Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries

Warning: Minor spoilers through season 1. Set after Miss Mystic falls, but does not follow the series.

Running should be his middle name. He's been running all his life. The routine is quite simple. Stay at a place, kill people, sleep with girls, authorities get alert, run. He's always on the run.

Blood is a crazy obsession, but when it's dripping down your chin, tickling your skin, when it's setting your lips on fire and sending your senses on overdrive, you don't care if you are insane.

The sanity rings back the next morning when he sees the report of mysterious deaths in the paper. Run.

She sits down in front of the room where they have locked up Stefan, and he knows she isn't coming. She is going to sit there, all alone, in the darkness of the night, and blame herself. 'This is my fault, I fed him my blood'. If she wants to blame someone for Stefan's condition now, she might as well trace as far back as 1864 when Stefan was turned by Kath-.

Stop. He tells himself. He's not going there right now, because right now, he needs to be in the present, here, with her. He sits down in front of her, silently. He knows she'll talk when she is ready. He knows how she's feeling right now. He knows what it's like to have the one you love out of reach and blame yourself for everything. After all, his Katherine has been locked up in church for only over hundred years, and he has only spent so much time blaming himself. It was half his fault. Actually, he'd like to think harder and put the whole blame on Stefan, their father, that stupid Gilbert guy, or maybe even the boy he met yesterday at the bar but… stop.

He silently hands her over his jacket. The last thing he needs is a frozen Elena and a blood-crazy Stefan going kill-bill on him for that. The last thing he needs is blaming himself for that for the rest of eternity.

"Thank you", her whisper would have been inaudible if it wasn't for his super-hearing.

He nods his head. He couldn't be there for one. He's going to be there for the other. He can't run.

"So…" He trails off, watching her rummaging through the kitchen absent-mindedly, her hair almost messy, eyes red from what he assumes is crying for hours. He's not good with sympathy and stuff, he's not good with not annoying Elena, and he's not sure what he can do to make her feel better.

She doesn't answer; just looks up at him with tired eyes and a composed look on her face even though she's broken inside.

It makes his lips dry and his heart ache and he almost opens his mouth to say that he is sorry. He is so tempted to run away right now. "He'll be alright." He says instead of all the other things that he could have said, would have said, if the innocence in her eyes wasn't stopping him from taking advantage of this alone time with her.

She nods her head, closes her head, sighs, and leans against the kitchen counter. "I know. I just…I'm…." she's never had this much trouble with forming words before, but right now, she is not even sure what is going on in her mind, so she has no idea how to say it.

And now he doesn't even know what to say anymore. It's horrifying to see such a strong girl like her look so weak. It makes his skin burn and his nerves ache, and that's saying something, because he has never felt this way since Katherine and his own death.

He almost wants to compel her to feel better.

He is right there in front of her when she wakes up from a nightmare, screaming Stefan's name. "Elena, it's okay. Shhh." He cups her cheeks, and brushing her hair back. His eyes dart to the clock that is glaring 2.00 in red bold letters, to the open window and the curtains dancing with the breeze, to the photo-frame that holds her picture with Stefan, and he has a 'what the hell am I doing here' moment.

When she leans her head on his shoulder and breaks down into tears, he gets his answer.

The tears take a long time to run out. He can't blame her for that. After all, his tears haven't dried yet. And he's Damon Salvatore, he's a man, and he has outlived old buildings in town.

"What are you doing here?" she finally asks, pulling back and wiping at her tears. He would like to wipe them himself, but again, he doesn't do sympathy, so why start now?

He shrugs. "Just looking out for you."

She should be scared, she should be creeped out, but she is just grateful that he's there for her, that there is someone who knows everything, someone who she can lean onto, and someone from whom she doesn't need to keep any secrets. "I'll be alright." She puts her arms around herself.

His eyes are going in all the wrong directions by then. He knows this is not the right moment for that but she is breath-taking every minute and it's so hard to look away.

He knows he needs to run.

He thinks it's necessary to spy on her in school, to make sure that she is alright. He stands at a distance, and listens to the students talk to her, keeping his ears alert for a single sniff. One tear, and he'll rip their limbs into pieces. He's just being a good friend. He doesn't do friendships, but okay.

He wonders how she can answer so many questions so calmly, even under such pressure. "Where's Stefan?" "Stefan's sick?" "Hope he feels better soon." "Sorry you didn't win Miss Mystic Falls." "Who was that guy who escorted you instead of Stefan?" "Oo, he's hot." "You two look good together."

And he has to run back home as fast as he can. He needs to justify why his heart is beating so fast.

Sulk. Cry. Sulk. Cry. Sulk. Cry. It's like parading in a rhythm.

Finally after two full days, he catches her smile genuinely. She's with Caroline, and Caroline is saying something to her, and he knows her smile is not forced this time. It's a small smile, and it lasts a few seconds, but that's long enough to flash him a ray of hope. Things are improving.

His sigh must be from relief.

On the fourth day of Stefan-less-ness, he manages to tick her off.

"What are you doing at my house?" she demands, hands on her hips, when he sees him with her brother, playing some stupid game on the play-station. She's tired of having him trail behind like a shadow all the time.

