❝let's break the news❞

ELENA GASPS AS STEFAN STOPS ABRUPTLY IN FRONT OF HER, THE TWO OF THEM FINALLY ENVELOPED IN THE SILENCE OF HER HOME. She reaches out for him on instinct, a teary gleam in her eyes as she realizes how close to death she'd been barely half an hour ago.

Stefan sighs in relief and hugs Elena tight, relishing in the way she sunk against him, and the way her heartbeat steadied at his comforting touch.

"Elena, we have to talk," He reluctantly pulls away from his girlfriend, who's already frowning nervously up at him.

"What? What happened?"

"It's Damon,"

"Is he alright?" Elena couldn't help her concern, but the feeling troubled her. Damon killed her father, her biological father, for no discernible reason. She shouldn't be concerned about him, especially because he's shown no concern for her before.

"I think he's working with Elijah," Stefan's words make her heart drop to her stomach like an anchor on a ship. Her jaw drops in silent shock and Stefan gives her a sympathetic look.

"What– Stefan, how do you know?"

"I went to the house to try and talk to him and he told me that he was going to let Klaus kill you. And Katherine made a comment about it when I was trapped in the tomb with her, but I didn't believe her. Not until today. He just," Stefan shook his head, disappointment lacing his voice as he spoke about his older brother. "He admitted that he was going to let you die."

Elena shakes her head, swallowing around the concrete lump in her throat. "Why would he do that?"

Stefan's hold tightens on her arm before he loosens it again, guilt wracking his features. "Because of me,"

"Stefan, will you please just explain? Just tell me what's going on." Elena's voice hardens, frustration seeping through with her fear at his vague words.

"You know that I turned Damon even though he didn't want to be a vampire, and that I was a ripper until Lexi taught me how to control myself, but there's something else. When I first came back to Mystic Falls and Damon followed me, he wasn't coming to mess with me or us. He was coming to kill Katherine, and I wouldn't let him."

Elena instinctively steps away from her boyfriend at the mention of her doppelgänger, but Stefan keeps her close to him, an apologetic look in his eyes. "I didn't want him to kill Katherine and realize that nothing was going to bring Rosemary back. He's been so stuck in acting out his revenge that he lost sight of life, and when he found out Katherine wasn't in the tomb,"

He let out a sigh and shook his head. "I think that's when he started working with Elijah. He realized that the only way he could try and get back at me or Katherine was working with an Original." 

Elena inhales sharply and rips her arm away from Stefan's hold. "Have you known the entire time? Stefan it's been months since you came back!"

"Elena, I swear I didn't know. I didn't even suspect a thing until Katherine said it in the tomb, and I didn't even want to believe her. But I started to watch Damon, and I tried to follow him a few times but he always disappeared. I was in denial, but once I added Elijah to the equation, it was too obvious for me to ignore,"

She's silent for a moment as she tries to process Stefan's words on top of the stress from the night. She lifts her gaze up to Stefan's, a conflicting gleam of fear and determination shining in her brown eyes. "What are we gonna do?"

Relief floods Stefan's chest, and he mirrors her determined look. "We have to keep you safe, no matter what. That means from now on, Damon is the enemy. He's as dangerous as Elijah, and possibly Klaus. We have to keep an eye on him."

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"Why are you eating pizza in your bed and reading a dead guy's diary?" Katherine looks at Damon amusedly, leaning against the doorway of his bedroom.

Damon glares at her, swallowing down the bite of pizza he'd taken right before she appeared. "It's called eating dinner, it's something normal people do."

She gives him a sarcastic smile, stepping into the room. "Really? I didn't even know that sort of thing existed."

"You learn something new every day," He took another bite of pizza, and she scrunched her face up in disgust as she approached his bed, throwing herself onto the end of it and crossing her legs.

"Have you found anything useful yet?"

He tips his hand back and forth before wiping them off, and grabbing the diary from his lap. "You know what I can't figure out?"

"What's that?"

"How the town knew Emily Bennett was a witch." Katherine stiffens, her twirling fingers stilling almost comically quick. "Because according to Johnathan Gilbert, he was the only one who knew. And I know he didn't turn her in."

