Author's note: I'm so beyond thrilled at the beautiful response to this story! This was actually my very first TVD fanfic. :D It was initially meant to be a one-shot, then a two-shot – and now it's just going to get occasional updates for me to cheer myself up! The next chapter of With Great Power (which I'm currently working on) is going to be angsty, so this is for fun! :D
I've been trying to work my way up to using Kai, and this is probably the story where it makes the most sense for him to show up – at least for now. Maybe next chapter. :D He's really intimidating to me as a writer because he's hilarious, but also psychotic and scary – but in a way that's almost innocent because he clearly can't understand that what he's doing is actually wrong some of the time. He's so much fun, and I hope I can do him justice. He's not in this chapter, but probably very soon. :D
It was an unusually warm late February – and even the chilly breeze, despite bearing the frozen breath of the adjacent lake, whose specific heat had clutched and held and swirled into the air to fill it with its icy disparity hadn't been able to deter them from the warmth brewing from their very essence.
Having promised each other forever just that morning, Elena and Damon had swept away to her family's lake house, arriving by late afternoon, the Camaro filled with textbooks, blood bags, and any conceivable necessity for their whirlwind attempt to maneuver through what was essentially a magical lobotomy.
The Lyrid meteor shower was over a month away, but that night promised a decidedly confusing weather report. Partly cloudy with potential for scattered showers. Perfect.
"Did you know that the hottest fire burns blue? And that the most luminous stars are actually Blue Giants?" Elena coquettishly asked Damon, and stood on her tiptoes on the damp, windswept dock to press a kiss into his cheek. They decided to knock out two birds with one stone and visit the property, since it was far enough from civilization that light pollution wouldn't prevent the potential visibility of the occasional rogue meteor, should they actually see one before the rain began. Although it wasn't strictly necessary to observe a known comet's debris to see a meteor, those were certainly more reliable, sporadic meteors still made their way through space – remnants of ancient showers delighting astro-observers in a dazzling light show that proved that beauty was not always prone to what we deem precise measurements and can often surprise us – that the chaos of the cosmos is breathtaking in its own majestic right.
That we can sometimes still receive unplanned, and welcome, and altogether awe-inspiring surprises.
That there is always unyielding hope for happiness, and love, and everything else we wish for in the deepest parts of our souls, frequently covered with sarcastic quips or other deflections.
"Mmhmm, I helped you study for your exams, which you obviously don't remember," he grinned, unable to resist teasing her. Now that she had professed her love for him anew – assured him that there is no conceivable situation in the wilds of the cosmos where she would not undoubtedly and irrevocably fall in love with him, the matter had much of its sting removed. But that didn't mean he didn't enjoy a good jab.
"Damon! You're doing it wrong," she playfully admonished, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him closer, her dark eyes dancing with mirth. "You're supposed to say 'oh, really' and 'that's amazing, Elena,' and then I would follow up by seductively telling you that your eyes are brighter than Sirius, Canupus, and –"
"Acrutus combined?" He grinned roguishly, ducking away from a swat at his shoulder.
"Damon!" She gasped in mock-irritation, then sighed, sneaking what she hoped was another stealthy kiss to his cheek. "I suppose it's only fair, since I did apparently 'steal' your words last night."
"And you only know because I was kind enough to tell you. Otherwise, you'd forever assume that you were the originator of such brilliance."
"I think your ego and its obviously large gravitational field just increased our chances of seeing meteors, since it's clearly big enough to just pull everything in," she raised a deft eyebrow, daring him to contradict her.
"Are you saying that I'm so attractive, that even objects in space can't resist?" He flashed his brilliantly cerulean eyes at her in a manner that made her so weak that she frequently berated him for it in the early stages of their friendship, to his contrived innocence. " If so, you're right. Thanks for finally noticing."
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. When we finally make contact with alien life, they'll be drawn in by the scope and mass and luminosity of your ego, like a brilliant ball of shining light."
