manipulative | ( ENTRANCEWAY INBOX )

[ to say katherine's taken aback by the display is an understatement. is it arrogance to believe this display is for her? she immediately shoves it aside. perhaps caroline's little thanksgiving dinner is outside in the nice, warm sun, with the view of wonderland to keep them all company as they thank each other for existing. it doesn't make sense, given the time of day, but caroline's always been prompt and overeager to please. ]

I had nowhere else to be. [ it's said easily; she allows him this one truth, but doesn't linger on how pathetic and sad it sounds. ]

[ at his gesture toward the door, she begins to move toward it, but slows down with the intention of stealing something that he's holding. she'd once offered him her hand to lead her outside of the lockwood mansion, but katherine has no desire to fall back into old habits. ]

I hope you have something cats dislike in there. You might find yourself interrupted with your friends if you don't.

[Now he's tempted to bail on Caroline. He can't, because Caroline is the one person in all of Mystic Falls that he likes, but - how could they keep Katherine in the dark so long?

It bothers him way more than he wants to admit, and he'd once asked Damon if he needed to look for love potions. He has way more reasons to hate her, but Thanksgiving is all about forgiveness and accepting your found family into your home.

So, as she slows down, he reaches for the blanket and holds it out to her.]

What do you mean? [He tilts his head a little.] One, only Caroline's my friend, and two, I'm not seeing them until -

[Oh.]

Um, no, this is... this is for us.

[ she takes the blanket and folds it over her forearms, acknowledging to herself she feels a little odd with her sudden desire to be of help. usually, she'd be leading the charge out into the gardens, laughing for stefan to keep up as he didn't run after her but scowled. but katherine doesn't wish to rehash the past. she can't; he's no longer that person, and she's no longer the jealous lover who wants his attention on her and only her. elijah and pennsylvania helped her grow out of that horrible habit. ]

[ giving the blanket a glance, katherine's surprised she doesn't toss it from her hands as though it's infectious. ] For us. [ it's almost like she doesn't understand him, something getting lost in translation. she supposes it has — she doesn't understand stefan's kindness, only able to explain it away by his amnesia. ]

[ but katherine pierce doesn't allow anyone to see her vulnerable or taken aback, and so she recovers quickly. she begins to walk, but not at a pace that requires him to run to catch up. ] I'm not surprised Caroline's the one to make you smile. You were always different around her.

[Maybe the old Stefan wouldn't have prepared a picnic basket or asked her to join him, but amnesiac Stefan doesn't see much need in excluding her.

Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer, right? She had loved him at one point, and Stefan suspects he's only scratching the surface of their relationship as he keeps an even pace with her.]

Well, yeah - she's my best friend. Friends tend to do that around each other.

[He laughs, glancing over at Katherine.]

I don't know what the hell we are, and I'm certainly not gonna pretend I do, but... it's Thanksgiving, and I don't want you to celebrate it alone.

[ katherine had stopped being surprised by stefan long ago. he'd almost become predictable to her, easily living his life within the confines of being almost too boring. he'd never taken any chances, because he didn't believe he had any slip of control over himself. ]

[ but she finds that she is genuinely surprised by him. and she knows she shouldn't be, as he's amnesiac, he apparently doesn't seem to know or care about their most recent past. either his brother and his beloved elena haven't informed him that katherine pierce is the most evil psychotic bitch in town, or he simply doesn't care. ]

[ that in itself is surprising and unexpected, and she finds herself feel a flicker of concern. ]

[ she looks at him for a long moment, expression unreadable, before she turns her gaze away. focusing on the ground beneath her heels is easiest, and makes her appear less threatening, if stefan's to read it as such. ]

You can ask me. If there's anything you want to know that I can give you.

Really?

[His surprise escapes his lips too fast for him to take back. For all that he's heard about Katherine Pierce, kindness and concern weren't on the top of the list. (His picnic basket must've been a bigger olive branch than he anticipated.)

Better question: what does he want to know? What would make his Wonderland life that much easier to understand?

It takes him a couple of seconds, to find one that seems innocuous - ]

There is one. [He hesitates.] If it's not too much - How'd we meet?

