Title: my skin keeps shedding
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries.
Characters: Stefan/Katherine/Elijah.
Prompt: Debt.
Rating: Explicit.
Length: 2843.
Content warnings: Porn without plot, mentions of blood, references to PTSD.
Author’s notes: Set in season 2, alternate ending to the tomb arc. Title is from Arcade Fire’s "Put Your Money on Me."
Summary: Stefan and Elijah team up to help Katherine clean herself up after the tomb.


Breaking free out of the tomb goes a lot differently than she had intended.

For one, she thought a different Salvatore would be standing at the threshold, dark hair and bright blue eyes smug as he witnessed her tentatively place her bare and dirty foot against the invisible boundary keeping her in line. She had imagined it clearly, with the strong angle of his jawline in sharp focus.

When it’s Stefan who stands on the opposite side, arms hanging by his slips, lips slightly parted as he watches in wonderment as the Bennett witch pulls down her invisible barrier, she’s not sure what to expect. His ire, his anger, his loathing… his gentleness is unexpected.

The sweep of Elijah’s hand is a gracious invitation to step over, and it’s with trepidation, a steel to her spine, and a purposeful pressure of her foot against the invisible wall that she does so.

She lets out a breath, but she doesn’t cry. It bubbles up in her chest, an overwhelming, hot emotion of disbelief and happiness. Even as the three of them stand like a wall for her to climb, she doesn’t run.

Instead, after she exhales and laughs loosely and sharply and mirthlessly and mirthful all at once, she collapses.

*

Still in her dirtied party dress, Katherine tentatively sits on the plush couch. Elijah’s apartment is sterile and immaculate, much like him. His hair is floppier than she remembers, cut a little shorter at the back. He’s in the kitchen, tinkering away with nothing, as Stefan comes to sit beside her with a blood bag in his hand.

It’s an unusual weight in her palm, and her fingers squash it gently as if she’s a newborn vampire. When she looks at it for too long, Stefan sighs. "There’s nothing wrong with it," he says. "It’s just a blood bag, Katherine."

"And an agreement," Elijah says, standing by the doorframe of his living room. She eyes him sharply, noting his gentle smirk. His hair falls into his eyes and she wishes to brush it back. "You drink, you help us stop Niklaus."

Katherine furrows her brow. "You know better than anyone that he’s unstoppable."

"Every unstoppable force does meet its end," Elijah says with a shrug. "It’s Niklaus’ end now."

Stefan’s gaze is inquisitive as he observes the two of them, his brow arching at the mention of Klaus’ full name. He purses his lips and remains quiet, sitting a little too closely to her. His knee bumps into her bare one.

"I’ll drink if only you promise—"

"Yes, you’ll have your freedom," Elijah says patiently.

Katherine shatters the cap of the blood bag and downs it, her throat slick with blood as it oozes down her neck.

*

It’s one gilded cage to another.

Katherine slips out of her dress and unclasps her necklace from around her neck. She looks at herself in the bathroom’s mirror, noting how dirt is smudged beneath her eye, along the left side of her neck, between her breasts and disappearing somewhere unseen by the waist-height mirror. Her throat is coated in thick, drying blood, the corners of her lips looking monstrous with droplets of it.

She looks like she’s almost been torn apart by monsters.

It’s startling to see her hair in knots and the makeup around her eyes smudged like bruises. Blasting the shower water, she ensures it scalds her skin as she steps beneath it, back to the spray as it reddens her spine.

She isn’t sure how long she stands there, looking at the tiles as dirt and blood. She’s stuck in place, another invisible spell, except this one isn’t bewitched by a witch. It’s fear and it’s expectation of this happy ending of freedom being temporary.

The door clicks open softly and she can hear footsteps.

"Katherine," Stefans voice is gentle. He comes to stand near the sliding door, the glass fogged densely. "Are you okay?"

She sighs, her shoulders sagging. Her gaze remains on the tiles as she watches blood and dirt slicken the floor before disappearing into the greedy mouth of the drain. Her entire body is dirty and wrecked, and she feels like she had five hundred years ago, only the dress is shorter and less constricting.

After a moment, the door slides open. She looks up, her face blank, mouth feeling as heavy as her chest. Stefan’s clean and naked as he steps inside the small space, and she hates him for it, the way his armour remains flawless without a chink in it.

She pulls her hair away from her back as he steps behind her and steals the spray to pelt against him. She makes a noise when he presses the soap bar against her shoulder and begins to slowly move it in circles. "Sorry," he murmurs. His hand is warm against her hip and she’s very aware that the heat of the shower comes from him. "You’ve set this to burn."

"Maybe I want it to," she says, swallowing thickly. "Maybe I want to feel something that isn’t dirt and grime."

