Heal Her Broken Wings (2/2)
Title: Heal Her Broken Wings
Rating: T (+) or M (-)
Author:
terapsina
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: Elijah/Elena
Word Count: 5'989
Parts: 2/2
Warnings: There is kinda' sexual non-explicit content. Warning about that… well I don't think I wrote it all that good, because this is my first attempt and you know - 'baby steps'.
Summary: AU after "All My Children". Elijah has been gone for a while when Elena suddenly turns up on his doorstep as a vampire. She needs him to help her come to grips with that and he needs to keep silent his feelings for her while he does so. Elejah.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Part 1
* Heal Her Broken Wings *
He had the most fascinating eyes. She thought so even when he first flashed before her looking at her in such a shocked surprise and she was still so terrified of him.
They were sad and calculating, old but peaceful. And the slightest bit kind. And there was an extra of something familiar, something she saw when she looked in a mirror. It's why she knew she could trust him even as she didn't understand the reason why.
And now she couldn't look within them without a smile, even a slight one.
* x *
They were outside walking in silence when he finally understood something that had escaped him all his life, both the one spent as a vampire and the one before.
There was a distinction between love and true love. It couldn't be put into words or even thoughts, both of them were real and precious, both of them could be eternal if one was lucky enough. But there was a difference none the less and unless you had experienced true love, you couldn't ever see exactly what it was that was missing before.
Katerina was wrong, true love didn't have to be returned to be true, just like a love that was mutual wasn't necessarily one either. Life was far too complicated for easy answers and clear messages, life wasn't black and white and it wasn't just gray either. Life couldn't be put in colors or words at all.
But between one step and the next he captured that moment where he was struck with the realization of exactly how much he cared for the woman beside him. Elena was someone he hadn't planned to care for let alone love, but he did love her. She embodied far too much good to be dismissed and her humanity was still as bright as ever even now. He would do everything in his considerable power to make her see it as well. He would even let her go once this reprieve was over and she went back to the small town she was born in, back to the two men waiting for her there. He wouldn't interfere when she finally made the choice that had been coming the entire time he had known her.
Elijah would let her break his heart and he wouldn't burden her with the knowledge of having done so, there was far too much sorrow and guilt within her already.
But right now in this moment he would take anything she was willing to give, so as he reached over taking the palm of her hand within his and she smiled at him he solidified the image of her expressive eyes, her slightly out of place hair being blown by the wind into her face and the warmth radiating through her whole body into his mind.
He would lose a lot once the inevitable took place, but at least he would know that for a little while her friendship was his. And that was something he might not have to say goodbye to.
* x *
Blood! Blood, blood, blood!
So warm, so sweet, so hungry. No stop, let go, more!
'Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god!'
* x *
It wasn't that Elijah never left Elena's side, he did of course he did after all smothering wasn't part of the healing process and if she never left his sight it would feel like a prison to her. But he made sure not to leave too far, so he could always tell if she was in distress, could hear her if she called for him.
But almost a month had passed and he could see Elena settling in. The nights had somewhat calmed, Elena was smiling more every day, she didn't look like an injured animal every time he placed blood in front of her anymore either so when he heard that there was strife getting dangerously out of line four towns over between two vampires who seemed to have lost the sight of subtlety where human victims were concerned he actually prepared to leave. He would be back before nightfall.
He had barely traveled two blocks when the part of him still attuned to the place he was leaving heard it. The bell at his front door was ringing so he slowed the car to pay more attention.
"Oh hey, did you forget someth… erm hello?"
"Good morning, I noticed Mr. Smith had a guest so I thought I'd come to introduce myself."
He almost imperceptibly calmed, it was Mrs. Carson their very nosy, but completely harmless neighbor. And then he caught a whiff of something behind the exhaust fumes of his car, behind the scent of grass and infinite number of chemicals from every house. The antiseptic was doing nothing to mask the unmistakable odor from someone like him… or Elena. Blood.
"Oh, don't worry, it's barely a cut. I really must be more careful with…"
He had abandoned the car in the middle of the road and was running before the pause lasted even for a few seconds. And still he was almost too late.
A short moment later when he reached their porch - at the back of his mind noting that this new use of 'our' was worrying - Elena had already sunk her teeth into the woman's neck.
He pulled her back ignoring the little growl leaving her throat in protest of losing a meal. But the damage was done, he could see it when Elena ripped herself out of his arms and turned around, the savage hunger was quickly turning into revulsion and horror. Her eyes widened, her chest heaved, she looked towards the bleeding woman with dawning horror and finally she collapsed in front of him hitting the ground hard.
And yet he stayed outwardly calm when Mrs. Carson opened her mouth to scream, not letting himself be distracted by his own feelings. He clamped his hand over her mouth, smothering the impending sound and looked into her terrified eyes.
"You won't remember this."
When the neighbors eyes glazed over he removed his hand.
"I won't remember this."
"You went over to introduce yourself to Mr. Smith's guest, you were invited in, you had a nice chat, but the girl wasn't as interesting as you suspected. You left, because you felt a fever coming on, you will spend the next two days in your house with a virus. You understand?"
"I understand."
He stepped back and quickly bit into his wrist. He didn't like to give out blood to heal wounds that would close anyway, but this was for Elena and she didn't need to ever see this woman with a scar she caused. So he placed his bleeding wrist at the woman's mouth and watched as the bite marks closed.
Once he saw the woman leaving Elijah finally allowed himself the freedom to glance at the shattered form of the girl he couldn't help but love. She was in shock, her arms around her knees and her body rocking back and forth. She wasn't crying, but this time it was a bad sign, it meant she wasn't ready to face what had happened. Or the worst part - what had almost happened.
He closed his eyes, silently thanking whatever gods available for the fact he hadn't left the house even five minutes earlier. And then he knelt in front of Elena, taking her in his arms and picking her up to bring her inside their house.
* x *
"Please leave! Please! I can't, I almost… oh god!"
She'd almost killed her. She would have, if Elijah hadn't stopped her. She had wanted to.
She didn't wish to think. She needed to stop thinking. He was sleeping still dressed only a short walk away, a thought was borne and the rest of her mind thankfully blanked. She knew of a way to stop thinking.
* x *
The first thing he was aware of was her scent. It was so close, as if she was right in front of him surrounding him in her wonderful fragrance. His brow furrowed in confusion, she wasn't supposed to be in his room he had carried her to her own once he brought her inside.
He knew he had left when she asked him to, when she needed to be alone. He had fallen asleep still clothed in one of his suits worrying.
