Author's note: Hi everyone! Thank you so much for showing this story some love. :D

So, as some of you noticed, I'm in the midst of a little hiatus from FFN. I didn't make an announcement, because I fully expected to be back "next week" (every week :D), and it felt silly to create a whole thing of it just to be back a few days later. I did this largely to keep myself productive. My life became a lot busier lately, and it helped trick my brain into thinking it has less to juggle - it was either this or quit writing altogether for a while, and that could have made me lose momentum, which wouldn't be good. With that said, I've been posting on AO3, so feel free to follow me there if you'd like! I really enjoy our interactions, and find you all to be so very delightful. :) Or, since I assume I'll be back to posting here again sooner rather than later, you can also just wait until that happens. Not exactly sure when that'll be yet, though. I might play it by ear for a little while to see if it feels overwhelming, and make my decision then. Either way, my name on AO3 is the same as it is here.

Thank you all for being truly lovely. :D

Early June 2009

The first few days since Elena returned from the hospital had been surreal. It felt like another world – another life – and she had become a whole other person.

The laughing girl of yesteryear was locked away behind a nigh-impenetrable wall, on the other side of a near-uncrossable divider.

She lived in the unreachable, verdant, and almost fantastical before - a period when her parents were alive, and her family was whole, and life was happy and hopeful, and she was deserving of joy; the current Elena lived in the after. The separation between them may as well have been an infinitely aching chasm.

There were mornings when she woke up, still convinced that she dwelled there - eager to run into her mom's arms and share the news of an upcoming dance; discuss a new idea or topic they covered at school, eagerly seeking her clever opinion; seek romantic advice, her heart constricting at the thought of hurting Matt, but even more so at the idea of not letting it at once wander and soar toward what it really wanted - a love that consumed her.

But then she remembered - and it was like losing them all over again. Every time. Every day.

And yet… something pulled at her. Tiny strings, near imperceptible, kept that girl afloat, letting her peer out into the world at the most unexpected moments.

"What did you say that video was called? 'How to Score Hot Older Chicks,' right?" Elena called from her room, while Anna was returning from the kitchen with her monster-of-a-sandwich and some fruit for them to consume. "I've been looking for hours, and all I've found were awkward pick-up lines."

"What?" Anna mumbled, finally swallowing the string cheese she'd been munching while balancing a veritable feast on her two hands, all the while grateful that Jenna kept the house so fully stocked. Anna didn't strictly need to eat human food, but she liked it – and it helped keep up appearances. But what she especially loved was gorging on ridiculous quantities of cuisine high in calories in front of Caroline – that jealous rage was probably the most hilarious thing she'd seen all week.

"The video," Elena reiterated, her voice almost approaching excitement. "The one you said Damon watched? Where he got that speech?" she prompted impatiently, then pressed at Anna's confused gaze, her own affecting an almost romantic quality. "You want a love that consumes you. You want passion, and adventure – and even a little danger."

"You memorized it?" Anna asked a bit bewildered. In truth, this was the first time she'd seen Elena out of bed for more than a few minutes since she came home, which was definitely a welcome sign. Less welcome, however, was that it was inspired by her brief conversation with Salvatore.

Elena bit her lip shyly, fighting a blush. "It spoke to me," she admitted quietly, her eyes downcast as she wrung her hands nervously. "At least it spoke to who I was, before –"

"Hey," Anna interrupted softly. "You don't have to let that part of you go, Elena."

Elena just shook her head, not quite yet ready to hear those words. "I … I want to find the creator of the video, Anna," Elena admitted in a hushed confession, as though she feared being overheard unveiling her heart's secret, despite them being the only two in the room. "There's something about what he said that touched me – right in the heart, down to my very soul. I want to meet him."

"You want to meet the creator of 'How to Score Hot Older Chicks'," Anna smirked with a distinctly raised eyebrow. "Well, you'd have to be the first person over the age of eleven that does. That video had to be taken down, E. Too many tweens sneaking into high school parties past their bedtimes, worrying their poor moms to dire premature aging," she added, reducing the age by another year to hopefully, finally, take away the appeal of that speech. Why was she being so stubborn?

