The sleeping bag is comfortable enough, and I sleep well. I wake up alone.
For a second, when I look around, I wonder if it's all a dream. There's no way Damon Salvatore has swept me away for a summer adventure and single-handedly given me the freedom and relief I've been aching for. It's not possible that we're really hundreds of miles from Mystic Falls and actually enjoying ourselves. That he and I are finally getting somewhere beyond all of the push and pull of frustrated, buried feelings. But it is possible and it is real, and when I realize it's not a dream, for once, I'm happy with the reality I wake up to.
Until I start to panic about where Damon is and if he's ok. How long has he been out of the tent? What if he was attacked by something? I let my brain go off on a tangent for all of ten seconds before I stop and laugh at how ridiculous I'm being. I know that nothing scares him, and he has no reason to be threatened by anything. At least not anything he could come across in these woods. Once I catch my breath, I crawl out of the tent and look around the fire pit and the clearing we're in. It's eerily quiet, and a shiver runs through me. I may not be worried about Damon, but my sense of self preservation tends to be higher than most people's and I don't like being alone out in the woods.
Same as the night in the graveyard, I smell him on the wind first. This time there's less bourbon, more pine, and something else warm I can't put my finger on. I feel a sensation like something has just flown past me, and I whirl around fast enough to make my head spin, my hair fanning out behind me. By the time I straighten up and regain my balance, he's sauntering towards me from the tree line past our clearing, nonchalant, like it's normal for him to have been sprinting through the forest at six in the morning.
"Hey," I greet him with a smile and a shaky breath, trying to steady myself so that I don't have to tell him I was legitimately afraid for him just a moment ago. It might bruise his ego. "I was worried. I woke up and you weren't there…" I drop my eyes and attempt make my next sentence as normal as I can. "How was breakfast?" I ask, looking back up at him.
He smirks at me, "I was hoping I'd make it back before you woke up." He's standing directly in front of me now, and as his smirk fades, there's an apology in his eyes. Even after our conversation last night, he's still hiding from me. I'm not sure if I'm frustrated that he won't be honest with me or grateful that he took care of it while I slept.
I reach up and wipe a spec of blood from his chin, laughing that he would even leave a trace behind. Damon, the most meticulously clean man-human or vampire-I've ever met. Before I can wipe it off on my shorts, he's holding the hem of his shirt out to clean it from my finger. I give him a small, grateful smile before chiding him, "and I was hoping you wouldn't treat it like something to hide."
He shrugs, "Looks like this new arrangement will take some getting used to." He leans down and pecks me on the cheek before cleaning up our campsite with lightning speed.
I can barely keep my eyes on him, he's moving so fast. "Oh, I could get used to this," I chuckle as he clears the entire campsite in about 45 seconds. All of the vampires I know are so cautious about using their inhuman speed in front of normal people. I don't see it often, and I hadn't really considered the benefits of it. It's pretty nice. "Where to, my speedy friend?"
He pauses his work and looks up with a smile, excitement fresh and new in his face, "Louisiana."
We spend two days lazily making our way down to the coast. It turns out Damon hasn't just spent time in the big cities, and at least half of the towns we pass on the highway come with their own story from his past. We don't talk about vampires or biting or feeding or anything other than happy memories. When we get to New Orleans, I'm antsy and ready to explore, and so is Damon. He has a million things he wants to show me, and he's booked a hotel room for at least a week. We park the Camaro and immediately head to the French Quarter, Damon leading the way while I trail behind him in some kind of bewildered state, eyes wide and head turning at every noise and smell. There's so much to take in; incredible smelling food, street artists and performers, guitarists and singers on every other corner. Looking around, I can't think of why he would ever return to Mystic Falls after spending time here.
"Damon, this is amazing. I've never been anywhere like this!" I exclaim, eyes wide. The way he smiles back tells me how much he loves this city. "How long did you stay here?"
"A few years," he shrugs. "Maybe ten. I mostly kept to the French Quarter. Same song and dance as Charlotte. Bad people, bad decisions. The only thing better here was the booze," he winks at me.
"Is this where your love affair with bourbon began?" I tease.
