IT SEEMED LIKE FOREVER ago since the last time Kol had felt that way; like he was in seventh heaven. To this day, he still had no idea how Bella did it, or how it was possible to feel that kind of emotion just by being around her. For all he knew, she was the only one who could make him feel that way. She was his one and only, the one he ever truly loved and the only one he ever would, until the very end.

Their long session of make up sex had ended about ten minutes ago. It was mind-blowing, to say the least. It felt much more amazing than he had ever imagined. And he found himself could not fall asleep after as he realized that reality was finally better than dreams; he got his Bella back. And seeing her lying next to him now, just breathing easily with eyes closed, he could feel an overwhelming sense of calmness and peace. It felt undoubtedly right. And with her by his side, he knew he could take on anything.

A faint grin spread over his lips when Bella suddenly turned her back to him with a frownㅡprobably annoyed that he didn't stop staring. It looked like he wasn't the only one who could not fall asleep.

Leaning over her, Kol began to plant kisses along her bodyㅡstarting at the top of her head, moving to her temple and cheek, and continuing to work his way down her jaw and neck. His hand didn't stay stillㅡit slipped under the blanket and stroked her bare waist seductively.

"Kol, I'm trying to sleep," Bella voiced patiently, without opening her eyes.

His grin widened at her reaction, but he didn't stop. His hand moved even lower, and so did his lips. "Then sleep, darling."

Finally opening her eyes, she replied, "How am I supposed to do that if you keep doing that?"

He moved his lips up to her ear, and whispered, "Doing what?" His voice was low and arousing, sending warm tremors through her.

She bit her lower lip as she could feel his hand slowly creeping between her thighs. "That."

"You want me to stop?" He kissed her below the earlobe and left a hot trail of kisses all the way to her shoulder. "Why don't you make me?"

Within a flash, the brown-haired guy fell on his back to the other side of the bed with Bella sitting on his stomach. The blanket wrapped around Bella's body slumped down at her sudden and quick movement, exposing her naked upper body. But the girl didn't seem to mind that, and neither did heㅡinstead he seemed to be enjoying the view. "We literally just had sex in every corner of this place," stated the blonde, with a faint smile on her face.

"Your point?" he responded, his brows arched and his lips curled into a smug smile.

His response made her stare at him in disbelief, but the smile hadn't left her face. "You're a maniac."

"And so I've been told." And the next second, Kol rolled sideways, causing Bella to fall on her back to the other side of the bed with him on top of her. The blonde vampire giggled when the brown-haired original buried his face in her neck and began showering her with more kisses.

"Wait," Bella said between her giggles, "I have a question."

"I'm listening." But he didn't stop his activities. Instead he continued what he was about to do earlier ㅡmoving his lips to the lower part of her body.

Bella hurriedly cupped Kol's face and brought it up to look at her as his lips almost reached the crevice between her breasts. The blonde knew that she wouldn't be able to ask the question if she let him continue, and he smirked mischievously at her as he knew that too. No one knew how much he loved his effect on her.

She stroked his cheek gently, and her face turned a little serious when she asked, "Has it really never crossed your mind to just move on from me before? I mean, you said you've never stopped loving meㅡ"

"You don't believe it?" he interrupted, frowning.

"No, it's not that." She quickly shook her blonde head. "It just..."

Kol didn't let her finish her words a second time. "I'll be right back," the Mikaelson boy announced. Then he got out of bed and started walking to the doorㅡhe didn't even bother to cover his naked body with anything.

She sat herself up as she watched him walk away. "Where are you going?" In all honesty, it was hard to not stare at him, especially when he looked really good even just from the back.

Kol didn't answer her question but he came back a little later. And she tried hard not to steal glances at him as he walked back to the bed, knowing that he would tease her mercilessly if he caught her checking him out.

"Here," he sat next to her and handed her the bracelet that she had returned to him earlier, "put this on me."

