Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries and all its characters are not in any way mine, they are owned by LJ Smith and the channel CW. The only thing I own is this particular future of these characters in this story, and I don't get money for that either so even that is questionable to say the least.
AN: The story is part of my "Rest of Their Lives" series. It begins with the moment where Elena pulls the dagger out of Elijah's chest and soon what happened in the show next is changed in places to fit my idea. Alternate choices by these characters lead to different consequences, but everything we learned about the past in the first two seasons still holds true.
AN2: I wrote this because I wanted to see an Elejah story where Elena is the first one to fall in love and so fights for Elijah's heart not the other way around. I don't think I've seen that kind of story out there yet.
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O0o0O Rest of Their Lives O0o0O
O0o0O Other Side of Unrequited O0o0O
"It was weird to see Elena stepping in my shoes and falling for the one person she could never hope to receive the same feelings from. But like I wouldn't have listened in what she might have said neither did she. And then her unrequited love ended on a happier note than mine and Matt's, how typically 'Elena' of her. If I had witnessed this in my human days I would have been secretly bitter, now I have learned just how exhausting her life can be and am only happy for her… well mostly." – Caroline.
O0o0O
After Elena killed Elijah she never visited him in the cellar that acted as his tomb. She did sometimes miss his quiet, imposing presence and she definitely felt some guilt over breaking her word, but she didn't allow herself the closure looking at him might bring. It had nothing to do with her being afraid to be near him even while he was for all intents and purposes dead and unable to harm her, she was braver than that and so it would make little sense to feel that way. The truth was that a small part of her wanted to pull the dagger out of his heart, and while she resisted the impulse because of the danger the Original might bring to her friends and family after her betrayal, a bigger part knew that sooner or later she would either give in or something would happen and she would need his help. For those reasons she knew that she couldn't be caught anywhere near Elijah before he was awake if she didn't want the cellar door locked and the key permanently around Damon's neck.
The moment Elena finds out Bonnie's intention to die trying to kill Klaus she knows she will wake the only other being capable of killing the malicious Original seeking the breaking of the curse and her death. She watches what she believes is her best friend's death and later finds out that even though Bonnie is still alive she stupidly has no intention to keep herself that way. Elena doesn't hesitate in her carefully silent steps towards Elijah's body.
O0o0O
Elijah had at some point in his life been in love with Katerina Petrova, as far as she knows he might still love her. And for some reason between all the shocks brought to her that day that one is still the biggest, especially because she finds she really doesn't like that piece of knowledge.
If it wasn't for her love towards Stefan she might admit to herself that Elijah could very well be her ideal other half. He has all the qualities she admires in people, he even invokes all the signs her mother used to describe when speaking about her father and quite simply he is too unforgettable to be ignored. But she does love Stefan so there is absolutely no point in thinking about it.
Still, Elena is well aware that she had broken up with Matt because of the lack of fire that relationship brought. She had loved him, he is one of her oldest friends so it was impossible not to love Matt, but thinking about him has never increased the temp of her heartbeat. Grief over her parents' deaths might have been used as an excuse, but she now knows that she would have ended things with him at some point anyway.
And with Stefan there is that spark she missed with her first boyfriend, when she's near him she can feel the heat and her heart doesn't fail to miss a beat when he tells her that he loves her. But despite that the further parts of her mind, the parts she does everything to ignore whisper about how it is all smoke and mirrors and how Stefan is like the knight in shining armor from a Disney version of a fairytale. If Elena had allowed her heart free speech it could have told her how almost superficial their perfect relationship might be, after all she has always secretly hated the damsels in distress.
Finally if she has to think about any of them, she might as well be honest about Damon too. Now with him she is mostly correct about, she really doesn't love him the way Damon wants her to do so. The desire is there, she can even admit it to herself now - despite how it always makes her feel as if she really is a second Katherine, - and she cares about his feelings, but that is all it is. Fire is all necessary and everything, but between her and him, it is all they have. It always feels as if she is extremely attracted to a dear friend. If she ever gifts that heat with control over her the fire will consume her whole and leave only ash, the more time she spends with him the clearer that becomes. She recognizes just how much cruelty Damon awakens in her, even being alone with him makes her more heartless and in his presence she never likes herself that much. She can't turn into another Petrova that destroys the love between brothers.