"I’m sorry I left you in there," he says. His hand is on her spine, the bar moving down the rungs of her notches. "But I got you out."

Katherine remains quiet, staring at the tiled wall before her. His hand is gentle and the soap bar feels solid against her back. His hand presses against her hip more firmly. He lathers up her back over and over until she feels as though she’s wearing a coat of soap along her spine. It’s thicker than the dress he’d left her in, deceptively feeling like armour.

Lifting his hand, he tips some water onto her shoulder. His mouth is warm against her neck as he licks at the blood behind her ear. Katherine’s hands remain hanging by her sides uselessly as she holds her breath, his teeth grazing against the side of her throat.

Stefan’s hands are big and warm as he slides them onto her belly, pushing against her. Katherine sighs and leans back against the solid anchor of his chest, and closes her eyes as his mouth works at the side of her neck and his hands, still slick with soap, slides the bar up her chest.

There’s a chance this is all a dream—one big, beautiful dream—but he presses his hips into her ass and Katherine smiles loosely at his hard cock pressing against her skin. That had felt as real as it had in the tomb.

"How long have you been feeling like this, Stefan?" She almost feels like normal again, wearing a wry twist to her lips.

He shrugs against her, arms wrapped around her firmly. He cocoons her in a way that feels familiar and unsettling—it’s the way he used to hold her in 1864. His mouth remains on her neck, his hands at her chest. One hand cups her breast while he moves the bar across her collarbones blindly, mindlessly trying to bathe her while he licks at her neck and sucks at her skin.

Her heart pounds loudly in her chest, her blood singing and rushing to the surface of her skin. She feels hungry and delirious as she had in the tomb, but this hunger feels sharper and sweeter as he brushes his thumb against her nipple. Katherine gasps and laughs lightly, the sound strange and recognisable to her ears all at once.

"You missed a spot, Mr Salvatore." Elijah’s voice is near, tone amused. A part of her mistakens his closeness as part of her little dream escapade, but when Katherine turns her head, she spies him standing at the sliding door of the shower.

Katherine doesn’t pull away from Stefan as Elijah steps inside, skin bared and immaculate as he moves within the large space to stand in front of her. Stefan’s mouth is still on her neck as his hands remain against her chest.

She watches Elijah openly as he drops his gaze to Stefan’s hands and steps closer to her, placing his hand on top of Stefan’s against her collarbone. He easily peels the bar of soap from Stefan’s slack fingers and moves it down her chest to her other breast.

He watches her with his lips parted, his eyes dark and sharp. Katherine tries to control her breathing as Elijah slowly guides the bar of soap down her chest to her belly where he slickens her skin with soap.

"You’re not very good at this, Elijah," she says.

He chuckles low in his throat before he lowers himself to his knees. His hair is floppy and thick, and she takes him lowering himself as an invitation for her to glide her hands through the strands.

It all feels like a test, but she hardly cares. It’s touch that she’s been greedy for, and both of them threaten to overwhelm her senses.

He nudges her thighs apart and slides the bar of soap down the inside of her right leg and to her feet. He’s diligent and sparse in the way he lathers the soap against her skin, cleaning her and teasing her all at once.

He peers up at her with a lopsided grin before he bows his head and tilts upwards to lick at her cunt. Stefan’s hands grip her as she leans back into him and moans. The shower’s steam is thick and damp, and Katherine isn’t sure if it’s Elijah sucking at her clit that makes her skin feel aflame or the temperature she’s set the water to.

He licks at her leisurely, his lips curved into a smile. Stefan’s mouth is hard against her neck, teeth grazing her skin along her pulse point. He never breaks it, his mouth gentle but firm, never quite tempted or confident enough to do what she silently wills him to.

Placing the bar of soap between her feet, Elijah slides his hands up the back of her legs to knead at the back of her thighs. Sliding his tongue inside of her, Elijah licks into her and she shifts her hips against his face. He’s slow, far too slow for her liking, and she wonders briefly if this is his revenge for the last five hundred years.

Stefan gropes her breasts and kneads them, thumbs brushing against her nipples. Her skin feels aflame and red, and Katherine grips Elijah’s hair so tightly he laughs against her cunt.

When he pulls away, his face is pink and his smirk is wet. She can’t tell if he’s wet with shower water or her arousal.

Standing to his full height, he’s intimidatingly close to her. Stefan lifts his mouth from her neck, licking his lips as he nuzzles his nose into her hair. Elijah lifts his hand to cup her face, fingers gentle against her jaw as he tilts her head upwards. Parting her lips, she stares up at him stupidly. He’s one of the two most beautiful men she’s ever seen, the other currently pressed against her back and out of her eye line.

"Come on," she says, peering up at him with a smirk. "You owe me for putting me in the tomb. Both of you."

