Hello everyone!

So neither Yoshi or I can believe that anyone is actually taking the time to read what we've written together. It is just, totally beyond us! And we wanted to take the time to give all of you lovely readers some love, but especially those who are kind enough to take time and leave us reviews. We love your input so much and it was what we wanted from the start. When we decided to post our writing, we were fumbling with the idea of writing a novel, but we wanted to see if our writing could grab people and, thus far, we are both encouraged towards accomplishing our mutual dream. So thank you so much for that!

Now, onto a bit of an explanation. Yoshi and I are roleplayers and that means that, all of this writing you are reading, is not only old, but it's written in a weird format. We aren't exactly updating yet, as it were, we're posting what we have written to each other in the past and gathering it all up into chapters and reposting it here on fanfiction (we will be doing this until we have you all caught up with where we currently are in our writing). Secondly, let me explain the POV format that we write in because we do realize it is a bit confusing. As much as we would love to write in book format, meaning all perspectives are together and there is no backtracking, we are writing two separate characters on our own time and posting them back and forth to each other. It's weird, we know, and we both have talked about meshing it together, but we don't think it would be good and here's why:

First of all, Yoshi and I live thousands of miles apart; we are not with each other enough to be able to write cohesively together to maintain the characters we individually write; we aren't standing over each other's screens to monitor what we write to make sure it's accurate. We thought about maybe one of us writing one chapter and then switching back and forth, but we have also found problems with that. Yoshi writes an AMAZING Damon that I, Joy, could never even dream of replicating in such a manner that you would think Damon was the same Damon for each chapter. This rule applies vice versa with Katherine; Yoshi can't write Katherine the way that I can because, lets' face it, Damon and Katherine are two separate entities and neither of us are fully aware how the other perceives their character or predicts their movement and actions. In that respect, we feel that meshing it all together in a cohesive manner would ruin what we have created. As you can probably tell, our writing styles, though similar, have very vast and unique differences and if we mess with what we have going, we are likely to ruin the atmosphere of the world we have written as well as the distinctive qualities of our characters. The both of us have even talked about just meshing our paragraphs together, but even that will get complicated and horribly choppy.

We understand that, in order to write a book together, we will need to work out some kind of system to make it work, but our hope is that we won't be separated for long and that, at some point, we will be in an environment where we can write together. If not, and it becomes too much of a problem, we are working on an idea to be able to mesh everything together to something similar to book format writing, but it may take us time to do that. Just be aware that what we are currently posting is old, so the next several chapters will be in the same POV format and will continue to be until we can figure something out between ourselves. Quite frankly, we didn't think anyone would read this so we weren't exactly thinking about that the POV format would prove difficult, but we love that it has become an issue!

Much gratitude and love to you all,

Joy

DAMON'S POV -

"Wow a compliment, should I faint?" Damon mused with sarcasm, a small chuckle escaping his lips as she leaned her body back into him. He couldn't help but wonder what she was really thinking in that moment. He wanted to let all his anxieties and worry cease, but the truth was that was an unrealistic goal where Katherine was concerned. She hadn't really done anything to earn his trust back yet. Sure, she was staying now but that didn't mean much. Maybe she just felt obligated to pay a debt. He had seen something in her a few times since she had been back in his life, a flicker of love and humanity in those beautiful brown pools of hers but he still had his doubts. He didn't say anything when she said he was cute, in some ways he felt like it was a patronizing remark, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions so he didn't say anything or treat her any differently than he had been. However, he didn't get the response he was looking for when he told her that he wanted to run away with her. His crystal gaze shifted to the journal she brought up to her lap as he listened to her speak. There was so much about her he didn't know, but he loved learning, he liked knowing what made a person tick. It was an attribute to his personality that one probably wouldn't suspect, but he loved knowing people's details and what made them unique and special. He was even like that with his enemies because he knew he was bound to find a weakness, but with those he cared for or loved it was even more prominent. Learning about Kat always offered him the insight he was looking for.

