I'm alive! Sorry about the half a year wait. Initially it started because of writers block then it got holiday season and then I was the only person that was working full time overnights at my work so I was too busy and finally I would have had this out earlier this week but I got horrible food poisoning because my sister fed me spoiled tomato sauce.

Excuses aside, I am genuinely sad it took me this long to update. But hopefully the next update won't be another 6+ month wait.

I'm not the happiest with this chapter but I have rewrote it around 4 times so it was either update or just leave people hanging and I didn't want to do that.

Anyway, I figured as a sorry, I'd let you know that Lissa will have two major relationships in the whole story. Kol and Kai are the two people I've paired her with, I have both of them tagged in the AO3 version of this story but not this one. I won't tell you who the endgame relationship is but saying who they are? That I can do.

Thank you to everyone that reviewed, favorited, and followed! And a very special thank you to Missdistraite, you've definitely kept me motivated to keep this thing going with your messages!

Please let me know what you think of the chapter!

The next day was spent exploring what exactly Kol experienced within her brain. So far he could hear, see, and somewhat smell what she did in the outside world. The only reason he was able to see was because there was a TV in her mindscape living room. It apparently turned on when she had her eyes open and he had to manually turn it off if he didn't want to see what was going on. Or go back to his own mindscape but according to him 'I've spent centuries exploring that place. It's boring nowadays. With yours I get in-mind entertainment'

He'd clearly been using the few memories that leaked to him to acclimate his vocabulary to modern times. She was just glad that it seemed to be inconsequential things like grocery shopping or random conversations. Things pertaining to anything important? Not yet.

Luckily it seemed like she had to actively try to send him her thoughts for him to hear her otherwise she really would have lost it. She still had some privacy. And she could kick him out of her mindscape when she actualy tried, though he was able to get back in the minute mentally left her "house" in her mind.

Probably the biggest thing was now that they'd made contact with each other, Kol didn't have to wait until she was emotional to speak to her.

He'd made that clear when he yelled her awake at 5 am because he wanted to see a sunrise for the first time in a century. As if he gave a shit about that. He'd just wanted to annoy her. And it did, she had been an inch away from taking some white oak and going to find his body.

Thinking of that, she was going to have to make a day of burning the Wickory Bridge and sign soon. No vampire genocide possible if the weapon to do it was lost. She'd try and keep a stake or two locked away in her storage unit. That thing was warded to hell and back with it paid up for the next decade too. The only way to get in it was if Lissa or Enzo were there, otherwise the doors would easily stay shut even if hit with a fucking bomb.

At least the vampire understood that she couldn't have a voice in her head 24/7 and kept it down when she was doing stuff that needed concentration or in the middle of conversations. Usually.

They'd also found, if he tried hard enough, Kol could definitely affect her body. He'd made her trip multiple times just to test if he could affect her physical body. After the 7th time she'd tripped over nothing she'd taken to threatening to cut him off from her brain and back to living in boredom. It seemed that was one of the only ways she could get him to listen to her…somewhat.

Enzo had spent the whole day thinking she'd finally lost her last speck of sanity with her tripping all over and muttering to herself until finally he sat down and just asked her why she'd been so weird all day. That had been an awkward conversation to have.

"Snow White, is everything okay? You've been a bit…off today." Enzo awkwardly said once they'd both sat down on the couch..

Yeah, Snow White, you've been talking to yourself all day.

Lissa scowled. Kol was an absolute menace. "No, I mean, yes, everything's okay. I just found out something about myself yesterday. And I've been exploring it all day."

"And this something causes you to talk to yourself. And to do random actions like slap yourself and eat weird things like pickles dipped in ice cream?"

"...Among other things, yes."

"What's actually going on, Lissa?" Enzo asked, dryly. She was beating around the bush, clearly not wanting to straight up tell him something.

Sighing, Lissa decided one person should know what was going on. Slowly she dropped the bomb that she had an original vampire stuck in her head for the rest of her life because she was an idiot and didn't know how to translate runes correctly.

Enzo furrowed his brows. "Aren't you already working with another original vampire? Ken? Klone?"

Lissa grinned at the snorted laughter that echoed through her head.

Ken, ha!

"Klaus, they're brothers actually, but, uh, yeah."

"You have a weird life."

"I know…trust me, I know."

Enzo, like the actual Saint he was, accepted her explanation without much fanfare other than to make sure she was being as safe as she could and to make sure she understood if she needed to she could come to him for help. She adored that Englishman.

