Rate M for language and sexual contents.


Chapter 7:

"In the Dark"


It had become clear for Elena that getting the Salvatore boys to sit down and have a 'normal' and civilized conversation with each other with the house's furniture remained in their original forms was almost the impossible task. Stefan had developed the habit of breaking or tossing anything within his hand reach whenever Damon was in sight.

"You keep going at this rate, we will no longer have any thing to hold food or drink in." Elena shook her head.

Damon had just popped in the kitchen before rolling his eyes and retreating back out when his brother grumbled and slammed his coffee mug in the sink.

It was surprising to see how Stefan had been getting more and more violent and somewhat unpredictable in a almost scary way. He broke things, he raised his voice often, he snapped easily at the most miniscule thing, he either walked away angrily or grabbed Elena and shook her until she yelped whenever she tried to speak him into mending his relationship with Damon. And sometimes he just disappeared from the house, coming back late at night, drunk out of his mind. Some other times he just locke himself in his room and refused to talk to anyone. Katherine had left the house for over a week and to say Stefan was coping well would be the overstatement of the century.

"You don't get it! Do not let him fool you! Deceiving is his middle name! I thought you were smarter than that!" Stefan yelled and Elena was in shock yet again. She kept getting shocked every time at how Stefan would verbalize and make it clear how low he thought of his brother in front of her.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you." Stefan shook his head and rubbed up and down her shoulders in an effort of apologizing.

It had become the routine. He would lose it and go nuts, yelling until his face turned red, his voice turned grasp and then apologized. It was like a battle between his alter egos. A battle of Stefan trying to keep control of his angst, to be able to pull off his well-adjusted suit despite the boiling anger inside.

The way Damon handled this wasn't any better. If Stefan was too hot-headed, too out of control then, Damon was too cool, too nonchalant and acted like everything was under control.

"Leave it a few … weeks, give or take. He'll cool off after enough brooding." Damon shrugged.

"I don't get it." She sighed, glaring at him when he tried to kiss her. He was so good with distraction, she noticed a little too late. "You two are blood brothers and you clearly care for each other and …"

"I'm sure Stefan cares for me enough to try an stab me with everything that has a sharp end these days." He pouted, giving up trying to get to her lips, instead wandering his hands to the exposed skin above the waistband of her jeans.

"You make it sound like you don't care." She swallowed, pried his hands away when her skin started tingling and her breathing got uneven. She needed more than 3 minutes of conversation to get through his stubborn head. "You got him out of that bar fight without a hint of hesitation. You were mad at those guys that were hurting your brother."

It was true. They got a phone call from Ric at the end of the night, frantically telling them Stefan was in a brutal bar fight with some locals and refused to be helped. When Damon got there, Stefan was both drunk and smashed beyond consciousness. And Elena got to see Damon really fight, not like the way he ducked and avoided Stefan's strikes at him last time. He came in quickly and precisely in every moves and knocked down a tall buffy guy with a right hook. The other two hesitated but when Damon turned around, the look in his ice-cold eyes turned their intention of fighting back off.

"I was only trying to look tough in front of my girl." He purred, sticking his nose to the back of her ears and pressing his lips on the tender skin of hers there.

Maybe it wasn't a very good idea to have a conversation with him on her bed.

But anyway, where was she? … Oh. The other night, before Ric's call, Damon and she were on a date. A real date. She smiled at the reminder of it. He took her to a cozy restaurant just on the outside of the town then literally swept her off her feet on the dance floor in a slow dance.

"You're a real charm." She spoke softly into the crook of his shoulder when he swayed her to the melodic music. "When you're not a jerk."

He chuckled, held her a little tighter only to pull her away, tipped her back with his hand on her lower back.

"Pretending I didn't hear the later half." He grinned before placing a sweet kiss on her lips.

She could hear awws and jealous chuckles of the girls around her. And she had the biggest and silliest smile on her face the whole evening in his arms.

But… that was not the point. Elena shook the silly grin off of her face and forced her mind to get back to reality, to her conversation with Damon at the moment and to the fact that his hot breath on her neck and his legs intertwined between hers was giving her a hard time to think.

