I'm glad everyone seems to like this so far! A guest reviewer said that The Choices We Make is one of their favorite stories they've ever read and it made me really eager to post more :) I will continue updating this epilogue, but as of now I'm not looking to keep writing more. I've moved on to other stories, so hopefully I can finish one of them soon and start posting.
"Please, Damon?" Elena begged from their bed in the boarding house, bouncing on it a little for emphasis as she gave him her puppy dog eyes from across the room.
Damon was standing in the bathroom shaving his face, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. He was fresh out of the shower and getting ready for this party that Elena was dragging him to.
"I didn't even want to go to start with, but now you're trying to get me to wear that?"
He practically spat the word out like it was coated in vervain, and Elena gave him a hard look. "I don't see what's so bad about it. You know if we win, we get fifty bucks each and bragging rights."
"Oh, wow, fifty bucks?" Damon mocked. "Well gee, I better get right on that! It's not like I have millions just lying around in the bank waiting to be used."
"Stop being a spoil sport!" She huffed, her entire body deflating as she looked at him exasperatedly.
"No." He hit back. "You got me to agree to go out with you on Christmas Eve instead of chaining you to the bed for a little early Christmas present, you got me to agree to go with Blondie and Witchy, and you even got me to agree to go to one of your college friend's houses that I've never met before, but you will not get me in that."
She pouted, "It'll be fun, babe, come on! And you know Megan, you met her like twice! And it's not going to be some boring party, there will be alcohol, and music, and yes, an ugly sweater contest!"
"Have fun winning on your own." Damon smirked.
She glared at him, "I'm not going to win if you don't wear yours too! They're couples sweaters, Damon! Mine doesn't make sense without yours!"
"Why not?" Damon asked.
"Because without you, I'm just half a reindeer!" She shouted, standing up to show him her sweater. It was ugly—that was for sure—and dark red with the head half of a reindeer. Christmas lights were wrapped up in his antlers and he had a red nose that could all be lit up with the switch of a button.
Damon stared at her incredulously, "It looks fine without the other half!"
"What reindeer doesn't have a butt!?" She screamed angrily, holding up his sweater. It was the same red as hers, but it had the reindeer's butt half along with a Christmas tree with lights strung on it and a star that lit up as well.
"Why would I want to wear a reindeer's ass!?" He yelled, holding his arms out with half of his face covered in shaving cream.
"Because your sweater completes mine, and I swear to fucking god Damon if you don't wear the goddamn sweater I will rip your balls off and turn them into a keychain!"
"Christ, Elena…"
She stomped over to him and shoved the sweater at his chest, "Wear it. Or don't. Take your chances and see just how serious I am."
With that warning, she stormed out of their bedroom, leaving Damon stunned into silence. He glared at the sweater in his hand and threw it on the floor so he could finish shaving.
Yeah, he'd wear the damn thing, but then again he'd known he'd wear it since the second Elena came home with a package, beaming about how excited she was. But that didn't mean he was going to be happy about it.
And Elena was in a pissy mood, which arguably was his fault, but it wasn't going to make tonight any easier.
With her first semester of college down, she'd made a lot of new friends. He was excited to have her back home for the holiday break, but at the same time, he hadn't thought she'd want to drag him all over the state to visit her friends and go to their parties.
Well, that wasn't entirely accurate. This was the first party she'd wanted to take him to. He didn't really have a problem going with her anywhere, especially to one of her friend's parties, but he just wasn't excited that it was on Christmas eve, and it was an hour's drive away.
He had plans for tonight, and they were making him anxious enough without adding the stress of going to a party where he wouldn't be able to make sure everything was perfect for tonight. That meant that he had to trust Jeremy, of all people, to make sure everything was perfect for tonight. He went over it countless times with the kid to make sure he knew exactly what to do, and then even went so far as to recruit Matt to come over after and make sure the kid did everything perfectly. Tonight couldn't get screwed up, even though he wasn't going to be there to do everything himself like he originally wanted.
