||act one||

"damon, look buddy, it's obvious my allotted time here is unknown. i know i'm not your favorite person, i'm probably one of your least favorite, but i need to see cora. if i'm going to go back to that place, i need to see her one last time.

kai's various pleads did not go unnoticed by the elder salvatore, rather he chose to ignore them in their entirety. in his mind, keeping kai as far away from cora and emerson as possible was what would be best in the long run for the young mother and daughter duo. any interference from kai could have grave, unforeseen consequences none wished to become known.

minutes prior, blood had begun to pour from kai's nose. he deemed it an unfortunate consequence of his timely escape, and a trigger to speed up the reunion between him and cora. damon, on the other hand, argued that he did not need to see cora yet, but agreed to help find a solution as he knew kai would prove helpful in waking elena. after deciding upon the fact more bad souls would have to overcome kai's very, very bad one, damon began prepping worthless humans with bad intentions and qualities for kai to devour in a hidden back room.

the pair continued this sequence a while before kai decided he had had enough and the blood's incessant drip began to lessen. he carelessly dropped the last body unceremoniously to the hard ground before proceeding to clap damon upon the back and congratulate him on a job well done.

after a scowl from sent in kai's direction, damon reached into his back pocket and retrieved his phone. cora had been relentlessly calling him over the past hour and a half, and he though she deserved a call back once they had finished up their "work." however, kai saw him click on the girl's contact name and had other ideas.

"you gotta let me talk to her, damon," kai spoke with force that would frighten any meager human, but not damon. he knew how to handle kai well enough, so with one swift motion, kai's neck was left snapped and his body strewn across the dusty floor beneath him. damon's uninterested face shifted once the lack of ringing alerted him cora had answered his call.

"cora! how's my favorite forbes's sister doing," damon chirped sarcastically into the phone, after making sure kai was down and out of the way. the smirk upon his face could arguably be heard through the phone, something cora had become more than used to.

"considering caroline's history with you, that's not necessarily a hard contest to win, but, uh, bonnie's call got cut off right as she was going to tell me which one of our old friends is back to play," cora chuckles nervously at her comment and took a breath before continuing, "which one, damon?" her question begged an answer damon could easily answer, but he refrained from doing so for cora's sake.

"look, you're not going to be happy," damon uttered his words hesitantly, as if he was scared to speak them in their entirety. he began to lead her on, offer vague information to fill her void, but not revealing to much to give away the identity of their "old friend."

"i can confidently say that about all of our old friends we've sent to the grave," cora spoke bluntly, excluding kai, those she chose carefully not to necessarily mention him to damon. it was without question that she despised most of their enemies, though she had gotten along well enough with a few of the mikaelsons, occasionally to say the least.

"even kai?" damon spoke sarcastically, attempting to cover the fact that in truth, kai was was their so called old friend awaiting his reunion with her. he knew this was a touchy subject to bring up, but the words slipped from his mouth before he got the chance to think them over.

"i-i. that's not a fair question, damon," cora spoke flippantly, desperate to change steer the ever changing topic back to her original question for damon that he had failed to answer.

"sure it is, cora." damon knew he was overstepping the boundaries neither had to verbally communicate to the other concerning their dead lovers, but he needed to know if letting kai back into her life would prove successful or disastrous. truthfully, he thought the latter.

"i-i. damon we had rules about this. i don't bring up elena and what you two had if you don't bring up him," cora refrained from even saying his name as she knew the pain it would cause her, adding to the immeasurable amount of pain she had already found herself in. truthfully, she avoided the topic of kai altogether as much as possible, because it caused her too much pain to handle, sometimes.

"i think the two of us are turning over a new leaf, blonde 2.0, so i'm gonna need you to tell me," damon spoke his words hastily as he realized kai was beginning to stir on the ground and regain his life. with every word he spoke, damon was well aware he was pushing his budding friendship with cora backwards rather than the desired forwards direction, but he couldn't stop.

"i-i still love him," cora whispered softly into the phone, but it rung clear as day in damon's ears, and unbeknownst to the two unlikely friends, kai's, as well as he had woken up from his temporary death moments prior.

||act two||

"listen carefully, kai," damon began to explain to kai what was about to go down on his terms, according to his rules,"we are going to cora's house, and you are going to wait inside the car, okay?" damon's demanding tone was made clear as he directed his words with force towards the gemini witch.

cora had called damon over to fully explain the situation as his responses had been quite vague, though they were intentional on his part. once at her house, he intended to deliver the exact vague answers similar to those she had received earlier in the day over phone.

kai sat, visibly annoyed at damon's reiteration of the rules. however, kai had a plan brewing all of his own, unbeknownst to damon as he continued to rant. at any cost, kai would see cora again before the sun had a chance to set.

"but-" kai began to interfere with damon's plans by having these ideas of his own, which was never known to be a pleasant thing to any of the mystic falls residents, not only the supernatural gang working together to resolve issues become apparent in the small town.

"no buts parker!" damon yelled harshly. he needed things to go his way only, and in order for that to happen, kai needed to have a strong understanding of the set ground rules. if things went according to plan, cora would still be left in the dark over kai's revival. knowing in his mind kai was vital to his plan to wake elena without harming bonnie, he knew kai would have to be kept alive for a while longer, which caused more problems then resolutions for damon.

the pair were close to arriving at cora's house when kai began to bite his tongue in eery silence. this worried damon, because he expected a witty, sarcastic response to damon's comment. without it, he had know idea what sort of idea's were running rampant throughout kai's twisted mind.

"i wouldn't ever hurt cora, not again."

the only sound from the brunette was a single whisper into the silence, which soon drifted away and formed a new silence all of it's once.

"okay, we're here. don't try anything tricky and maybe you can see cora in a few days, maybe," damon's inconsiderate words only fueled the fire raging in kai's mind. kai gripped the edges of the leather seat placed in damon's blue, beloved vehicle harshly before turning on the elder salvatore brother hastily.

"you don't set all of the rules damon, newsflash, you're not that important!" kai snapped at the raven haired vampire and the latter looked startled over the eruption, but not necessarily surprised at the outburst. kai frequently had them, due to his inability to correctly control his emotions.

"you want to say that again to my face? this, this is why we won't let you see cora!" damon's response flew from his mouth before he was able to make sense of the flipped situation. his icy eyes narrowed and and the blue dug into kai's very soul.

"fine, you asked for it, anyway. you are not that important, damon."

and with a simple twist of the witch's wrist, damon's neck was snapped and left at an odd angle as his body lay sprawled across the leather seat's expanse.

a/n
damon, you are not really that important. say it again for the people in the back please.