A/N: My first attempt at a Stefan/Elena fic. Very fluffy.
She's nearing the edge of the lake, where the hill evens out and the lights of the mansion are dimmed and distant, when she hears him call out for her.
Like she had hoped he wouldn't. Like she knew he would.
Swaying a little on the spot the rush of air is familiar at her back as he comes towards her, behind her, his hand barely grazing that dip of her back.
"Stef-please." She manages breathlessly because he can't do this to her, she couldn't keep walking away from him, he can't do this to her.
"Let me take you home, you're hurt and tired and I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you."
She turns, the best she can and meets his eyes in the darkness; those warm eyes holding hers and nods slowly, methodically. She felt dizzy, blinded almost and the strength to keep her weight up any longer was leaving her.
"Take me home." She whispers and his hands now around her waist, only tighten their grip on her.
This wasn't going to end well.
The drive is silent and quick and she watches him the entire time, in the privacy of the darkness. It had only been two days and she had desperately missed him. That he was usually the last person she talked to before she went to sleep, the first person she woke up hearing and that person in between everything else. Two days and she had cried herself to sleep through both of them.
She doesn't realize the car has stopped until he's opening her door and fiddling with her seatbelt. The blood from her back has seeped into the fabric of the car seat and she grimaces, her skin sticking.
He doesn't even ask, she needs his hand as he walks her to the door.
She can feel his guilt like it was radiating off him in waves and can do nothing but hold gently to his wrist in some way to tell him that it was okay. Words seemed too dangerous now.
He nods upstairs having unlocked the door and guides her as freely as he can, not wanting to hurt her pride until they've made it to her bedroom.
He peels his hand from hers and lingers by the doorway, sensing that it was where the line now was but she's having to drag her feet along the floorboards, one hand slung around her waist and when did they ever have a line anyway?
He helps her sit onto her bed.
"I'm so sorry for this. All of it."
She smiles only quietly as he gently turns her around, her butt finding the bed as her arms go around his shoulders, needing the support.
"You'll never stop doing that, will you?" She whispers, looking up at him.
"Doing what?" He asks softly, his face way too close.
They stare at one another until it's too much and she looks away; he knew what.
They end up somehow, with her sitting in-between his legs against the bed and he helps her tug her blood stained shirt up and over, her head rolling to one side like she can't keep it upright.
She hears his intake of breath as he sees her back closer, her white camisole still covering her skin and his face falls forward without him meaning to, his nose brushing the tip of her shoulder.
"So much you have to bear." He whispers, kissing her there before he can stop.
Her breathing is staggered, uneasy, her brain and her heart reacting in opposite contracting ways and she reaches back for his hands and tugs them around her waist because she had missed him, missed them and it felt so effortless and familiar and everything that she needed...but why was it suddenly so hard to breathe?
For you, she wants to whisper but can't.
And he holds her in a way that will make walking away from him, ever again, impossible. Even if she needs it, needs to feel like she's got two feet firmly on the ground without anyone else having to hold her there. But still, there's that voice, that knowing feeling she has that tells her without him, there wasn't any ground at all.
She doesn't know what's worse.
"Help me change." She croaks and drops his hands suddenly, shuffling her way slowly off the bed. She just needed the space, the room, the breath back into her lungs. She couldn't feel her heart anymore; she was numb.
He creases his eyebrows, watching her stumble up and out of bed.
She doesn't wait for him and begins to pull her camisole off. He needs to shut his eyes, the point of impact against her back is fading but a dark, nasty looking bruise lingers and it's too much to look at; her naked skin and the place where she hurt.
"Help me." She mumbles and he's opening his eyes, crawling off that bed before he can stop and think about the repercussions of any of this.
"What if we went away?" He finds himself asking her suddenly, his fingers finding the skin of her belly, his nose finding the curve of her neck.
She stops moving almost instantly and pushes his hands away to turn and look at him, their stomachs grazing.
"You don't understand it, do you?" She asks quietly and isn't surprised to see that his eyes have gone wide, his jaw tense but he hesitates for half a second and it fades because hiding anything from her now was impossible.
