We Always Survive ♥ (A Damon and Elena Fanfic)

Chapter 2 - Training Day

Damon POV 12/26 6:00am-5:00pm

The sun has barely risen when I wake up but the sun still shines brightly, irritating my heightened senses. I jump out of bed and grab some jeans with a grey shirt and head to the bathroom to take a shower. The warm water droplets block out all other thoughts as I try to focus on anything but Elena, but after several minutes of my mind repeatedly reverting back to her, I get out and I throw on my clothes. I walk down the hall to Jeremy’s room and grab a leather jacket. Jeremy is still sleeping, but that won’t last long. I stroll quietly to the side of his bed and think for a moment. There are so many things I could do to wake him up, like simply telling him to, but I opted for the better option of flipping him off the mattress onto the floor. He lands with a crash and yelps.

      “What the hell, man!?”

      “Wake up and get ready, if you want to complete your mark and save your sister, you need to get stronger,” I say smugly. Jeremy doesn’t appreciate this and charges at me to prove his strength, but I move in time and he slams into the closet door, bursting through it. “Congratulations, you’ve killed a door. Now get dressed and meet me out back in 5 minutes.” I smirk and walk past him to head outside, grabbing a bottle of bourbon on my way out.

The water is still as I watch it from the bench while I wait for Jeremy to come out.

      “Hey Damon,” I hear a voice and turn around to see Matt. “Klaus sent me to help Jeremy with his training.” I swivel my legs around the bench and walk over just as Jeremy walks out of the house. He looks at me questioningly and throws his hand up toward Matt.

      “What is he doing here?” Anger is apparent on his face, but I simply shrug and walk over to lean on the table, taking a swig of my drink.

      “Klaus doesn’t think I can train you without killing you, which is understandable.” My explanation doesn’t seem to help because Jeremy still looks skeptical. Regardless of his confusion, he shakes his head and strides over to throw a bag of wooden stakes on the table behind me.

      “Or he’s worried I’ll kill you first,” He stares me down and makes me a little nervous, but I don’t show it.

      “Alright ‘badass,’” I put air quotations around badass and throw punch shields to Matt, “start on Matt and then you can pretend to challenge me.” He rolls his eyes and walks over to Matt as he takes a fighting stance.

 They practice for a couple hours, I don’t really keep track. It seems endless to me so I just look over at the lake. Occasionally I look over at the fights taking place and see Jeremy kick and punch away at Matt, occasionally landing a few good ones. He throws Matt down and holds his arm behind his head, keeping him pinned until Matt finally urges him to let go. Matt rubs his arm and stands, “Alright, I get it. You’re a badass now.”

 “Damon, did you see that?” Jeremy calls over to me hopefully as I lean on the table casually. I don’t look over, but mumble and continue looking at the bench where Elena and I sat last time we were here.

      “Couldn’t miss it, it was slow motion.” My voice is flat and apathetic which makes Jeremy more discouraged.

      “Then show me something I can use,” Jeremy pleads. I turn away from my thoughts and look at him with a questioning facade. I nod and throw a wooden stake to Jeremy.

      “Fine. Take a seat, Quarterback. Karate Kid wants a shot at the title.” I motion for Matt to sit down and for Jeremy to go when he’s ready. He twirls the stake and charges me but I easily grab him and flip him around, my hands positioned so I could easily snap his neck with just a small twist. “Just a little pressure and you’re dead. Go. Practice more or you’ll end up dead.” I signal Matt to go back over and he hesitantly walks over, “You know what, take a break. Wouldn’t want to break your training dummy.” I look at Matt and he scoffs, but doesn’t seem opposed to the idea of a break.

 I walk inside and see the time, almost noon. We’ve been training for going on 5 hours and he’s still got nothing on me. I’m going to have to hand-feed him vampires at this rate. We don’t even know how many vampires he’ll have to kill to complete his mark. If he killed an original, that would definitely speed up the process but then the entire family would be against us and we wouldn’t want that again. After about 2 hours of drinking and listening to voicemails from Elena, I walk over to the window and see Jeremy on the phone. Who could he possibly be talking to? I walk back out and snap my fingers, “Alright, let’s go. Stop pretending to have friends and hang up.” I hear Jeremy mutter under his breath, but he proceeds to get ready. “Where’s the star athlete?” I look around, but don’t see Matt.

      “I told him to go rest. I need to practice fighting an actual vampire.” He picks up another stake and looks to me.

      “Tired of winning already?” I smirk and throw my jacket to the ground. He charges me with the stake and I throw him down. “Again,” I say. He lets out a frustrated huff and goes again with a different approach, but I still pin him to the ground.  “Again.” He throws me off and gets up, going again and failing once more.

      “Again!” he yells this time, obviously getting angry. We fight for a good hour, with him only slashing my arm once. The gash bled for a bit, but it healed fairly quickly and he never got another shot. He could probably hold back a new vampire, but he stood no chance against one over a century and a half old. He falls to the ground, panting from exhaustion. I keep forgetting he’s still a human and can’t go on forever.

      “Alright, alright. Go run around the lake. Twice. Then take a shower and that’ll be enough for today. We’ll try again tomorrow.” I take a deep breath and let my shoulders fall, motioning to the house. Jeremy rolls his eyes and takes off along the lake. He continues out of sight, but I stay by the table, leaning against in with my face in my hands. I hate feeling like this. When Elena chose Stefan I was heartbroken, but there was still hope. But this, not knowing if I can ever be with her or even see her again. That just leaves me empty. Like I have no purpose. But maybe I never did. Love is pointless, overrated, and only leads to heartbreak. I’ve known this and I’ve always told myself this, but whenever I was with Elena, I just couldn’t believe it. But she wasn’t around anymore, making the thought creep back in and fill every region of my mind.