"It is. And I've never looked back." He looks genuinely happy to be here, and I want to see more. He throws an arm around my shoulder and promises that he'll kick off my own love affair with the drink while we're here. And indeed, we do spend the next few days drinking, eating, talking, and exploring the old city together, with his memories as our tour guide. And it's the best week of my life because for once, I feel free. We make friends with the locals and go out dancing at night. Damon compels bourbon from the bar for me and compels blood from other people out with us looking for a good time, leaving behind little nudges of happiness with his compulsion. I don't protest when his hands wrap around my waist while we dance. Instead, I pull him closer, forgetting about everything but the feel of his skin on mine and knowing that he's not hungry and we're both happy. For once.
The fun ends in one of the few rare moments Damon isn't by my side. It's funny, I keep waiting to feel smothered by his presence. I mean, he is within five feet of me pretty much all the time. I haven't decided yet if it's because he's that nervous that I might be attacked at any moment or if it's just because he likes being near me. He even stands immediately outside the bathroom door when I go in, handing out heart attacks to every woman that walks out and nearly runs right into him. But no matter how much we're together, I don't tire of it, and I never ask him for space. I don't want it. I've always liked being around Damon, even when I didn't want to say so in the past, but I've never been allowed to openly admit it. It's nice.
We've been eating lunch at a little corner cafe that looks like it belongs on a postcard, and he's been telling me stories of his crazy early days. He tells me of vampires he knew, people he turned because they actually asked him to, and more alcohol-fueled mishaps than I will ever experience in my human lifetime. I'm starting to think he went through a period of insanity, but he's happy to relive it all and I'm happy to hear it. I'm walking back to the table we've been eating at when I round the corner and slam into what feels like a brick wall. I open my mouth to apologize to whoever it is to avoid an incident like the one in the park the other day, but I look up into the furious eyes of that last person I was expecting to see. "Stefan!" I exclaim, immediately wishing I had kept my voice down. I drop it to a whisper, though the tone is still wild with surprise, "What are you doing here?!"
He grabs my shoulders and pushes me backwards around the corner and against the wall, his hands a little too forceful. He looks furious, and I can't keep the shock from showing on my face. He's quicker than I am and keeps his voice low, ignoring my question, "What the hell are you doing here? Are you by yourself?"
"No, I'm not," I say more defensively than I meant to, feeling like a petulant child. "I'm with Damon."
He drops his hands from my shoulders and straightens up, glancing over his shoulder. I can't tell if he's looking for Damon or just trying to comprehend what I said. He looks back down at me and takes a step away. "You need to leave. Now," he's short and cold, and it makes my head spin how his emotions are sliding around from angry to detached. I don't think I've ever seen him this stone-faced before, at least not towards me. He crosses his arms and looks away. "I'm sorry you wasted your time looking for me, but I won't be returning to Mystic Falls. You need to understand. It's over."
"Oh.. Stefan. I'm not...I mean…" all I can do is mumble stupidly at him. Well this is awkward, "We're not here to look for you."
His head whips back towards me and his eyes narrow, and in them I see suspicion, betrayal, hurt. In an instant, his tough facade shows multiple cracks, and when he speaks, he sounds so unsure. "You're here...hundreds of miles from home. With Damon. But you're not looking for me." He speaks slowly, clearly trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle in his mind. Looking at a fixed point above my head, he speaks low and dangerous, "You're with Damon." Finally he looks down into my eyes and repeats, "You're with Damon."
I choose my words carefully, not wanting to stir up any more problems but knowing it's not fair to lie to him, "Yes, Stefan. I'm here with Damon. I'm sorry, but...we're not looking for you. We're just...here." I finish with a sigh, knowing how bad this must look to him. And I really don't want to hurt him, but that's mostly because I don't want anyone to be hurting, especially not because of me. I search his face, trying to figure out what he's thinking.
He stares at me for a moment and finally lets out a breath, a rush of air carrying disbelief and pain that morphs into anger when he starts speaking. "I don't...understand," he struggles to get out, his face flashing between disbelief, hurt, and rage. "Do you even know how you're able to be here with Damon? Do you understand the sacrifice I made so that he could even be alive? What I gave up for him?!" His hands are in his hair now, and he's starting to pace. "Elena, I risked everything for him, and now he's walked right into Klaus's home, his kingdom! You have to leave."
