To Ride Pegasus - Part 2
Title: To Ride Pegasus
Recipient: shipperjunkie
Prompt: Elena+Jeremy+Damon+Alaric: An evening at the Gilbert's set prior to 3x10. Ripper!Stefan not invited, but he might stop by. Extra credit if the story is told from Jeremy's perspective.
Author: fallinangelz21
Characters/Pairings: Um...see prompt. LOL Damon/Elena emphasis w/plenty of Damon/Alaric & Damon/Jeremy bromancing to go around.
Word count: 3,628
Ratings/Warnings: R
Spoilers: Everything through 3.05 "The Reckoning."
Summary: With Ripper!Stefan back in town, the Gilbert 'family' knows the only way to save him is to work together. Easier said than done.
Author's note: I get a big F for short stories, because even though I totally meant for this to be a one-shot, it's turned into a mutli-parter. This fic will stay in S3 canon for the duration. As always, all of the thanks and awards to bamf!Pilar as she will heretofore be known.
Part 2
Lying in bed, and wide awake, Elena contemplated the day she'd had as she stared at the ceiling. She'd lied to Damon about how drunk she was - she hadn't been faking most of it, she'd been faking some of it - apparently a deceptively small some now that the adrenaline of the night had worn off. Feeling simultaneously wired and exhausted, she heaved a sigh of frustration as she lamented the fact that she'd long since passed the point of falling into a beer induced slumber.
Rolling onto her side, she slipped a hand beneath her cheek as she stared out of her window. The moon was out, high and bright, casting branch-shaped shadows across her bedroom floor as it shone through the trees. She needed to sleep. She hadn't been getting enough in the past few months and she couldn't afford to spend the day in bed like she'd done over the summer. She'd be damned if she let Stefan ruin her senior year of high school like he'd done the past three months of her life.
The thought of her estranged boyfriend made her stomach flip with a combination of longing, regret and euphoria. She'd staked him, driven a piece of wood straight into his gut with all of the strength she could muster. Admittedly, a small part of her felt awful about it. No matter what horrible things Stefan said or did, when Elena looked at him, she still saw the boy who'd helped her find a reason to live after losing her parents - the boy she'd fallen in love with and missed so much it caused her physical pain.
At the moment, however, the overwhelming exhilaration of standing up for and defending herself overshadowed everything else, making her smile despite the guilt.
That asshole had deserved it.
Her cell phone buzzed on her nightstand, prompting her to roll over and reach across the mattress. Picking up the device, she stared as Damon's name flashed on the screen and her stomach flipped again - this time with giddy anticipation as a series of conflicting thoughts ran through her head.
She was glad he'd called.
She wasn't sure if she should answer.
She was pretty sure she'd been ready to kiss him that night.
She really shouldn't answer.
Ceasefire, she thought, repeating the mantra as she tapped the touch screen and brought the phone to her ear. They'd declared a truce. They were friends, a team working together to save Stefan. There was no reason not to answer - and it could be something important.
"Hey," Elena said calmly, struggling to keep the excitement from her tone as she rolled onto her back.
"Hey yourself," Damon replied, his voice low and relaxed, making her shiver as it smoothed down her spine. "What the hell are you doing up?"
"What do you mean 'what am I doing up?' You called me," she said, shaking her head as she grinned up at the ceiling and twirled a piece of hair around her finger. "Didn't you expect me to be up?"
"You have school in the morning," he said before heaving a sigh. "And you had a busy day, what with all of the trap setting for Stefan, the falling off of bleachers, the almost getting barbecued…the staking of vampires."
Elena felt her cheeks flush as she caught the unmistakable pride in his words. "How is he?"
"Stefan? Last I saw him, he was still pulling splinters out of the hole in his gut," Damon said, chuckling into the phone and making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. "Nice work."
"I had a good teacher," she said, cringing at the flirtatious note that entered her tone. Flirting was not part of the truce.
"That's true," he agreed. "You learned from the best."
"I was talking about Ric," Elena retorted, eager to throw him off of his game.
"Of course you were," Damon replied smoothly as she bit back a groan of defeat.
"God," she muttered, rolling onto her side again as she shifted her grip on the phone. "Why did you call, Damon?"
"Do I need a reason?"
"Well, as you pointed out, I do have school in the morning," she said, playing with a loose string on her pillowcase. "And you're not really one for random chatting, so…what's up?"
Silence fell over the line and Elena found herself straining to catch the sound of his breathing - a ridiculous endeavor considering Damon didn't need to breathe. Just as she was about to prompt him to speak, he cleared his throat.
"I wanted to make sure that you were okay," he answered, suddenly serious. Elena stopped fiddling with the string, tightening her grip on the phone as the tone of the conversation shifted. "Even though I find staking Stefan incredibly cathartic, I was…concerned about how you'd feel about it."
A smile tugged at her lips. "You were?"
"Don't take it too personally," he warned. "I just want to know if I need to look for a new partner in crime or if you're going to be okay."
"I'm fine, Damon," Elena assured him, the smile on her lips turning into a grin. "It actually was cathartic and I…" A car drove by and took the corner too fast, the sound of squealing tires carrying simultaneously through her open window and…
Over the phone.
Frowning, Elena stared at her cell as she sat up in bed before bringing it back to her ear. "Damon are you…are you here?"
"Is that an existential question? Are any of us here?"
Scoffing, she climbed out of the bed and crossed the carpet in her stocking feet to the window seat. "No, you idiot, are you here?" she asked again, pulling the curtains back from the windows. "As in at my house."
"Ah," he replied, falling silent as she peered into the moonlit yard below. There was no sign of him or the Camaro, but the miles between her house and the Salvatore's meant nothing to a vampire running at super speed.
"Damon?"
