❝you took her from me❞

DAMON WAS ON HIS BACK IN THE GRASS, HIS GAZE POINTED UPWARD AT THE BLUE, CLOUDY SKIES. Tucked into his side, Rosemary was looking up at the clouds pointing out a funny shape every few minutes.

Damon was listening sparingly, making sure to smile when the time was right and laugh when she did. He just couldn't help but let his mind wander to a future– their future. They only had a few more weeks until he was shipped off, but there was no doubt in either of their minds that they were it for one another.

He'd already told Stefan about it, making his little brother overjoyed with the news that they'd finally admitted their feelings to one another. Damon had always doubted her reciprocation of his feelings, no matter how much Stefan told him otherwise. 

He doubted that she could love him as much as he loved her because it was simply endless. Sure, love had conditions and it had requirements, but he felt that all of it just didn't matter when he looked into the hurricane brewing in her eyes and felt at peace in the eye of the storm.

Damon loved her more than he ever thought he could love someone. When his mother died, after being sent away by his father who had no capacity in his heart to care for a woman that couldn't physically dote on him anymore, Damon found himself bitter at life itself. As he grew up, his bitterness did as well and it matured into dislike for the lighter things in life that he always related to his mother.

Lullabies to sing you to sleep, soft meadows filled with wildflowers that you could run through. Hills of grass to roll down. All of these things had been so bittersweet until he started seeing Rosemary in them, too.

"Damon?"

The soft lull of her voice, sweet as pie, rocks him from his thoughts of his wondrous love. "Yes, Ro?"

He looks over at her and smiles reflexively, and she does the same. He brushes back a strand of hair that's fallen across her sharp cheekbone and rests his hand against her cheek.

She lets out a soft sigh and shrugs carelessly. "I was wondering what our children will look like one day. I hope they have your eyes."

Damon feels his heart skip in its rhythmic beat as he grins back at her breathlessly. "I hope they have your smile." He wraps his arms around her waist and rolls her onto his chest, laughing at the squeal of surprise she lets out. She looks down at him, pushing her hair back behind her ears and grins.

"I love you." She hums the same phrase she's told both him and Stefan since they were children running about the dirt roads of Mystic Falls. It still makes him stutter, even after all these years. "Until the sun dies out."

"Till the sun dies out." He echoes, squeezing her a little tighter and ignoring the sudden thickness of his voice. He'd love her forever, even after the sun died out.

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"We're almost there. Jeremy said there's an access road right past mile marker 6." Stefan informed Damon, who nodded and reached into the backseat, uncapping a blood bag he'd gotten from the hospital.

Damon took a sip and eyed Stefan, who was looking at the blood bag hungrily. "If you want some, just ask."

"I want some."

"Aw, that's so sweet," Damon groaned sarcastically. "Gonna be all big and strong to save your girl. Well, don't worry, I've got your back. You'll be fine."

Stefan smiled at his brother's passive-aggressive attitude, far too used to it to take any offense. "I'm not joking. I've been drinking a little every day, slowly increasing my intake and building up my strength."

Damon didn't hide his surprise at his brother's words, but he handed the blood bag over anyways and watched as Stefan drank the human blood. "Does Elena know you're drinking blood?"

Stefan hesitated, almost wincing. "I've been drinking hers."

Damon was once again surprised, and somewhat frustrated. He couldn't help but compare the doppelgänger to her predecessor, even if he tried not to– not to say that he was even trying not to in the first place.

"How romantic." He finally settled on, taking another gulp of the blood. "Since we're road-trip bonding, remember the days when all you lived for was blood, you were the guy who would rip someone apart for the fun of it?"

"You mean when I was more like you?"

Damon's eyes darkened, but he let out a sarcastic chuckle. "Yes, Stefan. Back when you put blood into me to turn me into a big, bad vampire who had nothing and no one left because of the somehow worse version of your girlfriend. I wonder if Elena would be so quick to open her veins to that guy– by the way, what happened to him? He was a hoot."

"Guess he found something else to live for." Stefan said, still trying to process Damon's hateful words. He knew, generally, that Damon didn't like Elena but if he didn't truly trust her to some extent he would've done something about it already. Right?

Damon smirked, his gaze hardening as he finished off the blood bag. "Right. Good for you."

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Damon watched the vampire speed away and he moved to go after her.

"Just let her go," Elena called from the top of the steps, looking down at him gratefully. Damon sighed and looked at the Original vampire as Elena came running down the steps towards him, her arms outstretched for a hug. He turned away, leaving her to Stefan.

Damon pulled the broken-off coat rack from his chest and watched him slump down to the ground, still half dead. He threw it off to the side and went out the front door, uncaring if Stefan and Elena were following after him.

He stepped outside, letting the fresh air wash over him and release a weight on his lungs he hadn't noticed until just now.

Somehow, he'd saved her life. Maybe not in the long run, but he did it just enough to get Stefan off his back for the time being.

But the voice in the back of his head reminded him of the Original sitting slumped on the ground of the abandoned home, stake no longer in his chest, and he shook his head at the thought. Stefan might be happy with him now, but it wouldn't last much longer.

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"You know, what Rose told Elena about the curse," Stefan trailed off, sitting on the armrest of the chair behind Damon as he poured himself a drink.

"I know." Damon filled the silence, looking down at the ground. "You'll keep her safe."

"The only way I'll be able to do that is if we're not fighting each other about her." Stefan looked at his brother's back, letting out a short sigh at the conversation to come. "I let Katherine come between us once. I'm not letting it happen with Elena, but I've got to keep her safe."

Damon turned around, giving Stefan an incredulous look. "Yes, Stefan. I've heard it all before." He slammed the rest of his drink back and turned to walk off, going to wallow silently in his bed before Stefan called out to him again.

"Hey." Stefan bit the inside of his cheek. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Damon rolled his eyes.

Stefan sighed. "For turning you 145 years ago."

Damon shook his head at Stefan's words. "Enough, Stefan. It's late, we don't need to rehash that."

"You know what? I've never said it out loud. I guess I just need to say it, and you need to hear it." Stefan shrugged, despite Damon not looking at him. "I'm sorry. What I did was selfish. I just didn't want to be alone. Guess I just needed my brother. And I guess– I guess I thought that after Rosemary, you'd need–"

"You don't get to talk about Rosemary." Damon bit out, turning his head around to look at Stefan with a glare. "Not now. I let you tell Elena so she'd get off my back, but that's where I draw the line."

"She was my best friend, Damon." Stefan stepped forward, looking apologetically at his older brother. "I know I have a fault in what happened–"

"Fault?" Damon echoed disbelievingly. "You have a fault? You are the one who let Katherine run around town and lie to save her own ass. You let Katherine be Katherine. I can forgive you for turning me, but I will never forgive you for Rosemary. And you wanna know why, Stefan?"

Damon took a step towards his brother, seeing the hurt in his eyes and not caring in the slightest. "Because you're doing the exact same thing with Elena. Someone's going to end up dead because of her, and you're not going to be able to hate her for it. Face it, Stefan. She is exactly like Katherine."

Damon scoffed and grabbed the bottle of scotch from the drink tray and stormed off to his room, slamming the door pointedly.

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author's note; this story just makes me sad lmao like let damon live,,,

edited and published; 8.12.21.

- liz