#(who would have thought that a lovestruck person would be capable of drawing stuff like this )

[nessypanda-art]

I probably shouldn't just drop previews so often but I can't :,,,,,(( they're too cute........it should be illegal.......

[cartoonfangirl1218]

Mistletoe

“What can I help with, Elena?” Mateo asked as he strolled into the palace living room where Elena was elbow-deep into a box full of streamers, wreaths, bows and other Navidad decorations.

“Oh great, you’re here, Mateo!” Elena sighed gratefully, “I’ve already decorated most of the rooms but it always takes two to put up the high-up decorations’ She gestured to the arch of the doorway he was standing under.

“I’m always here to help.” Mateo shrugged off his green coat that he wore to journey from a visit to his Mom’s home. “Still I must say you’ve done a great job on your own.”

And it was true, though he had only properly viewed the living room, from what he saw of the palace, it was truly the Navidad season. There were bows on every piece of furniture, the ever present smell of gingerbread and tamales, candles lit the grand staircase and one can see pile of decorative presents at strategically placed corners in the halls.

As for the living room, it too had presents and bows and such stuff, but the Navidad tree was the true centerpiece.

“Thank you.” Elena beamed, “I just really love Navidad. Mami, Isa and I would spend the whole day decorating for it. We even made some decorations ourselves like this.” She held up a rather weathered wreath with browning pine needles and a faded white paper ribbon that Mateo could see was adorably scrawled with childrens’ drawings.

Mateo smiled, both at the wreath and at the nostalgic gaze that touched Elena. She looked so thoughtful, so beautiful when she was lost in thought.

Mateo shook his head to try to rid of that irritate thought. The one that added how beautiful Elena was with everything she did, or however she looked. Not that it was easy. Mateo thought Elena always looked amazing.

Mateo internally sighed. He had been trying to fight his feelings but it was impossible.

He tried to act normally, he didn’t make any motion to treat her especially different from how he acted with Naomi or Gabe, but he couldn’t help himself. With her, he felt himself soften a little. He felt closer to her in that if there was ever a choice between personal glory and Elena’s, he would try to help Elena achieve her triumph before him. He felt like he could be more vulnerable around her. He could confide in her about his fears and insecurities. He didn’t feel like he needed to hide any part of himself from her. And what’s more, he didn’t want to. Which is why this crush feeling was killing him.

“What would you like me to do first?” Mateo asked going for lightheartedness while these thoughts swirled in his head.

“Just help string these across the walls.” Elena handed him a string of popcorn and cranberries, and three wreaths to obviously hang at intervals.

Mateo carefully took them from her arms and climbed up the step stool that was by the wall so he could up the string by the nails already in placed. The only sound being his muffled ouches from the pine needles scrapping and Elena singing softly under her breath.

“You need nothing more than those you adore. On this holiday, let love light the way.”

An unconscious smile quirked the corner of Mateo’s mouth as he listened to one of his favorite sounds in the world. Elena’s voice.

With Elena’s lovely singing filling the silence, Mateo’s thoughts wandered off to how much he cared for the crown princess.

He supposed it had started sometime around the aftermath of Fiero’s first attack and when she proclaimed him her only choice for the royal wizard. There was just something, like a feeling of gratitude that she saw something in him that he hadn’t been able to believe in himself. A magic within as she sang it. She had been the only one who showed such trust and belief in his magic skills. He didn’t want to let her down.

He had thought that was normal. Some friendly devotion between princess and royal wizard, between friends. But then he began noticing Elena even more. The way her optimism lit up whatever room she was in. Her devotion to her kingdom. How she always believed in the best of everyone. Her strength after everything she had gone through.

The more time he spent with her, the more he wanted to get to know her. He learned some of her fears and her weaknesses and that only fueled his desire to help her. He wanted to be the one she could lean on. He said it as much when they went to Vallestrella, “I’ll always be here for you, Elena. No matter what.”

He would have to be crazy not to notice her gorgeous looks too. Her kind, enthusiastic face whose smile was like the sun, her bright eyes… he could go on and on about the multitude of traits that separated Elena from anyone else Mateo had ever met or even heard about.

