No Strings Attached

Day 1

"Trouble in paradise. Girl got you down. You know, the usual bad boy blues," Elena explains, smirking at him. Scoffing, Dean shakes his head.

"It's not like that."

"Then what is it like?" Then, although he didn't really know why, Dean told this stranger everything. He tells her about Lisa and Ben, about how much they fought and how it led to his excessive drinking. He talked about their arguments, varying from what kind of coffee to buy at the store to how to punish Ben. He told her about how Lisa had changed over the years, morphing into someone he could hardly recognize. He didn't understand how someone so loving could change into a narcissistic control freak, but talking to Elena, he didn't really care. He opened up to Elena in ways he hadn't even opened up to himself, telling her every gory detail of his life and then some.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to dump that all on you. You probably think I'm a mess," Dean apologizes, quickly draining his bourbon and waiting for Elena to agree with him.

"No, I don't," Elena says, surprising Dean. He looks up to her, waiting for an explanation. Sighing, Elena gulps down a great deal of her drink before starting in on her story. Just like Dean, she had no idea why she was opening up. She had kept her issues with Damon to herself for so long. Blaming the alcohol for her sudden eagerness, Elena tells Dean about her work and how it was putting stress on her relationship. She tells him how much Damon has been drinking, adding onto the pressure. Elena even told him about something she probably should have kept to herself.

"He hit you?" Anger boils up inside of Dean. He couldn't believe someone could be so cruel to the amazing woman sitting in front of him.

"I don't think he meant to," Elena says quickly, covering for Damon even now. "He was drunk and I said some things I didn't mean. I probably deserved it." Dean sucks in a breath, Elena's words resonating inside him. He'd heard those words before. Hell, he'd even used those words before. At least he knew now no one ever deserved to be treated that way.

"Nothing you could have done would make you deserve that," Dean says sternly, placing his hand over Elena's. She glances down at it before meeting Dean's eyes. Seeing her discomfort, Dean removes his hand. "Did you call the police?"

"No, no, it wasn't worth bringing the cops in," Elena assures him, smiling sadly. "There was barely a mark. And he apologized afterward. He's a nice guy, really. We're just having some issues."

Sighing, Dean just shakes his head. They continue to talk, sharing stories and comparing their relationships. They each made it very clear they had every intension to return to their homes that night, but that didn't stop them from drinking themselves half blind.

"You know what I think?" Dean slurs his words together, causing Elena to giggle. He had a higher tolerance than she did, but even he couldn't completely handle the amount he had downed tonight. "I think people are stupid. The whole lot of them. I mean they say one thing and then act completely different. What's up with that?"

"People are crazy," Elena agrees, glancing briefly at her watch. "Oh, shit. It's nearly two. Damon is gonna be pissed." She slides off the stool, tripping as she does so. Dean catches her, keeping her steady on her wobbly legs.

"You're drunk," he points out, keeping one hand on her arm. He surprises himself by then saying, "Stay."

"Stay?" Elena glances around warily, just now noticing how empty the place is. It was just them and the bartender, the lack of people and amount of alcohol in Elena's system screaming for her to leave this stranger before anything bad should happen. "Only if you agree to tell me more about you."

Dean happily obliged, filling her in on his family history. Elena was more than intrigued when she learned he had a brother, admiring the way Dean's eyes would light up when talking about him. She was shocked when his eyes didn't do the same thing when talking about his father, but when she pressed the subject, Dean fell quiet.