Complicated (Elena, Damon)
Title: Complicated
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Wordcount: 560
Summary: They come back after a fight, and Elena knows what she's supposed to do. She doesn't even think twice, just grabs some towels and starts helping the wounded. AU set somewhere in s3.
A/N: Just a snippet I found in my files. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be a part of something longer, but now it doesn't fit anything I'm writing or plan to write. I still quite like it, so here it goes.
Complicated
They come back after a fight, and Elena knows what she's supposed to do. She doesn't even think twice, just grabs some towels and starts helping the wounded. Alaric's hands are shaking when he downs a few gulps of water spiked with Damon's blood, and suddenly he's down on his knees, and it looks like he's going to throw up everything he's eaten since last Thanksgiving. Resurrection rings come with a price, and they never were supposed to be used that often, or maybe it's just an unfortunate mixture of too much fear and vampire blood overdose. Bonnie has a terrible nosebleed, and some nasty cuts on her arms, but otherwise she looks fine, thank God, at least Bonnie looks fine, and she's already taking care of Caroline's burned legs, so Elena turns to Stefan.
He's panting heavily, but somehow she manages to get the whole story out of him, how they ambushed Rebekah and prevented her from torching the white oak tree, how she fled, but they managed to snatch a few branches, and then details go fuzzy, and Elena wants to shake Stefan to get the whole story out of him, but keeps herself in check. There will be time, right? There will be time.
Damon shows up with the branches, and Elena feels even angrier. She shouldn't have let them leave her behind, she shouldn't have agreed, and it's all her fault, but then he looks at Stefan, and he gives her a reassuring smile, and suddenly it's his fault, and then Damon says something about hunting, and there is no fault left in Elena for Damon. He walks funny, and the back of his shirt is ripped to shreds, so when Caroline gets well enough to go to the forest with Stefan (none of them goes outside alone those days), Elena forces Damon to sit in front of her and let her help him. His back is a bloody mess, tiny pieces of wood everywhere, almost funny, except no, not at all.
“What happened?” asks Elena just to say something; she isn't in the mood for silence.
“I'm a tree hugger.”
She pulls the first few splinters out of Damon's back, and after a few minutes she almost misses silence. Damon is bitching and ranting like his old self, but something just rings wrong, and suddenly Elena knows it's not a big deal, no big at all, he's just being dramatic, as if he felt she was so tense.
“Sit still,” she tells him calmly, puts her hand next to a closing wound, and it works like magic: Damon relaxes into her touch, and she can pull a next splinter, then another one, and yet another.
“Does this really hurt you?”
“I look like a damned hedgehog. What do you think?”
“Answer me.”
Damon sighs and lowers his head, lets her pull two last splinters from between his shoulder blades, and doesn't move a muscle even after she's done.
“It's complicated,” he says finally, and that's fair, she doesn't need to know more. She isn't sure why she asked the question in the first place, but somehow it's important that he tells her the truth.
“Somehow it always is with you, isn't it?” she says indifferently, but grabs a wet towel and wipes the blood off his back all the same.
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Wordcount: 560
Summary: They come back after a fight, and Elena knows what she's supposed to do. She doesn't even think twice, just grabs some towels and starts helping the wounded. AU set somewhere in s3.
A/N: Just a snippet I found in my files. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be a part of something longer, but now it doesn't fit anything I'm writing or plan to write. I still quite like it, so here it goes.
Complicated
They come back after a fight, and Elena knows what she's supposed to do. She doesn't even think twice, just grabs some towels and starts helping the wounded. Alaric's hands are shaking when he downs a few gulps of water spiked with Damon's blood, and suddenly he's down on his knees, and it looks like he's going to throw up everything he's eaten since last Thanksgiving. Resurrection rings come with a price, and they never were supposed to be used that often, or maybe it's just an unfortunate mixture of too much fear and vampire blood overdose. Bonnie has a terrible nosebleed, and some nasty cuts on her arms, but otherwise she looks fine, thank God, at least Bonnie looks fine, and she's already taking care of Caroline's burned legs, so Elena turns to Stefan.
He's panting heavily, but somehow she manages to get the whole story out of him, how they ambushed Rebekah and prevented her from torching the white oak tree, how she fled, but they managed to snatch a few branches, and then details go fuzzy, and Elena wants to shake Stefan to get the whole story out of him, but keeps herself in check. There will be time, right? There will be time.
Damon shows up with the branches, and Elena feels even angrier. She shouldn't have let them leave her behind, she shouldn't have agreed, and it's all her fault, but then he looks at Stefan, and he gives her a reassuring smile, and suddenly it's his fault, and then Damon says something about hunting, and there is no fault left in Elena for Damon. He walks funny, and the back of his shirt is ripped to shreds, so when Caroline gets well enough to go to the forest with Stefan (none of them goes outside alone those days), Elena forces Damon to sit in front of her and let her help him. His back is a bloody mess, tiny pieces of wood everywhere, almost funny, except no, not at all.
“What happened?” asks Elena just to say something; she isn't in the mood for silence.
“I'm a tree hugger.”
She pulls the first few splinters out of Damon's back, and after a few minutes she almost misses silence. Damon is bitching and ranting like his old self, but something just rings wrong, and suddenly Elena knows it's not a big deal, no big at all, he's just being dramatic, as if he felt she was so tense.
“Sit still,” she tells him calmly, puts her hand next to a closing wound, and it works like magic: Damon relaxes into her touch, and she can pull a next splinter, then another one, and yet another.
“Does this really hurt you?”
“I look like a damned hedgehog. What do you think?”
“Answer me.”
Damon sighs and lowers his head, lets her pull two last splinters from between his shoulder blades, and doesn't move a muscle even after she's done.
“It's complicated,” he says finally, and that's fair, she doesn't need to know more. She isn't sure why she asked the question in the first place, but somehow it's important that he tells her the truth.
“Somehow it always is with you, isn't it?” she says indifferently, but grabs a wet towel and wipes the blood off his back all the same.