Fanfiction: Fear in a Handful of Dust (2/?)
Title: Fear in a Handful of Dust (2/?)
Author: lady_slayer
Rating: T
Pairing: Damon/Elena,
Category: Hurt/comfort
Summary:Be careful what you wish for, or it might actually happen. Lives will get turned upside down, hearts get broken and everything is NOT the way it should be. Also... nothing good EVER came of a wish that starts with "I wish you could..."!
Warnings: A little blood, a bit more foul language, but nothing TOO bad.
Show/Bookverse: Show
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. And the title is from “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot
Spoiler: A few, I guess... but I don't really pick up on the actual show-plot, I just use a few newfound charactertraits (and new characters, like Elijah).
A huge thanks to AVECIA (who is not only the best beta I can wish for, but is also very busy advertising my stories all the time so… go read HER stories, too!!!).
On with it!
Masterpost
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Neither Elena nor Damon had any idea how long they had been out for, but they started to come to at exactly the same time.
Groaning, touching their foreheads - trying to shake off the residue dizziness - they sat up and looked at each other, both trying to find the answer to what had just happened in the face of the other.
Then Elena noticed something strange… well, more than one something, really. First, she could see, hear and smell way better than ever before. Everything looked the same, but still nothing like before at the same time. Everything was sharper, more pronounced.
Damon had a problem on a whole other level. He felt like someone had packed him up in a few layers of cotton wool, for everything was dull and flat.
He ignored the feeling for the moment though - it had probably something to do with whatever had just happened - and came to his feet. Deciding that the best plan of action was to get himself something to eat ( or well, drink) he took a still half-full glass of Bourbon off the coffee table and made his way into the kitchen. He noticed that Elena was following him, a strange expression on her face, but thought nothing of it, because he was suddenly starving. In the kitchen, he took one of the blood-bags out of the fridge, and emptied part of it into his glass and took a sip - only to spit it out the moment it touched his tongue.
He had no time to ponder on the fact that the mix of alcohol and blood had tasted disturbingly wrong to him, as Elena was in front of him in an inhuman burst of speed, eying the droplets of blood still on his lips with a curiosity that was far from healthy for a human.
And then he finally realized the other thing that had been off since he had woken up again. It was that oddly rhythmic beating coming from underneath his own ribs. He had a heartbeat. A heartbeat!
Dull senses, no hunger for blood and a heartbeat? Not good. Not good at all.
The moment he had been distracted by his realizations, Elena had come even closer. She was licking her lips (and that girl just had no idea - whatsoever - what she was doing to him right now) and the white of her eyes had turned entirely red, veins appearing all around her eyes. She was looking more like Katherine than ever before. He was obviously no longer a vampire. But Elena was.
“Elena? I think we have a…”
He was trying to say that they had a problem (regardless of the fact that it was kind of obvious) but was interrupted by her as she shoved him against the counter. Hard. He was still wincing from the pain of his lower back hitting the edge of the counter, as she took a handful of his hair to bend his head back; then, before he knew it was happening he felt the sensation of his skin and flesh ripping were she lodged her newly acquired fangs into his throat. His eyes wide open he tried to push her off him - usually, he wouldn’t have a problem with her having a taste, but he really doubted that she knew the first thing of restraint… or even how much was too much for her donor to survive.
But he wasn’t successful (big surprise there, what with him no longer a member of the undead) and already he started to feel lightheaded, his eyelids growing heavy and his breathing labored.
Just as he was about to lose consciousness for the second time that day she was suddenly gone and he slumped to the floor, half leaning against the counter behind him, half lying on the floor. He looked up to find out why he wasn’t dead and - to his surprise - he saw his brother standing between him and Elena. Her face was still showing her demonic side, and her lips were now smeared with his blood. On any other day the sight of her would have turned him on - he had always thought that Elena would make a formidable vampire, with her strong head and the way nothing ever seemed to faze her for too long - but right now he was too confused for that. Also, he was shockingly glad to see his brother, so there was no place for anything as carnal as desire.
