#damon prospect

[ellies-enrichment]

without you, without them: chapter 1

Summary:

Life without the Green and Ezra and Cee still somehow find each other alt Ezra was friends with Cee's mom when they were young.

Rating M, WC: 3,346, Chapters 1/?

[not-so-mundane-after-all]

Fandom: Prospect (2018)

Title: Holding On And Letting Go

Pairings/Relationships: Cee and Ezra, Cee and Damon, Damon and Ezra

Summary:

Damon Lives AU. Almost two years after escaping the Green Moon, Damon accidentally finds Cee in a bar on one of the core planets. Haunted by the ghosts of his past, he watches from a distance as his daughter moves on with her father's killer as her protector and companion.

Back into the Prospectland I go! Please enjoy this angsty idea approved by my fellow prospect writers. It was really interesting to explore this side of things from Damon's point of view and trying to understand him. Thankful to my lovely friend and INCREDIBLE Cee & Ezra fic writer @sotvtaughtmehowtofeel, for brainstorming this idea with me and encouraging me to write it. Your help means so much to me!

Enjoy, my fellow prospectors!

@sotvtaughtmehowtofeel @orangechickenpillow @skoulsons

[sotvtaughtmehowtofeel]

Minefield

Fandom: Prospect Relationships: Cee & Ezra, Cee & Damon WC: 3198 Summary: Cee and Ezra return to the home she shared with Damon

[corellianhounds]

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Ugh okay yes I have like a bunch of these, but I did settle on one that I just don’t know when I’d be able to figure it out. There’s too much setup involved to make it what I want. The context is that it’s a Prospect/Mandalorian crossover, the events of Prospect happening differently where Damon lives, but Cee still ends up escaping with Ezra.

Damon hires Mando to find Cee and their harvest after she disappears with Ezra, and once Mando finally tracks them down he’s shocked to see someone with his face walking around in the open. The whole time the plot’s happening he’s suspicious and unnerved by this stranger sharing his voice and face, and though his research into the backlog of Guild cases doesn’t reveal any details of this guy’s origin or personal life, it does give him plenty of information regarding Ezra’s colorful criminal history

However, Damon’s history isn’t much better, and Mando suspects he’s just better at hiding some of the more unsavory things he’s done. He also finds that Cee, according to his research, has been logged as Damon’s harvesting partner for almost ten years despite the fact this girl is clearly only about fifteen years old, and the kind of harvesting Damon’s done in the outer reach is a two-man job; you can’t afford dead weight, even if it’s to keep your kid with you. Does Damon want his daughter back, or does he want his assistant back?

Mando’s having to deliberate over who between Damon and Ezra is a bigger threat to this girl’s safety. Did Cee really choose Ezra because she trusts him and Ezra is trustworthy, or because she's being forced to choose the lesser of two evils?

—

Mando kept his pistol on Damon, but then he unhooked his rifle from his back, cocked it one handed and aimed it at Ezra—

— Only for Cee to step in front of him.

There was a scuffle of protests— Ezra tried to wrest her behind him but she shoved him back. Mando primed the charge on the rifle and Ezra raised both arms, hissing at Cee— Damon made as if to move for the girl, Mando grunted and stepped closer to Damon. Damon halted his approach, and Ezra and Cee argued while Cee blocked Mando's aim.

"Don't," Cee growled. "We trusted you."

"Listen, kid," Mando said levelly. "I don't know which between the two of them is worse, and I don't like the idea of you having to choose the better of two bad options."

"He's— He didn't coerce me," Cee protested.

"Didn't he?" Damon snarled.

"Shut up." Mando continued to watch the girl. "I don't know that, Cee. And I don't know if you're only saying that because you feel like it’s the only way to get away from your father."

Damon seethed. Ezra's wide eyes were stricken, watching the Mandalorian as Cee's shoulders tensed further. Either he was as good of an actor as Mando thought, or he truly did care for the girl. If it weren't for Cee's stubbornness shoving him back, Mando might have believed he'd step in front of her.

"Cee, I'm telling you to make the decision you want and know that if the answer is neither, you can walk away and get on that freighter of your own accord and go wherever you want. There's a bag of credits on my belt. I have a vested interest in bringing both of them into the Guild, and I won't move until you're safe. I can stand here a long time."

The silence between them hung like a ship in stasis as Cee glared. There was only a moment when Cee's gaze flicked to Damon, some silent conversation happening between them, and then she hooked one hand into the shoulder belt of Ezra's flight suit, pulling him just to the side, still behind her. "He's coming with me.”

Damon swore in a litany of languages as Mando nodded. "Okay."

"And we're going with you."

Meta Ask Game

[insomniamamma]

Tessellation: Cee and Ezra

A/N: written for @oonajaeadira and @yearofcreation2023. Year of kisses. The prompt is kiss while sleeping. This one ended up being far more about Cee than Ezra. As Stephen King says "Memory is the basis for every journey."

Warnings: medical trauma, drug abuse, illness, angst, Damon is a terrible father but he wasn't always, death.

He looks small. This man who has upended her life. Ezra. She doesn't even know his family name or where he hails from or which ship he dropped down to the Green on. She's known him two hands of cycles, much of that as he is now. What's left of his right arm is buried in white bandages, strapped to his chest. Tubes snake beneath the nest of blankets, draining murky pink froth from his lungs into oddly prissy containers hanging below, dust infection measured out into fill lines, blood and puss and Kevva knows what. Tube stuffed down his throat and taped to his face. His left arm turned palm up like a gesture of supplication, large-bore IV line spiked into the crook of his elbow, pulsoxometer clipped to his index finger.

He looks small. And deathly sick. His skin has a grayish cast she doesn't care for at all, the dark stubble on his cheeks screaming out like exclamation points. Cee's seen this before. Seen her dad pale and sallow-grey, breath slow, tucked some stim gum between his parted lips and smacked at his arm until he reflexively started chewing.

"I was sleeping, Cee." "but--" "Do NOT do that again. We've got a big drop coming up. We need to be sharp." "but--" "Just hang with me. This job pans out the way it should and we'll be out of the shit for good. Back to Central. But you've got to trust me. You've got to trust me and do what I say, clear?" "but, Dad--" "Are. We. Clear?" "Yeah. clear."

That familiar knot coils itself in her belly. The long greyed out days in between drops ending with her dad doped up to the gills, I need it to sleep, Cee. You'll understand when you're older, nodding off to leave her with his soupy snores and the endlessly shifting light through the pod's tiny rounded windows, little nights and dawns as the freighter spins. She'd copy out what she remembered of The Streamer Girl and listen until she felt confident that he wasn't going to die in his sleep.

"Can he hear me?" She'd asked the medic when they finally allowed her to see him. "Hard to say. We had to put him down pretty deep. He's got a lot of fight in him." "That's a good thing, right?" "Look. Your dad's real sick. He got pretty well dusted. If we can get him to the Pug he's got a shot. But that's a long haul from now. Clear?" "Clear."