"I might be nearby," he admitted as she crawled onto the cushioned seat to get a better view.
"Where?" she demanded, feeling like a moron as she stared into the branches of the huge tree outside of her window. "Damon, where-Holy shit!"
Clamping a hand over her mouth, Elena dropped her phone and leapt off of the window seat as Damon suddenly appeared, hanging upside down from her roof. Her eyes widened as he chuckled, the smirk on his face just as smug and annoying as ever.
"What the hell are you doing on my roof?" she demanded.
He shrugged. "Boredom and rooftops go together like wine and cake."
"Damon!" she cried, crossing her arms over her breasts, suddenly very self-conscious about the fact that she was wearing a cami and a pair of skimpy boy shorts as pajamas. "What does that even mean? Are you drunk?"
"Maybe," he admitted, grabbing the edge of the window frame and swinging gracefully into her room. Startled by the sudden movement, she took a few steps backwards as he landed silently on the carpet in front of her - the move so vampiric, so other, that it took her breath away. Acutely aware of her pounding heart, she did her best to remain outwardly cool as he raked his gaze over her from head to toe. "You should come up there with me."
"You want me to climb onto the roof with you while you're wasted?" she demanded prissily, scrambling internally to regain her footing. "Dream on."
"Please," Damon replied, rolling his eyes and doing her the favor of keeping his gaze above her waist. "I could be three bottles deep in bourbon and still have quicker reflexes than any sober human." Nodding toward the window he gave her a cajoling grin. "Come on. I'm up. You're up. Let's go be up together."
Glancing out of her window, Elena's heart began to race as she considered the offer. She wanted to - no question or doubt there - but she knew she shouldn't. She had school in the morning and Damon was drunk and she was drunk and she'd spent way too much time that night thinking about what it would be like to kiss him. Going up onto that roof would be dangerous, would threaten their ceasefire. The smart thing - the safe thing - would be to say goodnight and usher him out of the door…or in this case out of the window.
But goddammit, she really, really wanted to.
And she was tired of being smart and safe.
Fuck it.
"Okay," she said with a nod, shifting her gaze back to Damon and grinning at the brief, but distinct flash of surprise that flitted across his features.
"Seriously?" he asked as she moved to her dresser, opening the top drawer and grabbing a pair of yoga pants.
"Seriously," Elena repeated, glancing over her shoulder and smiling as she pulled them on. She wanted to be fun - to have fun and be crazy. She was barely eighteen after all, and fun and crazy, hell even stupid, were requirements for a barely eighteen-year-old. For five minutes she wanted to be Elena Gilbert, high school senior instead of Elena Gilbert, supernatural doppelganger. Grabbing a hair tie off of her vanity, she crossed back to the window, practically skipping in anticipation and excitement. "Do I need shoes?"
"We're not going hiking," he retorted, but the pleased expression on his face was impossible to ignore. Joining Damon on the cushioned seat, she knelt beside him as she twisted her hair up into a messy knot on top of her head.
"How are we going to do this?" Elena asked, surprised by the breathless catch in her voice as Damon pushed the window open as wide as it would go.
He looked her over again before shrugging. "I'll climb back up and then I'll pull you up."
"You're not going to drop me, are you?" she asked, worrying her lip as she cast a nervous glance toward the ground. He snorted derisively, leaving her to protest. "What? Like you said, I already got barbequed tonight, I don't want to add broken bones to the list."
Giving her a slow, sidelong glance, Damon blurred out of sight before she could blink and less than a second later, a strong hand grabbed her by the forearm and hauled her out of her window. In an instant, she was sitting on her roof, clutching Damon's arm for dear life as she gazed up at a canopy of stars.
"Oh my god," she murmured, her eyes wide as she met his. A smile broke over her features as her entire body buzzed from the adrenaline flowing through her veins. "How did you…That was amazing."
"Perks of being a vampire," Damon shrugged as Elena released his arm and gingerly adjusted her position on the gently sloping roof. Bringing her knees to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her legs, pressing her toes against the shingles as she took in the view. It was better than she'd imagined - roofs and treetops all the way to the horizon with the nearly full moon glowing brightly in the star-studded sky.
"You were right," she murmured as he rummaged through his jacket, pulling out a flask from the inner pocket. "Wine and cake."
Glancing at him from the corner of her eye, she caught his smirk as he unscrewed the cap with a few deft flicks of his fingers and took a long pull from the contents inside. Swallowing, he raised a brow in question as he offered her the flask.
Fighting a smile, Elena accepted it, examining it carefully before bringing it to her nose and sniffing at the contents. The scent of bourbon burned her nose and she took a quick gulp before she had a chance to change her mind. Over the summer she'd grown more accustomed to drinking hard liquor, but schooling her features while the alcohol set her insides on fire was still a challenge.
And there was no way she was going to let Damon see her squirm.
She passed the flask back without looking, the alcohol warming her from the inside as she took in the view. For the past eighteen years, she'd watched the world from her window seat not six feel below - she'd thought that she knew what her hometown looked like - but now, from the roof, it was like being in a different world.
The trees hid the streets below, covering the sights and muffling the sounds of civilization. Moonlight played off of the leaves, turning them from green to silver all the way to the horizon. Here and there a rooftop broke through the canopy, challenging the trees' dominance over the skyline. Elena narrowed her eyes, identifying the spire of the church she'd sporadically attended with her parents growing up. Farther away, she picked out the gothic central tower of the county courthouse. Leaning forward, she noted the rooftops of landmarks she'd known all of her life - the water tower, the Lockwood estate, the old radio tower she, Matt and Jeremy used to dare each other to climb when they were little - marveling at the new perspective.
Rocking forward even further, she cocked her head, staring intently at the curve of the horizon. "I think I can see your house-Oh, shit!"
