A/N: In order for this to make any sort of sense you'll need a very vague memory of late season 2, early season 3. When I say vague I mean vague.
Takes place in Stefan's Ripper absence in the summer before Elena's birthday and then an AU look at what could have happened had they chased after Stefan earlier and got caught despite warnings not to do so. Pretty AU in the reasons as to why Klaus has Stefan and as to why he even needs Elena's blood. The show formulates Stefan hiding Elena's life because Klaus believes Elena needs to be dead for his 'let's make a hybrid army family' plan to work. Then it's discovered her blood is the key so it's fortunate she's alive in a way. In this fic, that sort of applies. I think. Hope it's enjoyable anyhow.
Future chapters to be posted this week after some polishing.
xxxxx
The rain hit in spatters on the pavement below. Elena could just make out the sorrowful panging of piano keys downstairs. Damon must be playing again. It was a normal sight; the candles dripping wax dangerously onto the piano top; glass of something honey hued and pungent within his grasp; one hand trailing lazily over the keys.
"Do you ever play actual songs?" she'd asked one night.
He'd given her a look that read fuck off before wiggling his fingers and peering deeply into her eyes before delving into an intricate piece that left her mouth hanging open. He could certainly play; he just chose to make noise instead.
It was one of those nights where Elena and Alaric could either sit there in the huge lonely Salvatore Boarding House, or they could sit in the modestly sized memory-riddled Gilbert home staring at each other over a game of Scrabble. They usually chose to be wherever Damon wanted to be when Andie wasn't around. Sometimes Elena wasn't invited, other times they let her tag along. They didn't need to say it; she knew when she wasn't part of something.
This evening Ric had grabbed her wrist as she was heading towards the laundry room downstairs. From his lounging position on the living room couch he had asked her to drive him to the store. So she'd toed on some flip flops and looked at the clearance bins while he grabbed a few cases of beer.
He told her once they got to the main square to turn down the music and take a right. So, they ended up at Damon's. She was relieved to say the least. She wasn't up for drunken Scrabble where she ate too much ice cream and ended up sobbing over a picture of Stefan by the time Ric passed out.
Elena wasn't sure why or how she ended up in Stefan's room as the two men indulged in beer and some music from a time she didn't exist in the kitchen below. Maybe she just needed to say hello. He seemed so far away now. Just a memory. The bed was all unmade and she tried and failed at remembering if it was her that was with him in it last to leave the sheets such a tangled mess. Maybe.
When the piano ceased she sighed and decided to make her way down the stairs and into the large kitchen they'd started spending a lot more time in than before. When Stefan was around they rarely entered this room. She wasn't sure why it was the top pick now. Maybe because every other room held too many memories.
"Beer?" Damon asked as soon as she entered, kicking her flip flops off in the corner and sliding into the barstool next to Ric.
She shrugged. Drunk or not she still felt the void, they all did. Truth be told she usually pretended to keep up but she liked to be the sober one. They got a little ridiculous sometimes and she didn't trust her loose tongue. There were things better left buried. Things Damon kept trying to shovel at ever since they'd grown close over this shared loss of Stefan.
"It's a weekend," Ric reminded her. They pretended like he was a good parental unit during the week. Weekends were fair game when it came to underage drinking.
"Yeah, sure," she agreed, as if they all didn't know she'd accept anyway.
Damon opened the top for her, knowing she had a hard time with anything that wasn't a twist-top. He took a small sip out of it first before sliding it across the granite countertop with a hollow scrape. She waited until Damon's back was to her to take the first gulp. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of watching her dart her tongue out to taste what he left behind on the lip of the bottle. It was something she couldn't help and the drinking helped her to not dwell on the why.
She listened to the men talk as Damon finished up some dishes he'd let pile up over the past week; all drink glasses of course. Most were coated with the remnants of bourbon, but her eye caught a few with the unmistakable rim of crimson. She knew he'd been drinking more since Stefan was gone but she also knew he'd been taking in a lot more blood. He said it was because he wanted to be stronger for when he rescued Stefan, but Elena suspected he just liked the buzz. She'd seen the marks on Andie's neck and wrists. It was like he didn't even bother to heal her anymore.
Elena had been incredibly unsuccessful at filling the void Stefan left behind. It helped to be around Ric. It helped even more to be around Damon. Having them both was as close as she'd get.
Damon tossed a dish rag into the sink and turned towards them to raise his arms in a long noisy stretch, his back popping and shirt lifting above his low hanging jeans. Her eyes flicked towards the muscles pointing in a V and the patch of dark hair on his pale belly. Then there was that. The missing of that side to her relationship with Stefan; his taut body surging above hers. It didn't help that the elder Salvatore was…well, he was the way Damon was and always would be. She'd even caught herself watching Ric's biceps one day when he was working on her car and laughed out loud that she was that keyed up without Stefan around. Being a teenage girl had its downfalls. She'd just leave it at that.
Caroline told her that maybe she should be spending her time hanging with the girls; moral support and chocolate. Elena wished that were enough but she didn't know how to tell her it just wasn't. Being with these two men was the closest she had to feeling okay. They made her feel safe. They made her feel like she wasn't alone in this. She agreed to a birthday party next week, it seemed to ward Caroline off for the time being.