She doesn't bother to correct the medic. Maybe things will play better for them if people take them as kin.

Ezra wasn't waking up. But he wasn't dying either. He just stayed stone still, swaddled in white, his stump buried in med-gel and bandages. His eyes flicked back and forth, caught in some endless looping dream. Cee takes his hand sometimes, careful not to dislodge the monitor clipped to his finger, always surprised at his warmth. She tells him about the endless days, doing whatever odd jobs need doing on the freighter, which she understands as charity disguised as work, a way to square their room and board until they hit the Pug. "--channel rat crawled up into the aft intake and died it was just bones and dust, I wanted to keep the skull but Leroy said it was bad luck so it just went in with the rest of the swill--"

Ezra starts twitching, small choking sounds around the tube down his throat.

"Easy," says Cee, "you're okay." And lays her hand on his forehead, smooths the taught skin there, presses the furrows down with her thumb, "You're okay."

"Did I tell you about when your mom used to hypnotize you?"

Cee slides her music player off. She knows by his tone that he is going to have his say. This has become something familiar. He puts the drops in his eyes and then talks. Sometimes it's names and places that she doesn't know and sometimes it involves her. If she doesn't at least make a show of listening he'll yell sometimes, his slurred out voice why don't you ever listen? So it's best to keep her ears half-cocked until sleep claims him.

"Mom used to hypnotize me?" "Mmmh-hmmm. You used to cry so much. You were colicky. We used to have to rub your belly to get you to fart--" "Ewww. Dad--" "They were baby farts! They didn't--they didn't smell--" "But mom?" "Yeah, she'd do this thing--" Damon sits up and lurches towards her and she flinches back a little, and even in his fuzzed out state she registers the hurt in his eyes. Damon smooths the pad of his thumb up and down between her eyebrows "She'd do that?" Cee can't help smiling a little. Damon rarely shows affection these days, and the feel of calloused thumb on her forehead is nice, makes her think of better times, makes her think of being small and Damon picking her up under her arms and covering her face and head with loud smacking kisses while she shrieked in delight, three of them instead of two, a job on some soft, barely remembered world a place of gentle grav and cool breezes, a hand held in each of hers and they'd swing her high, almost flying in the low grav-- "See? I hypnotized you." Cee breaks out of her reverie. "Did not." Damon lays back on his cot. "I freaked out. I told her don't you hypnotize that baby and she laughed and laughed--she--you--miss her…I miss.." and then he's gone. Drawn down into whatever relief the drugs give him, an ill rhythm of slow snores. And Cee waits, waits for the short term sedation of the drops to wane, for his breathing to even out into something more normal.

She remembers being sick. Got bit by a drill worm, Damon told her later, spiked a fever. Like touching a hot engine skirt. She remembers her mother's voice singing low and soft, can't remember the words, she was too small for that, but remembers the cool washcloth on her forehead, removed and re-wetted, Mom kissing her there, right between her eyebrows, where the pad of her thumb once passed.

Ezra sleeps swaddled and small and pinned by machinery, her hand folded around his, careful, fingers tracing the lines of his calloused palm. For now he is still, soothed by her touch. "Ezra? You need to wake up. I don't know what's going to happen when we get to the Pug."

Cee leans over and kisses him, presses her lips against that little space between his eyebrows.

"You need to wake up."

[pedroam-bang]

Prospect (2018)

[pedros-immaculate-vibes]

“You are lucky I am not immune to intrigue, but be careful you don’t over play this technique.”

Ezra, “Prospect” (2019)

[orangechickenpillow]

The “stop talking about my father” to “maybe if I had then he wouldn’t be dead” pipeline is wild

[mc-cards]

⚾️ 1994 Upper Deck Top Prospects N°546 Johnny Damon (rc, foil) @kcroyals 🔵 ⚪️ #baseball #baseballcards #sportscards #tradingcards #thehobby #throwback #royal #royalsbaseball #rc #toppsbaseball #allstar #johnnydamon #rookie #prospects #thehobby #damon #cards #cardsofinstagram #legend #cardcollecting #redsoxnation #cardcollection #halloffame #fenway #kcroyals #kansascityroyals #redsox #worldseries #upperdecksports #upperdeck @upperdecksports @topps @baseballhall @mlbpaa @mlb_players @mlbjapan (at Planet Comicon Kansas City) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqMBb0aO30Z/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[allfearstofallto]

personally i do think childe should have more kids bc i absolutely refuse to believe this man would like ever pull out after the first kid

like before the first maybe he will, he wants you to himself, but once you already have one kid? it’s so over for you

your uterus will never know peace again

TW: pregnancy!!

Oh trust and believe me, he WANTS so so many more, but a simple...

"I'm so tired, Ajax," stops him dead in his tracks. He remembers how you looked when you nursed Adonis. So beautiful, so soft, skin silken, but your eyes told a whole nother story. Exhausted. You were more than tired, you were exhausted and your half lidded eyes told him as much.

Childe is cruel, but he isn't evil, and while he loves the prospect of a large family, he loves you more. He longs to see you swollen with child again, his heart fluttering as he remembers how cute you looked with Damon in your stomach. But then he remembers your morning sickness, your nausea, your mood swings and the pain you mentioned feeling. He wants more and he'll have more, but he'll let rest before he fills you again. He has all the time in the world with you, after all.

[ellies-enrichment]

this is so stupid god im 2 hours past my bedtime and it shows

[splatooshy]

tvdu headcanons

yes these are completely correct, no i do not take criticism. either compliment me and my clever thoughts or walk away.

damon

- pretends his initials stand for ‘damon fucking salvatore.’

- Humanity isn’t something Damon lacks. He ignores it sometimes, but he did that when he was human too

- shy. so PAINFULLY shy. that didn’t change until post 70s.

- fav colour is jade green.

- born in italy, then lily had multiple miscarriages over 5 years and giuseppe decided they would move to america for better prospects, and stefan was born in mf.

- giuseppe despised anything ‘foreign’, and would lock damon in the cellar when he slipped up. never mind that damon didn’t really know any english.

- named his first horse (a shetland pony) sir handsome. loved his horses. hated people, loved animals.

- bibliophile. brains over brawn.

- gets banned from new orleans every few decades. marcel HATES him. also was in nola in 1914, freya and kol both took pity on him/ befriended damon after he managed to piss off the witches AND marcel in one day.

- always had the most inconvenient crushes as a human. the first was the daughter of some middle class storekeeper when he was eight. the second was emily bennett (his secret bff) and the third was a dude with a horse when he was a teenager. stablehand/riding instructor/ young gent passing through, named sebastian. giuseppe caught the boys fooling around one day and promptly shot sebastian in the head, before beating damon within an inch of his life (WOAH I WROTE THIS SO CASUALLY). damon never fully recovered.

