Disclaimer: I do not own/associate with Vampire Diaries nor any of the fictional characters. This is merely just a fanfiction.
- Chapter Two -
Never Will Be
His hands were holding onto the steering wheels. His grip was so tense that he could easily split the steering wheels into two. He recalled the conversation he and Damon had earlier.
"Well, brother bear, your wish is coming true." Damon pursed his lips.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm leaving town," Damon rolled his eyes. Then, he mimicked in a higher childish pitch, while both of his fists punched to the air. "Hurray! Big brother here will never bother Elena and me anymore!"
"You know I don't feel that way." Of course, Stefan did feel a little glad that his older brother decided to leave town. But Damon's words were never to be trusted. He never fulfilled what he spoke of.
"Pfft," Damon teased. "Don't pretend I'm an innocent 14-year-old teenager who still watches Twilight. Stefan, you are contented that I am leaving for good."
"Why are you leaving again?" Stefan ignored the provocation.
"I'm just doing what all good brothers will do to their little brothers." He took glimpse at Elena before turning back to his brother. "What can I say, I am a good brother."
Stefan was dubious at his brother's confession. "What's the catch?"
"No catch, brother," he rolled his eyes again and then pressed a smile on his face. "I'm leaving for good. Maybe I'll find another girl for myself. Who is to know?"
Damon's words were unreliable, as always. What was he planning? Was he trying to dig compunction from him and Elena? Was he trying to force Elena to choose between the Salvatore brothers? What was he trying to do? Stefan had never really understood his brother. On the contrary, Damon knew his brother far too well. Stefan did not have a good feeling about Damon's departure. Was it true? He just wanted to leave Mystic Falls for good? Anyhow, Stefan would never allow Damon's evil plan to be achieved. Not when it involved Elena and jeopardising their relationship.
Stefan's mind was about to blow. He stopped his car as he reached his house. He jumped out of his car, whizzed to the doorstep, opened his door, whizzed to his brother's room, to find out his brother was nowhere to be seen. Where could he be?
She was still on rage. Where the heck did Stefan go? She just wanted him to pacify her. Then, maybe they could make out in her room, and maybe she could do a makeup sex. She was holding onto her cell phone, waiting for it to ring, waiting for him to call, waiting for him to text. Unfortunately, after an hour or half, the phone was still noiseless, no text, no call. She threw her cell phone onto her bed and dived herself onto the pillows.
Damon on the other hand, had no calls and no texts for her either. What's wrong with the Salvatore brothers? She grabbed hold to her phone and scrolled to double confirm there were no miss calls or unread texts. None.
Suddenly, she missed Stefan so much. She scrolled on her phone's images. She did not have much of Stefan's photos, she realized. She scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and… there he was. Damon Salvatore, that gorgeous hunk. She almost forgot she had a photo of him. She remembered how she had to force him into taking a picture. Well, she was slightly drunk. It was a bonfire party. She was frantically taking photographs of people. Then, Damon was sitting on a rock, drinking to a paper cup. His light blue eyes glimmered as the fire burned wildly. His eyes beamed at her. She moved her feet towards him.
He was about to take a sip from his paper cup but he realised she had appeared in front of him earlier than he expected. He frowned. "What are you doing?"
"I'm taking pictures." She was swaying even she was just standing. "Don't be shy."
"Not fond to digital stuff," he took a sip from his cup.
"Come on, Damon!" She pouted foolishly. "Don't be such a baby."
"Fine, snap whatever you like." He revealed his most insincere and phoney smirk. Worst smile of the century, Elena would caption.
The photograph did not turn out as bad as it was back at the party. Speaking of which, he seemed to be in a bad mood that day. It was abnormal for Damon Salvatore not to party hard, especially there were tons of victims of his choice - teenage girls. She could not recall what had happened that day. Did she infuriate him? Were they in some kind of mission to kill Klauss but failed? Whatever it was, it seemed to bother Elena.
"First you were all fussed up, then there were this beam on your eyes. Now, you look troubled." The familiar voice spoke. Elena's hand slipped and the cell phone fell onto her bed. "Period?"
