[Episode 22 - Founder's Day - 2]

I wake up to screams and the smell of fire in the air. My face is to the dusty ground and I smell something bitter on me. I smear the liquid off my face and look around when everything comes back to me. The air gets denser with yellowish-brown smoke and I see Anna, staked in the heart and just opposite to her, coughs Damon.

"Damon..." I cough weakly as I crawl to the guy who'd become my friend in the most unthinkable way. 

"Kat? W-What" cough "are you doing here?" he tries to shout over the screams of some of the vampires already on fire. 

"The devic-" I start to cough and crouch over to the ground, coughing out whatever I can. Seems like I coughed up blood. I keep coughing and Damon's veins appear. O god, not now, of all times. I fall back and slide towards Anna's corpse as Damon gets a hold of himself.

"I'll get you out of here" he coughs out.

I scoff, "Yeah... And you'll get to kiss Elena tonight. Stop bluffing Damon, I-" I cough and cough up more blood 

"We're dying..." I feel my eyes close but Damon's in front of me, kneeling as he gently slaps me awake "Kat! Katherine! Stay alive for me okay?"

I cough and gasp as I try to crouch low to the ground "Cheesy Damon"

In front of my line of smoky vision, lies Mayor Lockwood, gasping awake, touching his bleeding ears. I frown as I crawl to him again, wait, he's not a vampire, but he seems to be affected by the sound. 

"Mayor? Is that you?" I shout over the sound of everything catching fire and things giving away.

"What are you doing here?" he looks to me and Damon. Damon, even in his possible last moments, scoffs "I'm a vampire and she's a Guardian. What's your excuse?"

I see a vampire come behind the cringing Mayor and shout "No!"

I am but a second too late as he twists the revived Mayor's neck. He bites him and looks to me, burning, soaked in gasoline, mouth full of blood. I slide back as fast as I can but the vampire stands and walks to me. 

Damon's on the other side of the corner as he comes in front of me "Not her". He snaps his neck and gasps as he looks to me.

I smile and step back unsteadily. But just then, a beam falls down, on fire. A part of it catches my leg and I fall down but it seems Damon too, is incapacitated after so much smoke and fire.

I hear a voice as I whimper at my burnt leg "Damon! Come on, hurry!" I hear and I try to get some sound out of myself "Stefan..." I murmur weakly. 

Another beam quickly falls to my left and I'm caged. I place my hands on my legs and it is then that I find the thing that can hopefully get me out. My phone.

I open it and gasp to get air into my mouth as I blindly press on buttons, not really seeing whom I'm calling.

"Kat? Where are you?" I hear Elena's voice.

"Stefa-" I cough and my phone drops to the ground, I look to the burning beams and nestle against the burning-hot pillar. I feel my back getting sizzled and drop to the floor with a tired sigh "Stefan..." Something falls again and soon, I close my eyes just as I see a flaming angel emerging just for me. My white knight.

"Stefan...."

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Stefan's POV

I gasp for air and so does Damon as we jump out of the burning building. "O my God!" Elena rushes towards us, taking us in a hug. Damon has gasoline all over him and I have soot all over my face, but none of us care right now, I almost lost Damon and as much as I hate to admit, so did Elena.

Bonnie walks off with a nod.

Damon recovers and starts going inside, I stop him "Where are you going?" he murmurs Kat and at that exact moment, Elena's phone rings. She takes it out of her pocket and she frowns "It's Kat" she answers "Kat? Where are you?".

I hear fire crackling in the background as a weak whimper "Stefa-" she coughs and gasps for air, something crashes.

I look alarmedly to the building, and then to Damon "She's in there!"

He nods "I-I tried to t-tell you! Let's go!" he starts rushing inside but I stop him, there is no Bonnie to help now. "Stay here!" I hear Elena shout but I don't hesitate.

I go in and jump over fallen beams, the roof will give out at any point now. I go over to the corner I found Damon at, if they were taken in here, they would find each other. A beam is going up in flames and I panic, what if she's somewhere else? What if she's de- No! I tell myself, she's alive. She's a fighter.

I close my eyes and focus all of me towards her voice, the voice of the girl who stands strong for her sister, the girl who helps monsters like me feel human, the girl who's started to be more than a friend. 

"Stefan..." I hear her whimper and I jump over the fire in front of me to see her figure, crouched in a foetal position, her leg burnt and her back aflame. I gasp and put out the flames.

"Stefan..." she looks at me with a smile and I lift her up "I got you, you're okay, I'm here" I whisper as I look for a way to the back door. She nestles into my chest, relaxing and clutching onto me. 

Coughing, I jump out over the flaming corpses of the tomb vampires and the collapsing beams.

