"Elena, can I ask you a favour?" comes Jeremy's voice from inside the Salvatore house. Kol's been standing out here for nearly an hour while Elena and Jeremy chit chat and Jeremy works up the courage to ask her this question. Kol promised Jeremy that he'd stay out of it, but that's impossible now, Jeremy's far too important to him. There's no way he was going to let Jeremy walk into a house full of vampires unguarded.

"Sure Jere, anything."

"I know what you're planning to do. I want you to promise that you won't hurt Kol. And I want you to ask Stefan and Damon to do the same."

"Why?"

"Please Elena, can't you just do this for me?"

"But I don't understand..."

"You don't need to, can't you just do it because I asked you to? I never ask you for anything."

"Jere please, whatever he's told you, whatever you think you have to do, I can help."

"I don't need help, he's not forcing me to do anything. I just need you to leave him alone. Please."

''Jeremy, it doesn't make any sense. Kol is a monster, like the rest of them, he's not your friend."

"Actually, if anyone's not a monster in all this, it's Kol. He had the option to turn me to save himself and he didn't do it. In this whole fucked up mess, he's the only one who's done the right thing, so leave him the fuck alone."

"Why are you so determined to protect him?" Elena pleads. It takes Jeremy a moment to answer and when he does he's fired up.

"Because I love him ok? Is that what you need to hear? I love him. He's the only person in the world who doesn't see me as Elena's brother." Wow. For Kol hearing those words is like finding something you didn't know was missing and then wondering how you ever lived without it before.

"Jeremy, you can't possibly love him." Elena sounds baffled. Hey! Why does she find it so hard to believe?

"Don't tell me who I can and can't love," Jeremy shoots back. "You have no right to tell anyone who they can love, you can't even figure it out for yourself." Below the belt, nice one Jeremy.

"You're one to talk," Elena replies and now she's angry too. That puts Kol on alert, it hasn't escaped his notice that Jeremy is now arguing with an angry vampire. "What about Vicki and Anna and Bonnie. You cheated on Bonnie with Anna! I'm not the only one with a messed up love life." She sounds quite smug when she finishes that little rant.

"Oh please," Jeremy scoffs, "none of that was love." Kol's glad to hear it. "Vicki was a cheap root and a way to score drugs, Anna was my ticket to becoming a vampire when I went through my emo phase and I only dated Bonnie because I thought it would come in handy to have a witch on side. Which it did." That shuts Elena up and there's a tense silence before she speaks again.

"I can't make that promise Jere," Elena sounds genuinely pained, "they killed Bonnie and Jenna and Ric, have you forgotten that?"

"Of course not," Jeremy sighs. "If you're not going to promise then there's something you need to know. I drink Kol's blood every day. If you touch him, I'll kill myself."

"Jeremy no," Elena pleads, "it's not the life I want for you."

"It's not the life I want either. But if you force me to, I'll do it. And if he dies, I'll die too." There's nothing left to say after that so Jeremy leaves.

Kol's waiting outside for Jeremy. Kol hears the door close behind Jeremy and jumps out of the shadows, grabbing Jeremy around the waist, pulling him close. He can feel Jeremy's heart hammering away.

"Kol," Jeremy says with relief when their eyes meet, "you scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry," Kol says with a smirk.

"No you're not," Jeremy says knowingly.

"You're right, I'm not," Kol says playfully. A little slow on the uptake, Kol sees it dawn on Jeremy that Kol didn't stay away like he was asked to.

"What are you even doing here?"

Kol gives Jeremy a do-you-even-have-to-ask look and says, "did you really think I'd let you come here alone?"

"I guess not," Jeremy says and then a worried look comes onto his face and he turns kind of pale. "How long have you been out here?"

"The whole time." Kol's words turn Jeremy a shade paler.

"And did you hear what we said?" Jeremy asks looking awfully worried, his voice barely more than a whisper.

Kol smiles when he leans in close and says "every word."

"And?" Jeremy's breath catches and his eyes shine with fear and hope when he says that one word.

Kol reaches up and cups Jeremy's face between his hands, "and...I love you too." Kol closes the small distance between their lips and kisses Jeremy like he's never kissed him before. Because this time there is no fear, no doubt, no confusion. Nothing but each other and the knowledge that they are both exactly where they want to be.

The End...?

Never.

Because forever is a very long time.

AN: Wow. I can't believe I actually finished a chapter fic. Thanks so much to everyone who read this story. And thanks to those who took the time to review, I appreciate it. I tried not to annoy you guys with author's notes throughout the story, I prefer to let the story to speak for itself. But it's finished now so I'm going to be a little self-indulgent and have a bit of a rant, and of course you don't have to read this is you don't want to. Some people might think this story ended suddenly but I'd much rather leave you wanting more than go on with it until you're sick of it. I'll probably write more in my Unsettlingverse, it's just so much fun, I can't resist. So if there are any storylines you think I didn't tie up or questions you have, put them in a review or PM me and I might address them in a oneshot or maybe even a sequel. On the subject of oneshots, the one I wrote called Distracted can be read as a prequel to this story. I imagine it is set 500 years ago when Klaus was trying to break the curse using Katherine as the doppelganger.

An exciting part of finishing this for me is that I can finally watch Season 4. I have deliberately stayed away from it because I didn't want it to influence this story in any way. I know a Kol/Jeremy romance is too much to hope for but fingers crossed for a Kol/Jeremy bromance.

I couldn't have written this without the advice my sister gave me. She's a much better writer than I am. If you're a Harry Potter fan you should check out treasurehuntergirl's story "Lily Potter and the Potions Professor" for some Draco/Lily Luna romance. I promise you won't be disappointed.

So thanks again to everyone who stuck with Kol and Jeremy :)