Author's note: I know, I know I'm crazy. I promise I'm still working on DYWS. I just got this idea in my head not too long ago and now it won't get out of my head. I am stoked that I got such an awesome response from my Dobsley oneshot though. I might ( keyword being might ) write some more. Who knows. Anyway.. back to this story.. this one like I said was just something I can't get out of my head. It's another au/ah Stelena and it's a little different than what you guys are probably used to. So enjoy and leave me some love.
Extra A/N: Like always the title comes from a song title. This particular one would be Stay Away from The Honorary Title.
He's been head over heels for the same girl since Kindergarten. But there's one little problem; she's in love with his big brother. The same brother that just got engaged to Elena's best friend. It's all a big mess. The one thing Stefan does know is he's sick and tired of living in his brother's shadow. He's also fed up of having to clean up the messes Damon always seem to cause. Will one decision Stefan makes change all their lives forever?
Flashback- Mystic Falls, 2003
"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Elena, happy birthday to youuu.."
"Make a wish, Lena. Make sure it's a good one."
Eight year old Stefan Salvatore nudges his best friend and gives her a wide smile. He watches her silently make a wish before blowing out her candles. It's her eighth birthday and all her friends and family gathered for the special celebration in the Gilberts' backyard. Birthdays are always uncomfortable for Stefan, since he's not exactly a people person even at his young age. But it was Elena, so it wasn't like he could tell her no. So he went for her and the cake. Mainly for the cake though, of course. He really, really likes.. cake.
"What did you wish for?" Caroline giggles, "I wished for a pony and daddy ended up getting me one!"
"That's because you're a spoiled little brat," Ten year old Damon chimes in, half joking.
"Shut up, Damon. No one asked you for your opinion," Bonnie scowls at him, clearly irritated with him.
Stefan laughs, he always enjoys seeing his pain of a big brother put in his place. Bonnie is the feisty one of their group and seems to do it more than anyone else. There's Damon, Stefan, Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Bonnie and Jeremy. All their parents were close in high school, so it would only be natural for their kids to grow up and become friends as well. Damon is the oldest and Jeremy the youngest. Damon is getting to that age though where he's starting to branch off from the rest of them, thinking he's too mature and cool to hangout with them anymore.
"Can I open my presents yet?" Elena pouts turning her attention to her parents now.
She starts clapping happily and excitedly when one gets put in front of her. She immediately starts ripping through the packages, and she racks up nicely this year with new Barbie dolls, a gigantic dollhouse from her parents and countless other gifts. She opens her presents from Stefan and Damon last. His mom gave each boy twenty dollars to find the little girl something nice. They went to the mall and picked out gifts separately.
"I love it, Stefan. Thank you," Elena smiles and gives him a bone crushing hug after opening her present and finding the friendship locket he had gotten her.
Damon had told him that he got her a toy from a toy store so when she opened a small package and gushed over some pretty earrings, Stefan shot his brother a glare. The earrings came from the same store Stefan got Elena's gift from. Once again Damon was trying to show up his little brother.
"Damon! They're so pretty! I just got my ears pierced last month, so this was the perfect present."
Stefan sighs as he watches her put the earrings on from his brother, the necklace already forgotten and pushed aside.
End of Flashback
Somehow they managed to all make it. They graduated in May and that's when the gang started going their separate ways. Elena, Jeremy, Bonnie and Damon stayed in Mystic Falls for the Summer. Damon was a sophomore at Whitmore College but since he was dating Bonnie he came back to spend the Summer with her. How that even happened, Stefan wasn't even sure. One day they hated each other and then the next they didn't. They didn't make a whole lot of sense together, but then again he figured that was probably what balanced them out. He was genuinely happy for his brother. Bonnie seemed to make him happy.
