Common Ground

“I wanted to apologize for my disappearing act earlier, I know it was... strange.”

Elena just raises an eyebrow and shakes her head because really. It’s nothing new. It’s just Damon being Damon. Just like it is so like him to pop in unexpectedly in her house and then who knew what. With him you could never tell.

She turns her back to him and continues to chop the vegetables on the cutting board. He sits on a kitchen chair, props his chin on his hand, and watches with bored eyes as she fleets from here to there around the kitchen which only serves to mean that Jeremy will be home soon enough.

“Who did you kill for a snack this time? Or where you feeling generous and just let her live after?” Her voice is both tightly controlled and falsely cheery. And when he spares a glance at the hand in which she’s holding the cutting knife (because although he maybe be the most badass vampires of all, he is in no way of taking chances with pointy objects), he notices her knuckles are turning white with the effort.

“Oh. Relax, Elena.” He drawls out, watching with amused eyes as she somewhat visibly relaxes and lets out a breath. “You didn’t know her anyways. And you know everybody. I’m highly doubtful she will be missed.”

She slams the cutting board on the counter, as her body tenses with the effort to hold back. A smirk crosses his lips as he leans back against the chair, arms crossed against his chest.

“Why do you do this Damon? Just take a life like that?! Why can’t you be more like Stefan?!”

He barely holds back a flinch at her bit-out words and disgust clouds his face. Stefan. The shining white knight in armor. Always Stefan. But he ignores the way her words ring harshly in his head and settles for what he’s best known for.

“I thought we went over this already, Elena.” Cerulean eyes can’t help but roll upwards, just like he can’t help it when an exasperated sigh leaves full lips. Not this again. “I’m not a nice person. I’m a mean, selfish, son of a bitch.”

“Why do you have to be?”

Frustration (and does he detect a little desperation laced in her words?) is clear in hear voice, as she whirls around to face him. There’s a red blush starting to creep up her neck and when she puts her hands on her hips angrily, one still holding the knife might he add, he can’t help but compare her to Katherine. And he stops right there because no. He is in no way touching that topic with a ten-feet pole.

“Because there’s always a bad guy.”

A disbelieving sigh escapes her lips as her eyebrows shoot up into her hairline. “Really? That’s the best you can do?”

“Think about it for a moment. Vampire falling for a human. Said human falling for said vampire. Bad guys trying to tear them apart. The ‘quest’,” he shakes his hands exaggeratedly in the air, “to find out about our dearest Katherine. Sounds something out of a fairytale, no? Hell, Juliet and Romeo would be ashamed.”

She frowns at him before placing the knife on the counter and walks toward him.

She’s standing in front of him in a minute, those big eyes of her looking up at him. “You do know that in the end, the bad guys always turn good and help out the heroes, right?”

And they end up falling in love with the princesses they can never have because they will taint them and it’s wrong and it’s the real heroes that deserve them. So they stay out of the picture. End of the story.

He smirks and shakes his head, tutting softly at her like a small child who doesn’t know better. And maybe she doesn’t. The bad guys are supposed to stay bad and make life hard for the lovely-dopey star-crossed lovers. How else will they know if true love will conquer?

He grasps her head between gentle hands that belie enormous strength, looks into her eyes, and smiles smirks. “Yeah. But those fairytales suck.”