(no subject)

[manipulative]

( continuation of this )

[ katherine's gaze softens. where she had expected him to rip her palm from his cheek, he merely holds it. it's strange, to see the boy he used to be, the one he no doubt is with elena; she's grown harder than before, constructed walls so impossibly tall, to ensure that boys like him don't ever cause the fall of girls like her. ]

[ she's so used to fighting him, tooth and nail, strength to strength, but it's here that she's not quite sure who folds first: is it her, or him? ]

[ she tilts her head to the side, her eyebrow arching slightly. ] Why, Stefan? Why ask a question you won't like the answer to?

Comments

[compellingly]

I would have done anything for you back then. Gone anywhere. Been anyone.

[ Whatever she would have asked for at that time, he would have given it gladly and without hesitation. An eternal life on the run was hardly ideal. But it would have been enough for him then, just to be with her.

Far better than waking up each day and trying to live with the guilt of having gotten her killed. ]

[manipulative]

[ doesn't that just warm the cockles of her heart? but katherine hears the past tense. would have. been. gone. he's gone to her now; lost. ]

You wouldn't have been happy with a life like that. [ stefan salvatore had been a boy of simple things. the picket fence was an ideal she thinks would've stuck with him for a very long time. he had been naive and innocent, and that is what had drawn her to him, before she had uncovered what was underneath. and even then, knowing who he was, what had shaped him to be the boy he was then, katherine still knows that the life she lead after leaving him was one that he would have come to resent her for. ]

[ just like he did now. both required different moves, but both choices lead to the same destination. ] You weren't made for running.

[ her battles were not his. they were not pearl's. they were not anyone's. they were merely pawns on a chessboard, not major players. katherine had never wanted stefan to become a major player. ]

[compellingly]

Maybe not. [ He isn't Damon -- he doesn't thrive off of chaos. This he can't deny. ]

I guess we'll never really know.

[ She assumes he's any happier now. There have been moments -- not insubstantial, even -- over the last odd century where he has managed to overcome the crippling guilt of his existence. But the shame for who he is, what he's become? That's never gone away, only been suppressed periodically. ]

But how was this any better? I hated you.

[ Speaking of past tense and all.

More and more he's beginning to realize the staggering extent to which he's been displacing all of his negative feelings about himself onto her. ]