Taking the bracelet from his hand, she did as he asked. The bracelet looked a little too small on his wrist, but it still glowed. And now she realized why Kol always looked so pleased whenever it glowed on her, it just felt amazing. To know that your love was reciprocated was pure bliss, like finding heaven on earth, and that was very beautiful.

But then she remembered something.

Kol's plan to sabotage Bella's previous relationshipㅡshe actually wasn't sure if it could be called sabotaging since all he did was reveal the truthㅡ was to get her to allow him and Jeremy to put the bracelet on her. But how could Kol be so sure that it would only glow when he put it on her? Wouldn't that backfire for him if it turned out that it glowed when Jeremy put it on her?

"How did you even know it wouldn't glow when Jeremy put it on me and it would when you did?" she questioned again as she watched him took off the bracelet.

A gentle smile spread over his lips at the question, but he didn't answer it right away. Instead he put the bracelet on the bedside table, and just then he gave her a deep and meaningful look. "You saw the worst of me, yet you still fell for me," he began, his brown eyes didn't leave her hazel eyes even for a second, "That kind of love never dies, darling." Taking her hand, he pressed it against his chest. "And you can rest assured that this one never dies too."

For a moment, Bella could only blink. Her heart was pounding, and she felt a rollercoaster of emotions inside her. The next second, she pulled her hand away from his chest and looked away.

Her sudden change in behavior left a frown on Kol's face. "What?" he asked confusedly, "What is it?"

"Nothing, I just..." the blonde vampire trailed off, deliberately avoiding Kol's gaze when she tried to find the right word, and just then she finally looked back at him, "whenever I'm with you, I keep on completely letting my guard down; I feel so vulnerable, like I'm not in control of myself anymore." She bit her lips and confessed, "And I haven't felt that way in a really long time, so it kind of freak me out."

The thing was, all of it because she felt safe and protected around him. And it was probably why she wasn't afraid to mock Klaus the other nightㅡbecause Kol was there and she knew he would not let anyone hurt her. But it wasn't just physically, but also emotionally. She felt internally relaxed with him, like she knew she could put her trust on him with everything including her biggest fear.

Bella's confession erased the frown on his face and brought a faint smile into it. "Do you remember what I did after I kissed you for the first time? I ran. I went as far as possible from you, then I came back just to say stupid things to you... all because I was too afraid of how I felt for you." A soft chuckle was heard from him as he recalled about it. "I couldn't get you out of my head. I could barely focus on other things. I couldn't get enough of you. I should have wanted to kill you, but instead I found myself wanting to kill for you. It was chaos, but it was worth it." His gaze softened as he emphasized, "You are worth it."

Between them, she wasn't the only one who had been hurt because of loveㅡhe was as well. Because even though she had every right to leave him, she knew very well that it still hurt him. And even after being hurt by her, by his love for her, he still thought it was worth it, that she was worth it. After all of that, seeing him not afraid to be vulnerable around her even with the possibility that she would leave him again, her fear slowly disappeared.

"Does that mean I am also worth the trouble of going out to find something to eat at this hour?" the Salvatore girl responded, deliberately switching the subject to a lighter one, "I'm starving right now. And knowing you, I know you don't have any blood bags."

Her words made him let out another chuckle. "Why would I need blood bags when I have living neighbors?"

"As much as I like the idea of eating your neighbors, I think I kind of like this place better." Much like Kol, Bella sounded so casual when she said that, as if she wasn't talking about anything vicious. "And they might close it down if everyone who lived here was either found dead or went missing."

"Did you just give a 'yes' to moving here with me?" He narrowed his eyes at what he thought she was implying, a rush of excitement filled him.

"It's actually a 'maybe'." She tilted her head to the side, smiling suggestively at him. "But that might change into a 'yes'."

"Alright, I'll get you something to eat." Kol leaned closer to her, and he stole another kissㅡbut this time it was on her lips. "Anything for my girl."

