"Daisy!" Stefan calls as he sees Daisy approaching her locker. Daisy looks up and smiles softly at Stefan. Stefan had begun to talk more with her since the ball, she wasn't sure why but appreciated it nonetheless. He had been very kind to her without seeming to expect anything in return.

"Stefan, hi."

"Goodmorning, are you alright?" Stefan asks, stepping aside to let Daisy open her locker. His eyes flicker to Rebekah and Kol who both seemed wrapped up in a discussion about the middle-ages a few lockers further.

"I'm fine." Daisy quickly puts her books in her locker, glad to get rid of the excess weight. Her shoulders always hurt when she walked to school with her book bag. "How are you, how were the cookies?"

"I'm good and they were great! I uh-saw you got a ride from the Mikaelsons." Stefan states although he meant it more like a question.

"Yeah, I stayed the night at their place, because Jason and I... broke up." Daisy feels a bit weird saying this out loud. She wasn't even sure why she was sharing it with Stefan, he probably didn't even know or care about her so-called love life.

"I'm sorry Daisy, breakups can be tough." Stefan shoots Daisy a sympathetic look. His eyes flicker briefly towards Elena who was talking with Caroline down the hall.

Daisy follows his gaze and sighs softly when she sees Caroline and Elena, both looking their way. Daisy knew that things were not going well between Stefan and Elena and that he too was probably walking around with a broken heart. She gives Stefan a friendly smile. If she'd had more guts, she'd have told him he'd find love again. At least that's what she thought, that's what people in movies usually said. When you are young you can find anything, including love.

"Are you sure you're alright? You look a little pale." Stefan's face goes from sympathetic to worry as he takes in the bags beneath Daisy's eyes.

"I'm-"

"She said she's fine. Get lost Salvatore." Kol snaps. He strides towards the duo and casts an angry look at Stefan, who was standing a little too close to his mate for his liking. He'd listened in from a distance and didn't like the insinuation that he would treat his mate badly. Yes, his mate looked a bit tired, but that was to be expected as she had just had a break-up.

Daisy opens her mouth to say something to Kol about his rude interference but snaps her mouth shut again, not wanting to jeopardize her newfound friendship with the Mikaelsons.

Stefan narrows his eyes slightly at Kol, not understanding his behavior, he seemed almost possessive of the girl. "See you later, Daisy." Stefan smiles warmly at Daisy, who waves in return, before taking his leave.

"He was just being nice." Daisy murmurs as soon as Stefan is out of earshot. She looks up at Kol and he can clearly see her disappointment in having her conversation cut short.

"Sorry, darling. Stefan and Damon haven't exactly been nice to our family in the past, so I lashed out." Kol shoots Daisy an apologetic smile. He wasn't really sorry, just that his mate may have been upset by his behavior. He wouldn't hesitate to snap Stefan's neck if he kept meddling with his mate.

Kol takes hold of Daisy's hand, letting their joint hands softly swing in between them. Now that her boyfriend was out of the picture he felt he had free reign to hold her hand whenever he wanted without having Daisy feeling guilty about it. It really was a win-win situation.

Daisy softly squeezes his hand to show him it was alright. "What happened?" Daisy asks, her mind automatically goes back to the bloody scene she had witnessed last night. Disturbed, Daisy blinks to get rid of the image.

"I wouldn't want to trouble you with such matters, but let's just say that they have tried to hurt us, severely." Kol admits, not adding that the Mystic Falls gang were probably already plotting their next attack.

• • •

"Miss. Landry?" Alaric's voice almost boomed through the quiet classroom. Most students were busy taking notes or texting.

"1921?" Daisy replies, unsurely while letting her eyes go over the notes in front of her. She had caught herself daydreaming just in time. She had felt oddly alright after her breakup, she hadn't seen Sophie or Jason this morning, which added to her good mood. Daisy didn't want to see them being all lovey-dovey in front of her and it seemed the universe had listened.

"Correct, very well." Alaric compliments, smiling faintly at the girl who was once again boxed in by the Mikaelsons. He was still slightly uncomfortable about their exchange in the Grill the other day. His intentions had been good, but he should have done it differently.

