Fic: 5 Times Elena Gilbert Kissed Someone (And Kept It A Secret)
Title: 5 Times Elena Gilbert Kissed Someone (And Kept It a Secret)
Verse: Show
Word Count: 3,863
Spoilers: Everything thus far
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Elena/Tyler, Elena/Alaric, Elena/Damon, Elena/Caroline, Elena/Katherine
Summary: No one can keep a secret as well as Elena Gilbert
A/N: This is my first full-length TVD fic, so concrit is incredibly welcome! Beta'ed by the incomparable taken_with_you
I. Caroline Forbes
“Matt’s going to kiss you at the dance on Friday.”
Elena looked up from the copy of Seventeen she was reading in surprise, disbelief on her face. “Did he tell you that?”
Caroline sighed and rolled her eyes in a way that made her seem much older than her thirteen years. “Of course he didn’t tell me. I just know.”
“But…But he’s not even my boyfriend.”
“Elena, everyone knows that Matt is in love with you. And, like, all the football team guys made an agreement that they were going to kiss a girl they like at the dance. So obviously Matt is going to kiss you.”
Elena sighed, pushing her hair back from her face as the implication of the words washed over her. “He never even said anything to me.”
“What, are you seriously surprised?”
She wasn’t. All things considered, finding out that Matt Donovan liked her as more than a friend wasn’t the bombshell of her life. It was more surprising that Matt “Didn’t Like to Make a Scene” Donovan was going to try to make his move in front of the entire eighth grade rather than in the privacy of the Gilbert living room.
“I’ve never kissed a boy before.”
“Oh, it’s so easy and super fun!” Caroline declared with the same zeal that she had endorsed cheerleading tryouts weeks earlier. “You’re going to love it.”
“What if I do it wrong?”
“I don’t think you can do it wrong,” she stated authoritatively, studying her reflection in Elena’s mirror, coating her lips in a glittery pink gloss. “I mean, unless you, like, use way too much tongue or bite him or something.”
“Bite him?” Elena echoed.
“Yeah, like Amber Bradley did to Jeff Hamilton. Apparently, he, like, bled, it was so bad. But what did he expect? Her mouth is 90% wires at this point. Did you see her new headgear? It’s like the orthodontist hates her.”
“I don’t want to bite him.”
Caroline shrugged. “So don’t. It’s not hard.”
“But what if I mess up and he tells everyone?”
“Matt wouldn’t do that. He’s way too nice to ever brag about anything and he’s definitely too nice to ever trash you. You’ll be fine.”
“But what if I mess up?” Elena repeated, literally wringing her hands, wishing that Caroline had never told her of the plan.
Caroline turned around, crossing the room and sitting on the bed to face her. “Okay, pretend I’m Matt.”
“Pretend you’re Matt?”
“Yeah.” Adopting a ridiculously overblown male posture, she lowered her voice in a fairly decent imitation of Matt’s speaking tone and said, “Hey, Elena. What’s up?”
Elena immediately devolved into giggles, prompting Caroline to hit her with a throw pillow. “Do you want my help or not?”
Composing herself, Elena took a breath and obediently said, “Hey, Matt.”
“So…um…I just wanted to say…I really like you and I want to be your boyfriend. What do you think?”
“Sure, I’d like that.”
Caroline beamed. “See? That won’t be hard at all. Except that Matt is going to have way more pauses and the conversation will probably take twenty minutes.”
“But how do I kiss him?”
With a good-natured eye roll, Caroline leaned forward, taking Elena’s face in her hands. “Pretend I’m Matt. And don’t bite me.”
“Care…”
“’Lena…” she echoed back.
Taking a deep breath, Elena pressed her mouth against Caroline’s, which yielded nicely beneath hers. For a moment she remained still, unsure what to do next, but then Caroline moved her bottom lip and Elena followed. It was easy, the rhythm of the kiss, and Elena quickly picked up. When Caroline’s tongue traced the edge of Elena’s lip, Elena couldn’t help but make a small sound in the back of her throat, a sound that seemed to startle her awake, making her pull back from the kiss.
“See?” Caroline said, wiping Elena’s lip gloss from her mouth. “That wasn’t hard, right?” Bouncing off of the mattress towards her closet, she declared, “Now let’s find you an outfit!”
Elena never told anyone because people would turn it into something that it wasn’t, try to make it sensational.
After all, what kind of girl had to have her best friend teach her how to kiss?
II. Tyler Lockwood
Because cheerleading practice had run over, Grayson Gilbert didn’t have time to take Elena home before his meeting of the Founders’ Council.
Elena recognized the cars already parked in front of the Lockwood Mansion, representatives of every founding family already inside, and she tried to hide her smile when her father swore beneath his breath as they hustled to the door. Grayson hated being late for anything, especially Council meetings. Elena wasn’t sure what exactly the Council did but it took up almost as much of her father’s time as his practice did.