But because Elena had flashed him her doe eyes, he agreed to go to the party and trust her idiot brother and simpleton ex-boyfriend with this.
And now, he had to suck it up.
Begrudgingly, he finished shaving his face even after nicking himself a few times in his frustration. At least he healed instantly. He snatched the sweater from the floor and held it out to see it better, eying it with disgust. At least it wasn't itchy.
He went into their room and pulled on a pair of boxers, dark jeans, and a black t-shirt before reluctantly pulling on the sweater. He looked at himself in the mirror and cringed.
He looked fucking ridiculous.
Then to see just how bad it was going to get, he found the switch on the inside of the hem around his hips and switched it on. He had to close his eyes so they weren't permanently damaged by the sight of himself in a Christmas sweater with a reindeer's ass and a light-up Christmas tree.
Elena so owed him.
He grabbed the few things he needed for tonight, namely his phone and keys, and headed downstairs. Elena was waiting at the door with her arms crossed, kicking up the corner of the rug.
She looked up when he reached the bottom of the stairs and slowly a smile spread across her face when she saw him in the sweater. She held out her arms for him and gave him a hug, "Thank you, baby, I love you for this."
He rolled his eyes and grumbled a response, and she stood next to him to line up their sweaters and turned her own lights on. She giggled happily at the sight and her smile was almost enough to make it all worth it for Damon.
Almost.
They turned off the lights to save the batteries before heading out to the car to start the drive. The party was at three since Megan knew that everyone probably wanted to get home to their families on Christmas Eve, so they had plenty of time to make it there before then.
Bonnie and Caroline were taking their own car, probably to spare them the bloodshed that would surely ensue with Damon and Caroline trapped in an enclosed space for too long.
By this point, Bonnie and Damon had actually kind of formed some sort of friendship. Over the past semester, Damon was visiting so often that it was kind of hard not to. Well, the reason for their friendship starting was actually a funny story involving a completely shitfaced Elena. Damon had convinced her to go out to a Halloween party to celebrate the one year anniversary since their last Halloween party at Whitmore, and yet again, Elena got drunk on human blood and alcohol. It was worse than last time though. This time, she hadn't snapped out of it so easily.
Damon ended up carrying her back to her room early in the morning, accidentally waking Bonnie up in the process. Caroline was visiting home for the weekend, or rather, Stefan, whether she'd admit that or not, so when Elena started laughing at nothing and Bonnie woke up, she was pissed at Damon. Until Elena started spewing out blood and booze like a volcano in their bathroom.
Apparently vampires can puke from intoxication.
Long story short, the two of them bonded over Elena's self induced misery.
"Not that I'm complaining," Damon began, halfway through their drive to a city just outside of Richmond.
"Off to a good start." Elena quipped, shooting him a sideways smile.
He rolled his eyes but continued, "Why did we have to wear couples sweaters? Couldn't you have just picked out two ugly ones that didn't match?"
"But that's no fun." Elena pouted. "And trust me, you got off easy. Caroline had originally been talking about group sweaters before Stefan couldn't go."
"What is the deal with my brother anyways?" Damon asked, changing the subject.
Elena opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. Truth was, she had no idea what was going on between the two of them.
It was a long story, really, that all started with Stefan's first visit since he left for the summer. He ended up arriving in Mystic Falls a week later than planned, so he and Damon drove to Whitmore together to visit the girls. They had gone out barhopping all night since the college was having a themed barhop where anyone dressed in eighties gear got half priced drinks.
Caroline, twelve pumpkin martinis in, ended up spilling all of the details about her breakup with Tyler to Stefan. Nobody was really sure what happened after that since Elena and Damon were too wrapped up in each other and Bonnie was hanging out with a few of her friends that were in her folklore classes, but when Elena woke up the next day, she wasn't the only one sharing her bed with a Salvatore.
No, they didn't have sex. They weren't even naked. They were both fully clothed, but spooning.
Since then, they've been a mystery. The only thing they didn't hide was their friendship.