He tried to stand up again, not wanting anyone to think he was weak or vulnerable, but he had a hard time doing so. He was dizzy from the blood loss and his surroundings swam in and out of focus. After a few moments of this useless struggle, Stefan was in front of him, hauling him up and getting him to sit down on a chair, pressing a folded up dishtowel to the still-bleeding bite marks on his throat. As soon as this nightmare was over, he would have to drink for weeks straight to forget how utterly…. humiliating this was, but right now he was kind of glad to have Stefan here.
By now Elena’s features had turned back to normal and she had a shocked expression on her face, hands clasped over her bloodstained mouth.
Now there they where, Damon barely conscious, Elena horrified, nearly hyperventilating and Stefan just plain confused.
He also noticed how she was keeping her distance to the stream of sunlight coming in from the windows, and in a moment of compassion (something he would later blame on the blood loss) he took off his ring and threw it in her general direction.
She had no problem catching it with her improved reflexes, but as she had it between her fingers, she looked at him with question marks written all over her face.
“It’s most likely too big for you, so just put it on a necklace and wear it around your neck for now. It just has to touch your skin, so you won’t get burned by the sun.”
She still looked dumbfounded, but then she slipped the ring over her thumb - not having a necklace in reach just now - and then tentatively stepped into the sunlight. As it didn’t burn her, she instantly blurred over to him, and sank down on her knees. Stefan was watching them closely as she pushed the dishtowel away to look at the wound she had caused. She gasped slightly at what she saw - not neat little puncture wounds, but ripped flesh; caused as Stefan had pulled her off his brother, and her teeth had cut and ripped away at the flesh on their way out.
“I’m so sorry Damon! I don’t know what’s gotten into me, I would never…”
She stopped halfway through her sentence, her face taking on a strange expression, before her features lit up. The next thing he knew, she bit into her own wrist and held it to his mouth. She had remembered the time that Stefan had given Bonnie his blood - to heal her after Damon drank from her.
He hesitated for only a moment before he drank the offered blood. Seconds later, he felt the wound closing up, and soon there was not a trace of it left.
She inspected his throat again and only stood up as she saw that it was unmarred as if nothing had happened.
Both Damon and Elena were staring at each other now, trying to comprehend what had happened. They had gone from an argument to being unconscious to… being each other - for the lack of a better explanation.
“So… would one of you care to tell me what the hell is going on here? I mean… I’m gone for a few hours, and I find my girlfriend without a heartbeat and with fangs and my brother human again. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but even for Mystic Falls standards that’s strange. So?”
They both looked at Stefan as if he had grown a second head all of a sudden.
“Seriously, Stefan? Does it look to you as if we know what happened?”
He just shook his head at his little brother… sometimes he really acted as if he were a seventeen year old. Out of the corner of his eyes, his saw Elena’s eyes growing darker again, and her eyes wander to his throat. And as he certainly didn’t want a repeat performance from earlier, he got a fresh glass out of a cupboard and filled the rest of the blood bag into it, holding the glass out for Elena to take. For a moment he thought she would refuse - maybe demand that someone go and get her a bunny or a squirrel or something, but she simply shrugged her shoulders, took the glass from him and emptied it in one go.
When she was done, she licked the residue blood from her lips and grinned at him.
“Thanks - I really needed that. I was so hungry, you have no idea!”
He just chuckled at her. Because a) they both knew that he had more than just an idea of how hungry she had been and b)… yeah, he loved Elena, all human and breathing and fragile (at least physically). But now she was even better. Waking up as a vampire after being knocked out by a strange light - and she didn’t even throw a tantrum of flip out or something.
In fact, she had adjusted so quickly that it kind of freaked him out. In the back of his mind, he registered that Stefan was saying something again, but he was way too busy watching Elena who, in turn, was fascinated by the way the sun broke on her glass, painting patterns onto the walls.