"Blue light, apparently."
"That's right. The actual most luminous ego in the galaxy."
"I live to serve the species of our planet in any way I can, Elena. All I ask is a little recognition."
Elena's sarcastic retort froze on her lips as she saw a dashing meteor soar across the clear portion of the night sky, suddenly excited. "Damon, look! I told you we'd see one, anyway!"
"Your relentless optimism never fails," he chuckled, pulling her back flush against his chest so they could both look at the radiant flash of light fly across the night sky, cloud to cloud – a relic of a shower of yesteryear, resilient in its ardent curiosity to wander the expanse of space.
"Did you make a wish?" Elena breathed, captivated by the shooting star's timeless beauty.
"I don't remember you covering that in your astronomy class," Damon teased, pressing a soft kiss to her temple.
"Oh? What do you remember?" She queried slyly, hoping to sneak some forgotten information about their interactions of yesteryear.
Knowing exactly what she was doing, Damon nevertheless smiled indulgently, wrapping his arms around her middle for a tight embrace. "Your school had an Earth and Physical Sciences requirement that both you and Blondie decided to tackle in your first semester. She followed some total hottie," Damon inflected up, mimicking Caroline's voice, "into a geology class, suffering through sediments, but you opted to take astronomy because you loved our memory of the meteor shower so much, and you wanted to savor it – to learn more."
"I meant about us," she quietly responded, unable to resist showing her hand.
Damon dropped a kiss into her hair before gently resting his chin on the top of her head. "You told me that meteor showers are really just debris from comets, and that's why they're so frequent – so we made a plan to take a trip out into the forest at least once a month to try to see some, even if it's just a sporadic meteor like that one. You never stopped insisting on making wishes on them, because it 'couldn't hurt,' – because magic is everywhere. We learned all about stellar luminosity and the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. That's when you started waxing poetic about my eyes," he smiled at the memory, pulling her even loser, prompting Elena to respond by wrapping her own arms around his in a kind of backwards embrace.
"We took field trips. You snuck me into your classroom one weekend, and we looked for all your favorite stars on one of the telescopes at midnight. You started talking about the Overview Effect at one point – how all of us living creatures share this one, tiny, fragile planet suspended in the wilds of space, and how sad and crazy it is that we fight one another when we should he helping each other, instead. It was a very Elena thing to say, and I think I fell in love with you even more, even though I didn't think it was possible. I fall in love with you more every day."
She was quiet for several long moments, a tumult of emotions raging within her – love and gratitude and shame and guilt and happiness and despair and relief and longing all in a veritable battle royale for dominance. Finally, she took a shuddering breath, though her voice was unusually quiet – suspiciously so. "Even now? After what I did? After the way I hurt you?"
"Ric finally told me the whole story – that you almost killed a few people trying to curb your bloodlust from the magic shrooms you got from Luke," Damon sighed. In truth, it took him ages to understand why she would settle on a course so drastic.
"That I emotionally blackmailed him into giving me. I was such a horrible person to be around then."
"We all grieve in our own ways," he admitted quietly, his own heart constricting with shame at the violent and destructive ways that defined his behavior of yesteryear. "I know you never expected to see me again."
"I'm so sorry," Elena finally turned around to look at him, her bright eyes misty with tears. "I hurt you so much. I know I did. I should have run into your arms, and held you close, and promised to love you forever," her tear-filled voice murmured into his chest, squeezing her arms tightly around him. "Like I did last night."
"Hey, it's in the past," he soothed, stroking her hair gently, for once choosing to forgo teasing her about the compulsion, as the clouds steadily gathered overhead. "We're together now. That's what matters."
"Why do you do that?" She cried, unwilling to accept his forgiveness so easily.