Elena just rolled her eyes with a grin and threw a pillow at Anna. "It's hard to explain," she sighed. "But – ever since… a few days ago ... I feel completely untethered. Nothing makes sense anymore. But I still feel some connection to those words. They're keeping me afloat," Elena explained, her voice almost drenched with desperation. "And it's strange, because when he said them – I felt excited – but now I just feel fear. Everything about them scares me, because that attitude is what led to –"

"No, it didn't," Anna insisted, not for the first or tenth - or even the last, she suspected - time. "There was nothing wrong with your attitude."

"It terrifies me, but – they're inside of me – somewhere deep. Somewhere deep and forgotten – a part that's very much still alive" Elena confessed with a hushed whisper. "And I have no idea what that means."

Late April 2009

Anna walked out of the house she shared with Noah, a particularly annoying vampire from her last Mystic Falls stay in the mid-1800s. Luckily, his honestly disturbing fascination with Katherine kept him away for most of their existence since then, but they managed to cross paths yet again several months ago, much to her annoyance – since it seemed he also heard about the comet and correctly guessed that Anna would be in town, hoping she would lead him to his object of his at-once love and hate.

Noah gushed how he once saw her in Chicago for a few minutes, but she managed to shake him yet again after a brief almost tryst - the accounts of which Anna was fairly certain were greatly exaggerated. In reality, Anna was relatively sure that Noah would have been lucky to get a slight scratch behind the ears like the eager widdle puppy that he was.

Fine, Anna thought. She was considerably older, stronger – and undoubtedly smarter – she reasoned with a scoff, and allowed him to tag along, as long as he stayed out of her way. And having him around might get the school authorities off her back about living with a legal guardian, so he definitely had his uses. She convinced him that because her mother and Katherine had been best friends once, Pearl would undoubtedly know where and how to find that two-faced trollop, and Noah was only too eager to believe her. Idiot.

At times, she even found him vaguely amusing – that was until the morning when Elena Gilbert knocked on her door before school.

Anna answered it, bewildered, her vampiric ears immediately isolating her unique signature breath – humans each one that made them so recognizable and discernible, Anna marveled, and found them endlessly useful. She also noted that Elena kept running her hands through her hair, so she was nervous. With a shrug, and clearly losing the battle with her rising curiosity, Anna went to answer the door to see what her friend wanted.

Friend. Were they becoming friends? Anna tasted the word on her tongue, its cadence an exhaling breath, and found herself surprised at how true it was.

She and Elena were friends. Actual friends. It'd been such a long time since she had a friend, she thought with a pang.

Shaking off the simultaneously maudlin and elated thoughts, she quickly turned the knob. "Hey," Anna greeted half-warily, half-inquisitively, as she opened the door and stepped out.

"Hey!" Elena greeted brightly, though the chewed lip gave away her anxiety immediately.

"What's up?" Anna asked, deciding to forgo bluntness this time around and not just blatantly ask her what she was doing here before school.

"I thought I'd give you a ride?" Elena replied, inflecting up with nervous cheer. "If you want," she hastened to add, considerably more subdued. She hated prying and overstepping boundaries, usually at once aghast and envious of Caroline's ability to do so without qualms - so this was definitely out of her comfort zone.

Anna kept quiet, having long ago learned the value of silence and how uncomfortable it can be. Even though she grudgingly admitted to herself that she and Elena were becoming friends, old habits certainly seemed to die hard, and she had a penchant for liking to win. It was an old negotiation tactic – one that served her quite well over the years. And the one most comfortable with prolonged silence was frequently given the upper hand.

