A/N: I don't know about you, but this ship has an unhealthy hold on my psyche. But enough about my crumbling sanity!

Thanks a lot you guys, you're way way way too kind and lovely, here and on tumblr, and I'm kind of overwhelmed by your comments and reviews, no joke.

And there are so many brilliant anons to thank!

first off SO MANY GUESTS OMG, Guest1, Guest2, Guest3 etc. - you guys rock, srsly, are you all batman in disguise?, secondly Alexis (aw, you're my fave), Bamoner (man, Bonnie is basically Hermione for me in that I ship her with everyone and everything and though bamon and bonkai are top of the list right now, I had tiny seizures about kennett too like hoo boy), Moony240 (*bows down* 10/10 review), Bennett Witch ("touchy-feely with Bonnie" is a tv show i'd watch any day of the week instead of TVD tbh), Toothless (every time one of you mentions me as queen i cry a little just so you know), cloudfree (you're too nice, thanks!).

So, hope you enjoy the chapter and share your bonkai-filled thoughts!

PS. Those silly quotes I put at the beginning of each chapter are actually song lyrics, which okay, you probably figured out. Anyway, if you wanna listen to the song (called "Baby, it's you") for this one, check out Maria Antonia's version of it on youtube. I know that's not the cover people go for, but it's rock solid.


Chapter 3 - It's You

Is it true what they say about you?
They say you'll never, ever, ever be true.

(...)

Baby, it's you.


Bonnie sighed against the wet tiles.

She had been craving a shower for some time. Being stuck in a car with her archenemy for an extended period of time was nothing short of torturous and a much needed release was necessary.

Okay, perhaps release is not the adequate word here…she thought, humorlessly.

Was Kai her archenemy after all, or was he just another minor villain in the scheme of things? She could handle those. She had handled them before. Except, none of them had wanted her friendship, of all things.

Could she ever make good on her promise if he made good on his?

She couldn't imagine doing friendly stuff with Kai like she did with Matt, for example. She still remembered that prom night when they had been crowned king and queen. They'd laughed it off and had a lot of innocent fun, dancing and taking photos and just being cute together. At least until emotionless vampire Elena had ruined her fun.

But doing that with Kai?

Yeah, the night would turn out bloodier than in that Carrie movie.

Then again, she had never pictured being Damon's friend, either, and that had happened.

But he's not like Damon or Matt…or anyone I know, really.

And the things he said. Most of them were out of self-interest, like the flattery and the petty manipulation. But there were other lines that, while not genuine, sparked a strange curiosity in her because they didn't fit a pattern. He had moments when he accidentally confessed something from his past or about himself, and you could tell he wanted to take it back. What if she dug deeper? Could there be an honest side to him?

What if he is making you think he has an honest side?

At this rate, her head would explode just trying to figure out a 40-year old demon kid.

So she put her head against the lukewarm spray and let the water clean off the road dirt and the paranoia. The important thing was that she was going home.

She reached out for the complimentary shampoo, but the little tube slipped and fell on the floor. Bonnie groaned and stuck a hand out of the curtains.

"Here you go."

"Thanks," she muttered, taking the shampoo from the offered hand, until –

"What the hell?!"

"See how helpful I can be, bestie?"

"What are you doing in my bathroom?" she hollered, fighting the instinct to jump out of the tub stark naked, and run away. He couldn't see her through the curtains. Right?

"You left your door unlocked," he explained cheerily. She heard him sit down on the toilet seat. "Thought I'd drop by and ask if you wanted a snack. I got some Vanilla Cokes, some Fruit Roll-Ups and some Bagel Bites."

Bonnie cursed under her breath. She was used to hotels whose doors locked automatically. She had forgotten to turn the key in the lock, which was not only stupid, but very unlike her.

I'm becoming brain dead, aren't I? Also, Fruit Roll-Ups? God, the 90s suck.

"You should have knocked."

"You're in the shower. You wouldn't have heard me."

"Then you should have left when I didn't answer!"

"I'm boooored," he complained, scuffling his sneakers across the floor. "Can't blame me. We're so close to getting out of here."

Bonnie shared his sentiment, but not when he was a foot away from her naked body.

"Great. Could you leave now?"

"Nah. I'll just wait here. Also, I think we should train a bit. You know, reacquaint ourselves with magic. We've both been out of the loop recently."

Bonnie was about to protest when the second part of his statement kicked in.

"Oh. Yeah…I guess we should do that."

