Hey everyone. I've just re-edited and revised the hell out of this fic. Previously, it was 900 something words, but now it's around 2000. I've made it more than twice as long as it was previously, so mission accomplished! I hope you enjoy.
Summary: One-Shot. AH/AU: Set in 1864 where Elena and Katherine Pierce are staying with the Salvatore's. The Pierce twins have always been on the best of terms and have stuck with each other through thick and thin. But Katherine's done something wrong, and now they're having possibly the worst argument of their lives. Will their bond survive, or will they be broken apart for good?
Only Curious
Elena trembled with rage as she walked swiftly through the gardens around the Salvatore estate, holding up her dress as she went. She was such a contrast to her otherwise peaceful surroundings: the gentle sway of the grass and flowers in the wind, the cloudless blue sky, and the immaculate white manor of which she stayed. Elena had been scouring the grounds of said manor for her twin sister who had once again pissed her off beyond belief. Elena hadn't been aware that it was a possibility for her to feel this furious at someone—and this certainly hadn't been the first time that Katherine had done something to piss her off. But her sister went too far this time. If Elena had done something like this to her sister, she doubts she'd survive the encounter without looking worse for wear. Katherine could have her fun with Elena anyway she wanted, but if she set one toe out of line when it came to him, it was game over.
The source of her anger stood by the gardens gazing upon the various lilies, roses, and tulips that swayed peacefully in the wind. Elena stormed over to her, grabbed her sister's forearm, and yanked her forcefully away from the beautiful array of greenery. If the girl was shocked at Elena's rough gesture, she didn't show it, and spun on her heel to face her sister calmly.
"What do you think you're doing, Katherine?!" Elena spat at her twin sister. Katherine simply returned the harsh look with a hint of a smirk, satisfaction positively oozing out of every fiber of her being. Katherine crossed her arms out in front of her, meandering herself into a position of defense. She then plastered a look of absolute innocence on her face.
"Whatever do you mean sister?" Katherine's voice dripped with sweetness, which only succeeded in making her sister even angrier. A cool breeze whipped past the two, ruffling the ends of their dresses and momentarily caused a lock of Elena's hair to hinder the brunette's vision, carefully blocking the sudden hint of guilt that could be seen crossing Katherine's face. It was gone only a second later, just as Elena righted the fallen tendril. The cool air around them did nothing to extinguish Elena's temper, and Katherine's offhanded mannerism only made the situation worse.
"You know what you did, so save the innocent act and answer the damn question." Elena's scowl deepened as Katherine's coy smirk became more pronounced, and Elena had to stop herself from wringing her sister's neck when she moved to look disinterestedly at her nails.
"Elena, such language is not proper for a woman of your age." Katherine tsked, dodging the question once more and successively riling up her sister once more. She loved goading her sister into such a hissy fit, knowing that she was possibly one of the only people to be able to have this effect on her. She knew all the right buttons to push and when to do so. What can she say? When Katherine played the game, she played to win, and wouldn't stop until it was done so. Katherine was the perfect player to this never-ending game.
Elena's glare continued to burn a hole into her sister's head to which Katherine dubiously ignored. One, two, three seconds have gone by as Elena waited for her to oust herself. The pause was all for the dramatics, of course, and Katherine was in no hurry to rush the encounter with her infuriated sibling. Katherine finally looked up with barely contained amusement to answer her reluctantly with disdain.
"No Elena, would you please inform me what's got your panties in such a knot," She intoned, reluctance and disdain shown clearly through every note. Katherine looked up, barely managing to contain her amusement upon seeing her reflection's repeatedly clenching jaw. Clench, unclench, clench. Katherine had always been able to control her emotions fairly well and with a growing ease, and it was moments like these as she stared at Elena with her emotions exuding out of her so purely and without anything being held back that Katherine felt a weird sense of fascination. The allure of seeing her own face not, well, her was what made the curly haired teen so eager to elicit these unrestrained reactions from her sister. Katherine hated restraints, but they were required when it came to emotion—something Elena had no problems with showing. She couldn't be allowed to trust so easily and in turn get hurt; she needed to be tough not only for herself, but for Elena too. This had always been the case, and even more so after their family had died tragically in the fire. Katherine was their rock, the one thing that held them both afloat in the sea of tribulation.
