𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐇𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭

- - -
❝Would it be a sin
If I can't help falling in love with you?❞

Can't Help Falling in Love
~Elvis Presley
- - -

That night, outside the Forbes' residence

Kat hugs herself tighter, gulping on her spit again and again as she tiptoes outside by the porch. Caroline's asleep peacefully, hugging the pillows Kat had placed in her place. The poor girl was so shaken up at the events of the evening. People like Damon are often heard about, but it isn't everyday you encounter one.

Kat felt shaken up from the very core of her confidence: she put herself in harm's way in order to cage up Damon Salvatore yet she didn't feel any different. Maybe her nightmares had already prepared her for such drastic decisions. 

The crickets chirped on Caroline's manicured front lawn while the streetlights flickered. Kat chose to look at the sky instead; so pretty yet so unattainable. Her mother had always had a problem with how Kat dealt with shock, or perhaps how she did not deal with shock. She would often say something motherly to get Kat to deal with her emotions. But her father on the other hand, he just smiled sadly and took her to the woods to scream. He knew his daughter well.

But loving her parents had left Kat directionless now, deprived of both her mother's scoldings and her dad's understanding smile.

Sighing, Kat sits on the bench metres away from the house. She had already traded her party dress for one of Caroline's pyjamas. Resting the nape of her neck back onto the cold painted-coated metal of the seat, she let the faint smell of Caroline's lawn daisies mix with the smell of wet mud in the air. Two of her favourite smells, yet nothing seemed to assure the girl that the people around her would be fine.

Kat begs herself not to, but her fingers go to the bandage on her neck anyway. It was a sign of everything becoming too real too soon. The monsters she read about in books had jumped to life, with one of them taking over all her will to calm her heartbeat.

She tears off the gauze with a small hiss, the net pulling on her baby hair. Curling her lip to summon the tears back, she fists the piece of netted thread in her hands. The smell of dried blood flooded her nostrils, doing nothing to ease her turbulent mind.

"What are you doing out here Vivi?"

The sudden interruption of silence around her makes Kat look up, startled. She sees Stefan teetering on the balls of his feet, few feet away from her on the street. Had she been so engrossed? She must be looking so out of place: a young girl in ridiculous Winnie-the-Pooh PJs, barefoot out on the street bench.

"I should be asking you the same thing Mister." she mutters. For some reason, she had pictured a disappointed Stefan trying to coax her twin sister out of her grumbling hiding. Seems like Stefan did want to come by to see her.

Stefan sighs, sitting down beside her on the bench. He sat inches away from her, his fingers automatically looping through hers in worry as he rested his head against the back of the bench to gaze at Kat. "How are you?"

The concern in his voice takes her by surprise, as does the place he vests it in. At this moment, Kat felt unfairly happy about not hearing Elena's name from Stefan's lips. He was just talking about her. He was worried about her.

It warmed every inch of her out in the cold night.

So instead of answering him with the smile that threatened to snuggle up her lips, Kat stands abruptly. She offers him a hand, wiggling it open and close until she gets him onto his feet.

"What's wrong Viv?" his hand was still holding onto hers, the callused bones digging into her wrist with a new feeling. Suddenly, Kat knew just what she wanted to do. She threw her arms into a ball dance pose, gripping the air as she shuffled on her feet.

"Dance with me."

"What?"

"I said," she tries to pull him into position with a light hum, "Dance with me, Mister Salvatore."

The innocent glint in her moonlit eyes, the same words, yet so much sincerity... Stefan cursed himself for seeing her in Vivi, even if it was for a second. He was yet to move, merely watching as his new best friend moved herself to a pure melody that rang from her throat.

"And at last I see the light," she sang, "And it's like the fog has lifted..."

"That's not the right song," Stefan shakes his head. Kat's laugh chimed through the cold air, a childish squeak of knowledge hiding in her hums. "Just dance with me. Pretend the world doesn't exist. C'mon! And at last I see the light... And it's like the fog is new..." 

Stefan finally takes her outreached arm, spinning her into his arms.

It was that precise moment, that he knew. 

There was no looking back. Every moment with her wasn't just bound to be a memory, it was bound to be a miracle.  

"All at once... Everything looks different, now that I see you... Now that I see you..."

▻▻▻

"Vivi" he nudges her with a whisper of the sun, "Viv, wake up"

"Go away" she frowns with closed eyes, ironically squishes Stefan's arm further. 

"Vivi wake up, it's morning." They had danced, waltzing and spinning until they were out of breath. Not willing to leave her alone, Stefan had rested against the bench until Kat fell asleep on his shoulder. And he was left to admiring her purity; when she slept, she looked as mellow as the moon and as a soft child who should be protected against all odds.

Within too less time in Stefan's mind, morning had knocked on his thoughts, reminding that they both had places to be. Kat had to go back to be beside Caroline when she woke up and Stefan had to go back to minding Damon.

After two whole minutes of buggering, Stefan groans as he feels the sun rising beyond the houses across the Forbes' driveway. Having no other option, he gushes a bit louder near her ear "Your hat's lost"

"No?! Where!" Kat springs up, her shoulder hitting her best friend in the chin, "Ow..." she holds it, "Where's my ha... You dick!" she smacks his shoulder with a pout "I was sleeping"

Stefan shakes his head, chuckling and giving her a hand up which she glaringly bypasses to get up on her own. 

"Well, it's morning and your feet must be killing you."

"It was worth it."

Her smile caught his eyes, making them both go silent until they were interrupted by a crow cawing from the forest.

"Well," Stefan chuckles out of his daze, "Time to go in and squish Caroline like you squished me"

"You stayed the whole time?" Kat frowns with wide eyes. 

"Actually... you held my hand prisoner, so I had no choice"

She glares "Take that back". She runs after him, but something strikes her - making her stop in her placating tracks, "Wait! Stefan. Does... vervain heal humans?"

"No..." his brows furrow, "why?"

Kat couldn't believe it, she runs her fingertips over her wound again. And again - but the signalling bump in her skin doesn't feel so bumpy after all "I, uh, the fang marks just healed?" she shows him warily.

He stays quiet. 

"Stefan? Broody? Say something because I'm really freaking out right now and I can't really not freak out with your silent killer frown!"

The first blessed thing that comes out of his mouth is "Do you have vampire blood in your system?"

Kat gulps, shaking her head with clarity "No..."

"I think your skin just healed a vampire wound"

Kat grits her teeth "Now my life's complete! Thank you God" 

𝐈𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞'𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫
And it's warm and real and bright... And the world seems somehow shifted...
I went soft and mushy writing this (except the end, I was back to ole' scheming Renny)
Thoughts? Squeals?