Rather emphatically, Elijah had refused to let Elena anywhere near the stove, quickly reminding her that she had passed out on him only last night when she tried to argue with him. Pouting, Elena had taken a seat at the island in her borrowed kitchen, the sight of Elijah cooking conjuring barely suppressed memories of fever dreams she wished to be reality.
Chin resting in her hands, she watched in silence as Elijah moved about the kitchen, his sleeves rolled up to the elbows, jacket, tie and shoes discarded. Unbidden, the thought that she could easily get used to this passed through her mind, dismissed as soon as she took any notice of it; Elijah didn't feel the same way, so what use was there in dwelling on such things?
"Rebekah called," Elijah said, "Miss Forbes apparently managed to stop Niklaus attempting to murder her and Marcellus in the wake of Celeste's revelations. I suppose all that is left now is to find out what else she is plotting."
"Good, I'm glad." Elena murmured absently, unaware of the confused look that Elijah shot over his shoulder at her.
"Perhaps we should offer Niklaus as a bargaining chip for her to leave us alone."
Elena nodded. "Yeah, probably." She jumped when Elijah placed a mug of coffee in front of her with a soft thud, blinking dumbly as he sat opposite her, a frown marring his features. Damn, she thought, that must not have been the right response.
"What's going on, Elena?" He asked softly, tilting his head at her. "You've barely spoken for over an hour."
"I was just thinking." Elena mumbled, any of hope of Elijah accepting a vague answer fleeing when he only raised an eyebrow in response, clasping his hands on the table in front of him. "It really doesn't matter."
Elijah still said nothing, only taking a sip of his own coffee and continuing to stare at her.
"I'm just being haunted by old fever dreams, that's all." She muttered, looking down at the mug of coffee in front of her. "Do you remember our conversation in your study, the day we found out about Ligatus Animarum?"
Elijah nodded, confused by the sudden change in topic. "I do."
"Can you teach me?" She blurted. "Can you teach me to read people like you do?"
Tilting his head at her, Elijah nodded slowly. "If that is what you want, it takes time though, it's not as simple as it appears."
"I just, I need to know when people are lying to me." Elena muttered, looking back up at Elijah. "I need to be able to know what's the truth and what's a lie."
"Okay." Elijah nodded again, offering her a soft smile, sensing that there was much more to her sudden desire than she was voicing to him.
The soup and rolls Elijah had cooked were quickly devoured by Elena, glad that she could finally consume something without the urge to throw it back up straight away. Her eyes had closed in bliss as she'd devoured one of the fresh bread rolls, the chicken soup softening the roll perfectly, she was oblivious to the smile gracing Elijah's face as she ate.
When the dinner had settled, Elijah had taken Elena into the bedroom of the condo, citing that it generated the least noise of all rooms in the house, therefore making it the best room to learn how to read heartbeats.
"When you begin trying to learn how to read a vampire's heartbeat, it's easier to start with one person; learn their rhythms, the cadence of their heart, how it stays level when they tell the truth and the way it jumps when they lie." He explained softly, sitting beside her on the end of the bed and placing her hand over his heart. "Once you learn the pace of one vampire it becomes easier to understand the ticks of another's heart."
"You want to teach me to read your heart?" Elena frowned, feeling the soft thud of Elijah's heartbeat under the palm of her hand.
"Who else would you learn on?" Elijah raised an eyebrow at her, his lips quirking slightly at her confusion.
Diverting her gaze, she suddenly found herself feeling rather bashful, like it was obvious all along and she'd managed to miss it. "I don't know, it just seems…"
Elijah raised an eyebrow prompting her to continue.
"It seems really personal." Elena mumbled, staring at where her hand met his chest.
Smiling again, Elijah shook his head. "I can read your heartbeat, Elena, I can compel you, I can understand most of your mannerisms. I think of it more as levelling the playing field."
Elena let out a soft laugh, bobbing her head in a light nod. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."
"Now," Elijah continued, pressing Elena's hand to his chest firmly, picking up her other hand and placing her fingers on the pulse point on his wrist, "feel my heartbeat as well as listen to it, it will make understanding and hearing the rhythm easier."
Elena nodded softly, allowing the feeling of his heartbeat to merge with the soft thumping sound she could hear.
"In order to establish a baseline, you can ask me any questions you would like, and I will answer honestly."
Swallowing thickly, Elena nodded yet again, words seeming to have fled her brain as a sudden wave of pressure encompassed her. Did she ask questions she already knew the answers to? Then she could know without a doubt that Elijah was being honest. Or did she ask questions she didn't know the answers to? He'd promised to be honest with her after all.
"How many siblings do you have?" She asked eventually, ignoring the amused look she got from Elijah in response.
