Note: I do not own TWD or TVD… just having fun.

Chapter Songs

Tawgs Salter – Brave

Scene: Damon and Maggie

Hurts - Stay

Scene: Maggie leaving Damon's room through goodbye

Awolnation – Sail

Scene: Kol

Chapter Twenty-one

Stefan gave casually while flipping to the next page, "Oh, the fact she came in an hour ago and she's sleeping upstairs in your room."

With a slightly dumbstruck expression, Damon studied Stefan to see if he was pulling his leg or not before chancing a glance up towards the ceiling.

"Good luck getting that walker smell out of your car, by the way," Stefan wore an amused grin.

Damon's lip curled slightly upwards in annoyance before muttering, "I think I liked you more on the bunny diet."

A few blood bags later, Damon came to his room to find the lights off. Even in the darkness, with the aid of the moonlight shadow casted from his window, he could see the sleeping form of Maggie in his bed. She was turned on her side, away from the door and her breathing was even. Walking into the room, he noticed the slight change in humid and smell of soap. He was relieved that she decided to take a shower before crawling into his bed.

Peeking into the bathroom, he found her clothes in a bloody mess on the floor and her keys on the bathroom counter. He would have to remember to burn them later, there was no way she would wear them again after all that. He knew that also meant she raided his closet for something to sleep in.

Quietly, he moved about to change in a pair of pajama pants and a fresh t-shirt. He didn't have it in him to wake her up and he felt pretty exhausted himself. So instead, he carefully lifted the covers on the other side of the bed and slid in next to her. Resting his head on the pillow, he gazed at her in silence for a long time. A grin tugged at his lips as he thought about no matter how badly she lashed out at him, she still ended up coming back to him.

As his eyes shut, a part of him realized that he would take each one of those wounds if that meant it kept her coming back to him.

Maggie woke with a deep sigh as the morning filtered through the window. Her hand was tucked under her pillow as she buried her nose in it slightly, subconsciously refusing to wake up but knowing it was inevitable. Aside from the comfort of the blankets, she immediately noticed the warm body that was curled up around her and the slight intermittent chill that befell her neck. She knew right away it was Damon holding her against him and his breath falling slowly against her.

She looked down at the arm wrapped around her torso, her hand resting lazily upon as if they had always been this way. Her fingertips brushed over the Salvatore family ring on his hand as she thought to herself, wondering at what point it was during all this she had gotten used to be physically close to him.

She felt him rouse with a sharp intake and her fingers stilled on his hand.

"Do you know how much it hurts to heal major organs?" Damon mumbled, his voice heavy with sleep. In truth he hadn't decided which one was worse, the stomach or the intestine she had pierced yesterday. The added infected walker blood certainly delayed the healing process too.

Maggie's eyebrows rose slightly at the odd greeting, but couldn't say she was entirely surprised. It would have been odder if he pretended nothing happened. Carefully, she rolled over onto her back and he allowed her to without actually pulling his arm away from her. She wanted to see his face, which ending up being quite close to hers.

It was then he opened his eyes and she was struck by the brilliant hue. "Especially when I deserved it," He added on in a clearer tone. It was then she could see that he wasn't angry at her, which she admittedly was a little nervous about at first. Relaxing at that, she matched the slight tug at the corner of his mouth with a smile of her own.

She didn't feel the need to point out how stupid what he said was. Maggie opened to just bask in the ease and comfort she felt for a moment longer, staring back at Damon. The rest slipped away from his face as he became more alert and his lips parted, as if he wanted to say something but didn't. The hand on her hip shifted to hold her a little tighter and she felt the tension between them start to surface.

Because of that, she moved suddenly, pushing herself to sit upright with her back leaning against the headboard. Damon raised half an eyebrow at the startled movements. "I need to say a few things," Maggie declared, pulling her hands into her lap.

"Okay…" Damon gave unsurely as he turned his body and mimicked her position for this apparently serious discussion they were about to have. Last night, he had thought about a half a dozen different things he could've said to her about it, but now they seemed to be nowhere in sight.

Maggie fumbled with her fingers as he waited, trying to think of where she wanted to start. She didn't exactly rehearse this in her head before she fell asleep last night.

"I'm not the best with words… and given the chance I would rather express myself with actions," She stated, thinking of all the heartfelt confessions she ever made in her life could likely be made on one hand.

