elena; heart resistant (heartresistant) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-06-23 21:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, elena gilbert, katherine pierce |
who elena & katherine!
what twins reuniting
where the gilbert house
when 5/18 night, just after elena’s arrived from the airport
warnings PG
status complete on posting
It had been several months since she’d been in the states. It was amazing what that time could do for a person. As apprehensive as Elena had felt while away in Prague, soon enough new social circles and school commitments distracted her. They helped her grow and prepare her for going home. She didn’t have much in the way of groveling today, but she certainly had a lot to catch up with and repair.
That could wait. Right now? She just wanted to sit down on a familiar couch and relax. Never mind that it wasn’t at her home with Damon. She would contact him eventually.
Trudging through the front door after having let herself in with her key, she did just that. Dropped her luggage at the doorway and flopped down on the couch. Feet kicked up on the coffee table, Elena looked up at the ceiling and breathed.
“Anybody home?” She called out, wondering if she had the place to herself.
Currently Katherine was upstairs, putting the finishing touches on a rather sexy outfit: dark crop top, slim dark blue jeans, and mile high heels. It had cost her quite the pretty penny, but from the way it accentuated her hips and displayed her extreme flat stomach all the dollars had been worth it. When a voice called out, nearly identical to Katherine’s, shocked, but far from unpleasantly so. The rumor had been floating around for quite sometime that her twin sister, Elena, would be returning from her time abroad. While Katherine could easily brush it off with what appeared to be sincere indifference, deep down she was envious. She’d always wanted to travel abroad herself, but like a lot of her dreams-except for the horrible ones she constantly witnessed here-they had fallen between the crevices and cracks of her world. They blended in with her other side, Katherine Pierce, till at times she could not tell the difference between her own life and that of the vampire vixen’s she’d see every night. Sometimes, she wondered if perhaps she wouldn’t prefer more to be that other self. Immortal, but alone, Katerina never had to worry about being hurt because no one obtained the closeness necessary. In this life, Katherine had more than her share of weaknesses. The woman downstairs, the women she hated in her dreams, was one of them. Jeremy was another and Caroline. Most recently, Enzo too.
She took a deep breath, flipped her hair over her shoulders and took the stairs two at a time down. It was a rather amazing feat in heels so high. She was surprised, but in a good way. Though Damon and Elena were still in a rough place, Katherine believed for certain that her twin would have stopped to see Damon first. Technically, she did still live there after all. Then again, Katherine was not going to turn down a chance to see her sister. Granted, since childhood their close relationship had faded. Elena growing up to be the perfect daughter, Katherine the flip side of the coin. The cold bitch and the compassionate one. Katherine lied, cheated, and schemed her way to whatever she wanted because what she wanted mattered more than what anyone else did. Elena had always put others first; Katherine was more of a pick and choose girl. When a former fling, Damon Salvatore, suddenly became her sister’s boyfriend, the distance increased twofold. Katherine despised Damon or so she made it seem, but deep down, she was again green-eyed in the wake of her sister once more obtaining a happiness that all the money in the world could not buy Katherine. He was a decent wedge between them but when it was discovered he cheated on her sister, he was also the one thing that brought them together.
“Well, well, well, look at what the cat dragged in.” Her sister lounged on the couch, feet up on the coffee table. Katherine flopped down beside the other woman; it was like looking in a mirror except on the inside. “About time you came back. I was starting to think maybe you took a page from my book and ran off with some sexy Italian guy.”
“Nope,” she said, cracking a smile. “Still on the lamb from sexy Italians.” It wasn’t easy referencing Damon, and that had been the first she’d spoken of him since leaving California to study her journalism dreams abroad. Vacations, school-related or not, couldn’t last forever. Already she missed the beauty of Prague, but she needed to be here and fix her life. Running away was for Katherine, not Elena.
It was nice, however, the mended distance between them. It felt good to have a sister again. She scooted just a touch closer to her twin, observing her appearance with an arched brow. “Going out, huh? Seeing someone in particular?”
She’d been in sort of a vacuum, scarcely keeping in touch with people on the pretense the time difference made it difficult. Usually that happened the other way around, but she took advantage of the typical excuses for her own sake. In the end, nothing fixed problems better than being amidst them, facing them head on.
