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Katherine kidnaps her.
Elena is… not entirely an unwilling victim, though she admits this to no one apart from herself. The thing is… no one will tell her much of anything. Nothing useful, anyway. Stefan and Damon posture around and pontificate about protecting her but they aren’t actually telling her much.
Elena wants answers. Katherine has some of them.
Getting them out of her, now that is going to be the challenge.
…
…
Elena wakes up on an airplane, her head pounding. She rolls it gently to the side, blinking slow and trying to get her bearings. “Where — where are we?” she croaks, trying to clear her throat.
“A plane,” Katherine says, dryly. She flicks through a magazine with gusto.
“Obviously,” Elena mutters. “Where are we going? And why?”
Katherine doesn’t answer.
Elena shuffles herself a bit more upright, groaning slightly at the ache radiating through her skull. “You didn’t have to hit me so hard,” she grumbles, feeling young and petulant.
Katherine still says nothing, flicks the magazine pages harder.
A flight attendant walks past them and crouches down. “Would you or your sister like anything to drink?” she asks. Elena blinks at her in surprise, but then quickly tries to cover. No one has ever mistaken them for sisters before, because… well, she supposes that only people who know who Katherine is—who she was—have ever seen them together before. But, she supposes, what else would someone think? Twins, obviously. No one’s first thought is ever going to be ‘ah yes, the centuries old ancestor, magically un-dead, taunting her every chance she gets .’
“Um, some water, please?” Elena asks.
“None for me, thanks,” Katherine says, leaning across Elena and plastering on a charming grin. The flight attendant flushes and nods, and Elena feels… curious, at the exchange. Something tugs at the edges of her mind that she can’t quite grasp with this headache taking up all her thoughts.
When the woman comes back, Elena chugs the water, her throat parched. Silently, Katherine passes her over two pills.
“What are these?” Elena asks, dubious.
“Advil,” Katherine says, dropping her magazine back into the seat pocket. “Take them and go back to sleep.”
Elena is about to protest, to tell Katherine that on no uncertain terms does she trust her enough to take some pills from her, when her brain goes a little fuzzy, her sight dips for a second, colors surrounding her, and she realizes that she doesn’t have her necklace. Katherine is compelling her.
Fuck. She swallows the pills, leans her head back against the seat, and falls asleep.
…
…
When Elena wakes up next, she’s in a hotel room—tied to the bed with some silk scarves. “Katherine!?” she croaks out angrily, voice dry. She sounds more frightened than furious, and she swallows, trying to buck herself up. The more that she moves, the tighter the knots on her wrists get—Katherine must have done some fancy knot on purpose. Elena practically growls in frustration, then closes her eyes and sucks in a calming breath. She takes in her surroundings. Cars zooming past, horns blaring, the window cracked open—she’s in a city, probably, and it’s warm. It was cold back in Mystic Falls, so… the plane likely took them far away.
Shit.
Elena twists her legs around—thankfully, not bound—and tries to study the knots on her wrist. She… doesn’t know anything about knot-tying, but, maybe there’s a way to untangle it somehow? She’s only managed to get the knots slightly tighter when Katherine comes stalking through the door.
“Well now,” she smirks, arms crossing in front of her as she leans against the wall and studies Elena. “How’re you feeling?”
“Fuck you,” Elena hisses. “Untie me.”
“No,” Katherine says, and flounces off into the bathroom. Elena hears the water running and kicks out against the bed in frustration.
When Katherine emerges next, her jacket is gone, and she’s got a wet cloth in her hand. She sits on the bed, leaning over Elena, and presses the cloth against her skull. “Ouch,” Elena hisses, trying to wriggle out of her grasp, but Katherine is stronger and faster than her when she’s not tied up.
“Stop,” Katherine chides and grips Elena’s chin, holding her steady. Elena stills, the compulsion taking hold at the order.
“Where are we?” Elena asks her.
“Prague.”
“What?” Elena gasps. She… she figured that they were far away, but somehow, she didn’t really think that they had left the country. She should have. “I’ve never been out of Virginia before,” she admits before she can stop herself. God, she sounds like a child.
Katherine snorts, pressing the cloth again and then tossing it easily across the room and into the sink with perfect aim. “Unsurprising.”
“What are we doing here?” Elena asks.
Katherine studies her face, clearly debating what information to give Elena. Finally, she clucks her tongue and sighs, shifting on the bed and twisting around to lie down beside Elena. It’s unsettling and surprising, but Katherine’s gaze remains fixed on the ceiling. “Solving a curse,” she says simply.
