Elena sat on the couch playing with her pink scarf as Stefan made tea in the kitchen.
"Doing okay?" Stefan asked as he came over with two mugs and sat down beside her.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Elena asked, looking at him.
"You just help torture and then kill someone." Stefan reminded her softly.
"First of; when he threatened Jeremy, he forfeited his life because that is one thing I cannot let go or forgive!" Elena growled. "And second: there is very little I wouldn't do to protect my friends and family, plus I refuse to be a distressing damsel that always needs rescuing."
"I wish you didn't have to fight at all." Stefan admitted.
"Is that you're upbringing in the 1800s or are you being a misogynistic pig?" Elena glared at him. "Because if it's the second I will kick your ass."
"I think it's both my upbringing and that I don't like seeing my friend in danger." Stefan answered quickly.
"Good answer." Elena smirked at him.
"I do need to tell you something and I don't know how you're going to feel about it." Stefan said slowly.
"What?" Elena turned so all off her focus was on Stefan.
"I told Damon that I'd help him get into that tomb to get Kathrine back." Stefan informed her and she smiled but Elenas smile slipped as he continued. "But that was a lie. I let him believe he could trust me."
Elena slapped him hard over the back of the head and glared at him. "Stefan!"
"What?" Stefan actually looked shocked, like he didn't know why she was mad at him.
"We are helping him get Kathrine back!" Elena declared.
"Why?" Stefan asked. "Damon kills people and it will be more dead bodies if Kathrine joins him."
"Stefan, you are vampires, killing is in your very nature." Elena tried to make him understand.
"But that doesn't mean we have to kill and be monsters." Stefan argued.
"Oh Stefan." Elena sighed softly as she saw the self-hatred in his eyes. "Just because you are a vampire and kill people doesn't make you a monster."
"But..." Stefan looked so lost.
"Think of it like this; if the earth gets an overpopulation of rabbits, what happens?" Elena asked him when he just looked confused, she continued. "The population of foxes also go up to regulate the rabbit population. You with me so far?"
"Yeah, but I don't see what this have anything to do with vampires." Stefan shrugged.
"In this conversation the rabbits are the humans while the foxes are the vampires." Elena explained patiently. "Vampires are basically there so humans don't over populate the world, well more than they already have."
"Oh." Stefan looked like he was deep in thought and contemplating everything Elena had told him.
"Think about it, Stefan." Elena encouraged him. "How do you think the human population would fare without vampires if we already have basically over populated the world and starving, homeless and jobless people are a norm and our natural resources are running out?"
"It would be chaos and a lot more people would die." Stefan said in realization.
"Exactly." Elena smiled proudly at him.
"I've never thought about it like that before." Stefan looked at her and smiled. "Thank you."
"You are very welcome." Elena smiled back. "Now are you onboard with helping your brother?"
"Yes." Stefan declared strongly and hugged Elena.
XOXOXOX
Two days later Elena woke up in Stefans bed at the boarding house after she had fallen asleep while they watched Disney films. She was determined to make Stefan watch every single Disney film in existence.
"Morning." Elena mumbled as she snuggled closer to her pillow.
"Good morning." Stefan smiled from where he was sitting by his desk and writing in his journal.
"Rise and shine, sleepyheads." Damon declared dramatically as he walked into Stefans room.
"Good morning Damon." Elena smiled and sat up against the head board, making the sheets fall down to her waist showing off her black bra.
"Did you two have sex?" Damon leered but had a weird look in his eyes.
"Huh?" Elena asked but the she looked down. "Oh right, no we did not have sex. It was way too hot during the night so I took of my clothes to sleep in my underwear."
"And you're not trying to cover up right now, because?" Damon wondered as he looked at her.
"It's not like you and Stefan hasn't already, sort of, seen me naked." Elena shrugged with a laugh.
"No, we haven't." Stefan denied, confusion plane on his face.
"So, you didn't sleep with Kathrine?" Elena asked with a smirk.
"Well, yeah." Stefan nodded. "But what does that have to do with anything?"
"Is he always this slow in the mornings?" Elena turned to Damon with a smirk.
Damon was laughing so hard that he had tears streaming down his face and had to lean against Stefans bed. "Stefan..." He couldn't finish his sentence because of the laughter.
"If your goal for this visit was to make me feel stupid, you have succeeded." Stefan pouted.
"Stefan, aren't Kathrine and I identical in our appearance as far as you can tell." Elena asked with a bright grin.
"Yeah." Stefan nodded slowly.
"So, if you have seen Kathrine naked then you have as good as seen me naked, right?" Elena giggled.
It took a few seconds for Stefan to catch up and then it was as if a light bulb when off in his head and he got an embarrassed look on his face. "Oh."
"I came in here to discuss some important business with you two." Damon had managed to calm down somewhat but still let out a chuckle every now and again. "In order to open the tomb, we need to find Jonathan Gilbert's journal to get the grimoire to undo the spells."
