( CLOSED ) I DON'T WANT A LOT FOR CHRISTMAS.

[manipulative]

Who: Katherine + Stefan | Wanda + Amos.
What: December things.
When: December.
Where: Around.

Content warnings: Monsters, PTSD, mind control and drowning.

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( CHRISTMAS' BROODIEST ANGEL. )

[manipulative]

[ katherine narrows her eyes as she reluctantly follows stefan into their backyard. she's rugged up in a thick coat and a blue scarf (stefan's that she brought him so she could wear it) and even though she's crossed her arms against her chest, she still feels a bit of the chill. the snow's come down hard and left a thick blanket around the trench. while katherine enjoys christmas time (secretly, of course), she's not particularly pleased to be outside.

she may be over five hundred years old, but she can still feel the cold.

if stefan feels it, he's not showing it. it's like the cold has made him hyperactive. he hasn't stopped moving since this morning—and if katherine's honest with herself, he'd been restless since last night. ]

You want to make a snow angel.

[ in case it wasn't obvious, her deadpan definitely does suggest she finds this whole situation bizarre. broody mcbrooderson wants to make a snow angel? ]

[prescind]

Yeah?

( is that really a huge surprise? he wants to make a snow angel. he cannot remember if he's ever made a snow angel before. it wasn't exactly something you ran out to do when you were guiseppe salvtore's son.

but now, there's thick snow on the ground and he wants to make a snow angel. )

Come on, it'll be fun. I know you know how to have fun, Katherine.

[manipulative]

Yes.

[ she doesn't appear overly confident about that as she looks at him and then the snow and then back at him. she cocks her brow as she regards him for a long second. while stefan does know how to have fun from time to time, he tends to hone in on his broodiness. ]

But it's you who I'm worried about. [ she wrinkles her nose as she teases, ] You're not really one for fun.

[prescind]

That's not true.

( god, you make him sound like such a stick in the mud. he makes a face at her as he bounds outside and into the snow. )

You wouldn't have stuck with me this long if I wasn't fun.

[manipulative]

[ he's fun in his own way; although, katherine admitting as much would mean that she would need to confirm that he's fun, and doing so goes against what she wants to convey right now.

she furrows her brows at stefan's obvious excitement. ]

What are you doing?

[prescind]

Why are you questioning everything I do?

( he turns to look at her, putting his hands on his hips and laughing. )

There's nothing wrong with me. I just wanna make a snow angel.

[manipulative]

[ she arches her brow, but decides to leave it be. if stefan wants to make a snow angel, then katherine wants him to make one. she approaches him and looks at the ground before gazing up at him quizzically. ]

How?

[ she looks confused. of course, she knows how to make a snow angel, but she doesn't need him to know that. ]

( THE SCARLET WITCH'S SLEIGH. )

[explosion]

[ this time when wanda has a car problem, she legitimately has a car problem. she's driven it and she's ensured that she's kept its maintenance up to scruff… but wanda made a bit of a mistake.

of course, she could easily magic the problem away, but wanda's trying to solve problems the normal way. not everything can be solved with magic—and not everything should be.

so that's why she's invited amos over. he's going to solve her problem.

her problem? her car's half-buried under snow at the front of her house.

rugged up in a red coat, wanda wraps her arms around herself as she looks at her car and then at amos. there's a few holes burrowed around it. there's another problem on top of her problem, of course.

rabbits have been making themselves at home under the car. and while wanda may be a villain in some stories, she doesn't particularly want to be a villain to the rabbits. ]

So. [ she smiles sweetly at him. he's bound to think of her as annoying by now. ] What do you think we should do?

[ not "i". this is an amos problem, too. ]

[rocinantes]

Well —

( amos sighs, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jacket and shakes his head. )

What we should do is just leave it because it ain't moving from underneath the snow, Wanda. It's stuck.

( unless she wants to use her magic or something. )

[explosion]

[ wanda frowns and looks to the car then back to amos. that clearly isn't the answer she had been expecting.

when she looks at the car again, she gestures toward it easily and without a slip of magic. ]

Won't it be ruined by all the snow?

[rocinantes]

You planning on opening the doors or the hood?

( because then yes, it would be ruined. )

[explosion]

[ wanda gives the car a sidelong glance before she looks at him. does she need the car? no. considering she can teleport to and fro... but the car is special to her as it's the one thing that she's gotten to own for herself. ]

Would it still be okay even if I didn't open the doors and hood?

[rocinantes]

Probably. I don't think a little snow's gonna wreck the thing. But even if it did —

( he glances at her. )

You could fix it, couldn't you?

