[fic] The Taylor Swift Anthology (4/4 complete)
Title: The Taylor Swift Anthology (4/4)
Author: badboy_fangirl
Rating: NC-17
Characters/Pairings: Damon & Elena POV, Damon/Elena (with an appearance by Caroline, Stefan, and everyone else)
Category: Angst, Romance, Smut
Word Count: ~7600
Summary: Damon Salvatore fucking hates Taylor Swift. (But Elena loves her.)
Spoilers: Up through 2x08 "Rose."
Warnings: Sex, blood play. Goes wildly AU from 2x08.
Show/Bookverse: Show
Author's Notes: Lyrics taken from the Taylor Swift songs "Long Live," "Innocent," and "Mine," and Ke$ha's "Your Love is My Drug." I think it's possible that the ending of this is kind of controversial, so just keep in mind, this was a random idea from me, not anything I think will ever happen on the show. But, it's finally finished! Hurrah! Part One / Part Two / Part Three
Damon remembers his fascination with Katherine all too well. The insatiability, the goddamn yearning that seemed to carve his chest open from the inside out, and the feeling, when he thought she was dead, that all the light had gone out of the world with the snap of some fingers. (Or, in that case, with the brunt of a shot gun blast opening up his chest quite literally.)
In the intervening years he'd told himself it was first love; or the power and mystique of Katherine herself (though he'd never been compelled, except once or twice when she was particularly bitchy); and of course the cop out that he'd just been young, innocent, completely without cynicism despite living in a world where people were sold like cattle and his own father willingly killed him and his brother.
As his hands and lips and eyes roam Elena's pale, long-limbed body, he decides it's just him. When he loves someone--really loves them--he's sort of obsessive. Very obsessive. Whatever. It's semantics. The point is he's had three days to learn everything he can about her body, and he's been determined to know it as well as his own, especially if this is the only time he ever gets with her.
They could die, after all. Or, you know, Stefan will come home and this whole thing will be chalked up to a mistake, to a moment of weakness for Elena (if one could call what they've been doing repeatedly for the last 72 hours merely weakness), to something she regrets, and she'll look at him with those eyes, and he'll have no choice but to let her go, despite his vow that he never will.
He knows he loves her too much to destroy her. It's like all those years he spent having no regard for anyone have suddenly been swallowed up in Elena, in the way she makes him feel, in the things she inspires him to do.
So, as he makes her come against his tongue, and her nails dig into his scalp as the fingers buried in his hair contract in rhythm with the tremors shaking her thighs, he sighs out a breath across her sensitive skin. He's learned every little thing about her body, what she likes, what drives her the most crazy the fastest, and he's used it all to his own advantage as much as he's pleasured her.
She's pretty good at what she does, too, and he tries to never think of where she learned all of it; instead he focuses on the fact that it drives him mad because it's her, and he never thought she would ever touch him so intimately, much less blow him like a champ or ride him long and hard. (When he commented on it, she had smirked naughtily. "I rode horses as a kid." So, he tackled her and started it all over again.)
"Damon," she gasps now, her hands still in his hair, tugging him gently upwards. Their lips meet and her legs coil around his naked hips and she welcomes him inside her body with a warmth and enthusiasm that blinds him to all the rest of it, at least momentarily.
As he seeks his own release in her arms, he forgets for a moment to worry about the clock and instead murmurs, "I love you," into her neck.
The words whispered in return into the skin of his shoulder as she arches beneath him, soothing and inciting at the same time, pushes him over the edge. He shudders against her, and then stills, completely content for a short span of time.
*
Stefan and Bonnie return with Lucy in tow the next day. Elena sits, listening to their plan, her eyes straying to Damon, who resolutely does not look at her the entire time.
She wonders if he realizes that Stefan will find that more suspicious than if he paid her the normal amount of snarky attention he usually did. Or if he'll notice that Rose has conveniently disappeared. Of course, her penchant for running makes for an easy explanation, but Damon told her she could stay if she wanted, and she hadn't. Elena can't say that she blames her.
Caroline comes to stand beside her as the witches, Alaric (with vervain darts in his pocket), Damon, and Stefan leave to go get Katherine out of the tomb. They've all been camping out at the Salvatores for so long, it feels like they all live there, like some kind of big, dysfunctional family. Caroline's arm surrounds Elena's shoulder and she says, "Let's make dinner!" which further proves Elena's point, but she nods, because what else is she going to do? She's not a witch, and she's not a vampire, nor is she a vampire hunter with a bunch of handy weapons. All she is, besides The Doppleganger, is Damon's lover, and Stefan's tormenter (funny, how quickly those two situations reversed themselves), and if she's really lucky, the reason everyone she loves is about to die.
Caroline starts browning hamburger for spaghetti sauce while Elena makes a salad. (The kitchen used to have hardly any food, just like a regular bachelor pad--plus the fact that the residents didn't really need to eat people food--but between Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline, it's well stocked now.) She's not in the mood to talk, but she can't avoid the obvious when her friend asks, "So, are you going to tell Stefan about you and Damon?" (Not when are you going to tell him. Significant.)
She doesn't even try to feign surprise that Caroline knows. She and Damon hadn't come up for air since that night in her bedroom, though they'd moved their recreational activities to the empty boarding house until Stefan returned. Now, she hasn't touched or kissed Damon for nearly six hours and her skin crawls at the idea of not being able to. She just shrugs as she chops up cucumbers, but she doesn't look at Caroline. "Damon doesn't want to hurt Stefan. You know, in case everything goes badly with our plan. We decided to wait and tell him...after."
"Oh," Caroline says, an edge in her voice.
"What?" Elena asks. She can't help it now, she looks surreptitiously at this girl she's known since she was six years old.
Caroline doesn't have a problem looking her right in the eye, but she lacks the old bossiness and slightly superior tone she would have carried when she was human. "I guess I thought you'd get it out of your system...and then well, realize that that's not what you want."
Elena stares, feeling stung, but also that guilty knot in her stomach tightens painfully and her defenses make her want to snap back. She takes a deep breath instead and tries to say calmly, "I love Damon, Caroline."
"More than Stefan?" she asks, still watching Elena with an intensity that makes her glad she's wearing her vervain necklace.
Setting the knife aside, she wipes her hands on a dishtowel and faces Caroline fully. "Different than Stefan. Stefan and I...we're just not anymore. We grew apart, or I grew up, or...I don't even know exactly. All I know is that I want to be with Damon and he wants to be with me, and I hope that when we tell Stefan--"
"He'll just be fine with it?" Caroline demands, her voice finally going up into that shrill area. "You've got to be kidding yourself."
Elena shakes her head. "Just because Matt has had such a hard time with you and Tyler--"
"Right, because being best friends isn't the same at all as being brothers! Not to mention that Stefan and Damon have been through this before--and it went really badly, remember? And how can you prefer Damon to Stefan? For God's sake, Elena, he--"
"Hey," Elena says, lifting her hands, her fingers spread wide to indicate that Caroline should stop. "I don't need your approval, or your understanding, Caroline. And trust me, I'm well aware that Damon and Stefan have a precarious relationship. And if it comes to that, I'll bow out, you know I will. You know me. But, if we're all going to die--or if some of us are going to die--with me being the most likely candidate, then I couldn't not...not." Suddenly tears fill her eyes and splash down her cheeks. "I love him, Caroline. And he loves me, and he's never--" She presses a hand to her chest when a sob wells up, choking her. "He's never had it before. You should see how he is, how unbelievably sweet he is, and--"
Before she can get a good grip on her emotions, she's suddenly in Caroline's arms, being grasped almost painfully tight. "I'm sorry," Caroline whispers, her face against Elena's shoulder. "I know, I do. I can see how he is with you--everyone can. I'm just bitter and jealous, and, you know. Me."
Elena strokes a hand through Caroline's blonde hair and asks, "Jealous? Of what?"
Caroline pulls back, her hands firmly holding Elena's shoulders. "If there's any love triangle that can work out well, it's one you're involved in, you know. Because things always work out for you. My triangle leaves me stuck between a guy I love who I can't tell I'm a vampire and a guy I love who I can't tell that Damon killed his uncle." Caroline sniffs and Elena feels more tears on her own cheeks.
"It sucks, you know?" Caroline adds, and then they both giggle at her choice of words.
"Yeah," Elena says. "I know." They hug again, but Elena wonders if Caroline's right. Could it all work out somehow, in a positive way? She doesn't know, and she can't help feeling selfish for her part in all of it, though she knows she wouldn't change anything even if she could.
She isn't a fickle girl; she never jumped from boy to boy like Vicki Donovan; or replaced one crush with another if the first one appeared uninterested the way Caroline had done when she was human; and unlike Bonnie, who often seemed so hesitant Elena thought she might never date anyone, Elena has always just gone after what she wants. Once she realized she loved Damon, she hadn't hesitated the way she should have, considering that she'd dated his brother on and off for a year and a half.