Letting out a frustrated growl, Elena elaborated through clenched teeth, "I'm talking about how you pretended to be me, went on a date with Damon, and then kissed him." That stupidly trademark smirk appeared once more across the older girl's lips as Elena finished.
Still looking at her nails, Katherine replied with a simple, "Oh, that."
"Is that all you can say—oh, that?" Elena mocked, trying to calm down enough to think rationally, and tried looking anywhere but at her sister. Noticing her preoccupation, Katherine caught her twin's eyes, only a playful sparkle showed in her own eyes while Elena's emitted several—the most prominent obviously being anger and betrayal. Once again, intrigue pulled at her gut, and she indulged in that hidden guilty pleasure, eyes flickering across Elena's face with concealed wonder. She'd never seen that last one cross her face before.
"Calm down, Lena; I was only curious. But I must say, your beau is quite the kisser. I mean, if I didn't have Stefan…" She trailed off suggestively, wiggling her eyebrows as her thoughts sunk into a not so appropriate mindset for a lady of her time. Elena's expression twisted into a sneer.
"This is no laughing matter Katerina! Besides, why couldn't you have just asked me whether or not Damon's a good kisser if you were so curious?" Elena threw her hands up in the air dramatically, causing Katherine to roll her eyes. It was times like these that Katherine could see herself in Elena. She herself was a dramatic person and at times, Elena mirrored that characteristic. The use of her birth name was slow to sink in, but Katherine noticed it all the same, and she grew serious. No one called her Katerina anymore—not since their mother died. It was a low blow, and Katherine's eyes darkened, nearly onyx in color.
"Where's the fun in that, twin?" Katherine sniggered cruelly, cocking her hip to the side to rest her hand there.
"It's not supposed to be fun, and you can't just do whatever the hell you want whenever you want," Elena replied exasperatedly.
"On the contrary, I can do whatever I want whenever I want to do it." Katherine simpered, "Nothing can stand in the way of that, sister—not even you."
"Maybe not, but that doesn't mean certain people have to be made unaware of what you decide to do 'whatever and whenever you want'." Elena threatened. Her twin stepped closer to her intimidatingly, fists beginning to form at her sides.
"Is that a threat, or a promise, sister?" Katherine sneered.
"You're smart Katherine; I think you can work it out on your own." Elena replied and her face morphed sympathetically. "I can only imagine the look on poor Stefan's face when he finds out that you've purposefully locked lips with his very own brother." All trace of feigned innocence and nicety fled from Katherine's face, and she snorted.
"You wouldn't dare," She enunciated roughly, expression glittered with deep malevolence.
"Try me," Elena spat using the same tone. "Besides, you'd only do the same to me—if not worse—if I was the one who decided to make out with Stefan." Katherine's jaw clenched at the undeniably true statement, and knew she was beat. But that didn't mean she'd have to show it. The twins continued to glare at each other, barely a foot between them as they awaited the moment the other would crack. The more she waited, the more Katherine's admiration grew for her sister. The girl was proving to her that she could stand up for herself, and that she wouldn't let herself be intimidated by her opponent, or wouldn't let it show at the very least. Maybe Elena didn't need the constant sheltering and her utmost protection after all.
Few people could say truthfully that they've seen the vulnerable and sincere side of Katherine Pierce, and out of all of these people, three were still alive. Elena was one of these three people, along with Stefan, of course, and even Damon—albeit rarely. And with a silent shove to her pride, Katherine evinced this side of her to Elena once more.
"I'm sorry," Katherine mumbled, partially hoping that Elena wouldn't hear her. Elena eyed her cautiously for a few seconds, judging her sincerity no doubt, and then let her own features soften to match her twin's.
"Will you do it again?" Elena queried. Katherine met her piercing gaze with her own and shook her head. "Then I forgive you." Katherine's chocolate orbs lightened pleasantly, and gripped her sister's hand gratefully; she'd been let off rather easily. Elena was known in the Pierce household to hold quite the grudge, and she had ways of making you pay for your actions that would make anyone uncomfortable.