Katherine feigns innocence, shrugging a silk-covered shoulder as Damon looks to her. The man rolls his eyes, exasperation lacing his tone. "I should've figured as much,"

"She was a loose end. I like mine tied up." Katherine leans forward, eyeing Damon. "Are you lying about not being able to find the sight where the massacre was?"

"Why would I do that?"

She shrugs again, poorly feigning nonchalance. "Considering you followed every one of Emily's moves because you thought she locked me in the tomb, I find it odd that you don't know where she was killed."

"You wanna know what I think is odd?" Damon looked up from the journal, meeting Katherine's curious gaze. "The fact that there's nine other bedrooms in this house and yet you're sitting in mine. Go find your own."

She grumbles, and rolls her eyes. "You're mean. Monstrous, even."

"And you're a wretched, murderous hag." He smiles dryly, waving her off. "We're like two peas in a pod. Except you get your own pod because you're not sleeping in my bed."

"Fine," She stomps towards the door, grumbling underneath her breath. "Technically there's only eight bedrooms, because Caroline's in one."

"Goodnight, Katherine!"

Her annoyed groan echoes down the hallway.

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Matt sat up with a gasp, air filling his lungs at a painful rate. Rose startled from the chair beside him, and Elijah looked up from the book he'd been carelessly skimming through.

"What is this? Where am I?" Matt pulled at his bloody shirt, looking at the two adults confusedly as he scrambled off the bed.

"You're at the Salvatore Boarding House, and you're here because you were attacked by a witch and nearly died. Caroline used her blood to heal you."

Rose leans over and hits Elijah's thigh, a scolding glare on her face. "I thought we agreed we wouldn't tell him all at once!"

He shrugged, though there was a slight smirk on his face at Rose's behavior as he stood, watching Matt try to escape. Elijah disappeared momentarily, and reappeared right in front of Matt as he reached for the doorknob. "I can't let you do that, Matt."

"What? What are you talking about?" Matt shook his head, wiping sweat off his pallor skin. "Why did I drink Caroline's blood? And where is Caroline, is she okay?"

"Caroline's resting, she's rather sore after today's events," Rose sighs, a pitying look on her face as she approached the anxious teenager. "Her blood healed you, Matt. That's what vampire blood does for a human."

"Vampire blood?"

"Yes, your fling is a demon of the night," Elijah eyes him distastefully, measuring him up in comparison to Caroline. With what little interaction he'd had with Matt, and the ridiculous amount of exposure he'd had to Caroline lately, he couldn't understand why a girl like Caroline would want to be with a bland human such as Matt. "As am I and Rose, here. And almost everyone else you know, I'm sure."

"Vampires," He sighs out, rubbing his aching head. "Vicki, my sister, Vicki knew."

Elijah raised a disinterested eyebrow. "Who is Vicki?"

"My– my sister." Matt shakes his head, frustration seeping in his tone at the man standing before him, seemingly way too calm for the current conversation. "She was attacked by an animal, but she said it was a vampire, I just thought she was high. But that, that means that a vampire killed her, too."

Rose grimaced, sharing a look with Elijah. "That sounds like Damon."

"Most likely. He's got temperament issues, that one."

"Damon? As in Damon Salvatore?"

Elijah nodded at Matt.

"I'm in the house of the guy that killed my sister?"

"Most likely," Rose shrugs. "That is what we said, isn't it?"

Matt stumbles backwards, his knees hitting the bed and making him collapse onto the mattress. "Vampires are real. Caroline is a vampire."

Elijah glances at Rose confusedly, the two vampires standing in front of the sitting boy. "Is that not what we've been saying? I know that humans have bad hearing, but he's still young."

Rose elbows him, an exasperatedly fond smile on her face as she tears her gaze away from Elijah, back to Matt. "Are you alright, dear? I know this is a lot to handle all at once. We probably weren't the best ones to break the news to you, we haven't had much human interaction lately."

Matt waves her off. "No, no, yeah, I'm fine. Just gonna–"

Rose jumps backwards, bumping into Elijah as Matt's eyes roll back in his head and he falls to his back on the bed, unconscious.

Elijah peers over the human's limp form, his brows quirking. "Oh, dear. Is he dead?"

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author's note; rose and elijah are an old married couple, and katherine and damon are absolute GREMLINS

edited and published; 6.23.22.

- liz