After that, her and Kol spent a bit more time experimenting but didn't really find anything that they couldn't have inferred from earlier. It was a bit daunting to suddenly share her mind and body with someone she knew would kill her if he got bored, if he had the ability to. Right now they were both stuck with each other, compatibility be damned.

That wasn't to say they were suddenly best friends. He'd threatened her quite a few times, using her own body against her once he'd realized how much she actually knew about his family and him. She's had to go into her mind again to sit him down and explain the future knowledge.

That had shut him up for a good while as he tried to figure out how she had The Dream™. Obviously the vampire was left without any hard theories. Considering the whole dream thing was made up, Lissa wasn't too worried about what he'd theorize.

After all the experimenting, she'd gone to bed exhausted. The idea of going to school after the upheaval her life just went through left her dragging her feet the next morning. She had to go, she knew she did. It was career day and that was when things really picked up. She paused in her French braiding as she was struck with the realization. Kol was going to have to either leave her mind or sit through high school. She laughed at the image of Kol Mikaelson sitting in on her Calculus class, especially since he'd been alive longer than calculus had been a thing.

Or undead longer.

Calculus? I was around that bloke when he was creating it, so I'm pretty good at it. Really, I'm good at most things

Lissa rolled her eyes. Yeah yeah, you Mikaelsons don't know the meaning of humility, do you? Also turn the TV off, I'm getting changed.

Say please~

Not worried about him watching— despite his teasing Kol was actually considerate of her first two rules…it was the third one that he'd ignored— she dropped the robe she'd been wearing while doing her makeup and hair. Lissa pulled out some high-waisted leather pants and a white satin shirt. She felt like dressing up a bit today, after all everyone said to dress to impress on career day.

Topping the look off with some simple black pumps, a belt harness to act as some mock suspenders and a dagger necklace, she grinned at the look in the mirror before heading to make breakfast. Enzo, while a dear, wasn't too fond of the smell of cooking in the morning. He still wanted to eat, but the fumes made him a bit ill for some reason. She had an inner theory that it had something to do with Augustine, but he refused to talk about it and Lissa wasn't one to push her friends when they didn't want to be.

As she was making breakfast, her phone lit up with Damon's name.

That's the other brother right? The broody one?

Lissa shook her head, even if her tenant couldn't see it. No, that's Stefan, we don't like Stefan. At least how he is right now. Damon is the other brother. The interesting one although he's slowly becoming boring and downright petulant now that he's somehow started falling for my sister.

She felt more than saw the eye roll Kol was certainly giving. Of course, two brothers have to fall in love with the Doppelganger. It's a requirement at this point.

Not giving Kol an answer, Lissa finally picked the phone up. "Did you finally drink some espresso to make yourself not so depresso?"

"…You're not as funny as you think you are, Snow Princess."

"You're right, I'm funnier."

The pale girl had reached out to Damon at one point after the whole 'explode the crystal' event, but considering he'd answered her during what sounded like a drunken orgy, she'd told him to reach out to her when he was ready to not be disgusting. Stefan, having some misguided idea she really cared, had texted her himself basically explaining that Damon was drowning his sorrow in college girls, blood, and alcohol. Basically just telling her something she already knew.

"You're pretty resourceful, right? Think you can figure out where our killing vampire—I'm guessing it's that TV guy I killed a bit ago—is hanging out?" Damon grumbled, pulling her back to their conversation.

"Mr. Do-it-Yourself has finally admitted he needs help?" Lissa asked, sitting down with her breakfast. She turned her phone on speaker as she did, ignoring the groan that came from Enzo's bedroom at hearing Damon's voice.

Damon growled."Just tell me if you can find him or not? I don't like it when I kill someone and they don't stay dead."

Lissa snorted. He better get used to it. A lot of people he kills never stay dead, it was like the norm within a year. "You're in luck. I just happen to have a nifty little compass that points to vampires. It's a family heirloom, a 'Gilbert device'. Even if the man didn't actually create anything. Emily Bennett was a bit sneakier than everyone thought."

Good thing she'd grabbed the device from Jeremy when she realized he'd stolen it before Elena gave the box to Tyler. Lissa wasn't sure why both the supernatural headache maker and the compass were in the same box. If she was remembering season one correctly, they weren't originally, but it didn't matter now. She had them both, just like she'd wanted.

"And you're willing to let me use it?" Damon asked, pulling her back to their conversation. Somehow the vampire was skeptical of her goodwill.

She wondered why that was. Couldn't have been the multiple times she'd injured him. She'd enjoyed him in the beginning but his stubbornness was starting to get on her nerves.