(Often she feels so powerless in the midst of all the action that the only thing she could do was what she'd done. Forcing Damon to confront what lay between them hadn't helped the overall cause, obviously, but it did make her feel better. If they died tomorrow, at least she'd been honest with him.)
Now, however, it seems foolish to wait and hope that Stefan's good nature might save her (or Damon) from making a definitive statement.
As she and Caroline pull themselves together, wiping their damp cheeks dry and going back to fixing dinner, she knows what she needs to do.
They might save her physically, but perhaps her last human act will give them closure.
*
They give Katherine enough vervain to contain her (which is a lot since she worked up a tolerance for it) and it's hard to know how mobile she'll be the next day, or if they'll need to dose her up again before they meet with Klaus and Elijah at the designated time. After he and Stefan lock her in the basement, they go upstairs and eat dinner with what Damon has dubbed the "Scooby Doo Gang." (Bonnie, Lucy, Elena, Caroline, Alaric, Tyler, Stefan, and himself. Tyler is obviously the Great Dane, right?)
Elena works it out so that she's sitting next to him, and he wishes she wasn't right there. Everyone has always been able to read him so easily when it comes to her, and he finds he can hardly look Stefan in the eye what with all the fucking he's done the last few days.
If his brother suspects anything, he hasn't said a word. Of course, they've all got bigger things on their minds. Except that Damon really can't think about anything more than he thinks about Elena. And with her sitting next to him, her scent strong and her hand brushing his leg under the table, he really fears he won't be able to control himself.
Tomorrow, they could all close their eyes for the last time. He looks around the table, trying to focus on the other people there, and he's assaulted with the knowledge that he cares about all of them--well, not Lucy or Tyler, but everyone else has somehow become important to him.
When it comes down to it though, it's only Elena and Stefan that he'll try to protect. The rest of them are on their own because he only has two hands. They are the two most important people, even if it would pain him to see Caroline with a stake through her heart, or Bonnie lying there with lifeless eyes, unable to ever give him another headache, or Alaric--his man ring somehow separated from his body and no chance of Team Badass ever doing any hunting together again.
God, he's such a pussy now. He sends Elena a look, blaming her silently and she notices, her eyebrows quirking and her mouth opening to ask, "What?"
He stands up from the table and looks around at everyone. "I'll see you all at dawn. Try to get some sleep."
He makes his way upstairs. They've got no plan beyond Lucy and Bonnie breaking the spell on the moonstone before Elijah and Klaus have a shot at Elena, but he knows blood will be shed, no matter what. He just doesn't know whose, or if Klaus or Elijah are even killable. Considering he's already killed Elijah once, he's betting on not killable. Rose had had no helpful information either, of course, and now that she'd run off to wherever she'd run off too, he can't say that he misses her. Though an extra set of hands might be useful.
In his room, he finds Elena's Taylor Swift CD sitting on the desk. He doesn't put it in his laptop to listen to it.
*
Elena has just finished with the dishes when Stefan comes into the kitchen.
"You didn't have to do that," he says softly. As though it's just occurred to him, he adds, "We may not need those dishes clean ever again."
Elena smiles wanly at him. It's a little depressing how they've all just accepted that they might die in the morning, but she supposes it's better to go in with low expectations. She's glad he's here, though, it saves her the trouble of trying to seek him out so she can have what she expects to be a painful conversation with him. But she doesn't want there to be any bad feelings between him and Damon as they go into this battle.
She can be the martyr Damon always accuses Stefan of being right now if she needs to be.
"Is Damon going to feed you some of his blood?" Stefan asks.
Elena feels her eyes flare wide and she can't disguise her shock when she sees the truth plainly on her ex-boyfriend's face. But she answers honestly, "If he won't, I'll come to you."
"Good," he says nodding.
"He doesn't want me to turn," she says, feeling compelled (though she's not, it's Stefan after all) to confess further.
"I don't want you to turn, either," he says, watching her steadily. "But I don't like the idea of you dead forever more than I don't like the idea of you as a Vampire." He smiles at her, the old soulful, wistful Stefan who had once been all she needed to bring her back to the world of the living after her parents died. Now, she feels gratitude she can't quantify, and a certain uneasiness because no matter how good Stefan is, it's just expecting too much that he's this good.
"I want you to be happy," he says, as if it's just that simple.
"I want you to be happy, too," she responds and she takes a step towards him.
He shakes his head, as if he can't believe what he's about to say, but then he offers it up anyway. "I've realized that if Damon's happy, I'll be happy. He's been miserable for 145 years, and so have I, one way or another. Even when we," he points to himself and then her, "were together, and things were good, I was always worried about him in some way. If he's with you, I won't worry."
Elena feels tears leaking down her face and she has no words for him, other than she loves him and she always will, but she doesn't think that's what she should say right now. He hugs her, his hands moving over her back in that familiar way, something that springs only from deep caring and days and months together. "Stay alive, Elena. I'll do my best to keep him alive, too. And he'll finally have a chance to be happy."
He presses his lips to the top of her head and then lets her go.
She stands next to the sink, her fingers gripping the Formica. She doesn't even really believe in god, or any of that, yet she still utters the prayer of please.
*
Damon doesn't expect her to come, but he's glad when she does. She opens his bedroom door quietly and then stands with her back pressed to it, just looking at him. He sits on the end of the bed, not sleeping as he advised everyone else. He wonders if she's slept at all, but he doubts it. It's four in the morning and they'll all be heading to their rendezvous in a less than two hours.
She has a secret in her eyes, but before he can try to pry it out of her, she crosses the distance between them and climbs on his lap. Her fingers dive into his hair and her lips cover his, and he knows they're reckless and stupid, but he can't not have her, at least one more time.
They undress quickly, shirts flung across the room and she gets off of him long enough to shuck down her underwear and pants, but only undoes his button and zipper so that his erection is handy and then she gets back on top of him. She wants to control it, so he lets her, but it's not until he's balls-deep inside her that he finds out why. She sweeps her hair to the side, exposing her neck to his mouth and then whispers in his ear, "I'll give you a taste if you give me one."
Blood gathers around his eyes (all that's not already in his cock) and his fangs extend against his will. He knows if he does drink from her, he'll have to give her his blood in return because she'd be too weak to face what's coming without it.
They haven't discussed this, but that doesn't mean he hasn't faced the reality of the situation. If she dies, it doesn't have to be forever. But if he dies, and she dies with his blood in her system--then what?
Her teeth score his neck in the exact spot that she's offering up to him, scraping lightly, not causing anything more than pleasure to ripple across his skin. He loves having sex with Elena more than he even thought he would, and the idea of fucking her and sucking her blood at the same time makes him almost unbearably aroused. He knows he'll come as soon as he sinks his teeth into her neck--if he sinks his teeth into her neck.
"If you die, I won't feed. I won't complete the transition." The words are whisper sharp against his skin, and while he knows the intention of not feeding, he also knows the force, the need for blood, something that is mere theory to Elena at this point.
He throws his head back, staring up the at the ceiling in an effort to control his ravenous desire for her blood--for her everything. "I don't want this life for you," he grates out, the words sounding painful in his throat and slightly different from his normal speech because of his bared fangs.
Her hand curves gently around his neck, drawing his head back down. "I want to be with you...always," she whispers.
He is seduced, completely and irrevocably, his teeth grazing and then sinking past the soft white skin. She gasps and he sucks the salty, metallic warmth into his mouth, his tongue lapping at the pierced points as he bucks under her. Her arms tighten around his shoulders as her thighs do the same at his hips. She never loses the rhythm, even as his control is obliterated by her blood flowing into his mouth and his release flowing out of him. He forces himself to stop sucking at her neck when his orgasm subsides because he could go on until she's lifeless in his grasp, and that's not the point--that is the exact opposite of it, in fact.
He knows she's not satisfied--she didn't come and she still wants his blood, but it's not until their eyes meet that he understands she wants them both simultaneously. As a vampire, his body doesn't always follow the strict laws of nature that apply to human systems and organs, and the knowledge that she's hot for him in this way makes another erection immediately possible.
He reverses their positions, flipping her onto her back and raking his teeth against the inside of his wrist as he does so. As he lowers his arm to her mouth, her legs circle his waist, the heels of her feet digging into the small of his back so that she arches beneath him like a perfect bow. Her lips glide over the sensitive skin of his arm and she drinks from him, her eyes widening in pleasure that has him grabbing one of her legs with his free hand to jerk her knee up until she's spread as wide under him as she can be.
