"You look amazing," Elena tells Rebekah. It's the truth. Rebekah is beautiful. Looking into her vulnerable blue eyes, Elena sees no hint of the ancient, bloodthirsty monster that once so fascinated Stefan in the middle of one of his ripper binges.

Elena just sees a thousand year old girl, nervous for her first high school dance, and hurt by the family who should love her. Elena walks closer to where Rebekah is standing in front of the mirror, pulling the necklace out of her pocket. The necklace that Stefan gave Elena, to protect her.

The necklace that wasn't Stefan's to give away.

"You're missing one thing," Elena murmurs. Rebekah's eyes are drawn to the necklace, almost certainly the last thing that remains of Rebekah's mother, over a thousand years after her death at Rebekah's brother's hands. (Elena can only imagine how she would feel, if Jeremy murdered their mom and blamed their dad for it; if the only thing she had left of her mom was a necklace, and Stefan forgot all about her and gave it to his next girlfriend.)

Elena puts the necklace around Rebekah's neck, and closes the clasp. Rebekah stares at it in the mirror for a moment, before turning around to face Elena. (Elena lets go of the hilt of the dagger; there's no way she'll be able to plunge it into Rebekah's heart if Rebekah sees it coming.)

"Thank you," Rebekah murmurs. She reaches up to gently touch the pendant; Elena's eyes are drawn to her fingers… and then down to her cleavage, and the swell of her breasts in her beautiful red gown.

"You're welcome," Elena whispers back, realizing she's practically ogling at this point and tearing her eyes away from Rebekah's breasts. Rebekah catches her gaze; a smirk plays across her glossy lips.

She doesn't seem offended to have caught Elena staring. If anything, she seems... intrigued.

"I've been wondering," Rebekah says, her tone husky.

"Wondering wha-?" Elena's question is cut off by Rebekah's lips on hers: soft, gentle. Elena tenses in surprise. Rebekah pulls back when Elena doesn't kiss her back right away.

Elena stares at her with wide eyes, bringing her fingers up to ghost against her own lips, still tingling from the contact. Rebekah opens her mouth, perhaps to apologize – and then it is Elena's turn to cut her off with a kiss.

Rebekah kisses her back immediately; her hands come up to gently card through Elena's hair as their kiss deepens. Elena tentatively brings her hands up to rest on Rebekah's bare shoulders, not wanting to mess up her soft curls; she enjoys the feel of Rebekah's soft skin beneath her fingers.

"I see it now," Rebekah murmurs softly, after their lips part, but just barely. They just stand there for a few moments, breathing the same air, their lips a hairsbreadth away. Elena stares into Rebekah's blue eyes, and asks her what she sees.

"I see why Stefan and Damon are so consumed by you," Rebekah tells her. Then she smiles. It's breathtaking.

Elena doesn't want to think about Stefan and Damon right now. She doesn't want to think about the dagger, coating in white oak ash and ready to be plunged into Rebekah's heart. She doesn't want to think about Klaus, or Mikael.

So Elena doesn't think about any of it.

Instead, she kisses Rebekah again.