"MM, KOL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Aurelia couldn't stifle her yawn when her eyes fluttered open, blinking a few times as she adjusted to the morning rays shining through the curtains-not to mention the six foot tall man hovering over her, eyes focused on her sleepy expression. "Creep. You were staring at me."

"It's called admiring." Kol corrected with a small chuckle, letting his lips press against the corner of her own. "And mind you, it's extremely romantic." Rolling her eyes, the woman pulled her blankets upwards, only for him to hold her wrist. "Ah-keep it this way, I like the view-" With a playfully offended gasp, she lightly smacked his bare chest.

"One, you're such a pervert-" As she began to speak, she stopped to stifle a moan as she felt his lips brush past her ear, sucking on her lobe as he shamelessly took it in between his teeth. "Two!" She forced out, hands pushing against his shoulders to increase the distance between them. "There's nothing to look at, dumbass." He laughed once again, nearing her despite her continuous pressure on his chest.

"That's not what you were calling me a few hours ago, sweetheart." And he slotted their lips together before she could respond with any protest or violent action; she quickly let her palms slide up his shoulders and wrap themselves around her neck, eagerly parting her lips to deepen the intimate moment.

Within moments, her legs had wrapped around his hips to spin him over, making him pull away from her as his back hit the mattress and she sat up on his abdomen, pads of her fingers teasingly tracing over his well-sculpted torso. "I assume you're the one who turned my alarm off?" With a mischievous look, he slowly nodded at her question. "Kol, I've got to leave for Mystic Falls today! You agreed to it, too." Her whine was followed with a slight groan from his form as she sat comfortably on his hips.

"How do you expect for me to let go of you when you're such a damn tease, hmm?" He asked, making her raise an eyebrow as she began to smirk challengingly, and she ran her hand through her locks. "Aurelia..." His tone dropped octaves lower to warn her. "Love, now you're just asking me to tie you to the bed." It was her turn to laugh as she bent over to near his handsome visage, adjusting her hips to tease him further.

"So two and a half weeks of dates and sex wasn't good enough for you?" She asked, continuing to play with him as he shook his head adamantly. "But you agreed to it, too. Another week and I'd go back. After all, this was a break for me. Plus, people like Caroline are going to be worried sick-"

"They can survive a little longer without you." He whined, reaching up to her once again, but she held him down. "Darling! It's been weeks since we saw each other in person." Looking at her pointedly, he continued his proposal. "And they're all immortal! They've got nothing but time."

"Mm...I suppose you're right." She hummed over his lips. "I suppose they can go a little while longer without me..." She smiled and sat up, looking at the open curtains in their room. "You do realize that anyone can see us if they just look up from the street, don't you?" Kol suddenly sat up, large arms wrapping around her waist as he looked up at her.

"Is that not the fun of it?" With a disbelieving and amused laugh, Aurelia flicked her wrist to shut the curtains, letting the room dim further for the relief of her eyes. "At least I have you all to myself now, don't I? And your pesky magic, of course." With another nod, she began to trace his bottom lip with her thumb.

"Sure." She replied, her mind temporarily going towards his words.

"All to myself."

Was she a bitch for thinking back to what had happened two weeks ago, with her memories, her death? Even as she was with him?

"Darling?" Blinking twice, she focused on his chocolate eyes, with a small, "yes?". "You stopped paying attention to me for a moment. It was agonizing." He mumbled as she rested both arms on his shoulders once again. "While you're with me, the only person you're allowed to think about is me."

"And what's your reasoning behind that?" She challenged once again, a playful smirk dancing on her lips as she pressed her forehead against his. "There has to be a good enough one for it, no?" Pretending to think for a moment, Kol diverted his gaze away from her.

"Maybe because you feel absolute ecstasy because of me, and me only?" He suggested, making her purse her lips as she tilted her hips. "Is that a good enough one for my statement?"

"Isn't it...the other way around, sweetheart?" She asked. "Aren't I the one who drowns you in ecstasy?" Her voice began to drop in tone slowly as she neared his lips.

"Mm... I guess it can be...both ways..." He trailed off, one arm trailing up her spine to wrap his fingers around the nape of her neck. "Now, are you going to let me make love to you, or are you going to keep teasing me?"