That girl was just too adorable for her own good. She should be - by all means - freaking out and demanding a way out of this mess. Instead, she worked off her instincts, and did pretty well, too. Well, despite the fact that she had nearly killed him, that is. Couldn’t blame one for that though… they both had said some pretty hurtful things before they got knocked out and she wasn’t even remotely accustomed to how heightened feelings could get, being a vampire.
As he played their fight over in his head, he noticed something, but just to be sure…
“Elena… before we got knocked off our feet… what exactly did you say?”
She blinked a few times, trying to focus on him instead of the light-play on the walls.
“Come on, you know what I said. I remembered…”
“Yeah yeah, I know. You remembered that I messed with your memory. That’s going to be an interesting conversation once we get this newest little obstacle out of the way, just so you know. But that’s not what I meant. I mean, what was the very last thing you said.”
Elena drew her eyebrows together as she tried to remember, and then her face lit up, before it grew darker again… she had come to the same conclusion as he had, apparently.
“I said that I wished you would know how I feel… at the exact same time, you said it, too. Oh… Oh no. This…” She gestured between their bodies to indicate what she meant,
“… this is our own fault, isn’t it?”
He just sighed and threw a slightly uneven grin her way.
“Guess so. But last time I checked, neither you, nor me got an invitation to Hogwarts. And unless you told your Judgy little friend to have some fun with her magic, I have no idea how we managed this.”
Stefan was standing near the fridge now, and had resolved himself to watch and listen, as neither of the two seemed to care what he had to say. Also… it was kind of interesting to watch them interact - in that sick kind of way people always watch car crashes.
Elena was not looking at anything, her eyes far away, lost in thought, her fingers fiddling with her bracelet. And then she suddenly lost the thoughtful look, and stared at the bracelet before she started cursing a blue streak. In Italian. Huh… another thing to take a closer look at, because Damon was pretty sure that most of the words she was using (or the language), weren’t in her vocabulary before this… thing.
Both he and Stefan waited before her little tantrum was over, and she started to explain. Which she did.
“This bracelet was a Christmas present from Bonnie.”
She held her arm up to show it to them, but they both had identical, blank expressions on their faces. Rolling her eyes, she tried again.
“I got this from Bonnie. Who is a witch.”
She was this near to just banging her head on the kitchen counter as they still looked clueless.
“Oh, come on guys, it’s not that hard to understand. It’s a charm bracelet… and it’s not uncommon that people place good wishes into those charms. In Bonnie’s case, she told me that she wished for my dreams and innermost wishes to come true. And earlier, when I was so angry, I wished for nothing more than for you to know just how bad I was hurting. And I guess the fact that you spoke the exact same words… wished for the same thing, didn’t help in the least.”
She watched as comprehension dawned on their faces and sat down on a chair. They all just stared at each other, not knowing what to do, as Stefan suddenly burst out laughing. In just a few seconds, he was laughing so hard, that he actually had tears running down his cheeks.
“What the hell? What’s so fucking funny here? Care to share with the class?” Damon demanded in disbelief at his brother’s lack of compassion… and his sudden change from Mr. Broody into a laughing maniac.
It was nearly another minute until he had entirely calmed down, but then he wiped the tears off his cheeks, and looked at them.
“Well, it is kind of funny, don’t you think? I mean, everybody always wants you to act more like a human - while at the same time being concerned about Elena being too vulnerable because she’s just human. And now… Elena isn’t so human anymore, and you can’t get any closer to your humanity. You have to see the irony in this!”
Both Damon and Elena just shook their head at Stefan, for once being on the same page: Stefan had totally lost his mind.
But then, they thought about what he had said again, and they finally realized just what this meant… no more flipping the switch on his feelings, no more compelling his way out of problems, and no more being superior because of strength, speed and senses.
And Elena? God, Elijah would be pissed, Jeremy would freak out, and Bonnie… well, she would actually have a field day, seeing Damon like this…before freaking out about yet again royally screwing up.
All in all? Well, fuck.
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
See? No body switch! Told you! Now, as I’m done with the chapter please let me know what you think about it… just click on the little button below and leave me a few words! Reviews are love!
