Okay, so I think I'm on the roll of inspiration. And this fic was in my mind for a while now I just never tried going about writing it. But here it is. Try it out, I'm interested in knowing what you think about it ^^
She sighed at the feeling of his hands around her. It was at moments like these when she was still surprised by the fact that their time was finally right. That they could finally just be together. She let out a protesting sound. "Maybe I should just forget about college. Staying like this is more than enough for me." She pulled herself closer to the warmth she was getting from him.
But instead of a teasing remark of how he would be more than glad to take her upon her decision and not let her out of their bedroom for a couple years more, she heard a chuckle. A wrong kind of chuckle coming from behind her.
"Well, good thing that there are still a few years left till college."
She re-entangled herself from his arms at once, sitting up.
"Stefan! Oh my god." She hurried to get out of the bed and nearly tripped on her own feet. That was weird. "What're you doing here?"
"Sleeping," Stefan replied with a suspicion in his eyes.
Elena's eyes widened. "Sl-sleeping, Stefan you can't, I can't…." She felt a chill run down her spine and she finally noticed her attire. She was barely in anything. And in bed with Stefan. She quickly looked around to find any possible cloth she could find to put on and her heart sank to her toes when she saw shredded clothes, her clothes, around the room. Desperately trying to not overthink it, she quickly put her jeans on.
"Elena? What's the matter? Are you okay?" Stefan was sitting in the middle of his bed, looking at Elena like she had grown two heads.
"No no. Why am I in your bedroom, Stefan? And when did you even get back?" She found her sweater some steps away and picked it up.
"Back from what?"
Elena looked at the ground, her brow furrowed. "I don't know. You skipped town, Stefan!" she cried out in desperation and put the long-sleeved cloth on her.
"Well well well. Isn't this nice and cosy?" A casual voice echoed inside the room. Elena's eyes shot to meet the piercing blue eyes and she stopped, frozen in place.
"Damon."
Damon knit his brows together in confusion when he picked up on the increase of her blood pressure, her hurriedly put on clothes and her obvious space between her and his baby bro.
"What did you do to her, dear brother?" He asked with a smirk, casually leaning on the door frame. Well well well. If the happy couple was already having troubles, it would all be just too fun to see.
"Elena? What's going on?" Stefan was starting to get out of the bed and carefully reaching out for her but she didn't let him come too close.
"Wha-what's going on?" Elena turned to look at him in disbelief. "God, Stefan, how can you even say that now?" She paced about inside the room, her hand on her forehead. "I can't believe this's happening to me. I… I wouldn't let this happen." She said in a firm resolve. She was a mess inside but she forced herself to believe in what she knew was true. And her waking up in Stefan's bed wasn't one of those things. Not anymore.
"Elena, what're you talking about?" Stefan was seriously concerned now and he only wanted to make Elena relax but each time he approached her, she took a step away.
"Well, I'm sorry to interrupt your lovers drama, but we've got no time to waste. We've lots to do, now that we're all friends and working toward a common goal," Damon finished sarcastically. Stefan turned towards Elena to gauge her reaction but her eyes were firmly locked to Damon's, looking as if it was hard for her to understand what was Damon going on about.
She was looking so intensely at him that Damon almost couldn't breathe at one moment. She never looked at him that way. What exactly was going on? And if today wasn't the day he waited most for over a hundred of years, he might have stopped to ponder over that fact. But he had more important things to attend now. So he pushed himself away from the door frame and went inside the room.
"So, in order to open the tomb, we need to find the journal to get the grimoire to undo the spells." He put his hands in an all-business manner, pointing at Elena. "First things first- since you're Elena Gilbert, you're on journal duty."
Elena shook her head as if her swirling thoughts could find the right place in her head. "Hold on. Tomb? What do you need it opened for?"
Damon looked at her with a non-impressed expression on his face. "Look, if it's one of your ways to back out of our plan to get the tomb opened, then forget it. That's not going to happen. Either we or I, am going to get her out."