[ katherine has no reason to lie about that, and even if she did, she feels no desire to. being with elijah had been a testament to her ability to forgive, even though she can't quite forget. ripping herself right open to bare all the hurt and betrayal she'd ever felt because fo him had left her feeling slightly uncertain of herself. ]

[ still, she's unsurprised he finds doubt in her offer. what had they told her of katherine pierce, anyway? other than her being unkind, selfish, manipulative and psychotic. ]

[ taking the stance as she would in 1864, katherine doesn't notice her hands are behind her back and her walk has turned into almost her floating on air. ] In 1864, I arrived in a little town known as Mystic Falls. You first saw me in your home, the Salvatore Mansion. Your father had kindly offered me a place to stay, as my family had been lost in a fire. [ she looks at him then, as though it's a secret between the two of them that that isn't clearly the reason at all. ] I liked you, you liked me. We spent a lot of time together, playing in the gardens, laughing not-so-secretly to one another at the guests who came to visit your father.

[ her smile disappears, thinking back on a moment she will always regard with fondness. she tilts her head away from him, looking down at the ground. ] I first saw you a few hours prior. Your carriage had broken down, and my driver had stopped to see if you needed any assistance.

[ there's a moment where she thinks to leave it there, but she doesn't. ] I was never meant to stay in Mystic Falls, but I decided to live a little for the first time in a very long time.

[It sounds so simple. Nothing ever is, but "I liked you, you liked me" is all he needed to know. They had once loved each other, and he can guess from her posture.

Was she his fated doppelganger? Was that why she decided to live a little? She's a vampire, and she had granted him (and Damon) immortality. As far as love stories go, it would make sense: girl likes boy, boy likes girl, girl turns boy into vampire so they can live together forever.]

Because you saw me on the side of the road?

[He clutches the picnic basket a little tighter, as if he's afraid of the answer.

He kind of is - Damon had implied that their love story wasn't a good one, and he's not ready for another round of hurt.]

Or because of what we had together after that?

Edited (icon fail) 2016-12-10 06:34 (UTC)

[ she moves her arms, and subsequently the blanket, to hold them in front of her. walking, she looks around, as if sizing up the gardens and finding none of the grounds to be good enough for them to sit. where does one sit when they've been invited to an impromptu thanksgiving picnic? ]

I admit, I'm shallow. I thought you were cute [ she purposefully emphasises the word, looking at him teasingly with raised eyebrows. this conversation is much easier than she's ever anticipated. ] and like the idiotic young girl that I was, I wanted to know if it was just the affects of the sun.

[ she takes a few more steps before she stops, turning on her feet to face him. the teasing smile's gone, replaced with a more serious, if slightly open yet guarded expression. ]

I stayed because of how you made me feel. I had no other ulterior motive other than to get to know you. [ she glances down, off to the side. she's stopped them by the fountain, the sound of the water trickling louder now that she's no longer focusing on the sound of his footsteps and how they tell her he doesn't wish to stop or run away. she inhales, speaking on her long exhale, ] And I've stopped us as I think it might be nice to sit by the fountain.

[He blinks back surprise at her compliment - objectively, he knows he's easy on the eyes. Tessa and Elena both had remarked on it, and he's not exactly an idiot.

Yet it's another to have Katherine tease him so openly, and he lets out a small, amused laugh as he looks back at her.] Nothing wrong with being shallow.

If you ask me, it's as good a motive as any.

[He sets down the picnic basket, holding out his hands to take the blanket from her. He'll set the blanket down too, and pull items out one by one: deep-fried turkey (southern style); cornbread stuffing with cranberries, celery, and eggs; mashed potatoes; cranberry sauce on the side; and a cabbage salad.

He leaves two individualized cups of tiramisu in the basket, only pulling out the red wine and glasses at the very end. Their names are also written on the bottom in black permanent marker.

Stefan might've gotten a few pointers from Caroline, but the effort - and cooking - is all him.]

Edited (changing dialogue, don't mind me ) 2016-12-22 06:16 (UTC)

[ regardless of who she tries to be, or what time it is, katherine pierce had been born a lady. taught to expect doors to be held open for her, chairs to be pulled out, and men to stand when she chose to at the dinner table, she's never quite lost her sense of propriety, but that doesn't mean she expects it. she doesn't thrive on old-school manners, but she does find that stefan taking the lead and setting everything up to be something that takes her back to 1864. ]

[ no matter how many times he tried to separate himself from who he'd been before, a boy who'd had hopes and dreams, aspirations and the need for adventure tickling inside of him, as well as hate and uncertainty bubbling forth, she always recognised it within him. a light, faint flutter of light trapped within the cage of self-resentment and self-loathing, he's always been her stefan. ]

[ even now. though, she doesn't so much as comment. ]

[ all she does, as he seems quite capable of setting it up himself, is pull the corner of the blanket so it sits straighter and isn't folded over itself, and then sits with her legs off to the side. ]

You've outdone yourself, Stefan. Have you been taking lessons from Caroline?

