~*~
Quietly, she took a step into the living room. From her spot on the couch, blue eyes shifted to meet honeyed brown. Instantly, the one on the couch seemed to tense, and cold, open hostility was clear in her expression. The other, lingering now a step or two closer, sucked in a sharp breath. She looked down. The one on the couch made no sound to speak, instead, stiffly, she stood and started to leave the room.
"Elena, wait."
The blonde paused in the doorway but made no move to turn around.
"Can..." A pause, a sigh. "Can we talk?"
"I have nothing to say to you."
"Elena, *please*. We need to discuss this."
Finally, Elena turned around to face the redhead who stood in the middle of her living room, flickering flames lighting up Bonnie's red hair, reflecting copper undertones. She lifted her chin, an air of calm authority about her, and spoke firmly. "I don't think people who betray me deserve to be spoken to."
Bonnie looked desperate. "Oh, Elena...! Don't you see--"
"No," the blonde cut her off sharply, "I don't see, *Bonnie*. But I do know that I no longer have a best friend. She hurt me beyond repair."
"Oh, for Christ's sake, Elena. Just because your husband seems to think you're heaven-sent doesn't mean you are. You've done some shit in your lifetime, as I recall, and yet you're so quick to point fingers."
A blonde eyebrow quirked, but Elena seemed undaunted. She stood there in the doorway, arms tightly crossed beneath her chest, and studied her friend with a cold gaze. "Notice the word 'husband' in your sentence, Bonnie McCullough? Yes, that's right...*Husband*, MY husband, damnit!"
Bonnie smirked, and Elena had to give her silent credit for developing quite a backbone. "No, why don't *you* notice the word "husband", Elena? Or did you forget again that you have one? Oh, yes, that's right...You seem to think you're free to fuck his brother whenever you please...As though that ring on your finger means nothing."
If looks could kill, Bonnie was pretty positive she'd be dead right about...now.
"Couldn't you go suppress your urges with someone else?" she quipped.
"Like you should talk," Bonnie retored, eyes narrowed.
"At least Stefan and Damon had no bond, damn you! We have a friendship, or did you not stop and think of that as you fucked my husband? In MY BED, for God's sake?!"
"At least I care about him!"
"DON'T YOU DARE SAY I DON'T CARE ABOUT MY HUSBAND!"
Bonnie laughed bitterly. "Well, Elena, seems to me you make it pretty apparent when you go off and screw his brother!"
"Fuck you, Bonnie McCullough." Elena whirled away, but Bonnie's voice stopped her.
"Don't you walk away from me, Elena."
She turned. "What's left to say, Bonnie? I can at least admit what I did was wrong, but you...YOU! You can't even have the decency to apologize for stabbing me in the back!"
"Oh, oh no you didn't." The redhead raised her eyes upwards, shaking her head of curls. "You did *not* just lecture *me* on decency...!"
"Bonnie, I swear to God, if you don't shut--"
"What, Elena? What are you going to do? Can you honestly say you can defend yourself when you know as well as I do, as well as STEFAN does, that you're the reason for all of this?"
"The reason for all of this? Bonnie, you really are something, ya' know that?" Elena stepped a few feet closer to the woman in the center of the room. "The reason," she continued, her voice now calm, but beneath the surface, her anger was evident, "for all of this, is that I *had* a friend who is a panting whore who slept with my own husband." Elena's head canted to one side. "The *reason* for all of this is that you...You are a bitch who feels she can simply waltz into my home...and right into my bed...Steal my husband and call it justified."
For a moment, Bonnie was silent and beneath the quietly, almost eerily calm exterior of Elena, she knew rage was barely being held in check. And she was right. Elena wanted to kill the woman before her.
"You've got some nerve to tell me *I* try and justify my wrongdoings! Elena, did it even occur to you once while you gave yourself to Damon, panting like the slut you are, that you had a husband? That there was a man at home who loved you, who *trusted* you?"
Elena scoffed, looking incredulous. "Excuse me? I believe it's *you* who's mislead about the concept of *trust*. I trusted you, Bonnie. A friendship built on trust was what I thought this to be. But I was wrong. Friends don't sleep with other friend's husbands. May I remind you that you are the woman who all along was scheming after Stefan? And you try and tell me that I'm not to be trusted? Alright, Bonnie."
