"Home again, back where it all began
All I see is seasons of you and me"

'Love Is A Fire' – Courier

Mystic Falls, present day

"So Damon and you are still busy with trying to get Elena to voluntarily switch her humanity back on?" Caroline raised her eyebrow in a sceptical way and drew from the drinking straw of her vanilla milk shake. "It's not gonna work."
"What other options do we have left?" Stefan leaned backwards in the corner booth. "Watching her ruin the relationships to every single person she ever cared about?"

She sighed and examined her best friend. He looked tired, brooding and gloomy and seeing him like that and knowing who was responsible for it made her loath this new Elena even more. "You still care way too much about her. Why not let Damon put up with her bitchiness? She hasn't been exactly lovely to you before she turned her humanity off, remember?"

He grinned a little and she wrinkled her forehead. "What?"

"You're being overprotective again", he teased her. "Clear sign that you're underemployed."
"I'm actually not – the prom committee is keeping me busy. But ...", she hesitated.

"You miss Tyler", Stefan completed the sentence for her and nodded sympathetically. "Has he answered any of your calls yet?"

Caroline winced. Truth was she hadn't thought about Tyler at all but about another certain hybrid who was stealing himself into her mind way too often lately. But even though she could confide almost everything to Stefan, this was something she better kept hidden from him, at least for now. Talking about her feelings for Klaus made them something she was no longer able to suppress but had to actually come to terms with and she was nowhere near ready for that yet.

"Nope, no news from Tyler so far", she responded and tried to hide her commotion behind a sad face.

But Stefan wasn't even looking at her anymore. His expression was focused on someone behind her shoulder, someone who had apparently just entered the restaurant.

"Now look who we've got here", he whispered. "This evening is just about to get interesting."

Katherine stepped into the Mystic Grill as if the place belonged to her.

At a very young age already she had learned how important it was to never show fear so whenever she was feeling insecure or nervous, she pretended the very opposite and made a scene. Well aware that everyone's eyes, including Stefan's, were on her, she walked up to the bar with clicking high heels and flowing mane and hopped on to the stool.

"A vodka soda", she ordered without looking at the bartender.
She had arrived extra early to make sure she had some time left to scan the scene before Elijah arrived.

Just as she had hoped, Stefan was here, sitting only five tables away from her together with Caroline. He was certainly surprised to see her in Mystic Falls … but was he happy, too? At least a little?

Their last encounter hadn't been exactly civilized.

"You sort of have to question Elijah's impeccable taste if he's friends with you."

She enjoyed it when he was being sassy like that; it was a new feature on him, something that she didn't remember from his human version. The meaner, the sexier. Yet she wished she would've found any kind of proof that he had missed her over the past year, the same way she had been missing him. But there was absolutely nothing. He was giving her the cold shoulder, pretending like he hardly knew her, like she didn't mean anything to him. Even though the last time they had seen each other, she had helped him to get his humanity back.

Grimly Katherine took a sip of the long drink the bartender placed in front of her on the table.

She would make sure that Stefan was sooner or later forced to give up the façade. She'd make him admit that there was still a part of him that cared about her. That in spite of what he claimed, it wasn't only hate and despise he felt of her.

"Mystic Falls, huh?"

She suppressed a triumphant smile as he turned up at her side all of a sudden and supported himself against the bar. "The last time I checked you helped eliminating a lot of Klaus' hybrids, almost got himself killed and then took the cure away from him – are you sure you're welcome here?"

"You forget that Mystic Falls is my home in a way, too, Stefan", she replied and steadied her head playfully on her hand, facing him next to her. "I have stayed away for too long. I am done with hiding."

"It is not safe for you here, Katherine", he said in an indifferent tone.

Intently she examined his averted profile, the marked jaw-line and his high cheekbones. As always, his beauty distracted her and took her breath away. "Does that mean you are actually worried about me?", she asked with a husky voice.

Stefan turned his head to face her. His hazel-green eyes captured her immediately and her mouth went dry. He was only one arm-length away from her now and it took all the self-control she had to not put out her hand and touch him.

He shoved his body nearer and cornered her at the bar. The wood of the table cut into her back but she hardly felt the pain. She raised her chin and met his mesmerizing gaze.

"I don't know how many times I shall repeat myself, Katherine", he whispered. "I don't care if Klaus is ripping your heart out. I just want you gone."

She had half-expected him to turn her down but with him being physically so close, the rejection was harder to hide and overact. "And I don't know how many times I shall tell you that I don't believe you." She got up and lowered herself on the ground. Since he didn't back away, there was hardly any space left between them now. "You don't really hate me, Stefan. You only wish you could hate me." She smiled seductively. "That's a big difference."
He didn't respond right away, he simply looked down on her with an unreadable expression and that gave her hope; he might never tell her that she was right but he wasn't denying it either.