And then he lost the train of his thought entirely when he felt her touch. Her hand was sliding down his chest, opening the buttons of his shirt, slipping those same palms underneath the expensive cotton material to slide them against his bare skin. And the touch was like flames, licking his bared chest arousing him from slumber in all senses of the word. He almost hissed, but was struck speechless when opening his eyes.
Elena was on top of him. Straddling his hips, starting to move hers in a slow, purposeful rhythm designed to drive any man insane. She was driving his emotionless guise further back than ever before.
And it would have been a dream come true if he couldn't smell the salty streaks of tears and feel her shaking shoulders, if he couldn't hear her terrible sobs and see her sorrowful expression. She was pale, she was breathing heavily and even though she was looking at him he could tell that she wasn't really seeing him.
This wasn't about him. It wasn't about her caring about him or simply being attracted to him. This was about pain, about guilt and the need to drown it in pleasure by any means available. He was present so he would do and nothing had ever wounded him quite so much in quite this way.
But this was Elena. The woman he admired more than any other, the only person to have such a hold on his heart and she wasn't drunk or compelled. She was entirely under her own will.
And for a moment he gave in, letting her kiss his neck, wrapping his arms around her back and shoulders to draw her closer. If this was the only way he could have her, then he considered allowing it.
He gasped erratically to gain air, for somehow never before had he needed it more urgently. She was so warm in his arms and her lips were softer than a swan's feather as they traveled across his jaw with an agonizing slowness.
But she'd regret this in the morning. She would feel embarrassed and hurt. Nothing would have changed for the better as was supposed to from an act such as the one she was offering. It would only ruin them, she wouldn't be able to look him in the eye and maybe she'd even leave.
His blood sung as it rushed through his veins, seeking out something not even a hair's width away and yet unattainable. He groaned at his inner struggle, at her suddenly increasingly desperate movements.
He didn't want her to leave yet. And even if those weren't factors, there was also the deep seeded knowledge that if he let her take the easy way out right now she would always in the future be more tempted to do so again. Tempted to give in to the bloodlust a bit more, tempted to drown misery in a body again, tempted to turn off all that made her Elena.
But her hands were opening his shirt almost ready to rid him of the unwanted constraint. Her shoulders were almost bare, the left lace of her silk bra fallen aside and the top he knew should be covering her chest lost at some point since he woke.
He couldn't let her become a monster, couldn't let her spend the next few hundred years emotionless and then being slowly awakened to the pain of knowing what she had done when that not entirely there switch stopped working. So for a moment longer he savored the impossible and then firmly pushed her back.
"No. Elena, stop!"
She looked as if he'd slapped her. The hurt encompassing her whole face at the rejection, if she wasn't so vulnerable right now it might have given him hope. But the truth was, even this wasn't really about him.
He held on stronger seeing her getting ready to flee his room. He was suddenly certain if she left his presence just at this moment in time he would never see her again. He needed to make her understand his actions.
"Wait. Elena, you're hurt… hmmm…. hurt you almost killed a human and you want it to go away for a… for a little while. I understand why you want this right now, but if you do this… if… if we do this it will be harder when the sun comes up, it will be unbearable once it sets after that."
She still looked torn, but she was listening, reason and coherent thought beyond mere one word sentences returning to her face. But the lost look he had observed for a month now was still present and he knew he needed to lessen it, even if the necessary small admission would cost him.
"You're beautiful Elena, inside and out. And I'd… like nothing more than to continue, but it wouldn't be the right move on either of our parts. I'd be taking advantage of you, you understand?"
Slowly she nodded, but he could see she wasn't fully willing to accept his reasoning either yet by the walls he saw she was building up to protect herself. Specially designed to keep him out, she had never wanted to keep him out before, at least not in the way she seemed to now.
It gave him and idea. Something that would assure her and give him a moment he could treasure once she was gone.
"You don't have to leave Elena. Lets sleep, you do not need to be alone right now."
Neither did he. He had almost lost her in more ways than one this day and he needed her close to him, just as much as Elena needed someone to be close to her. To know this was another nick across his heart.
He pulled her closer, turning on his side and placing his hand on her head, running it over her disheveled hair to soothe her. For a moment she was still ready to spring up and flee, but then she relaxed and clutched herself even closer to him starting to whisper between the tears.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
He wasn't sure if she was apologizing for almost killing or… for what she had almost set in motion with her actions afterwards. He had no wish to hear her clarify it. And it didn't matter. What mattered was her.
"It's not your fault."
He knew she didn't believe it, but she had to hear it anyway and he would repeat it for however long it took for her to accept.
And for the next half an hour he did exactly that. Every time the apology escaped her he told her it would be alright, that she wasn't responsible, that the woman she had drunk from would be fine.
When she was finally calm and he even thought her to be asleep she proved him wrong with a question he hadn't thought he'd ever hear from her. He really should have expected it, of course the Salvatore's had retold what he had revealed at Klaus's insistence.
"Tell me about Tatia!"
He blinked. Tatia was his past, she was complicated and he had no idea how to put into words the girl that now brought out so much regret for so many different reasons. And she was still nothing compared to Elena, but how to say that without revealing his new love for the descendant of that same girl?
"What do you wish to know?"
She looked up at him, her eyes reddened and her face blotchy and tired. She was still a sight Gods would envy.
"What was she like? Did you love her? Did she love you? Did she love Klaus? Did she love her son? Tell me everything."
Everything. Everything was too much, everything was Elena, but he could paint her a neat enough picture of the Petrova that so very long ago was the start of it all.
"She was a good person, strong too… albeit broken. And she did care for me and Niklaus, but she didn't truly love either one of us it's why she could never choose between him and me, she missed her husband far too much."
"What happened to him?"
"He had died, drowned in the spring floods not long after their wedding. She was fifteen summers old at the time and carrying her child. Her son was the light of her hard life from the moment he took his first breath."
"And you were in love with her."
And for a moment he was brought back to that young man he had almost forgotten. So struck by her presence, certain and sure in everything else, but stuttering in front of Tatia. It was a long time ago, he had changed so much since then, but a part of him still understood that young man, perhaps better than he understood himself all those centuries ago.
"Yes… and no. I was enamored with her and I thought I would love her forever, but I didn't know what true love was at the time." He didn't say that he only found out recently. Didn't mention the fact it was her who opened his eyes to the exact meaning of that word. "She was the most beautiful girl in town and the saddest. She broke many hearts mine included, but she wasn't a cruel girl, there was a kindness in her and I think it was maybe not entirely right for the harsh lives we led in those times. It's certainly another reason although not the main one for why Esther chose her to be the sacrifice for her spell, - I believe she thought Tatia wouldn't have lasted much longer within the town of wolves either way."
