-Disclaimer- I don't own TVD or any of its characters. So to my new story… It takes place in season 3, but there isn't any precise timing. Plus, Jeremy is not living with Elena, Alaric is dead and let's just say, Elena isn't that much into the Salvatore's anymore. Basically this is a story about Elena and Katherine, because even if Elena (in the show) doesn't realize it, I think she has a lot in common with Katherine.

Elena's P.O.V.

I was sitting near my parents' grave, when I sensed someone behind me. Since I hadn't heard somebody approaching, I was nearly sure it was a Vampire. Since it was the end of fall, I was already wearing a bigger and longer coat. Since Klaus and the original Vampires were in town, I never ever left the house without a sort of weapon. Usually I took some vervain darts with me, even if against originals this wasn't really effective. "I wouldn't try to take out your excuse of a weapon Elena.", I heard Katherine's voice behind me. "Besides you wouldn't want to hurt family, would you?", she asked with sarcasm.

Sometimes I really wished she would just disappear and never come back. Oh, how much this could've made things easier. On the other side, I couldn't imagine Mystic Falls or my live without her interferences.

"Katherine", I greeted without turning around. Never leaving the dart from my fingers. "What do you want?" "Oh, you know, you could at least pretend to be happy to see me." "Okay, sorry next time I'll try", I answered with sarcasm. "Well, why in a so depressed mood? You're young, you're not too bad looking, you've got 'helpful' friends and you could have a long feature. Oh… sorry forgot that. Actually you haven't.."

By now my patience was really fading by the second. "Get to the point, Katherine!" "Uh! Not so aggressive, young one!" During the entire time she was standing behind me never moving and I was sitting on my parents' grave never looking up. "I want you to… see how live can be.", she said while sitting down next to me. "How live can be?", I turned to her with my eyebrows raised. "Elena, you may think you know what live is, but you don't.", she paused to look at her nails. "Okay, you lived through some hard stuff, but that isn't all live can give you! There's more to it! And to find that out you got to leave this stupid town!"

Again. She's always trying to get me to pack my stuff. "Really? You could've just said, why I should leave. You didn't have to come with that entire speech." I wanted to get something out of her, but certainly not that. After I said that sentence, she took a stone and trough it at a tree, got up and went to a near tree. While observing her outburst, I thought I had seen tears coming from her eyes.

After I got up myself and took a last look at my parents' grave, I went to Katherine. There I could now clearly see, that she was crying. Since meeting Katherine, I was the first time I really saw her crying. While sitting next to her I was thinking about how to calm her down. "Katherine, .. what's the matter? Why are you crying?" "I don't want to be the mean one anymore! Can't you see it? I'm not that cold and mean person! I'm just so tired! I don't want to do that anymore!", she have screamed while crying. It was really hard to understand her, she was crying so hard.

I had always a soft spot for people who were crying, so I did the next best thing. I hugged her tight to me and tried to soothe her. She continued crying for several minutes, she didn't say anything, she just let me hold her and cried.

During this time I had thousands of thoughts going through my head. I tried to stay neutral in everything that concerned Katherine, but seeing her like this just broke my heart. With everything she did to me, I should probably be even happy or at least feel a bit of joy in seeing her like this, but I just couldn't. I couldn't because even if I hated to admit it, she was the only one who could understand, what was going on. Only Katherine could understand, because even if she's a Vampire, she's a doppelgänger too.

A short while later she stopped crying and sat back in her original position. She turned to me and after some hesitation she spoke. "You're probably thinking that I'm incredibly weak and that I deserved my 'breakdown'.", she said still in a shaky voice. "Actually no, I wasn't. But truth be told, yes, you deserved it a bit, but you're certainly NOT weak, just because you show emotions!", I told her while making sure to look into her eyes.

For a long time we just sat there, we let the wind play with our hair and stayed silent. It was a comfortable silence. We were both lost in our thoughts. When the wind got stronger and the temperature sunk, I started to tremble. I didn't want to get sick, so I stood up and started walking in direction of the gates. After some steps I realize Katherine wasn't coming, so I turned around and stopped for a moment. "You coming?", I asked her, but didn't wait for an answer. For some reason I knew she would be coming anyway.

*In the car*

"You want to go to the grill or.. do you want a more 'private' place to talk?", I asked her, while trying to get the heater on. "Let's go somewhere else.", was her only answer. "Okay, then let's go to my house." After some seconds I realized that, since now a certain time, I wasn't calling my house 'home' anymore. During the entire drive I was wondering when that happened.

*At Elena's house*

Just after arriving I led her to the living room. At first we just sat on the couch, after a while I couldn't take the silence anymore and spoke. "Why did you say I had to leave town?", I asked her. "Because, you got to see what the world has to offer.. And because …" "Because what?" "You gave up Elena. You're not fighting anymore, you may not directly realize it, but think about it." I wanted to object, but she spoke again. "No, I'm serious. Just think about it. For example, when you said to come here you called it 'my house', before you always called it 'my home'. Second, you're really depressed. And … I want to change that…"

"Okay, slow down Katherine. There's something going on with you…" "… I may have realized, that even if I'm not your biggest fan, you're my only direct family left. And family means something to me.. Second, I swear if you tell this to anyone, you'll get problems, you heard ?" "Okay, okay! Just spill it!" "Okay, well… I always kind of admired your strength. With everything that happened to you and the stuff I did to you, you.. never gave up. You continued fighting for what you believed in and… you kind of reminded me of myself when I was still human..", she finished while walking to a window. "You know, back than I used to be a bit like you.", she said while turning to me. "And that's the reason, why I can't let you give up. Not now! You see, live isn't that bad. Okay, you got to give Klaus some of your blood and that for the rest of your live, but you're actually free! You don't have to run!", she said while walking back to the couch.

I was stunned, I had heard stories about Katherine's past, but never directly from her. It was a lot to take in and by now I couldn't say if that was reality or a dream. "But the reason, why I don't want you to give up is, that I want to do something. I'm sick of being the bad one, I'm sick of being alone and I'm sick of running. I lost my family, lost my daughter, lost many loves. You, are the only thing that I have left from my little girl. You're my only family and it wasn't right how I treated you. I want to make things better between us, I want to be your friend. Family has to stay united. So, Elena. Will you accept me offer and let me show you what the world has to give?"

By now I was in tears. I was so touched by Katherine's words, she seemed to really regret everything and have a new start. And after some last doubting thoughts, I accepted her offer. She literarily jumped from the couch and took my arm and let me to the entrance. "Good, then let's go.", she said with a huge smile. "Now? Just like that?", she couldn't be serious, was she? "Just like that."

And we were gone.

So thank you so much for reading. I hoped you like the first chapter of this new story. I'm trying to build a real friendship between Elena and Katherine, because together (as a team) they would just rock! So let me know what you thought about this chapter and review! :D