prompts { 2022 } fictober

[iluvroadrunner6]

Going to do one fic a day in an attempt to buff my word count for this year. Is this dumb when I already have prompts that I'm working through? Maybe but I'm in for the challenge.



PROMPTS:
1. “I chose you.”
2. “Nobody warned you about me?”
3. “That was not my intention.”
4. “How would that even work?”
5. “No, anything but that.”
6. “Adaptable, I like that.”
7. “Check that again, are you sure?”
8. “Do you remember?”
9. “Sounds like a you problem.”
10. “It’s my name on the line.”
11. “Think! For once!”
12. “You’re making my head hurt.”
13. “I don’t want you to do that.”
14. “Yes. No. I don’t know.”
15. “What are you doing?”
16. “You’re looking, but you don’t see.”
17. “Are you serious?”
18. “I don’t think this is your problem.”
19. “Do we have a deal?”
20. “There’s only us.”
21. “I never said that.”
22. “Who said this is a good idea?”
23. “Not on my watch!”
24. “Is this safe?”
25. “You know I’d do anything.”
26. “I’m doing it, shut up.”
27. “That’s not why we’re doing this.”
28. “We all have our reasons.”
29. “You love this, don’t you?”
30. “I know what this looks like.”
31. “I’m not alone and neither are you.”

Request plurk
Completed: 31/31
Word Count: 63,823

Comments

10/24 ~ is this safe? ~ everyone lives ~ 3,002 ~ part 1

[braveandstupid]

Elena Gilbert has never considered herself one to have a bad boy streak.

Mystic Falls had few boys that fell into the wrong side of the tracks category—enough to give the town some color, and regardless, there will always be the haves and the have nots. But all the options in that department, none of them, she truly found appealing. There are a lot of stoners who spend most of their time half-gone from the world rather than living in it, and that’s not the partner Elena wants. No, Elena is happy with her choice, her handsome, predictable quarterback, and they are what everyone expects from a high school couple.

She didn’t understand until Dean Winchester walked into the Grille one night.

She, Bonnie and Caroline are tucked into a back booth when the door opens and he strides in like he already owns the place. Even from a distance the swagger is enticing, and her eyes track him as he moves through the room to the bar, another younger teenager trailing along behind him, and she doesn’t realize she’s staring until he gets Caroline’s attention:

“Who is that?”

Bonnie glances back over her shoulder and nods. “That’s Dean Winchester and his brother, Sam. Their dad is an old friend of my Grams. He’s in town for work and Sam is transferring in until the end of the year.”

“Not Dean?” Elena asks, confused.

“Nah, he’s nineteen. I think he got his GED or something.”

“He’s hot.”

That exclamation by Caroline seems to come out a little too loud and attracts the attention of the boys in question. Dean appraises the three girls at the table, and Caroline, shameless girl that she is, waves back. But when he meets Elena’s eyes, she can’t help but feel the flush catch her cheeks and she glances down at her food.

You have a boyfriend, Elena. A boyfriend you love very much. It’s a reminder she puts on repeat as the two Winchesters slide up to their table and Dean flashes them a smile.

“Hey, Bonnie. Mind if we join you?”

Bonnie asks a silent question to the rest of the table, but Caroline is two steps ahead of her: “Of course not. I’m Caroline, and this is Elena.”

“Hi,” Elena manages half-heartedly before diverting her eyes again. She can feel him watching her, and she doesn’t like the way it makes her stomach clench. “Welcome to Mystic Falls.”

“Thanks,” Dean smiles, before pulling up a chair to tuck onto the end of the table, as Sam grabs the one next to Bonnie. “It’s a cute little town. Almost like something out of a movie.”

“If it’s a movie, it’s a pretty boring one,” Bonnie admits, brushing her hair over her shoulder. “But we make the most of it.”

“I’m sure you townies know how to have fun now and then. We’ll figure out ways to pass the time until we’re ready to go.”