His feelings, all the things he liked about her had become even stronger during the past month as Elena flitted about with her plans and excitement for the coming celebrations. During Navidad, Elena seemed particularly aglow with happiness and joy, and her dresses gave her an air of exquisite grace--like she was always floating with its fluttering silks. She was wearing the white and red poinsettia-like dress again, but she paired it this year with red velvet with fur around the cuffs and lining.

And her spirit was infectious, it just made Mateo want to sing along with her.

It was one of the many things that made him love her. The way she brought everyone together during the bright and dark times. He enjoyed those lighthearted moments as much as he treasured the faith she had in him during the bad. He only hoped he wouldn’t come to fail her in future adventures.

Suddenly Elena’s voice startled him out of his thoughts.

"Can you help me?" Elena asked with a surprising demure voice.

"Yeah, yeah, of course!" Mateo answered enthusiastically so that’s why he took a pause before walking bringing his step stool to the other side of the archway that Elena was decorating. He didn’t want to appear too eager.

“Thanks so much for the help. I wouldn’t know what I’d do without you.” Elena made an exaggerated swipe of her brow as if the whole decorating business was an exhausting manual labor.

“It’s no problem.” Mateo played along, flexing what few muscles he had like Gabe would.

Elena turned to look at him with a gaze much more thoughtful than before, “I just want to say thanks in general. You’ve done a lot for me this year. Well, ever since I met you really. You’ve really been there for me no matter what.”

Mateo blushed at Elena’s compliment, busying himself with a random streamer so she wouldn’t see his burning red face. Then they lapsed into silence once more.

It was probably for the best. He didn’t want to say something so obvious like what he did was nothing, she was the one who was amazing. She was so compassionate and determined and strong, everyone was lucky to have met her. Or say something about how gorgeous he thought she looked and then for her to realize what a lovestruck crush he had. It would completely ruin their friendship. No it was best to keep that to himself.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t aware of her closeness. Electricity ran down his spine every time they brushed against each other and he even got a sniff of her hair as she leaned over him to fix a lopsided bow. It smelled of pine needles and traces of hot cocoa. All the enticing scents of the season that he associated with peace and happiness, also associated with her. It was intoxicating.

A few minutes or maybe a half-hour later, Mateo wasn’t sure-time always seemed to fly by when he was around Elena, they stepped down their respective stools to look over their handiwork.

“I think it looks gr-” Mateo began to say when he was cut off by Elena suddenly grasping his shoulder. Another shock of spine tingles that made him shudder.

Mateo whipped his face around to see what had brought on her gasp. She was staring up at the chandelier which sparkled with the crystal it was made of as well as the opaque candles that had been placed in the candleholders that gave it an added ethereal glow. The whole thing was so sparkly that Mateo almost missed what truly got Elena’s attention.

It was a tiny sprig of green shrubbery with a red velvet bow tying it to the chandelier. It was so auspicious, it was like it was a teasing child, winking with mischievousness.

Mateo looked up and felt his world froze for a moment.

Mistletoe...the meaning behind it laid thousands of situations and opportunities for him to come out of it, both good and bad.

Instinctively he looked toward Elena to see what she was thinking, even though a small part of him feared that she would recoil in disgust. Even though he knew that situation was irrational. She was far too kind to do that. At most she would make a polite diversion.

But when he looked at her, no polite diversion was coming from Elena’s lips.

Elena was looking at him with a warm smile. He knew she should be used to such looks from her by now but it still took his breath away. Never in his life had he thought he would fully trust in someone to see him and think of him as strong and capable and wise like he was worthy to follow the legacy laid by Alacazar.

Something else was in her eyes that made him blush though. It was the sparkle. A roguish sparkle in her eyes to be exact. The kind that Mateo had seen a few times when Naomi admired Gabe’s handsomeness. And it was directed at him.

Mateo never thought of himself as particularly handsome, not to the likes of Gabe. Him, guapo was not the first word to come to mind. Maybe skinny, lanky if he was asking his mom. But not guapo. The idea that Elena would see him as guapo seemed ridiculous but with how she looked at him, a slight brush staining her cheeks, he allowed himself to imagine that she did and that twinkle wasn’t just a roguish twinkle of mischievousness at the situation they had gotten themselves into.