"Still alive?"
Elena nodded.
"Two."
"How many did you have?" She whispered, wincing even as she asked the question.
"Six." He replied softly, smiling when Elena frowned in response, confused by the honesty she could hear conflicting with her knowledge. "I had an older sister, Freya, we lost her to the old world before I was born; I believe you already know what happened to my youngest brother."
"Henrik." Elena nodded. "I'm so sorry, Elijah."
He offered a soft smile, saying nothing else.
"What were your parents names?"
Amusement again playing on his face, Elijah dutifully answered. "Esther and Mikael."
"How old are you?"
"I'm not sure," Elijah admitted, tilting his head as he thought, "over one thousand years old, but the exact age is lost to me."
"You don't know when your birthday is?"
Elijah shook his head. "We kept dates differently back then, it's hard to translate them to the current calendar."
Filing that away for later, Elena wracked her brains trying to think of what she could ask Elijah, still torn between sure answers and wanting to find out new information. "The letter you wrote me," she started, remembering how she'd thrown his words in his face when they'd met in Willoughby, "did you mean it?"
"Every word," Elijah said softly, "always and forever."
"You can always understand my heartbeat, have I ever truly surprised you?"
"When you stabbed yourself at your parents lakehouse, I can truly say I never could have anticipated such a move on your part." Elijah smiled, shaking his head. "I was truly worried you were going to die that night."
"Because you wouldn't have been able to go ahead with the ritual." Elena supplied softly, frowning when Elijah shook his head.
"I was drawn to you, Elena, not because of your appearance, I cannot myself understand what exactly it was, but you had me enamoured, constantly drawing me to you. I could not stand that you could have died before I could even understand you."
"You loved Katherine." Elena muttered, looking down at where her fingers rested on Elijah's wrist. "I'm just an echo of her."
"I don't hear a question." Elijah probed softly, understanding that there was something more to Elena's words.
"No one ever sees just me, I'm always a cheap copy of her." Elena mumbled, searching for the right way to phrase her insecurities into a question he could answer. "How can you say you don't see me in the same way?"
"Katherine was not the first doppelganger I knew, Elena, Tatia was. Perhaps when I met Katerina there was an element of seeing her as a copy of Tatia; I searched for the girl I used to know." He explained softly, staring at the top of her head as she refused to meet his gaze. "Katerina tainted the image of doppelgangers forever; I wanted to hate you when I met you."
"And now?" Elena asked softly, still staring at where she felt for Elijah's pulse. "Do you still want to hate me?"
"Not in the slightest," he replied quickly, "even if I wanted to, I never could." Elijah murmured, meeting Elena's eyes when she finally looked up. "And I would never want to." He added softly, his eyes drifting to where Elena's hand fell from his chest.
"I think I have a baseline by now." Elena whispered, staring at where her hand had just been. "Now what?"
"Now we talk, and I lie to you; you only have to tell me when I'm lying."
Elena let out a light laugh, shaking her head slightly. "Just like that."
"Just like that." Elijah confirmed softly, smiling at her bewilderment.
Elena's eyes dropped off to the side as she thought, darting back to look at Elijah after a brief moment. "When we were sick, you needed to feed on me, did you know that before I forced you into it?"
Elijah let out a soft breath, taking hold of Elena's free wrist in the same way she still held his. "I suspected; I had never experienced such a craving before as I did when I was around you on those days. I assumed it must have been connected to our illness."
"You're lying." Elena whispered, certain that she had felt his heartbeat skip under her fingers with his last sentence.
"About?" Elijah prompted, supressing a smile at Elena's confidence.
Elena chewed her lip, hesitating for a moment before she spoke. "Assuming it was connected to our illness. The rest was true."
This time, Elijah simply smiled, squeezing her wrist in affirmation.
"What did you think it was related to, Elijah?" She murmured, a sudden feeling of boldness taking her.
"Honesty?"
Elena smiled. "Always."
"You," Elijah said softly, removing his fingers from the pulse point of her wrist, "simply and utterly, you."
Elena took in a deep breath, swallowing thickly as the implications of Elijah's words sunk in.
"Well?" He prompted. "Am I being honest?"
"No." Whispered words escaped Elena, her eyes flitting to his lips of their own accord.
"I suppose you're right," Elijah allowed, turning their hands so that she no longer had any feel of her pulse to rely on, leaving only her hearing, "omitting something can also sound like a lie." He explained, turning his body so he was further facing Elena. "Any craving I felt, I never assumed it was related to our illness in anyway; I suppose I only ever thought it could be related to my feelings for you."
Elena let out a soft breath, realising at that moment just how close she and Elijah were, she could practically feel their lips touching.
