deny deny deny

ATHENA FLINCHED AT THE SOUND OF HER FRONT DOOR SHUTTING. Her hands clenched in the blankets on her bed as her dad's car backed out of the driveway, barely home before he was gone again.

Where her arm was strewn to the side, she turned to look at the ichorous liquid twinkling beneath her skin, slowly crawling to her face. Her body wasn't burning from the sensation this time. She wasn't choking on it anymore, no longer rejecting whatever was happening to her.

She wondered if it had to do with Lexi almost dying, all because of Damon's recklessness. If Stefan hadn't heard the struggle behind the Grill, Damon would've staked Lexi. It would've been a catalyst to everything, Athena's sure.

She knew when she looked into his blue eyes last night that he was lashing out, perhaps because of her anger with him, or simply because of Stefan. The thought angered her, yet she understood his rage, in a sense. In his own twisted way, Damon just wanted his brother to be okay and he understood that being with Elena or continuing down this self-righteous, martyrish path that he'd set out on could only end badly.

It had only become a harder task to keep him off that path now that Elena knew about vampires, and decided for herself and everyone else that she had to be a part of this life. Stefan's endless empathy for humans, in general, was something of an issue to begin with, but his particularly soft spot regarding Elena didn't bode well for anyone involved.

Athena slid her arm along her bed, blindly reaching for her phone. Her stiff fingers ached like they were frostbitten when she clenched them around her cell, but she ignored the pain in her hand in favor of dialing a number she'd long since memorized.

It only rang twice, something she was grateful for as a tear slid over her cheek and across the bridge of her nose due to her position lying on her side.

"Athena?"

She whimpers, squeezing her eyes shut. "Damon?"

"Are you alright? What's going on?"

"It's happening again," She bites out, feeling faint even though she's already lying down. She thinks she might pass out, but she can't be sure. Even though it's not hurting her this time around, it's still doing something, and despite how much she and Damon have already looked, there is no playbook on just what is happening to her. "I'm really scared, Damon."

She hears a rustle on the other side of the phone and she squeezes her eyes shut as she wraps her free arm around herself in an attempt to stop the tingling sensation numbing them. "Damon?"

"Is your front door unlocked?"

Despite him being unable to see her, she shakes her head. "I can just– hold on," She pushes herself up off the bed and swings her legs over the side, wincing at the way black spots cloud her vision.

She stood, trailing slowly out of her bedroom and down the stairs, clinging to the railing the whole way. Passing the mirror in the hallway, she averted her gaze at the sight of herself looking half-dead and practically glowing, and trudged through the living room, all the way to the front door.

She raised her phone to her ear again, hearing Damon's light breathing on the other side still. "I'll just be," She heaves a deep breath, spots clouding her vision once more. "I'll be in the living room."

"Just go sit down, Athena. I'll be there in a few minutes,"

She nods to herself and pushes off the wall by the door, only to groan when the static in her body begins to turn into the familiar torturous burning sensation.

"Athena?"

"I don't," She gasped out, her hip bumping into the glass table against the wall. "I don't know what's happening,"

Her hand holding the phone rose once more and she cried out as her body jerked, trying to escape the pain inside of her. "Damon, help,"

She only hopes that he hears her as she tumbles to the ground, unconscious before she even hits the floor.

──────

When she comes to, it only takes a moment for everything to rush back to her. Sighing shakily, she turns her head against the couch cushion to look at where Damon's sitting in a chair beside her, a glass of her dad's whiskey in his hand.

Blue eyes shift to her, having heard her regain consciousness, and she's met with a frown from the vampire. "Oh, good, you're alive,"

"I feel like I was hit by a bus," She groans, pushing herself up into a seated position on the couch. "How long was I out?"

"An hour or two," Damon sighs, leaning forward to set his glass on a coaster. "Where's your dad?"

She furrows her brows briefly, shrugging a shoulder. She's relieved to find that when she looks down at her arms, she finds no evidence of the matter left behind. "He's in Washington, or New York, I wasn't listening. He'll be gone for like, a month. For work."

Damon looks at her confusedly. "What lawyer has to be gone for a month for work?"

"I don't know," She shakes her head incredulously at him. "I don't ask questions. Most teenagers would love to have their house to themselves for weeks at a time."

