"I want to breathe you in like a vapor.

I want to be the one you remember.

I want to feel your love like the weather,

All over me, all over me."

"Darcy Gilbert, I believe you've shrunk since I last saw you."

As I stood here, dressed in a different kind of dress—the kind one wears when dressing for a casual dinner with her new boyfriend, who was secretly an Original vampire, and her best friends, sister, brother, and new guardian—one that Jeremy joked was my Minnie Mouse dress.

Just because it was red with white polka dots didn't make it a Minnie Mouse dress.

Unlike usual when I was around Kol or, really, anyone in public, the heels on my shoes were flat. On occasion, I'd dress for super comfort at school and wear the same kind of Ugg boots I wore now, though they weren't always black, but most times, it was wedges and heels for me.

It wasn't that I was super short; Elena and I were average height for a woman, but heels made me feel good, paired with the dresses I usually wore.

The corners of my eyes tightened, my lips curling into a hint of a smirk. "No I haven't. Remember? I came back barefoot."

His smirk grew much more devious, his bottom lip disappearing between his teeth. "How could I forget?" The smirk fell off his face as he held up a bottle of expensive bourbon, not just some cheap gas station liquor store stuff. "I come bearing gifts."

"Did you bat your eyelashes at the person at the liquor store, too?"

A rather loud and charming laugh pulled out an adorably joyous smile, expressing something I don't think he was used to actually feeling. "Oh come on. You're not still on that, are you?"

"A bit. She could lose her job because of you."

A hand reached over from behind me, taking the bottle from his hands before my mind could even register who it was. "Use your eyelashes and money all you want. We will definitely take advantage of that."

My eyebrows rose as I looked back towards Caroline, briefly, before moving my gaze back to the super attractive vampire at my front door. "My friends decided to come and wait for me to get home, and then wait here for you to come back."

"That sounds . . . a bit horrifying."

"Mmm, only if you have something to hide," Caroline taunted, in an almost sing-song voice. "Darcy, you're being rude! Come on in, Kol. Have a drink with us."

His smirk started to come back, but it definitely didn't have the slyness it had just a few moments ago, when I mentioned that I was barefoot last he saw me. "I can never turn down a good drink."

He stepped inside, grabbing onto my hand as he did. It was instant, like an afterthought even, but it made my heart soar. When I closed the door and looked back at him, finding his gaze already looking back towards me with all hint of anything but something pure in his eyes gone, it felt as if the nerves just beneath my skin were touched with a live wire.

"So you like to party then," Caroline so inaccurately judged, pulling the two of us back into the moment around us.

His eyebrows rose. "What? I mean, everyone loves a good party now and then, but I'm not a huge go out and party type of guy. I'm always up for some good fun, though."

"You'll have to excuse Caroline's rude prying," Bonnie spoke up, rolling her eyes as she stepped closer to the entrance of the home, where Kol and me both still stood. "This is Darcy's first real relationship of any kind, and I don't mean to imply anything. I just—"

"No, Bonnie, it's fine," Kol cut her off, before her apologetic rant could go on any further. "I do have intentions of seeing Darcy again. That's why I'm here."

"Good." Bonnie's voice was as soft as her smile suddenly was, and her eyes were glowing. "She likes you, so take care of her."

"Yeah, you better," Caroline added on, rather forcefully. "As far as we know, she's never even had sex—"

"Why the hell would I even tell you when I knew this was how you'd react?" I asked, my eyes growing wide.

"Fair point."

Elena let out a sigh and shook her head. "This was probably a bad idea, especially so soon . . . but they're insistent, and we all want the best for Darcy."

From the kitchen, the sound of a timer started beeping, cutting off anything Kol might have been going to say in response to my sister. The food was almost ready, with just a bit of cheese melting over an eye, so with a sigh, I stepped carefully into the kitchen, to flip the oven off and turn on the eye, to melt the cheese that was already sitting in the appropriate double boiler.

Four different sets of footsteps followed me into the kitchen, with Elena and Bonnie taking a seat at the two island bar stools. Caroline stood next to Bonnie, her arms folded over her chest while she eyed Kol suspiciously, and the handsome man himself stood closest to me, leaned against the counter at the sink.

I ignored them all temporarily while I added a bit of milk into the cheese, but once it was simmering on the eye, it freed me up. The smell of the grilled chicken, dominated with black pepper and oregano, made my stomach churn. It hadn't actually occurred to me until I had started cooking, but I hadn't actually eaten anything since dinner the night before. Kol offered to get me some lunch, but I declined, insisting that I was ready to get clean and into a change of clothes.

Seeing Caroline's already tight eyes narrow even further in the direction of Kol, who was doing nothing but watching me, surprised me more than it should have.

"Alright, I know she's super attractive and all, but please stop undressing our friend while we're standing right here," she demanded, when she realized that Kol hadn't even noticed her.

He noticed her now, and he tore his gaze away from me so he could look at her, both eyebrows raised. "Undressing her? You confuse undressing and admiring from afar."

