An Understanding (Damon and Elena)

Chapter Six

"Elena are you okay?" I ask her as the party comes to a close. Shes in her room staring sadly into the mirror. Her face seems lifeless, empty, and hopeless.

"Of course I am. I'm finally twenty." She forces a smile, avoiding my gaze.

"Elena, you know you can't pretend with me." I walk closer to her.

Her lip quivers before she spins around to utter the her words. "What do you want me to say, Damon?" Tears well in her eyes. "That everything that happened in the lab is barely rememberable? That I'm fine? Because that's not true. I have nightmare after nightmare. I have nightmares within my nightmares. Finally when I wake up I hardly feel relieved, but burdened over the fact that I'm still alive and living in anxiety and pain. I can't live like this anymore." She cries.

I immediately pull her into a warm hug, almost in tears myself. "Elena don't think like this. You'll be okay." I whisper into her ear. She cries into my shoulder and I comfort her the best I can. Finally we pull apart. "Don't do anything stupid okay? A world without Elena Gilbert is equivalent to Damon without his sexiness." I joke and she laughs weakly.

"I love you Damon." She says breathlessly before kissing me.

_________________________________

"Elena?" Damon asks me. "What are you doing?" He asks as I hold fire up to my nose. "I need to die Damon." His eyes go wide.

The lights flash on and off and I see faces of all my dead family and friends flickering around the room. They're all chanting and screaming not to do it, but everything in my being wants to die.

"Elena no!" Damon shakes my shoulder. "No! No! Wake up Elena! Wake up!" He shakes my shoulder, screaming.

I gasp as I wake up, panting and sweating. Damon immediately wraps his arms around me comfortingly. "I'm so confused damon.." I cry.

"Elena, what is going on?!" He asks brokenly.

"I want to die Damon. I need to see my family again." I say breathlessly.

"...What about me" He says  sadly, staring at me hard. I look away and shake my head.

"Don't make me answer that question."

Anger flares in his eyes but quickly goes out like a light. "Elena I love you. You love me. We're happy. You have all your friends and your entire life ahead of you. Don't take the easy way out."

"But Damon.." I say, teary eyed. "I want a family." I look down.

He tilts my chin up to stare at him. I stare back at him sadly. He grabs my hand and places it on his heart. "Do you hear that?" He whispers. I close my eyes and feel the beating of his chest. "It's what hope sounds like."

I flutter my eyes open and soon he does too. I stare at him. The permanent crease in the furrow of his eyebrows. His angry expression he always wears from all the hurt he's been through. The quote "You can only push a person so far before they break." lives within Damon Salvatore. "Hope" lives within Damon Salvatore because he himself is one of the strongest, yet weakest people alive. He's a daydream dressed as a nightmare. He appears to be your living hell but in reality might as well be one of the best things out there.

Why do I want to leave this?

"What are you thinking of doing now?" He asks.

"I don't know. What are you thinking?" I reply.

"I'm thinking of doing this." he says before cupping my cheeks in his hands and kissing me.