Needless to say, Stefan had decided to stick around for a while after that. He was over Elena by then, and actually happy for her and his brother, and he had found the closure he needed by taking time away from everything.
Finally, Elena said, "He's your brother. You ask him."
He threw back, "She's your best friend, babe."
"Yeah, and have you met her?" Elena laughed. "She's kind of psycho. If she hasn't told us what's going on yet, she's not going to."
"Fine, I'll talk to Steffie." Damon conceded.
Their relationship truly had improved in the short time one semester covered. Damon didn't want to be distant from him. He never wanted that. And with Stefan no longer pissed about Elena, they were both able to reconcile. Not without booze of course, and three girls taking care of the two wasted vampires when they showed up drunk the night after the Caroline and Stefan incident.
Bonnie, while it was true that she and Jeremy had decided to give their relationship another shot, was having a bit of trouble with the long distance thing. With Elena and Damon, it was easy, because four years was nothing compared to the endless future they had to look forward to. They had suffered through so much together that two semesters for four years not living together wasn't a big deal.
But with the two humans, things were more complicated. Jeremy was still in high school. He was two years younger than Bonnie, and she was a college student. She was building her future career and making a name for herself while Jeremy was still drifting through high school with barely passing grades. Their priorities were different, and that was ultimately what was making their relationship suffer.
Elena hoped that the two of them could work things out. They were two of the most important people in her life, and of course she wanted them to be happy with each other, but if they weren't, then they shouldn't drag it on until things got messy. She would be there if either of them needed her, but frankly, it wasn't her business to tell them how to maintain their relationship.
The drive really flew by, and Damon and Elena arrived at the small townhouse promptly at three o'clock. They decided to stop for a bottle of rum and eggnog beforehand, just to thank Megan for inviting them. After all, she didn't know what she was truly doing by inviting two vampires into her home. The least they could do was supply some booze.
She answered the door with a big smile, "Elena, Damon! Glad you could make it!"
She stepped aside to let them in, but neither of them budged knowing they needed the words to be spoken. Elena grinned, "Hey, Megan! Thanks for inviting us! We actually brought you some alcohol, you know, figuring the least we could do was bring some spiked eggnog to the party."
She reached for the two bottles and said, "Oh, thanks! This works out great, I was just thinking that I might need to run to the store to get some more eggnog! Well come on in and get a drink, there's plenty to go around."
This time, they both walked in without a problem. They found a bunch of people Elena knew from college already inside, including Caroline and Bonnie, wandering through the house and mingling in every room.
There wasn't a single person that didn't have a drink in hand, and soon Damon and Elena were included. Elena followed some of her friends back into the living room from where they were standing in the kitchen, and Damon sent a quick text to Jeremy to make sure he was getting everything ready before joining them.
Their sweaters were a hit. Damon couldn't tell you how many times he had to stand next to Elena to make the damn things line up, and he felt like a walking Christmas tree with all of the lights. Hell, he kind of was.
And, it wasn't so bad getting to meet all of Elena's friends. These were the people that she spent all of her time with; damn right he wanted to get to know them. Megan lived with her roommate, Crystal, but Elena was better friends with Megan. Then there was Liam, some pre-med douche(if you asked Damon) that had eyes that lingered just a second too long on his girl. Then there was Aaron, some mousy looking kid with sad eyes that Damon didn't even try to feel worried about. There were a few more girls to meet and a couple more guys, which Damon was more than happy to meet because it meant they got to put a face to the title 'boyfriend.'
Though with any luck, that title would be changing tonight.
The ugly sweater competition then began, and Elena dragged him to the front of the room to line up with all of the other guests competing. They each presented their sweaters, and he swore that Elena had basically de-fanged him and taken his masculinity all in one fell swoop. There he was, a big, bad, evil, murderous vampire that could kill the entire room of guests in less than a minute wearing a light up Christmas sweater with a reindeer's ass on it and holding a red solo cup filled with eggnog while at a Christmas party.
And the worst part? They won the contest.