Getting out of the bed, he went to put on some clothes. Bella could pretend she wasn't watching all she wanted, but he knew betterㅡhe could feel her hazel eyes following his movements. And of course he didn't mind that. He was hers after all, just as she was his.

It was past two in the morning when Kol sauntered down the main street. No sign of cars or other pedestrians in sight. And he decided to keep walking, knowing that there was a bar nearby that usually still opened at that time, thinking that there would be enough humans there for the two of themㅡhe was a bit hungry too.

When he finally reached the parking lot of the bar, he pulled out his phone from his pocket. He just remembered that he hadn't checked his phone after setting it on silent mode yesterday. A frown rolled over his forehead as he found out that there were countless missed calls from Rebekah and Elijah. What was so important that they kept calling him?

He decided to call his sister back to find out. And in less than a second, Rebekah had picked up his call and scolded, "Where the bloody hell have you been? I've been calling you since this afternoon. What's the point of having a phone and knowing how to use it if you don't pick up calls when needed?"

"Hello to you too, sister," he answered casually. Right now, he was in a really good mood and nothing could change thatㅡnot even his sister's scolding.

"Alaric Saltzman is not dead."

He stopped walking in an instant. The color drained from his face. "What did you just say?"

"Mother made him a vampire, the one that even stronger than us," Rebekah explained, sounding a little nervous, and she swallowed hard, "And he has a white oak stake that can't kill him."

"Wait a second, that's impossible," he retorted, his voice was gruff, and his eyebrows were drawn together in a frown. "All spells have a loophole. No witch can create something without a weakness. Nature won't allow it."

"His life tied to the doppelganger's, so the only way to kill him is to kill her. Nik has tried to kill her, but he failed, and their witch somehow managed to put a desiccation spell on him."

He was silent for a moment, suddenly couldn't decide how to feel about that. On the one hand, he was glad that his brother finally got what he deserved. On the other hand, he realized that they needed each other even more in this kind of situation. "What do you need me to do?"

"Elijah has made a deal with themㅡ they agreed to give Nik's body to us in exchange for us leaving Elena alone. I'm on my way to get him right now." There was a brief pause before the younger girl shared the worst news, "But we need to run again afterwards."

"I beg your pardon?"

After almost seven centuries running from his father, three centuries being locked up in a box by his brother, and it hadn't been a year since he enjoyed his freedom but now he needed to say goodbye to it again. His life was just marvelous.

"I know, I don't want to run either, but it won't be for long," Rebekah replied soothingly,"She's just a human. Half a century is the remaining time of her life at most. We can do this."

"Or we can just kill her after you have Nik's body," he suggested viciously. He simply didn't understand, what was so special about that doppelganger that everyone was so hell-bent on keeping her alive?

"Elijah won't let us. He will honor his word."

"We can deal with Elijah later."

There was a brief pause on the other line, and Kol knew that he almost got her on his side. "For once, just do what you're told, Kol." He couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. "And is Bella with you? I couldn't reach her either."

Even just the mention of the blonde's name was enough to calm him down a little. "Yeah, she's with me."

"Good." Rebekah knew that it wasn't a coincidence that they both couldn't be contacted at the same time. And the fact that they had been spending a lot of time together lately got her suspect that they were already back together. But that wasn't really the time to talk about that. "I'll send you our meeting point once I have Nik's body." And she added, "If you can get her to come with us, she's more than welcome to join."

Just then did he realize that it would not be easy. Sighing, he replied, "Take care, sister."

"You too, brother." With that, Rebekah hang up on him.

Knowing Bella, she wouldn't want to leave without her brothers. And her brothers wouldn't want to leave the stupid doppelganger. Now, how was he supposed to get her to come with him?

AGAIN, IT WAS UNBELIEVEABLE how things went from bad to terrible in less than an hour. Kol hadn't even managed to find a way to get Bella to come with him yet, or come up with any future plans to run for the next half century. But now he was forced to face another harsh reality.