Carol Lockwood greeted them at the door, smiling thinly from behind her usual layer of makeup and helmet hair. “Oh, good evening, Elena. How are you, dear?”
“I’m fine, Mrs. Lockwood,” she replied automatically.
“Everyone’s already in the den, Gray. Tyler’s upstairs, Elena.”
Carol Lockwood had always had a peculiar way of stating a fact and making it sound like an order, steel barbs dipped in Southern honey.
Elena had spent a great portion of her childhood in the mansion, running through the halls with Tyler, swimming in the pond on the property, and pestering the never-ending string of nannies who had been hired to tend to Tyler and, by extension, whichever other children of founders’ ended up being at the house. In the past few years, Elena had spent less time with Tyler, but she could still find his room blindfolded if need be.
Tyler was stretched across his bed in nothing but a pair of basketball shorts, idly flipping through a copy of Maxim, bopping his head to the loud punk music blasting from his iPod speakers.
“Hey.”
He jerked his head up, clearly startled, before relaxing. “Christ, ‘Lena, you scared the shit out of me.”
“Well, I didn’t want to interrupt you ogling Megan Fox,” she teased, plopping down on the foot of his bed, narrowly dodging the magazine when it sailed by her face.
“Joke’s on you, Gilbert: I borrowed it from Matt.”
“You did not!”
He laughed at the outrage on her face. “What, you think your boyfriend doesn’t like half-naked chicks?”
Elena frowned, reaching down to pick up the magazine in question. She flipped through the glossy pages briefly, wincing at every picture featuring someone who was prettier, curvier, and all around more perfect than she was.
“He thinks these girls are hot?”
She hated the tremor of insecurity in her voice, especially when she saw realization dawn on Tyler’s face.
He reached over, tugging it free of her hands and slapping it onto his night stand. “It’s just a magazine.”
“Well…yeah but - “
“But nothing,” he interrupted, playfully pulling at her ankle. “You’re hot, probably the hottest girl that Matt’s ever going to get, so don’t do that weird girl freak-out thing.”
Elena couldn’t help but blush. “You think I’m hot?”
Despite the fact that his cheeks were now fully flushed pink, Tyler still gave her a slow once over, his dark gaze almost like a caress against her skin. She resisted the urge to squirm, especially when he said in a voice that was noticeably huskier, “Of course I do.”
It hung there for a moment; Elena knew she could dissipate with a joke or a giggle. Growing up with Tyler had taught her innumerable ways of deflecting but...
No one had ever looked at like she was something to be consumed.
Elena shifted onto her knees, shuffling across his comforter until she was kneeling beside him. Tyler’s face was cautiously curious, and he was flexing his hands the same way he had when they were little and he had been told not to touch something.
The moment she lowered her hips to his, he responded, his hands sliding into her hair, pulling her tight against him. She instinctively threw a leg over his lap, straddling him even as she opened her mouth, her tongue tangling with his. Elena had never kissed Matt like this.
Elena had never kissed anyone like this.
His skin was scorching as she pressed herself against his bare chest, moaning when his hands slipped beneath her tank top, stroking the smooth skin of her back and belly. She couldn’t help but squirm on his lap, unintentionally grinding against the hardness there, swallowing Tyler’s moan. He managed to work his fingers beneath the elastic band of her sports bra, his fingers tripping over her nipples just roughly enough to make Elena wonder if it was natural to get this turned on this quickly.
“Holy shit,” Tyler panted when they broke apart to catch their breaths, his hands still cupping her breasts, her own hands braced against his chest.
“Mmm-hmm,” was all she could manage, pressing a kiss beneath his ear.
Elena wasn’t sure how long they made out. When Grayson had called for her, she was beneath Tyler, her shirt and bra on the floor, her hips churning desperately against Tyler’s through their clothing, entire body flush with want. They quickly pulled apart, Tyler ducking into the bathroom while she dressed with more speed than she ever thought possible, gathering the rat’s nest of her hair into a ponytail.
She never told anyone because Tyler never mentioned it again.
After all, what kind of girl made out with her boyfriend’s best friend?
III. Damon Salvatore
When she started to descend the staircase and Stefan wasn’t there, Elena felt the panic start to swell. She didn’t even want to be in the running for Miss Mystic Falls and now she was going to be humiliated in front of the entire town, the first contestant ever to be without an escort, the type of story that would be told for years to come. In that moment, her concern for Stefan and his newfound blood addiction disappeared; all that existed was the knowledge she was going to embarrass the Gilbert name.
And then Damon was there, looking far too handsome in his suit, escorting her like the perfect Southern gentleman he must have been once.