She pitched forward as her foot slipped off of the shingles, her leg shooting out into the empty air. For a terrifying second, all she could see was the hard ground thirty feet below before Damon grabbed her upper arm.
"Jesus, Elena!" he cried, yanking her away from the edge of the roof with so much force that she crashed into his chest. "Are you trying to fucking kill yourself?"
"No, I…"she gasped, trailing off as her heart hammered against her ribs. "I was just trying to find your house."
"I know where my house is," Damon retorted, loosening his death grip on her arm and wrapping his other arm around her, pulling her impossibly closer. Suddenly, she was acutely aware of every place that he was touching her. "Trust me, it was there when I left."
Elena scowled, the heat from his body bleeding into hers in a way that she liked far too much. "You're so literal," she muttered in irritation and embarrassment, trying to pull away, but his grip on her waist wouldn't let her go far. "Damon."
He raised a brow. "If I let you go, are you going to sit still and behave?"
"Behave?" she replied, bristling at the teasing gleam in his eye. "I'm not four."
Damon returned her gaze impassively, tightening his hold as she struggled. Finally, heaving a sigh, she rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll behave." He released her so quickly that she almost slipped again before planting her hands on either side of her hips.
"I swear, I don't know how the Gilbert's survived the 1800s," Damon muttered as he took another sip from the flask.
"Excuse me?" she demanded, shooting him a scathing glance.
"This accident prone, klutzy trouble magnet thing you've got going on," he replied, waving a hand at her dismissively as he leaned back on his elbows. "I think it's in your genes."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, feeling the effects of the bourbon as she leaned heavily back on her elbow next to him and propped her head onto her fist. Suddenly, her eyes widened in understanding. "You're talking about my ancestors. Are you going to tell me a story?"
"A story?" Damon glanced at her, making a face. "You are four."
"Whatever," she replied, her irritation forgotten as she poked his bicep with her index finger. "Tell me a story about 1864."
"No, 1864 sucked," he argued, shaking his head resolutely as he stared at the sky.
"Damon," she whined, sticking out her lower lip in a mock pout as she continued to poke him.
"Ow, fine," he grimaced, grabbing her hand before she could poke him again and hanging on, curling his fingers around hers. Elena started, staring at their joined hands and unable to look away as he fell silent for a moment before beginning to speak. "When I was growing up, Jonathan Gilbert was notorious. Everyone thought he was nuts. He was always trying to invent things and nearly killing himself in the process."
"I know all that," Elena murmured, distracted by the rough warmth of his skin. "I thought Emily Bennett just spelled everything for him."
"Well, yeah, she did," Damon allowed. "At least the vampire stuff. But he tried to invent other things, too. It was always something. He turned one of his barns into some kind of laboratory and whenever you saw him in town, he had his head buried in one of his journals. He was constantly walking into posts and tripping up stairs or into water troughs."
Snickering at the mental image, Elena lifted her head to look at him. "Water troughs?"
"I swear," he insisted, shifting his gaze to look at her as a genuine grin curved his lips. "The first time I saw a Buster Keaton film, I figured he was a vampire and had been in Mystic Falls because he had Jonathan Gilbert down to perfection. And it wasn't just him. The entire Gilbert clan was a walking disaster. Their horses threw shoes at five times the rate of everyone else's and at least one building on their property burned down every year. Every time there was a town gathering - which was just as often back then as it is now, by the way - someone's arm was in a sling or they were hobbling along with a crutch and there was always a ridiculous story that went along with the injury. Like, they'd been out picking berries, stumbled across a hornet's nest and fell into a ravine trying to get away."
"You are making that up," she insisted.
"No, I'm not. That actually happened to Jonathan's brother, I think," he turned his head to look at her better, shaking his head as he rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. "I'm telling you, it's a goddamn miracle you were even born, Elena Gilbert."
"Is that a fact?" she laughed, a pure sound of genuine amusement and pleasure as she held Damon's gaze.
"Yes, it is," he nodded, propping an arm behind his head as he laid back, making himself more comfortable. "A very fortunate miracle."
And just that quickly, the atmosphere changed.
Elena bit her lip as she held his gaze, her smile gradually fading in the contemplative silence. I love this, she thought, struck by a sudden longing ache in her chest and the urge to curl up against his side, lay her head on his shoulder and beg him for more stories so that she could prolong the moment. He made her feel safe - not just because he was a vampire and could spirit her away to the next county in the blink of an eye - but because he made her feel like she was an active participant in her own life rather than at the mercy of the supernatural world as it spun around her.
And he's easy on the eyes, she thought as her gaze drifted lower, settling - as it always seemed to - on his mouth. She caught her breath as her heart skipped a beat and her pulse began to skitter frantically through her veins. God, she wanted to kiss him. Just once. Just once, she wanted to know what it was like to really kiss Damon Salvatore.
Except it would never be just once, she thought as he squeezed her hand and she suddenly realized he could feel - and hear - every single erratic beat of her heart. Swallowing, she pulled her hand from his as heat blossomed on her cheeks. Forcing her lungs to function, she sat up and drew her knees to her chest, berating herself for ruining the moment. They were friends, a team, working together to get Stefan back and she really did love Stefan, even if, at the moment, she couldn't picture his face - couldn't picture anything but Damon's blue eyes.
Ceasefire, my ass, she thought, staring desperately out at the tree and rooftops as if they might hold the answers to questions she didn't know how to ask. A sudden breeze stirred the loose tendrils of hair at the base of her neck, making her shiver as goose bumps rose on her bare skin. Before she could rub her arms to warm herself back up, Damon was there, throwing his jacket over her shoulders.
"Damon," she protested breathlessly as his scent washed over her. "I'm fine, you don't need to-."