[ even though she's been open with her own disdain for the younger woman, katherine knows when to give. stefan's done something kind here. the least she can do is give him the same kindness back. ]

Thanks. Here and there, maybe.

[He sits up straighter, his chest almost puffing up with pride - actual, genuine pride! - as he pours them two glasses of wine. If they're going to observe the holiday, they might as well do so in style.

This feels easy. Far easier and far more comfortable than any other interaction he's had with the people back home, and he half-wonders if his brother had been lying when he had indicated how complicated their relationship was. Stefan can't say he hates Katherine, not when she had agreed to help him hurt Silas and when she's making him feel quite at home.

(She's the first person here who really has, out of their giant, motley crew.)]

Thanksgiving's supposed to be about giving thanks for what you have, and about being grateful for all the blessings you've been given. Secretly? I think it's also all about the food, and I can't remember the last time I've followed tradition.

[Because, thanks to a certain Tessa and her Silas-scorning ways, he can't.]

You're rather boring.

[ she says it casually, following it by taking a glass of wine and peering into it. she then brings it to her lips to look at him over the rim of it, as if expecting that to somehow magically make him remember all the times he's been a bore. but she isn't so naive as to think ribbing him, however gently, will bring it all back for him. what silas has managed to do is something more powerful than what a rom-com remedy could even begin to fix. ]

[ she lowers it and peers at the food, not touching it. she's not exactly a food person, but that's outside of thanksgiving. she's never been a thanksgiving person, either, never having been invited. ]

[ by the looks of it, he's in a mood to talk, and she's in the mood to listen. ]

So what are you thankful for, Stefan? If there's anything, unless you want to be predictable and try being untraditional.

Edited (needs more picking on stefan imo) 2017-01-10 10:21 (UTC)

[If he had been sipping his wine, he would've spit it all out - he stares at her, almost incredulously, as he holds his wine glass.

Not only does she have his number (to try unpredictability, to eschew tradition in small, meaningful ways), but also she's called him out on the meaning of Thanksgiving. He doesn't know what he's truly grateful for.

Stefan's prepared a small speech, of what he should say at Caroline's dinner and of what would keep him from slamming Damon against the wall halfway through grace. That he's grateful for his brother, for the company he keeps, and for the delicious dinner Caroline spent so much time and effort on. While he is grateful, he also knows those don't spring to mind.]

First off - that's a freaking paradox. I can't be predictable in my unpredictability. [He scrunches up his whole face.] But if I had to say, hmm... I'm thankful for the people here. The ones who have no reason whatsoever to help, and yet they bend over backwards every time. I'm thankful for a friend from home, and I guess? Technically? I'm thankful I've got my brother here.

[The uncertainty rises with each syllable, as he raises up a glass in toast,] What about you? What're you thankful for?

[ it's true for her — stefan salvatore is predictable in his unpredictability, because where he takes others off-guard, she's never quite surprised. there have been a few instances where she hadn't been able to correctly guess his next move, but she's ultimately been right, even if the journey to it hasn't been as she expected. ]

[ his thanks is one of them, although she'd been half-expecting him to give her the practiced speech, the one that's meant to sound a lot like the stefan who hasn't gone through a mind spell that's wiped his entire slate crystal clean. the fact he hasn't given it to her is something in itself. perhaps it's not entirely true she can predict the exact action he'll take, but she more or less knows what motivates him. ]

[ she thinks what motivates him now is the lack of memory. ]

[ peering down at her glass, she does think to tell him nothing. there's nothing to be thankful for when the world just takes and takes, but katherine has never been a victim in her life and refuses to sound as one. ] I'm thankful for the alleged break Wonderland's given me. It's hard to run in heels, Stefan. [ she smiles, it short-lived. ] And you coming to me over Damon missing. [ but wait for the punchline. ]

Either you care to let me know, or you want an answer from me about where he is.

[Straight to the point, he sees.

Stefan grimaces. From what he understands, Katherine and Damon had never had the most positive of relationships. She was the cat reaching out for the canary, and Damon had been too vain to ignore her claws. If he mentions the truth, he might give her an advantage (even if Damon claims they had a truce). No, especially because they had a truce.

His brother acted first and thought later. That much, Stefan knew even with his amnesia.]

He told me he went home for five years. As to what happened, he wouldn't say - and it's not like him. [He takes a sip of his wine. It's stronger then he remembered.] If it had been something good, we would've never heard the end of it.

[All of Wonderland would've known too. Damon wasn't much for keeping the good things - the pieces of him that he showcased with excessive pride - a secret.]

