❪ 𝓢𝑰𝑿 𝓕𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝓤𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹 ❫ ⚰️ ˖ ׁ ⁩ 𓂃
𝚃𝚅𝙳  ⸻  ✸ 🔮⭑.ᐟ
❝ 𝖧𝖤𝖫𝖫𝖮, 𝖡𝖱𝖮𝖳𝖧𝖤𝖱 ❞

✦ ╮ 𝟬𝟭. ❝ 𝖯𝖨𝖮𝖫𝖳 ❞ ── .✦

𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 roof of the Salvatore Boarding house, sat 17-year-old, Anastasia Salvatore, her converse covered feet crossed under her body as she looked out into the forest that rested just on the side of the large house. With her green eyes bolted to the sky, watching the sunrise.

For as long as she could remember, Anastasia loved to watch the sunrise rather than watch the sunset. It seemed to give her a sense of normality that she didn't quite get to have as a vampire that should've long been buried six feet under with the rest of her deceased and desiccated family.

But there she was, a walking and living vampire that had lived for a hundred and thirty-three years - and still going.

"What do you think you're doing up there?" A voice calls out from below her.

The green-eyed girl looked down to where the voice had come from before they landed on the figure of her uncle, Stefan Salvatore. Stefan had been the one to take his niece in when she was only four years old - and human.

Her mother had died long before she could even walk, and her father had left her in the care of her uncle after being forced, by none other than Stefan himself, to turn into a vampire. And the result of that? Not having seen her father in a couple of years - 15 years, if you wanted the exact number.

"I'm just watching the sunrise." Her gaze goes back to the sky the quiet air filled with her uncle letting out a soft chuckle at his niece.

"Can you get down, please? We need to get going if we want to be on time for school." Stefan tells her, hands resting on his hips just like a scolding mother would do.

"As you wish, Uncle Stefan."

Stefan watches as his brother's kid stands up on the roof, showing off as she back-flips while getting down, landing gracefully on her feet, a beaming smile on her face.

Anastasia grinned, "Ah, I love doing that."

"You know, a normal uncle would tell you off for doing something so stupid, reckless, and irresponsible." Stefan stated as the two walked towards his car.

"But we're not normal." She gave him a cheeky smile

Stefan laughs, "No, we are not."

"So, what's the story for school this time?" Anastasia asks, eyes casted out the window as she watched trees passing her by.

"I think it'll be okay for us to be uncle and niece." Stefan tells her, turning his left blinker on so that he could turn, "In this day in age, some uncles and nieces are the same age, so we'll just go with that story."

────୨ৎ────

𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍 their heads to look at the two figures making their way up to the high school that was named after the town itself, 'MYSTIC FALLS HIGH'.

Both of them were sporting leather jackets and sunglasses covering their faces so that no one was able to see all of their facial features.

The many high school students couldn't help but wonder if the two were related, if they were a couple, or if they were just really close friends that just so happened to be starting school at the exact same time.

"If one more teenage boy says something about your ass, I'm knocking heads off of shoulders." Stefan huffed, wrapping his arm around his niece's shoulders and pulling her closer to his side.

Anastasia wrapped her arm around his back, "Not if I beat you to it first."

Stefan laughed, kissing the side of her head, "That's my girl."

────୨ৎ────

❝ 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐔𝐏. ❞ Bonnie Bennett pulled her best friend to a stop right outside of the main office, eyes catching the leather jacket that the tall boy standing at the front desk wore, "Who is that?"

Elena Gilbert turned her head to see who her best friend was looking at, "All I see is back."

"It's a hot back." Bonnie smirked.

"Excuse me, ladies." An angelic voice spoke from behind the two.

Turning, the two were met with the sight of a teenager girl standing behind them, her own leather jacket covering the upper half of her body along with a white t-shirt and a pair of ripped blue jeans cover her legs, and sunglasses cover her eyes from their view.