“What curse?”
“Unimportant.”
Elena sighs. “It is actually. You literally kidnapped me and took me to another country and tied me to a bed. Katherine, what the hell is going on?”
Katherine harrumphs. Flicking probably non-existent lint off her shirt. “You don’t have to believe me. You don’t need to know more. I just need your body.”
Elena flushes hard at that phrasing, and wants to meld into the floor at her own reaction. Katherine, of course, clocks her, and she twists around to stare at Elena. “Hmm,” she says, smirk spilling slowly across her face. “Interesting.”
Elena flushes harder. “Untie me,” she demands again.
“Later,” Katherine says, and leaps up, slipping out of the hotel room again. “I’ll bring some food back!” she calls over her shoulder, and then, Elena is alone. Again.
Eventually, for lack of anything better to do, she falls back asleep.
…
…
The next time that she wakes, it’s dark. Katherine is beside her in the bed, and she’s no longer tied to the posts.
She’s also not in the clothes that she had been wearing anymore.
Elena jerks upright at the realization that Katherine undressed her and then groans at the protest her head makes at the sudden motion. “Fuck,” she mutters, bending over and pressing her head between her legs.
“I brought cheeseburgers,” Katherine says, eyes trained on the hotel tv screen.
Elena lifts her head slightly and looks over at Katherine, incredulous. After a moment, she just sighs, sits up slowly, and picks up a cheeseburger. She bites into it slowly at first, then, begins shoveling it into her mouth as she realizes just how hungry she actually is. Amused, Katherine turns and watches her. Once Elena has finished, she rolls off the bed and hurries into the bathroom, shutting out Katherine as she washes her face, relieves herself, and takes full stock of her body. The cut on her forehead has started to scab over, it still hurts. She turns around a bit and… there is a large, painful bruise on Elena’s shoulder that she didn’t realize was there until just now.
“How’d I get this?” she demands, walking back out of the bathroom. Katherine is lounging on the—single, Elena is just now realizing as she looks around the room—bed, still watching tv.
“Hm?” she doesn’t look up.
“This, Katherine,” Elena demands, shoving her shoulder into Katherine’s face.
She spares it half a second a glance, then her eyes flick back to the tv. “Looks like a bruise,” she says, dryly.
“Obviously,” Elena snaps. “I asked how I got it, not what it was.”
“How should I know?”
“Katherine!”
Katherine finally turns to look at her. A resigned, annoyed, and yet somehow still haughty expression on her face. “Curse,” she says with a sigh. Then she tugs down her own sleeve, reveling a matching deep purple welt on her own shoulder—in the exact same spot, with the exact same pattern as Elena’s.
“What?” Elena asks, flabbergasted.
Katherine pulls her shirt back up. “What about that was confusing?”
“The part where you explained none of it,” Elena snaps.
Katherine swings her legs around and glares up at Elena. “Curse. Welcome to doppelganger-hood! We’re connected. It sucks. Eat the rest of your fries and be quiet.”
Elena wants to slap her. Wants to scream. Wants to run out of this hotel and find an airport and go home. Instead of doing any of those things… she follows the compulsion, sits down beside Katherine on the bed, and eats her fries as a rerun of ER plays in Czech.
…
…
“Wakey, wakey, Elena,” Katherine’s voice coos. Elena grumbles, trying to burrow further into the covers and ignore her, but then a hand is pressed lightly against her crotch, rubbing at her clit through her underwear, and Elena jerks upright.
“Get off me,” she demands, kicking out. Katherine’s melodic laughter echoes throughout the room and Elena shakes off the last of her sleep, glaring at Katherine. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Centuries of familial trauma, constant survival mode, and a bit of a shitty personality tucked up inside there somewhere,” Katherine spouts off, deadpan. She tugs Elena down by the thigh, then wacks her on the bottom. “Up and at ‘em!” she demands. “We’ve got places to be!”
“Where?” Elena grumbles, pulling a fresh shirt on over her head.
“Need to see a guy about a potion.”
Elena looks at her, trying to decide if Katherine is being flippant or serious. In the end, it doesn’t really matter, Elena is starving in a way that she can’t ever remember feeling before. Her skin itches with it. It takes her longer than it should to realize why—they’re shuffling around crowds of tourists in Old Town, and Elena jerks to a stop. “You’re hungry,” she states, watching as Katherine’s eyes flick across various tourist’s necks. “That’s… that’s why I’m so hungry. The curse?”