“How long are you staying in town?” Caroline asks, likely to know how much time she has to figure him out.

“Till the end of the school year. Our dad is checking out early, but he promised Sammy he could finish out the year.”

Elena raises an eyebrow. “You guys move around a lot?”

Dean shrugs. “More or less. Our dad’s work is everywhere, so it keeps us on the move.”

“What about your mom?”

She notices the instant she says it that it’s the wrong thing. Both boys' faces flicker. “Our mom died a while ago.”

"Oh, I'm sorry." Elena winces because good job, Gilbert. That’s a nerve to hit on. “I’m just … being out on the road all the time, never staying anywhere for too long, it sounds—”

“Awesome,” Dean fills in, just around the same time she says: “Lonely.”

Silence falls across the table again, almost immediately. Caroline pinches Elena under the table, flashing her a look like what are you doing? Elena wishes she knew, because usually she could read a situation a little better than this. But eventually Bonnie clears her throat and looks at the rest of the group.

“How about a game of pool?” Bonnie looks over at the Winchesters. “Do you guys play?”

Dean grins again, almost as though the not quite insult has just glanced off him and back into the ether. “Oh yeah, we love pool.”

So do the girls. In fact, Caroline does some of her best flirting over pool. Dean returns in kind, firing back with a comfortable banter. She doesn’t know if she actually sees it going anywhere, but it’s a fun way of distracting Dean from her, leaving Elena alone with her very out of character thoughts.

Dean plays pool like he’s trying to prove a point, and he is good. Sam is too. She wonders how often they have time to play when they’re traveling so much. She’s envisioning a lot of bars and a lot of drunks that the boys could hustle for their money. Elena plays pool with little conviction. Sure, she likes it when she’s playing with her friends, but that doesn’t mean she’s good at it.

Eventually Matt and Tyler show up, and Elena’s focus finally switches completely, focusing on the guy she’s with rather than the one who’s trying to occupy too much of her mind. But that doesn’t stop Dean from watching her, instead, and she doesn’t know what to do with that.

* * * * *

A couple of weeks before school ends, Elena comes across Dean on the side of the road, covered in blood.

More accurately, she almost runs him over. He appears suddenly in the middle of her headlights and screams as she swerves to the side, unsure how to process the sight. Once the car is stopped and she has it in park, she kicks the side door to her dad’s car open and glares at him.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Sorry,” he mutters, but he sounds dazed. Anger flips quickly to concern when she turns him to face her and she can better see the contusions on his face.

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” Dean shakes his head. “I was going for a run and tripped, and by the time I landed, it completely turned me around.”

The lie makes little sense—there are no jogging trails this far out of town—but she knows Dean doesn’t owe her the truth either. Instead, she just inspects him, pulling at his clothes to get a better look at where the blood is coming from.

“Relax, relax. I’m fine.” He stumbles backwards, trying to get away from her, but he sways a little too far and Elena slips in to help catch him.

“You’re not fine. You need a hospital.”

“Nope. No hospitals.”

“Dean, you could have a concussion.” He doesn’t look like he’s going to budge and she huffs. “Will you at least let me help you get those cuts cleaned?”

“Does it involve a hospital or doctor of any kind?”

She shakes her head. “Only tangentially, but they won’t actually be there.”

Dean weighs his pros and cons for a minute before looking around and nodding. “Okay. Okay, fine.”

Battle won, Elena slides him into the passenger’s seat of her car and pulling back onto the road back to Mystic Falls. He’s quiet for most of the drive and she doesn’t push him, not saying anything until they pull up to the front of Gilbert Family Medicine.

“You said no doctors.”

“He’s not here.”

“How do you know?”

“Because usually around this time of night, Dr. Gilbert is back home, making dinner while my mom pours him a glass of wine.”

Dean stares at her for a moment before realization hits. “Doctor Gilbert is your dad.”