"Hey Elena. Thanks for the warm welcome." He retorts.

She storms up the stairs as fast as she can. He should have known she wasn't in the mood for his sarcasm.

A stunned Jenna peaks her head out of the kitchen, wondering what's going on.

"I'll go talk." He gets up, ignoring Jeremy's protests of 'dude I was winning', and rushes up the stairs to her room.

She's looking out of the window like she is looking at some other world.

"Still upset?" he asks.

"Not. Now. Damon." She warns, her voice low but firm. This battle is starting to exhaust her, this battle of blaming and not blaming herself.

He's finally had enough of seeing her torture herself and tear herself inside out. "How long do you plan on doing this?"

She groans, sits down on the bed, and covers her face with a pillow. She doesn't even want to see his face right now, let alone have this argument.

"Stefan's out of control. It's your fault. You're doing your best to get him better. You had to lock him up. He'll be fine. The world didn't end- Get over it." He scolds. His words come out harsher than he intended, his tone is almost cold, and there's this anger seeping out of him, but he's tired of always being 'the other guy', and he's tired of not being able to do something for the girl. If he was the hero in this story, the heroine wouldn't be shedding tears like this.

"How can I get over it?" she finally explodes. She's standing right in front of his face, with her hands on the collars of his shirt and a dangerous energy radiating from her. Her heart is beating like a drum and her breath is hot and fast. She almost looks frightening.

He looks down at her, and their eyes lock, and he can see her flinch and flicker and snap back to herself. She lets go of him and runs away.

And so now they are playing this game.

She's not shocked to see him at her house the next day again. But that doesn't mean she's happy about it either. She grabs him by his hand and drags him up to her room.

The smirk on his face tells her he's thinking dirty thoughts.

She warns him with a harsh glare. This is not the time.

He shrugs, sits down on her bed, and lies down on his back, facing the ceiling, his legs dangling out of the bed. He doesn't want a repetition of yesterday.

"I am fine." she says firmly.

"And I hate how blood tastes." He says like he's telling her a secret. He can't help it if he's starting it again.

She takes in a deep breath to calm herself and repeats, "I am fine Damon."

"When you're fine you're not this…. cranky." He observes.

"I am not cranky." She protests. "not with the others at least. You are making me cranky."

Now he has found another thing to blame himself for. He shakes his head, clicking his tongue. "I can't take the full credit."

"What do you want?" she asks tiredly.

He shoots her the filthy smirk again.

But this time, it makes her blood boil in all the wrong ways, and she hates it. She's running away within seconds.

She visits him the next day before he can visit her again. He quirks an eyebrow at her like he is surprised to see her there, but if he is being honest, he can read her like a book these days.

She walks in and sits down on the couch, leans back, covers her face with her hands.

He shoves a glass of water to her.

"Thanks", she mutters, taking a sip.

He sits down right beside her, and then he realizes it's a bad idea, because she is making him feel fidgety and almost nervous. But he waits patiently and resists his urge to run. He knows she wants to talk, and that's what he wants her to do.

"It's difficult." She speaks her mind for the first time. "It's difficult to see this side of Stefan…"

He sits quietly, letting her speak. He knows that no words he has to offer can make her feel better. She just needs to get everything off her chest.

"I feel like", her voice cracks, "like I brought out the evil side of Stefan and I…" a tear rolls down her cheeks, "I feel terrible about this."

He sighs, wraps an arm around her shoulder, and pulls her closer. She sobs into his chest. She sobs, sobs, sobs, and then looks up at him with grateful eyes.

He can't look away from her tear-streaked face, he can't turn, he can't run away, he's just drawn closer and closer.

Their lips brush, and she doesn't pull back. She's vulnerable, he tells himself. He tells himself this is not the time, this is not how he wants to do it, this is not right, but then again, he has chosen the wrong paths all the time, so why should this be any different?

He's kissing her, and she's kissing him back.

When it ends and when they pull back, she's already getting up ready to run away. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes are guilty, and her face spells regret. He, on his part, holds back this sudden pang of rejection. Damon Salvatore doesn't do pain, not because of Elena Gilbert.

And so they are running away in opposite directions. If this was a race, he would win, after all, he's the one with super-speed.

When they meet again the next day, she pretends like nothing happened. "You want some coffee, Damon?" she offers sweetly.

He's mad at himself for feeling sad about this, he's angry that he didn't see this coming, and he's tired of his fucking fate, but most of all, he is sick of that look in her eyes. That unreadable look. That incomprehensible expression.

He runs away before he erases her memory and compels her to forget. No. She did the crime, she should bear the burden as well. He's being selfish, yes, but he doesn't want to be the only one running away from reality every day.

Stefan's back. She's in his arms. He is forgotten.

He had a feeling the story would go this way. Doesn't it always?

He shoves his hand in his pockets and just walks away. He hears the sound of their lips smacking, his stomach churns, and he's running again.

Katherine couldn't make up her mind. And now Elena is stuck with two Salvatore brothers on her arms. This game will last forever again.

Sometimes he just wants to run far away from all of this.

A/N: I put in a lot of effort on this one because angst is my fave genre. I hope your liked this. Please review and let me know. Thank you for reading :)