gravity | damon/elena/stefan | t | p2/2

[laniaaa]

Gravity
Part Two of Two
Part One of Two Here
Damon/Elena/Stefan | T | ~12 000k+
'But I am not a prize to be won, Damon, and I think you need to understand that.' She's not being cruel, she's being honest, and she believes that Damon needs to hear this. That Stefan should hear this, too.


She looks at herself in the mirror and wonders what she's doing. Well she knows, really what she's doing, but there are a lot of ins and outs to this kind of thing that could make things very complicated in the long-run. She should tell him to go home. That this isn't the time for getting into bed. She's contradicting herself and everything she wanted earlier. What is she doing? She stares at herself in the mirror.

She blinks.

Screw it.

Everyone  - mainly Bonnie - will be out for blood in the morning -  Damon's - and Elena doesn't know how to handle it yet. She's sorry, she is, but she can't change anything. Not now. Right now she's doing her, for lack of a better expression, and this what she wants right now. She's not going to be able to explain it to everybody in the morning, and nobody's going to like it, but tough.

Elena's had to do too many things that she hasn't liked, just to go along with everyone else. Not tonight. She's not having that tonight.

She tries to guess if Damon has left or not. She tries not to get excited at the prospect of him in her bed. It's a little hard, but she manages.

She brushes her teeth and combs her hair, before turning out the light and stepping back into her bedroom.

The main light is off but her lamp is on, and Damon is sitting on the other side of the bed with no shirt on. She can't see if he's wearing his jeans, but she's torn between hoping he's wearing underwear and also that he's not.

He shifts, the blankets moving, and she catches sight of black boxers. Her eyes flit to the dresser, and Damon's clothes are folded neatly atop it, his shoes and socks on the floor below. He's looking at her with his, 'is this what you really want?' stare, and Elena ignores it as much as possible.

She slips under the covers beside him and lays down, feeling him do the same. She leans over and switches off her lamp, bathing the room in darkness. It feels beautiful on her eyes, the harsh light gone and the night making her want to shut them and never open them again.

She feels the space between them in the bed and steels herself. Slowly, she inches closer to Damon, feeling her way with her foot. She comes in contact with his leg and she pauses, jerking back, before slowly inching forward again. She's too busy watching her leg move beneath the blankets that when she glances up and sees Damon staring at her inquisitively she almost jumps in surprise.

She bites her lip and hooks her ankle around his.

'That's a powerful weapon.' His voice breaks through the silence.

'What is?' she asks quietly.

'Biting your lip. A woman can bring a man to his knees with that bottom lip between her teeth.' He reaches out and runs his fingers down the back of her hand. She curls it around so her palm is face up, and fits their fingers together, watching the movements carefully. This is the most intimate she's ever really been with Damon, and she can feel the effect it's starting to have on her body.

'Has it ever brought you to your knees?' she asks a little boldly. She wonders where all this boldness came from.

'Only once or twice,' he answers smoothly, lips curling into a smile.

Her foot runs up the length of his calf, feeling the curve of muscle and the brush of hair, her lip caught between her teeth once more, unintentionally. Damon chuckles and she releases it, blushing.

'I'm sorry.'

'Don't be.' He moves forward, brining that space between them to a minimum. 'Don't be sorry. I should be saying sorry.' He sighs. 'I couldn't leave tonight, Elena. I just couldn't.'

'I'm glad you didn't,' she says softly. There's inches between them now, only bare inches, and Elena inhales before pressing forward to close the last distance.

Damon's arm moves automatically to bracket her head and neck, and she nestles into his shoulder with ease. His other arm wraps around her waist with a firm hold that makes Elena feel safe, and God, she could melt. Their legs are like vines and her hair is another blanket to add to the mix, but they fit. They fit better than she thought they ever would. Damon's firm body is something she both knows and doesn't. It is strange and foreign and yet so entirely familiar it's almost disorientating.

She feels like she's lost Bonnie, that Bonnie has always had to lose everything because of her and now it's finally taking its toll. She feels like she's alone in this, with her brother gone and her parents and aunt dead, her ex-boyfriend still trying to convince her he's practically soulless. She wants someone to just hold her and be with her and be her comfort. She knows Damon wants the same. It's like they both broken pieces of a really big picture, trying to mend itself back together with only a few fragments.