“Yep,” Katherine says, reaching out and grabbing a man with a fanny pack around the neck and shoving him into an alley. “Let’s take care of me, then we can take care of you.”
Elena is about to protest, to say… anything, really, and then Katherine has shoved the guy up against the wall and suck her teeth into him. Elena’s whole body jerks. She can’t… they’re not connected in a way that she actually feels the blood dripping down her own throat, but she can feel the emotions that Katherine can, almost, the satisfaction it elicits coursing through her own body. It’s far more erotic than she ever imagines, her body pulsing dangerously, and she closes her eyes and turns around, trying to push all of it away.
Moments later, there is a distinctive thump as Katherine releases the man and then her hands are on Elena again. “Your turn,” she whispers into Elena’s ear, arm slinking around her waist. Elena flinches and hates herself for it. Especially when Katherine’s throaty laugh tickles the skin on her ear.
They go to a small cafe and Katherine orders for Elena in perfect Czech. Despite the annoyance and confusing emotions swirling through her, Elena shovels the pastries into her mouth with embarrassing gusto. “Are you going to actually explain what’s going on between us now?” she asks a few moments later.
Katherine waggles her eyebrows. “Well, when two people are very horny—”
“About the curse,” Elena says, quickly cutting her off.
Katherine chuckles, low and throaty and with a distinct lack of amusement. “We’re linked. What happens to me happens to you, and vice versa.”
“But how?” Elena demands. “Everything?”
“Doppelganger bullshit,” Katherine shrugs.
“It wasn’t like that before,” Elena argues. Katherine obviously is not telling her everything. She’s barely telling her anything, in fact. This might be worse than Stefan and Damon.
(Maybe. Probably not—there isn’t any paternalistic, protective bullshit, at least).
Katherine shrugs a single shoulder, dropping down money at the table and pushing away from it. “It is now,” she says simply.
“But why?”
“Unimportant. What is important, is fixing it. Call me crazy, but I don’t really want to be connected to you for the next sixty-some years. So, let’s go.”
In a foreign country where she knows no one else, doesn't speak the language, has no money, and can be compelled by Katherine, Elena is unable to do much else but follow behind.
…
…
Another tourist knocks into Elena and she nearly trips, her feet skidding out from underneath her. Katherine’s hands instantly come around her waist to steady her, and Elena feels her whole body flush at the contact. Annoyed at herself, she jerks away. Katherine has touched her more in the last few days that she ever has before, and it’s unnerving. It’s probably yet another mind game, and Elena doesn’t want to deal with that anymore.
“Over here,” Katherine says, eyeing her. Clearly picking up on Elena’s frustration. “Apothecary shop.”
“Apothecary?” Elena asks with a frown. “Isn’t that… do those still actually exist?”
Katherine arches an eyebrow, turning backwards to grin at Elena, effortlessly dodging the tourists. Elena stifles a growl of irritation as another one knocks into her. Katherine’s grin widens all the same, so something gives her away. “They do, if you know where to look. Especially in Prague.” She twirls around and then opens an old beat up door with a flourish. “And I happen to know where to look.”
“Joy,” Elena grumbles, all sarcasm, as she walks inside. It’s much darker than it was outside, and it takes a few moments of furious blinking for her eyes to adjust. Katherine’s hand comes up to the small of her back, and—more gently that she would expect—directs her away from the front desk and right into a little back room off to the side. “Are we allowed to just—”
“Hello, Katerina,” a deep voice echoes around them, sending shivers down Elena’s spine. There is a quality to it that she can’t explain, but it’s imbued with power, that much is readily apparent. Elena looks over to Katherine, giving away who is who, she supposes. Though, likely, this person knew from the moment they walked through the door—their eyes haven’t left Katherine’s once. “I told you never to return,” they say, ominously. There is a surprising lack of reproach in their tone, despite their words.
Katherine actually looks sheepish and Elena is so shocked that she just stares silently at her, barely listening to their conversation, and then unable to listen once they quickly switch over to speaking in Czech. She browses the shelves, making sure not to touch anything. She feels the prick of unease coming from Katherine a few moments later and goes still, panicked and on edge. It doesn’t lessen and Elena moves quietly and slowly towards the door, ready for anything. Katherine barks out something harsh at the person in Czech and then Elena gasps, a sharp pain stabbing into her stomach as she doubles over with a cry.
