Internet connection problems prevented me from updating earlier. Sorry. I might write two chapters instead of one to give closure to this story.
"Wherever you are, come back to Mystic Falls. There's someone who's waiting for you. Elena."
Katherine looked at her phone in disbelief. It was a message from Elena. She had given her phone number to her doppelganger the day she had left Mystic Falls. Well, not exactly given to her, but she had written it on a paper and let it fall on Elena's desk before threatening her. Until now, Elena had never used it.
"Someone is waiting for you."
Who ? Klaus ? Was it a trick, was Elena expecting that she'd fall in a trap ? But Katherine had always been curious. She knew, from the moment she had read the text, that she would do as she was asked to. She immediately started to pack her things. It didn't take much time, most of her stuffs were still in Mystic Falls anyway. Then she had the receptionist of the hotel to call her a cab, and left. Hopefully she'd be able to catch a plane as soon as she'd arrive at the airport.
As soon as Stefan left the boarding house, Damon sped upstairs. He knew Elena had disappeared into his room.
"Elena ?"
"What ?"
"Look, I know I shouldn't have said that. It was childish and stupid."
"Yes, it was. And it hurt me to see that you don't trust me."
"I do, I trust you. It's just…"
Damon trailed off and walked toward Elena. When he was facing her, he pursued :
"It's Stefan, and you two have history. You shared a great love and I was just afraid that maybe the flame of this love was still burning inside of you."
Elena didn't answer. It was the first time Damon was being so honest, he hadn't feared to show her his vulnerable and insecure side of himself. She felt the urge to reassure him.
"Damon… Stefan belongs to my past. I will always care for him, always love him in my own way. But now I am with you. You. Not him."
She placed a hand on his cheek and the other one on his torso. Damon's eyes were locked on her face.
"I know we still have to work on our relationship, but I want you to know that I love you, Damon."
He didn't need to hear more. Damon had dreamt of Elena saying these magical words to him so many times that he had stopped counting them. He took her pretty face into his hands and kissed her passionately.
"I love you too."
Stefan went to see Caroline and they spent two hours catching up for the lost time. The vampire had once told the blonde that she reminded him of his best-friend Lexi. Caroline never had the chance to know Lexi, but Stefan had told her many stories about her. She had missed Stefan while he was away. He was the only one who truly understood her. He had helped her getting used to her vampire condition, and helped her getting through all her problems with Matt and her mother. He was her best-friend.
After saying goodbye to Caroline, Stefan went back to his house. Damon was nowhere in sight, he was probably in his room. Stefan smiled and sped upstairs to see him. When he pushed the door of his brother's bedroom, his smiled faded. This smell. Stefan knew it. He would have recognized Elena's scent anywhere. The sheets of the bed especially were impregnated with her perfume. Stefan swallowed hard and tried to get over the fact that his brother and his ex-girlfriend had probably just had sex in this room. He was surprised to see that he was hurt. He didn't have the same feelings for Elena that he used to have, but it was still hard for him to imagine her with another man, let alone his own brother.
Stefan shook his head to get rid of all these disturbing thoughts and called :
"Damon ?"
"Bathroom."
Damon walked out of his bathroom wearing nothing but a pair of blue jeans. He had a white shirt in his left hand.
"Hey, sorry I didn't have time to clean up."
The smirk on his face clearly signified that he wasn't sorry at all, but Stefan preferred not to say anything. His brother was happy, that was all that mattered. Now he knew what Damon had endured while he was the one sleeping with Elena under the same roof.
"What brings you here, baby bro ?"
"I was thinking…"
"Since when do you think ?"
"… That maybe we could have a drink at the Grill later." Stefan pursued, not bothering to answer his brother's mockery.
"And why would we do that ?"
"Why not ?"
Damon raised an eyebrow and shrugged.
"Well, you've got the point. Why not. Okay, when ?"
"I'm gonna change, and we can go after."
"Can I bring my girlfriend ?"
"I'll be glad to spend some time with Elena too." He answered with a smile.
The dark-haired vampire frowned. He had thought that his question would have upset his brother, but Stefan obviously hadn't had the reaction Damon had been expecting.
"You know what ? I think it's going to be just me and you. We need a brother-time."
"Perfect."
Damon sent a text message to Elena to inform her that he was going to the Grill with Stefan. She told him that it was a good thing, and that she was going to sleep over at Caroline's tonight.
"Okay, Stef, now it's just me and you. What d'you wanna drink ?"
"A beer will be perfect."
The blue-eyed vampire walked to the counter and ordered a beer and a glass of whiskey. Then he went back to the booth he and Stefan had chosen to sit.
"Cheers."
"Cheers."