He didn’t have to do it. After all, just days ago she had betrayed his trust by helping Stefan get the grimoire without him; she had called him horrible things after finding out about Isobel. But he escorted her and danced with her and been a shockingly amazing escort.
After she injected Stefan with the vervain, after Damon locked him into the basement dungeon she still wasn’t ready to ask questions about, they sat in the dank hallway in silence, listening to Stefan whimper.
She must’ve fallen asleep because, when she awoke, she was on the couch in the living room, the fire chasing away the basement chill. Damon was seated in a nearby chair, face inscrutable as ever, a sifter of blood in his hand.
“What time is it?” she rasped as she sat up, tossing off the blanket he had covered her with.
“Almost dawn,” Damon answered.
“So I’ve only been asleep a few hours.”
He nodded, setting his blood on the end table. “Stefan doesn’t need you to watch him detox. It’ll just make it worse for him when he’s boring and joyless again.”
“I thought you didn’t care about him,” she couldn’t help but toss back.
Damon rolled his eyes. “I care about me, and my brother eating the respectable ladies of Mystic Falls is going to severely inconvenience me.”
This time, she rolled her eyes. “You can’t fool me, Damon. You care; if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have helped me tonight.”
“I helped you tonight because it serves my own interests. Don’t try to make this something it isn’t.”
“Is that why you escorted me today, because it served your own interests?”
He looked at her, heat flaring in his blue eyes, before turning back to look at the fire. “Yep.”
She sighed, playing along with the lie. “That’s too bad.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because I was going to thank you for doing it.” Seeing the way he stilled, she added, “What you did for me, it was really sweet and I appreciate it. For two minutes today, I got to forget about everything and that was because of you.” Pushing to her feet, she shrugged. “But you didn’t really mean it so I guess it doesn’t matter how I feel about it.”
Elena was headed towards the staircase when Damon’s hand shot out, keeping her in place. She jerked, wondered if she had pushed him too far, and then quickly dismissed the thought. Despite what he had threatened to do beside his father’s grave, Elena didn’t believe that Damon would hurt her.
After all, she was his only friend.
He got to his feet with the grace she had come to associate with him, invading her personal space past the point of politeness. Elena wasn’t even sure that boundary existed between them anymore, but if it did, he had breached it.
“Don’t try to manipulate me.”
Stung that he had seen through her ruse, she retorted, “Then don’t try to lie to me.”
Damon smirked, amusement twinkling in his eyes, before admitting, “Maybe I wanted to dance with you.”
Elena smiled tiredly. “You’re good at it.”
“I know.”
And then she leaned forward, brushing her lips against his so lightly it hadn’t happened at all.
Elena never told anyone because she knew how people would react to her desire for Damon.
After all, what kind of girl kisses her boyfriend’s brother while her boyfriend is locked in a basement?
IV. Alaric Saltzman
She found herself suddenly spending a lot of time with Alaric.
Part of it was his relationship with Jenna; he had started to spend so much time at the house that she and Jeremy both teased him about just moving his stuff in to save the rent on his rarely-used apartment.
Part of it was his weird bromance with Damon, which meant he spent a fair amount of time at the boardinghouse just like she did.
Part of it was the fact she had signed up for the elective course he taught on the Civil War just because she knew he wouldn’t report her mysterious absences to the office.
But the main reason Elena had started spending so much time with Alaric was because she just plain liked him.
If circumstances were different, if he had become her history teacher before she had ever met Stefan or Damon, she would have freely admitted to having a crush on him. He was ridiculously handsome, had the same dry sense of humor she did, and actually cared to hear her opinions on things, whether it was vampire hunting or arguments concerning states’ rights.
She was a seventeen-year-old girl who was dating a vampire, had a strange love/hate relationship with another vampire, was best friends with both a witch and a vampire, and she was the only person in the world who could break a centuries’ old curse.
Having a crush on her history teacher was the most normal thing about Elena’s life.
It wasn’t like she was the only one. There were dozens of girls at Mystic Falls High who swooned when Alaric walked down the hallway, who whispered about how hot he was when he came into the Grill and discussed how lucky Jenna was because she got to be with him. They were the girls who wore their lowest-cut tops to class, reapplied lip gloss before entering the room, and always asked if Alaric was available to tutor them on some concept they had all been learning about since elementary school.
And while Alaric was well aware of their machinations and was never rude, Elena knew those girls didn’t get to call him Ric. They didn’t get to wear his favorite Duke sweatshirt when they were cold or reset the radio stations in his car or steal bacon off of his plate at breakfast. Those girls were just students, interchangeable and unimportant, not like Elena.
It wasn’t as if she was in love with Alaric. She loved Stefan and had…complicated feelings for Damon; they was more than enough to occupy her heart. And she wasn’t fantasizing about him in bed at night, constructing elaborate scenarios in which their eighteen year age difference was not a factor.