"I think--"
Elena broke in. "Has it not clicked that I don't give a damn what you think of me? All along you wanted him." She shook her head, making a noise of disgust. "I let you into my home...And this is how you repay me?"
"Oh, shut up, Elena. Had it not been for me, you're darling husband would've probably killed himself."
Elena's face was flushed with her animosity. "He knows I love him."
"Yeah, well, maybe you should've made it a little more clearer and fucked him once and a while instead of his goddamned brother!"
"You mother-fucking--"
"You've got that wrong...Don't you mean 'husband-fucking'? And just to let you know, he likes it when I fuck him hard."
Elena stepped foward and gave Bonnie a good, hard slap across the face. Brown eyes were shocked and a pale hand lifted to her face in disbelief. Her mouth gaped. The area on her face was turning scarlet and Elena's palm stung. She took advantage of Bonnie's total state of bafflement and gave her a rough shove and watched as she stumbled back into a couch.
"You can get the fuck out of my house. Tonight." Elena's voice was once again quiet, but the malicious tone was not gone. Blue eyes were burning with her hatred.
Bonnie slowly rose to stand on shaky legs, one hand clutching the arm of the couch for support. Her eyes were on Elena as she retreated.
Suddenly, the taller woman paused in the doorway, briefly turning back to face Bonnie with eyes that glimmered with such pure fury that Bonnie was truly in a state of shock.
"And while you're at it, you can go to hell."
***
The area behind Ravishing Oblivion was pathetically lit with a poorly lighted lamp in the brick wall of the rear, above the back exit of the club. Inside, it was still jam packed with people but outside there stood only two.
Green eyes were smoldering as they held the cooly dispassionate gaze of obsidian.
"Just who gave you the right to put your hands on my wife for a second time?"
A chuckle. "Go ask her."
One arm lashed out as a fist slammed foward and met the flesh of Damon's jaw squarely. He hadn't been expecting that, but he wouldn't let it go unnoticed. He reacted with supernatureal quickness, his reflexes coordinated and fast as he gave a hard punch back.
Surprisingly, the younger of the two was burning with strength that night. Whether it was from anger alone or feeding excessively, Damon knew not, but either way, Stefan was not much weaker.
Hands gripped the collar of Damon's leather jacket and hefted him up off the damp pavement, the sound of Stefan's heavy breathing sounding loud.
"You don't want to fuck with me tonight, Damon. Be grateful I had it in me to forewarn you."
Black eyes flashed and he ripped away. Straightening his coat, he lifted his head slightly back in an air of power and command.
"I'll never be grateful to you, *fratello piccolo*."
Stefan took a menancing step towards his brother. His breathing was quick, sharp inhalations. "I don't know why I ever trusted you."
"You should know better by now." The reply was smug.
Another step, and then another, and another. Stefan had his brother back against the wall of the club but Damon looked uncaring.
"If you ever lay one finger on even an inch of my wife's skin again, I will kill you."
A sinister smile. "You couldn't kill me if you tried."
Stefan's eyes flecked gold in the hazy light filtering down from the spotlight over the metal door.
"Oh, yes I could, brother. Do *not* underestimate me."
A shrug. "What would Elena think? Imagine what she'd do if you killed her lover."
Stefan growled deep within his throat and his hands shot out to shove Damon roughly up against the brick.
" *You* are not her lover," he spat. "Don't tempt me, Damon."
"Elena--"
"Elena doesn't love you."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that, *brother*."
Something inside Stefan ached but he wouldn't show that to Damon. Wouldn't dare let him see that his words bore the weight of undesired truth.
Silently, the two brothers glared at one another, neither making another move to begin a fight. Stefan's heart pounded beneath his sweater and Damon inhaled deeply.
"You're lucky," he said. Stefan was caught offgaurd.
"Say what?"
Damn took his uncertaintanty as a chance to esacpe and shoved his brother off of him, smirking as Stefan staggered backwards.
The taller Salvatore looked suspisciously at the shorter.
"I said you're lucky."
"What?"
"Your wife's a good fuck."
