intricate design ✓

22.

Control

"OH, WOULD you stop moving so much?"

   Florence gave a glare to the girl standing before her. She, herself, was sat on her sink counter, body twisted in an uncomfortable position. When Katherine began to prod at her wound once again, she flinched, which made her lower the tweezers in her hand in annoyance.

   "Sorry I can't help but be in pain every time you touch my bullet wound," she snapped, glare remaining on her face.

   Katherine slammed the tool in her hand onto the counter, an even greater glare on her features. She felt anger bubbling up inside her gut, though it was eventually replaced by concern.

   "You think you're so badass now, don't you?" she accused, crossing her arms with the tweezers still in hand. "A couple bullets in you and suddenly you're Iron-Man?"

   Florence averted her gaze out of embarrassment, playing with the rips in her jeans as Katherine returned to pulling the bullet out of her body. She gently placed a hand on the side of the wound and used the other to guide the tweezers into her abdomen, feeling around until she finally got hold of the wooden bullet.

   This time, Florence didn't even flinch as she removed the shell, eyes still refusing to look at Katherine as her face burned up with mild humility.

   "Flore," Katherine began, tossing the bloody tweezers into the trashcan. She grabbed Florence's hands with one of hers and took her chin in her left hand, forcing her to look at her. "I just don't wanna see you get hurt, okay?"

   Her eyes peered into hers as if they were looking for confirmation that what she was saying was genuine. A grin broke out on her face when she noticed that Katherine's words were anything but false, and she squeezed her hand playfully.

   "You really are growing soft on me," she said with the same old smile on her face as she played with the girl's fingers, Katherine's eyes trained on her facial features. She lifted her gaze from her hands to Katherine and reveled in the fact that she was examining her with adoration in her eyes.

   Before she knew it, the older vampire had begun to lean in, hands slipping out of her hold as they moved across her skin to latch behind her waist. Her breath hitched at their close proximity — Katherine was standing between her legs and their chests were barely touching.

   "Flore—"

   "What the fuck — my eyes!"

   The two quickly separated at the sight of Italy at the door, Florence's cheeks burning a bright red and Katherine standing there with a smirk on her face. Italy narrowed her eyes and pointed at Katherine, anger in her gaze.

   "You, away from my baby sister."

   Florence rolled her eyes. "I'm not a kid, Italy."

   "Yeah, she's not a kid, Italy," Katherine mocked, tilting her head to the side slightly. "You jealous?"

   The newbie vampire scoffed, crossing her arms. "I may not be as old as you, but I'll still kick your ass if you touch my sister like that again."

   "Like what?" she asked, feigning innocence. She took a few steps forward, loosely draping an arm around Italy's neck as she brought her lips in closer. Evil was in her eyes — anyone could see it. "Like this?"

   "Katherine," Florence scolded, chest aching with . . . jealousy?

   Italy shoved her arms off her body and sneered, blood boiling with rage. "I swear on everything holy, Katherine Pierce—"

   "Anyway," the girl began, tone bland, "all this sibling rivalry's getting me bored. Don't tell me you two are getting inspired by the Salvatores."

   Florence's eyes widened at the mention of the two brothers and she quickly pulled out her phone to reveal an endless amount of missed calls from the older brother. She hopped off the counter and rushed to her bedroom, much to the confusion of the two girls that remained in the bathroom once she left.

   Italy stormed out of the room, mind spinning with insults she was prepared to hurl at Katherine at any given moment, and Katherine sped off to where she had always gone once Florence expressed her wants of being alone: the blonde's bedroom.

   She caught the girl in the middle of a heated phone call with Damon and plopped down on her bed, sending her an innocent smile when she gave her a glare. Ignoring her presence, Florence returned to the phone call.

   "He shot you, Bambi," he ranted, which made Florence frown at the care in his voice whenever she was mentioned. "Now I'm vengeful. He's at your school and you bet your ass I'm hunting him down."

   "You're not doing that," she quickly shot down the idea. "It's too dangerous, Damon."

   "It's a school, Florence," he said and she could picture the silly smile on his face through the tone of his voice. "What could go wrong?"

   "A lot," she deadpanned. Her voice got gentler and she muttered, "Stay safe, okay?"

   On the other side of the phone call, he smiled genuinely, though his tone didn't reflect off of that; "Whatever you say."

   Without another word, he hung up the phone and Florence turned around to face Katherine, who was staring off into the distance.

   "What're you thinking?" asked Florence, taking a seat on the bed, not too far from where Katherine was sat.

   The older girl patted her thigh reassuringly, though Florence knew something was wrong with the way her smile began to tighten.

   "Nothing important."

   Just like that, Katherine left the room to join Italy in the kitchen and Florence was left alone once again, lost in her thoughts. She replayed everything that had happened that morning that led up to her situation with Katherine in the bathroom and she felt her skin burning, heart skipping a beat at the thought of the two even remotely close to kissing — was that what Katherine was about to do? Kiss her?

   Whatever it was, it brought a giddy smile to Florence's face and had her squealing into her pillow, the smile permanently carved into her skin. A voice in the back of her head told her it was the slightest bit strange that she had fallen for a carbon copy of Elena, but she knew Katherine was nothing like her — she couldn't imagine being with Elena. The thought itself made her sick.

   However happy she may have been that night, she knew the next day would bring unwelcome circumstances into her already hectic life.