Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or The Originals. If I did there would be A LOT more Katherine/Elijah in it. Takes place before 4x18.

A Little Less Conversation

The spoon in Elijah's tea cup made a faint clinking sound as he methodically stirred the hot liquid inside. It sounded loud to him above the quiet, muted sounds of the two other groups of people that were frequenting the 24-hour diner, the only place open at this time of night in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The air conditioning was on, but the night outside was hot and muggy and oppressive and Elijah could feel his suit clinging to him.

He noticed that his left hand was restlessly tapping on the tabletop and quickly made it stop.

The middle-aged woman who manned the counter during the nightshift came over then with a business-like look about her, as though she would do her job even if it killed her. "Anything else I can get for you, dear?" She looked stern and unapproachable, but as Elijah looked up to politely decline he noticed that her brown eyes were kind. "I'll just fill up your tea cup then," she said, before returning thirty-seconds later with the hot-water kettle. She handed him a new tea packet and then made to leave again, before pausing, looking like she was wrestling with herself. She bit her lip and turned back to him.

"She'll be here," she said, causing Elijah's eyes to fly to her in shock. He had missed the keen, piercing intelligence in her eyes, hidden as it was under layers of kindness and coldness. "And if she doesn't, and she's worth it, go after her. Don't let her run away from you, young man. You're one of the good ones, I can tell."

She reached over, before he even thought to react, patted him in what she probably thought was a comforting manner, on the hand and walked back down the counter to check on one of the other customer-filled tables.

Elijah watched her go, grey-streaked hair, proud, stiff back, wrinkles starting to decorate her features, and he wondered her story. And he wondered what was on his face, or in his eyes, that had led her to deduce he was someone she could relate to.

"Well, she definitely fancies you. Still a little too young for you, though, don't you think?" came a mocking, impudent voice behind him. Elijah hadn't heard her come in, distracted as he had been. He turned and Katherine Pierce was standing before him.

Her dark eyes looked amused, but her hands were clenched tightly together and she looked as though she was desperately convincing herself not to run from him.

Elijah knew he was staring. He had had a quick glimpse of her in Klaus' apartment before his brother had stabbed him in the back, and then before that he had seen her in the tomb with the younger Salvatore brother. And before that….it had been five hundred years.

She was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Dressed in navy blue and tight, black pants, with tall boots and a leather jacket she looked sexy and dangerous – everything he would have expected from Katherine Pierce. Her long, ringleted hair cascaded down her back and her face was heavily made up, with dark-red lips that were designed to draw the gaze of every male in the vicinity.

But the wiry grace, the barely held in check energy, the imperious tilt to her chin, and the gaze – a mixture of overwhelming fear and desperate hope – were all Katerina's. And he felt it like a shock through his body that he recognized her; five hundred years and innumerable darkness had passed since he had first met her, but looking at her now, Elijah could still see Katerina Petrova looking back at him.

She was growing more and more nervous at his perusal. He waved her to the seat across from him. "You called me and said you wanted to meet," he reminded her. He couldn't take his eyes off her as she sidled over to slide into the booth. "I must admit I was surprised that you would seek me out. And curious. So here I am. What is your business with me?"

He watched her as her face banished all traces of fear, her back straightened, she crossed her legs and she bestowed him with a calculating and sultry look. And she was Katherine Pierce again.

Elijah looked over her shoulder then, hoping his face didn't show the disappointment he felt, and caught the gaze of the waitress. She was watching Katherine with a strange look on her face. She saw him looking at her and she gave him a sad smile before turning back to her work.

Elijah looked back at the woman before him as she said, "I have a proposition for you."

"Oh yes? And what would that be?"

"I've heard that Klaus is trying to get his hands on a Vampire Cure. Something to do with an immortal named Silas. Or whatever."

Elijah nodded. He had heard the same as well. He hadn't talked to either of his remaining siblings in months so he had no idea what either of them would want if for, but his sources had told him that both Niklaus and Rebekah were almost at war with each other attempting to discover its location.

There was a pause and Katherine looked down at the table top. "I also heard, from little Elena Gilbert, what you tried to do for me 500 years ago." She looked up at him now, her dark eyes direct and piercing. That did surprise him.

"You mean you didn't know then?"

Katherine shook her head. "Trevor never told me. Was he supposed to? He merely said that you knew about the ritual and that he would help me run."

"But you didn't trust him."

"No."

"And so you ran from him too."

"If we had stayed together, you and Klaus would have found us much easier. I knew that you would follow me, and not them."

"So you left him and Rose-Marie in order to save them?" Elijah knew he sounded disbelieving.

Katherine gave him a scornful look. "As I said before, I left because I didn't trust him."

"He loved you."

"He thought he did. So many do."

"And you betray them all."

"Better them than me."

"The legacy that is Katherine Pierce." He had no idea how he sounded to her then, but her chin came up and she fixed him with a defiant gaze.

"At least it's better than Klaus' legacy. And by extension, yours."

There was silence then.

The waitress came over; doing her rounds again, and asked then both if they wanted anything. Neither of them looked at her or at each other.

"No," Katherine said shortly.

"No, thank you," Elijah said, distantly.

There was a burst of raucous laughter from one of the other tables filled with high-school students. It pierced the bubble of uncomfortable silence that surrounded the waitress, Elijah and Katherine. They all looked up, startled.

