Okay, so I'm really not sure about this chapter. I think it may be bit quick, to put too much details on Arriane and I also think I'm missing the point of the fic. Stefan and Elena,

Damon and Elena. Please, comment telling me what you think.


Elijah

Arriane parked the car in front of a house that was located over some hills. I glanced around, wondering where Cam was.

Then I turned around to watch her. She was standing next to Elena's ex, Stefan. I wondered what she wanted from him. Arriane rarely, if ever, hooked up with anyone and it wasn't

because people didn't want her. She looked back at me, and I could tell she knew what I was thinking.

"Where is Cam?" I asked her, innocently, looking around.

"He's at school. Reform school, just like the rest of us." She looked annoyed. I knew it was because I was trying to see through. She hated it when I did that.

I decided, after watching her stomping to the house with Stefan, to try to stop prying. She knows how to kill me, and although I don't think she wants to, it's always better not to give her

any reasons to want to, considering I couldn't kill her.

I finally followed them inside the house, after she glared at me, her eyes burning violet like they usually did, when she was angry. The violet specks in her eyes were what drew me to her

when I first saw her. And the golden light too.

At first, she had wanted me. I could tell that. She'd let me compel her, or pretended to be compelled. She was only compelled if she wanted too, and she was strong. Physically, not much,

but if you tried to stab her with a knife, it wouldn't kill her.

When I finally crossed the doorway, she was leaning against Stefan's shoulder in a chair. I sat across from them and she glared at me, again.

Stefan was staring out the window at…nothing. He was distracted. She gazed at him and then she said, very gently "Stefan." And he had jumped, startled.

"Are you okay?" Arriane asked him, softly. She looked at me, and there was no anger on her eyes at all now. She looked worried.

Stefan touched his forehead. "Um…my head hurts and I'm feeling dizzy…"

She moved closer to his face, and reached into her pocket. A pocket knife. She made a small cut on her wrist, and pulled it to his lips.

He sucked and sucked and then I decided to stop him…I knew he had enough, when I saw Arriane's face growing paler. That never really happened, unless someone took too much.

I sighed and neither one of them noticed. I wanted to be alone with her anyway, I thought, and started to make Stefan fall asleep, very subtly, to make him think he wanted to.

"I'm really tired." He told Arriane, pulling her wrist away from his lips carefully. I frowned. I hadn't done that. "Are you going to be okay with him?" Stefan asked, and his eyes flickered to

me.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." She smiled reassuringly at him. Then she patted her lap, where she had put a pillow. "Come here."

Stefan was asleep few seconds later, on Arriane's lap, and she was playing with a lock of his hair distractedly, gazing dreamily at his face. Then, I snapped my fingers and her face

snapped up.

At first, Arriane looked angry for the interruption, and then her face went all soft-looking.

"What are you up to with Klaus?" She asked me, curtly. I could feel her hold on me right away.

It wasn't compelling or manipulative. She wasn't aware of it most of the time. That's what made most of us weaker. Her energy. I didn't feel it much anymore, because I was used to it.

But now, she was so intent on finding out, that it was actually starting to draw me to her.

I walked across the room, closer to her. Arriane wrapped her arms around Stefan in protectiveness.

"I won't hurt him." I said to her. "Here, you need some blood." I bit my wrist and held it out to her.

She grabbed it and I felt her light grip, while she drank.

I suppressed the urge to feed on her. Firstly because she didn't want me to, and it wouldn't be as good if she was unwilling. Second because…I didn't want this again. It had been a really

long time since I was with her. Probably when Katerina was turning the Salvatore brothers into vampires. We were in England.

I realized dazedly that I was brushing her earlobe carefully with my finger tips and after a while she looked up at me. And pulled my wrist away, drawing her finger across the cut and

healing the wound as she did so.

"How is everything, you know, with Klaus?" She said, and looked at Stefan, then up at me.

"I don't want to help Klaus." I said, sternly. "He's losing it. He wants to take revenge on everyone."

"Everyone who?" I grimaced when she asked that. I didn't want her to. She could always see through every word I said, without even trying.

"Damon, Rose, Stefan…Elena, Katherine…me, once he finds out what I'm doing."

Arriane was silent, really quiet, and I could tell she was thinking about something.

I tried to reach into her mind. She had my blood recently, and that would help.

I started to pick up on what she was thinking, when suddenly I couldn't. She didn't want me to, I realized, puzzled.

"Let's kill him." She said simply and smiled. I looked up at Arriane, and studied her face.


Elena

Damon and I were sitting at the kitchen table. I was chewing my waffle, and Damon was watching me, playing of a lock of my hair, distracted.

