Saturday 27th Nov
It was rehearsal day, and Caroline had approximately 24 hours to make everything perfect. Maybe if she was surrounded with people with basic competence it would be possible. Stefan and Elena had watched amusedly all morning from the safety of their simple tasks of arranging flower bouquets and unfolding chairs, as their friend marched around barking orders with her clipboard clamped firmly in hand.
"You know, weirdly, I think she's having a better time organising Miss Mystic Falls than she did winning Miss Mystic Falls." Elena murmured, peeking at Caroline where she stood at the door welcoming the contestants and their escorts as they filed into the room, and Stefan muffled a laugh beside her. Elena had the treasured clipboard in hand and was checking off the names as the pairs entered in turn. She looked down at the last two names on her list.
8. Rebekah Mikaleson, escorted by: Damon Salvatore.
Her stomach gave a violent lurch at the sight of the proud neat print at the foot of the page. Sure enough, when her eyes came back up to the doorway, the two of them appeared behind the frame. Damon strode in casually through the door, tossing a smirk at Caroline who gritted her teeth into the smile she'd easily greeted the other boys with, but her fists balled at her sides.
Elena's heart stopped at sight of them, everything stopped, it was the first she'd seen him since before he'd left. Everything about him was striking, each movement pronounced, and he stood out from the other awkward high school escorts like a dark, dangerously handsome thumb. His sure dreamy lips were upturned at the corner into a small smile, and Elena's eyes were punishing her with cruel tricks because he looked different. His raven hair sheened and his flawless skin seemed flushed, was it alcohol or sunshine or sex?
As they made their way across the room, Rebekah was chatting, excited and oblivious to them, and Damon was listening, when his gaze landed on his brother. His head tilted faintly in acknowledgement, and then his eyes shifted leftward onto Elena who caught them with a gulp. He didn't nod really, or smile, he just saw her. It was his special trick, since they'd met, he could see her, in a way that pierced her deeper than was human. Then he looked away and continued towards his spot, Elena released a breath at last and hastily looked back down to check off their names, hiding behind her hair, the emotions she'd just swallowed so intense they burned her as they drained down her throat.
"Okay ladies and gentlemen, briefing time. Listen very carefully." Caroline called out loudly and the chatter around the room softened away as the group turned to their director and she launched into her speech.
The contestants and their escorts followed along their briefing, and there Damon and Rebekah stood. Elena tried to ignore him, but she felt him there taking up the whole room, he was everywhere. He was at the corner of her eyes whichever way she tried to look. Caroline's words muffling to her unheeding ears, her eyes found their way to him. Suddenly, he looked up. She swallowed roughly as she met his eyes before her gaze trailed rockily to Rebekah's hand at his elbow, and she couldn't help what veered in her chest at the sight.
Elena's arm found itself snaking around Stefan's waist and squeezing tight. Stefan looked down to smile at her but his stomach tightened at the stark, focused direction of her gaze. Damon's eyebrows seemed to twitch and then his own hand landed on Rebekah's hip; Elena's head snapped away, heart racing. She was done with their little game, she was losing and she didn't like it, why had she even started it? Elena turned back to Caroline's speech and tried to concentrate on her words as her heartbeat came back down to normal.
The rest of the girls listened carefully, answering Caroline's questions and asking their own. Rebekah listened especially raptly, she was intent on getting her perfect pageant. Her entire demeanor was bright and hopeful in a way she'd rarely gotten to be in her life. Elena peeked as Damon would smile at her or raise his eyebrows teasingly, and apart from offering a glib comment here and there to Caroline's annoyance, his eyes mostly remained glazed over the rest of the time. Elena's eyes stayed ahead then and he didn't look her way either. They were far away again.
"Then your escort will guide you from the stairs to the dance floor." Caroline continued her instructions to the group.
"It's hardly a trek." Elena muttered under her breath, her mood vastly darker in comparison to the other blonde girl.
"Then we're going to dance, just as we practised. At the end we stand back, count to three and then glide away to our seats. Not walk, glide. And finish. Nobody mess this up." Care turned sharply to Damon with a pointed glare, "Got it, Damon?"
All eyes turned to him with some scattered giggles sounding around the room.
He scoffed, "Please. I'm practically a pro at this thing by now."