The waitress cleared her throat and Katherine glanced at her. Elijah kept his gaze fixed on the woman in front of him. She smelled musky, like French perfume. Her hands were festooned with rings and her earrings were long and expensive looking.

It was armor, he thought, not paying any attention to what the middle-aged waitress was saying to Katherine. Katerina woke up every morning and put on her French perfume and her red lipstick and her tall heels and she became Katherine.

And it wasn't just the accessories. It was the clothing and the hair, the way she walked and the tone of her voice. It was the way she thought and the way she reacted. She was Katherine tonight. She had been Katherine for centuries. He was used to masks. He had his own and he had been dealing with Niklaus' for a millennium. We all need masks to survive. The longer we live, the more ingrained that mask becomes. How much worse was it to be immortal, and to be alone; to have no one who could see beyond the mask? No one who knew you before the mask had become necessary. He wondered when Katerina woke up to find that the mask had become her reality.

The waitress had left again and Katherine was coolly assessing him.

"You want to trade the Cure to Niklaus for your freedom," he surmised, back on track. "And you want me to make sure that he lets you live long enough to ensure your trade is successful."

"I figured that after five centuries even you would be tired of chasing me around the globe. Time for a little R&R, don't you think? You've earned it. You were certainly dedicated at pursuing me."

Her quick wit and the fact that she thought she was hilarious reminded him of Damon Salvatore, and he smiled a bit at Katherine's absolute gall at coming to him after all this time and then snarking about it. But like Damon Salvatore there was a hint of bitterness underneath, a world-weary cynicism, that mocked their own attempts to try to live up to the standards of a world that forever tried to destroy them.

"You are finally ready for the game to be over then," he murmured and Katherine's head jerked up and the look she fixed on him, shocked and scared and overwhelmed, and so damn hopeful underneath it all, was like a jolt to his entire body. "Why on earth did you assume that I wouldn't just turn you over to Klaus as soon as you walked through that door?" he wondered out loud. She had run from him for half a millennium, was the fact that he had made a half-arsed attempt to save her enough to erase all of that?

He had spent hundreds of years feeling like she had betrayed him. He had forgotten what it was like to be human though, to be young and alone and scared. Meeting Katherine's doppelganger had changed that, had changed him. She was still so very human and those around her were so very human as well. It changed every vampire that came in contact with them. Elijah had even seen his siblings changing; although not fast enough unfortunately. That remembrance of humanity had come rushing back to him so quickly. Elena had read his soul as easily as the young Katerina had.

And he had spent the past year feeling like he had betrayed Katerina, not the other way around, 500 years ago. Just like he eventually betrayed Elena Gilbert.

"I decided to appeal to your logical side," Katherine said, not knowing the turn his thoughts had taken. "And besides, you haven't killed my annoying little doppelganger, Elena. So I figured that you would at least hear me out."

Elijah thought about it for a while, fingers drumming on the tabletop. "I will think about it," he said at last. "Bring me the Cure – knowing your talents I am sure that you can acquire it first. And then we will see where we stand."

He stood up then, preparing to leave. That was all that needed to be said tonight.

"Wait," she said, reaching out but not touching him. She licked her lips and there was a flicker of uncertainty in her eyes. "Why did you do it? Why did you try and save me all those years ago?"

He looked at her in silence. He really had no idea how to answer such a question.

She shook her head, curls waving. "Never mind. I just wanted to say…..thank you. For trying."

Elijah did reach out then, slowly and carefully picking up her hand, bringing it to his lips. "Good night…..Katerina."

He felt her breath catch as he released her hand, turned away and walked back outside to his car, parked under the black, Midwestern sky.

Suddenly she was in front of him, eyes wide and intense, hands reaching towards his face. She stood on tip-toe and placed a kiss on his lips, before backing off only enough that their lips parted. Her nose brushed his, her hair tickled his skin, and her body was flush against his.

He's still as stone.

"Was this the reason?" she whispered, and her breath ghosted his lips, sharp and sweet and potent.

He closes his eyes. He can't breathe.

And he's kissing her then, like a drowning man gasping for air, like a man in the desert who has caught the first sight of water in years.

And she's kissing him back, her fingers in his hair, her body arched into his, her rough breathing filling is ears and his whole being fixed on this one moment, with her.

He pushes her roughly back against the car and she hooks a leg around his pulling him closer. And then he's fumbling with the back-seat door and they're falling backwards onto the wide, plush sheets, his hands cradling her head, his lips moving downwards over her neck, worshiping every part of her he can find, her hands reaching for his shirt.

And it's all too much.

It's everything he's dreamed about for 500 years. Everything he never dared hope for. Everything he was sure he'd lost.

She's there, in his arms, alive and vibrant and strong and so achingly beautiful, and he has no idea that he is crying until Katerina's kissing his cheeks, her arms tight around him, and apparently so filled with emotion that she's laughing and shaking at the same time. "Katerina, my Katerina," he whispers, not sure she hears him. Her nails dig into his back, and he's sure she stops breathing altogether.

And the he stops thinking and it's everything he's ever wanted.

***
He lies with her afterwards, just holding her in his arms, afraid that at any moment she'll vanish on him. She has for 500 years.

"Jeannie, the waitress, gave me the key to her sister's old house on the edge of town," she says after a while. She says it's still furnished but she never goes there. She says we were talking too much." She laughs a bit and then shifts and looks up at him. "Spend the night with me?" she asks.

And he can't refuse.