A/N: I don't own Vampire Diaries. Thoughts are in Italics.


Natala's point of view

The last thing I remembered was being in the woods arguing with Damon and falling asleep in his arms. Now, I'm waking up in my room. He must've carried me back here. I walked into the living room to find Aspen on the couch watching TV, and I could hear Damon in the kitchen making breakfast. The fact that he can cook surprises a lot of people. He seems like type of person that would order take out.

There was something weird about Damon. He was in a genuine good mood. "Good morning, Nat," he called out cheerfully, smiling that cocky smile.

What the hell is going on? Damon has never been in this good of mood.

"Looks like Aurora finally woke up. Did you get a kiss from Prince Phillip?" Aspen asks sarcastically, making a reference from Sleeping Beauty.

"Aspen, what's the rule about being sarcastic with me right when I get up?" I sigh.

"Don't be sarcastic unless you've been awake for two hours so you have a chance to come up with a good comeback," he says like a machine since he says the rule at least once a week.

"Good. And I didn't get a kiss from Prince Phillip," I say pretending to tear up. Aspen gives a laugh that hints that he knows something. I ignore him and walk into the kitchen and take a seat at the kitchen table. "Hey Damon."

"Hey Nat. It's eleven now and you passed out around 10:30 last night so you've been out for nearly twelve hours." He explains. I needed it. When he was gone I barely got any sleep. "And Aspen told me that you didn't eat very much while I was gone." He put a plate with a ham and cheese omelet and hash browns in front of me.

"Neither one of us is leaving this kitchen until you eat all of that."

"There's the normal intimidating Damon I know." I'm not anorexic, the stress of being second in command just gets to me sometimes. "You've outdone yourself again Damon," I compliment mid chew.

"We need to talk," he says sternly. I was afraid of that.

"About last night?" I ask.

"Yes, and about what happened while I was gone." He says.

I finish my breakfast, and Damon and I walk into the living room. I take a seat next to Aspen on the couch.

"We need to talk," he announces.

Aspen's eyes got wide "Natala told me to do it! She wanted to meet your brother at the festival! I thought it was a terrible idea!" He yelled, pointing his finger at me. Whenever there's a group talk it's mainly about Aspen. Every time there's a different reason.

"Believe it or not, it's not about you this time, Aspen," he assured. "You two met my brother?"

"Yes. I saw the resemblance," I explained.

"He got the bad end of the gene pool... We need to talk about what happened while I was gone... I got news that upset me, and I needed to take my anger out on something, and I blacked out during most of my trip. During that time, I killed two people. Their deaths have already been ruled as animal attacks. Last night, I didn't black out but I still killed two more people," he explained. Aspen and I weren't surprised that he killed people. We should've been, but we weren't.

Right when he finished explaining what happened, the news was coming on. The murders from last night were the top story. The victims were William Tanner and Vicki Donovan. Authorities ruled their deaths as animal attacks.

"No one will come after me or us for those deaths," Damon muttered under his breath.

We sat in silence until Aspen spoke up. "The Founder's Council is having some party today."

"Where is it?" Damon asked.

"The Lockwood Mansion," Aspen answered. "I was eavesdropping."

"There's something there I need. You two can come if you want," Damon suggested. "It'll probably be a formal event."

I'm going to have to wear a dress, I thought. But Aspen on the other hand would fight wearing formal attire.

I see him grumble and growl about the party under his breath proving me right.


Damon's point of view

Since the party didn't start until a few hours, I decided to stop by the boarding house to deliver a message to Stefan.

"Oh brother!" I called loudly hoping Stefan would come down stairs. I heard footsteps upstairs.

"What?" Stefan growled as he came down the stairs.

"I just thought that you'd like to know that Mystic Falls is safe again. The killer of those poor people has been found. It was a mountain lion. A really big one apparently. It attacked a hunter this morning. It's all over the news. 'Deadly Beast Captured'. All's well in Mystic Falls,'" I quoted.

"Why would you cover your tracks?" Stefan asked, staring at me skeptically.

"I've decided to stay a while," I responded coolly, ignoring his question.

"Is the reason you're staying in town those two kids? Natala and Aspen? They mentioned you when I saw them a few days ago," Stefan insisted. He was about to strike a nerve. No one messes with Natala and Aspen without getting away with it.

"They are part of the reason. I've been watching over them for someone," I calmly answered.

"They're more than part of the reason, Damon. You wouldn't have threatened me unless they were important to you. I'll stay away from them, to make you happy. On one condition, you stay away from Elena."

"I'll stay away from her but I won't ignore her if she talks to me."

