Taking the Chance [For Damon]

[otrazhenie]

[ The smallest chance at the perfect life with you is infinitely better than an immortal one without you. Those words had stayed with her through everything, a proclamation that wrapped around her heart like a blanket and kept her strong through the long days and hard times. There had been a lot of those after Jo and Alaric's wedding, when she'd doubled up on courses and done everything possible to graduate college early. It hadn't been easy, but it'd been necessary - Stefan hadn't been wrong about them needing to get away for Damon's safety.

Leaving behind her friends hasn't been easy, the found family who meant the world to her. But with Jeremy and Ric no longer in Mystic Falls, and everyone else beginning new lives or finally picking up the pieces of their old ones, there really wouldn't be a better time. And medical school was the perfect excuse to take off and cut her ties with the town.

It's still hard to believe that things have fallen into place so... perfectly. She'd been accepted to her first choice of schools and Damon had taken care of finding them a place to live. It had come together so quickly, she was almost sure he'd planned it in advance, and when they pull up in front of a building that had a bar on the ground level-- ]

I can't believe you remembered this. [ That 'game' they'd played before she'd taken the cure, when he'd asked where she would be in five years. It isn't Tribeca, but it just might be better. ]

Comments

[blooded]

( damon knew being human again wouldn't be a cake walk. he'd told himself, time and again after he convinced elena he knew what he was choosing, that he really did know. it was going to be difficult, it would take adjusting to, some days he'd hate it... but it'd all be worth it, just to wake up next to her. to have her at his side through it all, kicking his ass when he was being a shit and to hold his hand when he wasn't. for elena, he'd go to the ends of the earth, so taking the cure? that was nothing.

and for once in his life, damon salvatore was right about something.

being human has sucked. relearning how to breathe, having to go to the gym, experiencing all those little inconveniences that he forgot as a vampire. the first time he'd gotten a cold elena had had to stay home from her classes because he'd been such a whiney baby about it, and his first sunburn hadn't gone much better. he's been sick a lot more than he hasn't lately, with his immune system only having been prepared for germs from a century and a half ago. it's been one bullshit ride after another, back here in humanville.

but because it's sucked, he's gotten even closer to elena, as if that were even possible. the first time he'd fallen back into the shallower breathing pattern that he used as a vampire and nearly suffocated because he was a moron, she'd sat with him with her hand on his chest, reminding him what his lungs felt like when they were full. they go to the gym together three times a week now, and she's started to teach him the vampire defense stuff ric taught her in high school. he helps her study when she stays home to look after him while he's sick, and she makes sure he doesn't die of 21st century superbacteria.

against all the odds, despite stefan's doubts and hers, he makes it work. he even likes it, more and more often every day. he has a life now, a real one, with the only woman he'd ever want one with. no matter what he gave up, it'd be worth it just to have this.

time passes more quickly this way, and before either of them really know it, she's graduated college and has her medical school all lined up. it's really too convenient to be true, but hey. it's about time something in their lives worked out.

damon's had this apartment and bar ready since they talked about becoming human together. he couldn't have known she'd want to move all the way across the country for medical school, but... he'd had a hunch. they couldn't stay too close to mystic falls, after all, and her brother was already farther west than he was east. that he got them a place in portland, and her first choice was the oregon health and science university... well, he wasn't about to look at it too closely. for once, coincidence was working in their favour.

they pull up to the building and elena's already smiling, big and bright, and that's another thing that makes all this worth it. she smiles so often now. she'd started smiling more when she accepted being a vampire, but now that she's human again it's like she never stops, always finding something to take joy in. that smile is more than enough to quiet the parts of damon that still miss being the eternal stud. )

Does it count as remembering if I had it ready a week after you took the cure? ( he asks, eyebrow raised, going around the car to start pulling out their bags. it's easier to keep his hands busy than to worry that somehow she doesn't like it, or that it's not really what she wanted. no matter what he tells himself, that's something that's never really gone away — that fear that this is all going to be swept out from under his feet if he wants it too much. most of the time he can ignore it, and when he can't... well, distracting himself with tangible proof that there really is a them at all is better than distracting himself with murder, probably. )

[otrazhenie]

[ Human Damon has not been at all what Elena expected. With her intentions of being a doctor, one would think she'd have considered the fact that his immune system wouldn't be able to handle the twenty-first century's plethora of germs, with viruses and bacteria made stronger by the constantly increasing numbers of drugs on the market, but the thought had never once occurred to her. Instead she'd been blindsided by his string of his illnesses.

It was a little terrifying when she first realized what he was facing. They had an entire life ahead of them and it could all be wiped out by something so simple as the flu. Staying with him had been no hardship, despite the way he'd complained and made it seem like the world was ending -- she'd worry about him more if she wasn't with him, since he was still learning how to take care of a human body again, so it was easier to stay and look after him herself. And it really did bring them closer together.

