She comes back.

She comes back to let him know that Katherine failed spectacularly, straight from the horse's mouth. He knows it's insulting to think of her as a horse but right now, as he desiccate s and Bonnie gloats, all he can think about is how much he would kill to have an actual slaughtered animal. All that blood just oozing out of it.

He's. So. Hungry.

How long has it been, months, years, decades?

Bonnie barely looks like she's aged so it can't have been that long. He can't lift his head up from his shoulder but he can see her through squinty eyes, just barely. Smell her is more accurate. Bonnie has this hazy scent of vanilla and sweet candle smoke that brings this special flood of dopamine whenever it catches him. Right now he can barely muster a growl.

'Hm,' she says, tilting her head in the same direction as his fallen one, 'boasting's no fun when you're already such a sad sack.'

'Sorry,' Smirking hurts when his skin feels this cracked but he can't help it. Through the ache he musters up the strength to hold his head up, taking her in entirely with bloodshot eyes. 'Does this help?' He doesn't miss the way her eyes rake over him, settling on his lips. Dusty, cracked and bruised from nipping his fangs. Kai can't believe he ever wanted this. Stomach empty, dust in his veins, and every part of him feels like it's on fire. He doesn't remember human hunger ever being this bad.

'It's actually worse.' She suppresses a shudder and he glares at her, anger flaring alongside the hunger.

'Are you here to just gloat Bon Bon, because you don't need an excuse as pathetic as that to come see me.'

'I'm here with an offer.'

'Go on.' He bites out, because he knows she's a double edged sword. If he tries to hold onto anything she says with the least bit of hope she'll slice it right to bits.

'Remember before I left you in 1903-'

'Before you stabbed me and abandoned me to be fed on and siphoned on by vampire heretics-'

'-Did it make you feel like crap to get a taste of your own medicine Kai-'

'-You were treating me like crap before I ever did anything to you.' His fangs start to throb against his gums again and he struggles to hold them back.

'You murdered your entire family.'

'Not all of them,' he's so sick of always having to correct her, 'and I regret it but I was a stupid kid!' His yell echoes around the bar, fading in between their staring match. But she's quiet. She's listening. She's actually listening to the words coming out of his mouth and he's not going to waste this. 'I was walking around like a junkie, no one would go near me, Bon I was treated like a piece of crap. I was born wrong and I failed the entire coven because of it, and nobody ever let me forget it- not even those siblings of mine who you've never even met but you've already decided were better people than me.' She swallows the lump in her throat along with every word he's saying. 'I snapped Bonnie.' Saying her name feels more intimate when he's confessing. 'I snapped and I did the worst thing I've ever done. But I can't take it back even if I want to and there's no one left to forgive me.' You will never be redeemed.

He sighs, there's no point in going on. Why would she ever forgive him after everything he's done? So instead he reels back in the exposed part of himself and sinks his attempt at explaining.

'What was your offer?'

It takes a moment for Bonnie to register what he's asked and when she does she shakes herself out of a trance. Sticking her hands in her jacket pocket she curls them into fists he can see through the leather material.

'Before I left you in 1903, you wanted me to forgive you.'

He knows what she wants him to do. Undo the spell between her and Elena.

'Are you offering me redemption?'

'I'm offering you a start.'

And he'll barely have to lift a finger. He could probably convince her to let him out of the chair too, bring him a blood bag or two in payment. He wants to say yes so badly.

'See the problem with that is once I undo the spell, Sleeping Airhead wakes up and along with her, she brings all of her boatload of problems.'

'Kai-'

'-Bonnie.' And he's deadly serious, glaring at her again but this time like she's a moron- eclipsing out the sun for the millionth time. 'Be honest. Since she's been boxed away how much easier has your life gotten? And now Steven's gone even better. No dopple-gangers to dump their problems on your doorstep.'

'Damn it Kai!' She yells right back. 'Everytime I give you a chance you find a way to throw it back in my face-'

'When have you ever given me a chance? You buried a pick-axe in my chest the first chance you got. I should know because all I've ever wanted was a chance from you Bonnie-'

'Then do this Kai. Please.' Why does she have to say his name like that? Why does she have to look so damn enticing when she's pleading.

'Ask me for anything else and I'll do it.' He tries,a last ditch effort to reach for his salvation.