“Katherine?” she gasps, clutching her stomach and feeling the warm, sticky pool of blood growing there. Katherine ignores her, a crash of glass echoes in the small shop, and then the owner hollers out sharply. Elena panics and pulls the door open—just in time, Katherine comes barreling into her, hauling Elena along out of the shop. “Katherine,” Elena moans, her stomach screaming out in pain at every motion. She can’t run. Not like this. “I can’t… what did they—”
Katherine hauls Elena up into her arms and runs before Elena can get another word out.
…
…
They go back to the hotel. Katherine chucks Elena down onto the bed and breathes out harshly. Elena screams in agony at the way it jostles her body. Annoyed, Katherine practically crawls on top of her. Before Elena can push her, or ask her what she’s doing, Katherine’s teeth are in her skin, sucking greedily at her throat.
Elena moans in pain—and ecstasy. Katherine is unrelenting, messily sucking and lapping up every last drop that she can, and Elena is panting beneath her. “St-stop,” she pleads, her whole body on fire.
Katherine pulls back a few minutes later, of course, not when Elena asks, but when she is good and ready. The stab wound on her own stomach has healed over, and she flicks her gaze down to Elena’s. Sighing, she bites at her wrist and shoves it into Elena’s mouth without ceremony. Elena tries to protest, the very last thing that she wants right now is any part of Katherine’s inside of her, but she is in agony.
So, she drinks, reluctant, but she drinks willingly and the pain in her side begins to slowly recede. After a few minutes, Katherine pulls her wrist away and Elena tries to catch her breath, tries to catch her brain up to what exactly just happened. Katherine studies her clinically. “Why did they stab you?” Elena finally asks, desperate to break the awkward silent stare off.
“I stole from them a few decades back.”
“So… they’re not going to help us?” Elena says, dejected.
Katherine pulls a small vial from out of her bra and shakes it in front of Elena’s face, a smirk pulling onto her lips. “On the contrary. Open up, darling,” she commands. Elena tries to clamp her mouth shut, but the compulsion is strong, and she opens it instead. Katherine crouches lower, spilling a few drops into Elena’s mouth. It’s rancid. Elena gags but Katherine clamps her palm over Elena’s mouth, forcing her to swallow. She gags, and chokes, trying to breathe through it as Katherine tips the rest of the bottle into her own mouth, grimacing at the taste.
“So…” Elena asks a few moments later. “Is that it?”
Katherine’s brow arches, studying Elena curiously. “Not quite.”
“Now what?” Elena asks, unsure what to make of the look on Katherine’s face.
Katherine flicks her gaze up and down Elena’s body. “Feel anything different?” she hedges.
“Different… like?” Elena starts and then gasps as something inside her chest shifts. Her body gets hot, and she presses her legs together, embarrassed at how suddenly she feels wet and aroused.
Still above her, Katherine smirks. “Different like… that,” she says, amused. “The potion is only part of the ritual. It connects the magic inside of us, blah, blah, blah,” she waves her hand around dismissively, then tugs her blood-stained shirt up over her head and tosses it to the floor. “But we have to actually… foster the connection,” she wiggles her eyebrows at Elena, then unhooks her bra, tossing it dismissively as well.
“What?” Elena croaks.
Katherine sits up on her knees, dragging the fly down on her jeans agonizingly slowly. “I’m pretty sure that you’re intelligent enough to pick up what I mean, Gilbert.”
“I am not going to—” Katherine peels off her jeans and Elena swallows thickly. “Are you insane?!” she asks. “No! I’m not doing that, Katherine.”
“Don’t really have a choice,” Katherine shrugs, and flicks her underwear next, leaving her utterly bare in front of Elena. It’s impossible not to look, not to try and search for differences in their bodies. There are a spattering of stretch marks dappled across Katherine’s lower stomach and hips—evidence of her baby. The only difference between them.
“I do have a choice,” Elena protests, trying to push Katherine’s hands off as she starts to tug Elena’s own jeans down.
“No,” Katherine says, sharply, but—surprisingly—not cruelly. “You don’t. This won’t go away otherwise. I’m not going to spend the next fifty years getting paper cuts and stomach bugs because of you. And the things that I get up to on a regular basis could kill you in a matter of months. This is happening. Get your mind around it.”
“There has to be another way,” Elena scrambles desperately, even as she can feel her body responding to Katherine, wanting her, even without Elena’s permission.
