New chapter ! The end in two chapters !

School was boring. She was bored. Bonnie was not here, she had left without telling anyone where and for how long. Caroline had decided that shopping was better than math lessons, so she was alone. Elena looked at Matt, who was sitting two ranks on her left, but he didn't look back. They were barely talking since his break-up with Caroline. Elena often wondered when the distance between them had appeared and how she could have let it increase until it reached this non-return point. Matt used to be her best friend, always here when she needed him. She knew he would have done anything for her. And now they were just classmates, strangers to each other. Of course she had an idea of the reason why their relationship was so broken. It had all begun when Stefan and Damon had showed up in town. She immediately fell in love with Stefan and completely forgot about her best friend. All the supernatural things had kept her away from him, from his reality. Hers was different. Matt knew the truth, about everything. Vampires, werewolves, witches, doppelgangers… And he had deliberately chosen to stay away from all of it. His decision included staying away from her. Elena. The person he had loved more than anyone in his life. But Elena was not resentful. She perfectly understood his choice and admired him secretly for that. She had wished to do the same so many times ! To forget about mysterious deaths, constant danger, blood, spells, everything… She had often wished to go back to her previous normal life with her adoptive parents and her brother Jeremy. But it appeared that Jeremy was in fact his cousin and that she had been adopted. Her whole life was based on lies and she just had to keep up with them.

Sitting in this room full of soon-to-be graduated students, Elena let out a deep sigh. Since Stefan had left town two months ago, things had been complicated. At first she had been avoiding Damon as much as possible, which turned out to be useless because he had finally decided to trap her in her own bedroom and forced her to listen to him. She could still hear his voice echoing through her head.

Flash-back.

"It's been more than three weeks, and I'm getting tired of waiting for you to talk to me, Elena. So, Jenna and Jeremy left, I told them not to be back before tomorrow."

"You compelled them ?"

"Yes."

"You had no right !"

"Don't try to change the subject ! I just told Jeremy to stay at Bonnie's, and Jenna at Ric's ! Now you're going to sit down and listen to me !"

End of Flash-back.

And she had listened to him for an hour. He had told her about his own feelings. For the first time, he had been able to look her in the eye and tell her that he loved her. She remembered the exact moment when all her walls had crashed down : it was when his lips touched hers. The kiss had been soft and short, Damon had pulled away very quickly. And she had kissed him back even more quickly.

They were trying now. Trying to be together, as a couple. It was not easy. Everybody looked at her as if she was a freaking whore for dating her ex-boyfriend's brother. They all thought that she was responsible for Stefan's departure and since everybody liked him… Well she had been taking all the blame for his absence. But she didn't care because no one knew the truth. Elena was sure that somewhere in the world, Stefan was enjoying his time with Katherine.

The bell rang, ending Elena's daydream. She stood up mechanically and left the room, her bag on her shoulder. It was not necessary to go to her locker because she already had everything she needed at home. Her car was parked outside, so she pushed the door of the school and closed her eyes for a second when she felt the fresh air hit her face. Then she walked to her car, but suddenly stopped, frozen. Her eyes went wide when she recognized the person who was leaning against the passenger door. Stefan.

She had almost forgotten how handsome, how perfect he was. His green eyes were staring right into her brown ones. She saw the small smile on his lips and melted. What was she thinking ? That she could cut him from her life, from her heart just like that ? Of course not. And when he slowly started to walk toward her, Elena felt her legs stumble. She hadn't expected to see him so soon. She had thought she would've more time to figure out what she needed. But he was back, and now standing right in front of her, his eyes never looking away from her face.

"Hello, Elena."

She managed to whisper his name. He seemed to guess her trouble because his smile grew wider and he opened his arms a little.

"Come here."

Feeling completely numb, Elena obeyed and she buried her face in the crook of his neck. Stefan's strong arms engulfed her in his embrace and she closed her eyes. It felt good. She realized that she had missed the feeling these past weeks. But then Elena thought about Damon, and she pulled away. She knew the other students were spying on them and probably already gossiping about Stefan's return.

"I've missed you."

She nodded and wanted to speak but her throat was dry and she just couldn't say anything.

"Do you want to go to the Grill ? We could talk."

Elena shook her head in denegation and looked around her. Someone else would have misunderstood her and thought that she didn't want to see them, but not Stefan. He took her arm and said :

"You're right. Too many people. Let's go to your place."

"So… I definitely wasn't expecting to see you before another month at least."

Stefan smiled as he sat down on the couch in Elena's living-room.

"I wanted to see you."

"But why ? I thought you needed some space…"

"Actually, I wasn't far away. Just in Atlanta with some old friends."