Edited 2017-01-13 07:48 (UTC)

Damon likes to blab. [ she almost rolls her eyes. a damon who attempts to possess self-control is a damon who ultimately spirals downward. he's never had a good handle on himself; even when he'd been human, he was a victim to his own whims, his heart often leading him straight into the belly of the beast. it's never differed even as a vampire. if anything, those impulses have only ever been heightened, and katherine's often surmised it's because the situations have grown dire and dire as a vampire than it ever did as a human. ]

[ sighing, she relaxed slightly in her posture, removing some of the weight off her legs. ] Good news, bad news — five years is a long time to keep bottled inside of you. [ and a very long time to gather information and sort through it. katherine sometimes wishes she had that advantage, but a part of her has never been excited for what the future holds. five hundred years spent running from the same thing has put a damper on her optimism. ]

[ looking at him, she raises her brow, ] Did you ask?

[He almost spits out his second sip of wine. As much as Stefan loves his brother, Katherine speaks a truth he can't deny. Not because he wants to (he does), but because he can't.

He doesn't know enough about his brother to say if it's true, beyond what he remembers back home.]

I tried. Multiple times, actually - he brushed it all off and insisted that I was happy back home. Whatever that means.

Edited 2017-01-15 04:22 (UTC)

[ she smiles to herself. ] You, happy? Does that mean in five years you get over your brooding phase? You wear it so well.

[ but that's not entirely fair, though. katherine knows stefan's been happy before, many times throughout the last century. he'd been happy with lexi, with elena, with other faceless people she's since forgotten the names of. it'd what driven her jealousy in the first place. she wished to have that happiness wrap around her again, and so she had lashed out in her attempt to draw him back in. ]

[ while katherine still yearns for something that's unattainable now, it doesn't consume her as it once had two years ago. ]

[ she lifts her glass, examining it in the light. she purposefully keeps her gaze there. ] There's a chance Damon wants you to experience happiness yourself, as you are right now. Without the added pressure of needing to be whoever this happy you is in five years.

[ it's not her mission in life to defend damon, but katherine had once witnessed the brothers' dynamic at its most richest. she knows damon had encouraged stefan to chase after her (she isn't without her own little birds), just as he's since changed his tune and encouraged him to destroy her. ]

["Brooding phase?"

When she puts it like that, he wonders if she had known him when he were happy. When he couldn't feel this soul-crushing loneliness deep down in the recesses of his heart, and when he also couldn't feel the burdens of these preconceived notions in his mind. True, the Mystic Falls crew had given him space to rediscover himself. They'd also given him far more questions than answers, and he's not sure where he'd find them - except maybe with time.]

Now that's a laugh. [Stefan involuntarily rubs the back of his neck. If he thinks about it, he can still feel his entire world going numb.] I'm pretty sure he only wants me to find mine because he found his with Elena, [and her name is so, so bitter on his tongue.]

[He doesn't know if they were together here. He finds, weirdly enough, that he doesn't want to.]

But... if you think it's a phase? Does it mean I wasn't always like this?

[ katherine gives herself leniency in the stiffness she holds her guard up with and allows herself to pull a disgusted face. it's neither here nor there for her; whatever happens in mystic falls stays in mystic falls, just as she's found groundhog day truly does exist. even if it's not a complete redo of the day over and over and over, the past repeats itself; she's learned that lesson better than anybody. ]

[ what lesson no one knows she's learnt: she's stopped giving too many fucks. internet memes haven't quite changed her life, but she's found a power and a sense of freedom in letting some things go. one of those things is the fact she understands better than anyone to not know who she is. for five hundred years she has run from klaus mikaelson, but also herself. ]

Stefan. [ looking at him as though he is the annoyance, she rolls her eyes to show him that that is the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard. to herself, she mutters: ] I can't believe I'm telling you this. [ doesn't he know katherine's the destroyer? she turns herself into violent winds and knocks down towns, akin to the wolf who huffs and puffs and destroys the little pigs' homes. she's not the one who builds anyone up. no one attributes such a skill to her, and no one ever will. ]

You're the master of your own destiny, Stefan. If you want to be sad, be sad. If you want to be happy, be happy. It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. [ she shakes her head. quoting literature isn't her style, as she often prefers war cries instead. but she's well-read, and doesn't find any use in hiding it anymore. ] Get over the victim complex you're holding onto just because you don't remember who you are. If you need someone to appear in the clouds and remind you, do it yourself.

[Wait.

Katherine shouldn't be the one to tell him this? Stefan blinks back genuine surprise, sitting up straighter as he regards her with new understanding. Their love story had been complicated. Their love story probably hadn't ended well. Yet she's the one insisting that he's the one who holds the strings of destiny in the palms of his hands.