"Am I like her?"
He looked past her. Elijah remembered her simmering courage when she threw vervain in his face, so defiant even afraid. He remembered her sharp gaze and too wise smile when they struck their very first deal. Remembered her as she fooled him and drove a dagger through his heart, she was the first human to ever have done so and there had been attempts before, vampire hunters that had failed more than once. Remembered her as those compassionate eyes connected with his and she asked if he had cared for Katerina, that quiet understanding that had almost stolen his breath. Finally he remembered the courage and the kindness, the sadness and the forgiveness, the fighting spirit and her all powerful love for her friends and family.
She was the best of what he wished he could achieve in himself and so much more of the things he had once regarded as disposable.
He didn't doubt his answer for even a moment, no other words he had ever spoken had been so true.
"No Elena, you are the most unique person I have ever met."
He didn't see her smile once she turned her head, her head resting against his chest. But he knew the smile was there, could feel her face pull into that infinitely precious expression of content.
* x *
She wanted someone who could see past her face. To her, all of her, the broken parts of her as well as the good ones.
And maybe she knew of someone who saw them, he had been faced with them for a while now.
She didn't love him, but…
* x *
Her footsteps beside him were almost silent. The material of her sky blue blouse was making the most insignificant whisper of a noise as it rubbed from her movement. The speed of her heart was slow but not entirely steady. There were three inches separating them and Elijah could feel each and every one of them.
It almost felt as if they had gone back in time to when they carefully danced around each other always a perfectly polite distance apart even as they somehow remained far too close.
The tension since the night a week ago hadn't waned. Actually - as he noticed her sharp breath when she needed to step closer to let past an approaching passerby, - it had only grown.
He hadn't forgotten anything from the moment he'd been woken by her. The feel of her body against his, the heat of her lips on his neck and every sensation and thought it inspired.
If he had thought that keeping away from Elena before was hard then the same task now was infinitely more torturous.
He was suddenly so aware of her mere presence, that he was certain if she traveled halfway across the world he would still know in which direction to turn his head and exactly by how many degrees to look directly towards her. If it were possible to have a compass within his heart Elena would be his magnetic south pole.
They were almost back to the house when he finally paid enough attention to the rest of the world to notice something he should have heard long before. There were two new heartbeats within the walls of his home.
His shoulders tensed and something in him clenched painfully. It wasn't Klaus and Rebekah, he had traveled with them for five hundred years and would recognize their particular signatures in seconds. He knew of only a few likely possibilities for the identities of two vampires who were bold and stupid enough to break into an Original's house. There was only one pair with the motivation to do so currently.
The motivation was walking oblivious beside him.
In less then a minute they would open the doors, enter the living room and be greeted by the most probably glaring faces of their unexpected guests. In less then a day he might have to put that magnet theory to the test.
Meanwhile he had choices. He could say he'd forgotten something and turn around to leave gaining some more time, but he didn't want to lie to her. He could enter with the speed of his thousand years of the curse Esther created and kill them before she had time to move, but that would shatter Elena's spirit and heart. He could lean in to kiss her, so he could always remember the feel of her lips against his, but that would be a stolen moment without any meaning. He could do nothing and let her be surprised.
But none of those options were honorable and after what he had done to her, she deserved for him to be the gentleman she seemed to view him as.
Elijah looked up. She was staring at him with a worried frown, obviously confused by his sudden change in posture.
"What's the matter?"
"We have guests. My guess would be the Salvatores."
Her eyes widened and her heart was suddenly thundering in her chest. Now she looked anxious and uncertain, like a young girl confronted with something she wasn't entirely ready for.
Elijah didn't gain any satisfaction from her reaction, it was exactly what he'd expected of Elena when with his vocal cords straining to sound normal he uttered the words he had dreaded for so long now. The nervous energy didn't mean she wouldn't fall back in their arms, it could just mean she didn't know how to go about it.
"Oh!"
He remained standing, his gaze looking past her fighting the urge to connect with hers. She had beautiful eyes, soft and expressive and chocolate brown. But this once he had no wish to look into them and see all the love they contained while clearly knowing he hadn't put it there, had absolutely no desire to once again be faced with her familiar indecision of truly knowing who her heart belonged to.
He swallowed back the stinging sensation and gestured towards the front door.
"Shall we?"
She breathed in, squared her shoulders and nodded. Elijah imprisoned the desperate possessive need so common in all supernatural creatures so that he wouldn't just grab her in his hands and run.
He entered a step behind her and when the two brothers - so like him and Klaus in their tragic fight for the same love - turned towards them with their grave slightly angry faces he was struck by how much this scene resembled the one where he had come for his well deserved apology. This time he wanted something much more valuable, but didn't even consider asking for it. Elena Gilbert wasn't an object, he had no right to her and sometimes he wondered if the Salvatores knew that neither did she belong to them. But their constant struggle for the right to finally claim her negated their seeming conviction that they could truly let her go if she ever did choose.
"Elena!"
The word came out of the eldest sibling like a prayer. He tried to keep his attention to just Damon and Stefan, but he felt as Elena trembled in front of him and could almost feel his face flinch. He needed room, specifically any other room.
"I will leave you to talk then. Elena, you know where to find me if I'm needed."
He was almost out of the room when Elena's voice stopped him.
"Thank you!"
His back was to her now, so he let his eyes close at the melancholy feeling and to ward off the enclosing walls. For a moment he stood as if struck, and then after inclining his head closed the door behind him, the doorknob bent in his palm.
He knew he should leave the house entirely, but a part of him needed to hear what was said and he wasn't completely at ease with leaving Elena alone with the man that had turned her or the one who looked to have done nothing to stop it anyway. He hadn't been in town to protect her when she needed it most, but he wouldn't leave her now - at least not until she asked him to.
"What are you doing here Elena? I thought we wouldn't have to stop you from making mistakes with the Originals anymore. Elijah can't be trusted! Have you learned nothing?"
"Why are you here?"
She was ignoring his question, moving straight to the point. He had to admire her refusal to be made to feel guilty.
"What do you think? We're here to bring you home."
He'd seen that coming. And yet he obviously hadn't prepared himself for it, because his legs gave out for the first time in a thousand years and he could do nothing but slump in his chair. She was leaving. The only physical proof he would now have left of Elena would be the dizzying scent that had ingrained itself in every crevice of his every room. And then one day that would fade as well.