"Her?" Elena asked when it hit her. The tomb. She raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "You mean Katherine?"
"Yes, Elena," Damon stressed her name out sarcastically. "Glad you remember that part."
Elena blinked a few times, her eyes widening and shrinking as she tried to make sense of all of this. "No no no. This's not making any sense. Why would we be trying to get Katherine out of the tomb, again?"
"I believe I have no idea what are you talking about, Elena. But the lucky day is today." He looked at her pointedly and she could feel her heart sink to her stomach. He looked so… aloof. So out of her reach. She hated each second of that.
"No, Damon, please. I know how this must look like." She gestured vaguely towards Stefan. "But believe me, nothing happened. It's true I don't know how I got here, but it just couldn't have happened." She tried a step toward him, but he stopped her in her tracks.
"Elena, I can assure you, that whatever business you take to into your love nest, I have no mind to care for. So, chop chop." He clapped his hands to indicate the urgency and started walking out of the room.
"Damon, wait."
Elena couldn't let him go like this. She tried to speed up over him but was stopped by a single step. Which she made. A single step. Instead of preventing him from going by blocking his path she was left standing with a single step made inside the room. Her eyes flew wide. Slowly she could feel dread take over her and when she tried to listen, to really listen around herself, she couldn't hear much. All she could hear was the increasing flow of her beating heart.
Her hand flew out towards her collarbone, sliding lower, past the heart-shaped necklace around her neck, to her chest where her heart was beating crazily inside. "No no no." She started shaking her head as her breathing became irregular. "This can't be happening."
Damon stopped in the middle of the threshold when she saw Elena acting strange. His brows furrowed as he took a step back inside the room. "What's wrong with her?" he asked, while Stefan was behaving even more lost than he was.
"Elena? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" He tried to reach her but she only pulled her shoulder back, trying to avoid contact with him. "No!"
Stefan froze into place. He didn't know what had he done to get this reaction out of her. Everything was perfect not even an hour ago. So what was going on now?
"No no, this can't be happening to me," she repeated while still on the verge of hyperventilating. "How's this even possible?"
Damon was not sure what came over him to try the idea out but for some reason he went for it. Trying a tentative step forward, he was met by a glare from his brother and stopped. (Not that his baby bro's glare was anything even remotely scary but he didn't want to spook Elena further.) Though, the next move of hers, he didn't anticipate.
When she lifted her eyes to meet his, unlike the wariness he usually saw in them, this time he saw her desperation and plea. Somewhere inside him he felt his heart constrict at her expression but he didn't let it show on the surface. But he did try another step forward, this time ignoring Stefan's warnings.
"What's not possible, Elena?" he asked softly, taking a few more steps forward. When he was close enough to feel her breath on him and she still didn't back away, he pushed his buttons and raised his hand to touch her on the forearm. For a second there, she stiffened, and he was cursing himself for somehow going along with this haze the whole situation created in his mind but then to his utter surprise, she immediately relaxed, closing her eyes.
He dared a side-way glance to his brother's direction and was unsurprisingly met by a clenched jaw. He would be lying if he said that he didn't do a little victory dance in his mind from seeing dear saint Stefan so helpless while his precious love was seeking comfort in him. Not in Stefan. But somehow that feeling didn't last long. The need to help Elena was proving to be stronger.
Focusing his attention back on Elena, he waited for her to get her breathing back.
"I don't know what's happening here," she breathed out finally.
"And what is happening here, Elena?" he countered her in a soft voice.
"This! You, me, Stefan. I fell asleep with you yesterday and today I wake up with Stefan and human again!"
"What?" Stefan's voice cracked at the word as he looked at Elena with a distraught expression.
"Wait, wait, hold on a moment!" Damon released Elena from his grip to make a pause gesture with his hand. "As much as I am pleased with the idea of you dreaming about me so intensely to not even different between reality and dreamland, what exactly do you mean "waking up human again"? What else you could be?"
"A vampire," Elena said in a firm voice, her eyes serious.