Stefan gave a wild cry of ferocity and slammed Damon down onto the concrete. The sheer force of his antipathy was his drive and he pounded Damon with his fists, punching and kicking the body that was his brother's. Too shocked to fight, the first few good punches got in, resulting in a bloody nose and a busted bottom lip. Then, however, he regained his composure and knocked Stefan's feet out from under him, sending him sprawling to the ground.
Leaping to his feet, Damon lashed out at his brother with a leg, but Stefan jumped up and went for his brother's throat.
"You son-of-a-bitch, I'll kill you!" he bellowed, as Damon was once again throwm up against the wall. Stefan's knee lifted and slammed directly into his groin. Damon cried out. But Stefan wasn't going to win this so easily.
With a loud yell, Damon shoved Stefan away again, this time hard enough that he fell to the floor and smacked his head. Taking his brother's yelp of pain as a chance to beat him, he delivered a series of blows to his face. Stefan's head felt dizzy and his vision became cloudy -- He knew in the morning, if he survived, his eye would be black and blue and swollen.
A metallic taste of blood seeped into his mouth as his lip began to bleed, and through his hazy eyes, he could see Damon's nose was still bleeding profusely. Good.
Stefan tried to fight back, tried to get to his feet, but Damon's foot met his ribcage and he doubled over in agony. *Shit*.
"You never learn, Stefan!" Damon's voice was ragged, his breathing labored and Stefan's vision was spotted with strange dots and colors.
He didn't know if he was going to live. Oh God...Elena. He hoped she knew how much he loved her, how much she meant to him. He forgave her for it all; nothing could ever make him turn his back on her. He just wished they'd had one more night--
"STOP!"
Elena had arrived.
***
Abruptly, the kicks to his stomach ceased and Stefan dared to open his eyes as the voice registered in his mind.
/Elena!/
"Oh, Stefan!" she rushed to him, throwing herself bravely, if somewhat dumbly, inbetween them. She was crying, her hair wild and untamed as she knelt beside her husband.
Something crackled in the air as though her anger was visably thrumming like electricity in the darkness. Her blue eyes held repulsion as she glared up at Damon. He stepped back.
"What did you do to him!"
Damon, to her bewilderment, looked just the slightest bit caught off guard but he quickly covered it up.
"I gave him what he deserved," he answered, wiping at the drying blood on his mouth.
Elena's hand was cool against Stefan's damp forehead and he reached up to touch her face lovingly. "If you did anything that he doesn't heal from, I'll hunt you down, Damon."
"Then what, Elena? Get me back?" Midnight eyes were mocking.
"I swear to God I will never forgive you--"
"He'll be fine. He'll live, anyway."
"Fuck you."
"I believe you've already handled that...Quite nicely if I may add."
She shook her head angrily, glancing to her husband and brushing his hair off his brow. Blue eyes rose to meet black again.
"It's over."
One brow raised. "Come again?"
"It's over. You and me. For good."
His eyes were cruel but beneath it Elena sensed his hurt, though she knew she'd be damned if he'd ever admit it.
Damon looked to Stefan for a moment, whose attention was riveted on his wife, before he returned his gaze to Elena.
"I'm serious. Don't come near me again, Damon."
He was silent, simply watching her with a saturnine expression.
She cradled Stefan in her arms and gently helped him to stand, one arm around him as she held him up. "I've got you, it's alright. Let's go home, Stefan."
As she walked away, Elena looked to Damon. There was a flicker of pain in her blue eyes but she braced herself. "Goodbye." For just an instant, she reached out to fondly touch his cheek, but then she abruptly pulled away.
/Elena./
She faultered for just a moment, but didn't stop. /Yes?/
/I'm sorry/
Elena did stop then. Shocked, she whipped around. He was gone.
That was the only apology she had ever recieved from Damon Salvatore, and mostlikely, the only one she'd ever get.
She reached out with her mind but felt nothing. A part of her died then, as somewhere inside of her the gap in her heart widened that much more.
Stefan was her life, and this was the last time she'd ever betray him -- She was done with that and loved him far too much to let herself put him through that any more.
But although her love for him was indescribeable and far too great to be effectively put into words, a part of her heart would always belong to another. One with dark hair and eyes the color of onyx.
~*~