Note: Two years. Ha. Small change. No edits, duh. Did someone say Stefonnie? 'Cause, I got you. Reviews are one way trips to Wakanda.
The Queen's Undoing
Circa 1864
Katherine only needed one thing. The sole reason for their trip could be summarised in the opalescent gleam of a smooth, precious stone. The moonstone, to be exact.
God alone knew what kind of incentive it would give Niklaus if he ever got his hands on it. She'd never be rid of him then, not when he would be that much closer to undoing the curse that had bound them to one another for the longer than a thousand years. The very same curse that would take her life in exchange for everything that megalomaniac wanted.
The only reason she even knew where it was, was because the people hiding it knew that the safest place on Earth where this stone could be, would be with the one person who never wanted it found. See, Niklaus not only had a legion behind him, but legions against him. No one wanted him to become a Hybrid. Not a single supernatural soul stood to benefit his turning. So, slowly but surely, they all concocted the plan to get the stone into Katherine's hands. A woman who couldn't be found was near impossible to get hold of, but thanks to Bonnie, they were about to get their hands on the stone and disappear forever.
That was how they ended up in Mystic Falls, a world so far removed from the tropics, or the coastal breezes, or even the filthy smog of the Northern hemispheres. Here, in Mystic Falls, there was a sense of stasis, complacency, Katherine would even call it idiocy. The world all over had learned of vampires. Their origins closely tied to the legacy of witches; whom were all borne in the loving arms of Africa, before they spread the world over. Creating creatures as they went, witches populated the planet like the gods of the human world, and were once even seen as such, before they own children outgrew them, much like the human-folk as well.
Someone like Bonnie, who should be revered, honoured and safeguarded, was left to roam the outskirts of town, not only because she was as much in hiding as Katherine was, but because many creatures lacked the simple respect for their creators. Katherine knew this, because for a long time, she was one of them. Ignorant to the whole image of the supernatural hierarchy. Blind to the true essence of their origins.
In fact, something told her, from the first instant she'd heard the tale of the immortal witch, the tale of her dear Bonnie, that there was something more to the witch. It had been this notion that had given her pause when Bonnie first asked to be turned. Katherine knew that something awful must have happened to a girl willing to rot instead of living out a life of a legacy that seemed paved out before her. Katherine had done some digging of her own.
The Bennett's had been one of the first of witchkind. It was foretold that five families made up the five corners of the pentagram that was traced over the face of the Earth to protect it from the darkness that shadowed the light of magic. The Bennett's, the Mikaelson's, the Montu's, the Laveau's and the Saan's. The latter of whom had refused to acclimate to any progression of modern society which they declared barbaric and unlike their witch-teachings. To this day, they are harder to find that miss Katherine Pierce herself, and bore the title of the original heirs to the throne ruling over all of supernatural kind before the Mikaelson's claimed the throne in their absence.
Bonnie hardly spoke of her origins, but it didn't worry Katherine as much as it used to, not after nearly three hundred years of flawless camaraderie and love from her one and only kindred spirit. Katherine thought herself impossibly blessed to have found someone like Bonnie, and in fact, to be found by someone like Bonnie. She knew that the minute they had their hands on the stone, they had their hands on their freedom. She could stop running long enough to show Bonnie how to really live. She could hardly remember herself and she didn't want the same to be said for her childe. She would show Bonnie the true perks of immortality; let her be the sixteen year old she truly was and for herself, she could finally realise her role of being a mother.
Bonnie awoke after a series of fluorescent dreams that all circled around the theme of Stefan's affections. In all her years she'd never felt any kind of attraction that surpassed her insatiable blood lust. In her dreaming, she'd felt the ghost of his fingers trail across her body with a softness that had felt more like silk as it coasted across her skin, rippling goosebumps in their wake. She'd felt his mouth pucker against her neck, at the nape, behind her ear, drawing lines under the jut of her collarbones, the dip between her breasts. The immortal witch was only stirred with a piercing lust that deflated upon the realisation that she was now even further from reaching the satisfaction that had dragged her from her sleeping.
Rising from her slumber, she scowled out at the breaking day and pulled the bedding closer to her chest. She wasn't sure whether she wanted him to be the first thing she saw, or the very last. The vestiges of her irrational emotions blurred her thinking and she yearned to have him next to her. Then, Bonnie remembered that she and Katherine had a specific mission, which had been the only thing that had brought them here to begin with. And, although Katherine had insisted on her making more for herself than a life in hiding, she wasn't convinced that now was the time to figure out how she'd go about it. Not at the risk of hurting someone like Stefan.
