teleios } { don't weep for me for this will be the labor of my love

[somanyadjectives]

[Being dead is a bit more ... neutral than he expected.

Perhaps because he's in the Land of the Dead, where you are neither good nor bad - you're simply dead - and somehow that makes things simpler. Stefan doesn't even really mind where he is so much. It's likely better than he deserved, and he's becoming accustomed to the quiet.

He just hopes that Set can't continue to manipulate him from down here.

He's wandering through the halls of the palace, quietly going about his day, when he catches sight of two familiar faces, one of whom makes his heart stop in his chest - or would, if it were still beating. She can't be dead. There was so much left she had to do.

Quietly, he moves a few steps forward before trying to get her attention.]

Elena?

Comments

[believable]

[ elena's eyes slide shut, the shuddering in her chest growing calm and steady once his mouth brushes against hers. she rises on her tiptoes, the way she has many, many times before, fingers curling into his wrists with a gentleness she thought she would lose the moment she lost what it meant to be human. and she finds that it isn't true. it's never the same. it hasn't been the same since the beast's teeth tore into her flesh.

it's right here with him, in between them. she presses so much closer to him. lingering.

his voice cuts off and her jaw locks to keep it from quivering, a lone tear spilling down her cheek. she is furious and heartbroken and sad. she hates teleios so much, sometimes, and yet she could never regret it. she would have never met john otherwise. ]

I know what you're worried about.

[ elena wouldn't need to read his mind to know it. to know john. she leans her cheek into his hand, placing a reverent, loving kiss to the heel of his palm. ] I won't make another deal. I meant that. [ her tearful eyes lift to meet his. ] But he can't stay here. We have to get him out.

[ somehow. ]

[damnable]

[john breathes her in, holding her close to him as she rises on her tiptoes. he leans down, opening his mouth further against her own, framing the side of her face. his gaze drifts over her face with an indescribable ache through his expression, through his body language now as he holds her close and closer still. no, she didn't lose that gentleness though he knows she feared it, feared losing it when she lost that part of herself she had to bury when she was- when she was killed.

his eyes burn at the way she looks, at how tightly she presses herself to his chest like this, lingering against him.

he wipes the tear away from her as it spills down her cheek, and he continues to frame the side of her face. john presses against the top of her head before he breathes in and he pulls back to look at her face, framing the side of it. his gaze keeps her own, and he hates so- so much that it happened while they were away, hates the choices that are forced to be made. there's a brief pause then as his mouth parts, swallowing, glancing down.

john knows how important stefan is to her. he knows she will want to do what she can to free him, but he doesn't- he doesn't want her signing up for another deal, no. he's not surprise she knows what he's worried about, and his gaze drifts back up to her when she speaks.]

Thank you. [his voice is low aching as she presses that kiss to the heel of his palm, so loving. she's always been so loving with him. and it strikes a cord in him too when she says we, because she'd wanted to go alone before and he gets why she wanted it but he- he fought her on it and she accepted his help so easily. and now- now it's automatically we.]

Yes, we will. We will find a way to get him out. You know I will do anything I can to help you, help him. We're a team.

[they're family.]

[believable]

[ it shouldn't be surprising to elena, in retrospect.

every time, every single time, she's left teleios for another realm, something would happen by the time she came back. at least before, it was usually disappearances; it meant missing her loved ones, but she could comfort herself with the fact they were sent home. this is different. stefan is more than gone, he's dead, and he seems so accepting of his fate. when elena herself made a deal with hades, everyone was so supportive, stefan included. john was her port in the storm, but stefan helped them both.

even now, after everything, she simply cannot give up on him.

the ache in elena's chest blooms, and she leans into john's touch. his kiss. it roots her back to the present in ways little else could. her lips linger against the palm of his hand, of course lovingly, she could not imagine feeling any other way. despite the sharpness of her teeth now, and the hunger that is ever present, john makes her feel so soft. ]

I know.

[ a bittersweet smile curves on her lips. they're a team. they have been from nearly day one, but more so now. this journey that will lead them to thor, it's brought them closer together, and she didn't think it was possible to be any closer to him. ] We'll find a way. [ she places one last kiss across his knuckles, and pulls herself together. elena gilbert is nothing if not a trooper, and they still have a mission to complete. ] We should get going. [ she knows that, too. ]

[damnable]

[they can't escape those terrible things, and they can't control them either.

it's possible the very same thing would have happened even if they were there, if they had lived it, if they'd done whatever they could. but it's the not knowing that can weigh so heavily on her, on the both of them. he can't wrap his head around the terrible that has happened in teleios while they have been out, searching the realms, moving from one to the next, following breadcrumbs. stefan was in the position he was in because loki is in power.

if they knock loki out of power, they can prevent any further damage from happening. they can get some poor level of justice for what had happened.

john's gaze drifts over her face from up close. his thumb slides over her cheekbone, and he smiles at her when she says that she knows. it wraps around his heart, and he loves her. he loves her more than anything.]

I know now too.

[it's said softly, and if he were ever in an opposite position (like with russell wanting to help him, he'd have her go with too. they'd do it all together). it has. it's brought them closer together, and he smiles fondly, lovingly. his hand slides over the side of her face, winding around her back as he nods, watching as she places that kiss to his knuckles. a short breath is released from him before he nods] Yeah, we should. Thor is the key to fixing all of this. Loki put Stefan in that position to start with.

Before he can be helped, Loki needs to be removed from power. [all the things hades could have asked of her, this is one that john would have wanted to do regardless.]