Hello friends! As a bit of explanation, this story picks up five years post Kyleigh becoming a vampire. It doesn't go too much into the past five years in this story, mostly because Kyleigh was catching up on life (finishing high school, traveling a little bit, settling in as a vampire, as you do). Otherwise, I hope you're enjoying! I know Kyleigh isn't quite as zany as she was in Darling, You're Mean but she's grown a lot. I like to think she's still got that spark.

Please, enjoy, review, message me. I like to know these things! :)

Kyleigh parked the car in a shopping center's parking lot. They walked towards the woods, glancing around to make sure the coast was clear before running up the hill. Thanks to lightening speed, they cleared plenty of ground.

"Far enough, do you think?" Kyleigh called to her husband.

"A little farther, just in case," he said back.

They ran a few more miles, until everything around them was still.

"Okay, good." Jasper halted.

The pair stood in silence, allowing their sense to adjust to their surroundings. Kyleigh's ears were pricked, waiting. She took off without warning, the trees rushing past her. The deer didn't see it coming. Neither did the second deer, nor the bear. Kyleigh's exhilaration practically overwhelmed her. She met up with Jasper close to dawn. Their eyes had both turned back to liquid gold.

"Better?" she asked.

"Yup. You?"

"Definitely."

They joined hands, walking back through the woods as though they hadn't just destroyed a decent amount of the local wildlife. Daybreak had arrived over the parking lot. Jasper waited while Kyleigh grabbed her bag and sketches.

"Thank god for the clouds, right?" she asked, skipping along next to him.

"Definitely. Should we move the car?" He looked over his shoulder at it.

"Nah, it's fine. It says all day parking."

"Alright, just making sure. I'd really prefer not to go to the impound today."

"All part of the adventure!" Kyleigh felt so light, she thought she might drift away.

"Right," he said slowly. "So where are we going?"

She just smiled at him, leading him along.

Not even Carlisle knew how much Kyleigh loved the ocean. It didn't really make sense, considering she hadn't grown up at the beach, but she loved watching documentaries about otters and seals. She couldn't care less about the bridge or anything else when she arrived in San Francisco that spring morning. She just wanted to see the sea lions.

Much to the annoyance of the tourists around her, Kyleigh shoved her way through the crowd, set up her sketchpad, and drew out a picture of the sea lions lounging about on their docks. Pretty soon, though, she had attracted some attention. People were looking over her shoulders at her hands instead of at the real sea lions.

"Those are great," a man said.

"Thanks," she replied distractedly. She flipped to a new page, starting a close up of a fat seal.

"What's your rate?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" She leaned close to the paper, using the side of her pencil to shade in the harbor.

"How much would you charge for your last drawing, the one of the mom and baby seal?"

"Oh." She faltered, pausing her drawing. "Well. I don't really sell my art."

"Why not?" a woman asked.

Kyleigh started to feel claustrophobic with everyone pressing in around her.

"I'd pay twenty for that," she added.

Ginger's words rung in Kyleigh's ears: don't accept the first offer. To her surprise, the man said what Kyleigh had been thinking,

"I think it's worth more than twenty. Especially since we're watching her do it. I'd pay closer to forty."

Kyleigh turned. The man looked to be about forty himself, with salt and pepper hair and crinkly blue eyes. He smiled at her, and introduced himself as Bill.

Kyleigh avoided shaking his outstretched hand by clutching the notebook to her chest. She was already paranoid about catching pneumonia or something, she didn't need to willingly exchange germs with a stranger.

"Kyleigh," she said. If she decided to sell her art, she wanted to at least use her real name.

"Hi Kyleigh," he said, as though they were old friends. "What other drawings have you done?"

The crowd had stopped looking at the seals, instead watching her. Heat prickled at the back of her neck.

"Let's just start with this one." She gave him her most award winning smile.