By the time Elena was done reflecting, she'd finished her beer and was feeling slightly tipsy. She tried to hide it of course because Damon and Ric were relentless when it came to her poor tolerance. They could drink and drink and drink and still be functioning. That's why she had to be careful and pretend. She wasn't being so careful tonight. Tonight felt different. There was a sort of desperation in the air; they'd gone too long without hearing from Stefan. They'd gone too long without any leads.
"Not tonight little lady, no long faces. Drink more. Be merry," Damon admonished, thrusting another beer into her hand that laid on the countertop.
He'd given up on the beer it seemed and was drinking straight from a stout bottle of whiskey. Stefan's whiskey. She propped her chin on her hand and watched Damon drink from it, his neck straining a little with each gulp. She knew just what it tasted of because Stefan had let it trickle from his mouth and into hers before. It had been erotic and playful; she missed that side of him. She watched Damon's lips, flush and full, as he swished a little of it around against his tongue.
Then Ric's hand was at her wrist again, pulling her out of the seat. She wondered briefly why he always took her by the wrist but never by the hand. She followed him down the hall, Damon not too far behind her, as they ended up in the library. Elena chose the arm chair that sat close to the couch, as she always did; Ric and Damon plopping heavily onto the dark leather cushions nearby. They sat closer than most men do but she liked that about them. They were comfortable with one another. There was a trust there that she both admired and grew jealous of. There was such a line between herself and Ric; he was her teacher and her guardian. To get close would be wrong in so many ways…but they were close. Maybe that's why even though he touched her…reached for her, it was by the wrist or a touch on the shoulder.
She loved watching them more than listening. To listen was a waste because their words were always there to take up space and time. She knew they talked differently when she wasn't around. She knew the atmosphere was affected by her presence. So she watched instead. They were like brothers in a way. Not like Stefan and Damon were brothers though; not tense and competitive and laced with such an impenetrable history . This was a brotherhood unmarred by past and present inflictions of pain. They worked together and never against one another. It was easy and it was something they seemingly slipped into after all was forgiven over Isobel.
It was hot and stuffy to her now that the alcohol ran thickly through her veins. She stood and took to cracking open all the windows, sighing into the cool summer breeze. The rain had subsided and left the air smelling damp and earthy.
Ric must have been just drunk enough and maybe a little nostalgic because of the way things flowed tonight; he took her by both hands and pulled her in front of the couch. He placed his long fingers at her hip and grasped her hand in his. She couldn't help but let out a laugh that Damon had often commented was the goofiest laugh he'd ever heard, when Ric danced her to some old scratchy tune on the record player.
Damon stood nearby, sipping at his drink and trying not to grin too big, but she still caught it over Ric's shoulder. With a pop and a few scratches, the song transitioned into something slower. It was something they'd never done before aside from quick hugs, but Ric drew her into his chest and she rested her cheek against the prominent muscles beneath his shirt. She closed her eyes and breathed him in; aftershave and damp sweat. A feeling of safety and warmth washed over her; he felt like the closest thing to home she had.
She opened her eyes for a moment to find that Damon had moved to the couch and was splayed back lazily, watching them with heavy lidded eyes. Maybe it was the closeness of Ric's body combined with the way Damon peered at her, but she felt herself grow warm in places she really shouldn't. Another reason why she tried to avoid drinking too much around them.
She closed her eyes again, hoping it would all just melt away but come the end of the song she just felt like the curtains that were billowing in the summer breeze; open and free. Why did it have to be so hard anyway? Why couldn't she climb into the spaces between these men and feel okay for a moment?
So she didn't return to her designated seat, she nestled between them on the couch, crossing her legs. Her toe nudged Damon's shin slightly when she moved to the beat of the next song. Each song made her think of a time long before she was born; black and white photos and clunky cars. They made her think of summer nights and long slow kisses.
She turned a little to face Ric, haphazardly pushing her bottom slightly into Damon's thigh, "I don't want there to be any more doppelgangers."
They were all quiet then. She had her reasons. She didn't know how to describe how it felt to learn you were just a copy. It felt damning in a way to be tied to so many things that she just didn't care to have a thing to do with. It felt strange and unsettling sometimes that she'd met and fallen in love with a Salvatore at all. Katherine had been with both of them. Both.
"Magic finds a way," Damon murmured behind her. She was dizzy so she let her forehead fall to Ric's shoulder.
"You okay?" Ric asked softly, his lips close to her hairline. She wondered why he hadn't moved on yet after Jenna. He really was a catch. She didn't let herself look at him like that but if she were to…well, he'd be somebody worth having. Too soon. Really too soon. That was all.
"She's fine, she just needs to get her mind off of the bad and on to the good," Damon replied for her, tugging her up with both hands on her shoulders.
She faced him then with a small smile, blinking up into those ice blue eyes.
"Want some water?" he asked.
She must seem pretty drunk as she'd never actually gotten this drunk in front of them before. But she had a pretty good handle on things. So long as she didn't get the spins and wasn't seeing double, she was fine.
"No, I'm okay," she whispered, biting her lip when his lips parted slightly.
He looked away so she did too. Her eyes trained on her bare toes until her vision became unfocused and time stretched too long. It was interrupted by a loud belch from the couch, causing Elena to startle and then let out a stream of laughter.
"You have the goobiest laugh," Damon said once again.
Elena nudged his feet with hers. "You always say that," she said softly.
"Doesn't mean I hate it," he replied in kind.
Then they were all silent as they took in what the night felt like. Lines were being touched on a little. There were clear boundaries that weren't so clear this particular night and she supposed nobody knew what to do or say next. Truth was, she liked touching and being close to both of them in these ways.