Damon's narrowed thoughtfully. There was no hint of playfulness in her voice and on a normal day he would've turned those words around into something suggestive. This time he knew it wasn't his turn to the speaking.

"I don't open up to anyone easily, especially after everything that has happened," She continued and her face twisted slightly as she admitted the next truth quietly, "Because they would just be another person for me to lose."

"I keep it to myself until I can't take it anymore and I lash out," She didn't need to point out any examples after how many times Damon had been on the receiving end already.

She took a deep breath, thinking of the next truth and how it was something her group generally felt, but they would never admit to anyone in Mystic Falls. Some of her group, like Beth and Rick, would say that they feel this way, but she knew they didn't while she genuinely did. "I would do anything protect my loved ones… even if that means I have to hurt them or trade the lives of strangers," She voiced, staring ahead and not necessarily looking at Damon.

As Damon watched her, he couldn't help but wonder if it was herself that she was describing or him. It was almost eerie how alike they were in some ways. He didn't need to point out all the times he had hurt Stefan or Elena in what was his attempt at protecting them. He also knew a thing or two about lashing out.

"I've cried more in the past two weeks than I have in the past two years," She admitted, partly hating how emotional she was being lately, but it was hard to avoid with everything that had been going on. She wasn't the one to get teary over a movie and came nowhere near close to be a bleeding heart.

The only explanation for her actions she saved for last. "And when I'm miserable, I rebel… sometimes by drinking, even smoking a few times, but in some way doing something impulsive," She shook her head slightly as she spoke, partly remembering some of her more childish antics when she was younger. "The last time I acted out against my father, I had sex with the first boy close to my age that I had seen in months." She then added in a slight humorless chuckle, "In a pharmacy."

Damon's eyes widened at her bluntness that was something most people would've expected coming out of his mouth. He tried not to dwell too much on the mental image of that. He questioned in a soft whisper, "What happened?"

Maggie gave a sad smile and turned her head towards Damon. "Oh, my daddy was mad… but then I fell in love with him," She blinked away the few tears forming in her eyes. This wasn't the time to cry. "We held onto each other and kept each other alive," There was a soft fondness in her voice.

It was then that Damon realized she was talking about Glenn.

"When you take away just surviving…" Her voice trailed and she stopped herself, that was a different line of thought she couldn't explore now. Taking a deep breath, she really looked Damon in the eyes and tried to keep her voice from shaking, showing just how vulnerable she truly felt. "But now I'm losing him, he's slipping away… I know I'm doing this to him, but I don't know what else to do…"

Damon grimaced slightly at how lost she looked in that moment, looking for some sort of anchor in the storm. He never considered himself to be that anchor for anyone, but he needed to do something for her. Gently, he reached out his hand and placed it over hers, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Her fingers relaxed at the gesture and he moved to thread his fingers with hers. Maggie watched him with a small sense of fascination.

Finally trusting himself to speak, he leaned close to her. "I think he's a fool," He declared, earning a slightly alarmed reaction from Maggie. Before she could take it the wrong way, he continued determinedly, "If he can't see that you're worth fighting for and never letting go."

Taking his hand from hers, he used to delicately pull a few hairs away from her face and tuck them behind her ear, "You deserve that and so much more, Maggie."

Her heart swelled, adding to the pressure in her chest as she gasped silently. The emotion conveyed in his voice was as clear as the intention in his expression. His eyes piercing into her, studying each feature of her face, starting with her eyes and moving down to her lips. This was the type of conviction she hadn't been expecting to see this morning and from someone other than her boyfriend.

It was because of that she panicked.

"I can't do this," She pulled away from him, scrambling to get out of the bed in a hurry. Even though she just wore a pair of Damon's pajama pants and one of his black shirts, she made for the door without a look back.

Frowning at the sudden change in her demeanor, Damon stared after her. The big question of "Why not?" formed at his lips, but he didn't sound it. He knew there was a whole list of excuses that she could come up with. He trailed behind her, giving her some distance as he climbed out of the bed. Sensing that she was probably going to bolt, he blurred quickly into the bathroom to grab her keys off the counter and shove them in his pocket. Then he went after her down the hallway.

