I do not own the Vampire Diaries

"Oh God I would eat these for the rest of my life if calories and weight gain weren't a thing," Caroline moaned in absolute delight as she ate the brownie.

"I second that. These brownies are delicious," Stefan said in agreement as he ate his own brownie though thankfully for him, calories and weight gain were honestly not a thing. He could eat as much as he liked. Anastasia just laughed with a blush on her face, she found out that this high school was pretty lax with rules so it was alright for her to hang out with the kids if she wanted to, instead of monitoring them the entire time.

"Did I hear something about brownies?" Tyler asked coming up to them, his eyes on Anastasia. Ever since that day when she had pushed him out of the way of the beer bottle, he couldn't stop thinking about her and what she said about her ex. That was when he noticed a few things, the main thing being how she flinched slightly near men and he had never felt such an uncontrollable burst of anger as had then at the thought of someone hurting her so badly that she instinctively reacted to all men like that. Stefan seemed like the only guy she was completely comfortable around, and despite the fact that he didn't want to admit it, Elena's brother as well.

And that really annoyed him because he had been the one to hurt her so badly before and he had become angrier when he remembered that when he had danced with her at the founder's party and she had flinched slightly when his hand had raised to rest on her waist. He didn't want her to think he'd hurt her after what she did for him, especially considering his progress in school ever since she had begun teaching him, she was honestly the best teacher one could have and he knew he wasn't the only one to think that. She was the kindest and most understanding teacher they'd ever had, she was also strict at times but she made the entire lesson fun and engaging and everyone loved it, well, except Elena, who he noticed had been completely ignoring the lesson as a whole, even if she showed up and he realized there was some sort of animosity between them though at least Anastasia acted professional about it.

Just moments ago, he had been hanging out with some girls before he had seen her having fun with Caroline and Stefan and excused himself from them as he made his way towards her using the excuse about the brownies to start a conversation.

"Oh, hi Tyler." Anastasia greeted him with a smile on her face before she moved aside on the bench to make space for him. He smiled as he sat down next to her before she pushed the brownie box towards him, "Here. Have one."

Tyler did so and immediately his tastebuds burst with flavour and he almost groaned at how good it tasted. Once he finished his bite he turned towards Anastasia to say, "Where the hell did you get these from? They are definitely not from Mystic Falls."

"Oh, uh...I made them," Anastasia said with a shrug.

"You made these?" Tyler asked incredulously.

"No, it was the elephant across the street," Anastasia said sarcastically playful. "Yes, it was me."

"Funny," Tyler said with a roll of his eyes before saying, "Seriously though, this is honestly the best brownie I have ever tasted."

"Thanks, Tyler," Anastasia said smiling at him though she could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, it always happened when someone praised her.

"Call me Ty," Tyler said as the other two watched confused having no idea that they were friends. But despite how much Caroline wasn't a real fan of Tyler, she had seen how much Anastasia and he got along in classes since she taught that group separately. It hadn't been fair, to be honest, she'd rather be taught by Annie, she engaged everyone at her table and people near her table had started taking notes by listening closely to her instead of the teacher. Unfortunately for her, she was on the other side of the room so she couldn't do so.

"Then you can call me, well whatever nickname you can make out of my name, I have quite a few," Anastasia said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Ok what about..." Tyler began before he was cut off by Caroline.

"It better not be Annie, no one else is allowed to call her that but me," Caroline said forcefully.

"Ana then," Tyler said after he thought about it for a moment.

"That is the most popular one right now," Anastasia said smiling at him.

"I've been meaning to ask, how's your arm?" Tyler asked concerned with a guilty expression on his face that he failed to hide.

"It's fine," Anastasia said, all her injuries had healed more quickly considering Damon had given her blood that day and despite the agony in her stomach from consuming the blood, it had healed her quicker. She'd thought to glamour the scars on her hands but she could easily pass that off as breaking a glass and accidentally hurting herself, thanks to the white colour of her skin though, it was hard to see the scars and she tried to cover them as much as possible. She didn't even know why she did that, though it was probably because of the fact that it was a habit to hide her scars, no matter how small or big, answering the inevitable 'what happened?' question was just too uncomfortable for her.

A while later, as they all talked a bit more, whilst they drank their hot chocolates and ate their brownies, the bell rang and they quickly ate the rest of their brownies on the way to class as Anastasia left the rest in her bag. She'd give it to Liana after school.

[Mystic Grill]

"Hey, Matt, um, have you seen Stefan?" Elena asked curiously as she walked up to him.

