( CLOSED ) I JUST WANT YOU FOR MY OWN.

[manipulative]

Who: Stefan Salvatore + Katherine Pierce | Amos Burton + Wanda Maximoff.
What: December things! Katherine bullies Stefan. Wanda bullies Amos.
When: December.
Where: Places.

Content Warnings: Mentions of mind control, suicide. NSFW.

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( I'M JUST GOING TO KEEP ON WAITING UNDERNEATH THE MISTLETOE )

[manipulative]

[ while stefan's been busy brushing the snow out of aleksander's snow-white fur, katherine's been occupied with something more important. outside on the front porch, she's very sneakily strung up some mistletoe from the rafter and hidden it in a place where stefan won't be able to see it if he was to come outside, but would be able to spot it if he was to tip his head back while swinging on the porch.

laying out a thick blanket on the porch's seat, she fluffs the pillows before she drops down into it. she has another blanket to pull up over her legs. wearing a thick coat with her hair trapped beneath a scarf, katherine waits outside for stefan to bring her the belated hot chocolate she's been stomping her feet about.

when the front door opens, she doesn't peer over her shoulder at him. smiling, she sighs and feigns annoyance. ]

How hard is it to brush the snow from a dog's coat, Stefan?

[ honestly! ]

[prescind]

He was covered in it!

( plus, he'd started rolling around and shaking himself dry and it had gotten snow everywhere so he'd been cleaning that up too. but, he's here now and taking in her handiwork. )

What've you been doing out here?

[manipulative]

Freezing as I wait for you.

[ she was up to nothing nefarious!

looking over her shoulder, she smiles at him. the tip of her nose is a little pink, but katherine doesn't shiver underneath her layers. ]

And my hot chocolate.

[prescind]

You know, we can sit inside. There's something called heat in there.

( shuffling out, stefan hands her the hot chocolate and then looks at the swing. she's made it up quite nicely and he laughs. )

Are we going to sit out here?

[manipulative]

Why not?

[ she cocks her brow. ]

I've never sat on the porch with a mug of hot chocolate and a man who asks too many questions before. Have you?

[ knowing him and his disney prince life, he may have in the past. this is yet another little experience katherine intends to take for herself. ]

( I HEAR THOSE SLEIGH BELLS RINGING )

[explosion]

[ wanda's taken it upon herself to try and break amos. it's a very simple mission: she wants to see how long it takes for him to finally crack and stop his foot and refuse to give into her christmas wishes.

or: have him finally admit that he enjoys christms. that's the hardmode mission. she imagines it may take a few christmases to achieve the boss level.

from the snowball fight last month, she's almost gotten him to help her build a snowman. now, she's going to get him on a sled and push him down a hill. while that may be cathartic for many who know amos, wanda just wants to see him smile just a little. it'd be a chink in his armour she won't tell anyone about.

dressed in a thick coat with a bright red scarf wrapped around her neck, she insulates both of their winter clothes with magical heat. the sled's appeared in front of them (thanks to her magic) and she smiles at him sweetly. ]

You just go down. [ she gestures with her hand as if it's that simple. ] And you have a little fun. [ she lifts her hand and almost presses her thumb and index together. ] Just a little. Not too much.

[rocinantes]

I go down on that?

( he eyes the sled and then he eyes her and then the sled. )

Why don't I just throw myself down since that'll be just about the same feeling than some wood underneath me.

[explosion]

[ she does her best not to smile, even though her lips twitch. ]

Because you'll end up freezing to death and stopping halfway.

[ she gives amos a once-over. while she's tempted to try and see him do just that, she wants him to sled. she's beginning to catch on to amos' ways of trying to stall and get out of things: he questions their logic head-on. ]

And you're not wearing the right coat.

[rocinantes]

I'm hardier than I look.

( he's not going to freeze to death, wanda. god, he's not that weak.

still, he nudges the sled with his boot. )

You've done this before?