"No!"
Elijah's brows furrowed. He couldn't possibly have heard that right. The almost growl from the living room said otherwise, it also made him straighten up ready to sprint back to them in case any direct threat of aggression was shown.
"Excuse me?"
"Damon, calm down, anger won't help us now. Elena, we miss you, your friends miss you and Jeremy is worried sick about you."
"I'm fine. I left a note, you shouldn't have been searching."
The scornful snort left no doubt in Elijah's mind as to its source.
"Please. She's just still angry I had to turn her."
"Damon, stop helping!"
"Shut up Stefan! Elena you had you're fun, did your part in continuing the tradition of monthly bad decisions we all have going, but I think you know it's time to stop seething and deal with this problem. I'm sorry alright, I'm sorry Rebekah put you in danger to get back at Klaus, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the blood. I'm sorry you died. And no matter how much you hate me right now I'm not sorry you came back."
"You want me to forgive you again right?"
There was a momentary silence in the other room, Elijah had no doubt that was some part of the impulsive man's ultimate goal. For that at least he couldn't blame Damon the least little bit, he had desired Elena's forgiveness more than once himself. He knew the absolving power the granting of it possessed.
"I can't. At least not now."
Silence again, more strained this time. He almost wished he could see through walls.
"Elena? What's stopping you from coming back? Whatever it is you know we will help."
"Nothings stopping me, but I do need to tell you something I suppose. To both of you, actually. I loved you Stefan. I did and in a lot of ways I always will, but I'm not in love with you. That stopped on the day you were willing to drown me on Wickery Bridge… no stop I know you weren't ever going to. But what hurt wasn't that you threatened to kill me, it's that you did it there."
"If you… if Damon makes you h…"
"Stop! This has nothing to do with Damon."
"Then why?"
"I… I admit that I fell for Damon, but… but even though it should mean everything it doesn't. I don't love h… I don't love you Damon. Not really, not the way you want me to at least, because I can't see myself staying with you forever. I could see a relationship that might last a month or a year, but eventually I'd leave. I'd regret allowing myself that year, I'd hurt you and even more importantly I'd hurt your bond with Stefan. He's your brother, you'd feel guilty, I'd feel guilty and even after we'd break up you would still have lost him. You made me have forever, but I can't see a forever with you. I never could, it's why I didn't want you to try so hard to win me."
"And what… you'll have it all with Elijah? The one who has betrayed us over and over? Really?"
He stilled entirely. His entire focus shifting towards her, he could no longer hear either Salvatore. She was breathing, her lungs drawing in even amounts of oxygen, her heart only the least little bit too fast, showing the stress, but no readying of a lie. Whatever left Elena's lips now, would be the truth.
"No!" A hope he hadn't been aware of harboring shattered, much else there within him along with it. He really hadn't been ready for the meaning of this word after all. Nothing could have prepared him for what encompassed him now. He felt like a statue, he had cultivated that image since he killed his first man as a monster - and not as a fighter for survival - and yet only now could he really think of himself as if made of stone. A stone with hairline fractures stretching across the surface and into the very core. He could hardly hear at all, his hearing suddenly almost humanly weak. It almost made him miss her next words. "But I will eventually."
* x *
'I don't love him, but I will.'
* x *
As she entered the library half an hour later he looked up at her with an undisguised wonderment. He hadn't moved from the chair since the moment when within a matter of seconds his heart had been broken and then repaired.
The Salvatore's had gone rather reluctantly, but seemed to have been as struck as him after Elena's last words so were persuaded. He had no doubt they would return once they dealt with what they learned, reinforcements would be brought along no doubt. But this time it wouldn't matter, because if Elena decided to stay no one would be able to take her.
He had known her to be beautiful before, but somehow knowing his attachment to her wasn't entirely one sided was making all her previous entrances pale by comparison.
Her brown hair shined from the artificial lighting, her wide eyes danced with a flame he had been blind to before. Even her face suddenly transformed, Elijah hadn't thought of her as the Doppelganger in a long time, but currently he couldn't find the previous Petrova girls in even her features. If it was possible to fall in love with Elena Gilbert more deeply than he had been already then somehow she had managed to inspire him to do it with but one sentence.
He wouldn't be able to avert his gaze now even if he wanted to. Her words were still echoing across his mind.
"You were listening."
Her tone was serious, but there was light teasing hiding underneath the surface of that. Something had changed in Elena in the last hour, she had been relaxed before the brother's appearance already and yet now it seemed she only needed to imagine it and she would fly up into the sky with or without wings.
"Yes."
He didn't bother denying it, he had no doubt he couldn't have hidden this anyway. He was after all an Original and right then he was certain even someone who had never met him could read him without effort. And Elena had always known him a lot better than that.
"Good."
"Elena? I…"
"Wait. Let me talk first. When I came here I thought it was so that you would help me not to become the way Katherine and Klaus is and Stefan and Damon used to be. But you did far more than that, you healed me, you gave me a future that I had stopped believing since the moment my parents died. And it might not be the one I wanted, but it will be a good one."
"I lo…"
He tried again, he didn't need to fear those words now, - they could no longer hurt Elena - but once more he was cut in mid sentence.
"Let me finish. I don't know what I feel for you yet, not completely. But being with you is… its home. I'm ready to go back to Mystic Falls, I miss my friends and my brother, but I need you to come with me. Please?"
"Can I talk now?"
He smirked at the bashful smile she sent him. And then her eyes narrowed before she quickly smacked his shoulder none too gently in admonishment. He responded by taking her lovely face in his hands, running his thumbs over her cheekbones and as her eyes fluttered closed he didn't counter his impulse to lean forward and kiss her eyelids. They trembled under the feather light touch and she once more reminded him of a butterfly, its wings though couldn't possibly have tasted as sweet when touched.
"I love you Elena, I'll go anywhere you want to be. If it's Mystic Falls, then that's where we'll be headed as soon as you're ready to. Always and forever remember?"
And before she could respond he finally reached for the place he had dreamed of on countless nights, for the spot he hadn't had the opportunity to indulge in before now. His lips met hers in their first kiss, it wasn't painfully passionate or overly gentle, but it was a kiss he knew he would never forget, it confirmed his promise of eternity. Or for however long earth allowed him to live.
Her heart jumped and then skipped a beat. It had nothing to do with lies this time.
* The End *
A/N 2: So? Thoughts? Complaints? Compliments? I'll take them all.
