Author's note: Hi everyone! It's been a little while since I showed this story the love it deserves, so of course it's time for an update!
I wanted to thank everyone for your beautiful comments, follows, and favorites. It means so much to me, truly, that you find value in Spider-Elena! I'm sure she's also thrilled that her adventures are getting so much support!
Elena woke up to ticklish kisses being pressed into her shoulder and neck, giggling her awake. It had been like this ever since she passionately declared her love for Damon on the night of her graduation – joy, adventure, laughter.
Caroline had not come home that night, as she said, and after the suspicious passing of their former roommate, Megan, the two of them were left to share the room without a third to accompany them. Of course, while investigating the circumstances behind Megan's mysterious death, the two vampiric friends both agreed that their third roommate would be Bonnie, whenever she happened to make her presence known again.
The strange thing was, however, that as time passed, her behavior seemed increasingly odd. She only communicated via text message and e-mail – and the only in-person contacts with whom she would actually communicate were Jeremy and her mother. Determined to get to the bottom of this, Caroline vowed to be on Abby duty, while Elena would confront Jeremy to finally suss out what was happening.
Presumably, this was the lead Caroline was following, allowing Elena's blissful night alone with Damon in her dorm.
Her body convulsed in another giggle as Damon continued to tickle her affectionately. She tried to return the gesture, but he didn't seem to have any such vulnerabilities.
"I love you, but you're being very unfair," Elena pouted, exaggerating her displeasure at her inability to tickle him back with an adorably protruding bottom lip.
Damon was instantly reminded of their first road trip together to Georgia and how much he wanted to kiss her when she teased him in a similar way then. "Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?"
Elena grinned impishly, pulling him in for an ardent kiss. They spent the entirety of the summer getting to know each other both emotionally and physically. As such, she knew precisely which buttons to press to bring him to her mercy. Kissing down his chest, Elena's eyes never left his. A sudden burst of joy enveloped her at the love she saw there. Then, his pupils suddenly grew in size, and his hands went from playful tickling to burning passion.
Bingo.
"Going to class!" She pulled away suddenly, just as she felt Damon give into her fully. Using vampiric speed, she got dressed within a fraction of a second and was at the door in a blur. "And you can sit here and think about what you've done," she wagged her finger at him in mock-scolding.
"Elena, wait! I have to talk to you about –" was as far as Damon could get before his ears were filled with Elena's laughter as she shut the door and scurried off to down the hall, leaving him both amused and thoroughly physically dissatisfied.
Elena trekked to class guiltily. She knew she had to tell him about her extracurricular adventures, but she also had the sinking feeling that everything would change once she did – Damon, despite his often-ostentatious personality and flair for the dramatic – appreciated the wisdom of keeping a low profile. She knew, she knew that she was being careless, especially with the whispers around campus, but she had never felt so empowered before – so filled with purpose.
Besides, what good is having superhuman strength and a sharable healing factor if she couldn't use it to help others? And doing so daily had afforded her the thrill of adventure that she feared would be missing from her college years, not that medicine wasn't thrilling in its own way.
Elena practically swooned when she thought about her newfound love of medicine. She always felt drawn to the idea of healing others - of making her existence in this world meaningful by contributing positive change. But it wasn't just her idealism that felt enchanted by this new endeavor - her natural curiosity was piqued to the point of wondrous fascination. While she knew that her father saved people's lives in theory, she never really appreciated the complexity of the human body until she started taking university biology. A guest speaker had come to give a small presentation about the medical program, a Doctor Josette Laughlin, and Elena found herself utterly enamored with everything she heard.
She stayed after class for what she intended to be a brief discussion, but the two women ended up chatting together long past the allotted fifteen minutes. After the other students left, the two of them carried their conversation to the local coffee shop, and Elena left with her life's calling.
She would be a physician. And she desperately wanted Doctor Laughlin to be her mentor.
Ducking into the laboratory component of her biology 101 class, Elena allowed herself the smallest of groans when her sharp vampiric vision noticed a somewhat alarming headline on the college newspaper: "Miracle at the Medical Center?"
This was starting to get slightly out of hand.
Walking through the Whitmore campus carried a stunning array of contradictory emotions for Damon.
