manipulative | deerington contact.

Hm. [ she purses her lips thoughtfully, scrunching her face up on purpose to feign serious thought. ] I have it on good authority she's very, very picky.

[ curling her hand into a fist, she raises it and begins to count on her fingers the criteria she's actually starting to form. ] You need to have a strong jawline... [ eyeing him for a moment for inspiration, she glances down at his shoulders. ] Broad shoulders, nice lips, and... [ with a glance up at that thick, soft hair of his, she smiles, ] hero hair.

[ tilting her head to the side, she pretends to consider who could possibly fit that bill... ]

Do you know anyone who might fit that description? That's not including his—or her—personality and level of broodiness.

I don't.

( he has no idea who she could be talking about. he shakes his head, feigning absolute confusion. )

But I could probably put the word out for you, ask on the network. Maybe there is someone out there that meets all your bullet points. Though, I don't really know how you define hero hair.

( always with the hair, katherine. )

[ it's nice hair.

biting her bottom lip for a moment, she arches her brow as she tries not to smile too widely in amusement at him. ]

Will you also be assessing any of the potential candidates? Or will that be left for me to do?

[ she has a very good feeling on what his answer will be. ]

I'll help you.

( maybe he wouldn't be as bluntly judgmental as katherine would be if their positions were reversed here but he would absolutely want to at least let his opinion be known. )

I wouldn't want to leave you in the hands of someone subpar.

[ oh, this is starting to get a little more interesting. maybe she can corner him if she really tries.

she hums for a moment, wanting to have him lower his guard just a little so he can play right into the palm of her hand. but she knows stefan—he hardly comes without a stubborn fight. ]

And what do you consider subpar? I think it's my right to know, given you'll be basing your opinion on who I get to cuddle next on it.

Someone who doesn't respect you or treat you like you should.

( and yes, he thinks he could tell who that was by the look of the other person and a few conversations with them. )

I wouldn't want someone to be tapped to cuddle with you and end being terrible at it. I'd feel pretty bad.

Hm.

[ oh, she likes where this is going. all she needs now is for him to tell her there's a height and diary requirement, and then she's set she wouldn't mind hearing about what he'd use as criteria for treating her right. does it include complimenting her shoes? opening doors for her? ]

How bad?

Very bad.

( because he'd have been the one to nominate someone for this very prestigious job only for it to turn out terribly. )

If you don't like how I apologize now, you'll hate it if this ever happened because I'd never stop.

Or maybe you need to find a different way to apologise.

[ she's certain if she hears "i'm sorry" come from his mouth one more time, she'll take all the shirts of his she wants and go back to her townhouse for at least a week. while she has always wanted to receive an apology, it's not from stefan salvatore.

reaching back, she sweeps her hair up and lets it fall against her back again.

narrowing her eyes in mock thought, she presses her lips together and makes him wait just a moment. ] Perhaps a different way of putting that mouth to use?

Oh?

( he pretends to think about it, tapping his chin like it's a very serious thing to consider. )

What, like going down on you?

( hey, just because he's not a dirty talker doesn't mean he can't do it when properly motivated. )

[ she hates the way her heart skips a little when he says that. stefan is most certainly not a leader in dirty talk—she remembers having to guide him a lot in 1864, which only made her fall a little harder for him—but when he's blunt, well... maybe he should just stop talking altogether. it'd save quite a lot of furniture from having to be replaced.

intending to play this off as cool as possible, she shrugs in what she hopes comes off rather casual. ] That does seem like a very good use of your mouth than uttering about how sorry you are all the time. Don't you agree?

Maybe.

( he's not ready to commit to it fully even if he absolutely intends on doing that to her again and again and maybe again. he doesn't know if he'll be doing that in lieu of an apology. )

I could also use my mouth for other things. Maybe chewing gum or brushing my teeth or something similar.

[ she arches her brow, then sweetly, ] You're not chewing gum near me unless you want to choke on it.

[ is he playing coy on purpose? she doesn't mind this side of stefan. katherine purposefully shifts on his hips, playing it off like she needs to readjust herself when really, she wants to pull the hem of his shirt up her leg to remind him that she's wearing stockings just for him.

glancing down at herself, she purposefully frowns. there's nothing wrong with her shirt, but she brushes her hand down the length of it as if she's looking for something before she starts to unbutton the first few buttons at her collarbones. ]

What's so wrong with chewing gum?

( he watches her shift around, watches the shirt lift to show off the stockings and remind him that yes, those stockings were still there.

he blows out a breath and then feels said breath hitch a moment when she starts unbuttoning his shirt. )

You getting warm?

[ glancing up at him, she purses her lips and looks a little disgruntled. ] I think I buttoned this up all wrong.

[ she hasn't. she buttoned it up perfectly, but given that she's sitting astride stefan and he's had a very trying evening, she figures giving him a little bit of a show isn't a terrible thing. besides... she kind of wants to feel his eyes on her. ]

There's a lot of things wrong with chewing gum, Stefan. Do you want to hear it now? [ she says it while unbuttoning his plaid shirt all the way down to the end. she rolls her shoulders and pulls it open so he can get an eyeful of her in her black bra, panties and garter belt. ]

No, thank you.

