deercountry | out of the fire, into the frying pan

You better be careful.

[ katherine tries to flick his fingers away with her index, although she doesn't try overly hard. wiggling her nose, she scrunches it up as if she's about to sneeze before she settles back against the canoe. ]

You won't like noseless Katherine.

How do you know? I've never been witness to a noseless Katherine.

( but he does pull his hands back and rests them on his knees, smiling a bit. )

But fine, I'll leave your nose alone.

[ but what will he attack now? katherine eyes him, suspecting that stefan has something else up his sleeve—and if he doesn't, he'll find something lodged up there in no time. he seems happy annoying her senselessly. ]

Good.

[ she narrows her eyes slightly at him, suspecting he'll whip his hand up to touch her nose again. ]

She's not as pretty as me.

You act like you have experience with a version of yourself without a nose.

( what kinds of things were you doing when you hadn't been with stefan, katherine? )

I know you have a lot of doppelgangers but that one might take the cake.

[ she has a lot of doppelgängers. she likes that approach more than claiming she's one of many. as far as she's concerned, she came first—and she's the only doppelgänger worth paying any attention to. ]

At least it makes me memorable.

[ don't you agree? he'd carried her photograph around for a century and a half. she thinks she's more than memorable. ]

A doppelgänger without a nose... No one will ever forget me.

You're memorable already, Katherine. You don't need to lack a nose. Just be yourself.

( he'd fallen in love with her once and then again. or maybe he hadn't ever fallen out of love with her and it had just simmered for so long. )

And I'm pretty sure you know you're memorable.

Am I?

[ she shifts closer towards him, the canoe rocking gently beneath her. knees bumping into the sides of his thighs, she rests her hands between her legs and regards him with a cocked brow and an eager look. ]

How?

[ feed her. you only have yourself to blame. ]

( yeah, stefan knew that was coming. he rolls his eyes and shakes his head. )

You're fishing.

( he knows what you're doing. )

Can you blame me? I like the fish I'm trying to catch.

[ that's you. contrary to what stefan may believe, she knows she's caught him time and time again—and that he's wanted to be caught by her.

smiling, katherine cocks her brow and looks at him expectantly. ]

Are you going to bite?

Bite? Not right here.

( even if she's managed to calm him down a bit, he still knows where they are. )

Raincheck?

I didn't mean literally, Stef.

[ she gently shoves him and laughs, leaning back comfortably against the canoe. keeping her gaze on him—his knee, then his face again—she shakes her head. ]

Although, I'm very happy that you will. But that doesn't get you out of stroking my ego.

Me biting you isn't enough of an ego stroke?

( or wanting to bite her, at least. that should say something. )

I'm not listing things, Katherine. You're fishing.

As you've said.

[ and as she is the big fish in the sea, she's not going to stop. ]

And I'm nibbling. [ she brushes her elbow against his arm. ] Come on, Stef. [ she pouts. ] Give me one little compliment. A tiny little one.

[ she even suggests how tiny with her index and thumb showing the smallest amount of space between them.

come on, stefan. how can you resist? ]

You're beautiful.

( it's an easy compliment, sure, but it's true. she's beautiful and he likes looking at her. )

There, there's your compliment. I hope you enjoyed it.

[ katherine smiles and remains quiet for a moment as she regards him. she likes it whenever stefan compliments her like that, even though she wants to fidget and shy away. ]

I did.

[ brows furrowing, she tilts her head to the side. pressing her hand against his thigh, she gives him a gentle squeeze. ]

But I don't think I heard you… [ she scrunches up her face. ] Did you say I was okay?

You're not slick.

( or maybe she is but she's not trying to be slick right now. she's trying to get more compliments out of him. she's fishing. he shakes his head. )

But you are beautiful. How was that? Don't ask me to scream it because it's not going to happen.

[ maybe there will be time for screaming it later when they're not in a canoe that's taking them for a little ride around a very questionable river. she'll happily take an i.o.u. ]

You're okay. [ she purses her lips and wrinkles her nose. ] You could be uglier.

[ stefan is one of the most handsome men she's met in a long time. if she tells him, she's afraid he'll combust. ]

I could be.

( stefan makes a face at her and then crosses his eyes to see if that helps. )

Any better?

[ katherine chuckles before she scrunches up her face and studies him intently, narrowing her eyes. he looks a little dorky, but that's how she thinks stefan looks when he's comfortable and being playful. ]

Hm. I think I prefer this look the most.

[ she reaches up to brush her fingers against the tip of his nose. ]

You're very attractive.

Stop.

( he's never going to really know what to do with compliments like that from her even if he's heard them from her before. he just doesn't know what to do with them. )

I'm sure you say that to all the people you find yourselves stuck on a canoe with in the middle of some stupid lake.

Only the very cute ones.

[ like him. that's the very heavy implication that he should hopefully be picking up on.

she reaches her arm up and over and rests it along his shoulders. in her opinion, it's a smooth move. ]

They're very hard to come by, you know. Not everyone's almost two hundred years old and a huge dork.

( stefan glances at the arm that's now across his shoulders and he smirks. yes, that had been very, very smooth. he turns his head and kisses her wrist before he glances at her. )

I am not a huge dork.

( couldn't argue the two hundred years old thing, of course. )

You are a huge dork.

[ he goes to school, he reads, he journals, he likes bon jovi. he knows how to have fun in a way damon doesn't know how to. he may appear upright and like he's the brother who has a stick inserted somewhere, but she knows that's not entirely true.

tapping her fingers against his shoulder, she keeps her arm where it is. ]

Your photograph is actually in one of your textbooks. [ innocently, she furrows her brows. ] Didn't you read your school books?

Edited (i'll fen you) 2021-10-03 01:12 (UTC)

Excuse me, how do you know my picture is in there? Are you reading textbooks in your spare time?

( yeah, he'd picked up on that and yeah, he was going to say something. )

I think if there's a nerd around here, it's you. You read textbooks for fun.

Maybe.

[ she presses her lips together in an impersonation of zipping them right up. katherine isn't a nerd like he is when it comes to education. she learns by experiencing and living. ]

I was curious to know what things you might have read, so I may have borrowed some books from the Library in Deerington. [ she shrugs. ] It was all boring.

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