True to what she said to Damon, Elena was busy in the kitchen in the afternoon on Christmas. Bonnie sat at the island chopping up vegetables for a salad, and Stefan was working peeling potatoes and cutting them up into chunks so that they could be cooked and mashed later, while Elena checked the turkey in the oven. Caroline had been relegated to cookie-icing duty, as she could be trusted to do that without producing something inedible. In reality, her cooking skills weren't as bad as they all made them out to be, but she wasn't as good a chef as the rest of them and she was also perfectly content to let them do the work on the meals, so it worked out nicely. They'd all been at the house since earlier in the morning, as they did a gift exchange together since most of them didn't have a lot of family, especially in the area.
Elena closed the oven and turned around. "It's going to be another half an hour, probably. You guys go ahead and hang out in the living room. I'll finish all of this."
"Are you sure?" Stefan asked. She nodded, and something in her expression seemed to tell him that she didn't want to be argued with. "Come on, Care."
The pair of them left, while Bonnie paused on her way out of the room. "Are you okay?"
Elena had moved to the island to finish cutting up the potatoes, and she glanced at Bonnie. "Yeah, fine."
"Is this about Jer?" Bonnie asked.
Elena kept her gaze trained on the cutting board. "I was just hoping that he'd be home, that's all. I haven't seen him since the summer, and talking to him on the phone is all well and good, but it's not the same." She looked up at Bonnie and smiled slightly, her eyes sad. "Go be with Stefan and Caroline. I'll be fine. I just need a few minutes."
Bonnie looked at her for a moment and then nodded. "Let me know if you need anything, El."
Elena nodded once, and Bonnie smiled at her before leaving the kitchen. As she chopped the potatoes, Elena could hear bits of conversation drifting in from the living room. The brief phrases that she caught were coupled with the Christmas music playing over her speakers, and the noise was a nice soundtrack for the atmosphere in the house. It was quiet without being silent, and Elena hummed along to "White Christmas" as it played, her mind settling despite the hole left by Jeremy's absence.
After a few minutes, the doorbell rang, and a smile spread across Elena's face despite her attempts to stop it. She set down her knife and made her way out of the kitchen to the front door. When she opened it, she saw Damon standing there, snowflakes dusted in his dark hair and across the shoulders of his coat.
"You actually came," she said as she stepped aside to let him enter the house.
"I said I would, didn't I?" he asked. He took off his coat and opened the coat closet to get a hanger. "How many times did I tell you that I'd be here over the last week?"
"Plenty, but I still wasn't sure if you'd chicken out or not," Elena said. "Everyone's in the living room, if you want to join them, or you can hang out in the kitchen with me."
"They're making you do all the cooking?" Damon asked. "Assholes."
Elena laughed and shook her head. "No, they were helping until I kicked them out." The smile faded from her face. "I needed a few minutes to get over the fact that my brother couldn't be bothered to come home for Christmas."
Damon was quiet as he reached out to rest his hand on her shoulder for a moment in a comforting gesture. She smiled once more. Just as they started walking, Bonnie came into the hallway. She stopped abruptly when she saw who Elena was with, her eyes widening. Elena sighed internally and turned to Damon.
"Go ahead to the kitchen, I'll be there in a second," she said.
He nodded, and after a quick glance at Bonnie, made his way down the hall and disappeared into the kitchen. Once he was gone, Bonnie looked at Elena.
"What's he doing here?" Bonnie asked.
"I invited him," Elena said. Bonnie stared at her, and Elena sighed. "He was going to spend Christmas by himself, and I didn't want to let him do that. I know that he and Stefan have issues, and I know that all that you and Care know about Damon is what Stefan has said about him, but he's not as bad as you think. He's not bad at all, really. Just give him a chance, please."
Bonnie seemed to be searching Elena's face for something, and she nodded after a moment. "You're lucky that I'm the one who came out here instead of Caroline. I'll tell her and Stefan, but don't be surprised if this whole thing blows up in your face."
"It's my house, and if anyone is nasty to him, they can leave," Elena said. "I'm his only friend here, and I'm not going to let that happen."