She moans so loudly that even the weight of his arm over her mouth doesn't seem to muffle it and he can feel another orgasm racing down his spine. He shifts a little, bringing his pubic bone down against her so that he's hitting her in the exact right spot. She comes, loudly and gloriously, drinking his blood and draining him of every other thought so that when the second one hits him, and his vision goes white, heaven is right there, and it consists of him and her and nothing else.
*
Elena drifts in the dreamy aftermath, her head slightly buzzed and hurting from the consumption of vampire blood. But unlike the time Damon had forced her to take his blood--that awful night in the graveyard--she feels this inner elation that takes away any discomfort in her head.
He's heavy and unmoving on top of her, and she thinks he's gone to sleep, which is fine for now, though if she's going to get any rest at all, he'll have to move eventually. For the moment, though, she enjoys the weight of him against her, the warmth and security he brings, and then wonders if this is how it always is when you love someone as intense as Damon.
She's always had enjoyable sex in the past (fumbling learning until they got it right with Matt, and then a slow, wonderful burn with Stefan who had always been very careful with her), but even her other encounters with Damon hadn't been quite as erotic as what she just experienced. Was it the blood exchange, or the idea that this might be their last time that made it so amazing? A little of both, perhaps? All she knows is that his wildness is never containable, but this had been far beyond anything she'd felt from him before.
She strokes her hand through his hair and blinks back tears. She loves him so much, she can't bear the idea of not having this chance again. She imagines him, young and brokenhearted, sitting on the banks of a river waiting for death to come and take him to Katherine. That had been a fantasy of impossibilities, but either way, after tonight Elena will be with him forever--here in Mystic Falls, or in the ether. Their futures, or lack thereof, are as intimately intertwined as anything fate ever conceived of putting together. That much she's certain of. (And Katherine will pay, finally.)
"I had the time of my life, fighting dragons with you," she quotes, staring at the dark wood ceiling above Damon's bed.
He shifts against her and mumbles in her ear: "Why do you have to like Taylor Swift? Why can't you like somebody cool?"
The grin that breaks over her face seems incongruous with the grumbly nature of his words. "Like who, Damon? Who should I like instead?"
He pushes himself up on an elbow, looking down into her face. "I don't know. Katy Perry. Ke$ha. Somebody cool." His eyes twinkle and a smile hovers at the corners of his mouth.
She places a hand on his cheek. "Because Taylor Swift sings to my heart." The moment grows serious, and maybe even a little cheesy, but she doesn't care. "Long live the walls we crashed through / All the candlelight shined just for me and you / And I was screaming, 'long live all the magic we made' / And bring on all the pretenders / I'm not afraid."
His fingers ghost over her hair, and his lips purse. The debate lingers in his expression before he finally says, "Well, that's great, because I'm fucking terrified."
She thinks of Stefan in the kitchen, and Elijah in her house striking a deal to end all deals. "It will all work out," she says, and she doesn't know where the faith suddenly comes from, but she grasps it with both hands. And to take the fear from his eyes, she adds, "Besides, your love is my drug."
Damon buries his face in her throat, laughing.
*
As the sun pinkens the horizon, they all stumble into the great room of the Boarding House. Alaric goes over the plan, yet again, in case any of them have forgotten and Caroline doles out cups of coffee, which everyone slurps gratefully. It's not quite six a.m., and what Damon wishes his day entailed is slinging his arm around Elena's neck and dragging her back up the stairs to bed.
She looks fine; the marks that should be on her neck from his teeth have already faded because of his blood in her system and he feels his cock stir in his pants. (Only he could get a hard-on as he's marching towards the most epic battle he's been in since 1863.)
He loves Elena Gilbert more than is possible to calculate and all he wants to do is lock her in the basement where Katherine still lies, angry but doped up on the vervain they'd injected her with the day before.
He will do anything to keep her safe, and if something happens to her today, he won't rest until he's killed every single Original, and anyone else who gets in his way.
Her hand squeezes his and then Stefan and Alaric go to get Katherine. No one says anything, the silence deafening to them all.
As they climb into their various cars several minutes later, the strange little caravan of witches, vampires, humans, and lone wolf, all he can think of is that a little over a year ago he'd been just as willing to sacrifice his life for Katherine's freedom. So much has changed, but really so little is different, except that Elena will be worth it; whatever the outcome, he will have no regrets.
*
They arrive early to the place Elijah told them would be sufficient for the sacrifice. This is the part that Elena really doesn't understand: that he really thinks they would all come there and let him kill her. But then again, everything about Elijah is cagey and unknowable. Maybe his plan has nothing to do with her whatsoever. Maybe he gave her an assignment just to keep her busy. (She hadn't told anyone because she knows how they all are. They would try to stop her. And regardless of what happens to her, she wants to do this.)
Lucy and Bonnie begin to chant, the moonstone gripped in their joined hands. Katherine makes inane, sarcastic comments from the side and Stefan tells her to shut the fuck up. Elena smiles when she sees Damon's eyes bulge as his head swivels to look at his brother. Tyler and Caroline stand side by side, fingers interlocked. Alaric is next to her, his body tense and his arms slightly raised. She knows he has multiple stakes up both his sleeves, and it's only a matter of time before they start flying.
She had asked Alaric for a stake band for her arm as well, which he had provided to her. She looks around, watching the trees in the distance from this small meadow where they all stand. She's sure Elijah is there, just waiting, hoping that Klaus will be drawn out by their ritualistic gathering. She knows what she's supposed to do--but she has to wait for the right moment, and she has to hope that neither Stefan nor Damon will be quick enough to realize her intent.
The deal she'd made with the devil hadn't been hard for her to agree to, in any way. When she thought of all the things she'd like to do before she died, she couldn't imagine anything more satisfying that killing Katherine Pierce. Damon and Stefan hope to hand her over to Klaus as some sort of peace offering; they think that act will somehow prevent the need for Elena's death, but she doesn't have any faith in that.
Elijah said if she killed Katherine right after the curse was lifted, then he would distract Klaus and nobody would die. (She also doesn't believe that, but at the very least Katherine will be dead.)
And, most likely, she'll be dead, too, but Damon will know, and Stefan will guess. Soon she will wake, ready for a new life. Ready for eternity.
The wind picks up and it starts to rain. Elena looks up, wondering how there can be storm clouds suddenly when the sky had been completely clear minutes before. Bonnie and Lucy's words get louder, and Elena shivers. The moonstone glows, seems to expand in their hands and then they let go of it. It rises slowly, multiple sets of eyes upon it and then erupts like a firework, showering them in light, and the rain shuts off as abruptly as a faucet.
Everything else happens so suddenly, later Elena won't be able to remember the exact order of things. First she sees Elijah at the edge of the meadow, standing with another man, one who looks as though he has stepped from the pages of ancient history. Alaric steps protectively in front of her as Damon and Stefan move forward. Damon calls out, "We have Katerina Petrova," his pronunciation of her name as old-sounding as the voice that responds with, "I have no need of her."
Elena's eyes meet Elijah's, his chin lowers marginally, and she slips around the small circle of her friends without anyone noticing her movement.
It's just as she comes up behind Katherine that the blurring action around them indicates there are several other vampires, whether loyal to Klaus or Elijah, Elena doesn't know. She doesn't have time to dwell on it anyway as Katherine spins around. She still looks a little hollowed out from all the vervain, but she's strong, and old, and Elena knows this is her only shot.
Running, she closes the distance between her and the woman who looks just like her. Stretching out her arm, she shoots the stake band, catching Katherine in the belly, and she stumbles back, falling down between Damon and Stefan. Then Elena is on top of her and she makes sure the next stake sliding into her hand is right over Katherine's heart.
Someone screams her name--multiple someones--and then she feels blood on her hands, and Katherine's eyes widen in total surprise before the light goes out of them completely. She withers beneath Elena's hand and then someone tackles her, slamming her into the ground beside her doppleganger.
"Stay down!" It's Caroline and for once, Elena obeys. Lying face down in the grass, she doesn't move, but listens as fists and feet connect with faces and torsos and legs. Intermittent cries of pain echo around her, but none of them sound like Damon, and she doesn't dare move to see what's happening.
Minutes pass, maybe more, but she's suddenly hauled to her feet and Elijah's hands grip her shoulders. "Well done, Elena," he says, as though she just passed her college entrance exams. "All will be well now." He kisses her forehead before disappearing. She looks around, seeing most of those she loves lying on the ground, though none of them look dead. Near the tree line, Klaus, whom she's never actually met, is dead, his body going up in flames as Elijah walks away.
She finally finds the one she needs to see the most, and she can't help but scream his name as she runs across the field.
*
"Damon!"
He can hear her, the desperation in her voice the same horrific fear raging in his belly, and he lifts his head. The vampire he'd been fighting had been stronger than him and had clocked him good, but had suddenly gone as the morning sun continued to rise.
