An hour had passed, and there was still no sign of Caroline and Kat. Both Stefan and Elena tried calling but neither of them answered. Stefan suggested he'd go out and look for them, while Damon moved Elena to the safe house.

"They've got to be holed up somewhere," Stefan said, "if I know anything about Kat it's that she's smart, she probably threw their phones out."

Stefan turned around to look at Elena holding her phone in her hands. "You should get rid of yours, too."

She hesitated for a moment and sighed before handing her phone over to Damon, who gently took it out of her hands. Elena watched him as he walked over to Stefan's fish tank, opened it up, and dropped it into the water. He opened a drawer from the long cabinet the fish tank was resting on. He reached inside, grabbed something out of it and walked back over to Elena.

"Here," he said, placing a burner phone into Elena's hands, "only use it in case of emergencies."

"I'm gonna go look for them", Stefan said.

Just as he was about to leave his apartment, Damon stopped him. "Bit stupid to go alone, baby brother."

"So what, you coming with me and leaving Elena all by herself is a smart idea?"

"No of course not, you idiot", Damon said as he was dialing a number on his burner phone.

"Wait, who are you calling?", Stefan asked, wearing a slightly worried look on his face.

A mischievous smile grew on Damon's face.

"Enzo, buddy," he said upon hearing his friend answer his call, "listen, about that favor you owe me."

Great, Stefan thought, already regretting his offer to go out and look for the girls. If there's anyone he would rather not have in his presence, it would be Enzo. 'Arrogant as all hell', he would describe him, and he used to live with arrogance under one roof. That's saying something.

But seeing as he was his brother's best friend, he had to tolerate him, and thus, occassionally have him at his side.

Damon's behavior lately seemed off to Stefan. This wasn't the Damon he knew. Usually he wouldn't give a damn about some girl, especially not one he had just met. Damon is the embodiment of a womanizer, and he sure as hell enjoys bragging about it, too. There are things Damon had told him he unfortunately cannot erase from his memory. But this girl? It was all a little bit peculiar, he was different around her. He seemed different around Stefan as well. Sure, he was still the occassional asshole who's just too cocky for his own good, but it was as if he flipped a switch of some sorts. Stefan always knew there was good in Damon, but he knew all too well not to ever mention that. Damon couldn't stand it. When people see good, they expect good, he always said, and I don't want to live up to anyone's expectations.

Maybe there's hope for him after all, Stefan thought to himself.

"Stefan, hey!", Damon said, waving his hand in front of his brother's face, "Jesus, are you daydreaming again? Enzo's on his way."

Stefan sighed as he snapped back into reality. "Great!", he said, his mouth forming a sarcastic smile.

"What about Tyler?", Caroline asked, "Is he safe?"

"Don't worry about him. We've got to keep moving."

Caroline swallowed hard. Kat had just picked her up and they were walking back towards the car. As they arrived where Kat had parked the car, they found it trashed. Someone had smashed the windows. Without hesitation, Kat grabbed Caroline's arm, suggesting they should get out of there.

Upon walking away the sound of a gun cocking could be heard, causing them freeze. They slowly turned around to see two big guys standing in front of them, one pointing the gun right at Kat, the other one standing next to him with a cocky smile on his face.

Kat put her hands up in the air, treading carefully. Terror filled Caroline's throat and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Unsure of what to do, she followed Kat's lead and put her hands up as well. Her hands were shaking like crazy, and she could feel her eyes getting watery.

Kat started speaking in Italian, making Caroline even more nervous because she had no idea what she was talking about, thus no idea of what could go down. The thought of Kat betraying her crossed her mind. She had no idea who she was, knew absolutely nothing about her, so the idea didn't seem that weird to her.

"You want Elena, right?", Kat asked.

Hearing Elena's name caused Caroline's eyes to widen in panic.

"She's not here. But I can take you to her", Kat said, carefully stepping forward.

The guy holding the gun turned to look at his cousin for a moment, mumbling something inaudible in his ear. The other guy nodded and walked over to where the car was parked, he kneeled down and started looking through a bag laying on the ground.

Caroline watched as Kat approached them cautiously. She froze when the guy turned back to look at her, steadily aiming the gun right at her.

"Sure, you can take us to her," the guy said, his mouth forming into a malicious smile, "but we want her, too".

His eyes locked onto Caroline.

She could feel his stare burning, but did not dare to look back at him.

He's distracted, Kat thought, Fuck, these guys are amateurs.

They certainly didn't live up to their name. Kat was surprised how she caught him distracted, even if it was just for a tiny moment. A Salvatore would never allow for this to happen, they would remain focused on their target, and they would certainly not allow their back up to be unprepared.

There was no time to think about how to properly do this. There was only that tiny moment.

If there's one thing Kat had learned over the course of her life, it was that sometimes you would have to shut down your thoughts and take action. It's how she survived. She knew she had to strike right then and there.

Her hands were still in the air. Her eyes were fixated on his arm. For a moment it seemed as if time had slowed down.

She snapped her body sideways and hit his arm, causing him to flinch. She quickly grabbed the barrel of the gun, punched it back towards him, disarming him.

Now aiming the gun at him, he put his hands in the air. The other guy took note of what was going on and started running up to Kat to attack her, causing Kat to now aim at him. He froze. She aimed back and forth between the two while slowly walking backwards.

"Run!", she yelled at Caroline, never taking her eyes off of the guys.

Caroline did as she was told and ran as fast as she could, feeling a rush of adrenaline flowing through her body.

A split second later Kat turned around the corner and began to run as well.

She quickly caught up with Caroline, telling her to stop.

