A/N: Since it's my birthday tomorrow, I'm gifting y'all a Kelena one-shot. Hope you like it! It sets after the season 6 finale. Traveler!Katherine. Human!Elena. Vampire!Nadia
"I'm tired of trying to hold things together that cannot be held. Trying to control what cannot be controlled. I'm tired of denying myself what I want for fear of breaking things I cannot fix. They will break no matter what we do." - Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus.
~w~
Katherine initially showed up in Elena's dreams to gloat or taunt. Elena no longer cares how well everyone is going on with their lives. None of her friends visit her other than her evil doppelganger. She begins to secretly long for Katherine's next visit. They become friends over time. On her next visit, they lie on the top of a picnic bamboo mat watching the stars twinkle across the night sky. Elena asks her out of the blue. "Is it okay... to want something you can't have?"
Katherine replies with a wistful smile. "Life is too short to wallow in past memories. Is that what you want, Elena?" Katherine turns twenty-six this month while her own birthday, coming next month, would be spent alone like all the previous years.
Elena shakes her head. "No, but the spell-"
Her next words are immediately silenced by a single finger on her lips. Katherine hovers above her, her dark eyes searching. "Don't you want to be selfish for just a little bit?"
"Yes."
She watches Katherine quirk a nervous smile, and pulls out an ivory band intertwined in an elegant braid. She pierces her finger and lets out a pained hiss as her blood dribbles onto the silver clasp that holds the braids together. As she does this, she simultaneously explains "I found another way. It's one of the more dangerous magic I've ever attempted but it should work, since we're both living doppelgangers. I'm binding your life to mine. If something happens to the either of us, we're both dead."
With Elena's permission, she pricks her finger and lets the tiny droplets of blood splash onto the already stained clasp. She motions Elena to hold one side of bracelet and then holds the idle hand in her other. Katherine begins chanting in her native tongue. Strong winds whip their hair, ruffling their clothes, and roar fiercely in their ears. Her surroundings begin to spin and blur in a one motion. Her head and chest ache enormously.
Darkness fills her tunnel vision and Elena's first thought was that the spell had failed and she would be forever stuck in limbo. Then soft pliable hands caress her contours of her face and glides smoothly down, past her tense shoulders to her gangly long arms. They skim past the pinch of flesh on her elbows until she feels a spark of electricity tingling against her fingers.
They meld together in unison and Elena blinks awake with a tiny shiver filled with hope. There, in the flesh stands Katherine with the bracelet clasped onto her wrist, her triumphant trademark smirk gracing her lips. "Welcome back to the land of the living, princess."
Katherine helps her climb out of the coffin and then assists her shivering limbs into a thick jacket, before zipping her up. "We have to hurry. Kai and the gang are on the way back."
They run out into the night and seek warmth into a waiting car. Nadia glances at her through the rear view mirror. "Hungry, Elena? There's an extra burger in the bag. We should be at the airport in about forty minutes."
"You might want to put your seatbelt on, cupcake. My daughter is a speeding maniac." Katherine quips from the passenger seat.
Elena laughs her first laugh in a long time as the two Petrovas snip back and forth with cheeky retorts.