Up until that point, the moment had reminded him of when he came to after the confrontation with Klaus. He knew it took a lot from her to open up like that. As they went down the stairs, he was wondering if maybe he had pushed it too far. Maybe if he hadn't pressed it further, she wouldn't be shutting down like the way she appeared to be as she got to the front door.

Yanking open the front door roughly, Maggie was hit by the chill of the morning air and a blast of sunlight. She stopped in the doorframe. At first she told herself that she stopped because she realized she was storming out of the house while her house keys were still in the pocket of the dirty jeans upsides and she didn't actually have a ride home. But something about that wave of fresh air snapped her thoughts together.

It was then she realized that something had to give. She couldn't just walk out again, whether it was the boardinghouse or her house without something changing. Otherwise, she would forever be running back and forth, dealing with the burden herself and caught in some sick sense of in between the two. The longer she drew it out, the more hurt there would be for not just her, but everyone involved.

Damon curiously approached with slow steps, closing the distance of the main hallway silently, almost as if he didn't want to startle her. For the life of him, he wanted to know what was going through her mind as she stood in the open doorway, one hand on the door and the other on the wooden frame, her back to him.

"Maggie…" Damon's voice to her ears like a soft caress and she closed her eyes a moment to revel in it.

Opening her eyes, she turned back to face him, her hands dropping from the door but leaving it wide open. With a new sense of resolve in her expression, she took her first step forward and declared, "This is the last thing I'm going to feel guilty for."

Before he could question what, she closed the distance between them, reaching up with one hand to the back of his neck and pulling him down to her. Catching on, Damon caught her lips with his, reaching with his hands to her hips to hold her against him. Closing her eyes, Maggie gave into the heated passion that radiated from him. Her fingers tangled in his hair as he coaxed her mouth open with his tongue. When one hand slipped under the hem of her shirt to slide up her spine, she arched her back, pressing her chest against him and earning a slight growl from his throat.

Then her back was pressed up against the wall of the hallway and the hand on his shoulder blade dug her finger tips into his skin. The action caused him to suck firmly on her lower lip, grazing it with his teeth, eliciting a whimper from her. The tension she always felt around him twisted into a knot within her, itching for more with each touch and caress.

It was the type of burn she could get carried away. Feeling the need for air and herself beginning to lose it, Maggie slowly eased away from the kiss.

Leaning her head back against the wall, she opened her eyes, met with his as dark as a stormy cloud. Despite her panting, she could tell he was ready to lean in and continue. Removing her hand from his hand, she slid it down to touch the side of his face, gently framing his eyes. "If I stay longer, I'm not going to be able to leave," She whispered in a huskier tone than normal.

"Then don't leave," Damon replied instantly with a smirk forming. He kept one hand trailing his fingers tauntingly up and down her side while the other reached up to brush his thumb lightly against her swollen lower lip.

Maggie swallowed thickly at the tempting offer, but held her resolve. "I need to sort some things out," She said and there was a touch of regret in her voice.

Damon's eyes narrowed in a flicker, but he nodded before dropping his hand and backing away from the position he had pinned her against the wall. Seeing how quickly he was backing off, Maggie knew that he was shutting down. "But I'll see you at the Founder's celebration," She promised.

She thought she might have seen a bit of hope pass through him before he masked his expression. Glancing to the open doorway, Damon hesitated before reaching into his pocket and pulling out the keys.

Holding them out to her, he gave a curt nod, "Do what you need to do." He wanted to add, 'and come back to me', but he refrained.

"Thank you," She gave as her goodbye, taking the keys from him and heading for the door. Stepping outside, she paused momentarily to look over her shoulder at him with a meaningful gaze. This time she grinned a little before she left.

Damon watched her go, hoping that the kiss wasn't the last thing she was going to feel guilty about because it was the last kiss.

After digging a blanket out of the trunk to cover the driver's seat and driving with the windows down, Maggie decided she would definitely have to clean the Camaro out somehow before giving it back to Damon. The smell wasn't the worst she had experienced, but she figured it must be ten times worse with his vampire senses. Before she knew it, she was pulling up to the house.

She spotted Rick with the Camry keys in his hand and the door open, as if he was about to leave. Hearing the rumbling of the Camaro, he halted and furrowed his brow as Maggie parked behind the Camry and cut the engine. He tried not to judge too badly when she stepped out in a set of clothes that were clearly not hers and too big. He had a feeling they belonged to the same owner of the Camaro.