"Okay," Bonnie said after a brief pause. "I'll make that clear to them."
"Thank you," Elena said. "Seriously, Bon, I think you guys will like him if you can just get over the stories that you've heard. He's got his moments, but he's pretty great."
"I'll keep that in mind," Bonnie said. A moment later, she smiled. "You should probably go join him before he thinks that I abducted you or something."
"Yeah, probably," Elena said, grinning. "I'll let you guys know when dinner is ready."
Bonnie went back into the living room as Elena made her way down the hall to the kitchen. It wasn't long before she heard the conversation in the living room increase in volume, and she winced.
Damon was watching her, and when he spoke, his expression was unreadable. "If my presence is going to cause problems, I can leave."
Elena shook her head. "You're not going anywhere. They'll get over it, and anyway, like I said to Bonnie, it's my house. If they want to stay, they're going to mind their manners." He was still looking at her with that indecipherable expression on his face, and she smiled. "I don't really care what they say, Damon. I want you here, and since it's my house, that's the only important thing." He didn't seem to have anything to say to that, and she resumed chopping potatoes before she said anything else. "I know I texted you about it already, but thanks again for what you did on Wednesday. I was up really late on Tuesday night and I didn't mean to fall asleep on you."
He smiled at that. "It's okay. Besides, you're cute when you sleep."
Her eyes widened, and she quickly turned her gaze back to the cutting board. "Nobody's ever said that to me before, but thanks, I guess."
"Anytime," he said. "Now tell me what I can do to help so that I'm not just standing here like an idiot."
"I don't know if I'd say that you're standing there like an idiot, but if you want to wash the beans, they're in the refrigerator," she said. "And the bread needs to be sliced up and put in the bread basket."
"I'm on it," he said. A moment later, he laughed. She turned around to see him staring at the area of the refrigerator side that was exposed above the counter. "How did I not see this before?"
She looked at it and smiled. The side of the refrigerator was covered in magnetic picture frames, each one loaded with pictures of Elena and Jeremy at various stages of their development, their parents, or other family members. Her mom had kept the display up, and Elena hadn't changed it since she moved home, so there were plenty of pictures of her when she was quite young. Her favorite was a picture taken by her aunt when she was only seven, which displayed Elena and Jeremy throwing leaves up into the air while their parents looked on. Her smile widened when her gaze turned to it, and when she looked at Damon a moment later, he had a broad grin on his face.
"You were adorable," he said. "Wow."
She reached out to shove his shoulder, attempting to fix a stern expression on her face. When she failed miserably, she began to laugh. "Make yourself useful and clean the damn beans instead of gawking at pictures of me when I was still sweet and innocent."
He muttered something under his breath, and when she raised her eyebrows, he grinned at her. "Don't worry about it. I've got it covered."
"Yeah, I'm sure you do," she said as she turned back to her cutting board.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.
"Whatever you want it to mean," she said.
For a while, the only sounds in the kitchen was the water running in the sink, the occasional thud of Elena's knife as it met the cutting board, the radio, and the conversation drifting in from the living room. Eventually, Damon started to regale Elena with a story about Christmas when he was five, and when Bonnie, Caroline, and Stefan entered the kitchen, Elena was laughing and Damon had a smile on his face. His face closed off when they walked in, and Elena's laughter quieted as she looked at her friends.
"Everything okay?" Elena asked.
"Fine, we just got bored in the living room and decided to come back in here," Bonnie said. "It's nice to see you again, Damon."
His voice was even as he responded. "You too." He picked up the loaf of bread and the basket that sat beside them and carried them over next to Elena.
"I guess I'm going to finish icing the cookies, then," Caroline said as she sat down at the island. Elena looked at her and she shrugged. "What? It needs to be done before dinner, and the two of you are busy, so..."
"You're lucky that you've got Damon helping you, Elena," Stefan said. "He's a better cook than I am."
Elena's eyes widened, and she turned to look at Damon, who had begun to slide the bread and place the pieces into the fabric-lined basket. "You cook?"
"Had to," he said. "I've been on my own for a while, and I used to help my mom out in the kitchen when I was younger. I couldn't do much of anything, really, but I picked some things up along the way."
