The house was bigger than she had expected.
Much bigger.
In fact, as Elena left her car, it seemed to loom over her forebodingly, and she wondered, not for the first time, if she was doing the right thing.
Stefan's smile the night before seemed to glow in her mind, and she took a deep breath and stepped up to the front door, ringing the doorbell.
Silence seemed to echo around her. The house was well off the beaten track, surrounded by trees that threatened to deaden any sound that might occur.
When there was no response to the bell, Elena knocked on the door. It swung open under her hand, and she hesitated.
On the one hand, she had always been taught never to enter someone's house without permission, even if the door was open.
On the other, it was a big house. There was a possibility Stefan hadn't heard her.
She glanced behind her to where her car was parked. There were no other cars, but then she'd seen a garage to the side of the house, so they might be in there.
Even if there was a car, she didn't know what Stefan's car was, so it would hardly help her.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open and stepped inside. "Stefan?"
Her voice resonated through the house, but garnered no response. "Stefan?" Tentatively, Elena stepped into the hallway, peering around, feeling slightly daunted by the sheer size of the place.
She was just about to call again, when the front door creaked behind her. She glanced back, seeing that the door was still open. Slowly, she ventured towards it, and was just about to reach out and close it, when a crow soared through, screeching loudly.
Elena spun around instinctively to shield her face, only to gasp sharply when she came face to face with someone.
He was about a head taller than her, and at least five or six years older, darkly handsome with black hair and stunning blue eyes.
"I'm sorry for barging in." Elena said automatically. "The door was open …"
Except it wasn't, not anymore.
In the dim light of the hallway, his smile looked more like a smirk, but when he spoke, his voice was perfectly friendly. "You must be Elena."
She nodded hesitantly. There was no way this was the uncle Stefan lived with.
"I'm Damon." He said. "Stefan's brother."
"He didn't tell me he had a brother." Elena said, slightly suspicious. Although that's not completely true, is it? He said he didn't have any siblings that he talked to. Maybe he and Damon don't get along.
"Well, Stefan's not one to brag." Damon said lightly, extending an arm towards one of the doors. "Please, come. I'm sure Stefan will be along any second."
Almost against her better instincts, Elena followed him into a large room with a high ceiling. "Wow. This is your living room?"
Damon shrugged. "Living room. Parlour. Sotheby's auction." His last quip provoked a small smile, but Elena was still in awe of her surroundings. "It's a little kitschy for my taste."
Elena wasn't quite sure how to respond, so she didn't say anything.
"I see why my brother's so smitten." He said suddenly. "It's about time," he continued, as though she would think his comment strange. "For a while there, I thought he'd never get over the last one. Nearly destroyed him." He added, almost to himself.
Elena felt her heart sink. "The last one?"
"Yeah. Katherine?" Damon elaborated. "His girlfriend?"
Elena shook her head slowly.
"Oh, you two haven't had the awkward exes conversation yet." Damon realised with a wince.
"Nope." Elena confirmed weakly. They had talked for hours yesterday, before Jenna had put her foot down in a surprisingly parental manner, and that was two – arguably important – things he had failed to mention.
"Oops." Damon said with a sigh. "Well, I'm sure it'll come up now."
Elena grimaced. That did not sound fun to her.
"Or maybe he didn't bring it up, because he didn't want you to think he was on the rebound." Damon continued thoughtfully. "We all know how those relationships end."
Elena pushed her concerns to the back of her mind. "You say it like every relationship is doomed to end."
Damon smirked at her. "I'm a fatalist. Hello, Stefan."
Elena started at the sudden change of subject, and turned towards the front door to see Stefan watching them.
"Elena." He greeted. "I didn't know you were coming over."
Although his words were aimed at her, his gaze was fixed on Damon, strong emotion in his eyes even through his obvious fatigue.
It's not quite hatred, but it's close. They definitely do not get along. "I know." Elena said aloud. "I should have called, I just …"
"Oh, don't be silly." Damon interrupted. "You're welcome any time, isn't she, Stefan? You know, I should break out the family photo albums. Or some home movies." He grinned at Elena, seemingly oblivious to the coldness radiating from his brother. "But I have to warn you; he wasn't always such a looker."