Her crush on Alaric was just fun, a silly little diversion which broke up the insanity in her life.
But sometimes…sometimes she caught him looking at her. It wasn’t in a creepy Lifetime movie way, the kind of look which lead to police involvement and the revoking of teaching licenses.
It was the same look of appraisal and appreciation she had seen on men’s faces before, the kind of look which warmed her and made her feel secure in her beauty. Ever since discovering there was a monster who shared her face, Elena had started to hate the way she looked, wishing for anyone else’s face or body.
It was the heat hidden in Alaric’s gaze - a gaze which had never fallen on Katherine Pierce - that made Elena start to feel like herself again.
The night after Isobel left for the second time, Elena found him at the Grill, three Scotches deep, the knuckles on his right hand still raw from punching John. She took the seat beside him; he ordered her a Diet Coke and put it on his tab.
By the time he was ready to leave, Elena almost casually plucked the keys from his hand; he didn’t fight her. Elena kept a steadying hand on his arm. He seemed too tall for her car even with the passenger’s seat pushed fully back, and Elena suddenly missed the SUV she had totaled months ago.
She had just pulled into the parking lot of his building when he confessed, “You know, I just can’t believe that you’re theirs.”
“What?”
“John and Isobel,” he clarified, his voice heavy with exhaustion, pain, and alcohol. “I can’t believe that someone as good as you came from them.”
He heaved himself out of the seat, coming around the front of the car as Elena climbed out, digging in her pocket for his keys. When he came to stand in front of her, she gazed up at him, concern lining her face.
“Are you going to be okay?”
Alaric’s smile was pure drunken charm, an expression she was entirely too familiar with since meeting Damon. He leaned down, shortening their extreme height disparity, and assured her, “I’m a big boy.”
Elena felt a wave of tenderness envelope her as she stretched up to press a kiss to his cheek. What happened next was purely accidental; just as her lips were about to press against his skin, he drunkenly swayed and she found herself mouth to mouth with her history teacher.
Almost immediately she pulled back, an apology already on her lips, when he pushed her back against the car, his mouth already sealing over hers.
He kissed her differently than anyone else had ever kissed her. There was none of the fumbling that she had associated with Matt or Tyler or the carefully controlled passion of Stefan; Alaric kissed her without hesitation, lips and tongue sure against hers, hips grinding against her center, unequivocally communicating his want for her.
It occurred to Elena that he was kissing her the way a human man would kiss a human woman, something she wasn’t sure she’d ever experience again.
He was mouthing her neck, one hand firmly squeezing her ass, the other cupping her breast through her shirt, when she gasped his name. It was apparently the wake up call he needed because the next thing Elena knew, he was stumbling away from her, realization all over his face.
“I’m sorry,” he gasped, rubbing at his face. “God, Elena, I’m sorry.”
Elena never told anyone because she knew it would ruin everything.
After all, what kind of girl made out a man that her aunt was in love with, a man who was also technically her stepfather?
V. Katherine Pierce
“Admit it: you’re going to miss me.”
Elena glared at the vampire with her face. “Yes, however will I live without you here to screw with everything?”
Katherine rolled her eyes and sighed. “Please. I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to your sad, little life. Without me, you wouldn’t have either Salvatore here to fight for your affections.” When Elena said nothing, she added, “This would be where you thank me.”
“Thank you for leaving. Please don’t come back.”
She laughed. “Trust me when I say that there is officially nothing left in Mystic Falls that I want.” Zipping her bag with a sense of finality, she declared, “You made sure of that.”
“Yeah, I’m the reason Stefan doesn’t want you.”
Katherine shook her head, sending her curls cascading down her back. “Whatever. Now that Klaus is gone, I can go anywhere and do whatever I want without having to worry. I’ll find someone new.”
“You always do.”
Sauntering across the room, her body moving with such seductiveness that Elena wondered if her own body would ever move that way, Katherine paused in front of Elena and grinned broadly, her fingers rising to cup her chin.
“Don’t worry, dear doppelganger. I’ll stay far, far away from our boys…on one condition.”
“What?”
“I want a goodbye kiss.”
Elena tried to draw back but Katherine held her chin tight, an eyebrow quirked impatiently. Knowing that she did not have the strength to break free, Elena took a deep breath and leaned forward, carefully completing Katherine’s request.
Katherine’s mouth was surprisingly soft, tasting of lipstick and iron; when the vampire drew Elena’s lower lip into her mouth, Elena unconsciously lifted her hands to cup the face identical to her own. Katherine’s tongue lightly teased Elena’s, her nails biting briefly into Elena’s skin, before pulling back, a self-satisfied smirk plastered on her face.
“Goodbye, Elena.”
Elena never told anyone because she was too humiliated.