"Nope. If you want to kill some time, um, you can rack. Come on. We haven't played in forever. I'll let you break." Matt said hopeful, that she'd agree.

[Salvatore Boarding House]

Zach went down to the cellar warily as he said, "I'm full of vervain. I've been putting it in my coffee for 16 years. My blood will only make you worse. Damon?"

"So it was your vervain. Good for you. Good for you. Family only runs so deep." Damon groaned out, his voice hoarse. He was starving and if that door wasn't separating him from Zach, he would have ripped him apart by now.

"We're not family, Damon. Only in the most dysfunctional sense. In fact, I avoided having a living, breathing, loving family because of you." Zach said resentfully.

"I don't guess I could talk you into bringing me a rabbit or something? I'd settle for Stefan's diet at this point." Damon said weakly. A while ago, a box had randomly popped out of nowhere and the smile that immediately came to his face when he recognized the handwriting confused him a lot. He pushed the aside though as he read the letter basically telling him that the box was a product of boredom so she thought to send him some. She apologized slightly at the situation he was in but overall wasn't too regretful about it from what he understood, she didn't want him hurting Caroline again. He had felt a little down at that, not understanding why, he understood her though. After what had happened before he passed out all those days ago, he couldn't exactly expect her to be missing him so he was just grateful that she was thoughtful enough to send him the box of brownies he had found inside and completely devoured, they were absolutely delicious as her baking always is.

"You know I can't do that," Zach responded to him.

"You succeeded, Zach. I'm shutting down. You're like your grandfather. He didn't like it when I came to visit, either." Damon said remembering what that had led to before pushing it all away once again.

"But you don't visit, Damon. You appear, unannounced, reminding me that this isn't my house; that you're just permitting me to live here. Hell, that you're permitting me to live." Zach said bitterly.

"Someone had to mow the lawn." Damon snarked even in the state he was in.

"I came to say goodbye, Damon," Zach said coming an inch closer to the bars not expecting Damon to rush up to the door and grab Zach by the throat.

"Unlock it. Unlock the door, Zach." Damon said at the point of desperation, he was starving to death, he needed blood and he would do anything to get it.

Stefan comes out of nowhere and wrestles Zach out of Damon's grasp before he said, "Keep it up, Damon. The more energy you expend, the faster you'll go."

[Mystic Grill]

"And there's Vicki, all nonchalant in the bathroom like it's no big deal that they're hooking up," Elena said not knowing what to do about Vicky being in a relationship with her brother.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. Your brother and my sister, that's weird." Matt admitted because Jeremy was still a minor, he was only 15 years old right now whilst Vicky was 18.

"Yeah." Elena agreed before all of a sudden her phone rang.

"How late is he?" Matt asked curiously.

"Hitting the hour mark. Nothing's wrong though. Which means I'm not talking boy problems with you." Elena said refusing to hurt him more than she already had as she shoots the cue ball.

"Good. I mean, it's not like we were ever best friends or anything." Matt said a little hurt at that, despite what happened, he'd still rather have her in his life as a friend than as nothing at all.

"Ok. Here goes. What do you think of Stefan? Is he a good guy?" Elena asked wanting to know someone's unbiased opinion.

"Why? what's he done?" Matt asked her, Stefan seemed like too nice of a guy to even contemplate hurting her.

"Not any one thing. He's just so secretive all the time. I think there's something that he doesn't want me to know, which makes me want to know all the more." Elena said, she honestly couldn't help her curiosity.

"Like what? Like that he's a serial killer and he keeps a clown suit in his trunk?" Matt joked.

"No, of course not. But what do we know about him, really?" Elena asked knowing that it wasn't much, everything about him is a question and she was clueless as to its answer.

"He's great at football. A little bit of a loner. And as much as I hate saying it, he might be a nice guy." Matt admitted despite how much it left a sour taste in his mouth but he refused to be the guy who would sabotage someone else's relationship just to get the girl, that wasn't right.

"So you think I'm just being paranoid?" Elena asked feeling a little better at Matt's reassuring answer.

"I think you should talk to him," Matt suggested just as Stefan appears next to them.

"Talk to who? I'm so sorry that I'm late." Stefan said apologetically, knowing that she was definitely more pissed than last time.

"What happened?" Elena asked flatly, knowing that she wasn't going to get a proper answer to this as well.

"I got held up," Stefan said and once again he couldn't explain why.

"Is everything ok?" Elena asked concerned despite her anger.