"Thank you for stopping by, Elena." Stefan said, cutting across his brother. "It was nice to see you."
Clearly there were a lot of issues between the Salvatore brothers, and Elena did not want to get in the middle of them. "Yeah, I should probably go." She agreed. "It was nice to meet you, Damon."
Damon gave her a charming smile that she could imagine had broken a few hearts in the past, and took her hand, pressing a soft kiss to the back of it. "Great meeting you too, Elena." His smile didn't fade as Elena slipped past his brother (with some difficulty, since Stefan's attention was solely focused on Damon). He was expecting to need Caroline to even meet Elena, and he couldn't have asked for a better reaction from Stefan.
If that little encounter didn't make Elena question things, he'd start eating bunnies, especially since Stefan's behaviour would seem completely bizarre to an outsider and Damon himself had been perfectly polite.
"She took my breath away – Elena."
Damon knew that Stefan had assumed that he had been watching Elena over the first two days of school, but he had first seen Elena several months ago.
They had talked, not that Elena would remember. That conversation had been much easier, and the part of Damon that was still allowed to feel something felt a tiny pang of sympathy for the girl.
In May, there had been a spark in her eyes, laughter even though she was having a fight with her boyfriend (he wondered which one of the small-town dullards that was).
Now, there was only a lingering sadness, which was part of the reason he had deliberately provoked her – when she had called him on his 'relationships ending' comment, he had seen a little bit of that spark back.
Not that it was the only reason, of course. Whatever small bit of sympathy he may have felt for this girl who looked inexplicably like his Katherine (referring to her as Stefan's girl was like swallowing vervain), he was here for a reason, and one reason only – to get under Elena's skin and make Stefan leave town, so he would be safe to reunite with Katherine in peace.
He let out a low whistle as the front door swung shut. "Great gal. Whoo, she's got … spunk. You, on the other hand, looked pooped." He added, when Stefan didn't respond. "Did you over-exert yourself today? Let me guess … hospital?"
"Someone had to clean up your mess." Stefan said, finally entering the room.
"Well, were you successful?" Damon asked. "Did the powers of persuasion work? Remember, if you don't feed properly, none of your little tricks work right."
Damon had turned his humanity off for several reasons, reasons he had hoped would disappear once he had done so, but they hadn't.
The anguish of losing Katherine had lifted, but that didn't make him any less determined to get her back.
The anger and bitterness over everything that had happened with Stefan didn't make his brother's self-righteousness any less irritating.
Even without humanity, Damon couldn't be considered a ripper. He killed, yes, and thought nothing of doing so, but he had yet to reach the point where he took sadistic pleasure in it, which he knew Stefan used to.
He got me into this mess and now he's got the audacity to judge me for making the most of the situation.
On top of that, even without emotion, Damon still couldn't help looking out for his little brother and, as much as he insisted Stefan's diet embarrassed and irritated him, he couldn't deny that it also worried him that Stefan didn't have the strength to defend himself.
No, not worried – worrying belied an emotion. He was …
Okay, he worried. Big deal.
"How long was Elena here?" Stefan asked.
"Were you worried, Stefan?" Damon responded, smirking. "Scared we may be doomed to repeat the past? Isn't that why you play your game "I'm a high school human"?"
"I'm not playing any game." Stefan insisted.
Damon snorted. "Sure you are." He stepped right up close to his brother. "We both know the closest you'll ever get to humanity is when you rip it open and feed on it."
"What kind of game are you playing, Damon?" Stefan asked.
Damon shrugged. "Guess you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?"
The candles flickered and danced in the night air, completely oblivious to the awkward tension between the two people holding them.
"Hi." Elena whispered, praying for the ground to swallow her. She hadn't seen Stefan since the previous day when she'd met Damon, and she was kind of hoping that she'd have until Monday to steel herself for what she knew she had to do.
Not quite sure what else to do, she took a step away, looking up at the comet that travelled slowly across the night sky. Of course, she knew that was an illusion and that it was travelling faster than it appeared to be.
Rather like my life right now.
"You know," Stefan remarked, "that comet … it's been travelling across space for thousands of years. All alone."
Elena managed a small smile. "Bonnie says it's a harbinger of evil."