"Stefan, we're just passing through here. We're not on some mission or something. We're not even looking for Klaus."
"Yes, but you should running from him! He thinks you're dead. How could you be so stupid to just roam around the country?!"
"I'm not stupid, Stefan," now it's my turn to be exasperated. "I feel like I've been dying! I've been trapped in a town that breeds death and misery. Constantly reminded of the loss and pain in my life, all of the people I don't have anymore. I can't even walk out of my bedroom in the morning without being reminded of it." I take a deep breath to steady myself. With it, I stand as straight as I can. I don't want to piss him off in a way that will bring hurt on Damon and myself. But I'm done running, "I won't do it anymore. I'm here now, enjoying my time in New Orleans. We'll leave if we need to, but I will not go back to Mystic Falls and rot there."
He sighs heavy and deep. He looks into my eyes and I see compassion and sympathy there for one quick second until he puts back on his blank mask and takes a step back. Out of the corner of my eye, I see his hand twitch, like he might want to reach out for me. He doesn't, and then he's gone without another word. No more warnings. No argument. Just gone.
I slump against the wall, completely spent over less than five minutes of tension and confusion. If Stefan is here, Klaus is probably nearby, and I don't know if Stefan's loyalty to Damon runs deep enough to stop him from ratting us out.
When I get back to the table, I try to keep my face as neutral as possible. Damon just gives me a small smile as I sit down, and I breathe out a little sigh when I'm sure he didn't hear Stefan and me talking. He picks the conversation back up, and I spend the rest of lunch keeping the fear and worry off of my face. I don't know where we'll go, but suddenly I'm ready to get the hell out of New Orleans. After lunch, we walk along a park that sits on the river until we find a gazebo with some steps to rest on. It's such a beautiful day out, but I can't enjoy it. I look down at my hands in my lap, my fingers twisting around each other in an attempt to focus on something other than fear. I'm focusing so hard that I flinch when I feel Damon's fingers brush my temple as he pushes a strand of hair behind my ear, and I look up. Everything I've been trying to avoid is there on his face in the creased lines of his forehead, and I'm not sure why I thought I could hide anything from him.
"Hey," he says gently. "What's going on?"
I wait a couple breaths before I answer. I just have no idea how he's going to respond. I don't know if he's going to be mad at me for waiting to tell him, or if he'll be scared or calm or furious. Finally, I start, "It's just...I saw Stefan earlier." I can't meet his eyes, can't look up. Until he says the last thing I expected.
"I know," he says. Plain as anything. He knows.
My head jerks up, and I look straight at him, and I'm pretty sure fire shoots out of my eyes.
"You know?! And you let me get an ulcer worrying about what I was going to tell you? And you're not worried or freaking out or pissed off?!" Pissed off like I am now. He knows I worry about everything, and that I've been carrying a lead weight of fear around for the last 2 hours.
He brings his hands up to frame my face, but it only makes me an iota calmer. I'm so mad that I spent the last hour racking my brain and worrying about our next steps, but I'm also relieved because I know that Damon usually has a plan. "How did you know?" I ask, unable to keep from whining. I can't believe my news wasn't a surprise to him, "Did you see him?"
He taps a finger to his ear and smirks. "Vampire hearing," he explains. "There's not much I miss. Plus, I'm more attuned to hearing your voice in particular," and with that, I relax a little more, releasing a breath and closing my eyes, leaning into his other hand that still rests on my cheek. "Even more so when there's fear or sadness present." I've never been so grateful for my own fear.
"Elena," he soothes, and I open my eyes to look up at him again. "I promise I'll keep you safe. I know we're in Klaus's territory, and I know Stefan has seen us. If I thought my brother would sell us out so quickly, we'd be long gone by now." He leans in to place a kiss on my forehead before he stands and takes my hand, pulling me up with him. I stand with him and keep my hand in his for another minute. I need to know this will be ok.
"We'll leave tonight." He releases my hand and starts off walking through the park. "Let's enjoy the rest of this beautiful day and not let them ruin our time." He looks back at me, where I'm stuck, hesitating by the gazebo. After a long moment, I follow. I want to believe him, but I also want to run like hell.