AN: This is a drabble that got stuck in my head and demanded that I write it, and this came out. One shot.

He's going to tell her. That night, he's made plans to tell her that he loves her. He just wants to tell her, he's not sure if she'll return his affections, but the words have been harder and harder to keep out of his mouth around her. They settle for being jammed into his throat whenever she's near.

But it's Elena, and while she's still a young vampire, she's spent nine years as a vampire and seven spent in London with him. They're close, and they make time to see each other almost every day. Unless she's in Paris with Caroline or he has to travel for business. He's an idiot in love, he knows, but he doesn't mind. Not really. He likes who he is around Elena.

His humming is stopped as his phone buzzes. He wonders who it is, after today he has people to deal with, there are a few people on his list who simply need killing. One of them is someone who's tried repeatedly to ruin his life in the past few months. Some petty grudge over a dead sire. If he had killed the man's sire, it was well deserved. He did not kill needlessly. Usually. He needs to travel to Germany and take care of that little problem, but it's probably Elena wondering what time she could come over. She's been in Paris the last week, with Caroline, he had seen her off. She had grinned and told him goodbye in French. He's been teaching her some of the languages he knows. He opens the text. He's sure his heart has stopped beating when he does. He knows he's stopped breathing.

The text is a badly written threat and something that tells him this what he gets and it mentions Elena, and there's a picture attached. The lighting is horrible, but it looks like Elena. There's a stake through her heart, her skin is gray. She's dead. Elena is dead. No wonder she hasn't responded to his last few texts, that vampire probably has her phone. He's probably laughing at Elijah as he reads them. The idea of her killer reading those texts-his vampire face comes out before he's aware of it. He hasn't shown it in decades. Originals can't turn their emotions off, not like baby vampires can, the older you are the harder it is, but his are gone. As absent as they can be. He's about to arrange a flight to Germany, while his emotions are almost non existent, he wants to avenge Elena regardless. She means something to him with or without most of his emotions. He arrange the flight for the next day, his voice is cold and unattached. He's thinking of every way he can torture the vampire before he gives him death, he wants him to beg for his life to Elijah.

There's a knock at the door, and he gets up to answer it. He opens the door, his lack of emotions obvious. He almost thinks it's Katherine, but he takes a breath and realizes it's Elena, who's looking at him with concern. She's wearing her favorite perfume, he can smell Caroline on her, it's actually Elena.

"Elijah?" She asks, carefully. It looks like she tore a wall down with just his name, the cold mask she saw is gone, and the door is closed and he's pressed into her before she can comprehend it. He's hugging her, she realizes. He's not usually one for this much affection, she usually initiates hugs. His head is in between her shoulder and neck, and she's worried. She's not scared of Elijah, hasn't been for years-but the cold mask he had on scared the hell out of her. He hadn't looked that heartless even when she had first met him. And he was absolutely terrifying then.

His hug doesn't hurt her, but it's so tight that she has to ask.

"Are you okay?" She asks in a murmur, she doesn't want to be loud, he doesn't seem to need startled back into something. He just seems completely out of it.

"I was told you were dead." He whispers, she can feel it on her skin, and tries to ignore the butterflies, she has to focus on Elijah.

"How?" She asks, softly.

"A text message. It had a picture attached. I'm assuming it was of Katerina. But I thought it was you." His voice is filled with grief, and she moves her arms, which had automatically wrapped around him when his went around her waist. He waits, but she moves so that they're underneath his suit jacket, wrapped around him once more. He can't properly explain, and she doesn't need him to, she shudder at the thought of losing Elijah, she wants to tell him she loves him, her visit to Caroline was to get talked into it, she was going to tell him tonight. But now doesn't seem like the time to tell him of her love. It's a few minutes before either of them speak, she understands his need to be close, like he's understood hers, dozens of times before.

"Elena. I have something to tell you. I don't expect you to feel the same, but after thinking you were dead I have to tell you." He admits and she gives him a sign she wants him to continue speaking, and so he does.

"I am in love with you, Elena. I don't expect you to feel the same as I do, I just wanted to-" He's cut off when she tells him to stop. He does.

"Elijah." Her voice is soft and he fears the worst.

"I'm in love you too." She sounds like she's about to cry, and honestly the idea of losing Elijah has brought some unwelcome feelings. He pulls back, to look at her face. She loves him back.

She kisses him then, one of her hands moving to the back of his neck. It's not completely soft, and it's not entirely sweet, there's an undercurrent of almost there. Almost grief. Almost lost. Almost lost it.

It's entirely them. He breaks the kiss, his forehead against hers.

"Elena." He says raggedly.

"I don't just want you, or crave you. I need you. Like humans need air to breathe." He confesses and she kisses him again.

"I need you too." She admits. She can't imagine life without him, and her world isn't only him either. She's not codependent, she could survive and live without Elijah, but she doesn't want to. She wants this, she wants to kiss him in his library and know what he looks like before he wakes up. She wants anything and everything he has to offer. So she takes it. And so does he. He'll cancel his flight tomorrow morning.

FINIS