"HELLO, 'LIA—OW!" DAMON SALVATORE SWORE loudly following his exclamation from the sheer force of Aurelia's foot when it made contact with his shin. "Holy shit—"

"D—Damon!" Aurelia's eyes doubled in size upon realization that the perpetrator that intended to stand just behind her and greet her was no pervert, but the charming, charismatic, and now groaning elder Salvatore.

Though, 'pervert' and 'Damon Salvatore' were words that could be used interchangeably. "Damn it, 'Lia—did you not hear me coming up behind you?" Damon, through his cursing, was able to force out a coherent sentence that questioned Aurelia's flawless supernatural hearing.

"No—I didn't..." Aurelia could only throw a dirty glance at the man kneeling before her, rubbing up and down his shin as some semblance of comfort from her hard kick. "You were too quiet."

"No, I wasn't—" As he stood to his two feet, his tone turned insistent. "We're in the middle of a road that hasn't seen a car in hours. It's dead quiet here." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"What are you getting at?"

"There's no way you couldn't hear me in all this quiet, unless—" Aurelia was suddenly pulled forward by the wrist, up close to Damon's face, as his eyes darted around her own, examining for something he hadn't bothered to explain yet. "You're growing weaker."

"It was one moment." She protested, though with a bitter and dismissive tone that Damon knew—from the great book of Aurelia Parker's social cues—meant she was trying to brush him off.

"I heard about what happened in Stefan's room." And she scoffed at his pompous, all-knowing, full-of-himself (concerned for her) tone, ripping her wrist away from his grip.

"I'm not doing this with you." She muttered, walking past him—the road was dark, empty, but she'd come out to clear her mind, and she wasn't going to let this... mishap, or whatever, take away from that.

"Then who exactly are you doing this with? You haven't spoken to Stefan about this since you sat in his arms sobbing—"

"—Stefan told you about that?!" Aurelia was going to make Stefan Salvatore scream bloody murder.

"—You haven't spoken to Caroline, who's worried sick—"

"Oh my God, you told Caroline, too?" Aurelia covered her face with her hands. "Damon, you're making this more dramatic than it needs to be—"

"Every damn second we stand here, Expression is draining you, Aurelia." Damon spat, and his tone held more desperation than Aurelia could process. "This is as dramatic as I'm making it out to be. And you've done nothing about it."

"I'm doing something about it."

"And what is that?"

"Living my life. You know, so I have no bitter regrets during my last moments—" Aurelia's venomous tone made Damon grasp on her shoulders, slightly shaking her back and forth from his frustration.

"You are not giving up on this." He snapped. "Not you, of all the people I know."

"What do you care?" Her attempt to push him away was feeble for two reasons—one being that she'd lost enough of her strength to bring her to his level of strength.

The second, that she couldn't deny what he was saying—she was slowly giving up, giving into her unfortunate doom.

"You've dealt with enough grief as is—what's one more?" She asked, lips pressed together, eyebrows lowered, and Damon could only sputter.

"I cannot believe you just said that to me." He said finally, eyes turning more furious by the second.

"I just did, dumbass." And with a hard shove, she pushed him out of the way—and though she hurt his feelings, he knew about all her infamous strategies to push people away, especially when she needed them most.

"No—you are not—" As he reached out to grab her arm, the two vampires froze quickly, save for a synchronized snap of their heads to look at each other's faces. "Do you—" Damon could suddenly feel the metallic essence of the unmistakable drug to all vampires fill up his nostrils. "Smell that?"

He didn't need an answer when he watched Aurelia's eyes turn red quickly, pupils darting far past him, into the dark void of the night. "Blood." Was all she could say, and he had to pause for a moment to process how starved she must've been to lose herself to the temptation to quickly, allowing it to take over her visage. "Damn it, it's Elena."

As he gauged the situation at hand, he quickly decided to chastise and convince Aurelia to stay away from her acceptance of permanent death later. After they'd handled their humanity-less vampire.

"Elena," Aurelia began a few moments later, now finding herself and Damon walking towards the brunette in question, not far from where they'd previously been. "That's enough—" She forced her thirst down with a gulp.