“Good. Let’s keep it that way,” Katherine winked at her sister. Especially Damon. While both Salvatore brothers were alluring, Damon was like a Venus fly trap-pretty on the outside, but oh so deadly upon a closer inspection. If Elena had fallen for Stefan, she might have been okay with it...eventually. Stefan was Katherine’s ex-boyfriend from what seemed like eons ago and Damon had been her mistake. If he told it, obviously, it would be the other way around, but she knew he was lying. He couldn't get her so he moved on to the next best thing: her twin sister. Again, maybe Katherine could have eventually liked Damon again or tolerated him to a certain degree, but then he had to go and cheat on Elena and that was just a “hell no” to Katherine. The girl was a freaking angel in human form. She practically exhaled innocence, kindness, and compassion. Elena was everything Katherine wasn't and would probably never be, but Katherine made peace with that a long time ago. Someone had to be the family fuck-up and why not her? Damon cheating on her sister left a nasty taste in Katherine’s mouth and she was willing to do anything in her power to keep him from ever coming back into her life. Sure, Katherine was a cheater, liar, and user, but no one could be that way to her sister and get away with it. As much as she could poke fun, laugh at, and insult both her siblings, if anyone else did, they had to face the wrath of Katherine Gilbert.
The couch shifted slightly as Elena bridged some of the distance between them. Once upon a time, Elena and Katherine were the best of friends, the closest of sisters, and they weren't afraid to show it. Numerous pictures littered the living room and nearly every corner of the house depicting Elena and Katherine, two sides of a mirror, giggling and laughing with each other. The settings ranging from parks, to pools, to their bedrooms. She couldn't quite pinpoint where or how, but somewhere along the line, Elena became the good one and Katherine, the bad. Childish innocence gave way to reality: Elena was kind, loving, and always willing to help others. Katherine, on the other hand, was selfish, extremely at times, stuck on herself, and more rude than nice. Katherine wouldn't dodge the truth or make it better, but Elena would spin it into a lighter, better fashion. She took no prisoners and Elena had mercy. Elena had the capacity for empathy, compassion, forgiveness. Katherine had the capacity for none. The two were oil and water, but for the first time in a while, Katherine couldn't paint them in stark black and white. Opposites. Elena had come here first which meant-
"Are you staying here then? Because I was going to knock down the wall and make a walk-in closet there, but I might be willing to change my mind..." She trailed off with a wicked grin and nudged the brunette's arm with her own. "For a price." Katherine didn't plan on changing anything about the house. She was secretly nostalgic for the past, for her parents alive, for a time when she never dreamed of running away. When she still possessed hope like the woman next to her. "And you know me. I never go anywhere unless I look like I stepped out of vogue," she added quickly.
Not entirely sure if she should believe her twin, Elena scrutinized her a moment before settling into a grin in return. That was just like Katherine, and she knew right then that she had missed her dearly. Things weren’t always perfect between them, and certainly hadn’t been after the distance had formed between them, but they were better now. Elena intended to hang on to that for as long as she could, and no dreams that she might get one day could possible change that. She hoped.
“The price of, oh say, a dinner out of the house somewhere? Your choice?” She suggested, going along with the joke. But, in true to Elena fashion, she became less jovial and more serious. “And… yeah, I thought I’d stay here a little while. At least until I talk to…” Her eyes darted nervously every which way, head bowing almost ruefully. “Y’know. I just want to get settled in here before going down that road.”
Not that it would take her long to give in and go see Damon. Elena knew herself, and no matter how badly he’d burned Elena by cheating on her, she still loved him. She always would.
“Done. Dinner out at some place pricy and you have yourself your room back. See? I can be nice…” the brunette smiled in pretend innocence. The dinner was a nice gesture, but if Katherine had no plans to destroy her sister’s bedroom or Jeremy’s either. There were too many memories locked away in these walls, in these rooms and spaces. If she altered one thing, she foolishly believed she would have betrayed her parents. In many ways, she still viewed the house as theirs, not Katherine’s or her siblings’. Changing it to suit herself was tempting, but Katherine couldn’t take away one of the few physically remaining reminders of her parents. Childishly, the twin clung to it, like the mother and father she once had. Though her parents had been dead a good amount of time now, she felt as if some part of them lingered here and Katherine didn’t want to lose that. If she did, her parents would truly be gone for good. Jeremy did say he could see them and after everything going on, she assumed it to be true. He was lucky; they were a part of his life while Katherine and Elena could only wonder if they were around at all. He said they were proud of her, that they loved her, but Katherine found it difficult to believe. Saving this house was just one of the many ways she struggled to be worthy enough in their eyes, even from the afterlife.