"I'm willing to use it for you." She corrected. "You'd owe me one, but well, that's the price of me helping you."

If she left out the fact he wouldn't have been able to use it, that wasn't her fault. The guy was over a century old he should have a modicum of critical thinking.

Damon sighed through the phone, clearly annoyed that she would ask for a favor for helping with something he'd deemed 'minor'. But she was done giving him freebies. She'd cleaned up him mess with Kennedy. Then the whole thing with the necklace and even keeping him from killing Bonnie. He'd annoyed her and thought he could threaten her one too many times. She'd understand if it was Klaus—he was the originator of Anger Management issues— or even Kol stuck in her head as he was, but Damon? He wasn't—and never would be—someone she feared.

"Fine. Meet me at that old warehouses on the outskirts of town." With those very pleasant words, the black haired man hung up.

Skipping the first couple of classes she had—she was ahead enough it didn't matter—Lissa went ahead to the warehouse, the one Logan had holed himself in, checking the place out before Damon got there. Kol had given her an idea for her shield; keep it up as she walked, but only an inch or two away from her skin; that way it's like her own personal armor until she needed it somewhere else.

So far it was pretty damn difficult to do, not impossible, but it did take quite a bit more concentration than she'd ever put into her shield. She had to be constantly aware of where she was going to step, how she was moving, where her limbs were going, and more just to predict how to move the shield along with her body.

This distraction was the only reason Logan was able to sneak up on her.

Melissa! Duck!

Not even questioning the voice in her head, Lissa ducked. And barely missed behind smacked by a speeding vampire's hand. Thinking quickly, she pushed her shield out from her body and around Logan trapping him against the metal wall.

Once again, the fact it didn't allow any attacks to come from inside the shield just as it didn't allow attacks to come from outside had saved her. Who knew a disadvantage could be turned around so successfully once she'd realized how fluid the shape of the shield could be?

Walking up to the snarling man, Lissa sneered. He was out of control. No finesse, nor any sort of idea what he was other than a bloodsucker.

Rather pathetic, right? Not even my siblings and I were that bad and we were the first.

Yeah, some people just aren't cut out for the supernatural Lissa paused before continuing, thanks for the save, by the way.

Darling, if you die I lose the only entertainment I've had for a century.

Lissa was drawn back to the outside world as her phone started ringing. Fishing it out she grimaced at Damon's name. He'd absolutely hear the snarls if she answered. She needed to shut Logan up before she answered. Maybe…Could she make two shields at a time?

Focusing on thinning the one around Logan, she then pictured a second one wrapped around her own upper body. When she lowered her first shield she would need to protect her arms and torso. Those would be the first things he'd go for. Grunting as her head exploded with pain, Lissa pushed through it until finally smacking her arms together. They both refused to touch. The two shields idea had worked, though they didn't feel nearly as strong as just the one did. Tightening her first shield until Logan was basically in a foot by foot square, Lissa raised her arms even with the man's head, flush against the shield.

"What are you doing?! How are you doing this? The council-"

Logan finally seemed to come to himself, eyes frantically looking around as he tried to break through whatever was keeping him in. As far as he knew, only vervain, sunlight, and wood damaged vampires. How was the little Gilbert freak doing this?

"Oh, shut up, Logan. Damn, I want to kill you…Actually, maybe I should. You aren't particularly important. And you're a grade A dumbass."

Lissa mused before shaking her head. "Eh, no. I'll let Ric have that honor. He needs it for his character arc."

Just as Logan was starting to ask more questions, Lissa quickly lowered the first shield, grabbed his head and twisted.

SNAP!

And down he fell, neck in two.

"I need to figure out an easier way of incapacitating vampires, honestly. Pushing myself that far is a bit pathetic. And won't work on anyone but newbies." She muttered to herself. Licking her lips Lissa groaned in disgust at the bloody taste. Raising her hand to her nose, it came back bloody.

Great, she'd pulled a Bonnie.

It was rather pathetic. Can't you pull magic from around you? I once knew a void witch that could do that. Kol remarked, casually. She could just imagine him sitting all lopsided on her mental living room's chair, feet over the arm.

Lissa rolled her eyes, uncaring that the vampire couldn't see her. Well, considering the first time I'd been called a void witch was a couple nights ago, no I don't think I can do that. We don't even know that I am one. Emily could have been mistaken.