Athena pushes herself up off the couch, grateful that her body seems to have gained all of its strength back in the hours she was unconscious. She steps past Damon, who watches her with accusing eyes she avidly avoids meeting in her haste to get back upstairs.

Much to her dismay, she hears his heavy footsteps follow her up the staircase, right into her bedroom.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Athena stops, her robe and towel draped over her arm as she spins to face him. "I'm going to shower, and you're going to lock the front door behind you."

He scoffs as if her words are entirely unreasonable. "No, you're coming to my house where I can watch you and make sure you don't try to brain yourself again."

She narrows her eyes at him. "I don't need to come to your house, Damon."

"I don't remember asking. Pack your stuff, let's go."

"I'm not going to stay at your house for a month, Damon, I need to," She stops, thinking. I need this to stop happening to me. I need to stay away from Stefan because he's obviously still caught up on Elena. I need to figure out what I'm going to do if this thing inside of me is killing me. Shaking her head, she clears the rapidly spiraling thoughts from her head. "I need to stay here and make sure there's no break-ins or anything."

He laughs incredulously. "I know for a fact that your dad has a very expensive, very elaborate security system because who wouldn't, with a house like this?" He gestures to her bedroom and she rolls her eyes, refusing to agree with him.

"Damon, I–"

"What's the point in arguing when you know that I'll just get my way?"

Athena's jaw drops slightly as she huffs a laugh in disbelief. "You aren't going to get your way. I promise."

──────

"Athena!" Lexi's grin met her as she walked in the front door of the boarding house, a glare on her face directed at a smug-looking Damon who bypassed both of them for the minibar. "We're roomies now, how cool is that?"

Athena huffed a disgruntled noise, adjusting her stuffed-full bag on her shoulder. "At least I won't be drowning in testosterone,"

Lexi's eyes widened in agreement and she took one of Athena's bags from her hands and held it weightlessly. "We should go tell Stefan the good news,"

The brunette's eyes widen impossibly and she stops her stroll down the hallway to look at Lexi incredulously. "Stefan doesn't know I'm staying here?"

Lexi narrowed her eyes, watching Athena's face closely. "No, he doesn't. He's somewhere nearby though, so we can just go find him really quick–"

"No, no, that's, uh," She shakes her head adamantly, tearing her gaze away from Lexi's scrutinizing one. "That's fine. I'll just talk to him later."

"Did something happen–"

"Athena?"

Athena grimaces, her eyes pinching shut. "Shit,"

Plastering a smile on her face, she wrenches her eyes back open and meets Stefan's wary gaze. "Hey, Stefan. So great to see you, I was just going to find a room. Lexi will explain everything."

She steps towards him, shouldering past him gently. Stefan reaches out for her arm, but she swiftly removes herself from his grasp and pushes past him, walking down the hallway as fast as she can without simply breaking out in a sprint.

Lexi watches the interaction with wide eyes, her face shifting into a taunting grin that Stefan narrows his eyes at once Athena is out of sight.

"What, Lexi?"

"What did you do to her?"

Stefan shoves his hands in his jacket pockets, hiding the way his fingers clench at the reminder of their almost-kiss. "I didn't do anything."

"Well she looks like she's pissed at you and I'd ask her what happened, but I'm almost positive it's all your fault."

"What? How do you know it isn't Athena's fault?"

Lexi's eyes widened at his defensiveness. "Oh, so something did happen,"

Lexi watched her best friend deflate, and though her curiosity had been struck, she couldn't dwell on the thought any longer as her desire to prod Athena about what was going on trumped everything else.

Stefan shook his head, refusing to let her bait him any further. "No, nothing happened," He heaved a sigh. "Nothing at all. And, hey– Damon wants to speak to us. All of us."

"He almost killed me, I don't have to listen to him."

"Just, do me a favor and humor him? I'm sure it's nothing serious."

She rolls her eyes and groans dramatically, just to see a slight smile on Stefan's face. "Fine. I'll go get Athena and we'll meet you in the living room. Try not to strangle your brother yet, I want to be there to watch the show."

──────

"You're doing what?!" Athena sat up on the couch, her shocked face mirroring the two others staring at Damon. "Damon, have you gone crazy? Do we need to put you down?"

"I volunteer," Lexi holds her hand up, earning a scolding look from Stefan and a glare from Damon.

"I'm not crazy– well, not in this context. I'm just telling you all that I can bring Katherine back, and I plan on doing so," His blue eyes fall to Athena, narrowing accusingly. "I could've done it already if you hadn't interrupted my conversation with Caroline."

