"Hello Damon, come to keep me and this bottle of bourbon company?" She queries, a cat-like grin painted on her lips as she sips from a full to the brim bottle, thumb playing on her bottom lip as she eyes him coyly.
He glances over at with an intrigued look and despite himself, he can't resist the offer of a drink, even if it does mean spending time with her and her never ending games. "No, I think I'll just take the bourbon," he replies, swiping the bottle from her and taking a drink from it. "What are you doing here at the Grill anyway? Did you get bored of ripping out peoples' hearts and screwing them over?"
She pouts playfully as he swipes the bottle from her loose grip. "Damon, ever the gentleman." She chides, fingers working through chocolate curls to loosen them as she slides one leg over the other, swiveling in her stool to face him. "Now, now, who says I can't do all of that from right here? For all you know, you're my next victim. Oh but wait…been there done that haven't we?" She teases, pointing a finger at him and deliberately taking the bottle back, pouted lips smacking after she swigs from the confines of the canister. "What about you Damon? Here to drown yourself in yet another night of loneliness?"
He takes another sip from his drink, shooting her an irritated look from over the rim of the glass. "Only for you, Miss Katherine," he intoned mockingly. He clenches his jaw, trying to suppress the urge to snap back a childish insult. "I'm not your toy anymore. You don't get to 'play' with me." He swings down into the seat beside her, calling over the waiter to order his own drink. "Lonely? I'm not lonely. Look at all the people around me. I could go home with any girl in this bar."
She leaned towards him as he sat down, running a finger under his jaw and leaning in to whisper in his ear, her hot breath fanning over his ear, "You like it when I play with you Damon." She chuckled, pulling away with her finger running along her lip as she sipped from her own, pouring the contents into a glass. "Any girl in the bar huh? And I'm the one that gets all your attention? Lucky me." She grins, teeth grazing her bottom lip as she gauges him with her cat-like eyes.
He swallowed, gritting his teeth and forcing himself not to react to her teasing. Even after all these years, her touch could still leave him half-breathless, trailing electricity in its wake. "No," he growled, "I don't. I hate you, remember?" Damon reached forward to down about half of his drink before allowing him to flick her eyes back towards her. "You should feel lucky," he murmured, lifting his eyebrows with a mischievous air. "Lucky I have alcohol to keep me from ripping your pretty little head off and walking away right now."
"Love, hate, such a fine line." She purred, fingertip dragging along the forever exposed flesh of the indent of his collarbone before pulling away and mapping the circumference of her glass instead. "Damon it's not polite to tell lies, we both know you couldn't do it and that you wouldn't even try." She winks, sipping from her glass, enjoying the game between the two as her tongue sports a trail along her lips. "If you could have any girl in the bar, why are you wasting your time on me? I think it's because we both know I could do things to you in bed that all the teeny-boppers running around here couldn't even dream of."
She breathes, the air between them electrified with tension before she shuts the gate down completely, "But nonetheless, a half-drunk sorority girl is an easy target, and maybe you've lost your game and thats all you can get these days. Pity really if you ask me."
"I think you'll find there's actually a hundred mile wall when it comes to the hatred between you and I," he mused. He made a face at her, slapping away her hand and swivelling his body to face the bar, away from her treacherous fingers. "That never stopped you," he quipped, the glass clutched in his hand as he gestured towards her. "You'd be surprised how often I've dreamed of seeing you dead," smiling sweetly as he batted his eyelashes at her. "Well, I bet none of them get as excited as you do by whips and chains."
He narrowed his eyes, glaring at her with slitted shards of icy blue, "Right, because you're anything but easy, Miss Katherine. Just because I'm not trying get in your pants doesn't mean I've lost my game. In fact, I grow more charming every day."
"Not at all Damon, you just like being all closed off and mysterious." She rolled her eyes, knowing exactly the type of cards Damon dealt in each deck. His poker face was impenetrable to all but her. "Oh I can imagine, almost however many times you've dreamed of seeing me naked." She winked, her tongue clicking on her teeth in the 'k' sound of the word, she leaned into him, no more than inch seperating their faces for the most fleeting of seconds before she buried her lips on the rim of her glass, the alcohol, making a bit of a mark on her actions as shown by her actions just seconds ago. But she continues sipping, enjoying and reveling in the burn
She snorted at his remark, raising a dainty hand to hide a coquettish grin, "Oh is that so Mr. Salvatore? Well color me incorrect then, but I don't see you making headway with any of the girls in this bar. But then again, I couldn't really say it would count even if you did, I'm sure they're just as pathetic as you, watching you come to the barnight after night, leaving alone time and time again. It's like a bad movie on repeat. Lets skip the ending and start a new chapter shall we?" Her grin lit up her features, she could sense a game coming up, one that she very much intended to win. "In other words, they're would be no proof that you hadn't already fucked these girls, rendering the challenge a bit null and void. Though if they go crawling back to you…well thats just desperate on their part." She taunted with a sly wink.
