A/N: So this is it for this story, and it's kind of a random way to end it. I wrote this scene a while ago, and it's almost more of a one-shot than part of the story. Think of it as a glimpse of a quiet, "normal" evening with Elena and Damon now that they are together. This story got far longer than I ever intended - the characters had minds of their own at times - but it's been a really fun ride. I realize I may not have fully wrapped up some of the plot elements - if anything seems too egregious, let me know in reviews and I will try to address it. I also have ideas for a sequel and a couple of other Damon-centric stories, so if you've liked this story, be on the lookout for those. I am leaning toward writing the sequel first, but I'll have to see where my muse lands next.

Thanks again to everyone who has read, favorited, and reviewed this story. I've been blown away by the response to my first story so thank you again!

Epilogue: Chemistry with Damon

Elena stared at the chemistry homework in front of her. She had tried this problem three different ways, and she had come up with three different answers. She was sure all of them were wrong. She sighed and looked up.

Damon was sitting on the couch a few feet away, reading a book. It was no coincidence that the boarding house contained more books than the Mystic Falls public library; both Damon and Stefan were voracious readers. She stared at his profile, firelight flickering over his features. God, he was beautiful.

"This isn't working," Elena pouted in Damon's direction. "Distract me?"

Damon turned to her, and she felt like she would melt under his smile. He got up slowly and came to join her at the table. "What are you working on?" he asked.

"Chemistry. And it does not make any sense at all." Elena knew she was whining, but she didn't think Damon would mind. Too much.

Damon smiled at her again. "Ah, science." Elena thought she detected an element of scorn in his voice. "Most of what's in this textbook will be disproven within a generation anyway, if it hasn't been already. Hell, my very existence contradicts most of it. Now literature, history, languages – those are much more useful."

Elena was staring at him now, surprised at this quiet, serious Damon. Wasn't he the one who was always telling everyone that school was a waste of time?

He wasn't looking at her, though, and he went on. "Did you know when I was growing up we believed that diseases were caused by miasmas, vapors that came from unhealthy environments or filth? The idea of tiny microorganisms that could enter people's bodies and spread disease – ridiculous."

"Tell me more," Elena said, fascinated.

Damon knew he was rambling, but he doubted that Elena had any real interest in the details of miasmatic versus germ theory. "I remember when I read Darwin's The Origin of Species. I was a vampire then. It was published in 1859, but it wasn't the kind of thing that Southern gentlemen read, at least not Giuseppe Salvatore's sons, and we were a bit busy for the next few years, anyway. Science is still trying to work out the details of evolution, and yet it denies the supernatural entirely. I am partial to chaos theory, though . . . "

Elena was looking at him like he was an alien. "Who are you, and what have you done with Damon?" she teased gently.

Damon gave her a soft smile. "Let me look at that," he said, grabbing her homework and her chemistry textbook.

Elena watched him as he glanced at the homework and then flicked his eyes back to her textbook, scanning quickly through the pages. As Damon had relaxed around her, she had come to see that he had the same kind of bright, inquisitive mind as Stefan. That was one Salvatore family trait that the brothers shared, although Damon was far more likely to question everything that he read or heard. Elena smiled to herself, not surprised that he would question the truth of her chemistry textbook now that she thought about it. Elena wondered suddenly if thinking too much wasn't also a source of the brothers' problems. Maybe stupid people made better – or at least less troubled – vampires?

Damon interrupted her thoughts. "Here's what you're doing wrong," he said, pointing to part of her answer. As he explained it to her, Elena found herself actually understanding chemistry for probably the first time. Damon was a better tutor than Stefan, she realized with surprise. Stefan had always known all the answers – she knew none of the teachers at the high school except Alaric had known what to make of his near-perfect test scores given the massive number of absences he had accumulated – but Stefan had a tendency to just tell her what the answer was when they studied together, rather than actually explaining it to her.

"Did you just figure that out now from reading the textbook?" she asked Damon, giving him a mock glare.

He shrugged, looking embarrassed. "It's all in there. It's not exactly well-written . . ."

Elena couldn't resist teasing him some more. "I'm dating a nerd."

"I'm not a nerd. I'm way too hot to be a nerd."

He had a point there, Elena thought. "Prove it to me," she dared him.

"Would a nerd do this?" He bent over and kissed her, his tongue slipping through her mouth in a way that made Elena shiver with desire. A moan escaped her lips.

Damon pulled back with a grin. "I'm gonna need some more evidence," Elena declared, climbing into his lap and bringing her hands up to run them through his silky black hair. She felt his hands slip under her shirt as she dropped her lips to his. Study time was over.

The End