Just when I had a good grip on reality, he had to go and say something like that, something that seemed as if it came out of a fairytale. Everything about him was perfect, aside from, you know, being a ruthless vampire who had killed more people than I had probably ever even me.

That wasn't the Kol I was meeting, though. The Kol that was here, the one we were all getting to know more, wasn't a merciless killer. Maybe that was presumptuous, but I didn't understand how someone would was capable of being so endearing could also be so callous.

Caroline began grumbling something under her breath, something I don't think she intended for anyone to actually hear, but I wondered if Kol did, if he was even paying attention to her. He mentioned that he liked listening to the way my heart raced, especially because of something he did or said, so that was probably what he was focused on.

It was easier to focus my thoughts when I turned back to the finishing touches of the food I was making, while the Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline all took care of the conversation, mostly just small talk about his life and personal history. They didn't ask super deep questions, but it was questions you might expect the friends and family to ask a new boyfriend.

For the moment, things were normal.

The cheese melted quickly, and once it was ready, it was time to put it all together. That part was easy enough, just mixing the diced grilled chicken with the Mexican rice and drowning it all in just enough cheese, without putting too much. Some people liked a lot of cheese and others didn't, so I wanted to find the perfect medium.

Strong arms wrapped around my waist as soft lips found my ear, the skin tickling the outside of my earlobe. "You're far too cute. It isn't fair to all other women."

The automatic smile was probably as vibrant as I felt inside, but right now, I had to play it off and move the food that was ready over to the table.

Any good cook knows that every dish should be tasted, to make sure it's right, so instead of testing it myself, I got a bit on the end of a spoon and made Kol taste it.

"Shut up and try this."

His teeth scraped along the bottom of his lip again, just to get a hot and bothered rise out of me—which he did, of course—before his lips opened, giving me enough room to slide the spoon into his mouth.

I shouldn't have been jealous of a spoon, but it was hard to forget how good it felt to have those lips wrapped around me, licking up the mess we had made the night before.

"And you can cook," he murmured, and a smirk grew while his eyebrows wiggled, just slightly enough for me to notice. "I still can't fathom how you never caught someone's attention before."

This man was far too attractive for my own good, but a lot of his pull on me probably had more to do with the night we had had prior than his actual looks. More accurately, it was the two things combined.

How was I supposed to just forget the best night of my life, though?

Dinner went by almost too smoothly, with the conversation remaining light hearted and laughter all the way through. No one was uncomfortable for even a second. The best part was, none of it was a lie. All the conversations were truths about Kol, truths about life in Mystic Falls and about our lives.

It was a lot easier to enjoy it fully when I wasn't reminded that all of this was just a blatant lie to everyone I cared about.

When everyone was finished, Elena was quick to stand up and take everyone's plates. She wasn't a cook. The few times she had tried hadn't really ended well, so she refrained from cooking and instead always cleaned up afterwards.

This time was only different because Kol stood up and helped her carry the stuff into the kitchen. There was only room for one person at the sink, but he was a proper gentleman and helped her get it all in there.

Yeah, I didn't believe his whole "not a gentleman" thing at all. He kept trying to insist that he wasn't a gentleman, but what did he really know of this side of himself?

"This has been fun and all, but Kol, you seriously make me nervous," Caroline announced as she stood from the table, walking into the kitchen with her arms folded and her eyebrows woven together. "You're too perfect. If you knew the kind of hell we've all been through, you'd understand why that's hard for us to be okay with."

His eyebrows furrowed. "That's actually a very logical thing to worry about. I could see why you would be worried. I admit. All of this makes me nervous myself, but if you get nothing else out of this dinner tonight, please understand that I would never do anything to hurt Darcy. The more I'm around her, the more I realize that there are a rare few good people left in this world, and she's one of them. Only a monster would ruin that."

No one had anything to say to that, but everyone wore different expressions of contentment at what he said.

Their smiles had nothing on mine, though, even if I tried to hide it.

Caroline and Bonnie were leaving around the same time Kol was, and though I walked outside with them all, I only lingered around Kol's car, ignoring the smirks and playful glares sent my way as they both left and went on home.

"I'm sorry if things were too intense in there," he murmured, almost the second their cars were out of sight. "I don't mean to come on too strong. My family and I, we just feel everything so much more intensely. It's like when most people first become vampires, that initial feeling of everything inside of you being heightened, it never goes away for us. We always feel things so much stronger, and as an Original vampire, I wanted to make sure your friends had no reason not to trust—"

My lips grabbed ahold of his when it became clear that he was on a long, nervous rant about it all. It was easy to see his side of it; after coming out of the coffin, more than a century later, he comes face to face with someone who means more to him than anyone ever had, someone who wants to get to know the real Kol. If things felt more intense for him than they did me, he was probably completely aware of the pull that could only be explained by soulmates.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," I whispered as I pulled away, just far enough that I was able to make words. Our lips still touched ever so slightly. "Thank you for coming tonight. It was fun."