She inhales deeply and presses her nose to the bare skin of his arm, trying to ignore the pressure of his hip against hers, of the way her body is heating up in reaction to being so close to his. She knows Damon can feel it too, if his burgeoning erection is anything to go by. Elena isn't a complete stranger to the signs of a sexual turn-on. She's been turned on before by Damon, sometimes unintentionally on his behalf, sometimes not. She recognises the signs.

Damon growls by her ear and Elena almost shivers.

'I will always want you,' he purrs throatily into her ear. 'Even when you've pissed me off.'

Elena tries not to blush. It's a bit of a messy compliment, but she gets the picture. She pushes further into his body, feeling him tighten his grip on her and drag her half beneath him. Elena knows where this is going, and she knows that she has the power to stop it. The thing is, she doesn't want to.

She wants Damon. All of him. Now.

It's probably not the right decision when you look at the big picture.

But really, she doesn't give a damn if she's contradicting herself. She doesn't care what everyone will think in the morning. Why? Because she is not perfect. She is not perfect and she can't help wanting what she does. She can't please everyone and keep herself happy at the same time. She can't be what everyone wants her to be, because they don't want her to be herself.

She is herself tonight. With Damon. This is her, doing what she wants, just this once.

'I don't want us to fight, Damon,' she says, a hair's width away from his own lips. She flicks her eyes up to see him watching her intently. 'I don't want us to be torn apart because of how we feel. This is hard for me, and I know it's hard for you too, but we're going to get through it.'

'I hope so,' he replies, breath cool on her chin.

'We will,' she assures him, expression somber. 'It's going to take time and it's going to take effort. A lot of effort on both our parts, but we'll make it work.'

Damon is very silent for a moment. Elena isn't sure if he doesn't want to talk anymore.

'I'm letting you know now, Elena,' he says suddenly, 'that I'm not going to settle for half of you.' His voice is low, his tone even. 'I'm going to be extremely selfish and say I want all of you, because I do, and you deserve to know that.'

'Damon-'

'I don't want to win you,' he says, almost derisively. 'I know you're not an award or a trophy, Elena, and I'm sorry that you feel that way. But I want you,' the words are slow and heated with the underlying promise of lust and passion. Elena knows that tone, has heard that tone before.

She is unsure where to tread now. This is dangerous ground, and one wrong move could turn the night around completely.

'I wasn't expecting this from your call,' he admits. 'I thought you wanted to yell at me and maybe hit me. Tell me I'm an asshole and the usual, and that you'd never love me and that it'll always be Stefan.' She can hear him holding back the bitterness. 'I'm still wondering if there's a catch to this.'

'There is,' she gets in quickly, but she holds him close to her as she speaks. 'The catch is that you and I, we have to work together. We have to be willing to listen to one another and co-operate without biting each other's heads off. We need to get through everything that's going on and come out in one piece.' She squeezes his hand. 'That's the catch.'

Damon sighs as if this is all a very big effort. She understands that it kind of is.

'I suppose I can live with that.'

She can see his cheeky smirk, and she grins in response.

'Let's just,' she shuts her eyes for a moment, 'take a time out.' She opens them and looks at him with a smile.
'Five minutes... or maybe a few hours.'

'Mmmm,' murmurs Damon as he pulls her in closer. 'Sounds good.'

Her bed is so warm, and Damon is such a comfortable presence beside her, that Elena can't help but start drifting off quickly. Her mind fills with things she wants to say, not just to Damon, but to Stefan and Bonnie and Jeremy and everyone else. She shoves them all aside and rolls in Damon's arms, pressing her back to his chest.

Damon moves with her, fitting himself around her easily, like this is routine. He keeps his arm as a bracket for her head, and brings the other one around her waist, draping it over her small body. Their legs intertwine with ease, and Elena feels the heat and pressure of Damon's groin against the small of her back, pressing into her.

She is incredibly turned on and incredibly tired, and she's not sure what to act on.