No, Kol sent her the feeling he'd felt, a sort of suction-y feeling, when she started pushing herself too far. She'd tried to draw on him, a person made purely of magic inside her mind. Do you get it now? You pull magic from around you. Like what those scientists were hypothesizing a couple decades before I was daggered…a black hole! You suck stuff in like a black hole.

I'm a black hole for magic? That's what you're saying?

Kol nodded his head at her words. She finally got it. Yes, you're a black hole.

Lissa groaned to herself. Every conversation I have with you, I hate it just a little bit more. Couldn't you try and make more sense? Before Kol could reply though, her cellphone rang again. Finally deciding it was time to leave, Lissa walked out of the warehouse wiping the blood off her face with a random cloth she found on the ground as she answered her phone.

"Hello~, you've reached Lissa Gilbert."

"Where the hell are you? I've been calling." Damon accused through the speakers.

Lissa held back her scoff, knowing it would just anger the already annoyed vampire. She didn't want to deal with him anymore than she had to and making him angry would just prolong everything. "I was inside the warehouse. Your vamp is in there by the way. Snapped his neck-" She started before Damon just straight hung up on her. "Rude." She muttered looking down at the phone before looking back up and jumping. Damon had appeared right in front of her, clearly vamping over to her the second he'd hung up "What the hell, Damon? Give a girl a warning!"

Damon grabbed her arm, grip just shy of bruising. "Me? What the hell were you thinking!? Going into a place you knew an out of control vampire was. And then, you tell me you snapped his neck? What if he attacked you? What if you were killed? What would I tell Elena?"

There is was. The whole reason he was freaking out. Elena. It was always Elena. "Good thing I didn't die then isn't it? You won't have to tell her shit." She spat at him before retching her arm out of his hold. "And never grab me like that. I'm not my sister who will fling words at you if you overstep. I'll kill you, friendship or not."

Lissa, not willing to deal with Damon with a stick up his ass, spun around and marched off towards where she parked her SUV. "Have fun with the newbie vamp, Douchebag!"

The last thing she heard was Damon's grumbles about what her problem was.

I believe the correct saying here would be 'What a dick.' Correct?

Lissa snorted. You're really getting the hang of modern slang. But yes, what a dick is correct.

After finally getting to school—just in time for history or else Alaric would give her a rather disappointed look—Lissa was dragged off by Caroline the minute the last bell had rung. Apparently she was supposed to set up the police booth for Liz, and she thought Lissa would be good help. Which was hilarious, Liz was the only police officer she somewhat liked. The rest were just d-bags that wanted the power trip a badge gave them.

"Listen, I know you don't like cops, but think of this as doing something for my mom. You like her! Please Lis?" Caroline begged, eyes all wide and watery. "For me?"

Lissa let out a groan, but agreed to the blonde girl's request; but not before wrangling a promise of food out of her.

Two hours and a lot of construction paper and glue later, Caroline and Lissa had a decent booth set up for cops. Lissa had even managed to stick in some police brutality stats in the binder when Caroline wasn't looking. Better warn the kids before they get stuck with the 'Good Ol' Boys'.

"Caroline promise you food for this?" Enzo asked, walking up behind the two girls. "Cause I distinctly remember a rant or ten about how shitty cops were."

"Yep! And I have to go pick it up now, so you can keep her company." Caroline chimed in as she grabbed her purse. "Maybe you can help her pick a few booths to look at. She still has no idea what she wants to do."

Enzo turned to the pale girl just as Caroline twirled away. "Really? I'd assume you'd know what you wanted to do down to what classes to take in college."

Lissa shrugged. "Eh, I just think college and everything would be boring. I kind of just want to travel and find cool things while taking and selling photography. In a few years a social media named Instagram will blow up big time. I can just make money on there." Plus she'd already did the whole go to college, get a degree, and work. While not technically an afterlife, this was her life after her last one. And dammit she was determined to have some fun in it.

Oh, I have some places you'd love. They're some of the best places I've found over the years Kol finally commented.

He'd been pretty silent for a while. Lissa just assumed he'd gotten bored of classes after history class. History class had been the one class she was overly aware of his presence. If she could explain it, it was as if he'd been pressing against her mentally as hard as he could in an effort to hear about the world. After the class, which had just been kids presenting their presentations on the decades, he'd retreated and stayed silent until now.

It reminded her she needed to get him up to date on what's happened in the century he'd been daggered. Which sucked.

He'd been daggered literally through one of, if not the, biggest growth of human history. That was a lot to get through, and the kids' presentation of the last century probably didn't help clear much, if anything, up at all.

