Red and Silver Bells
It was so silent in the house that Elena could hear the sound of each snowflake as it fell upon the roof, or at least she thought she could. She could hear the slight wind catching the snow and swirling it around like a fine glass of wine. And, even though she didn't want to, she could hear the soft song of music coming from the neighbour's house.
Silver bells, silver bells …
She pressed her hands against her forehead, trying to shut everything out. She was home again, in her own bedroom for the first time in so many nights, but after so long she felt like a stranger here. It was still better than staying any longer at the Boarding House though; at least now, she wouldn't feel like she was forcing Stefan away.
Of course, it didn't help her mood that, even here, she was alone. Sheriff Forbes had invited everyone to go away for the holidays, sensing that they all needed a break from Mystic Falls' supernatural shenanigans and lingering pains. Elena had declined, for reasons too numerous and complicated to count, but she'd eventually convinced Jeremy that he should go with them and try to enjoy himself. Christmas would never be the same without their parents but that didn't mean he shouldn't have a chance to pretend to be normal.
He'd probably tell her that she deserved the same thing, but this year, Elena could not have felt further from the Christmas spirit. And so here she was, on Christmas Eve, sitting in her house, alone.
"Fa la la la la," she muttered to herself.
"Could you sound any less festive?"
She spun around at the sound of Damon's voice, eyes wide with surprise and her lips curling into a smile as she sees him standing in the kitchen. She hadn't seen him in so long, not since she left the lake house. Which really wasn't that long ago, if she thought about it rationally, but ration and Elena were not exactly on good terms these days.
She took a step towards him, then another, but stopped when she was still a few feet away. "You're here," she murmured, her voice filled with wonder.
He nodded. "I'm here."
"Why?" The question hung in the air for a moment, before Elena realized how it sounded. "Not that I don't want you to be here, I do, you know I do, but I'm just … surprised."
He turned away from her with a shrug. "Jeremy told me you decided to skip out on Liz's big Christmas get-away. I wasn't sure if it was exactly wise, being alone during this time of year, after everything that's happened."
Elena sighed. "I don't need a babysitter, Damon. If you don't want to be here, you don't have to be."
She turned to head back into the living room but suddenly Damon was standing in front of her, his hands on her shoulders. "Elena, you know its not that simple. I want to be – I want you to be happy. That's all I've ever wanted. And you're not, so I thought maybe, just for a bit, I could try and change that."
She looked into his eyes, the pupils dilating in the low light. "And then what? You go away again, telling yourself it's what's best for me? How's that supposed to make me happy?"
His hands fell away. "Fine, I'll go," he said softly, turning to walk towards the door. His hand was turning the doorknob before Elena followed, her heart suddenly pounding.
"Wait," she said, pushing the door shut. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean any of that. This is all still so confusing. So much has happened these last couple of months and now it's Christmas and everything seems heavier than it did before. I still haven't made sense of any of it."
They stood there, staring at each other, for a long time, until finally Damon jerked his head once. "Okay, I've got an idea. I'm going to open this door and the two of us will walk out together. Once we passed the threshold, we are going to concentrate on having a good ole Christmas-y time and not think about anything else. We will not mention Klaus or Stefan or Jeremy or the cure or any of it. And we will definitely not mention those two little words, the ones that start with s and rhyme with tire pond. Deal?" He held his hand out.
Elena couldn't think of a single reason to say no and so she reached out to shake his hand. "Deal."
Damon opened the door and dramatically raised his right foot. Elena did the same and together they stepped out onto the porch. The wind immediately whipped snow into her face but Elena didn't mind because at the same moment, she reached out and took Damon's hand in hers, pressed against each other in holy palmers' kiss.
"So," Damon asked as they descended the stairs, "where to first?"
Elena frowned as she thought about her answer. With so many people out of town, there wasn't really many places she wanted to go. And the more she thought about it, the more unpleasant memories began to resurface and the more she considered just going back inside.
