Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making a profit from this. Characters, etc. belong to their respective owners.

A/N: As always, I really appreciate those of you who read this and/or left me such positive responses!

Oh, and I don't know if it's really necessary to say this because I think that it's pretty obvious, but this is totally AU from TVD's storyline right now (i.e. none of that 'there's another White Oak Tree', no Sage, or any of that crap)

Enjoy!

"Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies."

-Oliver Goldsmith

When a furious pounding on the front door broken between intervals of an incessantly ringing doorbell awoke Bonnie the next morning, she assumed that Matt must've told somebody about the little scene that had taken place between her and Kol last night. Bonnie groaned and tried to burrow herself deeper into her bed, ignoring the knocks.

"Bonnie," she could hear Caroline yelling, "If you don't open this door within the next thirty seconds, I'm not responsible for any damage done to it!"

That certainly got Bonnie up and moving.

"Caroline," Bonnie croaked tiredly, clinging to the edge of the front door.

"I'm sorry. I know you haven't really wanted to deal with anybody lately and I totally understand that because of everything that happened, but Matt said he saw you with Kol last night and I just needed to come make sure that you were okay," the blonde babbled. "You are okay, right? Well, that's a stupid question…I meant—"

"I'm fine Caroline," Bonnie said, shaking her head.

"Are you sure? Because this Kol guy is just—"

"It was no big deal, Caroline," Bonnie cut in. "He threatened me, I threatened him. You know, the usual stuff."

It took an effort not to burst out laughing at that last part, at the insanity of it all. The usual stuff. Her life was reduced to the point where threats were normal.

"Okay," Caroline said, clearly taking the hint. "I just wanted to make sure everything was okay."

"As okay as can be expected," Bonnie replied with a small nod and a sad little smile.

"Bonnie?"

"Yes, Caroline?"

"I know you're really upset and angry over what happened to Abby and I understand that…we all do, but…and…and I know it's not like you, but…you're not going to do anything crazy, right?"

Right then, the utter sincerity in Caroline's face and voice made Bonnie wanted to blurt everything out. She wanted to tell her about what she was planning, about how she was crazy enough to work with the craziest original, about everything. But she couldn't. She wouldn't.

"No, of course not," Bonnie lied. The words left a bad taste on her tongue.

Caroline wasn't the only visitor she had that day.

When she heard the knock on the door, she hadn't planned on answering. She assumed that it was just Elena or somebody. She still wasn't quite ready to face the brunette yet.

"I know you're home, little witch," an accented voice called playfully from the other side of the door.

Kol, Bonnie thought. She still contemplated ignoring him. She shouldn't have agreed to their little partnership. It was crazy. Downright crazy. Absolutely nothing short of crazy.

You're entire life is crazy, she thought dryly. What would be the harm in adding a little more?

She didn't want an answer to that question.

Bonnie grasped the handle of the front door and flung it open, not giving herself a chance to change her mind.

"What?" she asked.

"You're not very polite, you know," he said conversationally. "You could at least invite me in."

"Forgive me if I'm not too keen about giving you a free pass into the one place where I'm safe from you." And the rest of your family, she added silently.

"If I wanted you dead, you would have been already," he told her, rolling his eyes for emphasis.

"You're not getting an invitation to this house," Bonnie said firmly.

"Not yet," he replied.

"Not ever."

"I always did like a challenge."

Oh hell, Bonnie thought, resisting the strong urge to slam the door in his face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Bonnie asked. She wasn't going to waste her time arguing with him about whether he would ever receive an invitation to her home or not.

"Oh, don't tell me you forgot about a little partnership already! I'm hurt!" Kol exclaimed mockingly.

She'd be lying if she said it didn't bother her that he seemed to construe everything as some sort of game.

"Oh. That," she said flatly.

"Having second thoughts?" He asked with raised eyebrows.

"No." Yes.

"You're not a very good liar," he said. "That'll be a problem. So will your indecisiveness."

