Chapter Text
A soft laugh escaped her as she felt herself being twirled out in a soft circle, spinning under the arm holding her, she giggled again as he drew her back in with a flourish, her back landing against his chest.
Dark eyes met hers from across the room, just a little too far away for her to be able to read any specific emotion in them. They held each other’s gaze for a brief moment, before someone caught his attention, striking up a conversation, and her partner spun her out again, pulling her back in, chest to chest this time.
Gently running his hand down her back, Kol pulled her closer, dipping his head to her ear as they danced. “Just for the record, I know how you feel about him.”
A soft jolt ran through Elena’s system; she tried to pull back to look up at Kol, but he held her closely, swaying slowly from side to side. “What are you talking about?” She sighed, giving in to his strength over her and letting him hold her close.
“My brother.” Kol whispered, twirling them in a leisurely circle.
“Hatred, generally,” Elena matched his quiet tone, leaning her head on his shoulder with a soft sigh. “I didn’t realise that was such a shock.”
Kol laughed, shaking his head slightly. “Not Nik. Elijah.”
“Well then,” she murmured, “I definitely don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“He’s in love with you, Elena, and I think you’re in love with him.”
Stopping their dance, she pulled away from him just enough to look up at his face. “I love you, Kol, not Elijah or anyone else.”
“I know you do, darling.” Kol smiled, releasing her hand to brush a piece of hair from her face, his fingers ghosting over the skin of her cheek. “I am in love with you, Elena Gilbert, but I think you’re in love with my brother.” He shook his head as Elena tried to argue with him. “The way you look at him…I’ve never seen a look like that on anyone’s face, aside from on his when he looks at you.”
“I don’t, I…” She trailed off, shaking her head and swallowing thickly.
“I know.” He whispered, bringing both hands to her face. “I don’t think either of you have ever acknowledged how you feel. I love you, Ell.” He said firmly, brushing a tear from her face. “But it would be unequivocally selfish of me if I kept you from each other.”
Joining their lips together, Kol poured all of the emotion he felt into their kiss, clinging to her like a man drowning at sea. Eventually he pulled away from her, resting his forehead on hers as they both fought for breath.
“I can’t lose you.” Elena whispered after a few long moments, her voice catching in her throat.
Kol smiled. “You won’t, Ellie, not ever. I think some space would be good for both of us, just for a little while,” he paused, taking in a deep breath, “but I’ll always be here whenever you need me.”
He kissed the top of her head, lingering there before gently brushing past her and leaving the room. She wasn’t actually sure how long she stood there, lingering on the edge of the dancefloor; tears drying on her cheeks.
“Are you alright?” The soft voice broke through her reverie, startling her slightly, she barely moved, turning her head slightly in his direction.
“Fine.” She muttered, blinking away the vestiges of tears that had settled on her mascara-laden lashes. “I’m fine.” She muttered again, shaking her head and walking away from him, following the path Kol had taken from the room.
“I don’t want to fight with you, Elena. I really don’t, but if I have to, to stop you from raising Silas, I will.”
“Jeremy invited you in.” She said eventually, folding her arms over her chest to at least pretend she wasn’t as scared as they both knew she was. “You don’t have to stand out on the porch.”
Kol shrugged. “Jeremy left, and I do have manners, despite what my siblings think.”
Biting her lip, Elena regarded the man in front of her cautiously, letting out a soft sigh after a moment and stepping aside. “You can come in, Kol.”
Stepping over the threshold, the Original offered her a smile, waiting in the hallway as the woman behind him shut the door and stepped past him to lead the way into her kitchen.
“You compelled Damon to kill Jeremy,” Elena said, opening a cupboard and taking out two glasses, “why on Earth would I believe a word you say?” She turned back to the Original, placing a glass in front of him where he leant against the island. “Why would I trust you?”
“I will remove the compulsion.” Kol said, startling Elena so much she accidentally slammed the door of the cupboard as she closed it. “My brother tells me you are a woman of your word; if we can come to an agreement, there’s no reason for Jeremy to be hurt.”
Elena opened another cupboard with a sigh, somewhere in the back of her mind realising that she kept turning her back on one of the oldest vampires alive. “Tequila or vodka?”
“Excuse me?”