Elena's heart jolted, he was referring to his experience escorting her last year. As everyone turned back to the front, Damon's eyes turned back to meet Elena's. Not so cocky as his tone suggested, and it was just a moment. Their gazes merely flickered to each other, meeting for only a second before breaking away, but it reached far into both of them, and in that chilling moment, things weren't so clear, and they weren't so far away. That day, that dance. It had been their little secret, and Elena had guiltily, indulgently, kept it close to her. She'd felt Damon in every part of her body as they'd moved together and she remembered clearly his face as she'd come down the stairs. It shone in his face now, as the memory played between them. And then gone.
"Later, we come single-file up the steps, three steps apart and stand in formation whilst the winner is announced. We clap for our Miss Mystic Falls and give her her shining moment!" Caroline instructed.
Elena snorted, quickly masking it into a clear of her throat. Her patience with these events was running thin and imagining Rebekah basking in her "shining moment" superseded the usual positivity she was able to muster.
Ignoring her, Caroline gave an excited clap of her hands, "And that's it. Okay, Stefan you go show the boys where to drop their stuff tomorrow." The escorts followed Stefan out of the room, all except Damon who stayed where he was, who did not care to see this storage closet at all, and for whom the rules did not apply as usual. Voices filled the room again, but Elena heard one.
"I hope you're half as good a dancer as me, Barbie, gotta make sure you can keep up." Damon said silkily, giving Rebekah a grin.
"Please. I can dance circles around you and you know it." She snarked in return.
Elena bristled as she listened, picturing the two of them dancing away the past few weeks. She turned to the contestants around her instead.
"God, I'm nervous. I hope it all goes well tomorrow." One of the girls fretted.
"Don't worry, if tomorrow's dance doesn't do it for you, you can always come back next year. Maybe second date's the charm." Elena replied with a sarcastic smile. The girl blinked uncertainly, she'd known Elena to be a lot more sweet and encouraging than that over the past few weeks. Damon's eyebrows shot into the air as his vampire hearing picked up her response, it was intended for him after all.
"Okay girls, follow me to the changing room." Caroline called out and the girls followed in suite through the side door, leaving Damon and Elena. Alone.
A silence settled over the room encasing them both and Elena suddenly felt extremely exposed. There he was, free to see just as much of her as he wanted. And whilst she'd wandered many times over the past weeks if he was thinking about her, now with him right there undoubtedly doing so, alone together in the small quiet room, she was suddenly terrified.
Damon wandered casually, absently brushing the decorations with his fingers. "You know, just because you didn't win doesn't mean you have to discourage these excited young ladies." He joked.
"I couldn't care less about winning." She muttered.
"Then what's got you riled up?" He asked, tone darkening, stepping closer towards her. "Because if you wanna share it, I'm all ears."
She snapped. "So what, are you in love with Rebekah now?"
"She's my friend and this is special to her." He said coldly. "You wanted me to have friends right?"
"Not her." She glowered.
"Why?" He demanded. He was right next to her now, across the room within a few unwavering strides. He stared directly into her eyes and she searched back, their body's almost touching with each ragged breath. Her tongue dried and her heart hammered violently in her chest. His eyes were beautiful, normally cool, but they held a fire in them now, they demanded an answer from her that she didn't know she could give. She felt herself rising from her own skin, she was losing herself in him like she always did.
Why? What did he mean why? Words crashed around in her mouth, none quite settling on her tongue to be aired, her thoughts pulling away from her the longer she stared into his eyes. She felt at home in those eyes.
He could definitely hear her pulse right now, smell it even. Her eyes trailed lower down his face to where they found themselves often, Damon dragged his lips through his teeth. Time around them ceased to exist, and then the space, as their heads came closer-
The door creaked open and then Damon was suddenly across the room in a flash. Everyone started filing back in, their voices humming to Elena's ears above the thrashing of blood as she turned away to control her frenzied breathing. She felt faint as the adrenaline in her body crackled like flames.
"Hey, Elena. A word please?" Caroline said, pulling Elena to the corner of the room, who stumbled along under her friend's tight grasp.
"What was all that before? Why are you being so difficult?" Caroline demanded.
Elena swallowed as her best friend frowned scoldingly at her, still a mess. She glanced Damon's way over Care's shoulder as he walked back over to Rebekah, slinging an arm around her shoulders and whispering something in her ear.
"I… I don't know." Elena replied. It wasn't a lie, yet somehow the pit in her stomach gave her away.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed ze angsttt. A few recent reviews have commented on my writing style and how I convey emotion, thank you! In a canon mutual pining fic thats really the story so I'm glad if you guys can enjoy navigating that! Next chapter MMF ;)