action.
[ elena snorts in spite of herself. she really shouldn't encourage damon being damon, but she can't help finding amusement in it sometimes. ] Not exactly. [ she wouldn't say damon ever loses his edge. and whenever he starts to veer into something remotely resembling what he fears, he'll lash out.
it's the lashing out part that sucks.
even in chicago, damon's only real friend - outside of bela, outside of elena herself - was josef. and he was more of a torture buddy. in that they would torture people together. when josef died, damon backslid in more ways than one. because he feels, and that sucks, too. ] She was an ally. .... Not at first, but she was. She wanted to help us bring Klaus down.
[ she doesn't know how much she should say. rose's death had damon lashing out, too. elena doesn't hold anything the vampire did against her. she was initially protecting someone trevor, someone she loved. toward the end, she acted in fear and self-preservation. elena understands more than a little about all of those things. ]