What Comes Next?
Summary: Oneshot delena drabble. Damon and Elena talk about where they're headed. This could be a missing scene from my multi-chapter story 'After 1912' or treat it as a simple drabble from a happy universe where Damon and Elena are together.
D/C: Not my characters, all hail Julie Plec, Kevin Williamson, LJ Smith and the many talented people who give these characters life.
Elena lay on his bed, fully clothed, her head in Damon's lap. Damon was stroking her hair and they were both just enjoying a rare quiet moment. There had been kissing and conversation and then a comfortable silence had fallen. All without Klaus or Rebekah or Stefan or Bonnie or Caroline interrupting. Nobody had tried to kill anyone in the last twenty minutes at least, as far as they knew.
"So what's next Damon?" Elena asked, her voice a low happy murmur.
"We kill Klaus and then chuck a party?" Damon answered lightly.
"After that?"
"Sleep, make love, get a lot less wrinkles without all this worrying," Damon laughed.
"But what happens to us when there's no big emergency, when we're not trying to stop the originals or some other superbad. What then? What will we do? I mean I'm supposed to go off to college, and I'm actually kind of happy about that, I could do with some normal, if I can ever work out what I want to do with my life. But what about you?"
"Well, I've been to college before, admittedly not as a student, college is great, lots of drunk easy to compel young people ready to party. I can hang out at college, nothing tying me down here, except you. The founders council can live without me for a while, they'll certainly be a lot less busy with the original family gone."
"But would you be happy? Just hanging around catching up with me between classes? Isn't there something you want to do?" Elena probed.
"You've got to remember I'm very good at amusing myself, I've had 140 years of killing time. I'm not like Stefan, Stefan likes to pretend he's a real boy, he likes to take classes and fit in and pretend that he's going to grow up like all the other teenagers, but he's not, I'm not, this is me. Sure I could think about taking a few classes but what for? I'm not going to become a lawyer, I'm certainly not going to become a doctor," Damon grinned. "And there are a lot of jobs that I'm just not that interested in, and if I was after a few years I'd have to start over again anyway."
"Don't you get bored?"
"Sometimes, but not with you around, I find you very interesting Elena Gilbert," Damon smiled.
Elena smiled back for a moment, but then frowned. "I can't be everything you have Damon, you need to make a life for yourself, a real life."
"I could get a job," Damon conceded, "I've had those before you know, bartending mostly, that was always a good way to meet – donors," he wiggled his eyebrows at her.
"You can't eat my classmates Damon, or anyone else, you get that right? If we're going to do this, I need you to stick to the blood bags, at least as often as possible? And no killing if you do need to feed off people," Elena looked and sounded stern. This conversation had snuck up on them but she was determined to lay some boundaries.
"I'll be a good little boy scout I promise," Damon smiled. "Believe it or not I've been drinking mostly out of the refrigerator lately anyway; I'm a reformed man,…. mostly."
"So, say I finish college, get a job, what then? Would you really just follow me along? Isn't it going to get a little weird eventually? I'll get old and you won't."
"Elena dear you're getting way too far ahead of yourself, what makes you think I won't have scared you off long before any of that happens? I'm pretty good at screwing up, what makes you think you're going to want me in ten years' time anyway?"
"I guess I just want to be prepared," she began, the next words were hard to say and came out as a whisper, "for when you leave."
"I'm not going anywhere Elena, not unless you ask me too," Damon reassured, "And even then I'm so stubborn I'll probably hang around like some sort of creepy stalker-ex checking up on you. I'm all yours. I know you're imagining this normal, pedestrian life is going to bore me, but I've never done normal, and even normal people go on holidays, have weekends off, I money, we can do whatever we want, see the world, or stay home and play house. I'll find things to do, maybe you'll rub off on me and I'll get a 9 to 5. I'm scared too Elena. I've never done this before, any of this, but I'm willing to try, so don't write me off because we've even begun."
"I was wasn't I? Am I that transparent?"
"Crystal," Damon smiled.
"Sorry," Elena smiled back with a sheepish look like a guilty child.
"I'm sure you'll find a way to show me just how sorry you are," he teased, bending over and kissing her. Elena let her worries float away and they enjoy a few more quiet moments together.