Katherine snorts and tosses Elena’s jeans and underwear away in one smooth motion. “God, believe me, if there was, I’d take it. I’m not exactly brimming with enthusiasm about this either, darling.” Elena’s shirt and bra are gone as quickly as the rest of her clothing and she panics as Katherine studies her, embarrassed as she tries to cover herself.
“Stop that,” Katherine tuts. “You’ve got my body—you’re hot. Own it,” she demands.
“I really don’t want to do this,” Elena whispers, even though her body feels very differently than her mind, the magic is really working. She’s wetter than she can ever remember being in her life. She chances a glance down and sees that Katherine is the same, and gulps, a zing shooting through her at the sight. Magically elicited or not, Katherine wants her. It’s a heady feeling, to have her full attention, to be desired by her, after being dismissed so clearly and so often by this woman.
Katherine lowers herself down onto Elena, her wetness pressing against Elena’s newly healed stomach, and she gasps at the contact. Katherine bends over, whispering directly into Elena’s ear. “Don’t worry, darling, I’ll take care of you,” she purrs. Involuntarily, Elena moans in anticipation. Katherine’s throaty chuckles reverberates against her skin and Elena grips the sheets tightly, unsure what to do. She’s… she’s done this before, with Matt, but only a few times, and she suddenly feels very out of her depth. Katherine, in tune with her magically and… with centuries of practice reading people, seems to intuit this fact. She rolls her hips against Elena’s stomach, groaning as her fingers roll slowly around Elena’s nipples. “What do you like?” she asks in a whisper.
“I… um… I’m not…”
“I can just take over,” Katherine offers. “I tend to like that better, anyway,” she adds, dragging her lips down Elena’s neck, pausing to lick where she fed only a few moments ago. Elena gasps. Part of her hates the idea of ceding any amount of control to Katherine, but a much stronger part of her is aching for it, and she finds herself nodding.
It’s all the permission that Katherine needs, and her hips roll into Elena again, with much more force this time, pressing Elena down into the bed as she grabs Elena’s wrists and shoves them up above her head. “Keep these here,” she says, a compulsion infused into her words. The binds days before were more for show than anything else, Elena’s realizing—Katherine can make her do anything that she wants.
(It’s horribly thrilling).
Katherine studies her, gaze lingering up and down as she decides what she wants to do first, every bit of her gaze all rakish, wicked implication. Elena’s heart beats a frantic staccato in her chest as Katherine lifts herself up slightly on her knees, angling to get her fingers on Elena, and then Elena moans wantonly at the slightest brush of contact; it’s maw-mouthed and made entirely of teeth, this want of hers. Katherine isn’t patient; a finger slips inside before Elena even finishes the moan, and then it comes out, a second immediately joining it as she pushes back in.
“Wait… fuck,” Elena moans.
Katherine does not wait, she picks up the pace quickly, curling her fingers up and rubbing her thumb over Elena’s clit. Her hips buck up towards Katherine and she tries to catch her breath, but she can’t. Matt was not as good at this as Katherine appears to be.
Katherine hovers above her while Elena whimpers and claws at the sheets—keeping them up where Katherine instructed—and then Katherine adds a third finger, thumbing her clit hard.
“Katherine!” Elena gasps, trying to buck away, trying to buck into the sensation. Her mind and body are fighting against each other, and Elena hasn’t quite surrendered to the situation just yet. Katherine doesn’t go easy on her—that’s not their dynamic—Katherine is demanding, with her fingers and her mouth she pulls the orgasm out of Elena with an exacting focus that Elena hasn’t seen from her before. When Elena blinks and tries to catch her breath, Katherine lowers herself down and pulls Elena’s clit into her mouth and sucks hard.
She’s not done, apparently.
“Wait, fuck, Katherine, wait,” Elena begs, trying to push her mouth away. Katherine ignores her. “I’m… fuck,” Elena whines. Katherine turns her head to the side and bites hard at the inside of Elena’s thigh, drinking deeply even as Elena bucks and yelps—high pitched. Katherine’s lips are blood-stained and grinning when she pulls Elena’s clit back into her mouth only a moment later. It only takes seconds for Elena’s stomach muscles to jerk and her toes to curl, arching up into Katherine’s mouth as she cries out.
Katherine gives Elena a minute to collect herself after the second orgasm. But she does not stop touching her—Katherine’s fingers run up and down Elena’s arms, her stomach, and it’s all… so horribly glorious.