"Yeah that would probably help." Elena nodded with a mock seriousness.
"First things first: since you are Elena Gilbert, you are on journal duty." Damon continued like Elena hadn't said anything.
"I'll look for it when I get home." Elena offered with a smile.
"Good." Damon smiled back at her.
"How do we know that this journal will hold the location of the grimoire?" Stefan asked slowly after he had gotten over his embarrassment, but he did have a hard time looking at Elena without letting his eyes wander. "We're really going to take the word of this vampire? He seemed like a bit of a dimwit."
"In lieu of other options." Damon nodded.
"So, just to be certain that I know what we are looking for, a grimoire is a witch's spell book, right?" Elena looked between the brothers.
"Yup, could also be called a witch's cookbook." Damon smirked.
"Every spell that a witch casts is unique unto itself, so every witch would document their work." Stefan explained.
Elena looked at Damon and together they chorused, "Cookbook."
"What about our mystery vampire?" Stefan smiled at them with a raised eyebrow. "Dimwit obviously wasn't working alone, so whoever's out there knows who we are."
"And, frankly, I don't like the disadvantage, so..." Damon clapped his hands together. "Chop, chop."
"One part of me wants to say 'You're not my real dad!' while the other wants to say 'Make me!'" Elena smirked with a shrugged.
"You know, I really like this whole menage a threesome team thing." Damon snorted. "It's got a bit of a kink to it."
"So, if you and Damon started fucking, who would take it up the ass and can I watch?" Elena looked at Stefan with a leer as Damon walked out of the room.
Stefan stared horrified at Elena and they heard Damon stumble down the stairs and Elena started to laugh devilishly.
"You do know we are brothers, right?" Stefan asked as he looked at her.
"Stefan, you and Damon are my friends and I don't judge." Elena laughed and then smiled kindly at him, knowing Damon was also listening in. "If you one day decided you wanted to get gang banged by a whole freaking biker gang, I would just make sure that everyone was consenting adults and that you all had enough lube."
"Your mind is a very dark, disturbing place, isn't it?" Stefan asked quietly and Elena just smiled innocently back at him.
XOXOXOX
Later that day Elena looked through boxes of old family memorabilia for the journal while Stefan sat at the breakfast bar watching her.
"How are you feeling?" Elena asked as she pulled out a few stacks of papers from the box.
"I'm fine, why do you ask?" Stefan looked at her.
"Well, I did basically change the way you looked at the world a few days ago." Elena shrugged.
"I'm trying to get used to it but I always find myself thinking about things 'the human way' so to speak and it's hard to just switch my way of being." Stefan tried to explain. "And I just can't stop feeling a high regard for human life."
"You don't have to become apathic towards human life or anything like it as long as you realize that killing something to be able to eat has been done as long as life has existed." Elena smiled reassuringly at him.
Elena picked up a photo of a man from the box and Stefan stood up to walk over to her to be able to see the picture.
"That's Jonathan Gilbert." Stefan informed her.
"He looks a bit like my dad." Elena murmured softly.
"Genetics tend to do that." Stefan teased and she elbowed him in the stomach playfully.
"What's this?" Elena opened a wooden box and contained within it was what appeared to be a muzzle.
"That is a muzzle designed for vampires." Stefan explained softly. "It is made so your jaw is unable to open and that way you can't feed."
"That's just barbaric." Elena exclaimed in disgust. "If you hunt and kill vampires, fine I can accept that but to starve them? That is just unnecessarily cruel."
"What are you guys doing?" Jeremy asked as he entered the room.
"Realizing that our ancestors were disgusting and sadistic pigs." Elena sneered but then she smiled at her little brother. "We are looking for Jonathan Gilbert's journal. Know anything about it?"
"Yeah, I just did a history report on it." Jeremy smiled proudly. "I even got an A on it."
"That's amazing, Jeremy!" Elena jumped up and hugged Jeremy.
"What do you need the journal for anyway?" Jeremy laughed as he hugged Elena back.
"Oh, it's supposed to contain the location of a grimoire that we need." Elena told him.
"A grimoire?" Jeremy asked wide eyed. "As in a witch's spell book?"
"Exactly like that." Elena beamed,
"Witches are real too?!" Jeremy looked flabbergast and then a smile slowly broke out on his face. "That is so cool!"
"I should really stop being surprised at how easily this whole family accepts the supernatural." Stefan mumbled with a shake of his head.
"So anyway," Elena smiled. "Where is the journal now?"
"I gave it to Mr. Saltzman, he wanted to see it." Jeremy shrugged then he turned hesitant. "Shouldn't I have?"
"Eh, we'll just go ask him for it." Elena smiled and ruffled, or tried to ruffle, Jeremys hair, but she frowned. "Jeremy?"
"Yeah?" Jeremy looked at her.
"Since when did you become so tall?" Elena giggled.
"When did you become so short?" Jeremy smirked teasingly at his older sister.
"I'm not short," Elena pouted. "I'm fun sized."
~~~~~~
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