For Finta.
By Incanto.
Katherine often remembers it as the happiest time of her life. Mostly, she forgets the coarser bits, focusing instead on those fragments of memory where they were almost a normal family, the family Stefan and Damon had thrown so cruelly away. After the beatings began, it had grown more difficult to remember everything all at once; nowadays, Katherine only remembers things in pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle always hovering near completion.
He once came home in the morning to find her cradling a baby. Wild claims of pregnancy followed, and she couldn't understand why he chose not to play along. It was only later - waking up to find bits of flesh and little bones thrown against the wall, smudged in her hair and staining the tattered sheets - that she came to her solemn conclusion that Klaus must not be ready for children yet. He'd come around eventually, though, she was quite certain of it. And when he did, she could always find another expectant mother to rip open. Maybe next time, he would even help her cut the funny little cord.
Sometimes he was even gentler than Stefan. Katherine said that to him once, and her reward for it was a beating so severe that she'd forgotten what happened afterward. Though her foolishness occasionally led to similar comparisons, and similar beatings, mostly Katherine learned not to bring the matter up again, to simply enjoy the good things while they lasted. And she did enjoy the good things; even now, in the ruins beneath Fell's Church, when there is nothing to do but wait, Katherine curls up and dreams of them. She dreams in colors so vivid no human mind could comprehend it, in warm crimsons and glowing silvers and shades of yellow that have never been named and shades of blue that hide deep in her lapis eyes, and sometimes in inky blacks that bleed through the pages and soft greens that remind her of betrayal.
Now and then, he'd bring her a gift still covered in the blood of its previous owner, the icing on top of the cake. On her birthday - what she remembered as her birthday, at any rate - he might even comb her hair. This was a feat taking hours to complete, but he brushed it down to the last inch until it glistened, even if he did tear some out now and again. Her favorite memories though, the ones that whirl in her mind all warm and golden, are the feasts. Sating themselves on entire families in one swoop made them both content and lazy, even scornful, tireless Klaus; sometimes they'd simply collapse on top of the bodies together, and Katherine would sigh as Klaus tangled himself in her hair, nuzzling at the hollow of her throat, leaving little bloodstained marks where his lips - and teeth - had been. He never said the sweet things Stefan always did, but - knowing he meant them all the same - Katherine simply said them for him, and Klaus didn't seem to mind her mumbling all that much, providing she kept quiet enough.
Jeweled violets swirl in her mind, and Katherine dreams about his touch, all soft and scalding at the same time. She stares into those familiar, piercing eyes like she always did, trying so hard to discern the shade of madness underneath. Giggling, she presses up against him, clinging tightly, and feels a rib snap in her chest as her affections are returned. Then a kiss, sweet and metallic from his latest meal, leaves gashes where the teeth break her skin. Every day he crushes her, and then he puts the pieces back together with such exquisite skill that the cracks don't even show.
Actions - rough and bloody actions, he valued them over words. When Katherine killed him, it was only to show Klaus how she loved him in the best way she knew; he'd done the same for her all those years, so Katherine felt it only fitting. He wouldn't have beaten her when she did something wrong if he didn't love her, and she never would've learned the proper ways to do things otherwise. She imagines that before he died, he'd smiled his wonderful, impossibly wide smile at her. The colors fade to reality as she opens her eyes again.
Katherine is sure that Klaus understood everything, because he always understood her, even better than she did. She smiles to herself, listening to the sound of the river overhead. He took her in when the brothers had destroyed her beautiful plans and abandoned her, and he took care of her just like any human husband would have done - no, far better than that. Lacking any real wifely skills (and what good would cooking and cleaning have done them, regardless?), Katherine nevertheless felt she had to repay him somehow, and there could be no better way to show how much she loved him than by letting him see how well she'd learned all his lessons. It is strange to her that now and then she feels a kind of tug, as though Klaus were standing just behind her...but Katherine supposes it simply means she misses him. She hasn't felt that tug since arriving in Fell's Church, and she also supposes that it must be due to the Salvatore brothers finally reacting to her own pull, coming to find the human girl who looks so very like her. Katherine sniffles like a child, all teardrops and exaggerations, at the realization that lovely Klaus won't be here at the end of it all to see what a wonderful web she's spun to trap her playthings.
But now she feels lonely, and she wants him back. She seeks to remake an old love into the image of the new. Stefan she can't bring herself to forgive, no matter how she tries, but Damon still has potential. Klaus reminded her of Damon sometimes, and Katherine knows that all Damon needs is the right upbringing, some patience on her part, and enough time. It was all she'd needed from Klaus, after all. Katherine's smile gets wider, although she never manages to smile quite as wide as Klaus could. She already has the new house all picked out. When they were both young, Damon was always so much stronger and smarter than her, but she's grown so much stronger with Klaus. She can be the teacher now, and Damon always was a quick study, when he cared to learn. She'll make him care. She doesn't even mind his dark eyes and hair; they can be changed if necessary.
The princess smiles wide at last, smiles just like Klaus, and waits to resurrect her prince.
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