Stefan walked back upstairs signaling that this conversation was over. I left without saying a word that I'd be making an appearance to that little Founder's party. The element of surprise is always a specialty of mine.


Natala's point of view

When we finally got in the mansion, Damon left us so he could look for something. Aspen wore a black tuxedo and I decided on a black dress that had dark blue lace.

"It's just like the festival! We don't know anyone here!" Aspen complained.

While walking around, a familiar blonde girl came up to us. "What are you two doing here?"

"We are acting like we are interested in this town and we were forced to go," I told Caroline.

"This town is not really interesting beside it's involvement in the Civil War," She admitted.

"On the contrary, the legends that surround this town are very interesting," Aspen noted.

"I haven't heard many of them. What's one that interests you, Aspen?" She asked.

This is going to be good. Half of the legends are actually true, but to most people, they're just legends.

"The legend about the vampires that lived here in 1864."

"Guess I haven't heard that one," said Caroline.

"It's quite intriguing actually." Aspen informed going along with it.

"Do you believe that it's true? That maybe vampires actually lived here at one point?" Caroline went on.

"I like to believe at heart, but everyone knows vampires aren't real." Aspen verified, shrugging.

"Yeah. They're only real in nightmares and romance novels." Caroline agreed. "Well, it was nice seeing you again." Then she walked over to an older woman, I'm guessing her mother.

"Aspen. I want you to repeat that sentence while hooked up to a polygraph and in front of our hybrid alpha," I joke.

"We don't need anyone questioning why we're here, Nat."

"I know. It's just that we both know better than to assume something doesn't exist." Anything is possible.


Damon's point of view

I haven't been able to find what I've been looking for. An amber colored crystal. It's here somewhere. There's just so many people here. While looking for it, I ran into Natala and Aspen once or twice. They blended in perfectly. Nobody would guess what they were. I also found Stefan and Elena.

They were looking at the first founders registry. "The original Salvatore brothers. Our ancestors. Tragic story actually."

"We don't need to bore them with stories of the past," Stefan gritted through his teeth.

"It's not boring Stefan. I'd love to hear more about your family." Elena chimed in.

"I'll go get some champagne," Stefan whispered to Elena and left the room.

"I want to apologize for being a world class jerk when you came over the other day. My therapist says I'm acting out trying to punish Stefan," I confessed with a white lie.

"For what?" She asked.

"It's all in the past. I don't want to bring it up. Let's just say that the men in the Salvatore family have been cursed with sibling rivalry. It all started with the original Salvatore brothers," I informed. "The Salvatore name was practically royalty in this town until the war. There was a battle here."

"The Battle of Willow Creek. We talked about it in class. Confederate soldiers fired on a church with civilians inside."

"What the history books don't tell you, the people that were killed. They weren't there on accident. They were believed to be union sympathizers, so some of the founders on the confederate side back then wanted them rounded up and burned alive. Stefan and Damon had someone they loved very much in that church. And, when they went to rescue them, they were shot. Murdered in cold blood," I continued, reliving the memory.

"Who was in the church they wanted to save?" She was curious now.

"A woman, I guess," I hesitated to answer that in case Stefan walked in.

"I'm sorry that there's something between you and Stefan, but I can't get in the middle of it. I hope you two can get over it," she said with a hint of agitation in her voice.

"I hope so, too."

When she leaves to go find Stefan, I continue my search. It's not in the room with the list of the original Mystic Falls Founders. It better be here. I walk into the next room and I see a familiar box. I look through it and find the crystal. Even though Katherine isn't in the tomb, I know an important someone who is.

With the crystal in my pocket, I start looking for Natala and Aspen. I find them outside looking at the pond. "I found what I was looking for. You two have a good time?"

"Yeah. Aspen tried to get me drunk," Natala replied.

I gave Aspen a look wondering what was wrong with his brain.

"I did not. Natala kept begging me to get her alcohol even though I'm underage too," Aspen verified.

"I did not," Natala laughed.

They bickered back and forth for a few minutes until I stopped them. "I'm done here if you two are ready to go home."

"Yeah, the food here sucks anyway," Aspen complained.

We started walking back to the car, and I wrap my arm around Natala's shoulders. She leaned her head on my arm. I smiled, and Aspen chuckled softly seeing this.

"Are you jealous? Did you feel left out? Do you want me to wrap my arm around your shoulders?" I ask laughing.

"Good luck with that. Our height difference is not cute, it's just awkward," Aspen laughed.

We got to the car and went home. This is my family now. I'm not going to let anything happen to them.