Her thirst, which grew ever stronger at the sight of Elena Gilbert's fangs embedded deep within a poor soul's carotid artery, against a car she could only presume belonged to the mortal. "We agreed no killing." Damon pushed in, hand reaching out to pull the doppelganger back by the shoulder roughly.

As the victim began to slide down her car, Aurelia paced ahead to hold her up, teeth gritting together to resist the urge to do the very same thing Elena was doing moments ago.

"This is the first person I've seen in days whose body isn't laced with vervain and I'm hungry." Elena's voice held nothing in them—except for disappointment at the fact that she didn't get to spoil herself with a luxury meal.

Aurelia wanted to slap the emotionless vampire—for Elena's sheer stupidity, and for the fact that she was taking for granted her ability to actually keep down the blood she was drinking.

"If you leave a trail of bodies," Damon had to resist speaking to Elena like she was a four-year-old, which frankly, he was getting sick of already. "People are gonna start asking questions."

"I don't care." Aurelia raised an eyebrow at Elena's tone.

Maybe a bratty three-year-old was more accurate when describing the woman.

"I can't believe you're making me say this—" Damon rolled his eyes as Elena wrangled herself out of his grip. "Show a little restraint."

And as Elena looked over at Aurelia—she noticed how much weaker and sickly the blonde seemed—and it made her sprout a sly smile. "I was having my fun—but it looks like Aurelia needs it more." She didn't even bother to clean the blood surrounding her mouth. "I guess she'll need to have her own fun before she dies, and finally gives us some peace."

"Elena." Damon warned, patience thinning by the second. "You're treading the line, here—"

"Just stating the facts," Elena said, smile widening. "Enjoy your meal, Aurelia." And she was gone—much to Damon's frustration as he turned to Aurelia.

"I'm so—"

"She's not wrong." Aurelia cut him off before he could apologize, using a little more strength to keep the fainting victim snugly in her grip.

"Aurelia..." Damon was now disappointed, melancholic in the words that fell from his lips. "This isn't okay."

"Well, considering all my wrongdoings—" Aurelia chuckled bitterly. "Maybe the universe is giving back the misdeeds I committed." And Damon didn't know how to respond to her utterly pitiful state—that Aurelia Parker, of all the people in the world, was giving up on her life so easily.

"We have time." Damon said. "You're still up, you're still your morbid self—you're still you. We will find a solution. In the meantime," He began to pull the body from her grasp. "Do everything you can to stay alive—" And he paused, noticing that her eyes had fallen to the open wound on the victim's neck.

"...I haven't—tried...everything..." The suddenness of her weaker tone caught him by surprise, and he quickly began to piece together just how thirsty she was.

"When was the last time you fed on a human being?" He asked slowly, not fully aware of her stance when it came to feeding on human beings—something he'd always seen her go back and forth on.

"Not since my transition into a Heretic." She replied, eyes unwavering from the oozing blood. "Was reminded of my days as a human—tried not to feed on people to relent—"

"You've relented enough," He said with finality. "We need to get you blood you can keep down." And he gently held the body up—closer to her height—so that the victim's throat was aligned to her mouth. "Elena's already done the damage—what's a little more?"

Aurelia closed her eyes a moment, allowing herself to breath—though with much difficulty. "We'd be hypocrites, Damon."

"Elena's feeding for sport—you're feeding to stay alive." He urged. "I don't care about morality if my friend's life is hanging in the balance." And he pushed the body closer to her form. "Besides, you and I both know you're more responsible than she is."

"If this goes badly, and I throw up again, or whatever—" She looked up at him. "My foot's going to land on your balls this time, not your shin."

"By all means. Now, drink." He insisted, reaching over with a free arm to pull her closer to the body—giving her just enough time to part her lips and latch her teeth onto the still-gushing wound.

As he watched her arms instinctively wrap around the poor soul's body, he guided the elder vampires to slowly sit down, allowing her all the time she needed to take all the blood she needed, even if it meant bleeding the victim dry.

And when a small groan of gratification emitted from Aurelia's form, minutes later—Damon Salvatore's eyes lit up at the thought of actually having found a solution for her dimming life.

"It's...working..."

