." Sincerity showed on his brother's brooding face. A face Damon very much wanted to slam into the nearest table.

Instead, he only nodded. "No problem, little brother." It hadn't been a problem. Until Stefan came back.

Before continuing to his uneventful wallflower post, he caught sight of Stefan's head making itself at home atop Elena's. It was a good thing Damon turned away. He didn't want either of them to see the expression of pure murder on his face.