❝past, meet present❞

DAMON WATCHED ELENA AS SHE CAME OUT OF HER ADJOINING BATHROOM. He cleared his throat, announcing his presence to the doppelgänger that startled at the sight of him. "Cute pj's." His sarcasm was evident and Elena let out a sigh, nervously wringing her hands together.

"I'm tired, Damon."

He rolled his eyes and stood, dangling the silver necklace from his hand. "Brought you this." Her eyes widened at the sight of the vervain necklace that Elijah had ripped off her neck, and she looked at Damon gratefully.

"I thought that was gone," She breathed out. "Thank you." 

She reached for it, but Damon pulled it back, just out of her reach. "I just have to say something."

"Why do you have to say it without my necklace?" She questioned, her eyes wide with fear as the raven haired vampire stepped closer to her with a careless shrug.

Damon dangled the necklace before her tauntingly, his eyes narrowed accusingly. "Letting you be in Stefan's life is one of the most sefless things I've ever done, Elena. I can't believe I ever thought you'd be different from Katherine," 

Elena frowned at his words, her brows furrowing. "Damon–"

"If I didn't think it would destroy Stefan, I would compel you to leave and never come back."

His interruption startled her into silence and her jaw dropped at the candidness of his tone. She took a step towards him and he took one back from her, keeping the distance between them. "Damon, I'm not Katherine. I'm sorry for what she did to your wife–"

"Don't talk about her as if you knew her." Damon cuts her off again, his tone full of hatred. He clenches his fist around the necklace chain and glares at Elena. "Every time I look at you I see her face, her attitude, her hatred for my wife. It's the exact same thing that led to her death all over again and I won't let her face that. She deserves to rest peacefully."

Elena struggles to find words to defend herself as Damon spits his hateful words at her. She's seen Damon angry, but it's never been directed at her and she truly doesn't know what to do about it. Stefan isn't here to defend her, and she's lost on her own.

"I can't stand by and watch Stefan fall in love with Katherine 2.0 when it's going to end the exact same way it did the first time; someone I love dying because of you, and Stefan and I falling out of touch for another century. You get that, don't you, Elena? Anything to protect your family? Well all I want is for you to leave mine alone, forever."

He takes a wary step forward, hesitant to get so close to a lookalike of the woman he hates. He knows that he can't do anything to Elena, not yet. Stefan would kill him as soon as he found out Damon had anything to do with it. Because no matter how much they all tried to deny it, Damon included, Stefan had already fallen back under the allure of the doppelgänger's beauty and he wasn't going to break free anytime soon.

The vampire lets out a long sigh and looks at her frustratedly. "Forget about this conversation. All that happened was I gave you your necklace back and left."

Elena blinks as the compulsion washes over her, and she looks to the curtains on her windows that rustled. Her hands fell to her neck where her necklace lay, and she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She barely remembered seeing Damon.

With a shrug, she walked over to her bed and pulled the comforter back, sitting down amongst her covers. She shrugged her hazy mind off to the stress of the few days events, and found herself exhausted.

She fell asleep with a clear mind, while a dark haired vampire sat in his room awaiting a phone call from a not-so-desiccated vampire.

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"Okay, you have to understand that I only know what I've picked up over the years. And I don't know what's true and what's not true." Rose paced before the three people that she had just been up against yesterday, her body language showing her nervousness to them all.

She ignores Elena's glare in favor of looking to the two Salvatore brothers who are listening intently. "That's the problem with all this vampire crap. But Klaus, I know is real."

"Who is he?"

"He's one of the Originals." Damon muttered, drawing three sets of eyes towards him. And a smug asshole, his mind supplies. 

"He's from the first generation of vampires." Stefan continues, oblivious to his brother's inner commentary.

Elena nods her head at Stefan. "Like Elijah." She says, remembering Rose and Trevor's conversation from when they'd had her captive.

"No," Rose sighs, rolling her eyes at the teenage girl. "Elijah was the easter bunny compared to Klaus. He was a foot soldier. Klaus is the real deal."

Damon rolled his eyes at Rose's words, his disinterested look falling to Stefan as his brother spoke again. "Klaus is known to be the oldest."

"Okay, so," Elena holds up a finger, halting the conversation. "You're saying the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after me?"

"Yes."

"No."Stefan gives Rose a scolding look that she ignores as she looks at the doppelgänger. 

Damon shrugs them both off and looks at Elena. "What they're saying is– I mean, given what she's saying is true–"

"Which it is." Rose inputted, earning a glare from Damon.

"And she's not just saying it so I don't kill her–"

"Which I'm not."

"We're looking at a solid... yeah, probably." Damon shrugged carelessly.

Stefan glared at the two vampires before him. "Look, Elijah's dead, right? So no one else even knows that you exist."

Stefan moved, sitting down next to Elena, trying to comfort her nerves. 

"Not that you know of." 

Stefan glared at Rose and Damon nodded in agreement with the woman, holding his hands up in surrender when Stefan shifted his glare to him.

"Look, I haven't even met someone that's laid eyes on him." Damon looked at his brother with wide eyes before he turned away, fiddling anxiously with his lapis lazuli ring. "I mean we're talking centuries of truth mixed with fiction. We don't know what's real. For all we know he could just be some sort of stupid bedtime story."

Rose shook her head fiercely at Stefan. "He's real, and he doesn't give up. If he wants something, he gets it. If you're not afraid of Klaus, then you're an idiot."

"Alright, we're shaking. You've made your point." Damon cut Rose off, his eyes darting to the clock on the wall.

Elena stood up silently, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. Stefan looked at her confusedly. "Where are you going?"

"School. I'm late."

"Let me grab my stuff, I'll go with you."

She shook him off, her eyes darting nervously to Damon who was walking out of the living room with an urgency that she silently questioned. "No, no, that's okay. I know where it is."

Damon mockingly winced as Elena walked out, leaning towards Rose who was watching the ordeal awkwardly. "She's in denial."

"Shut up, Damon."

The vampire sighed and held his hands up in surrender, grabbing his coat from the back of the couch. "No need to get hostile, little brother. I've got places to be, people to see. You know the drill, I'll be out of your hair while you fumble with the fate of your dear doppelgänger's life."

Stefan furrowed his eyebrows, ignoring his jab. "Where do you have to be in such a rush?"

"I have lunch with an old friend."

"You don't have friends. And it's 8 in the morning."

"Breakfast, then." Damon shrugged, rushing out of the house and ignoring the first part of Stefan's observations– something that didn't go unnoticed by Stefan.

Damon was up to something, that was for sure.

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author's note; i have a headache 

edited and published; 8.17.21. 

- liz