Ficlets From tvd_rareships
Title: Until Sunrise
Character/Pairings: Elijah/Elena
Rating: PG
She will die tomorrow.
Stefan and Damon are both denying it, doing the crazy mind-meld thing they do when situations become dire, but Elena knows. Even if Bonnie can kill Klaus, even if the power of 100 dead witches doesn't kill her best friend, Elena does not hold out hope she will survive. Her survival isn't her main concern anyway; Elena cares far more that Caroline, Tyler, and Bonnie make it out okay. The doppelganger was always destined to die beneath the light of the full moon; her friends are only in danger because they are her friends and Klaus has a sick sense of humor.
While Stefan and Damon are bickering and strategizing with Bonnie via Skype, Elena slips outside, walking down the cement stairs which lead to the backyard of the boardinghouse. There is old lawn furniture there, remnants of Zach and the relatives the Salvatores never speak of; the yard has always been Elena's favorite place, the gardens surrounding her, the woods providing a heavy canopy against the sunlight.
She is surprised to find Elijah already seated in one of the chairs, his head tilted back to stare up at the nearly full moon.
Elena sits in the chair beside him, staring up at the night sky for what might be the last time; the next time she is beneath the stars, she will die, and it makes tears well in her eyes to know this is her last night on Earth.
The tears spill down her cheeks silently, and Elena doesn't bother wiping them away, not wanting to call attention to her weakness. When she feels the gentle brush of Elijah's handkerchief against her skin, the cries make their way out of her lips, her shoulders heaving with the depth of her sorrow.
"I don't want to die," she whimpers helplessly, her voice deliberately kept low to keep Stefan or Damon from hearing.
"I won't let you die," Elijah replies reasonably, wiping her face with surprising tenderness. "Hush now."
Elena laughs mirthlessly. "I'm guessing you haven't had a lot of practice at comforting people."
"This is a special exception."
She sniffles, rubbing at her stinging eyes. "Why?"
"Because I think I would be...sad...to be in a world where Klaus lives and you do not." Elijah smiles, handing her the handkerchief. "I like you, Elena. You...you have a rare quality for a human."
"Yeah? What's that?"
"You're honorable."
"That almost sounds like a compliment."
"It is the highest I could ever pay you."
They look at each other for a long moment before Elena asks, "Are you trying to save me because you couldn't save her?"
Elijah reaches out, his fingers tracing the line of her cheekbone, tucking a lock of dark hair behind her ear. "Just because you wear her face does not mean everyone who looks at you sees Katerina."
Elena feels her stomach backflip at the way Elijah stares at her, at the way he outlines her lips with his fingerstips. She trembles as Elijah draws her foreward with a gentle pressure on her chin and his lips just barely brush against hers.
Elena wants him to deepen the kiss.
Elena is terrified he will deepen the kiss.
He draws back quietly, his gaze returning to the sky. "I will stay with you as long as you need."
They stay in the chairs until the sun comes up.
* * *
Title: The New Girl in Town
Characters/Pairing: Elena Gilbert, Meredith Sulez
Rating: G
Logic dictates that, if someone new appears in Mystic Falls, chances are that person is going to try to kill you.
It didn't used to be that way, but, if there's anything Elena had learned in the past few months, it is that she can no longer trust people to be good. In the past, she would've walked right up to the new girl in her English class, introduce herself, and offer to show her around Mystic Falls. It was good manners, what her parents had taught her to do.
Anna, Pearl, Katherine, Jules, Brady, Mason, Isobel, Elijah, Klaus...Yes, it was better for Elena to stick to the people she knew.
The substitute asked them to pair up to answer questions on Hamlet. Stefan - her go-to partner - was not there today and, as Elena looked up, she found the new girl standing beside her desk, a small smile on her face.
"Partners?"
Elena nodded, turning her desk to match up with hers.
"You're Elena, right?"
It had been a long time since someone in town hadn't known who Elena was; it surprised Elena at how refreshing it was. "Yeah, and you're Meredith?"
Meredith was quite possibly the most beautiful girl Elena had ever seen up close, a fact made even more true when Elena noticed she didn't wear an ounce of make-up. She was funny in a dryly sarcastic way, and Elena found herself laughing easily.
As last bell rang, Elena couldn't help but ask, "Have you been to the Grill yet?"
