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Elena’s away for the summer at camp (She’s the good girl) and when she comes back, something has shifted. She’s not sure what, but suddenly she feels like the odd one out, until the night when Kat wakes her and they tiptoe to Damon’s room, a trio again.
The Salvatore Triplets have always been close. Damon, Katherine, and Elena were thick as thieves growing up. Katherine was the magnetic sister, the one who didn’t care about rules and niceties but was charming and clever. Elena was the compassionate one, the one who cared about community and friends, who was intelligent, warm but reserved until she knew you. They were two sides of the coin, and Damon was their common denominator. He was one of those people who could move through all circles of life, and he was the girls’ staunchest ally. He would join Katherine in her adventures to make sure she didn’t get in too much trouble (often taking the blame). When Elena got too stressed with the pressures of trying to do it all, Damon made sure to get her to take a time out and relearn how to smile and laugh. In return, Katherine and Elena are the only ones who can draw him out of his moods, who understand him when no one else can. It’s the three of them against the world.
(And their world is comprised of a divorce, and another woman to call mother, a move to another house, and then two little brothers who are pretty awesome, but despite that, it’s still the three of them and whispers while sitting at the fireplace, and days spent climbing trees and nights playing pool, Katherine flirting with the bartenders to get them beer, Damon keeping the jerks away, and Elena laughing and giggling, soaking in the happiness of her trio.)
And then Elena decides to go away for camp for the summer instead of staying with them, and Katherine is angry, betrayed, and won’t listen to Elena’s reasons (great on a resume, valuable experience, great pay check) because this was the summer before their senior year, and they were supposed to spend it together. The fight that results is one that Damon can’t quite remedy before Elena leaves for the next two months.
(The night before Caroline and Bonnie pick her up, Elena and Damon curl up on the couch in the library, and Damon drops a kiss to her forehead promising that Katherine will get over it, and at least Elena will always have him. Katherine doesn’t speak to her all week, but when Elena is unpacking her suitcase, a bag of kit-kats fall out, and Elena smiles, because that’s always been Katherine’s way of apologizing.)
But things seem different when she gets back.
Elena loves Kat, but Kat can be her best friend one day and her biggest critic the next. But the tension she feels because of her sister’s smirk, the calculating look in her eyes, drains away as Damon sits up in his bed, the comforting smile on his face a familiar site (from when nightmares kept her awake, when the house was too big and he would somehow know to appear in her room to keep her safe).
Damon shifts and stretches, and Elena wonders why the site of his bare chest makes the room warmer. She knows Damon always sleeps in just sweat pants in the winter and boxers in the summer, and she’s seen him in the middle of the night in both outfits, but now that there’s no night terrors distracting her, no pressing need for real life responsibilities on her mind, just him and her and Katherine in the moonlight in a locked room, and suddenly while she always knew her brother was extremely good lucking, the realization hits her in a different (lower, more sensual) place than her brain. Katherine’s not helping, in her preferred Victoria Secret nightgown that is just barely opaque, that is low cut in the back and modest but tight in the front. Elena feels oddly younger than her eighteen years, in her ratty tank top from and years old sleep shorts, and the feeling flames the fact that something happened this summer to make her the left out sibling, and she crosses her arms and sits on the edge of the bed.
“Okay, Kat, you said we needed to talk, so talk.” Elena isn’t sure if she hid the hurt and anger from her voice, but as Kat’s smirk increases and she tilts her head, she knows her sister picked up on it. The fact that Katherine gets amusement from it is even more irksome, and Elena stands, glaring at her sister. Kat rolls her eyes.
“Sit down. I know you’re feeling left out, so just shut up.” Elena opened her mouth to defend herself, but Katherine is in front of her in a heartbeat, mouth pressed against hers. Elena freezes, but it’s just a chaste kiss, the pressure of a cheek kiss between friends, but the intimacy of more than sisters. Katherine pulls back, but Elena is still frozen. Brushing Elena’s hair out of her face, she smiles softly, hands drifting down to play with Elena’s straps, pushing them down slowly, long manicured nails scratching delicately against the skin.
“Stop, Kat.” Damon’s voice drifts over to her. “That’s not what we discussed.” Katherine pouts, but her hands fall and she takes a step back. Elena relearns to breathe. Damon’s out of bed, and is standing to the side, but his shoulder is just slightly between her and Katherine. Their eyes meet, and he smiles softly, eyes crinkling in a familiar expression, if you ignore the slight crease between them, which he gets when he’s searching for the right words.
“This summer changed things. You can stay, and change with us, or you can leave and things won’t change between us. It’s your call, Elena.” Behind him, her eyes are on Katherine, who nods, eyes directly locked with Elena, as she steps up to Damon and lays a light kiss on the back of his shoulder, arms sliding around him and sliding down his chest, finding the trail of hair down his abs, and those nails flirt with the hem of his boxers. Elena doesn’t know if she gasps or squeaks, but she makes a sound and takes a step back, and Damon’s eyes flash, before he looks over his shoulder at their sister, annoyed. “Slow down, Katherine. You’re not making this easy.”
She laughs. “I’m supposed to make things hard, Damon. You’re the one who makes people come around.”
At Damon’s frustrated sigh, Elena backs up, mouth covered by her hand. “I…I…I’m going…I have to sleep!” And then she turns, fumbles with the lock, and then runs.
Damon calls after her, but not even his voice gets through to her this time.