'Go to sleep, Elena,' Damon says softly into her ear, as if he knows. 'Just go to sleep tonight.'

The way he says it, the way he says 'tonight' sends shivers down her spine. She sighs softly, eyes shut as she burrows into his arm.

'Thank you,' she murmurs.

'No,' says Damon against her earlobe, 'thank you.'

Elena presses her smile into Damon's skin.

Elena wakes to rays of sunlight escaping the gaps in her curtains. She is leaning on a warm, solid body, the press of skin on skin a rare pleasure in the last few months. She presses herself deeper, registering somewhere in the back of her sleep-addled mind that she's getting turned on.

She's quite okay with that.

There's an arm around her waist, holding her tight, and Elena shifts and swings her leg over the warm body next hers.

She unintentionally pushes her pelvis forward into the hard bone of someone's hip.

Damon.

It registers that she went to bed with Damon, but it isn't as shocking as she thought it might be in the morning. It feels weirdly normal, as if this is something she's used to. It's strange, but she likes it. She opens her eyes slowly, looking across the planes of Damon's naked chest to the clock beside her bed. The time reads half nine. 
Slowly she tilts her head up to look at him, and he's already looking at her with lazy eyes.

'Good morning,' he murmurs quietly. He doesn't move, doesn't make any attempt to get closer to her, just smiles at her.

'Morning,' she murmurs with a croak. She clears her throat in embarrassment. Damon just grins.

'You are a lovely mess in the morning,' he says affectionately, running his hand over her bed hair. She rolls her eyes and disentangles herself from him. She mourns the loss for a moment, but then she props herself up on one arm and faces him with a sober expression.

'Not to start too early in the morning -'

'Oh great,' says Damon. 'Here we go.'

'Stop that!' she says with a small laugh. 'I'm serious, we need to talk about -'

'Everything?' he finishes for her. 'Elena, we could talk all day and it wouldn't make much difference.'

'It made a difference last night!' she protests, looking indignant.

'Yes,' he concedes. 'That it did.'

'Damon,' she says slowly.

'Yes?' he raises a brow.

'Don't look too much into this.'

With that, she leans forward, moving upwards to press a soft, gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth. She pulls back slightly, eyes on his lips, before moving back in and kissing him fully, only for a moment, before retreating. 
Damon is very still, as if moving might frighten her away. His eyes are wide but intense, and he's staring at her in a way that makes her shiver. He's definitely looking too much into it.

Elena can't blame him.

So is she.

'Well,' says a voice from the doorway.

Elena jerks back from Damon immediately, hands scrabbling at blankets as she stares in mortification at Stefan leaning against the door frame.

'You two didn't waste any time, did you?' He says it evenly, so even it's almost a statement, but there's a hurt in his eyes that Elena has seen before. A hurt that shows he cares. She hasn't seen that expression in a long time.

Damon is quiet, and Elena doesn't know what to say.

'I came to see how you were this morning, considering Caroline said you weren't answering your phone and you'd been upset last night, but I see those efforts were in vain.' His eyes move to Damon. 'Was that your whole plan? Fool me into thinking you'd play the bad guy, that Elena would hate you and I'd be able to win her back? Didn't work, did it?'

'Just stop. Stop right there!'

Elena is incredulous. It's like an alternate universe where everything that could go wrong this morning has gone wrong. She throws back the covers and storms out of the bed, striding over to where Stefan is looking pained and furious in the doorway. Sometimes she forgets they're vampires, because they act like their physical age and make her realize they're just men.

'I had an extremely long conversation with Damon about this last night, and now I'm going to have to have it with you.' She looks up at Stefan imploringly. 'I am not something you can win, Stefan. I can make my own decisions and I need to make them, I need to be able to make my own decisions; not have you and Damon make them for me.'

'It certainly seems you've made your decision Elena,' says Stefan blankly. 'He's sitting in your bed.'

'I'm right here,' says Damon angrily. 'I can hear you.'

Stefan narrows his eyes.

'Good.'

Damon scowls. Elena intervenes quickly, temper welling up inside her once more.