After all, what kind of girl enjoyed a kiss with the vampire who had tried to damn every person she loved?
Verse: Show
Word Count: 3,863
Spoilers: Everything thus far
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Elena/Tyler, Elena/Alaric, Elena/Damon, Elena/Caroline, Elena/Katherine
Summary: No one can keep a secret as well as Elena Gilbert
A/N: This is my first full-length TVD fic, so concrit is incredibly welcome! Beta'ed by the incomparable taken_with_you
I. Caroline Forbes
“Matt’s going to kiss you at the dance on Friday.”
Elena looked up from the copy of Seventeen she was reading in surprise, disbelief on her face. “Did he tell you that?”
Caroline sighed and rolled her eyes in a way that made her seem much older than her thirteen years. “Of course he didn’t tell me. I just know.”
“But…But he’s not even my boyfriend.”
“Elena, everyone knows that Matt is in love with you. And, like, all the football team guys made an agreement that they were going to kiss a girl they like at the dance. So obviously Matt is going to kiss you.”
Elena sighed, pushing her hair back from her face as the implication of the words washed over her. “He never even said anything to me.”
“What, are you seriously surprised?”
She wasn’t. All things considered, finding out that Matt Donovan liked her as more than a friend wasn’t the bombshell of her life. It was more surprising that Matt “Didn’t Like to Make a Scene” Donovan was going to try to make his move in front of the entire eighth grade rather than in the privacy of the Gilbert living room.
“I’ve never kissed a boy before.”
“Oh, it’s so easy and super fun!” Caroline declared with the same zeal that she had endorsed cheerleading tryouts weeks earlier. “You’re going to love it.”
“What if I do it wrong?”
“I don’t think you can do it wrong,” she stated authoritatively, studying her reflection in Elena’s mirror, coating her lips in a glittery pink gloss. “I mean, unless you, like, use way too much tongue or bite him or something.”
“Bite him?” Elena echoed.
“Yeah, like Amber Bradley did to Jeff Hamilton. Apparently, he, like, bled, it was so bad. But what did he expect? Her mouth is 90% wires at this point. Did you see her new headgear? It’s like the orthodontist hates her.”
“I don’t want to bite him.”
Caroline shrugged. “So don’t. It’s not hard.”
“But what if I mess up and he tells everyone?”
“Matt wouldn’t do that. He’s way too nice to ever brag about anything and he’s definitely too nice to ever trash you. You’ll be fine.”
“But what if I mess up?” Elena repeated, literally wringing her hands, wishing that Caroline had never told her of the plan.
Caroline turned around, crossing the room and sitting on the bed to face her. “Okay, pretend I’m Matt.”
“Pretend you’re Matt?”
“Yeah.” Adopting a ridiculously overblown male posture, she lowered her voice in a fairly decent imitation of Matt’s speaking tone and said, “Hey, Elena. What’s up?”
Elena immediately devolved into giggles, prompting Caroline to hit her with a throw pillow. “Do you want my help or not?”
Composing herself, Elena took a breath and obediently said, “Hey, Matt.”
“So…um…I just wanted to say…I really like you and I want to be your boyfriend. What do you think?”
“Sure, I’d like that.”
Caroline beamed. “See? That won’t be hard at all. Except that Matt is going to have way more pauses and the conversation will probably take twenty minutes.”
“But how do I kiss him?”
With a good-natured eye roll, Caroline leaned forward, taking Elena’s face in her hands. “Pretend I’m Matt. And don’t bite me.”
“Care…”
“’Lena…” she echoed back.
Taking a deep breath, Elena pressed her mouth against Caroline’s, which yielded nicely beneath hers. For a moment she remained still, unsure what to do next, but then Caroline moved her bottom lip and Elena followed. It was easy, the rhythm of the kiss, and Elena quickly picked up. When Caroline’s tongue traced the edge of Elena’s lip, Elena couldn’t help but make a small sound in the back of her throat, a sound that seemed to startle her awake, making her pull back from the kiss.
“See?” Caroline said, wiping Elena’s lip gloss from her mouth. “That wasn’t hard, right?” Bouncing off of the mattress towards her closet, she declared, “Now let’s find you an outfit!”
Elena never told anyone because people would turn it into something that it wasn’t, try to make it sensational.
After all, what kind of girl had to have her best friend teach her how to kiss?
II. Tyler Lockwood
Because cheerleading practice had run over, Grayson Gilbert didn’t have time to take Elena home before his meeting of the Founders’ Council.
Elena recognized the cars already parked in front of the Lockwood Mansion, representatives of every founding family already inside, and she tried to hide her smile when her father swore beneath his breath as they hustled to the door. Grayson hated being late for anything, especially Council meetings. Elena wasn’t sure what exactly the Council did but it took up almost as much of her father’s time as his practice did.