- finds grimoires to bring to his favourite witch at the time. often the spells are super wacky and mostly useless.

- chatty and clingy drunk.

- after augustines, physically cant sleep alone, and half the time wakes up only to realise he’s killed his bedpartner (strangling, decap., suffocation etc.)

- in the 30s, he became a professional dancer.

stefan

- fav colour is an icy, glacial blue.

- nobody knows what his first language is. His first few words were either Italian or French, but it’s not certain which one. of course, giuseppe locked damon in the cellar for that.

- first horse was sir handsome, a hand-me-down from damon. loved both people and animals, but most of all loved when damon was introducing him to the animals.

- actually the cutest little child ever. big green eyes and floppy blonde-ish hair. looked like a five-year-old until he was 13? 14? and then suddenly shot up really quick.

- bull in a china shop. brawn over brains.

- the ‘ripper’ was created by lexi. she isolated and abused stefan, manipulating him into whatever she wanted.

- chronic migraine sufferer.

- as a human, he physically could not eat when nervous, which just so happened to be 80% of the time.

- rarely gets drunk but is a very outgoing and slutty drunk.

- lizard brain blood lusty ripper stefan only speaks italian.

- model aeroplane / train / car kind of guy.

- tumbled down into a well twice as a human.

- built the engine for the first automobile, passed it onto henry ford.

enzo

- likes the challenge of getting his way without resorting to compulsion (which is cheating.)

- has the stickiest fingers. he didn’t become a little street urchin in london without picking up some skills.

- turned by jack the ripper in 1888. approached him mid-murder.

- physically incapable of hating damon. and believe me, he’s tried.

- after augustines, physically cant sleep alone, and half the time wakes up only to realise he’s killed his bedpartner (strangling, decap., suffocation etc.)

klaus

- went to college a few times to study art. ended up stabbing the teacher [with a paintbrush] because they critiqued his work.

- was tsar nicholas 2 as a joke, purposely ended the dynasty.

elijah

- slipped ecstasy into klaus’ drink in the 80s just to see what would happen.

rebekah

- had a habit of accidentally wandering as a kid.

- clairvoyant / clairsentient.

- very partial to throwing knives.

kol

- bffs with charles 2, gets knighted (inspired by that episode of parks and rec where ben and andy meet the rich british guy)

- refers to stefan as klaus’ estranged paramour

- mixes vervain and wolfsbane into joints and such to get klaus to chill the fuck out. and mixing vervain into other drugs and stuff so that they’d affect him - damon joins the operation in 1914.

- was jack the ripper in 1888, saw a man drowning in his own blood in an alleyway, just watching as kol disemboweled a prostitute, before approaching him like ‘please sir, can you spare any change?’ and kol was delighted.

- damon pissed off marcel in 1914 and kol decided at that moment they were best friends.

- BIG fan of the ottoman empire. it only collapsed because kol was daggered.

- has grimoires full of odd spells.

alaric

- owns vervain coated knuckle dusters

- basically begs damon to talk history with him.

elena

- pre-accident: queen bee and she knew it. at her core, she is self-centred and used to getting her way. this only changes with her parents’ accident, but eventually elena reverts back into her old self.

- refers to katherine as her identical grandmother

[ - bitchy stares. not even an rbf, her face is just super expressive and you can tell when she’s judging you ]

caroline

- was second to elena all her life, and elena knew how to fuel that envy of caroline’s. but then elena’s parents died and caroline was finally #1, except stefan shows up and it’s back to the elena show again.

[ - well-meaning but tone deaf ]

both elena and caroline are just those bitchy popular girls.

[ bonnie ]

[ i have so many for her but a lot are completely against canon so here’s the ones that could be ]

[ - best cheerleader on the squad // the older girls adopted her as their flyer from day 1 ]

[ - because she’s tiny, yanno? ]

[ - known as the ‘i dunno her but she seems nice’ one, the ‘quiet, seems really sweet but i think she hates me’ one and ‘elena’s minion’ ]

[ - but she’s actually more popular overall ‘cause she does all the volunteering / xtra curricular stuff with caroline and she’s not in your face about it ]

[ - has very weirdly specific daily rituals as to what she eats and when on which day (waffle wednesday), what pyjamas she wears, how her pillows are arranged, etc. ]

[ - she didn’t even notice she did all of that until she was at a sleepover and the other kid’s mum made a different breakfast to what she would usually have on that day and bonnie was like ‘hmm. i seem to be uncomfortable with this. why is that?’ but sucked it up and ate her breakfast without saying anything ]

[sotvtaughtmehowtofeel]

Febuwhump Day 13: “You weren’t supposed to get hurt”

Fandom: Prospect (2018)

Relationship: Cee and Damon

WC: 1026

CW: grief/mourning

[corellianhounds]

If anybody needs a point of reference/inspiration for how to write for Ezra from Prospect, I recommend studying Everett McGill’s speech patterns in O Brother Where Art Thou and Doc Holiday’s in Tombstone

[fishcat480]

Bad Day

Fandom: The Vampire Diaries

Pairing: Damon Salvatore x Plus size! Reader

Warnings: None

Description: You’re having a very bad day when Damon Salvatore decides to make it worse, but then maybe he also makes it much better.

It was one of those fucking days.

You know those days when everything just goes completely, spectacularly wrong?

You shouldn’t have even been surprised. Once you’d woken up and your favorite sweater had had cat puke on it, you should have given up there. But no - you just had to power through and continue your day.

You got a call right after breakfast that your car payment hadn’t gone through, and now you’d have to pay a late fee you couldn’t afford. While running errands, you’d managed to knock over your Starbucks in the middle of the aisle of Target, forcing you to have to buy another coffee. And once back home, you were greeted with a passive aggressive note from your neighboring apartment asking you to close your door “just a tad quieter”.

By the time you had to get ready for work, your ‘fucks to give’ meter was dangerously low.

You quickly tossed on your uniform shirt and broke several traffic laws driving to the Grill, because of course you were late. At a red light, you tossed your messy Y/H/C hair into a ponytail, griping at your reflection as some asshole in a sports car cut you off. Really? Who the hell drove sports cars in Mystic Falls? You’d only ever seen one person do that, and that was Damon Salvatore.

You scanned the license plate. Then you squinted to see inside the drivers seat and swore loudly. Damon fucking Salvatore. And he waggled his pale fingers at you before peeling off at top speed.

He was there at the Grill when you finally clocked in, tossing apologies at your manager and ignoring Matt’s teasing grins as you settled behind the bar and counted up your liquor. The day bartender threw you a goodbye and a sympathetic look.

Once finished your count, you sauntered over to Damon, who was enjoying a scotch on the rocks with a self righteous grin on his face.

“You cut me off.” you said, placing your hands on the bar.

He shrugged. “Did I?”