'Do this. Elena's my best friend, I can't live without her.'

'Believe it or not I'm saving you from yourself Bonster, since I'm the only one who cares enough to do it.' Something blows up behind the bar and suddenly the music is louder.

'I hate you.' She spits, before leaving him to desiccate in the peace he so desired. That's the last he'll ever see of Bonnie Bennett.

Or so he thinks.

He wakes up to stinging eyelids, face wet and a sharp smell burning his nose hairs.

'Wake up.' She orders redundantly.

His throat is so dry he can't muster up a witty response, braincells chafing if even tries to think of one.

'I need you to siphon this.' Bonnie holds up an ornate silver box, carvings all around the side. She dumps the, now empty, vodka bottle to the side of the stage.

Pretty, but he's not sure what it has to do with him.

'You said you'd do anything else, so siphon the magic. I need the curse lifted to open it.'

Kai frowns as he takes in the object. Didn't Pandora have a box she wasn't meant to open?

'Relax it's nothing dangerous. It's also none of your business. Oh and these binds are impervious to magic so if you think you can escape with the magic you siphon, you're wrong.'

He musters a tiny nod, spine cracking with the small gesture. Putting his fingers out, she gets the message and places the box under them. When he siphons, it feels dark and sickly under his touch, before filtering through his system as pure magic. There's none of the thrill that comes with siphoning, but it does ease some of the symptoms of dessication. His skin doesn't feel so tight anymore and he can muster up some voice.

'Are you in trouble?' His exhaustion makes it harder to mask the concern.

'No I'm,' she avoids his eyes to play with the box, 'just trinket hunting.'

'Why?'

She's toying with the idea of giving him a snarky answer but as she turns over the metal she decides something he can't decipher.

'I want to rebuild the Bennett coven.'

'Ah.' She wants to find lost grimoires, artifacts, spells, the whole nine yards. His guess is this yearning in her was brought by the Gemini coven's glamorous ways pre-1994, hence the reluctance to tell him. 'Well in that case Europe is great for artifacts, no Bennett ones, but the catacombs are a great hiding place for others. Oh and there's this little pastry shop in France called La pâte à choux, not sure if it's still there but they had the best cake I've ever eaten.'

'Hm.' Bonnie nods, backing away. By way of thanks she throws him a, 'you can go back to desiccating now.' And then leaves him to go back to sleep.

It's not as long a wait for the third visit as it was between the second and the first. It feels like it's barely been a week. He's in the middle of counting down the number of beats before the song loops back around again, when the hairs on his arm begin prickling, each one atop a goosebump. Then he hears a soft crunch and darts his eyes to see her drop a small white bag onto the middle of one of the tables. Across the front, in pretty red cursive are the words, La pâte à choux. In the other hand, she holds a red candle.

'What's this? And judging by your eyebrows I'm guessing it's powerful.'

The sooner he answers her question the sooner she's going to leave him again.

'Do I get special privileges if I'm going to be your magical guru?'

'Your privilege is that I don't repeatedly stab you in the chest.' She replies with a smile.

'And I'm grateful for it everyday Bonster. But how about something more tangible?'

'I'm not letting you out.'

'I wasn't asking for that.'

'Then what do you want?' She holds her breath and waits for him to demand the world in payment.

'Turn the music off.'

'After you tell me what you want.'

'No, that is all I want.'

Bonnie frowns, thinking about questioning his motives. But in the end she just walks over to the karaoke machine and switches it off. The second the song stops his ears are pinging as they adjust. Once they settle he's treated to sweet, blissful silence interspersed between the soft sound of her breathing.

She waits for his answer and he can't delay it anymore.

'It's a Hand of Glory.'

He details the legitimate history behind the lewd name, trying not to crack a smile and scare her off when she gets the eyebrow crinkle of nerd-hood from listening to him. His heart thumps so violently it scares him a little, like a kick inside his chest jerking him awake. When he's given every detail he can, right down to their dwindling supply, she picks up the pastry bag and leaves. He's glad to know that she wouldn't waste a good dessert on his blood seeking taste-buds but one last goodbye would have been nice.

