I do not own TVD or TO.
Who Are You? won the vote by a landslide, so it will be my focus until finished. Addicted was a close second, so it will be after.
There are five projected chapters left.
ELEJAH + Landon, Rebekah, Hope, Klaus, and the epilogue.
I also spent the last few days getting into making fan videos. One of them could be considered a trailer for Addicted (at least one of the versions I envisioned when I started planning).
youtu. be / 1NNHvRZgxJI
If you'd like to watch it just copy the link and take out the spaces.
His feet carried him through the crowded streets at a fast clip.
Every instinct he had told him 'no', 'don't trust her', 'don't go'. The voice that sounded so much like his kept whispering all of the reasons not to listen to the witch who had bested him in an alley. There were so many reasons not to listen to her, so many reasons to let the full moon come and go, but the blonde had hit a nerve.
It was so much easier for him to pretend he hated his family. He had more than enough reason to want to stay far away from Nik and the rest who always wound up siding with Nik. The claim of hatred was easier than admitting the truth.
He missed them. It was one thing to go off for centuries on end and not speak to them because he wanted to, but it was another to be forced apart. In the past they had always been there, and though Nik would have eventually pulled a dagger on him he would have been welcomed back. He couldn't go back anymore. He could never go back, or ever see them again in person.
It had been easier to make a clean break. The only one he had kept in steady contact with was Hope, but he'd always had a soft spot for his niece.
He felt the separation every day, but he knew it was worse for Hope.
He missed them all.
The small voice in his head grew as he moved through the streets, lost in his mind. He battled with the whispers claiming she wanted to trick him. Logic told him she had to be telling the truth.
How else could she have even known about the Hollow?
He came to an abrupt stop outside the building he had been calling home for the several months. There was someone inside that might be able to tell him more.
The Japanese Tea garden kept banker's hours – at least that's what her dad would have said. The gates closed shortly before supper time, but sneaking in to such a place was no problem for a supernatural.
She had thought she might have to use compulsion to get inside, but there were alternate routes than the one through the gate and the garden was deserted.
She spun in a slow circle, soaking in the beauty – the tiny slice of Japan – and smiled. She had spent the last few minutes exploring and found the combination of pagoda's, plants, and stepping paths serene.
The sound of footsteps drew her attention to the stepping path. She knew the confident rhythm well.
The moonlight flickered off the metal zippers on his leather jacket.
"Elena?" The question was evident in his tone and eyes.
"Elijah," she greeted, shaking her head.
"Perhaps Lexa has had better luck," he sighed, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
"Fingers crossed," Elena nodded. She hoped that was the case so they wouldn't have to wait another month; the longer it took to remove the Hollow, the longer Hope's separation from her family.
"You would think finding one vampire would be easier," she tilted her head. Her fingers slid between his with practiced ease.
"In a city of nearly 900,000?" He cocked an eyebrow. His thumb smoothed over her soft skin as they walked hand in hand over the path below the drum bridge.
"Manhattan has a population of 1.6 million people," she pointed out, "and in a span of three days I ran into two Originals."
"Yes," he chuckled, "but you weren't looking for us."
"So…" Elena spun to stand in front of him with a small smirk. "I should stop looking for Kol and I'll bump into him."
"That is one option," he nodded, "but I find myself more partial to how you found Rebekah."
Her eyes narrowed as she tilted her head.
"Technically Rebekah found me," she hummed, "while I was waiting for you to come back."
"Just before that," he shook his head. A smirk lifted the edges of his mouth.
He lifted his hand, cupped her cheek and tipped her head up. He pressed his lips to hers and heard her heart flutter. He would have stolen her kisses for the rest of eternity just to hear the magical sound of her fluttering heart.
She slipped her arms around his waist and tilted her head, parting her lips for his tongue. She could feel his skin warm beneath her hands through his t-shirt and smiled against his mouth.
He broke from her lips and pressed a few pecks to the corners of her mouth. He never could get over the slightly dazed expression in her eyes whenever he kissed her; like she couldn't believe he wanted to kiss her.
His gaze was soft when he met her eyes and he wanted to tell her, to say the words reflected in his eyes, but before he could say anything the silence was interrupted by the sound of heels on stone.