As Elena gets closer, she yells his name again, and he's bleeding, and groaning, and healing all at the same moment. He can't believe what he saw her do, but as she kneels down next to him her fingers--coated in Katherine's blood--grasp his face and she leans over him. "Are you all right?" she asks, her breath panting harshly from her lips.
He realizes it the moment before she closes the distance between them that she's going to kiss him, and he's so stunned that he doesn't kiss her back. His hands are in her hair though, holding her over him and he says, "I can't believe you did that," even though that's not really true. He can believe anything of Elena, because when it comes right down to it, she has more courage than anyone he's ever known.
"Elijah said all would be well," she breathes, her lips finding his again, and this time he's not so shell-shocked that he can't respond. He kisses her, sliding his tongue deftly into her mouth. He takes a breath, and something twinges in his chest. He realizes he feels a little....off but he says nothing as she helps him sit up.
The world is spinning a bit, but he's functional. He thinks about asking her for a little bit of her blood to help speed up the healing process, but the thought makes him feel a bit nauseated, so he says nothing. He hugs her, holding her close to his body and murmurs, "If you'd just stop saving my life all the time, yours might get a lot less complicated."
He's joking of course--trying to get his footing back and lose the sick feeling in his stomach--and he knows it's an assy way to say thank you, but she just leans towards him, tucking her chin against his shoulder. She whispers, "Never," near his ear, and he realizes he can barely hear her, another strange sensation when usually the softest sound from a hundred paces is loud and clear.
He looks around and every single one of their party is fine. They're all on their feet, hugging each other and celebrating what seems to be the victory of victories.
Damon can't help but think it was all a little too easy.
*
Elena brings him back to her house, because she wants to be alone with him, not at the Boarding House with everyone else.
They're both quiet, and she wonders if she's suffering some kind of post-traumatic stress shock or something. She feels strangely disconnected from her body, and Damon feels far away, even as he weaves his fingers through hers and they walk up the steps of her house.
Jeremy and Jenna are at the table eating breakfast as they come in. Elena uses her standard deflection of "I don't want to talk about it," as she leads Damon up the stairs to her bedroom and avoids Jenna's concerned gaze. She nods at her brother so he knows it's done, and a smile of relief flits over his face.
When they're lying on her bed just holding each other, his hand takes a firm grasp within her hair. "What you did isn't who you are, you know," he says sagely, his voice soft. She knows they're both about to fall asleep because the adrenaline rush is over, leaving them crashing in a way that makes her so glad they're safely home.
Leave it to Damon to be romantic even at a moment like this. She giggles softly. "Are you quoting Taylor Swift to me?" she asks.
His shoulder moves under her head, as though he's shrugging. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," he says.
"I was glad to kill her," she says, and even she can hear the fierceness in her tone.
He gives a little laugh, but she knows he's practically asleep as he says, "Me, too." Then, very softly, he says, "Whatever happens, Elena. I love you. I'll always be with you."
If she weren't so exhausted, those words might have set off alarm bells, but instead, she snuggles her face into his chest and sinks so deeply into sleep, she doesn't move for fourteen hours.
*
Damon falls asleep about the same time, but he doesn't think he's sleeping--he's certain that he's dying. Something happened when the curse was broken because his body doesn't feel right. The injuries he sustained in his hand-to-hand combat with one of the nameless vamps who had turned up with Elijah and Klaus have all healed just like always, but his muscles ache and he feels distinctly weaker--like...it's something he can't quite put his finger on.
It's been so long, it's hard to remember, but he feels...almost human-like. It's a distant memory, something that once was but no longer seems real because it happened so long ago. As Elena's deep breathing lulls him away, he's sure he won't wake again, and he's so grateful that she hadn't been killed in the battle. If he has to die, at least now she won't be consigned to a miserable life of fighting against the nature that is so unlike her true self. For this small mercy he gives thanks, and then fades into a blackness so complete he doesn't stir until the urgent shaking of someone's hands against his shoulders and his brother's voice penetrates his consciousness.
As if he's miles away, Damon floats back to the surface, opening his eyes, blinking to adjust to the overhead lamp that's been flicked on. It's dark outside past the curtains on Elena's window and Jeremy, Bonnie, and Caroline are all at the foot of the bed as Stefan continues to rock Damon's body until he becomes aware of the dead weight of Elena on his right side.
"Alright, alright, 'M'awake," he mumbles, shoving Stefan away. The first thing he becomes aware of is that even though he's able to make his brother stop assaulting him, he doesn't have any real force in his arm any more. That same move yesterday would have sent Stefan sprawling on to the floor. Elena's eyes flutter sleepily and she moans soft in her throat, her leg moving from where it's slung over his, upward. He puts his hand on her knee to prevent what he knows is the wake-up straddle she's so fond of, and he can't help smiling at the way he can read her. Their relationship isn't even a week old yet, and he feels like he's been with her forever.
"Damon, how do you feel?" This from Caroline at the end of the bed. Damon forces himself to wake fully, but his head is fuzzy, like he's got a hangover. Except that he never gets hangovers, no matter how much he's had to drink. His vampiric healing abilities have always taken that morning-after wretchedness away before it could settle in. It's always been one of his favorite things about being a vampire.
"Like shit," he answers, because it's the first descriptor that comes to mind.
Bonnie looks at Caroline and they both have this excitement about them that Damon can't figure out. (Sure, they should be happy if he feels like shit, they both hate his guts, but it's rude to wake him and then celebrate his problem.) Elena stretches and opens her eyes and they both slowly sit up.
"Damon?" Stefan asks.
Turning his gaze toward him, Damon says, "Brother?"
"We're human again," Stefan says, and his hand reaches out to grip Damon's shoulder.
"What?" Damon asks, in the midst of total confusion and dawning realization. His body--the muscle aches, the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach--and now his apparent weakness. It was just like that awful morning he'd woken up on the road half a mile from the church, and lurching down the road, watched the flames dancing in the sky. When he'd realized Katherine was dead and he was undead.
Now, he realizes he's alive, and Stefan has tears in his eyes and Bonnie and Caroline are hugging, and Elena has a look of complete bewilderment on her face.
Whatever he supposes would happen after they broke the curse on the moonstone, this is the one thing that never occurred to any of them. As he stands up and hugs his brother, he can't process the implications, but he knows a happiness he hasn't felt in 146 years.
*
Elena Gilbert graduates from high school a few weeks later. Her boyfriend continues to garner the disapproving frowns of the town's people who think he's a tad too old to be dating her, but all things considered, now that Damon's actually aging again, it only causes Elena to grin and bear it.
She doesn't care what anyone thinks, because in the aftermath of the curse being broken, Alaric finally tells Jenna everything (now that she is in no danger from supernatural beings) and she actually goes back to liking Damon, just as she had before Katherine had duped her.
Rose turns back up, wondering how come she's a mere mortal again, and when Stefan tells her what happened the day they broke the curse, she relates one of those many "myths" she'd picked up over the years. This one includes the rules changing in the event that a doppleganger kills a doppleganger (which somehow trumps the fact that the first doppleganger had killed herself to avoid being able to break the curse in the first place).
They never see Elijah again, and Tyler passes through the next full moon without ever breaking a sweat. Caroline, torn as she'd been between two boys for two valid reasons, realizes that maybe she ought to turn her attentions to Stefan, who is definitely single again, and looking at her in a new light now that she's still the confident, secure woman who'd spent eight months as a vampire, but is now just as human as he is.
Elena's not sure what will happen there, but she knows it will be interesting to watch.
She and Damon take a road trip to Georgia in the early summer, just the two of them. They sight-see historic places along the way, and take pictures of themselves, laughing with double chins because the camera is too close. They make love in motel rooms off the interstate, and sometimes in the backseat of his blue muscle car, because it's pretty roomie. Mostly they eat and sleep and have too much fun.
In a motel just south of Atlanta, Elena tells him she's been accepted to Brown University in Rhode Island. His head whips around and she narrows her eyes at him when he tries to act like he didn't just have a huge reaction. After an hour of intense arguing, he finally confesses that he lived in Rhode Island back in 2006.
"It's where I started listening to Taylor Swift," he says, sticking his tongue out at her.
She knows there's more to it than that, but she figures if he doesn't want to tell her, it's probably because she doesn't want to know whatever it is. She sits on his lap and slides her hand into the hair at the back of his neck. "Maybe I could find a regular job in Rhode Island. It could work," he says musingly, his arm resting across her thighs.
She watches his face carefully. "Learning to live with human limitations again is hard, I know."
Damon just smiles. "No," he says, shaking his head. "Somehow, I think it's just what I need." She believes him.
