A/N: My life is empty without Vampire Diaries to look forward to every Thursday :( Haha, thank you guys so much for your reviews and your support. I wouldn't have gotten this far into the story (nearly 93,000 words!) without your encouragement!

I'm excited to dig deeper into the relationship between Madeleine and Kol. This chapter is very Kol/Madeleine centric, to make up for his absence last chapter ;) **lemon warning**

Inspired by Swimming - Florence + the Machine.

Chapter Twenty Five - Swimming

Tires squealed against the pavement as he came to a short stop in front of me. As I stood, I could see my reflection in his dark, tinted windows, and sighed when I realized I looked like a homeless girl; my hair was a mess and my clothes were stained with dirt and blood. Shaking my head, I opened the door and slid into the passenger seat, pulling the belt over my lap.

My body, which had been tense, had visibly relaxed. I would never admit to anyone how comfortable I had grown to feel around Kol; it was my secret. I looked at him. Same impish grin, same devilish eyes.

"What happened to you, then?" Kol asked, eyes scanning over me.

"The hunter." I sighed. "He found me."

"What?" His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. "Is he still here?"

"He's long gone." I added dismissively, "I don't want to talk about it, though."

"Your arm," he said tightly, looking at the slit skin. Blood was still oozing from it; it should have healed by then. "Why hasn't it healed? Even wounds inflicted by silver should heal within minutes, no longer than an hour."

Not answering his question, I cradled my arm against my chest.

"When's the last time you fed?"

My head turned slightly at the word. "Doesn't matter. I want to go away."

His lips quirked, playing at a smirk. "Where do you want to go?"

"Away from here. Away from Mystic Falls."

"As you wish, darling."

Darling. The first time he had called me that, I'd been upset. Angered at the thought of him ridiculing me. Now, all I felt was a warmth in my chest that shouldn't have been there.

"Although, not many places are going to allow you on their premises looking the way you do."

"How do I look?" I said jokingly.

"Like you've just escaped from a bar fight. Perhaps we should get you a change of clothes? A shower?"

"Sounds good."

Walking back to his car, my damp hair tickled the sides of my face and the arch of my jaw. Rebekah had left a surprising amount of things at the Mikaelson mansion. I should have felt more guilty using her things, but I couldn't bring myself to. I had slipped into a simple pair of jeans and a shirt, two items that had been hard to find in her piles of glamorous dresses and silky garments.

I looked down at where the silver blade had slit my skin. The blood had been washed away but the area was red and swollen, the skin agitated.

"I could heal it for you, if you'd like," Kol offered.

"No," I said, my eyes trained on it. "I've missed it."

"Missed what?"

"Being able to be hurt," I confessed in a low voice. "It makes me feel human."

"But you are not human," he pointed out.

"No, I'm not," I agreed, knowing his statement was true. "I look like a human and I bleed like a human, but I am not a human. I miss it, though."

"Why?" he asked, as if he couldn't fathom wanting to be human again. "You are more powerful now. Stronger. I find it peculiar that you would miss being so fragile."

We both climbed into his car, and I waited patiently for him to settle behind the wheel before replying. "You don't miss anything about being human?"

"Nothing," Kol said. He turned the key in the ignition, and the car jolted to a start. "I like the way I am now, thank you very much."

My eyes found the side of his face as he pulled out of the drive. "Not even the small things, like tiny cuts and bruises, ones you can't remember where you've gotten them from? Or a sunburn, from staying out in the sun too long? Or the chill of the wind in the morning?"

Kol shifted in his seat. "Humans are feeble. Pathetic. They are only around for food and sport."

Drawing my eyebrows together, I said, "I became a stronger, better person after I transitioned. The person I used to be was insignificant and weak. But there is something beautiful about being human."

I could tell he wanted to disagree, but I continued anyways.

"I used to be invisible. I would walk down the school hallways and nobody would even look at me. They would bump my shoulders as they shuffled by. They could have been my classmates for years, but they still didn't know who I was. Now, I walk into the school and everyone looks up like I'm a piece of meat in front of hungry dogs. I never thought I'd miss being invisible, but..." I shrugged.

"I'm far too old to remember what it was like to be human," Kol scoffed.