Carol Lockwood greeted them at the door, smiling thinly from behind her usual layer of makeup and helmet hair. “Oh, good evening, Elena. How are you, dear?”
“I’m fine, Mrs. Lockwood,” she replied automatically.
“Everyone’s already in the den, Gray. Tyler’s upstairs, Elena.”
Carol Lockwood had always had a peculiar way of stating a fact and making it sound like an order, steel barbs dipped in Southern honey.
Elena had spent a great portion of her childhood in the mansion, running through the halls with Tyler, swimming in the pond on the property, and pestering the never-ending string of nannies who had been hired to tend to Tyler and, by extension, whichever other children of founders’ ended up being at the house. In the past few years, Elena had spent less time with Tyler, but she could still find his room blindfolded if need be.
Tyler was stretched across his bed in nothing but a pair of basketball shorts, idly flipping through a copy of Maxim, bopping his head to the loud punk music blasting from his iPod speakers.
“Hey.”
He jerked his head up, clearly startled, before relaxing. “Christ, ‘Lena, you scared the shit out of me.”
“Well, I didn’t want to interrupt you ogling Megan Fox,” she teased, plopping down on the foot of his bed, narrowly dodging the magazine when it sailed by her face.
“Joke’s on you, Gilbert: I borrowed it from Matt.”
“You did not!”
He laughed at the outrage on her face. “What, you think your boyfriend doesn’t like half-naked chicks?”
Elena frowned, reaching down to pick up the magazine in question. She flipped through the glossy pages briefly, wincing at every picture featuring someone who was prettier, curvier, and all around more perfect than she was.
“He thinks these girls are hot?”
She hated the tremor of insecurity in her voice, especially when she saw realization dawn on Tyler’s face.
He reached over, tugging it free of her hands and slapping it onto his night stand. “It’s just a magazine.”
“Well…yeah but - “
“But nothing,” he interrupted, playfully pulling at her ankle. “You’re hot, probably the hottest girl that Matt’s ever going to get, so don’t do that weird girl freak-out thing.”
Elena couldn’t help but blush. “You think I’m hot?”
Despite the fact that his cheeks were now fully flushed pink, Tyler still gave her a slow once over, his dark gaze almost like a caress against her skin. She resisted the urge to squirm, especially when he said in a voice that was noticeably huskier, “Of course I do.”
It hung there for a moment; Elena knew she could dissipate with a joke or a giggle. Growing up with Tyler had taught her innumerable ways of deflecting but...
No one had ever looked at like she was something to be consumed.
Elena shifted onto her knees, shuffling across his comforter until she was kneeling beside him. Tyler’s face was cautiously curious, and he was flexing his hands the same way he had when they were little and he had been told not to touch something.
The moment she lowered her hips to his, he responded, his hands sliding into her hair, pulling her tight against him. She instinctively threw a leg over his lap, straddling him even as she opened her mouth, her tongue tangling with his. Elena had never kissed Matt like this.
Elena had never kissed anyone like this.
His skin was scorching as she pressed herself against his bare chest, moaning when his hands slipped beneath her tank top, stroking the smooth skin of her back and belly. She couldn’t help but squirm on his lap, unintentionally grinding against the hardness there, swallowing Tyler’s moan. He managed to work his fingers beneath the elastic band of her sports bra, his fingers tripping over her nipples just roughly enough to make Elena wonder if it was natural to get this turned on this quickly.
“Holy shit,” Tyler panted when they broke apart to catch their breaths, his hands still cupping her breasts, her own hands braced against his chest.
“Mmm-hmm,” was all she could manage, pressing a kiss beneath his ear.
Elena wasn’t sure how long they made out. When Grayson had called for her, she was beneath Tyler, her shirt and bra on the floor, her hips churning desperately against Tyler’s through their clothing, entire body flush with want. They quickly pulled apart, Tyler ducking into the bathroom while she dressed with more speed than she ever thought possible, gathering the rat’s nest of her hair into a ponytail.
She never told anyone because Tyler never mentioned it again.
After all, what kind of girl made out with her boyfriend’s best friend?
III. Damon Salvatore
When she started to descend the staircase and Stefan wasn’t there, Elena felt the panic start to swell. She didn’t even want to be in the running for Miss Mystic Falls and now she was going to be humiliated in front of the entire town, the first contestant ever to be without an escort, the type of story that would be told for years to come. In that moment, her concern for Stefan and his newfound blood addiction disappeared; all that existed was the knowledge she was going to embarrass the Gilbert name.
And then Damon was there, looking far too handsome in his suit, escorting her like the perfect Southern gentleman he must have been once.
He didn’t have to do it. After all, just days ago she had betrayed his trust by helping Stefan get the grimoire without him; she had called him horrible things after finding out about Isobel. But he escorted her and danced with her and been a shockingly amazing escort.
