✔️| Gilbert (K.M. Love Story)

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Elena Gilbert continued to wriggle in a nervous panic, her mirror image being the complete juxtaposition of herself, her face was void of all emotion, appreciating the gentle feeling of the air, basking within her own mind for just a moment longer. 

"Stefan..." even at a whisper, Elena's voice seemed to pierce Ariana's ears, it was only with effort that she retrained herself from covering them with her lightly tanned fingertips. His face was concerned, wrinkled at the brow below a mop of coppery brunette hair. Stefan was less groomed than usual, he was nervous. Ariana wasn't well educated in the meaning of facial expressions but Stefan positively radiated upset.

"Hey" his voice was perhaps even lower than hers had been and it came as a surprise that they could hear him, their ears almost tuned into the low volume of his velvety tone. Elena's face was a mask of cluelessness however, surprisingly, Ariana was content in the knowledge that she had over her sister. Ariana Gilbert was happy with the current state of affairs. After all, how else could their romance with vampires end? It was doomed for death. The only pain that lingered heavily upon her mind was that she was alone, Ariana had been abandoned within her immortal state for Klaus was no longer there to share it with. "I'm right here" his eyes flickered between them as if somehow he knew that they both needed to hear it. 

"Wh--What happened?" Her voice shook like a wind chime in a storm and Ariana allowed her eyelids to flutter closed softly as the air continued to whisper through her course throat. Elena knew what had happened, she remembered the taste of the water as it rushed her senses, the chill of the current as it pulled her life away, but if felt now only like a nightmare, one she was glad to have awoken from... But at what cost? 

"You were in an accident" his green gaze cast downwards, as though if by some chance, this was his fault. That was Stefan's curse, the curse of being a hero... At some point, the heroism had to end and what was left behind when it did? 

"Oh my God" Elena gasped for all the wrong reasons. "Matt is he--"

"Alive?" Damon's voice was one of utter distaste, he spat the word out as though it was poison in his mouth. Up until then, he had successfully evaded Ariana's attention but she appreciated the sight of him, the knowledge that he was living still. He was leaning casually though his brow was tense. Following instinct, as she always had, Ariana stood from beneath the bedding with unexpected elegance and rounded to him, flinging her arms around him as he reciprocated, appreciating the sight of them both living and breathing-- to a point.  It was enough, at that moment, to encourage them both to put the past in the past for just a second. "Ask Stefan, The Hero"

It was no question that Damon would have acted rather differently at that moment. Had he been their saviour, Damon would've acted selfishly.

"He's fine" that was at least, one weight lifted off the twins' chests.

"Thank you" Ariana rounded to look at her twin sister, a crease forming on her brow, Elena must have realised by now that something was off. She must've remembered the life leave her body for the final time, as Ariana had. Elena was in denial, and she would be until somebody told her the harsh truth. "I thought that I-- How did you..."

"Elena" Ariana started and they looked at her, Damon and Stefan held solemn expressions, the expression of a mourner at a funeral. "We're dead" her words were so simple, expelled from her lips as gently as the songs she had once sung but they held such severity, such consequence.

"He didn't save you Elena" Damon informed, choosing to side with Ariana on expressing the harsh truth. Albeit, he was slightly surprised that she had worked it out herself. 

"When Jeremy brought you to the hospital before all of this happened, your injuries were worse than anyone knew" Stefan informed her. "Because you and Ariana were connected, you both suffered the same fate. Meredith Fell made a choice. She used Damon's blood to heal you."

"And when Rebekah ran Matt's truck off the road, you had vampire blood in your system, Elena. Through you, Ariana had it too." she blinked, her eyes watering slightly because she had come to the realisation, the conclusion Ariana had decided the second her eyes peeled back for the first time in this new life.

"Oh, My God... We're dead" she repeated back to Ariana, in equal mourning for herself and the death of her twin sister."No, No, No, No" her silent statue stage had shattered. "That--That wasn't supposed to happen!"

"You'd rather we had died completely?" Ariana's eyes were wide, innocent. And Stefan could see in her the same emotions he'd experienced on his very own death day in 1864. She couldn't make Elena's choice for her as Stefan had for Damon, but the motivation for self-preservation was present. 

"I talked to Bonnie" Stefan promised her. "She said she's stronger than ever. There might be something she can do to help you."

"Stefan... Magic can't bring someone back from the dead" Ariana's face held horror, she knew this for a fact and the twins were effectively dead.

"No, the only thing that's going to help is for you to feed and complete the transition." Damon was always more forward than his younger brother. But Ariana had already decided to go through with it, her life didn't need to be on the line and after all, she knew that it is what Nik would've wanted her. Secretly, a plan brewed within Ariana, her previous words contradicting her mind, she was going to bring him back. She would find a way, even if it took years, she had immortality to complete it. 

"We have all day before she has to feed, Damon. That's a day to exhaust every possible way out of this."

"I want to" Ariana's voice was strong, decisive. She had long since decided to join team Mikaelson, albeit it was slightly strained due to being killed by one of the clan. But she knew she could trust Elijah, he was more of a brother to her than Elena had ever been a sister though she knew him very little.  Damon was proud of her answer, Elena horrified and Stefan accepting. Why postpone the inevitable?

"There is no way out of it! We all know the drill--- You feed or you die" his voice was menacing but it was only because he cared so much. "There is no door number three"

"I was ready to die" her voice was adamant but it angered Ariana to the point that she had to restrain herself from lunging at her sister. 

"Well I wasn't!" her voice was venomous, angered, like nothing they had heard from her before. "You may be selfish with your own life Elena! But not with mine! You didn't just choose to sacrifice yourself" her voice was quivering. 

"Then Go!" Elena responded with just as much anger "Go and live your screwed up vampire life, Ariana! See if I care"

And so she did, with Damon backing her, Ariana Gilbert left the bedroom in search of a sip of human blood to start the life she was destined for. Shortly after that first sip, she was to join Caroline Forbes and her quest to become a fully functioning vampire. She was adamant that no life would be lost under her hand.

Ariana's first taste of human blood was bitter sweet, sipped through a straw from a bloodbag, she didn't feel as though she was sacrificing anything, with the smile of Damon aimed at her, she felt only like she was taking the next necessary step to the start of a new life.