"If you want something, you'll have to persuade me into doing it." She proposed, making him smirk as he pulled her face down closer to him, lips brushing against each other. "So, persuade me, Kol." She smiled mischievously again, pushing away her guilty thoughts for his sake as she felt her feelings ease at the sight of a sweet smile from him.

"That isn't much of a task, dearest." And he kissed her, stifling the loud moan she let out as his hands quickly trailed down past her lower back.

"COMING!" CAROLINE YELLED FROM HER ROOM at the sound of a few raps at her main door, her hands busied with clearing objects away from her room. "Who on Earth is it? Couldn't you have come, like, five minutes ago? Did you have to come when I started moving things around?" Though she continued to get irritated by the guest, she didn't bother voicing her mumbles out too loudly for the sake of mannerisms.

But as soon as she had dusted her palms and made her way to her main door where the large glass panel in the upper half revealed whoever stood there, her eyes went wide in disbelief at the sight of Aurelia Parker standing there with a delicate curve on her lips, hand waving gently to greet her sister.

"You idiot!" Was the first thing that left the younger's lips as Aurelia braced for a hard smack from her, before muttering constant exclamations of protest as the smacks only grew in number. "How could you be so stupid?!" Another hit on the head. "Did it not hit you that I was waiting for you at home?!"

"Caroline-"

"No, shut up!" Caroline chastised, giving her another slap on the back as she spun around to defend herself. "What is wrong with you?! You got yourself killed, and as soon as you come back, you ditch town for almost three weeks?!" Her tone just grew more and more frustrated as Aurelia slowly began to dodge all of her hits. "I was worried! Where the hell were you?"

"Uh-" Aurelia finally cupped her hand to catch Caroline's balled up fist with a meek smile. "Please Caroline, I'm sure you know that these aren't affecting me." She said, gently twisting her wrist to open the other's wrist and slip her fingers into her palm. "I'm sorry I left without a letter or a note to you, I understand that you were worried." She kissed her teeth as she let her eyes fall to their hands. "But I'm back, I'm more alive than ever, and I have so much to tell you."

"Couldn't you have come to see me at least once?" Caroline's anger reduced to a small pout-one that tempted Aurelia to give up and beg her sister for forgiveness. "I cried for you..."

"I'm sorry, Care." She responded slowly. "I won't ever do it again. I'll tell you everything, always." With a smile, the older finally looked up towards the younger. "Forgive me?" As Caroline narrowed her eyes once suspiciously, Aurelia looked at her pointedly.

"God, fine! Another toe out of line and that's it for you." She warned, before pulling Aurelia into a tight, much needed embrace that made the latter gasp a little at the sudden impact. "I hate you." When she began to smile again, Aurelia slipped her arms around her sister's back while Caroline rested her chin on the elder's shoulder. "Dumbass."

"I guess I deserve th-" Halfway through her sentence, Aurelia's features lit up as Elizabeth Forbes walked into view, her eyebrows shooting up as she lifted a hand from Caroline to wave at her descendant-yet-older-figure. "Aunt Liz."

"Aurelia, oh my God-" Liz's features morphed into a large smile and her tone only turned more and more content. "We've missed you." Just as Aurelia pulled away from Caroline, the latter's mother hit her chest in an embrace gentler than the last, but comforting nonetheless. "I'm so glad you're okay." Humming softly, Aurelia let her head rest on the side of Liz's. "Come on in, we have to catch up now. I'm not letting you go without some food."

"Mom," Caroline whined. "You can't cook! Aurelia's welcome home breakfast would be ruined!" Feigning an offended gasp, Liz lightly hit her daughter's shoulder and pushed her into the house as Aurelia watched and laughed.

"Care, your mother cooks well enough. Be nice."

"Aurelia, can you close the door?" She nodded at the mother's request, walking a few feet into the house before she came to a stop and looked around the entrance hallway for any changes since she had seen the place last. "The door-"

"My bad, sorry-" And the door swung shut behind her easily, making the mother and daughter in front of her lean to the side to eye the door behind her figure. "There, no mosquitoes should get in now, hmm?" Caroline furrowed her brows and glanced between the vampire and the door many times, confusion looking like it was etched on her face.