"Sorry." Bonnie moves over just enough so that she could slip in between the two girls and make her way over to the boy that already stood there, looping her arm through his and leaning against his side.

"Your records are incomplete. You're both missing immunization records, and we do insist on transcripts." The secretary spoke, looking up at the two standing in front of her.

Stefan pulls his sunglasses off, staring into the woman's brown eyes until they dilated, "Please, look again. I'm sure everything you need is there."

"Well, you're right." The secretary spoke in a daze, "So it is."

"I'm sensing Seattle, and he plays the guitar." Bonnie's voice caught the attention of Anastasia, causing her to tilt her head to the side so that she could hear better, "And she's really good at art, but doesn't show it to anyone."

"You're really going to run this whole psychic thing into the ground huh?" Elena asked with a smile.

"Pretty much."

"Jeremy, good batch, man." A voice a little further down the hall filled her ears.

"I'll be right back." Elena tells Bonnie before all Anastasia can hear are footsteps walking off.

"Eloise, come on." Stefan nudged his niece, handing her the piece of paper that had all her classes printed on it, "We have all the same classes, except I compelled you into the art class."

"Please be hot." Bonnie spoke as the two turned to walk out of the office.

Anastasia made sure to flash the dark-skinned girl a smile while also taking off her sunglasses to get a good glimpse of the girl.

────୨ৎ────

𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐒 his niece along with him towards the bathrooms with the hopes that he'd be able to go before they had to get to their first class of the day.

But that wasn't going to happen seeing as he had managed to bump into the brunette girl that had been standing outside of the office that morning, coming out of the bathrooms.

"Uh, pardon me." Stefan's voice brings her out of her thoughts about how much the teenage girl standing in front of them looked like Katherine Pierce.

Only she had a human heartbeat.

"Um...is this the men's room?"

"Yes. Um, I was just, um - I was just. It's a long story." The girl says, trying to get around Stefan but each time she would move, he ended up moving in the same direction that she was moving.

Anastasia reached out and grabbed her uncle by the arm, pulling him off to the side so that Elena could walk around the two of them.

Elena smiled softly at her, "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

────୨ৎ────

❝ 𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐑 home state of Virginia joined confederacy in 1861, it created a tremendous amount of tension within the state. ❞ The history teacher, Mr. Tanner, spoke as Anastasia sat between her uncle and Elena.

She was bored out of her mind, but there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. She hated learning about history, especially since she was technically a part of history herself.

"People in Virginia's Northwest region had different ideas than those from the traditional deep south. Then Virginia divided in 1863 with the Northwest region joining the union."

Anastasia smirked over at her uncle as she catching him looking passed her and at Elena.

She didn't like the thought that Elena looked exactly like Katherine, but she knew that she was going to push her uncle into talking to the girl at some point in time.

After all, she was the reason the uncle and niece duo moved back to their hometown in the first place.

────୨ৎ────

𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐀 𝐒𝐀𝐓 in the cemetery, across from her parents' grave, as she wrote about her day in her diary, but the sound of a crow cawing caught her attention.

"Okay. Hi, bird." Elena spoke, looking up at the black animal that sat on top of the tombstone. "That's not creepy or anything."

She went back to writing in the olive-green diary, but just as soon as she started to, fog filled the ground below her causing the crow to caw once more.

Elena stands up, swatting at the bird, "Shoo! That's what I thought."

Turning around, she jumped back as the crow only moved to sit on the stone behind her.

Keeping her eyes on the bird, she rushes away, looking back once and seeing someone standing behind the grave. Elena couldn't see the person's face, so she turned back around and ran off.

Running down a hill, she trips and falls before she's back up again. This time though, when she turns, she finds Stefan and Anastasia standing behind her.

"You okay?" Stefan asked, concerned, squeezing his niece's hand that he was holding as the two walked in the cemetery so that she wouldn't fall in the heels she had on her feet.

"Were you two following me?" Elena bluntly asked, watching the green-eyed girl raise an eyebrow, almost as if she had asked the stupidest question ever.