When he quotes, "You are the best thing that's ever been mine," she just starts laughing and lets him roll them across the bed until she's beneath him.
fin
Author: badboy_fangirl
Rating: NC-17
Characters/Pairings: Damon & Elena POV, Damon/Elena (with an appearance by Caroline, Stefan, and everyone else)
Category: Angst, Romance, Smut
Word Count: ~7600
Summary: Damon Salvatore fucking hates Taylor Swift. (But Elena loves her.)
Spoilers: Up through 2x08 "Rose."
Warnings: Sex, blood play. Goes wildly AU from 2x08.
Show/Bookverse: Show
Author's Notes: Lyrics taken from the Taylor Swift songs "Long Live," "Innocent," and "Mine," and Ke$ha's "Your Love is My Drug." I think it's possible that the ending of this is kind of controversial, so just keep in mind, this was a random idea from me, not anything I think will ever happen on the show. But, it's finally finished! Hurrah! Part One / Part Two / Part Three
Damon remembers his fascination with Katherine all too well. The insatiability, the goddamn yearning that seemed to carve his chest open from the inside out, and the feeling, when he thought she was dead, that all the light had gone out of the world with the snap of some fingers. (Or, in that case, with the brunt of a shot gun blast opening up his chest quite literally.)
In the intervening years he'd told himself it was first love; or the power and mystique of Katherine herself (though he'd never been compelled, except once or twice when she was particularly bitchy); and of course the cop out that he'd just been young, innocent, completely without cynicism despite living in a world where people were sold like cattle and his own father willingly killed him and his brother.
As his hands and lips and eyes roam Elena's pale, long-limbed body, he decides it's just him. When he loves someone--really loves them--he's sort of obsessive. Very obsessive. Whatever. It's semantics. The point is he's had three days to learn everything he can about her body, and he's been determined to know it as well as his own, especially if this is the only time he ever gets with her.
They could die, after all. Or, you know, Stefan will come home and this whole thing will be chalked up to a mistake, to a moment of weakness for Elena (if one could call what they've been doing repeatedly for the last 72 hours merely weakness), to something she regrets, and she'll look at him with those eyes, and he'll have no choice but to let her go, despite his vow that he never will.
He knows he loves her too much to destroy her. It's like all those years he spent having no regard for anyone have suddenly been swallowed up in Elena, in the way she makes him feel, in the things she inspires him to do.
So, as he makes her come against his tongue, and her nails dig into his scalp as the fingers buried in his hair contract in rhythm with the tremors shaking her thighs, he sighs out a breath across her sensitive skin. He's learned every little thing about her body, what she likes, what drives her the most crazy the fastest, and he's used it all to his own advantage as much as he's pleasured her.
She's pretty good at what she does, too, and he tries to never think of where she learned all of it; instead he focuses on the fact that it drives him mad because it's her, and he never thought she would ever touch him so intimately, much less blow him like a champ or ride him long and hard. (When he commented on it, she had smirked naughtily. "I rode horses as a kid." So, he tackled her and started it all over again.)
"Damon," she gasps now, her hands still in his hair, tugging him gently upwards. Their lips meet and her legs coil around his naked hips and she welcomes him inside her body with a warmth and enthusiasm that blinds him to all the rest of it, at least momentarily.
As he seeks his own release in her arms, he forgets for a moment to worry about the clock and instead murmurs, "I love you," into her neck.
The words whispered in return into the skin of his shoulder as she arches beneath him, soothing and inciting at the same time, pushes him over the edge. He shudders against her, and then stills, completely content for a short span of time.
*
Stefan and Bonnie return with Lucy in tow the next day. Elena sits, listening to their plan, her eyes straying to Damon, who resolutely does not look at her the entire time.
She wonders if he realizes that Stefan will find that more suspicious than if he paid her the normal amount of snarky attention he usually did. Or if he'll notice that Rose has conveniently disappeared. Of course, her penchant for running makes for an easy explanation, but Damon told her she could stay if she wanted, and she hadn't. Elena can't say that she blames her.
Caroline comes to stand beside her as the witches, Alaric (with vervain darts in his pocket), Damon, and Stefan leave to go get Katherine out of the tomb. They've all been camping out at the Salvatores for so long, it feels like they all live there, like some kind of big, dysfunctional family. Caroline's arm surrounds Elena's shoulder and she says, "Let's make dinner!" which further proves Elena's point, but she nods, because what else is she going to do? She's not a witch, and she's not a vampire, nor is she a vampire hunter with a bunch of handy weapons. All she is, besides The Doppleganger, is Damon's lover, and Stefan's tormenter (funny, how quickly those two situations reversed themselves), and if she's really lucky, the reason everyone she loves is about to die.
Caroline starts browning hamburger for spaghetti sauce while Elena makes a salad. (The kitchen used to have hardly any food, just like a regular bachelor pad--plus the fact that the residents didn't really need to eat people food--but between Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline, it's well stocked now.) She's not in the mood to talk, but she can't avoid the obvious when her friend asks, "So, are you going to tell Stefan about you and Damon?" (Not when are you going to tell him. Significant.)
She doesn't even try to feign surprise that Caroline knows. She and Damon hadn't come up for air since that night in her bedroom, though they'd moved their recreational activities to the empty boarding house until Stefan returned. Now, she hasn't touched or kissed Damon for nearly six hours and her skin crawls at the idea of not being able to. She just shrugs as she chops up cucumbers, but she doesn't look at Caroline. "Damon doesn't want to hurt Stefan. You know, in case everything goes badly with our plan. We decided to wait and tell him...after."
"Oh," Caroline says, an edge in her voice.
"What?" Elena asks. She can't help it now, she looks surreptitiously at this girl she's known since she was six years old.
Caroline doesn't have a problem looking her right in the eye, but she lacks the old bossiness and slightly superior tone she would have carried when she was human. "I guess I thought you'd get it out of your system...and then well, realize that that's not what you want."
Elena stares, feeling stung, but also that guilty knot in her stomach tightens painfully and her defenses make her want to snap back. She takes a deep breath instead and tries to say calmly, "I love Damon, Caroline."
"More than Stefan?" she asks, still watching Elena with an intensity that makes her glad she's wearing her vervain necklace.
Setting the knife aside, she wipes her hands on a dishtowel and faces Caroline fully. "Different than Stefan. Stefan and I...we're just not anymore. We grew apart, or I grew up, or...I don't even know exactly. All I know is that I want to be with Damon and he wants to be with me, and I hope that when we tell Stefan--"
"He'll just be fine with it?" Caroline demands, her voice finally going up into that shrill area. "You've got to be kidding yourself."
Elena shakes her head. "Just because Matt has had such a hard time with you and Tyler--"
"Right, because being best friends isn't the same at all as being brothers! Not to mention that Stefan and Damon have been through this before--and it went really badly, remember? And how can you prefer Damon to Stefan? For God's sake, Elena, he--"
"Hey," Elena says, lifting her hands, her fingers spread wide to indicate that Caroline should stop. "I don't need your approval, or your understanding, Caroline. And trust me, I'm well aware that Damon and Stefan have a precarious relationship. And if it comes to that, I'll bow out, you know I will. You know me. But, if we're all going to die--or if some of us are going to die--with me being the most likely candidate, then I couldn't not...not." Suddenly tears fill her eyes and splash down her cheeks. "I love him, Caroline. And he loves me, and he's never--" She presses a hand to her chest when a sob wells up, choking her. "He's never had it before. You should see how he is, how unbelievably sweet he is, and--"
Before she can get a good grip on her emotions, she's suddenly in Caroline's arms, being grasped almost painfully tight. "I'm sorry," Caroline whispers, her face against Elena's shoulder. "I know, I do. I can see how he is with you--everyone can. I'm just bitter and jealous, and, you know. Me."
Elena strokes a hand through Caroline's blonde hair and asks, "Jealous? Of what?"
Caroline pulls back, her hands firmly holding Elena's shoulders. "If there's any love triangle that can work out well, it's one you're involved in, you know. Because things always work out for you. My triangle leaves me stuck between a guy I love who I can't tell I'm a vampire and a guy I love who I can't tell that Damon killed his uncle." Caroline sniffs and Elena feels more tears on her own cheeks.
"It sucks, you know?" Caroline adds, and then they both giggle at her choice of words.
"Yeah," Elena says. "I know." They hug again, but Elena wonders if Caroline's right. Could it all work out somehow, in a positive way? She doesn't know, and she can't help feeling selfish for her part in all of it, though she knows she wouldn't change anything even if she could.
She isn't a fickle girl; she never jumped from boy to boy like Vicki Donovan; or replaced one crush with another if the first one appeared uninterested the way Caroline had done when she was human; and unlike Bonnie, who often seemed so hesitant Elena thought she might never date anyone, Elena has always just gone after what she wants. Once she realized she loved Damon, she hadn't hesitated the way she should have, considering that she'd dated his brother on and off for a year and a half.
