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It took Klaus a second to realize what was going on, to understand the sight he had unexpectedly stumbled upon as he took a brisk walk along the deserted side of the building. Of course, coming across a vampire feeding off their dance partners during prom dances was nothing remarkable considering this was Mystic Falls, where half the town residents he knew were some kind of supernatural existences and any sort celebrated events were known to have very high mortality rate especially dance events. No, what was startling was the sight of the figure so familiar; one hand wiping blood off her lips and a body dumped unceremoniously on the ground by her feet.
For a moment, the name Katerina almost escaped his lips, but something about the genuine look in the dopperganger’s eyes, something about her unmoved and yet dynamic expression stopped him. “Now what do we have here?” he said with his usual drawl instead, the moment of uncertainly gone instantly. “I heard from Caroline about your recent- change, but I must say I found it quite hard to believe until now”
She shrugged uncaringly, even as she shot him an impossibly disarming smile -a smile so unlike the usual Elena or even Katerina- and he felt something along the line of fascination rising in him. “Really? I hope she didn’t bore you out with all her whiny complains. I had enough of Stefan and Damon going on endlessly about it”
Klaus took a step closer to her even as she kicked the body aside. He couldn’t help but notice the spot of blood at the right side of her mouth that she failed to wipe away. “So you really don’t care after all?” he asked, genuinely curious as the memories of all her self-sacrificing approaches and mind-set flashed across his mind, making this girl in front of her felt too unreal.
“Why should I? You don’t care either right?” She smiled again at him, and this time her smile was much more frivolous.
And Klaus finally understood why he felt fascinated. The usual Elena never smiled at him, for obvious reasons since he was an enemy she couldn’t wait to get rid of, which was why he never realized how delightful and positively charming her smiles were, until now. “Hmm no, I don’t”, he agreed, once again distracted by the spot of dry blood on her mouth.
“But your brother does though”, she said flippantly.
“Elijah?” Klaus looked up in surprise. That was one too many surprises in just the span of five short minutes of meeting this new Elena “You met him?”
“Yes, he was hoping that I’d be able to er- recover from this”, the doppelganger said lightly, though her eyes had a playful shine to them, as though she found the idea completely hilarious.
“Well, he was always the decent one in the family”, he bantered on with her, even as a part of his mind wondered exactly what his brother must have felt the moment he realized that Elena, the pure-hearted girl who he clearly had a soft spot and respect for, became a monster just as much as the next vampire. “Poor Elijah, he must be horrified at your transformation”, he said wryly as he finally reached out his hand to wipe at the blood by her mouth.
“Well, that’s too bad for him and everybody else, isn’t it?” Without missing a heartbeat, she leaned daringly into his touch and smiled sharply against his hand. “Because I like the way I am now”
This time, he couldn’t completely conceal the amazement from his expression. This was nothing like dealing with Katerina. Even with the “switch” turned off, he could see that this girl in front of him was different from the previous doppleganger. Katerina, for all her sexy smiles and gentle words, regardless of whether she was human or vampire, acted with the intent to manipulate things to her favor all for the sake of her desperate survival. She clung so frenziedly to her fragile existence that she no longer understood what it meant to simply just live and be herself.
Elena, on the other hand, had no such problems. Her eyes were uncaring and indifferent, but they were more alive than anything he had ever seen in her. By throwing away all her “emotions”, she was now simply living her life in the carefree manner of a man who had all his problems and burdens magically banished. She was simply satisfied with herself, happy with the way she was now and saw no need for all the tiring games of lies and pretences that Katerina and even his sister were so fond of employing.
Answering the glint of challenge she was directing at him, with her faced still turned coyly into his hand, he bent down slightly towards her and let his lips touched her throat. He could feel her slight tremble, not with fear but with excitement, and he gently laid a kiss there. The temptation to take a bite crossed his mind briefly, but he resisted. There was something he found very attractive, not to mention refreshing about her right now. Someday, her humanity would catch up to her. Someday, she would flipped the “switch” back on and probably regret every single moment of this (and he couldn’t wait to see that as well), but for now, he would enjoy this.
Extending a hand to her in his best gentlemen gesture, he asked playfully “Would you like to have a dance with me?”
Unsurprisingly, she smiled approvingly at him this time as she took his hand and dragged him towards the dance floor without so much as a look in the direction of the body she so callously discarded.
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