"No, I, uh, I just - We saw you fall." Stefan tells the girl.

Elena looked at him as if she didn't believe the words coming from his mouth, "Uh-huh, and you two just happened to be handing out in a cemetery."

"We're visiting." Anastasia spoke up, shuffling closer to her uncle. She stands halfway behind him. "We have family here."

"Oh. Wow." Elena felt bad for snapping at the two. "Tactless. I'm sorry. It's the fog, it's making me foggy. And then back there, there was this bird, and it was all very Hitchcock for a second. That is the bird movie, right? The Hitchcock? I'm Elena."

"I'm Stefan." He introduces himself to her.

"I know." Elena said, "We have history together."

"And English. And French." Stefan said.

"Right." Elena's eyes flashed to Anastasia, then to the two of their hands which were still intertwined together, "And you are?"

"This is Anastasia." Stefan answered, knowing his niece didn't really like meeting new people, especially if they just asked as if she, or anyone, had committed a crime, "My niece."

Elena watched as Stefan lifted his other hand to her hair, pulling out a leaf. "Thanks." She looked back down at the two's hands, noticing the rings on both of their fingers, "Nice rings."

"Oh. Um, they're family rings, yeah." Says Stefan, "We're kinda stuck with them. It's weird, huh?"

"No, no." Elena shook her head, "It's just, I mean, there are rings and then there are those."

"Did you hurt yourself?" Anastasia suddenly spoke up as she smelt blood.

"Hmm?" Elena's eyes flashed to hers.

"Did you hurt yourself?" She repeats.

"Oh, uh, I don't know." Elena said, walking over to a bolder and bringing her leg up as she pulled her pants leg up to reveal blood coming from the gash on her leg.

Stefan tensed up and so did Anastasia at the sight of the crimson red liquid.

Although Anastasia had more control than her uncle did when it came to human blood, it still didn't want to end up losing control.

"Oh! Look at that. That is not pretty." Elena looked up to find the two teens looking away from her leg, "You guys, okay?"

"You should go." Stefan's voice is strained as he tried to focus on something other than the human's blood.

"He means to take care of that." Anastasia looked towards the girl, flashing her a forced smile.

"Really, it's nothing." Elena rolls her jeans back down and looked up, only for both Anastasia and Stefan to be gone from sight.

────୨ৎ────

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐀𝐓 home, Anastasia sat in the middle of her large bed, the original copy of Romeo and Julies in her hands, eyes skimming over the pages she had read more times than she could count, when there was a knock on her door.

"Hey, kiddo." Stefan leaned against the door frame as he held a green journal in his hands, "I'm about to take this to Elena. Do you want to walk with me or stay here with Zach 'till I get back?"

"I'll go." She closed the book in her hands and sat it on her nightstand before getting up, "I'd rather go than stay here."

Stefan frowned at his niece, "Why? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just have this off feeling about something." She shrugged her leather jacket on her shoulders.

"I thought when you quit doing magic that your off feelings stopped?" Stefan followed her out of her bedroom.

"I thought I had too." Anastasia tells him, "I don't know. It's kind of like somebody's watching me."

"Hey." He wrapped an arm around his shoulders, "Everything is gonna be okay. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Eloise."

"I know, Uncle Stefan. And I love you for that."

Stefan cracked a smile, kissing her temple, "I love you too, kid."

────୨ৎ────

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐎 Salvatore's now stood on the Gilbert porch, Stefan just about to knock before the door was abruptly pulled open and the two were face to face with Elena.

"Sorry, I was just about to knock." Stefan tells her, "I wanted to apologize for our disappearing act earlier. We know it was strange."

"No worries." Elena told the two, noticing the distance Anastasia had put between herself and Elena, "I get it. Blood makes you squeamish."

"Um, something like that." Stefan glanced back at his niece for a split second, "How's your leg?"

"Oh, it's fine. Just a scratch, barely." Elena tells him before giving Stefan a strange look, "How did you guys know where I lived?"