Damon only blinked a few times at her, but then he broke into a grin and let out a chuckle.
"Well, dear baby bro," he started casually and after reaching Stefan with a few steps patted him on the shoulder. "I gotta give it to you. Didn't expect you to be capable of messing with her head so much."
A frustrated huff, reached his ears. "I'm not delusional, Damon."
"'Course you're not." Damon turned a bit side-ways to give her a smirk. Then he spun around to face Stefan again, with a scandalous expression on his face. "Stefan! Have you been compelling her?"
Stefan's previous stunned face turned into rage. "How dare you say that?! You know I would never-"
"Yeh yeh," Damon brushed him off. "Then stop feeding her, whatever you're feeding her." He gestured casually towards Elena. "She's going into crazy mode," he whispered but it was enough for Elena to hear, and he was aware of that.
"I'm not feeding her anything strange, Damon," Stefan started again.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Damon apologized sarcastically. "Was it feeding from then?" He smirked at Stefan's warning glare.
Just when Stefan was ready to pounce Damon, and the vampire himself was having an amused predatory grin on his own face, Elena interrupted them with a loud shout. "Stop it! Both of you!"
Damon stopped his advance but was still facing his brother, his back on her.
Elena took a few deep breaths in. "I'm not going crazy," she started again with a serious expression on her face. "I don't know how I'm human or why you're somehow still looking for Katherine, of all people, but whatever this is? It's wrong. Because that's not what I went to sleep to. And I know I'm not crazy because how else would you explain me knowing about Stefan being a ripper and Augustine Society," she finished with one breath and was waiting patiently for their reactions.
She only had a second to register what had she just said. Augustine? How had she remembered that? And why was her summer just before her going to the freshman year in college felt more like a present than her and Damon being captured by Augustine. She didn't have long to ponder over that fact, because just as quickly, Damon spun around and sped over to her, taking her by the throat to the nearest wall. His eyes were wide open with a hint of unsealed pain underneath his rage. "How do you know about that?!"
"Damon!" Stefan tried to pull Damon away from her, but the older brother only pushed him aside with one hand, not breaking eye contact with Elena.
"Da…mon." She pushed on his hands, as his grip was incredibly tight on her. "Can't…brea…the."
Damon seemed to be oblivious to that, too much blinded by rage. "Damon!" Stefan shouted out. "Let her speak. You're crushing her! Please."
Damon was conflicted but he wanted answers so he dropped her on the ground and watched while she was getting her breathing back to normal.
"I let you go, so speak! How do you know about the Augustine?" His brows twitched in pain as he tried to suppress his emotions. "Are you working for them?" He almost chocked on his words, when his brain registered that what he asked may be very true and that the only person he came to even remotely start to believe in, was a cunning liar. And worst of them all. If they sent her to get him back to that place…
"No!" she shouted out, her eyes wide in disbelief. Her eyes didn't appear to be lying, but you can never know with those people.
"Who're the Augustine?" Stefan asked from the sidelines.
"Some place you didn't need to know about, dear baby bro, and still don't." Damon dismissed him while still in a lock-of-gazes with Elena.
"Why would you say that? How could you possibly believe that I would be working for them?" Elena asked him in a slightly hurt voice.
"I haven't told anyone about Augustine outside of that place. And by anyone, I mean anyone. So it's a bit hard to believe in a coincidence here."
"Ah." She closed her eyes, her forehead wrinkling. "That's because… I don't know how to say this." She opened her eyes and you could feel her frustration a mile away. "But this?" She gestured around the three of them. "Already happened for me. Years back."
Damon frowned. "What the hell are you babbling about?"
She took a deep breath in and turned her eyes towards him again. "I think I somehow traveled back in time."
"You did what?"
"I know about Augustine because… I was captured by them once in the future, with you, and you told me about them. About how you've been there for 5 years and how you switched your humanity switch off to get out of there. And about Enzo." She looked up at him tentatively and was met with a deathly glare of his. She swallowed, she couldn't help it, she wasn't used to seeing that kind of emotion from him directed at her.