Lissa grimaced. That's if the places survived the expansion of everything. A lot of nature got fucked by humans over the last century.

Not hearing a reply, she assumed Kol had retreated back to just silently watching things.

"Huh, you know what? That somehow fits exactly what I thought you'd do and also is the complete opposite." Enzo commented, bringing her back to the conversation. "Whatever makes you happy, I guess. Not like I can talk, traveling is the first thing I did when I got out."

She made a gesture as if to say 'Exactly!' before looking around the room. Kids and parents alike had started to come in. On one side she saw Tyler Lockwood staring around the room trying to figure out where to start with his dad right next to him. On another was Kennedy, looking for all the world as if she hadn't had any and every plan she'd made for college ripped apart the minute Damon snapped her neck.

Lissa was still impressed the girl hadn't had any slip ups. That took some impressive self-discipline, more than she thought Kennedy had.

"So, En, not that I don't want you here, but why are you here?" Lissa finally asked as they started walking around checking out interesting booths as they went.

Enzo smirked down at the girl. "What? I can't just come help my 'sister' choose between…" Here the Englishman picked up a pamphlet from the booth next to him. "Sanitation expert and some other job?"

"No, no you cannot."

"Fine, I was bored and you seemed distracted this morning. Distracted you generally means something interesting is going to happen, so I decided to come down to see what it was going to be."

Lissa smiled guiltily at him. She'd been a bit distracted and had really just left him to fend for himself, hadn't she? "Sorry, I haven't really been spending time with you. I've just been so busy with other stuff…not that that's an excuse."

"Naw, you're good, Snow White. I get it. Planning world domination with one original vampire while dealing with another stuck in your head? Must be exhausting." Enzo teased. "I've actually made friends with your new history teacher, Alaric. We both tend to be at the bar around the same time. Got to talking."

She let out a cough as her spit went down the wrong pipe in her surprise. Alaric…and Enzo? Somehow those fit. But… "Does he know you're a vampire?" She inquired.

"No…should he?" Enzo lifted an eyebrow before groaning. "Damn, he's not a normal bloke is he? I just wanted one normal friend."

"I'll tell you about him tonight. Who knows who's listening in." She cautioned, nodding to the dude in a hoodie at the other side of the gym. If she was right, that was Logan or maybe that vampire that stalked Elena sometime before the tomb got opened. Either way, he was clearly watching them.

Enzo narrowed his eyes at the questionable figure slyly guiding himself to the other side of Lissa, between the guy and her. He knew the girl could protect herself—she'd proven that time and time again—didn't mean he wouldn't also protect her.

As the two continued in comfortable silence except for a few quips about certain jobs for a bit, Caroline came storming up to them food bag in one hand, clearly upset with tears of both anger and hurt swelling in her eyes. "Matt's stupid. Elena's stupid. And I hate both of them. Why can't he just be over her already? She's not even the best Gilbert there is!"

"Alright Caroline, what happened with Matt? You left in a good mood." Lissa asked, grabbing the food out of the blonde's hands and gave it to Enzo, who had started looking both awkward and a bit irritated. Caroline, despite not being a friend or anything, was someone he enjoyed bantering with and she was so clearly a good kid it made him want to protect her.

Caroline, now free of carrying anything, wrapped Lissa in a hug as she tried not to cry. She had thought her and Matt had something, yet the look on his face talking to Elena said that no matter what they had, it would never hold up to his feelings for the other Gilbert. "Matt and Elena were having a moment, like a moment with a trade mark, by one of the booths and it just drove home that I'll never measure up to Perfect Elena."

Wryly smiling, Lissa patted Caroline's back as she glanced at Enzo. They were both thinking the same thing; someone was going to have to talk to Matt. Since Matt didn't know Enzo, it would have to be her. And it would have to be another day. Lissa was planning on getting "kidnapped" by Logan tonight, so hopefully tomorrow she'd have time to give Monotone Matt a little warning about making Caroline cry.

Pushing that aside though, Lissa patted Caroline's back and pulled away, locking their elbows like they always do. "Come on, Care. No one wants you to be Perfect Elena. You think we would be as close as we are is you were like Elena? Please." She scoffed. "Now, stop crying over a boy and let's decide on a career."

"Thanks, Lis." Caroline smiled at her best friend. Lissa may not be a perfect person, ask anyone about her flaws, but she was good to her and that's what mattered. "Is Enzo going to be helping us? What does Enzo do? Or is he just a boy toy?"

