A Third Option

"I didn't come back here for Stefan," she said earnestly.

I turned away from her and studied the back wall of the Salvatore library. I did not want to have this conversation right now. With the next Big Bad hanging out in Mystic Falls, I already had too much to think about without… this.

I heard the library door close gently behind me and, thinking she had left, I sighed deeply and turned back around.

Alaric, who had been standing by the door earlier awkwardly holding a pile of books, had left and she stood there: alone, arms crossed, a smirk sprinkled on her pretty, little face. I wanted to slap it off.

"Why now?" I spoke so quietly I was afraid she hadn't heard me.

"With everything going on lately," she began, then let out a sigh. "I don't know, I guess I had an epiphany or something."

"An epiphany?"

"Yeah, you know, a sudden realisation."

"I know what an epiphany is!"

She rolled her eyes. "Look, you don't have to talk to me, but can you please just listen?" She took my silence as permission to continue. "I came here to let you know that Stefan and I are done. For good."

"You've said that before."

"I mean it this time." Her voice was almost a whine. "I love him, sure. I always will in a way. He was there for me at a time when it seemed like everyone around me was dying and, well, he couldn't die… He couldn't leave me."

"I never left you."

"And I took that - I took you - for granted," she said, taking a step toward me.

It was slow and steady, like she was afraid she would scare me off with any quick, sudden movements. I watched her carefully but didn't move an inch. She moved closer still. Slowly. Until she stood right in front of me, the tips of our shoes close to touching.

"Stefan," I whispered. I leaned toward her. I couldn't help it. I could never help myself around her. I was constantly being pulled into her atmosphere. "You said it would always be Stefan."

"That was before." Her breath was warm on my cheek as she exhaled the words.

"Before?"

"Before I realised I had a third option."

I looked at her for a long moment. A third option.

"Everybody expects me to choose between the Salvatores," she said, her voice taking on an annoyed tone. "Stefan… or Damon… Nobody expects me to choose neither… To choose you."

Me?

All this time and she chose now to reveal that she wanted me?

I continued to stare, afraid to speak. She moved her head even closer to mine until our lips brushed. It was gentle at first. As if she was testing me. As if she was afraid I'd turn her away. If I hadn't been so frozen from shock, I would have laughed. Didn't she realise that I would never, could never, turn her away. All I saw was her. Everything I had ever done had been for her.

She pulled her face back and...

"I love you."

I'm not sure who said it first. Time and space blurred into a dizzy haze as we looked into each other's eyes. My eyes sparkled with laughter at the cliche. I'm certain she could see the happiness swelling deep within me. Her eyes sparkled as well. With love? With happiness? Maybe something else? A third option.

Either way, we had the rest of our lives to figure it out.

A/N: I left the narrator and the time period a bit vague but I, personally, imagined Bonnie and Elena somewhere around Season 3 as I wrote this. You, of course, can imagine anyone, anytime you like. Leave me a comment of who and what you imagined. Characters are not my own.