The party didn't last much longer after that though because it started snowing. There was already a good foot on the ground, and with more only piling up, everyone wanted to get a head start on their drive home.
After checking his texts and seeing both Jeremy and Matt telling him that everything was perfect, he began driving home. Never before had he been as nervous as he was. His hands were sweating on the wheel. All he could think about were all the ways in which it could go wrong and Elena would say no.
He thought she might have even gotten suspicious that something was going on when he kept zoning out and she'd have to repeat herself, but she forgot all about it when he flipped on the radio to Christmas music and she started singing along.
Christmas was her favorite holiday. It always had been. This year, since there was no impending doom hanging over their heads, everyone went all out. Damon took her to the town square for the annual Christmas tree lighting where they drank hot chocolate and bought candy canes for charity to hang on the tree. He took her ice skating, they went Christmas shopping, and they even went sledding. On the days that the weather was really bad and there was no point in leaving the house, they locked themselves inside either the boarding house or her and Jeremy's house and baked Christmas cookies, decorated a real tree, and hung up garland and decorations all throughout the house. Thanks to Elena's sneakiness, there were just a few more memories attached to that strand of mistletoe hanging above the entrance to her kitchen.
It really had been the perfect holiday season, and it wasn't even at its peak yet.
The sun had set long ago when Damon pulled up to the boarding house and parked his car. He and Elena stepped out into the blizzard raining down upon Mystic Falls, and she scurried for the front door to evade the bone chilling temperature. Except she froze when she saw the giant red ribbon tied in a bow around the door knob.
"What's this?" She asked curiously, turning to him with a small smile.
Damon shrugged, "Why don't you open the door and find out?"
She was confused, he could tell, but her heart was also hammering about as fast as a human's with the anticipation. She pushed open the door and stepped inside, seeing that the living room was dark except for a small fire in the fireplace. The ribbon that was tied to the door appeared to lead further into the house, and when Damon was inside with her, he shut the door behind them so the ribbon went back to hanging in the air.
Elena looked at him with her brows drawn together and he smiled, "Follow it."
"When did you do all of this?" She asked as her heeled boots clicked on the wooden floors.
He blew out a laugh, "Not me, kitten. Your brother." She whirled around to look at him then and he rolled his eyes, "It's not important, just keep going."
She shook her head and trailed her hand over the ribbon until she came to a stop at the first note attached to it. They were standing just inside of the foyer, and she lifted it from the ribbon to open it and read it aloud.
"This house holds so many memories for us that I thought it only fitting to include it in your Christmas present. I want to remind you of every last one of them, starting in the foyer."
She looked at Damon and he started, "Right here was where you stormed into my house like a bat straight out of hell countless times just to yell at me or demand something, assuming I wasn't already carrying you over the threshold because you had done something stupid and I was saving you."
"That only happened three times." She pointed out playfully.
He smirked, "Which is three too many times. It was right here that we had one of our first conversations, and where I would walk through to find you helping yourself to anything in this place. It was here that we called each other children because you wouldn't invite me into my own home, and it was here that I got to scare the living hell out of you with my crow."
"That wasn't funny, by the way." She grinned, earning one from him too.
"Maybe not to you. But keep going." He motioned down the hall to where the ribbon continued, and she stopped at the note tied around the railing to the stairs.
"The stairs hold a lot of memories for me that you may not know about, but I intend on filling you in on them now. This house is yours as much as it is mine, and you deserve to know everything that holds importance to me."
When she looked up at him again, he said, "These stairs were where I promised to myself and to Stefan that I would do whatever it took to keep you safe, even if that meant you hated me for it. This was where we walked down, arm in arm, to your eighteenth birthday party when I knew the last thing you wanted to do was go to it. And right here was the location of quite a few sexual acts because we couldn't keep our paws off each other long enough to get to our room."
She laughed softly and seeing that he was done, she started up the stairs to find the next note. It was attached to the knob on their bedroom.
"Our bedroom…more sexual memories than anything, but I'm sure I can push those aside for the moment to remind you of the other significant events."
