So, this new Original's spin off mean Klaus will no longer be a regular on Vampire Diaries? I've got one thing to say…YES!

Xxxxxxx

Damon woke with a start as soon as he hit the floor of the basement cell.

"…ow.." He couldn't actually move from the position his brother had dropped him in. In fact, Stefan had shot so much vervain into his system that black was still at the edges of his vision. He wasn't so out of it that he didn't notice Ric dropping Kol on the other side of the room.

"We doing this again, really?" He asked, grimacing at how weak he sounded and at the ropes burning into the skin of his wrists.

"I'm sorry," Stefan started. Damon snorted.

"Sure you are."

"I can't let you ruin this. They need to die, Damon. Elena trusted Elijah and look where that got her."

Again, he felt the sting of a needle and was cursing his brother even as he lost consciousness again. He completely missed the anti-climatic collapse of Stefan's 'brilliant' plan when Klaus came storming into the room.

If he'd been awake and coherent, he might have mocked his brother for not taking Kol to a place Klaus couldn't very easily get into.

Xxxxxxxx

Stefan honestly hadn't expected it to happen so fast, hadn't expected Klaus to figure things out so quickly. He only had a moment's of honest shock, however, when Klaus sped into the room, pulled the dagger from Kol's chest and stood glaring at Stefan.

"I should have killed you long ago." Klaus was seething, dagger still gripped in one hand. Stefan stood a little straighter.

"Go ahead. At least I'll die with the knowledge that you won't be far behind."

Klaus faltered, only for a moment, but before he could start forward or question that statement, there was movement and Stefan found himself blocked from Klaus' view. A hand gripped his neck, with near enough strength to break it. Kol's eyes were dark with rage.

"How about you tell me why I shouldn't rip your heart out?"

Xxxxxxxx

Generally, Kol was not as given to anger as Klaus. Generally, his anger died nearly as fast as it would come. In fact, most things that he felt were like that. Elijah used to call him volatile for this reason. He didn't grow attached to things as Elijah and Rebekah did. He didn't hold grudges the way that Klaus did. And he never saw the point of hating his own existence as Finn seemed to.

This was why his attachment to Damon Salvatore could be considered so surprising. Not that he had been with Damon, or even the amount of time that he had. Ten years really was nothing for someone who had been alive for a thousand years. But the surprising part was just how deep this connection went.

It went deeper than his usual affairs. He felt things for Damon Salvatore that he hadn't ever remembered feeling. So, when he came awake in the Salvatore's basement, he was angrier than he ever remembered as well.

He registered Klaus and Stefan first and then the unconscious body across the room. His temper snapped then and, without even thinking about it before, he had moved and a second later was holding Stefan in the air by his throat.

He didn't give Stefan the chance to answer the question he asked, instead he squeezed a little harder, crushing Stefan's throat. It would heal quickly, if Kol let go but the heat of rage was strong, enough so that he was close to punching his free hand through Stefan's chest. He might have done it if Elijah hadn't interfered.

"Kol, don't. We need him." Elijah pulled him away from Stefan, who dropped to the floor, one hand going to his throat as it rapidly healed.

"Elijah, what is going on?" Klaus interjected. Kol ignored them both, let Elijah explain to Klaus what their mother was planning. He stepped over the younger Salvatore to get to the older, ripping the ropes from his wrists as soon as he made it to Damon's still form.

He turned Damon over onto his back and frowned when Damon did not even twitch at the movement. And he realized that he was worried. Honestly worried.

"Kol." Elijah put a hand on his shoulder and Kol glared up at him. "We must leave."

"You leave," Kol snapped. He turned his glare on Stefan, who was still in the room as well. "You might want to as well." There was a threat clear in his voice. He picked Damon up easily and walked past both his brothers.

After he had settled Damon in his bed upstairs, he didn't even think of going to find a blood bag or another source. He bit into his own wrist.

Xxxxxxx

The capacity for real love was something that Elijah had never truly believed that his younger brother possessed. Even as a human, Kol's attention span had always been short. He moved around more than the rest of them, got bored easier and never seemed to make any real connections beyond their family.

His perception, however, shifted in the Salvatore's basement. He had seen something fierce in his brother's eyes, and then something almost tender when he had stared down at the eldest Salvatore. It was a look Elijah recognized and had never seen in Kol's eyes before.

And he thought that if Kol could look at another like that then maybe there was hope for them all.

Xxxxxx

When Damon woke up, the ache was almost completely gone and he was alert faster than he should have been. He sat up as soon as it hit him what had happened, a fear starting in his chest that he might have slept through…

"You're up, finally." The voice came from his left and Damon turned to see Kol sitting in the chair beside his bed.

"You're alive," he blurted out first. And awake.

"So far, yes."

"So far?" Damon frowned and glanced towards the table beside his bed to see the time.

"I suppose my brothers and sister have gone to confront our mother to try and stop her." Kol stood. "I should be there."

"So, why are you here? And how are you awake anyway? What the hell happened?"

Kol stepped closer to the bed, staring down at him with an intensity that he wasn't used to. "I shouldn't be here now. But…I couldn't seem to leave, not while you were…hurt."

The implication behind that statement was startling. That Kol had stayed despite the death sentence his mother was hanging over his head. Kol dropped down on the bed beside him.

"We should go," Damon said, because as startling as the admission was, it did make him remember that fear from before, that terror he had felt when Elijah had first told him about what might happen that night.

"No time," Kol commented and he almost sounded unconcerned.

"So, what? You're just going to sit here and see what happens?"

"Even if I go now, I wouldn't make it anywhere in time to change it."

"And you still chose to stay?"

"I did." Kol reached across and snagged the bottle of alcohol he had set on the table beside Damon's bed while Damon had been unconscious. Then he settled down against the headboard. "Come on. Have a drink with me."

"I can't just sit here." It went against everything in him to do that and he actually started to get up but Kol stopped him, grabbed his arm.

"You have to understand. I've never cared enough to stay before." And there were so many words he wasn't saying but that Damon got clearly with that sentence. "Stay with me." It was a request that Damon couldn't ignore so he sighed, dropped back down on the bed, and took the bottle when Kol offered it.

Two minutes afterwards, Kol's phone rang with the news that Esther's plan had failed. The relief Damon felt at that was as strong as anything he'd ever felt in his life.