Enzo and Lissa both grimaced at the same time. They hated when people implied they slept together. Enzo had known her since she was in the single digits—even if mentally she was older—it would have been incredibly weird and predatory for either of them to make a move. Not that they wanted to. The pair of them worked so much better as friends. Lissa knew if they tried a relationship, a romantic one at least, it would blow up in their faces spectacularly. The two of them were just too dependent on the other to pull them away from their bad traits. Enzo kept Lissa from losing sight that people were people and not just characters that didn't matter if they lived or died. Basically he acted as her conscious, while Lissa reminded Enzo that it was okay to be ruthless and stand up for what he wanted. That it was okay to be selfish.

They both knew that in a relationship, romantic at least, they would become even more co-dependent and could start to lose who they were. It would start off healthy but would quickly lead their friendship to ruin.

I haven't seen much of you two's interactions, but it does seem like you have a solid friendship. Which is admirable considering most humans are backstabbing selfserving pieces of garbage. Kol commented. She hadn't realized she'd been projecting her thoughts to him. They needed to work on controlling that. Sooner rather than later. She liked having some privacy, and if she was accidentally sending him private thoughts that threw it right out the mind window.

Tell me how you really feel about my species, Kol

Naw, Darling, you're a witch, even without you accepting that yet. That's so much better than any human.

"Lis?" Caroline muttered, pulling Lissa from her inner conversation. "You okay? Sorry I insinuated something was going on between you two. Enzo told me that you guys don't like that."

Lissa waved her apology away. "No, you're good. I get we act like a couple sometimes. But to answer your question. He's taking time to figure out what he wants to do after the whole 'held against his will for decades' thing. So really this career fair will help him more than us I think." She winked cheekily at said man who had taken to walking beside her.

Enzo rolled his eyes, giving her a shove into the blonde who let out a playfully exasperated sigh.

"How is it that he's over a hundred and yet we're the adults?" Caroline smirked as they finally rounded on the broadcast journalism table. She had wanted to check it out since it was a way to keep up with stuff while still being on TV. Caroline didn't know if she would be interested in current events or anything if Lissa wasn't in her life, probably not, but she did know that she was better for her habits of checking the news every morning. Yeah, it was depressing, but considering Lissa was actually up-to-date with most things, it helped her follow along with the pale girl's rants.

Letting the blonde read her pamphlet, Lissa pulled Enzo away towards the photography table so she could talk to him about following Ric for the rest of the night.

She explained that Ric was going to intervene in Mayor Douchebag's attempt at forcing Jeremy and Tyler to fight, and that Ric would be killing Logan tonight. After getting to the end of the story, Enzo had a deep frown on his face.

"You weren't kidding when you said things were going to start picking up." Enzo shook her head, exasperated with her taking everything on herself. "What do you need me to do? How can I help?"

"Stay with Ric? Make sure Jeremy doesn't get himself killed? You know "who" the Lockwoods are." Lissa offered. She knew Ric wouldn't let it get to the point Jeremy died, but with small things already changing just from her being here, she didn't want to take the chance. She couldn't do it since she was planning on either taking Caroline's place or going with her with Logan "Scum" Fell. "After Jeremy leaves the alley; stay on Ric, he'll be killing Logan tonight…maybe. As long as I don't lose my temper and just kill him myself."

Enzo sighed. Lissa was going to be putting herself in danger, again. "And you? I'm assuming you're doing something dangerous?"

"No!"

Raising an eyebrow at the short girl, Enzo just waited for her to actually be truthful with him.

Lissa scoffed before explaining. "Logan has a weird grudge against Liz, you know Caroline's mom? Well, she had her deputies just buried him in a shallow ditch when they found his body after Damon killed him, so he's probably going to try and get revenge on her via Caroline."

"And you can't let Caroline get hurt."

"Nope, so I'll be tagging along." She responded, mischief in her blue eyes. She was having fun at the expense of the newbie vampire. The feeling of consorting with danger that she knew couldn't hurt her? Exquisit. With Klaus and everything, there was the fear of messing something up and dying or getting someone killed, or changing the future so much her knowledge wouldn't help. Logan, in the grand scheme of things, didn't matter. She could do whatever she wanted with this and it really wouldn't backfire that much. And anything that did need to be fixed could be very easily.

"I may not let Alaric, sorry, Ric take the kill." Enzo grumbled, frown transforming into a small pout. Not that the Englishman would admit to the pout. But Lissa saw it all the same. "If, what'd your aunt call him, Scumfell? If Scumfell is ballsy enough to abduct you, I doubt he'll be kind to his abducties."

