Ethan wishes that wasn't the brutal honesty of it. He wishes it was different. He wishes he could say that he would have had that control in the final moment instead of-- instead of flinging Damon over in the middle of all of that rage. He would have regretted it the second that it happened. His eyes are burning too at the sight of her eyes burning, at the sight of the pain on her face.

It hurts to know that he did something, anything that helped put it there.

"It... has to do with where he was before and where he'll go again. It's what he was angriest about that I ended up there with you when I didn't--" His voice cuts off, because it was his choice even if she didn't know that until so much later. "I was coming back."

She knows that already, and it wasn't his fault that the rifts tore him away from the sidewalk before he could get back to her. The words still sound a bit broken though, and he looks down at her as his eyes burn more. He leans into her touch as he pulls her in against his chest. His other hand slides up against the side of her face as he swallows thickly with the emotion of it. "I won't." His eyes burn with it. "I won't ever do that again, I promise."

He is not going to help Damon self destruct, and he is not going to nearly take (or take) away someone Elena loves. She has lost so, so, so much.