Damon pulled her forward after she had been silent for what he clearly felt was too long. "Right, well, let's start by just taking a walk. We can check out the Christmas lights, that's always fun."
He began walking and she followed; Elena was able to quickly push away all thoughts about why she did that without question and why looking at lights did suddenly seem like such a good idea.
The houses on her street really were lovely and it actually was fun to look at them. She even felt herself begin to smile at the first sight of multicoloured icicle lights hanging from a rooftop. And wrinkle her nose, then snicker, then outright laugh at the inflatable snowmen in the Neilson's house next door, with Damon commenting in his usual snark-filled style.
"Damon, stop," she said between giggles, as she spotted Mr. Neilson near the front window, peering out towards them. Chances were he was too far away to hear but these days she found that pretty hard to judge.
"Fine, fine," he told her, "but I'm really not the one you should be telling that to. Someone needs to put a stop to this tackiness, to protect this neighbourhood. A display like that will bring property values right down. Trust me, I've seen it happen."
Elena laughed again and then tugged on his hand, pulling him forward towards the next house as fast as she could. She pointed towards a tree ahead, eight feet tall at least and covered with lights.
"How do you think they got them up there?" she asked, imaging a scenario that involved a very long stick.
Damon shrugged. "Maybe they jumped. It's not so high, I could manage it."
"Right," she muttered, shaking her head. As she did, she noticed movement across the street and turned towards it. A group of people were standing on the doorstep, knocking, and then, when the door opened, they all began to sing.
"Oh wonderful," Damon muttered. "Carollers."
She turned back to look at him, her hand slipping out of his grasp."You don't like carollers?"
"Does anyone like carollers?"
"I do," Elena managed to blurt out, regretting it the moment later.
Damon didn't say anything for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. Let's go carolling." He reached out and took her hand again before heading across the street.
"You don't have to do this," she told him as they drew close. "It's fine, let's keep looking at the lights."
"No, it's cool," he said. "You like them, I can put up with them, at least for a bit."
Before she could say another word they had reached the singing group, halfway through a rendition of 'O Come All Ye Faithful'. She glanced over at Damon and he nodded, his fingers tightening around hers. With a grin, she took a deep breath and began to sing, Damon following suit a moment later, though not with any volume until she elbowed him in the ribs.
They stayed with the group for several more houses and Elena could have stayed for many more but figured she owed Damon a swifter exit than that. As she was preparing to head off for new adventures, Mrs. Ford, her old kindergarten teacher, turned towards her.
"Are you leaving already, dear?" the woman asked.
"Yeah," Elena told her. "It's getting late and we have plans."
Mrs. Ford glanced towards Damon with an eyebrow raised. "Well, I suppose we shouldn't keep you young people from enjoying yourselves. But before you go, is there anything special you'd like us all to sing?"
Elena thought about it for a moment, the nodded. "Yes. I'd like to sing 'Silver Bells'."
The woman smiled. "That's one of my favourites."
"Mine too," Elena said with a wistful smile. "Mine too."
City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style, in the air there's a feeling of Christmas ...
During the end of the song, she began to walk away, pulling Damon along behind her. There had been so much of that tonight, one leading the other, back and forth. It was ... unusual.
"So," she asked after a few moments, the music still singing in her ears, "where to now?"
"Oh, I don't know," he replied, "how about the ski hill? I hear it's great this time of year. Lots of snow and hot cocoa."
Elena froze. "I don't know if that's a good idea, Damon."
"I'm sure you had your reasons to say no," Damon replied, "but I'm hoping now you might have a reason or two to say yes. It's Christmas. You should be with your friends."
She shook her head. "Fine but not tonight. Tonight, the only person I want to be with is you."
He stared at her for a long time and she could almost hear the thoughts going through his head, the constant questions. But finally he nodded. "Okay. But tomorrow morning, we're going skiing."
She reached up and wrapped her hands around his neck, pulling herself up to kiss him. "Merry Christmas, Damon."
"Merry Christmas, Elena."