“Yes, he is. And he always puts the keys to his practice—” She leans across him, flipping open the glove compartment and pulling out the keys with a jingle. “—In the glove box. Just in case.”

“Smart.” Dean nods. “Alright, let’s do this.”

Grayson Gilbert has always made sure that his children knew at least the basics of first aid. Elena has never been super into medicine, but she can recognize the value of it, especially when so many animal attacks turn up in the woods. She wants to be ready, just in case she can be there to help. She lets them into the practice and they head to one of the care rooms, and she gestures for him to sit on the exam table.

“Take off your jacket so I can see.”

“Shouldn’t you buy me dinner first?” He flashes her a cheesy grin, and she rolls her eyes.

“Why are you this way?”

Dean laughs. “I don’t know. Caroline seems to like the way I am.”

“Caroline is single and free to flirt back.” She reaches for some bandaids and antiseptic before turning to face him again. “I have a boyfriend, and you know that.”

“Yeah. And yet you spend a lot of time looking at me when you don’t think I’m looking.” There’s a challenge in his gaze, and she’s forced to look up from one scrape and meet his eyes. She knows she should challenge back, and not let him have the last word, but at the moment, she can’t come up with a good excuse. So instead, she looks back down at the slice on his arm.

“This is going to need stitches. I can’t do that for you.”

“I got it.”

“What?”

“I can do them. Just give me the suture kit.”

Elena raises an eyebrow. “You’re going to give yourself stitches?”

“It’s not that bad. And it’ll free you up to do other stuff.” Elena seems to concede that point, and when she gets the kit, he continues. “Besides, it’ll probably be a lot cleaner than the way we usually do it.”

She doesn’t have to imagine that he gets hurt a lot. She can see the scars, some of them pretty clearly. There are pictures of a dirty motel room with a lighter, a needle, and the wrong thread. She pauses halfway there, and she asks again, because she can’t with a clear conscience.

“Are you sure you’re okay with your dad?” she asks. “Is it safe?”

“What?” Dean scoffs at the implication. “Yeah, we’re fine. We just don’t always have money for doctors and hospitals. American medical system and all that.”

Elena’s not sure she buys the excuse, but she lets him have it, not sure what else she can say. She bandages the smaller cuts as he stitches, checking his extremities for broken ankles and checks for a concussion, which comes back as inconclusive. She drives him back to the bed-and-breakfast where he and Sam are staying, and she parks the car out front.

“I texted Sam. Told him to keep you up for a little while, just in case you have a concussion.” He’s about to slide out of the car, and she asks him one last time. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Our life isn’t yours, Elena, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. We’re okay. Promise.” He slides out of the car and heads to the door, and Elena looks up to meet Sam’s gaze in the window.

From what she can see, she’s not sure she believes it.

10/24 ~ is this safe? ~ everyone lives ~ 3,002 ~ part 2

[braveandstupid]

* * * * *

Elena loves Matt. But sometimes, Elena doesn’t like him very much.

Part of it is Elena envying how certain Matt is of her future, when she does not know what she wants out of life. She knows she could keep following this safe, steady path, the path her parents followed, where she marries her high school sweetheart and gets a job and raises a family and never leaves the borders of Mystic Falls and it would be a good life.

But Elena doesn’t know if it’s a life she wants, and while she doesn’t want to hurt Matt, she’s not even sure of that much. It’s not fair. She should break up with him, but then she’d lose him, and part of her can’t bear that either. Even before the world tried to steal everything from her, Elena was a girl who couldn’t learn to let go. Still, she cracks under the pressure, picking a fight and deciding that she’s definitely not letting him take her home tonight.

The fight, at least, is enough for her to get away from him for a little while. She grabs a beer and stalks off into the woods, wanting to get some space to give herself a chance to calm down. She should call her parents, see if she can get a ride home—she’s suddenly in not so much a party mood. But she wants to give herself a chance to calm down first so they don’t worry about her sounding upset.