Kyleigh made over a hundred dollars that day, most of it coming from Bill. She would've felt uncomfortable charging so much for her drawings if not for the fact that she was actively drawing pictures per request. She stayed at another motel that night, though one that was slightly less sketchy than the one in Eureka.

"I didn't know you sold your art," Jasper said.

"I had to. I was running low on money. It came down to sell my art or sell myself," she said, only half-joking. A fat sea lion, similar to the one she'd seen many years ago, rolled off the dock, splashing into the harbor. She moved fast, trying to capture the texture of the foam.

"Wow."

Kyleigh turned to him. He was looking at her instead of the sea lions.

"What? I needed to make money somehow."

"I guess I never thought about it that way." He shrugged.

"Did you only sell sea lions?"

"Of course not. I ended up staying in the NorCal area until almost September, so five months. It was one of the best times of my living existence." She faced the sea lions again, finishing off her drawing. "Anyway, I could stand here all day. Let's go check out some other parts of the pier. Maybe I'll take you into the Lefty store and you can get some left handed things."

"Wait, what?" he asked.

"I can't believe they make a store just for left handed people." He held two bags full of lefty paraphernalia.

"Well, if you think about it, pretty much every other store is for right handed people. It's only fair."

Kyleigh had to buy a new sketchpad by the end of the day when they grabbed the car and drove to a hotel. She threw herself down on the bed, bouncing happily.

"You really love it here, huh?" He crossed over, pulling open the shades to reveal a gorgeous view of the San Francisco city line.

"I do. I guess I never realized it before now though." She jumped off the bed so she could stand next to him, slipping an arm around his slim waist.

"Love it more than Portland?"

"I guess I do. Wow, look at all these realizations I'm having!" She laughed, but he didn't. "What? It's nothing against you!"

"I know that," he said, soothing her instantly. "It's just funny. Five years and it feels like I really don't know you."

"These are just parts of me, Jas, not everything. Don't worry about that. You've been around much longer than me, I'm sure there's a lot to you as well. And if there's not…well…that's just sad."

"Thanks, Ky." He shook his head at her. "Maybe you should sell some of the drawings you did today."

"I could," she said, thinking it over. "Maybe. I don't know. I don't really need to now."

"Maybe just for old time's sake?"

They fell back onto the bed together. Jasper flipped through the drawings, past all the seals, to the different angles of the pier.

"Well, how long do you want to stay here for? We're supposed to be looking for my parents."

"Are we, though?" His golden eyes met her matching ones, staring at her until she had to look away.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, right now we're learning so much about you, and it's only been a few days. Could this maybe be just about you?"

Kyleigh considered this. "I think that's kind of the same thing."

Jasper didn't seem to have a response, so instead asked if she'd heard from the detective yet.

Kyleigh pulled out her phone to double check. "Nope, nothing. Is he even working on it?"

Jasper shrugged. "Call him and ask?"

"Not yet. I'll give him another day or so."

"Fair enough. What's on for tomorrow?"

"Why should we wait until tomorrow?" Kyleigh teased. "We don't sleep, remember?"

"No good comes after midnight," he said.

"Jasper, we're vampires. We are, by definition, the 'no good that comes after midnight.'"

"Kyleigh," he paused, "you're right."

"Of course I am! Let's get changed, we're going for a walk."

"What kind of walk?" he asked warily.

"A romantic one. Wear comfy shoes."

By obligation, Kyleigh knew she had to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but she waited until July before getting on a tourist-y bus to ride across it. She had soon learned that summertime in San Francisco wasn't like summertime in other places. For her journey across the bridge, she wore jeans, a three-quarter length shirt, and her NorthFace, though that was partially because she was always cold.

As the bus flew across the bay, Kyleigh did some lazy sketches of the water and the bridge. She'd grown used to the gawkers, staring at her while she worked. There were so many artists in San Francisco, she had no idea why she was so popular. Before they'd even made it to Sausalito, she had offers to buy her bay drawings. She waited until the bus deposited them in the parking lot to exchange one of her pictures for twenty bucks. The kid who bought it barely looked older than her, though his scarce facial hair was clearly grown in an attempt to appear older.