"Klaus and Stefan were friends?" He stated, more in disbelief than anything else. There were chunks of his brother's life that was a mystery to him because he had been tracking witches and old ties to Katherine at that point. As much as he had made it a goal to make his brother's life miserable, he derailed from that a few times if there was something that was going to lead him back to his sire. Therefore, it wasn't really a surprise that he didn't know a chunk of his brother's whereabouts in the 1920's, but it still shocked him that he would become chums with the Original himself. He listened extra closely when she said she had found something interesting. "Coffins?" He repeated, his eyes narrowing to the floor as he thought this through. Everyone had a weakness, and his was clearly his family, how ironic. The monster had a heart, apparently. "Alright, I like your plan. Simple, but to the point," he mused. "Do you have any idea where he's located or where these coffins are?" Damon asked her curiously. But that's where the real fun began. For the next two weeks the two of them found old acquaintances Katherine had established over the years while running from Klaus who conveniently owed her favors so that they could assist in locating Klaus. Most were witches, and with their power along with common sense and following the dead body tracks they were able to pin point a location in Franklin, Louisiana. Now that they had driven there by car, the real test now would be to find if they were really there or not or if it was another dead end. Lord knows they had plenty of those. He pulled his camaro up to a harbor dock in the middle of nowhere, the pale moon high in the sky as he killed the engine.

"This already looks questionable," he murmured under his breath as he walked at her side up the narrow corridor to the storage units. "Do you think the coffins are here or not?" Damon inquired in a low whisper, but a different voice answered. "They were," Stefan said, causing him to turn around instantly. "So...you know, good job, but we moved them two days ago and I was told to stay here to confirm the fact we were being followed. You know, it's pathetic really..." he trailed off, shaking his head as he looked at the ground. "What is?" Damon asked. He knew he was walking right into the trap but he wanted to know what his brother was going to say. "Elena. She claimed she wants me, but now that she has me all she talks about is you and how much she misses you. I'm pretty sure she loves you, brother. What poor timing to choose that wench over the girl who is actually worth something," he hissed evilly. Damon swallowed the bile that raised in his throat, his face not giving away to the feelings that were now eating away at him. He had to admit the prospect of Elena loving him made him feel something inside, but then he had to remember that his brother could be just as heartless and manipulative as he could and there was a very big chance he was lying to play to his weakness. "Shut up Stefan. I don't have time for your games, but I will tell you that you never really knew Katherine and you sure as hell don't know her now," he seethed. Stefan smirked smugly, shrugging his shoulders. "If you're looking for Klaus' family it was a bad move. He's on to you now and it's going to be virtually impossible to get to those coffins unscathed," he grumbled.

"Nothing is impossible," Damon challenged. "We'll see about that." With that Stefan disappeared, leaving Kat and Damon standing in front of a long row of storage units. "I don't know how he suspected we were on to him, unless of course one of your friends aren't so friendly with you and are instead loyal to him," he muttered, leading the way back to the car. If it was one of Katherine's allies there would be no way to tell who it was since they had spoke to over fifty people during their little investigation. He drove until he saw a small hotel. It wasn't fancy by any means, but it would do. He knew it wasn't up to Kat's standards but that didn't matter really, because he was exhausted from all the driving and it was the best he could do given the circumstances. Once he paid for the room he took their bags, bringing them to their room on the second floor before he collapsed on the bed. "Sometimes I wish I didn't care, it would make my life so much easier," he chuckled dryly, his gaze shifting to the ceiling. "Wanna teach me how to do that?" He asked her, but really he could turn it off for everyone but Elena. He had become too close to her to just write her off like she didn't matter. "Where are we going to go from here? I feel like we lost our greatest asset, which was the element of surprise," he reasoned with a shrug. "We don't even know where they're going now. Have any friends here we can use to figure that out? I'd ask Bonnie but I doubt she's strong enough to break any barriers that Klaus may have around him."

KATHERINE'S POV -

Katherine's connections ran deep and very far. She had run into many people throughout the course of her lifetime and those people stayed by her side, most of them not by choice, but out of obligation. Katherine did a lot of favors for a variety of different people from vampires to witches to werewolves to plain, ol' human beings. She got around and she made it a point to make friends along the way. Granted, Katherine really didn't have any true friends, she had people that would stand by her and support her until their debt was paid, but that left many dark holes that could be torn into her connections. Katherine wasn't the most feared being out there in the world and helping her try to play on Klaus' weaknesses made her friendships rather dangerous. There was no real doubt in her mind that Damon and she would be tracked, that someone would go and leak the information to get on Klaus' good graces and perhaps get out of any impending trouble, or stay out of trouble altogether. Klaus wasn't kind and no one had reason to question him or think that he had a heart. Katherine knew that he had had once, but he was much like her. Each had loved and lost what they held closest to them and those feelings left a bitter taste in each of their mouths. They had hearts, but they chose to cast their beating muscles to the side only to replace their hearts with blocks of ice. They were not people to love or be loved in return, they were nothing more than lost souls. Klaus spent so long trying to redeem himself to his family and that guilt had driven him to hide the very thing that he was most ashamed of, to hide the people that could point a finger at him and make him see all of the horrible things that he had done.