(Often she feels so powerless in the midst of all the action that the only thing she could do was what she'd done. Forcing Damon to confront what lay between them hadn't helped the overall cause, obviously, but it did make her feel better. If they died tomorrow, at least she'd been honest with him.)
Now, however, it seems foolish to wait and hope that Stefan's good nature might save her (or Damon) from making a definitive statement.
As she and Caroline pull themselves together, wiping their damp cheeks dry and going back to fixing dinner, she knows what she needs to do.
They might save her physically, but perhaps her last human act will give them closure.
*
They give Katherine enough vervain to contain her (which is a lot since she worked up a tolerance for it) and it's hard to know how mobile she'll be the next day, or if they'll need to dose her up again before they meet with Klaus and Elijah at the designated time. After he and Stefan lock her in the basement, they go upstairs and eat dinner with what Damon has dubbed the "Scooby Doo Gang." (Bonnie, Lucy, Elena, Caroline, Alaric, Tyler, Stefan, and himself. Tyler is obviously the Great Dane, right?)
Elena works it out so that she's sitting next to him, and he wishes she wasn't right there. Everyone has always been able to read him so easily when it comes to her, and he finds he can hardly look Stefan in the eye what with all the fucking he's done the last few days.
If his brother suspects anything, he hasn't said a word. Of course, they've all got bigger things on their minds. Except that Damon really can't think about anything more than he thinks about Elena. And with her sitting next to him, her scent strong and her hand brushing his leg under the table, he really fears he won't be able to control himself.
Tomorrow, they could all close their eyes for the last time. He looks around the table, trying to focus on the other people there, and he's assaulted with the knowledge that he cares about all of them--well, not Lucy or Tyler, but everyone else has somehow become important to him.
When it comes down to it though, it's only Elena and Stefan that he'll try to protect. The rest of them are on their own because he only has two hands. They are the two most important people, even if it would pain him to see Caroline with a stake through her heart, or Bonnie lying there with lifeless eyes, unable to ever give him another headache, or Alaric--his man ring somehow separated from his body and no chance of Team Badass ever doing any hunting together again.
God, he's such a pussy now. He sends Elena a look, blaming her silently and she notices, her eyebrows quirking and her mouth opening to ask, "What?"
He stands up from the table and looks around at everyone. "I'll see you all at dawn. Try to get some sleep."
He makes his way upstairs. They've got no plan beyond Lucy and Bonnie breaking the spell on the moonstone before Elijah and Klaus have a shot at Elena, but he knows blood will be shed, no matter what. He just doesn't know whose, or if Klaus or Elijah are even killable. Considering he's already killed Elijah once, he's betting on not killable. Rose had had no helpful information either, of course, and now that she'd run off to wherever she'd run off too, he can't say that he misses her. Though an extra set of hands might be useful.
In his room, he finds Elena's Taylor Swift CD sitting on the desk. He doesn't put it in his laptop to listen to it.
*
Elena has just finished with the dishes when Stefan comes into the kitchen.
"You didn't have to do that," he says softly. As though it's just occurred to him, he adds, "We may not need those dishes clean ever again."
Elena smiles wanly at him. It's a little depressing how they've all just accepted that they might die in the morning, but she supposes it's better to go in with low expectations. She's glad he's here, though, it saves her the trouble of trying to seek him out so she can have what she expects to be a painful conversation with him. But she doesn't want there to be any bad feelings between him and Damon as they go into this battle.
She can be the martyr Damon always accuses Stefan of being right now if she needs to be.
"Is Damon going to feed you some of his blood?" Stefan asks.
Elena feels her eyes flare wide and she can't disguise her shock when she sees the truth plainly on her ex-boyfriend's face. But she answers honestly, "If he won't, I'll come to you."
"Good," he says nodding.
"He doesn't want me to turn," she says, feeling compelled (though she's not, it's Stefan after all) to confess further.
"I don't want you to turn, either," he says, watching her steadily. "But I don't like the idea of you dead forever more than I don't like the idea of you as a Vampire." He smiles at her, the old soulful, wistful Stefan who had once been all she needed to bring her back to the world of the living after her parents died. Now, she feels gratitude she can't quantify, and a certain uneasiness because no matter how good Stefan is, it's just expecting too much that he's this good.
"I want you to be happy," he says, as if it's just that simple.
"I want you to be happy, too," she responds and she takes a step towards him.
He shakes his head, as if he can't believe what he's about to say, but then he offers it up anyway. "I've realized that if Damon's happy, I'll be happy. He's been miserable for 145 years, and so have I, one way or another. Even when we," he points to himself and then her, "were together, and things were good, I was always worried about him in some way. If he's with you, I won't worry."
Elena feels tears leaking down her face and she has no words for him, other than she loves him and she always will, but she doesn't think that's what she should say right now. He hugs her, his hands moving over her back in that familiar way, something that springs only from deep caring and days and months together. "Stay alive, Elena. I'll do my best to keep him alive, too. And he'll finally have a chance to be happy."
He presses his lips to the top of her head and then lets her go.
She stands next to the sink, her fingers gripping the Formica. She doesn't even really believe in god, or any of that, yet she still utters the prayer of please.
*
Damon doesn't expect her to come, but he's glad when she does. She opens his bedroom door quietly and then stands with her back pressed to it, just looking at him. He sits on the end of the bed, not sleeping as he advised everyone else. He wonders if she's slept at all, but he doubts it. It's four in the morning and they'll all be heading to their rendezvous in a less than two hours.
She has a secret in her eyes, but before he can try to pry it out of her, she crosses the distance between them and climbs on his lap. Her fingers dive into his hair and her lips cover his, and he knows they're reckless and stupid, but he can't not have her, at least one more time.
They undress quickly, shirts flung across the room and she gets off of him long enough to shuck down her underwear and pants, but only undoes his button and zipper so that his erection is handy and then she gets back on top of him. She wants to control it, so he lets her, but it's not until he's balls-deep inside her that he finds out why. She sweeps her hair to the side, exposing her neck to his mouth and then whispers in his ear, "I'll give you a taste if you give me one."
Blood gathers around his eyes (all that's not already in his cock) and his fangs extend against his will. He knows if he does drink from her, he'll have to give her his blood in return because she'd be too weak to face what's coming without it.
They haven't discussed this, but that doesn't mean he hasn't faced the reality of the situation. If she dies, it doesn't have to be forever. But if he dies, and she dies with his blood in her system--then what?
Her teeth score his neck in the exact spot that she's offering up to him, scraping lightly, not causing anything more than pleasure to ripple across his skin. He loves having sex with Elena more than he even thought he would, and the idea of fucking her and sucking her blood at the same time makes him almost unbearably aroused. He knows he'll come as soon as he sinks his teeth into her neck--if he sinks his teeth into her neck.
"If you die, I won't feed. I won't complete the transition." The words are whisper sharp against his skin, and while he knows the intention of not feeding, he also knows the force, the need for blood, something that is mere theory to Elena at this point.
He throws his head back, staring up the at the ceiling in an effort to control his ravenous desire for her blood--for her everything. "I don't want this life for you," he grates out, the words sounding painful in his throat and slightly different from his normal speech because of his bared fangs.
Her hand curves gently around his neck, drawing his head back down. "I want to be with you...always," she whispers.
He is seduced, completely and irrevocably, his teeth grazing and then sinking past the soft white skin. She gasps and he sucks the salty, metallic warmth into his mouth, his tongue lapping at the pierced points as he bucks under her. Her arms tighten around his shoulders as her thighs do the same at his hips. She never loses the rhythm, even as his control is obliterated by her blood flowing into his mouth and his release flowing out of him. He forces himself to stop sucking at her neck when his orgasm subsides because he could go on until she's lifeless in his grasp, and that's not the point--that is the exact opposite of it, in fact.
He knows she's not satisfied--she didn't come and she still wants his blood, but it's not until their eyes meet that he understands she wants them both simultaneously. As a vampire, his body doesn't always follow the strict laws of nature that apply to human systems and organs, and the knowledge that she's hot for him in this way makes another erection immediately possible.
He reverses their positions, flipping her onto her back and raking his teeth against the inside of his wrist as he does so. As he lowers his arm to her mouth, her legs circle his waist, the heels of her feet digging into the small of his back so that she arches beneath him like a perfect bow. Her lips glide over the sensitive skin of his arm and she drinks from him, her eyes widening in pleasure that has him grabbing one of her legs with his free hand to jerk her knee up until she's spread as wide under him as she can be.