"I think it's just a ball of … snow and ice," Stefan said, "trapped on a path it can't escape. And once every 145 years, it gets to come home." He cleared his throat and the slightly wistful note that had entered his voice vanished. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I wasn't myself."
"You seem to spend a lot of time apologising." Elena said softly.
"Well, I have a lot to apologise for." Stefan admitted. "Yesterday … that wasn't about you, okay?"
"You didn't tell me you had a brother." Elena said, trying not to sound accusatory.
Stefan sighed. "We're not close. It's … It's complicated."
"Always." Elena muttered. "He told me about your ex, Katherine."
Maybe it was the flickering of the candles, but now a hint of worry entered Stefan's eyes. "What did he say?"
"That she broke your heart." Elena answered, watching his reaction carefully.
Stefan closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. "That was a long time ago."
"When you lose someone, it stays with you," Elena said quietly, not just talking about Katherine, "always reminding you have how easy it is to get hurt."
Stefan's eyes flew open again. "Elena …"
"It's okay, Stefan, I get it." Elena interrupted. "You have no idea how much I get it. Complicated brother? Check. Complicated ex? Check. Too complicated to even contemplate dating right now? Double check. It's okay. We met, and we talked, and it was epic, but … then the sun came up, and reality set in. So …"
Stefan watched helplessly as Elena blew out the candle she was holding and walked away. He wanted to call her back, but then what would he say?
"I'm sorry, Elena, but Damon and I are both vampires and he promised me an eternity of misery, and I know he seemed nice and charming yesterday, but he's responsible for the murders of those campers, as well as your ex's sister's attack. On top of that, Katherine was 145 years ago and she's dead, but she happens to look just like you – but it's okay, because I realised four months before you met me that you're nothing like her, but I stayed in town because I fell in love with a girl I hadn't even spoken to yet."
Even if he only paraphrased it, it sounded ridiculous.
She deserved better than him anyway, someone alive and real and … not a vampire.
He would stay in town though. He had to – as long as Damon was here, he had no choice.
"Hey." Matt called, approaching him. "Have you seen my sister?"
Stefan's brow creased in confusion. Had Vicki been released from hospital already? "No, sorry."
"I can't find her." Matt explained. "She's missing."
"I'll keep an eye out for her." Stefan said.
"I saw you at the hospital yesterday." Matt blurted out, before Stefan could leave.
Stefan raised an eyebrow. "Did you?"
"What were you doing there?" Matt asked.
"Visiting." Stefan answered, as though it should have been obvious.
"Visiting?" Matt repeated dubiously. "You know, Elena and I, we've known each other a long time. We might not be together right now, but I look out for her. And I'll always look out for her."
Stefan was about to respond, when he caught the sound of a scream.
"You really have to stop screaming." Damon's voice said.
"No." Vicki's voice sobbed. "Please, stop …"
"Ssh." Damon soothed. "I got you …"
Stefan's borrowed blood ran cold. It was clear from Matt's lack of response that they were too far away from a human to hear them.
"Excuse me." He hurried past Matt towards the Mystic Grill, his gaze automatically flicking up to the rooftops.
Damon and Vicki were standing right on the edge of the building across the street, at least three storeys up.
"No!" Vicki screamed.
"Ssh, I'm not going to drop you." Damon said.
Taking a few more steps, Stefan leapt to the top of the roof, landing in front of them.
"Not bad." Damon remarked. "Have you been eating bunnies?"
"Let her go!" Stefan demanded.
"Really?" Damon shrugged. "Okay." He jerked his hand back and Vicki clung to him with another scream to avoid falling to her death.
Stefan jerked forwards. "No, no, no!"
"Ugh, relax." Damon rolled his eyes, throwing Vicki at Stefan, who caught her as her legs buckled, lowering her to the floor.
"What's happening?" Vicki asked brokenly.
"I don't need her to be dead." Damon said, smirking at his brother. "But you might." He looked down at Vicki. "What attacked you the other night?"
Vicki shrugged. "I don't know. An animal."
"Are you sure about that?" Damon asked, crouching down. "Think. Think about it. Think really hard. What attacked you?"