"Great! We'll get to it first thing tomorrow morning. Now, what does my bestie need next? A towel? Sponge? Rubber duckie?"

"One, I'm going to need you to stop calling me "bestie", and two, get up, take the disgusting snacks and go back to your room. How about that?"

"Ouch. That actually hurt my feelings a little bit," he replied sardonically. He had popped open a bag of something and was munching noisily.

Does he ever stop eating?!

Bonnie realized how ridiculous this whole situation was turning out to be. She was naked and shivering behind a flimsy curtain that barely hid her indecency, and he was sitting on her toilet, eating some expired junk food from a dubious hotel off the highway while talking about duckies.

"Yeah, well, I'm looking at my stomach scar and it still hurts too," she retorted, her fingers ghosting gently over the ragged skin.

"So? Just fix it up with the magic I gave you."

Bonnie frowned. The idea had occurred to her the minute she got her magic back, but she had been reluctant to put it into practice, because she feared the supply might not be infinite. After all, it was not self-sustained. The magic had come from a dagger. Who knew how much it would last? She didn't want to waste any on herself –

Kai chuckled. "Let me guess. You didn't do it, because you weren't going to waste the magic on yourself, right?"

Damn him. How does he keep doing that? she wondered. It was really getting on her nerves how he kept making accurate guesses about her self-esteem, or lack thereof.

"That still doesn't cancel the fact that you were a jerk –"

"And you gave as good as you got, if I recall," he replied evenly.

"Only when I had reason to," was her cold response.

"Riiight… it's not like you enjoyed harming me or something."

Bonnie sighed. "I didn't."

"Really? I'm disappointed," he drawled.

Bonnie switched on the shower again. She was going to get squeaky clean and feel good and happy about herself and he couldn't stop her. He could just sit there and talk until his mouth fell off. She was going to ignore him and be on her way. She started humming to herself. Going home, going home, going home…

"How about now? Do you enjoy it?"

The curtains were pulled open and he stepped inside the tub.


Kai needed to kick-start some of his magic in her. Make the progression happen faster. He had promised Damon a showdown. Time wasn't on his side.

Violence had always been the perfect trigger, even at an early stage. Nothing could destabilize a goody-two-shoes, or an entire coven family, like brutal violence.

He gripped her shoulders roughly and slammed her body against the tiles, using all the muscles in his face not to look down at her splendid naked body.

Why does she have to be gorgeous?

Surprise was his upper hand. She was too shocked to react, except to part her lips and gasp for breath.

He contemplated putting his hands around her neck and squeezing tightly until her lungs shriveled up, but she would never trust him or even consider helping him again if he pulled that kind of stunt. He considered bashing her head a little. Maybe scraping her cheek. Or cutting her lip.

Her lip.

Right. He needed a different kind of violence. A violence she wouldn't interpret as fatal.

Fuck. Can I control this?

He didn't have many options. Not when she was naked and vulnerable like this. He had to do something to push her, but not push her too far.

He looked down at the scar on her stomach, still unhealed, still hurting, because she was too goddamn selfless to fix it.

Well, he'd make it worse.

He jabbed his fingers in her abdomen and bent down until his head reached her stomach. He could see her breasts towering above his head like perfect little quinces. He had seen them before, had stolen surreptitious glances when she and Damon didn't know he was watching, but up close, they looked stupidly delicious -

He swore under his breath, because he wasn't supposed to look, because this wasn't supposed to be about sex, this was all about power, specifically her power, which needed to become as black as his.

He opened his mouth and breathed over her scar, then licked it.

Bonnie froze, a small shriek getting stuck in her esophagus, like a sparrow caught in a tree.

His tongue was like a razor blade, opening the wound, making it bleed, even when there was no blood left.

He could never be gentle. He licked like a spiteful dog, at first. But slowly, the taste of her skin took over the functioning part of his brain.

He was suddenly immersed in that familiar memory of nuzzling his nose in the vale between jaw and ear while he choked her in Damon's car. It was the same smell, the same taste.

Salt and strawberries. What a freakish combination.

He kind of liked it. He kind of really liked it.

He started licking the scar more forcefully, never kissing, just greedily cleaning off her scent like an animal.

Come on, Bon Bon. Attack me. Let it rage. If you don't…fuck, I won't be able to control it.

He could see himself growing more and more thirsty, wanting to lick further, travel down below, see what other scars there were...

