A/N: The love that you guys are showing for "My Paper Heart" is really amazing! Thank you!
Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or any of its characters. This is a work of fiction written for entertainment purposes, but the original characters and original storylines present in "My Paper Heart" are my own work.
As soon as I stepped into my front walkway, I felt her presence. A light breeze carrying her perfume confirmed that it was Katherine. I hesitated for barely a second before taking a slower step forward. I knew that if I paused even briefly, she would notice my change of attitude and would probably figure that I had felt her somehow. That was the last thing I wanted. I quickly thought of a way to turn back without seeming suspicious, but I knew I was already too far down the alley to pretend that I forgot something or changed my mind. I thought about pretending to get a call or receive a text- anything that could explain a modification in my direction. But I was certain she wouldn't be fooled because of her super hearing.
I closed my eyes quickly and took a deep breath. I was starting to get really tired of her little game. I wasn't going to let her play with me any longer.
I took the few steps deliberately slowly and stomped my two feet strongly on the porch, positioning myself straight toward her with a determined look on my face.
The sparkling smile on her lips widened as I stepped into her sight.
"Hello Maya," she purred. She was seated comfortably on my bench, eating ice cream. The last part was definitely a surprise, but I managed to stay composed.
"Did you miss me?" she giggled childishly.
"You should only ask questions that you actually want to hear the answers to." Damn, this woman was bringing out the worst in me. "What are you doing here?"
"I brought you ice cream," she answered coquettishly. "But since I wasn't seeing you arrive, I started to eat mine. It would be such a shame to waste it," she added with a mischievous smile, plunging her hand into the paper bag next to her. She withdrew it to reveal another cup of ice cream. "Want some?" she asked nicely, handing it toward me. I looked at the cup, then at her very suspiciously.
"Seriously? Poisoning you would amount to riding a bike when you can drive a Ferrari," she pointed out, offended. "If I wanted to kill you, I would snap your neck or suck you dry; don't worry." She flashed me a devilish smirk.
"Well, in that case…" I said with a mock enthusiasm. Her threat had frozen the blood in my veins for a second. I cautiously reached for the cup, careful not to touch her hand. "What is it?" I asked, eyeing inside the cup warily.
"Ice cream." I shot her an annoyed look.
"Irish cream liqueur, chocolate chip cookies and coffee," she finally chuckled. My eyes snapped up to meet hers. That was my favorite flavor. She couldn't possibly know that.
"It's my favorite. I hope you'll like it…" she added smoothly. Okay, now I knew she was playing with me.
She was looking at me as though I was unwrapping a gift she had spent hours selecting. I took a spoon of ice cream and slowly lifted it to my mouth. I made sure that I didn't display any sign of approval or disapproval once the ice cream melted on my tongue. She looked slightly disappointed, but brushed it off with a smile. She patted the empty space next to her on the bench and said cheerfully, "Come sit."
I couldn't believe that she was actually inviting me to sit on my bench when she hadn't even been invited to sit in the first place.
"I'm perfectly fine where I am."
"Come on… That's all I get for bringing you ice cream?" she asked seductively.
"Oh, so you do want something!" I shot back sarcastically. "Well, thanks for the ice cream." I slammed the cup on the guardrail and turned back toward my door.
"Wait! I just want to talk." She stood up but was careful to keep her distance, as though she didn't want to scare me away. And thatwas exactly what made me snap. Her behavior wasn't making any sense.
"You just want to talk, huh? That's it?" I shot out in a forceful tone. "You became aware of my existence three days ago, and suddenly, all you want is to talk to me? You really think I'm stupid?" I asked harshly, raising my voice even more.
She didn't answer right away, but took a careful step toward me, her eyes intensely searching my face.
"Is it so hard to believe that someone could be interested in you?" she whispered softly.
"Don't try to psychoanalyze me! It will not get you anywhere," I snapped, my voice dripping with anger.
"Fine. What do you want me to say then?" she asked a little bit on the defensive.