Katherine sits back slightly and Elena can’t believe that she can still feel the magical connection between them pulsing inside of her after all that. Her body is still screaming out for Katherine. “Not done quite yet, darling,” Katherine grins, a feral edge to it, as she crawls up Elena’s body and sits on her face.
Elena flushes bright red. “I’ve never… I don’t know how to…”
“I’ll talk you through it,” Katherine says, easily and presses herself down. “Don’t go for the clit right away or I’ll make a mess of you in seconds.”
Elena lifts her head up curiously and licks, and there’s… a distinct satisfaction in the low moan that emits from Katherine. In knowing that Elena is the one who caused it. Elena pushes her tongue up inside of Katherine and her eyes widen considerably as she gasps and grips tight at Elena’s hair. “You’re a quick learner.”
Elena’s grin widens; she always did get a thrill from someone praising her. She breathes out through her nose as Katherine’s clit swells and grows, sucking it into her mouth the way Katherine did with her own a few moments ago. Above her, Katherine sucks in a harsh breath, going slightly pliant before she starts to roll her hips, riding Elena’s face, and it’s all she can do to keep up. Suddenly, Katherine moans and jerks, then stills, gripping Elena’s scalp with both hands—it hurts, but Elena breathes hard through it as Katherine lifts up sightly, making sure that Elena can actually breathe, but she doesn’t move away. Amazingly, disappointment flushes through Elena. It’s just that, she doesn’t feel sated even after her own two orgasams; she doesn’t want this moment to end, which is the most absurd, self-destructive, narcissistic thought that she has ever had. Katherine’s eyes lock in on her, Elena’s chest heaving in anticipation at the flash of her eyes.
Katherine slides down and grabs at Elena’s thighs, digging her nails in as much as she can with how short they are. “Turn over,” she orders, kissing and biting near Elena’s ear. “And face the mirror.”
“Fuck,” Elena breathes out harshly, and moves as instructed, still boneless and a little sluggish.
Behind her, Katherine moves over to the dresser, opening one of the drawers. Elena’s eyes tracks her as Katherine reaches inside and pulls out a strap-on. Elena breathes out hard in a slight panic.
Katherine isn’t any bigger than her, but she is much stronger, much faster. She can lift and maneuver Elena with ease and Elena cannot believe that in this moment, she likes it. Wants it. She likes that Katherine can sit and tug Elena up onto her lap comfortably, hard nipples pressing into Elena’s back with how tightly she tugs Elena to her. Elena’s hands come down to balance herself on Katherine’s thighs, and she gasps as Katherine pushes into her without warning, reaching up to force her face towards the mirror, watching Katherine thrust in and out of her. Elena whines and stops trying to match Katherine’s thrusts after only a minute or so, gasping as she—unmercifully—rolls her hips up, pulling Elena back down again and again and again to meet them. Elena bucks forward, unbalanced and moaning and Katherine bites at her shoulder. “Don’t take your eyes off the mirror,” she scolds, sucking some blood in at the same time, looking delirious and debauched. It’s how Elena feels.
“Katherine—”
“No,” Katherine demands. “Watch.”
Gasping, Elena lifts her head back up towards the mirror. Picture perfect images of each other; a girl fucking herself; a girl being fucked by herself. Where does one end and the other begin? It’s so much more erotic than it should be, but Elena can’t help but watch the look on Katherine’s face. Narcissistic, almost definitely, but she is absolutely into this, maybe even more so than Elena, and… there is something else there, underneath the lust. And the things that I get up to on a regular basis could kill you in a matter of months. This is not wholly a selfish act. Elena keeps her gaze on Katherine’s, her whole body curling into her, opening for her. Katherine rewards her by stroking her clit. “Katherine, please…” Elena whimpers.
“Are you asking for it, or just calling out my name?” Katherine teases, almost playful.
Despite herself, Elena laughs. Almost a giggle, and Elena watches as it does something horribly fond to Katherine’s face in the mirror reflection. She catches it though, the same moment that Elena does, and then her mouth twists slightly and it’s nothing like a smile. She roughly pushes Elena forward, up off of her lap and down onto her hands and knees on the floor, almost as if to try and rid herself of the emotion. Elena keeps on watching the two of them in the mirror, gaze locked with Katherine’s and when they come, it’s together, both of them sagging forward, Katherine splayed out on top of Elena, still inside of her as they both catch their breath.
