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

[prodigalsavior]

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.

Comments

[thisismybar]

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?"

[the_realsavior]

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?"

[prodigalsavior]

"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?"

[thisismybar]

"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.

[the_realsavior]

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.

[prodigalsavior]

"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."

[thisismybar]

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?"

[the_realsavior]

"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.

[prodigalsavior]

"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."

[thisismybar]

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.

[the_realsavior]

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?"

[prodigalsavior]

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."

[thisismybar]

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.

[the_realsavior]

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."

[prodigalsavior]

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."

[thisismybar]

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."

[the_realsavior]

It was such a weird statement and Elena couldn't help but give Ric a quizzical look about it.

"Maybe." She replied before glancing between them with an inscrutable expression. "Do you need me anymore?"

[prodigalsavior]

Given the simmering tension in the room, Damon didn't want to over think her question, or any sort of implications in it that might or might not be there the way Ric was acting.

"Yes." The answer to her was just automatic.

He was the one shooting Ric a pissy look, now, with a layer of hurt underneath it. "Whatever you think you walked in on, you didn't."

[thisismybar]

Ric looked back at Damon for a moment and nodded. "All right... Elena, this isn't about you. You're fine. If you want to stay, you're welcome. If you don't... I get the need for space." He finished his chicken. "Where's this go?"

[the_realsavior]

Elena glanced at Damon as he said 'yes' and then she was looking at Ric again. "What is going on with you two?" She demanded then.

[prodigalsavior]

Damon was still half glaring, though, really, eventually he might come around to being happy Ric cared enough to get pissy. That was new.

It made it that much harder to know how to deal with, though.

"Do you want to tell her, or should I?"

He wasn't going to even try to pretend nothing was.

[thisismybar]

Ric shot Elena a concerned look, and then back at Damon. "You can, if you want and think it's a good idea."

He wasn't going to hide Elena, but he was... way less than sure about this. On a lot of levels. For him. For Elena.

[the_realsavior]

Slapping her hand against the counter, she continued to look between the two of them, torn between concern and annoyance.

"Tell me what?"

[prodigalsavior]

Well, he couldn't really not tell her, now, and that occurred to him with a slight "oops?" feeling. Because if he said nothing, then she'd get pissed, and he was trying to help her, not piss her off.

But Ric's lack of surety left him feeling uncertain, now, too, like maybe they weren't really together, no matter what they'd said.

Add to that...he had no idea how to describe what they were doing. Dating? Hooking up? Exploring new levels of their friendship? None of that was right, and he'd be damned--more damned--if he knew what was.

"Ric and I..." He trailed off, closed his eyes, took a breath. "We've been...I mean, we decided..." Well, what had they decided beyond some possessive snarling and that they weren't just friends with benefits or whatever? "We weren't really going to tell anyone, yet, so if you could...not, that'd be cool..." Faint panic was showing and it was ridiculous--he was older than both of them combined, so he shouldn't feel like a teenager with his first crush, for fuck's sake.

"We're sort of...together?" He thought? Maybe? He looked at Ric a little helplessly.

[thisismybar]

"Remove the sort of," he said, giving Damon a totally exasperated look. "Tell anyone you need to tell. Not broadcasting it to everyone would be nice, though." Because he fully expected everyone in the town to come down on Damon like a ton of bricks, and to question his own sanity.

He was still damned worried about Elena, though, his heart was racing and he was light headed - though the last had more to do with 'out' about... anything involved in that. He was covering it fairly well, at least from Elena, he hoped. Damon... he couldn't even try. Too much of it was pure physical response.