Back to the story, when they were about to leave, Ric called and the night ended up with Damon carried his drunk and beaten up brother home. Damon never said a word the moment he saw Stefan. But Elena remembered clearly the anger she saw in his eyes when they got into the bar and saw Stefan being pushed around the big guys, the emotionless deadly look on his face when he fought those guys off of his brother and though he put back his cool façade on the drive home, his silence and rigid posture told her he was upset and worried for the incoherent Stefan on the backseat.

"Promise me you won't give up on this." She pushed him back a little to look into his eyes. She was trying to look stern but her gaze softened the moment it locked with his.

"I will need a lot of encouragement, motivation and promising rewards." He made that cheeky dance with his eyebrows again, snaking his hands around her waist and squeezed. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious." She brought a hand to his cheek and traced the flush on his skin with the tips of her fingers.

There she did it again. Damon gave himself a mental slap. He should never ever let her know that she only needed to look at him sincerely like that, touch him gently and lovingly like that then he would be willing to do whatever it was that she wanted him to. He would be screwed, if he wasn't already. If it wasn't for her, no way in hell he let Stefan acted out on him like a spoilt kid, throwing stuff around, trashing the house like he had been doing. He would just punch the sense out of his little spoilt brother. No mama or papa around to spank him for beating his little brother any more so why the hell not?

"Alright! I can't promise it will work but I will try" He let the victory smile broke out on her face for a second before continuing "not to kick Stefan's ass too hard."

He laughed when her face comically fell.

"Come on! You're not seriously mad. It was a joke." He hoisted himself up on his elbow when she pulled back and turned her back to him.

"Well, I am. It's not funny. What you did was wrong to him. You should understand that nothing is more important than family bond." Her voice was muffled from the pillow.

Now Damon felt like really slapped himself across the head. He knew all along why she was so into this mending his brotherhood with Stefan. She had none and it would hurt her twice to see Damon wasted what he was having.

"Ok. No jokes. I'll try to talk to him again, when he's not armed with any dangerous houseware." He said it while running a finger on her back. "Does that sound good enough for you, Captain Serious?"

"I believe it when I see it." She half turned back, just to give him a glare.

"Have I told you I love it when you get mad? You get feisty and snipy and … sexy!" He turned her around and placed himself above her. In fact, he was getting giddy inside. All of this was new to him. He was never in a relationship. He had never tried to get a girl to not get mad at him or do get mad at him just because she looked freaking cute doing it. Usually he just initiated angry sex if a girl was in a foul mood. Usually he just showed them the way to the front door in the morning, he didn't do cuddling and pillow talk. He never got his emotion tied to a girl this much before. Everything she did or didn't do, it affected him just as much.

"That's not a compliment!" She frowned.

"Oh that is a compliment of the highest order, babe." He grinned, running his fingers through her hair to lift her face to his. She sighed in the kiss, happily welcome his lips on hers. She could kiss him all day and still want more. What did she say about him being so good at distraction?

She missed Damon all day. Actually she missed him the moment they parted from their little happy bubble and got back to the real world. As much as she wanted to flaunt her happiness with Damon to the world, she couldn't. Stefan refused to talk to her for 4 days straight when he caught her laughing and snuggling up to Damon watching a silly chick flick.

"You say you are my friend. How can you be my friend when you are on his side in this, Elena?" He bit back when she pulled him aside and demanded him to talk.

"I'm not picking sides." She sighed.

"Are you dating him?" Stefan asked and by the way he asked, she knew he wanted to hear only one answer.

"Does it really matter?" She frowned, getting slightly annoyed. She cared about Stefan, he was a good guy but she didn't like being pushed around.

"It does if you still want us to be friends. For now, I can't talk to you if you're with him. It's already enough that I lost her to him."

She stood speechlessly after Stefan had walked away. She really couldn't believe that Stefan just asked her to choose between the two of them.

So she baked an oven of cupcakes, stirred a bourbon with rocks and brought it to Damon when he came home. It didn't help. His eyes bugged out when she told him she wanted to keep their being together a secret, because of Stefan. After that first reaction, he turned quiet, too quiet. And she already could read hurt, insecurities and doubts in his eyes. And it made her feel guilty and heart-wrenching to even bring this up to him.

