Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries nor its characters. They belong to L.J. Smith, Kevin Williamson, Julie Plec, The CW Network, and whoever else.

Note/Warning: Written to a prompt left by a friend - the prompt was 'Leashes'.

Wants

Anna walks into Mystic Falls with a plan. One she will lie, cheat, and steal to see fulfilled - and she intends to do each of those things. She's already lying to Noah, playing along with his quest for Katherine. She doesn't bother to mention that during her time alone in the 1980s she came across Katherine Pierce living it up without a fucking care in the world. She doesn't, because then he'd leave her to find Katherine.

He'd apologize, of course. He'd tell her he's sorry, he'd love to help, but he has to find Katherine. Because every man Katherine sinks her fangs into is addicted for life. Noah might genuinely like and care about Anna, but he wants Katherine.

Men will always go after what they want, and will sacrifice any and every thing they might have ever cared about in the process if they have to. Anna has learned this, many times. She's seen it. She's experienced it.

So she's learned to play men's wants against them. It's surprisingly just as easy as her mother made it look (until Mother forgot it was all a game of make believe that never lasts). She lies to Noah and plays dumb. She puts up with his bad habit of forgetting she's not as young as she pretends and his endless talk of reuniting with Katherine. Because Anna has a plan.

Unfortunately, she can't complete it on her own.

Anna turns Ben McKittrick for a reason. One that is over the moment the tomb is opened and she has her mother back. She lies to him like she lies to Noah. Plays his want to fulfill her needs. She picks him because he's easy; he's lost, and he's lonely, and he needs a purpose. She can use this, mold and manipulate - and when it's all over, she can leave him without feeling guilty because he's better off and he doesn't really care about her anyway.

He thinks he does, of course. From the moment she pulls him into an alley and kisses him as if she needs him, to the moment he wakes up hungry for blood and willing to kill to get it, he's convinced he wants her. Ben probably likes her. He certainly doesn't mind the attention - but he wants youth.

It's only natural for his kind, and Anna doesn't hold it against him. She doesn't necessarily think very highly of him either, but his earnest, bumbling ways are almost endearing. If they weren't almost causing problems half the time, but she's working on it.

Because she has a plan. And the pieces are slowly falling into place.

Anna turns Logan Fell for a purpose. One that is fruitless and a dead end, but letting him loose proves benefical to her and Noah. She tells him the truth because he's eager to hear it. Because he wants the town to suffer for the bruise to his massive ego - and Anna can use that. She barely has to put any effort into it with him, and he's off distracting Damon and Stefan while she's busy setting things in motion, getting one step closer every day.

He believes he's necessary, of course. He thinks he's important and powerful, off on his own and watching the Salvatores with thoughts of vengeance on his mind. He thinks he deserves this, that she saw how wonderful he is and had to turn him, make him part of the plan - and he wants in.

Egotistical pricks are like that. It's so perfectly convenient, Anna and Noah can't help but feel a little more encouraged with their plan, a little bolder. It wasn't part of the plan to begin with, but the Salvatores - with their own wants blinding them to everything else - play it perfectly into their hands. Right into Anna's plan.

And she's getting ever closer to her goal.

Anna befriends Jeremy Gilbert with surprising ease. Not that she fools him instantly into believing she's a socially awkward homeschooled geek, but that she (almost) genuinely likes him. She lies and smiles and talks ninety miles a minute and flashes some knowledge of local legends of vampires, and she's got him right where she wants him. Only when he smiles, she doesn't want to roll her eyes the way she does when Ben grins at her. And when he treats her like a fifteen year old, he sees her as an equal instead of a kid sister the way Noah does.

This is not part of the plan.

Jeremy throws her for a loop. He's not the loner emo kid doping up to numb the pain away and chasing the girl who's going to fuck and break his heart on repeat for however long he's willing to let her. He's cleaning up and clever, he's warm but guarded. He doesn't know what he wants.

Anna isn't quite so sure either, anymore. Not when she calls him and gets his voicemail and feels a sliver of disappointment. Not when she pushes Ben away instead of pretending she likes kissing him. Not when she goes to hang out with Jeremy because she likes to (forgetting until he offers that she's supposed to get invited into his home and abduct his sister).

This isn't the plan. This is nowhere near part of it. She was supposed to come to Mystic Falls with Noah, and leave with her mother - and probably Harper, too. In and out and done with this damned town.

But now she's kissing him and feeling a girlish rush of emotions she'd thought she'd clamped down on over a century ago, already thinking of ways to use him without actually hurting him - and then the blood comes rushing to her face. Not because she's hungry, but because she wants him.

Anna had a plan. And now it's falling apart.