Vicki's eyes grew wide and she scrambled back away from him, colliding with Stefan's legs. "Vampire."
"Who did this to you?!" Damon demanded.
"You did!" Vicki screamed.
"Wrong!" Damon smirked.
"Don't." Stefan warned, knowing what his brother was about to do.
"It was Stefan." Damon whispered.
"Don't!" Stefan repeated, as Vicki looked up at him, wide-eyed.
"Come here." Damon pulled Vicki towards him, taking her face in his hands to catch her eye. "Stefan Salvatore did this to you."
"Stefan Salvatore did this to me." Vicki repeated blankly.
"He's a vampire." Damon hissed. "A vicious, murderous monster."
"Please, Damon." Stefan said. "Please don't do this!"
"If you couldn't fix her before, I don't know what you can do now." Damon remarked, carelessly ripping the bandage from Vicki's neck and pushing her into Stefan's arms.
Stefan caught her automatically, not even noticing her scream. The scent of her blood called to him like a siren's song, and he felt the veins in his face beginning to heat, darkness start to creep into his eyes, his fangs lengthening into a sharp point, reading to tear into the pale skin just inches away from him.
It had been so long since he had tasted human blood, so long.
"You can control it, Stefan. You are stronger than the blood."
"Your choice of lifestyle has made you weak." Damon said coldly. "A couple of vampire parlour tricks is nothing compared to the power you could have – that you now need. But you can change that. Human blood gives you that."
"You are stronger than the blood. Stronger. Don't give up. Fight it."
Stefan squeezed his eyes closed, forcing the memory of Lexi's voice to overpower the presence of Damon's. With the last vestiges of self-control, he pushed Vicki away from him, almost doubled over with the effort of resisting the blood, taking great gulps of clear night air.
"You have two choices." Damon told him. "You can feed and make her forget. Or you can let her run screaming 'vampire' through the town square."
Still breathing heavily, Stefan looked up. "That's what this is about? You want to expose me?"
"No!" Damon snapped. "I want you to remember what you are!"
"Why?" Stefan asked, straightening up. "So what, so I'll feed? So I'll kill? So I'll remember what it's like to be brothers again? You know what, let her go. Let her tell everyone that vampires have returned to Mystic Falls. Let them chain me up, and let them drive a stake through my heart. Because at least I'll be free of you."
Damon looked mildly surprised, but his internal reaction was one of slight nausea. It didn't sit right that his brother would rather die than be around him.
Granted, they hadn't gotten along over a century, and Damon could think of a lot of things he'd rather do than spend time with Stefan, but die?
"Wow." Damon shook his head, reaching down to Vicki. "Come here, sweetheart."
"No …" Vicki sobbed, cringing away from him.
"It's okay." Damon soothed, stroking her hair softly. "It's alright." He lowered his head to Vicki's throat and, for a split-second, Stefan thought he would kill her.
But Damon's mouth hovered just beside the girl's ear, whispering something too quiet for Stefan to hear.
Slowly, Vicki stopped shaking, the fear fading from her eyes. Damon released her and straightened up.
"What happened?" Vicki asked. "Where am I?" She grimaced, one hand examining the open wound on her neck. "Ugh, I ripped my stitches open …"
"Are you okay?" Stefan asked.
Vicki grinned up at him. "I took some pills, man. I'm good." Staggering to her feet, she wandered towards the door back into the building.
Stefan knew he should probably go with her and make sure she didn't break her neck falling down the stairs, but he hesitated when Damon spoke.
"It's good to be home. Think I might stay a while. This town could use a bit of a wake-up call, don't you think?"
"What are you up to, Damon?" Stefan asked wearily.
Damon shrugged. "That's for me to know, and you to … dot-dot-dot." He smirked. "Give Elena my best."
The problem with dark parking lots was that they were creepy. The problem with empty parking lots was that they played tricks on you.
Dark and empty parking lots were both.
Right now, Caroline was convinced there was someone watching her, and she quickened her pace to reach her car, fumbling with the keys and causing them to fall to the ground.
She retrieved them hastily and straightened up, only to come face to face with the man she'd seen at the Grill two nights earlier. "Oh!"
He smiled. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."