( ONCE UPON A TIME THE MONSTER IN THE STORY CAME TO LIFE. )

[manipulative]

[ katherine jumps onto the bed and lies on her stomach. pulling herself further onto the bed until she's able to almost elbow stefan's chest, she taps the cover of his book incessantly until he's looking at her—hopefully in exasperation. over the last handful of nights, katherine hasn't let stefan have a moment of peace with his stories before bed.

he's a good storyteller, even when he's purposefully trying not to be. katherine figures it's only fair that she asks him to make up some wacky story about christmas or the very annoying old woman who wouldn't leave a young stud alone. (that was her story.) ]

I want to hear another story.

[ resting her elbows on the bed right beside his side, she leans her chin into the palms of her hands and smiles up at him. she bats her eyelashes for good measure. ]

Please.

[prescind]

Another one?

( he drops his book onto his lap and peers at her like there's some kind of punchline here. but she's been attentive the past few nights while he's been telling her stories.

he just doesn't really get why she wants to hear them all the sudden. )

Where's this sudden interest in me telling you stories coming from?

[manipulative]

Because I like your voice.

[ she scrunches up her face at that. yes, it's true that she does, but katherine says it to try and get him to blush and grow exasperated. ]

Or maybe because I hope one day you'll run out of stories and read the ones in your journals.

[ she crosses her legs at the ankles and swings them side to side as she peers up at him. ]

[prescind]

You realize that there are thousand and thousands of stories out there, right?

( the well from which he could pick from was unending so katherine was going to be shit out of luck when it came to his journals. )

You're never going to hear my journals.

[manipulative]

You say that, and yet, you've read me a journal before.

[ she smiles at him as she swings her feet back and forth in triumph. ]

And you forget, Stefan. We have thousands and thousands of years for you to read every single one to me. And once you've read all of those, there'll be plenty more waiting.

[prescind]

One journal.

( and that had been gifted to her. he's not just going to bring out another one for no reason. )

So, I guess you're going to have to employ patience if you want another journal reading night.

( THE LAKE HOUSE EXCEPT THERE IS NO HOUSE. )

[explosion]

( cw: drowning )

[ at first, wanda thinks it's a dream.

she sometimes dreams of being buried beneath the rubble of her childhood home. it presses down around her, pushing the bed until it strains and digs its metal coils into her back. whenever she dreams of those three days, her throat always feels dry and her magic pours from her fingertips and fails to rewind time so she can stop that first initial bomb from going off.

but this feels different.

when she dreams of sokovia, wanda doesn't feel anything. no heat, no chill, not even the itchiness of soot. but she feels cold now, weighted down by a chill that seeps into her skin and wraps around her bones.

when she opens her eyes, she's not in her bed. wanda instinctually holds her breath as she finds herself beneath a thick layer of ice. she's surrounded by water and able her is a murky beyond she can't make head or tail of. pressing her hands against it does nothing. when she tries to shoot red energy out, her hands merely glow and the ice doesn't break.

wanda does the only thing that she can think of—she tries to reach out to someone mentally. despite knowing she should be calm, she panics as she tries to find him—amos will forgive her for the mental intrusion; he has to.

her voice rings loudly in his head, ] AMOS!

[rocinantes]

( there is exactly one person who's voice he hears in his head like that and the loudness of it is enough to momentarily distract him from the fact that he's under water.

he's never had a real issue with the water but it wasn't like he went out of his way to find it. so being in it now? when he can't remember seeking it out? when he wouldn't go for a fucking swim?

that's concerning. he'd started moving as soon as he realized and he was just at the surface, hands on the ice when he heard her voice. he grimaces and then looks around. )

Where are you?

[explosion]

In water.

[ she wishes she were somewhere else, somewhere toasty and warm enough that the problem she has is that she's melting. but she's freezing all over and no matter how wanda tries to warm herself up, the chill of the water overpowers it. ]

Under ice.

I don't know how I got here.

[rocinantes]

Okay.

( yeah, that's not very helpful but he can also hear the undercurrent of fear in her voice. he doesn't want to make that worse.

so, he starts swimming and hopes he'll run into her. )

I'm here too. Can you see anything?

[explosion]

Darkness.

[ unhelpful, she knows, but it's the only answer she can think of. wanda knows what it's like to be trapped in darkness. when it had gotten so bad during those days beneath the bed, she and pietro had played a game of noting what they could see. "rubble" and "bomb" weren't allowed as answers. ]

Ice. It's thick no matter where I go.

[rocinantes]

Don't panic.

( though, god he knows that's hard and he wants to panic himself. he's done some training for this, held his breath for long periods but he doubts it was meant for this.

he keeps swimming, feeling the chill sink into his skin. )

If you panic, you're going to lose more oxygen faster.