"It's a small town." Anastasia spoke up, "We asked the first person we saw."

"Um, I thought you might want this back." Stefan held up her journal."

"Oh, I must have dropped it. I - Thank you."

"Don't worry, I didn't .... read it." Stefan tells her.

"No? Why not?" She questioned, "Most people would have."

"Well, I wouldn't want anyone to read mine." Stefan lied, knowing that he always let Anastasia read his.

She liked reading about the past, mostly the ones that she was to little to remember.

"You keep a journal?" Elena asked him.

"Yeah, if I don't write it down, I forget it." Stefan says, "Memories are important."

"Yeah. I'm just gonna, um. You two don't have to stand out there." Elena says, walking away into the house.

"We're fine." Stefan said loud enough for her to hear before she comes back to the door, "Sorry, were you going somewhere?"

"Yeah. I'm meeting a friend." Elena tells the two, "Do you guys want to come?"

"Stas, you up for it?" Stefan asked, turning to his niece, "Or do you want me to walk you home first?"

Elena smiled at how protective Stefan seemed to be over his niece.

Anastasia shrugged, "I'll just go with."

────୨ৎ────

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 walked into the grill and instantly a blonde boy, one that was in their history class, walked over and held his hand out for Stefan.

"Hey, I'm Matt. Nice to meet you."

Stefan shook his hand, "Hi. Stefan. And this is my niece, Anastasia."

Anastasia gave him a small wave as she looked around the small hangout spot.

Pulling up at first, she couldn't help but roll her eyes at the name of the place being called 'MYSTIC GRILL'.

The town really needed to up their game with their naming.

"Earth to Anastasia." Stefan snapped his fingers in front of his niece's face, "Come on."

"Sorry." She mumbled, following after the two in front of her.

────୨ৎ────

𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄 sure to keep his eyes trained on his niece, who stood at the bar, trying to get herself a coke while he was forced to sit and answer the millions of questions thrown his way by Caroline.

"So, you were born in Mystic Falls?" Caroline asked another question, forcing him to tear his eyes away from Anastasia.

"Mm-hmm. And moved when we were still young." Stefan answered.

"Parents?" Bonnie asked.

"My parents passed away." Stefan says.

"I'm sorry." Elena gives him a sympathetic look, "Any siblings?"

"None that I talk to." Stefan said, "Anastasia and I live with my Uncle Zach."

"What about Anastasia's parents?" Caroline asked.

"Uh, her mom passed away during childbirth and her dad isn't really around much anymore." Stefan said, "She came to stay with me and my parents when she was four. I'm more like a brother than an uncle, though."

────୨ৎ────

❝ 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 ❞ Anastasia mumbled as she watched yet another waitress walks by her without even stopping to ask if she needed anything.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a teenage boy about a year or two younger than she would be if she were human, a pouty look on his face.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you that pouting isn't that attractive."

The boy turned his head to look over at her, "Yeah? Damn, guess I'll never find a date to prom then." His voice was sarcastic as he moved over a seat, so they were sitting closer to each other, and he held out his hand, "Jeremy."

"Anastasia." She shook his hand.

"Hmm, that's a mouthful." He tells her.

"Most people say that." She laughed, "So, why are you pouting all alone?"

Jeremy sighed, "What's not to pout about? It's just a bunch of girl troubles."

"Ooh." She frowned, "Must be real hard."

"You have no idea." He says, flagging down one of the waitresses, "Vicki, she's been waiting for someone for about ten minutes now."

"Sorry." The girl shook her head, glaring at the girl slightly, "What can I get you? But be warned, I'm gonna need to see some ID for you to but──,"

"I'm not buying alcohol." Anastasia shook her head, "Can I just get a coke, please?"

"Sure, I'll be right back." Vicki says, walking away.

"Thanks for that."

"No problem." Jeremy tells her as Vicki comes back with her drink, telling her the price, "I got it."

