deercountry | ( wow this sand is so quick!! )

[ she glances down at her shoes. ]

I think they're doing just fine. These are my gardening heels.

[ no, they're the heels she wears when going to the apothecary. they were chosen for wooden floors and stable earth and no mosquitos. thankfully, those seem to be more attracted to stefan than her.

she tugs at her camisole to fan her chest and face. she frowns at him. ]

Who's idea was it to do this again?

[ hers. miss "i've never played jumanji before" pierce. ]

Yours.

( ordinarily, stefan might take the blame himself because he's a chivalrous type when he wants to be but no no, not right now. this is katherine's fault.

he smacks another mosquito and curses. )

Couldn't we have played Monopoly, Katherine? Or Yahtzee?

They're boring games.

[ she scrunches up her face in distaste, her nose crinkling. those games are for grandparents and one thousand-year-olds. does she look over one thousand yet? ]

Besides, I would've won. It's not fair to you.

And instead, we're in a jungle, getting eaten alive and avoiding giant frogs.

( so, he really wished they were playing some boring games right now. )

Where are we supposed to go, Katherine?

Well, technically, you're being eaten alive.

[ she smiles at him before she smacks his bicep. there'd been a mosquito there! with her gaze darting around, she claps her hands loudly as she kills another and saves stefan's life. ]

Maybe away from here?

Away from here and to another wonderful part of the hot jungle?

( he hates this place and he hopes that katherine breaks a heel here so she realizes how bad an idea this was. )

Come on, I guess we have to figure a way out of here or we're stuck here to be dinner to a bunch of blood sucking bugs.

Hm. Sounds like a few bugs I know.

[ katherine gestures with her hand for him to go first—broody brawn before blinding beauty, after all—and doesn't pass up the chance to give his ass a smack. ]

Mosquito.

Katherine, no.

( he waves a hand in front of his ass and then shakes his head. none of that while they're here. they have to focus. )

No more smacking me and faking mosquitos. We need to focus.

Ugh.

[ she rolls her eyes and purses her lips, and allows her hands to smack against her own thighs. he's absolutely no fun. she tugs her foot out against the ground when she finds her heel sinks a little too deeply in the earth. ]

It'd boost morale to at least joke around.

You can smack my ass any other time but let's focus here.

( he glances down at her shoes and shakes his head. those were not going to last. )

Those shoes aren't going to make it through this.

They are so!

[ they're definitely not, but given that he's so insistent that they won't, she has to rebuff him and prove him wrong. she even picks a foot up and curls her lip at how her heels are already so muddy. ]

These shoes have survived many things, Stefan. Stop having such little faith.

( he has little faith because he knows better and those shoes are not going to last. )

If you say so but I'm not carrying you when you have to walk barefoot.

( just putting that out there now. )

[ she mutters. ] That's so rude.

[ but if she does want to be carried, she's sure he'll help carry her. stefan is nothing but a big fat hero with a square head.

tilting her chin up defiantly, she states petulantly, ] If your shoes break, I'm not going to carry you, either.

My shoes aren't going to break. They're boots.

( he was going to be more likely to have shoes that survive than you, katherine. )

Come on, let's go. We need to get moving.

[ she makes a mimicking mocking sound quietly under her breath. his shoes will break! she'll make sure of it, even if it means she has to break them herself. ]

Well, be a hero and hold my hand. You might get lost if you're left to your own devices.

[ she holds her hand out for him to take and wiggles her fingers. ]

( stefan rolls his eyes but he does take her hand because of course he does. he gives it a squeeze. )

Do you even know where we're going?

( he swings their hands as they walk, stepping over some vines as he does. )

Nope.

[ does anyone? she may be katherine pierce, but she's not a tour guide. she didn't survive five hundred years relying on maps. it's pure instinct that guides her now. ]

But I figure it won't be too bad. [ she looks at him and smiles too sweetly. ] I'm with you.

You're too optimistic about this.

( yeah, he's not sure what to make of that smile. he likes it because of course he does but he worries that she's taking this too lightly. )

I don't know if I feel as good about this place, with you or not. This place feels off.

And when we first came here, it was off.

[ but they made it work, which is her point. katherine's been thrust into different places and forced to adapt to societal expectations and cultures for over five hundred years. going with it and not fighting it saves a lot of energy. ]

At least it's not a bloody sinking cruiseliner. We have sights and sounds and tree roots to trip over.

[ she stomps down on an uproot particularly strongly and crushes it beneath her heel.

see that, stefan? her heel did that. ]

What was wrong with the cruise liner?

( besides the fact that it was sinking. it had been one of those first interactions that had brought them closer. )

It was a strange time but I didn't hate it.

I got stabbed and it ruined one of my favourite outfits.

[ and she had been so unwell thereafter, trapped with the wrong salvatore and with the right one trying to crawl under her skin. back then, it had been a confusing whirlwind that hadn't been fun at all. ]

And it was very cold. You did a poor job of keeping me warm.

You barely let me close to you.

( she'd been keeping him at arms length, trying to let him go and look how that had turned out. )

I think I got to brush your hair and that was it.

[ yeah, yeah, yeah. katherine pulls a face to convey as much. ]

You did a poor job of it, too. I had knots for days.

[ she looks at him pointedly. he did all right, all things considered. what had mattered the most is that he had given her a semblence of nadia. ]

I think your hair was a goner before I got down there. Damon was the one in charge of helping you out.

( and then he'd decided to come down there, against her wishes, and tried to do his best to pick up where his brother had left off. )

Your hair survived.

Barely.

[ she scoffs playfully. ]

How many Salvatores does it take to brush someone's hair? Apparently more than two.

[ granted, stefan does a good job of it these days. but for the sake of her argument, he's made a lot of progress from being absolutely bad at untangling those stubborn knots. ]

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