With that realization she stood quickly and took a few steps away, raking her hands through her hair. They were silent behind her, surely exchanging glances and speaking in all sorts of ways that she wasn't meant to see or understand. They were probably agreeing this had all gone too far and they should get her to bed.
She was right, of course. It was Ric who took her by the wrist and said softly, "Let's get you to bed."
He put her in Damon's bed of all places. She assumed it was because they figured she didn't like being in Stefan's. She wasn't tired but she played the part and let Ric pull the comforter over her body and click off the bedside lamp before whispering a goodnight.
She fiddled with her phone for a while, keeping herself awake. There was a curiosity that she needed to quench. She wanted to know who they were when she wasn't around.
It was nearly an hour of playing games and texting Bonnie that she finally crept as quietly as she could manage down the dark hall. She could smell the summer air leaking into the house from the parted windows climbing the stairs coolly. Damon was back at the piano, making random heavy notes into the night.
That meant they were in the living room now; even easier for her to spy.
She sat in the hallway midpoint, out of sight but within earshot of the men.
"This can't happen again," she heard Alaric state.
"Nothing happened," Damon replied with his usual nonchalance.
"Be careful with her. She's still a girl Damon," Ric went on.
Elena felt the air stop in her lungs. She wished the hall lights had been left off. It was too bright and she wanted to be as hidden as possible. She played with the red rug beneath her toes and listened for more.
Damon said nothing though and it led her to believe they'd talked about this before. Elena wasn't used to Damon keeping his mouth shut. He generally spat out anything he wanted to say. He was different with Alaric, he listened.
"He's not coming back Ric," Damon finally said.
The tears hit her without warning and without mercy. They trickled hot and stinging down the same path of her cheeks, collecting down her throat and soaking her shirt. She didn't want to hear more. She couldn't. So she crept back upstairs and straight into Stefan's room where she shed all her clothes except her panties, and pulled on his white tee and boxers, rolling them up a few times so that they sat as short as her cheer shorts. She hung her bra on his door handle like she always did before crawling into bed with him.
Her phone buzzed after a few minutes and she bit her lip when she saw it was Damon.
I know you're awake. I'll make you another drink. I'm sad too. Less sad around you
Drunken confessions of Damon Salvatore. She was down the stairs and entering the living room without a second thought.
They were both on the same couch, despite there being two. Damon held out his hand and pulled her between them again. They both eyed her change in clothing but neither said anything, though Damon breathed her in. Maybe he missed Stefan's scent too.
When Ric left the room to empty his bladder, Damon's hand fell on her bare thigh. He squeezed lightly and murmured, "I'm not giving up on him. I just don't think he can come back after the things he's done. Not until you're long gone."
Elena felt a spark of jealousy and disappointment that her life would expire while Damon's would go on and on, making it possible to see Stefan again. Anything was possible with immortality. She'd never thought about that. She'd never wanted it until now. The realization made her bury her face in her hands.
Damon pulled her into his side, her bent knees falling into his lap and her forehead burrowing into his neck. She felt his pulse, steady and sure. His scent mingled with Stefan's and once again it sparked something that shouldn't be touched right now.
She let her hands slide off of her face. She tucked one in a fist behind Damon's lower side; the other she tentatively placed on his chest. He ever so lightly ran his fingertips up and down the length of her arm, remaining still and wordless.
Ric ended up passing out on the other couch after he saw the two of them wrapped up in one another. He didn't say much, just looked at one, then the other. His eyes closed and he slipped into a deep sleep. They watched him for a while, breathing in time.
"Where do you want to sleep?" Damon whispered into her hair.
She was too relaxed to fight the shiver his words sent down her body. She trembled against him for a moment before whispering back, "Wherever."
So he took her to his room which should feel wrong but it didn't. It felt comforting. He peeled back the covers that she'd tried to lay neatly in place before so that she could slip inside. He covered her gently without looking into her eyes but she took in every line and sharp curve of his face. Stefan was striking, but Damon was…beautiful.
She watched him move around his room, playing out some routine he'd probably been doing for decades. He shed his clothing, keeping his boxers on, and folded his dirty clothes before disappearing with them into his closet. While he was out of sight she pulled off the boxers and flung them to the floor.
He noticed them there when he clicked off the lamps, kicking them further away and crawling over her to his side of the bed. She shouldn't be okay with this but it felt so comforting that she couldn't even begin to force herself out of the bed.
She had to laugh when Ric came stumbling in drunk and half asleep. She scooted to the middle, letting him take her place.
"This is fucked up, I'll be the one to say it," he mumbled.
"I've been in stranger situations," Damon yawned, his fingers finding their way into her hair. She let him run his fingers through her tangles, shivering each time they brushed against her scalp.
Ric continued, his speech slurred and barely comprehensible, "Hands to yourself Damon."
Damon chuckled breathily in her ear, "He'll keep mumbling things all night."
She wondered how often they slept near one another. She wondered more why it didn't strike her strange.
Elena turned on her side facing Ric, hands tucked under her cheek. She figured it was safer than facing Damon. Looking at Damon did things to her and to him. It was something they both knew but never talked much about…much like Isobel and Katherine and everything in between.
He continued to stroke her hair with a feather light touch. It was extremely lulling. Eventually his hand dropped and stilled somewhere close to her lower back.
"I keep thinking about what you said…about the things I felt while he was gone," Elena whispered.