And sometimes when her thoughts aren't under her control she thinks that Elijah could be everything. It feels as if he gives the best of all three other men and then adds something that is his own, something even more than she can imagine or dream up. She had felt that sought after fire the first moment she met his gaze, even if it was hiding behind the terror of that moment. And then she learned how hearing her name on his lips somehow manages to hurt her heart in the best ways possible, and breath sticks in her throat when he smiles in amusement at her daring, and then there is the dizziness that overtakes her when he steps a bit too close. What surprises her is how after he speaks about his past with her she feels the small, but stubborn trace of something that tastes of friendship, but isn't quite that. And ultimately she has never met someone that was a challenge, boys have always been easy for her she understood them, but Elijah – who really can't be called a boy in any sense, - is a mystery. And something has always lured her to unravel those.
If it wasn't for her love towards Stefan, she might have considered that hearing about Elijah's feelings for the first doppelganger has brought out jealousy. But she loves Stefan, so however similar the pang in her chest might seem to be it is something else entirely. Jealousy and Elijah don't even occupy the same century.
O0o0O
"There is another way." Suddenly Damon is in front of Elena again and she is confronted with the frighteningly familiar expression he always wears before doing something rash that will hurt her a second later. The last time Elena saw that level of desperation in his eyes he broke her brother's neck. Despite the alarm bells ringing in her ears she manages to send towards him a sad look for his unwillingness to once again accept her choice in placing trust with Elijah.
"What do you…" and then she sees the veins spreading across the face that looks more demonic with every slow coming moment, she knows what he is planning to do there is no need to finish the sentence. He proves her thoughts correct once his teeth sinks into the skin of his wrist, suddenly for the first time in months she's afraid of him again. "Damon. No!"
"Damon, NO!"
His bleeding wrist is just touching her skin when Damon is already being flung across the room and Elena is looking at the impeccably dressed back of Elijah. She has never felt more gratefulness for his protection than she does at just that moment. She moves her own hand to her face and much quicker than she would have expected from her human reflexes the crimson essence that promised eternal life is being wiped off her lips. She might yet choose to become a vampire, she isn't sure she ever wants to be one, but even then that choice should rest only with her alone. She would really rather die that very evening than start what might become a damned existence because Damon has trust issues.
O0o0O
Being led to the still and dead form of her biological father should cause a reaction, but at first she just rolls her eyes. And then she realizes that he is missing the ring she knows should be adorning his left hand. Then the expected scream really is torn from her throat, Elena might like to pretend that she hates John, but he is family and she can't bear to lose another member of it. By the time Greta's words have sunken in Elena is already sobbing, knowing that he would wake even if as a vampire should help, but it doesn't.
As predicted John doesn't react too well to his transitioning position. She knows that for as long as Elena will live she'll remember the look of disgust that crosses John's face once he realizes why he feels hunger. It is the first and as she'll soon learn last moment Elena feels true sympathy for him, the fact that she might have actually grown to love him as a father in a future that will never come to pass will haunt her nightmares from that moment on.
O0o0O
The ritual is even more excruciating than she had expected. As she stands in the middle of the black circle near the two bloody corpses and grows weak in the arms of Klaus the only thing Elena can think about is exactly how much being fed on by a sadistic vampire slash werewolf hurts.
He doesn't try to be gentle the way Stefan can be, it's even worse than the time Stefan had been almost rabid while first feeding from her. It feels as if Klaus is thoroughly enjoying every single stab of pain he inflicts, she can feel him biting down harder when it becomes easier for her and draw the liquid life slower when it is more agonizing. He wants the pain and fear in her to last as long as possible. Elena can't help the tears that pore down her face, she knows how it feels to break an arm, how painful a stab wound is, but nothing could compare to the slow sensation of dying at the hands of an experienced torturer such as him. She doesn't want to give Klaus the satisfaction of her crying in agony, but in this case there really is no choice in the matter.
'Oh God it hurts. Please make it stop!'
As more blood leaves her body and enters that belonging to the ancient vampire her eyes close from exhaustion and her thoughts turn away from pain towards the brother of the man who is killing her. Some far away corner of her mind knows just how wrong it is that her last thoughts are going towards Elijah, but she's far too tired to care about what is or isn't appropriate. His smile, even when just in her imagination brings too much relief. Sometimes, especially after the death of her parents Elena wondered what would be the last thought going though her mind on the brink of her death, she couldn't remember thinking about anything except fear after the point where the car crashed into the river, but she knows that she would never have predicted that her last strands of thought would be about him.