"You don't have to do-,"

"Ah, ah." Jeremy held his hand up, "I'm paying for it."

Anastasia held her hands up in mock surrender before grabbing her drink and backing away from the bar, "I'm not gonna turn down a handsome guy buying my drink. See you later, Jeremy."

Vicki glared at the side of Jeremy's head as he kept his eyes on the girl walking towards his sister before she stormed off to go stand with her brother and Tyler.

────୨ৎ────

❝ 𝐈𝐒 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 whole family just insanely attractive? ❞ Caroline questioned as Anastasia sat next to her uncle once more.

"She gets her eyes and hair color from her mother, but she gets her facial features from her father." Stefan's arm went around the back of Anastasia's chair.

"So, Stefan, Ana, if the two of you are new, then you guys don't know about the party tomorrow." Caroline tells them.

"It's a back to school think at the falls." Bonnie says with a smile.

Stefan looked over at Elena, "Are you going?"

Bonnie laughed as she watched Anastasia pretend to throw up, before speaking up for Elena, "Of course she is."

────୨ৎ────

𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐀 𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐒 on her uncle's bed as he pulled a black t-shirt over his head just as Zach came into the room, holding a newspaper that read 'BODIES FOUND MUTILATED BY ANIMAL'.

"You both promised." Zach held the paper up, Stefan snatching it front his hands to get a better look at it.

"This was an animal attack." Stefan tells him, trying to hand the newspaper back to him.

Zach shook his head, "Don't give me that. I know the game. You tear them up enough, they always suspect an animal attack. You said you both had it under control."

"And we do." Anastasia said from her place on the bed.

"Please, Uncle Stefan, Anastasia. Mystic Falls is a different place now. It's been quiet for years, but there are people who still remember. And you both being her, it's just going to stir things up." Zach tells them.

"It's not our intentions." Stefan says.

"Then what is it?" Questioned Zach, "Why did both of you come back? After all this time, why now?"

"I don't have to explain myself." Stefan says, "And neither does my niece."

"I know that you can't change what you are, either of you." Zach looked between his uncle and cousin, "But you guys don't belong here anymore."

"Where do we belong?" Anastasia asked.

Zach looked at her, "I can't tell you what to do. But coming back here was a mistake."

Stefan turned to his niece after Zach left the room, "Did you do that?"

Anastasia looked at her uncle in disbelief, "What? You think I did that? I've been with you the whole time! I can't believe you'd think that I'd do that!"

"Ana-," Stefan closed his eyes and sighed loudly as his niece stormed out of his bedroom, slamming the door behind her as she went.

────୨ৎ────

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 day, Anastasia sat in history class once again sitting between her uncle and Elena.

And what a surprise, they were both looking at each other.

"The Battle of Willow Creek took place right at the end of the way in our very own Mystic Falls." Mr. Tanner says as he walks around his class, "How many casualties resulted in this battle? Ms. Bennett?"

Bonnie looked up from her notebook quickly, "Um, a lot? I'm not sure. Like, a whole lot."

"Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Ms. Bennett. Mr. Donovan, would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jock stereotype?" Tanner asked the blonde in the back.

"It's okay, Mr. Tanner, I'm cool with it." Matt answered, earning a few chuckles throughout the classroom.

"Hmm? Elena? Surly you can enlighten us about one of the town's most significant historical events?" Mr. Tanner looks at her.

"I'm sorry, I - I don't know." Elena tells him.

"I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena. But the personal excuses ended with summer break." Mr. Tanner tells her.

"Oooh, I wanna strangle him." Anastasia mumbled under her breath.

Stefan shot his niece a look before he answered the question himself, "There were 364 casualties, unless you're counting local civilians."

"That's correct, Mr...." Tanner trailed off.

"Salvatore."

"Salvatore. Any relations to the original settlers here at Mystic Falls?"

"Distant."

"Well, very good. Except, of course, there were no civilian causalities in this battle." Tanner tells him.