Elena had sidled up against him, not to make the first move but to grasp his hands. His hands were still somehow cold, but hers was incredibly warm and she widely played with his fingers. Mateo couldn’t help but note that they were almost the same size. He saw her cast a furtive glance between his lips and the mistletoe, she opened her mouth and then closed it. A blush starting to spread across her face. Once more she looked uncharacteristically demure.

The realization hit Mateo like a lightning bolt. Was it possible?

Elena’s second false start fixed Mateo’s feelings of indecision. She quite possibly liked him, and clearly she wasn’t sure if she should act or not because she didn’t know his feelings.

What were the words she had just been singing? Let love light the way? Yes, he would let his love light the way!

This was his chance to be bold and do it. To reveal all he felt to her. That he loved her. Her passionate, competitive, impulsive, enthusiastic, hilarious, vulnerable, compassionate, capable self in all her flaws and strengths. He just loved her.

Mateo took a step forward and cupped her cheek, tilting her chin so their lips were almost pressing each other. It was just the two of them, and as he stared at her warm brown eyes, he felt their surroundings fade away. As she leaned in, he felt his senses heightened to all sorts of small points that he didn’t have time to fully appreciate before like ruffle of her dress, the faint whiff of the wreath with its pine needles. But overpowering all these senses was the heat of their bodies, so close they were to another.

He licked his suddenly dry lips in anticipation, and his heart pounded faster than before. Before he could even lean in, Elena, his impatient spitfire, pulled him towards her. Their lips crashed against each other with longing fervor that Mateo felt was equal to the blast of magic he used all those years ago when he fixed the snowstorm on Navidad. That snowstorm could happen again tonight, blast all the cold air in but he wouldn’t notice. Losing some of his self-conscious inhibitions in the heat of the moment, he boldly slid his arms around her waist to pull her closer.

As they came apart, he chose not to move. He just felt the warmth of their arms around each other and the smell of her shampooed hair and savor the feeling of that he was floating on air. He couldn’t believe he kissed Elena!

And from the slight sparkle in her eyes, it seemed like the moment wasn’t just going to end there with the mistletoe.

“Mateo,” Elena said, her tone full of meaning, “I liked that.”

“Me too.” He stuttered, a hope rising in his chest that he couldn’t quite hold back and at the moment, he thought there was no reason to. A sort of calm overcame him too. Relaxing him. This feel right. The kiss, holding hands with her right now. It all felt right. He always felt a bit uller, more whole when he was with her.

Elena smiled, “Feliz Navidad, Mateo.” The words were simple, platonic-sounding to any outsider. But they both knew that it meant so much more.

Without words they were confirming that something special had grown between them. A love that was cemented through the experiences they shared together, the concerns and joys they had in common and the simple fact that they seemed inextricably drawn to each other’s lives. There was no one reason or maybe a whole host of reasons, but they felt the best when they were together.

“I always have a Feliz Navidad when I’m around you, Elena” Mateo smiled and kissed her once more on the lips, savoring the sweet smell of yule log and pine, with his heart  bursting with happiness for the Navidad holiday and the princess beside him.

[livlepretre]

We haven’t gotten to see Klaus’s perspective of Elena in FE too much - anything you can share as far as how he feels about her? Why he’s enraptured in her, as opposed to Tatia/Katherine?

Y’all are spoiling me with these FE questions! Love love love this one. 

Just a general reminder, I’m going to be discussing my interpretation of Klaus in my fic, not necessarily the Klaus we got on the tv show. 

I’ve said it before on this blog, but while Klaus does have sexual relationships, he doesn’t really have romantic ones. We do know from canon that, as a human man, he was in love with Tatia Petrova, and, personally, I head canon that she was the only woman he ever fell in love with/slept with/had a romantic entanglement with before he was turned into a vampire. What this pretty much amounts to is that while he usually doesn’t develop actual romantic feelings for people, he’s susceptible to Tatia’s doppelgangers. 