Her memory dances around all the moments where she has seen him, been in his presence or even thought about him. She's hit by the details she hadn't noticed, or had carefully ignored, or forgotten as unimportant. Like the temp of her heart when she first caught sight of him, and the slight thrill of excitement when he leaned towards her, how her lips parted and the tremble that went down her back when he breathed in her scent. She feels once again the nervous energy of the time when he took her hand in greeting, how something in her stomach flipped, and how it had nothing to do with the fear of seeing him in her home. She feels the thrill she experienced when making their deal, she had never felt such power in something seemingly simple. And those few visits he indulged in when he made sure she was alive, well and keeping to her word. And his death, she feels his flesh parting for the path of the dagger she held and the single tear that escaped her at the time explained away as physical pain. And the hundred moments where she had to talk herself out of bringing him back, for no other reason than because it would have been so simple to do so. The long moments dragging for hours before he finally moved, how completely unafraid she was to touch the man she had killed. The sudden blow of jealousy that shook her entire being once he called her 'Katerina'. And the day that followed, where he in a few hours showed her more of himself than in all the previous months combined. And she is bombarded by the feelings breaking out of her heart every time he showed her the barest hint of a smile. Finally Elena's chest constricts with the effort it takes to acquire yet another breath, it hurts, everything in her hurts, her heart is slowing and the veins in her body cry out for the blood that wasn't even there and all she wants is just one more moment of life. She needs for Elijah to know that she loves him, she can't have realized the changes in her heart just to die without speaking them out loud. God, she hopes his elixir works.
O0o0O
The first thing Elena feels when she regains consciousness is the featherlike softness of the covers that have kept her warm. But the first thought running across her mind is the name that had lulled her to what could have been eternal rest.
"Elijah." The name leaves her lips, but comes out as nothing more than a silent breath of air. Her voice isn't working properly the only thing she can do is cough uncontrollably to manage another inhale and once the arms of Stefan engulf her she is thankful for this inability. But then she opens her eyes and notices the third person occupying the room, the scrutinizing eyes lock hers in a trap, she pales at the realization of what seeing Caroline there means. Her blonde friend has always been the best at lip reading, she still remembers the games the three girls played when they were little and asked Care to tell them what parents and teachers were whispering about. For the first time Elena curses the fact that Caroline's grandmother is deaf and mischievous enough to teach a granddaughter how to read lips. Instead she sends towards her a pleading look that is returned by a raised eyebrow and slightly pursed lips she after years of close friendship instantly translates to mean 'I'm keeping quiet, but don't even think we won't talk about this'.
She swallows the nervousness and allows herself to calm in her boyfriends arms. The stress of the last days overtake her and she cries for everything she has lost as well as the guilt over being so relieved about being alive while somewhere her father lays dead.
O0o0O
The first time after the sacrifice and the death of Klaus she sees Elijah is in the distance at her father's funeral. He is standing leaning against an old oak tree observing them and most probably listening to the priest reading from a passage in the bible.
She's surprised to see that he doesn't leave through the whole burial. Once the last flower is placed on the grave and everyone starts to leave is when she moves away from the group of her friends and towards him. As always he's dressed in a suit that probably costs more than aunt Jenna earns in a year, and despite the occasion she can't help the attraction she feels when she stops three steps in front of him. She's certain he looks that good in her eyes not only because of the recent revelation concerning her feelings, he is after all very handsome in the eyes of any woman.
"What are you doing here?" Elena winces at the way her words might be viewed as an accusation and quickly corrects herself. "I mean I hadn't expected to see you at my unc… my father's funeral. You didn't even know each other."
"No. But as he became my brother's very last victim I thought it appropriate to attend."
"Oh." She keeps still for a moment for the first time since the making of their deal uncertain in his presence. Then a question that has bothered her since speaking with Bonnie jumps into her mind.
"Elijah? Can I ask you something?"
"I believe you will ask anyway, so certainly." He smirks a little and Elena has to stop herself from blushing. It was easier to be unimpressed by his smile before she knew that she loved him, despite that she manages not to show how much his lips turning upward affect her.
"Bonnie said that Klaus promised to lead you to your family, why did you still…"
"Why I still killed him?" Elijah interrupts and she nods. "Klaus lost all sense of honor a very long time ago, he would never have kept his word. I knew that, and now that I know my family isn't spread across the bottom of the seas I can find them. I do not need the lies of Klaus to bring them back. It might take me some time, but that is the one thing I have never had too little of."
"So you're leaving now?" She swallows the emotions trying to break free, she can't afford to show them yet. She might never be able to.
"Eventually." Elena can't help the smile that breaks across her face, the relief she feels at that word is immense. "I still have my part of our word to keep. You and your friends are still in danger, there are still vampires and werewolves out there that believe your death will break a curse that doesn't exist. Once the danger of that passes I will leave, do not worry Elena the hardest has past."
Elena ignores the pang his words invoke, he hasn't left yet and maybe if she plays her cards right he won't leave at all. Much can change in a few months after all, if she has learned anything since the appearance of Stefan and Damon it's that. Instead of dwelling on the thought of Elijah being gone from her life she shakes away the dreary thoughts and says what she meant to tell him when she first started to walk towards him.
