deercountry | out of the fire, into the frying pan

"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.

"Your hair looks fine."

Stefan looks at her over his shoulder and smiles. It's not the widest smile he's ever given her but it's still genuine.

"Your hair is always fine."

Even with the blood and grit of the day, she's still beautiful.

"I can help you wash it when we get home, if you'd like."

"Let the man who barely knows how to style his own hair wash mine?"

She's seen the way he's brushed his hair—and sometimes chosen not to brush it—at times. Her hair requires a little more application than his, what with it being long and not being hero hair at all.

She cocks her brow, although it's not in judgement. She makes it a point to look him over. It's as playful as she's going to get while still inside of a stinky arena of monster blood.

"You'd have to convince me you have the hands for shampooing."

"You've let me touch your hair before. You've let me shampoo it before. What's different now?"

Besides the fact that they'd just tried to fight each other and obviously that hadn't gone well. He thinks they might need to talk about it but he also doesn't want to talk about it because he doesn't want her to be upset.

"I can't style your hair but I know how to put shampoo in the palm of my hand and wash your hair."

"You didn't put in enough last time."

What with all the hair she has, it's no wonder he didn't apply enough. Sometimes, Katherine thinks she goes through half a bottle with the way she lathers it.

She scrunches up her face, even if he can't see her from her place behind him. "I didn't have the heart to tell you. It was very dry after."

Her hair was fine after.

"Are you really critiquing my shampooing skills?"

From what he remembers, she hadn't had any complaints about his shampoo skills when she'd let him do it. He thinks she's just putting him on now, making it seem like he did a bad job so she can jibe him.

"Do you want me to just stand there and hold the bottle, then?"

He can make sure it doesn't fall on the floor while she does her own hair.

"Do you think you can control yourself enough to do that?"

With Katherine being an irresistible person, that would, no doubt, be very difficult on his end. No one would blame him for being unable to keep his hands to himself.

She stays behind him, hoping that the arena will act as a hotel lobby and let them leave. She's fought enough monsters to prove herself as an impressive fighter and deserving of returning home.

"You're the one who needs to control yourself. You have no patience."

That was not true. She's very, very patient and he knows it. But he says it anyways to try and lighten the mood and hopefully put what happened in the arena behind them.

"Besides, would you really be upset if I didn't control myself? You like that. You've said so."

"Did I?"

While Katherine may scrunch up her face, she knows that she has—and repeatedly. That doesn't mean she has to merely accept the truth and wear it. She does want Stefan to stop being so stuck inside of his head.

"I clearly didn't mean it with shampooing. My hair is very delicate."

"Oh well, my mistake. I'll never touch your hair again."

Stefan's pretty sure that's not what she met and he exaggerates and goes over the limit on purpose. He even smirks a bit but he doesn't look back to direct that at her.

"I wouldn't want to accidentally pull some out and ruin your whole look."

That would be absolutely awful, wouldn't it?

"I could rock being bald."

Not that she ever wants to. Katherine likes her hair. Her hair is the one thing that Klaus couldn't take away from her. Even though it's changed over the centuries, it's still her—it's all Katerina has.

And she knows Stefan knows that.

Besides, if he wants to keep his head of hero hair, he knows better than to even think about pretending to rip her hair out.

"I have the face shape for it."

"You could but you won't."

He knows that she likes her hair far, far too much to cut it or let it fall out. There's no way she will rock being bald even if she could. It's just not going to happen. He flicks a look back at her and shakes his head.

"You like your hair too much. You're vain. And don't get all mad that I said that. You know you are."

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