Damon had been drinking at the bar of the Grill long before you worked there, but somehow after you started you felt as if he was suddenly there all the time. You’d had an easy relationship at first, due to your infamiliarity. He was a flirt, you were determined to make good money. You flirt with Damon, he gives you a twenty on top of his tab. That was how it had always been for you, and for the other bartenders before you.

But something had changed, and you remembered the day that it did almost as well as you remembered Damon’s drink order.

It had been a slow night, with only Damon and his buddy Alaric holding down the fort. Most of the other drink orders came from tables, and those were practically empty too. You elected to pass the time with Damon and Ric, talking about nothing and everything. That quickly nosedived into a pissing contest between the two men and which one could do a handstand when you mentioned offhand that you were able to perform a fancy little trick, and that had been your downfall.

“There’s no way!” Ric was crying, his words slurring out of the side of his mouth. “You prove it right now.”

You folded your arms across your chest and shrugged, your grin too confident. Damon’s eyes were laser focused, and he took a long drag of his scotch, watching you intently.

“Don’t tease us…”he said finally.

You sighed, and cursed yourself.

Normally, you wouldn’t mind showing this particular party trick off for customers. It happened sometimes on raucous nights, when people were coming from or on their way to parties, looking to boost their mood and spend their money. It felt good to do it and see the looks of awe on their faces, sometimes even lust.

But you were feeling very self conscious at the prospect of doing it for Damon Salvatore.

You couldn’t deny he was attractive. His face, yeah, but his swagger was practically debilitating. He had the confidence of a much older man, which was funny considering you were the same age. There weren’t guys your age acting like him, of that you were sure.

It fueled your desire toward him as much as your flirtatious little routine did.

But Damon was always on the arm of the skinniest, hottest girl in the room. He’d chased after Elena Gilbert for a while, and she was less than half your size. There was no way his flirting had anything more to do with you than you wished. He liked to have fun, plain and simple.

Ric was slamming his fists on the table now, demanding you not to leave them hanging.

You mustered up all your courage - they knew what you looked like, you thought. They were asking you to do it.

So you lifted yourself up onto the bar in a much more fluid motion than you might have ever expected from yourself, and in one easy rotation you were doing a handstand.

You could feel the fabric of your shirt rising up, but you ignored it. You carefully started placing the majority of your weight on your left hand.

You could hear Ric and a few customers oohinh and aahing at you, and it spurred you on. You lifted your right hand into the air, and separated your legs a bit. And then you were doing a handstand on one hand.

You held the pose as Ric hollered and cheered, and then easily flipped backwards and onto your feet again before jumping back behind the bar, standing once more on your own two feet.

“Am I drunk or did I just witness cirque de soleil?” Ric asked.

“You’re drunk.” You told him, as you wiped off the spot on the bar where your feet had been. “But you did witness something pretty cool.”

Your eyes flitted over to Damon, curious to see if he had any kind of reaction. What you saw stopped you in your tracks.

His eyes were dark - darker than you’d ever seen them. There was something hungry in their expression, like you were dessert and he had saved plenty of room. His lips were covered by his tongue as it slowly lapped over it, before he closed his mouth and swallowed.

“Let’s do a shot.” Damon decided, reaching out and placing his hand on top of yours. “I’m buying.”

“Shots!” Ric called, and you internally groaned. He definitely did not need another one.

But you were glued into Damon’s atmosphere, and you watched as his thumb stroked along your hand. “You want me to do a shot?” you asked.

“That was hard work you did up there.” He encouraged. “You must be thirsty.”

You flushed, hoping Ric couldn’t see the effect he was having on you. When you glanced over, he was exclaiming happily as a Bruce Springsteen song came on, completely ignoring you. Your blush must have been crimson, and your cheeks felt as if they were on fire.

Damon’s thumb was still marking its path on your skin. You needed to get away fast.

“I’ll get those shots.”

“Sounds good.” Damon said.

“I’ll need my hand to pour them.”

He let out a sound of displeasure, but withdrew his hand from yours and you robotically turned away, pouring three shots of Bulleit bourbon. If your hand was shaking and you spilled one, that was between you and the security camera.

You, Ric and Damon cheersed, tapping your glasses on the bar top before throwing the alcohol back. Ric sputtered and coughed, and you giggled as he tried to compose himself.

“Well that’s me!” he said, standing up and lurching dangerously to the left. “I’m tapping out.” He went to put his card down, but as usual Damon stopped him. He started waving his card in your direction, but you made no move to grab it.

“I don’t even bother running you up a tab anymore. Damon’s always got it covered.” You admired that about Damon. A lot of people thought of him as kind of shitty, but you knew better. He was loaded, and he always spent the majority of that money on other people. Even after Elena had rejected him for good, he still came in and covered her tab from time to time. He’d done it for all of their friends. He’d even done it for Matt - despite their apparently rocky history.

Ric sighed in defeat. “Me and my teacher’s salary are very thankful.”

Once Ric had left, it was you and Damon. Alone.

Never before had you felt so nervous serving him by yourself. Whatever you’d seen in his eyes after your little show had altered the atmosphere between the two of you. It thrilled you and scared you all at once.

“How come you never told me you were so flexible?” Damon asked, as you cleaned Ric’s empty glasses. He hadn’t taken his eyes off you, and you were avoiding meeting his gaze like the plague.

You shrugged. “I didn’t realize you had any interest in my level of flexibility.”

“If it’s about you, I’m interested.”

Since when did he say things like that to you? God, and if his words didn’t just send shockwaves straight to your core. Had you stepped into an alternate reality where Damon Salvatore was horny for you? No, that couldn’t be right. He was a flirt, and he was probably still heartbroken over Elena picking his brother.

“Damon.” you said finally, meeting his eyes. “I’m not sleeping with you.”

He frowned. “And why not?”

You gave him a knowing look. “I know you.” He was looking for a rebound, and you wanted more than that.

His frown deepened, and within a few moments Damon had gone from sad to furious. There was something working beneath the surface, and he looked….hurt.

“Well, fuck you very much.”

He stalked out of the bar, and your jaw was on the floor. Never did you ever expect Damon to get mad when rejected. How many girls had said no or called him names or even slapped him while you’d watched, bemused, from your side of the bar? And every time he’d smiled or shaken his head. He’d thought it was funny. So what made you different?

The next time you’d seen him, he’d asked for a drink and didn’t say a word to you other than a hi, bye or check, please.

And then this morning he’d cut you off, as if he somehow knew you were having a shit day and wanted to make it even fucking worse, as only Damon Salvatore could do.

Which sucked, because you’d spent weeks wishing that he would man up and talk to you, and explain why he’d been so hurt that day. You’d spent weeks wanting to have Damon back, cracking jokes and flirting with you and being your best customer.

So you confronted him. It was going to be another slow night, and you more than had the time.

“You cut me off. And you did it on purpose.”

This got his attention. He looked up from his drink, his nostrils flaring.