"We don't have to cross those lines tonight Elena," he whispered back.
She rolled over, her breasts pushing into his hand that was resting against the mattress. He jerked away and closed his eyes briefly.
"I'm not crossing any lines. I'm just letting you know that…if he never comes back then we will move on. We will figure out how to be okay without him," she replied softly.
He sucked in a little breath and then slowly breathed out. His eyes flicked back and forth between hers for a long time. She wished she'd thought to part his French doors that led out to the balcony. She was starting to sweat between the two men's body heat.
"On a scale of one to ten, how drunk are you?" he asked with the faintest hint of a smile.
"Eleven," she joked with a grin.
"Can I tell you something that you hopefully won't remember in the morning?" he asked, nudging the tip of his nose into hers.
"I'll probably remember," she replied.
"Hm, best leave it alone then," he smiled slow and sweet.
Ric let out a long snore and Elena felt safe enough to drift to sleep.
Xxxx
The next time Elena and Ric popped over to see Damon was a few days before her birthday party. They were restless at home and with Jeremy darting off for the night, it was always more entertaining at the boarding house.
This time Ric told her just as he put the car in park, "Let's keep it to a three beer minimum tonight."
"What about liquor?" Elena asked with a teasing smile.
"One liquor drink, two beers," he replied, nodding towards Andie's car.
Elena shrugged and checked her phone again. Damon never did text her back when they stated they were on their way.
"Maybe you should go in first," Elena suggested.
"He's a vampire, he knows we're here already," Ric replied, waving his hand at her absently in response. They had grown used to this relationship Damon carried on with Andie. Elena had never seen him grow cruel with the extremely beautiful news woman but others had hinted towards it.
So they entered the home noisier than usual just in case, Ric calling out to Damon.
"We're in here," Andie called cheerfully.
They found the couple in the kitchen, Damon obviously drunk and Andie squirming in his arms. Elena's eyes narrowed when she saw the blood on Damon's lips, his teeth stained crimson as he flashed her a brief smile.
"Should we go?" Ric asked slowly, standing a little too closely to Elena.
"No, I was just leaving. I have work, remember Damon?" Andie laughed playfully, as if her neck wasn't dripping with blood.
He took her by the chin and peered into her eyes, "Go clean up in the bathroom," and nipped at her nose.
Elena pursed her lips when he reached out to slap Andie's ass while holding Elena's gaze. Something flicked inside her chest so she moved to follow Andie down the hall as soon as Ric tore Damon's attention elsewhere.
"Oh, hello Elena," Andie smiled into the mirror as Elena entered Damon's bathroom.
"Are you okay?" Elena asked, wincing at the bite marks Andie dabbed at with a wash cloth.
Andie just rolled her eyes and chuckled, "Yeah, he's been upping the blood since Stefan…you know."
"Yeah…" Elena murmured.
She jumped when Damon appeared in the mirror behind them. He placed his hands on Elena's shoulders and murmured, "Girl talk?"
Andie spun around and smiled brightly, leaning over Elena to kiss Damon firmly on the lips, "Exactly! Bye, I'll call you later."
When it was just the two of them and a trail of Andie's perfume, Elena finally let out a breath and stared at his reflection in the mirror. Of all the thoughts to cross her mind, it was that their dark hair and piercing gazes matched in intensity in this moment…for a moment she let the thought pass through her; they looked good together. Dark and precarious.
He scared her sometimes, it was true. There was a side to him Stefan warned her about; a side that tiny voice in the back of her mind warned her about.
Without much thought she watched herself raise her hand to tentatively lay across one of his hands that grasped her shoulders.
"Damon?" she asked softly.
"Hm?" he replied, licking his lips as if to finally notice the crimson stains smeared across his mouth.
"Do you hurt her?" she asked a little louder. His fingers twitched under her palm.
"I have," he admitted, sliding his free hand down her arm to rest at her extended elbow.
Her heart thumped in response. She was half scared, half intrigued.
"Why?" she asked breathily.
"It's in my nature," he replied.
"Would you hurt me too?" she asked boldly.
He rested his chin on the top of her head, blue eyes glowingly trained on hers. His face looked different now. Softer. He never did answer, and she started regretting ever asking the longer they stared each other down.
"Elena?" Ric called from the hallway.
Elena stepped away from Damon, her skin growing cold in all the places he'd been against her.
The rest of the night went slow and uneventful. They sat in the library and listened to the distant rumble of thunder interrupt the record playing scratchily in the background of their silence. Elena had three beers and only spoke when Damon told her goodnight.
"Goodnight," she whispered, biting her lip when she felt his fingertips briefly touch at her lower back as she exited the front door.
In the car, Ric told her that after her party, it was probably best they took a break for a while from Damon.
"Why?" Elena asked, hiccupping on the fullness of her belly from the beer.
"He's not in a good place with the whole Stefan thing. It's better we give him some space," he replied firmly.
Elena knew that it didn't apply to him. She knew it was just her that should stay away.
Xxxxx
It could have been the rain. Something about the way it weighed down the air that summer night left Elena crumpled in front of the small rotating fan that used to sit in her parent's bedroom. Now it was hers. The sound helped her sleep somehow; the whooshing hum shushing the demons.
The house was silent but her phone was alive; buzzing hard against the wood floor near her bare toes. Caroline, Bonnie, Alaric, Jeremy, Damon. One after the other. But never Stefan.