"It was." He put both hands along my cheeks, his long, slender fingers touching the edge of my ear lobe, and guided my face closer to his, pressing his lips against mine for just a single moment. "Sorry. I don't think I'll ever get used to that feeling."

"Stop apologizing for doing nothing wrong."

A warm breath, laced with bourbon with a hint of spice leftover from the yummy food we had all just eaten, caressed my skin, taking me back to the night prior in a second. It had been wine and Italian food before, but this kind of intimate embrace was sure to get my mind on other things, at least until I got used to this feeling.

Could I ever really get used to it, though?

"I'm not used to this 'remorse' thing," he admitted, one side of his lips pulling up into a wry smile. "I'm not very good at it yet."

"We have plenty of time to practice, but there are other things I wanna practice right now." My hands knotted into his hair, giving me just the leverage I needed to yank his face back to mine.

It was this kind of kissing that people got lost in, wrote love songs about. It was the kinda kiss people dreamed of experiencing but never really got the chance to, the kind that broke the sky and opened up the universe.

If every bad thing that had ever happened in my life led me to this moment, I would experience them all over again if it meant this never had to end.

He tore himself away from my lip suddenly, pressing his forehead against mine while his eyes closed, his own breaths becoming a struggle. He made me feel that way all the time, so it was nice to see it turned around in my favor.

"I'll practice that all night again," he breathed.

My eyebrows rose. "We need sleep."

"Sleep is for those who haven't found their first taste of anything real." His lips found mine one last time, a sort of bittersweet goodbye that neither of us really wanted to say. "Goodnight, darling."

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said, and before I could forget to convince myself that I needed to go back inside, alone, I took the first step away from his car, back towards the large wrap around porch.

"Tomorrow."

The cold fall air tingled against my burning cheeks as I stepped up onto the porch, and in a moment of loss of conviction, I glanced over my shoulder, back towards the stunning man standing next to a car that more than suited him.

If trivial things such as cars could suit someone of his caliber that is; he was probably the most charming person I had ever met, with a handsome demeanor no matter what mood he was in. Some people had good and ugly sides, sides that made you forget that they were attractive, but I hadn't seen that in Kol, not yet.

The more I was around him, the more I was sure to meet the Original brother who was a homicidal maniac, but for the first time since I heard about the brother that was even more ruthless than Klaus, I wasn't afraid to meet him.

I didn't imagine even that side of Kol would do anything to hurt me.

That was probably completely stupid to think and say, but it was hard to feel any other way. Logically, I should've been afraid of him. If I went by logic and reason, none of this would've happened to begin with.

A life without love is meaningless.

Elena was waiting for me as I finally managed to step back inside, an almost permanent smile hanging on my lips when I closed the door behind me, leaning against it for support as my mind raced with all the memories of the night before and tonight.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

That was the kind of question that could kill any mood, laced with a tone of doubt and hesitance. What had been a night of dreams for me, two nights of dreams really, hadn't been the same for my sister; something was wrong.

My eyebrows furrowed, my smile fading. "What do you mean?"

"Our lives aren't exactly safe," she reminded me. "He just got to town, and you're already in a relationship with him."

Maybe I should've expected something like this, but stupidly, I had thought Elena would just let me have this happiness for as long as I could manage it. It wasn't that she didn't want me to be happy, but she didn't want me to get hurt, didn't want to see my happiness ripped away in a permanent way again.

"I feel a connection to him, Elena, something I can't really explain."

"Just be careful," she murmured as she fought the urge to smile, the corners of her lips twitching up with restraint. "It's the people around us that always get hurt the most. Kol seems nice and all, but his feelings for you are . . . intense. Just . . . be careful and take things slow, alright?"

"I will."

Though I made the promise, I didn't actually believe it was possible. Whatever we were getting ourselves into couldn't be handled with caution, couldn't be taken slow.

We could wake up tomorrow and have it all ripped away, and I didn't want to look back and think about all the things that could've been had I just not cared so much about taking things slow.

I wanted this to be forever or a wonderful memory to carry with me, and for it to be either of those things, I couldn't let myself focus on the dangers and heartbreak that could follow.

All I could focus on was the possibilities.

A/N: The lyrics are from the song Vapor by 5 Seconds of Summer. :)

I'm glad you guys are continuing to enjoy this story! Like I said before, I'm trying to stick to the lore of the Vampire Diaries world, but some things may be a bit different, especially later on. I've done my research, however, and I have discovered that no one actually knows what will happen if someone with the werewolf curse who hasn't triggered it becomes a vampire, so I get to be a bit creative with that. :) I hope you guys like where this story will continue to go, however! Thank you so much for your comments. I think this has been my most successful story I've ever published. I have a couple other different accounts under different emails that I can't access anymore, and none of the stories I've posted have been this successful, especially so quickly. You guys are awesome, but I'm glad you're enjoying this story. :)

Enjoy! Let me know what you think.