Muted voices trickle past the closed door and like a sixth sense, Katherine notices and springs awake as the oak door hinges creak. She slips behind a wall separating the living room from the front foyer. Her heart pounds loudly, almost in a deafening manner. For Elena, who walks in through the door, it's reminiscent of the parties Caroline would drag her to at Whitmore where the speakers wouldn't ever teeter, settle, nor appear anywhere under a deafening volume. She had been listening to Katherine sleeping earlier, but someone happened to walk up the porch and start a conversation. Elena never intended to wake Katherine but it seemed like it would be unavoidable since even without vampire hearing she caught a whiff of the quiet conversation past the front door and acted on, what Elena believed to be, instinct.
Passing through the threshold of the front door, she closes the door before stopping in her tracks. There is no perfect thing to do. Their relationship has gotten complicated. Asking for advice from anyone would be out of the question. Lovers would be out of the question but sworn enemies with benefits? That's something they might qualify for. Unsure of how to feel at the realization, she sighs, dismissing it before saying, "You know I can hear you now right?"
Thud. Like Katherine dropping all her weight to the ground in response to Elena. "Only because you want to," Katherine remarks with a smirk Elena could see through the wall. Elena is just about to bet everything that Katherine can tell she was trying to listen in on her and her every movement. If she's being honest with herself, Elena knows that if Katherine hadn't told her, she probably wouldn't have realized Katherine's forcibly steadied breath can't be heard unless someone is trying to listen in. She probably wouldn't have caught herself so deeply entranced in listening to Katherine's every noise.
She wants to listen deeper into Katherine without the usual sly and sultry smugness, but the sudden raggedness wrestling in Katherine's breath startles her. Call it the idea of the Hippocratic and Nightingale oath trickling into her mind and some sense of duty after attending Whitmore, she vamps over to check on Katherine. Little cuts, purple and greyish bruises like those of a grim sky, and deep lacerations washed all over her body. Elena's mouth fell ajar as her eyes looked over the wounds. These wounds are barely found on anyone now just because there are so many resources accessible to people. These wounds are like the ones you would find on escapees and refugees. These wounds are far more severe than anything that Elena would have expected to have seen, especially on Katherine.
"Look who's worried," Katherine chuckles with that smugness Elena was hoping wouldn't resurface given her doppelganger's state.
A groan sizzles out of Elena as she bites back the urge to return a snarky remark towards Katherine. Elena makes a bite on her wrist, pushing it towards Katherine. As Katherine grabs her hand, Elena turns away and Katherine's mouth envelopes Elena's wound. Gently suckling at the wound her tongue lathering itself all over Elena's skin causes shivers to run along her spine. Katherine's tongue… the sensation of its soft and tempting caresses run along Elena's wrist and wound debilitates Elena, weakening her knees.
"Y-you're doing this on purpose aren't you?" Elena pants lightly as she questions the former vampire.
"Hm?" Katherine furrows her eyebrows all too innocently before continuing her movements on Elena's wrist.
A spark blows Elena's fuse. Katherine is toying with her or something…and she replies in frustration with, "You're kidding me right Katherine? You're really taking advantage of me right now?" and jerks her wrist away before forcing Katherine's body against the wall.
"I don't know you like it like that," Katherine replies tauntingly but Elena's attention falters from Katherine's eye and she slowly observes Katherine's body and none of the wounds seem to have been healed.
"Your wounds… they're not gone…" Elena mumbles in deep thought and she examines each wound close up.
"Yeah, just like your worries," Katherine grins as she chuckles lightly.
"K-Katherine," Elena stammers, " C-can't you be serious about anything?"
"I am," Katherine replies sternly, "about surviving and you."
Heat slowly diffuses off Elena's slightly flushed cheeks as she stares at Katherine in silent protest, no longer willing to give Katherine a chance to play at words and play at her. A smile creeps onto Katherine's face, as if she won a little battle against Elena and Elena was not feeling it.
"Turn around," Elena mutters while Katherine flicks her gaze onto Elena's eyes.
"You're not compelling anyone like that, surely you know that right?" Katherine remarks with skepticism and confusion.
In Elena's silence, Katherine walks over to the couch and lays down with her chest against the cushions.
Her chest rises and falls as she awaits Elena and her plans. The silence is unnerving and Elena knows that as she listens through Katherine's slowly readjusting heartbeat. As Elena's leg goes over Katherine's body, Katherine turns and pulls Elena onto her lap.
"You can't let me have anything, can you?" Elena grumbles at the sudden loss of control.
"That depends on what you could possibly mean Elena," Katherine smirks as she twirls a strand of Elena's hair into a curl, "If I remember correctly, I lost a lot after meeting you… and finally, I lost it all to you."
Elena's gaze trails off into the background as she looks away from Katherine, reluctant to acknowledge what Katherine has said because it's true. At least what Katherine valued, her immortality, Elena did take that away from her. Tentatively, Elena wraps her arms over her doppelganger's shoulders while she sinks into her thoughts. Reaching over Katherine's neck, she gently rubs the knots that tighten along the neck and shoulders, seasoning every touch with utmost care.
Melting under the warm touches of her younger counterpart feels particularly galling but she can't resist it. Katherine is certainly far older with more experience in plenty of things but this is a feeling she never bothered to let in. For one, this level of comfort was dangerous because she thought that losing this feeling would be far too unbearable at the time. All until Elena came in and massaged every sore part of her body although Elena brought her to these circumstances in the first place and the tradeoffs are tremendous, Katherine feels that this might just be worth the blisters and bruises.
Elena slips both hands lower, each on one side of Katherine's back before gently kneading the knots stringing along Katherine's back. A sigh of contentment slips from Katherine's mouth. If Elena weren't a vampire she's sure she wouldn't have heard it. Yet what she finds as the better question is why she is listening so deeply to whether Katherine is satisfied or not.
She grumbles quietly as she frustratedly prys for an answer in herself for wanting to please Katherine. The frustration is meant to be something Elena figures out the reason for by herself but she hates to admit she was never one to hide her emotions very well. This truth starts to interweave itself in her actions as she starts to pressure the most sensitive parts of Katherine's body, eliciting a dirty moan from her older counterpart.
"You're liking this aren't you?" Katherine giggles as she turns and throws Elena off balance, landing on top of Elena. One of Katherine's hands sits in the empty space between Elena's neck and shoulder while the other sinks into Elena's hair.
Fingers tousling through Elena's hair, she tucks her head gently onto Elena's neck and showers kisses all around. Heated breaths and kisses tingle across Elena's body. It's not like Elena is a new vampire anymore, but Katherine's touch and presence revert and strip any control she ever thought she had on her body and its sensitivity.
"Hmph. Clearly not as much as you," Elena scoffs in reply seconds after barely regaining her composure.
As the night falls dimmer and dimmer by the hours and minutes which slip by, the two and their affection slowly fall along under a sheeted silence and darkness.
'It's warm here… Just the way I like it…'