England, 1417

She suddenly found herself pinned against the wall by the man who had been at the tavern earlier. His body held hers pressed sinfully against her, his breath hot against her neck. "Now, darling," he whispered in her ear. "Tell me. There's no fear in your eyes when you look at me. Why would that be?"

"I have no reason to be," she breathed in response. "I'm not a vampire myself, but I'm not human either. If you taste my blood, you'd find I taste rather awful."

"Is that an offer, darling?" he asked, a hint of amusement in his eyes. She only nodded, and he couldn't help but oblige. His eyes darkened, the veins under his eyes becoming darker. He could feel his fangs elongate before they pierced the soft flesh of her neck. In a second, he was off her, coughing and sputtering at the foul taste in his mouth, doubled over near the other wall of the alley they were in.

Artemis sighed and rolled her eyes. "You can't say I didn't warn you, love," she told him.

He looked up at her, a shocked expression on her face. "What are you?"

She shrugged. "That's for me to know, and for you to find out," she whispered slyly, before disappearing into the night and leaving a confused Kol behind.


Waking up in Kol's arms was perhaps the best way that Artemis could imagine to start her day. The only way that was better, however, was when Kol made her breakfast before she woke up. Well, when Kol tried to make her breakfast. This particular morning, she woke to the smell of burning food. Her eyes snapped open and she was up and down the stairs in an instant, alarm evident on her face and she appeared in the kitchen. Kol looked at her with a guilty look on his face, a skillet full of burnt pancakes in one hand and a wet dishrag in the other.

"I thought I'd try and do something romantic," he told her sheepishly. "The internet said that cooking breakfast for your woman and bringing it to her in bed was romantic, so…"

Artemis shook her head. "Kol, you have no idea how to cook," she reminded him.

"It looked easy," he said, trying to defend himself. He gestured to the mess of a kitchen, where each surface seemed to be covered in a fine layer of flour. "All of the moving pictures on the YouTube seemed to make it appear easy, and the fellows on the Food Network make it look like a breeze." He paused, dropping the pan and dish rag into the sink. "It's much harder than it looks."

She laughed. "Well, I appreciate the gesture," she said, beginning to dust some of the flour off the island in the kitchen. "What do you say we get this place cleaned up and then go out for breakfast? There's a small café not too far from here. We could take a nice morning walk."

"I'll take care of the mess, darling, you just put something on that looks amazing," he told her, before kissing her cheek and using his vampire speed to begin picking up the mess he made.


"What are we running, a marathon?" Matt called as he struggled to keep pace with Elena. What was supposed to be a light jog around the neighborhood had turned into an all-out sprint. Even with football season still going on, it was hard for him to keep pace with her. Where had all of her energy come from?

"If you can't keep up…" she taunted, pulling ahead of him.

"Elena, you can't outrun your problems!" he shouted at her, slowing down to a stop. "Although, it looks like you're going to try," he mumbled, mostly to himself. He watched as she got further and further away, before deciding to call out to her once more. "I talked to Bonnie!"

That caused Elena to stop and turn, and allowed Matt a little time to walk towards her and catch his breath. "What did she say?" she demanded.

"They're at her mom's house," he told her. "Abby's going to complete the transition."

The news had surprised Matt as much as it seemed to surprise Elena. She looked thoroughly confused by the news. Abby had spent her entire life trying to avoid vampires, and now she would become one? Before she could ask, she spotted two people over Matt's shoulder. One was Kol, one of the Original vampires, and the other was that woman Artemis, who Damon had dragged over the night of the ball.

They looked like one of those couples you might see in a clothing catalog. They both wore grey sweaters, with slim-fitting jeans and tan shoes. Although they wore different styles, the colors they wore still matched almost perfectly. The woman's hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, while his hair was tousled as if he just woke up. There was something that seemed to draw them together like a magnet. They were both smiling, and laughing, and just happy.

It made Elena sick to see someone so evil look so happy.

Matt turned and saw them too. He didn't share the same feeling as Elena. Sure, he hated vampires, and he hated the Originals, but something about Kol struck him as different. He seemed more capable of human emotion than the rest of his siblings.

Kol smiled when he them. "Matt, what a pleasant surprise," he called out. "And Elena, I presume. Lovely to see you both this morning."

Elena nodded stiffly, but Matt shook Kol's hand. "Good to see you again, man," he greeted. "I take it this is your wife?"

Artemis nodded, and stuck out her hand. "I'm Artemis," she said with a smile on her face. "Kol told me you were the one who suggested we go the the Grille on a date. He's been trying to do the whole 'romantic date' thing for a while now, but something usually winds up going wrong."

Kol rolled his eyes. "Well, the kitchen didn't actually burn down this morning, so I'll consider it a partial success," he replied.

"So we're headed out to breakfast instead, since the kitchen smells like smoke," she continued with a giggle. "Would you two care to join us?"