It’s like moments after a thunderstorm, when everything is both still and wild. In the mirror, Katherine’s face does something peculiar, and sharp, and deeply unfriendly. Elena’s chest loosens, and she knows without Katherine saying that the strange magical connection between them has been severed. They are still connected—still doppelgangers—but this new curse has been lifted. Elena laughs, but there’s a stretched sound to it, like it’s straining against the solid weight of pain dragging it downwards. “It’s gone, isn’t it?” she asks, just to be sure.
“Thank the gods,” Katherine drawls, and pulls out of Elena with as little warning as she pushed inside of her. Her tone notches itself like an arrow, whittled to a sharp point, and as it fires Elena reacts to the violence of it before she understands why.
“So,” Elena croaks, her voice starting to go horse and disappear. She did just do… more yelling than she has since she was a cheerleader. “What happens now?”
“You do whatever you want. So do I,” Katherine says and chucks the strap across the room as she moves to the shower.
“But… I mean… I don’t have any money to get home,” Elena says, panicked.
“Sounds like a you problem,” Katherine drawls and steps into the hot stream of water.
Elena shoves herself up from the floor—not easily, her limbs are boneless and shaky. She powers through it and stalks into the bathroom with Katherine, yanking the shower door open and stepping inside, too. “You kidnapped me, fed from me, got me stabbed, forced me into a sexual magical ritual, and took me halfway across the world!” she glares, snatching the shampoo out of Katherine’s hands to squirt some into her own. She’s… disgustingly covered in drying, crusted over blood. “It is a you problem. You are getting me home,” she demands.
Katherine turns around and stares at her, watching as Elena winces, her arms sore as she tries to work the shampoo into her hair. She rolls her eyes a moment later and shoves Elena’s hands down, turning her around and starting to work the shampoo into her hair instead. “You are in no position to be making any demands,” she says, barely any real admonishment in her tone.
Elena groans as Katherine’s fingers deftly scrub the shampoo into her scalp. She pulls Elena’s head back a moment later, holding her up as the stream of water washes it away. It’s… somehow more intimate than anything they just did and Elena shivers against her. Katherine is silent behind her, holding her and not moving as the water washes over them, the white tile pinking from their shared blood. They stand there silently until the water is clear, and then, almost as if waking from a trance, they both move away from each other and step out of the shower. Naked and dripping Elena watches Katherine take a towel and slink back into the room proper, ignoring her.
She grabs the other towel and it feels rough against her skin—every part of her feels scrapped raw. New and tender.
“I’m calling housekeeping,” Katherine announces, as she stares at their blood, sweat, and shared juices staining the sheets.
Embarrassed, Elena looks away from the bed and nods.
“We’ll leave tomorrow,” Katherine says, and when Elena looks back up, she’s already dressed. “Don’t leave this room,” she compels, and Elena wants to try and fight against it, but she knows that she can’t. Irritated, she chucks the damp towel to the bathroom floor and walks towards Katherine, trying in vain to block her exit.
“Where are you going?” she demands.
“Not all of my business involves you, darling,” she drawls and shoves past her easily.
“But I can at least go with you,” Elena says, suddenly finding the prospect of being alone in this room panic-inducing. She has no idea why, but her heart is racing and she feels like she might pass out.
“No,” Katherine says, harsh and final. Then the door slams shut.
…
…
Elena hides in the bathroom when the maid comes, embarrassed by the sight of the bed, but of course, she comes to clean in there, too. She screams as she finds Elena, surprised. Then her eyes widen and she frowns at Elena reproachfully. Face flushed bright red, Elena retreats the bathroom and sits at the desk in the clean bedroom, trying to avoid her judgmental gaze.
It’s a relief when the maid leaves, and an even bigger one when a delivery man shows up with a full spread of food, Elena only having eaten the pastries that morning all day. Katherine must have sent him.
Elena sits on the floor eating, the tv on, as she contemplates that. Katherine acts like she doesn’t care—probably doesn’t, in truth—but she takes care of Elena anyway. And the things that I get up to on a regular basis could kill you in a matter of months. She didn’t have to get her food. She could have easily left her alone without any way home—she might still, actually. She might have compelled Elena not to leave this room and left, laughing all the while.
Elena paces the room in a panic. She has no way to contact Katherine. She can’t do anything but wait. If Katherine isn’t back by three a.m. then Elena will call Bonnie. She sits back down on the floor, unable to bring herself to get back onto the bed after what they did in it. She pulls her knees up to her chest and tries to concentrate on the tv, but it’s late, and three orgasams apparently make you very tired, even more than an hour later. Elena keeps jerking her eyes back open, neck bobbing against her knees, waiting to see if she’s been abandoned or not.