She was very much the same way. She always ran from the people that could point a finger at her. She liked to have fun, but not think about the consequences and that did tend to be a very dangerous combination. She hurt where she wanted to love and left being deeply rooted scars that could never be erased. There was no real hope for her. She was damaged and over the course of the next two weeks, even though she enjoyed her time with Damon, she knew she couldn't do this again. She kept her teasing personality and constantly dominated him because she was the stronger between the two, but she kept her games to a minimum because she was bouncing around the idea of giving up what she had, for a future of possible happiness. She wondered why love couldn't be a glove. A glove, fit to the right hand, was always perfect and had a little bit of stretch to it so that it was always comfortable and that was what she wanted, but she felt like she was trying to put on a left-hand glove on her right hand. It didn't work for her and the more that Damon obsessed over finding Elena and putting together the pieces that he had broken in an effort to save Katherine's life, she realized that Damon was probably using her. Katherine had volunteered to help not so much out of obligation, but out of a desire to help Damon; she never did anything because she felt honor-bound to do so. She was helping him because she wanted to and a dark seed had planted itself into the crevices of her brain and was rooting and growing with each day they were together.

Damon was using Katherine and she was sure of it. He had told her he wanted to run away with her, but a few weeks ago he had been so convinced that he hated her and wanted nothing to do with her. Why would that change so suddenly? But then why would he have gone to such measure to save her life if he didn't care? Katherine had never been this perplexed in her life, nor had she ever been this confused. When they got to the docks, Katherine could already sense that things weren't going to work in their favor and sure enough, when Stefan decided to show up, she knew that things were not going to go their way. Stefan had a loud mouth and when he brought up Elena, Katherine was smart enough to keep her eyes on Damon. She could see that Stefan's words were getting to him. She could see that hope and that desire for Elena to love him and she knew then that searching for love with Damon was futile. He would love Katherine a little, but love Elena more. She was the better of both worlds and Stefan was right, she was worth something. Instead of opening her mouth or letting Stefan get to her, she stayed silent, something uncharacteristic for her, but when Katherine was deep in thought she did tend to become less vocal. All Katherine did was nod her head, "Well if you put Klaus and I on a balancing scale, it would tip in his favor. He could do more damage than I ever could; people are more afraid of him than of me so of course they would talk," she grumbled as she got into the car.

Damon drove them to a little hotel… well motel was really more like it. He paid for their room and guided her up to the second floor and let her in. She locked the door behind herself and watched Damon flop himself onto the bed. She had remained silent for most of the drive and she had no idea what her next move would be. Klaus knew that they were onto him which meant that their lives were at great risk now and there was no doubt in Katherine's mind that Klaus would send some of his little minions after the two of them just to get the job done so Klaus wouldn't have to do it himself. Katherine walked over to the windows and pulled at the blinds to close them so that they couldn't be watched and as she was closing the second set, Damon spoke to her about not wanting to feel anything and then he said something that struck a nerve with her. Wanna teach me how to do that? He asked, teach him how to not feel and Katherine felt any trust she had left for him, any feeling she had left for him, shatter into a million pieces at her feet and disappear with the steady flow of a hurricane wind. She stood there, facing the ugly brown drapes as he went on, not even acknowledging that what he said had sent Katherine on edge. Instead, he wanted to know what they were going to do next in their plan. "I have no fucking idea Damon." Her voice was hard and sharp; the kind of tone someone would figure would slip out of a snake if it could talk. "Why don't you find her by yourself? You're the only one alive that cares enough to sacrifice your life for her." She spat, pivoting on her heel so that she was facing him.

