"Pull it a little tighter, please." Katherine said as she gestured to the strings on the back of her corset. Elena sighed.
"If I pull it any tighter, you won't be able to breathe." Katherine whipped herself around to make her point.
"Do you think any of the other girls out there can breathe? If I don't pull it tighter like everyone else, I'll look fatter in comparison." Elena stopped fighting and just tightened the dress. Elena didn't really have anything against corsets and she most definitely wore them but she barely tightened them. Katherine pulled the corset strings out of her hands inadvertently when she walked over to her dresser to pick her earrings for the evening. "What do you think you're going to wear?"
Elena shrugged. "I think I'm going to wear that blue dress? You know the blue one I wore to the Mystic Falls pageant when we were younger?" Katherine looked at Elena through the reflection in the mirror.
"You really think that's such a good idea?" Elena frowned and shrugged again.
"What's wrong with that dress?"
"Well, you did lose that pageant…" Elena roller her eyes and grabbed the dress of the hanger to put on.
"As if anybody in Pendleton will hear about a pageant that I failed in years and years ago in Mystic Falls."
Eventually the girls got dressed and began to head downstairs for the dinner. All the bedrooms had small stairs that brought them down to the lower floor where they would all meet up with one another before heading down as a group. Caroline was in an enormous pink dress complete with frills, lace and embroidery. Vicki on the other hand had decided to go with a sliming royal purple down. The resulting visual appearance was that they looked like the representation of night and day standing next to one another; something that gave Katherine quite a laugh. Katherine pulled away from Elena and picked up her stride to meet up with the rest of the girls as if entering the dining hall at the same time would make a better impression with the King. Elena didn't bother picking up her pace and eventually the three girls and Elena were separated by almost a full hallway.
Elena felt her body pulled to the left as a strong hand grabbed her arm and pulled her into a dark room. Elena felt the fear build up as she whipped her head around and looked for her abductor as well as something to smack them with, until she realized it was Damon.
"What are you doing?!" Elena angrily whispered. Damon was dressed in his royal attire as assumed since the girls spent almost hours getting ready. He looked so devastatingly delicious and handsome but Elena had yet to recover from the surprise.
"I wanted to see you before the dinner."
"Clearly." Elena instantly regretted the back talk as soon as the flash of surprise came across his face. "I mean, I just don't understand why you had to pull me into some room to talk to me?"
"I thought it was going to be the only way to talk to you in private. I've been in court and meetings for the past couple of days and haven't been able to follow up with you and ask you whether or not you've decided to give this a chance?"
Elena had assumed that since they haven't spoken since the lake a couple days ago that the minimal connection that they had was over. Obviously not. Elena shook her head with a look of surprise. "You haven't even bothered to think about it?"
"I didn't realize that there was anything to think about. I can't do that to my sister, and-"
"Your sister has no idea who I am. We've maybe spent one day together as a group. I'm supposed to officially orally ask to court you ladies tonight. I thought that it would be a good time to bring you into the running."
"Into the running? If we ever were in a relationship, you have to love me as much as I love you. I'm not going to be one of those girls who competes for the affection of a man with other girls just because I'm told to. I need to know that you don't pick me just because I'm the best out of the group of people you have to select from, but that you really love me for who I am. "Elena was getting more frustrated by the second.
"I know that. So why don't you give me the chance to see whether or not we can have something? If I don't make it official tonight during the dinner, and I try to court you afterwards, there will be talk and there is no possible way that we can be together." Elena did a face palm. There were so many factors that would go into a decision like this and he wanted her to make a decision on the spot? Elena walked deeper into the room with her back to Damon. She just couldn't focus with him continuously staring at her. She could end up being Queen but would alienate her sister and quite possible her family if they supported Katherine, their older daughter, enough to be upset. There would be talk in the kingdom, but she'd actually get a chance to see if his handsome man behind her was the one for her. At the end of the day, however, there was just a chance that he would chose her. Not a guarantee whether or not she'd love him, whether he'd love her, and that uncertainty in exchange for the trust of her family and sister were just too much. Elena took a deep breath and turned around to find that Damon had already left for the dining room.
As soon as Elena managed to settle down into her seat, Damon had stood at the front of the hall ready to deliver some sort of speech. Clearing his throat, Damon approached the podium and glanced at Elena one last time.
"Greetings to all! Thank you for joining me for our ceremonial dinner tonight. I would like to acknowledge my mother, Anne for all the work she's put into making this happen for not only I, but our country. I would also like to thank my wife, Elizabeth for all that she does. Tonight, I your King, will officially announce our potential additions to the royal family. Duchess of Weston, Caroline Forbes, Duchess of Mystic Falls, Bulgaria, Katherine Petrova…" Damon trailed of and turned around to look at his mother.
She have him a stern look but a nod nonetheless and Damon faced back towards the crowd. Elena took a deep breath wondering whether or not he had decided to eliminate that girl Victoria Donovan. Elena glanced over her shoulder to Vicki and realized that she must have been thinking the same thing as tears started welling up in her eyes. "Duchess of Mystic Falls, Bulgaria, Elena Petrova." Elena's jaw dropped as did almost everyone else's other than Anne. She made eye contact with Damon and he was staring at her like he was a puppy that did something wrong and asking for forgiveness. Looking at the people closer to her, they were looking at her now like she was some kind of royalty, Vicki was now flat out crying, and Elena finally met Katherine's gaze.
As the two of them grew up together, this was not the first time Elena had seen this look on Katherine's face. The look of betrayal on her face was a mix of anger, betrayal and something Elena recognized as imminent payback.
Eventually a servant came over and requested that she follow him towards a seat Elena didn't even notice was set up for her next to Damon. The seat right next to Damon. Elizabeth was on his right and Elena on his left.
Elena scanned the table to give a small smile to everyone and reached over to shake Elizabeth's hand for the first time. Damon came over and sat down in his seat and grabbed Elena's hand under the table. Elena quickly pulled away.
Author's Note: Sorry I haven't been able to update in a while I'm really busy lately, and there are probable a crap ton of typos in here. Sorry.