Elena's POV
The sun streams through small spaces in the weeping willows' branches and I swim between the low hanging tendrils, following the little sun patches on the water as if they were a series of connect the dots. The water is warm and refreshing, it reminds me of summers spent on the lakeside with Bonnie and Caroline. Soaking up as much sun as possible before heading into the water for twenty minutes to cool off, only to repeat the process all day long. We must have wasted 5 or 6 summers on the beach as kids – the only worry being to get home before it got dark. Damon bobs in the water a few feet from me passing through a sunny patch. His blue eyes look electric against the water. I pause for minute wishing I could ignore all of the nagging thoughts that were usually at the edge of my mind and fully enjoy the moment.
"Hm. Is my hiding spot not up to par for you?" Damon regards me intently as I float for a moment distractedly.
"Your hiding spot is beautiful. Only we can never really hide now, can we?" I try not to let my thoughts bum me out but… I have to admit they do.
Damon swims over closer to me until he's less than a foot away but not touching me.
"What do you mean?" His voice has changed and is less light hearted. I inwardly chastise myself for always seeming to ruin his good moods, which are wonderful parts of him.
"When I was younger I would have swum through these trees and the sun with no worries at all. I would have laughed and enjoyed myself with no regrets. Then life got complicated, people started to die, people started to want me dead. The thoughts are always right at the edge of my day. Who is going to hurt my family this week? Who will die next? They're usually similar to that." I look away from Damon cursing my own slum mood.
He pulls me toward the shore by my arm and I follow. Sitting up against the base of one of the trees growing on the grass right near the side of the watery shore.
"Well we have something in common then. I'm usually worrying about what your life would have been like if you hadn't have met Stefan or I. How normally you could have lived if we'd never have run into you. Your life would still be full of joy instead of death. Selfishly I admit that my life is better from meeting you, but that doesn't mean I don't sometimes wish I hadn't."
The truth of what he says hurts a little and I curl up into a bit of a ball as I sit, pulling my knees towards me. He lays back onto the grass and I watch sun patterns cross his bare chest. I consider my life if neither Stefan or Damon would have come to Mystic Falls. Its hard to know what would have really happened.
"Damon, please don't say that as though you're a problem. Vampires existed whether or not you came to Mystic Falls. I would still be the Doppelganger whether or not you came to Mystic Falls." I continue to watch his chest, trying not to think about a life without the Salvatore brothers.
"I know, but it seems trouble follows me particularly. I don't think any of those dangers would have found you during your mortal life. You would have been happier." He finally looks over at me from his spot on the grass, his eyes not meeting mine. I follow his jaw line instead, trying to take in all of the features of his face. Would I really have been happier?
I sigh and smile. "You're wrong."
"How so?"
He meets my eyes now; they almost seem to be begging me to convince him that he is wrong.
"Sure I would have been happy and carefree if I had lived out a mortal life. I would have married some unfortunate guy who probably wasn't enough for me. Lived in a decent house, had a mediocre marriage, probably two or three kids that would bring me joy. I didn't really have any grand plans because I didn't think I could achieve them. I would be carefree and it would have led to a mild life." He almost seems to look miserable as I say this and he goes to answer but I stop him. "But life with you in it, that's entirely different. There is nothing mediocre about you and I can live anywhere in the world that I want." I stare across the water dreaming up all of the different possibilities. "I can be just about anything I want. I have time to accomplish great things and I even have time to relax and do absolutely nothing. I get to watch life and death simultaneously." I turn back to Damon and consider how much he means to me. "And because I have lost so many people and been hurt so deeply I can truly appreciate being happy and loving my family. Loving you. Infinite amounts more than the Elena who used to lay on the beach and worry about nothing."
"Then I'll stick around and remind you of this whenever the rest of the world tries to edge its way in." He sits up swiftly and kisses me. His hands winding their way into my hair.
"Forever?" I rush to ask in the very slim moments between kissing.
Damon pulls away and smirks at me with one hand still wrapped in my hair. "Forever? Are you trying to ask me something Elena?"
It takes me a minute to catch on to what he's saying. "Oh, I didn't mean… Not that I… Although I would…" I can't think of a single intelligent thing to say. Marriage comments… really?
Damon laughs at my reaction. "I voluntarily agree to forever." With that comment he gives me a hearty shove sideways off the bank and into the water.