"I do, I do understand but there's this part of me, this selfish part that keeps screaming at me not to because I can't do this without you, Elena. I'm the selfish one who needs you, I'm the selfish one who doesn't want to think about anything else, any of it, doesn't care. I'm the selfish one who needs you."
She begins to shake her head, feeling the catch in her throat. She wasn't stable enough to have this conversation, to hear this conversation but she couldn't let this go, needing him to just understand her.
"I can't breathe," She replies hopelessly but he's coming forward, their foreheads meeting together and he kisses her as gently as he ever has, as gently as he possibly could and she can feel the expansion of her lungs already.
"We'll have time," He starts, leaning back, their foreheads pressed tightly together, "However long as you need but I need tonight, give us tonight." It catches in his throat and he needs a minute before he can open his eyes again but then her hands are there, cupping his face.
"Okay," She breathes, not quite there yet, not quite ready to give this up, thumbing his hair back behind his ears.
"It'll make it harder." He tries but he's already against her collarbone, inhaling her in.
Her eyes roll to the back of her head, "I don't care."
Her fingers, always quicker than his when it came to stuff like this, fiddle for a few seconds with his shirt until it slips off, leaving all skin.
His fingers slide up and under her camisole, to circle the indent of her skin, still healing and his lips go from the edge of her earlobe to the underside of her chin and she moans so deeply, she's afraid she'll lose the ability to stand.
"Bed." He manages as she lets out this sound that gets him somewhere in his throat and he sucks at her skin.
But she's backing them up with better ideas, her hands leaving his chest to twist the handle of the bathroom door then reaching around his neck to pull him closer, kissing him.
"The shower." She whispers and gasps as he moans, long and deep into her chin.
They stumble their way backwards, their kisses growing hungry, needy and desperate and he has her against the door, the lights still off, his lips finding that spot somewhere along her neck that makes her back arch into his navel and she wraps one leg around his knee, needing leverage.
He leaves her mouth to kiss down her chest and she props her head up, panting breathlessly up into the ceiling.
Both of their pants are still on and they hadn't even made it to the shower yet but he thinks he might have to have her, right where they were, right then, her low moan in his ear making it impossible to see for a second.
She must have the same idea as he does (always the same with them) because she fiddles quickly with his zipper and kicks his pants down, clawing her hands down his chest to bring him closer, their mouths open against one another's.
Clothes just seem to fall right off after that, a pile in the corner and he finds another wall, turning them quickly around, panting breathlessly as they break away for a moment.
He traces his fingers along her side, staring into her darkening eyes.
"I missed you." He whispers and feels like he needs to repeat it, again and again and again.
Her moan is against his face as they grow closer, their noses pressed together.
"How much," She starts halfheartedly because she knows, how she knew, "Show me."
He cups her face, gently pulling her head off the wall and kisses her, opening her mouth, sliding his tongue from the top to the bottom.
She watches him, the whole time as they break away, part barely and he takes both hands down around her back, her legs spreading, knowing what he wanted and he lifts her up easily, cupping her butt with both hands.
They're against the wall of the shower before she can breathe again and she slides her legs more securely across his waist, locking her feet, letting her head roll back when his teeth and tongue find a nipple.
She groans with his tongue, scratching his back, along his shoulder blades. She thinks briefly about where the faucets are but then he's moving to her other breast and she could care less about whether the hell there was water or not.
"God, Stefan." She breathes, his tongue sliding back up to her lips.
The sudden spray of cold water makes her squeal, hitting just below her head but it's almost a relief, her skin so matted with sweat, blood still and her body marked with his hands that burned the skin they left.
He fixes it while keeping hold of her somehow, bending his arm in a way that shouldn't be bent for anybody else and she finds herself giggling against his cheek, her fingers playing with his ear.
"What?" He asks against her face and she hears the smile in his voice and lets the water wash over them, not needing to answer.