He didn't know how he managed to get back to his apartment. Every step he took felt heavier. His mind blurred away, his vision turned dark, and he felt empty. It really wasn't something he expected.

"I hope you don't mind me using your shower." He looked up at the voice, at Bella who was standing not far from the bathroom. She was dressed in a white bathrobe, her blonde hair wet and disheveled. She looked as joyful as before he left, and it pained him to know that it all would disappear in a minute. "Or that I took a shower first."

No particular response from Kol. His solemn gaze just roved over her face. Just then she realized that something was wrong.

Stepping closer to him, she inquired, "What is it?"

"Nik's dead," a lump formed in Kol's throat as he spoke, and he swallowed hard, "Alaric Saltzman killed him."

Bella blinked with surprise, mouth fell open. She didn't know how that happenedㅡas far as she knew Alaric chose not to complete his transitionㅡ but seeking an explanation for that wasn't her priority at the moment. She was more concerned about Kol, seeing that he didn't take that really well. She couldn't imagine how it felt like to lose another brother. But that was, until, she heard his next words; "And he was the one who turned your brothers' bloodline."

She froze, the color drained from her face in an instant.

"... what?"

Within a few seconds, she could feel her brain and nervous system were shutting down, totally overcomed by raw emotion. She was having a hard time to focus on Kol's explanation of what really happenedㅡas if nothing really mattered anymore. Her heart was pounding fast and hard with a chill running through all her veins. She was in severe shock.

Kol returned her phone afterwards. And as soon as she turned it on, she found lots of missed calls from both Damon and Stefan. Without wasting time, Bella called her eldest brother back right away. It took every ounce of her not to brust into tears as she waited for him to pick up the phone. However, she couldn't stop the tears filling her eyesㅡher surroundings became blurry.

"Look who finally decides to call back."

Choosing to ignore the sarcasm in his voice, she asked in a demanding tone, "Where are you?"

"Shouldn't I be the one asking that?" her eldest brother retorted, and she could imagine him rolling his baby blue eyes right now."You're the one who just left without telling anyone where. You're lucky I haven't spread missing persons posters with your face on them all around town."

"Seriously, brother," she let out a sigh, running her hand through her blonde hair as she started walking back and forth, suddenly feeling so tired, "this isn't the time for your stupid joke."

"Oh," he paused for a bit, "so you've heard about Klaus."

The air around her suddenly felt even more stifling. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine," Damon answered, and he did sound like he was fine, leaving no reason for her to suspect that he was faking it. "I thought you knew better than to trust Klaus. He was probably just lying about being the sire of our bloodline."

"Except that he wasn't the one who told me that."

Damon fell silent at once.

He knew that his sister was close to Rebekah and Kol, so one of them must have told her about that, and it was unlikely they would lie to her about something like that. But it only meant that there was really no hope for him or for Stefan; they were going to die.

"He didn't say anything about you," he spoke again as he tried to remember what Klaus had said earlier, trying to find out if there was still hope for her. Klaus said that he was responsible for his, Stefan's, Caroline's, Tyler's, Abby's life, and Bella wasn't mentioned. "Or was it possible that he didn't know?" A frown was on his face, "But my guess was always between Kol and Rebekah. It couldn't be Elijah, could it?"

Bella knew he was trying to figure out who was the sire of her bloodline, but now wasn't really the time. "For God's sake, Damon, just tell me where you are!"

"Why, you wanna come here so we can have an epic goodbye?" Damon replied sarcastically. For him, it was easier to cover up his true feelings with snarky comments. "Sorry, sister, can't let you do that. Alaric is still around, it's not safe for you. Besides, I'm a hundred miles away from Stefan. You won't make it in time to see us both."

"So that's it?" Bella's voice inevitably began to crack, "This will be the last time I can hear your annoying voice?"