"Oh, screw you," Athena rolls her eyes at the vampire. "You could've had anyone else do it, but you chose Caroline to piss me off."

"And it worked," He smiled smugly, making her hold her middle finger up at him. "Point is, I'm not asking for help, I'm just doing you all a favor and warning you."

Stefan shakes his head, looking at his brother questioningly. "How can you bring Katherine back? How can you want that?"

"Before Katherine and the others were killed in the church, do you remember what it was like in this town?"

"I remember the fear and the hysteria,"

Damon nods in agreement with his words. "Townspeople were killing vampires one by one. When they came for Katherine, I went straight to Emily, said I'll do anything, name your price. She did."

Lexi leans forward from her place on the arm of the couch. "How?"

The raven-haired man waves his hand around carelessly. "She did some kind of spell with the crystal. And while the church was burning, and we thought Katherine was burning in it, she wasn't."

Stefan shakes his head at Damon's words. "But I saw her go inside,"

"There's a tomb underneath the church. The spell sealed Katherine in that tomb, protecting her."

"Are you telling me that Katherine is alive?" Stefan looked at his brother, unable to keep the disbelief out of his voice.

He shrugs. "If that's what you wanna call it. She's been trapped in a mystical holding cell for the last century and a half, but you're an expert on starving a vampire, so how do you think she's doing, Stefan?"

Athena looked at Stefan curiously at Damon's words, and he seemed to pointedly avoid her prodding gaze. Unease settled in her chest and she forced her attention back to Damon, missing the way that Lexi looked at her apologetically.

"Did you know that witches can use celestial events to draw energy into their magic? Me either. But in order to give the crystal its power, Emily used the comet that was passing overhead. And in order for that crystal to work again,"

"The comet," Athena supplies, earning a nod from Damon. "How could she even survive that long?"

Damon nods in agreement, grimacing at the thought of going without blood for so long. "There were a couple of hiccups along the way with the crystal, and with no help from Athena, Bonnie now has the crystal."

Stefan stands, stepping towards Damon as his words sink in slowly. "Why would Emily— why would she do this for you?"

"Because she knew they were gonna come for her, too, and she made me promise that her lineage would survive."

"I remember. You saved her children."

"It's the only thing keeping me from ripping that little Bonnie girl's throat out to get my crystal back," He rolls his eyes but shrugs. "Oh, well, a deal's a deal. Drink?"

Athena glances between Lexi and Stefan, pushing herself up off the couch. "I'm not advocating for Bonnie Bennett's life, but Damon... even if Katherine is still alive, let alone in that tomb, how do you know she wants anything to do with you? I mean, as far as she knows, you've left her in that tomb for almost 2 centuries."

Damon stops, narrowing his eyes at her. "I don't know, Athena. But on the subject of making a deal, I'm re-negotiating ours. You help me get the crystal and open the tomb, and I'll keep your little secret."

Athena's eyes widened and she resisted the urge to turn and meet Stefan's questioning gaze as she glared at Damon. Gritting her teeth, she heaved a sigh, wishing for nothing more than to slap the smug smirk off his face.

"Fine. A deal's a deal."

"I'm so glad we could come together on this," Damon winked at her and turned, leaving the three of them in the study together.

"Athena?" Lexi reaches for her, and Athena gently pulls away from her. "What was Damon talking about?"

"Nothing, Lexi," She shakes her head, crossing her arms over her chest as she shifts uncomfortably under their attention.

Stefan narrows his eyes, looking her up and down worriedly. "What secret? What is he talking about?"

"It's nothing," She steps away from them, hiding her clenched fists. "It's none of your business."

"None of my business? Athena, my brother is blackmailing you, why won't you let me help you?"

"Because I don't need your help!" She exclaims, flinging her hands out exasperatedly. "I know what I need to do, and I don't need your help. Just go back to worshiping Elena, or something."

Stefan flinches away from her and Athena feels guilt settle into her stomach immediately. She pulls her gaze away from his hurt one, and hurries from the room, not allowing him to see the tears spill down her cheeks.

────── 

author's note; ok i know I said I wasn't updating tonight but instead im taking my period pains out on athena and stefan (this is funny im so real - liz from the future) 

originally published; 11.11.20.

edited: 11.28.23. 

- liz