"There was this thing with my uncle," Stefan said vaguely.

"And you couldn't call and tell me that you were going to be an hour late?" Elena asked annoyed.

"Ok. You two have fun." Matt excused himself feeling awkward.

"I'm really sorry. It was unavoidable." Stefan said, if he hadn't have been late, Damon would have been out and Zach would have been dead.

"What was unavoidable?" Elena asked but when he stayed silent she scoffed out an ok before turning around to leave.

"Oh, uh, Elena, please..." Stefan said not knowing what to say to make this any better.

"No, Stefan, don't you get it? Every question gets a vague non-answer. What is so awful that you're afraid to tell me?" Elena asked irritated.

An old man walks forward and walks up to Stefan as he said, "I know you. My God."

"I'm sorry?" Stefan asked though he recognized him as well and knew exactly what he was talking about.

"I know you. How can it be?" The old man said shocked and bewildered by the sight in front of him.

"I think you have the wrong person, sir," Stefan said as Elena looked between them in confusion.

"You haven't aged a day." The old man not understanding how, it just wasn't possible.

"I'm sorry. Excuse me. Hey, can we...can I take you home and we can talk about it? Is that ok?" Stefan says as he starts pushing Elena towards the door away from the guy.

She stops though and turns around to face him as she asks, "Wait, what was that?"

"I-I don't know. Uh, nothing." Stefan said internally wincing at the look on her face.

"Right, nothing. Ok, um...I gotta go, Stefan. Excuse me." Elena said before leaving him behind standing there looking at her retreating back sadly.

[Gilbert Residence]

Elena was writing in her diary in her bedroom as she expelled the thoughts of today on the pages, "I tried. I want so much to make things right, but every instinct in my body is telling me to be careful. What you don't know can hurt you."

[Mystic Grill]

"Evening, Sheriff. Anything?" Logan asked curiously.

"We went over the entire west side of the lake. All the caverns by the falls were clean, no signs of habitat," Sheriff Forbes sighed.

"Then they're staying in town." Logan deduced.

"We canvassed all abandoned buildings and warehouses." Sheriff countered, if they were in town then they would most likely be in there for fear of the sun.

"There has to be a private residence," Logan said after thinking for a moment.

"And that much harder to locate, if not impossible. These creatures are smart. they know how to go undetected." Sheriff Forbes said frustrated, it was her job to keep the people of this town safe yet how could she do so when there were blood-sucking monsters prowling around at night ready to feed off of any unfortunate victim that had the misfortune of crossing paths with them?

"Well, someone who only comes out at night should eventually become obvious." Logan reasoned.

"What about the watch?" Sheriff Forbes asked, curious if he got it yet or not.

"I'm working on it," Logan said, he had a plan and he knew he really had to turn up the charm for this to work.

"I knew the Gilberts. That watch is passed down to the men in the family. I'd start with Jeremy." Sheriff Forbes advised.

"Hey, Logan," Jenna said coming up to him.

"I can't believe you really came," Logan said actually honest for once, he had honestly thought she'd bail on him, nothing he didn't deserve to be honest after what he did.

"You have an hour. Make it count." Jenna said her voice anything but friendly as she raised an eyebrow at him. He smiled at that, she was still the same albeit a little more sure of herself than he'd thought she'd be.

[Gilbert Residence]

Elena was wallowing in her bedroom after what had happened with Stefan when Jeremy walked in to see her flopped down on the mattress and asked, "You ok?"

"Is Vicki in there?" Elena asked refusing to answer.

"Don't answer a question with another question. Maybe. What's wrong with you?" Jeremy asked though he assumed that she had had a fight with Stefan considering what he was doing downstairs.

"I'm miserable," Elena admitted.

"Well, you should go get something to eat," Jeremy suggested before leaving the room.

Elena listens to his suggestion and goes to the kitchen calling out to Jenna only to find Stefan there, "Stefan? What are you doing here?"

"Dinner. Jeremy told me that Chicken Parmesan is one of your favorites, and I happen to be a good cook. The Italian roots demand it. I can even make my own homemade mozzarella. Only tonight, it is, unfortunately, store-bought. Sorry." Stefan apologized for that as he made the food hoping that they'd patch things up today because he didn't know what else to do short of telling her the truth but that was never going to happen, not only was it going to do the opposite of what he intended with her running to the hills instead of being with him, but also because the last thing he wanted was for her to fear him.