As always, Elena sobered quickly and a serious expression befell her pretty face. Since Katherine rarely showed any emotion, seeing it on her sister’s face, her face in a way, was always curious. Being twins, she assumed that they would smile the same, laugh the same, and look any other way exactly the same. If Katherine could ever so such seriousness, she guessed it would look like what was written all over Elena’s face at that moment. “Stay as long as you want. I’d rather have you here than with that”, she replied with a roll of her brown eyes. Katherine could always show annoyance and boredom the best. “I don’t know you even want to talk to him anyway. He’s a total prick. He doesn’t deserve you. You’re like a ten and he’s maybe, at best, like a five...on his good days. Most days, his asshole behavior keeps him around two,” Katherine continued with a flip of her luscious chocolate curls. Deep down, Katherine knew she was wasting her breath; Elena would go back to that dick face sooner or later regardless of what anyone said. Because unlike Katherine, Elena had the capacity to see the good in people no matter what shit they did to her or how they hurt her. She believed fully that people could change. She believed they could be better and Damon was one of the people she wanted so desperately to save. While Katherine would have cut him loose instantly upon finding out about his cheating, Elena was already willing to give him another chance. She was so naive and innocent; Katherine knew he’d do it again. Why? Because they always, always did.
“But you’re already thinking of going back to him, aren’t you? Don’t even lie. We both know you suck at it, Elena,” she said sadly. Her siblings could bring out the emotions and feelings within her. She wanted to protect her sister and Katherine wanted her to be happy. True, she’d never say it out loud or ever, but Katherine did want what was best for her twin. But, like a lot of things, the twins disagreed on what who or what that was. Katherine looked away, pretending to examine her recently manicured nails. “You can stay as long as you want. It’s your house too. And...I’m sorry.” It was a rare, rare moment when Katherine Gilbert apologized to anyone. Hell must have frozen over in that moment, but it was her sister, her blood, and they always could stir things in Katherine that the rest of the world never could.
The ground did feel suspiciously colder, Elena inwardly noted. Unable to give much a response to anything short of a sheepish incline of her head, she grimaced. Of course she wanted to go back to Damon. What he’d done to her had hurt, but she couldn’t act as though she had been innocent of… perhaps not deserving it so much as not doing anything to actively prevent it. There was a vicious cycle there that she failed to see, too blinded by hope and love.
That Katherine apologized, however, sent her reeling in all sorts of bizarre ways. Sympathy was a rare unicorn out of her twin. Much like Katherine, she often wondered if her resting bitch face resembled Katherine’s just as she’d pondered Elena’s on various countenance. Katherine owned her attitude in a way Elena completely failed at so much as attempting, too dedicated to being empathetic and the antithesis of self-serving.
Whatever prompted the apology, it stirred Elena to silently hug her twin. It had been a long time since she’d had a proper hug from family, and no matter the ups and downs between them, Katherine was, and always would be, her sister.
“I know this isn’t your thing,” she said quietly, squeezing her a bit. “I just kinda need it. Sorry.”
And before it became too weird, Elena pulled back with a bit of something in her eyes. Laughing as she lamely attempted to cover it up, she looked up and around in an effort to collect herself. “Anyway, so… yeah! Dinner. I’m ready if you are. Let’s go!”
And for the second time that day, her twin was embracing her. Katherine’s first response was always to encourage distance; Elena and Katherine hugging had died with childhood. However, Katherine fought the feeling to pull away. There was something in Elena’s expression, the slight grimace maybe? The sheepish incline of the head? Yes, Elena could read Katherine sometimes, but Katherine had the shared talent to read Elena. The answer to her questions about Damon was clear as day. Elena would go back to him. Why? Katherine figured it was because Elena had an unshakable belief in true love. Again, she held on to the good in people, no matter how rare or miniscule the amount may be. It was why she’d somehow managed to love Katherine even when the other woman made it her mission to be quite unpleasant.
“I allow you and Jeremy a certain quota in hugs every year. You’re still in the green,” she teased, but her voice was gentle. Lightly she, placed a hand on her sister’s arm. “But don’t push it,” she winked at Elena as the other woman pulled away. Elena bled emotion, oozed with it, whereas Katherine could be cold as ice. This time, her expression wasn’t so hard; Elena’s gesture had softened something in Katherine too. When Elena changed the subject to dinner, Katherine took the moment to collect herself too. She had to limit all this nice stuff; she’d be turning into her twin soon. “Let’s get out of here.”