“You really shouldn’t be out here on your own.”

Elena spins around on her heel, beer sloshing, before looking up at Dean with wide eyes. “Dean, you scared the crap out of me.”

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to. But I also wouldn’t have been able to live with it if you got picked off by a wolf or something, so I figured it was worth the risk.”

She takes a breath to steady herself before taking another sip of her beer. Things with Dean had been different since that night in her father’s office. A grudging respect, an understanding between them that had made things somewhat easier. It’s dangerously close to friendship, or could be, if there wasn’t the traitorous part of her that entertained the idea of something more. “I’m fine. I just…needed some air.”

“Yeah, I saw.” Dean moves closer, closing the gap between them. “Seems like you and your boyfriend haven’t been getting along so well tonight.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes he gets on my nerves.”

“Huh. So Mr. Perfect isn’t that perfect after all.”

Elena rolls her eyes as he keeps moving closer, eyes darting around the trees as though he’s looking for something that might pop out of the background. “He just … wants things I’m not so sure I want.”

Dean raises an eyebrow. “Let me guess. White picket fence, two point five kids, living in the house that your parents buy for you on your wedding day—”

“You make it sound like a bad thing.”

“It’s not. Not really. But only if it’s what you want. But if it’s not what you want and not the people you want, then it’s probably the closest thing to actual torture.”

She glances over at him, finally recognizing something about his own opinions that actually resonates with her. She sighs, tipping her head back to look at the trees above them.

“I know I should break up with him. That I probably should have broken up with him a long time ago. But…he’s been my best friend since we were babies. Even if I don’t want to be with him, I still love him. I just don’t want to hurt him.”

“I don’t really think that’s something you can avoid, Elena.” Dean admits. “You can do it with kindness, but everyone gets hurt sometimes. That’s just how life is.”

And just like that, the moment of understanding is gone, because she’s grown up in the idyllic bubble of Mystic Falls her entire life. And while it’s not that she hasn’t seen the darkness or occasionally seen people get hurt, her life hasn’t been hurt and harm. She doesn’t want that to change.

“Why does it have to be? Maybe he’ll just realize what I’ve realized. That this isn’t working.”

“And if he doesn’t, then what?”

She turns to face him, and suddenly he’s too close. She should push him away, but part of her also feels like touching him might cross a line she can’t come back from. So her hands hover, just a breath away from the softness of his cotton shirt and she eventually, she says:

“I have a boyfriend, Dean.”

“That you don’t want.”

He’s not wrong, but: “He’s still my boyfriend. I won’t do this to him.”

He holds her gaze for a long moment, then takes a step back. She set the boundary, and he respects it. And she appreciates that more than she could ever say. “Well, your boyfriend took off with Tyler. That’s what I was originally coming down here to tell you. If you give me a minute to find Sam, I’ll take you home.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll just call my parents.”

In the months after, she’ll look back on this moment and wonder what would have happened if she had said yes. If she let him take her home, regardless of the consequences, that would have come with it. Even with Sam in the car, it still feels like crossing a line, regardless of whether Matt had abandoned her.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Okay.” He nods and takes a step back, heading towards the sound of the party. “Then at least come back to the rest of the group. I still don’t think you should be out here alone.”

Elena nods and follows him back up the path, pulling out her phone by the time she got to the top. And to think, she missed Family Night for this.

* * * * *

Elena doesn’t make it home that night. Her parents’ car goes over Wickery Bridge, and by the time she wakes up, the Winchesters are gone and she realizes just how much the world can hurt. She does all the things she should have done before, and the hurt only spreads outward, enveloping everything that Mystic Falls used to be, until it isn’t really a bubble anymore, isn’t safe anymore. And maybe that’s for the best.

But almost fifteen years later, Dean Winchester saunters into a gas station after her, and tilts her world off its access again, but this time it isn’t so scary to jump.