Hello, all!

I'm still [so] incredibly devastated about the end of The Vampire Diaries... it has been my door into this writing world, into fanfiction, into meeting others with equal want and talent to pursue fiction. I'll forever be in love with it!

I hope you enjoy the beginning of this story (of this forever)

Love,

InsomniousInk

Xo

—INTRODUCTION—

"As the world nearly came to an end, and a breath of fire blew over the town that once seemed so normal, so timid in its ignorance, she was reborn from the ashes and smoke that it left behind. Flames amiss, orange no longer a favored color, a blanket of grey was what she first saw when the world had decided to righten itself again. And then came the blue… Hail the blue!"

There is a point (a moment) in time where everything can change… where the balance of nature shifts, and normality undertakes a new definition. The world will roll from its underbelly, and bare its blazing white middle to the galaxy above, familiarity becoming a stranger and darkness being brought to light.

Elena thought, as she took that first step onto the mossy clearing, that everything, in fact, had changed. That the world she had once been so intimate with had become a stranger.

The trees had a new shape, the earth had a new smell, the smiles of her friends were different… were unexplainably dark in their joy. There were absences, there were uninvited guests, there were eyes she had never seen before and ones she had missed dreadfully.

Though most of all, the one thing that had perhaps hindered her more than anything—that had caused time to freeze and her breaths to falter—was him.

Was Damon.

Was the unexpected warmth in his hands as they gripped the back of her neck and lower back—forcing her into him with such desperation. They were hot with humanity, his cheeks lightly stubbled, his hair shaggier at the back and eyes watery with want. He smelt like sweat, and soap, and sadness… and he tasted like every day she had spent away from him. A pining pain that would never be satisfied.

Their lips moulded into one, and she clutched his newly human self to her with the fear that he'd disappear… just as he had on that highway when they said their last goodbye. After the kiss, the drop, the promise that he would live his life to the fullest, she had hugged him close and then like a flame being puffed out, he had vanished from her grasp, leaving her alone on that lonely road, standing in a dress moments before he had so selfishly wanted to remove.

The reminder, in the mix of fear, had brought a flush of red to her chest and cheeks, and she mewled into his open, hot mouth. His tongue was preparing itself to invade, and then the reminder that they weren't alone surged forward, and he brought himself back. Still holding her, still looking at her. Marvelling at the beauty that would for the next sixty years, be his.

They had forever, and even a little after that, Damon had to remind himself.

Elena lifted her hand and caressed his face, watching the way her thumb dipped onto his upper lip, and over his chin. Later, her touch said. Now, her eyes plead.

Caroline cleared her throat, and unfastened from her pocket a small snow globe, Mystic Falls' heart in the centre, surrounded by artificial snow and glitter. It sat on the breast of a broken tree trunk, and Damon broke away to follow. Still holding Elena's hand, he placed his ring beside a gift from Bonnie, and one from Alaric. The blue glimmered beneath the sunlight, and Damon's hand looked bear without it…

Elena, too, slipped something personal around the candles, around the shrine that wished Stefan peace where he was… the vervain necklace still looked as beautiful the day he had given it to her. It sat blindingly against the leaves, against the trees and world that had changed so much during her slumber. And together, they joined arm in arm, and stepped toward their future.

I only have a brief outline of where I want to take this, and I'd really be interested in hearing what exactly you see in their future together. I'll try my best to incorporate it in the next few chapters. Let me know!