…
…
When she wakes up, it takes a few minutes to realize what actually woke her. Elena blinks, trying to get her bearings; she’s not on the floor tucked up anymore. She’s on the bed, in nothing but a fresh pair of underwear and a loose tank top. Beside her, Katherine is splayed out, body jerking and thrashing.
A nightmare.
Elena shifts upwards and gently gets a hold of one of Katherine’s arms, rubbing at it softly. Tentative. Katherine lashes out and Elena is quick to duck, making shushing noises and trying to calm her, to make it clear that she is not a threat. “Katherine,” she whispers, trying to soften her voice, to keep her calm. “It’s alright—it’s just a dream. You’re alright.” Elena takes a chance, probably an incredibly stupid one, but she reaches out and curls herself around Katherine’s body. Gets Katherine’s arms underneath her, rubs at her bare stomach and keeps making soft cooing reassurances until Katherine’s body finally goes still. Her ragged gasps—which Elena only now realizes is the sound of her crying—fade out a few moments later. Elena doesn’t dare say anything else, she’s unsure if Katherine wants her to move away or not, so she stays exactly where she is, holding onto Katherine until she gives Elena some sort of direction.
“I’m fine,” she finally says, the noise echoing through the silent room almost like a gunshot. Elena hears the crack in Katherine’s voice, and suddenly, and it’s like watching an old woman fall down, or a child be sick all over themselves—Elena recoils from it, shamed to even be witnessing it and overwhelmingly, achingly sympathetic, all at the same time.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Elena asks, tentative.
“No,” Katherine says, firm.
“If… if you change your mind…” Elena mumbles, she loses control of her voice—it turns brittle and breaks. “I never wanted to talk about my nightmares, either,” she forces out. “But it helped sometimes, when I made myself.”
“It’s always the same,” Katherine says, a few beats later. “The night that I gave birth to Nadia. The night that I killed myself. The night that I found them all. It all blurs into one horrible night. Fire and blood and pain and Klaus taunting me.”
She hasn’t pushed Elena’s arms away yet, and Elena doesn’t know if she should move away of her own volition, to save Katherine from having to be the one to end it. She wonders when someone held Katherine last—if it’s been decades or centuries. “I’m sorry for everything he’s done to you,” she whispers. “It’s not fair.” Because, whatever horrible things Katherine has done over the centuries, she was just a teenage girl once, haunted by a monster who decided it was a game. Who hunted girls with their faces for sport. He’s gotten them all, apart from Elena and Katherine, like some sick sort of collection. The girls with their face are all gone, dead before they even grew into adulthood.
They all die young, or they never die at all.
“It’s not fair that it’s happening to you, either,” Katherine finally says, as close to an apology or an assurance as Elena is ever likely to ever get from her. She’ll take it.
“No,” she agrees.
“There’s another way out,” Katherine says, ominous, yet… gentle. “Stefan and Damon would never give it to you, but… if you want it,” she swallows, then sighs, finally shoving Elena away. Reaching over to the bedside table, she opens it. Elena is afraid for a moment that she is going to pull out another strap-on; she’s still way too sore from earlier today, even if the prospect sends another horrible thrill through her that she’ll have to examine later—now that there is no magical potion and curse as an excuse. Instead, Katherine pulls out a deep blue rock, smooth and small and drops it into Elena’s palm. “There’s a message spell embedded into it,” she says, as though that’s not monumental information. A bridge to her. A way to call for help. Allowing herself to be in Elena’s orbit. “I’ve got its twin. You want to not die, give me a call.” Katherine studies her, languid, taking every inch of Elena in and for once, she doesn’t flush in embarrassment at Katherine’s assessing gaze. “I suppose I owe you that much, at least.”
“I suppose you do,” Elena says, proud of how even her voice remains.
Katherine quirks up an eyebrow, if not the ghost of a smile edging onto her lips, then certainly the ghost’s cousin. “Go back to sleep and shut up,” she drawls and flops dramatically back down onto the mattress. There’s no compulsion to her words, but Elena lies back down beside Katherine as requested anyway, rubbing her fingers over the rock until she falls asleep.
Somewhere hazy when she’s nearly succumbed to sleep, she swears, that she feels arms snake around her middle, but perhaps she only dreams it.