( the reasons that chewing gum was wrong could wait especially when she was looking like that. he still gets a little breathless to think that she'd come over to his house with that on with the intention of using it against him.

his father had ruined her original plan but he was glad he could see her looking like this right now. )

You are beautiful.

( she always has been but he hasn't always been good at telling her. )

[ she has to bite her tongue on what she wants to say. hadn't he been listening before? he's not supposed to say that to her for reasons she isn't going to divulge to him now or ever. it makes her heart stupidly race in her chest. she can feel those reins of control slowly slip into his hands from hers.

it makes her pause her teasing for a moment. she doesn't pull his shirt closed around her chest, even though she wants to see if he'll reach up and try to pull it open. all she does is keeps his shirt unbuttoned and sitting loose on her shoulders, open so he can see exactly what she's worn with every intention of showing him. ]

How are you feeling? [ she doesn't ask it with any other intent in mind, although katherine knows that, no matter what his answer is, she's going to do what she'd planned on doing when she came over. it seems like maybe that would help with his recovery, since sitting astride him appears to have brought some colour back to his face. ]

Good. Better.

( he's still wearing the bandages they'd given him at the hospital but he's pretty sure he doesn't need the anymore. there's probably still remnants of what happened but he knows from the lack of pain and the lack of bleeding through the bandage that he's healing. )

And how are you feeling?

( what's good for the goose and all. )

Hm.

[ she shrugs, lips curving upward at hearing that he's feeling better. that makes her relax somewhat. although she is feeling much better, not seeing stefan lying in a muted and sterile-looking room has lowered her hackles a considerable amount. she still wants to go out and burn the world, but she doesn't feel compelled to do that just now. ]

Good.

[ she doesn't say it playfully, wanting him to know that she does feel good. she feels just a good as he does, possibly better considering she doesn't need to heal from anything or process anything mentally. ]

Although, I think you could be feeling great... [ with a cheeky grin, she starts to slide off the shoulder of his shirt down her arm. ]

Maybe I could.

( this is a good start, he thinks, as she shrugs her way out of his shirt. he bites his bottom lip, eyes locked onto her shoulder before he looks up at her. )

I would like to feel great.

( especially if it means she takes off that shirt and keeps sitting on him. he thinks he could get right up to feeling real great if that happens. )

[ letting his shirt pool at her elbows, katherine doesn't pull it all the way off. she likes the way he's looking at her. it makes her feel powerful, and very much like she's the only person that he sees and thinks of in this very moment.

she doesn't exactly want to let go of his shirt right now. she imagines that it could home in handy later. ]

Well, if you want to feel better... [ katherine pulls at the sheets he's slipped into, tugging them down his waist. she even pushes herself up on her knees to manoeuvre it away from his hips as best she can. it's not her best effort, given that it's still bunched at her knees, but she doesn't particularly feel like getting off of him properly right now. it's her fault for not pulling them off fo him before she'd chosen to straddle him and it's his fault for even tucking himself into bed in the first place.

her fingers fiddle with the hem of his hoodie. ] This needs to come off and be given to me.

[ yes, she is taking the hoodie. ]

And be given to you?

( stefan pushes himself up to a sitting position, reaching for the zipper and sliding it down. he's not as seductive as she is but he does it slowly, shrugging it off and balling it up to pass to her.

it leaves him without a shirt, covered in two white bandages that he probably doesn't need but hasn't gotten around to taking off. )

Am I going to get it back?

( or was another hoodie lost to katherine pierce? )

[ taking his hoodie happily, she clutches it to her chest for a moment as if she's going to slip it on and over her body. ] Nope.

[ it's hers now.

she tosses it over her shoulder. eyeing him, she lets her gaze trail down his chest before she focuses on his bandages with a frown. shifting against him, she shuffles herself to sit astride his waist. leaning down, she brushes her fingers against his bandage, focusing for a moment to see if she can smell any hint of blood… thankfully, she can't. but that doesn't mean he can't feel it.

losing her playfulness, her tone lowers, ] Does it hurt?

No.

( stefan shakes his head, reaching to brush his fingers over her wrist before dropping his hand back down. )

You can take it off. They made me wear it to get out of the hospital but I'm healing. I'm okay.

( he reaches up to start peeling it away but let's go to let her do the rest of it if she wants to. )

[ she guesses she'll see, even though she knows it to be true. what had made him start healing again? his body finally resting?

she does want to peel those bandages away so she not only feels slightly useful but can confirm that this isn't some trick. it's the easiest thing she can do, given how hopeless and helpless she'd felt in trying to help him earlier. as tempting as it is to rip his bandage right off quickly, she's slow. ]

I wonder what made you start healing again.

[ as she pulls that bandage right off, it's very, very clear that he's healed. just to triple check, she brushes her fingers along his exposed skin, as if expecting her touch to make the illusion he's all patched up fall apart.

she feels a hell of a lot better knowing that he's okay. ]

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