Everything did. Teaching him, learning who he was as a vulnerable human, helping him through those changes. It was an amazing thing for their relationship despite how difficult it was for him to go through, and she was grateful she was able to be there for him.

And she's happy. It hits her sometimes, just how much things have changed. An entire future of possibilities in front of them, a human life with the man she loved more than anything. Of course she smiled all the time, even when she was buried in reading and assignments and Damon was hacking up a lung, she found herself smiling because underneath it she was really, truly happy.

She watches him start to unload the car, her jaw dropping slightly as she took in what he'd said, and then her smile is right back in place. Climbing out of the car, she slings her purse onto her shoulder as she walks around to the trunk, trying and failing to tame that smile into something more serious. ]

Damon Salvatore, what am I going to do with you? [ It's a rhetorical question, of course, and she reaches out to stop him as he's readying an armful of bags, perhaps too many for just a human's strength. She loops her arms around his neck, her fingertips playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. ] You're too perfect, there's got to be something wrong with you.

[ A pause, then she gasps and pulls back a little with comedic drama. ] You're married, aren't you?

[blooded]

Kiss me? ( he suggests, ignoring the fact that the question was clearly rhetorical. it's an almost perfunctory response, given as he frowns down at their bags. he could have carried all of these, when he was a vampire. it wouldn't have even been the slightest challenge. another thing he misses: super strength.

there's no time to get frustrated. elena steps into view and his attention returns to her immediately, his hands going from the straps of their bags to her waist. when he'd first returned to mystic falls, the idea of anyone calling him perfect would have made him laugh. he'd have turned it into a joke about his body, how hot he was, how superficially charming, to cover up for the fact that he's never even felt good enough, let alone perfect. no one's said that before, certainly never meant it, but elena does. she has this habit of saying things that sneak up on him, things that he'd never really thought about or realized he needed to hear until she's already said them.

it's a joke, and he can go along with the joke, but he's going to hold onto this feeling and hope he makes her feel half as settled in her own skin as she makes him feel in his. )

You caught me. I've got this brunette at home, she's a knockout. ( he pauses, dips his head to rest his forehead against hers — ) Don't know where I'd be without her.

[otrazhenie]

[ It occurs to Elena sometimes that the things she says might be among those that mean the most to Damon. Even knowing what she does of his life, the hardships he'd endured and all the scars they'd left behind, all the consideration she's given in recent years to helping him through some of those issues, it still hits her sometimes. How a simple turn of phrase can be something so astronomically important not because of the meaning she puts behind it, but rather the value that he places on it.

All of that searching and contemplation has taken place as part of her desire to support him the way he does her. He'd become human again to be with her, to have a chance at a life together, and now he'd moved across the country be with her while she pursued a dream that would take years to achieve and a huge commitment from them both. Sure, she'd be the one going through classes, labs, internships, and residencies, but he would be the one waiting for her at the end of each day, dealing with how tired she was and stressed. The past few semesters had certainly proven that he could be there through it all for her, but with all this time still stretching before them until she had anything resembling a normal work-life balance... She'd never be able to put into words how much all he's doing meant to her. ]

And you won't have to find out.

[ She's not going anywhere, not for a very long time if she has anything to say about it. They have a whole life ahead of them, and she doesn't want to regret a single second of it. Leaning up the few inches she needs to reach him, she presses her lips to her in a brief kiss, a physical reassurance of her promise to him. It only lasts a second, then she's pulling back again to smile brightly up at him. ]

Will you show me our new home?

[blooded]

( he might have to find out. stefan made that very clear, as if damon hadn't considered the possibility himself — he doesn't think they'll ever become unhappy with each other, they've been through too much together for that, but the world has never been particularly kind to either of them. no matter their intentions, no matter how much they love each other, accidents happen all the time. people get sick, people get in cars drunk, people do terrible things to one another all the time, no supernatural influence required. one day damon may not recover from a cold he catches, one day elena may be hit by a car on her way to the hospital — even if they were back in mystic falls with caroline, vampire blood wouldn't help them anymore.

these things have occurred to damon. he has thought about them often, since he took the cure. it'd be easy to let them paralyze him, to let them make him mean. he gets mean when he's afraid, he knows this about himself. causing pain is easier than feeling it, and if he wanted to now, it'd be easy.

but he didn't take the cure for an easy life, or for a guarantee. he knew this might not end well when he chose it. he meant what he said — the smallest chance of a mortal life with you is infinitely better than an immortal one without you. no matter what life put them through, what it put him through — he'll never regret his choice. life might be cruel, he might one day have to find out what it's like to live as a human without elena, but these years with her, the smile on her face as she looks up at him?

he wouldn't trade that for anything.

she wants a tour. he kisses her forehead, ducks his head so he can nudge their noses together in an eskimo kiss, and then lets her go, smiling as he reaches for their bags — only as many as he can humanly carry. there's a couple left over for elena to grab. )

Do you want to see the bar or the apartment first?