deercountry | ( CLOSED ) MY LONELINESS IS KILLING ME.

Go.

[ she drops onto the couch and opens the tub of ice cream without glancing in his general direction. digging her spoon into it, she takes a big bite and sits back against the cushions. ]

I'm thinking of getting naked and having a bath. Guess you'll be too busy buying ice cream to ogle.

( that's her go to, isn't it? taunting him with nakedness. he shakes his head and then does actually dart out of the house and into the street. he tries to go just far enough that she won't be able to hear his heartbeat and then he waits.

it's not but five minutes later that he creeps back, though, wondering if she'll have eaten the ice cream or if she's in the bath now. )

[ although katherine considers simply staying where she's seated, the moment stefan clearly makes movement and is outside of the house, she gets up, takes her newly acquired ice cream, and begins to walk up the stairs and into their bedroom.

rather than take a bath, she pulls out one of the journals he's so kindly gifted her and flops onto the bed. with his journal laid out on her chest, she reads all of his secrets while she enjoys his ice cream. ]

You don't seem drunk anymore, Katherine.

( yes, he's back in the house and in the doorway, waiting for her to look up. he's still invisible but obviously he's there. )

Was it the ice cream or was it me? Maybe some potent combination of both?

Ice cream and location change.

[ nothing to do with him, you see. and as she says that, she scoops the spoon into the ice cream and pulls out a big chunk. plops it into her mouth and shivers from how cold it is. ]

It's sobering to know that my partner is apparently naked to my eye. I can do almost anything I want with his things.

[ case in point: she turns the page of his journal—which, technically, is hers. ]

It's a little sad for me to know that you just took me being invisible as something normal and ignorable.

( two can play that game. )

And you weren't' concerned at all.

I wasn't.

[ she wasn't concerned at all. it helps to be able to hear his heartbeat. it also helps to know who he is. katherine doesn't look up from her journal, making a show of turning a page.

then she does, it taking a moment for her to locate where he's standing via his heartbeat. she looks at him and gives him a small smile. ]

I knew you'd come back. You're not allowed to disappear unless I make you disappear. You know that.

Yeah, but I don't know how this happened. You're not concerned at all about that?

( because he is...slightly. since he doesn't know how to change it back either. )

[ to say she's not concerned would be a big fat lie, but katherine doesn't think stefan's negatively affected by it. he seems to be okay. smells the same, sounds the same… everything about him is still there.

she just can't see him.

eyeing where she thinks he's standing, she tilts her head to the side curiously. ]

Do you feel any different?

I feel...lighter.

( that's kind of a joke. lighter because there's less of him to see and all. he laughs. )

No, I don't feel any different. But, I know this shouldn't be possible either.

( and yet, it's happening. )

Anything's possible in a place that has "Deer" in the name.

[ from dead parents to long lost children to partners turning invisible, apparently. katherine really shouldn't find any of this surprising. neither should he. what does it say about them being so old that these strange things still take them by surprise? ]

Can you make yourself visible?

I don't know.

( he probably should have thought of that before letting this happen. he frowns and then tries to make himself visible but nothing happens.)

I don't even know how I made myself invisible in the first place.

[ and this is why, one day, simply by being around her, he'll learn how to have a plan for every letter of the alphabet. luckily for them both, they have eternity.

katherine spoons out some ice cream and takes a bite. although he's currently invisible, she can still enjoy his ice cream. ]

What were you doing when it started?

I don't know. Just...I noticed some shadows on the ground while we were hanging out and then sometimes they were gone.

( not sometimes, all the time. )

I don't know if the shadows did that? Can shadows make you invisible?

Well, technically, you hide in the shadows so you're not visible.

[ she hid in the shadows while stalking him over the years. technically, he's not wrong. shadows can make you invisible… just not so literally. ]

Maybe you should… [ she waves her spoon around, seeking the words she needs. ] make your own shadows.

Make my own shadows?

( he sounds a little incredulous and then shakes his head. )

How am I meant to do that if I'm invisible, Katherine?

( please help him. )

Do you think the two are mutually exclusive?

[ being invisible doesn't mean that everything becomes impossible for him. if anything, she thinks it opens a lot more doors.

as for his question, she has no idea. all she can think of is traveller magic, of what she knows of that piece of her past that she's learned about on the side over the centuries. ]

Draw from what's around you. Think about it and make them.

I don't know but I'm invisible so I'm not exactly casting shadows.

( he looks around to see what she's talking about, what she means when she says 'draw from what's around him.' he frowns. )

What do you mean? I don't really...

( maybe it was a blood thing. maybe that's what he was doing right now. )

[ he's so lucky he's invisible. she'd throw a pillow at him for being so unsure. scooping some more ice cream and spoke with her mouth full. now that she had an inkling of how this could be solved, she felt and acted more confident than before. ]

How do you manipulate dreams, Stefan?

How are you not drunk right now?

( because she seems to have sobered up very quickly. )

You were all about just swinging from the rafter earlier.

Who's to say I'm not still drunk?

[ she cocks her brow at him, her smile slowly spreading wide. she's a little buzzed, but when she has a task at hand, she can sober up considerably to put her mind to work.

it's one of the impressive things about her, she thinks. ]

I'll swing from the rafters later. I want to make sure you're below so you can catch me, and I can't do that if I can't see you.

Well, you could still do it because even if you couldn't see me, I could see you.

( and he'd catch her. )

But, I think the question would be is if you trust me enough to drop from the rafters and trust me to catch you even though you can't see me.

[ she... isn't too sure about that answer. katherine trusts stefan more than she's let herself trust another person in a long time, but when it comes to not being able to see him and thus the little tells she looks for when someone's leading her astray... ]

That would depend. Are you too busy looking up my dress to notice I'm falling?

[ the answer to this is yes and no. it must be a hard life being stefan sometimes. ]

( he's glad she can't see him because it does sting just a bit that she doesn't trust him like that. he knows that her question is a stall tactic. )

No, I wouldn't be doing that.

( he keeps his composure though, voice level. )

I wouldn't be distracted.

What if there's a noise?

[ it's a completely plausible question, isn't it? if he's going to be invisible and she's falling, she wouldn't want him to be distracted by anything. ]

What if there is a journal thief in the house? You wouldn't leave me to go protect your journals?

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