"You're lying," I said to him knowingly.

He took a sharp right turn onto a road, his eyes glued to the road in front of him. I had made him uncomfortable. "Okay, fine, you are right. I remember what it was like to be human. I was afraid. I was afraid of the plague that had taken my brother's life in the Old World. I was afraid of the wolves. I was afraid of my father. Now, everyone is afraid of me."

"Do you like that?"

"Why are you asking all of these questions?" he snapped.

"Because I want to know about you," I stated.

"And why would you want to know about me?" fired Kol.

Looking at him with squinted eyes and crossed arms, I asked, "Is that a problem? That I want to know more about you?"

"Nobody wants to know more about me, unless there is a reason behind it."

"There isn't a reason behind it. I just want to know about you. God, you and Rebekah and Klaus. You're all the same."

"I am not like them," he hissed.

"Yes, you are," I said in return. "You're all afraid to open up to anyone because you think that there's an ulterior motive behind everything. Newsflash: there isn't."

As the words tumbled out of my mouth, the speed of the car accelerated. We were going so fast that the trees on the side of the road had blurred to a series of shapes and colors.

"Maybe I just want to know who you are beneath... that." I gestured towards him.

"No, you don't," he said simply, through clenched teeth.

"Why not? You know me. You know who I am. I say it's not fair for you to have that advantage over me. But I'll bet you like it. You like seeing into other people's souls, knowing that they can't see into yours. Or maybe you're afraid to let people know that there's an actual person inside of you."

"I am not afraid of anything," Kol growled fiercely. "And would you just stop? I'm not a puzzle for you to put together, or a book for you to read. What you see is what you get."

Maybe I had pushed him too far. But he was wrong. I stopped talking for a moment, but I knew just how wrong he was. Because what I saw couldn't be all of him. All of Kol. There were layers of him, some that hadn't been unraveled in so long that perhaps he had forgotten that they were there.

The Originals weren't just monsters with the faces of humans. They had been people once, too. I had ventured deep into Rebekah's mind and soul; I had seen a side to her that most chose to overlook. I knew that she was a girl, too; that she wasn't an emotionless beast. And I knew that Kol had to be like her, to a certain degree. There had to be a part of him buried underneath centuries of bloodshed and hatred, a part that he seldom let out of its cage.

In that moment, there was nothing I wanted more than to see that part of him.

"By the way, not everyone is afraid of you," I said to him.

Kol peered at me from the corner of his eyes.

"I'm not afraid of you."

"You should be."

"But I'm not." I looked out the window at the blurred, green shrubbery passing by. The flash of the Mystic Falls sign indicated that we had left Mystic Falls, and I felt a sense of freedom wash over me. "Where are we going?"

"Do you have any suggestions?"

"Let's go someplace I've never been before," I suggested.

Kol looked at me again. "Has the tightly-wound Madeleine Gilbert finally loosened up a bit?"

My eyes met his. "Maybe."

"Enough to trust me blindly?"

I looked at him, and after a moment, I gave him a consenting nod. "I'm going to regret this."

"You've spent so long worrying about others around you; I'm going to teach you how to have a little fun."

We drove in silence for a while, away from Mystic Falls and towards the unknown. We were in his car for quite some time; I watched the fading light be swallowed up by the darkness, the pale moon growing in the sky. We passed acres and acres of forest, until I no longer recognized where we were. Every now and then, I would peek at him, but every time he caught me. Like he could feel my eyes on him.

"Where are you taking me?" I finally asked.

"You'll see."

"I don't like being kept in the dark."

"That's a shame."

I settled back into my seat, crossing my arms in a stubborn manner. I took a moment to close my eyes; I was so tired. I was content with listening to the calm, steady beat of his breath and the rev of his engine.

A comfortable atmosphere was something I hadn't really experienced in a long time. Usually, I was on edge, afraid of some unknown threat attacking at any given moment. I feared the safety of those around me, feeling the need to protect them. But when I was with Kol, he was protecting me and oddly, I was okay with that. And I felt unreasonably safe with him, despite the fact that I should be afraid of him.

But I wasn't.