Elena's lips curved downwards distastefully.
"What?" Katherine asked curiously.
"Just the idea of kissing Stefan, who's like my best friend, is just…" She wrinkles her nose, "no." Katherine laughs delightedly at her. "I just don't know how you could kiss Damon knowing you feel that same way for him."
"I hadn't expected it," Katherine admitted, "and he knew it was me immediately afterwards. I had to practically beg him to not tell Stefan."
"What made him not to?" Elena linked her arm through Katherine's and tugged her along as she began walking through the beautiful arrays of flowers.
"I told him that I'd tell Stefan myself," Katherine bit her lip, a nasty habit she'd picked up from Elena when she was worried.
"Well, are you?" Elena raised an eyebrow.
"Of course," She agreed, "but I'm scared of his reaction. I hadn't meant for any of it to happen, but you and he were away horseback riding, so I was alone and bored. So, when the opportunity came up to do something, I agreed."
"Okay, but why pretend you were me?" Elena couldn't possibly understand that part of the whole story, but she'd try for her sake.
"You're always telling me of all the adventurous places Damon takes you, and I wanted to see one for myself, but I wasn't sure if he would take me if he knew it was me. And I was also curious to see if I could actually pull off being you to begin with." Katherine smirked playfully and looked over at her sister. "I did pretty well for a while, but after that kiss he knew straight away that I wasn't you." Elena could only nod as she processed the information. She grinned brightly when she heard how Damon told them apart, and made a mental note to ask him how he'd done so. Elena didn't think it possible, but she grew to love him even more. They both grew silent as they heard the distant shouts of the Salvatore brothers as they wrestled each other by the front steps of the manor, and the sisters watched them with growing mirth.
"Promise not to mention this to Stefan until I've got a chance to do so," Katherine uttered as she watched the younger Salvatore with prominent fondness and adoration.
Without looking away from Damon, Elena responded, "I won't tell him, Kat." She purposefully used the nickname she'd given Katherine when they were both innocent children without a care in the world. "Just swear to me that you won't pull any tricks like that again."
Katherine relaxed her tense muscles at Elena's admission, relief flowing through her. She allowed a rare genuine smile to grace her features, blinding Elena with the grateful and sincere emotion behind it. With another uncommon display of affection, Katherine stepped closer to her twin before pulling her into a promising hug.
With her lips close to Elena's ear, she murmured softly, "Thank you, and I won't do it again." Trying to lighten the mood, Elena shifted back slightly and brought up her right hand with only her pinky jutted upward.
Pouting, Elena spoke just as softly, teasing her sister, "Pinky promise?"
Katherine cracked a smile, linking Elena's pinky with her own, "Pinky promise." From the corner of her eye, Katherine could see two distinct figures racing in their direction and nudged Elena's focus towards them. Elena, finally noticing their approach, turned to fully face them and Katherine followed. In under a minute, both Salvatores came to a halt in front of them, bodies slick with sweat and matching pearly white smiles on their faces.
"Looks like I won again brother," Damon smirked.
"You're a trained soldier, Damon, that can't be fair," Stefan panted. The raven-haired brother shrugged and wrapped an arm around Elena.
"I still won, Stef." Damon then motioned towards Katherine and Elena, "Our girls have bared witness to it, so there's no denying it." A mischievous gleam appeared in the elder twin's eye.
"Are you boys tired, or are you up for another race?" Katherine challenged. Matching looks of determination appeared on their faces. "First one up to the house gets first serve of Emily's cookies." Without a glance backwards, she took off, all the tension leaving her shoulders.
"You heard her," Elena giggled, picking up her skirts and swiftly following her twin. The brothers looked at each other in unison, and took off after them.
Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed my first vampire diaries fic. BTW: I know that the concept of a "pinky promise" was probably nonexistent in 1864, but I thought it was too cute for me to not use it; if it did exist back then, ignore this message and carry on normally with your day ;-). Until next time...