Damon POV
Forever. Forever? Her shiny dark hair glistens in the water as she surfaces again about 5 feet from me, letting out a laugh. What a beautiful and destructing dark angel. She's been swimming around me in circles for the last 10 minutes insisting we're playing some kind of game but I have no idea what's going on. I can't get the word out of my head. Forever. I'd made a joke to distract her from my reaction and then I shoved her into the water because I thought for a second I might shed a tear. As if I'd get to feel like this forever; for the rest of eternity on this earth. Was marriage a thing she thought had merit still? Did I think it had merit still? Was there some other equivalent to marriage that immortal people practiced? Did any of that matter to her?
"DAMON. You're not even trying." She stands in front of me looking unamused with my effort.
"To be honest I have no idea what you're doing. I got distracted by the view." I start at her some more, using a decent amount of effort to look focused.
"You look confused. Dazed and confused." She swims up close and wraps her arms around me.
"I've seen the movie, but I've never tried the emotions." I kiss her and pull her into my own arms. Trying to forget whatever nonsensical thoughts won't leave my mind.
"Very funny but not your best. Maybe some euphemism towards high school girls like myself always staying the same age would have been a better choice." She smiles at me and bites her bottom lip a bit.
I genuinely laugh, "I have to admit that was good. Like I said, I'm a little distracted." I kiss her again, sucking on the bottom lip she was just biting.
She looks up at me no longer smiling, "I bet I could distract you a lot more."
…
Stefan POV
Off somewhere with Damon. Hasn't told a single person where she'll be. Her entire group of family and friends worried about her.
That would never have happened if she was with me, which also sort of annoys me because it would have been nice to get away from everyone and just enjoy ourselves. Human Elena had a lot of worries and needs, which to be realistic was not concerning to me because I was more than happy to help. I liked seeing her home at night, walking her up to her door and making sure she got inside safely, kissing her on the check and wishing her good night, listening outside to make sure she got upstairs ok. She worried about homework and school, her friends. She found joy in every ordinary day even if all she did was hangout with friends and go on a drive with me. The simple easy days were what I missed most about being human and what I found most enticing about Elena.
"You look like you just found out that Santa Clause is real but he hates you." A sarcastic warm voice interrupts my internal monologue.
Katherine sits down in a stool next to me, waving to the bar tender for two more.
"That does sum up how I currently feel." I down the rest of my drink in preparation for the next.
Katherine smiles and rolls her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic Stefan. It's not a good look for you. Besides what complaints can you really have."
Our drinks arrive and I pick mine up swiftly, finishing half of it in one sip. "My girlfriend died and now she is dating my brother. That is a summation of my current complaints."
"I mean, lets try to have a positive outlook on this. Your ex-girlfriend died! That's kind of a happy sentence to say?" She does the same with her drink and gives the bartender a look. He heard what she said and looks thoroughly off put as he moves down to the far end of the bar.
"Why do you insist on visiting me these days? I'm miserable enough on my own without your company." My jab doesn't seem to bother her at all.
"I'm keeping you company because I know you like to make bad choices when not distracted by human Elena. Her humanity holds you back when yours won't." She looks almost solemn for once.
She also has a fair point. "What do you know about humanity?" I finish my drink in another sip, hoping the bartender hasn't been scared off too far.
She pulls a bottle from behind the bar herself and fills my cup. "More than you think I do and a lot more than you."
…
Caroline POV
Skulking through the woods isn't how I saw my afternoon going but I also know that when Bonnie is hung up on something there's nothing that can stop her. After watching Elena's location stay in the same spot on the Lockwood property for 2 hours with no replies there was no more appeasing Bonnie with soothing words. Jeremy, who seemed to be the least worried for his sister and Damon, had finally thrown in the towel and agreed to going to check things out. Unfortunately, it had taken half an hour of debate to decide on whether or not to call Stefan and let him know what was happening before a consensus was finally reached. No call was made to Stefan, but we'd lost a lot of time. Bonnie was now even more worried.
"Maybe we should split up and cover more ground?" Bonnie's worried voice came from a few feet to my right as she struggled a bit to trudge through the thick woods. Jeremy was on her other side, struggling a bit less but moving just as slow.
"Awful idea, we split up and we're easy Klaus targets. He'll pick us off one by one before we even know what's happened to the others." Tyler quipped from my left, easily picking his way through the woods.
The pace was frustrating but he had a point. "Tyler is right, we speed ahead and something happens to us, you two will just walk right into the same trap. At least if we show up as a single force and run into Klaus some of us may escape."