"Aw, End Zone, are you worried about me?" She cooed, batting her eyes. "I'll be fine. Promise. Scumfell is a bitch. I've already snapped his neck once today when he tried to kill me. I doubt he'll be willing to test my 'freakishness' again."

"I'll kill him. Again!"

Enzo spun around and would have started off on his homicide mission if Lissa hadn't grabbed his wrist and twirled him back facing her. She grimaced at the genuine anger on his face. She probably should have mentioned the attempted murder a different time. Enzo was already on edge after not being able to come to New York with her, her being followed, and Damon's general aliveness? Add in her new brain roommate and it's a recipe for his protectiveness to snap. It was shortsighted and, frankly, selfish of her not to notice.

Keeping her tight hold on his wrist, Lissa explained. "Drop the vamp eyes, Enzo. We are surrounded by people that know what they mean. If you get outed they will immediately try to kill you. Now I'm fine. I promise, the only bruise on me is from ramming my knee into the coffee table this morning. Logan didn't even get close enough to touch me." Not for the lack of trying. But Enzo didn't need to know how close it was. If Kol hadn't warned her when he did, she doubted she would still be here. Or if she was, it would be while heavily injured. She didn't have the convenient main character plot armor Elena did. "You don't get to go on a rampage just because one newbie vamp decided I'd be a good snack. You'd be killing every supernatural person that came to Mystic Falls then."

"If I must." He growled but despite the words, his muscles visibly relaxed, including black veins that had spread across his eyes. He didn't want to drop it. He wanted to go find and rip that arrogant baby vampire apart. Show him what age does to their species' power. Lissa was his world. She was the tether that had tied him to his humanity. He had been so close to turning it off, to just letting Augustine win, when she bumbled into that basement with her stupid umbrella and creepy wide eyes, asking questions and not even blinking at the gore around her. "I'm taking the kill though. Ric doesn't get the pleasure of killing a threat to your life."

"I can live with that. Are you gonna let Mr. History into your secret or something else?" She asks.

Enzo shrugged. "I'll decide then. You said it wouldn't matter right? He already knows about Damon and Stefan, so what's one more?"

"You'd lose him as a friend until he gets over his vampire prejudices." Lissa pointed out. Why did so many people in Mystic Falls hate vampires in the early season? It was baffling. The supernatural community around the world gave zero shits to species as long as you weren't a dick. Vampire, werewolf, witch, or anything in between, usually lived and coexisted as peacefully as supernatural people could. There were the more insular witch covens like the Bennetts passed the prejudices down, but everyone else? That was their own opinion.

"Then I lose a friend. As long as I have you, I'm good, Snow White."

Lissa grinned at the sweet, if not slightly obsessive, words. Now that the rather sparse plan was laid out, she glanced over at the Broadcasting Journalism table just in time to see Liz walk up to her daughter. The two blondes conversed for a bit, Caroline's face falling the longer they spoke until finally she stormed away. Leaving the sheriff to uselessly call after her apologetically.

Enzo scoffed. "The sheriff should really learn more about her daughter. She just tried to tell Caroline she didn't even watch the news."

"Stupid. Sure, Care isn't as into current events and politics as I am, but she at least keeps up enough to hold a conversation with me." Lissa said before the two of them with the other luck. They both had places to go. And Enzo still needed to find Jeremy before anything went down with him and Tyler.

As the pale girl started toward the door she cursed seeing Logan in front of Liz. She'd forgotten the man confronted her here. Ducking down behind the cardboard cutout of some random news correspondent, she swaddled her way to the other side of the classroom ignoring the weird looks as she did. Finally at the other side of the room, she left out the second entrance to the classroom.

If Lissa confronted him now, she wouldn't be able to have as much fun later, so dodging his eyes now was for the good of her entertainment later. As soon as she was out of sight, she started jogging towards the front doors, heels clicking as she weaved around other kids and their family. It didn't take long until she was greeted with a rather depressed looking Caroline as the blonde pulled out her phone.

"I hope that's me you're planning on calling." Lissa lightly joked as she stopped next to her friend. "Though I think talking in person may be a bit better in this scenario."

"My mom's an asshole." Caroline whined. She knew her mom didn't pay attention to her interests. Not to the extent that she should. Hell, her mom would probably say her favorite color was still pink! "She doesn't even know me. She just sees the mask I made."

Lissa wrapped her arm around her watery eyed friend, pulling her into a half hug. "She is a cop, so that tracks."

"Lissa! I'm being vulnerable here, and you're making jokes."