He heard her breath hitch in her throat. Her body was too warm. She seemed to be inching forward, almost meeting his mouth.

Come on! he screamed internally.

He sank his teeth into her skin. He bit down hard into the jagged flesh of her stomach. There had been an arrow there once. It had been replaced with his canines.

He would tear her apart at the seams, like a doll whose thread is pulled out, like a kite without string. He bit her hard.

That's when she finally snapped from her trance. When she finally moved again. A tremor shook her body. But she didn't scream.

"Aah!" he yelled as she yanked a good chunk of his hair with one hand while the other wrapped around his neck.

"Phesmatos affligo!"

He was knocked down by a blinding pain that started from his head and reached his toes in mere seconds. His nerves skitted and jumped into nothingness.

Bonnie kneed him in the stomach and kicked him out of the tub roughly. He landed sprawled on the cold floor, his chest heaving and wheezing.

He looked up at her shadowy figure, the way she stared him down with rage.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! Isn't it enough that you gave me that scar?!"

Yes. That's it. Yes. Get angrier.

"I told you – you're a hot – Molly Ringwald."

"Never touch me again! Phesmatos quasso!"

Kai was jerked up and down as the magic – his magic – worked on him in a new sadistic way. She had hexed him with a shatter spell. All the cells in his body were breaking apart. He yelled with a mixture of glee and pain. It came out of him like a moan. He keeled over and spat blood.

"Phesmatos strangulo!"

Kai felt his lungs shutting down, shriveling, the way he had imagined hers would once he applied too much pressure to that little neck. He couldn't breathe. His eyes swam in tears, but he could still see her body towering over him, could see how her hands trembled violently, how her knees jerked uncontrollably, and he knew by the way she spat the words that she had lost some of that precious control, that she was giving into some of this raw passion –

He could have stopped this. If he wanted to. One flick of his hand.

But why?

Why stop this beautiful ordeal?

He only resorted to a fraction of magic to keep himself alive, while she tried to suffocate him.

He closed his eyes and pretended to lose consciousness. He kept his body very still. His head lolled back against the wall.

A few moments later, Bonnie was kneeling over him.

"Kai?"

She checked his vital signs. He made sure not to respond.

"Oh God, oh my God, no."

She shook him hard, slapped his cheeks, dragged him up with both hands, but he resisted every pull.

" Please. Wake up. Please wake up. Kai. No."

She put her hands on his chest and he felt the warmth of her magic trying to infuse life into him, but since he was already alive, the spell only backfired.

"Oh, God! Oh, my God, what did I do? Kai!"

She's coming along nicely, he mused to himself. Should I punish her a bit further?

"Come on, you idiot!" she hollered, trying to pour magic into him again. "I only – I only strangled you a little bit…and broke your bones and crushed your insides…Shit!"

This is too good, he thought.

Her panicked breath fell on his face. He could smell her fear, sense how every nerve in her body was on edge, how the magic flowed through her chaotically, and yes, it flowed with pleasure, like she'd just had an ecstatic experience….

"So, are you ready to admit you do enjoy hurting me?"

Bonnie slipped on the floor and fell away from him.

"You absolute shit!"

Kai giggled as he opened his eyes. He took in a deep breath of air. Relying on magic for your oxygen was a bit of a drag.

He felt completely relaxed and sated, almost as if he'd been given the best sex of his life. Torture was so much fun sometimes.

Bonnie was horrified, although he wasn't sure whether it was his "resurrection" or his casual recklessness that disgusted her more. She was, thankfully, wrapped up in a towel, so when she walked up to him to potentially cause him more harm, he wasn't completely distracted by those nebulous shapes underneath.

"How could you do that?! Jesus, I thought you were dead!"

Kai's grin widened. "I know! Brilliant, right?"

"You sick asshole! I can't believe you!"

"Weeell, I think you did for a minute back there. It was quite touching."

She was bound to get pissed off again.

Here comes round two. Maybe another blast or aneurysm, or both, he thought with barely concealed anticipation.

But quite contrary to his expectations, she bent down over him and grabbed his chin like her life depended on it. She bore her forest eyes into his.

"Never do that again. Promise me. I can't afford to lose anyone right now. Promise me, Kai."

Kai's grin melted all too quickly.

He could sense her magic. It wasn't ecstatic anymore. It wasn't chaotic, either. It was troubled. And her face, her eyes…she was concerned. She was genuinely concerned.

For the first time in his life, someone was concerned about him.

