E, C and B's plane crashed. D&E are stranded on an island. E escapes to get to J; meets A&G. D&E reunite, bond, meet K, confess feelings, share backstories. K turns into human; A takes care of her. D convinces E to let him turn her. E convinces D to call S to get them out.

Chapter 33: Flightmate

It was done.

According to Damon, she died and stayed dead for twelve hours. When she woke, she was in the familiar sofa. At Gloria's. Opening her eyes, Elena etched her first memory as an undead: Damon's face lighting up.

She'd fed on Aaron's blood. Not from his neck, that would never have been a good idea. Neither Damon nor Elena would have allowed that. He donated his blood and Gloria handed over the blood bag. She looked at her with revulsion, failing to make eye contact. Elena tried to not let it get to her. She put the tube in her mouth and sucked. The pain of fangs sprouting and the restlessness that comes with being a vampire was excruciating.

'Damon what is happening to me?'

'Are you feeling a hunger at the pit of your stomach?'

Elena nodded.

'Good. Do you feel like you can't sit still and if someone looks at you the wrong way, you could just rip open their neck?'

She nodded, then terrified.

Damon smiled at her sarcasm and stroked her head comfortingly. 'It's normal. It'll go away, don't worry.'

He was right. As the days passed, it got better. Damon got to talk to his brother. Gloria reluctantly spelled the water and opened a portal to Stefan's world. The spell worked since both brothers wore the Salvatore ring - the big bulky one on Damon's middle finger. Stefan was more than happy to see Damon again. Apparently he'd been searching for Damon just like Damon had been searching for him.

They bid goodbye to Aaron, who decided to let in a very pissed-off Katherine Pierce into his big home. She'd overheard some of their conversations and she and Damon had quite a laugh about it. It consisted of bickering, Katherine making over-the-top requests and Aaron putting her in her place. Humanity was not going well for her and Elena couldn't be happier.

She kissed him on the cheek before she left, earning curses from Katherine. She smiled to notice that her face was contorted in jealousy instead of hate. Wait... does she like Aaron?

And Elena made her exit soon after that realization.

As they reached the shore, Elena spotted another ship. It said S.S Salvatore on it.

'Your brother didn't mention anything about getting his own ship,' Elena said to Damon incredulously.

'Sorry about that,' she heard a voice behind her.

Elena turned around and Stefan stretched his arms out for his brother. Damon walked forward and the two brothers reunited. Elena felt her eyes tearing up in happiness for the two of them. She could relate because that's exactly what she'd feel if she saw Jeremy right then.

Oh I can't wait to go back home.

'Brother, mind introducing me to your girl?'

'Stefan, meet Elena Gilbert. She is head-strong, smarter than me, recklessly independent and I love her,' he said in one breath, throwing a wink towards Elena. Her heart still skipped a few undead beats but atleast her blush couldn't surface to embarrass her anymore.

'Elena, this is my brother Stefan. All you need to know is that I'm better than him at rugby, soccer and women.'

Elena smirked sarcastically. 'Yes because that is what matters, doesn't it, Damon?' She turned to Stefan who smiled wider when she did, 'I'm guessing you're the smarter of the two, then?'

Stefan laughed and shook his head. 'Let's not go there, Elena.'

Elena laughed and moved forward to hug him. It was nice. She whispered, 'Thank you for saving my life that day.' She needed him to know how grateful she was for the second chance. 'I don't blame you for not saving my parents. If you're beating yourself up, don't. I want you to know that.'

As Stefan pulled back, she saw that he looked like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Elena knew they were going to be best friends.

Well, thank god. He was her boyfriend's brother after all.

Stefan smiled a small smile and nodded his gratitude back.

'Come on! Home we go!' Damon called out. Elena's body moved with the fresh batch of adrenaline at the sound of home. She, grinning broadly, ran straight into Damon's arms; thankfully he caught her. Unsteadily. She kissed him full on the lips. Elena knew she'd miss the island and the times they had together, but she really wanted to go back to Mystic Falls. To home.

'Get a room, you two,' Stefan called out. Embarrassed, Elena and Damon leaned back, and tried to assess what had happened. Like everything about the two of them, they couldn't. So they simply ended up laughing at each other.

'Way to use my own words against me brother,' Damon called back.

Elena was confused. Am I missing something here? She looked from brother to brother, hoping for some context. They continued to stare at each other; Stefan in shocked silence, Damon widely grinning back.

'What words?'

Damon rolled his eyes to Stefan and replied, 'Earlier when I talked to Stefan, he was…' he paused, clearly for his trademark dramatic effect. 'in the middle of something.'

Oh god.

Elena and Damon watched Stefan promptly avert all eye contact. He looked like he'd like nothing better than the sand to swallow him whole. Elena smiled. She was starting to understand the joys of embarrassing others. It was hard to be on the receiving end of it and Elena was glad she wasn't at that moment. And wow, was that embarrassing.

'Oh Caroline...' Damon moaned, imitating his brother's sex voice. 'DAMON!' Stefan and Elena shouted in unison, heat rising in their faces.

Damon smirked happily. 'Yep! Stefan Salvatore was hitting a home run with Caroline Forbes.'

She cringed. Poor Stefan. He must be dying inside and cursing his fate for having Damon for a brother. It was worse to hear it in his sarcastic, smirky voice though.

And she was right.

Stefan's hands flew to Damon's neck as he tackled Damon to the ground. They rolled along the sand and tried to one up the other. Finally, Damon threw Stefan off himself and he didn't fight back. Then, they lied there laughing.

As Elena watched them, she thought about Caroline and how she made it out of the crash because of the survivor that she is. About Stefan and Caroline and how good they'd be together. If they were in bed together, that meant Caroline probably knew about Stefan. Maybe Elena could really go back and see her. Maybe Bonnie knew about vampires too. How could they keep secrets from each other? Maybe they'd accept her new status. Then she'd catch up on her work and graduate. She could go to college, get a degree and god knows what else. Maybe she'd write a romance novel; maybe she'd be a journalist. To be a journalist, all she had to do was compel the truth out of them with her handy vampire skills, right? She'd be bloody good at journalism.

But one thing she knew for certain: Damon would be with her through all of it. After all, he was her flightmate.

All was well.

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed every single chapter. In no particular order, LIFETIME SUPPLY OF MANGO SMOOTHIES to jairem, kfulmer, Ninaandianforever, Alyssa92 and sharpie78. Thanks for sticking with this story guys.

6x12: What a wonderful episode to review as the last one with this story. Caroline + Liz + Elena + Damon = Incredible drama and multiple heart-stopping moments. And of course, Damon and Elena finally kissed, in that agonizing parallel with 5x22. Because life's too short. And let that be a lesson to all of us.

I never thought my story would get this popular. I mean... I thought it MIGHT but hey, I thought I'd fall out of love with HP or TVD and it hasn't happened yet! So, if there is anything I want to leave you guys with, it's that no matter how scared you are of uploading your writing publicly (because fanfiction has the reputation for being crap), just do it. Okay? I've been inspired by so many lovely stories from BadBoysAreBest, LoveEpicLove and SuchALittleMonster... that I thought I'd give it a go. So you wanna write, then just GO. Lord knows, I've learnt quite a lot about writing from you guys. I may/may not upload another story but I do have an outline ready. It's just the matter of when I'll be done. Until then... my fellow Flightmates... so long.

Revelation: This story was inspired by reading the summary of Spring Break Lover by asdfghjklb. I didn't even read the story; I read the summary, got inspired, wrote the first seven or so chapters, before my mind decided to make the plane crash into the sea.

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