Author's Note: So, to preface this, I really dislike where the show has been heading all season and I decided to do an AU version after Elena burns down her house and shuts off her humanity. I'm not sticking 100% to canon so please forgive any discrepancies.
It was a Tuesday when Stefan Salvatore saw Elena Gilbert walking arm in arm with Bonnie Bennett on their way to the Grill and he knew that the next day he would enroll in her high school just to be closer to her.
It was a Wednesday when Damon Salvatore kissed vampire Elena Gilbert and tried to pretend that he didn't miss the loss of light shining in her eyes.
It was a Thursday when Stefan Salvatore caught Elena Gilbert in his arms after the foolish girl threw herself from the top of the bleachers just to prove he still cared.
It was a Friday when Damon Salvatore breathed in Elena Gilbert's sweet scent, something even vampirism couldn't erase, nuzzled her neck, and then proceeded to spend the next five hours in bed with her.
It was a Saturday when Stefan Salvatore gave Elena Gilbert the small, silver locket containing vervain that he hoped would keep her safe from his brother's lecherous advances, and he knew that he would spend the rest of his lifetime loving her.
It was a Sunday when Damon Salvatore watched Elena Gilbert, the girl he loved, kiss Stefan Salvatore, the boy she loved.
It was a Monday when Stefan Salvatore gave Elena Gilbert the cure, pouring it down her throat while Damon Salvatore held her down, trying to prevent her thrashing from knocking the precious botle out of Stefan's hands.
When it was all over, they thought she might cry - the first real emotion she'd shown in months. Her eyes were squished up tight and her lower lip was wobbling and Stefan wanted to envelop her in his arms and kiss away every memory that was rushing through her, but he knew that that responsibility now belonged to his brother.
"Elena," Damon started to say, reaching towards her, regret heavy in his eyes.
She spun wildly away from him. Her movements were no longer elegant and poised, and her human imbalance kicked in, causing her to almost trip over her own feet in her hurry to get away.
Everything about her seemed so helpless and broken now, and Stefan marvelled not for the first time how remarkably fragile humans were, and none more so than Elena. Every ounce of false bravado and practiced coyness and undisguised malice was now wiped from her features, leaving behind a person he almost forgot he knew.
"Let me," Stefan said in a quiet undertone to his brother, moving cautiously towards Elena.
"What do you remember?" he asked softly.
Elena's heart was hammering and she could hear it in her own ears like the pounding of a thousand drums. Everything hurt and nothing hurt and she just wanted it to stop. She wasn't a vampire anymore, but things still seemed heightened. Stefan's face seemed more caring and concerned than normal, Damon's worried but still aloof stance to the side seemed more Damon than usual...and everything in the Boarding House looked sharper than usual.
"Sit down," Stefan urged, and he tried not to flinch when she thought he was going to touch her.
She sat gingerly, her face wan and drawn. "I remember everything," she said calmly, in a voice devoid of all emotion.
Damon's eyes flashed to Stefan's in alarm. Neither man was sure what they had expected, only that this wasn't it. There was happy Elena and there was sad Elena - the only Elena they'd known for the longest time - and there was vampire Elena - the worst version to date - and now there was this. This blank face, these empty, unseeing eyes.
"You're human now," Damon said, quite unnecessarily.
"Yes," she said faintly, like she almost couldn't believe it.
"Do you need anything?" Stefan asked, but Elena merely shook her head.
"Hungry?" Damon offered.
Again, Elena shook her head, but Stefan nodded to Damon anyway, and Damon exited the room, only to return a moment later with a glass of water and a half-empty bag of chips. Ignoring Stefan's disapproving look, Damon set it down by Elena, awkwardly reaching out to give her shoulder a comforting squeeze, but letting it drop half-way.
"It's your favorite flavor," Damon murmured, taking a seat next to Elena, leaving enough space so that she wouldn't feel crowded, but close enough so that he could be near her.
"I didn't..." Elena started to say, but then fell silent.
"What?" Damon prompted.
"I didn't know that this is what you meant." Her voice was small, like a frightened child's. "When you...I thought, I thought it would be blood."
"You're a human now, Elena," Stefan gently reminded her.
"You fixed me." She reached for the water and took a sip.
"No," Damon hastened to assure her. "You were never broken."
"Then why did you turn me back?"
Stefan and Damon exchanged a glance. "You were killing people, Elena," Stefan said, his eyebrows drawing together. "That wasn't you."
"Humans kill other humans all the time," she said in reply and with movements faster than he would have thought possible for a human, she flung the glass at the wall behind his head. It shattered into jagged pieces, the sharp shards scattering at their feet.
Immediately, Damon was on his feet, pulling her away from the mess.
"Can I go home?" she asked, moving out of his embrace without even looking at him. Her eyes were fixed firmly on Stefan's, waiting for a response.
What home? Stefan wanted to know. The one you burned down with your baby brother's corpse inside it?
"You can stay here," Damon said. "This is your home now." He wanted her to look at him, to see that he was still the guy for her and that she was the girl for him.
"Why?" Elena spoke to the ugly floral painting on the wall rather than her boyfriend. "Because I'm fucking you?"
"Because I love you," Damon said with more intensity than he'd intended, because the harshness in his voice made Elena look at him at long last. The light he'd hoped to see restored to her eyes wasn't there. They were undecipherable pools of brown, cold and distant, glazed over with an apathy that even Katherine had yet to master.
She stared at him like the words were foreign and reached down to pick up a shard of glass. Holding it in her palm, she closed her fist around it, not making a sound as her hand started to bleed. The glass must have been cutting cruelly into her skin, but her face betrayed no pain as she held Damon's shocked stare.
"That's enough," Stefan said, and quick as a flash, he'd reached Elena's side, grasped her hand and pried it open, plucking the glass from her skin.
"You're always saving me." Her free hand came up to cup Stefan's cheek, tracing her fingers wonderingly down the strong line of his jaw.
Damon's heart clenched, and judging by the way Stefan's entire body stilled, neither Salvatore was prepared for this unexpected tenderness.
"That's Stefan, knight in shining armor," Damon quipped. "I'll just get a dustpan for this."
As he walked away, he couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with him. Maybe it was sick to want Elena to feel every bit of excruciating guilt, relive every crack of every neck she ever snapped…but at least then she'd be feeling something. He didn't want this vapid doll, this…shadow of Elena. A remnant of the girl he loved, a remnant who lacked every perfection and flaw that made up Elena Gilbert. Annoying as human Elena could be, she was still Elena, and what he wouldn't give right now for her to take a swing at his face like she was so fond of, or to call him a psychopath, or to stare at him with that look that was half scowl, half pout.
Anything but this.