Rating: T (+) or M (-)
Author:
terapsina
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Pairing: Elijah/Elena
Word Count: 5'989
Parts: 2/2
Warnings: There is kinda' sexual non-explicit content. Warning about that… well I don't think I wrote it all that good, because this is my first attempt and you know - 'baby steps'.
Summary: AU after "All My Children". Elijah has been gone for a while when Elena suddenly turns up on his doorstep as a vampire. She needs him to help her come to grips with that and he needs to keep silent his feelings for her while he does so. Elejah.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Part 1
* Heal Her Broken Wings *
He had the most fascinating eyes. She thought so even when he first flashed before her looking at her in such a shocked surprise and she was still so terrified of him.
They were sad and calculating, old but peaceful. And the slightest bit kind. And there was an extra of something familiar, something she saw when she looked in a mirror. It's why she knew she could trust him even as she didn't understand the reason why.
And now she couldn't look within them without a smile, even a slight one.
* x *
They were outside walking in silence when he finally understood something that had escaped him all his life, both the one spent as a vampire and the one before.
There was a distinction between love and true love. It couldn't be put into words or even thoughts, both of them were real and precious, both of them could be eternal if one was lucky enough. But there was a difference none the less and unless you had experienced true love, you couldn't ever see exactly what it was that was missing before.
Katerina was wrong, true love didn't have to be returned to be true, just like a love that was mutual wasn't necessarily one either. Life was far too complicated for easy answers and clear messages, life wasn't black and white and it wasn't just gray either. Life couldn't be put in colors or words at all.
But between one step and the next he captured that moment where he was struck with the realization of exactly how much he cared for the woman beside him. Elena was someone he hadn't planned to care for let alone love, but he did love her. She embodied far too much good to be dismissed and her humanity was still as bright as ever even now. He would do everything in his considerable power to make her see it as well. He would even let her go once this reprieve was over and she went back to the small town she was born in, back to the two men waiting for her there. He wouldn't interfere when she finally made the choice that had been coming the entire time he had known her.
Elijah would let her break his heart and he wouldn't burden her with the knowledge of having done so, there was far too much sorrow and guilt within her already.
But right now in this moment he would take anything she was willing to give, so as he reached over taking the palm of her hand within his and she smiled at him he solidified the image of her expressive eyes, her slightly out of place hair being blown by the wind into her face and the warmth radiating through her whole body into his mind.
He would lose a lot once the inevitable took place, but at least he would know that for a little while her friendship was his. And that was something he might not have to say goodbye to.
* x *
Blood! Blood, blood, blood!
So warm, so sweet, so hungry. No stop, let go, more!
'Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god!'
* x *
It wasn't that Elijah never left Elena's side, he did of course he did after all smothering wasn't part of the healing process and if she never left his sight it would feel like a prison to her. But he made sure not to leave too far, so he could always tell if she was in distress, could hear her if she called for him.
But almost a month had passed and he could see Elena settling in. The nights had somewhat calmed, Elena was smiling more every day, she didn't look like an injured animal every time he placed blood in front of her anymore either so when he heard that there was strife getting dangerously out of line four towns over between two vampires who seemed to have lost the sight of subtlety where human victims were concerned he actually prepared to leave. He would be back before nightfall.
He had barely traveled two blocks when the part of him still attuned to the place he was leaving heard it. The bell at his front door was ringing so he slowed the car to pay more attention.
"Oh hey, did you forget someth… erm hello?"
"Good morning, I noticed Mr. Smith had a guest so I thought I'd come to introduce myself."
He almost imperceptibly calmed, it was Mrs. Carson their very nosy, but completely harmless neighbor. And then he caught a whiff of something behind the exhaust fumes of his car, behind the scent of grass and infinite number of chemicals from every house. The antiseptic was doing nothing to mask the unmistakable odor from someone like him… or Elena. Blood.
"Oh, don't worry, it's barely a cut. I really must be more careful with…"
He had abandoned the car in the middle of the road and was running before the pause lasted even for a few seconds. And still he was almost too late.
A short moment later when he reached their porch - at the back of his mind noting that this new use of 'our' was worrying - Elena had already sunk her teeth into the woman's neck.
He pulled her back ignoring the little growl leaving her throat in protest of losing a meal. But the damage was done, he could see it when Elena ripped herself out of his arms and turned around, the savage hunger was quickly turning into revulsion and horror. Her eyes widened, her chest heaved, she looked towards the bleeding woman with dawning horror and finally she collapsed in front of him hitting the ground hard.
And yet he stayed outwardly calm when Mrs. Carson opened her mouth to scream, not letting himself be distracted by his own feelings. He clamped his hand over her mouth, smothering the impending sound and looked into her terrified eyes.
"You won't remember this."
When the neighbors eyes glazed over he removed his hand.
"I won't remember this."
"You went over to introduce yourself to Mr. Smith's guest, you were invited in, you had a nice chat, but the girl wasn't as interesting as you suspected. You left, because you felt a fever coming on, you will spend the next two days in your house with a virus. You understand?"
"I understand."
He stepped back and quickly bit into his wrist. He didn't like to give out blood to heal wounds that would close anyway, but this was for Elena and she didn't need to ever see this woman with a scar she caused. So he placed his bleeding wrist at the woman's mouth and watched as the bite marks closed.
Once he saw the woman leaving Elijah finally allowed himself the freedom to glance at the shattered form of the girl he couldn't help but love. She was in shock, her arms around her knees and her body rocking back and forth. She wasn't crying, but this time it was a bad sign, it meant she wasn't ready to face what had happened. Or the worst part - what had almost happened.
He closed his eyes, silently thanking whatever gods available for the fact he hadn't left the house even five minutes earlier. And then he knelt in front of Elena, taking her in his arms and picking her up to bring her inside their house.
* x *
"Please leave! Please! I can't, I almost… oh god!"
She'd almost killed her. She would have, if Elijah hadn't stopped her. She had wanted to.
She didn't wish to think. She needed to stop thinking. He was sleeping still dressed only a short walk away, a thought was borne and the rest of her mind thankfully blanked. She knew of a way to stop thinking.
* x *
The first thing he was aware of was her scent. It was so close, as if she was right in front of him surrounding him in her wonderful fragrance. His brow furrowed in confusion, she wasn't supposed to be in his room he had carried her to her own once he brought her inside.
He knew he had left when she asked him to, when she needed to be alone. He had fallen asleep still clothed in one of his suits worrying.