"WHO BLOODY KNEW?" AURELIA HAD TO RESIST THE frustrated laugh that threatened to escape her throat as she pushed open the door to the Salvatore Boarding House. "That the servants of nature decided that killing me through dark magic simply wasn't enough—I could only replenish my thirst by harming other people—not that I'm opposed to snatch, eat, erase—but really, letting me become even more of a monster before I meet my ultimate doom—"

"Let's not phrase it like that," Damon winced, following the blonde into his home. "We can call it fulfilling the very purpose we've been made for—" A small smack on his chest made him stop. "Well, at least you're back to bitchy Aurelia again."

"For now," He didn't enjoy the continued pessimism in her choice of words, but decided that it was worth the return of color to her rosy cheeks, and the disappearance of the tired eye bags underneath her pretty eyes.

"We should let Stefan know—" He began to say.

"Stefan, and you," She interrupted, pointing towards him. "For that matter, have bigger fish to fry—that is, the frustrating doppelganger that was enough of a mess with her emotions on." With a small sigh, she turned back around to stride up the stairs. "I'll tell Stefan later."

"He's not going to be happy about it—"

"Damon," Aurelia eyed her friend, a small smile grazing her lips. "I know I've done a lot of hiding things about myself—enough to give you a reason to worry."

Damon cocked up an eyebrow, curious as to where this was going.

"But I trust you and Stefan—when I say I'll tell him later, I'm not trying to push him away."

I don't think I can push him away anymore—not when it feels so wrong.

"I mean I'll tell him." And she looked away, down at the steps as her feet inched past carpeted patterns. "There are just...more important things to talk about right this second."

"...Alright." Damon resisted the urge to make a cocky statement, figuring that this was more character development than he'd asked for—and that all he needed to do was appreciate her warming up to them. "Speaking of, where is my brother?"

As if on cue, they heard Stefan's voice—or rather, yell—echo through the pristine walls of the Salvatore Boarding House. "Elena! I'm trying to have a conversation with you! I don't have the time for this—I need to find Aurelia before we head to school!"

"I think that answers your question." Aurelia slowly said, eyes narrowed to piece together where his voice came from. "But why is he in your bedroom?" The sound of the shower quickly caught their ears upon further inspection, and Aurelia simply shook her head. "What is happening?"

"More like—" Damon frowned. "Why is he taking her to school?"

"Well—sorry!" As Aurelia pushed open the door to Damon's bedroom, she jumped at the sound of the hardwood wood making sharp contact with Stefan's head. "I didn't know you were right there—"

Stefan winced, though the pain seemed to ease almost immediately as the door was replaced with Aurelia's fingers threading to his hair, rubbing is scalp to soothe the point of impact. "I was about to call you—where'd you go? I didn't hear you two come in because of the running shower."

"I was with Damon," She said mindlessly, eyes focused on fixing whatever mess she'd made of his hair when rubbing his scalp. "Babysitting, cleaning up messes—" Stefan's eyes, however, were focused on her face, and the return of the slightest energy to her voice. "The usual when it comes to—" She spared a glance towards the direction of the bathroom, where the shower was continuing to run. "I assume it's Elena taking up residence in there?"

With a small nod from Stefan, Damon stepped in to slap some sense into his baby brother. "What is wrong with you? Why is your plan to take her to school?!" He whisper-yelled, careful not to alert the doppelganger. "We need to give her the cure if she's not going to turn her emotions back on!"

"So," Aurelia piped up once again. "Find Katherine. The damn wretch is gatekeeping the cure, and I'd love to know why."

"She's right—it's exactly what I was coming to." Stefan defended. "Besides—you think I want to take Elena to school and babysit? No." He made a face of disgust, clearly sick of Elena's antics despite their friendship.

"Not that anyone asked me," Aurelia's ears perked up at the sound of the warm and chirpy voice behind the group of three. "But I think taking her to school is a great idea." Caroline Forbes walked into the room, donning a fuzzy pink bathrobe and fuzzy pink bunny slippers to match the outfit; the getup earned her confused stares from the pair of brothers, and one of adoration from her sister.