So long,
Lady
Author: lady_slayer
Rating: T
Pairing: Damon/Elena,
Category: Hurt/comfort
Summary:Be careful what you wish for, or it might actually happen. Lives will get turned upside down, hearts get broken and everything is NOT the way it should be. Also... nothing good EVER came of a wish that starts with "I wish you could..."!
Warnings: A little blood, a bit more foul language, but nothing TOO bad.
Show/Bookverse: Show
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. And the title is from “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot
Spoiler: A few, I guess... but I don't really pick up on the actual show-plot, I just use a few newfound charactertraits (and new characters, like Elijah).
A huge thanks to AVECIA (who is not only the best beta I can wish for, but is also very busy advertising my stories all the time so… go read HER stories, too!!!).
On with it!
Masterpost
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Neither Elena nor Damon had any idea how long they had been out for, but they started to come to at exactly the same time.
Groaning, touching their foreheads - trying to shake off the residue dizziness - they sat up and looked at each other, both trying to find the answer to what had just happened in the face of the other.
Then Elena noticed something strange… well, more than one something, really. First, she could see, hear and smell way better than ever before. Everything looked the same, but still nothing like before at the same time. Everything was sharper, more pronounced.
Damon had a problem on a whole other level. He felt like someone had packed him up in a few layers of cotton wool, for everything was dull and flat.
He ignored the feeling for the moment though - it had probably something to do with whatever had just happened - and came to his feet. Deciding that the best plan of action was to get himself something to eat ( or well, drink) he took a still half-full glass of Bourbon off the coffee table and made his way into the kitchen. He noticed that Elena was following him, a strange expression on her face, but thought nothing of it, because he was suddenly starving. In the kitchen, he took one of the blood-bags out of the fridge, and emptied part of it into his glass and took a sip - only to spit it out the moment it touched his tongue.
He had no time to ponder on the fact that the mix of alcohol and blood had tasted disturbingly wrong to him, as Elena was in front of him in an inhuman burst of speed, eying the droplets of blood still on his lips with a curiosity that was far from healthy for a human.
And then he finally realized the other thing that had been off since he had woken up again. It was that oddly rhythmic beating coming from underneath his own ribs. He had a heartbeat. A heartbeat!
Dull senses, no hunger for blood and a heartbeat? Not good. Not good at all.
The moment he had been distracted by his realizations, Elena had come even closer. She was licking her lips (and that girl just had no idea - whatsoever - what she was doing to him right now) and the white of her eyes had turned entirely red, veins appearing all around her eyes. She was looking more like Katherine than ever before. He was obviously no longer a vampire. But Elena was.
“Elena? I think we have a…”
He was trying to say that they had a problem (regardless of the fact that it was kind of obvious) but was interrupted by her as she shoved him against the counter. Hard. He was still wincing from the pain of his lower back hitting the edge of the counter, as she took a handful of his hair to bend his head back; then, before he knew it was happening he felt the sensation of his skin and flesh ripping were she lodged her newly acquired fangs into his throat. His eyes wide open he tried to push her off him - usually, he wouldn’t have a problem with her having a taste, but he really doubted that she knew the first thing of restraint… or even how much was too much for her donor to survive.
But he wasn’t successful (big surprise there, what with him no longer a member of the undead) and already he started to feel lightheaded, his eyelids growing heavy and his breathing labored.
Just as he was about to lose consciousness for the second time that day she was suddenly gone and he slumped to the floor, half leaning against the counter behind him, half lying on the floor. He looked up to find out why he wasn’t dead and - to his surprise - he saw his brother standing between him and Elena. Her face was still showing her demonic side, and her lips were now smeared with his blood. On any other day the sight of her would have turned him on - he had always thought that Elena would make a formidable vampire, with her strong head and the way nothing ever seemed to faze her for too long - but right now he was too confused for that. Also, he was shockingly glad to see his brother, so there was no place for anything as carnal as desire.
