a/n: so I took today off work so I could get some cleaning done, before I tackle the house and the laundry I needed to sit down and get a bit of writing done. My requests list is thankfully dwindling down and I find the ones that are left are one shots that I'm not feeling 100% passionate about. It's important to me to write something that needs to be written, so that may also be part of why I've been so distant lately. That and complete, utter exhaustion.
This fic was inspired by the movie 'This Means War' as well as a few requests. I just love that movie and the idea of Damon and Stefan fighting for Elena's heart this way would create a really interesting dynamic to the show. I originally intended this to be just a one shot, but I have a feeling it will be a bit more than that. Here goes chapter one; we'll see how you all like it.
Dedicated to loveyoualways21 (for wanting Damon and Elena to have an epic fight and makeout session in the rain- it's coming in this fic), and heartbreakmystque (for choosing the song that helped form this fic). And to Chris Pine, as well as Tom Hardy- both who were sexy as hell in the movie.
A GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT
Damon glared at his brother across the living room. Stefan had just told him that he was going to do whatever he could to get Elena back. Seconds after Damon agreed he would step back and let Elena live her life, thinking that he and Stefan were on the same page. Ever since Elena had woken up in the hospital a few days ago, her new vampire existence had thrown everyone for a loop. She had shut herself off from everyone almost completely after nearly attacking Jeremy one night. She refused to wear the daylight ring Bonnie had made her, and aside from Caroline- and surprisingly Katherine- she refused to speak to anyone at all. "Now listen here, brother." Damon said the term of endearment as a slap in the face. "It's clear that she doesn't want either of us. Let's just let her be."
"Maybe you are willing to give her up so easily, but I'm not. I actually love her."
That got Damon on his feet, his height and authority not lost on the younger Salvatore, though he did his best not to appear to affected by his older siblings show of power. "I do love her, and you know that better than anyone. I want her to be safe, to be happy. She can be neither of those things with us in her life."
"She's already a vampire!" Stefan's forehead wrinkled as a new brooding fit was about to start. Up until this point he'd remained fairly calm. "What more can we do to her?"
Behind them, a female cleared her throat and the men spun around. For a moment, Damon's eyes widened. The familiar brown hair, the sparkling eyes, the soft lines of the Petrova face; they all comforted him. Then he realized it couldn't possibly be Elena, seen as how she hadn't stepped foot out of her house in weeks. "Get out Katherine." Damon glared and marched straight to the bar cart.
All this brotherly tension, and now having her in the room was too much for him to handle. He was halfway through pouring his drink before he remembered he had a perfectly good brandy on the coffee table. Ignoring it, he sipped at the new glass and watched as Katherine stepped down into the den.
"You both should really be nicer to me." She smirked, reaching down and swiping the brandy Damon had poured ten minutes ago. With a small incline of her head towards him she drained the crystal and set it back down. "After all, I'm your way to the girl. Not that we can exactly call her that anymore."
Stefan let out a sound between a growl and a hiss before leaping over the table and tackling Katherine to the ground. "What are you doing here?"
Damon took another swig and set his glass down, moving over to them and hauling Stefan off with one arm. "Give a rest you two. I just bought this rug and I don't need blood stains all over it. If you want to fight and rip each other's clothes off take it outside."
Katherine laughed and pushed up on her elbows, looking at Damon from her place on the floor. Slowly, she reached her hand out to him, waiting for him to pull her up like the gentleman she once knew. He left her there and crossed his arms. "Such rudeness. Where have the Salvatore manners gone?"
"Oh we have manners." Damon sneered down at her. "Just not for you."
She huffed and shrugged, pushing herself to her feet. The stiletto's she wore brought her to eye line with Stefan, but Damon still managed to look down his nose at her. "I came to see if you two were alright, at her request. Apparently she is worried you two will be threatening to murder each other or something."
Stefan took one step forward. "She's asked about us?"
"Of course." Katherine let her hand rest on his chest, smiling up at him. "I don't know what it is about you two, but it makes it very hard for us women to resist thinking about you." She diverted her eyes to Damon. "Either of you."
"Don't charm us." Damon smirked back and drained his glass. "What are you really doing here?"
"She misses you." Katherine shrugged and stepped away from the brothers, as if she was sizing them up side by side. "I can see why, but I don't entirely understand her ideal of closing herself off from you both. I suppose it's because she doesn't want to hurt one…but if she was smart she would do what I did. Can't you two just share her? Why does there have to be all this fighting? Be one big, dysfunctional, happy family."
"She's not a manipulative bitch like you are. She wouldn't do that to us, to herself."
"We were happy were we not?" Katherine dared, reminding them. "In the beginning at least." She glance at Stefan, slowly walking around him in a circle, one long manicured nail drawing a line from the center of his chest to his shoulder and down his arm. "I remember you sneaking into my room at night, after I'd already left yours. You couldn't get enough of me." Slowly, she sauntered over to Damon, letting her hands rest lightly on his shoulders, up to caress the side of his neck as she tilted his head to whisper in his ear. "And you were more than willing to chase me and beg me to run away with you- yet content enough to have me belong to both of you that you wouldn't dare give up our stolen time together."
Damon wrapped his hand around her neck, rushing her against the wall. "Enough!" She let her eyes close as he head connected with the solid oak of the molding's entrance, but she recovered from the blow soon enough and twisted his arm away from her.
"If you want to touch me, all you have to do is ask." She patted his cheek condescendingly, walking past him as he glared into her back, resetting his dislocated shoulder with a grunt. "Are we really going to beat each other up, or can we talk about this like grown ups?" she asked, the Southern grace they'd both met her with back in the sway of her hips as she moved to the couch and collapsed onto it.
"Talk about what?" Stefan pressed, turning to face her.
