Not ready to let go
Cause then I'd never know
What I could be missing
But I'm missing way too much
So when do I give up what I've been wishing for.
Down – Jason Walker
Elena didn't understand. Stefan tried apologizing for making her leave the dance early, but she wouldn't see the situation his way. He tried enticing her with other plans, settling on picking up ice cream and going back to her house.
They walked into her house at two different speeds. Stefan, practically flying around each room making sure they were alone, and Elena stomping in loudly with no fucks given about who heard the fight they were about to have. The house was empty, only shadows greeted them.
They met in the living room. Elena still fuming and Stefan suddenly wrung out.
"I didn't want to ruin your night." He said softly by way of apologizing.
"Because of Damon? Are you serious?"
"You're surprised?"
"At you! He cares about me. Damon wouldn't hurt me. Not ever." Elena chided.
Trying to imagine a world where caring about someone didn't somehow end up hurting them made Stefan's face crumple. Damon cared about Stefan, if anything, he could tell by the hundreds of scars that didn't show up on Stefan's body, but sometimes itched anyway. "You can't possibly know that."
"You honestly think Damon would go that far?"
"It's not that simple," he tried to explain. How to tell her what fury his brother wrought without knowing for sure didn't do him any favors. "I don't know what he's going to do."
"Well what did I do to upset him? We're friends."
"It's not you." He admitted, eyes falling to his hands.
"Okay…" She narrowed her eyes as she started to understand. "So what did you do?"
Stefan fidgeted with his ring, and Elena stepped forward to put a calm hand on top of his.
"It doesn't matter. He's an ass." She shrugged as her anger lessened. "You've been spending too much time alone with him, clearly. He's still trying make you miserable. Every time you try to be a good influence on him, he turns out to be a bad influence on you."
The point needled into Stefan's side. He wanted to laugh and laugh and laugh. But everything was getting choked up again. Instead he swallowed roughly and went to sit down.
"He doesn't have that kind of control over me." Stefan was almost sure, anyway. Damon may be physically stronger, and his will may have been more absolute than Stefan's, but he didn't actually control Stefan's actions. That may have been unfortunate, really.
"You're only here with me now because you're hiding from him, aren't you?"
"I'm keeping you safe." Of which he was increasingly less sure. He wanted to have a fun night out to make her happy, to try and make himself happy too. He wasn't sure why it felt like he was actually protecting Damon by hiding away with her.
"You should forget him." Elena started but her mouth snapped shut when she saw the violent heat in Stefan's eyes. Silence lasted all of five seconds. "I'm sorry, Stefan. I just miss you." She leaned over, wrapping her hand around Stefan's arm and putting her head on his shoulder. "I don't like that you're out with Damon every night. Whatever his problem is feels like it's coming between us. And you're letting it. I never get to see you at all. We haven't spent any real time together in like, weeks." She stressed the time with exaggerated eyes that Stefan used to find so appealing.
"I know." His chest ached at the pain his choices caused her. "But all I've been doing is trying to help my brother, and you're trying to turn that into some sort of plot he has against me."
It's not like he could think about anything else. Now that Damon was clear on what he was after, Elena wasn't exactly wrong. Stefan still had to decide how to proceed. He looked at her ready to make it up to her; leaning forward to press his lips against hers and tell her so when his phone rang.
Elena's eyes fell as Stefan aborted the movement to look down at the caller ID.
"It's him, right?"
Confused, Stefan shook his head as he brought the phone up to his ear.
"Ric?"
The voice on the other end made him go cold. "You need to get home, now."