"Damon!" She exclaimed. "When did you-"
"Longer than you expect."
"Why are you-"
"Just checking on the princess that everyone loves to protect," there was a mocking tone on his voice.
"You said you were leaving."
"Yeah," he puckered his brows. "Soon."
There were too much questions in her head. She was lost and flummoxed. Silence remained. The atmosphere was getting the nerves out of her.
"Before I leave, I need to do something."
"What is it?" She was unnerved.
He dashed in a flash and appeared just few inches away from her. She looked intently to his light blue shimmering eyes, and then she went down to search for his rose-red lips. She moved her head involuntarily closer to him. Her hands repositioned themselves onto the back of his head and she pushed his face nearer to hers until their lips touched. She slowly stroked his hair with her fingers as she aggressively savoured every kiss she was sharing with Damon. Damon broke the kiss; he was gratified and distressed at the same time. The reason he came was just to provide a piece of advice about Klauss, but he never imagined it would turn out this way.
Without a second thought, Elena swung her right arm and gave a blow on his face.
"What the hell, Damon?" She bellowed.
"I should be the one asking 'What the hell, Elena'!" Damon yelled back, mortified. "You're the one who kissed me first."
"That's be-because you compelled me!"
"Genius." He pointed the necklace around her neck. "You're wearing vervain."
Elena quickly took a glimpse on the necklace. It was the vervain necklace. She was stupefied and perplexed. Her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Are you alright, Elena?" He patted on her shoulder.
She shoved his hand away from her. "Don't touch me!"
"Elena!" Stefan appeared at the entrance of Elena's bedroom. He scowled as he saw Damon. "I knew it!"
Stefan was wrathful that his eyes darkened and veins popped out at the area around his eyes. He was in his full vampirism form. He bolted towards Damon and started to strangle him. He knocked Damon's head onto the floor and continued to add strength onto the grip. He was grinding his teeth ferociously and breathing air out of his throat.
"Stefan, stop!" Elena cried. Her eyes were gleaming with tears. "Stefan!"
"Stop it, Stefan!" Damon could barely speak. He was struggling, beating his brother's arms and kicking the floor stiffly. His face was excruciating. "She kissed me first!"
"Don't lie to me, Damon." Stefan's voice was harsh. It was very not-Stefan.
"She did kiss me first." Trying to breathe in every time he spoke.
Stefan turned his attention to Elena. Elena stared at him, but the only thing she could say was, "Stefan, I…"
For a second, Stefan's mind went paper blank, mere words had gotten into his bones. The next second, words started to be comprehended by his brain. His eyes slowly turned back to normal form, and the veins withdrawn from surfacing. He gawked at the floor, his mouth half opened. He panted for a while. His arms loosened the grip on Damon's neck.
Elena's heart raced with fear, anxiety, fret. It was throbbing so outrageously. Damon could not stop hearing the beatings of her heart and worrying for a heart attack to occur.
"Stefan," she called. "I… I…"
"Don't," Stefan tried to calm down. He closed his eyes for a moment and inhaling a deep breath before continuing, "talk."
"Stefan," she squeaked.
Stefan stood back upright, and then sped like a jet, out of the house. Elena followed, but obviously with a human speed, she could never race to him.
"Elena!" Someone called from below. He continued to stride to Elena's room and was totally amazed with Damon's posture, who was sitting on the floor, looking wretched. "What happened to you?"
"Don't ask." Damon stood up slowly. "I almost got killed by my little brother."
"Enlighten me," Jeremy leered, while crossing his arms and resting his body slightly onto the door.
"I said," he walked to Jeremy and knocked him on the shoulder with his arm. He stared back at him with his blue eyes glowing and widening. His voice was formidable. "Don't ask."
"So you kissed Damon, and Stefan went in. He was angry that Damon was in your room, so he tried to kill Damon, and then Damon spat out that you kissed him first," Caroline summarized. "Why did you even kiss Damon?"
"I don't know," Elena replied dreadfully. "I was out of my mind; I was like, controlled by someone else. I don't understand what I was doing."
"Wait, you felt like you're being controlled? Are you compelled?"
"Well, I was wearing my vervain necklace," Elena stated bluntly.