"You do not tell a Southern boy not to give a lady his jacket when she's cold," he said, squeezing her shoulders for emphasis before stretching out on the roof once again and turning his attention back to the sky. Biting her lip to hide her smile, Elena slipped her arms though the sleeves, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.
Jesus, he smelled good.
Ceasefire, she chided herself, gritting her teeth in frustration as she stared out at the treetops. Several long moments passed as she scolded herself and waited for her agitated nerves to calm down. Friends, she thought, she and Damon were friends and they had a job to do. Saving Stefan was more important to both of them than the awareness, the ever-present sexual tension, the rest. They'd put that shit aside - to be dealt with later - and Damon wasn't having any problems remembering that, so why was she?
Looking over her shoulder, she found him lying on his back, staring up at the sky, seemingly oblivious to her presence. I can do this, she thought, swallowing as she tugged up the collar of his jacket and lay down next to him. He'd been such a good friendto her since Stefan had left that the last thing he deserved was having his head fucked with because she was drunk, lonely and weak.
Just be his friend, she thought, following his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, making it possible for her to see more stars than usual in the heavens. The tiny pinpricks of light were so thick that she could barely make out the Big Dipper.
"What are you doing?" Elena whispered, glancing at Damon out of the corner of her eye. He'd been staring intently at the stars the entire time they'd been on the roof, like he was looking for something.
"Shopping for tea cozies."
Making a face, she pulled the collar away from her mouth. "Damon."
"What does it look like I'm doing?" he scoffed, raising his hand toward the sky. "I'm looking at the stars. finding constellations. Like…that one. That's Delphinus. The dolphin. It helped Poseidon find a mermaid named Amphitrite and as a reward he put it up into the sky with the stars."
Grateful for the distraction, Elena shifted closer to him, following his line of sight. It took her a moment, but a shape began to stand out amidst the stars. "It looks like a kite."
"Use your imagination, Gilbert," he admonished, nudging her with his elbow. Narrowing her eyes, she concentrated and gradually the smattering of stars began to resemble an animal.
"I think I see it," she said, pleased with herself for finding the dolphin and for keeping a grip on her tumultuous emotions. A cool gust of wind washed over them, prompting her to burrow even deeper into Damon's jacket as she smirked. "You know, sometimes I forget."
"Forget what?"
"That you're really old," she teased, earning her another pointed look and a raised brow as he turned away from the sky. Propping herself up on her elbow, she reached across him and grabbed the flask of bourbon. "And kind of a nerd."
"I could leave you up here, you know," Damon threatened as she removed the lid and took another shot of alcohol. "And make you figure out how to get down on your own."
"You won't," she replied with a smile, wiping away an errant drop of bourbon from the corner of her mouth before settling back down next to him. "Tell me more."
Heaving a melodramatic sigh, he snatched the flask from her and took a sip of his own as he scanned the heavens. Pointing at another cluster of stars, he said. "That is Aquila, the eagle that carried Ganymede to Olympus."
"I don't…" Elena murmured, squinting up at the sky as she shifted even closer, bringing her nearly cheek-to-cheek with Damon. Raising her own arm, she tried to mimic his movements, searching amidst the thick blanket of tiny lights to find the ones that formed the shape of an eagle. "I don't see it."
"Here," he said, covering her hand with his as he guided it toward the right stars, explaining the constellations origin at the same time. "Apparently, Zeus fell in love with Ganymede, a mortal, and brought him to the heavens to serve as his cupbearer."
"He fell in love with him and made him a servant?" Elena asked, as her finger traced out a shape in the sky that gradually began to resemble a bird in flight under Damon's gentle guidance. "I thought Zeus was like, the king of the gods, couldn't he have gotten his lover a better job?"
"I think cupbearer was actually a pretty big deal," he replied with a chuckle as he released her hand and propped an arm behind his head. "But Zeus had a tendency to fall in love with anything that moved in his line of sight, so there probably weren't many job openings."
In control of her emotions again, she snickered, pleased that she'd managed to squash the bright flare of nearly overwhelming desire that had momentarily threatened their truce. Raising his arm, Damon pointed out another set of stars. "That's Capricornus."
"As in the Zodiac?" Elena asked watching him rather than the stars as he revealed the constellation's back story. She lost track of the time as he pointed out one cluster of stars after another - Sagitta, the emblem of Diana and Apollo and Pavo, which was Latin for peacock. Pleasantly buzzed, she listened to every word, sharing the flask with him until her eyelids fluttered closed and her head felt too heavy to lift off of his shoulder. The last thing she remembered before she drifted off to sleep was something about a beautiful Queen named Cassiopeia and her pet swan Cygnus.
Elena woke up the next morning, surrounded by Damon's familiar scent, as her cell phone alarm beeped in an annoying chorus with the birds chirping loudly in the trees. Groping blindly, she found the offending device on the pillow next to her head and silenced it. Prying her eyes open, she winced against the sun streaming through her bedroom window as the dull headache of a hangover made her head throb, proving that her drunken rooftop adventure with Damon hadn't been a dream.
Groaning, she rolled over onto her side, putting her back to the offending sunlight. Opening her eyes to slits, she checked the time and uttered a curse. School was going to be a bitch and Alaric would never let her hear the end of it if she showed up to his class with a hangover.
The hypocrite.
She couldn't help but smile, however, as she promised herself just five more minutes and pulled a pillow over her head. She'd had fun the night before - real fun that hadn't been tainted by anything even remotely supernatural. After she'd fallen sleep - or more likely passed out - Damon had brought her back inside, tucked her into bed and set her cell phone alarm so she wouldn't be late.
He'd even left her a glass of water and a couple of aspirin on her nightstand.