They both took a gulp of their drink and looked at each other in silence. Finally, Damon opened his mouth to speak but Stefan cut him off.
"Are you happy, Damon ? I mean, with Elena ?"
"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that question, but… Yes. I am."
"Good. I want you to know that I'm fine with it. Elena's my friend, and she will always matter to me. But I am over our relationship. It belongs to the past. Elena belongs to my past."
Damon's eyes narrowed when he heard his brother using unknowingly the same words Elena had used a few hours earlier, but he smiled nonetheless.
"It's good to know. But I do have a question for you. If Elena belongs to your past, what about Katherine ?"
"Katherine… Well, Katherine and I never really got a closure to our history together. So I guess it's not exactly my past. It's also my present. I know how she feels."
"Hard to believe that the bitch may in fact have a heart."
Stefan didn't react to Damon's words. After all, Katherine had played him during all these years, he had earned the right to be mad at her.
"So, I have to ask. Why did you come back ?"
"Well, I live here. My friends are here, you are here."
"What about Katherine ? Are you not interested in finding her ? Don't you wanna live your happily ever after?"
"Since I am not living a fairytale, I don't expect the happily ever after kind of thing."
"Too bad."
They both smiled. Neither of them would've admitted it, but it was good to spend some time with each other. Since 1864, their relationship had known a lot of ups and downs. Mostly downs, in fact. And now they felt like they had an opportunity to fix it.
"So… Did Bonnie tell you for how long she's going to stay away ?"
"Nope. I think she really needed a break."
"I bet she went to find the rest of her family. They're all witches, from her mother's side."
"Maybe. Elena… Stefan was here today. He's in town, but I'm sure you're the first person he came to see."
"Yes, I saw him. We talked."
"Did you… You know, tell him about you and Damon ?"
"I did."
The look on Caroline's face clearly showed that she wanted to hear the details, and Elena smiled.
"Okay, we talked about our relationship, and I told him I was dating Damon. In fact, he guessed it."
"He did ?"
"Yep. He said that he was fine with that. And…"
"What ?"
"He also told me that he hadn't seen Katherine since she left Mystic Falls."
"Really ? Do you believe him ?"
"Why would he lie ? Care, it's Stefan. He doesn't tell lies unless it's necessary."
"Yeah, I know. Sorry."
"So I sent a message to Katherine."
Caroline, who had just taken a sip of her iced tea, almost spit it out on the table. She swallowed hard and said :
"You did what ? How do you even have her phone number ? I didn't know the two of you were friends !"
"Stop it, Caroline. We're not… friends. I just thought that since I'm with Damon, there's no reason for Stefan to be alone. He loves Katherine."
"And he loves you."
"Not anymore, it's not the same thing."
"If you say so…"
Elena frowned. Her blonde friend didn't look thrilled to the idea of Stefan, who's kind of her best friend, being happy.
"Look, I know Katherine did a lot of bad things, including turning you into a vampire, but I truly think she's honest when she says that she loves Stefan. And I only want the best for him."
"Only time will tell us, I guess."
Early in the morning, Elena woke up when she heard her cell phone vibrating. She had one new message from an unknown number. She pressed 'read'.
"I'm at your house. Where the hell are you ? K."
Oh, God. She had totally forgotten about Katherine. Well, not exactly, but she hadn't planned to see the vampire so soon. Elena quickly got dressed and wrote a note to Caroline who was still asleep next to her. Her friend had always loved to sleep. Then, she tip toed towards the door and left the house.
"Finally, you're here. What took you so long ?"
Katherine was sitting on the edge of her doppelganger's bed when Elena opened the door.
"I was at Caroline's."
"Hmm. How's Barbie doing ?"
"You did fast." Elena said, not bothering to answer Katherine's question.
"I believe that was an emergency. Who's waiting for me ?"
"Don't you guess ?"
The vampire looked at her doppelganger and sighed :
"There's no one who wants to see me in Mystic Falls. At least not alive. And I don't think you're so fond of me."
"What if I told you that someone came back from God knows where yesterday ?"
The words picked up Katherine's curiosity and she walked closer to Elena.
"Are you going to stop playing charades ?"
"Stefan."
"Stefan ? Stefan's here ?"
"Yes."
"Where ?"
"Probably at home."
Elena hadn't even finish her sentence that she was already alone in her room. She smiled. Maybe things were going to be good for once. Maybe they would all have their happy-ending. She was sure as hell going to hope so.
What did you think of this chapter ? Good, bad ?
I know there's no plot, no evil in this story. I wasn't inspired for that. I really wanted to write a S/K story, with slight D/E. I hope nobody minds.
Remember that I love your reviews ;)
OTH-FOQ