"Get him to cook for you one day," Stefan said. "I always used to tell him that he should open a restaurant, but he wouldn't listen to me."
"I don't know if I could see Damon as a chef," Elena said as she glanced at the elder Salvatore. "That just doesn't mesh with the image at all."
Damon nudged her hip with his. "What, you couldn't see me running a kitchen? What should I be doing, then?"
"I don't know," she said, grinning at him. "You seem to enjoy keeping me from being bored, so maybe that should become your full-time job."
He wrinkled his nose. "I think I'd go insane if I spent that much time around you. You're a little crazy."
Her eyes widened, and she whacked his shoulder gently. "You're worse than I am, so don't even start with me. If anyone's going to go crazy from overexposure, it's going to be me."
"Keep telling yourself that, Lena," Damon said as he put a few more pieces of bread into the basket. "If you have to lie to yourself in order to sleep at night, you can go ahead. I don't have that problem."
"Yeah, I'm sure you don't," she said. She glanced at her friends to see that they were all staring at her, wide-eyed. "What? You guys look like deer in headlights."
There was a flurry of activity as Caroline resumed icing cookies and Stefan and Bonnie pretended to be engaged in conversation. Elena looked at Damon and rolled her eyes. He offered her a half-smile and went back to slicing the bread. Elena carried the potatoes over to the stove and deposited them into a pot of water. Once that was done, she turned to Bonnie.
"Bon, check the turkey for me, would you?" she asked. "It should be just about done, but it's going to need to sit for a little while before we eat anyway."
Bonnie nodded. As Elena had guessed, the turkey was done, and the twenty minutes that followed its removal from the oven were busy as gravy was made, the salad was put together, and the potatoes were mashed. Damon carried the turkey into the dining room for Elena while she brought in the potatoes, and the other three carried a dish or two in as well. They settled themselves around the table as Elena carved the turkey, and the combination of food, friends, music, and decorations made her smile to herself as she dished out the meat.
It had taken her until the solstice to actually put up her tree and decorate the house. She'd been putting it off in the hopes that Jeremy would return home and help her, but when he didn't, she'd resigned herself to doing it on her own. Part of her had been tempted to call Damon and ask him if he wanted to help, but she'd stopped herself at the last second. He was her friend, and a new one at that. She could justify inviting him for Christmas with not wanting him to be alone, but there was no real reason for her to invite him over to help with the decorating. Maybe if he were still around the following year...
She forced her thoughts to the present as she put turkey on her own plate and sat down. Dishes were passed around, and once everyone had a full plate of food in front of them, they began to eat. It wasn't long before they fell into a comfortable rhythm in their conversation, though Elena noticed that Damon didn't say much to anyone but her. When he spoke, it was usually directed towards her or a very general question that anyone could answer. He seemed to be avoiding directly addressing anyone else, though he eventually began to direct the occasional statement towards Caroline and Bonnie. Stefan, on the other hand, he all but ignored. Despite that, they were able to have a full conversation over the meal, and while Elena didn't want to jump to conclusions, she felt it was safe to say that Bonnie was warming up to Damon, and Caroline might have been as well, though that was a little more difficult to judge.
After dinner, Damon helped Elena clean up all of the dishes, make coffee, and get out all of the cookies and other desserts that she'd made, and then everyone moved into the living room. Caroline and Stefan took the couch, while Bonnie took the armchair. That left the loveseat for Damon and Elena. His arm laid along the back of the couch, and she tucked her feet up under her before she relaxed, her shoulder coming in contact with his side. He made no attempts to move, and she didn't either, content to just sit there with him as she drank her coffee.
"When do you go to New York next, El?" Bonnie asked after a few minutes of silence.
Elena made a face. "I'm supposed to go in March for that annual dinner that we always have, but if I don't get something in soon, I don't know if I'm going to be attending that."
"I'm telling you, talk to Tyler," Caroline said. "He'll help you figure it out. This happens to practically everyone at some point in their career when they're in your field. Don't stress about it too much."
