deercountry | out of the fire, into the frying pan

With the added pressure of his hands and body, Katherine knows that Stefan really thinks he has a chance at winning this. Even though she adores him, she's not going to let him win. She's thrown friends to the wolves to get ahead in her long-term play of chess. She'll do the same to Stefan. He has to know that she'll do the same to him if it means she gets to survive.

The veins beneath her eyes begin to protrude. Her eyes turn black.

Katherine snarls, "You give up."

Rolling forward, she uses what little momentum she has beneath her strength to shove him off of her.

His face doesn't change just yet but when she shoves him, he rolls off her and uses the momentum to get back to his feet. He's a few feet away from her now, standing still and waiting for her move.

"Are you going to bite me now, Katherine? Is that what you're going to do? Drain me?"

She wouldn't. He has to believe she wouldn't despite everything that was churning through them.

"And I thought you loved me."

Standing, she makes it a point to brush her forearms to stop herself from glaring at him. Does he really think that little of her? It says a lot about someone what they're willing to say in the heat of the moment. If Katherine wanted him dead, he would've been dead before he ever stepped foot in Deerington.

Instead of letting herself be upset, Katherine rolls her eyes. "You're so melodramatic."

But she doesn't attack him—to prove a point.

"You called me worse."

He takes a few deep breaths, watching her, trying to guess what she might try and do to him. He wants to rush at her, get the advantage again but he knows that she's probably planning her attack and creating several backup plans just in case.

"How is this going to end, Katherine?"

He doesn't know what they'll have to do to stop the urge to fight each other.

Her brow furrows in confusion. Since arriving in the arena, she's done as she's needed to get closer to being able to go back home—to him. With him being the next alleged monster she's meant to face, she's said nothing but for him to walk away.

If he was anyone else, she'd easily punch him until all the bones in his ribcage shattered. Katherine stays where she is, feeling that desire to fight ebb away at the hurt she feels.

Masking her expression, she looks at him rather tiredly. "However you want it to."

Stefan stands there, putting his hands on his hips and looking down at his feet. He doesn't really know what to do from here, if he should take advantage or just stand there and do what she says.

Maybe he should just walk away. He holds his hands up but he doesn't retreat, rubbing his hands over his face. Then, they drop to his sides.

"I don't know what we're doing," he tells her, confusion tinging his voice. "I don't — are you all right?"

Edited 2021-09-13 23:31 (UTC)

"We're fighting. We used to do it all the time."

It's not something that they do now—and it's a big reason why Katherine's held back. It'd be easy to end this. All she'd have to do is act fast and hard, but she's never really been one to use her speed and strength to kill anyone. She much prefers it to be done by someone else's hand or by something else entirely, even if her hands aren't quite as clean as she'd like them to be.

She's killed monsters in this arena, but she's not going to kill a person just so she can go back home. There'd be no one to go back home to.

"Surprisingly, you always survived that. I wonder why."

Because of her.

"But why are we fighting? What's going on?"

But he thinks he knows the answer to that. Just as in Deerington, there's something about this place that can get into their blood, dig into their bones and make them want to do things that they wouldn't usually do.

He rubs a hand over his face before he curls it into a fist. He squeezes hard to get the last vestiges of aggression out of him before he takes a breath.

"I don't want to fight you."

"I made that very clear before."

Katherine considers crossing her arms against her chest, but she keeps them loose and hanging by her sides. Crossing them means that she lacks a defence if he chooses to charge at her and she knows that despite being quick to draw, it's still a loss of a chance to defend herself.

She regards him with narrowed eyes.

"This place makes you want to fight." And she isn't quite sure if she believes he's completely over it. Stefan can be sneaky when he wants to be. "I doubt there's an alternative way of getting out of here."

"Then, I'll go fight someone else. I don't want to do this with you."

Someone's bound to get hurt in some way, shape or form even if she's not going full throttle. She's still very strong and a poke from her could send most people reeling.

He rubs a hand over his face and looks around. There were people milling about, watching the fights, fighting themselves.

"We don't need to do this with each other."

"Why?

Katherine arches her brow. Of course, she knows why. If this is meant to lead to death, then there can only be one winner. Katherine suspects Stefan's the one who's most likely to give that title up—what with being a hero and all. Even with the blood flecking his hair, it still looks quite heroic.

Even though it's very clear that he's snapped out of whatever it is that he'd been under, Katherine feels as she had before: as in control as she can be, given the circumstances. She still feels that desire to fight, but just like her own bloodlust, she pushes it down and tries to channel it some other way.

"Afraid that I'll drain you?"

"I'm not afraid of you."

She could kill him, he knows, if she wanted to. But she hasn't before and he knows she won't know. He shakes his head quickly.

"But I don't want this place forcing us to hurt each other either. What do you want me to do? Stay here? Fine. Knock me out so this can end."

Because he knows he won't be able to win.