"Yes, 1920's, better known as the roaring twenties. Great Gatsby, modernism all that good stuff. In two weeks there will be another beloved decade dance and before we all put on our dancing shoes to dance the Charleston, we are going to learn all about the happenings of that eventful time." Alaric makes a few hand gestures which hopefully radiated a little more enthusiasm than his tone.

"I bet you would look very charming in a flapper dress, Daisy." Rebekah whispers, sharing a knowing smile with Kol. She was already looking forward to dolling herself up with the girl. She was certain Niklaus had kept more of her dresses from that era, Daisy would surely look stunning.

"Who knows, nothing wrong with some sequins and feathers." Daisy smiles, thinking back to the beautiful dress that hung in Rebekah's closet. Maybe the local costume shop had something nice that would be appropriate for the occasion.

• • •

"Kol, you can't be serious, that is disgusting!" Rebekah shouts as she sees Kol dipping his french fries into his drink.

"No, it's not. I've seen loads of teenagers do it, which is what we are, teenagers." Kol cough awkwardly, regretting his choice of words. He had to admit it was pretty gross. Perhaps the teenagers who had done this hadn't used coke as their beverage. He quickly looks at Daisy, hoping that she hadn't caught his poor wording. Daisy seems to be taking a call, it seemed serious judging by the frown on her face.

"What is it?" Kol asks worriedly the second Daisy hangs up. He was more than willing to kill whoever made his mate upset, not that she needed to know that right now.

"The sheriff called, I have to come by her office, now." Daisy's frowns deepens, wondering what this was about. She couldn't have violated a traffic rule seeing as she didn't drive a car and walked everywhere. Judging by the mournful tone of the sheriff, Daisy concluded that the meeting couldn't be about another volunteer project.

"Did she say what it was about?" Rebekah asks, sharing a dark look with her brother that goes unnoticed by the distressed girl.

"No."

"I can drive you." Rebekah offers. Rebekah knew Kol had offered the same, but since Kol did not have a driver's license, it seemed safer to drive herself. She was sure Kol would never forgive himself if Daisy got injured because of his overconfidence.

"Oh, no. I can walk. You shouldn't miss classes for me." Dasy objects, shaking her head. She had already stayed the night and gotten a ride to school, she couldn't expect the Mikaelsons to keep helping her.

"I will ring up Elijah for you. He can take you." Rebekah insists, already grabbing her phone from the table.

"Really it's fine. I wouldn't want to dist-" Daisy protests. She was beginning to feel like a massive burden and was pretty sure the Mikaelsons would grow sick of her in the next week.

"No use protesting, darling. Bekah can be persistent." Kol muses while offering his mate a fry that hadn't been dipped in the soda. He grins as Daisy takes it, simultaneously seeming to accept the ride.

Rebekah rolls her eyes at Kol, she expected a long afternoon of shopping at their expense for all the work she did for her brothers.

• • •

Daisy waves shyly at Elijah and Finn, both leaning against a car, waiting for her. Finn smiles at Daisy and steps over to grab her backpack from her shoulder and to take her hand in his. Blushing, Daisy and Finn walk to the car, where Elijah has already opened her door for her.

"Hi, thank you for driving me. I'm sorry. You probably have plenty of other things to do." Daisy apologizes. She noticed that almost every time she sees the Mikaelsons she apologizes for something, maybe she was starting to sound insincere.

"Nonsense, I'm more than willing to clear my schedule for you." Elijah reassures.

"I'm happy to see you, Daisy." Finn simply states, smiling affectionately at his mate's profile from the backseat. Daisy's not sure how to respond to that, they had seen her this morning, so she just sticks to smiling back at Finn.

"Do you happen to know why the sheriff wants to speak with you?" Elijah asks carefully, keeping his voice light. The last thing he wanted was for his mate to think he was accusing her of anything. He could guess what sheriff Forbes wanted to see her for, but he wondered what Daisy herself was thinking.

