𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 '𝐤𝐢𝐭𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐲'?

- - -
❝Oh it's your light, oh it's your way
Pull me out of the dark, just to shoulder the weight❞

Closer to Love
~Mat Kearney
- - -

"Hello girls" the man in front of them smiles, somehow making it seem both mocking and welcoming. 

"Who are you?" is the first thing that Kat blurts out. She looks around for Zach or Stefan but none show themselves. Elena, however, gathers herself faster than her twin and smiles hesitantly "We- We're sorry for barging in, the door" she turns behind to confidently point at the front door but deflates with narrowed eyes "....was open"

Damon smirks again at Elena "Straight hair— hm, you must be Elena... and that'll make you be Katherine. I'm Damon, Stefan's brother." 

Kat plasters a smile on her suspicious face and nods, this man seems to find something very funny. "Damon..." she lets the familiar name roll off her tongue with furrowed brows. "Stefan didn't tell me he had a brother" Elena staggers beside her twin, holding on to the strap of her purse nervously. 

"He said he didn't talk to his siblings" Kat defends, still gazing around at the archaic-looking house. She's never been in here, only the outside and boy does the house heighten expectations.

Damon's smirk never drops an inch "Ah, Stefan's not one to brag"

"No wonder why" Kat mumbles sarcastically, only to have him catch the comment with a sharp non-appreciative look. 

"Please," he smiles widely "-come... I'm sure Stefan will be along any second"

They tread forward, and the girls stop with mildly gaping eyes. "Wow. This is your living room?"

Kat lets out a bewildered laugh, taking in the period-look interior. Damon smiles, for real this time, at Kat. "Living room, parlour, Southeby's auction" he scoffs with a smug wave "It's a little kitschy for my taste" 

Kat purses her lips to hide the smirk, crossing her arms over her chest to look down, biting down her teeth to stop it. But it does fight it's way up. "Who still says kitschy"

Elena elbows her but Damon just smirks again "I see why my brother's so smitten"

Kat looks up to surprisingly see him looking at her as he continued "It's about time. For a while there, I never thought he'd get over the last one. Nearly destroyed him. Although the name does irk me" he sighs heavily with his brows forced down.

The elder twin scrunches her face up, turning to her sister. She shakes her head vigorously and turns to Damon "I'm, uh, the friend... Elena here" she waves with a sheepish frown and glares at Damon. 

"Oh, I'm sorry, get the cards mixed up sometimes" he mutters not-so-sorry. He winks at Kat with his smoldy blue eyes when Elena butts in "The... Last one?"

"Yeah" he looks with widened eyes to Elena "....Katherine, his girlfriend?"

Say what? Both the girls go rigid, Elena looking with wide eyes to her twin. She shakes her head vigorously, almost short of pinching her throat to swear. Both of them were aware that Stefan had come into Mystic Falls only a month ago, but the elder Gilbert was still sure her sister was trying to concoct an absurd theory of how she was Stefan's ex. 

Damon senses the tension between them and clears his throat slowly "Oh, uh, you two haven't had the awkward exes conversation yet huh?"

Elena all but glares at her sister, the gentleman long forgotten to be looked at. Fed up with the judgy look, Kat glares right back with a huff. 

"I take... that as a no. Oops," Damon shrugs "Well, I'm sure it'll come up now. Or maybe he didn't want to tell you because he didn't want you to think he was on the rebound. We all know how those relationships end" 

Hell, how much this guy know? Taking a step back from the hot yet totally creepy looks of Stefan's brother, Kat uncrosses her arms and looks around again "You say it like every relationship is doomed to end. And where's Stefan?". 

"I'm a fatalist... And hello, Stefan" 

Sure to Damon's greeting, Stefan stands before the step leading into the parlour - brows furrowed, eyes angry, arms crossed "Hey... I didn't know you were coming over"

"I know... We should have called, Elena ju-" 

"Oh, don't be silly" Damon interrupts, walking inches closer to Kat. Something in his stance turned her on, all the while setting off red flags in her mind "You're welcome any time. Aren't they, Stefan? You know," he smiles at Kat, totally ignoring her twin "I should break out the family photo albums or some home movies. But, I have to warn you. He wasn't always such a looker"

Maybe he expected the sisters to giggle but all he got was Kat's disgruntled look and Elena's pursed lips.