'You know what?' she looks from Stefan to Damon and back again. 'We're going to go downstairs and sit down and talk about this. This whole situation. We are going to discuss us,' she points at Stefan and herself, 'and us,' and she turns to look at Damon, 'and we are going to sort this out right now. This morning.'

'I don't feel like it,' says Stefan, backing up, trying to play it off.

'You're transparent when you're deflecting, brother,' says Damon, who's getting out of the bed and moving over to his clothes. Elena knows the tensing of his shoulders and the lock of his jaw that shows he's ready for a fight, that he knows it could be coming.

'We need to talk about this, Stefan,' she says, looking up at him. 'We need to discuss this. Just us three, no one else.'

Stefan looks away before speaking.

'Fine. I'll wait in the kitchen. Please put some clothes on.' He stalks off, and the words sting at Elena more than she'd like.

'Hey,' says Damon quietly beside her. 'We don't have to do this -'

'No we do,' she says. 'Just, you wait here. I don't want you both fighting before I get downstairs. Just give me a minute.' She looks at Damon and stops, seeing the almost frightened expression on his face. He thinks he's going to lose her. She bites her lip and wraps her arms around him, giving him a firm hug before pulling away.

'We're going to sort this out,' she tells him. 'Just give me a few moments.'

He nods.

'Okay.'

Elena grabs her clothes hastily from her drawers and rushes into her bathroom, changing in record time and dragging her brush through her hair. She realizes she turned her phone off last night, that she had said to Caroline to call her as soon as possible before she'd left Bonnie's. She's made another mistake. She sighs sadly. She brushes her teeth quickly before emerging in her jeans and a tee shirt. Damon is still standing in her room, fully dressed, and she notices that her bed has been made. She smiles gratefully at him. He shrugs one shoulder.

She moves across to her dresser and picks up her phone, turning it on as she makes her way across her room. It alerts her to numerous missed calls from Caroline, and one from Stefan. She sighs heavily.

'Come on,' she says, and leads the way out of her room. He runs a hand soothingly down her arm as they leave, squeezing it just a bit before letting go. He gives her a reassuring smile.

Elena wonders how many times Damon's had to be the big brother, the comforter, the one that turned around and said, 'it's going to be fine.' She wonders when he gave up on that. She wonders a lot of things.

Stefan is sitting at the kitchen table with a blank expression on his face. He doesn't even look at them when they enter the room together. They sit at the table awkwardly, Damon facing Stefan, Elena at the head. Stefan doesn't veer away from her, but he does tense when she puts her phone on the table closer to his arm.

'Let's just get straight to the point,' asks Stefan shortly, fixing her with hard eyes. 'Are you with Damon or not?'

'No, no, no,' says Elena quickly, raising her hand. 'My home, my rules, got it?' she looks at them both. 'We've played it this way before, let's try it again.' She raises her brows and gets sullen silence from them both. Damon is in a staring contest with the kitchen sink, and Stefan is studying the frame of the window with extreme interest. 'Or we can all be difficult,' murmurs Elena with a sigh. 'Or,' she says, looking up, 'you can both sit here and listen to me talk and not interject seeing as you have nothing to say.'

She knows this is a little unfair on Damon, who said most of his piece last night, but not in too much reference to his brother. It isn't just about them all as pairs anymore. This is about the three of them and surviving.

'I vote no to the last one,' says Damon slowly. 'That's not a fun time.'

'Well you'd know,' snarks Stefan, not looking at his brother.

'Mature,' sneers Damon. 'Eternally seventeen, how could I forget?'

Stefan turns dark eyes on him.

'Eternally an asshole, nothing's changed.'

'Stop it!' exclaims Elena, pushing her hair off her face. 'Seriously.' She looks at them both with wide eyes. 'Okay. We'll do it my way. I'm going to talk.' She fixes them both with a stare. 'You're probably not going to like what I have to say, but that's fine, because you're used to that.'

She is bold and she is brave and she is her own person. She repeats that in her head. It helps. It's true. She is and bold and she is brave and she is her own person.