After she injected Stefan with the vervain, after Damon locked him into the basement dungeon she still wasn’t ready to ask questions about, they sat in the dank hallway in silence, listening to Stefan whimper.
She must’ve fallen asleep because, when she awoke, she was on the couch in the living room, the fire chasing away the basement chill. Damon was seated in a nearby chair, face inscrutable as ever, a sifter of blood in his hand.
“What time is it?” she rasped as she sat up, tossing off the blanket he had covered her with.
“Almost dawn,” Damon answered.
“So I’ve only been asleep a few hours.”
He nodded, setting his blood on the end table. “Stefan doesn’t need you to watch him detox. It’ll just make it worse for him when he’s boring and joyless again.”
“I thought you didn’t care about him,” she couldn’t help but toss back.
Damon rolled his eyes. “I care about me, and my brother eating the respectable ladies of Mystic Falls is going to severely inconvenience me.”
This time, she rolled her eyes. “You can’t fool me, Damon. You care; if you didn’t, you wouldn’t have helped me tonight.”
“I helped you tonight because it serves my own interests. Don’t try to make this something it isn’t.”
“Is that why you escorted me today, because it served your own interests?”
He looked at her, heat flaring in his blue eyes, before turning back to look at the fire. “Yep.”
She sighed, playing along with the lie. “That’s too bad.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because I was going to thank you for doing it.” Seeing the way he stilled, she added, “What you did for me, it was really sweet and I appreciate it. For two minutes today, I got to forget about everything and that was because of you.” Pushing to her feet, she shrugged. “But you didn’t really mean it so I guess it doesn’t matter how I feel about it.”
Elena was headed towards the staircase when Damon’s hand shot out, keeping her in place. She jerked, wondered if she had pushed him too far, and then quickly dismissed the thought. Despite what he had threatened to do beside his father’s grave, Elena didn’t believe that Damon would hurt her.
After all, she was his only friend.
He got to his feet with the grace she had come to associate with him, invading her personal space past the point of politeness. Elena wasn’t even sure that boundary existed between them anymore, but if it did, he had breached it.
“Don’t try to manipulate me.”
Stung that he had seen through her ruse, she retorted, “Then don’t try to lie to me.”
Damon smirked, amusement twinkling in his eyes, before admitting, “Maybe I wanted to dance with you.”
Elena smiled tiredly. “You’re good at it.”
“I know.”
And then she leaned forward, brushing her lips against his so lightly it hadn’t happened at all.
Elena never told anyone because she knew how people would react to her desire for Damon.
After all, what kind of girl kisses her boyfriend’s brother while her boyfriend is locked in a basement?
IV. Alaric Saltzman
She found herself suddenly spending a lot of time with Alaric.
Part of it was his relationship with Jenna; he had started to spend so much time at the house that she and Jeremy both teased him about just moving his stuff in to save the rent on his rarely-used apartment.
Part of it was his weird bromance with Damon, which meant he spent a fair amount of time at the boardinghouse just like she did.
Part of it was the fact she had signed up for the elective course he taught on the Civil War just because she knew he wouldn’t report her mysterious absences to the office.
But the main reason Elena had started spending so much time with Alaric was because she just plain liked him.
If circumstances were different, if he had become her history teacher before she had ever met Stefan or Damon, she would have freely admitted to having a crush on him. He was ridiculously handsome, had the same dry sense of humor she did, and actually cared to hear her opinions on things, whether it was vampire hunting or arguments concerning states’ rights.
She was a seventeen-year-old girl who was dating a vampire, had a strange love/hate relationship with another vampire, was best friends with both a witch and a vampire, and she was the only person in the world who could break a centuries’ old curse.
Having a crush on her history teacher was the most normal thing about Elena’s life.
It wasn’t like she was the only one. There were dozens of girls at Mystic Falls High who swooned when Alaric walked down the hallway, who whispered about how hot he was when he came into the Grill and discussed how lucky Jenna was because she got to be with him. They were the girls who wore their lowest-cut tops to class, reapplied lip gloss before entering the room, and always asked if Alaric was available to tutor them on some concept they had all been learning about since elementary school.
And while Alaric was well aware of their machinations and was never rude, Elena knew those girls didn’t get to call him Ric. They didn’t get to wear his favorite Duke sweatshirt when they were cold or reset the radio stations in his car or steal bacon off of his plate at breakfast. Those girls were just students, interchangeable and unimportant, not like Elena.
It wasn’t as if she was in love with Alaric. She loved Stefan and had…complicated feelings for Damon; they was more than enough to occupy her heart. And she wasn’t fantasizing about him in bed at night, constructing elaborate scenarios in which their eighteen year age difference was not a factor.
