"Katherine..."
The single word hung in the air, filled with disbelief and a century of longing. Katherine, Lucien, and Elena turned to see Damon Salvatore standing there, his face a mask of shock.
His designer clothes were slightly rumpled, as if he'd been traveling, and his blue eyes were wide with an emotion that bordered on religious awe.
For a moment, no one spoke. Katherine's posture shifted subtly - not quite tensing, but adjusting, like a predator assessing a new variable in her environment.
Lucien himself internally immediately recognized Damon- remembering particularly the last time they met, how he barbaqued the mutant vamp.
Elena though was for the most part confused, and watching with curiousity and wariness, at the newcomer.
When Damon finally managed to speak again, it was just one word, barely above a whisper:
"How?"
Katherine remained silent for a long moment, leaning against Lucien as she studied Damon with cold amusement.
Instantly understand all the questions within that single word.
How are you here?
How are you alive and not dessicated?
How are you free?
How, how, how, how, HOW?!
The other diners continued their meals, eyes sliding away from the scene as if it didn't exist - Lucien's aura ensuring their privacy despite the public setting.
"I was never in the tomb, Damon," Katherine finally said, her voice casual, as if discussing the weather. "I let everyone think I was."
There was another long silence, as Damon was processing her words, when suddenly his legs seemed to give out beneath him, and he collapsed to his knees on the restaurant's hardwood floor.
The color drained from his face, his breathing becoming uneven as he processed her words.
"But... all this time..." he managed, his voice breaking. "I've been looking to free you. For a hundred and forty-five years..."
Katherine shrugged elegantly. "And that was your choice."
"Why?" Damon's voice strengthened slightly, his eyes fixed on Katherine as if she might disappear if he looked away. "If- If you were free all this time, why didn't you come to me? Didn't- Didn't you love me?"
Katherine's expression softened into something resembling sympathy. She rose from her seat with fluid grace and approached Damon, crouching before him. Her finger lifted his chin, forcing him to meet her gaze.
"No," she said simply. "I was never in love with you, Damon."
The words landed like physical blows. Damon's face contorted, disbelief warring with devastation.
"But you said-"
"I never told you that I was in love with you, Damon." Katherine interrupted, her voice gentle but unyielding.
Silence fell between them, heavy and oppressive. Katherine returned to her seat beside Lucien, leaning slightly against him.
Damon remained on his knees, processing her words. Slowly, he began to rise, his hair falling forward to hide his eyes, his body trembling with barely contained emotion.
"You used me," he said, his voice gaining strength. "You used me and Stefan."
"I can give you that I used Stefan," Katherine replied with a sigh after a moment of silence, as she settled back in her chair.
"But you? You knew everything, Damon. For the entire time we were together. I even compensated you by granting what you wanted - immortality. Power, eternal youth, the ability to bend others to your will, freedom... Wasn't that what you always wanted?
What you begged from me? To have control? To have power? Since you never had it in your life? Always under your father's heel?"
She took a sip of her wine before continuing. "I wasn't the one who told you to follow after me, to search for me for a century and a half.
I couldn't simply come to you or send you a message to stop - especially with how your obsession had already reached many circles in the supernatural world.
If I told you I was free, you wouldn't have stopped searching for me, making it known that I was free, and that would've jeopardized my safety."
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "You know how much I care about my safety, don't you?"
Damon stood in silence. Slowly, he raised his head, his hair no longer hiding the raw pain in his eyes.
"No, Katherine, no, just- no..." he said, his voice low and intense. "What I- What I wanted was for YOU to be with ME. I would've done everything you asked - I did everything you asked. I looked the other way while you slept with my brother, I protected you from the Council, I gave you everything."
His voice rose with each word. "After everything I did for you - everything - I wasn't enough? Not even close?!"
Katherine fell silent, resting her cheek in her palm, elbow on the table. After a long moment, she stated gently, "You're not listening. Don't you get it? I never lied to you. I was never in love with you. I never told you that I was in love with you. You were the one who has been trying to convince yourself I was for over near on 150 years."
Before Damon could respond, Lucien wrapped his arm around Katherine, pulling her closer to him. His demeanor had shifted subtly - his posture straighter, his eyes more focused, his expression cooler.
"I grow tired of this," he said, his voice carrying quiet authority. "This was supposed to be our relaxing date, not... this." He glanced dismissively at Damon. "We should go. Stefan should know that his brother is in town."
At the mention of Stefan, Damon's expression shifted from devastation to surprise. But when he saw how Lucien held Katherine - and more importantly, how she leaned into him with a tenderness Damon had never witnessed - his eyes darkened with jealousy.
The scene before him seemed designed to torment him: Katherine nestled against Lucien with genuine affection, while this unknown girl, who looked exactly like Katherine - Elena -locked her arm through Lucien's other side, looking at him with love, so, so much love.
"Oh, I get it now," Damon sneered, his voice laced with mockery. "You're done with me - just tossing me aside, like yesterday's trash, now that you have no use for me. So tell me..." His eyes locked on Lucien, dark with fury. "Are you the bitch's new boy toy?"
