"Hi Mr. Saltzman! Is Elena home?" Damon asked in a playful falsetto before brushing past Alaric into the house. "How's it going, Ric?" he added in his normal voice, giving his friend a light punch on the shoulder. Judging by the teacher's wince, the tap was a lot harder than it looked.
"Damon," Elena warned as she walked down the stairs. "Be nice."
"Yeah, what the hell was that for?" Alaric asked, baffled.
"No reason," Damon said, shooting Elena a secret smile.
Alaric's eyes darted between the pair. Finally, he shook his head. "I can't deal with this without coffee. Might need bourbon, too." He shuffled into the kitchen.
Elena gave Damon her own love tap on the shoulder. He was kind enough to fake a convincing look of pain. "Unless you want to explain to Ric what he interrupted, you probably shouldn't punish him for it," she said.
"Oh, I have no problems telling Ric what was going on. He's not my teacher-slash-father-figure-slash-roommate. Besides, I'm pretty sure he'll figure it out that we aren't just holding hands when we're together." He paused, a frown appearing between his eyes. "Even if that's mostlywhat we've been doing."
With a few notable exceptions, he was right. She was making a concerted effort to be with him with all her mind and spirit, but when it came to adding her whole body to the equation, things continued to be complicated. But every day, Elena lost a little more of her fear of disappointing him, of boring him, her fear that he would lose control and drain her to the dregs. Every day, she took one step closer.
She opened her mouth to explain all this, to thank him for his patience and understanding, when his phone buzzed. Damon fished it out of his pocket and sighed. "Stefan. I better see what he wants. I'll catch up."
Elena's eyebrows raised in surprise, but she shrugged and headed for the kitchen. That phone call wasn't something she really wanted to hear anyway. Stefan's words were still raw in her memory. I expected more from you. Well, she'd expected a hell of a lot more from him, too. As if he had any right to talk: he killed without a thought, cared nothing for Jeremy's safety, and had nearly killed her. But she was a horrible person because she was trying to move on?The sheer nerve.
The smell of coffee filled the kitchen. Alaric stood with both the fridge and freezer open, frowning at their contents. "Looks like it's leftover pizza or-" he pulled a box of frozen waffles from the freezer. "My specialty."
"Waffles sound great, Ric. Thanks." Elena slid onto one of the benches at the table. Alaric shut the fridge and started poking through drawers to find the toaster, conspicuously avoiding Elena's gaze.
"So...about what happened last night," he started. Elena smiled. Ric would rather face a ravenous horde of vampires than discuss feelings with her. She couldn't really blame him.
"Yeah. Damon and I had our first real fight, that's all." She paused, not sure how much detail she needed to go into. "And Stefan knows, now. About us. So at least that's out in the open. Which is good, even if it wasn't really great at the time."
"I guess it had to happen sooner or later." The coffee pot buzzed and Ric jumped for it like it was dispensing manna from heaven, pouring three full mugs. Elena accepted one gratefully. "Everything okay between the two of them? I know Stefan's been saying he doesn't care about anything except Klaus now, but...I still kinda expected he'd throw a punch or something when he found out."
"Nope. Said he couldn't care less. And it wasn't Stefan who threw the punch," she said, wrapping her hands around the steaming mug.
"Oh. Oh," Ric said with sudden understanding. "Was that what the fight was about?" He shoved a couple of waffles into the toaster. "Not that you have to tell me any of this. I just thought you might...might want someone to talk to, sometimes."
"I do, Ric. I appreciate everything you've done for us. I know Jeremy does, too. And yeah, that's what it was about. Kinda. But we're okay now. We got through it."
"Dammit. I'm missing bonding and waffles? Stefan has the worst timing," Damon said as he sauntered back into the room. "And as much as I hate to break up this heart-warming scene, we need to talk. All of us."
"Is everyone okay? Did something happen?" Elena asked.
Damon snagged a cup of coffee and took a sip. "Didn't break out the bourbon yet? You might want to reconsider."
"Enough dramatic foreshadowing, just tell us what happened," Alaric said.
Damon hesitated. "I know where the coffins are. So does Bonnie. We've been working with the dead witches to keep them hidden from Klaus. Well, we were until Bonnie tried to kill me. Twice."
"Wait, Bonnie tried to kill you?" Ric asked.
"I'll fill you in later. Anyway, we've got Elijah and two other brothers. But there's this fourth coffin that's a mystery. It's spelled shut, and all of Klaus' other siblings are accounted for. There's gotta be someone important in there, but we can't get at it. Apparently Bonnie has decided her long-lost mom is the answer to all our problems and tracked her down in middle-of-nowhere, North Carolina. She and Stefan are headed down there now."
Absolute silence settled over the kitchen. The toaster popped, startling all three of them. No one moved to claim the waffles.
"You kept this from us? How long have you known?" Elena asked.
"A while. It was on a need-to-know basis, Elena. The fewer people who knew, the fewer people Klaus could rip into confetti to make them talk," Damon said without a trace of remorse. "But you can yell at me about that later. I'm going to hit the road, head down to NC and make sure those idiots don't manage to fuck this up worse than they already have." He looked at Elena. "Wanna come?"
"Yes. But you're not."
"Uh, yeah I am. Look, I wasn't even supposed to tell you about all this. I can't just let you waltz down there by yourself."
"If you go, you're just going to make everything worse. How are you really going to help either of them? Bonnie and I may be in a fight right now, but she's still my best friend. She hasn't seen her mom since she was really little. She needs someone there to make sure she's okay. And if you and Stefan get into another pissing match at a critical moment? No, I'm going by myself. Someone needs to stay and keep an eye on Klaus, anyway," Elena said, her tone brooking no argument.
Damon gave her a long, measuring look, eyes playing over her face. Then he gave one of those cold little smiles that didn't extend to his eyes. "Fine. Have fun." He turned to Ric. "Waffles?" he asked hopefully.
Elena shook her head and ran upstairs to grab her purse. When she returned, Damon was waiting in the foyer. "Promise me you'll be careful. Not just with Bonnie's mom or whatever freak show is going on down there. You have to keep an eye on Bonnie and Stefan, too. Especially when they're together, they can be very tricky."
"I know, Damon. I know. But I can't avoid my best friend forever, and Stefan isn't going to disappear from either of our lives," she pointed out. "Maybe this will be good. We'll get to clear the air without..."
"Without me getting in the way. I got it," Damon said.
"Hopefully with less kicking and witch migraines at least," Elena allowed. She hugged him close. "I'll be back soon. You and Ric can do guy stuff. It'll be good for you."
"Hm. Yeah. There is something I need to do for Ric," Damon said. Then he looked down at her, raising her chin so he could kiss her. "Come home safely, Elena."
"I'll do my best. But just in case? I love you," she said. Then she slipped from his arms and began the long drive into Bonnie's past.