"Thank you for stopping by Elena. It's nice to see you Kat" Stefan states. His words practically shove their presence out of the wood manor. Kat glares at him openly while Elena gathers herself "Y-Yeah, I should probably go. It was nice to meet you, Damon"

"Great meeting you, too, Elena" he takes hold of her wrist and brings his lips to her knuckles. 

Elena withdraws her hand in puzzle and walks away towards Stefan who was busy glaring at his brother, blocking Elena's way. "Stefan....Stefan?"

He wordlessly moves a few feet to the side. Elena frowns at him, looking back to her twin, who's busy staring at the tense silent exchange between the brothers. Kat grudgingly struts forward as Elena rushes away. Damon follows right behind. 

trying to ignore him, Kat whispers to the guy who was supposed to be her new best friend. 

"Stefan." He doesn't look. All her earlier inhibitions about Stefan were forgotten after she saw a seemingly bigger problem - a tantalising second Salvatore. 

Looks like Caroline's wish came true after all.

"Hey" she nudges his arm with a glare when she hears her sister blow the horn twice in rush. She narrows her eyes at the younger Salvatore "We need to talk... Later"

Turning about to bid Damon farewell, she almost smacks her nose into his chest. Inching her face up an inch, she steps to the side and back again. He tries to kiss her knuckles, only to have her step back unwillingly with her hands raised "We don't... do that here"

She pats Stefan on the shoulder and runs out to see Elena almost driving away "Wait! Wait 'Lena! Geez" she runs faster and gets into the car.

"I'm never asking you to come with me ever again" Elena grits her teeth.

Kat rolls her eyes, shoving her cap onto her face "What the fuck did I do?"

Kat hisses at her burning skin as she plucks the first stem of vervain from the basket. The attic smells all musty around her as she looks around for her gloves. Finally finding them in the light above the growing herbs, she puts them on and then plucks them one by one in piles. An eternity of standing, and she switches on her mobile flashlight and sits down. Carefully, one-by-one, she pulls apart the leaves and separates the flowers and the leaves separately. 

"Now....?" she fumbles around for her father's book and reads the next instruction. It's hard to put vervain into perfumes and drinks but Kat has been trying. The herb doesn't smell bad, it actually smells like dried rose. But her only problem with vervain is that she's allergic to it. It makes her skin itch and throat burn. 

Ever since her dad first told her about vervain, and Zach explained further, Kat grew even more serious. She slips some crushed flowers into the jars of water she brought up. Keeping some aside for Vicki, Matt, her friends and her family, she plucks the remaining stems under light and places them in a wooden box.

"Well, that should do it" she nods satisfactorily, observing the flowers closely. But she gets too close to them - just as her spectacles hit the edge of the box, her nostrils itching and finally her face bucks into a sneeze. 

"Why!" she thuds the cargo to a shaking close "Why do I have to be allergic to this! Why not... pineapple? Or... broccoli!"

Time to sneak these out before Jenna and Elena realise she's been gone.

The town mills around her at the comet seeing as Kat walks around the Town Square, looking for Stefan. He didn't tell her his ex's name was Katherine. Well, the topic didn't come up per se, but it's weird to have your new friend have the name of your ex especially when you're crushing on her sister, who looks exactly like her twin.

"No cap huh?" she hears Stefan come up to her, thankfully not ghosting up right behind her like always.

"Yeah, too much wind blowing around- wait you are not going to get away with this!" she hits Stefan square in the chest with a glare "Did you know what came to me in a dream? Your ex's name is Katherine, and last I checked... SO IS MINE"

He cringes under her raising voice "Sorry. Sorry... My ex, uh, she's... You're— I'm sorry"

"For what exactly" she crosses her arms over her chest with raised eyebrows. Realising that Kat expects him to really say the whole thing, Stefan sighs "I'm sorry for acting like I did earlier and not telling you more about Damon"

"And....?" her toe taps faster as she mockingly points to hurry up.