'I told Damon the night of the Original's ball that him wanting to look out for me because he loved me was a problem.' She looks at both Stefan and Damon. 'I was angry and I was wrong. I didn't mean it. I never got a chance to apologize until last night.' She exhales slowly. RepeatRepeatRepeat. It's for a good reason. 'I called Damon last night, because I wanted to know why he killed Abby.' She looks up. 'More accurately, why it was him who killed her.' She looks at Stefan evenly. 'Because as you said you didn't care, and as of late you've had no problem in killing off any problems. It could have been either one of you.'

She lets out a small shrug and a sigh.

'Damon punished me for what I said by sleeping with Rebekah. We all know that. I shouldn't expect so much of him when I'm not willing to give him anything. We,' she indicates towards her and Damon, 'have resolved that.'

'I noticed,' says Stefan coolly.

Elena doesn't say anything, just fixes him with a look that he knows too well, and he looks away.

'Nothing else to say?' Damon asks snidely in the direction of his brother. Stefan's jaw ticks but he doesn't look at Damon, choosing to stare at something off in the distance instead. 'Nothing at all?' taunts Damon, leaning forward over the table.

'I'm sorry if I'm not the most talkative of moods, brother,' spits Stefan angrily, eyes narrowed on Damon's face.

'We're not going to get anywhere like this,' murmurs Elena tiredly.

'No, we're not!' says Damon suddenly, 'and we all know why. Both of us love you, Elena, both of us want you. It's not going to work. No matter what.'

'You don't think this is hard for me?' She retorts, looking at them both. 'You don't think I'm upset every night when I go to sleep with a guilty conscience over caring about both of you? Over wanting both of you? I'm in the same place as you both are, and it's not easy, I know.' She wets her lips, feeling the dryness on them sting and prick. 'I thought you'd both get that.'

'You shouldn't have to love both of us,' says Stefan suddenly. He swings his gaze to her, tone level as he speaks. 'We're both bad for you. Neither of us should really be in your life. We're abominations of nature, Elena, and you are a human girl that knows nothing outside this town -'

'Been hanging out with Mommy Original, have you Stef?' asks Damon snidely as he leans back in his chair.

'Sounds like you're reiterating an old speech to me.'

'She's right, Damon,' growls Stefan, 'do you not get that? You are selfish. You have always been selfish. You couldn't leave Elena and I alone, could you? You had to come here, you had to stay, you had to interfere with everything because that's what you do, isn't it? You interfere and you mess everything up.'

Elena can see the hurt in Damon's eyes as Stefan speaks. He had repeated exactly what Damon told her last night. That he always screws up. That he always makes mistakes. Elena knows that Damon is hurt by this more than he'll ever admit. She knows he believes it's true. She's also angry at how she's being spoken about.

'Let's get one thing straight here,' she says, and she's the one with icy tone to her voice. It is not one they've heard often, and both brothers stop and look at her warily. 'My life is not dependent on the two of you.' She looks at them firmly, seeing the way Stefan's eyes widen and Damon's eyes narrow. 'But,' she starts, looking at them evenly. 'But I do depend on you, and you have to see the difference there. I was a functioning human being before you came to town, and I made mistakes then too, and learnt from them. You have to remember that.'

Stefan opens his mouth to speak, but she cuts him off.

'And that's not true,' she says, looking at Stefan with narrowed eyes. 'What you just said about Damon. That's not true and you know it. You're saying it because you're hurt and I get that Stefan,' she stresses, 'I get it.' She shakes her head. 'But Damon doesn't always make mistakes, and you know that.'

Damon's sporting an excellent poker face, but Elena knows that her defense has meant something to him. Not many people defend Damon and his actions. Albeit some aren't exactly defence-worthy, but.

'So this is how it's going to be?' Stefan asks coldly. 'You're going to take his side with everything now?'

'No!' Elena could scream, she's so frustrated. 'No I won't take Damon's side with everything! There will be times when he is wrong and I'll side with you, and there will be times that you're both wrong and we'll fight. They'll be times when I'm wrong and the two of you stand together because that's how it works.'

'They'll be times?' Stefan repeats. 'I hope you don't think this -this,' he gestures at the table, '- that whatever this is, is going anywhere in the future.'