"I quite enjoy being the tall, dark and handsome mystery," he retorted, rolling his head back in irritation. "You might have been naked, but it always ended in me staking you," he sang, flashing her a taunting look with a bright smile laced with insincerity. His breath caught in his throat as she closed the gap between them and his pulse jumped a little, in spite of his restraint. He inched his seat away from her purposefully, turning to shoot her a glare. Damon glanced down at his own drink, finding it disappointingly empty and called the waiter over for another round of shots. He downed two in quick succession before tilting his head towards Katherine again.
"That's because I have no interest in doing so right at this moment. Oh, please, don't be jealous that I'd give them my attention and not you. I leave this bar with a new girl every night, sometimes with two. Mystic Falls is always full of new people and you can be sure whatever attractive girl appears, they'll be in my bed by the next day." He let a smirk play over his face, seeing the challenge in her eyes. "The same could be said for you, always coming to bother Stefan and I at the boarding house like a bad smell that won't go away. What happened to all your supposed boy toys? Did they get bored of you, too? You're probably used to being all alone by now, always running away from everything and everyone." Damon took a sip of his drink, eying her as he felt the alcohol burn down his throat. "We can line them up and hold a survey if you want. The challenge is only null and void if you're too scared to play, Katherine. The only desperation I see is coming from you. Or the men you try and lure into your bed with your demonic claws."
"Oooh kinky." She teases, her eyes glowing as her teeth brush along her bottom lip and she sits back from Damon, her demeanor completely relaxed as she crosses her legs. "Oh thats cute, but you confuse desperation forattraction." She added with a snarky attitude, rolling her eyes at his comment. "You like my little visits Damon, don't lie." Though his comment about her being alone, stung her on some deeper level, she didn't let it show, apart from her jaw clenching and reaching out for her own shot, downing it quickly before turning back to him, casting out, "You're one to talk about being alone." She said darkly before changing the topic back to lighter areas.
"So is it just me or am I sensing a challenge here? Please tell me yes, you know how much I like games, Damon."
He sighed, flicking his eyes upwards, asking whatever nonexistent entity was up there to lend him the strength not to strangle her right there. Of course, she'd probably assume it was some kind of kink if he tried. "Not at all. There isn't a single woman in here who wouldn't want me. I'm the one that gets to pick and choose," he replied smoothly, taking a nonchalant sip from his drink. Damon let out a chuckle of amusement at her reply and he could see he had managed to irritate her. "Oh, but I like being alone, Katherine. That's the difference between you and I. I drink alone because I want to. You desperately seek the attention of people who could care less if you live or die." He flashed her a brilliant smile before reaching for another shot.
"Your life is one eternal game, Katherine," he said dryly. "You just want everyone to chase you, but the real game is that you never stop running." His words came out a lot more bitter than he had expected, shocking even himself. He downed the entire shot to stop himself from saying any more, hiding his surprise with a blank look. "Alright, Katherine. Let's play. If you're so sure about your own abilities, than I bet you could seduce more women than you can men in an entire day."
Katherine listens to all of Damon's cruel jabs, it was funny to her almost, it was as if he was projecting all of his issues with his own identity unto her. She was far from the person she used to be, Damon was just too foolish to see that, not that it mattered. She kinked her brow at him and sharply turned her jaw in his direction. "You're a fool Damon Salvatore, and let me just say, that you know nothing about me. Not anymore." Her voice dropped to a sinister note on the last word, as she leaned in to him, her eyes glazed with some ambiguity that even he couldn't discern before she turned away.
"Ha, I bet you'd love to see that now wouldn't you Damon? But I won't take your prey from you. I prefer men, reminds me how wrong I was for ever getting in bed with you." She smirked. "But of course, we can't do this little game here in Mystic now can we? Who knows how many women you've already compelled." She winked, downing another shot.