"So, you can't be compelled!" Caroline added. Elena could only frown.
"Are you sure you have no feelings for Damon?" Bonnie asked, raising an eyebrow.
Elena bit her lower lips.
"Oh my God! Elena!" Caroline screeched. "You are not falling for evil brother! I am not allowing you!"
"I'm not sure if this is related," Elena tried to avoid the chance of having feelings for Damon. "But lately I've been having these dreams that involves Damon. Or at least I think he was Damon, or maybe not. But it felt real and… real."
"What dream?" Caroline and Bonnie asked in unison. Their eyes focused on Elena's, they were consumed to her words.
"It was night. He was in my room," Elena swore she heard Caroline gasped "sex", "he told me that he loves me and all sort of things in a very unlikely situation. It was really familiar but I have no memory of it."
"Maybe he did." Bonnie said. "You know, obviously he is crazily in love with you, in an awkward way."
"The problem is he kissed me in the dream." Elena rubbed her head. "And I could actually feel his lips on mine!"
"You just did," Caroline cut in.
"Caroline," Bonnie gave her that stern look.
"What?"
"Anyway, Elena," Bonnie continued the conversation. "Is there any way that maybe it's something that you were compelled to forget?"
"I don't think it's possible for a human to remember something that she is compelled to forget," Caroline emphasised. "I'm a vampire, and the time I remembered all the compulsions made by evil brother was when I was turned."
Caroline paused for a moment, then continued. "Oh my God, Elena! Are you turning to a vampire? When? How?"
"The last time I checked, I am still a normal human being." She stretched her arm to reveal her wrist. "You can check by trying my blood."
"Elena!" Caroline seemed offended.
"Guys," Bonnie cried. "I know we are all drained and aggravated from all the supernatural events, but we have to stay strong and stick together."
Elena and Caroline looked at each other with a pang of conscience.
"Stefan wouldn't answer any of my calls or return my calls or reply any texts or make any interactions." Elena was in deep despair, her eyes went teary.
"I'll try to talk to Stefan." Caroline patted on Elena's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Elena."
"Meanwhile, I'll try to talk to the spirits and see what I can dig out." Bonnie scowled.
The three of them were ready to stand up, then Caroline suddenly uttered. "What about Damon?"
"I've been ignoring him since that day."
"You can ignore him, but you can't hide from him," Bonnie signalled Damon's appearance with a few head shakes. He was just about 10 feet away from them. He was moving his pace towards them.
"Great." Elena hissed.
"How long has he been sneaking up on us?" Caroline shrilled while glowering at Damon.
"Hey, how are you girls?" Damon grinned, not the best soothing look at all.
"Hey." Each of them greeted perfunctorily. Caroline rolled her eyes naturally.
"Can I borrow Elena for a moment?" He pressed his lips a little too hard.
"It's OK, we're leaving." Bonnie replied. Elena widened her eyes while glaring at Bonnie. Her lips moved in a way she was reading Bonnie's name, but no voice was heard.
Both of the girls left, leaving the two of them standing beside of a coffee shop.
"Don't give me that look, Elena." Damon started. "I know, I know. It's my fault that you are having a little hitch in the relationship with my little brother."
"Are you done?" Elena asked impatiently while walking away from him.
"I know you have feelings for me, Elena." Damon followed. "Don't deny that feelings because I know that this is true."
"Whatever you do, there will never be us." She replied coldly, like a summer breeze.
"I know, but why don't you give yourself a choice to pick one?"
"Why is it even a choice?" Elena asked. "Isn't it clear?"
Damon was baffled with Elena's questions. Was it clear? Was she saying he was not at all compatible for her? Does she mean that he does not deserve her?
"Damon." She took a deep breath. "I love Stefan much more than anything. It is a fact and nothing is going to change it. Definitely, not by you."
Damon was sure he heard something snapped, cracked. It was his heart. Elena continued to walk away from him as he slowly succumbed to his lament. His heart was never recovered ever since Katherine broke his heart. He thought he mended his crystal heart, but it was shattered into pieces once again. By the same face, same reason. He was never their choice, it was always Stefan. It was always his little brother.