"I know you didn't want to leave him. But you had no choice."
Damon's lip twitched in a sarcastic way. "This's all sweet and dandy, but that doesn't exactly put you out of the suspicion list."
She pressed her lips together and nodded. With gathered resolve, she pulled her fingers around the lock of her necklace and unclipped it, taking the accessory down. Damon's eyes widened a bit but he remained locked to the spot.
"Elena, don't!" Stefan said in a warning, but she ignored him and threw it towards the bed, then faced Damon head on. "Ask me if I'm lying now."
She knew that the last time she did this, Damon still had some trust in her, so he didn't compel her. But this time would be different. But this was still Damon… and even if it was his younger self, the more damaged self, she had to put faith in him.
Damon tilted his head to the side, watching her like a predator prey. "You know, this's a dangerous play you're playing. I can make you do anything." He smirked at her.
"I know." She didn't back out. "But I trust you. Even if you don't trust me."
His smile only grew. "Well then, you don't mind me checking if you're not on vervain, do you?" He pulled his face closer to her and she could feel his breath on her. Despite his obviously less than honorable intentions, she couldn't help leaning into him or breathing him in.
"No. You can check," she whispered breathlessly.
"Damon, if you hurt her-" Stefan tried again to push him aside but animal blood was proving to be no match for Damon's long-time human-diet.
"Thanks for the meal." He smirked as he took her hand in his and went for her wrist. She gasped as his sharp fangs pierced her skin. She fed from him before but he never did feed from her. The experience was something new for her. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew Stefan was still inside the room and was probably hurting to watch the scene play out so she didn't dare to look at him.
After a few sips he pulled away, a tad bit reluctantly, and his eyes seemed to hold something more conflicted than before.
He had her bare to the soul, for him to take her mind and somehow it made him reluctant to do so. But he had to. If she was working for Augustine… he had to know. He recollected himself and looked deep inside her eyes.
"You'll answer truthfully to me. Anything I may ask." His pupils dilated and her expression glazed. "I'll answer truthfully."
He swallowed, somehow hating seeing her like this. "Damon-" Stefan's warning voice echoed inside the room.
"She knows about you being a ripper, Stefan. She may not be what we think she is," he finished faintly.
"I don't believe that," Stefan argued.
"Well, let's find that out, shall we?" Damon asked casually and prepared himself for the question.
"How do you know about Stefan being a ripper?" He compelled her.
"A few years back, Stefan was back on the human blood," she said in monotone. "And he lost it. That's when you showed me his journal of his kills in 1920s and the list on the wall of the dead."
Stefan staggered back, like he was stabbed in the stomach. He couldn't believe he let her see this side of him. Damon looked at her just as surprised, but he pressed on. "How do you know about Augustine?"
"You told me. When we both were captured by them."
He swallowed. "And when was that?"
"2011."
Elena woke up in a warm embrace and smiled at the feeling. She pressed herself more tightly into his arms, wrapping her own around his. She felt content and safe and like she could stay like that forever.
"Good morning, sunshine," a silky voice reached from behind her as his arms tightened their hold on her.
She stiffened at once. Her heart started pounding recklessly inside her chest and she bolted upright to sit up. When she was confirmed with the fact whom she woke up with, half naked, no less (as she saw her appearance) she screamed. Just as quickly she jumped out of the bed, covering herself with her both hands.
"Wha-what did you do to me!?" she demanded in a shaky voice.
Damon narrowed his eyes as he propped himself on his elbow. "Well… I think we both quite remember what we did tonight but if you need a reminder…" He smirked at her and for some reason her heart skipped a beat at that. "But then again," he sighed and started sitting up. Her eyes widened when she saw his very much naked self and she quickly turned away, her face heating up.
"As much as I would love to show you all the things we were up to just a few hours ago, you have somewhere else to be." He smiled regretfully at her as he put his pants on. She was shocked to see tenderness in his expression but she quickly got a hold on herself. What did he do to her? Why was she even here?