Best of all, he'd let her keep his jacket.
Recipient: shipperjunkie
Prompt: Elena+Jeremy+Damon+Alaric: An evening at the Gilbert's set prior to 3x10. Ripper!Stefan not invited, but he might stop by. Extra credit if the story is told from Jeremy's perspective.
Author: fallinangelz21
Characters/Pairings: Um...see prompt. LOL Damon/Elena emphasis w/plenty of Damon/Alaric & Damon/Jeremy bromancing to go around.
Word count: 3,628
Ratings/Warnings: R
Spoilers: Everything through 3.05 "The Reckoning."
Summary: With Ripper!Stefan back in town, the Gilbert 'family' knows the only way to save him is to work together. Easier said than done.
Author's note: I get a big F for short stories, because even though I totally meant for this to be a one-shot, it's turned into a mutli-parter. This fic will stay in S3 canon for the duration. As always, all of the thanks and awards to bamf!Pilar as she will heretofore be known.
Part 2
Lying in bed, and wide awake, Elena contemplated the day she'd had as she stared at the ceiling. She'd lied to Damon about how drunk she was - she hadn't been faking most of it, she'd been faking some of it - apparently a deceptively small some now that the adrenaline of the night had worn off. Feeling simultaneously wired and exhausted, she heaved a sigh of frustration as she lamented the fact that she'd long since passed the point of falling into a beer induced slumber.
Rolling onto her side, she slipped a hand beneath her cheek as she stared out of her window. The moon was out, high and bright, casting branch-shaped shadows across her bedroom floor as it shone through the trees. She needed to sleep. She hadn't been getting enough in the past few months and she couldn't afford to spend the day in bed like she'd done over the summer. She'd be damned if she let Stefan ruin her senior year of high school like he'd done the past three months of her life.
The thought of her estranged boyfriend made her stomach flip with a combination of longing, regret and euphoria. She'd staked him, driven a piece of wood straight into his gut with all of the strength she could muster. Admittedly, a small part of her felt awful about it. No matter what horrible things Stefan said or did, when Elena looked at him, she still saw the boy who'd helped her find a reason to live after losing her parents - the boy she'd fallen in love with and missed so much it caused her physical pain.
At the moment, however, the overwhelming exhilaration of standing up for and defending herself overshadowed everything else, making her smile despite the guilt.
That asshole had deserved it.
Her cell phone buzzed on her nightstand, prompting her to roll over and reach across the mattress. Picking up the device, she stared as Damon's name flashed on the screen and her stomach flipped again - this time with giddy anticipation as a series of conflicting thoughts ran through her head.
She was glad he'd called.
She wasn't sure if she should answer.
She was pretty sure she'd been ready to kiss him that night.
She really shouldn't answer.
Ceasefire, she thought, repeating the mantra as she tapped the touch screen and brought the phone to her ear. They'd declared a truce. They were friends, a team working together to save Stefan. There was no reason not to answer - and it could be something important.
"Hey," Elena said calmly, struggling to keep the excitement from her tone as she rolled onto her back.
"Hey yourself," Damon replied, his voice low and relaxed, making her shiver as it smoothed down her spine. "What the hell are you doing up?"
"What do you mean 'what am I doing up?' You called me," she said, shaking her head as she grinned up at the ceiling and twirled a piece of hair around her finger. "Didn't you expect me to be up?"
"You have school in the morning," he said before heaving a sigh. "And you had a busy day, what with all of the trap setting for Stefan, the falling off of bleachers, the almost getting barbecued…the staking of vampires."
Elena felt her cheeks flush as she caught the unmistakable pride in his words. "How is he?"
"Stefan? Last I saw him, he was still pulling splinters out of the hole in his gut," Damon said, chuckling into the phone and making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. "Nice work."
"I had a good teacher," she said, cringing at the flirtatious note that entered her tone. Flirting was not part of the truce.
"That's true," he agreed. "You learned from the best."
"I was talking about Ric," Elena retorted, eager to throw him off of his game.
"Of course you were," Damon replied smoothly as she bit back a groan of defeat.
"God," she muttered, rolling onto her side again as she shifted her grip on the phone. "Why did you call, Damon?"
"Do I need a reason?"
"Well, as you pointed out, I do have school in the morning," she said, playing with a loose string on her pillowcase. "And you're not really one for random chatting, so…what's up?"
Silence fell over the line and Elena found herself straining to catch the sound of his breathing - a ridiculous endeavor considering Damon didn't need to breathe. Just as she was about to prompt him to speak, he cleared his throat.
"I wanted to make sure that you were okay," he answered, suddenly serious. Elena stopped fiddling with the string, tightening her grip on the phone as the tone of the conversation shifted. "Even though I find staking Stefan incredibly cathartic, I was…concerned about how you'd feel about it."
A smile tugged at her lips. "You were?"
"Don't take it too personally," he warned. "I just want to know if I need to look for a new partner in crime or if you're going to be okay."
"I'm fine, Damon," Elena assured him, the smile on her lips turning into a grin. "It actually was cathartic and I…" A car drove by and took the corner too fast, the sound of squealing tires carrying simultaneously through her open window and…
Over the phone.
Frowning, Elena stared at her cell as she sat up in bed before bringing it back to her ear. "Damon are you…are you here?"
"Is that an existential question? Are any of us here?"
Scoffing, she climbed out of the bed and crossed the carpet in her stocking feet to the window seat. "No, you idiot, are you here?" she asked again, pulling the curtains back from the windows. "As in at my house."
"Ah," he replied, falling silent as she peered into the moonlit yard below. There was no sign of him or the Camaro, but the miles between her house and the Salvatore's meant nothing to a vampire running at super speed.
"Damon?"
