prodigalsavior | The first day of the rest of your life (For Elena and Ric)

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The first day of the rest of your life (For Elena and Ric)

Damon was torn on whether any of them should be going to the stupid Founder's Party. There were far too many of them and, honestly, nothing good came of them. But Elena did need to get out, to get on with life or whatever. Damon wasn't sure what that would look like, but he felt like he needed to help her figure that out.

Maybe part of it was the thrill of deciding something--anything--with Ric, even if they hadn't told anyone, hadn't discussed when to tell anyone, or how or...whatever. It didn't matter right now. Elena was hurting and, if he was honest, so was he. Whatever else...Stefan was his brother and he loved him and watching all he'd accomplished fall apart again hurt. No Lexi to pull him back this time, either. She was the only one who ever had, but thanks to him, she wouldn't be fixing things this time.

It seemed like Stefan didn't want to be fixed.

Damon would be damned--more damned?--if he let his brother take Elena down with him.

Which was why he was letting himself into her house and putting coffee on, and starting to bang pots around to figure out what they should make to go to the party.

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The noise woke Ric, and he woke up kind of wanting to die. Instead, he took a shower. Then he went in search of the source, because the noise didn't involve screaming bloody murder or walls being knocked down and that meant he had time to.

The scene he walked in on, though, wasn't exactly what he expected. "Morning."

"I know, you're always there saving me." She murmured back, turning her head slightly to look at him. It was true though. He had been saving her a lot lately, being there when she needed him....which made her feel bad that she was lying and hiding the truth about what had happened that night.

She opened her mouth to say something but stopped herself as she jumped a little at the sound of Ric's voice.

Turning her head to look at him, she cleared her throat as she took a small step away from Damon. "Morning."

Damon had been watching Elena intently, trying to read her, to see if she was really okay--and knowing she wasn't, but not what to do about it. He should have heard Ric coming, but he hadn't, really, and he jumped a little, too, when he was suddenly there.

Mirroring Elena, he took a step back, as well, and gave him a smile. "You're just in time."

Ric looked between the pair of them, eyebrows drawn just a bit down. "Just in time for what?" he asked, going for as reasonably neutral as he could, but also giving Damon something of a look. He couldn't really help it.

"I'm trying to convince Damon we should make chilli....what's wrong?" She blinked at the look, glancing between them both.

"And I'm trying to convince her that chili is the exact opposite of what we should be making. Everyone brings chili." He looked back with an arched eyebrow that asked the same thing Elena had...if Ric was willing to say anything.

Ric was asking a few silent questions of his own, when he looked at Damon. More than a few, actually. He still didn't want to be an ass, especially to Elena, but he felt like he'd walked in on... something a lot more than a discussion about chili, and Damon wasn't exactly a bad liar, when he wanted to be.

"Is that all I interrupted, then?" he asked, more lightly. Didn't come off casual so much as slightly loaded, but-

Elena's brows drew together but she nodded a little as she grabbed the celery so she could wash it in the sink. "Yes. And we should hurry so we can get to the Lockwood estate as soon as possible or Caroline is going to come looking for me."

Damon spun away from the look in Ric's eyes and shook his head. "You realize nobody even really likes chili, right? Or that at least some people would like some variety..." He sighed.

At least she wasn't breaking over Stefan? On the surface. Though his gaze flicked to the necklace she was still wearing.

Ric noticed Damon looking away, and he noticed where Damon's gaze landed, too. He took a second or two, to compose his face and voice. "There won't be any shortage of pasta and jello salad, either. What time are you supposed to be there?"

Elena wondered at the sudden tension in the air but she did her best to ignore it. "Fine." There was a sigh in her voice as she stood with her back to them, looking down at the sink. "What do you suggest we make?"

"Not til lunchtime," Damon answered Ric's question, though he was worried both at Elena's sigh and Ric's obvious upset and ran a hand through his hair.

"Do you have sausage and chicken?"

"Chicken, yes. I'm not sure about the sausage. What are you thinking?"

Ric was thinking of running, actually, but was forcing normal back - for Elena's sake. Honestly, she sighed and he just... wanted to make it better. And hated that he was the cause.

Standing there, she brought her hand to the necklace around it, toying with it out of habit as she looked out the window over the sink. Once again she had the strange feeling she was missing something.

She was quiet as she listened to them figure things out.

"One of my family's old recipes," he said lightly, trying to pull her back into it.

He watched her hand go to the necklace, frowning a bit at that.

"It still needs the celery, so you can keep on with that," he told her, moving to the fridge, because movement was good. Checking what they had, he was pleased to see sausage, and pulled the chicken out.

"Ric, you're on chicken duty--cut it into chunks, then you're going to saute it with onions and peppers, which I'll take care of."

Ric took the chicken from Damon, and found a place with counter space to put it, before going to find a cutting board and a knife. There may have been a moment of violent fantasy that he would not, in a million years carry through with, involving the knife. "How big do you want the pieces?"

"What are we making?" She glanced briefly at Damon before looking away to start washing the celery so she could cut it up when she was done.

"Bite sized pieces," he told Ric, still shooting him a searching look, then shaking his head and looking back at Elena.

"I don't know what it's called, really. But my grandmother used to make it, when she could get anyone to let her take over the kitchen." He shrugged, focusing on the onions and peppers. "She taught me. Guess it stuck with me."

Ric did his best to ignore the look, and went about opening the package of chicken to do it. "Then I really doubt there's going to be any competition for it, there." Competition, is the vaguest sense of the word.

And no, this wasn't at all uncomfortable.

And Elena had no idea why.

It was crawling over her skin, making her feel more than uncomfortable, as she worked at chopping the celery. It was enough to make her want to find out what was going on but there was a bigger part that just wanted to leave.

Finishing the celery, she glanced at Damon. "Where do you want this?"

Damon was doing his best to pretend there wasn't any tension in the room, and to still the little flare of guilt because he knew that Ric had misinterpreted, but he couldn't say that now, and he was confused by what was going on with Elena, what he was reading off of her.

He bit back a sigh and gave Elena a smile.

"In the crockpot."

Ric had no idea what was going on with Elena, either, but she was in good company in just wanting to leave. This couldn't have gotten any more awkward, and Ric was not helping a thing. He couldn't even justify saying anything, because it wasn't her fault and she didn't know and - well, he thought he and Damon had covered this, but apparently he was wrong, or something. They sure as hell hadn't covered 'tell Elena'.

Yeah, awkward. Mostly, he just worked on chopping the chicken and kept his mouth shut.

Elena knew she was being odd too but she figured everyone would just write it off as being the result of what had happened in Chicago. With Stefan. No one else.

Dumping the celery into the crockpot, she glanced over at Ric hesitantly. It was strange to feel like he was mad with her or something.

"Um, Ric? Tomorrow is prank night?" She tried to act normal. "Caroline wants me to go, so I'll probably be...late."

Damon was walking on the edge of a wire with the awkward and, well. Walking on the edge was never something he does well. Nor was keeping his mouth shut. The tenser things got, the more likely he was to blurt out something to break it.

Which was pretty much what came out of his mouth. "Great. You all will have fun and do high schooly things, and Ric and I will find some way to amuse ourselves. Shouldn't be too hard."

Ric wasn't even remotely upset with Elena, but he did have the wherewithall, if only just, to realize she probably thoughs so. He'd made an effort to get a real smile on his face, when Damon opened his mouth and-

Ric turned him around and fixed him with the singularly most pissy expression, ever. "You're right," he drawled. "There probably won't be anything hard."

He got over that one, after a second, and looked back to Elena. "Have fun. Maybe some time out with Caroline will help."

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