The realization made his heart stutter. It made his skin crawl. He wanted to hide his face and run away.

No one cared or wanted to care about psycho boy. No one ever had.

She was lying. She was tricking him, playing him for a fool, just like he would.

But looking into those sweet eyes that reminded him of the Emerald City in those Wizard of Oz cartoons he watched so religiously as a kid, he lost the resolve to shrink from her, lost the resolve to doubt her, and only said,

"I promise."


It wasn't normal, this whole waiting business. You sat down and you counted the hours of doing absolutely nothing and somehow you told yourself it was all for some greater purpose.

"We'll go back for her at the next full moon. We will," Elena kept saying with full confidence.

He was starting to lose his.

"We have a plan, don't we? We're two vampires and we're much stronger than Kai. We can take him down easily. Bonnie will stay strong. She'll wait for us. You have to believe that, Damon," she went on in the same fashion.

He couldn't fake it like her. Elena was good at acting chirpy when she was breaking down inside. He could see the worry in her eyes every time he brought up Bonnie. But he couldn't help bringing her up.

Every second the witch spent in that hell-hole with Kai made him feel more miserable. He couldn't decide what was more horrific; the fact that Kai was a real-life version of Damian from The Omen, or that he was playing the Hannibal Lecter to Bonnie's Clarice Starling. He had made it clear over the phone that he had some plan for her and that it involved them together, in a kind of partnership. His stomach churned at the thought. His best friend – because that is who she had become in the span of months – was at the mercy of a lunatic who wanted more from her than any man in her life.

At least assholes like Silas and Klaus had never threatened her so physically.

It had all been an abstract battle between good and evil.

She was the good. Always had been. If you lost the good, only the evil remained.

But what if Bonnie lost the good within her?


They were sitting in her hotel room like two rivals who had decided to take a short break. Bonnie was perched on her bed with a towel around her head; he was sitting on the chair by the TV. She was sipping wanly from her Vanilla Coke. He, for once, had set the food aside and was content watching her.

"Stop that. I'm pissed at you."

"I can tell."

"Well? Are you finally going to get out of my room? You've done enough damage for one day," she spat, but it didn't really have much bite to it. The use of magic had tired her out.

"Sure. But if I go now, will you pack your bags and run away in the middle of the night, leaving me to fend for myself?"

"There's no one to fend against," she commented dryly.

"Exactly! Without a natural enemy, I'd wither and die."

Bonnie remained silent, watching the late dusk shadows draw lines across the stained carpet. She felt light-headed, like she'd fallen through a hole, or lost her gravity. It should have made her nauseous, but instead she felt...relaxed. Or as relaxed as she could ever be. As if a surplus of magic had been exorcised and now she could breathe again.

Except, magic had never quite felt like this.

She still couldn't voice her fear; that inflicting so much pain on him had felt so good.

"But will you?" he insisted. "Pack your things and go?"

Bonnie sighed morosely. "What do you think?"

"I think – I think you should try some of these Bagel Bites. You get used to them after the first bite." He made sure to wink after the last word, as a cheeky reminder.

Bonnie threw a pillow at him. He caught it swiftly.

"And I also think you care. That's always been a problem for you. You care too much about everyone. But in my case, I can't complain. I'm actually - what's the word? - grateful."

She could see that particular adjective had been hard for him to spit out. She didn't know how much of this was over-acting or some kind of attempt on his part to placate her. The little shit always made sure to sprinkle his lies with a bit of truth.

"What makes you think I care, or is that another one of your dumb jokes?"

"Oh, come on. You were practically crying over my dead body."

"That's not caring, Kai. That's not being a psychopath. But you wouldn't know. And I wasn't crying!"

"Okay, fine. You don't care about me. And I don't care about you. But in time…this Grinch's heart could grow twice its size," he said with a stupid, childish smile.

Bonnie groaned.

"You still think I'm going to be your friend if every day you pull some new crap?"

"Well, not to point out the obvious...but your track record shows that that's how you actually make friends. You let them do all sort of dumb shit and then you reward them by saving their lives. I don't know – but I think I'm doing okay so far."

Bonnie wanted to lunge the TV at him.

"Why do you keep psycho-babbling me? Why do you keep talking about my friends and my self-esteem and all that crap? Don't you have a hobby or something?"

Kai grabbed the Vanilla Coke she'd dropped by the bed. He licked the rim, smirking.

"Yeah, actually. It's you."