It takes him a week to even look at her.
He stands across the room, shoulders rigid, back straight he can't be near her, not like this because he forgets to remember that she can't break and all he can think about when he looks at her is the shape of her mouth under his.
"You fucking died," he tells her because he can't get anymore words out and she had tasted like orange soda and hotel toothpaste and itsalwaysgoingtobe Stefan and she doesn't even flinch. (He should have remembered that Petrovas never break.)
"I know," she says and it's calm and quiet and smooth and she sounds like Katherine now and he wonders if they feel the same, satin over iron and if Stefan can still taste the difference.
He's almost surprised when he finds himself on the floor and fuck when did he get this fragile, and she's across the room before he can blink.
"I would have saved you," he breathes and closes his eyes against the emptiness of her stare because he can't look at her like this preserved and perfect and God, the irony does not escape him and then he feels her hand against his cheek.
"And that's why I chose Stefan."
And she's Katherine and Elena and fuck, he'll never learn andhe wonders if she knows that she has the power to break them all.