“I cut you off because you’re not a very good driver.”

You rolled your eyes. “Oh, come on! I wasn’t even moving!”

“And yet, your inexperience was glaringly evident.” He downed the last of his scotch and shoved the glass toward you. “And I’ll take another whenever you’re ready to work.”

Oh, he had another thing coming if he thought he was going to speak to you like that! You clicked your tongue against the roof of your mouth and moved quickly to pour him a shot - you were on the clock after all, even though you’d much rather leave him hanging - but not the top shelf he was used to. Oh no, you were pouring him the cheap stuff.

You slammed the glass in front of him and slid it over, glaring. He gave as much as he got, giving you a wicked little smile before taking a sip.

And promptly spitting it out.

“What the fuck is that?” He asked, rising to his feet. He grabbed a handful of cocktail napkins and dabbed at what he’d spilled onto his shirt, but the damage was done.

“Oh, sorry, were you looking for something specific? Unless you specify, we typically just give customers the rail.”

You had no issue being bitchy bartender tonight. In fact, it was kind of fun to dish it out. And he deserved it for being a jerk.

“What the hell is your problem?” He yelled. “I cut you off. It happens. I’m kind of an asshole sometimes.”

You groaned in frustration. “What about the whole silent treatment for three weeks? I tell you I don’t want to sleep with you and you act like a child!”

He bristled violently at that, and then looked around for a moment. You weren’t really sure what he was doing until he grabbed Matt by the scruff of his neck and brought him around to your side of the bar.

“Y/N needs a fiver. You’ve got this covered, right?”

Matt sighed, but started cleaning pint glasses. You were about to protest when Damon began dragging you off, and Matt smiled apologetically.

“Just go with it! It’ll be a lot easier!” He tells you, and then he’s gone and you’re being dragged through the back of house and out the back door.

Once outside, Damon released his grip on your arm.

“What the hell are you doing?” You ask, incredulous. “I’ll get written up if I’m gone too long.”

“Look.” Damon says, ignoring your pleas. “You…you hurt my feelings that day, ok? You said something kind of mean, or implied it at least. But…I shouldn’t have handled it like that. I’m working on that stuff.”

“Mean?” You asked. “What did I say that was mean?”

He sighs. “Do I have to spell it out?”

You nodded. “All caps, double spaced, please.”

He laughed despite himself. “You basically implied that I am some womanizing creep that wanted to use you for your body.”

You blinked. And then blinked again.

“Ok, two things… the first: are you NOT a womanizing creep that uses women for their bodies?”

He raised his eyebrows, and his head tilted in thought. “Ok fair point.”

“And the second: that’s not what I meant at ALL.”

He brought a finger up to his mouth and placed the tip on his lower lip. “……you didn’t?”

“No. Damon, what I was trying to say was that I’m not your type, and that you probably just wanted me for a night because you were drunk. Which is great and fine, but that’s just not what I’m looking for. I want a relationship.”

There was confusion in his too-blue eyes, and he took a step toward you, entering your personal space.

“What do you mean you’re not my type?”

Oh lord, this was exactly what you didn’t want to talk about right now. You blew out a steadying breath, choosing your words carefully.

“The girls you date are usually of the same variety….both in looks and in size. So I just figured I wasn’t really your type.”

Damon’s entire face changed. Gone was the confusion and the mock anger, replaced with a quiet rage. He flexed his knuckles, and you involuntarily stepped back. He kind of looked pissed.

“You think I didn’t want to sleep with you because you’re not skinny?”

You struggled to get words out. “I mean, yes? In a way…”

“Are you fucking stupid?”

Did he really want an answer to that? Based on the dangerous look in his eyes, it was probably in your best interest to stay quiet.

He was now fully in your space, standing with you toe to toe. His arms were crossed over his chest, which was absolutely heaving. He was very, very angry and it was kind of turning you on.

“I have been throwing hints at you since the moment you started working here. I tip you double the amount I tip anyone else, I always call you pet names, I’m constantly flirting with you…and you really thought I just wanted one random night of fun because you were warm and available?”

His words were like shockwaves to your system. Now that you were faced with it, you realized that no other bartender had ever said anything good about Damon’s tips. Anytime you were switching shifts, he never called anyone else “darling” or “sweetheart”. He flirted, sure, but you were always different….

“Oh my god….” You said quietly. “Oh my god, I didn’t even realize…”

His hands were on your hips, and your senses were assaulted by him. He smelled good, clean with a hint of spice. His eyes were making you melt with the heat of his gaze. His fingers, too, worked over your skin in delicate little circles, and you knew that given the chance those fingers would drive you wild.

“I do want to sleep with you.” He says, and you sigh but he places a finger on your lips, shushing you.

“I do, and I’m not afraid to say it. I got…overwhelmed when you did that sexy little handstand, and I moved too fast. But what I really want is to take you on a date.”

You tentatively wrapped your arms around his neck, your forehead resting against his. “Yeah?” You ask.

“Yeah.” He breathes.

You don’t answer, just press your lips against his and let yourself drown in him. His lips are like brands against yours, and you can imagine steam coming off you both as your mouths battle for dominance, slotting and slanting over each other again and again until you’re breathless.

“Ok, but if you bring me here for our date there will be actual hell to p-“

He cut you off with another searing kiss. A promise.

So maybe it wasn’t such a bad day after all.

[so-long-soldier-writes]

Of Mice and... Heretics?

kai parker x reader

summary: of all the problems to have in mystic falls, yours is mice... luckily, kai comes to the rescue (heretic!kai) (soft!kai)

tags: anxiety, mice invasion 🐁, compulsion, heretics, found family, first kiss / kissing, fluff, friends to lovers, she/her pronouns used

word count: 4.3k

a/n: i have so many requests i'm working on, but i'm slightly tipsy and want to publish something, so here's a cute lil fluff piece 🩷

Fear is what woke him up this morning. Fear is what drove him to make his way across town. It is what brings him, now, to stand outside her porch, staring at the door. 

Something’s wrong. He can sense it. His fingers shake with nervous anticipation. 

There’s no sound coming from inside the house, yet the thought brings no comfort. 

Kai waits, desperate for a sound. Anything that could tell him she’s alright. He considers yelling out to her, but if she’s in danger, that could risk her life. He takes a deep breath and tries to calm his hands. 

But then it happens. The feeling that yanked him from his restless sleep returns, and a sharp arrow of panic hits him in the spine. Y/N’s heart rate speeds quickly, as if the organ is trying to jump out of her chest. A moment later, a rustling, then, she screams. Kai can hear her scrambling away from something, then barreling down the hall.

“Fuck!” She yells.

Kai can’t take it anymore. To hear her so afraid, yet resist helping. He knocks heavily on the door and calls her name. A wave of shock rushes through her, but she opens the door to him, nonetheless. 

