the stitches or the devouring mouth?
By: White Rain
Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries.
Genre: Character study
Character/Pairing: Stefan/Elena; Damon/Elena
Word Count: 651
Rating: PG-13
Summary: two brothers: one of them wants to take you apart. two brothers: one of them wants to put you back together. it’s time to choose sides now. the stitches or the devouring mouth? you want an alibi? you don’t get an alibi, you get two brothers.
-
"You know," Matt told Elena once, "you don't actually have to choose one of them." He gave her a crooked smile. "You should set yourself free once in awhile."
"You should dump both of them," Bonnie told her after Elena drunk dialed her and babbled at her for an hour about them. Elena's answer was to laughed hysterically.
"I saw how Stefan helped you heal after your parents died," Caroline said, pushed, "I know he can help you again." Caroline was the one who made sure she remembered to take care of herself during those two agonizing months looking for Stefan.
"Damon is bad news," Ric told her and when she pointed out they were best friends he replied, "I have terrible taste in everything. You deserve better."
"I'll make the stakes for you," Jeremy muttered in her ear the night after she first kissed Damon, while she was doing her hair for the '20s dance. Elena wished she was tempted.
She never tells them how she felt like she didn't have to chose which person had to die when Stefan held her and told her loved her. She never tells them how everything bad seemed to melt away when Damon grabbed her and tempted her with fun. She never tells them how Damon's blood tasted when he took another choice from her, how Stefan's blood tasted when he didn't love her.
All she tells them she doesn't know what to do.
*
The truth is that she does. Elena never knew what she wanted for her future, she wanted to figure that out as it came. But she was an expert at knowing what she wanted at the moment.
She wanted Stefan to be hers again, to be his again. And she wanted to tell Damon, "I love you."
(Katherine told her she could love them both.)
(Isobel told her Katherine was smart, that she got out.)
And she knew she needed to stop being selfish with them.
*
The first time she has sex with Damon, it's against a wall in his room. Her arms and legs are around him in a mess of a hug as he snaps his hips over and over. He bites her neck, laps up her blood and she moans.
The first time she has sex with Stefan as a vampire, she turns away from him. He cups her face, brushes his thumb against the scars that mark her a monster. "You don't have to hide from me," he tells her and she follows his lead to her bedroom.
*
When she makes her first kill, Damon is right there, behind her. He wraps his arms around her as she sobs. She's soaked in blood and ruining his shirt with it. And all he does is stroke her hair gently and tell her that she's okay. She's not, she's not, and she can't believe him. But she grabs him as hard as she can because she wants to.
Later that night, Stefan sets a hand on her shoulder and she sees herself in him. He tells her, "we'll get through this." And they've been through so much together that Elena has no other choice than to believe him.
*
Stefan takes her to her senior prom and they dance together and then clap when Caroline wins the crown. They fight together when it's inevitably crashed to buy some time for Bonnie to save the day. Then she takes them home and Elena whispers she's going to take his virginity while they're under the covers.
After graduation, she goes on a road trip with Damon and they get drunk for three nights straight together. He makes her laugh so much her mouth hurts.
*
Damon goes behind her back, trying to save her. Stefan tells half-truths, trying to hide from her. Elena waits for the moment when she'll have to choose between the two of them.
And it'll hurt