"Just give me a minute," she whispered to the room, her hair brushing off her shoulders as the fan came back around to stare her down with a few seconds of strong gusts.
It was Alaric who finally got her to the boarding house where she immediately trudged up the stairs and straight into Stefan's room. Getting dressed was easy, accepting the necklace from Damon twisted her heart in a way that left her craving something unattainable; unrecognizable.
She stared at her glassy chocolate eyes as Damon clasped the necklace around her rigid neck. Who was this girl that floated in a world of Salvatores and Petrovas and death? When he looked at her like that, did he know how it burned like fire in her gut? Did he know how scared she was?
She was an adult now. Happy Birthday, you didn't die yet. Pretty impressive given she was meddling in a world of vampires and werewolves.
She'd made her rounds, wincing when something dark was spilled on the couch she and Stefan fucked on just a few months ago. Buzzed enough to bump back into Ric and Damon and slam back another drink after hearing the girls from her chem. class whisper that Stefan had broken up with her when he found out she'd slept with Mr. Saltzman. If they only knew…
The only thing to sober her up was the intricate map in Damon's closet and his face when she slapped him. As if the universe ticked by on cue, his phone buzzed and she watched him slowly pull it out, his cheek still red from the strike of her palm.
Stefan.
xxxxx
The old house looked unoccupied if it weren't for the wide open ornate doors and haunting music escaping down the dim entry hall. Damon muttered to her several times that something wasn't right. He told her but something kept her planted at his side. The dark pound of piano keys mingling with the scream of violins made Elena feel like she'd walked into a nightmare.
Elena fought the urge to grab onto Damon's arm that he held stiffly behind him in a position that was intended to tell her to stay. His fingers were splayed out stiffly as if on standby to push her back. There was fear and then it was gone; replaced by a thick blanket of cold regret and denial. Blood. It was streaking the floor as if someone was badly injured and…crawled down the long and narrow hall.
"Damon?" she whispered, her mouth feeling as if it were made of cotton.
The look on his face when he paused to glance back at her caused her gut to pinch. He opened his mouth to say something; surely to convince her to run back to the car. But then a faint voice carried in the sharp cold air.
Elena's heart sank. It had to be Andie.
Something reached Damon's ears that didn't carry to her own. She watched his face fall and his eyes squeeze shut, then recover in a matter of seconds. She walked into his hand, his rigid fingers jabbing hard into her abdomen.
"Run," he whispered, pushing further into her skin.
Her muscles twitched under the single word, her body screaming for her to obey. Her mind halted any intentions when she saw him. Stefan.
He appeared at the end of the hall, taking a few steps and standing directly in the blood. His boots made a sticky sound as he shifted, his eyes boring into hers and then into Damon's. Elena watched the expression on Stefan's face range from surprise to anger to defeat. He probably didn't think his brother would have allowed Elena anywhere near this place and here she was.
Damon's hand finally dropped when it was apparent Stefan had no intention of letting them go. He was compelled no matter what he wanted beneath it all. Elena tried to avoid stepping in the blood as they approached the end of the hall as sluggish as the music that blasted through an old radio.
"Brother," Damon muttered when they reached the end.
Elena wanted to say something to him; touch him somehow. Warmth and colors drew her attention to the left.
It was as if the air was syphoned out of her lungs. A ringing was left in her ears and her brain struggled to keep up with what her senses rapidly delivered.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Damon's hand was crushing her wrist, yanking her back. She slid a little on the blood, falling into Stefan. God his skin was like ice. Andie hung lifeless, her throat slit and drenching the floor below. Elena had never seen so much blood in her life. It looked more like corn syrup and food coloring. This couldn't be real.
The violin sped up a little, as did Klaus's brushstrokes. His back was to them, taut and damp with sweat. He was humming merrily along with the tune as his arm swept wide and Elena noticed a brilliant crimson across the canvas. That's when she heard the sound Damon made.
Klaus glanced over his shoulder with a look of vacancy. Despite the mess all around him, his face appeared unmarred. Elena shrunk into Stefan's rigid side as a nefarious smile turned the Original's plump lips at the corners. He blinked slowly and turned back to his canvas, extending his paintbrush just so to dab at Andie's gaping neck. The sound her of blood spattering across the canvas barely concealed Damon's strangled protest. The coppery smell caused her throat to constrict and she audibly gagged, her palm slapping over her mouth to keep down the bourbon she'd had at her party.
Klaus's voice sounded out above the music, slow and deep, accent clipped and jeering. "It's called Fatuousness."
Elena swallowed hard, pushing slightly away from Stefan and further away from the doorway.
Klaus raised his paintbrush to dab Andie's lifeless lips red with her blood, "You've been studying for your SAT's haven't you Elena? Can you tell the class what fatuousness means?"
She couldn't find her voice; afraid if her lips merely parted she would scream or vomit. Her eyes tore away from Andie's pale face with her painted on lips to settle on Damon's clenched jaw and narrowed eyes. He looked to be turning something over in his mind. She knew this face. It was something that lived between deep thought and deep regret. His eyes stared back into hers but they were void of any recognition that he could even see her.
"It means being stupid. Just like the lot of you. Step forward," Klaus beckoned with a finger. Elena swallowed thickly and glanced at Stefan who stood motionless and austere.
She moved to take a step but Damon's grasp to her wrist was painfully hard. She froze and bit her lip, knowing her fear was thickly present to the vampires in the candle lit room. Elena flinched when Klaus flashed in front of them to snap Damon's arm with a flick of the wrist.
