Matt craves attention to, for reasons Elena is one of the few people familiar with. But unlike her, he doesn't always take it when offered. He's withdrawn from what's offered and hesitant, as if that affection is a fire he fears will burn him. Likely because he's been burned by it many times before. His mother got his hope up how many times growing up? And Vicki, as much as he loved her, was like a ping pong ball that couldn't decide if she was in or out, if she would stay or go. She hadn't needed vampirism to make her a flaky, unreliable sister. She already was one.

So it's only natural that the guy has hang ups, but this is Elena. The girl he's loved longer than he thought it was possible to love anything. Even when he was mad at her and couldn't stand the fact that she knew things about vampires, about how his sister really died, that she had neglected to share with him, he'd loved her. She was his constant, and having her back as she ought to be felt like the world had finally stopped shaking beneath his feat.

He didn't want to leave. Selfishly, he decided, right then and there, that he didn't want to leave this ship. There was nothing for him in Mystic Falls; no future, no scholarship that could've been his before the broken arm — just a dead end job cleaning tables at a small town grill. Here, there was at least something worth living for. Maybe Bonnie and Caroline were right. The Elena back in his time or however the hell that worked was a lost cause.

This one wasn't.

"Well," he says with that quirky, goofy smile of his. "What are you waiting for?"

Ice cream is a necessity, Elena. Don't pull his leg.