“Kai?” She looks surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“Hi, princess.” He tries against the door, but hits a resistance. He’d never been inside her house. Kai stops immediately, not wanting her to get the wrong idea of him being there. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Am I…? What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“What?” He’s confused now. Confused by her confusion as she acts like nothing’s wrong. As if she didn’t just scream and jolt in heavy panic. 

“Did something happen? At the grill?”

“No-”

“Are you hurt? Do you need-”

“I’m fine, princess. I’m asking if you’re hurt. Is there someone inside?”

“Someone… like as in… no? Do you mean…?” 

Y/N isn’t understanding his question. Kai grows more and more worried by the second. 

“I mean like is someone in your house right now? Are you in danger?”

“Danger? No. Why would you think that?”

Kai finally catches his breath for a moment. He rests a hand on the door frame.

“Are you okay?” She puts a hand on his shoulder, then looks out to the neighborhood. “Did you run here?”

“Yeah, I-” He’s still breathing heavily, unable to answer.

“Kai, what’s wrong? Did something happen in town? I didn’t get any messages from-”

“Nothing’s wrong in town. Everyone’s fine.”

“Then what’s wrong? Why are you so panicked?”

Kai debates telling the truth. She doesn’t need to know he cares for her. Yet… he can’t lie to those big, beautiful eyes. “I heard your heart pick up. I thought something was wrong.”

“You heard…?”

“I felt this weird feeling, like something wasn’t right, and then I heard your heart pick up, several times, over the course of ten or so minutes. Then I heard a scream, and you running down the hall, and I needed to make sure you were okay.”

“You…,” it hits her that he came to check on her, because he had an inkling that she might’ve needed help. “Kai… You ran across town to make sure I was okay?”

“I got worried. I’ve never felt so much anxiety in my life. My hands were shaking with the prospect that someone could’ve hurt you, or taken you.” He finally looks up. Never has she seen his eyes with so much emotion. 

She reaches out to his face, stroking a finger down his cheek. “I’m okay. I’m-” she pauses, “come inside.”

“What? Y/N-”

“Shh, come on in. It’s fine.”

Damon had specifically instructed her to never let the “big bad heretic” inside her home. No matter how much he’s “reformed” or “changing,” Damon didn’t trust him. Especially not with the kind, little human of Mystic Falls. 

Kai slowly follows her inside, a little nervous. She brings him to the kitchen table and pulls out a chair. 

“Sit.” He does. “Do you want a water?”

“Sure.”

“Good,” she mutters, retrieving a glass. “Drink that. She then joins the table with her own. 

“You promise you’re okay?” He asks after a sip. “Y/N… you sounded so scared.”

She smiles. “I, uh…” her eyes catch something in the corner of her kitchen. Her heart starts to race again and her smile fades. “Watch out!”

As soon as Kai follows her gaze, a streak of gray crosses the tile floor. She shrieks and bounces in her chair, tucking her legs under her. 

“Fuck!” She yells again.

In a second, it’s gone. But when Kai looks back at her, she looks as if she’s about to cry. 

“Hey,” he reaches towards her face, “what’s wrong? You okay?”

“It’s so annoying! I can’t deal with it anymore!”

“Talk to me, princess. What’s going on? Is that why you screamed earlier? What’s got you so afraid?”

She lifts her face, which is quickly staining with tears. “Ever since my parents died, I’ve had this big, stupid house to myself, and I’m not good at taking care of an entire house. And this winter’s been particularly shitty, and it seems all of the town’s fucking mice have decided to take up residency in it! I can’t take it anymore! I’m scared to sleep, I’m too disgusted to eat anything, and I have nowhere else to go!”

It all makes sense now. The sudden here and now patterns of fear; the short screams; the blink and you miss it streak of gray. Y/N has her hands over her face, blocking herself from Kai, embarrassed by her situation. Of all the problems to have in Mystic Falls, hers is mice. 

To Kai though, that’s much preferred over the recent problems they’ve faced. 

Like for example, his own species of heretics running loose. 

“Y/N, look at me.” He takes one of her hands, but she’s stubborn.

“I can’t.”

“Come on…”

“Kai…”

“Let me help you with this, okay? Whatever you need, let me do it. I can go get traps or clear out their hiding spots. Or we can call someone, like a professional, to do it.”

“I don’t want to burden you with it-”

“You’re not burdening me, Y/N, I care about you. I don’t want you to be in fear, or not be able to sleep and eat. And I have nothing better to do anyway, so I promise, you are not a burden.”

“I don’t know…”

“Please, Y/N.”

She finally looks at him. “You sure?”

“Positive.”

“Okay.”

Mmkay.” He fights the urge to kiss her hand when she offers it. Instead, he just helps her to her feet. “Show me where you’ve had the most problems.”

She takes a fire poker and stabs inside her kitchen pantry. Immediately, something rustles inside and she jumps. Kai catches her before she can tumble into him, having lost her balance. He picks her up and puts her on the counter. She doesn’t even resist. 

“Okay.” He takes the poker. “Here?”

“I don’t want you to get bit.” She prepares to jump down. 

He keeps her still with a hand on her knee. “Ah, ah, ah, you stay there. They can’t hurt me.” Kai pokes the spot - or rather, stabs hard enough to make a loud sound on the hardwood - and something runs. 

“Ah!” She screams, scrambling, and grabbing onto his shoulder as he backs up into her. His back makes contact with the counter, but he ends up between her legs. “You okay?”

“Startled me,” he admits. 

“It’s scary! They’re bold!”

“Very. Do you want to just call someone to deal with it, or do you want us to do this?” She doesn’t reply, thinking about her options, and he turns to her. One look at her face, though, and he makes the decision for her. “I’m going to call. I don’t want you dealing with this anymore. Certainly not putting you at risk for getting bit.”

“Okay.”

Within the next thirty minutes, Kai with his compulsion is able to get an exterminator out to her house. He walks through it, devises a plan, and then talks to them about it. 

“I’m assuming you’re her husband? Boyfriend?”

Before Kai can answer, she stutters to answer that he’s a friend. Kai swallows hard. He didn’t even know she considered him a friend.

“Oh, okay, apologies. Well your friend here is right, it’s a pretty big problem. But whether or not this is a comfort to you, we’ve had a lot of cases lately. Unfortunately, it might take a couple weeks for us to get some guys out here, but-”

“Weeks?” She asks, horrified. 

“Unfortunately, yes. I only have so many guys, and we have sixty other houses-”

Kai puts a hand on his shoulder. “Listen, man. You’re going to make her your top priority. Tell your guys that her situation is dire, and she’s having trouble co-existing with the little stupid creatures in her house, and you need to get them out asap.”

The man blinks. “Actually, since this is such a bad case, we’ll make you our top priority. The guys will be out here first thing in the morning. Do you have somewhere you can stay for a day or two?” He shrugs. “Typically, people are fine staying in the home while work is being done, but it would go faster if no one was around while we wait for the traps to catch.”