"Eh, truthful jokes. But fine. I'll be serious." She relented. "Your mom loves you. Hell, you're one of the only people she loves. But given how demanding her job is, especially with the deaths, and her being pressured by the counsel, I'm not surprised she doesn't realize her girly girl daughter has hidden depths."

Caroline's shoulders slumped, telling Lissa had said the exact words the other girl had been thinking herself. "What are you saying? That I should just forgive her after she basically called me shallow and stupid?"

"Fuck no. Make her grovel. What she implied was out of line, you know it, I know it, even Enzo, who only met you like two months ago, knows it. You like makeup, and fashion and being the center of attention, sure. But so many other girls do too. But you are so much more than your stereotype." Lissa comforted her while suppressing a frown.

The more she thought about Liz the more she got annoyed with her. The woman cared. A lot, anyone in the town could see that. But she was so narrow minded. It closed her off from her own daughter and so many more opportunities in life, just because she couldn't see past her own ideals and opinions.

Sighing, Lissa continued. "You mom is so very human. I don't mean that in a bad way!" She held up her hand stopping whatever the blonde was going to say. "I know everyone else is, but Caroline, you chose me as your best friend. I'm not the most…sound individual. My opinions change on a dime and my morals are looser than a hooker's hole after a busy work day. Basically, just talk to your mom. She's probably already beating herself up over the fight. ."

"Okay first, never ever use that analogy again. The mental image alone gave me mental scarring." Caroline started. "Second…you're right. I hate to say it because I should be right. Always, but maybe springing broadcast journaling on her wasn't my best idea. I'm not even completely sure it's for me."

Lissa chuckled. "It's not. You'd hate it. Go for interior design or something that takes organization and aesthetics into play. It's so much more you."

Over the course of their short conversation the two girls had ended up sitting on the curb, neither wanting to stand much longer in their heels. They had just stood back up when a dark SUV pulled up to them, window rolling down to show a smirking Logan. "You girls need a ride? Melissa, I was about to head over to your place anyway."

Lissa paused at the implied threat. Did the man not realize Jenna was here? Or was the threat towards her?

Does it matter? You should kill him anyway Kol spoke up for the first time in a while. Though, I do respect you playing with your prey. Very Mikaelson of you.

That would probably be a compliment if it wasn't implying I'm a psychopath.

I suppose we could explore that when you're not in the middle of something, yes?

Throwing her thoughts into a box, Lissa focused back on the baby vampire. She couldn't have been paused for longer than a second, but that was long enough for the man with vampire reflexes to pick up on it. His smirk widened as icy blue eyes met smug brown ones. He knew to be cautious with the girl after she used her freakish powers on him, but the opportunity to get back at both Liz and Damon? That was too big to pass up.

He'd gone through Damon's phone after he'd shot the man earlier today, needing something to hold over him. And besides his brother, Lissa was the only person he truly talked to. Sure, the black haired man seemed to obsessively text the other Gilbert twin, but Elena very rarely replied. Smart of her in Logan's opinion. "Don't worry you two, I don't bite~" He joked, flashing his teeth,

"Ah, well, I could easily grab a ride with my friend, what about you, Caroline?" Lissa said, tone and smile light despite the absolute frosty stare down she was having with Logan.

"Bonnie was my ride, but she's not answering my text." Caroline frowned. She picked up the weirdness that was going on, but for the life of her couldn't pick up what was causing it. Lissa had always disliked Logan, but now it was as if Caroline was watching a lioness pick the best way to nab her prey. "I may take you up on that offer, Logan. I could also ask you about journalism!"

"Perfect," Logan purred. "Melissa, you sure about that ride? I don't want to just leave you here while I take Caroline."

Glancing back and forth between Caroline and Logan, Lissa pretended to think over her answer. It was better for Logan to believe she was back into whatever corner he wanted her in. It was so much better to break someone when they believed they had the upper hand. "Actually, I think I'll come with. No reason to make Enzo go out of his way to drive my home if you're offering."

"Good! Caroline, you can sit in the front since you agreed first." Logan offered, leaning over to open his passenger door, as Lissa herself slid into the seat behind Caroline. Without looking, she pulled her fucking slide phone from her front pocket and sent a horrifically misspelled text to Caroline saying not to trust Logan and that she would explain afterwards.

"Buckle up, girls. Don't want anything to happen~"

The two girls made eye contact in the rearview mirror and Caroline nodded. She would follow Lissa with whatever she had planned.

Thank you so much for reading~