"No, it's fine." Caroline said, feeling a little tongue-tied. He was even hotter up close, and she bit her lip shyly. "I was hoping I'd see you again."
His smile became a slight smirk. "I know."
Caroline giggled. "Cocky, much?"
"Very much." He agreed, his gaze darkening. "I'm Damon."
"Caroline." She returned breathlessly.
"Caroline …" He repeated thoughtfully, kissing her hand. "A beautiful name for a beautiful girl." He watched her cheeks colour with hidden satisfaction. "You weren't the only one hoping we would meet again."
Caroline decided to throw caution to the wind. "The Grill's still packed at the moment … My house isn't far … We could talk …?"
Damon smiled. "I'd like that very much, Caroline."
Caroline smiled back. "Great." She unlocked her car and got into the driver's seat. As Damon rounded the car to join her, he allowed himself a cruel smirk.
That was far too easy – he hadn't even needed to resort to compulsion.
This was going to be fun.
Stefan was sat in the living room, staring at the piece of paper with Elena's phone number on it, debating whether or not to call her.
He knew that Bonnie had said to do so, but there was something a little stalker-ish in doing so. If Elena didn't want a relationship, then she didn't want a relationship.
Surely it was up to Elena to decide if she wanted him to have her number, not her friends.
On top of that, Bonnie's reaction when she touched him …
She was a Bennett.
A witch, probably.
There was a possibility Bonnie now knew what he was without even knowing it.
The doorbell rang, but there was no movement to suggest that Zack was going to answer it. Heaving a sigh, Stefan got up and went to the door, and was surprised to find Elena standing outside. "Hi."
"Hey." Elena greeted softly.
"Would you like to come in?" Stefan asked, stepping back to let her past.
Elena hesitated. "The comet's actually this way."
Stefan watched her walk away towards the small wall that framed their porch. He couldn't quite believe that she was here, but followed regardless.
"Sorry for barging in." Elena said softly, gazing up at the comet. "Especially after earlier."
"No, no, I'm glad you're here." Stefan assured her. "The way we left things … I didn't like it."
Elena's gaze dropped from the comet to her hands as she fiddled with the zipper on her jacket. "See, the thing is, I got home tonight, planning to do what I always do: write in my diary, like I have been since my mom gave me one when I was ten. It's where I get everything out, everything I'm feeling – it all goes in this little book that I hide on the second shelf behind this really hideous ceramic mermaid." She stopped abruptly, as though realising she was rambling, taking a deep breath. "But then I realised that I'd just be writing things that I should probably be telling you."
"What would you write?" Stefan asked gently.
"I'd write … "Dear Diary,"" Elena said with a small self-aware smile, ""today I convinced myself it was okay to give up. Don't take risks. Stick to the status quo. No drama – now is just not the time. But my reasons aren't reasons, they're excuses. All I'm doing is hiding from the truth, and the truth is …"" She sighed, dropping the façade of 'diary writing'. "I'm scared, Stefan. I'm scared that if I let myself be happy for even one moment that … the world's just going to come crashing down, and … I … I don't know if I can survive that."
The pain in her eyes just about broke his heart, and he restrained himself from reaching for her. "Do you want to know what I would write?" He smiled slightly, when she cocked her head inquisitively. ""I met a girl. We talked. It was epic. But then the sun came up and reality set in." All this is reality." He told her softly. "Right here."
A smile flickered on Elena's face, her gaze dropping from his eyes to his lips and back again. Well, he could take a hint, and that was more of a flashing sign. Slowly, the gap beneath them diminished until his lips touched hers for the first time.
It was soft, chaste and innocent, but as they parted, Elena felt her heart pounding in her chest. She remembered Stefan's suggestion at the falls that she and Matt hadn't been passionate, and she had never been more aware of that.
He looked slightly worried, as though he'd somehow crossed a line by kissing her – as if!
Her eyes searched his for a few seconds, waiting for the trepidation to leave them. When they didn't, she took things into her own hands, as she'd wanted to on the bridge at the party. Pressing her lips to his, she lifted her hands to touch his face as one of his cradled hers, his fingers sliding into her hair.
His lips seemed to cushion hers and she melted into his embrace, the places where their skin touched seeming to spark with energy.
