A/N: This was requested by an anonymous user on tumblr. Hope you all like it.
Prompt: An AU one-shot alternative ending to the Stefan and Elena fireplace scene in 5x18.
"It's Not Over"
She sits, listening to the fire crackle and the red embers die out. She doesn't want to imagine what her conversation will be like with him when he finally realizes it too, that the visions are gone. But, she knows that they need to have a talk. And part of her isn't surprised when he speaks first after a few long moments of silence as he steps further into the room.
"Elena.." His voice is just above a whisper, his forest green eyes are glazed over with tears as he says her name and she can see it when she finally looks over. This hurts him, torments him as much as it does her. And, she wishes she could take his pain away, the pain caused by everything they've been through, the pain that she has inflicted upon him. She wishes more than anything that she could go back to the start.
"They weren't real." She states, the burning of her words fuel her emotions because deep down, she wanted them to be real. She had pictured that life with him, a million times over, she had dreamed about it and wrote about it. She had wanted nothing more than to live it and for those few moments in her fantasies, she did.
"It was a spell. Showing us what we wanted to see." He sighs out, looking at the fire instead of at her when he sits down besides her because Stefan knows that if looks in her direction and see's how distraught she is over the visions that it'll break him.
He listens to her talk instead, only catching the falling tone in her voice when she says "It's a life we never could have had."
She notices him finally looking up, softly speaking when he adds. "But, it still felt-" Elena cuts him off, swallowing back her doubts when she confidently finishes with. "Amazing. It felt amazing."
He finally looks over and watches her eyes close when she says it, inhaling sharply and it's as if she's lost in her own thoughts, in her own memories of long ago. "The lake house. It reminded me of the lake house and our time there." She whispers, tears welling up into brown eyes again as he smiles at her words, lifting up his hand to wipe them away. The gesture, the sweeping of his thumb across her heated skin makes her look up at him as she utters out. "What happened to us, Stefan?"
He swallows the lump in his throat, his eyes are soft. But, there's an underlined look of hurt and pain in them as she watches him attempt to form an answer, the truth. "We changed, we grew apart." He finally states.
Elena nods, exhaling heavily when she chimes in. "I died." But, she hates the way her words taste so bitter across her lips when they come out of her mouth and how it makes her feel when she says them, so broken..So torn apart inside. Although, she shakes it off as he nods at her and sorrowfully asks. "Do you think we would have been happy together? You and I. If we would had stayed together. Before everything happened?"
She doesn't hesitate for one second when she replies. "I know we would have been…If we had gotten the chance to live out our lives like we had wanted to. Stefan, I have no doubt in my mind that we would have been happy. Because, I was already happy with you." She admits, a small fragile smile tugging across her lips when she thinks about her past, about the love that they shared and she finds herself leaning against him with tears falling down her face. She's crying as he holds her, his arm protectively around her like he knows without a question that his touch is what she needs in the moment.
"I was happy with you too. I never wanted to leave you, Elena. But, I did and it hurt me every single day- knowing that you were here and I wasn't by your side." He admits, sounding so tormented by his actions.
She sobs even harder when she hears him say the words, shaking as she buries her face into his shirt and he continues to hold her, kissing the top of her head, closing his own eyes and feeling the tears that he had been keeping at bay finally be released against his own cheeks.
She's beautiful even when she cries. He likes to think as she wipes away her tears after a few minutes of them holding each other in silence.
"Do you think that we'll ever get to where we used to be?" She asks him, leaning her head against his shoulder and feeling his hand on the small of her back, making small circles against the thin fabric of her shirt.
"It's going to take time." He confesses truthfully when he feels her shift near him and she looks out towards the fire.
"I wanted them to be real, the visions…I really wanted it to be real. Because, it was everything that we had talked about. It's everything that we had wanted, together." She tells him softly. He knows that she means it in the way she says the words, so conflicted about what they had given her- a glimpse into the lives they both had dreamed about. A future they could have had.
"I did too. But, we both know that too much has happened between us and now all we can do is dream." Stefan says, pushing away from her for a moment as she frowns at him, grabbing at his hands and placing them into her own when she speaks.
"You're right. We can dream. And, I'm not giving up on that. We still need time to heal. I'll need time to sort things out. But, all I know is that I want that life, Stefan." She tells him honestly, watching as he licks his lips and nods at her, placing his arm around her shoulders when she says in a barely there tone into his ear. " I want it with you."
He wants to pretend that he doesn't hear the last part of her sentence. Because, he thinks that if he ignores it that it'll hurt less. However, as much as he tries to act like she didn't say it. He can't. Because, deep down he's always wanted it with her as well.
Stefan feels it too, the longing to be normal, the desire for a lost love and for the life they could have had. And, that's when he says- the most painfully honest truth that she's ever heard him say since she broke his heart. "We had that once..A love so strong that made me feel like I wanted nothing else and a life that was blissful in the midst of chaos. But, we worked it out even when things were hard because that's what real life is, Elena. Working through the ups and downs, the beautiful and the ugly moments. And, we can have it all again one day. Because, I want that life too. And much as I try to picture it with another person. I can't. Because, I can only see my future being like that, with you."
He feels her lift her head up again off of his shoulder as she inhales deeply and clears her throat to say something. But, the feeling of his thumbs caressing her damp cheeks stop her words. "I love you and I will always love you, Elena. No matter how long it takes for us to find our way back to each other. I want you to know that."
"I know." She murmurs, resting her forehead against his and feeling his warm embrace safely engulf her into a feeling of yearning for his touch when she adds. "I love you too and I always will. Because, it's not over and it never will be."
A/N: Thanks so much for reading!