"It...just closed? You didn't touch it?" She asked, slightly pushing between Aurelia and the table to reach the entrance-but not without gasping loudly as she knocked a pretty ceramic vase over by accident. "OH-" Her exclamation, however, halted halfway through as the vase stopped a few inches before it could make contact with the ground. "Huh?"

"What's going on?" Liz asked, matching Caroline's confusion well as she peered over Caroline's hunching figure to look at the floating vase. "What?" Caroline slowly swept her hand underneath the vase and then above it, wondering if something was holding it back.

When she felt nothing, Aurelia pulled the vase out of the free position and swiftly set it back in its place on the small table. "How about we go in? I'm dying for a beef sandwich." Looking innocently between the other two blondes, she gave them an oblivious smile.

"Was that you?"

"I SWEAR, I'VE BEEN GOING DOOR TO DOOR LIKE-" Aurelia swore loudly as she tripped over a small stone on her path, shaking her foot to angrily kick the stone in the middle of her sentence. "Now I get why Santa uses chimneys. He can't take the damn tripping over rocks in every single driveway out there." She huffed, groaning shortly after at the amused chuckles. "Kol, I'm this close to-"

"Yelling at me?" The man completed, effortlessly challenging the younger vampire with a smirk that Aurelia just knew he was wearing by the sound of his voice. "Darling, surely you're aware that you don't scare me." Rolling her eyes, Aurelia shoved her motorcycle's keys back into her pocket as she came to a stop. "Anyway, where are you now?"

"Doppel-Elena Gilbert's house." She replied. "Caroline proposed it, and considering the fact that I've given her the vampire life, it wouldn't hurt to see how well she's been using it." She pursed her lips at the sight of the familiar door she was standing in front of. "I'll get going now, Kol." Hearing a small, "love you, bye." That only made guilt pool in her stomach yet again, she hung up the call as her lips curved into a small frown.

Her frown continued to deepen as she knocked on the wooden surface lightly and repeatedly, eyes diverting to no particular place to go out of focus.

"We don't accept cookies, s-Aurelia?" An all-too-familiar, sarcastic voice she hadn't expected to hear made her snap her head upwards and meet a set of pretty blue eyes-Damon Salvatore's pretty blue eyes. In response, her own widened considerably with the lack of preparation she had to see him.

"He isn't breathing!"

"Where the absolute hell have you been for the last few weeks?" Without any sort of warning, she was jerked forward by her forearms, faceplanting right into Damon's chest before she could process anything.

"D-Damon-!" She forced out, pushing her head up to prevent her speech from being muffled. "Get off, asshole-I'm going to kick you in the balls so hard-" In response to her threat, his arms simply wrapped around her with a stronger grip, making her grunt loudly at his persistent death wish. "Damon Alexius Salvatore!"

"Why don't you just quit being so-" A small wince followed his sentence as she slapped his arm in an attempt to free herself from him. "So bitchy and stubborn and give a friend a-" With a defeated groan, Aurelia hugged him-or more accurately, his waist, because of how easily he had pinned her arms down to the sides of her torso. "There you go, that wasn't hard, was it?" When she didn't respond, particularly because of her ego, he rolled his eyes at her. "Was it, 'Lia?"

"Just let go of me, you bastard." She huffed, rolling back her shoulders to relax when his grip on her loosened completely. "You're lucky we made up-you wouldn't have gotten away with this if I didn't like you already." Flashing his dazzling smile, Damon hummed triumphantly.

"FYI-that means, "for your information", by the way-it's extremely hard not to like me." Aurelia then looked at him with a disgusted expression, shaking her head in disappointment.

"Is that what you use to hit girls up? Because, sir, that was very twelve-year-old of you to do-" That was when her gaze flew past Damon's shoulder, and further into the house; it focused on the couch that could be viewed easily from the doorstep, the couch where someone seemed to be asleep. "Is that...Jeremy?" She asked, squinting her eyes slightly.

What had, actually, caught her eye was the attention-catching bloodstain that ran from his shoulder-all the way down to at least half of his torso. "Oh yeah, Little Gilbert, Long Story. Wait for the E-Book." Shooting Damon another unimpressed glanced, she slipped past him and into the Gilbert Household, eyes on the seemingly asleep human.