"Am I interrupting?" Lexa flashed a cheeky smile at the couple, pausing on the path to watch them. Her shadow cut through the moon's reflection in the coy pond.
"That depends," Elena stepped back, sighing. "Did you bring company?"
"Just me," she shook her head.
"Then you are definitely interrupting," Elijah chuckled. He claimed Elena's hand once more, rubbing her knuckles with his thumb. "I take it you didn't find him either."
"I didn't say that," she shook her head.
"You did find him?" Elena frowned. She squeezed his palm and glanced at the dark walkways, half expecting Kol to emerge from the foliage and possibly attack her, but odds were he wouldn't. He had been back among the living for years and hadn't made a point of hunting her down to enact the revenge he had been hell bent on at her graduation. "Where is he?"
"He'll show," she shrugged.
"You didn't bring him with you?" Elijah frowned.
"What was I supposed to do?" She dropped to sit on a bench, crossing her legs at the ankles. "He was reluctant, and didn't believe me. Should I have clubbed him over the head?"
"He could do with having some sense knocked into him," Elijah smirked.
"Ha-ha," she rolled her eyes. "That wouldn't have worked for two very obvious reasons."
Elena cocked an eyebrow and joined the witch on the bench; his hand slipped from her palm to her shoulder. She bit her lip to temper her smile and waited for Lexa to explain her thought process.
"Number one," she held up her index finger, "he has to submit to the spell willingly, and two…" she tilted her head and motioned to her body, "… I am grand total of five foot three, and I weigh in at one hundred and fifteen pounds. I'm not sure how long it's been since you were human," her eyes met Elena's, "or what sort of strength you had back then, but I personally lack the physical capabilities to drag someone nearly a foot taller than me more than a metre."
"Don't sell yourself short," Elena nudged her shoulder, "you could make it at least two."
His heart pounded with a blind rage that pulsed through his entire body. He quivered with indignation and tried to bottle it down because it was one thing when the Hollow fueled his rage, but another when his rage fueled it.
He choked it down and flashed into the Japanese Tea Garden towards the sound of voices.
The first belonged to the witch.
The feminine voice that followed nearly made him turn around and leave, but the third one drew the breath from his lungs.
Out of instinct he looked around for wilted flowers and bloody water, but everything remained normal: serene. Jasmine scented air filled him as he breathed in and stepped through the opening.
He didn't know what to say when they all turned to look at him, so he turned his gaze on the blonde.
"I believe we had a deal, darling," he cocked an eyebrow.
"Lexa," she stood in a fluid motion, extracting a black box from her shoulder bag. "Now I've held up my end…"
She waved with one hand, lighting the stone lanterns within garden. She could see the flames flickering in the darkness and knelt, placing the box on the ground.
"You're sure this will work?" He frowned. The voice in his head still said not to trust her.
"The fact that you two are standing so close without having a negative effect on your immediate surroundings should answer that question." Elena glanced over her shoulder to Elijah.
For the first time he noticed his brother's hand on the brunette's shoulder. He doubted Elijah knew he was angling his body towards her.
"You make a fair point." He nodded. "Why are you here, darling?"
"I need a reason?" Elena tilted her head.
"If you're fond of your head…" Kol didn't finish the threat. Elijah's glare cut him off.
Elena still chose to answer.
"It turns out I'm instrumental in all of this," she shrugged. She wanted to tell him she was sorry for what she had done a decade before. She wanted to say he had been right and that they should have listened, but so much time had passed and she wasn't sure how to begin.
"Somehow it always boils down to the doppelganger," his eyes flickered over her. The air crackled between them.
"I get that there's something hostile between the two of you," Lexa cleared her throat, "but could you pick this up later? We're gonna lose the full moon."
Elena nodded and got to her feet, holding out her hands.
Kol hesitated for a moment before taking the offered hands and forming a small circle above the open box.
It happened all at once. Lexa closed her eyes. The voice in his head roared to life. It screamed. It fought. It clawed at the edges of his mind before being ripped from his body. His knees buckled.
Blinking against the fading headache he watched as the box rattled. Blue light pulsed behind the cracks. Slim fingers held the top closed.
The light grew and grew before dying. It was overtaken by something else that caused the cracks in the wood to glow violet before fading to a crimson sparkle.