Stefan spent the Summer with Rebekah in Georgia, building houses for Habitat for Humanity while Caroline spent her break in Paris with Klaus, Rebekah's brother. Their family had moved to Mystic Falls halfway through Junior year, and they managed to infuse themselves into their group. Stefan and Rebekah had went to Georgia a couple but left single. It wasn't an ugly breakup, just a mutual understanding that it was time for both of them to move on with their lives and that did not include one another anymore. Plus it was kind of hard moving forward in a relationship when one was in love with someone else.
Stefan's feelings for Elena were not exactly a secret. It was just someone everyone knew about, but just didn't dare to speak up about. Elena was pretty clueless though, and Stefan liked it that way. This way he could love her from afar and not risk getting hurt. Because just like everyone knew about Stefan's feelings for Elena, everyone also knew how crazy Elena was about Damon. Everyone besides Bonnie that was. Ignorance really was bliss sometimes.
Their love lives was a complete and utter mess and they were all back home. At least for the time being. Soon everyone would be heading off to college and really moving on with the rest of their lives. He was unpacking the last of his things when he heard Damon come into his room.
"Well well well look who decided to stop being a goody tissues and come back home."
"I missed you too, Damon," he rolls his eyes before shutting the door to his closet.
"All you need is a tiara and a speech about world peace and you're well on your way.."
"Are you done?" he asks growing more and more irritated by the second.
"Not even close, but there are.. issues we need to discuss.."
"Issues?" he sighs and covers his face with his hand starting to regret ever coming home now, "I've been gone for what two months. Two months for you to try and not make a catastrophe. Two fucking months Damon, that was all I asked for. What kind of damage control needs to be done?" he eyes him carefully crossing his arms across his chest.
Damon opens his mouth to speak but shuts it quickly when he sees someone at Stefan's doorway. He turns around quickly and smiles widely when he sees the brunette he missed most of all. Damon's problems are the last thing on his mind now because she's running towards him and throwing her arms around him. Picking her up he twirls her around once before setting her back down with the biggest smile he's probably ever smiled. He barely acknowledges his brother when he clears his throat and pushes past the pair.
"Why didn't you tell me you were back home?"
"I just got in like ten minutes ago, actually. I haven't had the chance to let anyone know I was back," he shrugs and rubs her arms a bit as he just takes a moment to take her all in. "You cut your hair," he wraps a finger around a few strands, "I like it."
"I know. A lot changed over the Summer.." she began lowering her head some.
"It did," he adds thinking about his situation.
"Where's Rebekah?"
He shrugs indifferently, "Probably at home. I wouldn't know."
"What do you mean you don't-" she stops herself the light bulb in her head finally turning on, "Oh.."
"Yeah.." he laughs a little, not knowing what else to say, "We're ok though. It was a mutual thing."
"That's good," she whispers and gives him a small smile.
"What about you?" he asks lifting a brow curiously, "Any Summer flings I should be aware of?" he teases.
She shifts uncomfortably and shakes her head, "Not really. I've been invited for dinner tonight. It's kind of your homecoming dinner, Salvatore so you better not skip out on it."
Stefan makes a face, not all that interested in being center of attention tonight at dinner. Although he notices her change the subject, he decides not to pry. It's not his place, even if they have been friends since they were in diapers. If there is something going on with her. She will come to him in time. At least he hopes she will.
A few hours later everyone is sitting down for dinner and Stefan is being bombarded with questions about his trip. He excitedly explains about the house they built for a single mother and her four children. How him and the others organized a car wash to raise money to get the kids new clothes and toys since theirs had been lost in the fire that destroyed their home three months before. Elena was proud of her best friend, but hearing him talk about his Summer only made her want to kick herself in the ass for turning down the opportunity to join him and Rebekah. Considering the Summer she did end up having, she would have been better off as far as Mystic Falls as possible.
As far from him as possible. She glances at him and tries her best not to frown when she sees him give Bonnie the brightest smile. A smile she had thought was only reserved for her for a short time. A very, very short time.
He doesn't smile at her like that anymore. He doesn't even give her the time of day anymore really.