“She can stay with me.”

“Alright, perfect! Just swing by around nine in the morning tomorrow to let us in, and we’ll get to work.”

“Great, thanks,” Kai responds.

“Thank you,” she nods to him. 

The man smiles, then goes out on his merry way. 

Kai avoids eye contact with her for a moment, afraid he’s overstepped his boundary. He didn’t ask before one, compelling the man, or two, deciding she would stay with him overnight. She called him a friend, yes, but that didn’t mean she trusted him. 

However, she softens the moment the man leaves. She had a cold exterior up to match Kai’s confident compulsion, but it comes down once it’s just the two of them again. She sighs, then perches herself on the arm of her living room chair. 

“Thank you, Kai.”

He looks at her, finally, and smiles. 

“Are you sure you want me to stay with you?”

“You’re welcome to, if you’d like. I understand if you’d prefer the Salvatore house, though.”

“What are the other heretics like?” She knows, from Damon, that he lives with them. If he didn’t, he’d have nowhere to go. 

“They’re not all that bad. They’re quite like family, actually. If I tell them to leave you alone, they will.”

“Okay,” she smiles, “let me get a bag ready.”

Kai is surprised she agreed to his offer, but he’s more happy than anything else. He couldn’t bear to leave her in that house, even if she let him stay with her - which he would’ve asked, if she insisted on staying there - and knew he needed to get her out. He doesn’t bother to ask Lily, nor the rest of the heretics, before showing up with her. Nor does he inform Damon, or any of her friends of the situation. Y/N doesn’t tell any of them either; they don’t need to worry about her being with Kai. She trusts him. 

Since Kai had run to her, though, they have to walk back. He proposes retrieving a car to drive her, but she insists she doesn’t mind the walk. In the thirty minute stroll across the town, she gets to know him a lot better, and him, her. Both, of course, know what their friends say about the other, but for the first time, they get to hear truths from their own mouths. By the time they reach the old, abandoned house, small mutual crushes on both ends grow into something more. He’s always liked the quiet human; she’s always been curious about the dangerous siphon. 

When Kai strolls through the back door, Valerie is first to check out the sound. 

“Ah, you. Now where did you run off to? Oh! You’ve got a girl.”

“Hi, Valerie.”

“You’re lucky Lily hasn’t come around yet, or she’d surely scold you for leaving in such the hurry you did.”

“Val, who are you talking to?” The voice of Nora rings through the hallway. She stops when she sees Kai. “Oh!” The girl’s eyes light up at the sight of his companion. “Is this the girl for whom you were concerned?”

“Yeah, um, this is Y/N. Y/N, this is Valerie and Nora.” He nods to Mary-Louise as she enters the room. “Mary-Louise. And this is Y/N.”

“Hi!” The blonde greets. 

“Can we please get into the actual house, guys? It’s cold outside, and she doesn’t need to be by the door anymore.” Kai sasses his newfound family. 

“Right, sorry,” Nora answers, waving the two down the hall. 

There’s a fireplace in the living room. That’s where the four heretics guide her, then nod for her to make herself at home. Kai introduces her to three others, Oscar, Malcomb, and Beau, and then retreats into the kitchen to make a warm drink. He shoots warning glances at all six, as if daring them to even look at his girl wrong. Nora rolls her eyes. 

“Thank you guys for letting me stay the night,” she says quietly. 

“Of course,” Mary-Louise fetches a blanket from the closet, then puts it around her shoulders. “A friend of his is a friend of ours. Even if he can be the most annoying little-”

“Mary!” Her girlfriend scolds.

“-thing sometimes.”

Nora comes to the girl’s side on the couch. “He isn’t that annoying. And we practically owe him our lives.”

“True.” Then she whispers, “but he’s still fun to tease at times.”

“Especially when he’s all bothered about a certain someone,” Valerie agrees. When the girl cocks her head in confusion, she laughs. “He was wondering about you all night. Worrying the wood with his pacing. Convinced something was wrong.”

“The minute Lily left, he shot across town,” Mary finishes. 

“He’s not going to like you telling his secrets, girls,” Nora warns. 

Her girlfriend chuckles. “Oh, what’s he to do? Kill us? He adores us.” She goes back to addressing her, “Kai is secretly a big softie, no matter what your friends might say. He cares for the people he likes. You included.”

The girl smiles. 

Kai then comes back and hands her a steaming mug. After one sip, she’s already feeling more cozy. 

“Thank you.”

“See?” Mary whispers. “Softie.”

A giggle escapes her lips. She avoids Kai’s gaze, who then asks, “what have you guys been saying about me?”

“Just that you’re real sweet on the people you like. It’s a compliment, Kai, accept it.”

The boy chuckles, but doesn’t respond to her comment. “When is Lily expected back?”

“Who knows with Lily?” Valerie rolls her eyes. “She’s been so unpredictable lately.”

“Patience,” Malcomb scolds. Everyone turns to him; no one knew he was still in the room. “She’s preparing us for the modern day. The least we can do is give her the time she needs to make us ready.”

“Kai knows the modern day,” Nora murmurs, “I don’t get why we don’t just take his advice and then go and explore it ourselves.”

“You know how Lily likes to do things. Have some respect.”

Before things can get heated between the heretics, Kai helps his girl to her feet to bring her upstairs. As he begins to leave, though, with her waving bye to the girls, Malcomb catches his attention. 

“Do tell Lily you’re keeping her here. Especially if she’s friends of her sons, you could get us all in a load of trouble.”

“Damon nor Stefan know I’m here,” she says, rather boldly, “I’m only staying for a couple days.”

“Still.”

“I’ll handle it,” Kai tells him. 

Once in his room, she starts nosing around his stuff. There isn’t a lot in there, but she likes being able to see a side to him not often seen. 

“Sorry about them, whatever they told you,” Kai says, sitting on the edge of his bed and untying his boots. 

“It’s okay. They were sweet.” She joins him on the bed, tinkering with something found on the nightstand. “You said they’re like family?”

Kai nods. “The heretics are all outcast Gemini siphons that Lily turned into vampires. Back in 1903, the coven locked them up. But when Bonnie trapped me in 1903, I started feeding them. We relied on each other for company, and eventually, found a way out. If you think about it, we are family just as much as we feel like we are.”

She smiles. “I’m happy you have them, Kai. I wish I was allowed to…” she words fade. 

Kai turns to her, head cocked. He hooks a finger on her chin and prompts her to finish the sentence. “Allowed to…?”

“Talk to you,” she whispers. “They wouldn’t let me talk to you. Kept me holed up most of the time you were around.” 

Kai remembers that. Y/N would be out with her friends, but the moment Kai would show up, they’d hurry her away, out of sight. Y/N would always argue about it, but they’d always win. She’d offer him a smile whenever she could sneak it. 