( I'M RUNNING )

[manipulative]

[ katherine has always embraced her more spiritual and magical side in private. it'd been partly driven out of fear of being discovered as a traveler and as katerina petrova, and partly because it was the last piece of her old self that she could keep. she's still so possessive of the pieces of her that have remained intact and undetected, but she doesn't mind sharing it with him.

when she pitches the idea of creating a winter mourning like the trench's tradition, she shouldn't have been surprised that stefan seemed keen to be involved—even if it meant she snapped at him and his hands remained tucked in his pockets. katherine was incredibly independent, especially when it involved anything craft-like.

the winter mourning's bones and antlers sit delicately against the front door. it's meant to scare people away—she hardly wants anyone over and she sincerely doubts stefan's become a social butterfly over the course of the year. she hopes it keeps the trench's monsters at bay.

katherine stands proudly with her hands on her hips and smiles at stefan. really, the last person she needs to say "i told you i could do it" to is him.

with a purse to her lips, ] It's not sitting straight.

[ his fault, clearly.

katherine reaches out to touch it and the white glow of the mourning shifts into the dark woods. remina accepts her offering as the air around them seems to tug them into it rather than push them from it. the house disappears completely, the porch transforming into uneven patches of dry dirt.

she recognises the memory instantly. katerina runs in her thick and heavy skirts to a hovel hidden deep within the brush. ]

I cannot believe this is happening again.

[ the last time they'd been in a set of memories, she had the luxury of a first-row seat to the stefan-and-caroline saga and the reason why tyler's going to die very slowly and horribly. ]

[prescind]

( he'd wanted to help, of course, but she'd refused to let him so he'd been relegated to cheering from the sidelines. he'd done his best to stay close but not touch even if he did genuinely want to help her.

but no, she hadn't let him and soon enough, the craft was done and hanging on the door and it did look good. she'd done a good job but katherine, of course, is a perfectionist so she finds something that's off and tries to fix it.

and when she does that, they both end up somewhere else. he blinks, looking around and hearing the swish of someone's clothes as they run. )

Are we in a memory?

( again? )

[manipulative]

[ katherine wants to say no. is a nightmare better than a memory? she wants this to be one of the trench's ways of trying to ruin their budding christmas romance, but she knows these woods. she knows them as well as she knows the back of her own hand. she's never been able to forget them.

reaching for stefan's arm, she tugs on him to move backwards and away from where she knows the back of katerina is going. her past self is disappearing into the night and she wants to follow. ]

Let's go this way.

[ away. ]

[prescind]

( this isn't his memory and with her pulling on his arm, he knows it's hers. but he doesn't recognize the area and doesn't feel a tug of familiarity either. )

Where are we? What's going on?

( please fill him in, katherine, so he can be prepared for whatever he's about to see. )

( SCARLET MEMORY THEATRE )

[explosion]

[ she's not surprised that amos is a tough cookie to crack. although she has a feeling he's a big softie on the inside and loves the irksome traditions of christmas and the trench, she knows he has to save face and be a little terse about things.

it honestly surprises her more that he entertains her notions. she wants to break him and turn him into someone who enjoys christmas cheer, and he allows her to do it one snowball at a time.

although she has every intention of seeing to him helping her decorate her house with christmas lights (apparently, a woman who can magic things out of thin air needs help hanging them up on her second story gutter), she wants his opinion on her winter mourning first. she's crafted one out of antler-bones and decorated it with a nice red and blue hue to match her and pietro.

but before she can ask him what he thinks of it as they stand in her kitchen, the grey bones begin to glow brightly.

the explosion of red isn't unfamiliar, but the opening of the deep blood red sky is. the wooden floor of her kitchen breaks into the sky as they float in the air. wanda peers down, startled at how she doesn't need to lift herself up. she's floating, staying near the scene unfolding before her.

she remembers this. she sees herself toss red magic, bleeding it everywhere as the sky burns… and there's agatha, sucking it all up like a void. ]

Watch your step.

[ it's a silly thing to say, but she needs something to say. ]

[rocinantes]

( amos honestly doesn't know why she wants to spend so much time around him, trying to get him into the season. he's grumpy and mean and yet, she just keeps prodding at him and she does get underneath some of his barriers but he's still keeping her back a bit.

he allows her though he's going to wonder if that's the right decision once they're transported to somewhere that's...well, that's really fucking insane. there's red everywhere and people in the air and he doesn't know what's going on. )

Who the fuck is that?