Meredith shook her head, her dark hair scattering around her shoulders. "I haven't really been anywhere yet. People here are kind of...cliquey."
Elena and her friends were the worst, the most inpenetrable of cliques; Elena knew this. "Well, if you want, we could go. They have the best double chocolate shakes in all of Virginia."
Meredith grinned, throwing her backpack over her shoulder. "I'd love that."
Meredith Sulez didn't seem like a force of evil.
And if she was...well, it wouldn't be the first time.
It probably wouldn't be the last.
* * *
Title: In The Wrong Place (Trying To Make It Right)
Character/Pairings: Tyler/Elena
Rating: PG
If Carol Lockwood hadn't cornered her at the Grill, Elena never would have called him. While she was worried about Tyler, Elena knew what it was like to find out everything you believed was a lie, to find out your blood had damned you; sometimes she envied him for being able to flee, to escape Mystic Falls and its supernatural shenanigans.
But Carol was crying, more emotional than Elena could ever remember her being, and she kept pleading for Elena to try to call him, to try to get verification that Tyler was alright. And so she agreed because Elena could never stand to see anyone cry and she really was worried about Tyler.
Like all of the calls others attempted before her, Tyler's phone instantly went to voicemail. Elena listened to the recording before sighing, "We're all really worried, Ty. Just call someone, okay?"
She was half-asleep when her phone started to vibrate, Tyler Lockwood flashing across the caller ID. Elena picked up and drowsily breathed his name, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes.
"I keep thinking about the summer your dad took us fishing," Tyler said by way of greeting. The fifteen minute conversation that followed was a monologue of Tyler's memories of that year, Elena offering observations when appropriate, and then, as suddenly as the conversation started, Tyler said, "I'll call you tomorrow, 'Lena," and hung up.
He called every night for a week, and neither of them brought up what had happened before he left. They did not discuss vampires or werewolves, Caroline being tortured or Stefan being shot. Instead they reminisced, they laughed, they told off-color jokes; they had the sorts of conversations a normal teenage boy would have with a normal teenage girl.
On the night before the full moon, Elena picked up the phone and could practically smell the alcohol on Tyler's breath. The edges of his words are dulled by the booze but there was a painful tremble in his voice as he confessed, "I don't know if I can do this for the rest of my life."
Elena shuddered at the implications of his words. "Ty - "
"This is no way to live," he continued, his voice watery with tears. "I don't want to be a monster forever."
"You're not a monster," she assured him, tears stinging her eyes. "Where are you, Ty?"
"Tennessee."
"If you leave in the morning, you can be here before dark. I'll help you. Are you listening to me? I'll help you, Tyler, I promise. You just have to get here."
His end of the line was quiet for so long Elena began to fear he had hung up or passed out. She repeated his name several times before he rasped, "I'm here."
"Come home," she murmured imploringly, staring at the nearly full moon outside of her window. "Just come home and we'll figure the rest out."
"Everyone hates me," he said, voice thick with emotion.
"I don't. I want you back where you belong."
"With you?"
Elena forced a chuckle from her lips, attempting to lighten her tone as she teased, "What good is a Gilbert without a Lockwood by her side?"
He showed up on her doorstep twelve hours later.
* * *
Title: Best Friends Forever
Character/Pairings: Tyler/Elena
Rating: Light R
Despite what everyone suspects, it only happened once.
There had been a time when half of the pictures stuck in Elena's bureau mirror had featured Tyler Lockwood. Between school, cheerleading, and Founders' events, Elena spent more time with Tyler than she did almost anyone else. And a lifetime of play dates, Friday night dinners, and their families vacationing together had provided the two of them with the kind of easy friendship common in most small towns.
Puberty changed their friendship. While the other boys in Mystic Falls now approached Elena with a peculiar sort of caution, Tyler barreled forward, unafraid of her beauty or the newfound curves which made Matt blush. While other boys kept a careful distance, desperately afraid of embarrassing themselves, Tyler would throw an arm around her shoulders, toss her over his suddenly broad shoulders, or wrestle her to the ground to tickle her senseless. Elena didn't understand why the other girls at Mystic Falls Middle School were so scandalized by the physical familiarity she had with Tyler; it was normal to her, the press of Tyler's body against hers.
