Chapter Ten: Episode 3X09, Stefan/Katherine
With the night coming in through the car windows, Katherine looks cold and miserable and lost. Still, she tosses her hair back like the Katherine Stefan knew a hundred and fifty years ago and flashes that you-know-you-love-me grin.
But she's not the old Katherine. They are none of them their former selves, Stefan least of all.
"Let's just say I like the old you better," Katherine says, elbow braced against the half-open window, and Stefan is tired of flopping between amorality and nobility, between caring too much and not caring at all, while all the while the ghosts of Elena and Damon multiply themselves over his head.
He doesn't want to talk about the past. He doesn't want to be here. He doesn't want to care.
What he wants is a release.
"Could the old me do this?" he asks, then flips her into the backseat before she can respond. He is on her in a half second, straddling her, one hand in her hair and the other starting to pull her dress down off her shoulders.
Twisting hair in his fist, Stefan brings Katherine's face up to his and she lets him, wraps her arms around his neck as their lips meet.
But a second later, she disentangles herself, shoves at his chest and half-sits up. She doesn't bother to tug her dress up, not that it would do much good with the strap broken on the left side.
Katherine runs fingers through her hair and crosses her legs, making the gesture seem utterly effortless in the cramped backseat of the car. "Honestly, Stefan," she says, "Now is not the time. But look me up once you get a little less demonic."
"I thought you liked your men demonic?" Stefan asks, going for predatory and hoping it doesn't come off as wounded.
"Not like this," Katherine says, pushing open the door. She gets out, then leans back down to address him, mouth set. "I loved you once. I loved Damon too. That's the trouble with letting your humanity back in." She steps away, turns on her heel. "Maybe you should try it sometime."
And then she's gone.