"Is it just me," Lexa sighed, flopping onto her back, "or was that harder than last time?"
"I feel like I could sleep for a week," Elena agreed. She closed her eyes and wiped a bead of blood from her nose. She didn't realize she was asleep until her head hit the pillow on their bed.
She opened her eyes and managed a weak smile for Elijah as he removed her shoes and lifted a blanket over her body.
"What happened to Kol?" She mumbled into the pillow.
"He's helping Lexa back to her room," he smoothed Elena's hair away from her face. He didn't think she heard the answer because her heart had leveled out into the resting rate that indicated she was asleep.
"Elena?"
She hummed as his fingers combed through her hair, but gave no indication that she could hear him. He smiled, leant down and kissed her cheek, breathing the words against her smooth skin.
"Were you like this when you took the Hollow from Elijah?" Kol caught her around her waist.
She slurred something unintelligible and let him ease her down on the mattress. She was exhausted, but she did seem to have a little more energy than the previous time; she had enough strength to shake off her heels. Luckily they fell free with the first weak kick.
He filled a glass with water in the bathroom and pressed it into her open hand, watching as she drank down half of it.
"You're not a typical witch, are you, love?" He tilted his head.
"What do you mean?" She mumbled. Her head felt fuzzy, like she'd spent a night out drinking with Elena and had attempted to drink the vampire under the table.
He managed to make out her question.
"Most loathe vampires on sight," he chuckled, "and take months, if not years, to call one friend, but you don't seem to have any qualms with me."
She shrugged her shoulders. The glass slipped from her hand and would have spilled over her legs but he caught it without losing a single drop of water.
"The way I see it," she tilted her head, blinking slowly, "loathing, much like respect, needs to be earned. I don't know that I could ever hate somebody for what they are."
He nodded, setting the glass on the nightstand. His hand brushed her arm when he lowered it back down, causing his skin to tingle.
"Can I ask you something, Lexa?" He met her unfocused eyes. He felt certain she would answer honestly in her current state; her responses so far had come quickly.
"Lay it on me," she giggled.
"Would you ever turn?" He searched her eyes. In his experience witches only entered transition as a result of an accident or manipulative vampires. He had never known one to make the conscious choice.
"I don't know," she hummed. It was clear she had never thought about the possibility, but she considered it with as much concentration as her tired mind could manage. "Maybe…" she nodded after a pause, "… maybe I would…" she chewed her bottom lip, "if I had a good reason…"
She broke off with a yawn. Kol clenched his jaw to keep from yawning with her and stood up, directing her to lie down.
"Get some sleep, love," he draped the blanket over her slim frame. "Maybe in the morning you can tell me what a good reason would be," he chuckled.
"Love," her mumbled reply came when his hand was on the doorknob. He froze. "If I loved a vampire and they loved me too I'd turn."
He glanced over his shoulder to where she had closed her eyes.
"Good night, love."
"G'night, Kol."
Elijah found him in the sitting area of their rented apartment, staring out at the setting moon. He tilted his head towards the kitchen.
"There's blood if you're hungry."
"I'm not," he shook his head. "For the first time in months I'm not starving. I feel…"
"Renewed?" Elijah cocked an eyebrow. "I remember that feeling. Elena was all but dead on her feet and I felt like I was vibrating with energy."
"That about sums it up," he nodded. He glanced over his shoulder, eyeing his brother's attire. "I can't remember the last time I saw you out of a suit."
"Probably 1821," he chuckled.
"Let's be honest," Kol shook his head, "that was the equivalent of a suit. You haven't been this relaxed since the tenth century." He turned around to face his brother, following him into the kitchen and tilted his head. "How'd you get your memory back?"
"A very dedicated woman," Elijah pushed up his sleeves and poured a cup of coffee.
"Elena Gilbert," he took the offered cup. "Rebekah mentioned a run in. How exactly did that happen?"
"Just as you said," he shrugged, "a run in." He stirred cream and sugar into his cup and sat at the table. "She found me, and Elena, being Elena, couldn't leave me with no memory of whom, or what I was. I don't know where I would have ended up without her."
"Probably wreaking havoc somewhere in the world while being wracked by guilt," he sipped his coffee. "You always were more susceptible to that than the rest of us."