'Whatever this -' Elena exaggerates Stefan's hand movements, '- is, will be going somewhere in the future.' Elena looks at them both levelly. 'Because I don't see my future without you both in it. Not anymore.' She looks at them both a little sadly. 'Don't you get it? We're a team. A family.' The word strikes something in them all that none of them want to feel. Family is something they've all loved and lost. Have and don't have. Family means dysfunctional and atypical. 'We're in this together, for better or for worse, and we need to stay together.'

'Inspiring speech, Elena,' says Stefan, and there's a different tone to his voice that shows Elena he's upset. She's known him long enough to know these things. 'But it's not going to be that easy.' He looks across to Damon. 'We don't get on. We're not a family,' he stresses the word through clenched teeth, 'not anymore.'

'You are, Stefan, whether you like it or not,' Elena tells him quietly.

'We're brothers, Stefan.' It's the first time Damon's spoken in a while. His voice is cool and his expression is calm.

'Despite the fact I want to kill you more than have brotherly bonding sessions -'

'Mutual,' cuts in Stefan smoothly.

'- but we are brothers,' Damon continues as if there's been no interruption. He leans forward, face intent. 'Elena's right. We can't just walk away from that. If that's what's going to get us through Klaus and Esther and God knows what, we need to remember that.'

'Don't give me that martyr crap,' growls Stefan, pushing his chair back and standing up. 'You're only agreeing with Elena because of whatever happened here last night, and from what I can deduce it went fucking well.'

Elena flinches at Stefan's language. Neither brother really swears in her presence, and she knows Stefan only swears when he's particularly angry or upset.

'Elena is not Katherine!' he exclaims, looking at Damon as if he's insane. 'We are not doing this again!'

'You think I don't know that?' spits out Damon, standing up in an abrupt movement to get on an even playing field with his brother. 'This is nothing like Katherine. Elena is nothing like Katherine and we both know that.'

'I beg to differ. Both of us have been invited into both their beds.'

There's a silence that fills the room. It has a sickening feeling, and both Stefan and Damon turn to face Elena. Her lips are pulled tight and trembling, and she's blinking back tears, looking away from them.

'Elena,' says Stefan, and he steps forward, voice breaking. 'I didn't - I'm sorry,' he says quietly.

'Dick move,' mutters Damon under his breath in an effort to break the tension. Stefan chooses to ignore him. Elena wipes the back of her hand over her eyes.

'I've not slept with Damon,' she says with a shaky voice. 'Not in the way you're meaning.' She looks at Stefan with something akin to disappoint. 'After all this, after everything we've been through, that's really what you think?' She raises her brows, swallowing thickly. 'Or are you just saying that because you're hurt?'

Stefan looks from Elena to Damon and back again. He doesn't seem to know what to do. This is the first time he's show any kind of emotion towards her since before Klaus proposed his sick deal.

'Don't tell me you care, brother,' asks Damon slowly, one brow raising. 'Alert the media.'

'Bad humor is always your defense, isn't it?' Stefan asks dryly.

'Someone has to have fantastic comedic timing,' replies Damon with a roll of his eyes.

'I didn't mean what I said,' Stefan tells Elena. 'I shouldn't have said it, I'm sorry.'

She nods, swallowing once more and wiping her eyes. She looks up at him. This is his breakthrough. This is the the small crack that starts on the surface of an iceberg and slowly splits it down the middle. This is the cracking of Stefan's 'ripper' shell, this is the beginning of him finding himself. This is what he needs, what they all need. He had to care enough about something to let it out. To admit it. To feel so much he couldn't ignore it any more. Damon and Elena, the two of them, have been the cause of that crack.

'Do you understand now why I apologized to Damon?' She blinks up at him, head tilting to the side in question. She runs her hands over the wood of the table, feeling it smooth beneath her fingertips. 'We don't want to hurt each other, but we do. We can't help it sometimes, but we can get over it.' She pushes her hair from her face again, looking inquiringly at them. 'Understand?'