"Maggie? Where were you?" Rick questioned as she looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"Uhh… around," Maggie said sheepishly and slightly embarrassed to be caught outside in pajamas by Rick Grimes of all people. She then noticed his appearance. He was clean shaven, which was quite a sight for her to take in since she couldn't ever remember a time they were able to worry about things like that. It made him look much younger and truer to his real age than scruff that showed the trials of their survival. "Wait, where are you going?" She countered.

"Downtown," Rick gave just as vaguely while rubbing his chin anxiously and glancing back at the house.

"Huh," Maggie bit her tongue slightly as she looked him up and down. Then it clicked in her mind what was going on. She gave a slow smirk and suggested, "How about I'll forget that you're clearly sneaking off to meet with someone if you forget you saw me come in like this?"

Rick appeared a bit flustered at being called out, but managed a chuckle anyway. "Deal," He agreed.

Maggie grinned and turned to walk towards the front door. She made it a few steps before Rick's voice stopped her. "Hey, I know what's going on between you and Glenn isn't my business…"

Maggie frowned and stiffened slightly at the caution in his tone. "I just hope you'll be careful in what type of company you keep," Rick said sincerely. It was obvious the type of company he was referring to was the one of a certain blood drinking variety.

At first, she wanted to laugh at the thought that any of this had started from her choice. He had no idea just how much she was in over her head now. She just nodded somberly, "I will."

Rick bit the inside of his cheek, not knowing what more he could really say to the young woman in front of him. He noticed the way she was spending less and less time with the group, whether it was at the Grill or as he suspected the home of her original kidnapper. She turned away from him and walked towards the house, leaving him to sigh heavily before climbing into the car.

Luckily for Maggie, the house was mostly empty when she crept inside quietly. Glenn had taken Beth and Carl downtown for the bus to the high school and she had just seen Rick leave. That just left Hershel and Judith, she could hear them from the kitchen. She swiftly slipped up the stairs to change clothes before he could see her.

Once she changed into some jeans with a casual top and a cardigan pulled over it, she went in the kitchen to say hello to her father. She gave a quick excuse about where she was and said she actually had to get going to the Grill at the moment. It actually wasn't a lie, since she was going to meet up with Matt there.

Coming back to the front door, she opened it and halted at the sight of someone on the porch.

Kol leaned against the post at the top of the small steps of the porch. His hands were buried slightly in his jean pockets, pulling back his black jacket. His eyes flickered with dark amusement at the way that Maggie stopped just behind the threshold of the door. She looked remarkably different today, much more like the woman he cornered in the Grill and the one he had overheard telling off the baby Salvatore. But he certainly wouldn't forget the uninhibited wild look in her eyes yesterday splattered with walker blood, like a black lioness.

Maggie stared at him as he made no move to speak or do anything, unable to read anything from those dark eyes. Unable to help herself, she looked down to her feet, noticed the few inches between her toes and the wood of the door frame. She knew he hadn't been invited inside and she looked back up to see the glimmer of a challenge in the upward turn at the corner of his mouth. It would be really easy to step back and slam the door shut.

That would make her a coward though and she refused to be afraid of him. She also didn't need to give him a reason to wait her out and possibly harm one of her family in the process. Hopefully Rick had gotten away before he arrived. So taking a deep breath and steadying her shoulders, she stepped over and outside, pulling the door shut firmly behind her.

"I have enough to deal with today without you trying to kill me. Can't you stalk me a different day?" Maggie snapped, her tone coming out harsher than she realized as she made quick steps, blowing right past him and down the front walkway. For a moment, she considered taking the Camaro, but she doubted Kol would let her drive off that easily and downtown was less than a mile away.

Kol grinned as she tried to appear unaffected by his presence, but her heart gave her away. Her words didn't bother him, in fact he found her feistiness entertaining. He watched her go down the steps, glancing her up and down before moving to follow after her. "I don't recall claiming I was going to kill you, darling," His voice sounded, dare she say it, a bit chirper.

"Yet," He added, falling in stride with her easily enough as she marched down the sidewalk with determined heavy steps.