Anastasia raised an eyebrow, "Actually there were 27, sir." Everyone now looked towards her, "Confederate soldiers, they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss. The founder's archives are, uh, storied in civil hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts, Mr. Tanner."

"And you are?" Tanner asked her.

"Anastasia Salvatore."

"Any relation between the two of you?" Tanner points between the two Salvatore's.

Stefan points towards Anastasia, "Niece."

"Uncle." Anastasia points at Stefan.

────୨ৎ────

𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐍𝐃 Anastasia walked side by side towards the party where countless teens were scattered around, either drinking and talking or drinking and making out.

"I need a beer." Anastasia ran a hand through her hair, going to walk away but Stefan stops her.

"Don't drink too much."

"Yeah, yeah. I know, I've heard the speech a thousand times before. Don't drink too much or you'll end up like your father." Anastasia says as she walks away, "Drunk and lonely with a side of bad and short temper."

The girl walked away from her uncle and towards a large cooler where she grabbed a glass beer bottle and used her shirt twist the cap off before she brought it up to her lips and took a big swig.

"I didn't take you for a drinker."

She turned around to find Jeremy standing behind her, his own beer in hand.

Anastasia chuckled, taking another swig from the bottle, "Well, you don't know me at all so how could you have possibly known? Though, cheap beer isn't my favorite go-to drink of choice, it'll work."

Jeremy let out a laugh, looking down at his feet for a moment, "Then how about you let me get to know you?"

"Hmm, hope you are prepared for a shit ton of ranting, 'cause if we're gonna be friends, then you better be ready to not get rid of me for a while."

Jeremy smiled, "I think I can live with that."

────୨ৎ────

𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 with Jeremy, Anastasia found herself alone as she watched teenagers getting drunk off their asses.

Once he had spotted Vicki and Tyler going into the woods, he decided that he was going to follow them just to make sure that the girl was okay.

Anastasia could tell that the Gilbert boy had feelings for the older girl that seemed to not want anything to do with him since their summer of fun was "over" as Jeremy had tried to explain to the Salvatore girl.

And after leaving her uncle alone, she hadn't seen Stefan except for when he had walked over to Elena.

But she also seen Caroline bounce up to Stefan and she knew that by the end of the night Stefan was going to have to break her little human heart and tell her that he had no interest in her whatsoever.

"Have you seriously not moved from that spot?" Jeremy's voice filler her ear once more, holding out a new beer towards her.

Anastasia took the bottle, bringing it up to her lips and taking a drink, "So, how'd it go with Vicki?"

"Well, she ran off after I helped her away from Tyler, who was trying to force himself on her, so.." Jeremy shrugged.

"Is that my brother and your niece?" Anastasia heard Elena ask her uncle.

"Great. Hear comes the parental-wanna-be." Jeremy mumbled to Anastasia before he started to walk away.

"You don't want to be lectured by your big sister?" She asked him with a mock pout, causing him to laugh and shake his head before he went into the woods."

"Jeremy!" Elena called, walking after her. "Jeremy!"

"I though you didn't want a boyfriend." Stefan walked over to his niece, hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"I don't." She shrugged, "But he's cute so if he wants to flirt, I'll flirt back. Besides, he's too strung up on Vicki Donovan to actually see if anyone would like him."

"Hmm. And do you? Like him?" Smirked Stefan.

"I don't know him enough to like him." Anastasia tells her uncle, "I'd rather not get attached, I've been hurt way too many times before in my life."

"Somebody help!" Elena's voice traveled and both Salvatore's looked up to see her and Jeremy coming out of the woods, Jeremy carrying Vicki's limp body in his arms.

"Vicki? Vicki, what the hell?" Matt asked, rushing over to his sister along with crowd of people, causing Stefan to grab his niece's arm and pulling her away.

"What happened to her?" Tyler asked.

"Somebody call an ambulance!"

Tyler began to push people away from the girl's body, "Everybody back up! Give her some space!"

