a/n: I had so much fun on my last project with 'Road Trip' and 'Sins of the Woman'. I will definitely be continuing with sequels for at least one of them, but for now the rest of the month will be focused on Christmas one shots, fulfilling the years unfulfilled requests and this. I think you can all expect quite a lot from me in the coming weeks and I hope you will all keep loving and reviewing. I'm working hard on improving for you all and I hope you can all see it. Enjoy the first chapter of this. Happy Reading.

Elena took a deep breath and knocked on the door. The shabby number nine screwed to the wood hadn't won the staring contest she'd been having with it, but as she heard the turn of the knob, her breath suddenly locked in her lungs and the instinctually flight response engaged. Before she could turn and run a slender arm stuck out the crack between the door and the frame and familiar fingers wrapped around her throat. She gasped, would have screamed if she could and then she was being pulled into the room and slammed against the door as it was closed and locked once more. She opened her eyes, her gaze locking on identical golden brow orbs.

"What are you doing here?" Katherine hissed, slamming her against the door a little harder.

Elena opened her mouth to answer, but she couldn't speak. With a impatient sigh Katherine released her and Elena fell to the floor at her doppelgangers feet. "Hello to you too." She croaked as she massaged life and breath back to her vocal cords. "Do you treat all your visitors like this?"

"I don't get visitors." Katherine spun on her heel and stalked back to the mini fridge she'd been digging in when she'd first heard Elena on the other side of the door ten minutes ago. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to either knock or run away."

Elena pushed herself from the stained carpet and watched as Katherine took a blood bag from the fridge and dumped the contents into a glass. The room was a dump, as was the hotel she was staying in. The rag of a blanket on the bed would have barely warmed a homeless person and the mattress sagged in the middle, still Katherine looked like goddess with perfectly styled hair and clothes Elena couldn't imagine wearing. "Why are you here?"

"I think the more interesting question, is why are you here?" Katherine sipped at the glass, pacing slowly back and forth in front of the mirror image of herself. "How did you even find me?"

"Simple locator spell. Bonnie performed it, Caroline drove."

"Are they both here?"

Elena shook her head, and eyed the torn chair in the corner. She stayed standing. "No, Bonnie is still in Mystic Falls but Caroline is outside in the car waiting. Undoubtedly listening."

"No need to fear for your safety Elena." Katherine purred and finished off the glass. "I haven't killed you yet, and I don't intend do. Haven't you learned that yet?"

"I came to ask for your help." Elena decided it was time to get to the point, finding it slightly unnerving to talk to herself.

"What kind of help?" Katherine went over to her suitcase carefully folding silks and laces back into the bag.

"Stefan is back home. I wasn't sure if you knew."

Katherine paused, but didn't turn around. "I didn't know that, no."

"Well, I figured you should."

"Do either of them know you are here?"

Elena laughed. "Damon would lock me in the basement if he knew I even thought about coming to talk to you."

"Smart boy that man of ours."

"He's hardly ours." Elena said instinctively, protectively.

This got Katherine's attention and she turned, the sweetest smirk on her lips. Elena wondered if it was possible for her face to do the same thing. "So, you've made your choice then."

"That's what I wanted to talk about. What I need your help with."

Katherine turned back to the suitcase and shut it, locking the combination with two click flicks. "My patience is low Elena. Get on with it."

"There is a masquerade ball next week."

"I'm not going to one of those again. I nearly died last time."

"No one will hurt you. I'll make sure of it."

"Just for entertainment value, let's hear this plan of yours."

Elena took another deep breath and pulled two tickets for the ball out of her back pocket, handing them to Katherine. "I want you to ask Damon to the ball."

Katherine's eyes lowered to slits, her forehead lined in confusion. "I thought you said-"

"I did." Elena crossed her arms and noticed the smell of death coming from the bathroom. She did not want to know what or who Katherine had stashed in there. "But he won't believe me. Ever since his brother came home he's been distancing himself from me. Like he's waiting for Stefan to come back for me, but truth is…Stefan doesn't want me. He wants you."

Katherine scoffed and crossed her arms, mirroring Elena almost perfectly and quite on accident. "I saw him a month ago. He wanted nothing to do with me."

"Something's different, trust me."

"Why would I trust you."

"Because only one of us is a lying, manipulative bitch." Elena smiled and held out her hand. "Partners?"

Katherine's mind was scheming enough to catch onto the plan without much more information. "So, you want me to go with Damon, and you'll go with Stefan, then somewhere, somehow we'll switch."

"Pretty much. Damon will give into my advances 'cuz he'll think I'm you and Stefan will give into you, maybe even slip that he wants you because he thinks you're me. Then, in the morning they will discover the truth."

"And we'll all live happily ever after?" Katherine sounded disbelieving, slightly worried but more excited than anything.

"That's the idea." Elena shrugged, stepping forward. "What do you say?"

Katherine looked down at her doppelgangers hand, and placed her own into it. "Partners."

a/n: ah, my first attempt at writing Katherine. Hope it wasn't to disastrous. I really do love her as a character, partly because we share the same name and partly because she is just incredible. Hope you all enjoy this story! Let me know what you think so far and any predictions of what might happen. The next chapter may be a flash back or may continue from this point. Haven't completely decided yet.