He tried to stand up again, not wanting anyone to think he was weak or vulnerable, but he had a hard time doing so. He was dizzy from the blood loss and his surroundings swam in and out of focus. After a few moments of this useless struggle, Stefan was in front of him, hauling him up and getting him to sit down on a chair, pressing a folded up dishtowel to the still-bleeding bite marks on his throat. As soon as this nightmare was over, he would have to drink for weeks straight to forget how utterly…. humiliating this was, but right now he was kind of glad to have Stefan here.
By now Elena’s features had turned back to normal and she had a shocked expression on her face, hands clasped over her bloodstained mouth.
Now there they where, Damon barely conscious, Elena horrified, nearly hyperventilating and Stefan just plain confused.
He also noticed how she was keeping her distance to the stream of sunlight coming in from the windows, and in a moment of compassion (something he would later blame on the blood loss) he took off his ring and threw it in her general direction.
She had no problem catching it with her improved reflexes, but as she had it between her fingers, she looked at him with question marks written all over her face.
“It’s most likely too big for you, so just put it on a necklace and wear it around your neck for now. It just has to touch your skin, so you won’t get burned by the sun.”
She still looked dumbfounded, but then she slipped the ring over her thumb - not having a necklace in reach just now - and then tentatively stepped into the sunlight. As it didn’t burn her, she instantly blurred over to him, and sank down on her knees. Stefan was watching them closely as she pushed the dishtowel away to look at the wound she had caused. She gasped slightly at what she saw - not neat little puncture wounds, but ripped flesh; caused as Stefan had pulled her off his brother, and her teeth had cut and ripped away at the flesh on their way out.
“I’m so sorry Damon! I don’t know what’s gotten into me, I would never…”
She stopped halfway through her sentence, her face taking on a strange expression, before her features lit up. The next thing he knew, she bit into her own wrist and held it to his mouth. She had remembered the time that Stefan had given Bonnie his blood - to heal her after Damon drank from her.
He hesitated for only a moment before he drank the offered blood. Seconds later, he felt the wound closing up, and soon there was not a trace of it left.
She inspected his throat again and only stood up as she saw that it was unmarred as if nothing had happened.
Both Damon and Elena were staring at each other now, trying to comprehend what had happened. They had gone from an argument to being unconscious to… being each other - for the lack of a better explanation.
“So… would one of you care to tell me what the hell is going on here? I mean… I’m gone for a few hours, and I find my girlfriend without a heartbeat and with fangs and my brother human again. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but even for Mystic Falls standards that’s strange. So?”
They both looked at Stefan as if he had grown a second head all of a sudden.
“Seriously, Stefan? Does it look to you as if we know what happened?”
He just shook his head at his little brother… sometimes he really acted as if he were a seventeen year old. Out of the corner of his eyes, his saw Elena’s eyes growing darker again, and her eyes wander to his throat. And as he certainly didn’t want a repeat performance from earlier, he got a fresh glass out of a cupboard and filled the rest of the blood bag into it, holding the glass out for Elena to take. For a moment he thought she would refuse - maybe demand that someone go and get her a bunny or a squirrel or something, but she simply shrugged her shoulders, took the glass from him and emptied it in one go.
When she was done, she licked the residue blood from her lips and grinned at him.
“Thanks - I really needed that. I was so hungry, you have no idea!”
He just chuckled at her. Because a) they both knew that he had more than just an idea of how hungry she had been and b)… yeah, he loved Elena, all human and breathing and fragile (at least physically). But now she was even better. Waking up as a vampire after being knocked out by a strange light - and she didn’t even throw a tantrum of flip out or something.
In fact, she had adjusted so quickly that it kind of freaked him out. In the back of his mind, he registered that Stefan was saying something again, but he was way too busy watching Elena who, in turn, was fascinated by the way the sun broke on her glass, painting patterns onto the walls.