By high school, everyone assumed Tyler and Elena were dating. It was not uncommon to find Elena stretched across Tyler's bed doing her homework or for Tyler to curl up beside her in the Gilbert living room, his fingers idly playing in her hair while they watched a movie. Richard Lockwood was thrilled at the idea of them being together, imagining a future where the Lockwood power base was solidified; Grayson Gilbert was more than a little worried, practically begging Miranda to discuss birth control with their daughter.
They really were just friends. Outside of a single game of Spin the Bottle played at Caroline's 14th birthday party, Elena and Tyler had never so much as kissed. But people read into their friendship what they wanted, and it never really bothered Elena for people to think she and Tyler were together.
She was dating Matt and Tyler was dating half the dance team when it happened. Richard Lockwood had been reelected as Mayor and, as the adults in their lives celebrated, the Lockwood mansion bustling with activity, Tyler swiped a bottle of champagne and they stole away to his bedroom. They were delicately balancing on the line between tipsy and drunk when Tyler reached out and gently nudged the strap of her dress off of her shoulder, his mouth pressing against her skin with a surprising tenderness.
"Ty..."
"You're really pretty, 'Lena," he murmured against her shoulder, his mouth sliding wetly up towards her neck.
The rest happened so quickly, Elena could never be sure who exactly initiated what. They undressed with the efficiency of two people who knew they might not have a lot of time; Tyler wrestled a condom from its packaging, slipping it on with a practiced hand as Elena shimmied up his body, carefully lowering herself down onto him.
Their kisses were hungry; their touches, desperate. It was over in a matter of minutes, Elena muffling her cries in his shoulder as Tyler shouted his pleasure into the hand Elena pressed over his mouth. They collapsed in a heap, sweat soaked limbs tangling, Elena's hair scattered across them and sticking.
"Fuck," Tyler sighed when they finally separated, removing the condom as Elena attempted to locate her bra.
"Yeah..."
It never happened again. After that, they began to keep a careful distance from each other. Neither of them wanted to hurt Matt, and what had transpired in his bedroom was never spoken of; the closest they ever came to acknowledging it were the looks they exchanged, secret smiles stretching across lips followed by dropped, flirtatious gazes.
It had only happened once but neither of them could stop imagining just how amazing they could have been together if they'd allowed it to happen again.
Character/Pairings: Elijah/Elena
Rating: PG
She will die tomorrow.
Stefan and Damon are both denying it, doing the crazy mind-meld thing they do when situations become dire, but Elena knows. Even if Bonnie can kill Klaus, even if the power of 100 dead witches doesn't kill her best friend, Elena does not hold out hope she will survive. Her survival isn't her main concern anyway; Elena cares far more that Caroline, Tyler, and Bonnie make it out okay. The doppelganger was always destined to die beneath the light of the full moon; her friends are only in danger because they are her friends and Klaus has a sick sense of humor.
While Stefan and Damon are bickering and strategizing with Bonnie via Skype, Elena slips outside, walking down the cement stairs which lead to the backyard of the boardinghouse. There is old lawn furniture there, remnants of Zach and the relatives the Salvatores never speak of; the yard has always been Elena's favorite place, the gardens surrounding her, the woods providing a heavy canopy against the sunlight.
She is surprised to find Elijah already seated in one of the chairs, his head tilted back to stare up at the nearly full moon.
Elena sits in the chair beside him, staring up at the night sky for what might be the last time; the next time she is beneath the stars, she will die, and it makes tears well in her eyes to know this is her last night on Earth.
The tears spill down her cheeks silently, and Elena doesn't bother wiping them away, not wanting to call attention to her weakness. When she feels the gentle brush of Elijah's handkerchief against her skin, the cries make their way out of her lips, her shoulders heaving with the depth of her sorrow.
"I don't want to die," she whimpers helplessly, her voice deliberately kept low to keep Stefan or Damon from hearing.
"I won't let you die," Elijah replies reasonably, wiping her face with surprising tenderness. "Hush now."
Elena laughs mirthlessly. "I'm guessing you haven't had a lot of practice at comforting people."
"This is a special exception."
She sniffles, rubbing at her stinging eyes. "Why?"
"Because I think I would be...sad...to be in a world where Klaus lives and you do not." Elijah smiles, handing her the handkerchief. "I like you, Elena. You...you have a rare quality for a human."
"Yeah? What's that?"
"You're honorable."
"That almost sounds like a compliment."