Damon let out a snort, shaking his head slightly. How typical of Katherine. His lips curled to one side in a sardonic smirk. Of course she would claim that, she was after all, the untouchable Katerina Petrova. Evil slut vampire who loved only herself, but more than that, the ruthless survivor who did whatever she had to ensure she got what she wanted, even if it meant lasting an eternity with no one by her side. Damon didn't know if he pitied her or sympathized with her. The truth of that revelation, was one he would much rather have found at the bottom of a bottle of whiskey. "I never knew anything about you, Katherine. If I had, I wouldn't have wasted over a century trying to bring back to life a heartless bitch who couldn't have cared less," he said matter-of-factly, attempting to keep his tone as neutral and blase as possible.
He blinked at her slowly, wrinkling his nose in annoyance. "If we're going to talk out prey, then you'd be the black widow spider. How many of the men you sleep with even make it to the morning?" Rolling his head back with an exasperated sound he tossed her an unamused look from the corner of his eye. "I don't need to compel the people I'm with, unlike you. There are no mind games necessary with me," he muttered. "Fine. You want a challenge? Then we'll take a road trip, get out of town for a while, see which of us really is the master of seduction here," he said with a smug smile, lowering his voice in mockery.
"The Black Widow spider? You sure like to fantasize about what my life between the sheets is like Damon. Bit sad if you ask me." She shrugs, her gaze dropping purposefully from his to make him light up with indignation. Before he could utter another word, she slipped off her barstool, the fleeting creeping of her lips towards the center of facial structure signifying her answer to his request. She gave him a backwards glance as she made her way out the door towards her vehicle, as if to silently ask, are you coming? It was a simple question, but one that conveyed, if you don't move now, we're done here, and god knows when I'll be back. It was evidence in itself that Damon moved instantly, he still loved her, she knew that, and she knew that he had a hard time hating her as much as he had a hard time loving her. It was a constantly fluctuating between the polar opposite emotions, though when you really looked at it, they were one in the same.
Her rear slid easily on to the hood of her car, one leg carefully lifting and folding over her other limb, her lips pursed as she waited for Damon to make his reveal, in what she was sure would be a cloud of annoyed smoke. It was his idea to take a road trip, she was just in it because she was bored and wanted to make him squirm. She rested against her elbows, her body language and pose seductive, "About time Damon. So whose driving? If youare, we're not spending the entire trip listening to some shitty pseudo-depressing soft rock mix." She scoffed, rolling her eyes as she gracefully slid off the hood of her own vehicle, fingertips trailing the space she'd just departed, her body language oozing sensuality, she leaned towards him, lips moving dangerously close to his bottom one, "Game on Damon Salvatore."
He narrowed his eyes at her, lips curling into a smirk laced with sarcasm, "I don't have to fantasize. I've been there, remember?" Succumbing to the childish urge to make a face at her, he wrinkled his nose at her before flicking his head away. Out of the corner of his eye he watched her leave the bar, hips moving with that permanent seductive swing. Anything he had ever done with Katherine had ended only in pain - be it walking into one of her ridiculous plans or watching her tear his bleeding heart into little shreds. His recklessness was something he couldn't help, and her allure he had never been able to resist. Wherever she went, he would always chase her. Willingly or not, Damon found himself standing up and following her out the bar. Damon Salvatore had never wanted safe and painless, he had once loved so much it had consumed him, but the danger and the adventure was still there - the passion, even, survived in what he now preferred to call 'hatred'.
He sighed, folding his arms over her chest as he squinted at Katherine longed across his car like she was in some kind of photo shoot. "It's not pseudo-depressing," he muttered. "I'm driving. You drive like a maniac." Damon flicked his eyes upwards, searching for some kind of higher entity that would give him the patience not to reach over and snap her neck. Katherine could probably seduce the Pope, if she wanted to, and while he would have loved to think he was immune by now, to her stupid tricks and batted eyelashes, he wasn't. Every subtle movement and flirtatious smile was a reminder of the woman he had once fallen in love with in 1864. But those looks and smiles had never been reserved for him, he had just been a plaything to pass her time while she waited for the real prize - Stefan. With that thought in mind, and the only desire to win whatever twisted game they were playing now, he faced her down with a steely gaze. Cerulean eyes turned to ice as he watched her close the gap between their faces. "It's going to make my entire year - my entire decade, even - seeing the look on your face when you lose." Then with a sharp turn, he flung open the car door and took his seat at the wheel. "So, where the hell are we headed?"