Title: An Indistinguishable Pair

Rating: K

Summary: No one knows how alike they truly are.

Pairing: Elena and Katherine (Friendship)

AN: Do story ideas just randomly pop in to your head while you're doing homework, or am I the only one?

She comes here because she trust the falls to drown out her voice. To hide their conversations from the world. She comes here because it reminds her of him. She feels safe here in her hidden cove.

"Why didn't you choose him?" It's surprising the question has just come up now. These phone calls have been happening for quite some time now. Maybe they needed to build trust, or maybe they needed to finally grow a pair. Maybe Elena hadn't cared before, or maybe she was too afraid of the answer. It was bad enough that they shared the same body, same disgust for pickles, the same love of a man. Could their fragile relationship handle more sharing?

Katherine doesn't know which sound she's focusing on. The cascade in front of her or the one coming through the phone. Probably the latter, considering the former is nothing but a poor substitute. He took her there once, he took them both there only once. She doesn't want to answer. She almost refuses. This was hers, the only thing she had left. But what did that even mean? Nothing, that's what. Because even If she doesn't answer, her other half will know. She can't even chastise herself for the thought. Elena truly is her other half, two identical sides to the same coin. The words tumble from her lips because she needs to say them, because there is only one person she trusts to hear them. "Because Damon and I would have burned the world down around us. Wouldn't have been able to control it. Too dark, too in love to care about frivolous things like collateral damage. But it would have caught up with him eventually, the guilt. I couldn't live with myself, breaking him like that. Guess that's the irony of it all? My one selfless act and it broke him anyway."

This used to scare her, the thought that one day she would become Katherine. So many sleepless nights wasted. Irony, thy name is Petrova. If she'd only cared a little less, been a little more selfish. She would have him, the one they both needed. Who knew she would have repeated Katherine's mistakes instead of learning from them? "Why did you choose Stefan?" She knew the question was coming but still, it hit her like a freight train through the gut. Leave it to Katherine to phrase it so perfectly; her trump card. She was the one that was strong enough to walk away from them both. Elena didn't have the same clear conscious. No, she'd chosen someone ahead of him. As if there was really a world where Damon Salvatore could ever come in second. At least she hadn't sat by while he spent 147 years trying to free her. So maybe they're even, still unmistakably the same.

"Just being near Damon takes everything in me. I need to love him every second of every minute. And I want to, I want to devote every breath I take until I'm drowning in him. I just couldn't… there was no wa- I was too scared. I didn't think I could love him without losing sight of myself, so I loved less. He never would have left me, rather settle, for me, even though I didn't deserve him. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself, so I settled instead. The irony of it all." They sigh in unison accepting of and exhausted by the truth. They had both tried to do right by him, both had failed. Two women with the same face, the same internal fire that drew him in like a moth to the flame. He'd never stood a chance.

They're silent after that. Even as the minutes pass into hours. Just silent and staring at the falls around them. A part of Elena is unsure that Katherine is even still on the phone, but she won't hang up. Can't let go of this last connection. The only person who will ever understand what it means to love without her heart. Because she loves Stefan, she does. And Jeremy. Caroline. Bonnie. She loves them all. But Damon is her heart and she had no idea where he was. Neither of them did.

Katherine lies all the time. But the biggest lies she saves for herself. She tells herself that she wouldn't have been strong enough for him back then, strong enough to actually be a good person. She pretends to believe that he'll move on, past them, someday willing to love again. She's certain of the improbability that she'll ever see him again, but says otherwise. The Petrova Women had broken what was probably the most beautiful creature to ever exist. This was their penance, this connection to the only other person on earth that could have saved him. They understand and resent each other in equal measure. Probably the same way he both loved and hated them with his whole heart.

She doesn't know if it's better or worse to stay with Stefan. In a way she does it for him. At least his brother was happy she tells herself. Sometimes she's sure her motivations are shared, Stefan helping carry the burden of their love. Both of them fighting to make Damon's loss, his pain, stood for something. They owed so much more, but gave all they could. He would want them to take care of each other. Sometimes she thinks of Katherine and how free she is to miss him openly, to wait patiently for the day when they meet again. It makes her so envious her skin crawls. Not even her dreams offer such sweet reprieve. Not for his brother's girl.

"When you see him please just…"

"You know I will, and you'll do the same?"

"I promise."

Just like that the conversation is over. Until next time when the guilt, remorse and sorrow threatens to consume their hearts. And they'll talk like old friends avoiding the direction they know the conversation will take. Then they'll make the promise they both loath and live for. Should they ever see him again, they would love him. For once the way he deserved to be loved. As if he'd even let them.