Damon began, "It was in our room that you held me when I was dying from a werewolf bite. Delirious and a breath away from the vast unknown, you laid with me and kissed me even after I bit you and pathetically confessed my love to a girl I knew I'd never have a chance with. Just goes to show I'm not always right, huh?" She smirked a little and he continued, "It was behind those doors that you told me you love me for the first time, and it was where we made love for the first time. There were a lot of firsts in here for us, and with any luck we'll have a bunch more firsts in here throughout our lives together."
Elena couldn't stop herself from giving him a quick kiss before moving on to the next stop on the ribbon. She had no idea what was going on, but she was excited, nonetheless. If Damon was reminding her of their entire relationship, then she knew something big was going to happen at the end. Maybe he would ask her to move in with him. Or maybe he'd just kiss her in front of the fire and gigantic tree they bought and decorated, then make love to her on the floor as they celebrated Christmas together.
The next was attached to Stefan's door, and while no longer a sore topic between them, she was still a little confused as to why there was a note there. She read it before she asked any questions.
"I know what you're thinking. Stefan is the last thing that needs to be brought up right now. But actually, you're wrong. Because Stefan was a big part of your life, and without him we probably never would have been together."
"How do you figure that?" Elena asked incredulously. "We met first, Damon, you would have still been in my life at some point…"
He shrugged, "But Stefan was the reason I was even in Mystic Falls. Stefan was the reason that I did everything I could to get you alone, at first. Without your relationship with him, we wouldn't be here today."
She smiled softly, "Can I add something to this place?"
He frowned a little but nodded, and she confessed, "Stefan's room was where I fell in love with you. You gave me back my necklace on my eighteenth birthday, even though I knew how much it hurt you to do so, and seeing how selfless you could be…I loved you in that moment."
"That was when you fell in love with me?" He asked incredulously. "Hell, if I had known all it would take was that rusty old thing I would have given it to you way sooner!"
She giggled, "Okay, on to the next place!" Chuckling, he led her to a large window at the end of the hall and jumped through it, down into the snow. Elena looked down at him from the window, "My boots will get ruined in the snow!"
He rolled his eyes, "Just jump down! I'll buy you ten more pairs to replace them!"
Laughing to herself, she leapt down next to him and noticed the ribbon tied to a tree with another note. She plucked it from the ribbon and read, "The woods…well, I'm sure you can imagine why this place is important to us. It gave us our start—our real start."
Damon added, "Back in those woods is where you turned your humanity back on, and where our relationship officially began. Well, the good parts where there's no danger around us and everyone has their humanity on."
"And what a peaceful six months it's been." Elena mused.
He nodded, "Ready for the next place?"
"Sheesh, how many more are there?" Elena said playfully.
He smirked, "Just one more, but it's arguably the most important."
They followed the ribbon from the tree back into the house and to the living room. It was tied to a green box with a matching red bow on top that sat on the coffee table.
"The final present, huh? No note?"
"Why don't you open the box and find out, wise guy?"
She rolled her eyes and took the top off of the box, finding a note and one of the universal remotes they have around the house. Instead of questioning him like she wanted to, she opened the note.
"Last but not least, we have the fireplace. Is it even possible to name every memory we have here together? For you, I'll try."
Damon continued, "I don't think I can count on both hands the number of times I've been sitting in here with a drink and you've appeared practically out of thin air to come find me. And every time, the only thing going through my mind was how am I going to help this girl now? Who would have guessed that just a few months later, you'd be the one telling me that everything was going to be okay and that we'd let Stefan go if we had to. This is where you transitioned, and where we've spent countless days laying around and doing nothing, which were arguably some of our best moments."
"They were, weren't they?" Elena agreed with a smile. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she asked, "So the remote?"
"Ah, yes, the remote." Damon smirked. He motioned towards the fireplace which was the only source of light, leaving the rest of the room completely dark. "Press the 'on' button and see what happens."