Meanwhile: I tow the line that Katherine and Elena do not merely look exactly like Tatia; I subscribe to the interpretation that they are literally identical in all ways– their souls are also duplicates, and thus, so are their minds, and everything else. The differences in, say, Katherine and Elena are basically a result of the same girl growing up and living through different circumstances. The nature is the same, exactly the same, but they have been nurtured differently. It’s why there is always such a danger and a warning in everything Katherine is and does and says, in relationship to Elena. 

So, we now have a situation where a girl exists who is already a person Klaus is capable of being genuinely attracted to. Let’s add in the fact that he has been literally obsessing over her for a millennium. And it feels like a weirdly specific fixation, because he would have been able to picture her face perfectly for all that time and fill in a general idea of her personality. And I would bet anything that Klaus was still thinking about this human doppelganger even for the 500 years when he thought she would never exist because he’s like that. 

Now, the girl exists and she is the one to actually help him break the curse– he thanks her for that in the show, and he’s creepily sincere– and then he finds himself in a situation where she becomes a part of his household. And it turns out she’s charming and entertaining, and has a cruel streak which he genuinely enjoys. And when he makes his move, expecting it to be as easy as with Katherine 500 years ago (I’ve always had the impression they were lovers for some time, probably months, before she discovered what he intended to do to her), she totally rejects him. Stomps all over his assumptions. So his real interest in her begins to be piqued. He was intrigued by the entire thing with Matt, and how he thought she responded to it. And little by little she was actually showing herself capable of living in his world, of not having her mind just snap the way a lot of humans’ would in that situation, because, let’s face it, Elena’s moral compass is sadly flexible. 

And let’s not forget that there was some stuff happening with the dreams that maybe were but maybe weren’t dreams, depending on how much you believe Klaus, that would have definitely inflamed his physical attraction to her. 

And then they go to New Orleans. And he gets to know her really well (he thinks). She’s as carefree as he’s ever seen her, and she’s interested in art, and just curious and insightful in general, and he really really enjoys her company. Then, she volunteers to help him at the solstice party. Insists on it. Klaus, at his heart, is so hungry for someone who will be on his side and follow him and want to be loyal to him without him forcing it. The idea that she would break into the witch compound to save him just bowls him over, and he’s smitten from there on out. Never mind he doesn’t know Elena’s real motives for any of it. He thinks he does. He cannot imagine that she could so successfully hide so many secrets from him. 

They only grow closer after New Orleans. Only grown more attracted to each other as Klaus starts to behave more intently, with more a specific focus on Elena. Fire feeds fire. 

Now, he really does have feelings for her, even if they are totally based on a lie of who she is, since she is keeping so much from him, and even though it’s all warped, strange and menacing Klaus feelings. 

So, at the end, it comes down to a few things. There was always the potential he would fall for her/be attracted to her, but Klaus/Elena always begs the question, why Elena and not Tatia or Katherine? Well, as Klaus is going to (eventually) explain to Elena in a far and distant chapter: 

“You could have broken the curse with anyone.” 

“But I broke it with you. And that means something. That makes you something… more than Katerina or Tatia.” 

Klaus has a weird fixation with destiny and prophecy and the idea that this is the girl to help him break it is a potent one for him. He would almost see it as Elena is the queen he’s been waiting for, whereas the others were just misdirections. It’s possible he’s not as susceptible to the mystical pull between them that Elena is so sensitive to, the draw she has mentioned several times, but it still exists because they went through that ritual together. Because her blood is the blood to have actually unchained him. 

Another thing is that Elena is now the only one of the three he has ever gotten to know very well at all. I bet he didn’t know Tatia all that well, because I suspect that as a human man he was lovestruck and prone to putting her on a pedestal and just, overawed by her. And Katherine obviously never dropped the veil with him– he didn’t even know she’d had a child. So Elena also stands out there. 

And the final thing is he is finally seeing her as an individual because of this. He’s taken that special interest in her because she’s the doppelganger who broke the curse for him, and because he’s found out he needs her to make hybrids, but the damage is done. He’s no longer looking at just a Petrova Doppelganger, he’s looking at Elena Gilbert. The scar on her face is also a reminder of her individuality. And now that he is there, and he sees her, he is so fucked.