The displeasure was written clearly across her features, contorting her naturally pleasant looking face into stone; no one would dare to look in her eyes like this. Damon had yet to see Katherine's true fury. He had seen her play her games, but he had never seen her with blood in her eyes. She could see red flashing before her vision as she struggled to compose herself. The dark outlines of stringed web started to pulsate to the surface of her cheeks, descending down from her eyes as flecks of black began to consume her chocolate hues. These flashes of anger were rare for her, but difficult for her to tame and she had to swallow hard to cease her bloodlust because she knew that if it got a hold of her that she would drink Damon dry and sever his head from his body and shove her hand into his chest and pull out his heart so she could crush it between her fingers. "And that's what it is going to take—your life—and you won't win either." With the blink of an eye she was on top of Damon, straddling him at the waist in such a manner that both of his arms were locked at his sides, her fingers wrapped steadily around his neck, adding such pressure that her fingernails were digging into his flesh, steady streams of blood dripping down each puncture that she made. "If you wanna live, then I'll teach you how not to care. You want to know the secret Damon, hmm? You wanna know how to make life easier?" She whispered, her words coming out more like a hiss than anything else as she dipped her head down. "I can teach you. In fact, I can show you."

A sickening smile spread on her lips as she added pressure, her thumb dipping into his neck at the side, manipulating the bone so that his head had to turn in order to prevent from snapping. "You have to go to a very dark place. A place where you can't see anything, can't hear anything, can't feel anything, can't do anything. It's a peaceful place Damon." She purred a little, her lips descending to his ear, "That's how you stop caring Damon." She pulled away from him slightly so she could look into his blue eyes, eyes that were full of alarm. "You wanna know where the dark place is? I can take you there. It's easy really. And all you have to do is one thing Damon." Katherine chuckled slightly, smiling at him. "All you have to do is die." Katherine let go of his neck then, her mouth opening as her teeth protruded and her eyes descended into a dark abyss. The webs developed underneath her eyes as she sunk her fangs into Damon's jugular and started to drain him of his blood. She took and took and took until she could feel his body give underneath her, until she could feel him get so weak that he was no longer trying to fight her strength. Once she was sure he got the point, she pulled away from him. His blood oozed down her chin as she licked her lips. "I saw the look in your eyes when Stefan told you about Elena. You were hoping for that. Your brother may not be able to read you, but I can. And it doesn't really matter whether or not he was lying because you showed me what you really wanted." Katherine pulled away from him further, still straddling him because he needed to hear all of this. "You may have saved my life Damon, but you love her, you'll choose her. Maybe at the start you were trying to use Elena to replace me, but now you are trying to use me to replace Elena," she scoffed, "and I'm not stupid enough to be a replacement."

With that Katherine got to her feet and let him go. "And I'm certainly not dumb enough to put my life on the line to save a girl that will live anyways. Klaus isn't going to kill her, he needs her, he needs her blood and I'm sure Stefan has enough of his humanity to protect her. So what if she's a human blood bag for the rest of her life? Nothing bad will happen to her so long as she complies to what Klaus wants." Katherine went over to her purse and pulled out her journal. It was the one with enough of Klaus' information to let Damon take care of things on his own, but there were also plenty of new entries. Entries that encompassed the time over the last few weeks with Damon and her conflicted feelings; she had always felt that writing things down helped her to problem solve and that was why she tossed it over to him on the bed. "You can keep that." It would help him on his way. Teach him how to track Klaus because there were patterns that Katherine had picked up over the years and give him some of her connections, but more than anything she wanted him to know just what he was doing to her. How he had lifted feelings in her she had reserved for Stefan, but had now begun to feel for him. How she wanted to open up to Damon and try to make things work. How she had finally begun hoping that she had found that true love, that love that could be given and returned in equal measure. She wanted him to know that she had feelings, that she cared, and she wanted him to die in that knowledge. "I think we're even now Damon. I used you and now you used me." She walked back over to him and dug into his pocket for the keys to his car, "How does it feel to know that you wounded the heartless?"