"I don't know what you're trying to accomplish," Elena said not sure what to feel about him doing this for her after their fight.

"You want to know me, right? Well, I figure if you're going to dump me, you should at least, um, know who you're dumping. So let's start with Katherine." Stefan said as he chopped the vegetables needed.

"Stefan..." Elena trailed off not wanting him to feel forced to talk but not wanting to stop him either, she was too curious to do that.

"She was...the most beautiful girl that I had ever met. She had this perfect olive skin. And she had this laugh. It was ridiculous. I mean, her laugh made you laugh. And she was fun. She knew how to have a good time. But Katherine was also very impatient and entitled and selfish, and, um, impulsive. Enter Damon. He claims that he was with her first. I don't know. I do know that I did some things that...I'm not proud of. And my biggest regret...is not being able to make it right before she died. I miss her, but...I'm no longer crippled by her loss." Stefan explained making it clear that she wasn't in the picture anymore.

"It was very nice what you did for Stefan. Very romantic." Vicky said to Jeremy as they stood in the bathroom together.

"Well, I was feeling romantic." Jeremy shrugged at that.

"Look what I found. 'Elena Gilbert, take one tablet every 4 to 6 hours, as needed for pain." Vicky said reading off the label on the medicine.

"Those are left over from the car accident," Jeremy explained.

"So she won't miss them," Vicky said before pouring the pills out on the table, then she grabbed the nearest thing to crush the pills up only for Jeremy to stop her when he sees what was in her hand.

"No not with that, that's an antique. I feel like we're always getting high." Jeremy said unsurely as he placed the pocketwatch somewhere else. He only took the drugs to push away the pain, except with Vicki, everything felt so much better and he could just forget for a little while. Basically, her company made the whole reason for taking the drugs just disappear.

"That's the beauty of choice," Vicky replied as she crushed the pills with something else.

"Well, then let's choose not to. I mean, we don't have to be high all the time, right?" Jeremy said. He wanted to spend more time with her without getting high so that he didn't have to blame any of their moments on the drugs, he wanted it to be real.

"I really hope you're not one of those guys who, now that we're together, tries to change everything about me." Vicky said turning to face him, she refused to change for anyone, take it or leave it, she could care less, but despite her words, she didn't want to Jeremy to do so.

"No." Jeremy said hurriedly and yet he was honest, he didn't want her to feel that way, he loved her just the way she was.

"Good." Vicky said with a smile as she saw the sincerity in his eyes.

"I'm an avid reader, a huge Fitzgerald fan, "The Great Gatsby", his masterpiece. But I'm no snob. I love some good Grisham. I think "Seinfeld" is the best American television show for the past 50 years, but "I Love Lucy" is an all-time. "The loving cup" episode was the best, I think. Huge Scorsese fan. I can watch "Taxi Driver" over and over again." Stefan explained about himself as Elena listened.

"Here, let me," Elena said as she takes up chopping the garlic instead.

"As far as music, it's pretty much across the board. Um, Dylan, Hendrix, Patsy, Willie. A little Kanye. You know what? I even like that one Miley song." Stefan said as Elena smirked at that, he noticed and teasingly said, "Easy."

"I didn't say anything. Hey, this is for the garlic bread, right? Because I'm not eating garlic unless you agree to, too." Elena said as she continues chopping up the garlic.

"Are you kidding? I love garlic." Stefan said just as Elena accidentally cuts her finger with a knife.

"Ow! Ahh." Elena hisses at the sting.

"You ok? um..." Stefan trailed off as he saw and smelt the blood.

"Yeah. Think so." Elena said as she goes to the sink to wash off her hand. When she turns to the window she suddenly sees Stefan's face change slightly.

"Your face..." Elena trailed off shocked, the whites of his eyes seemed to have gone blood red and it looked as if the veins around his eyes had darkened to an almost black color.

"I-I, uh, I think I got something in my eye." Stefan dismissed as he willed his face to turn back to normal.

"Stefan. Hey. Stefan! Um, I think that my paranoia has turned into full-blown hallucinations." Elena said scoffing to herself.

"Part of your charm." Stefan said as turned to face her, he looked down at her lips but hesitated slightly, Elena gets rid of the gap between them then as she plants her lips over his own.

