Dances; by now, Mystic Falls was fairly well-known for its dances and parties. Not for the ordinary reason, such as music and food, though. They were well-known because they always ended in some sort of disaster. The death of a high school student, the kidnapping of another; there was even one case where someone had been sure they'd seen two Elena Gilberts running around at the Lockwood mansion.

Not that any of these incidents really mattered to Damon Salvatore. Well, that's not entirely true. They did matter, but they weren't what he thought of first when someone would mention certain parties to him. He remembered watching, time after time, as the girl he loved danced with his little brother over and over right in front of him. He remembered rejection after rejection, and the overwhelming jealousy of not being the one to hold her close and make her laugh. It was all too painfully repetitive.

But he wasn't doomed to suffer with unhappiness forever, and that truth had always made Stefan nervous. He would be able to sense his elder brother's eyes on his back, but no matter how hard he tried, he could never quite shield Elena from his gaze. Then would come that infamous moment when their eyes would lock, azure and chocolate, and he'd sense Elena's building guilt. She hated making Damon feel excluded. Damn her compassion. As much as he claimed to love it, it was never quite true; he despised it, because it had the potential of causing her caring feelings toward Damon to blossom into something else one day, and he wouldn't lose her. He wouldn't.

But he did. He stuck to the sire bond theory up to the end, too; it had been the only explanation his mind could process. Elena would never really leave him for his brother; she had promised him she'd never do that. But when fate decided to come calling, he couldn't deny the truth anymore.

It had been a freak accident. They'd never meant for it to happen.

Silas had become too much of a threat. The fact that he could disguise himself as anyone he wanted was downright terrifying, and it got to the point where they could no longer trust anyone among their group. Stefan made the mistake of convincing Elena that Silas could even be Damon.

The next time Damon said something that didn't check out with his emotionless sort-of-girlfriend, she drove a stake through his chest because "the real Damon would never say that".

But it was the real Damon, and when she realized what she had done, she broke. It all came flooding back, starting with the pain. All the pain; the pain of losing Jeremy, the pain of hurting the people she cared about, the pain of killing innocents, and the pain of killing Damon.

Stefan tried to convince her that it wasn't her fault when he found her, curled up on Damon's bedroom floor with the head of his grayed corpse in her lap, as if he was bound to wake up at any minute.

Stefan knew he wouldn't. Not wanting to risk her flipping that switch again over what she had done, he'd taken the opportunity later that night to slip the cure into the bourbon he brought her to "dull the pain". He should have already drunk at least three bottles by now, considering that his brother was dead, but the truth of the fact hadn't fully hit him yet. All he could focus on was getting the cure into Elena.

He did. It didn't change a single thing about how Elena felt other than her craving for blood. After screaming at Stefan for tricking her into taking the cure without her consent, she'd fallen into hysterical sobs and screams of how much she needed Damon, and Stefan hadn't been able to take it. He left Caroline and Bonnie to handle her, because he knew he would be of no help.

However, there was a catch no one had ever foreseen. It took years, but they finally managed to defeat Silas. Elena had made a vow to herself the second she woke up human again after Stefan's betrayal; she would kill Silas for what he did to her and everyone she loved, and then she would find a way to join Damon on the Otherside.

But she didn't have to. As a reward for finding another way to bring Silas to his demise as he should have been so long ago, all those who died because of him were brought back, just as promised. They were even brought back human.

Elena's reunion with Damon had erased any traces of doubt that the others may have still had about their feelings for each other; even Caroline admitted that they were meant to be together.

Stefan hadn't been pleased about it, and now here he was, five months later, at their wedding reception. The first few weeks had been agonizingly long and irritating, being forced to watch them so happily in love and knowing it was all real. Elena really had moved on from him to someone else; to his brother, of all people.

Pausing in his seething when Caroline appeared beside him, Stefan downed his drink and glanced over at the blonde, who was watching Damon twirl his bride on the dance floor with a soft smile.

"They are so cute together," she stated, and Stefan rolled his eyes in response.

"Whatever happened to the mere thought of them together making you want to hurl?" he asked her, and a small frown tugged at her lips at his words.

"He makes her happy, Stefan. They make each other happy. That's all that really matters."

Frowning deeply, Stefan continued to watch the genuinely happy couple, and his scowl slowly began to slip. Caroline was right. In the long run, their happiness should be the most important thing to him. He'd loved Elena for years, and Damon was his brother. Hadn't they spent long enough fighting over one girl?

Stefan always knew the fight wouldn't last forever; eventually, Elena would choose and it would have to end. He just didn't expect to be the one watching from the sidelines while she danced with the other in a glorious white dress, stepping into a happy human future.

But he was. For the first time in his life, Stefan Salvatore was the one at a fancy occasion, watching Elena Gilbert dance with his brother. Deep down, he'd secretly known it was bound to happen; the longing glances wouldn't always just be longing glances. They'd eventually turn into loving glances, and glances would turn into touches, touches to kisses, kisses to marriage… It was fate at its finest.

It was time to move on.

Glancing down at the blonde beside him who was looking at him with a quizzical expression, Stefan cracked a small smile and offered her his hand.

"May I have this dance, Caroline Forbes?"

Blinking with surprise, Caroline glanced around before nodding, giving him a small smile and accepting his hand as he led her out to dance alongside Damon and Elena and the other happy couples.

Who knows? Maybe she'd get that June wedding, after all.