And then he lost the train of his thought entirely when he felt her touch. Her hand was sliding down his chest, opening the buttons of his shirt, slipping those same palms underneath the expensive cotton material to slide them against his bare skin. And the touch was like flames, licking his bared chest arousing him from slumber in all senses of the word. He almost hissed, but was struck speechless when opening his eyes.
Elena was on top of him. Straddling his hips, starting to move hers in a slow, purposeful rhythm designed to drive any man insane. She was driving his emotionless guise further back than ever before.
And it would have been a dream come true if he couldn't smell the salty streaks of tears and feel her shaking shoulders, if he couldn't hear her terrible sobs and see her sorrowful expression. She was pale, she was breathing heavily and even though she was looking at him he could tell that she wasn't really seeing him.
This wasn't about him. It wasn't about her caring about him or simply being attracted to him. This was about pain, about guilt and the need to drown it in pleasure by any means available. He was present so he would do and nothing had ever wounded him quite so much in quite this way.
But this was Elena. The woman he admired more than any other, the only person to have such a hold on his heart and she wasn't drunk or compelled. She was entirely under her own will.
And for a moment he gave in, letting her kiss his neck, wrapping his arms around her back and shoulders to draw her closer. If this was the only way he could have her, then he considered allowing it.
He gasped erratically to gain air, for somehow never before had he needed it more urgently. She was so warm in his arms and her lips were softer than a swan's feather as they traveled across his jaw with an agonizing slowness.
But she'd regret this in the morning. She would feel embarrassed and hurt. Nothing would have changed for the better as was supposed to from an act such as the one she was offering. It would only ruin them, she wouldn't be able to look him in the eye and maybe she'd even leave.
His blood sung as it rushed through his veins, seeking out something not even a hair's width away and yet unattainable. He groaned at his inner struggle, at her suddenly increasingly desperate movements.
He didn't want her to leave yet. And even if those weren't factors, there was also the deep seeded knowledge that if he let her take the easy way out right now she would always in the future be more tempted to do so again. Tempted to give in to the bloodlust a bit more, tempted to drown misery in a body again, tempted to turn off all that made her Elena.
But her hands were opening his shirt almost ready to rid him of the unwanted constraint. Her shoulders were almost bare, the left lace of her silk bra fallen aside and the top he knew should be covering her chest lost at some point since he woke.
He couldn't let her become a monster, couldn't let her spend the next few hundred years emotionless and then being slowly awakened to the pain of knowing what she had done when that not entirely there switch stopped working. So for a moment longer he savored the impossible and then firmly pushed her back.
"No. Elena, stop!"
She looked as if he'd slapped her. The hurt encompassing her whole face at the rejection, if she wasn't so vulnerable right now it might have given him hope. But the truth was, even this wasn't really about him.
He held on stronger seeing her getting ready to flee his room. He was suddenly certain if she left his presence just at this moment in time he would never see her again. He needed to make her understand his actions.
"Wait. Elena, you're hurt… hmmm…. hurt you almost killed a human and you want it to go away for a… for a little while. I understand why you want this right now, but if you do this… if… if we do this it will be harder when the sun comes up, it will be unbearable once it sets after that."
She still looked torn, but she was listening, reason and coherent thought beyond mere one word sentences returning to her face. But the lost look he had observed for a month now was still present and he knew he needed to lessen it, even if the necessary small admission would cost him.
"You're beautiful Elena, inside and out. And I'd… like nothing more than to continue, but it wouldn't be the right move on either of our parts. I'd be taking advantage of you, you understand?"
Slowly she nodded, but he could see she wasn't fully willing to accept his reasoning either yet by the walls he saw she was building up to protect herself. Specially designed to keep him out, she had never wanted to keep him out before, at least not in the way she seemed to now.
It gave him and idea. Something that would assure her and give him a moment he could treasure once she was gone.
"You don't have to leave Elena. Lets sleep, you do not need to be alone right now."
Neither did he. He had almost lost her in more ways than one this day and he needed her close to him, just as much as Elena needed someone to be close to her. To know this was another nick across his heart.
He pulled her closer, turning on his side and placing his hand on her head, running it over her disheveled hair to soothe her. For a moment she was still ready to spring up and flee, but then she relaxed and clutched herself even closer to him starting to whisper between the tears.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
He wasn't sure if she was apologizing for almost killing or… for what she had almost set in motion with her actions afterwards. He had no wish to hear her clarify it. And it didn't matter. What mattered was her.
"It's not your fault."
He knew she didn't believe it, but she had to hear it anyway and he would repeat it for however long it took for her to accept.
And for the next half an hour he did exactly that. Every time the apology escaped her he told her it would be alright, that she wasn't responsible, that the woman she had drunk from would be fine.
When she was finally calm and he even thought her to be asleep she proved him wrong with a question he hadn't thought he'd ever hear from her. He really should have expected it, of course the Salvatore's had retold what he had revealed at Klaus's insistence.
"Tell me about Tatia!"
He blinked. Tatia was his past, she was complicated and he had no idea how to put into words the girl that now brought out so much regret for so many different reasons. And she was still nothing compared to Elena, but how to say that without revealing his new love for the descendant of that same girl?
"What do you wish to know?"
She looked up at him, her eyes reddened and her face blotchy and tired. She was still a sight Gods would envy.
"What was she like? Did you love her? Did she love you? Did she love Klaus? Did she love her son? Tell me everything."
Everything. Everything was too much, everything was Elena, but he could paint her a neat enough picture of the Petrova that so very long ago was the start of it all.
"She was a good person, strong too… albeit broken. And she did care for me and Niklaus, but she didn't truly love either one of us it's why she could never choose between him and me, she missed her husband far too much."
"What happened to him?"
"He had died, drowned in the spring floods not long after their wedding. She was fifteen summers old at the time and carrying her child. Her son was the light of her hard life from the moment he took his first breath."
"And you were in love with her."
And for a moment he was brought back to that young man he had almost forgotten. So struck by her presence, certain and sure in everything else, but stuttering in front of Tatia. It was a long time ago, he had changed so much since then, but a part of him still understood that young man, perhaps better than he understood himself all those centuries ago.
"Yes… and no. I was enamored with her and I thought I would love her forever, but I didn't know what true love was at the time." He didn't say that he only found out recently. Didn't mention the fact it was her who opened his eyes to the exact meaning of that word. "She was the most beautiful girl in town and the saddest. She broke many hearts mine included, but she wasn't a cruel girl, there was a kindness in her and I think it was maybe not entirely right for the harsh lives we led in those times. It's certainly another reason although not the main one for why Esther chose her to be the sacrifice for her spell, - I believe she thought Tatia wouldn't have lasted much longer within the town of wolves either way."