He mulls over this for a couple of seconds as he sets his wine glass aside. He had loved Elena with all of his heart once. He knew, as he pieced together every memory she had tried to re-create, that they had had something special. As he looks at Katherine, something dawns on him.

Had he tried to re-create what he had once had with Katherine... with Elena? Were they the same players on a giant chess board, making the same mistakes century after century?

It's a ridiculous idea. He can pinpoint minute differences in their postures, their attitudes, and even now in their answers. They're nowhere near the same person. They'd never be the same. Yet that idea - of him getting over his victim complex - is one he wants to take to heart.]

In other words, [and forgive his skepticism,] you wouldn't care if I ended up being different from the Stefan in your memory?

[ how many times had katherine bit her tongue when elijah had called her katerina? how many times had she wished to snap at him and remind him katerina was no longer here, that the woman who stood before him was katherine? my katerina had crowded her into a tight spot, one that's been impossible to move from. he had placed expectations upon her she knew she would never succeed in reaching, as those soft spots of katerina had been forged into hardness. ]

[ if she asked elijah if he cared she was different to his memory, she knows his answer would be written over his face. he had invested too much in the girl she had been, untouched by his hands shaping her with callouses and an impenetrable and unmovable armour. she suspected he couldn't look her in the eye without seeing what he had done, destroying someone he had supposedly loved centuries ago. ]

[ elijah cannot face what she refuses to let go of. she's looked at stefan once when he had been naive and warm, and she's looked at him when he had been hard and closed off, and she had never thought to wish for the stefan who had once existed to come back to her. all she had wanted was for stefan to accept her. ]

[ he never had, just like elijah never would. but katherine has always risen above the men in her life, and she does what stefan salvatore and elijah mikaelson could never and will never be capable of doing. ]

[ glass in hand, she looks him over. there's an incredulous pull to her brows as she looks at his expression and wonders just how much her opinion matters to him, how many bricks he's already accumulated so he can quickly build himself according to the blueprints she gives him. it's too much power in her hands, and katherine would've relished in it once. but all houses tumble down against a huff and a puff, and katherine knows the building blocks he's acquired are soft. ] You're not asking the right questions, Stefan.

Do you care?

[ her answer is no. ]

[A bitter, better laugh escapes Stefan's lips -] No.

[It's a truth he has longed to acknowledge for two whole weeks now. Stefan Salvatore had drowned in that underwater safe, and Qetsiyah's mindwipe had granted him a new leash on life. He was free from the roles and stories he had written for himself (he knows, he read the journals Damon had granted him). Just as he was free from the preconceived notions that everyone had in their head.

Stefan's supposed to be nice, compassionate, caring, almost a saint - but he sure doesn't feel like one. There's confidence in his eyes too, because even when Katherine insults him? She holds power and truth in those words.

(She wields them as well as Elena, he'd note later. They share more in common than he initially realized.)

He doesn't want to be the person they expect at Friendsgiving, but he had resigned himself to the inevitable and assumed that they would be expecting the old Stefan. The one who would carve the turkey and give a long, eloquent speech about the things he cherished within Mystic Falls. Those would all be lies.

It's now, he realizes, that he has a speech to rewrite and some tiramisu to whip up. He's not bringing alcohol to dinner anymore.]

I'm not who I used to be, and I've made peace with that. It's the rest of the world who hasn't caught up yet.

[ two years ago, katherine had hoped to sway stefan as she can see herself doing now. she had wanted to pull him back to her, somehow have them fit together as they had over a century ago. but she's since realised she's not that person anymore, so carefree yet strategic, so stupid to let love in once again and almost get her killed. (of course, katherine is that person, and will be in the future. it's hard to let go of one's true self.) ]

[ they can't fit back together as they had previously. he's shed that skin, and so has she. she's come to realise stefan's refused to acknowledge he's changed at all. perhaps this bout of amnesia's the wake up call he needs to break out of his boring stagnation. ]

And yet you care the world hasn't quite caught up with you yet. [ she tips her glass back to take a sip, fully knowing "the world" is only a select group of people from mystic falls. she doesn't need to acknowledge it verbally; she finds that isn't her angle here. ]

[ the point to being chased is to be caught. the point to running is to be free. katherine has always suspected stefan's been running from something, only to be caught up with it literally as he misconstrues it for chase. (isn't it why he came back to mystic falls after being gone for so long?) ]

[ she tilts her head toward him and regards him with a pointed look. ] Why, Stefan? [ her brows lift as her expression opens. ] Do you like being chased? I can tell you it's not fun with the wrong partner, and you're wearing awful shoes for it.

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