There was a pause, interrupted by Elena's cell phone ringing. She looked down to see the same "Sheriff Forbes" flash across her screen. "Sheriff Forbes, everything okay?" she asked, answering the phone. There was another pause, and then "he what?"

Matt looked from Elena to Artemis and Kol. "Maybe another time?" he offered.

The pair nodded. "Of course," Kol replied. "Let us know if you need anything. That conversation sounds pretty serious."

The two of them waved to the teens as they continued on their way to the café. Matt now stood with Elena alone, wondering why Kol and Artemis would have invited them out. Perhaps they were meant to be breakfast? There surely was no way that they could be that nice, could they?


"This is, perhaps, one of the most amazing waffles I have ever had," Kol declared through bites of his breakfast. "These are positively incredible. Who would have thought to put bacon and chive into the waffle, and serve it with a cheddar cheese dipping sauce?"

"It is fantastic," Artemis agreed, taking another bite. "Do you know what would make it even better though?"

"Hash browns on the side?" he asked.

She nodded. "Hash browns on the side."

They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments, eating their waffles. But then Kol paused, and just simply watched Artemis instead. He took in all the small details about her, as if he was trying to memorize her image: the way her hair fell over her soulder, or how she brushed off of her forehead every so often with a huff of annoyance, or the way her grey eyes sparkled in the lighting of the café, or the way she drummed her fingers against the table after taking a particularly savory bite.

She caught him staring and giggled. "You know, you could take a picture," she told him, a smile on her face. "It would last longer."

He shook his head. "I don't have a camera, darling, and I don't think the owners of the café would appreciate us dragging all that equipment in here," he replied.

Artemis laughed again. "I keep forgetting that you just joined us in this century," she said, holding out her had. "Let me see your phone."

Kol handed the infuriating device over and watched as his wife pulled up the phone's camera app. It was fascinating to see. There, on the screen, was the moving image of whatever the camera was pointing at. When he moved it to look at his wife, there was her smiling face on the screen. He pressed the capture button about twenty times before deciding he probably got a good photograph.

He handed the phone back over to her to show her what he got. Artemis pressed a few buttons on his phone, after scrolling through the pictures that he had taken, and handed it back to him with a grin on her face. He grinned as well when he saw that she had taken the best photo and set it as the background to his phone, so whenever he looked at it, he would see his wife. The technology was absolutely incredible, Kol decided, even if it was infuriating at times.

"I had no idea this could be done," he said, looking from his phone to her. "I quite like it, though. Any time I'm not in your presence, I can be reminded of your ravishing looks."

"I did the same for you," she told him, handing over her own phone. Her background was a picture of Kol that he didn't even know she had taken. It was the night of the ball, probably when Damon was dragging her away, that she snapped the candid photo of him. There was a hint of a smile on his face, as he probably thought of Artemis.

He smiled sadly as he handed the phone back to her. "There's something I must tell you," he said softly. She didn't reply, just nodded her head, so he continued. "Nik has asked me to go to Colorado. Apparently, the doppelganger has a younger brother named Jeremy, and Nik wants me to go to Colorado and keep an eye on him, but he wants me to go alone. He seems to think that sending both of us away would be suspicious in the eyes of those who are against us."

There was a pause, where Artemis was looking down at the plate of food in front of her, before glancing up at her husband with a sad smile on her face. "At least it's only temporary, right?" she whispered. "You out in Colorado, and me here? I'll make myself useful here. If Nik won't listen to what I have to say, then Bekah will. And as soon as possible, I'll join you in Colorado."

He nodded sadly, and reached for her hand across the table. "I wish this wasn't the way it had to be," he murmured, tracing circles on the back of her hand with his thumb.

Artemis smiled. "Come on, there's something I want to show you before you leave," she said, standing up and tugging his hand towards the door. They paid for their breakfast on the way out, and headed into the crisp, autumn air.


They stopped in front of a quaint-looking home on the edge of town, sitting at the end of a quiet street. It looked older, holding a certain feeling of antiquity. The house itself was painted a pale shade of yellow, with emerald green shutters standing at attention on either side of the paneled windows. It was small, probably only two bedrooms, if Kol had to guess, but the house was absolutely adorable.

"It's the most charming house I've ever seen," he told her as she bounced up and down excitedly next to him. "Why are we here and why can't you contain yourself?"

"I might have bought it yesterday," she nearly shouted, as his eyes widened. "I knew that we would probably stick around in Virginia for a little while, so I just went ahead and bought it so we didn't have to keep living under your brother's roof anymore and we would have a place to call our own."

"And now I have somewhere to come home to," Kol concluded, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her close as they both looked at the house before them. "Just promise me one thing?"

"Anything," she whispered, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Make it modern," Kol said. "We're living in the future, darling, and that's where I want to stay."