“I secretly, really wanted to talk to you. Of course, secret to you, not them. They were always afraid you’d find a way to hurt me, but I never thought you would.” She finally looks at him. “I think it made them nervous that I wasn’t afraid of you.” She pauses. “And then there was the wedding…”

Kai swallows. He never got to ask nor thank her about the wedding. Truth is, she’s the reason he’s alive. She begged Damon for his life, and the vampire, for some reason, listened. “About that… thank you.” She smiles, but then looks back down at the thing in her hands. “Why did you do it? Why did you save me?”

She shrugs, but Kai knows she has an answer deep down. 

“Y/N…”

“You never really got to do a lot of living before, y’know, everything. Bonnie never thought you were redeemable, but I trusted that if you were just given a chance, you could, I don’t know, adjust to a normal life. So I was researching ways to get you out of the prison world, and I was trying to find where she hid the ascendant, because I wanted to at least try, but then you got yourself out. And, I don’t know, maybe that was for the better; maybe it’s what you needed, because you have the heretics now, and since you’re a heretic, your dad is dead and you can live without the fear of him coming for you. So as scary as the idea of you being a heretic was to Damon, I begged him to just give you a chance. If it went wrong, they could blame me, but I didn’t think it would. I didn’t think you would.” She pushes buttons she doesn’t know on the device she’s holding. “And you haven’t. To Bonnie’s dismay, you’ve proven me right so far.”

“You tried to get me out of the prison world?”

“Well I didn’t get a chance to try, but I wanted to-”

Kai takes his pager out of her hands and kisses her suddenly. He rests a hand along her face, cupping it gently, but breaks it off seconds later. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Her cheeks are tainted red but she doesn’t look at him. “I’m glad you’re alive, Kai.”

“I am, too.”

“Are you happy as a heretic?”

He sighs. “I didn’t want to be a vampire, but it’s not bad. It feels nice to have a family that cares about me.” She nods, smiling. He then adds, “thank you, too, for caring about me.”

She meets his eyes. “Thank you for proving me right.”

For a moment, they’re silent. He holds his pager while she stares at the floor. Her lips tingle from his kiss, but she’s too shy to ask for more. Then, quickly, he hands the device back to her. “I didn’t mean to take this from you.”

“That’s okay. I don’t even know what it is. I shouldn’t’ve taken it.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You don’t know what it is?”

“No.”

“It’s a pager.”

“...Oh.”

“Do you know how they work?”

“No.”

“Great, how old am I?”

She giggles. It’s a beautiful sound. “That’s okay… older men are better anyway,” she winks.

Kai chuckles. There’s her secret. Y/N is quite possibly the cutest, most gorgeous girl he’s ever seen, yet he’s never seen her with a guy. The couple times Damon’s mentioned her, or Kai’s asked about her, he’d never mentioned a boyfriend. Kai’s always wondered how she could possibly be single. “So… like how old are you talking? My age? Malcomb’s? Damon?”

“Oh god no. I mean, Damon’s hot, but I don’t want to date him. And I’ll pass on Malcomb, too. But you’re not so bad.”

“Oh?”

She shrugs. “It’s kind of a win-win. You look my age, but I know you’re not. But you’re also not, like, my great grandpa’s age.”

He laughs genuinely, amused by her. She looks a little shy by his reaction, causing him to scoot in closer on the bed. His eyes dart across her face, reading her eyes, resting on her lips.

“Thank you for helping me with my mouse problem,” she says suddenly, “and for letting me stay here.”

“‘Course. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a little crush on you, Y/N,” he admits. 

She grins. “You? Have a crush on me? Kai Parker, the big, scary heretic?”

“What, you didn’t think I’d run across town for just anyone now did you?”

“Guess not. But I like hearing you admit it.”

“For the record, I liked you even before you saved my life. I’d always ask about you, but Damon would always shut me down.”

She rolls her eyes, “of course he did.”

“But he’s not here right now.”

“No, he’s not.”

“So would you mind if I kissed you for real this time?”

“I hope you do.”

So he does. He closes the space between them quickly, yet kisses her softly. She captures his face in her hands; his find her back, lying her down on the bed. Kai separates her legs with his knee as he deepens the kiss. He can almost feel the waves of nervousness, yet also desire and arousal coming off her. He can taste it on her skin, soft and sweet beneath his lips. She touches his chest as he hovers over her. She’s seconds away from pulling off his coat and taking things further. 

“Kai-” Lily bursts through the door as soon as she reaches for his collar, “oh!”

Kai sits up and looks at the door, eyes wide. Y/N, embarrassed, covers her face entirely with her hands. “Hi.”

“Hello. Um, Mary-Louise and Nora said you brought a girl over. I, uh, see you have.”

“Just for a few days. Her house is being cleaned out because of a mouse problem and I didn’t want her in there.”

“And this would be the girl you always talk about?”

He gives her a look that Y/N reads identical to a, “why would you embarrass me like that,” type of look that a son would give his mother. Lily only stares back, expecting an answer.

“Yes,” Kai finally says. “This is Y/N.”

She peels her hands off her face at the mention of her name. “Hi.”

Lily smiles. “Hi, Y/N. Lovely to meet you. Malcomb says you’re a friend of Stefan and Damon?”

“Yes, but they don’t know I’m here. They don’t want me with Kai, but I want him, so they won’t know.”

Kai feels a warmth in his stomach at her words. She wants him. 

“And I assume you’re the girl that bartered for his life?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Lily looks at her, then Kai. “Very well then. Nice to meet you, Y/N. Stay as long as you need.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

She smiles. “You don’t have to call me ma’am. Lily is fine.”

“Okay.”

“And Kai… please remember we are all part vampires, and we all have super-hearing, so if that goes any further, we will all hear it.”

The girlish giggles of Nora and Mary-Louise come from behind Lily. Lily then turns and waves them away with frantic hand gestures. “Apologies,” she says. “See you down for dinner later.”

Kai turns back to his girl the moment Lily shuts the door. His expression has her throwing her hands back on her face as laughter erupts. Her whole body shakes from the position she’s in on his bed. Kai can only shake his head and laugh alongside her, until he finally utters out an, “oh, this is funny to you?!”

She nods her head quickly. Tears fall from her eyes, which he wipes away with his thumb. “I see what you mean, like family.” After a moment, she manages to compose herself. “It’s cute. It suits you, and you deserve a family that makes you feel like you’re family.”

He smiles, touched by her words. “Thank you.”

One more laugh escapes before she sits up on her elbows and looks at him. Her eyes have an endearing look that he adores. 

“Can you be the girlfriend I sneak past my sisters because they always have to make fun?”

“Oh, absolutely, I will be.”

“Good,” he chuckles. 

Another laugh is creeping up on her. Her eyes squeeze shut and her mouth is twitching. Before it can escape, Kai pushes her back on the bed and climbs over her body. He kisses her again, smiling into it, and finds himself the happiest he’s been in his life.