"Lovely," Maggie muttered more so to herself, but Kol heard it clearly anyway. She kept moving and some small part of her hoped that he would just go away. Unlikely, but a hope. She refused to look directly at him because she could feel his unfaltering stare on her the entire time as they moved. To a third eye, they would've looked like a couple on a morning stroll, but she just hoped they didn't run into anyone after what happened to Jeremy. The last thing she wanted was to encounter Glenn on the way back from downtown. A part of her hoped that Damon would step out from behind one of the trees along the sidewalk.

Feeling slightly unnerved by the silence, Maggie asked with genuine curiosity, "What were you doing out there, Kol?"

Kol tilted his head slightly at the sound of his name on her lips. It was sharp, but he decided it wasn't entirely unpleasant. His answer made her nearly trip over her feet, "Admiring you."

"What?" fell from her lips as she finally turned to face him directly.

He took a deliberate step forward, which caused Maggie to take one step back away from him. "I thought what you did was magnificent," He grinned. Maggie fell open slightly as she listened to his words. It would have been deeply flattering in any other situation to spoken such words to, but it seemed oddly twisted by the predatory look in his eyes and the fact he was referring to slaughter.

He took two steps forward and she took a step back with each one, as if it was some forced dance move. But then she felt her back bump into something hard and unforgiving. She nearly cursed aloud when she realized he had her backed against a tree trunk. For a moment, she thought about trying to make a run for it, but she wasn't going to give him a chase when he was looking at her like that.

He placed a hand on either side of her against the trunk, trapping her in, one by her head and the other by her waist. Maggie swallowed thickly and leaned her head back as far away as she could against the wood, distinctly aware of the lack of space between them.

"I marveled at the way for a moment you just turned it off and let everything go, completely uninhibited by anything other than your body," Kol's voice came out like a purr, each accented word causing her to shiver slightly. Then she could see the dark sense of admiration in his eyes as he leaned close to her. Her heart pounded nervously as his scent washed over her. Through all of that, she didn't look away from his stare.

Her mind grasped for an explanation as to why she knew she should run or get away from him, but she remained fixated under his gaze. It felt like the Grill all over again, but this time it was stronger. "You can't compel me," Her voice came out as a stubborn whisper.

His eyes narrowed the slightest at her. He masked his annoyance behind a cheeky rhetorical question, "And where would the fun in that be?" Lowering the hand by her head, he reached forward to trail his fingertips slowly down her neck, right along where he knew the jugular would be. Maggie closed her eyes at the contact and clenched her teeth tightly.

"Is that what you think I'm trying to do to you?" He asked in a tone that almost sounded tender to her and something about she felt her cheeks starting to turn red. Especially when the hand on her neck disappeared to be placed firmly on her waistline, which felt like fire through the fabric of her clothing because of how acutely aware of it she was.

"I don't know," She answered weakly, keeping her eyes closed. She took a deep shaky breath, "Whatever this is… please, just." For a moment, she considered saying stop, but she knew would only wave a red flag of challenge. She struggled to find a way out, "Not…"

"Today," Kol finished for her quickly, remembering her first words.

Opening her eyes, she wanted to say ever or now. She nodded barely, willing to take whatever she could get. Kol studied her without a smirk on his face, but she could tell that he seemed to be considering her request.

Finally, he gave a half shrug with an arrogant grin. "Fine, what's a few days in the grand scheme of things?" He didn't intend on killing her right away anyway, there was still some fun to be had with this one.

Before leaving her though, he leaned in with his head tilted slightly to the side, causing her to hold her breath while her mind panicked. What was he doing? Was he going to bite her? In some way, he almost looked like he was about to kiss her and that thought caused her to squeeze her eyes shut in disbelief.

He did neither of those things, instead just inhaling her scent deeply before murmuring, "He was right about one thing. Your mortality limits you."

In a chilling breeze, the hand on her hip disappeared and Maggie opened her eyes to realize that he was gone.

She lifted her hands, noticing they were shaking considerably to hug herself tightly.

Numbly, her back slide down along the trunk as she fell to a seat, wondering what just happened.

Author's Note: Bam! So thoughts on Damon and Maggie?

On a scale of 1 to 10, how creepy was Kol?

Next chapter, Founder's Celebration!

Nethra: I'm glad you thought that was intense! I hope it was in a good way haha.

So I think I stunned my usual reviewers into silence with the last chapter, but I hope to hear from you on this one!