"You're going to set your hair alight with all that thinking." Katherine said with a warm smile as she stood at the threshold of Bonnie's room. "You're concerned about what you're going to say to someone who you've just realised means more to you than you ever thought someone ever could?"
"You mean more to me than anyone ever could." Bonnie reasoned. Katherine flashed to sit beside her and trailed a hand down the embroidery of the bedding covering her progeny's lower body.
"Darling," Katherine lifted her eyes to Bonnie's, and the vitch marvelled at the the unfettered love that was shining in them. "You're my child. We're family. I've heard it said that the bond between mother and child is akin to what holds the earth in place underneath the stars." Katherine took Bonnie's hands in her own, "I'm well aware that we're not made by something as accidental as blood, no, we're made by something far more precious - we're bound by choice you and I. That's our bond, and that being said, I could never forgive myself if I didn't assure you, that you, Bonnie Bennett," Bonnie pulled a face, "Fine, Bonnie Petrova, are not my maid, my aid or my spell book. You're my future. You may not be the reason I started running, but you're the reason I will keep doing so, until it safe for you...I know it's terrifying, since as far as I'm aware, you've never fallen in love," Bonnie shook her head, "Then that's where we start. We start with what you do when you're in love."
"He's human." Bonnie worried.
"Would you like him to be something else?" Katherine wondered.
"No, and therein lies the issue, surely?" The immortal witch half wailed. "I shouldn't be toying with the idea of his life on top of my affections for him, it's absurd!"
"Oh my darling," Katherine grinned, "How about we start the day off before we write it off completely?" Bonnie pushed her curls out of her face. "Bathe, dress and meet us downstairs for breakfast, Giuseppe spends more time tending to the estate now that he actually lifts a finger around here, so we'll have the rest of the day to roam the town and see if any messages have arrived for us as yet."
"Alright."
"Very well." Katherine smirked over her shoulder as she left the room.
Stefan had never had more vivid dreams in his life.
Bonnie had been like a gauzy cloak; whispering across his skin while bathed in moonlight. The soft tickling of the sensation, vibrating right through him while he remained in a deep slumber while writhing right beneath the surface of himself. Her body, the slivers he could recall, had been surreal and smooth. Her mouth, with the haunting quirk to the side, had been fixed upon his, between breathless whispers of his name between her teeth. If he closed his eyes as he sat now, still in bed, he could feel the scraping of her nails as they marked his back.
Jabbing the heel of his hand into his sleep-ridden eyes, he growled softly, unsure of what should happen next. If he should go out back and toss himself into the cold waters of the lake, or just settle for asphyxiating himself with his bedding so that he'd never feel this rattling listlessness ever again. The seventeen year old looked down to his sternum, where the glittering gem winked in return in the bright, morning light. He held it in his palm for a few moments, unaware of the energy pulsing from the stone as he gingerly assessed it. It was designed to protect it's wearer, in life and death. He released the jewel, the weight of it as it rested against his chest as he leaned against the headboard, quickly becoming a beloved sensation.
"I must see her." Stefan coaxed himself upright.
At the breakfast table, Bonnie and Giuseppe were comparing horticultural knowledge while Katherine braided a previous worker's hair on a high chair near one of the window's.
"Anna," Katherine sighed contentedly, "You must wear your hair down more often, dear, you look sublime." Anna blushed at the compliment and clasped her hands together as she attempted to fend off her glee.
"Good morning, son!" Giuseppe grinned as Stefan stepped into view. The younger Salvatore's gaze immediately slipped to Bonnie who had gone rigid.
"Good morning, Stefan." Katherine called from her station. "Tis a beautiful day."
"Indeed it is, Miss Katherine. Father. Bonnie." He nodded in their directions as he spoke, his eyes lingering once again on Bonnie. "I was wondering if I could have a word?" Bonnie looked to Giuseppe, who waved her off with a happy grin still in place as he pulled out an academic text and slipped on his reading glasses and settled in. Katherine pursed her lips with a small nod at Bonnie, before admiring her handiwork with Anna's hair.
"Now all we need is some new clothing, what are your measurements, darling?" Was the last thing Bonnie and Stefan heard as they stepped out into the day.
"How did you sleep?" Bonnie asked after they'd been walking a few minutes in silence.
"Terribly, I'll admit."
"Oh? Why is that?" Bonnie wondered.
"I think it would be best not to say, to preserve some sense of decorum in your presence." Bonnie slowed her steps at his words.
"I think I'd prefer it if decorum was the furthest thing from your mind, Stefan."
"Luckily for you, it already is." She laughed at his pained expression.
"Bad dream?" She teased.
"Is it a bad dream if the only awful part is that you woke up?"
"You as well then? Must be something in the air." She mused.
"I think it's us." Stefan offered.