Surprisingly, Damon knew how to make a waffle. His waffle was quite tasty. I didn't need food or anything, but sometimes I liked to eat. Some things still tasted nice to me, despite my

thirst for blood.

"Your waffle is really good." I said and smiled warmly at Damon. He smiled back, but he still looked distracted. Worried-distracted, not just distracted.

I wondered if he could tell I felt guilty. If he knew about what I had done last night. I felt a cold chill through my back and shivered.

Or maybe he's just worried about Stefan and Arriane, I thought, trying to comfort myself. It's already 3PM and they're still not back, to wherever they went off to. Her car wasn't here, but I

couldn't remember having heard them going out.

"What's wrong?" I asked him, when the silence started making me anxious.

"Nothing. Just…Stefan is gone." Damon looked up at me and bit his lip. Then I felt his blue eyes searching my face. Different from the way he usually looked at me. I could practically feel the

suspicion beneath his perfect face. I felt a chill and suppressed it.

"What happened last night?" He asked, his blue eyes looking bright and almost hungry.

"Nothing much." I said, uncomfortably. "Stefan and I fought. That's all."


Damon

I watched Elena's face. She looked anxious and to me, that meant she was lying. She looked away from my face and started fidgeting nervously.

"What really happened last night?" I asked her, pulling closer to her over the table.

"I don't want to talk about it." She said softly, and hugged herself, shivering. I nearly moved closer to her and wrapped my arms around her to comfort her. I wanted to, but I had to know.

"Is about that you and Caroline were talking about?" I asked, my eyes flashing sideways at her.

I grabbed my phone from my pocket and dialed Stefan. She wouldn't tell me, then Stefan would.

"Damon…" She said, standing up as I moved to the doorway.

"What, Elena?" I said, turning around, annoyed. "If you are that big on trust in relationships, then please tell me what you and Stefan were doing. Because if you don't, he will."

"And…" I swallowed, not wanting to say this, no matter what. "Depending on what that is, we might be…done. Over." I said, forcing the words out, because even though I didn't want

that, it was true. I ran out the door right then, after seeing her face, the hurt look, and the way her eyes started filling up with tears. And nearly crashed into Rose in the doorway.

"Hi." She said, smiling brightly. She was holding two paper bags, one in each hand.

"What do you want?" I said gruffly, passing her and moving through the grass, toward the bridge.

"That's not exactly the kind of greeting I expected." She said, and I heard her drop one of the bags on the door. "I just wanted to ask if I could spend Christmas with you and your brother.

And I also brought you some donuts." She was standing next to me now, holding out a bag.

"Don't feel like eating. Having a rough day…" I looked up at Rose. "You could try Stefan, I suppose, but I think he's out…with his girlfriend."

"Elena?" She asked, brightening.

"No…Elena's my girlfriend now. Stefan's dating Arriane." I rolled my eyes, smiling. "You should get updated at some point."

"Right…who's Arriane?" Rose asked me.

"I'll tell you…if you get some information on something for me." I looked up at her.

"What would that be?" She asked, her face turning dark with suspicion.

"Nothing too hard…Elena's keeping something from me, and I want you to find out what that is."

"Okay. I'll do it." Rose looked up. "So…what is it I'm looking for?"

"Something happened between Elena and Stefan last night. That's what I want to know."

"Why don't you just ask Stefan?"

"He's not picking up his phone. He's so different. You won't recognize him when you see him."

"Hm…strange."

"Yup." I said, nodding. "So, let's go to the Grill. I need a drink and Elena's at the house."

She looked at me, puzzled. "Which means, I don't want to be there." I said, pointedly.

"Right." Rose said. "Let's go. I'll buy you a drink." She pushed her arm through mine and we crossed the bridge. Then I noticed the ring.

"You've gotten yourself a ring?" I asked, lifting her hand so I could examine it.

"It was a present." She said, and pulled her hand away from mine, back inside my arm. I smiled as we kept walking toward town.


Elena

I called Damon on his phone thirty minutes after he left. I walked to door and threw it open. And looked down…to find a brown paper bag on the floor in front of the door. With donuts in

it…hm, they smelled amazing.

I grabbed the bag and pulled the door closed. I grabbed a donut and shoved it into my mouth. Then I stood over Damon's bar and grabbed his bottle of whiskey. I swallowed it, drinking

straight from the bottle. The only thing that would keep me from crying today was drinking all afternoon.

I just sat in the couch, stuffing all the donuts into my mouth and drinking Damon's whiskey. After eating five donuts, I was still hungry. I grabbed the bottle from my side and went

downstairs to the basement to get myself a blood bag from Damon's fridge.