'Not that I tend to agree with him on a daily basis, but, Stefan's right.' Damon looks begrudgingly at his brother. 'We can't co-operate and love you at the same time. It won't work.' Damon is looking at his brother with different eyes, a new wariness, but with a warmth that Elena has not seen for a long, long time. It is barely visible, but it is there. Elena knows Damon well enough to know his different looks. He's not as good at pretending not to care as he thinks he is.

'Won't it?' asks Elena. 'Isn't that what's made you work together before? Didn't you both drive out to get me after the masquerade ball? I was there, and so were both of you, working together to save me.' She shakes her head at them, eyes defiant. 'Don't even try arguing with that one, I don't believe it.'

Damon looks at her with shrewd eyes before sighing and looking across the table at his brother. Stefan, who has been looking at the table, lifts his head and meets his brother's eyes.

'I think we're snapped.'

Stefan starts pacing back and forth. Damon sighs and mutters, 'here we go.'

'I love you, Elena,' Stefan says finally, stopping his movement to look at her. 'That's what you want to hear? I love you. I don't want to because I feel so incredibly guilty about everything I have said to you and done to you, but I do, and it is killing me knowing that you love Damon.'

The crack is getting bigger by the moment.

'Seems we're all stuck between a rock and a hard place,' interjects Damon, going to the cupboard and pulling out Alaric's bourbon that Elena had given him last night.

'Damon, this early?' asks Elena, a little disapprovingly.

He turns and smirks at her over his shoulder.

'Drama makes me thirsty.'

She rolls her eyes.

'This!' says Stefan suddenly. 'This strange, domesticity that you two seem to have, I can't take it. This is what I wanted, and I had it and I lost it because of you.' He rounds on Damon, stalking around the table and backing him into the kitchen counter. 'I love you too you asshole, and I couldn't let you die.'

'I didn't ask you to save me you idiot,' snarls Damon, giving him a shove. 'You did that out of your own stupidity and compassion.'

'Because I care about you, Damon!' Stefan's almost yelling now, veins pulsing in his neck and eyes wide.

Damon is just as feral, shoulders tight and punched, forearms tense.

'Well I care about you too, Stefan,' he spits out with what seems like difficulty. 'And that's why I always manage to find my way back to you, because somewhere deep inside of me there's always a part of me that cares.' He scowls. 'No matter how hard I try to shut it out.' He gives Stefan another shove and Stefan takes a step back. 'Happy now? I've divulged my little secrets, it's all out in the open.'

'Hey.'

Both of them turn sharply to see Elena standing at their sides. So involved in their own argument had they been, that they hadn't even noticed her get up and move towards them.

She looks at them with a tender expression, heart tearing open at the thought that these two were so messed up and yet loved each other so much, but only admitted it when they were fighting. Stefan is breathing heavily, eyes almost red, hands shaking as he looks from his brother to her. This is breaking him, this whole conversation, and Elena knows it hurts but that's what needs to happen. Stefan needs this. He needs them.

'We are all dysfunctional,' she says softly. 'But we're together. That's what counts.' She puts a hand on Damon's forearm, feels the skin taut beneath her touch. She rests a hand on Stefan's shoulder, feels him shaking under her palm.

'Elena -' they both start at the same time. They stop, looking at each other curiously. They are still brothers, after all.

'I love you both,' she tells them firmly, meeting each of their eyes. 'You need to know that. I love you both in completely different ways for completely different reasons, but that right now is not the problem.' She swallows. 'Klaus is the problem. The Originals are the problem. I am not going to act on any of my feelings from this point on, because we need to stay together to beat them. But I can't help if I make mistakes. You can't punish me for them. Just like I'm not going to punish you.'

Damon goes to pull away from her, but she keeps a firm hold on his arm.

'This is not me giving up on you,' she says firmly, looking at him with intense eyes. He slowly lets her pull him back in. 'You both know I don't give up that easy. If, after everything that's happened, we all still feel the same way, we'll discuss it then.'

'You're asking a lot, Elena,' Stefan points out. He is slowly stilling beneath her touch, but she can still feel him tense and taut like Damon.

'I don't think I am,' she disagrees. 'All I'm asking is that we work together and co-operate because we love each other.' She sighs. 'I never wanted this to be complicated either, trust me, but things happen and life falls out of our hands.'

