Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries and all the characters it depicts don't belong to me, and when I wrote this it wasn't to infringe on anyone's rights. If the world was a different place however Elijah would already be alive.

O0o0O Sleeping Awake O0o0O

O0o0O Skipping Stones Dream O0o0O

A month has past since her strange dream about Elijah. The ease with which she talked with him has bothered her since and the comfort she took from it even more so. It isn't a good sign that she was more honest with him than any of her friends, but maybe it doesn't mean anything too significant, after all he was just a representation of her own subconscious not the real Original. Although why it took his form in the first place she has no idea.

And Elena had been sure it would be a one time only deal. At least until she opens her eyes and finds herself standing under an autumn colored oak by a lakeside and is proven wrong. Her hair is falling down further than she can ever remember having them and they curl all the way to the tips. A red dress she recognizes as the style of the fifteenth century is strangling her body.

She inwardly curses any and every god watching her.

Slowly turning in place she is already certain she would see him. She wasn't however expecting him to be skipping stones. The act in itself is so innocent and his vague smile so charmingly childlike she can't stop the little snort from escaping.

"Something funny?" He doesn't even turn, only crouches to pick up some more stones and throws one of them after those that came before it. It jumps four times before drowning in the crystal clear water.

"Yeah, you. Last time you threw stones you aimed them at me, who could've guessed you got that from a kids game?" Elena certainly hadn't, this wasn't something she would imagine he enjoyed.

"Do you wish to start an argument?" He throws her a sidelong glance and Elena feels a little offended at the humor his look contains. "And anyway, I wasn't throwing those at you. If my intention was to injure you I would have aimed a little to the left. At the time I was certain you had just betrayed me, the stones were intended to frighten."

Silence descends upon them interrupted only by the sound of the pebble meeting the surface of water and then detaching from it. The peace for a while is too comfortable to be broken. She shakes it off.

"Why am I dreaming about you?" Elena isn't sure where the question comes from, it just creates itself in her mind and skips from her lips before she can imprison it within.

"I do not know Elena, why are you?"

She grimaces. Elena would really rather prefer if he didn't throw back her own questions at her, especially those like this one.

"An easier one then. Where exactly are we and what am I wearing, I can't breathe in this thing." Elena is surprised by her own trouble with inhaling, as far as the rules of dreamland go she would have thought that that sort of sensation was out of reach. She mentions that too. "Shouldn't I be unable to feel things like pain and lack of breath?"

He exhales in slight exasperation and after throwing the last stone finally turns around. It's the first time she's really looked at him today, his clothes and hairstyle is completely foreign. His brown hair carry waves in them and are longer than she is used to, he looks to be from a different century. And then she reminds to herself that he is.

Without talking or removing his eyes from hers he walks towards her and then steps around stopping when facing her back. She freezes and begins to turn as well when he gently takes her hair and puts it over her shoulder.

"Stay still and let me help you with that." His long fingers expertly begin to loosen the strings keeping the dress tightly around her chest. Not once does his hand touch her skin, yet somehow it still feels like something intimate between people much closer than Elijah and her. She can feel it as the skin beneath the dress flushes and she is thankful he's standing behind her, because she's certain her face is doing the same.

"Wow your good, exactly how many women have you dressed out of these things?" She grimaces at the way that question comes out sounding, and more than that out of not really wanting to hear the answer.

"Not as many as you are thinking about now. I used to help my sister with this, she rather hated them I recall." It takes him a minute before he's done loosening the corset enough for her to breathe freely and then tie it back up more comfortably. She uses that time to think about his comment and to fight off the rosy tone on her cheeks.

Why is it that Elijah always tells those little bits of his past to her, he always reveals more than needed for any given situation. She always feels honored when he does.

Once she's sure she looks normal again Elena turns around to thank him and looks up to find him closer than she expected. A strange look passes across his face and he blinks, suddenly she isn't as certain she managed to hide all the effects of the thoughts of the past minute. She steps back looking away.

Something akin to disappointment flickers in his gaze, but he smiles and opens his mouth to divert the uncomfortable atmosphere suddenly standing between them.

"To answer your previous questions we are by a lake in England I used to enjoy thinking at when living here. As for the lack of breath, some dreams have more… substance than others." His voice is an octave lower than usual and Elena shivers. The air is becoming cooler maybe.

"Oh." She sighs and shakes off the tingles traveling across her body.

Meanwhile Elijah has already walked back to the spot she first saw him in and is picking up a pebble the right shape for its intended purpose.

"Would you like to try? Or have you never learned how to do this?" The challenge is clear and Elena has never backed out of one of those, it has cost her dearly in some aspects though.

"Give it here, you're throwing them wrong anyway." He takes her hand in his palm and places the pebble within hers. His hands are warm, somehow she hadn't been expecting that and she can't even remember when she had thought about how they would feel.

Whatever the expectations, they were wrong. His hold is gentle and skin soft and it all flows up her arm and into her chest. His gesture isn't in any way sensual or unpleasant, but the familiarity startles her hand away. She toys with the flatly shaped stone in the hand that is colder than it was a second ago.

Elena looks at the tranquil water of the lake and wishes her emotions could take on that state, they don't.

She throws and looks on as the pebble jumps on the surface of the water eight times. Giddiness she didn't know she still possessed bubbles within her and escapes through the clear ring of laughter. She hasn't done this for years, she had forgotten how fun it could be.

"And that's how you skip stones." Elena lifts her chin in victory and curtsies to him for her own accomplishment.

Elijah just curls his lips into an expression that on any other face would look like a smirk, on his though it is more similar to knowing amusement. He throws his stone with a speed and strength not available to a human and the pebble skips until she can no longer see it, she has no doubt it will reach the other side of the shore.

Elena glares all the while fighting down a grin, "Showoff!"

Elijah doesn't dignify that with an answer, he just offers her another stone. They keep skipping them and keeping count, - after some ground rules have been agreed upon of course, - and they do so for what seems like hours.

For the first time in months Elena wakes up with a smile on her face.

O0o0O Further Dreams Coming O0o0O

O0o0O

AN: You might think that Elijah and Elena are developing a bit too quickly, and in the real world that would be true, but in dreams people lose all those pesky inhibitions that stop us from doing whatever we like. Now Elena still has those, because in these dreams she is self aware, but they are definitely lowered a great deal. So what did you think?