"We're here," he said briskly as his car came to a stop. Curiously, I stepped out, being immediately swallowed up into the darkness. I heard the song of crickets in the distance, and the gentle lapping of freshwater. The air had a biting chill to it, but not enough to make me uncomfortable. Bugs and gnats didn't fill the air, the coming winter having already driven them away.

"Where is here, exactly?" I asked him.

Kol shut his car door, and the lights inside it vanished. We were completely in the dark now, and suddenly I was very aware of him.

"Come, follow me," he commanded, placing his hand on the small of my back. His touch sent chills vibrating up and down my spine. He pushed me along as my eyes adjusted to the darkness.

He stopped at the edge of a land formation; a cliff. I looked over the edge and saw a beach, the water and sand both fighting for dominance with equal intensity. They wrestled against each other, the water growing and receding and then repeating. The ivory moon reflected its pale light against the surface of the water, giving an enigmatic glow that made you contemplate things you didn't think to contemplate.

Despite the impressive view, I was still left confused.

"Okay, so why are we here?"

His hands found me in the dark, and I reacted instantaneously, molding into him. Kol's lips pressed against my ear and I forgot my questions and confusion, allowing myself to become engulfed by the contact. His touches left me wanting more, his lips leaving whispers of our previous kisses. My skin grew hot and I could feel my heartbeat grow embarrassingly erratic. I was flustered by him and he knew it.

Finally, I claimed his mouth with mine. My fingers grew entangled in his brown locks, and I became lost in him.

When he pulled away, I could feel him smirk. And then he murmured into my mouth, "I'm going to throw you off of the cliff now."

"What?"

And I was falling. No, I was flying. A scream bubbled within me but it never escaped past my lips. The air fought against me as I plummeted towards the water, lingering in the light of the moon before I was swallowed by the water.

It was cold, shocking me only for a moment. I released the air from my lungs, bubbles flowing from my mouth underneath the water. I sunk, before I waved my arms and kicked my legs and found my way back to the surface.

"Kol!" I screamed.

I could hear his laughter. I realized how far away I was from the cliff; he had thrown me quite far. The water offered a cool caress against my hot and weary body. Then, through squinted eyes, I saw him plunder from the edge of the cliff, gracefully diving beneath the water. I bit my lip, knowing my decent hadn't been as elegant. There was a splash, and then his head appeared next to me, all in a matter of seconds.

"Why'd you do that?" I yelped, swatting him.

Kol laughed again. "I love to swim."

"But now my clothes are all wet!"

"So don't wear them," he said suggestively.

I let myself go under again, before pushing my head above the water once more. "So, this is what you like to do for fun? Skinny dipping?"

He smirked. "It's only skinny dipping if you're not wearing clothes."

Sighing through gritted teeth, I looked down at my sopping outfit. I was torn; I had never done anything like it before. But then I remembered that I was out to get away, to loosen up. And I disappeared under the water.

With my new supernatural strength, I was able to swim at an alarmingly fast rate. When I popped above the dark water, I was very close to the shore, and Kol was at my feet, swimming behind me.

Climbing on to the beach, the sand beneath my feet stuck to my wet skin. I looked over my shoulder, and there he was, his own shirt sticking to his frame, revealing the texture of his abdominal muscles and biceps. I bit my lip, letting my breath go sharply.

I realized that the tiredness had vanished. I could feel him, even when he wasn't touching me. I was suddenly feeling impulsive and it felt good. I didn't want to let go of it.

On a whim, I started to wrestle with my wet blouse. Kol's hands were on me, undoing the buttons that trailed down my back. He pressed into me as he did so, his body heat transferring easily through the thin and wet fabric. It dropped to the sand, and I stripped out of my jeans, which were resistent and stuck to my skin. After making a split decision, I unclasped my bra, also letting it snap to the ground.

My hands slid underneath his shirt, yanking it over his head. The tips of his fingers traced up my bare side, only lingering on my breast shortly before he removed his own jeans. I pressed my hands against him and then wrapped my arms around him, drawing him closer to me, my naked chest against his. Water dripped from our hair, droplets drizzling down our skin. He kissed my jaw and then my mouth, his tongue tracing the curve of my lips, driving me insane.

Kol's fingers curled beneath the band of my underwear - the last garment on my body. It was soon gone, along with his.