They're all very silent, and Damon and Stefan are eyeing each other warily.

Damon makes the first move.

'Well, Stefan? Think we can do that?'

Stefan looks down before looking at Elena, and then at Damon.

'I think we'll screw up along the way. I think we'll end up fighting. I think it'll be hard.' He sighs. 'But I think we can do that.' He smiles. The first time he's really smiled since he got back, and Elena feels her heart lift. It's going to take time before Stefan's really healed, inside, but this is the best start. She looks to Damon, who's got one corner of his mouth upturned in his smirk of a smile. Her heart lifts even more.

'I still think you're an asshole for trying to win Elena over while I was gone,' says Stefan lightly, looking at Damon with raised brows.

'Eh,' shrugs Damon with a nonchalant expression. 'You gotta try.' He inclines his head forward. 'I still think you're a dick for saving my life. Once. Twice. Whatever.'

'Is that some secret code for saying, 'I love you?'' asks Elena curiously, eyebrow raised, slowly feeling Damon's arm come around her waist, and Stefan's hand slide down her arm.

Stefan shrugs.

'It's as close as we're probably gonna get right now. I'm still pissed off at him.'

'I agree with that whole statement,' says Damon slowly.

Elena sighs, feeling them inch in closer to her, Damon's arm tightening, Stefan's side pressed into hers. It is in them to love her. It is in her to love them. It's like they're programmed. It's like it's gravity pulling them all back to one another. They fight and they return and they make it work. They've been through rough times before and relied on one another. They can do it again. They're stronger than what is opposing them.

'You know that whatever happens,' she says, looking up at them both, 'I will always be there for you. Both of you.' 
'Elena,' starts Stefan softly, lips tentatively touching the top of her head. It is the first affectionate bit of contact from him in months. Elena is both used to it and not. She feels like getting to know Stefan will be a completely different process this time. There are changes, she can't deny that.

'We will always,' says Damon, resting his forehead against hers.

'Be there for you,' finishes Stefan. He looks at his brother, and his next words are slow and even, but they are the truth. 'We'll always fight one another. But we'll also always fight for each other.'

Damon looks up and reaches across, clasping his hand to Stefan's shoulder firmly.

'Always.'

It is like a weight has lifted. Elena feels lighter than she has in months. She feels happier than she has and she feels free. She feels them both beside her, standing with her, with each other, and promising to work together.

She doesn't know how it's going to work later on. She doesn't know who's going to get out of all of this alive. She doesn't know how she's going to feel six months down the line, a year, two years, a decade. But for now, she sees her future with both brothers in it, and she doesn't know how it's going to work, but that's what she wants. 
Forgive her for being selfish. But the heart wants what it wants.

'The heart's a fickle thing,' says Damon softly, while they're still all pressed in together at the kitchen counter, folded into one another. Elena wonders if one of their secret vampire powers is to read minds.

'It wants what it wants,' adds Stefan, and looks at his brother evenly. Elena is almost suspicious.

Damon looks down quickly before looking back up with defiant and honest eyes.

'That it does.'

Elena knows what they're talking about, who they're talking about, but she can't settle it now. She can't settle everything no matter how hard she's tried. She's learnt that. This is one small step on a giant staircase, and it feels fantastic.

On the table, her phone vibrates. Damon detaches himself and strides over, picking it up and exhaling.

'Bonnnie's calling.' He raises his brows, looking at her meaningfully.

Stefan sighs next to Elena. He looks down at her carefully.

'Hurdle number one.'

'We'll get over it,' she says firmly, moving over and taking her phone from Damon.

As she looks down and answers the call, Damon and Stefan's eyes meet atop her head. They hold their gaze for a moment, before Stefan inclines his head in a an almost-nod. Damon acknowledges it with a tilt of his own head.

Slowly, they both smile.

So that's that. I don't know what some of you are thinking.
I don't even know how active you guys are on here. I'm
hoping that you liked it. Or that you understood why 
it came out this way. I know some of you will
agree with this Elena, and some of you
won't, but hey! I love discussions, so
we should totally discuss it! :D