"I might be nearby," he admitted as she crawled onto the cushioned seat to get a better view.
"Where?" she demanded, feeling like a moron as she stared into the branches of the huge tree outside of her window. "Damon, where-Holy shit!"
Clamping a hand over her mouth, Elena dropped her phone and leapt off of the window seat as Damon suddenly appeared, hanging upside down from her roof. Her eyes widened as he chuckled, the smirk on his face just as smug and annoying as ever.
"What the hell are you doing on my roof?" she demanded.
He shrugged. "Boredom and rooftops go together like wine and cake."
"Damon!" she cried, crossing her arms over her breasts, suddenly very self-conscious about the fact that she was wearing a cami and a pair of skimpy boy shorts as pajamas. "What does that even mean? Are you drunk?"
"Maybe," he admitted, grabbing the edge of the window frame and swinging gracefully into her room. Startled by the sudden movement, she took a few steps backwards as he landed silently on the carpet in front of her - the move so vampiric, so other, that it took her breath away. Acutely aware of her pounding heart, she did her best to remain outwardly cool as he raked his gaze over her from head to toe. "You should come up there with me."
"You want me to climb onto the roof with you while you're wasted?" she demanded prissily, scrambling internally to regain her footing. "Dream on."
"Please," Damon replied, rolling his eyes and doing her the favor of keeping his gaze above her waist. "I could be three bottles deep in bourbon and still have quicker reflexes than any sober human." Nodding toward the window he gave her a cajoling grin. "Come on. I'm up. You're up. Let's go be up together."
Glancing out of her window, Elena's heart began to race as she considered the offer. She wanted to - no question or doubt there - but she knew she shouldn't. She had school in the morning and Damon was drunk and she was drunk and she'd spent way too much time that night thinking about what it would be like to kiss him. Going up onto that roof would be dangerous, would threaten their ceasefire. The smart thing - the safe thing - would be to say goodnight and usher him out of the door…or in this case out of the window.
But goddammit, she really, really wanted to.
And she was tired of being smart and safe.
Fuck it.
"Okay," she said with a nod, shifting her gaze back to Damon and grinning at the brief, but distinct flash of surprise that flitted across his features.
"Seriously?" he asked as she moved to her dresser, opening the top drawer and grabbing a pair of yoga pants.
"Seriously," Elena repeated, glancing over her shoulder and smiling as she pulled them on. She wanted to be fun - to have fun and be crazy. She was barely eighteen after all, and fun and crazy, hell even stupid, were requirements for a barely eighteen-year-old. For five minutes she wanted to be Elena Gilbert, high school senior instead of Elena Gilbert, supernatural doppelganger. Grabbing a hair tie off of her vanity, she crossed back to the window, practically skipping in anticipation and excitement. "Do I need shoes?"
"We're not going hiking," he retorted, but the pleased expression on his face was impossible to ignore. Joining Damon on the cushioned seat, she knelt beside him as she twisted her hair up into a messy knot on top of her head.
"How are we going to do this?" Elena asked, surprised by the breathless catch in her voice as Damon pushed the window open as wide as it would go.
He looked her over again before shrugging. "I'll climb back up and then I'll pull you up."
"You're not going to drop me, are you?" she asked, worrying her lip as she cast a nervous glance toward the ground. He snorted derisively, leaving her to protest. "What? Like you said, I already got barbequed tonight, I don't want to add broken bones to the list."
Giving her a slow, sidelong glance, Damon blurred out of sight before she could blink and less than a second later, a strong hand grabbed her by the forearm and hauled her out of her window. In an instant, she was sitting on her roof, clutching Damon's arm for dear life as she gazed up at a canopy of stars.
"Oh my god," she murmured, her eyes wide as she met his. A smile broke over her features as her entire body buzzed from the adrenaline flowing through her veins. "How did you…That was amazing."
"Perks of being a vampire," Damon shrugged as Elena released his arm and gingerly adjusted her position on the gently sloping roof. Bringing her knees to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her legs, pressing her toes against the shingles as she took in the view. It was better than she'd imagined - roofs and treetops all the way to the horizon with the nearly full moon glowing brightly in the star-studded sky.
"You were right," she murmured as he rummaged through his jacket, pulling out a flask from the inner pocket. "Wine and cake."
Glancing at him from the corner of her eye, she caught his smirk as he unscrewed the cap with a few deft flicks of his fingers and took a long pull from the contents inside. Swallowing, he raised a brow in question as he offered her the flask.
Fighting a smile, Elena accepted it, examining it carefully before bringing it to her nose and sniffing at the contents. The scent of bourbon burned her nose and she took a quick gulp before she had a chance to change her mind. Over the summer she'd grown more accustomed to drinking hard liquor, but schooling her features while the alcohol set her insides on fire was still a challenge.
And there was no way she was going to let Damon see her squirm.
She passed the flask back without looking, the alcohol warming her from the inside as she took in the view. For the past eighteen years, she'd watched the world from her window seat not six feel below - she'd thought that she knew what her hometown looked like - but now, from the roof, it was like being in a different world.
The trees hid the streets below, covering the sights and muffling the sounds of civilization. Moonlight played off of the leaves, turning them from green to silver all the way to the horizon. Here and there a rooftop broke through the canopy, challenging the trees' dominance over the skyline. Elena narrowed her eyes, identifying the spire of the church she'd sporadically attended with her parents growing up. Farther away, she picked out the gothic central tower of the county courthouse. Leaning forward, she noted the rooftops of landmarks she'd known all of her life - the water tower, the Lockwood estate, the old radio tower she, Matt and Jeremy used to dare each other to climb when they were little - marveling at the new perspective.
Rocking forward even further, she cocked her head, staring intently at the curve of the horizon. "I think I can see your house-Oh, shit!"