"When the lives I took were innocent ones, yes," he agreed. The coffee warmed his hands through the ceramic. "She helped me, Kol. She's helping all of us, and after what our family has done to her she shouldn't want to. Niklaus and Rebekah both killed her, terrorized her. You tried to kill her. Finn used her in a ritual that would have killed us all. I left her with Rebekah when I knew what would happen… She should hate us all."
"How instrumental is she in removing the Hollow?" Kol stared into his mug.
"Lexa has to channel her, and her blood is used as the seal on the box."
"So she's invaluable?" He scoffed. "Damn; that means I can't kill her."
"Kol," he warned.
"Relax," he rolled his eyes, "as much as I would love to maim her I'll refrain." He took a drink from the cup and tilted his head. "You might try telling her that when she's awake and can actually answer you."
Elijah choked on his coffee. He took a second to regain his breath and fixed his baby brother with the look.
"I'm fairly certain you were taught not to eavesdrop."
"I'm fairly certain none of us took to that lesson." Kol dropped into a chair across from his brother. "What's the plan, then? Rebekah then Nik, or Nik and then Rebekah?"
"It'll be whichever we find first," he shrugged. "Rebekah's somewhere in New York, but Niklaus has gone off the grid."
"You've been spending too much time with Elena Gilbert," Kol smirked.
"Not nearly enough," Elijah chuckled.
"Why not just call them and get them to meet you?" He changed the subject.
"It seems the Hollow is hiding them from us, and calls aren't going through. At least we assume that's the case; unless you were ignoring our calls." He nodded when Kol shook his head. "We're cut off."
Kol leaned forward, crossing his arms on the table.
"Have you told Hope?"
"No," he sighed, "and I'm not going to. I won't risk her knowing and being unable to contact him."
"You think that would happen?"
"I know Elena asked Caroline to tell Niklaus she had to speak to him, and I know Caroline has been unable to get in touch with him since. I'm not going to run the risk of cutting Hope off from her father."
"Do you have any idea where he is?"
"Somewhere in western Europe," Elijah shrugged. "Lexa's locator spells wouldn't get any closer than the borders of a country and he's moving too quickly, hopping from one country to the next…"
Kol plucked a pen from the table and flipped open a notebook. He recognized the various spirals and symbols of magic, but ignored them and flipped to the back to scrawl over the page.
"Here," he tore it out and gave it to Elijah, "that's the last address I have for Rebekah. I take it the full moon is important."
"Vital," he folded the slip of paper.
"Fancy a race, brother?" Kol leaned back with a smirk. "See which of us can locate a wayward sibling first? You can take Rebekah and I'll hunt down Nik."
"What happened with Davina?" He tilted his head. "Something tells me she won't be thrilled with you racing off to hunt down Niklaus."
"She wouldn't have been," he shrugged, casting his eyes aside.
"Kol?"
"She knew, 'Lijah," he shook his head. "She knew what Hayley had done after the fact and she didn't tell me. She thought I would tell everyone else and wanted to protect Hayley. She wanted to keep me from running back."
"I thought I was the one with blind devotion," he hummed.
"I might not be blinded by sentiment Elijah, but I do care. I would have gone back if I thought there was anything I could have done, and she didn't give me the choice." He shook his head, swallowing his anger with the bitter gulp of black coffee. "She wanted to steer clear of vampires. It seemed to escape her notice that I am one. Here I was holding on to the thought that she would turn one day."
"Now that conversation makes sense," Elijah sighed.
"You call me an eavesdropper," Kol scoffed. "It's no wonder none of us heeded that particular lesson."
"We've established I'm not the greatest role model," he chuckled. "You and Davina then…"
"Over," he sighed. "She hates vampires and she'll never be one. Maybe it could have waited; maybe we could have had more time, but I would have had to watch her age and die."
"You could have forgiven her deceit?"
"Eventually, probably… she was protecting her friend from Nik's wrath, but…"
"There's a pesky little mortality issue that won't go away," Elijah finished.
"I've got endless time but there's something about spending half your life in a box that makes you not want to waste it." He drained the last of his coffee.
"So you're going to help," he nodded.
"I'm going to help," he sighed. "And since you've got a good starting point for Rebekah I will take Nik, Lexa can give me locations when I land in Europe."
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