"Thank you." Elena notices the confusion in his eyes and clarifies herself. "For keeping your word. For killing Klaus. For giving me the elixir. And for keeping my friends alive. You didn't have to do all of that to get your revenge, so thank you."
"It was my pleasure Elena. This has turned out to be the most interesting partnership." He extends his arm and she's suddenly reminded of their first official meeting at her house. She smiles and ignoring his invitation for a handshake wraps her own arms around him in the first hug he's probably experienced in a very long time.
"Friends don't shake hands Elijah, after everything I think you've earned to be mine."
O0o0O
Elena is both surprised and a bit uncomfortable to see Elijah laughing while talking with Caroline when she has come to her best friend's house to have the talk she had in the past few days been avoiding. This time she really isn't jealous, but there is a small possessive part of her that doesn't like the fact that the first time she's heard Elijah's laugh she isn't the person to inspire it. Despite the uncomfortable urge to interrupt she can't help to notice the breathy quality his laughter has, it certainly brings forth all the feelings she had been hiding from herself with a new force.
Learning that the ancient vampire she was in love with now was so thoroughly amused by the fact that Tyler obeyed Caroline while being in wolf form was somewhat of a relief, although when Caroline crosses her arms as an answer to her relaxing stance the relief vanishes pretty quickly.
When Elijah leaves Elena is silent for almost half an hour and it is a testament to Caroline's changed character when she doesn't fill it with her usual chitchat, instead she sits beside her in silence and allows her time to compose her thoughts. And then as if receiving a silent prompt Elena starts talking about everything she has felt since meeting Elijah. She talks about things she hasn't spoken aloud to anyone. She talks about how she isn't in love with Stefan anymore, but how she still loves him. She forces herself to admit that she does have feelings for Damon, but nowhere near as strong as she has or even had them for Stefan. And she talks about Elijah, the Original that has changed everything she believed she would feel.
In the end Caroline tells her only one thing, something she already knew herself, but what she needed to hear aloud from someone else.
"You have to break up with Stefan."
The only answer Elena gives is a wince followed by a reluctant nod, she doesn't think she can manage to say anything more. Luckily she finds she doesn't have to, the hug from one of her oldest friends is enough to assure her that eventually everything will be fine.
O0o0O
In the end it's the hardest part. It's one thing to admit that you love someone new to yourself or to one of your two best friends, but to admit it to your boyfriend who you still have feelings for and who you really don't want to hurt is terrible.
The worst of it is that he seems to accept it so calmly, if he had yelled and thrown something, or put his clenched fist through a wall it would be easier. But Stefan isn't doing any of that, he only looks at her with a broken expression and silently listens to her as she admits to her changed emotions. And she hates herself for doing this to him, even if it is the right thing to do.
"It's Damon isn't it?" Hearing him say it in that defeated voice almost breaks her ability to continue, and she's already crying. But at least here she isn't like Katherine at all. For a second she's glad she doesn't have to reply with a yes, because she knows that that one word would break the slowly mending relationship between the Salvatore brothers more permanently than anything else has before. And when she does reply it is almost kind to tell him he's wrong.
"No, I'm not in love with Damon." There she hesitates unsure if she should continue, not sure if knowing will make it worse for him. But Stefan deserves an answer so she gives an honest one. "It's Elijah."
Her words don't make Stefan's heart any less broken, but they mean that he still has a brother. She hasn't destroyed that at least.
She turns around to leave, but remembers the other thing that she has to do to make this breakup final in both their minds. She unclasps the necklace Stefan gave her at the very beginning and silently places it next to him before leaving.
O0o0O
"You are the most fearless human I've ever had the pleasure to meet Elena." When Elijah expresses the thought they are in the middle of one of their comfortable silences and so his voice startles her. A surprised blush colors her cheeks when his words penetrate her thoughts and she feels pleasure at his rare compliment.
"Really?" It's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to her and she's suddenly sure that if he had called her beautiful instead she would be nowhere near so flattered. Ever since she met Katherine she has started to inwardly wince every time someone compliments her looks. She's aware that by the world's standards she's pretty, has always known it, but now whenever someone calls her beautiful Elena's uncomfortably aware that this person would find Katherine just as much so. And for some it even means they were attracted to her doppelganger first. But hearing Elijah's words is more personal. She can't help to be touched, after all Elijah has met countless humans and he still sees something special within her alone.
