"Gone With the Wind again?" a familiar voice asks.

Damon doesn't look up from his book. He sits in his bed with his back propped up against the pillows and his legs crossed at the ankles. "What do you want, Katherine?" he asks lazily. He flicks a page. "Scarlett and I are in the middle of something."

He hears her heels click against the floor as she nears the bed. She sits down at his feet. "I'm bored," she says. "I don't like this whole lockdown arrangement you and Stefan have put in place. There's nothing to do. Nothing to sink my teeth into."

Damon smirks, but still doesn't look up. "You mean no one."

"Damon."

"So, you're bored," he says. "What do you want me to do about it?"

Katherine pushes Damon's book down with her index finger. He finally glances up at her, irritated. She has that look on her face, a look that Damon recognizes well from 1864. He raises his eyebrows. She dips her chin and smiles at him.

"Don't even think about it," Damon warns, narrowing his eyes.

"Why not?" she asks haughtily.

Damon snaps his book shut and pushes Katherine aside to get out of bed. "I'm not doing this with you, Katherine." He smiles. "I'm far too old for this."

She slinks off the bed to follow him. "You would never turn me down before."

He stops and spins to her. "Hmm. Yeah. Well, that was before I found out what a bitch you really are." He shrugs his shoulders and smiles at her apologetically. When she still advances on him, he adds, "But, gee, I'm so sympathetic to your situation. Really, I am." He puts a finger to his lips. "Suddenly…Suddenly, the two men you played oh-so many years ago are no longer interested in you." He cocks his head. "They both want Elena."

Katherine pauses in her tracks. "Falling in love with a human…" she says slowly. She meets his eyes. "That's not really your style, Damon."

He mockingly places his hand over his heart. "I guess I'm just a good man now. Changed my ways." He lowers his hand and laughs. "I've been told that love can do that. Even to a vampire." He flashes forward and takes Katherine in his arms, winding his fingers in her long curls. "Except," he says, lowering his mouth to hers, "to you." He pauses, his lips mere millimeters from Katherine's, before letting her go.

"You hurt me, Damon," she says, laughing lightly. "Although, you should know…I, too, am sympathetic to your situation." She sits down on the bed and begins to take her heels off. "After all, it's been twice that Stefan's been chosen over you. First with me." She lets one shoe fall on the floor. "And then with Elena." She drops the other shoe.

Damon hisses as he flies at Katherine, tackling her and pinning her to the bed. He grips her throat. It takes a few moments of Damon seething on top of her before he can regain his composure. He feels his fangs slide back up into his gums. His muscles relax, and he releases her throat. "Katherine, Katherine, Katherine," he finally says, smiling. "My hat's off to you." He mimes taking off an invisible hat. "You've always been so good at winding me up."

She lifts herself onto her elbows, the tip of her nose nearly touching his. "You have no idea."

He stares at her for a few moments, silently deliberating.

Then, he attacks her.

Damon mashes his mouth against Katherine's, and she melts into him. Her hands are in his hair at one moment and then running down his back at another. They roll across the sheets, and suddenly Katherine is on top of him, her curls falling in his face as she kisses him. She kisses down his neck; each place that her lips touch him, his skin cools and tingles.

Then, he's burning. He's burning all over. He puts his own mouth on her neck, breathing in a familiar scent. It's like old times again, when Damon was blissfully unaware and hopelessly in love with Katherine. He rips aside the collar of Katherine's shirt so he can press his mouth to her throat. He can smell the blood in her veins as he kisses her. Hot, gushing, and fiery red. Pulsing only for him.

Damon pauses. Pulsing? He draws back from her. His eyes flick to the vervain charm hanging from the chain around her neck – it had, until just now, been covered by the collar of her shirt. His eyes widen. "Elena?"

Elena smiles.

xxx

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