When Damon noticed Elena's outraged expression he was quick to add. "It was your idea." He put his hands in the air. "So don't go complaining to me now for leaving all this." He gestured around himself. "In exchange for some college experience."
College? Her brows furrowed further and she only noticed him when Damon was already in the touchable zone of hers.
"Although." His arms came to rest on her hips. "I would be more than happy to change your mind." As his face was nearing her, she finally snapped out of it.
"Don't touch me!" She pushed him away harshly and surprisingly he staggered back. She blinked at that but then composed herself.
"Elena?" His uncertain voice didn't sway her. It didn't!
"What have you done to me, Damon? Where's Stefan?" She was bursting with rage now. "Oh god, you purposely did this to him, didn't you? Because you couldn't trust us enough so you had to be sure to ruin us before you got Katherine back."
Not that Elena was the most understandable person in the world, but now Damon was sure he had no idea what just happened to his girl. "Elena." He tried a step forward. "Could you tell me what's happening inside that beautiful head of yours, because I'm kind of lost here." He let out a nervous chuckle, as he watched her.
"It's true! Oh God, it all makes sense now. Why you even agreed with us in the first place." She was breathing heavily and she put her hand on her collarbone from nervousness only to be met by nothing. She froze. "Oh my God." She took a step backwards as her eyes widened in horror. "You…you compelled me." Her voice cracked at the realization. Damon's eyes narrowed as he watched Elena getting more and more into panic mode. "Just like what you did to Caroline." She shook her head at the thought of how her life was now ruined by one psychotic vampire.
Damon sped over to her, not being able to take this madness anymore. She screamed when she thought what he might do to her. "Elena. Elena!" He shook her by her shoulders and she was just shaking her head with her eyes closed.
"No no, let me go, let me go!" she cried out and pushed her hands towards his chest with all the force she had. She heard a loud crash and a groan echo from the other side of the room and when she dared to open her eyes, she saw Damon lying on the bits of pieces of the drawer.
Her eyes widened and she looked at her trembling hands. What was going on?
"Dammit, Elena," Damon cursed as he got up. She tried to flee the room but Damon was faster and serious now so, he trapped her between his hands with her back towards him. She was trembling like a leaf and he had no damn idea what the hell was going on. But he sure as hell was going to find out.
"Elena, talk to me. What's going on?"
"I'm not going to let you compel me again, Damon! I'm going to find Stefan and he's going to put you down."
"Do you care to tell me why you think you're still with Stefan?"
"Still?" She turned around, outraged by his question. Only then she realized that it might have been a mistake to do because she was now in a very close proximity of the most beautiful blue eyes.
"And compel?" Damon frowned at her. "Elena, no one is compelling you. You're a vampire now, remember?" he asked with a nervous smile on his face. He looked concerned if anything.
"A… vampire?" She blinked, not being able to believe what she was hearing.
"Elena, baby, honestly, what's going on with you? Why're you looking at me like I'm some kind of psychotic killer who compelled you to be here and taking the whole you being a vampire thing like it's a new thing? Much less, why in the hell would you bring that traitorous bitch in the conversation?"
"Traitorous bitch..?"
"Katherine, yes, or have you forgotten all her pleasant gifts of the years you got to know her?"
"Years?" She cried out in disbelief. "I haven't even met her once, Damon! We were going to get her out of the tomb today, remember?"
"What're you talking about? That was years back-!" But then something hit him. Her reaction to him, the things she said… It couldn't possibly be, right? But it would explain. "No." He shook his head as his face contracted in pain.
"W-what?" Elena's heart skipped a beat as she looked at his conflicted face.
"Please… please tell me the last thing you remember is not us trying to get Katherine out of the tomb," he pleaded her with every fiber of his being. It couldn't be happening. Not now. Not when finally everything was right for them.
She looked up at him and he got what he feared most. "It is."
to be continued... (if you want me to)