"Why are you here?" Damon asked, gesturing to her choice of attire immediately after. "And why are you wearing...that?" Caroline rolled her eyes, gently waving a towel and shower caddy within his line of sight.

"Uh, blame it on your fancy water filters." She snapped sassily, eyes narrowing into slits. "I've been using the shower in Aurelia's bathroom over here for the last few days—how did you all not notice?"

"Don't rope me in with them," Aurelia waved her arms in surrender, moving quickly to stand by the younger blonde. "I was well-aware—plus, I'm sending for some filters to be fixed into the bathrooms while you shower here—" She then pointed at Stefan. "Stefan was aware—blame your brother."

Stefan tried to protest, feeling cartoonishly betrayed just so Aurelia could save face in front of her sister.

"Oh yeaaaaaahhh," Damon's eyes lit up in realization. "The mayor dumped vervain in the water supply." He clicked his tongue and shook his head to feign disappointment. "So many people to kill."

"I said that," Aurelia hummed. "And Aunt Liz gave me the death glare—so I'd say talk to her before you decide to go and do it."

"Speaking of," Caroline folded her arms. "My mom says it's about to get worse, and she could use some help." Throwing a pointed, narrowed glare at Damon, she stared until he caved.

"Fine," He groaned. "I'll go talk to the Sherriff—blondie and Stefan, why don't you take her to school? Aurelia, you're coming with—" A short laugh from Aurelia interrupted him.

"Oh no, nuh-uh—" She wiggled a finger in front of his face. "Today, I feel better for the first time in a long time. Therefore, today is self-care day—I stay here, draw a bath, sip on some champagne—take good care of my hair, which by the way, takes a lot to look this good—"

"Oh, would you look at that, Stefan?" Damon said joyfully. "We've found the female version of you—" And when a pillow hit him straight in the face, he let it fall to the ground, and let his glare burn holes into a smug Aurelia's face. "Rude. Fine. You get the self-care day. I feel bad."

"As you should—" And she sent another pillow hurtling towards him at full speed, which hit his nose before he could react.

"You little—" Before he could throw the pillow back, Stefan stepped in the middle. "Stop defending the little shit—she thinks she can get away with everything just because she's a billion years old and all-powerful—"

"I don't think I can—I know." Aurelia playfully stuck her tongue out, and Stefan had to pause to remove the word 'cute' from his mind in order to stop the pair of once-best friends from going into one of their famous quarrels yet again.

He'd learned enough about those in 1864. "Alright, let's get ready for school—Aurelia, put the pillow down." And Aurelia froze, exhaling through her nostrils disappointedly as she tossed the pillow into his hands.

"Buzzkill. I was having fun."

"You'll get to another time, I promise." He said, pacing towards her in order to stand by her side—only for Elena's voice to interrupt them.

"School sounds like fun." When all four heads turned to look at the brunette, all but Damon's pair of eyes widened, and Caroline suddenly found the texture of a nearby wall rather interesting—while Stefan rolled his eyes, and darted them away to look at Aurelia, who'd only cocked up an eyebrow and taken to shaking her head away of the image of an entirely naked Elena Gilbert.

"Okay, girl—" She said, clearly annoyed. "We get it, you don't care if everyone knows what you look like under that boring wardrobe you own." When her eyes fell on a shameless Damon Salvatore, who openly looked at his girlfriend's naked body, she sighed.

And then she looked at Stefan, whose eyes were trained on her, flitting around where she could only presume all her facial features were.

"What?" Elena asked innocently, eyes flickering between Damon and Stefan. "Nothing those two men haven't seen before."

"Doesn't mean I have any interest in seeing it again." Stefan firmly snapped, eyes still looking anywhere but at Elena (preferably, at Aurelia—but he didn't want her to think he was being creepy). "Damon, throw her a towel."

As Damon begrudgingly held the girl a towel to wrap around herself, she continued to talk. "As for the—uh—'going to school' idea—I've got nothing better to do."

When Aurelia cleared her throat, and shot what felt like the millionth glare of the day for Damon, he shot a questioning look back, and earned a nod towards Elena from the elder blonde, telling him to 'make sure she doesn't do anything stupid.'

So, he forced a smile and looked back at Elena. "Elena—it would make me very happy if