"Now I wish I had annoyed you more with it."

Bella closed her eyes and smiled sadly at her brother's joke, knowing that it would be the last time she heard it. A single tear finally fell down her cheek. "Why do I always have to be the one left alone?"

Damon let out a heavy sigh, suddenly feeling even more uneasy than before. "I'm sorry for everything," he began, "I thought staying away from you so you could have a normal human life was the right thing to do. But look how it went," he let out a dry laugh,"Seems like I couldn't be a good brother even when I tried to be one. Not for you, not for Stefan."

Bella shook her head disapprovingly even though she knew he couldn't see it. "Damon, you're the best big brother anybody could ever ask for," she said reassuringly.

"I doubt you would have said that if I wasn't dying," he joked again, and this time she laughed at it, but it was a sad laugh followed by another tear. And as the laughter died down, he took a deep breath. "I love you, little sister."

"I love you too, brother."

"I'll let you say goodbye to Stefan."

A sob caught in her throat, escaping in a strangled cry as the line ended. She needed to try really hard to pull herself together, realizing that time was running out. She could feel Kol's worried gaze at her from the edge of the bed, and she was really glad that he gave her the time and space to do this. Because no matter how hard it was, she knew she needed to do this.

The blonde brought her phone back to her ear after pressing Stefan's contact. It didn't even take long for her call to be picked up, and her brother's voice was heard from the other line, "Bella, where are you? Are you okay? Listen, wherever you are right now, please be careful with Alaric. He'sㅡ"

"Stef, I know," she hurriedly cut in, "I know everything."

Her tremble voice was enough to tell him what she meant by everything. "So you called to say goodbye."

"You have no idea how much I hate saying goodbye," Bella looked up to the ceiling through blurry eyes, her stomach twisted into a knot and her throat constricted, "But I know I'll regret it for the rest of my life if I don't, so..."

"It's gonna be fine," Stefan assured her, but he didn't sound like he was believe it himself, "Klaus was lying, we're all gonna be okay."

She couldn't help but smile bitterly at it. "Your optimism is always inspiring, brother. But one way or another we need to face reality... even if it sucks." No one knew how much she wished none of this was true, but she knew it wouldn't do any good to be in denial.

Then, there was a moment of silence between them. If his guess was right that his sister wasn't a part of Klaus' bloodline, then this would be harder for her than for him or Damon.

"Do you remember when we were kids, you used to hate just watching us play throw and catch, then you would beg us to let you play even though father had told you not to?" Stefan spoke again, trying to lighten the subject. If he was really going to die, he wanted his sister to remember only the happy memories, not the sad ones.

She nodded, though she knew that he couldn't see it. "And you would say no while Damon would say yes."

"It was a rough game, you could easily get hurt," he reasoned, chuckling, "But Damon promised me he would go easy on you, then he told me to stand guard, in case father was coming, while he let you play."

"To be honest, I never even liked that game," the blonde confessed, lifting a hand to wipe the tears on her cheeks, "I just wanted to spend time with my brothers."

"We know."

"It feels like forever ago."

"It was," the middle Salvatore agreed, and he fell silent for a few seconds, "I should have never given up on finding you."

"No, I should have came back sooner. You and Damon did the right thing by giving upㅡI was the one who didn't want to be found, remember?" Bella really didn't want her brother to die feeling guilty about something that wasn't even his fault.

"Yeah, but still." He was silent again. Even though Bella was the one who told him to face reality, but he knew that it was still hard for her to say it first, so he did it for herㅡ"Goodbye, sister. And thank you for everything."

Bella's gaze was blank as she lowered the phone from her ear, the poor girl looked numb. And in the next second, she threw the phone against the wall until it shattered before bursting into tears.

Damn, it hurt.

She not only lost his two brothers, she lost a friend as wellㅡ Caroline. And she didn't think she could bear to say goodbye to the girl too.