This could easily be a trick. It hasn't been lost on Katherine how he's seemingly changed tact. No longer is he trying to goad her into fighting him, but she can't quite trust it. Deerington—Deer Country, whatever—has a way of impacting the people inside of it. Katherine wouldn't be Katherine if she didn't anticipate this to be a trap.

She scrunches up her face in distaste.

"And then have you claim that I don't love you? Hard pass."

"Katherine, what do you want me to do?"

He doesn't know what to do if any of his suggestions aren't attractive to her. He's offered to walk, to let her knock him out, and she's refused every single one of them.

Sighing, he puts his hands behind his back and gets down onto his knees, letting himself be the vulnerable, exposed one.

"Knock me out and we can end this. Just do it."

When Katherine's brows furrow together, it's not out of any anger—although it's still there, bubbling away. She doesn't tear her gaze away from Stefan despite wanting to. She stands tall and feels and looks uncomfortable. Standing stiffly, she peers down at him without tilting her head.

Despite wanting to look away or even turn on her heel and do what she does best—run—Katherine doesn't move. The sight before her is an uncomfortable one.

Through gritted teeth, Katherine hisses, "Get up." But her hiss doesn't sound as though it's a sound of anger. She sounds afraid.

"Katherine, just do it. Knock me out. I trust you. Knock me out and get me out of here."

If they have to do something, this is the only way that Stefan sees to make it happen. She's stronger and she'll be able to make sure he wakes up whereas other people might not care.

"Come on, just do it." He doesn't bow his head but he looks up at her, nodding. "Let's get out of here."

If the stakes happened to be a lot higher, Katherine doesn't think she'd hesitate at all. But she does. She knows that there is another way out of here that neither of them has properly seen yet. She had felt as though the need to fight had ebbed away each time she tried to lunge for him. Whether that's enough to open the doors and let them go back home is another question altogether.

But knocking him out isn't something she thinks is a good part of the plan.

"Get up." Again, she stares him down in case he thinks to try and knock himself into her to do what he wants. "We'll go."

Stefan doesn't understand why she won't do this and he has half a mind to just do it to himself but he doesn't. He rubs a hand over his face and gets to his feet, shaking his head.

He doesn't know what exactly she's got in mind because he's made suggestions, she's shot them down. He swallows and keeps space between them because he doesn't want to be tempted, doesn't want that urge to fight to come back.

"You want to leave?" He doesn't know if that's smart since he doesn't want them to be overcome with the urge to fight in their house.

"Mhm."

Katherine eyes him suspiciously. Even though he can't quite hurt her if he was to physically attack her, she's found that he's hurt her enough with one of his comments. Katherine doesn't offer him her hand, suspecting that if she does, this entire rumble will start over again.

"I didn't feel like fighting when I was at home."

"All right."

He sighs because while this is some kind of solution, she still seems off. He rubs a hand over his face and starts walking, noticing the lack of contact between them. He doesn't know why but he's not going to ask right now.

"Fine, all right, let's go."

He doesn't know if they're going to be able to, if this place was going to make it impossible because they'd stopped fighting but it was worth trying.

She takes a moment before she turns and walks after him. Looking around as discreetly as possible, she narrows her eyes when her gaze lands on the dirtied ground of where a monster she had slain had once been. Katherine knows she's not a killer; sometimes, surviving just entails it.

Fortunately, her expectation that they'll toss a monster inside is incorrect. Katherine's a little tired from the last rodeo.

She remains walking behind him.

"Why are you walking behind me?"

He doesn't say anything for a few moments, getting them away from the crowd as best as possible but he doesn't know what to do with her staying behind him. He wonders if she's keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn't end trying to turn on her again.

He doesn't look back but it's difficult.

"It feels like you're watching to make sure I don't flip out."

"Or maybe I'm watching your back."

This is where she would make a quip about his ass, but Katherine doesn't feel like it. This isn't the time nor the place. She doesn't feel like herself—and she doesn't like that at all. Out of all the things that she could rely upon, it was knowing that she could always control herself.

While she may not look over her shoulder, she's listening.

"I'm faster; I'll hear anything that comes up behind you a lot quicker than you will."

"Right."

It's logical and it makes sense. It doesn't mean that Stefan has to like that he can't see her and that she's not beside him. It feels...wrong. But, he's not going to press her because that's just going to start an argument and he already feels that might happen later.

"I don't feel like I'm going to fight you."

Just to let her know. Just to make sure she's aware he's okay.

"I'm not lying."

Even if she listened to his heart intently, she'd know that he's telling the truth. But Katherine doesn't need to listen to it. Despite being a little paranoid, as all old vampires tend to be, she knows that. Still, she remains behind him. She has her own reasons for it—and it's for the very one that she's shared.

"That's good. You've already ruined my hair."

With a few knots and dust particles. Her hair was already ruined with the monster blood caked through it.

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