I felt myself grow physically empowered by the contact, reveling in the intimacy. But it was so much more than the first time we'd been together, and even the second. Because it wasn't just kissing anymore, or touching. There was something hiding beneath the surface, a secret, a connection. It was hidden, though, unwilling to be opened. So I left it untouched.

Escaping from his grasp, I took a few steps backwards, breathless. "I've never been skinny dipping before," I said honestly, a grin playing at my lips. And I swerved on my heels, taking a running leap back into the water.

It was dark, the only light emitted from the moon. I returned to the surface, finding the wet earth beneath my feet. I could barely keep my head above the water. I looked around, realizing that Kol had disappeared. A smile grew on my face as I tried to spot him.

Something grabbed me from under the water. Startled, I let out a high-pitched yell. Kol emerged from the water, his hand pressed against my mouth to keep me from screaming again. I grinned into his hand as he held me above the water, his height enabling him to stay above the water like I couldn't.

Wrapping my legs around his middle, I buried my face into his neck, sucking harshly on the wet skin. My mouth trailed up his throat, until I found the corner of his jaw. It was slightly stubbly, but sharp and familiar. My hands held his face as I found his mouth, biting at his lip.

Kol's large hands cupped underneath me, pressing me into him, holding me by my upper thighs roughly. The water lapped against our bodies as my lips and his hands wandered. He readjusted me against him, our bodies slippery in the water, kissing the valley between my breasts.

I wanted him. More than I ever had before.

Slipping from his grasp, I was submerged by the water, and I swam away from him, toying with him. Like a child trying to catch a fish, he recaptured me from behind, bringing me back onto my feet. The air bit at our wet skin as we stood, now only knee deep in the water's hold. I felt his hot breath against my skin, and then his mouth on my shoulder.

A low gasp slipped from between my lips. I raked my fingers up his side as he nipped my neck, hard enough to draw blood.

Blindly stumbling backwards, he led me to the sand, letting me fall onto the ground. It wasn't coarse against my bare back, like I had expected it to be. Maybe the high Kol offered me eliminated any discomfort the sand brought me.

His mouth trailed from between my legs, up my stomach and stopped at my breasts. He held me down by my wrists, pleasuring me with his tongue and lips, teasing me. My hips ground into his, my eyes fluttering into the back of my head.

"How badly do you want it, darling?" he breathed into my skin.

Exhaling sharply, I moaned. "Badly."

"How badly?"

"Really badly. Really badly." I held him to me, fingers running down his back.

My heart thumped in my chest, pounding against my rib cage, raging like an animal desperate to be free from its bonds. As he thrust into me, I could hear my own blood rushing in my ears.

Bodies intertwined, hearts beating together as one, the heat of the moment burned like a raging fire, despite the cool and wet atmosphere around us.

There was no place I would have rather been.

Hours later, we just laid there in the sand. I was still hot, and felt as though I was high in the sky, among the clouds. The sky was dark, and the stars were out, surrounding the pale moon with twinkling smiles.

Kol's arms were wrapped around me, and I was resting my head against him as I stared at the stars. I often forgot how much bigger he was than me, not just in stature but it size. His arm was more than twice the size of mine. My body was sore, but it was a good kind of sore. My skin, usually pale, was stained with blood and sand, and whatever else I had picked up whilst rolling on the shore.

I was afraid to move, knowing that nothing between us would last through the next day.

"You never did tell me," he finally began, shattering the silence, "about those scars."

Sighing, I listened for a moment to his slow breathing, and felt the rising and falling of his chest. I thought, and then decided that Kol should know. If I didn't tell him, someone else would, and I wanted him to hear it from me.

"You didn't do it to yourself, did you?"

"No." I answered, "Before Elena told me about everything supernatural, I met a guy named Gage."

"A partner? What is it they call it these days, boyfriend?"

"Yeah."

"And you loved him?"

"I thought I did."

Kol shifted, his arms tightening around me. Just a little, just enough to be too insignificant.

"He went to school with me. The first guy to ever hold any interest in me." I laughed humorlessly, remembering. "Gage Vorherr. Everyone was so shocked when we announced that we were dating."

"What happened?" he persisted.