Unable to contain herself any longer, Elena's entire demeanor collapsed, and she extended both hands to her friend, unconsciously palms up, Anna noted – a show of sincerity. "You seemed really sad yesterday after school," Elena explained uncomfortably. "It was such a jackass move of Tanner to host Family Day, knowing…" she began hotly, then trailed off, her eyes widening as she caught her own tactlessness, then swallowed thickly. "I thought you could use a friend. O-or a reminder that you have friends. That we're here for you," she finally nervously amended with a slight and very uncharacteristic stutter.

Anna smiled, genuinely, quite touched despite herself. "Yeah, sure. Come on in. Give me a few minutes to gather my stuff."

Before Anna was able to step away inside, Elena grabbed her and gathered her in a quick hug. "I know it's not the same – and I know we can never replace her – but we'll be your family, too, okay?"

"Okay," Anna ground out, fighting to keep the emotion out of her voice, as her arms squeezed Elena of their own volition. She'd been fighting it for so long, it seemed. In truth, the last few months had been the happiest she'd felt in decades. She loved laughing and bonding with Elena; teasing Caroline; trying to puzzle out Bonnie.

But the two of them had grown especially close. She often marveled at how Elena seemed to have enough empathy to make up for Katherine's complete absence of it – like he carried it for them both – frequently to her own detriment. When she learned about her loss, Katherine's apparent doppelgänger had made it her mission to heal her.

And in some ways, she almost succeeded. Who knew that after all this time what Anna Zhu really needed was friends?

The old her would have scoffed and laughed herself into oblivion for being so corny, but maybe friendship really was magical – a healing boon born of love.

The two girls finally separated and entered what was once Mystic Falls' most unassuming foreclosure, where an eagle-eyed man greeted them with excitement and rapture in his gaze.

"Oh, you're still here," Anna deadpanned, seeing her annoying tag-along. "Elena, this human Saint Bernard – judging by the drool – is my cousin, Noah," she introduced, before he slipped and called her by her doppelgängers name. She was not ready to have that conversation yet.

"Elena," Noah greeted, stepping forward – the wide smile on his face never shrinking and giving Elena an unsettling feeling, forcing her to fight the urge to take a step back. "What a beautiful name."

"Thank you," Elena replied, quite proud that she managed to keep her voice even. There was something about Anna's cousin that she found deeply disconcerting, but she couldn't quite tell what.

"Oh!" Anna suddenly exclaimed. "Can you go get my schoolbag from my room?"

"Why can't you get it?" Noah shot back, never taking his eyes off Elena and taking another step closer.

Anna smiled in a way that Noah would always find terrifying, and placed a hand on his shoulder, crushing it under her palm just enough for an effective show of strength. The sweetness of her tone belied her actual message. "Because you're my dear, sweet cousin, and I asked you to."

"Fine," he huffed, promptly disappearing up the stairs, only to return almost a second later with Anna's school supplies.

"That was fast!" Elena cheered nervously, trying to ease the sudden awkwardness that enveloped the room.

"Well, my dear … cousin … asked me for a favor, and I thought I would comply as a show of love. I can be very attentive, Elena," he replied in a way that Elena found undoubtedly creepy. It was the way he kept saying her name – like he didn't quite believe it – like he was teasing a liar that he'd caught in the act, dangling the security of belief right before the axe came down in a shocking reveal.

"Wow, well, thank you for that touching declaration, cuz," Anna replied with an almost involuntary roll of her eyes, patting him on the back a little harder than strictly necessary, then turned to Elena. "Wait for me in the car? I need to give Noah here some instructions to make sure the dinner I prepped last night doesn't spoil."

"Sure!" Elena beamed, relieved to be given leave from Noah, though not quite sure why she felt this way, and practically ran out the door.

"She looks like Katherine," Noah mumbled, partly to Anna, but mostly to himself.

The placid expression that Anna wore when Elena was in the house quickly melted away, and Noah found himself thrown against the table, with his arm painfully twisted behind his back. "Well, she's not. And if you value your limbs, you'll stay the fuck away. Got it?"