"You know what? I don't even know what I was thinking," Bonnie said, shaking her head. "I don't need your help with anything."

He chuckled darkly and reached a hand out as if to touch her, but it met an invisible barrier in the doorway that he leaned upon.

"If that was true, Bonnie," he told her, putting a strong emphasis on her name, "If that were true you wouldn't have even considered my little proposal in the first place."

Bonnie pressed her full lips into a thin line and glared at him. She didn't really care for how he was talking like he knew anything about her.

"The first step to pulling this off is being able to tell a decent lie," he told her. "You need to be able to act like your usual self. You know, the one that always gets walked all over."

Ouch.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest defensively. "I don't—"

"You do. You wouldn't even be in your current predicament if that was the case, love. You wouldn't be plotting murder and betrayal."

She resisted the urge to cringe at every word that came out of his mother.

"Is killing someone who's already dead murder?" she asked him, jutting her chin out defiantly.

Kol smiled one of his dark, wicked smiles, pressing up against the invisible barrier even more as if he could somehow break through it.

"Now that's the right train of thought, love."

She didn't like his use of endearment.

"Hey," Bonnie said, sliding into the booth next to Caroline, forcing her to scoot over.

"Bonnie!" Elena said, her big brown eyes becoming even bigger.

Bonnie gave her a soft smile. "Hi, Elena."

"Uhm…how are you?" Elena asked. But she quickly backtracked like Caroline had earlier. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry that's a horrible question."

"I can't say I'm totally fine, but I'm dealing," Bonnie said with a shrug.

"Is there anything I can do?" Elena asked sincerely.

You could run the Salvatores through with an especially sharp piece of word for me.

"I don't think there's really anything anybody can do." She paused. "Besides, we got bigger issues to worry about, anyway."

That sounded normal. That sounded very Bonnie-like.

It was what she always did: put aside her feelings for the supposed bigger picture. Too bad nobody could ever be bothered to do the same.

The next few hours were spent at The Grille, passed by with a façade of normalcy with Elena and Caroline. They talked about pointless, meaningless things. They all knew to just avoid certain topics.

Then, Damon Salvatore just had to ruin it with his very presence by walking in an heading straight for the bar.

It took everything within Bonnie to stay seated. It took everything in her to not start sending aneurism after aneurism upon him and then setting him on fire.

She wanted to run up to him and claw at him, punch him, kick him, slap him. It wouldn't hurt him, not seriously anyway, but she had a feeling that there would be something gratifying about physically assaulting.

"Bonnie…" Elena said, seeing the look on Bonnie's face.

"I'm going home," Bonnie said, standing up. "I'm really tired."

She found herself outside in the cool night air after a round of hugs from Elena and Caroline and a chorus of, "Call if you need anything."

It actually hurt that neither of them could tell that she had been lying to her teeth the entire day. Once upon a time, they'd all been able to read each other like books. But now…

We're different. Our entire relationship is different. And it's—we're never going to be the same ever again.

These thought continued to run through her head as she fumbled with her keys in front of her little Prius. She heard a slow clapping from behind her. Bonnie stiffened and turned around, coming face to face with Kol.

"You put on quite a show," he complimented. "Even I would have believed you."

"Maybe that just means you're gullible," she replied with a snort.

"Ah, there's no need to be like that," he said, stepping closer. She stepped back only to find her back pressed to her car door. She recalled a similar instance like that that had happened with Damon and she could feel rage being to flow throughout her once again.

"You're off to a great start. And who knows?" he continued, ignoring the glare on her face and reaching out to playfully tug on one of her dark curls.

She could feel his hot breath on her face and a part of her wanted to shove him away and run for dear life and keep running until she was far, far away from him and Mystic Falls and everything.

"You might actually have some fun along the way."

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update…a lot of personal stuff has been going on in my life and it's been keeping me busy…I won't bore you all with the details, but I just can't guarantee regular updates at the moment.

Anyway, thanks for reading!