AN: Body horror trigger/ quick warning after the line "Are you okay?"
They coordinated that Elena would drive them after school. He pretends to be busy at his own locker, carefully letting down the cheerleader who asks if he wants a tour of Mystic Falls. He waits a few minutes, and then sees Stefan Salvatore walk by without looking at him.
"Elena. I need to talk to you." She hears, and she closes her locker abruptly.
"About what, Stefan? I don't want to talk to you. I am not Katherine and I'm not going to pretend to be her for you or Damon." She says and he shakes his head.
"There's something you need to know, Elena." He whispers urgently.
She can barely hear him, the other teenagers trying to get out of school can't hear him. She balances the risks. If it's important, she needs to know. But Stefan might be trying to tell her something she already knows.
"About what?" She asks. Stefan always danced around things when talking. She wants him to hurry up so she can text Elijah to meet her.
"Elijah's not human." He says and he expects her to react in shock or disbelief, to defend someone she barely knows.
"I know. What else?" She presses. She wonders if he knows, if he knows Elijah's a god and that she sold her soul.
"How did you-" He trails off. Elena is now seeking out danger and powerful supernatural beings. Stefan wonders if she likes danger, if she's oblivious, or if she's just a danger magnet for that. He wonders if Elijah told her or if she asked. He just doesn't want Elena end up dead in a ditch from playing games with more powerful supernatural beings.
"It's not important, just stay away from us. I know what I'm doing." She sold her soul for this. She knows what she did, she knows who she's passing notes to and giving smiles to. She needs Stefan to back off.
"Dating someone who's supernatural isn't a good idea for you." He tries to remind her of the one date they had before he told her he was a vampire.
"I am supernatural! And we are not dating, and even if we were, you do not get to tell me what to do. We went on one date, once, and after that your friend Lexi told me I was a Petrova doppelganger. We were done from that moment and you knew that. You and Damon have not, and never will, have sway or power over me. This is my life, Stefan. I'm doing what I want with it." Elena says and she sees someone walking towards them out of the corner of her eye. Elijah. Thank god. One ancient god of death, to be exact.
"Is everything okay?" Elijah asks, his voice quiet. Elena walks toward him and loops her arm in his, bag over her other shoulder.
"Yeah. It is. Let's go." She doesn't look back at Stefan, she just goes. She didn't mean to just grab Elijah, but she just wants to get away from Stefan.
He doesn't resist, and she knows with all of her mind, even the parts that are working over time and the parts that like to float away sometimes, Elijah is stronger. But he's letting her lead.
"Are you okay?" He carefully asks. Elena's been wounded enough in the past few days, he doesn't want to press too hard. He knows she can heal on her own, but he doesn't want to disturb anything that's healing. If she needs denial while things stitch up and get sorted, he's okay with that. If she needs him to talk or get coffee, anything. He's up for it. He just doesn't want to be the cause of her bleeding. Elijah doesn't want to be the one who makes her rip stitches.
He doesn't want her to be in pain, and especially not because of him.
He's only known her for a short time and she's already so endearing that he finds himself caring. He cares, but not because of the contract, his worry doesn't stem from that. Elena is a good person, and she is just that endearing. She's genuine, softhearted and strong.
"Not really. How much did you hear?" She asks, and he sees her shiver as they walk in the almost vacant parking lot, to her car. He takes off his jacket and hands it to her. She stops, and he stops a few steps behind.
"Don't you-" She trails off.
"Temperature doesn't affect me very much. And to answer your question, I heard all of it." He understood where her thoughts were going. Elena's a writer, but sometimes, she just doesn't know how to phrase things how she wants them. Especially questions. She carefully takes it and slips it on, zipping up the jacket as they begin walking again.
It's so kind. She's missed human kindness. She missed most genuine emotions. Stefan saying that Elijah wasn't human keeps trying to repeat itself in her brain, like the cd from hell. She wonders briefly, if hell is real. She silences the stupid repeated words and looks at Elijah.
"Sorry about that." She says as she unlocks her car. They're just a few feet away.
"Do you want me to do anything about that?" He asks. She shakes her head. Stefan and Damon are harmless. Mostly. She'll keep an eye on it.