It gets a little messy after that. The water makes it more difficult for her feet to maintain their grip around his waist but he just presses against her harder, making her cry out and why the hell hadn't they tried to do it in the shower sooner? He sucks at her cheeks, her collarbone and she rocks against him, getting restless.
"Easy, sweetheart." She hears him say and she bites down on his ear lobe on a grin.
"There's no such thing." She tells him lowly, thrusting against him the best she can with her hips against his, the water making it almost impossible to hear but his ears hear it, loud and clear and he groans against her skin.
He rests his forehead against hers and together they watch as he manoeuvres her up carefully against the wall in order to push into her more easily. He does it slow and carefully and if he weren't holding her like he was, she would've slipped right off the wall.
She rubs her heel into the base of his spine and moves to find the right place, taking both arms around his shoulders; she can hear the way his breathing has slowed down and knows that it must be killing him.
"Please, Stefan, I need you," She begs, now holding his head, her forehead still against his and with both hands on her hips, he begins to move them, slow at first until they get into that rhythm, and she holds him even tighter, closer, letting each trust of his body into hers hit her in places that come alive.
He bites down on the choked moan pushing against his lips and digs his face into her shoulder instead, kissing her when he could but when she angles her hips in a way that makes him hit her just right, he bites out her name in a grunt.
She moans, clawing at his back as his paces quickens and her back is coming straight off the wall he's hitting her so hard. She's clutching his face, kissing his eyelids sloppily with her lips when she cries out as he hits that spot again and lets her head fall right back as he shudders and falls apart against her, leaving no room for air between them.
They stay like that for a moment, not wanting to move, their panting echoing around the room but her foot slips of it's own accord, almost hitting the lip of the tub and he's got her, wrapping his arms around her, the shower still going.
He leans back and watches her, loving the way she looked right after with her eyelids fluttering a little still, her mouth barely open and her chest moving slow and quietly, her face aglow.
He kisses her again as she slides her arms around his neck, moving off the wall to stand below the showerhead.
"We should've done that sooner." She says as they break away and bends her neck for her face to receive the stream of water.
"I'm not the one who turned the offer down the first time."
She laughs and punches his arm and he catches her hand, moving down to encircle her waist, laughing too.
They don't stay in the shower for much longer. He turns her around to check her back and the skin has healed completely, same with the side of her arm and he kisses each spot before switching both faucets off.
He grabs a towel and wraps it around her, helping her over the threshold of the shower; the ground was wet and slippery with water and the last thing they needed was anyone (her) getting hurt again, at least for awhile.
"Gonna change." She mumbles, tugging the towel around her tighter and nodding to her bedroom. He looks at her carefully for a moment before he kisses her forehead, watching her duck through the doorway.
They both change in separate rooms, the distance already feeling like miles and he tries desperately hard to ignore that growing ache right at the base of his throat; the high was already over.
She's sitting on the side of her bed, not looking at him when he knocks and enters and he shuts it behind him to lean against.
"I forgot that it was just us." She says suddenly and flicks her eyes to him, "Through all this, it's meant to be just us. I'm not with you because you make me feel safe, I'm with you because I love you."
"Your family…needs you and you need to be with them and nothing else, for just a little while." He replies, feeling like he wanted to throw something against the wall; himself maybe.
She nods, already in tears as he comes forward, slowly around the bed
"I'm not going anywhere and neither are you, it's just temporary." He replies quietly, sounding like he was carrying too much weight, like speaking was getting to be too much.
Then why does it feel like forever, she wanted to ask him but she just nods and shuts her eyes as his hands tuck her hair, still wet behind her ears, coming down to cup her face.
"Just us." He whispers and kisses her forehead as she reaches for his hands, encircling both of his wrists.
"I love you." She says and he nods, tears in his eyes too and he comes down, privately against her ear and whispers, I love you too.
He lets her go, drops her hands, her fingers, her face and turns without another word and he's gone after another blink.
She tries hard to stop crying but standing from her bed, shutting her bedroom door and turning off the lights, her tears are all she can feel on her face.
But she sleeps with his voice echoing around her, wrapping around her body like that protective layering, just us.