"This whole idea is not very optimistic. I still have no idea how you convinced Matt to stay home." Jeremy still looks the least worried out of all of us.
"He's still healing and we need someone to alert Stefan if things go awry. I honestly think he's a little happy to be out of the action for a while after what happened." I feel bad saying it, but I do think its true. "Also Elena could be making her way back home by now, Matt can let us know if she shows up."
Bonnie makes a Humph noise. "I checked not long ago and Elena was in the exact same spot just ahead. If she was headed back, we would have run into her by now." Bonnie seems to get a sense of renewed energy from this, and tries even harder to clear some of the brush in front of her.
She had a point and so I speed my pace up just a bit, eager to find Elena and Damon relaxing and cloud watching, just so we can return home again with an appeased Bonnie.
Only what I hear isn't exactly that and it makes me stop dead in my tracks. Tyler takes a few more steps before he hears it too and realizes I have stopped. Jeremy and Bonnie take even a few more steps, and stop to look back at us confused.
"Why are we stopping?" Bonnie shakes her head in agitation, her curls swaying.
Tyler looks at me and I look at Tyler, hoping he will answer her question. We're close enough to finally hear Damon and Elena with our extra hearing… and they're definitely partaking in some very enthusiastic cloud watching.
"Uh… we should probably stop here. They're just up ahead." I wrack my brain for a way to make this comment less awkward for Jeremy and Bonnie. Not to mention whatever Stefan may hear in the future.
Bonnie unfortunately takes this pause into her own hands. "ELENA! WHERE ARE YOU?" She yells with a vigor that Damon and Elena probably could have heard from much farther away if they had been paying attention.
"Shhh Bonnie! They're going to know we're here!" Jeremy catches on to my sentence and gives a tiny eye roll before whispering in Bonnie's ear. Tyler laughs and turns around, looking more amused than surprised.
"Oh gross, with Damon? She just broke up with Stefan!" Bonnie gives a bit of a huff but then realizes how ridiculous it all is and laughs too.
"Did they hear us?" Jeremy asks, and I dare myself to listen intently for a moment. All I hear is silence.
Elena's POV
"Ugh, yes we heard you." I speed and meet my friends, who are only a few hundred feet from the clearing and the water. Damon and I we're too distracted to be paying attention to our surroundings.
"Oh c'mon, put some clothes on would you." Jeremy looks away as he notices I've joined them. I managed to put my bra and underwear on but hadn't made it to the rest of my clothes for fear of my friends moving closer and discovering Damon's hiding spot. Something about the spot made me want to keep it our secret.
"I'm wearing clothes, just not that many. We're swimming in a creek and I didn't want them to get wet. What are you guys doing out here?" I try to gloss over our reasons for being out here.
"Swimming sounds a lot different than I remember," Tyler lets out a howl of laughter and I can picture my face getting flush.
"Sorry, it's a little my fault. We've been trying to reach you all night and day, but nothing. Then I did a locator spell and saw you've been out here for a while..." Bonnie clears her throat and moves on, "I know that Klaus has tunnels out here and we were worried." She gives a small apologetic smile.
"Now that we see you're okay we can probably head home." Caroline gives a very pointed look at Bonnie and moves to start leaving but Bonnie stays where she is.
"This is a really awkward conversation to have right now with everyone but I'm not leaving without having it. Are you sure you're alright? Stefan told us what happened and we all thought you might have freaked out a little."
I try to remind myself that Bonnie's just being kind. "I'm fine, honestly. I have a feeling you didn't get the full story but I don't particularly feel like telling you now." I look at Caroline and she nods, she gets that I'll fill them in later.
"But you and Stefan just broke up and now Damon… Are you really sure?" Bonnie still looks undecided.
"I broke up with him. It happened several days ago. Really I'll tell you the full story later, Damon and I are planning to head back now anyways. You ladies can come over for some wine and a chat." I laugh and Bonnie finally concedes, looking better.
Tyler however looks confused. "Damon's still here? I haven't heard him."
I look at Caroline who stands still, listening as I am. Nothing. Not a single ripple of water, not the sound of him scooping up his clothes, no crunching of leaves as he makes his way through the trees to us.
I speed to the clearing with Tyler and Caroline close behind me, secret spot be damned. The gorgeous pool of water is still and empty. It looks as though we haven't touched it at all, except for a large blooming dark cloud in the middle of the clear water.
A cloud of deep red blood.
