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freddieslater · 3 years

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Rarepair Rowboat: Denzo | Damon Salvatore x Enzo St. John (The Vampire Diaries)

Requested by anonymous

"Nope." A resounding snap rouses Enzo from his intent concentration on the pages in front of him. He glances up and over at Damon on the couch, watching him smack the now-closed book down onto his thigh. "I still hate it."

Enzo rolls his eyes, chuckling out a half-hearted scoff, and goes back to writing. He's only finished three pages so far, and as much as he knows he could just compel the man in charge to believe that he finished all of them — or that they never existed at all — he actually likes doing the work. Otherwise he would never have taken the job at the University when he heard about the opening in the history department.

Unfortunately for him, Damon isn’t a fan of his job. Or being ignored.

“It’s boring,” he continues as if he never paused, waving the book even as he opens it back up. “I mean — who needs three whole chapters to explain their life story?”

”Us, probably,” Enzo replies, scribbling out a few lines of notes that the head has left for him about not straying from curriculum. He can damn well do as he pleases, especially when their “curriculum” is made up entirely of lies.

“But that’s because we are vampires,” Damon argues. He flips through the books, eyes darting across the pages with a disbelieving expression. “This Odysseus guy has no excuse. Sure, he’s got some interesting things going for him, but we don’t need every little detail. And — I’m not seeing any sexy siren luring in these sailors like you promised.”

Enzo’s eyebrows furrow, and he pauses again to look over at Damon and ask, “You waited until halfway into the book before deciding you don’t like it?”

Damon shrugs.

“Just surprising,” Enzo says, going back to writing. “Last time, you chucked that vampire romance novel in the rubbish after five pages because it was ‘ludicrous’ and ‘uninspired’. Not that I know who made you the ultimate critic of all literature.”

”Hey,” he points the book at Enzo as he gets up, “I was right about that one. And about this one.” He throws the book down onto the couch. “I don’t get why you were so crazy for it back in Augustine.”

Enzo taps his pen against the paper (the other end, he doesn’t want to leave ink marks everywhere). He stares at the wall as Damon moves into the kitchen.

“Because it was about escaping.”

The rustling in the fridge stops.

“It was” —Enzo takes a deep breath— “about finding a way back home in the end, no matter what terrible things happened, to you or because of you. Plus, it was romantic. Fighting every danger in your path just to get back to your family? Who doesn’t fantasise about that happy ending?”

He certainly did. Since the day he got captured by Dr. Whitmore, he was certain that it was just his odyssey. Those doctors were his sirens, and he merely had to find his way back across the sea. And then along came Damon, and he was so sure of it then, even when…

Well. Fifty more years alone somehow still didn’t shake his belief in the idea; he wasn’t perfect by any means, but neither was Odysseus, so why wouldn’t the universe treat them as equals?

He hears Damon come up behind him, then feels his hands on his shoulders. His sigh is pressed into Enzo’s scalp as his fingers gently press a million apologies and regrets into his skin.

“I’m sorry,” Damon murmurs into his hair. “You deserved a way better Penelope to come back to.”

Enzo laughs. A moment ago, a pit in his stomach had released some terrible, fanged creature to gnaw at all of the scars that have long-since healed. But now, he’s just thinking about how he was right. He got back home. Not necess the one he had been taken from, but he found a better one.

He reaches up for Damon’s hands, wrapping his own around his wrists as he leans his head back against him. Damon looks down at him — more like he frowns down at him, like he doesn’t quite understand the joke (he usually doesn’t when Augustine is the topic), but he smiles at the corners of his mouth.

“You are the perfect Penelope for me,” Enzo tells him softly. “Of course, she and Odysseus never tried to kill each other when reunited, but we’re allowed some creative freedom in our own tale.”

Damon actually smiles now. “Now that you mention it, the book could use some vampires. Give the sirens some real competition.”

“We should be thankful we’ve never encountered any sirens,” Enzo replies. “You’d be getting sweeped off your feet at the first pretty voice. I’m living proof of that.”

”I wouldn’t say living.”

”Shut up.”

”If that’s what you want.” Damon kisses him.

Enzo would be rolling his eyes if he wasn’t kissing him back. It’s a weird angle but they’ve been in weirder.

“And for the record, I would resist every siren for you,” Damon murmurs, sounding a little sarcastic, then pulls back completely. “Guess I’ll put up with another chapter of Odysseus’ life story for the epic romance. Better be worth it!”

Enzo watches him flop back down on the couch and pick up the book to find his last page. He smiles, and says, “It was.” When he turns back to his own work, he catches Damon’s smile out the corner of his eye.

#tvd #tvdedit #denzo #damon salvatore #lorenzo st. john #enzo st. john #damon x enzo #enzo x damon #the vampire diaries #rowing the rarepair rowboat #myedit*#I just have many thoughts about enzo + the odyssey apparently #and also I have been far too interested in a denzo professors au can you tell?#yes enzo has replaced a*aric at whitmore because why not?#oh the irony of enzo working at whitmore as the history professor HSHXHS poor boy #but yes! don’t know what this is but I needed some denzo angst!

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