"Gage was a vampire, but by the time he started feeding on me, I didn't care. I was in love with him. Depended on him. But, as I now know, my blood is addictive to any vampire who consumes it. So, he became addicted to my blood. Not to me, like I was to him."

"He hurt you," Kol stated simply. He held up my arm, studying the scars on my skin, able to see them even in the pitch darkness. "How revolting. Where is he now?"

"He tried to kill Elena when she finally cared enough to intervene," I said, a little too bitterly. "So Damon killed him. I want to forget him, but I can't. Not with all of these scars to remind me every day."

Kol went quiet, and for a moment, I feared he would hold no more interest in me, being the damaged person I was. Then, he suddenly rolled over, caging me underneath him. Startled, I looked up at him and saw anger burning in his dark orbs. They glinted in a way that the sky never could; a different kind of darkness. He said, in almost a possessive tone, "If he were still alive, I would make him wish he were dead."

Looking up at him, my eyes widened. "You said yourself humans are only around for food and sport. He was just living the vampire lifestyle."

His jaw clenched, and then relaxed. "Madeleine, listen to me." He stared down at me fiercely. "I won't hurt you like he did."

Swallowing, I said to him, "I know you won't."

"And he doesn't deserve to be remembered by you." Supporting himself with only one arm, he used his fingers to gently move the hair that covered my face.

There was something beautiful in how he could look so angry, but use such gentleness with me.

"Let me help you forget him," he whispered at me, drawing closer to me.

Nodding, I pressed my lips against his once more. His touch used to be so foreign to me, and now it was so familiar. It warmed me in a way nothing else could. But it also scared me. Because I shouldn't feel that way towards him. Yet when I was around him, I was drawn to him, more than I had ever been drawn to another individual. He had pulled me in, and he had captured me, and now I didn't want to leave him.

I shouldn't have felt that way.

But I did.

"What happened to you?" came the voice of the last person I wanted to see in my happy state.

Walking through the doors of he Salvatore boarding house, I gave Damon a look over my shoulder. "It's none of your business."

"If you're going to be staying in my house, I say it is."

Taking a couple steps towards him, I whispered as I brushed by him, "I was out with Kol."

"I gathered as much. You reek of him." Damon's face screwed up distastefully as he peered at me. "What were you two lovebirds up to?"

"Why don't you put two and two together?" I threw at him, starting my way up towards my makeshift bedroom.

He had the audacity to chastise me, wagging a finger at me and clicking his tongue. "How scandalous, sleeping around with Original vampires. What would your sister say about such things?"

"Says the man whore of Mystic Falls," I bit. "And Elena knows. And she doesn't care, just like you shouldn't. How do you think she'd feel about the very long list of people you've slept with, then?" I arched my shoulders, cracking my back wearily. "I don't feel like doing this with you right now. I'm going to take a shower."

"Whatever, I'm heading out anyways. Gotta take Elena to college."

"What?" I paused, turning back to look at him again.

"Bonnie wants to go talk to a professor at the state university. Maybe we'll check it out, see if Elena wants to apply. And I'm going to teach her how to feed, get her off of this succubus blood trip. Halloween weekend, perfect timing. It's going to be douchebag central." He rubbed his hands together.

College. It was a word that should have been plaguing my mind for months, but hadn't come up any time recently. I felt saddened, for a moment, knowing that I would never get to live the normal life I had set out for just a year ago. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't been doing well academically at all. With everything that had been happening, I hadn't been studying, and had been flunking a lot of my exams. College wasn't in my near future.

"Well, have fun, I guess."

Damon clenched his jaw, seemingly torn between saying something and refraining. Finally, he offered,"Mads, if you want to check it out-."

"What's the point?" I asked him. "I'm not going to college. Even if I had the grades to go, I don't have the funds. And someone's got to stick around for Jeremy, if Elena's heading off, you know?"

The sarcastic hint had left his tone as he looked at me and said, "Cheer up, things will work out."

I shrugged. "I'm going to go shower."

"Stefan went out to talk with Klaus," Damon said I walked up the stairs. "Your services might be needed later."

"For what?"

"Help with Rebekah and Kol. We need to get all the information on The Five that we can get, and I see that you have those two wrapped around your little finger."