"What about Katherine ?"

"What about her ?"

Elena raised an eyebrow and explained :

"I thought you'd be with her, trying to rebuild whatever kind of relationship you had together."

But much to her surprise, he replied nonchalantly :

"I haven't seen her since the last time I saw you."

Katherine didn't know exactly what she was doing here, but she had felt the need to come back home. Home. The place she was born, where she had given birth herself. The place full of all the memories of her childhood, even if she didn't remember a lot from it. Her family and friends, her boyfriend, her baby. The baby she never got to know. Katherine felt her vision blur and realized with horror mixed with stupefaction that her eyes were full of tears. She blinked once and a lonely tear ran down her cheek. She wiped it immediately. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to be here. Her hometown was probably the only place that could make her cry without being ashamed. Since she was a vampire, Katherine had only been crying twice. The first time was when she came back home to find all her family dead. She had no other choice than let them in their house. If she had buried them, people would have wondered what had happened to them. Klaus would have known that she knew. So she left after having shed all of her tears.

But now she was back. The house was still here, in ruins. It had never been rebuilt, and Katherine was thankful for that. Klaus had given up looking for her, at least for a while. She knew that he was still after her, but she didn't care. She had survived during the past 500 years, why would it change ? Katherine pushed the door of the house that had been her home for the first fifteen years of her human life and walked in.

Elena and Stefan kept talking for an hour. It felt good and simple. They were just like… old friends. The young girl knew it was time to talk about something more serious, but she didn't know how to bring the subject on the table. But much to her surprise, she didn't have to. Stefan did it first.

"So, how are things with my brother ?"

"I… What ?"

"You're dating."

It wasn't a question, but a statement.

"How… How do you know ?"

"Well, we've been talking for an hour and you still haven't brought up the subject, which means you feel nervous, or ill at ease. You probably thought I'd be mad so you tried your best to avoid talking about him. Which bring us back to my previous question : how are things with him ?"

Elena didn't answer right away. She was trying to figure out why Stefan didn't seem upset about her relationship with Damon. Suddenly, it hit her.

"Oh my God, you love her ! You're in love with Katherine !"

Stefan seemed a little taken aback by Elena's answer.

"I didn't say that. It's just that… Okay, we're talking about you. Do you love Damon ?"

"I don't know… I mean, of course I love him, but I'm not sure that I'm in love with him. It's too soon."

"When we were together, you knew it right away."

"Yes, but… Well, it was love at first sight."

"What about Damon ? There was always this spark between you. That's why I could never fully trust him… and you."

"We're together. We try to be. We need some time to find our rhythm."

"Yeah, I understand."

"Is it okay for me to tell you this ? Because I don't want to hurt you, Stefan."

He leaned back in the armchair and smiled.

"It's okay, don't worry. I will always care about you, Elena, and love you in a certain way. But we're done. It's time to move on."

"You're not mad at me ?"

"Nope. Damon is my brother and I love him, no matter how hard he tried to mess with me. He has changed so much over the past two years. He deserves to have his chance, he deserves to be with you."

Elena felt relieved at Stefan's behaviour. She hadn't expected him to be so understanding. She stood up and walked toward him.

"C'mon, stand up. I want a hug."

Stefan smiled and obeyed. Damon entered the room at the same moment. At the sight of his girlfriend with her ex-boyfriend, he felt a pang of jealousy going through his chest.

"Baby bro returns and you run into his arms. Well done."

Elena and Stefan immediately let go of each other and turned to face Damon. They hadn't heard him coming. Elena opened her mouth to speak but Stefan cut her off.

"Stop it, Damon. Don't do jealous on us. We were just catching up and what you saw was just a friendly hug."

Damon narrowed his eyes and sped towards Elena. He placed his arm on her shoulders.

"Well don't do that again. Elena's mine now."

"Okay, first of all, I am not yours, Damon. And second, grow the hell up !"

Elena yelled as she stormed out of the room. Stefan looked at Damon.

"Oh shut up, I know what you're gonna say, St Stefan."

"I wasn't going to say anything."

"But you thought about it so bad that I could read your mind."

The youngest of the two sighed and smiled.

"She hates it. Jealousy."

"You were jealous too."

"I was doing my best to hide it from her. You should do the same, although you really don't have to worry. I'm not in love with her anymore."

"How come ?"

"The past few months helped me realize I was running after the wrong girl."

"Oh, so you're all about Katherine now ?"

"Maybe."

Stefan walked past his brother and reached the door.

"Maybe ? Maybe ? That's not an answer !"

"Goodbye Damon ! I'll be back tonight."

Tell me how much you loved it ! (or not, of course ! lol)

OTH-FOQ