Katherine and Elena both turned to him with identical glares - if their looks could kill, Damon would have died a hundred times over.
Before either could respond, Elena moved like a blur, appearing directly in front of Damon. Her hand connected with his face in a slap so powerful it sent him crashing to the floor.
"Never insult my big brother and elder sister like that again," Elena ordered, her voice cold as ice as she looked down at Damon.
Damon was speechless, shocked into a long moment of silence, as he looked up at Elena, from the ground, hand on his cheek.
Finally, while rubbing it his, he slowly rose to his feet, grimacing as he spat a broken tooth and blood onto the polished floor. As he fully rose, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Brother?" he asked, confusion evident in his voice. "You mean, you're all siblings?"
The silence that followed was confirmation enough for Damon. He looked again at how Lucien held Katherine, remembered the way Elena had looked at Lucien, and his face twisted in disgust.
"Well, color me impressed. Family dinners must be a riot - pass the salt, then fuck your sister. Real classy."
The word had barely left his lips when Damon suddenly looked down in shock. Lucien stood before him - he hadn't even seen him move - with his hand buried wrist-deep in Damon's chest, fingers wrapped around his heart.
Lucien's other hand gripped the back of Damon's neck, holding him in place. "Shh," he whispered, his voice soft but menacing, as the vampire began to choke on his own spit and blood in surprise. "I'm really growing tired of your presence."
Damon's eyes widened in pain and fear as he felt Lucien's fingers tighten around his heart. Katherine seeing this, tilted her head, as she then approached, observing the scene with detached interest.
"As annoying as Damon is, Stefan might be upset if you kill his brother here," she remarked casually.
Lucien remained silent for a long moment, his eyes never leaving Damon's.
Then, suddenly, he wrenched his hand free - leaving Damon's heart intact but causing significant damage.
He pushed Damon against the wall with force. Damon hit it with a powerful thud, unable to keep his balance as he slid to the floor, blood pouring from his chest as it slowly began to regenerate.
"He really can't keep his balance, can he?" Elena observed coldly. "Constantly falling."
Katherine, with a hint of surprise, turned her head toward Elena, her eyes widening slightly before her lips curved into a mischievous smirk. She approached her little sister and wrapped an arm around Elena's shoulders. "My, my, I didn't know you had it in you, Lil' Sis. Since when has kind, sympathetic 'Lena become so cold?" she asked playfully, pulling her closer.
Elena blushed slightly at Katherine's attention, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear elegantly with her fingers. "Those who are bad to those I love don't deserve kindness or sympathy," she replied with a slight 'hmph.' "He insulted all of us. Plus- If I remember correctly from the story about Lulu's scar, it was because of his this guy here."
As Damon looked up, he frowned, chest still healing, trying to follow.
He'd never met this guy… had he?"
He studied Lucien's face more carefully, and slowly pieces began to click into place: the long brown hair, the blue eyes, the face that lost its childishness. Finally, his eyes widened in recognition.
"You- you're that kid-" he began.
"Yessssss," Lucien confirmed with a proud hiss, crouching down before Damon. A smirk played across his face as he added, "The one you chose to try and kill. The one who fried you deeper than fried chicken. The one who called you a cuck while at it."
Damon grimaced, glowering as his body continued to heal. He attempted to rise, but Lucien placed a hand on his shoulder, effortlessly pinning him in place.
"We're not done yet," Lucien stated calmly.
Damon glared at Lucien, who looked down at him with amusement at his pain. But beneath that amusement, Damon saw something else in those eyes - something carefully hidden but unmistakable: disgust and profound hate.
After a long moment of silence, Damon realized the futility of resistance. This wasn't the child he'd fought years ago; this was someone who could crush him like an ant.
"Why do you look at me like that?" Damon finally asked, huffing.
Lucien tilted his head. "Like what?" he asked with seemingly genuine curiosity.
"With so much hate and disgust," Damon specified. "I doubt it's because of what happened eight years ago. You had your payback - plus extra, with how - as you so 'nicely' put it - 'deep fried me.' So why?"
Lucien remained silent for a long, long moment, his expression contemplative, as if deciding whether to answer. Finally, his face hardened with decision as he looked Damon directly in the eyes.
"Because you're the embodiment of everything I'm not and hate."
Lucien placed his palm on his own chest in a self-referential gesture. "See, I am also a big brother to my own little brother. And I... pride myself on taking care of him and always protecting him. You though..." Lucien's brows furrowed into a mocking comtemplative frown, "Well- you MAY have been a good protector and big brother in childhood, but..."
He paused. "As the story that is known shows, that didn't last long."
He glanced briefly at Katherine. "Katherine here - though I love her now, very, very much, who has already paid plenty for her evil actions - believe me, she has, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to forgive her - was quite the evil monster in those days.
The way she treated Stefan was horrendous. Compelling him, taking his free will and agency away, treating him as she pleased."