I took the blood bag back upstairs and just sat drinking it slowly. I had thought Stefan would be the one to take them everyone from me. He hadn't. I had. I sighed, and went on sucking.


Elijah

Arriane was sleeping on the couch, next to a sleeping Stefan. They were in each others' arms, and they shifted, almost as if they were synchronized.

Then Stefan stirred and groaned, in pain and annoyance. He was dreaming. I pushed my mind into his to see what he was dreaming about.

Clouds, deep clouds in the sky…behind the boardinghouse. Thunder. And then, all of a sudden, rain. He was kissing Arriane, and pushing her into a wall. Then he made it for her throat and

she groaned in pleasure. She clutched his shoulders closer to her and groaned.

And then, Stefan gasped. He pulled away from Arriane, and she stared at him with wide eyes. There was blood on his t-shirt. Suddenly, I snapped out of Stefan's head as Arriane woke-up

gasping. She just stood, panting slightly, her fingers on Stefan's forearms.

She looked at me, and she really looked scared. Then her eyes moved to Stefan. His chest was bleeding. She reached for him and shook his body. "Stefan!" She shouted, and he didn't

twitch.

I moved closer to try to help her. "Arriane, get out of the way." I said, pushing past her and opening Stefan's t-shirt. Just like the one he had in the dream. There was a huge wound, and

blood was pooling up on Stefan's stomach. Arriane went to stand by Stefan's face.

She was going for her pocket knife, when her wrist cut by itself. She gasped. I stood and bit my own wrist, pulling it to Stefan's lips. I knew it wasn't as good as Arriane's, the real stuff, but

it would have to do for now.

Stefan groaned and then choked, and turned to the floor and threw up a fountain of blood. Arriane went to help him. He was shaking and he looked alarmed. He didn't seem to notice his

wound.

"He hurt you. Why did he hurt you?" Stefan gasped, and looked at his stomach.

Arriane's blood was dropping to the floor and I was having a hard time looking at it, as I felt hunger hitting me. My jaw started to ached steadily and I stood up from my crouch on the floor.

Arriane looked at me. "There's blood in the fridge."

I looked at Stefan, expecting him to look at her. He didn't. Then I realize her thought had been projected into my head, not spoken out loud. I threw the fridge open angrily, as I watched

Stefan drinking from her wrist.

She helped him to the couch and I could tell he was breathless. He looked ragged and the hole on his stomach wasn't closed yet. Then I saw what it was. A stake, a perfect shape of a

stake on his stomach. I flinched from just looking at it and sucked the blood bag, until there was nothing left. Then I grabbed another one and kept drinking it, thinking about Arriane and

me, in the past.

Our trip to New York. How I lost her there, ninety years back. And I didn't lose her like you lose a pocket watch. I lost her forever.

And when she looked up at me now and smiled sweetly, I just wished I could be with her again. Then I found myself fumbling inside me for the switch. Then something came to mind.

Something Klaus told me once.

"There's not such a thing as a switch to turn off. We fool ourselves so well, we start believing that there is, and that's what makes us feel better."

I felt a wave of panic when I remembered that, but then I found the switch and turned it off. And stared coldly at Arriane and Stefan, laughing in the living room. Deep down, I knew I was

fooling myself, but there was nothing else. I would rather fool myself than to hurt over someone who didn't want me at all. Arriane had been in love with me a long time ago, but it

wouldn't come back. I had lost her for good and that's what she told me, back then.

"We don't belong together. I'm done with you. What you did…or tried to do, I hate you for it. Don't come for me, ever again. You've really lost me forever this time, and I never want to see

you again." Then she turned around and disappeared. I hadn't seen her since then, but she still looked the same. And I wished, for a moment that she would want me. Then I realized that

what Klaus said was truth; there's no such thing as switch.

I walked to the living room and toward the front door. Arriane looked up from her fingers, which were locked with Stefan's, her blue nail polish halfway out.

"Where are you going?" She asked me softly. Then I felt the brush of her mind on mine, and I knew I couldn't keep her out, even if I tried to, especially with my blood inside her, so I just

gave up.

I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm so sorry.

I just went on walking forward, toward the edge of the mountain. Then I disappeared, in a blur, feeling the heavy weight of heartbreak. I didn't want to see her again, ever.

But…still, I wished she would call for me. Ask my help to kill Klaus. I wanted to, one way or another. Even if it would get me killed, even if I had to protect Stefan, I would do anything to be

with her. I was screwed and I would never recover from this, even if I made it out and lived thousands of years without seeing her. She would always come around at some point and I

would feel the same way. I sighed and just kept running, to forget that today had ever happened.