I sat at the cemetery leaning on my parent's grave with my journal open to an empty page. I wanted to write down everything, to go through each year I spent away from home. There were so many I knew I'd need more books, more than even Stefan had. Yet I wrote nothing. As much as I wanted to write about what I felt I knew what would happen the moment I did. Someone would read it and they would know the truth, that I no longer loved Stefan and the monster responsible for that. My thoughts scattered as a shadow appeared over me making me jump and scribble a line on the empty page "Mind having some company love?" I laughed dryly looking up at Klaus who stood with his arms behind his back "You act as if I had the option to say no" he smiled looked down at the ground before smirking at me "You're right as we speak the little witch is with my brother on a little road trip how this goes will determine if she ever comes back" he said as he smiled even though he held his threat clear in his eyes.

I laughed inwardly at the way he was trying to intimidate me, Bonnie was no damsel in distress. And if it's the brother I'm thinking of that has her she wasn't in any real danger anyway. However for the sake of knowing what he wanted from me I stood up and dusted off my jeans "Ok then. What do you need" he looked me up and down and narrowed his eyes at me, when I got up I stood a little closer to him than he was expecting and he seemed intrigued by the way I didn't flinch away from him as I would've before. The Elena he knew didn't know what I did even if he attacked me I know how to get out of it, what buttons to push. The playing field had changed in the game he was playing and he was only just catching up. He gestured towards the woods and I followed him through them "You seem different..." he said watching me carefully with a calculated stare as I walked in front of him.

"...I saw it yesterday but it wasn't clear, now I see it clearly. Now I'm curious. What spurs on this sudden burst in confidence?" his confusion was satisfying in a way before everything I would've given anything to have him look like this. To finally have the upper hand in a way "I'm starting to realize that you're not the man that you make everyone think you are" he frowned and paused "You? The girl who's Aunt I killed, you doubt that I'm the man that everyone says I am?" I turned to him and stopped walking "I don't believe you do things without purpose. You do what you have to to force respect, to keep people from crossing you. My Aunt was punishment for messing with the ritual when you told me not to. She paid the price for Caroline and Tyler's lives and had you put it to her that way when you sacrificed her she probably would've even volunteered" his face was stone cold as I spoke but I knew what I was saying was the truth he wouldn't have done it if he didn't have to. He doesn't destroy things needlessly unless his feelings are hurt or he feels like he has to punish someone.

"You think I don't torture people for fun?" he said shaking off his surprise and replacing it with an amused expression "I don't think so. You spend so much time planning things out. I think for you torture is more of a spontaneous in the moment of anger type of thing" he looked away and started walking again not saying anything in response "You intrigue me Elena not too long ago I was the devil now I'm simply misunderstood. Yet what intrigues me most is that you still haven't told me what I really want to know. What changed?" I looked away from him when he met my eyes, I knew he would know if I lied to him. I didn't know how to answer him without him asking too many more questions so instead I decide to deflect "Why does it matter? I'm surprised you even felt the need to ask instead of using the change to your advantage" he chuckled and turned to me "Now you're just being confusing love. What happened to being misunderstood?" I shrugged "I'm playing your game. You wanna be the monster? Ok, why ask? Why not just use me? Why not take the opportunity right now, no one can truly stop you, just take me where-ever you want me to be? Why not drain me of every ounce of blood in my body and make all the hybrids you want?" he seemed to pause at these questions as if the thought hadn't crossed his mind.

He looked around before meeting my eyes again, no one knew where we were, no one besides Kol could even give a round about answer so he could take me away and no one could stop him. But he didn't even after I brought it to his attention that he could, he didn't "See. If it doesn't serve your purpose or if you hadn't planned on it beforehand then you don't do it" he narrowed his eyes at me and sped up to me, I didn't flinch I held his gaze my body heating up the way it normally did when he was this close. He couldn't feel what I did, the buzzing between us, that was just me, his eyes darkened and shone their amber coloring as he wrapped his hand around my neck. There was no affection he was trying to scare me, wanted the reason for my heart racing to be fear but he was barely putting any pressure on my neck. He tilted my head to the side and ran his nose up and down the vein, the goosebumps that popped up on my skin were no reaction of fear and I think he was beginning to understand that. And that's when I pulled back looking up at him and searching his eyes for any reaction other than a disappointed one because he couldn't torture me.

He looked confused, yet interested, and tempted all at once, part of me wondered how far I could take this moment. I missed being close to him, having his touch on my skin, his breath skimming my lips, his eyes looking deep into mine. So when I walked back up to him giving him a look that drew him closer even though he looked animalistic, I was satisfied. I wasn't afraid of him and now I was starting to effect him "Be careful Elena. Any closer and I might confuse the message you're sending" I knew what he meant, I knew what he was doing, this was his way of seeing if I would snap out of it pull away and look at him in utter disgust but I didn't. And when I didn't he frowned slightly searching my face for more answers "What happened to the sweet innocent self righteous you? To the girl who would stop at nothing to stop me, a murderer" he whispered "She got boring and was kind of a hypocrite considering all her close friends besides 2 are murderers" he smirked and I bit my lip as I decided to do something impulsive. Something stupid. I pushed upwards and my lips met his in a surprisingly sweet kiss. He froze unsure of what to do at first but slowly he started to respond wrapping his arms around me and pulling me impossibly close.