As Damon growled in pain Klaus probed his eyes and compelled, "You. Stay. Put."
The adrenalin was kicking in but so was the logical part of Elena's brain. She shouldn't have put them in this situation. Why did she insist on coming along when Stefan asked to meet Damon…alone. They were going to die at best…
Klaus sighed and put his hand under Elena's chin, but she held his gaze steadily, feeling an eerie calm wash over her. He tilted her face, this way and that, misleadingly gentle eyes roving over her soft features.
"What is it about this face that brings men down such a dreary path…" he pondered gently. The words dripped so gracefully from his articulate tongue. Thick like honey; syrupy blood running down his chin after tearing into her neck in the fire warmed woods. She shook her head of the memory.
Elena felt his other hand before she could react and when he pulled it away she noted her vervain necklace dangling from his fingers. He wiggled them a little before tossing her only protection to the floor. It clattered loudly in the otherwise still room. Damon, now healed after snapping his arm back into place with a grunt, stood still under compulsion while Stefan surveyed the situation with calculating eyes.
She knew it was coming when her eyes locked onto Klaus's. He could compel her to do anything in this moment and it should terrify her. She wasn't terrified though, not with Damon behind her and Stefan nearby. They wouldn't be able to save her but they were here. Two ancient marble statues standing guard; comforting rather than helpful.
"I am growing rather tired of you two trailing after us. More than that, I'm a little angered that you're still alive Elena. I don't like tricks. I think you need a little bit of closure. Perhaps Stefan too. So have on with it, go tell him goodbye," Klaus murmured.
Elena blinked several times before realizing what it was he said. Before he could say otherwise, Elena flew towards Stefan and grasped his face in both her hands. His eyes fell and his façade crumbled; but he didn't move even as she whispered apologies and kissed the sharp edges of his cheekbones.
"Enough. We have things to do; big boy business if you will," Klaus stated in a bored tone before turning to Damon, "Come forward; you too Elena."
Damon crossed his arms and eyed Elena warily as he stood before Klaus. Klaus smiled a little, folding his hands neatly at his abdomen. His eyes probed Damon's and Elena knew he was going to compel him a much worse fate. Dagger to the chest maybe. Burn under the sunlight while they watched him turn to ashes. Her heartbeat filled the room as it started to seemingly gallop out of her chest. She thought of horse and carriage and the days before she formed supernaturally inside her mother's womb.
Elena didn't move until Stefan nudged her gently but with firm hands away from him. She tried but failed to hear what he whispered as time seemed to expand and all she saw were Damon's ice blue eyes as the color seemed to drain out of his face. He was grayer than marble now. He looked like a corpse until he moved just so; a twitch of the brow and pulse of tendon along his neck.
Elena had to shake her head several times to comprehend what Klaus had just compelled Damon to do. It echoed around in her head like a ping pong ball let loose in an enclosed room.
"Every time you so much as think of coming after your brother, you will have your way with his girl. Just to be sure you all understand. You'll do it now in front of him."
Elena breathed out, "No," at the same time that Stefan stepped forward and exclaimed, "Fight it Damon."
"Sit down Stefan. What better way to prove your allegiance and ensure your brother stays away for good?" Klaus sighed, walking to retrieve the amber filled decanter.
He poured a drink and Elena was surprised when he walked over and stepped between her and Damon, blocking her view of him momentarily, "Here you go love, you'll be needing this. You're shaking like a leaf."
She grasped the glass and looked into it. Funny, she hadn't noticed but the whiskey quaked from the tremors her body was producing. She took it in two gulps, coughing at the last and nearly dropped the empty glass if it weren't for Damon reaching out to catch it. Her mouth tasted like burnt cedar.
Their eyes met briefly and Elena's heart sank. There was no way he was going to be able to fight this. All she saw was defeat and despair; cold granite behind dilated pupils. For a moment she forgot Stefan was just a mere few feet away, breathing heavily into the cold room. Elena hadn't realized how cold the old home had become. With no fire crackling in the fireplace behind them and the cool air from the drafty windows circling at her bare ankles, the tiny hairs throughout her body rose.
Damon set the glass down and filled it up, knocking it back. He did that several more times until Klaus sighed heavily, "On with it. Stefan and I have other engagements tonight."
Elena looked with wide eyes towards Stefan and croaked out, "Do something."
God… his face when she said it.
Yet, he did nothing. She knew deep down he was protecting her and his brother. He was going to sit there and watch his brother and his girlfriend and there was nothing she could say to change that.
So she turned to Klaus and asked as strongly as she could manage, "Just compel us to stay away. Compel me to forget who he is. I don't care, just not this. Don't do that to him."
She herself wasn't even sure which him she was referring to. Probably both.
Damon turned away from her then and Elena felt a touch of hope. He made it two steps and then he was in front of her, breathing hot air onto her face from flared nostrils. The alcohol smelled better on his breath than it tasted in all the crevices of her dry mouth. His eyes were squeezed shut and his jaw clenched and unclenched.
Elena's heart fell and she felt an anger boil up as Klaus stated, "He just doesn't have the will power to fight my compulsion, love. It's because deep down he would love to take you in front of Stefan. It's a brother thing, you wouldn't understand."
She bit her lip, hating the way Damon looked and hating that she could so clearly see the blurry outline of Stefan in her peripheral as she stated, "It's okay Damon. This will be okay."