"She's human. Her blood smells human," Noah groaned. "How? I'm sure Katherine would want to meet her," he added with a touch of wonder, as though he just had an inkling of the best idea.

"Do I need to repeat myself Noah?" Anna threatened, disliking the lack of flair a show of force often entailed, but she had to admit that it got results. "Or do you need another demonstration?"

Noah just shook his head, always quick to give into Anna's commands. He'd made the mistake of defying her only once and learned his lesson quickly.

Direct opposition with Anna never worked – not when she had several hundred years on him. But the extended lifespan of vampirism came with the understanding of the value of patience, and Noah knew how to bide his time.

Mid-June 2009

Elena hadn't left her room in days, and frankly, Jenna was starting to worry about the deterioration of her mental health, not to mention her hygiene. Caroline and Bonnie had little success in getting her up, so Anna was evidently their last hope.

"Stopped your obsessive search for your tween-inspiring Twin Flame?" Anna quipped after Elena refused to acknowledge her existence, and just laid on the bed, facing away from her for the 15 minutes that passed since she entered. "Don't want to talk?" Anna asked with a shrug, knowing she had a secret weapon. She removed a container from her paper bag, before opening and enticingly dangling it near Elena's head, sure the smell would reach her eventually. "Not even for … grilled eggplant?"

"Where? How!?" Elena immediately perked up, bolting out of bed for the first time in what felt like ages. The movement immediately made her dizzy.

"I convinced that surly new guy, Ben, to make it at the Grill," Anna announced smugly.

"How?" Elena asked, shocked, grabbing some of the slices right out of the packaging, forgoing the need for utensils or really any propriety at all. "Mmmmm," she sighed and leaned back, enjoying the juicy taste of delicious umami on her tongue, before sitting up and finally remembering her train of thought again. "I remember him from school. He'd never do anyone a favor unless there was something in it for him. What did you promise him?"

"Nothing!" Anna scoffed, then grinned mischievously. "You know how persuasive I can be."

"I know," Elena admitted, narrowing her eyes in mock-suspicion. "And you've yet to share the secret of how, no matter how much I've been bugging you."

Anna swallowed thickly, suddenly looking quite nervous. "Soon," she managed. "I promise."

The two ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes, before Anna's curiosity all but forced her to approach a topic every other part of her desperately feared she'd regret. "So, did you give up your search?"

"Yeah," Elena said with a shuddering breath, not trusting herself to speak for several long moments. Her mind would occasionally slide to a different timeline – one that existed pre-accident – where her parents were alive, and she was allowed to be joyful and adventurous and carefree. But then she'd suddenly remember, and the weight of it all would crush her anew. "I have to let that part of me go. It's what my," she swallowed, trying to force herself to continue, "my family –"

"You have more family than you think," Anna reassured, squeezing her hand, before gathering her into an embrace. "And those qualities had nothing to do with it."

Elena just nodded, allowing herself to be held, though not quite ready to believe Anna's words yet.

We learn in S6 that Elena has an eggplant obsession, so I like to have it manifest in my stories, because food obsessions are always fun. (I've since decided to give every character some kind of food obsession. :D Anna's really into "old lady" candy, because it tickles me. Someone requested peanut butter for Caroline. I'm happy to take requests for other characters, too! Just vetoing Coke/Pepsi obsessions.)

Noah is a creepy creeper creeperoid. So, he's the "cousin" that Anna's pretending is her guardian, so she doesn't get questions in school. Noah is terrified of Anna, since she's older, but he can still cause plenty of trouble if she's away.

Future chapters will still see more non-linear storytelling, since it's super-fun. :D

This is another sad chapter, but I think it'll be time to bring in the fun again in the next one, where Damon returns, since we'll be jumping ahead.

I have a thing where I make all my prominent female characters good at Math to combat stereotypes. :D So, in this story, Elena, Bonnie, Caroline - and Anna - are all great at it. :D

Thank you everyone for being utterly delightful. Much love, all.