"It is the highest I could ever pay you."
They look at each other for a long moment before Elena asks, "Are you trying to save me because you couldn't save her?"
Elijah reaches out, his fingers tracing the line of her cheekbone, tucking a lock of dark hair behind her ear. "Just because you wear her face does not mean everyone who looks at you sees Katerina."
Elena feels her stomach backflip at the way Elijah stares at her, at the way he outlines her lips with his fingerstips. She trembles as Elijah draws her foreward with a gentle pressure on her chin and his lips just barely brush against hers.
Elena wants him to deepen the kiss.
Elena is terrified he will deepen the kiss.
He draws back quietly, his gaze returning to the sky. "I will stay with you as long as you need."
They stay in the chairs until the sun comes up.
* * *
Title: The New Girl in Town
Characters/Pairing: Elena Gilbert, Meredith Sulez
Rating: G
Logic dictates that, if someone new appears in Mystic Falls, chances are that person is going to try to kill you.
It didn't used to be that way, but, if there's anything Elena had learned in the past few months, it is that she can no longer trust people to be good. In the past, she would've walked right up to the new girl in her English class, introduce herself, and offer to show her around Mystic Falls. It was good manners, what her parents had taught her to do.
Anna, Pearl, Katherine, Jules, Brady, Mason, Isobel, Elijah, Klaus...Yes, it was better for Elena to stick to the people she knew.
The substitute asked them to pair up to answer questions on Hamlet. Stefan - her go-to partner - was not there today and, as Elena looked up, she found the new girl standing beside her desk, a small smile on her face.
"Partners?"
Elena nodded, turning her desk to match up with hers.
"You're Elena, right?"
It had been a long time since someone in town hadn't known who Elena was; it surprised Elena at how refreshing it was. "Yeah, and you're Meredith?"
Meredith was quite possibly the most beautiful girl Elena had ever seen up close, a fact made even more true when Elena noticed she didn't wear an ounce of make-up. She was funny in a dryly sarcastic way, and Elena found herself laughing easily.
As last bell rang, Elena couldn't help but ask, "Have you been to the Grill yet?"
Meredith shook her head, her dark hair scattering around her shoulders. "I haven't really been anywhere yet. People here are kind of...cliquey."
Elena and her friends were the worst, the most inpenetrable of cliques; Elena knew this. "Well, if you want, we could go. They have the best double chocolate shakes in all of Virginia."
Meredith grinned, throwing her backpack over her shoulder. "I'd love that."
Meredith Sulez didn't seem like a force of evil.
And if she was...well, it wouldn't be the first time.
It probably wouldn't be the last.
* * *
Title: In The Wrong Place (Trying To Make It Right)
Character/Pairings: Tyler/Elena
Rating: PG
If Carol Lockwood hadn't cornered her at the Grill, Elena never would have called him. While she was worried about Tyler, Elena knew what it was like to find out everything you believed was a lie, to find out your blood had damned you; sometimes she envied him for being able to flee, to escape Mystic Falls and its supernatural shenanigans.
But Carol was crying, more emotional than Elena could ever remember her being, and she kept pleading for Elena to try to call him, to try to get verification that Tyler was alright. And so she agreed because Elena could never stand to see anyone cry and she really was worried about Tyler.
Like all of the calls others attempted before her, Tyler's phone instantly went to voicemail. Elena listened to the recording before sighing, "We're all really worried, Ty. Just call someone, okay?"
She was half-asleep when her phone started to vibrate, Tyler Lockwood flashing across the caller ID. Elena picked up and drowsily breathed his name, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes.
"I keep thinking about the summer your dad took us fishing," Tyler said by way of greeting. The fifteen minute conversation that followed was a monologue of Tyler's memories of that year, Elena offering observations when appropriate, and then, as suddenly as the conversation started, Tyler said, "I'll call you tomorrow, 'Lena," and hung up.
He called every night for a week, and neither of them brought up what had happened before he left. They did not discuss vampires or werewolves, Caroline being tortured or Stefan being shot. Instead they reminisced, they laughed, they told off-color jokes; they had the sorts of conversations a normal teenage boy would have with a normal teenage girl.
On the night before the full moon, Elena picked up the phone and could practically smell the alcohol on Tyler's breath. The edges of his words are dulled by the booze but there was a painful tremble in his voice as he confessed, "I don't know if I can do this for the rest of my life."