Flashback- About thirty minutes prior to dinner
"Damon.." she whispers his name, silently pleading with him to listen to her.
He raises an eyebrow but doesn't speak up, seemingly uncomfortable around her.
He's been avoiding her for days, and it's getting more and more frustrating. He treats her like a stranger and it hurts more than it should.
"We need to talk," she tries again but by the look on his face she knows her words carry no importance to him.
Not anymore. Maybe they never really ever did.
He finally looks into her eyes and gives her a small smile, "Maybe later? I think dinner is ready. We don't want to be late to my little brother's special dinner now do we?"
His sarcasm is not as hot as it used to be.
End of flashback
Her eyes move from one brother to the next, and she gives the younger Salvatore a playful smirk. She knows he's probably hating every second of all this. While Damon craved the spotlight, Stefan preferred to stay to himself. He wasn't anti-social or anything like that, but he definitely wasn't the social butterfly his brother was either.
And as if on cue, Damon stands and starts to make a toast. She notices Damon smile down at the pretty brunette blushing next to him and Elena's heart drops. She knows what is next. But she's still not prepared for it. It stings like a bitch. She feels like her world is crashing down around her and she suddenly forgets how to breathe. She's on the verge of a panic attack. She knows it.
"Sorry little bro, I know tonight was kind of your night and all. But Bonnie and I.. we have some news.."
"Is that right? Please do tell us, my boy," their mother claps happily.
There is a collective arrangement of gasps and cheers when the next words come from Damon.
"We are.. getting married. I proposed last night and she said yes."
Elena swallows her pride, chokes back the tears and tries to be the supportive best friend she needs to be at the moment, "Wow Bonnie.. that's one hell of a rock you got there."
She feels a set of eyes on her, burning a hole in her. Ones that are not Damon's, a pair of emerald ones instead. He can already sense her emotions, she figures. He knows her like a book. Cover to cover. It's terrifying. It's amazing.
She moment she gets the chance, she bolts. She's not prepared for Stefan's interrogation and she's definitely not giving Damon the satisfaction of knowing he's hurt her once again. She gets in her car and drives around town for awhile, needing time to process things and just clear her head really.
When she comes home she is not surprised to find Stefan waiting for her in her room.
When he got home, he had felt it. Something had changed. Something huge too. The whole atmosphere around him felt foreign almost. At first he just shrugged it off, thinking maybe he had just been away from home for too long. It took him all of five seconds to realize something was off with Elena when they had their small reunion in his room. She was hiding something. And he was going to get to the bottom of it.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that whatever was bothering Elena had something or everything to do with his idiot of a big brother too. As much as he hated the fact that she and him had probably started something over Summer break, it was not all that surprising. She had always had this strange infatuation with his brother.
He waited and waited around for her to come home for what seemed like to be forever. He flipped through some channels on her tv, beat several new levels of Angry Birds on his phone and sent her a billion texts probably. He downed like three Red Bulls in attempt to stay awake. Jet lag sucked so bad. Eventually the drinks went right through him and he had to piss like a racehorse all of a sudden.
He's relieving himself when his eye catches something, his eyes widening after realizing what the opened box really is laying in her trash can. He doesn't even have the chance to process what he had just seen before walking into her room just as she is coming inside herself. She sets her things down on her dresser before taking a seat on the edge of her bed. She's avoiding eye contact with him all together, and it's the last missing puzzle piece to the gigantic jigsaw puzzle he's been trying to figure out all damn day.
"We need to talk.." he says, not really knowing what else to say at this point.
Panic flashes across her features, "I know.." her voice is small, barely audible.
"You're keeping things from me. And I'm not sure how to feel about that since, well.. you use to tell me everything, Lena.." he sighs out in frustration.
"Stefan, It's complicated."
"I bet," he pauses for a moment before speaking up again, "So.. are you going to tell me who's pregnancy test that is in your bathroom or-?"