“This doesn’t seem like a completely sober conversation. Tequila or vodka?” She repeated, pulling out two bottles when he answered in favour of vodka. Placing the bottle of vodka in front of him, she poured herself a glass of tequila, putting the bottle down next to her a little too harshly, leaving the cap off, and taking a sip from her glass. “You’ve shown you’re more than willing to kill my brother to stop us, why have you suddenly changed your mind.”
Kol tilted his head at the woman in front of him, picking up the bottle of vodka and pouring a glass, taking a much larger sip than Elena had of her tequila. “You invited me here for a truce; I’m not completely irrational, Elena, I’ll more than happily accept if we can come to a mutual agreement.”
Elena let out another breath, absently swirling the drink in her glass. “No one else seems to think Silas exists.”
Kol raised an eyebrow, prompting her to elaborate.
“Why do you?”
“I used to run with some witches.” Kol shrugged, raising his glass to his lips and taking another mouthful. “Africa in the fourteenth century, Haiti in the seventeenth century, New Orleans in the nineteen hundreds; they all knew about Silas, that he needed to stay buried.” He shrugged again, offering a wry smile. “I actually hold witches in high esteem.”
Frowning, Elena stayed quiet for a moment, biting her lip as she considered her next words. “Yeah, but, why Silas? Why are you so afraid of him?”
A soft laugh escaped Kol and he shook his head, his hair bouncing slightly with the movement. “They said if Silas rises, he’ll unleash hell on Earth.” Raising his glass to her in a mock toast he smiled. “I happen to like Earth just the way it is.” He winked, tossing back the rest of his drink.
“That’s pretty biblical.” Elena muttered, taking a more controlled sip of her tequila.
“See, people today, you’ve all lost faith. No one really knows what they should fear anymore.” Kol picked up his bottle, pouring another glass of vodka. “Do you have any ice?”
Elena nodded, humming the affirmative and turning to the freezer. She grabbed a bowl on her way and took out a handful or so of ice, passing it to Kol and watching as he put several cubes into his glass.
“They won’t stop.” Elena murmured, shaking her head in a soft movement. “Klaus, Stefan, Damon. They all want the cure for me, they won’t stop looking.”
“The only person who has to stop is Jeremy. Without a complete map, finding Silas will be impossible.” Kol argued, setting his glass aside and leaning both palms on the counter, leaning towards Elena. “He’s only trying to complete the mark because it’s what you want.”
Pulling her phone out of her pocket, Elena read the text with a frown, typing out a brief reply before putting the device back in her trousers. “I didn’t ask for this. Not to be turned, not the search for the cure, none of it.”
“You don’t want the cure?” Kol asked, a real frown marring his features. “But you didn’t want to become a vampire?”
“But I am.” Elena shrugged. “That just a fact of life that I have to go back to trying to live with. The blood lust and the anger and the overwhelming sadness. Alcohol helps with most of that though.” She laughed, without humour, raising her glass in a return to the mock toast Kol had offered her.
“Has anyone taught you anything about being a vampire? Really being a vampire?”
Elena laughed again, picking up the tequila bottle beside her and going to pour a glass before changing her mind and drinking directly from the bottle. “I could hardly keep down blood until just over a week ago. Let alone learning about anything else. It’s just a cluster-fuck of incomprehensible emotion and urges I can’t get a handle on.”
“Oh, darling, you’ve got entirely the wrong idea of what being a vampire is all about.”
Elena scoffed. “Come back to me in a thousand years; I might have a better answer for you.”
“Why wait a thousand years to find out what being a vampire has to offer?” Kol raised an eyebrow at her, smirking when she returned the same expression. “I used to resent the magic I had lost to becoming a vampire. Then I realised just what my newfound being allowed me to experience.”
Rolling her eyes she took another mouthful from the bottle. “What might that be?”
“Heightened emotions, increased sensitivity, extra strength, they can all be a curse, but used in the right way they can be the greatest gifts known to us.”
“Used in the right way.” Elena scoffed, shaking her head. “You mean torturing and killing people just because you can?”
Kol laughed, a deep mirthful sound that washed over her. “I’m starting to see what Elijah likes about you; you’ve got spunk.”
Frowning at the Original in front of her, Elena took another swig of tequila, grimacing when her phone pinged again. Replying quickly, she turned her attention back to Kol, finding him watching her curiously. “What?”