Elena shuddered at the implications of his words. "Ty - "
"This is no way to live," he continued, his voice watery with tears. "I don't want to be a monster forever."
"You're not a monster," she assured him, tears stinging her eyes. "Where are you, Ty?"
"Tennessee."
"If you leave in the morning, you can be here before dark. I'll help you. Are you listening to me? I'll help you, Tyler, I promise. You just have to get here."
His end of the line was quiet for so long Elena began to fear he had hung up or passed out. She repeated his name several times before he rasped, "I'm here."
"Come home," she murmured imploringly, staring at the nearly full moon outside of her window. "Just come home and we'll figure the rest out."
"Everyone hates me," he said, voice thick with emotion.
"I don't. I want you back where you belong."
"With you?"
Elena forced a chuckle from her lips, attempting to lighten her tone as she teased, "What good is a Gilbert without a Lockwood by her side?"
He showed up on her doorstep twelve hours later.
* * *
Title: Best Friends Forever
Character/Pairings: Tyler/Elena
Rating: Light R
Despite what everyone suspects, it only happened once.
There had been a time when half of the pictures stuck in Elena's bureau mirror had featured Tyler Lockwood. Between school, cheerleading, and Founders' events, Elena spent more time with Tyler than she did almost anyone else. And a lifetime of play dates, Friday night dinners, and their families vacationing together had provided the two of them with the kind of easy friendship common in most small towns.
Puberty changed their friendship. While the other boys in Mystic Falls now approached Elena with a peculiar sort of caution, Tyler barreled forward, unafraid of her beauty or the newfound curves which made Matt blush. While other boys kept a careful distance, desperately afraid of embarrassing themselves, Tyler would throw an arm around her shoulders, toss her over his suddenly broad shoulders, or wrestle her to the ground to tickle her senseless. Elena didn't understand why the other girls at Mystic Falls Middle School were so scandalized by the physical familiarity she had with Tyler; it was normal to her, the press of Tyler's body against hers.
By high school, everyone assumed Tyler and Elena were dating. It was not uncommon to find Elena stretched across Tyler's bed doing her homework or for Tyler to curl up beside her in the Gilbert living room, his fingers idly playing in her hair while they watched a movie. Richard Lockwood was thrilled at the idea of them being together, imagining a future where the Lockwood power base was solidified; Grayson Gilbert was more than a little worried, practically begging Miranda to discuss birth control with their daughter.
They really were just friends. Outside of a single game of Spin the Bottle played at Caroline's 14th birthday party, Elena and Tyler had never so much as kissed. But people read into their friendship what they wanted, and it never really bothered Elena for people to think she and Tyler were together.
She was dating Matt and Tyler was dating half the dance team when it happened. Richard Lockwood had been reelected as Mayor and, as the adults in their lives celebrated, the Lockwood mansion bustling with activity, Tyler swiped a bottle of champagne and they stole away to his bedroom. They were delicately balancing on the line between tipsy and drunk when Tyler reached out and gently nudged the strap of her dress off of her shoulder, his mouth pressing against her skin with a surprising tenderness.
"Ty..."
"You're really pretty, 'Lena," he murmured against her shoulder, his mouth sliding wetly up towards her neck.
The rest happened so quickly, Elena could never be sure who exactly initiated what. They undressed with the efficiency of two people who knew they might not have a lot of time; Tyler wrestled a condom from its packaging, slipping it on with a practiced hand as Elena shimmied up his body, carefully lowering herself down onto him.
Their kisses were hungry; their touches, desperate. It was over in a matter of minutes, Elena muffling her cries in his shoulder as Tyler shouted his pleasure into the hand Elena pressed over his mouth. They collapsed in a heap, sweat soaked limbs tangling, Elena's hair scattered across them and sticking.
"Fuck," Tyler sighed when they finally separated, removing the condom as Elena attempted to locate her bra.
"Yeah..."
It never happened again. After that, they began to keep a careful distance from each other. Neither of them wanted to hurt Matt, and what had transpired in his bedroom was never spoken of; the closest they ever came to acknowledging it were the looks they exchanged, secret smiles stretching across lips followed by dropped, flirtatious gazes.
It had only happened once but neither of them could stop imagining just how amazing they could have been together if they'd allowed it to happen again.