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She’s not surprised how absolutely normal the three of them are in the morning. It’s the one day a month Dad makes breakfast, so there’s slightly burned bacon, delectable omelets, and store bought, oven cooked biscuits on the table when she drags herself into the kitchen. Dad and Isobel are already setting the table, and Elena sits, smiling in thanks. She fixes herself a plate while Isobel goes to collects the rest of the family. Stefan and Jeremy race in as only pre teen boys can, all feet and arms and noise, while Isobel and Katherine walk in practically arm-in-arm. Katherine is already dressing in a white sundress, and Elena studiously avoids looking at her, even though she sits across from her. Damon is the last one to stroll in, dressed in jeans and a simple dark red t-shirt so tight that Elena has to gulp her orange juice to cool the fire in her cheeks. Katherine laughs in amusement.
Breakfast is normal, but Damon ends up sitting next to her, and the fact that he consciously keeps his arm from brushing against hers makes the food turn to ash in her throat.
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Katherine goes shopping with Isobel for the day, Dad takes Stefan and Jeremy to the lake, and Elena holes up in the library, citing “behind on summer reading” but really she is wary of being in a changing room near Katherine right now, of being obviously trouble around her friends.
She’s halfway through the second book (flipping the pages and catching maybe a word before moving on) that Damon walks in. She puts the book down, wishing she was at her desk and not sprawled on the couch. She’d feel much less exposed. She expects him to lift her legs and sit by her feet, as he always does, but he drops into the chair across from her. She gives up reading the book and throws it down, letting out a huff and glaring at him. He meets her eyes, fully prepared to take her anger.
Then she remembers how his eyes flared when Katherine was touching him, and her anger flees as a different heat lights in her body, and she turns her head away.
He sighs, and she bites her lip. “I’m so sorry, Elena. Last night…that wasn’t supposed to happen. We were going to talk to you first. I didn’t want to scare you.”
She curls into herself at the pain in his voice, because otherwise she’ll reach for him, and she doesn’t know how they’ll touch if she does. “But that kind of stuff…happens now?”
She can feel him nod. “Yeah…”
They sit in silence.
After what could be an hour, or ten minutes, he gets up to leave. She starts to say something, but bites her tongue instead.
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It’s three am, but she doesn’t care about waking anyone up, because Dad left for a conference and Isobel takes sleeping pills, and Stefan and Jeremy are at a birthday party. It’s three am and she should be asleep, but instead she’s throwing open the door to Damon’s room, half expecting to see Katherine entangled with him under the sheets, but it’s just Damon, sitting up with a soft curse, blinking sleep out of his eyes. She storms over to his bed and glares down at him, hands on her hips, before she grabs his pillow, and throws it, because otherwise she’s going to slap him.
“Elena—what? Are you oka—”
“You left me behind!” And just like that, everything makes sense for her. She wasn’t upset about them having sex, wasn’t freaked out, but it hurt that the only time she left, they did something so monumental without her, changed everything without her, as if she was a bother and unwanted.
Damon’s eyes soften with understanding, he pulls her down, wrapping his arms around her and holding her as the tears come. “Elena, that’s not…I’m so sorry. We never meant…”
He kisses her tears away, murmuring again and again that he’ll never leave her again.
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It happens like this:
Damon snuck them to a college party, a back to school bash, and Katherine gets lost with a boy with kind eyes and an accent, Caroline tagging along to make eyes at his brother. Bonnie seeks out her cousin. Elena knees a boy who tries to roofie her drink and leaves the dance floor. She finds Damon in a small upstairs room, and they dance to the music that is softened by many many walls.
It has been weeks since they kissed, and Damon has been patient, never pushing for a decision one way or another, and Elena hasn’t told him she’s made one. But here, his hand snug in hers, the other stroking her hip and shooting sparks across her body, she doesn’t need to tell him. He knows, her shivery breathing, the way her body shifts into his, her eyes on his lips, the way the air around them is charged gives her away. He spins her out, and then when she spins back to him, she collides with him, kissing him hot and deep. His hands brace her, and then pull her tight, returning the kiss, guiding her until they find the wall. Her fingers pull at his shirt, his pants, his hair, and he moans, dropping his head to her neck.
They shoot a text to everyone that Elena got sick and they are going home. Caroline has a big car, she will drive them back.
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He’s been in her bed before, but never like this. They move under the sheets together, and Elena runs her fingers over every spot she’s never allowed herself to imagine: The dimples of his hip, the curve of his muscles. He traces her as well, letting his mouth taste the swell of her breasts, the inside of her thigh, the inside of her elbow. Every time he elicits a noise from her, she can feel his lips turn up against her skin.
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They agree to one (perfect, selfish) week of just them.
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When Elena sneaks into Damon’s room and tugs him out of bed, he presses a kiss to her palm and follows her (he always will) into Katherine’s room. Elena bites her lip against her giggles, eyes flashing to Damon as she holds up a finger to her mouth, and Damon nods, pretending to zip his lips. Settling onto one side of her sleeping sister, she motions for Damon to take the other. As the bed dips under his weight, she leans down and kisses the slope of Katherine’s neck, suckling gently. Damon’s hand settles on Katherine’s neck, and travels south, softly.
It is only whenKatherine’s lips turn into her smirk, her eyes opening and locking with theirs, that their worlds shift back into place.
(Their world is kisses and smirks and bites and laughs and perfect.)