There was more fire in this kiss than the ones we'd shared in the other time. He was more intense than the Klaus I knew and when he pushed my back against a nearby tree I felt that clearly. I breathed in and moaned a little when he nipped at the skin on my neck his teeth which he never put away scraping against the skin. His lips found their way back to mine and his hands found their way under my shirt grasping at my breasts as the kiss got more heated. At any other time I would've kept going but I knew him, he liked the chase and I wanted more than just some quick sex. I pulled away and he set me down carefully both of us breathing heavily and for a moment not saying anything. When the moment passed his face had gone back to normal and he frowned "Come to your senses so quickly" he said his voice laced with disappointment " I thought you'd know better than to think I was the type you could have so easily" he chuckled and stepped back "Says the girl who kissed me" he said a genuine smile spreading across his face for first time.

"And you let me" to that he said nothing and narrowed his eyes at me before speeding up to me and pinning me to the tree "If you and your Salvatores are playing some sort of game here I can promise you it won't end well" I laughed a little this time "How is this planned when you were the one stalking me in the cemetery" he went to say something else when I cut him off pushing him away "Let me make something clear. I'm not you, I'm not Katherine, Damon, Rebekah, none of you I don't play mind games. What just happened was no game to me" I said clearly exposing myself in a way I shouldn't have to him. I didn't think too much of it because he had the opportunity to exploit this entire talk, to whisk me away and do everything he wanted to and more but he did nothing. He played my game. He wants to know what made me change and his curiosity is what's going to get me him. I know him better than anyone and he can't hide from me once he sees that, once he sees me, I know he'll feel it. He has to.

I walked away feeling his eyes on me as I walked through the woods I knew well, I could hear him walking behind me trying to catch up human speed and I could feel how intensely he was watching me "Before we part ways you have to tell me... What did my mother want to talk to you about" he said his eyes deadly serious, he was going to run through every possible person I could be working with in his mind until he could understand what just happened "She wanted me to help her. Apparently doppelganger blood is good for binding spells and she had a particularly powerful one she wanted to use to protect you. She hasn't done it yet so don't go off doing anything stupid but that's all" he frowned and thought about it before speeding in front of me before I could walk away again "Why would you help her? What did she promise you?" I shook my head and thought through my lie carefully "Your mother spent 1000 years watching you guys tear through thousands because of what she and Mikeal did to you. She watched every betrayal and every mistake, she watched it drain you and take away everything she knew about the children she raised. She explained it to me, she let me feel it, she helped me understand it and you then asked for my help to fix what she broke. How could I say no" he didn't believe me, it would take time before he ever believed a word that came out of my mouth but I would do it.

I would spend years earning his trust if that's what it meant to have him "Whatever she thinks she knows about me she knows nothing. You can't fix anything you know why love? Because I'm not broken, I'm no wounded animal, I'm not your Salvatores. I love what I am and I wouldn't change the way things happened for anything, especially not for someone like you" he spat before turning on his heel and walking away, I rolled my eyes at that. I knew him, that was his defense spit harsh words at whoever dare try to make him seem weak. That thinking that feeling was a weakness something I would have to find a way to get through, he had so many walls this Klaus. I knew the man I loved was in there though I saw him, a glimpse of him, the moment before he kissed me. I felt him. The moment our lips met. He was in there he was just locked away and I would find a way to free him. Even if it meant having to hear him spit it all back in my face. Because that is how much I missed him, how much it hurt to have him walk away, to have in the back of my mind a small piece of me that doubted if I could ever get through to him.

I slow walked back to Bonnie's I didn't want to stay by myself, I didn't want to dream, I didn't want to think about what could've been if I had said yes when he asked me to stay every time. If I had appreciated all I had when I had it. If I had never let that go, because I did let it go. And now I'm alone. And the only person who knew how that felt was Bonnie. The only person who was working through the same blocks was her. That's all I wanted. Someone who understood me. When I got there I frowned at the way Jeremy, Caroline, and Damon stood around Bonnie. The looks they were giving her. No doubt something to do with me being missing. I handled it and them the best I could before bringing Bonnie up to her room and letting her prep the room before I spoke freely and told her everything.

"I would've kissed him, but then you know Jeremy and everyone was just standing there judging me. Especially Jeremy you should've seen the look on his face when he saw, he looked heartbroken. What was I supposed to say? What was I supposed to do?" I didn't know what to tell her in her shoes I wouldn't have known either "Eventually we have to tell them something. I know what I want and who I want and I don't wanna hide and I don't wanna pretend. But I also don't want to be judged and I don't want to lose anyone to this" she nodded understanding she was about to say something else when Damon burst in a bowl of what looked like spaghetti in his hands "I made food figured you guys were hungry, what with all your kidnapping drama, or was it date drama I don't know you still have to explain yourselves" he said as he ate making me roll my eyes at him. However irritating he was he was right about one thing I was starving.