The next time she reappears is on October 31st. He knows because there's no way Bonnie Bennett would be wearing a costume like that on any other day of the year. Lace white dress, barely reaching her thighs, halo headband and feather wings sprouting from her back. She's tiptoeing around the bar quietly in the hope that she won't wake him, but little does she know Kai sensed the second her white heels hit the hardwood. But he stays silent for a minute or two and let's her get on with whatever she's doing, peeking at her through half shut eyes. Until he figures it out and he can't stay quiet anymore.

'Are you looting my Prison world?'

She gasps and drops a bottle of whiskey on the ground, hopping away from the glass on impact.

'Shit,' she slurs as she says it, and given how her shoulders are swaying he's going out on a limb and guessing she's tipsy. 'Now my shoes are all wet.'

'I can teach you a spell to dry them.'

'Shut up that does not exist.'

'What so we can create entire worlds but we can't dry shoes? Bonster, where is your faith? Arfacio.' His chains burn when the word leaves his mouth and he hisses at the security measure. But when Bonnie repeats the spell, doubt etched across her face, he hears her delighted gasp. She's drunk enough to shoot him a smile from across the room that sends his chest fluttering.

'Any reason you're stealing my stash?' He asks though he's pretty much pieced it together.

'Caroline's throwing one last Halloween rager and we've run out of booze and I didn't want to have to go all the way to the store in the rain.' She explains, strategically picking the bottles she wants to pack into the box she brought with her.

'And what do angels drink anyway?' He asks, entertained as he watches her mull over the selection.

'Holy water.'

'Don't think they serve that here.'

'That's fine I'm not an angel.' He swears he imagined her voice drop to a flirty octave but then she's blushing in the aftermath like a madwoman. Then she's rushing to leave all over again-

'Wait.'

She clutches the side of the box closer, wary of him but stepping towards the stage all the same.

'I taught you a spell, don't I get a thank you?'

Bonnie rolls her eyes, remembering how their relationship works. 'What do you want?'

'I want a movie.'

'Which one?'

'The Bodyguard.'

Her shoulders sag and her head tilts in one go, as she scans him for any signs of insincerity.

'Why?'

'Because I like it.'

This time he doesn't imagine it. She blushes plain as day, swallowing the lump in her throat as she openly leers at his lips. But she disappears before anything comes of it, without even agreeing to pony up. It doesn't matter. Kai knows she'll come back a fifth time.

He should have asked for blood. The thought occurs to him as he feels his throat starting to dry up, air scratching his lungs. So when she arrives with a DVD and a flask he naturally wants to dive for her throat to kiss it and sink his teeth into it all at once. Because of how strong the need is, he's extra-proud of himself for holding it together when she steps up onto the stage and crosses over into his boundary for the first time.

'Here.' She unscrews the cap on flask and hesitates. Bonnie's deciding whether or not she should untie him to let him hold the drink. In the end it's better than he could have dreamed, she holds the flask up to his lips and he opens them up without question, happy to swallow cyanide if it came from her hands. The liquid that she tips down his throat is blood. His vampire half can sense it and he's sure the veins on his face are black as he is sucking it down, starving for it but also dissatisfied. It's blood, but it's not human blood.

She's making him go vegan now?

Hell no.

Is what he would say if he had a choice, instead he shuts up and takes what he can get.

In his eagerness he feels some escaping his mouth to dribble down his lips. From his peripheral vision he watches Bonnie's eyes follow the droplet as it rolls down his neck, lulling in the hollow of his throat, before continuing down his chest to stain his shirt. Then she looks back at his face, accidentally making eye contact as he finishes the last drop. When he's done he pushes the flask away with his lips, moving his head back up. She screws the cap back on and puts it in her pocket, letting slip a shaky breath.

'What's with the snack?' God he feels so much better. Even if it's just animal blood it's something and his head feels so much clearer than before.

'Prepayment. I need some information.' She leaves his orbit to go to the Karaoke screen, popping open the case and inserting the disk. He's expecting another vague enquiry about a creature or artifact but instead, as she fiddles with the screen remote, she asks. 'What would have stopped you from snapping?'

'Why?' He doesn't want to answer her, knowing full well that his reply will hurt to give.

'For Lizzie and Josie- the little girls you tried to murder. I want to make sure what happened to you doesn't happen to them. But in order to do that…'

'You need to know what went wrong with me.' He finishes bitterly. Bonnie wants to dig into his soul to save his nieces, how noble.

'No.' She clicks on the movie but pauses it before the trumpets pang, looking back at him. 'I need to know what would have helped.'