Looking at Elijah's hands she shakes her head a little. "No, she wouldn't say." Now that she thought about it, she started to get nervous.

• • •

"Matt, hi." Rebekah greets the quarterback cheerily as he approaches her and Kol in the hallway. They had been talking about last night, both relishing the thought of Jason and Sophie's suffering.

Kol rolls his eyes, not at all charmed by the boy, it already pissed him off that Daisy had to work together with that tool. Her friendliness towards the boy only aggravated Kol further.

"Rebekah, Kol." Matt's greeting is polite but distant. He shoots Kol an apprehensive look and hides his injured hand behind his back, concerned that Kol would want to do some more damage. What he was about to ask would most likely get him hurt, but he was going to do it anyway, for Daisy. He had already lost his sister to the vampires in this town, no need to add to that when he could prevent it.

"What's wrong?" Rebekah asks upon noticing Matt's tense posture.

"I want to know what you guys are doing with Daisy." Matt demands.

"What do you mean?" Rebekah asks, hoping she didn't sound too defensive.

"Why do you feel the need to bother her?" Matt continues, remembering how uncomfortable Daisy had looked in the booth with the Mikaelsons in the Grill the other day.

"We're not bothering her, we're her friends." Rebekah snaps while narrowing her eyes at Matt.

"Why would five Originals be interested in befriending a high school student? Don't you have better things to do?" Matt now also looks irritated. In his eyes, vampires would always have ulterior motives. He hadn't forgotten how Elijah and Niklaus came crashing into their town last year, just to kill Elena to break Niklaus's curse. He didn't believe the Originals were capable of true friendship, although Rebekah had tried, he could never get over the fact that they were all murderers like the Salvatores.

"She's kind, something most of your friends can learn from her." Rebekah sneers, face contorted with disgust. She was well aware that Stefan and Caroline were listening in. Her previous feelings of affection towards Matt were long gone, in her heart, she had known he would never be able to see past her vampire nature.

"Of course she's kind, she's kind to everyone. That's no reason, there is plenty of other kind high school students for you to pick on."

"You talk of her like she's your closest friend, yet you never seem to approach her at school." Rebekah snarls.

"I bet you even know that her boyfriend cheated on her." Kol adds, contempt clear in her voice. Daisy might have thought the best of her ex-boyfriend, but he was pretty sure the quarterback had had his suspicions.

"What do you want from Matt?" Tyler interjects, walking up to the three angry people. He looks closely between his friend and the two Original vampires. The vampires looked close to lunging themselves at Matt.

"Stay out of it sire boy!" Rebekah calls before spinning on her heel, stomping away towards her next class. On days like this, she longed for the bustling streets of Chicago or New Orleans. She hoped her brothers would get along in courting Daisy, the sooner she knew, the sooner they could turn her and they could all move to a nicer hometown with less meddlesome teens.

Kol looks calculated at the two boys already resolving to break more than just a hand when the opportunity arose before also taking his leave.

• • •

"Hi, Daisy come in." Elizabeth smiles kindly at the teenager who was nervously waiting on one of the plastic chairs in the hallway.

"Hello, sheriff." Daisy greets while stepping inside of the office.

"Please, you can always call me Liz, you know that." Elizabeth assures while retaking her seat and gesturing for Daisy to take the other chair.

"Do you know why I called you?" She decides to dive straight in. Leaving the girl in suspense seemed unnecessarily cruel. She briefly gazes at the tissue box she had placed there a few minutes ago.

"It is about Jason and... Sophie." Elizabeth starts when she sees Daisy shaking her head. "Jason's mother called last night. She, her husband, and other children returned early from this weekend away and couldn't find Jason. We didn't think much of it, seeing as teenagers often like to sneak out, until we got an anonymous tip, someone had heard screaming coming from the house."

Daisy's head shot up, looking worriedly at Elizabeth. "I'm sorry I think that was me. I visited his place after my shift, around 9. I caught him and- never mind. I shouted and he shouted and maybe that's what they heard." Daisy offers, she didn't feel like sharing the details, unless it was absolutely necessary.