She said the words but she didn't quite believe them. Not when her heart was so painfully loud to her own ears. She couldn't imagine how deafening the pounding was to the vampires standing so close to her. There were so many thoughts jumping in and out of her head. She thought about how she'd only ever been with two men. She even started to think about the deeply hidden parts of herself that drifted to thoughts of Damon in the dead of night.
Damon's hands lifted towards her cheeks but they hovered there and his face looked torn. She lifted her gaze to lock onto his and she knew, somehow, that he was torn on how to engage in this compelled act. He could simply bend her over the couch right now, lift her white birthday dress above her waist and pull her cotton panties to the side. It would be quick and easy. But Elena knew what was in his mind because it was in hers too. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. They meant too much to one another to do this in some detached degrading fashion. He was her friend and he'd been wonderful to her in Stefan's absence.
On the other hand, that just may hurt Stefan even more. But it wasn't Stefan's despairing eyes she was staring into in this moment.
So Elena shakily found the zipper behind her and slowly unzipped her dress. The jagged scrape of metal moving along a track seemed magnified in the moment. Damon immediately shook his head and zipped her back up. The contact of his fingers scraping up her back with the zipper caused him to jerk back.
Damon pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned loudly, turning to his brother but speaking to the ceiling, "Fuck. Stef, you're going to have to stop me. Stake me. Something."
"No!" Elena immediately exclaimed, reaching out to grab Damon's arm.
Somehow in the moments between his plea with Stefan and her hand tugging him back, his mouth covered hers and her knees gave out. His arm caught her weight at the bend of her lower back. There was the smallest of moments when the flesh of her lips sunk into the cooler flesh of his that everything else disappeared. It was all the memories of Damon and who he was flashing through her mind and playing on the back of her fluttering eyelids. Black crows and drops of crimson swirled in amber burning liquid.
The sound of slick saliva smacking as he broke away caused her eyes to snap open and flit over to Stefan. She didn't miss the wetness to his eyes or the way his hands clenched into balls by his sides. She saw it all just as he was seeing her now. Her eyes didn't leave Stefan's as Damon dropped to his knees to close his eyes in an ill attempt to fight this. Only when Damon's fingers, feather light and searing trailed up her calves, did her eyes shut.
His fingers dug into her hips and he tugged her down to the floor. The only thing her mind really concentrated on was how much her knees hurt digging into the hard wood beneath her. She wasn't sure what to do with her hands. Damon was tucking the sheets of hair that fell into her bowed face behind her ears repeatedly, muttering curse words she'd never really heard come out of his mouth before now.
She lifted her hands tentatively to place them on his shoulders. She could fight him; push him away. But she'd probably only end up getting hurt and Damon would never forgive himself. She wasn't thinking, she was purely instinctual in these moments, so when she leaned forward and breathed him in, it seemed the most natural thing to do. His scent grounded her in a way. It was safe. He was safe.
She reached for the buttons on his jeans but he stopped her. She didn't know if it was for her sake or his brother's, but he murmured, "You don't have to do that, just close your eyes."
So she did but she didn't want to tell him that it made her feel worse to do so. It made her feel more like something was happening to her instead of her being a part of this too. But those thoughts drifted away when his hands guided her gently to a laying position. She winced at the feeling of the hard floor meeting the back of her head but that was immediately remedied by his hand sliding under it.
Her eyes opened at the sound of his zipper and she lifted up on her elbows to look down at him. Suddenly she needed to look at him. She didn't want this to be something that destroyed them.
She lifted up a little when his fingers slid up her dress and tugged at her waistband, sliding her underwear down her legs. She noticed he wasn't really looking at her; his eyes were unfocused on the floor nearby. But when he glanced down at her slightly parted thighs visible to only him under her dress, he took in a deep breath before lightly grasping painfully at her bare hipbones. She could feel in his clutch that he hated himself already.
"For crying out loud. Can we get on with it, I should have been a little more descriptive about the time sensitivity with such a task," Klaus droned on from behind her. She had almost forgotten he was there too.
She glanced at Stefan but his eyes were trained on his hands that were wrung so tightly she knew he must be hurting.
Damon pursed his lips and hovered a little over Elena, nestling between her spread knees, "Yeah, you see, this isn't exactly a turn on for me."
Elena bit her lip and pushed herself up to thread one hand into the hair that sat at the nape of his neck. God it felt weird to touch him like this. She peered into his eyes and whispered as soft as she could, in hopes that only he would hear, "It's just you and me. It's okay."
Then she pressed her lips tentatively to his. Damon breathed out from his nose and it filled hers. He smelled so good…familiar, and it licked at something in her belly. She parted her lips and made a sound into his mouth that was beyond any control. Whether her boyfriend was watching her or not, there was no control to the way her body responded to the feeling of Damon pushing inside of her for the first time. It was dangerous, this feeling.
She didn't pretend he was someone else, she only pretended that she was alone. She pretended this was something that was okay, that Stefan had long ago left her life. There was no shame, no prying eyes. There was only Damon and the trust she'd slowly built up on in Stefan's absence.
xxxx
The car ride was the kind of silent that made any of the smallest of movements noticeable. The moan and groan of leather below Elena as she adjusted her weight repeatedly on the drive to her home was the only sound that masked her still pounding heart.
She was sure she was bleeding all over her white dress and Damon's seat. The perfect night to start her period. She'd felt the cramping and knew it was coming, she guessed having sex just hurried up the process or something.