She moans so loudly that even the weight of his arm over her mouth doesn't seem to muffle it and he can feel another orgasm racing down his spine. He shifts a little, bringing his pubic bone down against her so that he's hitting her in the exact right spot. She comes, loudly and gloriously, drinking his blood and draining him of every other thought so that when the second one hits him, and his vision goes white, heaven is right there, and it consists of him and her and nothing else.
*
Elena drifts in the dreamy aftermath, her head slightly buzzed and hurting from the consumption of vampire blood. But unlike the time Damon had forced her to take his blood--that awful night in the graveyard--she feels this inner elation that takes away any discomfort in her head.
He's heavy and unmoving on top of her, and she thinks he's gone to sleep, which is fine for now, though if she's going to get any rest at all, he'll have to move eventually. For the moment, though, she enjoys the weight of him against her, the warmth and security he brings, and then wonders if this is how it always is when you love someone as intense as Damon.
She's always had enjoyable sex in the past (fumbling learning until they got it right with Matt, and then a slow, wonderful burn with Stefan who had always been very careful with her), but even her other encounters with Damon hadn't been quite as erotic as what she just experienced. Was it the blood exchange, or the idea that this might be their last time that made it so amazing? A little of both, perhaps? All she knows is that his wildness is never containable, but this had been far beyond anything she'd felt from him before.
She strokes her hand through his hair and blinks back tears. She loves him so much, she can't bear the idea of not having this chance again. She imagines him, young and brokenhearted, sitting on the banks of a river waiting for death to come and take him to Katherine. That had been a fantasy of impossibilities, but either way, after tonight Elena will be with him forever--here in Mystic Falls, or in the ether. Their futures, or lack thereof, are as intimately intertwined as anything fate ever conceived of putting together. That much she's certain of. (And Katherine will pay, finally.)
"I had the time of my life, fighting dragons with you," she quotes, staring at the dark wood ceiling above Damon's bed.
He shifts against her and mumbles in her ear: "Why do you have to like Taylor Swift? Why can't you like somebody cool?"
The grin that breaks over her face seems incongruous with the grumbly nature of his words. "Like who, Damon? Who should I like instead?"
He pushes himself up on an elbow, looking down into her face. "I don't know. Katy Perry. Ke$ha. Somebody cool." His eyes twinkle and a smile hovers at the corners of his mouth.
She places a hand on his cheek. "Because Taylor Swift sings to my heart." The moment grows serious, and maybe even a little cheesy, but she doesn't care. "Long live the walls we crashed through / All the candlelight shined just for me and you / And I was screaming, 'long live all the magic we made' / And bring on all the pretenders / I'm not afraid."
His fingers ghost over her hair, and his lips purse. The debate lingers in his expression before he finally says, "Well, that's great, because I'm fucking terrified."
She thinks of Stefan in the kitchen, and Elijah in her house striking a deal to end all deals. "It will all work out," she says, and she doesn't know where the faith suddenly comes from, but she grasps it with both hands. And to take the fear from his eyes, she adds, "Besides, your love is my drug."
Damon buries his face in her throat, laughing.
*
As the sun pinkens the horizon, they all stumble into the great room of the Boarding House. Alaric goes over the plan, yet again, in case any of them have forgotten and Caroline doles out cups of coffee, which everyone slurps gratefully. It's not quite six a.m., and what Damon wishes his day entailed is slinging his arm around Elena's neck and dragging her back up the stairs to bed.
She looks fine; the marks that should be on her neck from his teeth have already faded because of his blood in her system and he feels his cock stir in his pants. (Only he could get a hard-on as he's marching towards the most epic battle he's been in since 1863.)
He loves Elena Gilbert more than is possible to calculate and all he wants to do is lock her in the basement where Katherine still lies, angry but doped up on the vervain they'd injected her with the day before.
He will do anything to keep her safe, and if something happens to her today, he won't rest until he's killed every single Original, and anyone else who gets in his way.
Her hand squeezes his and then Stefan and Alaric go to get Katherine. No one says anything, the silence deafening to them all.
As they climb into their various cars several minutes later, the strange little caravan of witches, vampires, humans, and lone wolf, all he can think of is that a little over a year ago he'd been just as willing to sacrifice his life for Katherine's freedom. So much has changed, but really so little is different, except that Elena will be worth it; whatever the outcome, he will have no regrets.
*
They arrive early to the place Elijah told them would be sufficient for the sacrifice. This is the part that Elena really doesn't understand: that he really thinks they would all come there and let him kill her. But then again, everything about Elijah is cagey and unknowable. Maybe his plan has nothing to do with her whatsoever. Maybe he gave her an assignment just to keep her busy. (She hadn't told anyone because she knows how they all are. They would try to stop her. And regardless of what happens to her, she wants to do this.)
Lucy and Bonnie begin to chant, the moonstone gripped in their joined hands. Katherine makes inane, sarcastic comments from the side and Stefan tells her to shut the fuck up. Elena smiles when she sees Damon's eyes bulge as his head swivels to look at his brother. Tyler and Caroline stand side by side, fingers interlocked. Alaric is next to her, his body tense and his arms slightly raised. She knows he has multiple stakes up both his sleeves, and it's only a matter of time before they start flying.
She had asked Alaric for a stake band for her arm as well, which he had provided to her. She looks around, watching the trees in the distance from this small meadow where they all stand. She's sure Elijah is there, just waiting, hoping that Klaus will be drawn out by their ritualistic gathering. She knows what she's supposed to do--but she has to wait for the right moment, and she has to hope that neither Stefan nor Damon will be quick enough to realize her intent.
The deal she'd made with the devil hadn't been hard for her to agree to, in any way. When she thought of all the things she'd like to do before she died, she couldn't imagine anything more satisfying that killing Katherine Pierce. Damon and Stefan hope to hand her over to Klaus as some sort of peace offering; they think that act will somehow prevent the need for Elena's death, but she doesn't have any faith in that.
Elijah said if she killed Katherine right after the curse was lifted, then he would distract Klaus and nobody would die. (She also doesn't believe that, but at the very least Katherine will be dead.)
And, most likely, she'll be dead, too, but Damon will know, and Stefan will guess. Soon she will wake, ready for a new life. Ready for eternity.
The wind picks up and it starts to rain. Elena looks up, wondering how there can be storm clouds suddenly when the sky had been completely clear minutes before. Bonnie and Lucy's words get louder, and Elena shivers. The moonstone glows, seems to expand in their hands and then they let go of it. It rises slowly, multiple sets of eyes upon it and then erupts like a firework, showering them in light, and the rain shuts off as abruptly as a faucet.
Everything else happens so suddenly, later Elena won't be able to remember the exact order of things. First she sees Elijah at the edge of the meadow, standing with another man, one who looks as though he has stepped from the pages of ancient history. Alaric steps protectively in front of her as Damon and Stefan move forward. Damon calls out, "We have Katerina Petrova," his pronunciation of her name as old-sounding as the voice that responds with, "I have no need of her."
Elena's eyes meet Elijah's, his chin lowers marginally, and she slips around the small circle of her friends without anyone noticing her movement.
It's just as she comes up behind Katherine that the blurring action around them indicates there are several other vampires, whether loyal to Klaus or Elijah, Elena doesn't know. She doesn't have time to dwell on it anyway as Katherine spins around. She still looks a little hollowed out from all the vervain, but she's strong, and old, and Elena knows this is her only shot.
Running, she closes the distance between her and the woman who looks just like her. Stretching out her arm, she shoots the stake band, catching Katherine in the belly, and she stumbles back, falling down between Damon and Stefan. Then Elena is on top of her and she makes sure the next stake sliding into her hand is right over Katherine's heart.
Someone screams her name--multiple someones--and then she feels blood on her hands, and Katherine's eyes widen in total surprise before the light goes out of them completely. She withers beneath Elena's hand and then someone tackles her, slamming her into the ground beside her doppleganger.
"Stay down!" It's Caroline and for once, Elena obeys. Lying face down in the grass, she doesn't move, but listens as fists and feet connect with faces and torsos and legs. Intermittent cries of pain echo around her, but none of them sound like Damon, and she doesn't dare move to see what's happening.
Minutes pass, maybe more, but she's suddenly hauled to her feet and Elijah's hands grip her shoulders. "Well done, Elena," he says, as though she just passed her college entrance exams. "All will be well now." He kisses her forehead before disappearing. She looks around, seeing most of those she loves lying on the ground, though none of them look dead. Near the tree line, Klaus, whom she's never actually met, is dead, his body going up in flames as Elijah walks away.
She finally finds the one she needs to see the most, and she can't help but scream his name as she runs across the field.
*
"Damon!"
He can hear her, the desperation in her voice the same horrific fear raging in his belly, and he lifts his head. The vampire he'd been fighting had been stronger than him and had clocked him good, but had suddenly gone as the morning sun continued to rise.