"No, Daisy this happened around midnight. Upon searching the house we found DNA traces from both him and Sophie in the house. I was wondering if you had an idea of what could have happened." Elizabeth smiles encouragingly at the girl who now seemed to tremble in her seat.

Thought and horrible scenarios flash through Daisy's mind. She couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hurt the founder boy. The Fell family was well-respected, not as esteemed as the Lockwoods, but still.

"No, sorry. I broke up with Jason last night because... I caught him with Sophie, after that I left and went to the Mikaelson house. I stayed the night there." Daisy admits, not daring to look Elizabeth in the eyes as she said it. Admitting that your boyfriend cheated in front of an adult was more difficult than peers.

"The Mikaelsons?" Elizbeth's face turned serious now. She wondered how Daisy had become friends with the Original family and if she was already aware of the supernatural world. Elizabeth had never heard Caroline talk about Daisy, so she couldn't be too sure.

"Yes, I met them at the ball. They have been very kind to me." Daisy smiles down at her lap. "We're friends."

• • •

"Nik." Daisy gasps as she almost walks into the hybrid.

"Hello, love." Niklaus smiles brightly at his mate before offering her his hand. Daisy automatically slips her hand into his before they walk towards Elijah's car. "Elijah picked me and Kol up while you were in." Niklaus answers the question that was surely going through Daisy's head. "Did everything go alright?"

"Apparently, Sophie and Jason are missing." Daisy admits in a small voice.

"Really? How troublesome." Niklaus hums, holding Daisy's door open for her to climb into the backseat before also entering the car.

"Hello, Angel." Kol greets enthusiastically, promptly taking hold of Daisy's free hand in his own.

"Hi, guys." Daisy greets the other Mikaelsons, frowning slightly at the absence of a certain blonde. "Rebekah is not with you?"

"No, she had some shopping to do." Elijah replies dryly. Rebekah had successfully bullied him into giving her one of his credit cards. The last time he had allowed her that privilege she had brought enough clothes and miscellaneous items to fill another two bedrooms.

"Daisy, we wanted to take you to a cafe, let off a little steam. If that's alright with you of course." Niklaus offers, looking hopefully at his mate.

"The Grill?"

"No, we figured you might want to try a different restaurant seeing as you already work there." Elijah replies. He really hoped his mate would quit her job soon. He thought her part-time job was unnecessary, seeing as he and his brothers could easily take care of her. They would buy her everything her heart desired. In addition, she would spend less time with the Donovan boy, which was only a plus. When Elijah picked Kol up from school, he complained extensively about the boy's interference.

"Oh, that's so considerate, you guys are amazing." Daisy replies smiling around at the brothers.

"And hot. Don't forget hot." Kol smirks at Daisy who playfully rolls her eyes in response.

• • •

"I don't think this is considered a cafe." Daisy comments softly, not wanting to seem ungrateful for their efforts. She had almost choked on her water upon seeing the prices on the menu. Simply put, she would have to work two evenings to be able to afford the salad.

"Ah, right you are, little love. But we figured you deserved to properly dine after the stressful events of your day." Niklaus replies airily, smirking at Daisy. There was no way he would take her on a date to anything less than three stars, not that this was a date of course, but still, she deserved to dine like a queen.

Daisy gives Niklaus a cautious smile while blushing heavily at the term of endearment. Almost everything the Mikaelsons said could make her blush and it was starting to bother Daisy. She had just broken up with her boyfriend, she should be mourning over the dead relationship instead of letting herself crush on the new residents of Mystic Falls.

Daisy shakes her head slightly, she wasn't crushing on them, that would be weird, most of them are in their twenties and they're brothers, which is even weirder. No, the Mikaelsons were just being polite, because they have been raised well. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen their mother last night. Perhaps Mrs. Mikaelson had business elsewhere.

"You can order anything you desire, Angel." Kol whispers in an assuring tone as he sees Daisy looking unsurely at the menu. Daisy looks up and belatedly notices that a waiter had arrived at their table. The man was smiling politely at Daisy, awaiting her order.