She pitched forward as her foot slipped off of the shingles, her leg shooting out into the empty air. For a terrifying second, all she could see was the hard ground thirty feet below before Damon grabbed her upper arm.
"Jesus, Elena!" he cried, yanking her away from the edge of the roof with so much force that she crashed into his chest. "Are you trying to fucking kill yourself?"
"No, I…"she gasped, trailing off as her heart hammered against her ribs. "I was just trying to find your house."
"I know where my house is," Damon retorted, loosening his death grip on her arm and wrapping his other arm around her, pulling her impossibly closer. Suddenly, she was acutely aware of every place that he was touching her. "Trust me, it was there when I left."
Elena scowled, the heat from his body bleeding into hers in a way that she liked far too much. "You're so literal," she muttered in irritation and embarrassment, trying to pull away, but his grip on her waist wouldn't let her go far. "Damon."
He raised a brow. "If I let you go, are you going to sit still and behave?"
"Behave?" she replied, bristling at the teasing gleam in his eye. "I'm not four."
Damon returned her gaze impassively, tightening his hold as she struggled. Finally, heaving a sigh, she rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll behave." He released her so quickly that she almost slipped again before planting her hands on either side of her hips.
"I swear, I don't know how the Gilbert's survived the 1800s," Damon muttered as he took another sip from the flask.
"Excuse me?" she demanded, shooting him a scathing glance.
"This accident prone, klutzy trouble magnet thing you've got going on," he replied, waving a hand at her dismissively as he leaned back on his elbows. "I think it's in your genes."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, feeling the effects of the bourbon as she leaned heavily back on her elbow next to him and propped her head onto her fist. Suddenly, her eyes widened in understanding. "You're talking about my ancestors. Are you going to tell me a story?"
"A story?" Damon glanced at her, making a face. "You are four."
"Whatever," she replied, her irritation forgotten as she poked his bicep with her index finger. "Tell me a story about 1864."
"No, 1864 sucked," he argued, shaking his head resolutely as he stared at the sky.
"Damon," she whined, sticking out her lower lip in a mock pout as she continued to poke him.
"Ow, fine," he grimaced, grabbing her hand before she could poke him again and hanging on, curling his fingers around hers. Elena started, staring at their joined hands and unable to look away as he fell silent for a moment before beginning to speak. "When I was growing up, Jonathan Gilbert was notorious. Everyone thought he was nuts. He was always trying to invent things and nearly killing himself in the process."
"I know all that," Elena murmured, distracted by the rough warmth of his skin. "I thought Emily Bennett just spelled everything for him."
"Well, yeah, she did," Damon allowed. "At least the vampire stuff. But he tried to invent other things, too. It was always something. He turned one of his barns into some kind of laboratory and whenever you saw him in town, he had his head buried in one of his journals. He was constantly walking into posts and tripping up stairs or into water troughs."
Snickering at the mental image, Elena lifted her head to look at him. "Water troughs?"
"I swear," he insisted, shifting his gaze to look at her as a genuine grin curved his lips. "The first time I saw a Buster Keaton film, I figured he was a vampire and had been in Mystic Falls because he had Jonathan Gilbert down to perfection. And it wasn't just him. The entire Gilbert clan was a walking disaster. Their horses threw shoes at five times the rate of everyone else's and at least one building on their property burned down every year. Every time there was a town gathering - which was just as often back then as it is now, by the way - someone's arm was in a sling or they were hobbling along with a crutch and there was always a ridiculous story that went along with the injury. Like, they'd been out picking berries, stumbled across a hornet's nest and fell into a ravine trying to get away."
"You are making that up," she insisted.
"No, I'm not. That actually happened to Jonathan's brother, I think," he turned his head to look at her better, shaking his head as he rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. "I'm telling you, it's a goddamn miracle you were even born, Elena Gilbert."
"Is that a fact?" she laughed, a pure sound of genuine amusement and pleasure as she held Damon's gaze.
"Yes, it is," he nodded, propping an arm behind his head as he laid back, making himself more comfortable. "A very fortunate miracle."
And just that quickly, the atmosphere changed.
Elena bit her lip as she held his gaze, her smile gradually fading in the contemplative silence. I love this, she thought, struck by a sudden longing ache in her chest and the urge to curl up against his side, lay her head on his shoulder and beg him for more stories so that she could prolong the moment. He made her feel safe - not just because he was a vampire and could spirit her away to the next county in the blink of an eye - but because he made her feel like she was an active participant in her own life rather than at the mercy of the supernatural world as it spun around her.
And he's easy on the eyes, she thought as her gaze drifted lower, settling - as it always seemed to - on his mouth. She caught her breath as her heart skipped a beat and her pulse began to skitter frantically through her veins. God, she wanted to kiss him. Just once. Just once, she wanted to know what it was like to really kiss Damon Salvatore.
Except it would never be just once, she thought as he squeezed her hand and she suddenly realized he could feel - and hear - every single erratic beat of her heart. Swallowing, she pulled her hand from his as heat blossomed on her cheeks. Forcing her lungs to function, she sat up and drew her knees to her chest, berating herself for ruining the moment. They were friends, a team, working together to get Stefan back and she really did love Stefan, even if, at the moment, she couldn't picture his face - couldn't picture anything but Damon's blue eyes.
Ceasefire, my ass, she thought, staring desperately out at the tree and rooftops as if they might hold the answers to questions she didn't know how to ask. A sudden breeze stirred the loose tendrils of hair at the base of her neck, making her shiver as goose bumps rose on her bare skin. Before she could rub her arms to warm herself back up, Damon was there, throwing his jacket over her shoulders.
"Damon," she protested breathlessly as his scent washed over her. "I'm fine, you don't need to-."