"It was a lot easier for me to tell myself to do that when I wasn't less than a week short of a deadline with absolutely nothing to offer up," Elena said. She shook her head after a moment. "Can we not talk about this right now? It's Christmas, and I don't really feel like stressing myself out talking about work. It's never done me any good before, and I doubt it's going to now." She looked at Caroline. "I take it you want to go up to the boarding house on Saturday so that we can decorate?"
Caroline nodded. "I was thinking we could go up there at about ten and get a head start on the decorating, and then we can have some lunch before we finish." She turned her gaze to Damon, who was drinking his coffee and looking at the fire. "You should join us, Damon. We can use all the help that we can get."
Damon turned to look at her. "I'm sorry, what?"
Elena had to keep herself from laughing. She knew he'd zoned out, since their conversation was one that he would likely file under the "boring" category. "She was saying that you should join us in decorating the boarding house for New Year's," Elena said. "For that matter, you should join us on New Year's too. It wouldn't be right for you to help decorate and then not be there to enjoy it."
"She's right," Bonnie said. "You should come, Damon. It'll be fun."
Damon looked at each of them in turn, only for his gaze to linger on Elena. She nodded once, and he shrugged after a moment. "I don't see why not."
Elena smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder. She froze a moment later when she realized what she'd done, but when all he did was shift his arm so that it laid more comfortably across her shoulders, she relaxed, her hands wrapping around her mug as she turned her gaze to the fire. There was no need for her to turn for her to know that Caroline and Bonnie were staring at her, and that Stefan probably was as well. It didn't matter what they thought, really. As long as Damon was okay with it, she wasn't going to worry about what anyone else was saying. Their friendship was—well, it was whatever it was—and that was their business, not anyone else's.
After a while, she turned to look at her friends. Caroline was tucked against Stefan's side, her eyes closed, while Bonnie was holding her mug in both hands and staring at the fire. Elena stayed where she was until she finished her coffee, at which point she sat up and arched her back, stretching her arms over her head.
"I'm going to go make more coffee if anybody wants some," she said. "Decaf, though, so that we can all sleep tonight."
"Another cup for me, please," Bonnie said.
"I'd love a cup too," Damon said.
"Put me down for one as well," Stefan said.
"So all of us except for Caroline," Elena said. "Got it. Care, do you want some tea or something?"
Caroline's eyes were still closed when she responded. "No, I'm good. Sleepy."
Elena laughed softly as she stood up. She paused in the doorway to look at everyone. They'd returned to their earlier positions, with the exception of Damon, who was staring at his empty mug, an unreadable expression on his face. Elena watched him for a moment before she shook her head and made her way down the hall to the kitchen.
She was in the middle of filling the kettle when somebody said her name. When she turned to see who it was, she all but dropped the kettle, and she set it carefully on the counter before she launched herself into the arms of the young man who stood just inside the doorway to the kitchen.
"You asshole!" she said when she stepped back. She punched his shoulder. "You could've told me that you were coming home, Jer. I would've kept a plate warm for you."
"I can eat leftovers," he said, grinning at her. "Did you really miss me that much?"
"Of course I did, you idiot," she said, pulling him into another hug. "You're my brother and I haven't seen you in months. What did you think was going to happen?"
"I was expecting a little more yelling and a little less hugging," he said when she pulled away. "Everyone here?"
She nodded. "Yeah, they're all in the living room, but Jer—"
"Is everything okay in here?"
She turned to see Damon, who stood just behind Jeremy. Bonnie, Caroline, and Stefan were visible just behind him. Jeremy turned as well, and his eyes widened.
Elena bit her lip. "Damon, this is my brother Jeremy. Jer, this is—"
Jeremy cut her off. "Damon Salvatore?" He looked over Damon's shoulder at Stefan. "Why didn't you tell me that your brother is the Damon Salvatore?"
"I'm sorry, what?" Elena asked.
"He played for Blackburn for his first five years in the Premier League, and then he was traded to Arsenal in 2008 after Thierry Henry left for Barcelona," Jeremy said. "I figured it was just a coincidence that he and Stefan had the same last name, because I didn't think that they would actually be related." He held out his hand. "It's so awesome to meet you. I'm really sorry about your accident, man. That sucks."