As Elena gets closer, she yells his name again, and he's bleeding, and groaning, and healing all at the same moment. He can't believe what he saw her do, but as she kneels down next to him her fingers--coated in Katherine's blood--grasp his face and she leans over him. "Are you all right?" she asks, her breath panting harshly from her lips.
He realizes it the moment before she closes the distance between them that she's going to kiss him, and he's so stunned that he doesn't kiss her back. His hands are in her hair though, holding her over him and he says, "I can't believe you did that," even though that's not really true. He can believe anything of Elena, because when it comes right down to it, she has more courage than anyone he's ever known.
"Elijah said all would be well," she breathes, her lips finding his again, and this time he's not so shell-shocked that he can't respond. He kisses her, sliding his tongue deftly into her mouth. He takes a breath, and something twinges in his chest. He realizes he feels a little....off but he says nothing as she helps him sit up.
The world is spinning a bit, but he's functional. He thinks about asking her for a little bit of her blood to help speed up the healing process, but the thought makes him feel a bit nauseated, so he says nothing. He hugs her, holding her close to his body and murmurs, "If you'd just stop saving my life all the time, yours might get a lot less complicated."
He's joking of course--trying to get his footing back and lose the sick feeling in his stomach--and he knows it's an assy way to say thank you, but she just leans towards him, tucking her chin against his shoulder. She whispers, "Never," near his ear, and he realizes he can barely hear her, another strange sensation when usually the softest sound from a hundred paces is loud and clear.
He looks around and every single one of their party is fine. They're all on their feet, hugging each other and celebrating what seems to be the victory of victories.
Damon can't help but think it was all a little too easy.
*
Elena brings him back to her house, because she wants to be alone with him, not at the Boarding House with everyone else.
They're both quiet, and she wonders if she's suffering some kind of post-traumatic stress shock or something. She feels strangely disconnected from her body, and Damon feels far away, even as he weaves his fingers through hers and they walk up the steps of her house.
Jeremy and Jenna are at the table eating breakfast as they come in. Elena uses her standard deflection of "I don't want to talk about it," as she leads Damon up the stairs to her bedroom and avoids Jenna's concerned gaze. She nods at her brother so he knows it's done, and a smile of relief flits over his face.
When they're lying on her bed just holding each other, his hand takes a firm grasp within her hair. "What you did isn't who you are, you know," he says sagely, his voice soft. She knows they're both about to fall asleep because the adrenaline rush is over, leaving them crashing in a way that makes her so glad they're safely home.
Leave it to Damon to be romantic even at a moment like this. She giggles softly. "Are you quoting Taylor Swift to me?" she asks.
His shoulder moves under her head, as though he's shrugging. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," he says.
"I was glad to kill her," she says, and even she can hear the fierceness in her tone.
He gives a little laugh, but she knows he's practically asleep as he says, "Me, too." Then, very softly, he says, "Whatever happens, Elena. I love you. I'll always be with you."
If she weren't so exhausted, those words might have set off alarm bells, but instead, she snuggles her face into his chest and sinks so deeply into sleep, she doesn't move for fourteen hours.
*
Damon falls asleep about the same time, but he doesn't think he's sleeping--he's certain that he's dying. Something happened when the curse was broken because his body doesn't feel right. The injuries he sustained in his hand-to-hand combat with one of the nameless vamps who had turned up with Elijah and Klaus have all healed just like always, but his muscles ache and he feels distinctly weaker--like...it's something he can't quite put his finger on.
It's been so long, it's hard to remember, but he feels...almost human-like. It's a distant memory, something that once was but no longer seems real because it happened so long ago. As Elena's deep breathing lulls him away, he's sure he won't wake again, and he's so grateful that she hadn't been killed in the battle. If he has to die, at least now she won't be consigned to a miserable life of fighting against the nature that is so unlike her true self. For this small mercy he gives thanks, and then fades into a blackness so complete he doesn't stir until the urgent shaking of someone's hands against his shoulders and his brother's voice penetrates his consciousness.
As if he's miles away, Damon floats back to the surface, opening his eyes, blinking to adjust to the overhead lamp that's been flicked on. It's dark outside past the curtains on Elena's window and Jeremy, Bonnie, and Caroline are all at the foot of the bed as Stefan continues to rock Damon's body until he becomes aware of the dead weight of Elena on his right side.
"Alright, alright, 'M'awake," he mumbles, shoving Stefan away. The first thing he becomes aware of is that even though he's able to make his brother stop assaulting him, he doesn't have any real force in his arm any more. That same move yesterday would have sent Stefan sprawling on to the floor. Elena's eyes flutter sleepily and she moans soft in her throat, her leg moving from where it's slung over his, upward. He puts his hand on her knee to prevent what he knows is the wake-up straddle she's so fond of, and he can't help smiling at the way he can read her. Their relationship isn't even a week old yet, and he feels like he's been with her forever.
"Damon, how do you feel?" This from Caroline at the end of the bed. Damon forces himself to wake fully, but his head is fuzzy, like he's got a hangover. Except that he never gets hangovers, no matter how much he's had to drink. His vampiric healing abilities have always taken that morning-after wretchedness away before it could settle in. It's always been one of his favorite things about being a vampire.
"Like shit," he answers, because it's the first descriptor that comes to mind.
Bonnie looks at Caroline and they both have this excitement about them that Damon can't figure out. (Sure, they should be happy if he feels like shit, they both hate his guts, but it's rude to wake him and then celebrate his problem.) Elena stretches and opens her eyes and they both slowly sit up.
"Damon?" Stefan asks.
Turning his gaze toward him, Damon says, "Brother?"
"We're human again," Stefan says, and his hand reaches out to grip Damon's shoulder.
"What?" Damon asks, in the midst of total confusion and dawning realization. His body--the muscle aches, the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach--and now his apparent weakness. It was just like that awful morning he'd woken up on the road half a mile from the church, and lurching down the road, watched the flames dancing in the sky. When he'd realized Katherine was dead and he was undead.
Now, he realizes he's alive, and Stefan has tears in his eyes and Bonnie and Caroline are hugging, and Elena has a look of complete bewilderment on her face.
Whatever he supposes would happen after they broke the curse on the moonstone, this is the one thing that never occurred to any of them. As he stands up and hugs his brother, he can't process the implications, but he knows a happiness he hasn't felt in 146 years.
*
Elena Gilbert graduates from high school a few weeks later. Her boyfriend continues to garner the disapproving frowns of the town's people who think he's a tad too old to be dating her, but all things considered, now that Damon's actually aging again, it only causes Elena to grin and bear it.
She doesn't care what anyone thinks, because in the aftermath of the curse being broken, Alaric finally tells Jenna everything (now that she is in no danger from supernatural beings) and she actually goes back to liking Damon, just as she had before Katherine had duped her.
Rose turns back up, wondering how come she's a mere mortal again, and when Stefan tells her what happened the day they broke the curse, she relates one of those many "myths" she'd picked up over the years. This one includes the rules changing in the event that a doppleganger kills a doppleganger (which somehow trumps the fact that the first doppleganger had killed herself to avoid being able to break the curse in the first place).
They never see Elijah again, and Tyler passes through the next full moon without ever breaking a sweat. Caroline, torn as she'd been between two boys for two valid reasons, realizes that maybe she ought to turn her attentions to Stefan, who is definitely single again, and looking at her in a new light now that she's still the confident, secure woman who'd spent eight months as a vampire, but is now just as human as he is.
Elena's not sure what will happen there, but she knows it will be interesting to watch.
She and Damon take a road trip to Georgia in the early summer, just the two of them. They sight-see historic places along the way, and take pictures of themselves, laughing with double chins because the camera is too close. They make love in motel rooms off the interstate, and sometimes in the backseat of his blue muscle car, because it's pretty roomie. Mostly they eat and sleep and have too much fun.
In a motel just south of Atlanta, Elena tells him she's been accepted to Brown University in Rhode Island. His head whips around and she narrows her eyes at him when he tries to act like he didn't just have a huge reaction. After an hour of intense arguing, he finally confesses that he lived in Rhode Island back in 2006.
"It's where I started listening to Taylor Swift," he says, sticking his tongue out at her.
She knows there's more to it than that, but she figures if he doesn't want to tell her, it's probably because she doesn't want to know whatever it is. She sits on his lap and slides her hand into the hair at the back of his neck. "Maybe I could find a regular job in Rhode Island. It could work," he says musingly, his arm resting across her thighs.
She watches his face carefully. "Learning to live with human limitations again is hard, I know."
Damon just smiles. "No," he says, shaking his head. "Somehow, I think it's just what I need." She believes him.
When he quotes, "You are the best thing that's ever been mine," she just starts laughing and lets him roll them across the bed until she's beneath him.
fin