She used the money to buy herself lunch at a waterfront restaurant. She was one of the few people willing to brave the wind on the back deck. To her shock, a sailboat zoomed straight up to the deck; a young couple docked there and a waiter helped them up into the restaurant.

"Crazy, right?" her lone diner said.

She nodded, her hand already flying across her pad. She'd never seen a sailboat up close before. The rope wrapped itself around the mast from the whipping wind. Kyleigh loved the red and blue stripes lining the body of it. She trotted over to the other side of the deck to get the back of the boat. The Nan-sea. Kyleigh laughed; how sweet.

Outside of the restaurant, a small, old man was crouched down in the rocks, stacking various rocks on top of each other. They were almost over his head. A small crowd had grown around him, but he paid them no mind. Kyleigh sat a little further away, doing a quick drawing of this as well, working hard to get the concentration on his face just right.

"I thought you'd be focusing on the stones, not the artist," someone with a southern accent drawled behind her.

She looked up. A man with a cowboy hat towered over her. A few feet away, a younger woman, also wearing a hat, stood, waiting.

"Anyone can draw rocks. He's more interesting," she explained. She turned back to her scene, resuming her work. Soon some people had moved over to watch her. She didn't get it: why did people like to watch her draw?

At one point, she looked up at the stone man and found him staring back at her. She could see the understanding reflected in his eyes, the weird side effects of creating art. Kyleigh had grown used to people offering money to her. She wondered if other artists had the same experiences, or if it was just because she was a young girl with a sad face that drew them in. The cow-family bought her first drawing, but she tuned out other offers, wanting to get a drawing just for herself, a memento for the day.

"It's nice to walk the bridge," she said to Jasper.

"You didn't cross the bridge before?"

"I never walked it. Too sick. I tried once and had the worst coughing fit that a man had to carry me back to the mainland. It sucked, to say the least."

"Wow. I guess I never thought about that."

"About what?"

"You being sick like that."

"Yeah, you only saw the grand finale. You weren't there for the really good stuff."

Kyleigh and Jasper moved across the bridge silently. This late at night, there weren't many people around. They'd already argued about if vampires could cross running water (obviously they could), and what would happen if they jumped off (nothing, they'd just get wet).

"Did you go across often?" he asked when they were almost to the end of the bridge.

"Nope. I only went twice. It just didn't interest me. Too cold and windy."

"Pier 39 is cold and windy," he pointed out.

"I suppose. I guess bridges just aren't that important to me."

"How about right now?"

"In present company," she bumped against him, "it's not so bad."

"I feel special," he said, laughing.

"As you should!"

There were even fewer people in Sausalito. Kyleigh took Jasper to the restaurant she'd seen the sailboat at, though they had to sneak around to the back so she could show him the deck. He skipped rocks while she did a new drawing of it, having fun creating the stars, bright so far away from the city lights.

"Too bad that stone guy isn't here," she said later. It was nearing two a.m.

"Most people are probably sleeping. Even stone men."

"It would be really cool to do a second drawing of him though." She pouted.

"Maybe we can come back tomorrow and he'll be around." He patted her head lightly.

"Maybe. We could go on one of those tour bus things, if you really want to."

"I'd rather use you as my tour guide, Ky. Much more entertaining."

"And much sexier!" She winked roguishly.

"Oh yes, of course." He lifted her up lightly, spinning her around once. "Ready to go, Mrs. Montgomery-Whitlock-Hale?"

"Yes, Mr. Whitlock-Cullen-Hale. Aren't names fun?"

"The most fun!" he replied, imitating her voice. "Ow! Why'd you hit me?"

"Hitting can be fun," she said, shrugging.