"And I'm sorry for keeping the stuff about Katherine from you"

She nods cautiously "I wanna hear all about it later but right now, you go talk to 'Lena, 'k?" she bends down to her bag of candles and hands him one in a perforated cup. All but pushing him towards the open ground, Kat's lips twitch up in confusion and relief.

An hour later, the whole teen batch is sitting in the Grill when Jeremy treads up to them "Hey, has anyone seen Vicki?" Everyone simply shakes their heads with confused looks but Tyler scoffs as he sips on his soda "You're her stalker. You tell us"

"I can't find her" he looks to Kat seriously. She's probably the only one concerned enough to understand what that means. Matt walks to the crowd with his soda and sits down next to Kat as she explains him what's happening.

Tyler all but shoves himself into her brother's face with a taunting smirk "She probably found somebody else to party with. Sorry, pill pusher, I guess you've been replaced"

Kat frowns, stopping to look at Jeremy but back to Elena "What's with the pill pusher?"

"Ask him"

"Are you dealing?" Elena huffs, getting up towards him. Kat tries to hold Tyler down as he sneers "She's never gonna go for you"

"O she already did. Over and over and over again" Elena groans at Jeremy while Kat stretches her neck to look for Vicki. But she's not there. "You slept with Vicki Donovan?" Caroline's nose scrunches up and she corrects herself with wide eyes "I mean, Vicki Donovan slept with you?"

"There's no way" Tyler rolls his eyes. "And I didn't even have to force her into it" Tyler gets up with a snarl but Kat holds him down angrily "What the fuck is he talking about Tyler?"

He looks around the silent group "Nothing... Man," he turns to Matt "-just ignore him, he's a punk"

Pushing him down with a glare, Kat gets up "You know what? How about you just shut up and find Vicki?" everyone disperses.

"We'll check the back"

"I'll check the square" Matt goes off, with Jeremy trying to follow him. But not before Elena yanks him back "So that's your game now, dealing?"

He jerks her off with a glare at Elena. Kat purses her lips and comes in between with a warning look. "Look, I'm sick of the tough love speech, Jer. It's clearly having no impact"

"Elena just stop" Kat spits out "Now is not the time. And stop lecturing him! Jeremy, go find Vicki, go." She shouts over her twin's protests. After the Grill door thuds with his exit, she turns to Elena "Just stop scolding him like he's a baby! If you want him to act like an adult, you don't treat him as a child!" she scoffs at her sister's realising face and goes out.

Half-hour later, Stefan stumbles across the Square when Matt and Kat spot him. "Oh my God..." they rush to him, immediately taking hold of a grunting Vicki "I'm okay, really, I'm fine... My stitches..." Kat gently touches the girl's opened and bleeding stitches, cringing at the mess of skin under it. They take her inside as Kat sits and cleans the area with light cautious fingers. Matt brings the roll of bandage and sits down, waiting for Kat to finish up her task. 

Stefan leans against the booth. "She said you found her wandering around" Matt approaches the subject with a low voice. Things haven't been very tense around them considering Matt was still not over Elena, but Donovan's a good guy.

"Yeah..."

"So... um, thanks" 

Kat freezes as she wipes off the last bit of blood from Vicki's neck. "Kat?" Matt prompts, "You done?" Wordlessly, she blinks once, twice and gulps with a shaky breath "Y-Yeah, take care Vicki... I'll, um, drop by tomorrow" she kisses her head with a small smile - as wide as she could manage it.

Because what she saw on Vicki's neck just looked like healing twin holes - evenly spaced depressions. The doctors hadn't allowed her to see the wound before since Vicki was going through a trauma, but right now when she looked at it closer... She could feel her skin twinging in fear.

Vicki's bite looked... It looked...

Like a vampire bite.

𝐈𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞'𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫
Hey people so I'm working through a mild case of writer's block along with stringing along new study courses - Ughh! Anyway, I know that there are many Gilbert twin or Stefan slow burn fanfics out there but I just hope this is good to read... Suggestions and comments are open and please vote and share this book!