Taking a moment to catch their breath, Caroline waited for Kat's next move.

"Quick," Kat said, "in here".

"You got any idea where they might be, then?" Enzo asked as he put the keys into the ignition to start the car.

Ever since Stefan left the Salvatore family business, he was smart enough to set up a couple of safe houses throughout Italy, including two in Rome. He had spent a good amount of time in most of them, mostly with Katerina. Whenever Stefan would hear anyone in his family, other than Damon, was looking for him, or whenever Kat got into trouble, they would find shelter there.

He remembered meeting Kat in one of her own safe houses a couple of years ago. She was running from a Bulgarian druglord who used her as his puppet. She had been running for years, hoping to get away from him.

"Yeah, Bacio Divino".

When Stefan turned 18, Damon took him out to celebrate, suggesting he needed to have his first legal drink somewhere obscure- where the chicks were hot and the booze was great. They eventually came across a bar, carefully hidden in an alleyway. Kat was the bartender.

Enzo snickered, "I remember that bar", he said, "great cocktails, and they had this smoking hot bartender as well".

Knowing Enzo was taking a piss at him, Stefan tried to not let it get to him.

Enzo was there at his birthday, and he was the one to take Kat home that night. Even though it was only a one time thing and she eventually ended up with Stefan, he was still bothered whenever Enzo brought her up in conversation like that. It was one of the many reasons he couldn't stand to be around him, and Enzo knew it all too well.

The safe house was located close to Damon's apartment. It appeared to be a normal family home, there was even a car on the driveway and mail in the mailbox. Damon told Elena how Stefan used to live here occassionally with Kat, as well as other people with a connection to the Salvatores who needed a place to stay. Elena was surprised how it hadn't been outed as a safe house yet, considering they found out where she had lived almost instantly. Damon explained how 'hiding in plain sight' helped them stay hidden. A big part of the neighborhood were either Salvatores, or friends of the Salvatores. The fact that it appeared as if a family was actually living there helped as well. The front yard looked well kept up, and there was even a small tricycle lying around along with other toys, like a football and some chalk.

As they entered the house, Elena started looking around the place and Damon walked over to the kitchen to grab some glasses. Elena noticed the mini bar in the living room and glazed over the bottles of liquor. "You sure like your alcohol, huh?", she chuckled.

"You know what they say,", Damon said as he put some ice cubes in the glasses, "too much of anything is bad for you, but too much of good whiskey is barely enough."

Even though he had his head turned away from her, Elena could swear a big smirk formed on his face as he said that. And she was right, she saw him wearing his trademark smirk as he walked over to her holding two glasses of bourbon. Elena chuckled to herself.

"Why do you always do that?"

"Do what?", Damon asked, placing the glasses on the mini bar.

She stayed silent for a moment. Damon placed his hand on the minibar in order to lean on it, locking eyes with Elena.

If there was one thing Damon was good at, it was looking right at you without even blinking. He'd win any staring contest, no doubt. Something about it made Elena feel slightly uncomfortable, she didn't like it when anyone stared at her continuously. And when Damon did it, it felt as if he could see right through her. She looked away, causing Damon's mouth to curl upwards. There it is again, she thought.

"That!"

Damon gently grabbed Elena's chin between his thumb and fingers, "What, you don't like it?"

He could see her eyebrow raising. He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on Elena's lips.

Sure, she liked it, but she also couldn't stand it. He's too arrogant for his own good, she knew. He was the kind of guy who knew girls couldn't resist him. He thrived on it. Handsome, mysterious, what's not to like, right? Elena however, was a different story. She was undeniably attracted to him, but knowing the danger that surrounded him made her back off a little as well. She found herself wondering what would have happened if she had said no to him when he asked her out. Or if they went somewhere else on their date. There was the possibilty that nothing would have happened, but then she would be completely in the dark about what Damon does for a living. She asked herself if she would've preferred not knowing he was a criminal.

She asked him why he would go all this way to protect her when they barely knew each other. Damon didn't know what to say and remained quiet. He let go of her chin and grabbed his glass of bourbon, chugging it all in one go.

She rolled her eyes.

Upon hearing someone trying to unlock the front door, Damon reached for his gun tucked away at the back of his pants.

Elena held her breath. It felt as if her heart had stopped for a moment.

Hearing the lock disengaging, Damon grabbed his gun and aimed it at the door. As it slowly opened, he cocked his gun, waiting patiently for whoever was at the door to show their face.

Elena breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Stefan entering the house. She could feel a rush of anxiety flowing through her as she waited for Caroline to show herself walking through the door. She swallowed hard as Damon lowered his gun and placed it on the mini bar.

Surely, she was there. Without hesitation Elena ran up to her friend and hugged her tightly, feeling incredibly relieved to see her friend alive.

Stefan walked over to Damon, who was refilling his glass once more. He leaned against the mini bar, feeling joyful as he looked upon the two girls embracing each other. Damon turned around to look at them as well, sipping from his bourbon.

Stefan noticed Damon was carrying an ice cold look on his face as he turned his head to look at him.

Finishing his drink, Damon placed the empty glass back on the mini bar. He grabbed his gun, tucked it back in his pants, and left without saying a word.

AN: Soooo there's that! I've been gaining a lot of inspiration from Lana Del Rey's album Honeymoon, and I've been looooving the song Salvatore, it totally reminds me of Delena, especially them in this story. If you haven't heard it yet, definitely check it out!
Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon. My break is almost over, but I will do my darn best to write every day, even if it'll only be a few sentences. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and of course thanks again for all the support! You guys are the best!