"Am I like her?"
He looked past her. Elijah remembered her simmering courage when she threw vervain in his face, so defiant even afraid. He remembered her sharp gaze and too wise smile when they struck their very first deal. Remembered her as she fooled him and drove a dagger through his heart, she was the first human to ever have done so and there had been attempts before, vampire hunters that had failed more than once. Remembered her as those compassionate eyes connected with his and she asked if he had cared for Katerina, that quiet understanding that had almost stolen his breath. Finally he remembered the courage and the kindness, the sadness and the forgiveness, the fighting spirit and her all powerful love for her friends and family.
She was the best of what he wished he could achieve in himself and so much more of the things he had once regarded as disposable.
He didn't doubt his answer for even a moment, no other words he had ever spoken had been so true.
"No Elena, you are the most unique person I have ever met."
He didn't see her smile once she turned her head, her head resting against his chest. But he knew the smile was there, could feel her face pull into that infinitely precious expression of content.
* x *
She wanted someone who could see past her face. To her, all of her, the broken parts of her as well as the good ones.
And maybe she knew of someone who saw them, he had been faced with them for a while now.
She didn't love him, but…
* x *
Her footsteps beside him were almost silent. The material of her sky blue blouse was making the most insignificant whisper of a noise as it rubbed from her movement. The speed of her heart was slow but not entirely steady. There were three inches separating them and Elijah could feel each and every one of them.
It almost felt as if they had gone back in time to when they carefully danced around each other always a perfectly polite distance apart even as they somehow remained far too close.
The tension since the night a week ago hadn't waned. Actually - as he noticed her sharp breath when she needed to step closer to let past an approaching passerby, - it had only grown.
He hadn't forgotten anything from the moment he'd been woken by her. The feel of her body against his, the heat of her lips on his neck and every sensation and thought it inspired.
If he had thought that keeping away from Elena before was hard then the same task now was infinitely more torturous.
He was suddenly so aware of her mere presence, that he was certain if she traveled halfway across the world he would still know in which direction to turn his head and exactly by how many degrees to look directly towards her. If it were possible to have a compass within his heart Elena would be his magnetic south pole.
They were almost back to the house when he finally paid enough attention to the rest of the world to notice something he should have heard long before. There were two new heartbeats within the walls of his home.
His shoulders tensed and something in him clenched painfully. It wasn't Klaus and Rebekah, he had traveled with them for five hundred years and would recognize their particular signatures in seconds. He knew of only a few likely possibilities for the identities of two vampires who were bold and stupid enough to break into an Original's house. There was only one pair with the motivation to do so currently.
The motivation was walking oblivious beside him.
In less then a minute they would open the doors, enter the living room and be greeted by the most probably glaring faces of their unexpected guests. In less then a day he might have to put that magnet theory to the test.
Meanwhile he had choices. He could say he'd forgotten something and turn around to leave gaining some more time, but he didn't want to lie to her. He could enter with the speed of his thousand years of the curse Esther created and kill them before she had time to move, but that would shatter Elena's spirit and heart. He could lean in to kiss her, so he could always remember the feel of her lips against his, but that would be a stolen moment without any meaning. He could do nothing and let her be surprised.
But none of those options were honorable and after what he had done to her, she deserved for him to be the gentleman she seemed to view him as.
Elijah looked up. She was staring at him with a worried frown, obviously confused by his sudden change in posture.
"What's the matter?"
"We have guests. My guess would be the Salvatores."
Her eyes widened and her heart was suddenly thundering in her chest. Now she looked anxious and uncertain, like a young girl confronted with something she wasn't entirely ready for.
Elijah didn't gain any satisfaction from her reaction, it was exactly what he'd expected of Elena when with his vocal cords straining to sound normal he uttered the words he had dreaded for so long now. The nervous energy didn't mean she wouldn't fall back in their arms, it could just mean she didn't know how to go about it.
"Oh!"
He remained standing, his gaze looking past her fighting the urge to connect with hers. She had beautiful eyes, soft and expressive and chocolate brown. But this once he had no wish to look into them and see all the love they contained while clearly knowing he hadn't put it there, had absolutely no desire to once again be faced with her familiar indecision of truly knowing who her heart belonged to.
He swallowed back the stinging sensation and gestured towards the front door.
"Shall we?"
She breathed in, squared her shoulders and nodded. Elijah imprisoned the desperate possessive need so common in all supernatural creatures so that he wouldn't just grab her in his hands and run.
He entered a step behind her and when the two brothers - so like him and Klaus in their tragic fight for the same love - turned towards them with their grave slightly angry faces he was struck by how much this scene resembled the one where he had come for his well deserved apology. This time he wanted something much more valuable, but didn't even consider asking for it. Elena Gilbert wasn't an object, he had no right to her and sometimes he wondered if the Salvatores knew that neither did she belong to them. But their constant struggle for the right to finally claim her negated their seeming conviction that they could truly let her go if she ever did choose.
"Elena!"
The word came out of the eldest sibling like a prayer. He tried to keep his attention to just Damon and Stefan, but he felt as Elena trembled in front of him and could almost feel his face flinch. He needed room, specifically any other room.
"I will leave you to talk then. Elena, you know where to find me if I'm needed."
He was almost out of the room when Elena's voice stopped him.
"Thank you!"
His back was to her now, so he let his eyes close at the melancholy feeling and to ward off the enclosing walls. For a moment he stood as if struck, and then after inclining his head closed the door behind him, the doorknob bent in his palm.
He knew he should leave the house entirely, but a part of him needed to hear what was said and he wasn't completely at ease with leaving Elena alone with the man that had turned her or the one who looked to have done nothing to stop it anyway. He hadn't been in town to protect her when she needed it most, but he wouldn't leave her now - at least not until she asked him to.
"What are you doing here Elena? I thought we wouldn't have to stop you from making mistakes with the Originals anymore. Elijah can't be trusted! Have you learned nothing?"
"Why are you here?"
She was ignoring his question, moving straight to the point. He had to admire her refusal to be made to feel guilty.
"What do you think? We're here to bring you home."
He'd seen that coming. And yet he obviously hadn't prepared himself for it, because his legs gave out for the first time in a thousand years and he could do nothing but slump in his chair. She was leaving. The only physical proof he would now have left of Elena would be the dizzying scent that had ingrained itself in every crevice of his every room. And then one day that would fade as well.