On the one hand, it carried deep-seated trauma from five of the worst years of his life and the reason he kept his humanity off for over sixty years. Although he was certain that he destroyed everything that was left of the Augustine Society, their presence permeated every molecule on this dishallowed ground – from their name, titled after a man who approached torture with the same cold affinity and lackadaisical air as he would cutting into an apple; to their crest, bearing a red cross that was a mockery of healing; to its renowned medical program built on the suffering of supernatural creatures.
On the other, it would be the only place he would be able to see the love of his life on a weekday for the next four years.
When Elena told him that she, Caroline, and Bonnie planned to attend Whitmore University, it was all Damon could do not visibly flinch at the name. It was the only college within driving distance, however, and any other would prevent them from seeing each other on a regular basis. He tried to convince her to apply to Emory or Duke instead, suggesting that he would even find an apartment nearby to be closer to her, but she didn't want Jeremy to feel completely abandoned. So, Whitmore, really, was the only option.
"I'm telling you, it's Batman!" Damon heard a distinctly haughty tone that he had come to associate with angry fanboys. While he was relatively certain that Jeremy would enjoy this conversation, he had other ideas.
"No, it's the Flash!" Replied his interlocutor, a girl bearing a similar countenance, with a touch of an edge to her demeanor, evidently used to having to battle to have all her opinions heard.
"Batman a genius and billionaire philanthropist who keeps Gotham safe in such a way that no one really knows it's him," fanboy number one continued condescendingly. "We've never even seen his face! Whitmore has its own Batman."
That certainly caught Damon's attention. Someone was patrolling the campus in a mask and cape? Maybe waiting for Elena wouldn't be so boring after all, Damon thought with a lot more amusement than he thought he'd feel that morning.
"But then the bad guys are taken away in a blur and they're really confused. Ergo, the Flash!"
Oh no.
The tips of Damon's fingers found the bridge of his nose seemingly of their own accord. It was a familiar, reliable gesture – one with which he had become intimately acquainted, repeatedly, after spending time with the Mystic Falls gang. A supernatural creature decided to take it upon themselves to play hero. This wouldn't be the first time he heard something so asinine, but the irony of this happening on Whitmore's campus was certainly entertaining.
"Batman has a million gadgets that would let him do that! Lucius Fox probably built him a gun that stops time, and then during said time, he would save everyone and just disappear!"
Okay, this one definitely wasn't a STEM major, Damon thought with an inward eye roll, though this exchange was becoming increasingly suspicious by the second.
"That doesn't exist!"
"How do you know?"
That was all Damon needed to hear from the local conspiracy theorists. Instead, he opted to do his own investigation, though the increasingly growing pit in his stomach alerted him that he may already have the answer he was seeking.
Uh-oh! All that time with Liz certainly sharpened Damon's investigative skills ;) We'll also learn next chapter was it is that he was trying to tell Elena, before she playfully ran off to class. I love both Batman and the Flash and this was a fun way to celebrate them through a fan-kid argument. :D
Next time on With Great Power: Damon voices his suspicions! Elena aces a Calculus quiz! (Because unless otherwise stated in canon, I always write the ladies as being good at math to battle with the annoying and untrue stereotype that we aren't.) More conversations about superheroes? What's happening at the Medical Center?
Chaotic Good is getting most of my attention these days, but I really wanted to give this story some love. The next story to be updated will absolutely be Chaotic Good, though - sometime this weekend. I already have most of chapter 5 written, and the rest of the story planned out. (7 chapters total.) If you haven't checked it out yet, please do so! It's coming closer and closer to the dénouement. :)
Thanks as always to my FANTASTIC beta, Taaroko, for being such an awesome person with whom to bounce ideas and discuss TVD in general! She was enormously helpful with this chapter (and for having the brilliant idea of two different rumors).
The super-awesome and brilliant scarlett2112 just started a new story called The Quiet Room. Please check it out. :)
I love to hear all your delightful thoughts, so please leave a review! :) If you have any ideas or suggestions, I would love to hear them as well. Reviews are gestures of love. :)
We humans are all deserving of love, respect, and happiness. So please remember that today and every day. Be kind to yourselves and each other. So much love :)