Had she really nearly missed this because of fear?
This was … everything. It was new and exciting, and yet it somehow felt comfortable, as though she'd been kissing him all her life.
Elena had always considered herself a practical and logical person, not one for swooning over love stories (unless it was her parents – the story of how they met and subsequently got engaged was her favourite as a child), and as a writer she despised the worn-out clichés of first kiss fireworks, but here and now, she could swear the heavens were lighting up above her.
They parted slowly, their lips curving into identical smiles. Stefan's left hand moved from her face to wrap around her shoulders, and she nestled into him, resting her head on his shoulder, her eyes turning skyward once more to watch the comet still travelling across the sky. "It's beautiful."
"Yes, you are." Stefan agreed.
Elena blushed, but couldn't help smiling. "That is so cheesy."
Stefan didn't look the least bit repentant. "But it's true." He watched, almost in fascination, as her blush deepened. "Hasn't anyone told you that before?"
Elena shook her head, a little shyly.
"Well, you are." Stefan told her matter-of-factly, dropping a soft kiss on her forehead because he could. "Simply beautiful."
Elena remained as pink-faced as before, but her smile grew. "Thank you." She remained tucked against him, and they watched the comet in silence for a while. "I always wanted to be blonde." She said suddenly, although she didn't look at him.
"Why?" Stefan asked curiously.
Elena laughed. "It's silly." She admitted. "But every year, we were in the Church Nativity play, and I was never an angel. Caroline was. I was always a star. One year, one of the boys said it was because Caroline was prettier than me, and I got it into my head that if I was blonde, I'd be pretty too."
"Why do I get the feeling that something unfortunate happened to that boy?" Stefan asked.
Elena smiled. "Because Matt tripped him over and Tyler hit him. This was before Tyler got all … douchebaggy."
Stefan stroked her hair softly. "You know," he said quietly, "changing your hair colour wouldn't make a difference. You're like that comet."
"How so?" Elena asked curiously.
"Well, that right there," Stefan said, pointing up at the comet, "it's beautiful to see, you're right. But the reason it's so beautiful is because of what it is."
"A ball of snow and ice trapped on a path it can't escape?" Elena queried.
"Not exactly." Stefan said, with a grin. "But well remembered. I mean, it's travelling through space at a constant speed, but when it gets to come home every 145 years, the Earth's gravity slows it down, and it's like …"
"Like it's seeing as much of home as possible before it has to leave." Elena finished.
"Exactly." Stefan agreed. "And I think that's beautiful. Now you … you're a pretty girl, but you have this light inside you … I can't quite describe it, and it just shines, Elena, and that makes you beautiful."
"Well, aren't you a smooth talker." Elena teased lightly, and he chuckled. "I see what you mean though," she went on. "Wasn't there a Roald Dahl book that said something like that?"
Stefan thought for a second. "The Twits." He supplied.
Elena's face lit up. "That's it. If you have good thoughts, it will shine out of your face like sunbeams, and you will always look lovely."
"I'd say he got that absolutely right." Stefan said. "Actually, I think he got a lot of things right, but no one listens, because they're children's stories."
"That's what I always thought too." Elena agreed, resting her head back on his shoulder.
As they lapsed into silence once more, Stefan thought back to that same quote, remembering what came before it, about how ugly thoughts created ugly faces.
That was something he was certain was not true, however neat it would be.
After all, Katherine's thoughts and intentions could definitely be described as ugly, and yet she was the farthest thing from it.
And, although Stefan refrained from commenting on the physical attractiveness of other men, given the way girls seemed to flock to his brother, Damon's ugly thoughts had no effect on his appearance either.
Elena's face tilted up towards his, and he happily abandoned concerns about his brother in favour of kissing her again.
After all, Damon had caused a (un)healthy amount of chaos tonight already.
He wouldn't do anything else, at least until tomorrow.
Stefan might not have been so confident if he'd known what was currently going on in Caroline's bedroom on the other side of town.
AN: I wasn't sure about this format, but I'm going to stick with it. I would like you to let me know what you think though! Oh, and I'm aware that's not how comets work, but this is a story about vampires, so I'm not going to lose sleep over twisting the science a bit.