There was still a dull ache between her legs that she couldn't figure out if she liked or not. He had filled her and in the midst of it all and the sharpness that came with her cervix dipping over and over and her insides squeezing around him, she'd been surprised at the way her body responded to his. It was as if she could still feel him inside of her and it was both unsettling and satisfying. She hadn't expected to respond at all under the circumstances and saw the surprise in his eyes too as she tried to hide it from the other men in the room.
They weren't halfway home before Damon asked softly, "Are you okay?"
"Yes," she replied into a sigh. She'd meant to say it with more believability but she supposed she failed after glancing at the sight of Damon's white knuckles at the steering wheel.
Elena snuck her fingers between her legs to check on the situation. Probably the oddest period mishap she'd ever had and that included not knowing how to use a tampon when she started her period in the middle school bathroom.
She sighed when her fingers came back bloody and there was no use hiding it. "Sorry," she muttered, wiping it on her dress. It was ruined anyway.
"Don't worry about that," Damon replied gently. He sounded like he was afraid she'd break. Like what he had done to her had broken her already. Then his voice was low and hard, kind of like when he was angered and warning her away, "Did I hurt you?"
She peered at his profile and noted the look of determination on his face. He didn't look the way he sounded. He looked anything but. He looked ready to rip someone apart.
"No. You were…it was…this is just bad timing at its finest. Guess I forgot to pack a tampon on my brilliant let's go save Stefan mission," she replied. Suddenly talking felt much better than silence.
"It's not your fault. It's mine. I should have listened to you," she added and reached out to touch his arm. He jerked away.
"Wow…" she muttered, crossing her arms, "was it really that bad?"
"Wasn't it?!" he practically yelled.
"We made it out alive Damon. Stefan's alive. Now we'll just have to figure out another way," she replied.
She could tell by the way he clenched the steering wheel in the same fashion he clenched his teeth that he was fighting something.
"There is no fucking other way. If I so much as think about saving Stefan then I'm breaking down your bedroom door," Damon spat.
"So I'll worry about that part. You just need to help me," Elena replied, a little startled by his tone.
Damon let out a scoff of laughter, "You don't remember what he compelled of you. I forgot, he made sure of that."
Elena looked at him confused, immediately searching her brain for a memory that she must not be allowed to reach.
Damon pulled into her driveway and turned off the car in obviously agitated motions. He turned to her and said, "go ahead, start thinking about a way we can save Stefan, I'd love to hear your plan. Really."
She furrowed her brows and mumbled, "Well I'd like to talk with Bonnie to see if we can put a locater spell on him so that we at least know where he is at all times. So we don't lose him."
Damon was watching her intently and that was when she felt the pain. She looked down and saw that she had sliced into her wrist with a shard of mirror that she'd apparently broken from her small compact in her purse. She was bleeding profusely in pulsing gushes and that's when she heard her panicky gasps above the sounds of Damon talking calmly about how he was officially on suicide watch.
"Why would he try to kill me knowing Stefan wants me alive?!" she asked shakily as Damon bit into his wrist and shoved it towards her mouth. He spoke as she gagged on the metallic liquid that ran down her throat.
"He knows I won't let you die," Damon muttered, pulling his wrist away the moment she started coughing.
Elena watched her wrist heal quickly and shuddered at the sight of her forearm completely soaked in blood.
"Let's get you into the shower," Damon stated.
Xxxx
When Elena emerged from her bathroom with her hair wrapped in a towel and a powder blue robe tied tightly around her damp body, she startled at the sight of Damon and Alaric standing in her room. Two drinking buddies and a heartbroken teen. She was sure there was some indie movie about such things.
"So we came up with a plan of sorts," Alaric finally muttered, looking clearly upset and concerned. The corners of his eyes seemed to dip downwards more than they did so naturally. Eyes dark and chin set.
"Yeah, what's that?" she asked hoarsely, walking slowly to her dresser that Damon was propped against. She snuck a look up into his eyes, her stomach jolting at the memory of him plunging inside of her on perpetual replay. She still couldn't believe it had happened. Damon. The feelings it all stirred even despite the circumstances.
She'd now slept with three men in her eighteen years of life, two of them more than a century old. What the hell that mattered anymore she didn't know, but her mind paused on the fact for much longer than she cared for.
"Elena, meet my cock block," Damon held his hands out as if presenting Alaric.
"Just add it onto my long list of the strangest responsibilities of being your stand-in guardian," Ric muttered, rubbing his face with both hands.
"Great…" Elena sighed. She grabbed what she needed from her drawers and closed herself into her bathroom. Only then did she sink to the ground and the tears found her. She was good at silent crying, she'd had many years of practice. It felt like an internal hug; ribs crushing like bony angel wings around her torn heart.
She missed Stefan, she worried for him. There was little they could do now to save him. If only she could call him and at least let him know that there were always loop holes and she'd always be looking for a way to save him. There was always Bonnie…
The door splintered open and Elena's jaw dropped when she realized she was standing in the middle of the bathroom gripping a pair of scissors lodged into her abdomen. Damon and Alaric all but pounced on her, Damon's wrist in her mouth seconds after Alaric pulled the scissors from her belly with a thick suctioning sound. This time it hurt and the tears were streaming down her face as she forced herself to swallow Damon's blood once again.
"This is going to get interesting…" Damon muttered.
Xxxx