"I'm not ashamed of us." She sighed, taking both of his hands in hers. "But Stefan needs a friend right now and I promised to be there for him just like he was for me before."

Damon bit back a snarky comeback that was already on the tip of his tongue.

"Fine. Do whatever you need to." He finally said, his voice soft and light though his jaw was still tight and his eyes lacking its usual wittiness.

"I made you your favorite drink and some cupcakes." She smiled shyly, bring her hands around his neck while she sat herself on his lap.

"This is bribery." He sipped on his drink while glaring at her over the glass.

"I'm sorry, Damon." She sighed, pressing her cheeks against his.

He rolled his eyes and kept his gaze on the ceiling, refused to let his arms wrap around her. At least he could muster some control over his body to let her know how upset he was with this whole ridiculously secrecy thing just for the sake of his brother's mental state. This was how it would always turn out. He got fucked up and screw with all the time. People would just assume that he could deal with it so they didn't bother question if he was feeling ok or feeling like killing himself. But the moment Stefan got a little shaken, heaven cried and all hell broke loose. All the girls would went soft and fuzzy on his brooding emotionally sensitive little brother. Damn it. He should just get up and grab Ric out to have a few more drinks. The more he thought about it, the worse he felt.

His silence almost broke her into tears. She clung to him tighter, desperately wanting him to know how much he meant to her and that she didn't want to hurt him ever.

"You know how I feel about you. That doesn't change whether people know about it or not." She pressed her face into the collar of his shirt, inhaling his scent.

No I don't know. Please do tell how you feel about me.

He swallowed. What would he expect to hear? That she loved him? If she did tell that how would it feel? If she didn't then …

Shit.

Elena sat up when her touches went unresponsive on him. She sighed, maybe he needed time alone or maybe he just didn't want her there that moment.

His hands automatically went to catch her when she pulled away.

"You can't buy me with just cupcakes and my bourbon." He gave her a warning glare but his arms warmly took her in closer.

"How about some kisses?" She grinned, reliefed that he was holding her again.

"Sex sounds so much more justified." He raised his brows.

"This is bribery. Shamelessly." She glared but her cheeks blushed to a bright pink.

"So am I getting those kisses or not?" He chuckled. As much as he wanted her, sex was her call to make. Shocking news, Damon wouldn't seduce a girl to bed with him. But then again, Elena was not just a girl.

She was surely more than happy to kiss him, to have his strong arms possessively around her and his soft lips moving on hers. When she tugged at the hair on his nape, pressing her warm body to his and sucked on his lower lip, he already knew he failed miserably at being mad at her.


If Stefan wanted to have sides, he should be happy to know that most people take his sides in this. And by most people, Elena meant Caroline.

"I can't believe it." The blond bit her lips. "I mean I know he enjoys whoring around, but brother's girlfriend? Not cool." She shook her head with a disgusted look on her face.

Elena sighed and decided to keep her mouth shut about her and Damon's so-called secret. She didn't need to hear Caroline telling her that she was crazy to be with Damon and what not to do with him.

"Wait. But you liked him right?" Caroline turned her eyes on Elena, squinting suspiciously.

Elena opened her mouth but not sure what to say. She didn't want to out loud deny it but confirm it would mean an hour of Caroline's lecture on how bad boy fetish is hot yet unhealthy.

"Oh well I'm sure hearing about his little affair with your sister is quite a turn off." She patted Elena's shoulder sympathetically.

"Um… yeah." Elena sighed, mumbled some approving words before excusing herself.

That moment she was glad that she kept them a secret. She wanted to enjoy these sweet and giddy feelings of being in a new relationship with a great guy without being objected or judged by anyone, especially her best friend. Turned out this was not for Stefan completely, she just realized part of keeping them under the radar was to protect their fragile blossoming relationship too.


Stefan fumbled with the keys and the lock of the front door for a good 10 minutes before he could get himself inside his own house. He hated it when people use alcohol as an excuse to avoid dealing with reality until he found it hard to deal with his own emotion soberly. He wobbly made his way to his room and leaped on his bed without bothering to turn on the lights.

"Stefan? You're drunk?"

He heard Elena's voice softly beside him.