"And here I was afraid you'd be impatiently waiting for me to arrive. But I see you've already found company."

Their heads turned at the same time to face Elijah who was climbing the last steps to the elevated bar place. Swiftly Katherine was jostling past Stefan and made her towards her boyfriend to get caught in his arms.

"I've missed you, Katerina." He took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. He was a man who knew exactly how women liked to be kissed so it wasn't hard for her to endure his public display of affection. Yet she was well aware that Stefan was standing only five metres away and watching them and it made her tense. Could he tell that she was only acting? Would he mind if she wasn't?

When they broke away from each other, Stefan had presumptuously finished her drink and winked Caroline who was still sitting at their table to join them.

Katherine silently huffed at the pretty blonde coming over to them. She never really knew how to behave around girls and she hated female competition.

"Good to see you, Stefan. Caroline." Elijah gave them a nod, his hand possessively around her waist. "At any other day I'd invite you two to have a drink with us but given the fact that Katerina and I haven't seen each other in a long time, we'd like to have some privacy for now."

"That's too bad." Caroline pouted. "Since we were just about to invite you to play a round of pool with us."

Katherine's eyes darted to Stefan. He pulled a long face that made more than clear he had no intention of inviting them to anything whatsoever, which meant this was solely Caroline's idea. What was the blonde baby vampire up to?

"Ahh, I'm afraid I've never played it before..." Elijah was clearly torn between being polite and accepting their offer or being honest and telling them to get lost.

"Not a problem, I'll teach you." Caroline fluttered her eyelashes. "It'll be just a quick game between old friends, I promise. Stefan will pull us all over the barrel in no matter of time anyway, he's a pro at this."
Elijah sighed heavily. "Alright then, one game. It is quite hard to chip you off."
"Thank you", Caroline smiled, even though his last statement hadn't been entirely a compliment. She linked arms with Stefan and pulled him towards the back of the Grill where the billiard tables, dartboards and gaming machines were placed.

Katherine wanted to follow them but Elijah held her back.

"Just to be clear", he spoke into her ear. "I'm not a lovesick fool. I know you and Stefan ... used to be more than 'old friends' once. If I should start to get the impression that what brought you here is not only to achieve my brother's forgiveness but actually to get him back, I won't be very pleased." He stroke her hair. "Do you understand me, Katerina?"

Reluctantly she escaped from his grip.
"Careful, Elijah", she hid her concern behind a smile. "The jealous-boyfriend-look doesn't suit you very much. But you don't have to be worried: Stefan and I aren't even friends anymore."

Mystic Falls, 1864

"Friends then, Miss Katherine?"

With a loud and jolly laugh she ran away from him through the high hedges of the Salvatore garden. Her footfalls grated on the widespread gravel and the ample skirts of her dress almost became entangled in the branches.

She enjoyed nothing more than the excitement of getting chased by someone she actually didn't mind to be captured by at all. The wind was in her hair and the sun on her face and she realized she had never felt as free before as in this precise moment.

On the fresh mowed meadow, Stefan caught up with her and cut her so masterfully off that she stumbled and fell. Before her body could hit the hard ground, he absorbed her weight with his own and she landed smoothly and unharmed on him.

Out of breath Katherine looked down at him. "I'm not sure I can be friends with a cheater, Mr Salvatore."

He rolled them over so that he was on top of her now but shifted his heft so that he didn't crush her. "How many times do I have to ask you to call me Stefan?"
She smiled hesitating. Then she reached out with her fingers and touched his face dreamily. "Stefan", she spoke gently.

He closed his eyes for a second to appreciate the tender contact. When he opened them again, the full force of his green look hit her. "Your skin is so soft."

She said nothing in response, only slipped her hand her and they became intertwined, warmth and cold mixed.

"I could lie here with you forever." His right started playing with her brown curls. He wrapped a strand of her hair around his finger and pulled her teasingly towards him. Sniggering she gave in and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Forever is a very long time, Stefan."

He turned a little so he could face her. "I wouldn't mind spending it by your side."

If I still had a heart, it would skip a beat now, she thought and smiled sadly, reminded of all the things he didn't know about her and that she could hardly ever tell him.

He loved the girl she was pretending to be. Not the one she was hiding under this false front.

If she told him that she could offer him forever, he probably wouldn't want to have it, at least not with her.

Stefan frowned as he sensed her mood change. "What is it?"

"Nothing." Quickly she got up and started racing again, to cover up her touch of melancholy. "In for a second round, my friend?"

Do you like it if I include some Steferine flashbacks here? If so or if not, let me know :)