"You do not tell a Southern boy not to give a lady his jacket when she's cold," he said, squeezing her shoulders for emphasis before stretching out on the roof once again and turning his attention back to the sky. Biting her lip to hide her smile, Elena slipped her arms though the sleeves, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.
Jesus, he smelled good.
Ceasefire, she chided herself, gritting her teeth in frustration as she stared out at the treetops. Several long moments passed as she scolded herself and waited for her agitated nerves to calm down. Friends, she thought, she and Damon were friends and they had a job to do. Saving Stefan was more important to both of them than the awareness, the ever-present sexual tension, the rest. They'd put that shit aside - to be dealt with later - and Damon wasn't having any problems remembering that, so why was she?
Looking over her shoulder, she found him lying on his back, staring up at the sky, seemingly oblivious to her presence. I can do this, she thought, swallowing as she tugged up the collar of his jacket and lay down next to him. He'd been such a good friendto her since Stefan had left that the last thing he deserved was having his head fucked with because she was drunk, lonely and weak.
Just be his friend, she thought, following his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, making it possible for her to see more stars than usual in the heavens. The tiny pinpricks of light were so thick that she could barely make out the Big Dipper.
"What are you doing?" Elena whispered, glancing at Damon out of the corner of her eye. He'd been staring intently at the stars the entire time they'd been on the roof, like he was looking for something.
"Shopping for tea cozies."
Making a face, she pulled the collar away from her mouth. "Damon."
"What does it look like I'm doing?" he scoffed, raising his hand toward the sky. "I'm looking at the stars. finding constellations. Like…that one. That's Delphinus. The dolphin. It helped Poseidon find a mermaid named Amphitrite and as a reward he put it up into the sky with the stars."
Grateful for the distraction, Elena shifted closer to him, following his line of sight. It took her a moment, but a shape began to stand out amidst the stars. "It looks like a kite."
"Use your imagination, Gilbert," he admonished, nudging her with his elbow. Narrowing her eyes, she concentrated and gradually the smattering of stars began to resemble an animal.
"I think I see it," she said, pleased with herself for finding the dolphin and for keeping a grip on her tumultuous emotions. A cool gust of wind washed over them, prompting her to burrow even deeper into Damon's jacket as she smirked. "You know, sometimes I forget."
"Forget what?"
"That you're really old," she teased, earning her another pointed look and a raised brow as he turned away from the sky. Propping herself up on her elbow, she reached across him and grabbed the flask of bourbon. "And kind of a nerd."
"I could leave you up here, you know," Damon threatened as she removed the lid and took another shot of alcohol. "And make you figure out how to get down on your own."
"You won't," she replied with a smile, wiping away an errant drop of bourbon from the corner of her mouth before settling back down next to him. "Tell me more."
Heaving a melodramatic sigh, he snatched the flask from her and took a sip of his own as he scanned the heavens. Pointing at another cluster of stars, he said. "That is Aquila, the eagle that carried Ganymede to Olympus."
"I don't…" Elena murmured, squinting up at the sky as she shifted even closer, bringing her nearly cheek-to-cheek with Damon. Raising her own arm, she tried to mimic his movements, searching amidst the thick blanket of tiny lights to find the ones that formed the shape of an eagle. "I don't see it."
"Here," he said, covering her hand with his as he guided it toward the right stars, explaining the constellations origin at the same time. "Apparently, Zeus fell in love with Ganymede, a mortal, and brought him to the heavens to serve as his cupbearer."
"He fell in love with him and made him a servant?" Elena asked, as her finger traced out a shape in the sky that gradually began to resemble a bird in flight under Damon's gentle guidance. "I thought Zeus was like, the king of the gods, couldn't he have gotten his lover a better job?"
"I think cupbearer was actually a pretty big deal," he replied with a chuckle as he released her hand and propped an arm behind his head. "But Zeus had a tendency to fall in love with anything that moved in his line of sight, so there probably weren't many job openings."
In control of her emotions again, she snickered, pleased that she'd managed to squash the bright flare of nearly overwhelming desire that had momentarily threatened their truce. Raising his arm, Damon pointed out another set of stars. "That's Capricornus."
"As in the Zodiac?" Elena asked watching him rather than the stars as he revealed the constellation's back story. She lost track of the time as he pointed out one cluster of stars after another - Sagitta, the emblem of Diana and Apollo and Pavo, which was Latin for peacock. Pleasantly buzzed, she listened to every word, sharing the flask with him until her eyelids fluttered closed and her head felt too heavy to lift off of his shoulder. The last thing she remembered before she drifted off to sleep was something about a beautiful Queen named Cassiopeia and her pet swan Cygnus.
Elena woke up the next morning, surrounded by Damon's familiar scent, as her cell phone alarm beeped in an annoying chorus with the birds chirping loudly in the trees. Groping blindly, she found the offending device on the pillow next to her head and silenced it. Prying her eyes open, she winced against the sun streaming through her bedroom window as the dull headache of a hangover made her head throb, proving that her drunken rooftop adventure with Damon hadn't been a dream.
Groaning, she rolled over onto her side, putting her back to the offending sunlight. Opening her eyes to slits, she checked the time and uttered a curse. School was going to be a bitch and Alaric would never let her hear the end of it if she showed up to his class with a hangover.
The hypocrite.
She couldn't help but smile, however, as she promised herself just five more minutes and pulled a pillow over her head. She'd had fun the night before - real fun that hadn't been tainted by anything even remotely supernatural. After she'd fallen sleep - or more likely passed out - Damon had brought her back inside, tucked her into bed and set her cell phone alarm so she wouldn't be late.
He'd even left her a glass of water and a couple of aspirin on her nightstand.
Best of all, he'd let her keep his jacket.