"Elena?" He fought for his eyelids to lift up. "What are you doing here?"

"I know you always need someone to talk to." She said softly, running her palms on his back. "I know you miss her."

"I don't want to talk about it." He sighed when her hands soothed out the tension on his shoulders. Katherine hadn't been at the house since the fight he had with Damon over her breaking news. "I don't want to think about her."

"I understand." She traced her hands down his lower back, keeping up with the slight pressing and comforting sensation she had been making.

"It feels good." He relaxed, mumbled sleepily.

"Lay on your back." She smiled, stopped her hand.

And he drunkenly followed her words, craving the comfort of her hands again.

"Elena!" His eyes shot open and his mouth gaped when her hands landed on the zipper of his jeans, stroking and pressing slightly harder.

"Shhh." She purred, undid the button and slid her hands in.

"Elena …" He weakly protested

He shut up when her hands snaked inside his boxers. She pulled down his jeans and boxers in one go, freeing him to her.

"Stefan do you like me?" She breathed into his ears while her hands slid up and down his length.

"I do." He managed to choke out the words. "A lot."

He did. He liked her. He was angry with himself so many times because he found her attractive. Not just that, he was angry that he sometimes subconsciously thought of her as Katherine and therefore having so many inappropriate thoughts about her in his mind. It embarrassed him. It confused him.

"I like you too." She smiled, taking his other hand and guided it to between her legs.

He swallowed, she was soaking wet. He heard her shaky breath when his fingers pressed up against her outer lips. He slid a finger in after a moment of hesitation. His head was still light and buzzed but the heat and pressure of her clamping around him was real.

"Hmmp. Stefan…" She moaned, buckling her hips and he pumped into her steadily. "Hmm don't stop." Her breathing ragged, her hands tightened around his hard member.

The silence of his dark room was filled with their labored breathing, the sound of flesh on flesh. He was lost. His mind turned numbed with the booze and his body spent in her hands.

"Stefan." Suddenly she took his hands away from her and her hands left his. "Do you want me?"

She was hovering above him. He could feel the tip of his erection pressing into her hot skin. She plunged her hips down a little and he felt the wetness of her entrance nudging him.

"Yes." He said breathlessly, barely able to control himself.

"I was hoping you would say so." She smiled before guiding him into her.

She sat down on him until he filled her then she started swaying her hips back and forth, allowing as much contact between their crotches as possible. She drove him into insanity. He was still clad in his shirt. It was desperate and needy sex. It was just sex. And it was great. He came inside her after she sped up a few pace. She pressed herself to him and hummed a random tune until he fell into an exhausted and drunken slumber.

Stefan should haven known better, he should have known the moment he found her in his bed, it was not Elena. Katherine slid off the bed, sweaty and naked. She looked down at Stefan sleeping form while bringing a hand to her throbbing core. She was not satisfied. But it didn't matter, the goal tonight was not satisfaction, it was seduction and setting a delusion in his head. She did it, that she knew. She smiled, running her hands through her straighten hair before putting her nightgown back on. She walked quietly through the door into the hallway. The house was quiet. It was late. She stared at the door of Damon's bedroom. Oh had it been the time before, the better time when her annoying boring of a sister wasn't in the picture, she could just slip through that door, into that bed and under that rocking body and have her night and her body blown away. Good sex. Good time. She could try now. But it would ruin her plan, wouldn't it. She made up her mind. For now she wanted Damon. And she was good on her way to getting what she wanted.

Getting into Damon's room would be no fun. For now, he would just push her off anyway. Katherine pouted. So terrorizing his little kitten would be the alternative fun then. She smirked heading to her sister's bedroom on the other end of the hallway.

She knocked and waited, time for some sisterly chit chat.


You have no idea how big my writer block was on this story after last chapter. I wrote several versions of this 7th chap and this is the only one I'm ok with enough to upload.

I was about to put the Katherine/Elena conversation in this chapter too. But it didn't go with the flow when I read it back so this chappie ends here.

So! New chapter, love it or hate it?

Oh btw I kept re-reading your every reviews on the previous chaps and it was what kept me going on with this story. Thank each and everyone of you for that. :)

Much love.

xoxo