Anastasia went home to find Ryan, Daniel and Liana sleeping on the couch, it was an adorable sight to be honest with Ryan in the middle and the kids on either side of him with their heads resting on his chest and she couldn't help but quickly snap a picture. She then walked towards them and picked up Liana gently, the movement immediately waking up Ryan, he was a very light sleeper, the smallest of sounds would wake him up, understandable, considering his time in the war. He rubbed his eyes slightly before looking up at her with a smile on his face, she smiled back at him before kissing his cheek and walking upstairs with Liana. Ryan followed behind her with Daniel, he got to keep him today which he was very happy about, especially since he didn't have to drop him home, he could stay here with Ana and Liana he thought with a smile as he went to the bedroom he had been staying in and put Dan on the bed pulling the blanket over him. He kissed his forehead before he opened the doors leading to the balcony and stood there just thinking.

He was still processing everything that Ana had told him, it was honestly a lot to take in, and had he been anyone else, completely unbelievable. He could read people though, his mates back in the army, well, his dead mates, used to say he was scarily good at it, spotting a lie no matter how less he knew of a person. God he missed them, they were his colleagues, his friends, people who had stood up for him, fought for him, gone above and beyond duty for him. Now they were dead, they hadn't seen it coming, it was so unexpected. He had only managed to save the innocent child captives before the bomb exploded inside, taking them with it.

They had gone in there after months of tracking the kidnapped kids and their captors and had finally found them, they had an entire plan, and everything was going accordingly. He then found one kid hiding under a makeshift cot and took him out of there, the kid couldn't even walk on his own with the broken leg so he carried him out as the young boy clung to him whilst the others patrolled the inside to see if there was anyone they had missed, except when he had gone outside with the kid handing him to the medics, the entire warehouse suddenly exploded behind him. The drop in his heart as he turned around to stare at the wreckage in horror had urged him to run back inside but the other soldiers pulled him back preventing him from doing so. He struggled against them, it had taken at least 6 of the soldiers to keep him from going inside but they had succeeded as he watched the entire thing burn to the ground, a few managing to jump through the windows, sustaining horrible burns and broken bones but whilst he was glad they had survived, his best friends, Kaden, Dillan, Raymond and Luke were dead. The day haunted his thoughts and his nights so he was beyond glad for the comfort Anastasia provided.

All of a sudden he felt a hand on his arm and immediately knew who it was, he turned around with a small smile on his face as she looked up at him in concern.

"You alright Ry or is that a stupid question?" Anastasia asked worriedly, he had told her what had happened and she had felt so sad for him, it just wasn't fair. To lose a friend in a war was one thing, but he had lost all of them, so she tried to give him as much comfort as possible, just holding him as he spoke, making his favourite foods, and he had even asked her to sing a song to him and she did so. He had helped her so much and she would help him not out of any obligation or because she felt like she owed it to him, but because she wanted to, he was her best friend and she didn't want to see him like this so she tried cheering him up as much as possible, Liana and Dan helping a lot with that.

"I'm fine Ana. It's just..." Ryan sighed trailing off as he ran a hand through his hair.

"The memories?" Anastasia asked knowingly.

"Yeah. They can get a bit..." Ryan said trailing off trying to find the right word.

"Too much? Traumatizing? Make you want to go back in time so that you could change it all?" Anastasia asked and he chuckled at that.

"Finishing my sentences are we?" Ryan teased as he gently wrapped an arm around her waist pulling her to the banister being careful to not be too rough with her. After what she told him, the last thing he wanted was her to get a panic attack because of him. He stood next to her on the balcony with an arm wrapped around her waist as they looked at the beautiful night sky, you could never see it like this in New York.

"Sorry," Anastasia said sheepishly.

"Don't be. It's cute," Ryan said with his dimpled smile, her smile fell slightly at that and he noticed for he asked, "Now what thoughts turned that beautiful smile of yours upside down?"

"I...uh...I just...Damon mentioned something at the Founders party..." Anastasia began unsurely.

"What did he say?" Ryan asked curiously.

"He said...the way you looked at me...he said you have..." Anastasia shook her head before turning to face ahead, she didn't know what to say.

"Feelings for you?" Ryan guessed. Anastasia's eyes snapped to him hoping it wasn't true. He noticed her worried face and said, "There was a time in my life where I...where you could say I developed a bit of a crush on you, ok scratch that, I might have been totally in love with you, a lot, but because of my job and our age difference I would never have done anything, it wasn't right. You were only 17 at the time and I used to feel disgusted of myself for that but it's just, you used to act so much older than your age that sometimes I forgot how old you actually were and those were the times where I began falling in love with you."