"Why did you come back to Mystic Falls?"
"I already told Damon…" she pointed out in annoyance, "that I wanted to see for myself whether or not... that cruel, psychotic bastard was gone for good." Her voice tensed at Klaus mention.
"Yeah, sure."
"It's true," she said innocently.
"Then what about your change of attitude?" I asked again imperturbably.
"You mean toward you? Nothing changed," she pursued after I nodded slightly at her question. "It just happened that I've been busy staying alive for the past 500 years and that I did everything I needed to assure my survival," she said coolly. "Turns out you never crossed that path, that's all." She turned slowly and walked toward the guardrail.
"Honestly, if I had needed you to serve my purpose, I would have used you without a second thought. If you had been the one with vampire blood in your system that night at the hospital, I probably would have turned you just like I did to Caroline," she continued nonchalantly. Weirdly enough, I had no problem believing her this time.
"Plus, you never tried to mess with me or even kill me. At least not that I know of…" she trailed off with a glint of defiance in her eyes and a sharp smirk on her lips. She picked up the cup on the guardrail and swiftly turned around, walking languidly toward me.
"To sum it up, I never had time, until recently, to get to know you, and I know now it's really a shame." She stopped only a foot away from me, a conniving smile on her lips. She handed me the ice cream again. I slowly raised my hand to grab the bottom of the cup with my fingertips, waiting for her to let it go. Her eyes sparkled with mischief.
"Because I'm so funny and intriguing," I mocked.
"Exactly." She giggled, looking at me through her eyelashes provocatively. She let go of the cup and suddenly looked at me intensely, a serious expression on her face. Her eyes were roaming over my features, inspecting every single inch of my face. I automatically tensed. It was making me extremely uncomfortable.
"Your resemblance to Damon is really fascinating," she whispered, her eyes still locked on mine.
"Says the doppelganger."
"Funny," she deadpanned, giving me a dry glance. "Don't you ever wonder why you two look so alike?"
"Yes. But I'm sure you already know the answer to that… It's probably written somewhere in that big file you have on me," I answered sarcastically. I was only half joking about the file part but her answer freaked me out anyway.
"Absolutely true!" she exclaimed in a cheerful tone, bouncing on her heels emphatically.
I stayed mute for a few seconds. I was baffled that she would admit so carelessly that she had a file on me.
"Seriously?" I asked hesitantly, incapable of knowing whether or not she was messing with me about it. She raised an eyebrow and gave me a knowing look.
"Then what does it say?" I asked, trying to sound detached. I couldn't help my curiosity. I had finally gave up after a few months and accepted our resemblance as a scary coincidence, but the possibility that maybe Katherine knew more about it than I did was killing me. Judging from the look she had on her face, I could tell she knew exactly the effect she had on me at this precise moment.
"Nothing, actually," she answered, lazily waving a hand in front of her. "It's purely coincidental, which makes it even more suspicious," she continued pensively, narrowing her eyes at space. Saying that I was disappointed would have been an understatement. If Katherine of all people hadn't found anything out of the ordinary, it meant that the resemblance between Damon and I was indeed nothing more than Mother Nature's lottery.
"Even more suspicious than what, doppelgangers?" I joked, trying to brush off my disappointment.
"Of course! Doppelgangers have nothing to do with a lucky break. There's a real reason behind it." Her condescending tone caused an ironic smirk to curl around one corner of my mouth.
"You know, ordinary people usually find our kind of resemblance funny, but pretty normal. Being a mirror of someone else's image, without being twins, on the other hand…"
"But we're not ordinary people…" she said, leaning her head playfully toward me. "You would have known." A wave of heat suddenly crushed over me. I couldn't shake the feeling that Katherine was regularly implying she knew something was off about me, since the very first time we met three days ago. I quickly brushed it off as my usual paranoia and answered almost instantly, not letting her see my confusion.
"The daily routine of a girl in Mystic Falls is in fact not even close to ordinary…" I laughed nonchalantly. She looked at me in the eye intensely like she was seeing right through me. My mouth turned dry immediately. I took another spoon of ice cream from the bottom of the cup to busy myself.