Just as I take her outside, Damon and Elena rush to us "Kat!" they both exclaim as I try to put her down. But the innocent girl covered in soot and burns doesn't let go of me, even as I try to get up. Her bloody hands hang on to my shirt and I smile gently. 

But before I can try to get her to let go, Elena quickly detaches her fingers from my shirt and I get up. She checks her back as I check her leg "She's burnt, bad... She could've died" I murmur, aghast at how quick life got real for her.

"Stefan. Stefan..." Damon nudges me not so gently from behind and I look to him "She needs blood if we don't want anyone getting suspicious..." I know that's not the only reason he's still here right now. We both know he cares about her and Elena more than either of us would like to admit.

I nod quickly and tear into my wrist as Elena looks with an undecipherable look.

▹▹▹

I feel cold liquid going down my throat. I sigh as my vision flutters open. I see a concerned Stefan and Elena, over whose shoulder a soot-covered Damon looks. I feel things getting better and more cooler than the past hour and I sigh, hugging my sister and Stefan "O God". 

They hug me back and I see something flash by Damon's eyes. I smile slightly and mouth "Later". He nods and walks off.

I sigh, melting into the hug, that was a close call. Stefan hands me his jacket and I limp with them to the Grill. A firework sounds and I cringe. "I was so worried" Elena says as she helps me into the Grill. 

I smile "Me too. Next time I'm not there during trouble, go home okay? No disaster can hit you there"

"Kat!" she shouts and I smile as I walk towards the restroom. I slip over the jacket and wash away the soot and the burn-blood on my once-burnt legs. The fire wore holes through both the sides of the jeans, I leave them be - I'm too tired to even bother more. I sigh and set my hair into a bun.

I get out and walk normally (thank Stefan) towards the booth when Dana stops me. She has a beer in her hand as she looks to my legs "Hey Kat! Nice jeans. I've heard that some brand in Chicago released this design!"

Suppressing my smile, I mutter "Hot huh?". She smiles "Su-per hot"I wink and walk away.

Fashion trends these days. 

I don't even feel like I was about to die a few minutes ago. Maybe it's because this has turned into the day-to-day life for me. "We'll go?" I ask Elena as she gets up with a plain smile "Yes, I'll drive". She points to my legs but her eyes widen comically as she looks back up to me "Kat?" I sigh with a hopeless smile "Didn't have any choice, let's go, thanks for the jacket Stefan, I'll return it tomorrow" I wave as we go.

▹▹▹

Damon's POV

I stand in front of the porch steps of the Gilbert house as I swing on my feet. I hear Elena come up with her and Kat's bags in her hands. "What are you doing here?" she asks, confused.

"Failed and feeble attempt at doing the right thing"

"Which was...?" she raises her eyebrow very much unlike her but like Kat.

"It's not important. Let me take this for you" I take the dresses and her bag, and set them down.

"Thank you" she smiles.

"I'll tell you something, if you want to listen..." I trail off nervously, I'm acting like Stefan and that's the one thing I dreamed I shouldn't do. 

Once again, Elena raises her eyebrows "Shouldn't you be telling this to Kat?" I chuckle and swing back and forth on the balls of my feet "You know, I came to this town wanting to destroy it. Tonight... I found myself wanting to protect it. How does that happen? I'm not a hero, Elena. I don't do good. It's not in me" I get it off my chest and look at her. To my surprise, she's smiling slightly "Maybe it is"

"Nah," I scoff "-it's reserved for my brother, Kat, and you...and Bonnie...who, even though she has every reason to hate me, still helped Stefan save me..."

"Why do you sound so surprised?" she tilts her head and a small frown plays on her face

"Because she did it for you. Which means that somewhere along the way, you decided that I was worth saving. And I wanted to thank you for that"

She awkwardly nods and smiles "You're welcome..."

I don't know what drives me, but I tilt forward and kiss her cheek. Withdrawing seconds later, I look at her, trying to suppress whatever's been eating away at my heart from the night I saw her. I hesitate, she might be very angry tomorrow, but right now, she's looking at me like I'm the only one for her. And then suddenly, her lips are on mine and mine on hers as we kiss. She pulls away slightly, her eyes flitting between my lips and my eyes.

"Elena" I sigh and pull her deeper into a passionate kiss. 

A door opens with a loud bang. Nosy little Aunt Jenna. I turn away from her as I get control of myself.

"Hi..." Elena gasps out to her appalled aunt "It's late, you should probably come inside" she grits out, holding the door wide open for her to come inside.

She looks at me with an undecipherable look and grabs her bags, rushing in. Jenna closes the door with an angry thud. I can only imagine how she must be feeling.

Elena kissed me. She... kissed me. I smile as my fingers go to my wet lips. Elena kissed me.