"Umm." Daisy swallows nervously. She was normally perfectly fine with ordering in restaurants, but not when she was being surrounded by the four Mikaelson men, who were all staring intently at her. Besides that, she didn't want to look foolish by mispronouncing the difficult names of the dishes.

"Do you like pasta?" Elijah inquires softly, noticing Daisy's uncomfortable demeanor. He gently takes her hand in his, squeezing it to settle her.

Daisy nods, while keeping her eyes trained on her hand in Elijah's.

"Our lady will have the crab pappardelle arrabbiata." Elijah says to the waiter, who was smiling softly at the cute interaction that was happening in front of him.

"Great choice. Would you like another drink miss?" The waiter asks after scribbling the order onto his notepad.

"Water is fine, thank you." Daisy replies, smiling up a the waiter, who nods his head and walks off.

"So, what have you guys been up to today?" Daisy asks, breaking the silence. She wasn't going to comment on the fact that Elijah was still holding onto her hand. He was rubbing his thumb over her knuckles and she was too selfish to halt his movements. Come to think of it, she had no idea what kind of profession the Mikaelsons had, she knew they had hobbies, but they had never mentioned a job.

"I have been working on some new paintings for an upcoming exposition." Niklaus replies, doing his best not to look too pleased upon hearing his mate's enthusiastic response. Upon asking if she could come and see the works he promptly promised to show her anything she wanted whenever she wanted. The thought of Daisy praising his artworks made Niklaus's hybrid heart speed up. Something that didn't go unnoticed by his brothers seeing as Kol rolled his eyes.

• • •

"Would you still like to come over to cook this weekend?" Finn asks carefully as he guides Daisy to her front door. He could understand completely if Daisy thought he and his family was becoming a bit much. He would of course not mind if she was over every day or even lived with them, but it might be too soon for Daisy to move in with the five Originals.

"Yes, of course. That sounds like great fun." Daisy beams up at Finn, enjoying the prospect of having weekend plans that didn't revolve around schoolwork or the Grill. Finn had promised to teach her to make baklava, she looked forward to finally being able to make the treat without it looking like a disaster.

"Good, I look very much forward to it." Finn admits smiling shyly at his mate. He didn't understand how his mate managed to make him feel this bashful, he had been a Viking for crying out loud.

"As do I. Goodn-" Daisy turns around to put her key in the lock when she feels Finn's hand on her elbow. She turns back around to look at Finn.

"Daisy." Finn quickly unbuttons his jacket and pulls something from an inside pocket. "You mentioned to Niklaus how you enjoyed the works of Pablo Neruda. And- well, I know your heart aches for someone who in my eyes is not deserving of you, but I do hope you can find comfort and warmth in these words." Finn hands Daisy the slightly tattered pile of folded letters that were wrapped up with string.

Daisy looks at the pile of paper that was resting in both their hands and shakes her head lightly. "Finn-" Daisy is ready to object, these Mikaelson men kept giving her rare works of art she could not possibly repay them for.

"Please accept it, my love." Finn insists, looking earnestly into Daisy's eyes. He would have given her their entire library if Niklaus warn him that Daisy would never accept that. So instead he had found this in between the stacks of books and documents in their attic, Niklaus had become a bit of a hoarder over these past centuries.

"Thank you." Daisy whispers while looking up into Finn's eyes. She wasn't sure what she was doing, but before she knew it, her hand was on Finn's neck, pulling his face to her. Finn had happily leaned in, more than eager to kiss his mate. Daisy had closed her eyes and their lips were moments away when a sharp voice interrupted them.

"Finn?"

A/N:

Hello dear reader,

Exciting things are beginning to happen.

I really liked the little 'cafe' date the Mikaelsons had with Daisy, even if it wasn't an official date :). Also, this is so very self-indulgent of me, but I would love it if handsome vampire men gave me rare books *swoon. (but then again, most of my books are self-indulgent, I mean it is FAN Fiction after all, hehe).

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Lots of love,