"And yet, you seem to handle it pretty well for a human," she stated simply. She was doing it again. I withdrew extremely slowly the spoon out of my mouth to try to compose myself, but realized too late how sensual it could appear. And from the way she was looking at my lips right now, it didn't go unnoticed.
"Actually, I was really glad that our lives were supernatural dramas free until you came around," I shot back with a sarcastic smile plastered on my lips. I had no idea if she could see it but I was starting to panic. A thousand of ideas were storming inside my head, trying to be prepared to anything she was going to say to me.
"I think you having a little chit chat all alone in the dark with a deadly 500 years old vampire while keeping your heart steady proves otherwise," she said, balancing her weight on one foot and crossing her arms over her chest, a cocky grin on her lips.
"For the third time, I am-" She cut me off before I could say that I was scared of her.
"You're not. It's just your primal instinct that tells you to be wary in the presence of a predator, that's all. And you are because you're not completely stupid."
"Thanks, I guess…" I tentatively said, with a raised eyebrow.
"But you're not scared. You should try to get in right away every time you see me, run to the Salvatores to protect you, or even stutter and tremble, and yet here you are." Amusement and curiosity were shining in her eyes.
"If you were so bothered by the fact that I'm supposedly not terrified of you, you would have already tried to restore the balance by… flashing your fangs at me or pining me into a wall," I pointed out with a self-satisfied smirk. Until I realized I was giving her ideas. What was wrong with me?
"I never said I was bothered by it. I actually find it refreshing," she declared with a genuine smile. "And it really makes me curious to know why you're the only one around here…" she continued, narrowing her eyes at me. I knew she had a point saying that I wasn't scared of her. I was always distrustful around her, sure, and was always discreetly searching for safe exits, but I couldn't honestly say that I was terrified of her. And I didn't really know why. Except for the obvious.
"I guess it's just because you never actually did anything to me directly," I admitted quietly. "Not for the past two years, and not since you came back in town…" I added pensively, still feeling surprised about that fact every time I thought of it. She settled for just staring at me for a while, not saying a word. I waited patiently, unsure, hoping my answer would satisfy her somehow.
"Hmm, that's good to know. It will certainly be helpful for what I have planed next," she purred playfully. The thought of her having an actual plan caused a lump in my throat.
"Which is?" I asked, my voice coming out a little raw, failing to hide my nervousness.
"To get you inside my bed," she sing-songed mischievously.
"And what for?" I couldn't believe what she was actually implying.
"To have sex with you, silly." She laughed light-heartedly.
"She… WHAT?" Damon shot loudly, shock and disbelief written all over his face.
"She wants to have sex with me, Damon," I repeated, slightly annoyed. "I thought that you of all people would get it right away," I added dryly. I realized too late that comment could imply that Damon wanted me too. He looked at me intensely, his brows strongly furrowed, but to obviously think hard of a solution.
"That's it. From now on, you're staying here with us," he imposed firmly. I had rushed to the boarding house after my encounter with Katherine; not exactly sure what to do with her disturbing… plan.
"I'm not a very social person, Damon. I'm not even sure I could last a day with the two of you in here," I said, laughing humorlessly. "Plus, everyone can come and go as they wish in this house." I looked around, disillusioned. Damon became even more upset at my comment.
"You're right." He stared at the ground, seeming lost in his thoughts and finally shot his head back at me. "Then I guess you just won two bodyguards," he stated unequivocally.
"Two?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, two," Stefan answered, walking suddenly into the living room. I hadn't noticed his presence before he spoke- and I had no idea how much of this conversation he had heard.
"No matter what Katherine has planned for you, I will not let anything happen to you," he added determinedly, positioning himself next to his brother. The both of them together illustrated a flawlessly united front. There was no way I was going to be able to convince them otherwise. So I caved and gave them a shy smile.
"Thank you," I said quietly.