That girl was just too adorable for her own good. She should be - by all means - freaking out and demanding a way out of this mess. Instead, she worked off her instincts, and did pretty well, too. Well, despite the fact that she had nearly killed him, that is. Couldn’t blame one for that though… they both had said some pretty hurtful things before they got knocked out and she wasn’t even remotely accustomed to how heightened feelings could get, being a vampire.
As he played their fight over in his head, he noticed something, but just to be sure…
“Elena… before we got knocked off our feet… what exactly did you say?”
She blinked a few times, trying to focus on him instead of the light-play on the walls.
“Come on, you know what I said. I remembered…”
“Yeah yeah, I know. You remembered that I messed with your memory. That’s going to be an interesting conversation once we get this newest little obstacle out of the way, just so you know. But that’s not what I meant. I mean, what was the very last thing you said.”
Elena drew her eyebrows together as she tried to remember, and then her face lit up, before it grew darker again… she had come to the same conclusion as he had, apparently.
“I said that I wished you would know how I feel… at the exact same time, you said it, too. Oh… Oh no. This…” She gestured between their bodies to indicate what she meant,
“… this is our own fault, isn’t it?”
He just sighed and threw a slightly uneven grin her way.
“Guess so. But last time I checked, neither you, nor me got an invitation to Hogwarts. And unless you told your Judgy little friend to have some fun with her magic, I have no idea how we managed this.”
Stefan was standing near the fridge now, and had resolved himself to watch and listen, as neither of the two seemed to care what he had to say. Also… it was kind of interesting to watch them interact - in that sick kind of way people always watch car crashes.
Elena was not looking at anything, her eyes far away, lost in thought, her fingers fiddling with her bracelet. And then she suddenly lost the thoughtful look, and stared at the bracelet before she started cursing a blue streak. In Italian. Huh… another thing to take a closer look at, because Damon was pretty sure that most of the words she was using (or the language), weren’t in her vocabulary before this… thing.
Both he and Stefan waited before her little tantrum was over, and she started to explain. Which she did.
“This bracelet was a Christmas present from Bonnie.”
She held her arm up to show it to them, but they both had identical, blank expressions on their faces. Rolling her eyes, she tried again.
“I got this from Bonnie. Who is a witch.”
She was this near to just banging her head on the kitchen counter as they still looked clueless.
“Oh, come on guys, it’s not that hard to understand. It’s a charm bracelet… and it’s not uncommon that people place good wishes into those charms. In Bonnie’s case, she told me that she wished for my dreams and innermost wishes to come true. And earlier, when I was so angry, I wished for nothing more than for you to know just how bad I was hurting. And I guess the fact that you spoke the exact same words… wished for the same thing, didn’t help in the least.”
She watched as comprehension dawned on their faces and sat down on a chair. They all just stared at each other, not knowing what to do, as Stefan suddenly burst out laughing. In just a few seconds, he was laughing so hard, that he actually had tears running down his cheeks.
“What the hell? What’s so fucking funny here? Care to share with the class?” Damon demanded in disbelief at his brother’s lack of compassion… and his sudden change from Mr. Broody into a laughing maniac.
It was nearly another minute until he had entirely calmed down, but then he wiped the tears off his cheeks, and looked at them.
“Well, it is kind of funny, don’t you think? I mean, everybody always wants you to act more like a human - while at the same time being concerned about Elena being too vulnerable because she’s just human. And now… Elena isn’t so human anymore, and you can’t get any closer to your humanity. You have to see the irony in this!”
Both Damon and Elena just shook their head at Stefan, for once being on the same page: Stefan had totally lost his mind.
But then, they thought about what he had said again, and they finally realized just what this meant… no more flipping the switch on his feelings, no more compelling his way out of problems, and no more being superior because of strength, speed and senses.
And Elena? God, Elijah would be pissed, Jeremy would freak out, and Bonnie… well, she would actually have a field day, seeing Damon like this…before freaking out about yet again royally screwing up.
All in all? Well, fuck.
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
See? No body switch! Told you! Now, as I’m done with the chapter please let me know what you think about it… just click on the little button below and leave me a few words! Reviews are love!
So long,
Lady