( because that's not her. that's someone else but she looks like she's sucking up everything around her like a black hole. )

[explosion]

Agatha.

[ not a friend, not her neighbour. wanda doesn't truly consider her an enemy, either. she's merely agatha.

she eyes her for a moment, listening to agatha's cackle. she truly does give into the stereotype of a witch. she briefly wonders if agatha had been the one to birth the evil witch cackle. it'd make sense if she did.

looking back at amos, she grips his bicep gently. while she suspects he won't plummet to the ground, she imagines that being in the air like this is new for him. he may be used to floating in space, but he's always connected to something and wearing one of those suits. this is how wanda flies. ]

She's stealing my magic. [ she gestures with her other hand towards the red walls. ] All of that is me.

[rocinantes]

Why are you letting her?

( logically, amos knows there's a reason for wanda not fighting back but he still doesn't like it. he winces and shakes his head. )

Kick her ass! Come on, I know you can!

( OH CHRISTMAS TREES )

[prescind]

( it's almost strange to wake up and realize that they're spending another christmas in strange city. this time, it's trench and not deerington but it's not mystic falls or bulgaria. right now, the house is still quiet, still and he's managed to slip out of bed before she does. aleksander takes his spot in bed and stefan thinks that might buy him some time.

he heads downstairs and turns on the lights on the tree, gets the coffee started and sits down to sip it. there are various presents under the tree for the two of them, the dog and cat, and even the kids. he flicks the television on, turns it on low and then closes his eyes, waiting for her to realize he's awake and to come downstairs. )

[manipulative]

[ dressed in his shirt (it's her christmas gift to herself... gifting one of stefan's shirts to her every day of the year), katherine leaves aleksander in bed as she makes her way down to the bottom floor. she thinks stefan's been downstairs for a good twenty minutes, if knowing how long she's had fur up her nose is anything to go by.

raking her hand through her hair, she comes to stand behind him on the couch. ]

This is not how I expected to start my Christmas morning.

[ she bends down and curls her hands around his shoulders, squeezing. ]

[prescind]

And how did you expect to start your Christmas morning?

( smiling, stefan reaches up to squeeze her arms and holds up his coffee so she can take a sip. )

I thought this was a nice start to the morning.

[manipulative]

[ she bows her head and sniffs his mug and takes the most precarious sip of a five-hundred-year-old vampire. ]

I was hoping I'd wake up in someone's arms, not paws.

[ she wrinkles her nose at him and digs her fingers into his shoulders. she's not upset, of course. waking up in bed with just aleksander is a treat. either the dog has finally suffocated stefan or stefan's up doing god knows what. ]

Why are you up so early?

( THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT )

[rocinantes]

( he's busy sleeping when someone starts knocking on his door. amos really seriously considers just letting it go because it's too damn early and he's not going to deal with it. it's cold, he's warm and he doesn't care what whoever's there wants.

but that person doesn't stop knocking which means eventually amos climbs out of bed and stomps over to the door. he's only dressed in a pair of pants because he'd been asleep and yanks the door open.

blinking, he stares because what the hell. )

It's too early for this.

[explosion]

It's never too early.

[ wanda smiles brightly, grateful he had chosen to open the door. she knows she's been in his face quite a lot this month, but he's allowed it. and because he's allowed it, wanda has made the most of it. she wants a good christmas, a good end of year, and it's better to be in company than to be alone.

the last time she'd been alone, too many people had been hurt. ]

Good morning. You are definitely not a morning person.

[ grumpy, grump. ]

[rocinantes]

No, I'm not. So, why are you here when you know that?

( he yawns and then at least steps aside so she can come in. )

Why are you here so early? What's on fire?

[explosion]

[ slipping into his place, she smiles cheerily. that's the exact reason why she came early—to shake up his routine.

she's also an early person who sometimes forgets that other people are not. it's a flaw. ]

I wanted to make sure you had everything for Christmas. Some places may not be open and I didn't want you to starve tomorrow.