Elena didn't know what she was expecting. This was all so over the top, but with Damon, she'd be surprised if he didn't go all out for her. And it was their first Christmas together after everything that happened, so it would have been shocking if he did anything less. Elena had her present for him all wrapped up and placed under the fifteen foot tall tree that stood to the left of the fire place, and she wondered if when she turned all the lights on she was going to see something ridiculous like hundreds of presents all around it.
Damon pulled the small black box he was carrying out of his pocket and stepped behind her as she clicked the button. The entire room lit up, revealing that it was completely decorated in Christmas lights. They were draped from the chandeliers above, hanging over the railing to the upstairs, bordering every doorway, window, and the fireplace, and the huge tree came to life with all of its sparkling ornaments, garland, and the star on top.
But none of that was what Elena was staring at, her mouth hanging open with no hope of closing.
On top of the mantle above the fireplace, there were giant light up letters wrapped in even more lights that spelled out 'Will you marry me?'
Elena whirled around to look at Damon, intent on asking what the hell was going on, when she saw him down on one knee behind her with a shiny diamond ring in the box he held out to her.
"Damon…?" She breathed, her eyes already beginning to water.
He smiled softly up at her, "Do you want me to give you the carefully planned out speech about how much I love you, or do you want to skip ahead to the yes part?"
Slowly, a wide, bright smile spread across her face, her watery eyes lighting up brighter than the sun. She swallowed the lump of emotions in her throat and nodded, "The yes part, definitely."
Dropping to her knees in front of him, she pulled his face to hers and kissed him. With that one kiss, more words were spoken than if they had tried to have a real conversation. Promises of love, commitment, and happiness were made, all of which were guaranteed to be kept with the deep bond they shared.
Elena still couldn't quite believe what was happening, that Damon had actually just proposed to her, and even more life changing, she'd just said yes. Hell, she hadn't even had to think about it, really. Sure, she never imagined herself getting married at the young age of nineteen, or even engaged, but that was before she learned about the supernatural. That was before life taught her that there's a whole lot more to value about the simplicity of a beating heart or the breath. In the past few years, she'd learned not to think too hard about the future, because she was fighting for her life in the present. What good was imagining what could be when the here and now was filled with life threatening obstacles at every turn?
Well, then she died, and her future seemed a whole lot more bleak.
Until Damon came into the picture.
He made her dream of having a future again. He made her glad to be alive. He even made her feel alive.
So did she have to think about marrying her soulmate at such a young age?
Hell no.
She didn't even blink.
Why would she when she already knew that she was going to spend every last second of her life with Damon?
With her hands shaking slightly from surprise and excitement, Elena held out her left hand as Damon slid the antique looking silver band onto her finger. She wiggled her fingers in the light and watched as the solitary diamond sparkled. It wasn't anything too big and gaudy, but with Damon's wealth, it wasn't tiny either. The band had an intricate design carved into it with two tiny diamonds acting as accents to the swirling pattern. It truly was exactly her style.
She looked up at him to see him smiling wider than she'd ever seen as he watched her reaction to everything. A few tears had escaped her eyes, and as she brushed them away she said, "Damon, it's beautiful…"
He reached for her hand to get a better look at how his mother's ring would look on her finger and said, "Glad you like it, kitten."
"Like it? I love it! Where did you even get it? I've looked at engagement rings before no thanks to Caroline, and I've never seen anything like this…" She shook her head, staring down at the ring in awe as Damon rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.
"It was my mother's." He answered simply, as if it wasn't a big deal that he had just given her something that belonged to his mom—the first person that he ever loved and loved him right back.
Her mouth dropped open for the second time that night, but she promptly shut it and wiped away a few more tears as she straddled Damon's lap. She dropped her forehead to his, her hands tangling lightly in his hair while his came to rest on her hips.
"Thank you." She whispered, knowing that was all she needed to say for him to know how much she truly appreciated the gesture.
He smiled, "Don't thank me, Elena. Marry me."
She let out a small laugh before joining their lips in a passionate kiss.
That was one thing that she could do.