DAMON'S POV -

Damon felt so conflicted as he laid there on the hotel bed, and all he really wanted was some reassurance from Katherine because she was the only one who could give it to him. The problem was, she didn't seem too interested in doing that for him, and the moment she spun around her words cut like knifes as she spat venom at him. What the hell had he done to deserve this attitude? She was the one who had been acting weird and pushing him away. He was a patient man, but a person could only take so much before they gave up. Of course, he had chased after her for over a hundred years so one bad month wasn't going to send him running which was probably why he hadn't really given much more thought to the fact that Elena possibly could have developed feelings for him. In his eyes, she was better off with Stefan as hard as that was to swallow, and she had made that choice countless times. Elena was like Katherine in many ways, and had hurt him too many times to count. On his death bed had been the final straw, because he felt like she had kissed him out of pity instead of love…and he never wanted to be kissed for that reason. His heart and mind had already made its choice, at least he thought so; he wanted Katherine, but he was seeing something in her he hadn't seen before and he was getting a little disturbed by it. He watched her eyes intently, observing the dark veins web beneath her dark umber pools as the devil shone through the windows to her soul that he was typically so attracted—but now, they looked sinister and not in a hot appealing way, either.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He asked her with a furrowed brow. "I know you don't like Elena, Kat…but I assumed you were doing this for me, not her anyway…" he trailed off. Before he get up and actually talk to her she was on top of him, her thighs straddling him so that his arms were pinned to his sides, and though he probably could've managed to push her off in that moment—he didn't. He wasn't sure why he was giving into her so easily, probably because he didn't want to take a step back; he didn't want to ruin the progress the two of them had made lately. Granted, it wasn't much progress. She had yet to say that she loved him and she wasn't very responsive when he did or said nice things to her. It made it hard for him, because despite how he came off he was actually a very emotional person and he liked showing those he loved just how much he did. That wasn't easy for him when Katherine was the total opposite, and he was trying to be patient, he was…but now as he gazed up into eyes he didn't recognize he began to think that the two of them really didn't have hope. That this would never work out because Katherine would never open up to him fully and give him emotionally what he wanted so badly in someone which was simply to be loved completely, and not just half way like she had done back in 1864. His breath began to cut off as her fingers wrapped around his neck, her nails digging into his skin until he let out a groan; his warm crimson rushing down over his shoulders and oozing down his back. He didn't need air to live, but he was definitely in pain.

"Katherine," he managed to groan through gritted teeth, but she was ignoring him; whispering words like a lover but they were poison to his ears. He squirmed underneath her, but she was older…and stronger; she would always have the advantage. He thought they were done when she released her grip, but he thought wrong. Instantly her fangs were piercing his hard skin like it was melted butter, his blood pooling into her mouth at a rapid rate. She was draining him dry and he could feel it. His limbs began to tingle, going numb as though they weren't even there. He was losing all proprioception and the room was beginning to dim as every ounce of energy was savagely stolen from him as it rushed into her warm belly. Damon was dizzy when she finally pulled away, red liquid dripping down her chin as she got down to the real reason she was so pissed. He glared at her, finding it hard to do anything else but he was completely livid. She had a lot of nerve throwing this at him as though he had done something wrong. She was such a hypocrite, and even if it took all of his energy he wasn't going to let her leave without him getting in a say. He tried to conserve his voice, listening to her carry on. She had this all wrong. She was so focused on being self righteous she didn't even care if she was mistaken, but that was Katherine for you; more concerned with her pride than the reality and truth of the situation. He looked at her with cold eyes; again she was missing the point. He knew Klaus wouldn't hurt Elena, but the bottom line was she didn't deserve to live her life as a prisoner.

She was young, and she was warranted an education and choices. Just because they were all miserable as vampires didn't mean she had to be too. His crystal gaze followed the journal as it dropped to the bed at his side, fire flashing in his own eyes as they fastened in on her, completely unforgiving. "You coward, don't you dare leave," he choked out, his voice hoarse and weak, but determined to get out all that he needed. "You don't get to leave me feeble and unable to take care of myself just so you can get out and have the last word. Life doesn't work that way," he snapped. "Wake up and smell the fucking coffee." His azure oceans reflected the pain he was feeling, not just physically but emotionally as well. "You're going to fault me for feeling something for Elena? For loving her?" He asked completely exasperated. "Really? This coming from the woman who led two brothers on, fucking both of them at the same time while she turned them against one another without the slightest bit of guilt or regret," he scoffed, shaking his head; the wounds on his neck still severe because he didn't have enough blood to heal himself. He could still feel the bone where her finger had mercilessly manipulated him. "I chose you. I saved you. I told you I loved you Katherine and I wanted to run away with you, and what did you do? Nothing, you said I was cute and barely acknowledged what I said. I know you're screwed up emotionally, but for Christ's sake. I'm trying here, I'm really trying…and you? You're throwing things in my face," he muttered, coughing as spewed blood splattered across his white t-shirt and over his lips and chin.