"No!"
Elijah's brows furrowed. He couldn't possibly have heard that right. The almost growl from the living room said otherwise, it also made him straighten up ready to sprint back to them in case any direct threat of aggression was shown.
"Excuse me?"
"Damon, calm down, anger won't help us now. Elena, we miss you, your friends miss you and Jeremy is worried sick about you."
"I'm fine. I left a note, you shouldn't have been searching."
The scornful snort left no doubt in Elijah's mind as to its source.
"Please. She's just still angry I had to turn her."
"Damon, stop helping!"
"Shut up Stefan! Elena you had you're fun, did your part in continuing the tradition of monthly bad decisions we all have going, but I think you know it's time to stop seething and deal with this problem. I'm sorry alright, I'm sorry Rebekah put you in danger to get back at Klaus, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the blood. I'm sorry you died. And no matter how much you hate me right now I'm not sorry you came back."
"You want me to forgive you again right?"
There was a momentary silence in the other room, Elijah had no doubt that was some part of the impulsive man's ultimate goal. For that at least he couldn't blame Damon the least little bit, he had desired Elena's forgiveness more than once himself. He knew the absolving power the granting of it possessed.
"I can't. At least not now."
Silence again, more strained this time. He almost wished he could see through walls.
"Elena? What's stopping you from coming back? Whatever it is you know we will help."
"Nothings stopping me, but I do need to tell you something I suppose. To both of you, actually. I loved you Stefan. I did and in a lot of ways I always will, but I'm not in love with you. That stopped on the day you were willing to drown me on Wickery Bridge… no stop I know you weren't ever going to. But what hurt wasn't that you threatened to kill me, it's that you did it there."
"If you… if Damon makes you h…"
"Stop! This has nothing to do with Damon."
"Then why?"
"I… I admit that I fell for Damon, but… but even though it should mean everything it doesn't. I don't love h… I don't love you Damon. Not really, not the way you want me to at least, because I can't see myself staying with you forever. I could see a relationship that might last a month or a year, but eventually I'd leave. I'd regret allowing myself that year, I'd hurt you and even more importantly I'd hurt your bond with Stefan. He's your brother, you'd feel guilty, I'd feel guilty and even after we'd break up you would still have lost him. You made me have forever, but I can't see a forever with you. I never could, it's why I didn't want you to try so hard to win me."
"And what… you'll have it all with Elijah? The one who has betrayed us over and over? Really?"
He stilled entirely. His entire focus shifting towards her, he could no longer hear either Salvatore. She was breathing, her lungs drawing in even amounts of oxygen, her heart only the least little bit too fast, showing the stress, but no readying of a lie. Whatever left Elena's lips now, would be the truth.
"No!" A hope he hadn't been aware of harboring shattered, much else there within him along with it. He really hadn't been ready for the meaning of this word after all. Nothing could have prepared him for what encompassed him now. He felt like a statue, he had cultivated that image since he killed his first man as a monster - and not as a fighter for survival - and yet only now could he really think of himself as if made of stone. A stone with hairline fractures stretching across the surface and into the very core. He could hardly hear at all, his hearing suddenly almost humanly weak. It almost made him miss her next words. "But I will eventually."
* x *
'I don't love him, but I will.'
* x *
As she entered the library half an hour later he looked up at her with an undisguised wonderment. He hadn't moved from the chair since the moment when within a matter of seconds his heart had been broken and then repaired.
The Salvatore's had gone rather reluctantly, but seemed to have been as struck as him after Elena's last words so were persuaded. He had no doubt they would return once they dealt with what they learned, reinforcements would be brought along no doubt. But this time it wouldn't matter, because if Elena decided to stay no one would be able to take her.
He had known her to be beautiful before, but somehow knowing his attachment to her wasn't entirely one sided was making all her previous entrances pale by comparison.
Her brown hair shined from the artificial lighting, her wide eyes danced with a flame he had been blind to before. Even her face suddenly transformed, Elijah hadn't thought of her as the Doppelganger in a long time, but currently he couldn't find the previous Petrova girls in even her features. If it was possible to fall in love with Elena Gilbert more deeply than he had been already then somehow she had managed to inspire him to do it with but one sentence.
He wouldn't be able to avert his gaze now even if he wanted to. Her words were still echoing across his mind.
"You were listening."
Her tone was serious, but there was light teasing hiding underneath the surface of that. Something had changed in Elena in the last hour, she had been relaxed before the brother's appearance already and yet now it seemed she only needed to imagine it and she would fly up into the sky with or without wings.
"Yes."
He didn't bother denying it, he had no doubt he couldn't have hidden this anyway. He was after all an Original and right then he was certain even someone who had never met him could read him without effort. And Elena had always known him a lot better than that.
"Good."
"Elena? I…"
"Wait. Let me talk first. When I came here I thought it was so that you would help me not to become the way Katherine and Klaus is and Stefan and Damon used to be. But you did far more than that, you healed me, you gave me a future that I had stopped believing since the moment my parents died. And it might not be the one I wanted, but it will be a good one."
"I lo…"
He tried again, he didn't need to fear those words now, - they could no longer hurt Elena - but once more he was cut in mid sentence.
"Let me finish. I don't know what I feel for you yet, not completely. But being with you is… its home. I'm ready to go back to Mystic Falls, I miss my friends and my brother, but I need you to come with me. Please?"
"Can I talk now?"
He smirked at the bashful smile she sent him. And then her eyes narrowed before she quickly smacked his shoulder none too gently in admonishment. He responded by taking her lovely face in his hands, running his thumbs over her cheekbones and as her eyes fluttered closed he didn't counter his impulse to lean forward and kiss her eyelids. They trembled under the feather light touch and she once more reminded him of a butterfly, its wings though couldn't possibly have tasted as sweet when touched.
"I love you Elena, I'll go anywhere you want to be. If it's Mystic Falls, then that's where we'll be headed as soon as you're ready to. Always and forever remember?"
And before she could respond he finally reached for the place he had dreamed of on countless nights, for the spot he hadn't had the opportunity to indulge in before now. His lips met hers in their first kiss, it wasn't painfully passionate or overly gentle, but it was a kiss he knew he would never forget, it confirmed his promise of eternity. Or for however long earth allowed him to live.
Her heart jumped and then skipped a beat. It had nothing to do with lies this time.
* The End *
A/N 2: So? Thoughts? Complaints? Compliments? I'll take them all.