"What...happened?" She asked carefully, focused on the confusing scene in front of her. "Whose blood is that?"

"His, of course-" Damon appeared next to her, hands in his pockets as he answered her with an effortlessly straight expression. "There was... an incident last night, and he's currently dead-" Aurelia's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but lowered when she realized she could hear no heartbeat from the body. "Don't worry, though, he's wearing the ring."

"The same ring that took Alaric away from us?" She asked, her tone switching from the light and curious form it had taken shape of when she first walked into the house. The mention of the man's name was still bitter on her tongue-she was clear on the fact that she had some fondness for the teacher, having warmed up to him faster than she had warmed up to anyone else. "Do you really consider that wise?"

"How were we supposed to predict that Elena was going to jam a knife into her brother's throat, hmm?" At the sudden snap, the blonde hummed in clear confusion, head turning to look at the Salvatore brother with narrowed eyes. "Oh, right, part of the long story: Elena's off her damn wagon. She's gone crazy."

"She's a vampire, for heaven's sake." She took a few steps forward to kneel near the dead Gilbert. "If she's killed someone in the time I was away, it means she's feeling the guilt of it. Would've attacked Jeremy when he was trying to calm her down." Quickly easing her confusion with a quick solution, she shook her head once again. "As much as I hate that ring, you're really lucky he had it on him."

"Well it doesn't explain how she felt him choke her-" As Aurelia began to dismiss Damon's words, he glared at her and continued. "Considering he's a vampire hunter."

"We have thousands of those running around the globe. They're all wannabes." Aurelia spoke fast and clearly, eyes still on Jeremy. "Easy to kill, nice to drink from, entertaining to toy with." Damon then clicked his tongue and folded his arms.

"Has Klaus told you about his 10th century adventures?" Raising an eyebrow, Aurelia eyed the Salvatore from her position. "Yes, we're sort of civil with your family right now-now answer the damn question."

Right, Klaus had apparently died by Alaric's stake while Aurelia was sitting in her own casket, dead and going through that stupid-continuing, she had received word from Kol that he had somehow made it out alive after a mistake from Alaric's end. It was truly some sort supernatural miracle he had gotten out alive, but the first thing he had done was jump into Caroline's boyfriend's body; "Tyler" had revealed himself to Aurelia's niece during an...intimate session-that, she had gotten from the very irritated form of the woman herself just a while ago.

"He's told me about six centuries' worth of adventures, Damon. You're gonna have be more specific if you're trying to get me to recall a certain incident." She replied.

"Fine... does the Brotherhood of the Five ring any bells?" That was when she felt herself freeze in her position, eyes widening in horror and shock as her lips refused to let out any comprehensible word. "Chills down Aurelia Parker's spine. Now that's concerning." Damon's comment didn't encourage her or make her feel any better about what he had just said.

"Tell me you did not let Elena Gilbert-the goddamn martyr with the biggest guilty conscience on Earth-kill a Hunter from the Brotherhood of the Five." Her tone was dead serious, almost filled with complete dread as she spoke slowly for emphasis. "Tell me you did not mess with the most dangerous group of vampire hunters the millennium has seen."

"Well-" In a flash, Damon had been pinned straight to the wall behind himself, eyebrows up in alarm at the growling vampire sitting in front of him. "I-it just happened!" He answered-but wrongly, apparently as the pressure on his chest increased by tenfold. "I told you! Mystic Falls is a hotspot for magic, a-and we've been keeping an eye on her."

"That's not enough, Damon." She broke away from him, letting him rub his chest from the soreness. "Have you not been informed of the Hunter's curse?" Adjusting the sleeves of her jacket, she continued to mumble in frustration. "Elena's going to have the biggest suicidal tendencies now. That's the whole point of the curse-Besides," She spared him another glance. "Who's we? Who else is taking care of her?"

"Oh, who else-"

"Damon, who's with you?" As if it were a cue during a play, another familiar voice caught the pair's attention as it descended down the stairs. Aurelia began to glare at the Older Salvatore yet again in anger, her eyes giving away a "You're kidding me, right?" look. "Damon-"

"I'll reach out the Klaus about this. You'll need his help." Aurelia quickly spoke, trying to walk past Damon and back towards the front door. "Give me a call once he