“Being a vampire isn’t all about murdering people, Elena.” Kol smiled at her, something behind his gaze that she couldn’t put her finger on. He finished the last of his glass of vodka, stepping around the counter into Elena’s way when she went to refill his glass. “Now, about this truce.” He continued, his voice a low whisper as he stopped in front of Elena, their shirts just barely touching as she leant on the island, having nowhere else to go.
Taking the bottle of tequila from Elena’s hand, Kol placed it on the counter behind her, a soft slam ringing out through the room as he put it down with more force than necessary, both of his hands trapping her where she stood.
“If you don’t want the cure, then there’s no need to keep searching for it.” Kol murmured, his breath ghosting across Elena’s face as he spoke.
“I told you, they won’t listen to me. Even if Jeremy stops killing vampires, they’ll find a way to complete the mark, Klaus needs me human.” Elena returned, only just aware of the fact that her voice had dropped to match Kol’s, her voice rough from the tequila that burned her throat.
“We can handle them, I’ll compel the Salvatore’s to stop if that’s what it takes, and I’ll help protect Jeremy from Niklaus.” Kol offered, his words drawing a frown onto Elena’s face.
“You wanted Jeremy dead half an hour ago, why would I believe you?”
Kol laughed, a deep chuckle that reverberated through Elena’s chest with how close they were stood, her head swam, because of the alcohol or Kol’s proximity she wasn’t at all sure.
“I told you, Elena, I’m not irrational, if we can come to a beneficial agreement there’s no reason for Jeremy to die. He and I were friends at one point after all.”
Elena swallowed thickly, doing her best to really think about what Kol was saying, but her fuzzy head was making that rather difficult. “What agreement?” She breathed, closing her eyes for a moment as she fought to regain some sort of composure.
“Convince Jeremy, and your friends, to stop looking for the cure. I’ll remove the compulsion from Damon, and I can help you keep Jeremy safe from Nik. I’ll even help teach you how to really be a vampire if you want.” Kol tacked on, a blasé tone for such committal words.
“I won’t kill anyone.” Elena denied. “I don’t want to do that.”
Kol grinned. “Is that an agreement? A truce?”
Eyes searching his, Elena nodded slowly, feeling as though her undead heart was going to beat right out of her chest. “A truce.” She agreed.
Still smiling at her, Kol took one of his arms away from the counter beside her, taking his phone from his pocket and making a call without breaking eye contact. “Damon, great to hear from you, mate! You can leave young Jeremy alone now. I’ve no want for him dead anymore!” Much too cheerily, Kol hung up the phone, putting it back in his pocket and returning his hand to the counter.
“That’s it?” Elena asked, embarrassed at the breathy tone her voice still possessed.
“That’s it.” Kol confirmed, tilting his head at her curiously. “You really don’t know anything about what we are, do you?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Elena argued, taking in a shuddering breath as Kol brought his hand up to her face, her eyes blinking shut of their own accord as he took a piece of her hair on his finger, twirling it absently.
“Heightened senses, increased sensitivity…” Kol murmured, dropping her hair as Elena opened her eyes again, her lips parting slightly against her will. Brushing his thumb over her bottom lip, Kol allowed his hand to trail to her throat, resting loosely there as he ducked his lips to Elena’s ear.
Smiling to himself as he felt Elena swallow under his hand, he let his lips brush against her soft skin, another smirk lining his mouth as she shivered at the sensation. “This is barely scratching the surface of what I can make you feel.” He nipped at her earlobe, delighting in the soft gasp that he drew from her.
“Why?” Elena managed, her voice breaking even on such a small word.
“Because I can.” Kol returned, pride tinging the husky quality of his voice. “We both know you’re currently not attached to either Salvatore.” He kissed the side of her neck, his hand tightening around her throat for a fraction of a second as he revelled in her reactions to him.
“What’s your point?”
Kol chuckled, a dark undercurrent to the sound that made Elena shiver again. “I bet I could do anything I wanted to you right now, and you wouldn’t stop me.”
Snapping back to her senses, Elena sucked in a sharp gasp of air, shoving the Original away from her.
He laughed, allowing her to push him away. “Don’t worry, Elena,” he smiled, a bizarre emphasis on her name that made her skin tingle in delight, “I have no intention of bedding you without your willing consent.” He winked at her before disappearing from the Gilbert house altogether, barely ten seconds before Jeremy rushed through the door, confused by the sight of his sister with a bottle of tequila in hand.