The cool wind blew her dark hair around her pretty face as she sped down the empty highway.

She reached to turn down the music blaring from her car's stereo as she clicked the accept button on her ringing phone.

"Hey, Kat. What's up?"

"What's up? Really?" Came her older sister's response. "You've been dodging my calls for days, Ella."

"I wasn't ignoring you, I lost my phone. Found it under the bed."

"Whatever that's not important right now. What's important is that you get to Mystic Falls. How far away are you?"

A smirk formed on Eleanor's plump pink lips as her hazel eyes landed on the Welcome to Mystic Falls sign.

"Then I guess it's a good thing I'm already here."

The younger Petrova pulled the phone away from her ear and hung up, not bothering to wait for her sister's response.

-

Eleanor walked through the long hallways of the Lockwood's mansion, using her supernatural hearing to listen in for any sign of her older sister.

"Damn, girl," a guy, who must have still been in high school, whistled, his eyes racking up and down her body which was clad in a red satin dress with a deep v neck.

She simply rolled her eyes in response and made her way towards the staircase.

"Jeremy, go check on Elena," a stern male voice ordered from what sounded like a room not that far from her. "Make sure she's okay. Go!"

"Watch it!" Eleanor snapped at a boy, who she assumed to be Jeremy, as he accidentally ran into her on his way down the stairs.

"Let's all make sure poor Elena is okay," she instantly recognised Katherine's voice and began to head towards it. "Just a little bit more pressure."

Eleanor rounded a corner and spotted her sister, stake in hand, with two other men. The younger of the two hit the stake from Katherine's hands and threw it onto the floor as Eleanor came into view.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Ella! Finally," Katherine motioned for her sister to enter the room. "You remember Lucy, right? She linked me to my doppelgänger."

"Oh. Oh!" In the blink of an eye the younger Petrova held the stake in her manicured hands. "In which case this is really gonna hurt."

Eleanor held the wooden weapon above Katherine's stomach, ready to stab her when the raven haired man interrupted.

"Wait!"

Katherine took a seat on the couch, "Okay. So, how about that moonstone?"

-

Eleanor let out a deep sigh as she looked down at the party below through the large window.

"The three of us together just like old times," the eldest vampire in the room smirked. "The brother who loved me too much and the one that didn't love me enough."

"And the evil slut vampire who only loved herself," the raven haired vampire rolled his eyes.

"What happened to you Damon? You used to be so sweet and polite."

At this point Eleanor had tuned out, trying to figure out why Damon seemed to familiar. It was as if they had met before, she just couldn't put her finger on how or where.

"So who are you, like her sidekick or something?" Damon spoke, breaking her train of thought.

Eleanor glanced over at Katherine, who was conversing with the other man whose name was still unknown to her before replying.

"I'm her sister, actually." She looked up and for a brief moment her hazel eyes locked with his icy blue ones. "And who are you? One of her many enemies?"

"I guess you could say that," he chuckled. "I'm her ex. She never mentioned me?"

"Your name came up once or twice, I think," a ghost of a smile appeared on Eleanor's lips.

"More than once or twice," Katherine interjected. "Do you even listen when I talk?"

"I'm barely listening now."

A playful glare was set on the eldest Petrova's face for a moment or so before a grin broke out on her lips, much like the one on Eleanor's.

"I'm so glad to have you back."

-

"Damn it! Where is that witch?" Damon frowned, breaking the silence that had settled amongst them.

"We could play charades," Eleanor jokingly suggested.

"You bargained the moonstone," the younger Salvatore muttered under his breath.

"What are you mumbling about over there?"

"When you struck a deal with George Lockwood, to help you fake your death, you told me that you gave George something that he needed," Stefan spoke louder this time. "It was the moonstone, wasn't it?"

"Close. So close," Eleanor stood up from her place next to Katherine on the sofa. "Now, I love my sister dearly, but she's kind of stupid. She didn't make a deal with George Lockwood, I did. And it would have worked except that people found out that she wasn't in the tomb."

Katherine looked over at Damon, "Thanks to you, by the way. Have I mentioned how inconvenient your obsession with me has been?"

"You and me both, honey," he rolled his eyes.

"Why do you need it back?" Stefan questioned before an argument could rise between them again.

"I love you in a suit, so dashing," Katherine smirked and adjusted his tie.

"So, Damon," Eleanor leant against the wall he was standing next to, "any girlfriends since my sister?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Maybe I want to know what my competition is," she quickly pumped her eyebrows up and down. "or maybe I'm trying to make conversation because it's better than listening to my sister hit on your brother."

"Fair point." Damon held up a bottle of scotch. "Drink?"

"I'd never say no." He handed her a glass filled with an amber liquid. "Thanks."

"No." Eleanor furrowed her brow. "No, I haven't had a girlfriend since your sister."

"I'll have one of those," Katherine cut in.

"Right away Miss Katherine," Damon spoke, mimicking a servant boy before handing her a glass.

"Thank you."

As soon as the glass touched her lips she was being grabbed and pushed against the wall by Damon who held a stake in his hand.

Eleanor acted quickly, smashing her glass against the back of his head and pinning him against the wall by his throat.

"You may be cute but if you touch my sister ever again I will make you wish you were dead," her words were laced with venom and her grip on his throat tightened. "Am I making myself clear?"

"Perfectly," Damon managed to choke out, rubbing his now sore throat when she had let him go.

Only moments after Eleanor had let Damon go, Lucy showed up, moonstone in hand.

"Eleanor, what a pleasant surprise. Katherine, the spell on this room has been broken, you're free to leave."

"Thank God."

"Ugh, it's you," Eleanor rolled her eyes as they landed on the witch. "You've got this from here, right?" Katherine nodded in response. "Great. In which case, I'm outta here."

The younger Petrova walked towards the doorway, harshly shoving into Lucy with her shoulder.

-

Her brown hazel eyes looked up in awe at the constellations above. There had always been something about the night sky that had called to her – calmed and cleared her mind. 

"You may be cute but if you dent my car I'll make you wish you were dead," Damon walked up to the front of the car where Eleanor sat on the hood.

"That's my threat from before," the brunette chuckled. "I figured it out."

"What're you talking about?"

"I figured out how I know you." Eleanor turned to face him. "Vegas, 1993. I only remember half the night but I do remember having fun."

He was silent for a moment, thinking back to the night they spent together all those years ago, and he smiled. For the first time in years, a genuine smile was on Damon Salvatore's lips.

"I remember, and I remember waking up to a note on the mirror written in lipstick."

"I'm not so great at the morning after. Sue me." Eleanor glanced down at her phone and saw the time. "I should go. It was nice seeing you again, sorry for threatening you."

"Well, I am trying to kill your sister." The pair laughed for a brief moment, neither quite sure why as the whole situation really wasn't that funny. "I guess I'll see you around then."

"I guess so," Eleanor nodded and jumped off the hood of his car.

-

Eleanor stood in the parking lot, hidden by the shadows as she watched and listened in on Elena's phone call.

"Yeah Jeremy, I've got my car. Tell Bonnie that whatever she did, I'm starting to feel better. Yeah, you can drive her home. I'm just gonna go straight to bed. Okay," the doppelgänger said goodbye and hung up.

She watched from the shadows as a man in a mask came up behind Elena and covered her mouth.

Eleanor stepped forward, debating with herself whether or not she should interject. The masked man heard her heels clicking against the gravel and adjusted his grip on a now unconscious Elena before bolting.

"Oops."

—
this is kind of all over the place i'm sorry
i have big plans for this though & hopefully it'll get better soon
all the love, M x