For some moments Elijah just stares ahead contemplating Elena's question and probably translates her flushed appearance and pleased smile. Elena knows that the man in front of her very rarely fails to notice her reactions. Then his own lips curl into a barely present smile Elena has noticed to be directed only towards her and answers.
"Yes Elena."
O0o0O
Elena has gone into the habit of eating lunch with Elijah. It doesn't happen every day, but at least once a week she joins him at the corner table of his favorite café. It is still unusual to think about how vampires eat normal food, she remembers Stefan explaining how although for a vampire it's unnecessary it helps with the illusion of humanity as well as that the taste for food doesn't change just because of death.
She spends the time talking with him about everything imaginable. And she learns the things she hadn't known before, like how he hates Bach, but enjoys Mozart. How modern art is completely beyond him, but that Picasso really was brilliant, although truthfully unpleasant. About the countries he's been in and the people he's met there, how a very few of those have been unique enough to have left an impression. And she tells him about herself, the little dreams she has, like being a writer.
He's the most fascinating person she has ever met and the more time she spends in his presence the clearer that becomes. He isn't perfect, there really is coldness about him that will always be present, but neither is she and she loves him even more once she figures out that he unlike so many others doesn't see her as such.
And sometimes they don't talk at all. Those time's she might enjoy even more, she doesn't feel a pressure to fill the quiet with meaningless chatter, every word they share is important and Elena can't help to like that. Instead she thinks or observes his movements.
This afternoon she entertains her mind with an old habit that started out as a silly game between her, Caroline and Bonnie when they were twelve. Every boy they ever met was summed up in one word, they did it so often it stuck with her despite the years since then. Matt was sweet. Tyler's a jackass, although the word might not be so fair now that he's changed. Her now dead previous history teacher was a bastard. Stefan was caring. Damon's hot. Trevor was jittery. Klaus could never in her mind be anything but evil. But she had never before been able to choose a single word for Elijah. Elena found him to be too complex, but now as she watches his elegant movements the word strikes her. There's a grace to his every action, and she finds all of them alluring. But when Elena feels herself getting jealous over the cup of peppermint tea nearing his lips she knows she's completely lost. Elijah is sensual.
O0o0O
It took seven months from the time the Salvatore brothers first showed up in her hometown to the night of Klaus' death. Six months after that Elena was celebrating her nineteenth birthday and the friends she had thought would be there with her through everything had come visiting from different parts of the country instead of the few blocks Mystic Falls enclosed. Almost everyone had left the town they had grown up in after the calming of the chaos it had become.
The first one to leave had been Stefan, and she might have felt guilty about it if she wasn't so convinced he would find happiness with the person he joined in the trip. Although it might take some time before that relationship calmed enough to turn healthy.
The two other friends that left were a bit more predictable, after all everyone could see Tyler's growing need to learn about the past of his own species. And there was no way on earth Caroline would have let him out of her sight after the month he had disappeared to god knows where. Then there was the fact that Caroline was obviously falling for him and Elena was hardly surprised when they decided to leave.
She did turn a bit depressed when Bonnie got accepted into Harvard however. She was proud of her best friend of course, but leaving for the best university in America was still leaving. Despite that however she couldn't help the laughter that tore out of her when she found out Damon was set on following. The friendship that had bloomed after he saved Bonnie's life was the center of amusement for the rest of the group. While the two were completely oblivious she and anyone else with eyes knew that eventually they would either kill each other with bare hands or spontaneously start kissing in the middle of one of their arguments. Never before had Elena been so relieved to realize that a man was no longer in love with her.
The most shocking part for her was when Jeremy left the day after his own birthday, she was torn between feeling abandoned by her little brother and being relieved because he would no longer be in the town that had almost killed off her entire family. At least he had the sanity to still be in contact with her, otherwise she would probably have hunted him down and dragged him back by his ear. The thought had entered her mind regardless.
Elijah at least hasn't yet left, although lately she harbors the feeling it won't last much longer. The grapevine for supernatural beings has already been fed the truth about the true origins of the curse and about how the fatal effects of the sun and the binding power the moon possesses has very little to do with magic and much more to do with nature. And she knows Elijah is already looking through countless leads that could unite him with his family. Elena can practically feel the time she has with the man she still loves slipping though her fingertips. She hasn't said anything to him yet, and she knows that if she doesn't soon, she will lose the chance. But how does she tell a thousand year old vampire, that has seen everything that she has somehow fallen in love with him and she really doesn't think it's temporary?
O0o0O To Be Continued O0o0O
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AN3: I wrote this story as a one-shot, but it became a bit too long so I split it into two parts. I'll publish the second part tomorrow. I truly hope you liked this, it took forever to write, especially the parts that refused to write themselves ;)