He opens the passenger door and the next few minutes pass with getting out of the parking lot and out onto the street.
"Can we get coffee?" She asks, she needs something warm in her hands. She's not used to talking about what she needs or what she thinks will keep everything okay. But that fact slips out after she asks about coffee.
He nods, he tells her to do whatever she needs to do. He's just following what she wants to do.
She drives, and he listens to the songs she has playing in place of the radio.
She's better after she has a large coffee in her hands, and she admits that she probably won't finish all of it.
But they sit in her parked SUV, up by the falls. The heater is on a little, and she really doesn't need Elijah's jacket anymore but she keeps it on as she tries to explain her hard fall down the social ladder.
It all comes out, as she clutches the coffee cup in her hands, and really she doesn't mean to talk that much. She had no idea she had so much to say, but she remembers that she hasn't had anyone to really tell anything for a while.
She keeps talking, it keeps coming out. She talks about her parents, everything about them and how she's already starting to forget the little things. It's absolutely terrifying, she's already forgotten her father's laugh. She talks about her grief and how she doesn't know what to do about Jeremy. She hasn't brought it up to Jenna, but she resolves to do so as soon as possible.
She talks about her old friends and she talks about everything she can think of, and she only stops when her throat gets dry from talking too long. She takes a sip of coffee and finishes her unfinished sentence.
There's a moment of silence, even the music is quiet, it's in between songs on the CD at the moment.
Then she apologizes for basically just dumping all of that on him, and that she'll show him around Mystic Falls if he wants. He tells her not to apologize, that was a lot of information, but she wanted to tell him. He doesn't mind listening. Her phone beeps, and she looks at the message. It's a text from Jenna, and it's a lot later than she had previously thought. Jenna's asking if he wants to join them for dinner.
Elena asks, and he tells her he's up for it if she wants him there. She asks if he wants a tour of Mystic Falls another day. He tells her he doesn't need one, but if she wants to give one, he's certainly not going to object.
She nods, digesting the information. She warns him that Jenna's cooking is terrible and that they'll probably be eating take out or something that Jenna ordered from Mystic Grill. She also adds that everyone just shortens Mystic Grill to just the second word as she texts her aunt.
He tells her that he's ready when she is, and she takes her SUV out of park.
He begins to offer advice on what he can, and tries to make her feel better. She looks like she just took a lot of weight off her shoulders. It's not all okay, but it's out and he knows. She told someone.
Jenna is excited to see that Elena looks happy. She's going to ask her about Jeremy after dinner. They need to do an intervention before things get even worse. But she focuses on what's in front of her, and she tells them that she made dinner. Elena carefully points at the almost perfectly disposed evidence in the trash can when Jenna's back is turned.
They sit down, and Elena has already prepared him for everything she could think of involving her aunt. He's ready for the round of questions. He answers perfectly, and even compliments her on her cooking.
If he was boyfriend material, if he was human and she was perfectly normal, he would have passed Jenna's boyfriend test. But Jenna's grading him on the friendship test, and he passes that with flying colors. When dessert is over, Elena tells her aunt she'll drive Elijah home and be right back. She expects a little more resistance, she's going to be alone in a car with a very handsome and charming classmate. At least in Jenna's eyes, or so Elena had thought. Jenna tells her to drive safely and that she loves her wrapped in a temporary goodbye.
Elijah looks at Elena like she's a highly valued friend. If he was supposed to be a boyfriend, Elena wouldn't have brought him home so quickly or acted so at ease around him, Jenna thinks.
She drives as Elijah tells her directions, where to turn to drive to the house he is supposed to be living in. He tells her that she can text him when she gets home, and that they have an English assignment due the next day. She thanks him for the reminder, and wonders if he stays there or goes back to where he usually spends his time.
The drive back is quick, and when she comes back, she realizes Jeremy's late coming home from hanging out with his friends.
Jenna gently approaches the subject of an intervention, and they begin to work on the details.
When the planning is all said and done, Elena carefully tells Elijah what their plan is, and that she did the English homework.
They text off an on for a few hours while doing homework, and then they say goodnight.