Her crush on Alaric was just fun, a silly little diversion which broke up the insanity in her life.
But sometimes…sometimes she caught him looking at her. It wasn’t in a creepy Lifetime movie way, the kind of look which lead to police involvement and the revoking of teaching licenses.
It was the same look of appraisal and appreciation she had seen on men’s faces before, the kind of look which warmed her and made her feel secure in her beauty. Ever since discovering there was a monster who shared her face, Elena had started to hate the way she looked, wishing for anyone else’s face or body.
It was the heat hidden in Alaric’s gaze - a gaze which had never fallen on Katherine Pierce - that made Elena start to feel like herself again.
The night after Isobel left for the second time, Elena found him at the Grill, three Scotches deep, the knuckles on his right hand still raw from punching John. She took the seat beside him; he ordered her a Diet Coke and put it on his tab.
By the time he was ready to leave, Elena almost casually plucked the keys from his hand; he didn’t fight her. Elena kept a steadying hand on his arm. He seemed too tall for her car even with the passenger’s seat pushed fully back, and Elena suddenly missed the SUV she had totaled months ago.
She had just pulled into the parking lot of his building when he confessed, “You know, I just can’t believe that you’re theirs.”
“What?”
“John and Isobel,” he clarified, his voice heavy with exhaustion, pain, and alcohol. “I can’t believe that someone as good as you came from them.”
He heaved himself out of the seat, coming around the front of the car as Elena climbed out, digging in her pocket for his keys. When he came to stand in front of her, she gazed up at him, concern lining her face.
“Are you going to be okay?”
Alaric’s smile was pure drunken charm, an expression she was entirely too familiar with since meeting Damon. He leaned down, shortening their extreme height disparity, and assured her, “I’m a big boy.”
Elena felt a wave of tenderness envelope her as she stretched up to press a kiss to his cheek. What happened next was purely accidental; just as her lips were about to press against his skin, he drunkenly swayed and she found herself mouth to mouth with her history teacher.
Almost immediately she pulled back, an apology already on her lips, when he pushed her back against the car, his mouth already sealing over hers.
He kissed her differently than anyone else had ever kissed her. There was none of the fumbling that she had associated with Matt or Tyler or the carefully controlled passion of Stefan; Alaric kissed her without hesitation, lips and tongue sure against hers, hips grinding against her center, unequivocally communicating his want for her.
It occurred to Elena that he was kissing her the way a human man would kiss a human woman, something she wasn’t sure she’d ever experience again.
He was mouthing her neck, one hand firmly squeezing her ass, the other cupping her breast through her shirt, when she gasped his name. It was apparently the wake up call he needed because the next thing Elena knew, he was stumbling away from her, realization all over his face.
“I’m sorry,” he gasped, rubbing at his face. “God, Elena, I’m sorry.”
Elena never told anyone because she knew it would ruin everything.
After all, what kind of girl made out a man that her aunt was in love with, a man who was also technically her stepfather?
V. Katherine Pierce
“Admit it: you’re going to miss me.”
Elena glared at the vampire with her face. “Yes, however will I live without you here to screw with everything?”
Katherine rolled her eyes and sighed. “Please. I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to your sad, little life. Without me, you wouldn’t have either Salvatore here to fight for your affections.” When Elena said nothing, she added, “This would be where you thank me.”
“Thank you for leaving. Please don’t come back.”
She laughed. “Trust me when I say that there is officially nothing left in Mystic Falls that I want.” Zipping her bag with a sense of finality, she declared, “You made sure of that.”
“Yeah, I’m the reason Stefan doesn’t want you.”
Katherine shook her head, sending her curls cascading down her back. “Whatever. Now that Klaus is gone, I can go anywhere and do whatever I want without having to worry. I’ll find someone new.”
“You always do.”
Sauntering across the room, her body moving with such seductiveness that Elena wondered if her own body would ever move that way, Katherine paused in front of Elena and grinned broadly, her fingers rising to cup her chin.
“Don’t worry, dear doppelganger. I’ll stay far, far away from our boys…on one condition.”
“What?”
“I want a goodbye kiss.”
Elena tried to draw back but Katherine held her chin tight, an eyebrow quirked impatiently. Knowing that she did not have the strength to break free, Elena took a deep breath and leaned forward, carefully completing Katherine’s request.
Katherine’s mouth was surprisingly soft, tasting of lipstick and iron; when the vampire drew Elena’s lower lip into her mouth, Elena unconsciously lifted her hands to cup the face identical to her own. Katherine’s tongue lightly teased Elena’s, her nails biting briefly into Elena’s skin, before pulling back, a self-satisfied smirk plastered on her face.
“Goodbye, Elena.”
Elena never told anyone because she was too humiliated.
After all, what kind of girl enjoyed a kiss with the vampire who had tried to damn every person she loved?