"Let's go pretend to sleep, and then tomorrow we can go to Alcatraz, or Chinatown. Too bad we don't eat, there's a really good Chinese place there. There's a pretty park too! Or we could go on a cable car."

"Slow down there, we have plenty of time to do all of these things. Let's stay for a week. Would you like that?"

"I'd love that. Do you mean it?"

"Have I ever lied to you?"

She thought it over. "Nope, you haven't. Okay! But we need to get back on track at some point."

"Okay, fair enough."

Kyleigh had always been a little scared of hostels. She'd seen the movies, she knew what went down, but she needed a place to stay, and they were her cheapest option. No one questioned why she wore her mask at all times when she was inside, or the amount of pills she took twice a day. Kyleigh tried not to spend too much time inside anyway. She had better things to do.

"It's twenty-five for black and white, thirty-five for color, and the size of the drawing impacts it as well," Kyleigh told a slightly overweight, middle aged woman. "Trust me, you'll pay double that, or even more, at any of the gift shops around here."

"Well," the woman said, looking around a bit.

"And this is totally unique to you. Sure, I keep drawing the street, but each is different from the last." Kyleigh had become quite the saleswoman in her time in San Francisco.

"Well," the woman said again, "Okay, sure. But can I make a request?"

"Sure," Kyleigh said, already gearing up to draw.

"I'd really love if you could write Lombard Street somewhere on it. I know that's not up there, but if you could just add it, maybe at the top?"

"Of course!" Kyleigh leaned back against the cool wall of the building behind her, working her magic on the winding street. She loved drawing Lombard, with its zigzag angles and the pretty flowers. She'd even convinced the building owner to let her go to the roof one night so she could get a drawing of it in the evening. She'd had to train herself to work fast, though, in case her customer's patience ran out. Practice made perfect though, and fifteen minutes later, she handed the tourist her drawing, pocketing the money with her other hand.

At night, she had started another mosaic style painting of the street, which she didn't want to sell. The problem was travel. Once she decided to move on to wherever she wanted to go next, how would she transport her paintings? Kyleigh spotted a police officer heading towards the street corner, and hurriedly packed up her art supplies, blending into the crowd quickly.

Jasper sat patiently next to her, watching her do yet another drawing.

"Doesn't it get old? Drawing the same things?"

"Not really," Kyleigh said, not looking up from the paper. "Sure, it's the same backdrop, but it's always a little different, you know?" She put the pencil between her teeth so she could pull out one of her old drawings. "See? Different cars, different flowers, different vibe."

Jasper took it from her, examining it closely. "Different vibe?"

"I think my drawings are reflective of what's going on in my head space. See how there was a lot of fog in that picture?" She pointed to the old one. "Sure, it was a foggy day, but you could also say it was part of my foggy brain."

As the months passed, Kyleigh felt worse and worse. Towards the end of her stay in Frisco, there were days where she couldn't get out of bed. A couple in their early twenties had mercy on her and brought her food on the days when she felt too sick to move. Kyleigh told them it was just mono, now wanting to deal with any more stigma.

"Yeah," she said to Jasper. "Things got hard after awhile. I think my art suffered a little. Who wants to buy a drawing shrouded in misery?"

"True. Did your sales suffer?"

"Sort of." She flipped back to her new page. "Partially because it became harder to do so many drawings in a day. My focus was so off. It's razor sharp now though," she said with a wink.

"Ky?" he asked later, while they walked hand in hand through the streets.

"Yes?"

"Do you think you could do another painting like the one you did of Seattle?"

"Right now?"

They paused at a corner, waiting for a walking man. She didn't respond until the little guy appeared, signaling that they could move forward.

"It takes a lot of time and space to do that. I can probably do it when we go home, but not on the road, unless you want to stay here for a few weeks. I'd also need some sort of studio or enough space to do it."

"Okay, just asking." He laughed.

"Someday, my dear, someday."

Kyleigh was itching to paint as well, but she knew it wasn't the right time. Not yet.