Damon came to stand beside his brother, not about to open his mouth again in fear that he would say something that would scare her off. Apparently whatever she'd come to tell them was important. And it was about Elena. He would stand here and listen to the devil himself tell him about Elena if that meant he got to know she was alright. Katherine sensed she had both men's attention now and slowly uncrossed, then crossed her legs again. The shiny chrome heel she wore glinted in the sunlight and she reached down to buff away a spot before leaning back, her arms resting open on the cushions. "Elena is having a hard time dealing with becoming a vampire. She completed her transition a month ago with my and Caroline's help, yet she still refuses to go out. At all. Even at night we can't get her to leave that house. She has developed a seemingly healthy diet for a newborn, considering her blood thirst is much higher than her little friend or I anticipated. Her hunger is astonishing."
"Why are you telling us all this?" Stefan demanded, the fact that it had been partly his doing in Elena's death made the fact she was a vampire now a highly uncomfortable subject to speak of.
"She is fine, physically speaking. She's learning how to deal with her speed, with her new abilities. She's even eating human food again already. And I'm assuming from the moans coming from her room at night her sex drive has peaked. I'm certain she hasn't been with anyone but herself, but the truth of the matter is, I know she misses you." Katherine left out the part where it was mostly Damon's name she heard coming through Elena's moans, but she threw him a pointed look all the same.
"What does telling us all this going to matter?" Stefan asked, huffing. "She still won't let us see her."
"That's the point." Katherine glared at him as if she was moments away from smacking him. "Since when have either of you ever followed her wishes. She's told me everything about the three of you, and I would hardly think that a 'leave me alone' order would stop either of you from going after something you both want. She can hardly end up happily ever after with blue eyed Matt now, so get off your high horses and fight for her."
Damon glanced at Stefan, to find his brother already looking at him expectantly. "Are we really going to do this? Fight for Elena's heart?"
"Why not?" Damon shrugged and extended his hand. "We've basically been doing it since the beginning, might as well make it a fair game."
Stefan shook on it, both men turning to Katherine when she coughed a little. "Whatever you do, don't call it a game in front of Elena. She may snap both your necks if she thinks your guys consider her a prize to be fought over."
"Isn't this her idea?" Damon demanded, letting go of his brothers hand.
"Hardly, it's mine." Katherine smirked and stood up from the couch. "May the best vampire win."
She was gone before either brother could stop her.
Elena looked up from her window seat, the curtains were drawn so the sunlight wouldn't touch her skin, even though she'd finally been talked into wearing the ring around the house at least. Her newest roommates were sick of having all the windows closed, so her room was the only dark sanctuary she had left now that Caroline and her cheery sunshiny-ness had imploded all over the place. On the bright side- or rather dark side, Katherine seemed to be a good balance between the two of them. Even though bringing in her doppelganger had been Elena's own idea, it still shocked her sometimes when she would find herself in the middle of a conversation with the woman that was literally once her enemy, that she would trust her. Especially enough to let her into the house, into her life. But Katherine understood what it was like to be forced into becoming a vampire, as did Caroline. And most of all, she understood the Salvatore brothers.
She could hear the clicking of Katherine's heels on the stairs and slowly closed her journal, slipping it under the pillow and out of anyone's sight. She shared almost everything with the other two vampires in the house, but some thoughts were just personal. There was a smile on her face by the time Katherine reached her bedroom door and she looked expectantly at the purple shopping bag in her new 'friends' hand. "What's that?" she asked, swinging her legs over so she was ready to pounce up if perhaps the item was a present for her.
"It's what we're wearing tonight." Katherine smiled devilishly, letting out a quick, sharp whistle between her teeth. Caroline appeared in the doorway, a smile on her lips.
"Have you talked her into it yet?" she whispered, a little too loud to be conspiratorially, but Elena got the idea that they'd been planning this for some time.
"Not yet." Katherine threw her doppelganger a glance out of the corner of her eye. "I'm still working on it."
"I'm not going anywhere." Elena said quite stubbornly and crawled right back up onto the loveseat, basically curling into a ball. "I'm not ready to be around that many humans."
Caroline sighed, moving over to lift Elena's legs so she could sit on the seat next to her. She patted her friends knee and smiled. "Elena, I know it's scary. But you have great control over your thirst. Better than I do, trust me. If you keep yourself shut off from the world you might become so used to be around bagged blood or simply no human at all that you lose focus and the first time someone gets a paper cut around you, you'll end up draining them. It's not like detox, you have to subject yourself to a little of it every day."
"Besides," Katherine stood up from the bed, pulling a sparkly red dress out of the tissue paper. "I bought this and you can't waste it."
"Take it back." Elena jabbed and Katherine promptly ripped the tag off.
"I'm sorry, I can't do that."
Caroline nudged Elena. "Please, it's not fair to keep any of us cooped up here, especially yourself. Just a few drinks and a few dances. We'll even go out of town so no one we know will see us."
Elena bit her bottom lip, chewing and thinking. She glanced outside, the sheer curtains shower her a distorted view of the outside world. She hadn't so much as stepped onto the porch since Damon had brought her home from the hospital. She did miss outside, more than she cared to admit. "Fine. Two drinks, three dances and then we're coming home."
"Sounds like a deal to me." Katherine grinned and tossed Elena the dress. "Put this on, we got a lot to do."
a/n: so as I said, this is just the first chapter. It's just a possibility of what I think Season Three could be. S1 was Elena and Stefan with Damon kinda in the background. S2 was Elena and the brothers dealing with Kats. S3 was Elena and Damon with Stefan sorta in the background. Neither of them really got the chance to woo her, and I would really like to see that.
If you've got any 'date ideas' or ways the brothers might try to get Elena to choose them let me know.