"Us?"Bonnie piqued at the word.
"I like the sound of that, don't you?"
"I'm partial to it." Bonnie admitted. "I'm rather fond of your company mister Salvatore."
"I wish to court you." Stefan blurts.
"Court me?"
"Father has been trying to arrange all sorts of ill-fated agreements with women he wishes to see me married to. But, I couldn't fathom it if I didn't first follow my heart, in following you."
"And you're certain?" Bonnie pursed her lips. "In Mystic Falls, where my skin colour alone 'negates' my personage?"
"I don't care about that."
"You should, it puts my very life at risk."
"When I said, 'I don't care' I only meant that I don't agree, that I don't concern myself with the narrow-mindedness of colour coding humanity into what one race assumes is it's own superiority." Bonnie smiled.
"Then say that, next time."
"And so I shall." Stefan said, the corner of his mouth pulling up as he gazed down at her. "I do however think you should know that my brother went away, to aid the confederate war. My father, prior to your visit, employed slaves against my every wish after my mother's passing. She'd been the one to fight him, you see. He said it brought shame upon our family, but she insisted that it would be our only source of honour. You two would have been inseparable, I think."
"Sounds it."
"And this town is entirely backward, I know that. But it's my home, and I'll need a little more than 'rebellious convictions' to free me of this place."
"Understandable." Bonnie mused. "What would you say to a journey beyond the walls of your life here?"
"That depends entirely on whether I embark alone, or by your side." He confessed.
"If I asked you to leave your life to walk something more alike to an adventure, what would you say?"
"I'd ask you how soon we could leave." They laughed.
"You'd do that?" Bonnie asked, circling him with a spin of her heels, while she peeked up at him through her lashes, "without our hands ever holding, without a single kiss?"
"Miss Bennett I'd follow you to the ends of the earth just to have my dying day be at your side." She blushed at his words. "But a kiss would surely sweeten the journey."
"Oh, I'm certain it would." She grinned. Spotting a tree near the end of the estate, she walked over and spun until her back was pressed against it, and the leaved glittered her face with their shadows. "Come here." She called. "I think it's time you kissed me."
Katherine had just finished showing Anna's daughter how to stitch the edge of her skirt when there was commotion near the atrium of the Salvatore home.
"Damon?" Giuseppe gasped. "Why are you home? You've been dispatched for war. You weren't to be home for another year."
"I have no more sympathy in my being for the confederacy. I've returned home to honour mother, and to dishonour you, it seems." Damon's voice got lodged in his throat when he entered the kitchen and spotted Katherine trailing the tip of her finger around the rim of her mug. "Damon Salvatore." He pronounced slowly, gauging the woman before him.
"Katherine Pierce, guest of your father. What a pleasure to finally meet you."
Stefan had Bonnie pressed against the bark of the tree as what he'd surely intended to be a chaste kiss, turned ravenous and unrepentant. Bonnie's mouth fell open and his tongue slipped in happily to seek hers out. Her small hands gripped at his clothes with a surprising strength as they pulled and pushed at one another, trying to figure out how to get close enough without tearing the other apart.
"Floor. Now." Bonnie breathed against his lips and he happily obliged her. She straddled him soon after and he could swear he felt lines of shimmering magic left behind after her touch. His insides were molten lava, his breathing felt like bursts of fire from his lungs and his heart could barely keep up with any of it. The only thing keeping him conscious was the pleasure derived from it all. It took everything in him to not begin to strip her of her articles of clothing, and himself of his.
Bonnie wished this moment into a capsule, and in her mind, she froze it in time. She would hold onto this freedom, this heat, this blind love for as long as she lived after this, because somewhere deep inside of her, she knew, that it was for the best that this was all they would be.
Klaus Mikaelson walked to and fro while the fireplace blazed beside him. The entire estate was quiet save for his frustrated, and admittedly unnecessary breaths. He needed to find the doppelganger wench and his beloved moonstone, which his mother used to trap his true form to save herself the embarrassment of infidelity and the world from his alleged wrath. All he knew for certain was that his kin were traitors, that his mother, who made him what he was, could only fathom hatred in the wake of her choices and not accountability. That, and that Katherine was not working alone in her efforts to be free of him. All he had to do was find the spokes of her network and behead them all, one by one.
A/N: Oh hey, didn't see you there. So yeah. Klaus is in it, Damon's home and I loathe racism (which, btw, is like, hell to deal with in a flashback piece - and i'm saying this like it's not an issue presently, Jesus, I guess I didn't realise how emotionally taxing it could be to deal with this in a fictional narrative as well as in my very real, inescapable life. Well, let's work through it together, huh?) Send me love, send me prompts, send me soporifics. XO