'Someone who believed in me.' He bears the pain of excavation for her, revealing the different ways to help a siphon. How to teach them to take magic without hurting people, use it sparingly, how to control it so people aren't afraid to touch them. All the things he learned far too late. Before she leaves she hands him the remote, fingers brushing against his palm as she drops it in.

He's not even an hour into the movie when she comes back. He hits the pause button the second he senses her. She's changed out of the jeans into sweatpants and a hoodie, purposely designed to be unalluring which makes him think she's probably in her night shorts underneath it all.

'Two visits back to back? Either I'm honoured or you're in trouble.'

'Neither.' In one hand she holds a blue bowl filled with popcorn, in the other is a hat and a tote bag.

Bright red plastic with tubes running out of it. The hat is a monstrosity. 'It's not about you or me. It's about Whitney.' He watches her put the bowl down on the table and fiddle with a bag, pulling out two cola bottles filled with blood. She slots one on either side of the hat and then holds it out like it's going to explode as she hurries over to him. She's in such a rush to drop the gross thing on his head that she doesn't hesitate at being so close.

'Wha-'

He's silenced when she puts the tube into his mouth and orders him to 'suck.'

He does and is rewarded with the bitter grainy taste of animal blood.

'Not all at once, it's meant to last you.'

He drops the suction, listening to the hiss of air bubbles subside. Does this mean she isn't coming back to visit him? 'How long?'

'Until the next time.' She doesn't elaborate but he's safe in the knowledge that there will be a next time. She hesitates before returning to the table but eventually recreates the space between them. Sitting on the tabletop, she balances the bowl in the dip of her crossed legs and looks expectantly at the TV screen.

She's so relaxed, hair pulled up out of her face as she nibbles on a puffy piece of popcorn. Her green eyes land on his as she waits for him to press play, his chest flutters at the impact. He lets himself enjoy the floating sensation before turning his attention back to the screen, pressing the button. Her crunching is scattered among the sound of his slurping and the movie. Being a vampire comes with hundreds of downsides, like his dependence on blood, but it also means he can actually hear the beat of her heart. Everytime he takes a slurp there's a stutter, before it carries on it's rhythmically rapid beat. Does her heart always go so fast?

When the scene with the stalker comes on he's already announcing;

'It's not the manager.'

'It's not the manager.'

She echoes, refusing to look at him to acknowledge that for the briefest moment in time they were thinking the same thing. After that she's retreats inwardly, eyes completely fixed on the screen but he can tell she's not really watching it. Because the scene where Nicki dies comes on and she doesn't even blink and he knows for a fact she should be nearly in tears.

'Are you watching me or the movie?'

He forgot that he wasn't cloaked. She can see him watching.

'Sorry I just…I wanted some popcorn.'

'Here.' She buys the lie enough to pick up a piece and aim it at his head. It bounces off his eye.

'You call that a throw Bennett?'

She picks up another piece, biting the inside of her cheek to stop from smirking as he opens his mouth. The next shot misses completely and bounces off the chair but the one after that she makes- he has to dip his head a little to help but he's chewing which is a win. He can even put up with the rubbery texture, that lacks all the joy his human taste-buds used to give, because of how she glows. She's more at ease after that, heart-rate slowing down and she eventually becomes engrossed, teetering forward to get a better view as Whitney runs down the tarmac to kiss Kevin. Then the end credits are playing and she's standing up to leave all too quickly.

'You know what I never understood,' he blurts out to delay her going. 'Why didn't they get together in the end?'

Without missing a beat, because he knows she's thought it over herself before every re-watch, she replies, 'Because they were just too different to work.'

'Excuses, excuses.'

'Shut up and drink your blood.' She slips the bowl into the bag, slinging it over her shoulder and turns around to look at him. He's expecting another sarcastic comment or the confession that she actually laced his ugly blood hat with vervain but with a thousand mile stare she sighs, 'You had your humanity off.'

Kai stares right back through her. Even after all this time, all he knows about her, she still manages to surprise him.

'It's back now.' He offers, as if it's any sort of consolation for the terrible things he did without it. He expects her to swear at him, berate his weakness and folly but she nods, looking down at the ground.

'Don't turn it off again.' She orders. He likes it when she sounds sure of herself but can't tell her that because she's gone in the next second.