Damon shook Jeremy's hand, a tight-lipped smile on his face. "Thank you."
Elena looked at him, and then at her brother, who was staring at Damon like he'd just seen a god. She smiled slightly. "Jer, why don't you guys go back into the living room. I'm sure Bonnie would appreciate the chance to see you."
Jeremy's eyes lit up at the mention of his girlfriend. "Yeah, let's do that." He stepped around Damon to kiss Bonnie and take her hand, and Stefan and Caroline followed the pair of them out of the kitchen.
Once they were gone, Elena crossed her arms and leaned back against the island, her gaze locked on Damon. "So, Blackburn and Arsenal, huh? I knew I'd seen you somewhere before, but I wrote it off as you being Stefan's brother. Now I know that it's because of all those games that Jer used to make me watch."
Damon's eyes widened. "You saw me play?"
"More times than I probably wanted to, yeah," Elena said. "Were you ever going to mention that little detail, or..."
He sighed. "I would have said something eventually, Elena, I promise. The whole thing is just complicated, and I couldn't—"
"What's complicated about saying that you played in the Premier League?" Elena asked. "I would've understood."
He reached out and took her hands. That forced her to uncross her arms, and he pulled her so that she stood in front of him. He looked at her, searching for something, and after a moment, he nodded. "Look, I'll tell you about it eventually, I promise you that. It's not as simple as saying that I played for Arsenal, because there's a lot more going on than just a Premier League contract, and I—It's not easy for me to talk about it." He sighed again. "I'm going to go. You should catch up with your brother and enjoy your Christmas with your friends. Thank you for dinner." She stared at him, and he leaned in, his lips brushing gently over her cheek. "Merry Christmas, Elena."
With that, he released her hands and left the kitchen. She watched him go, her mind racing and the skin of her cheek burning where his mouth had touched it. After a few moments, she heard the sound of the front door opening and closing. He hadn't been kidding when he said that he was going to go, and somehow, her stomach sank with that realization.
She shook her head eventually and turned her attention to making coffee. When she entered the living room, Jeremy was telling Bonnie, Caroline, and Stefan all about his adventures in New York. He paused when he saw Elena.
"Where's Damon?" Jeremy asked as she set a tray with mugs on it down on the coffee table.
"He left," Elena said. "He had something that he needed to do."
She took her mug from the tray and settled herself on the loveseat again, turning her gaze to the fire. Jeremy seemed to get the hint that she didn't want to talk, and he resumed his story as Elena allowed her vision to be consumed by the dancing flames.
Professional soccer player, huh? Maybe the internet would have something to say about Damon Salvatore after all.
A/N:
Well, she knows something now. Not many specifics, but something. Gotta love Jer. Also, the kiss on the cheek at the end? I'm giving myself all of the emotions, I don't know about you guys.
I gave Damon to the Blackburn Rovers because they're Matt Smith's favorite team and Smithers was my favorite Doctor (shame about them being booted out of the Premier League though), and then to Arsenal because a) Thierry Henry is a fucking legend, and b) Arsenal is my brother's favorite team in the league. He'll never read this (there's no way in hell I'm telling him I'm writing fanfiction, let alone for TVD), but it's for him anyway.
I'm not going to lie, I'm only about three hundred words into chapter ten right now. Being back at school kills my motivation to write, but I think it'll get better tomorrow once I go home after classes. My parents are going to Arizona for five days so I'm on house/pet-sitting duty and will be commuting for the rest of the week, and I always seem to have more motivation to write when I'm in my own room with my cat and my candles and a whole kitchen of food at my disposal. I wasn't going to update until I finished that chapter, but you guys are so awesome about reviewing and I'm already having a shitty week, so I figured I might as well make somebody happy since I'm pretty much dying for the weekend.
Five and a half weeks, eight exams, three papers, and a few drafts of one short story to go. As of April 24th, I will be free until the end of August. I just have to keep breathing through it.
I hope you guys like the chapter, and I can't wait until we get to chapter nine, because I think it's safe to say that it's my favorite so far, though chapter ten might usurp that position once I finish it.
Peace and love x
~AC