"Because I know you didn't do it for you. You never do, even though I've been trying to get you to put yourself first for almost as long as I've known you. You probably never will," he lamented, with a shake of his head. "That means that you were willing to sacrifice our memories to save those people from yourself – to prevent yourself from becoming what you thought was a monster. It was such an Elena thing to do," he laughed, despite himself. "I can't hate you or be mad at you for being so unabashedly you because you're who I love more than anything in the universe. As much as it sometimes annoys me, you wouldn't be you if you didn't give them up, in this situation," Damon offered, internally wincing at his own uncharacteristic lack of eloquence when discussing the matter – or any matter delving into the deepest crevices of his emotions.
She sniffed, closing her eyes tight, her tears soaking his shirt even the first drop of rain had a chance to fall. "I never would if I thought there was even a chance."
"Something you read in your diary?"
"No, I just… " she finally pulled away to look at him, the striking vulnerability in her eyes catching Damon's breath. "I can't imagine losing you now. It happened so quickly – from the time you came back to now – you became the most important person in the world to me. I don't even want to imagine…" She trailed off.
"You won't have to," he reassured, taking her shoulders, though a larger part of him questioned the logic in making assurances about matters not entirely in his control. "I'm not going anywhere. I promised you I would make it back to you that night, and I did – I was just a little delayed. I don't break my promises."
"And you promised me forever," she retorted cheekily, finally back in better spirits.
"I did," he smiled, genuinely, brilliantly, without a hint of reservation.
Elena looked back at him with such undisguised adoration, her dark, expressive eyes sweeping the expanse of his cheeks, his lips, his hair – committing everything to memory, to intimate knowledge, to a tattoo on her still-beating undead heart – finally settling on his eyes, great flaming orbs of blue that never ceased to elicit a gasp from the very depth of her.
"That's what happened that night."
"What night?" She breathed, still caught in her thorough study of the no-longer-stranger who crossed time and space for her.
"The night of the Perseid shower," Damon murmured, placing his hands on her cheeks as he got lost in her hazy gaze, while thunder rolled in the distant background, inching ever closer. "You asked me to promise you forever."
"Because I'll always find you, and choose you, and love you, no matter where we are or what happens to us," Elena added with a watery smile.
"I'll always love you, too. Forever."
At that moment, the heavens opened to deliver boisterously on their thirty-percent-chance-of-rain, as lighting flashed to illuminate their joyful faces in the nocturnal interlude – quiet, still, as though between heartbeats – they drew together, surrendering to their own shared magnetic pull.
"Damon!" Elena breathed, pulling away excitedly, her eyes ablaze with wild conviction.
"You remember?" He urged, hope filling every measure of his being.
She shook her head, though there wasn't sadness in it. "Just a feeling – I think I remember how I felt that night," she beamed, her whole face alight with wonder.
"What did you feel?"
"I think I'd rather show you," she grinned impishly, pulling him in for another ardent kiss, oblivious to the torrent surrounding them, with all the cacophony of the whistling wind and roaring thunder eclipsed by the wild beating of their hearts.
Sporadic meteors – those that don't take place during famous showers – are actually really common. Given that this takes place the day after Bonnie's birthday per canon, we're looking at late February – which is between showers typically visible in the Northern Hemisphere. The next one they have to look forward to is the Lyrid shower in April, so sporadic meteors it is! :D They could always just go again, right? Just for funsies, I thought I'd throw in some fun Astro info in there, since the chapter is about watching shooting stars.
I said in the previous chapter that the first memory revisited would be a meteor shower, but I forgot when it actually took place, so you got this, instead. :D Maaaaaaybe next time you'll even get Kai. ;) Maybe. Kriz03 brilliantly suggested throwing popcorn at hipsters, so it might even take place during that one.
Hugs to all of you for your wonderful support – especially scarlett2112, Florencia7, and Kriz03.
This story will always be marked as complete, even though you can safely expect more. Just treat forthcoming chapters as a series of interconnected one-shots.
I would absolutely love to hear your lovely thoughts, so please leave a review. Much love. :D