"Ry I...I didn't...I'm..." Anastasia stuttered in shock and dismay, she didn't want to know that it was true, she never wanted to hurt him and now she feared that in not reciprocating his feelings, she might lose him too.

"Hey Ana, it's fine. I know you don't feel the same as I had then and it took me a long time, but I suppose you could say I've moved on. There's nothing to worry about. I don't see you like that anymore, I wouldn't say I see you as a sister or anything either because that would be weird considering I fell in love with you, but you mean a lot to me." Ryan assured her.

Anastasia had never felt so relieved in her life after hearing those words as she said, "I'm sorry that I couldn't reciprocate your feelings Ry but you do mean a lot to me. I admit I've seen you as an elder brother all these years but we don't need to put any name to what we have besides best friends."

"Best friends it is then," Ryan said with a smile pulling her closer and planting a kiss on her temple before they stood in silence just enjoying the silent comfort they had with each other. "I'm sorry."

"About what?" Anastasia asked confused.

"For not being there for you when that happened. If I never left, I would have easily seen what was going on and could have helped you out of that situation earlier and he would never have..." Ryan trailed off in anger running a hand through his hair.

"Don't do that. Don't beat yourself up over something that can't be changed. Just look on the bright side, if you'd taken me out of that situation earlier then I might not have had Liana and i wouldn't have been sent here with the chance to live my life again. I've made great friends and I'm actually happy now. We can't keep dwelling on what ifs Ry otherwise we'd never move forward," Anastasia advised laying a gentle hand on his arm.

"When did you get so wise?" Ryan asked teasingly.

"The situation called for it Ry," Anastasia replied smiling up at him.

"Hmm. Well, I suppose you're right." Ryan hummed before Anastasia heard Liana whimper in her sleep and immediately vamp-sped to the room since Ryan already knew everything. Ryan stood there shocked for a second, before he went in search for her and found her in in her room as she sang a lullaby to Liana, who was crying in her arms. She sang the song he remembered her telling him about, the one her mother used to sing to her, nocturne by secret garden. He leant against the doorway as he watched with a concerned look on his face, he knew what had happened to Liana so he assumed that was why she was crying and he clenched his hands into fists at the thought of someone hurting that little girl and Ana.

After finding out that the bastard was out of jail, he's had people on look out for safety purposes, except they haven't caught anything. This James Whitlock guy seems to be keeping on the down low and that only had him more concerned, because it felt too much of a calculated move to think that he meant no harm. He vowed to himself that he would do whatever necessary to make sure Ana and Liana stay as far away from the guy as possible but if on the off chance, the bastard manages to lay a hand on them, he would rain down hell to make sure he'd never even look at them again, by the time he was done with him, he'd literally be begging for death and only then would he oblige, well after having a little more fun, he was sure Ana wouldn't mind. It was nothing less than that f£$%& bastard deserved for the years of torment Ana and Liana had suffered through by his hands.

"Ry you okay? You look tense." Anastasia said quietly as she got into bed with Liana holding her close.

"I'm fine Ana. Get some rest," Ryan said but before he could leave Ana called him back.

"Why don't you stay here?" Anastasia asked knowing that with the talk they had, Ry was going to have nightmares tonight and they would end up in each other's bed anyway.

"I'd love to but I don't want to leave Dan alone." Ryan shook his head at the offer.

"You don't have to," Anastasia said as she used her magic to create another bed on the side before gently moving Liana there, she would rather her stay with her but with her nightmares getting increasingly worse, she tended to move in her sleep and the last thing she wanted was to hurt Liana. "Bring Danny over here."

"Your eyes. They make you look even more beautiful, which I honestly didn't think was possible," Ryan said complimenting the fading gold glow of her now blue eyes.

"Thanks Ry," Anastaasia shyly, he smirked at the blush on her cheeks before leaving the room. He went to the guest bedroom and picked up Daniel gently making sure he wouldn't wake up before walking back to Ana's room. He placed him on the bed next to Liana before getting into bed next to Ana, he honestly normally slept shirtless but he would rather not make her uncomfortable so instead he wore some pyjamas she conjured for him, too tired to even bother asking her dad for any spares.

Anastasia turned to face him with a smile as he smiled back at her before kissing her forehead. He opened his arms slightly as a silent question if she wanted comfort tonight. Sometimes the memories were too suffocating and she denied but sometimes she appreciated the comfort she found in his arms and this was one of those times. She snuggled up slightly hesitantly against him as he very slowly and gently wrapped his arm around her, she stiffened at first before relaxing as they both drifted off to sleep.