Elijah brushes his thumb against her bottom lip, his gaze gentle as he peers down at her. "Katerina—" She sucks his thumb into her mouth and feels him shiver. Licking at his lips, she’s unsure of whose breathing she can hear that labours, panting softly. Blood rushes to the surface of skin and it’s loud in the way it sings to her. Three hearts pound heavily.

His hand is warm and firm as he tugs at the back of her thigh, lifting her leg up. She lets him move her so that her leg rests near his hip. Lifting her leg up higher, she stands on the tip of her toes of her other foot and curls her hands around his shoulders.

Stefan’s behind her, hands on her hips as he steps closer to her, chest against her back. Katherine grips Elijah’s shoulders tightly and moans when Stefan slowly slides his cock inside of her ass. Elijah’s shoulders seem to splinter and repair over and over beneath her fingers.

Elijah lifts her other leg up, holding her against him. Stefan presses deliciously against her back, mouth on her shoulder as his hands wrap around her waist. Katherine leans back against him as Elijah strokes himself beneath her legs and guides his cock into her cunt.

She laughs, one hand around Elijah’s shoulder and the other blindly reaching for Stefan’s side. Stefan shifts his hips gently into hers, rocking against her softly like he had so many years ago. Elijah slides his cock inside of her until he’s pressed tightly against her, and his hands are on her thighs, bruising her skin as he begins to thrust inside of her.

Her ass stings and feels stretched around Stefan, and Elijah’s cock is thick and firm inside of her cunt as she opens up around him. She keeps her legs spread, unable to even close them to tease them both. Trapped between them, she leans heavily on Stefan and grips at Elijah like the two of them are a buoy in a tumultuous storm.

Katherine’s skin feels slick with water and soap and so hot from the steam of the shower and the two men pressed against her back and front. She grips them tightly, staring at their skin. The shower smells like blood as Stefan’s thrusts become firm and Elijah fucks into her, hips bruising hers. She hardly cares that he’s trying to punish her, moaning as she rips at their skin and embeds her nails into them.

After spending weeks within the tomb alone and empty, she feels full with them pressed against her front and back and inside of her. She tries to shift against their cocks but the tight space they press her into prevents her from being able to get a grip on either of them. Still so weak from the lack of blood, she lets them fuck her and set the pace, wanting them to believe that hey have the upper-hand in this very moment.

Stefan comes inside of her ass, his hands gripping her belly hard. His blunt nails tear at the delicate skin of her belly and he pushes them down close to her pelvis. Elijah continues to thrust into her, uncaring that Stefan’s cock’s slowly softening inside of her.

Stefan fingers her clit, panting and moaning softly behind her. Katherine’s unsure what makes it pulse firmly between her legs as Elijah thrusts into her firmly and Stefan leans forward to sloppily press his mouth against Elijah’s.

"Fuck."

Elijah chuckles, biting at Stefan’s bottom lip. When they pull back from one another, both of their mouths are covered in blood. Stefan smears it across her shoulder and neck and Elijah presses it against her mouth, tiling her head up as he licks into her possessively. Katherine whimpers quietly as Stefan shifts his hips into her ass and Elijah continues to fuck her, teeth sharp against hers as she runs her tongue along his fangs.

Biting at her bottom lip firmly, his mouth is smeared with her blood intermingling with Stefan’s. He bows his head against her cheek and comes with a sharp thrust inside of her. His cock begins to soften in her cunt as Stefan fingers her clit.

She bends her head back and feels both their mouths on her neck, Stefan on one side and Elijah’s teeth grazing the other. No matter how she twists and turns and what she reaches for, it’s them that she feels, at her back and her front, almost hiding her away like she’s something to be treasured.

When teeth sink into her neck—she’s not sure what side or if its both—and blood slides down her shoulder to her breasts, she comes with a sharp cry, jerking her hips against their cocks. Her fingers tear into skin, blood weaving into the thick steam.

Elijah pulls his face away to brush his bloodied mouth sloppily against hers. She whimpers when he pulls his cock out of her and feels his come slick the inside of her legs. Stefan’s hands remain on her belly before he pulls his hips from her. He doesn’t kiss her, not the way that Elijah does, but his hands are gentle against her hips as both her feet settle back onto the wet ground.

Eyeing Elijah’s bloodied mouth and hair sticking to his forehead, he smirks and lets his gaze travel over her newly bloodied body. "We have a lot to discuss."

He leaves, uncaring of the blood smeared across his chest. Stefan lingers, his hands travelling over the landscape of her as he continues to try and save her—the only one he thinks he can save—and cleans her up.

*

When she’s tangled up with them in bed, locked away within a new, more preferable prison, Katherine knows that this isn’t a lie. She’s not alone.