p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Dancing with Katherine, his emangel/em, was heavenly. Being complemented over his brother just made the night even better, seeing a playful smirk rise on his lovers lips as she told him he was the better dancer of the pair made him almost overly smug. He kept trying to touch her covered hands with his own, to only be chastised playfully by Katherine telling him that the rules said "No touching 'Mr Salvatore."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Feeling guilty when seeing his older brother standing in the sidelines, watching him dance with the girl that flitted between them with sad eyes was something he remembered well, but feeling jealous about his brother standing with his current girlfriend was definitely not part of that night. Neither was him rushing into a bar suddenly in a shirt that didn't belong in the 1800's watching Damon snuggle up to Elena whilst they played pool, kissing her passionately on her lips, then again on the cheek. Katherine suddenly standing there made him aware that this was a dream, the pain in her eyes as she touched her gloved hand his cheek to bring his attention away from her doppelgänger. "It hurts, doesn't it?" she asked. Stefan had to admit it did, but not as much as it hurt watching Damon with emher./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He knew it was Katherine by his side the minute he regained consciousness, yet he couldn't force himself to shift from the bed. Elena was currently at home, he'd dropped her off there last night, and she wouldn't be able to sneak in unnoticed. Stefan started from the bed as he recovered from his dreams and then sank back into it with a sigh. Tangling his fingers in Katherine's soft curls was incredibly wrong, but felt so emright/em andem natural/em to him. He missed doing it, he missed the feel of it. He also knew he should've pushed her away the minute he woke, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He placed his hand over her own as he breathed deeply./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Hey, you okay?" Katherine mumbled sleepily. He wasn't sure if she was acting, or if she'd actually been to sleep next to him- like she used to. If she was acting she was doing a pretty good job of it. He kept raking his fingers through her hair, not being able to do it enough times./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Yes," Stefan answered her question, his voice quiet. "Just a bad dream." Whether or not he got to relive one of his favourite memories, and relived the kisses of his first love, he'd still had to watch his brother snatch another girl away from him. It emhad/em hurt, like Katherine said. He felt her nod against his chest, snuggling closer to him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Go back to sleep." He told her softly, wishing that she would, that he emcould. /emThat they could just lie there for a few more hours together. She nodded against his chest once again, sighing softly, relaxing from when she had ever so slightly tensed earlier. Stefan kept up the charade for as long as he could whilst getting away with it. He knew if he'd stayed next to her any longer she'd be able to taunt him about it later on, about how he liked spending time with her, about how he wanted her, emneeded her. /emAbout how he couldn't love his Elena all that much if he couldn't tell the difference between them./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He sprang from the bed, a pang of something inside him, regret?, as he pulled himself away from her. "Katherine?!" he snarled, pretending he'd had no idea it was her who'd been laying beside him for the brief moment he'd let her stay there, and desperately she didn't know otherwise./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"emOh/em, but that look in her eyes as she smirked at him told him exactly that. She did know, and he was dreading her using it against him./p