"It's her neck." Elena says, "Something bit her. She's losing a lot of blood."

"Put this on her neck."

"Uncle Stefan....."

"Come on." He pushed her in the opposite direction of what was going on, "Go. Let's go."

────୨ৎ────

𝐙𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐒 up at the sound of the front door opening, Stefan coming in followed by Anastasia, "What's going on?"

"Somebody else was attacked tonight, Zach, and it wasn't us." Stefan says, pulling his niece up the stairs of the house and went up to his bedroom.

He came to a stop in the middle of the room, Anastasia running into his back as he did so.

"Damon."

Damon Salvatore, Stefan's brother and Anastasia's father, smirked as he looked at his brother, "Hello, brother. Daughter of mine."

"Crows a bit much, don't you think?" Stefan asked, keeping his niece behind him.

"Wait 'til you see what I can do with the fog." Damon says, messing with things around Stefan's room.

"When did you get here?" Stefan asked.

"Well, I couldn't miss my daughters first day of school." Says Damon, "Or yours. You're hair's different. I like it."

"It's been fifteen years, Dad." Anastasia spoke up for the first time since they walked into the room.

"Thank God. I couldn't take another day of the 90's. That horrible grunge look? Did not suit you." Damon points at his brother, "Remember, Stefan, it's important to stay away from fads."

"Why are you here?" Asked Stefan.

"I missed my little brother." Damon tells him, eyes flashing to his daughter, "And my daughter."

"You hate small towns." Anastasia said, "It's boring. There's nothing for you to do."

"I've managed to keep himself busy." Damon smirked.

"You know, you left that girl alive tonight." Stefan tells his brother, "That's very clumsy of you."

"Ah. That can be a problem...for you."

"Why are you here now?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Stefan." Damon said, "However, I'm fairly certain your answer can be summed up all into one little word .... Elena."

Anastasia rolled her eyes at her father's words, crossing her arms over her chest.

"She took my breath away, Elena. She's a dead ringer for Katherine. Is it working, Stefan?" Asked Damon, "Being around her, being in her world? Does it make you feel alive?"

"She's not Katherine." Stefan tells him.

"Well, let's hope not. We both know how that ended. Tell me something, when's the last time you had something stronger than a squirrel?"

"Dad...."

"I know what you're doing, Damon. It's not gonna work." Stefan says, "Eloise, go to your room."

"What? But Uncle Ste-,"

"Now, Anastasia!"

She jumped slightly at the house of her uncle's voice, never having him raise it her before.

Huffing, she spun around on the balls of her feet and walked out of the room and went to her own bedroom.

"You didn't have to send her to her room." Damon raised an eyebrow at his brother.

"Yes, I did. Or did you forget that your daughter can't stay in control most days?" Stefan asked him, "Oh, that's right. You haven't seen her in fifteen years to know that."

"Because you too her from me."

Stefan chuckled, "No, I didn't. You gave up on her when I forced you to turn. You gave up on her when she was dying in 1877."

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𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 hear every word that was coming from her father and uncle, which caused a frown to be painted on her lips as she laid in her bed, the only light in the room being from the lamp that was on her side table.

She didn't understand why her father had come back after all those years of making sure he stayed clear of both her and Stefan.

She was mad at her father because the only time that Damon Salvatore actually came around was when he wanted to make his brother's life a living hell, as promised.

He didn't just come to visit to come visit. He didn't call her on her birthday, or even just to check up and ask her how she's doing.

Anastasia had basically raised herself with the help of her uncle.

Stefan had been raising her since she was four years old and 133 years later, he was still raising her.

────୨ৎ────

𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃 down at the sleeping figure of his daughter.

She slept curled up in a small ball and was holding onto her blanket tightly, her chest rising and falling with each and every breath that she took.

He brought his hand up, brushing her dark hair out of her face before leaning down to place a kiss on her forehead, "I love you, my beautiful daughter."