"We'd share each other like an island until exhausted, close our eyelids," 'Set the Fire to the Third Bar' by Snow Patrol

There's no reason for them to be here, and yet every reason for them to be here. She needs someone to appreciate all that her mother never will and he needs someone to be all that Elena never wants to be and all that Katherine never was. So it's really only natural that they'd find each other. Need each other.

He watches her sleep on his couch for a while, sipping a glass of blood every few minuets.

He watches her breathe, her chest heaving erratically, her body still trying to recover from her tears. He listens to her little sighs and whimpers, and he knows she's having nightmares. He even reaches out once, when she lets out a piercing cry, but retracts his hand before it touches her.

When she wakes an hour and a half later, she's crying again, and he's by her side on the couch. Was he there the whole time, or did he just appear? She clings to him because he's there, because he's not afraid of her, because he made her. She doesn't really know.

She doesn't know how long she cries against his chest before he pulls her far enough away from him and kisses her forehead gently, very gently. And she can't say how long she stares at him before she kisses his lips. Time doesn't seem to matter. They just kiss, drawing comfort from each other during a time when they're both a little more vulnerable then they wish to show the world.

Eventually, they stop, and she rests her head against his chest and closes her eyes. And he lets her because she's there, because she's not afraid of him, because he made her. He doesn't know. He just runs his fingers through her hair until he, too, falls asleep.