"I'm sorry," Kol spoke up, a shadow of guilt darkened his eyes, "I should have told you sooner."

All this time, Kol always knew about Klaus being the sire of her brothers' bloodline. He had every opportunity to tell her about it, but he never did. And even though Bella herself never asked about that, he still felt that he should have told her about such an important thing like that long ago.

"What difference does it make? Alaric would still kill Klaus, and my brothers would still die afterward." She choke back her tears as she started walking back and forth once again. "It's just something that keeps happening to me; whenever I thought everything would be fine from now on, things like this kept happening and proved otherwiseㅡas if I wasn't allowed to feel the slightest bit of happiness." She continued to take a deep breath as her chest felt very tight. "Or maybe I just didn't deserve it. I mean, I have hurt so many people. Maybe this is karma. Maybe this is the universe's way of punishing me."

In a split-second, he appeared in front of her, forcing the girl to stop walking. "Darling," he rested his hands on each side of her shoulders and gazed down at her tenderly, "if anyone deserves all the good in this world, it is you. And I will prove you that." His hands moved across her face, wiping a trail of tears on her cheeks with his thumbs. "And you will never be left alone, you have me. I'm not going anywhere." Then he pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly and letting her cry in his chest.

Bella wrapped her arms around Kol's waist and sobbed uncontrollably. She wasn't a crybaby, but there was only so much pain a person could take. It sucked. It was heartbreaking. It was painful. It was tragic and depressing. And there was nothing she could do about it.

But then she remembered something.

She wasn't the only one who lost her brothers, Kol lost one of his brothers too. He and Klaus might not always be on good terms, but still. And knowing Kol, she realized that he was trying to distract himself from the loss he felt.

Pulling away from the hug, she looked up to see him. "How are you feeling?"

"What are you talking about?" Kol frowned, confused by her sudden question. Shouldn't he be the one asking that to her?

"I'm talking about Klaus," she pointed out carefully, her hazel eyes scanning his face with concern.

He let out a dry chuckle. "You mean the man who had daggered me more times that could be counted?"

"And the one you still loved despite all that."

The brown-haired guy quickly looked away, realizing that he couldn't hide it anymore from her. In fact he couldn't hide anything from her; she could see right through him, just as he could see right through her.

"I should have felt like celebrating the fact that he could no longer lock me in a box or hurt you. But instead I feel like thisㅡlike there's a heavy weight on my chest." He swallowed hard as he looked back at her and confessed, "And I hate myself for that."

"Kol," she cupped his cheeks with her hands and gave him a reassuring look, "it's okay to mourn him."

Kol narrowed his eyes, staring at her in disbelief. "He had made you suffer all this time."

It was true. What Klaus had done to her was no jokeㅡhe had terrorized her. Whenever she met new people, they would die by him at the end of the day. Back then, she was still very easily attached to people emotionally, so their death was always devastated her. And it got to the point when she got tired of it, so she distanced herself from people, emotionally. She started seeing them as no more than a means to an end. With that, the cold-hearted Bella was born.

"And I want to try to get past that," she stated firmly, sincerely.

"You want to try to get past that?" he repeated in disbelief, brow furrowing. "Why?"

"Because he was the brother of the man I love; he was important to him."

There was a reason why Bella never asked Kol about who was between them created her brothers' bloodline. No matter who it was, she still didn't plan to let any of them to die. Because she knew it would hurt Kol, and that was the last thing she wanted.

"And if he's ready to forgive him," she went on, caressing his cheeks gently, "so am I."

And just when he thought he couldn't fall for her any deeper, he was proven wrong.

Leaning down, he captured her waist with his hands and pulled her closer, kissing her ardently.

None of this was easy; losing someone close to them. They know this kind of thing was just a part of life, and they might be forced to face even worse things in the future, but at least they had each other. And that was more than enough.

A/n: this chapter is actually meant to make you cry, so let me know whether I did a good job or not xD