Lucien's voice hardened. "But what I despise more is how you knew about it - knew she compelled Stefan, taking away his choice - and accepted it, were okay with it, knowing of it, and still loved the one who was hurting your little brother, just because you wanted to be with her."
His eyes narrowed. "You were selfish. You chose your own selfishness over your own brother. For a century and a half, you chose to make your little brother's life miserable, having promised him an eternity of misery - simply because Stefan forced you to transition into a vampire so that he wouldn't be alone for eternity."
"You don't know what you're-" Damon began with a growl, trying to protest, but Lucien once more put his palm on Damon's shoulder and shushed him, pushing him harder into the wall- careful still though not to crack it.
"Don't interrupt me," he ordered quietly. "I don't like interruptions."
Damon glared, but again, seeing how futile it all was, grit his teeth, and obeyed.
After ensuring Damon's silence, Lucien continued. "I'm not going to stand here and excuse Stefan completely, because he did take your choice of dying as a human away from you and forced you to be a vampire. But Stefan is STILL your little brother.
He didn't do it out of malice. He didn't try to hurt you. He thought he was saving your life. He wanted you to be with him, because he loved you.
It is the big brother's job to take care of his younger siblings, and you have failed that task - spectacularly, I might add."
Lucien's voice took on a tone of cold judgment. "You are selfish, a pathetic big brother, a cuck, weak in mind, spirit, and body - again, the very antithesis of me.
So, how can I possibly not hate and be disgusted by you? When the very nature of your existence is against all I am?" Lucien questioned, geniunely curious to Damon's answer.
Throughout this all, Damon had been gritting his teeth, them cracking slightly from how hard he grit them in rage, and humiliation, clenching his fists until his nails drew blood from his palms.
"You done?" he finally asked, voice tight with controlled fury.
A slow smile spread across Lucien's face. "Yes, I'm done," he said simply, rising from his crouching position. Surprisingly, he hoisted Damon up by his clothes.
As he held Damon, Lucien also used telekinesis to collect the blood and broken tooth from the floor.
The molecules slowed at his command, freezing into crystalline particles before crushing into fine dust. With a subtle gesture, he sent the evidence into a nearby trash receptacle.
"Katherine, Elena, we're going home," Lucien called, still holding Damon by his shirt as he walked toward the exit.
Damon struggled against Lucien's grip. "Where the hell are you taking me?" he demanded.
"Are you deaf?" Lucien asked, not bothering to look back. "I literally just stated that we're going to my home."
"Okay, smartass, why?" Damon pressed, still fighting against Lucien's hold.
They reached the parking lot, where Lucien opened the back door of their car and pushed Damon inside. He slid in beside him, tossing the keys to Katherine as she arrived and opened the car door.
"Drive," he instructed simply.
Katherine and Elena exchanged confused glances but did as told, Katherine taking the driver's seat while Elena settled in beside her.
As the car pulled away from the restaurant, Lucien turned to face Damon. "I hate your guts," he stated bluntly.
A long silence followed before Damon raised an eyebrow. "I'm sensing a 'but' coming," he observed sardonically.
"But," Lucien continued, "Stefan still cares for you despite everything, so I plan to reunite you and let him deal with you. Since the sins I'm primarily furious at, and are unpaid for, are towards Stefan."
He paused. "Your other sins - if Stefan still wants you alive - I'll grant you a chance to make up for them, and while at it, I'll have my fun making you miserable."
Lucien's demeanor as he finished saying this, suddenly shifted to something colder and more threatening. He pointed his thumb toward Katherine and Elena in the front seats.
"Also, keep this in mind, if you want to continue being. They. Are. Mine," he declared, punctuating each word.
"If you try anything, and I mean ANYTHING, even an inappropriate look - and my definition of that is BROAD - consequences be damned, I will gouge out your eyes and make sure they can't regenerate, believe me, I can do that.
So don't have any ideas or fantasies, because I can also sense your emotions. So keep your imagination also in check."
His voice lowered to ensure his message was perfectly clear. "You won't stay where I live. This is only until you and Stefan meet. Afterwards, you'll go back to your own place."
Damon couldn't hide a slight shiver at the thought of permanent blindness.
He whistled, looking away toward the road. "Possessive much?" he commented, trying to maintain some semblance of control.
Lucien shrugged unapologetically. "I'm not a cuck like you."
Damon bristled at the word, as he turned and glared at him. "Stop calling me that," he demanded through clenched teeth.
Lucien's lips curved into a smirk. "No," he stated simply. "I did say I'll make your life miserable. So deal with it."
The car continued down the dark Chicago streets, heading toward the Mikaelson mansion, as snow began to fall more heavily outside.
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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all liked the chapter.
Do tell me how you found it.
So, Lucien is taking Damon to meet Stefan, I hope you guys are looking forward to that reunion.
Also- Damon fans, I am particularly interested in what you thought of this chapter.
I made sure to not make Lucien's hate and disgust for Damon be illogical. By nature of who Lucien is- this is how he would treat Damon, and I'm interested how you felt about that.
Well, I hope to see you all later,
Bye!)