THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: Choices [1/1]
Title: Choices
Series: Anyone, Anytime, Anyplace ficlet collection
Chapter: 1/1
Author: ladyknight_fic
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries (TV-verse)
Characters: Stefan Salvatore, Elena Gilbert, Damon Salvatore
Pairing: references to Stefan/Elena/Damon
Genre: Romance
Rating: T
Summary: She stills wakes up sometimes, wrapped in their arms, and knows she's a hypocrite. But she understands now, how easy it must have been for Katherine to just keep them both.
Spoilers: none
Warning(s): three-way relationship
Word Count: 577
Disclaimer: These characters are the property of L. J. Smith, Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec.
A/N: I've never written anything like this before. Actually, OT3's have never interested me before period but, even though I still am and will always be a Delena shipper a heart, the idea of Stefan/Elena/Damon just works for me. This was more just an experiment, to see if I could write something along the lines of OT3, so the relationship is really just referenced, but given how this turned out I might see if I can write something more explicitly OT3, if people don't think it sucks too bad.
- o - o - o -
Stefan made a choice.
Early on he had the opportunity to leave, to walk out of her life completely. At that point, she would have gotten over it eventually. Like all other teenage girls before her she would have catalogued her heartbreak in her diary, cried herself to sleep, and then woken the next day to begin getting on with her life.
Only he didn't leave. Logan came to town, and then they made love, and then she found out about Katherine and that she was adopted, and there was a rogue vampire on the loose, and everything snowballed until it was just one thing after another. There was barely enough time to breathe, let alone pack a bag.
Then there's Damon.
Even after everything, all the torture and mindless violence and in-your-face antagonism, Damon is his brother and he's so much more than that one little word communicates. He is his best friend and his worst enemy, and the only other person on the planet who can get so far inside his head and under his skin that Stefan almost itches.
Stefan loves her.
Stefan loves him.
Stefan chose to stay.
- o - o - o -
Elena couldn't choose.
She might hate herself if they didn't love her so much, her boys. Because she stills wakes up sometimes, wrapped in their arms, and feels Katherine's ghost hovering over her. She knows she's a hypocrite. She knows she's damned herself to an eternity of stares and gossip and treading carefully so as not to favour one over the other.
She knows she should have picked, or sent them both on their way out of her life. She should not have done this to them. She had promised herself so faithfully that she would never be like the doppelganger before her in anything more than looks.
But she understands now, how easy it must have been for Katherine to just keep them both. They are both so different that there can never be any better or worse. Stefan is so sweet and soft and caring, Damon all rough edges and sarcasm and fire.
When it came down to it, when faced with the moment of truth, there was nothing. She was blank. There was no sound in her throat, no name leaving her lips.
Maybe she should have been surprised when they made the decision for her. But how could she be? She knew better than anyone that the only other person they loved as much as they loved her was each other.
- o - o - o -
Damon was never given a choice.
When he realised that Katherine wasn't in the tomb, he could have curled up and died.
Instead, Elena curled up inside him and he lived.
On one hand, it would have been better if he'd seen it coming. At least then he might have been able to get out of the way in time. But no. One minute he's all alone in his eternal damnation, keeping Stefan firmly at arm's length with general snarkiness and intolerable violence, and the next he's feeling her warmth seep into every crevice of his soul. Suddenly Stefan's all up in his face, and she's wrapped around him, and he's playing hero.
It sucks, because death's a lot easier when you don't care about anyone or anything but yourself, but…he kind of likes it too, especially now that they've all stopped with the lying and teenage angst and learned that, actually, they can share and play nice after all.
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