"Of course I love Elena, Katherine. I will always hold some kind of fondness for her because she stirred up the humanity in me, she made me a better man…a better person. I forgot that it's actually good to be nice once in a while instead of a callous asshole. And if you don't like this me then we're not meant to be together, but don't you dare play the pity card and act like I have wounded you," he murmured with a shake of his head. "I told you I love you, and I made it obvious what my choice was and I'm not gonna chase you around like a love struck fool anymore. I'm not saying you're not worth it, I'm just saying I did it before and I wasted a century of my life because you didn't choose me in the end anyway. You haven't even chosen me now," he got quiet for a moment, surprised that she was even sticking around to hear him out. "And trust me, I'm not discounting your feelings because I'm sure you have them somewhere deep down in there for me, but the thing is you don't show them…and it's a little hard to measure what you see fleeting glimpses of and never hear. Besides, you just tried to kill me because you are a crazy bitch and you're about to take my favorite car," he chortled, forcing a painful laugh. There was a part of him that thought maybe he was dying, but so be it if that was the case. Katherine could leave, and he would just lay there, praying that room service would come in by morning—and hopefully he could survive the night—and then he could have them for breakfast and be on his merry way. Whether Katherine liked it or not he wasn't giving up this mission to rescue Elena or his brother and if he had to he would do it without her.

KATHERINE'S POV -

Katherine had already made up her mind and quite frankly she didn't know why she was staying to listen to him talk. Maybe she was hoping that he would find the strength to get up and stop her, but he didn't. He didn't get up and Katherine was convinced that if he loved her enough that he would get to his feet and he would come to her, he would come and love her. He would show everything she meant to him rather than her having to listen to him, but it was too much to ask of him. It wasn't fair. She could feel her heart tearing at the seams and yet she didn't stop any of it. All she could manage to do was stare at him, that was it. She looked at him and wanted to run because she knew that he was right. Somewhere, deep down, she knew that all she was doing was running from the good thing she had. She was scared and he was terrifying her and this was how she was coping with it. She found some excuse that she could turn on him and blame him for so it wasn't her fault for leaving. The sad part was that, in her mind, she had every right to be mad at him. Every word he said sunk into her brain and her heart read it all as a lie. He made it sound as though he wanted her, but he still needed her to find Klaus and help him rescue Elena from that evil original. Katherine would be collateral damage and she knew it. If she went and got caught in the line of fire, Damon would choose Elena over him and so she wasn't going to put her life on the line for Elena or for Damon.

She was genuinely surprised that Damon had put up with her for as long as she did and, even though she felt betrayed and possibly had no right to feel as she did, she turned around, keys in hand and she walked out. Katherine left him there on the bed battered and bruised and bleeding. She left him there, but she wouldn't let him die. He wasn't close to giving out, but Katherine wasn't stupid. She wasn't going to run and have his life on her mind, she always had a fail-safe so as the door closed behind her, she came up with a plan. She went downstairs and to the back where the small pool was located and she walked up to two of the teenage couple that were inside of it skinny dipping. When she had their attention, she looked at them, compelling them to do as she wanted. "In ten minutes, you are going to go up to room 2B on the second floor. Here is the key to get in. These are the keys to his car, you are going to give them to him. You will go to the man in the bed and let him feed from you and take your blood. You will not scream, you will not protest. You will let him drain you dry." When she was done, she put the key to the room and the keys to his car down at the edge of the pool and Katherine left. She broke into one of the Hondas in the parking lot and she drove off with it, leaving Damon behind even though she really didn't want to. She didn't know where she was going to go, but it was going to be far away where he couldn't find her and far enough away that she would have time to think about going back to him, time enough to dissuade herself from running back to him. Katherine was done with Mystic Falls, she was done with the Salvatore brothers, she was done needlessly pursuing love. No more… no more. And for the first time since being locked in the tomb, she let a few silent tears fall down her cheeks.