"So?" He prompted her again. "Have I told you the truth?"
"Yes." Elena breathed, allowing their lips to meet as one of Elijah's hands found its way into her hair, the other ensnaring her waist; pulling her closer to him.
Hands wrapping around his neck, Elena's breath caught in her throat for a moment as she kissed him back, realising vaguely that she wasn't really sure which one of them had initiated the kiss, although she supposed it didn't really matter.
Turning to lean further into their embrace, Elena overestimated the solidity of the mattress, letting out a soft squeal into their kiss as she fell backwards onto the bed, Elijah following her in a smooth movement. Perhaps too smooth.
"That was mean." Elena gasped, wrenching her lips away from Elijah's, suppressing a moan when his lips moved to her throat easily, memories of him feeding from her flashing through her mind.
"What was mean?" Elijah asked, smothering a smile against the crook of Elena's neck as he continued to lay kisses there.
"You know what." She whispered, eyes closed as Elijah hovered over her, ceasing in kissing her neck to look at her.
Shifting so that he was holding himself above her with one arm, Elijah moved his free hand to the side of her face, stroking her cheekbone until she opened her eyes.
Still feeling emboldened, Elena leant up, joining their lips together again and wrapping her arms around his neck, dragging him down to lay on top of her, almost completely, well aware that he was still holding some of his weight off of her.
Pushing against him gently, Elena let out a soft squeak of surprise as Elijah flipped them over in one smooth movement, not breaking their kiss and leaving her straddling him.
Well aware that she didn't need to breath, Elena still found herself pulling away in an attempt to catch her breath, her chest heaving as she dropped her face to nestle in one side of Elijah's neck.
"What?" Elijah breathed, Elena noting that he sounded just as out of breath as she did.
Forcing herself to slow her breathing, she shook her head, swallowing thickly. "You don't want this." She mumbled eventually, refusing to lift her head even when she felt him move to try and look at her; closing her eyes when he moved them so that he was sat up, gently turning her face in his direction.
"Why on Earth would you say that?" Elijah asked, confusion seeping into his voice. "Elena, look at me." He whispered, gently prompting her out of whatever pit she had sunken herself into.
Reluctantly, Elena opened her eyes, dreading the words she was sure Elijah would drag from her as soon as she met his soft gaze. When he looked at her like that, she could swear she was melting from the inside out, dissolving into a puddle of pliable goo.
"Talk to me, Elena," he murmured, brushing a piece of hair out of her face, "please."
Taking in and letting out a deep breath, she looked down at his chest, eyes settling on the place where his shirt parted, exposing the skin there. "You said it was too soon for us; that I'm not okay yet."
Elijah frowned. "And you took that as me saying I didn't want you? Elena," he sighed, taking hold of one of her hands and pressing it again to the area over his heart, "you have been through a great ordeal, and I believed that you needed time and space to heal, rather than to be smothered by me." Holding her hand still, he paused, giving her time to read him. "You told me I was wrong, Elena; you said you need help, and not space. The events of the past few days have only proved to me that you are so much stronger than anyone gives you credit for."
Looking at where his hand held hers, Elena focussed on the rhythm of his heart, hearing only the absolute truth ringing in his words.
"I am here for you, Elena, however and whenever you need me." He continued, squeezing her hand slightly. "I was wrong to try and dictate what I thought that you needed, and with that said, if this is what you want; if you believe that you're ready to find out where this goes, then I will believe you with my whole heart." Leaning forward and resting his forehead against hers, Elijah closed his eyes, taking in and releasing a deep breath. "I am laying myself at your mercy, Elena, I am yours to do with as you choose, always and forever."
HisSecretLover18: Oh, you have no idea... Ditto! The show really didn't do them justice sometimes, and they're so much fun to write that I just have to try and make up for the show! Thank you!
StellaBaby: You're so welcome! I hope you enjoyed!
lauramorgenstern: Thank you so much! There's starting to become quite a few people to juggle, so I'm glad you're enjoying their interactions! Bonnie needs to trust her gut a bit more! Elena and Elijah have a lot of development coming up! I'm so excited writing it!
Guest: Yes! It's about time she got her sight back! Bonnie's becoming a bigger part of this story, but I'm sure she won't be alone in working everything out! It will be! Oooh, I suppose we'll have to wait and see who really is involved... Their fight may be revealed later on, I'm not sure yet...
Bayliwick: Awh yay! I love getting people hooked! Thank you so much!
Here I am again, as promised! It's about time I let you lot have this sort of chapter, I get the impression it's what you've been waiting for...
Let me know what you all think! I really can't wait to hear from you all! I've now also finished chapter 33, so depending on how much you all butter me up you might get another chapter soon...
Until next time
~ I x