Vampire Diaries Imagines

The One Left Behind - Kol Mikaelson

She was the one we never thought we'd see again. The one who was supposed to live a normal life. The one left behind.

I remember the day it happened. The day our mother's spell changed everything. She cursed us with immortality, forced us to drink from that vile cup, and made us into monsters. But not YN. She was left untouched. Untainted. Human.

The one gift among the curse.

She was supposed to live a full life. Fall in love. Have children. Grow old. Die peacefully.

But that's obviously not what happened.

Now, centuries later, there she stood - alive, unchanged, as though no time had passed at all.

I leaned against one of the old stone columns of the mansion's garden, arms crossed over my chest, watching her. The soft twilight light shimmered through the air, illuminating the fallen petals she had lifted gently with her magic.

She always loved flowers. Even when we were young, she would braid them into her hair, scatter them over her blankets, press them between the pages of her books. Now they floated around her, swirling lazily in the air, as effortless as breathing.

Her back remained turned toward me, but her head tilted slightly, her hair falling down over her shoulder as the petals twisted higher into the air. Her soft blue dress swayed in the gentle breeze.

"You're staring," she said, her voice quiet but knowing.

She knew I was there. YN had always known when I was near.

"I haven't seen you in a thousand years," I replied. "I think I'm entitled."

She smiled softly - but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Slowly, she turned toward me, her bare feet brushing against the cool grass. The petals stilled in the air before drifting back down toward the ground.

I studied her carefully, looking for any sign that this wasn't real. Any indication that this was some illusion or cruel trick. But it was her. Exactly as I remembered her.

"You haven't changed," I murmured.

"No," she said softly. "But neither have you."

Her gaze dropped toward the ground, her expression shifting into something sad and quiet.

I took a step closer. "How?"

"Mother did the one thing she was best at," she said after a moment, her jaw tightening. "She lied to you. To all of you. To me even."

My brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

YN's eyes met mine, and I saw the quiet storm in them - the simmering betrayal beneath the softness of her gaze.

"She didn't leave me human," she said. "Not really. She cast a different spell - a gentler spell you could say. One that preserved me... but didn't turn me into what she did to the lot of you."

I swallowed thickly. "So you don't-"

"No thirst," she confirmed. "No bloodlust. I don't age. Time doesn't touch me. But I can't die, either."

A hollow, sharp ache settled in my chest.

"She gave you what the rest of us didn't have," I said. "Immortality without the hunger."

"That's what I thought too," YN said bitterly. "But then the years passed. And the decades. And the centuries." Her gaze hardened. "And I realized... she didn't save me from anything really. She had just cursed me differently."

My hands curled into fists at my sides. "She lied to us all. She said she would give you the life we all hoped you would have. The lot of us didn't care what happened to us, but you deserved better."

YN smiled sadly. "That's what mother was good at."

Anger coiled tight beneath my skin. I had always known our mother to be manipulative - dangerous - but this? This was cruelty at a level I didn't know she was capable of. She had left YN to suffer in silence, alone, without her family, while the rest of us believed she had lived and died like a human as we wanted for her.

"I would have looked for you," I said quietly, stepping toward her. "I would have found you."

YN's smile softened, her gaze turning gentle. "I know."

My chest tightened. I could feel the weight of a thousand years of lost time stretching between us.

"You were the only one I could ever really talk to," I admitted. "The only one who didn't treat me like some unstable disaster waiting to happen."

YN's eyes glinted with quiet understanding. "That's because I knew you weren't."

I let out a low breath, my gaze sharpening. "You should have called for me."

"I didn't know where you were."

"Of course she kept you unknowing," I said, my voice rougher now. "I spent centuries believing you were gone."

YN's eyes saddened once more. "I was in a way. She kept me from you all but yet left me alone. Left me to fend on my own for centuries. Only by luck did I run into Elijah and he brought me back. Who knew that my search for quiet, for peace, would lead me back to the one thing I needed more than that?"

Silence hung between us for a long moment.

And then I felt her hand slip into mine. Her fingers curled gently around mine, grounding me in that way only she ever could.

"But I'm here now," she whispered.

I closed my eyes briefly, swallowing against the sharp knot in my throat.

"As you should have been all along," I said quietly.

She smiled, but I saw the flicker of vulnerability behind it - the hesitation that only I could see. I squeezed her hand, anchoring her to me.

"I missed you," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

Her smile trembled slightly. "I missed you too."

I hesitated for half a second before pulling her against me. Her head tucked beneath my chin, her arms wrapping lightly around my waist as mine curled protectively around her back.

She was small against me, but steady. Real.

"I'll protect you this time," I said, my voice low and dangerous.

"You don't need to."

I pulled back enough to look down at her. "Don't I?"

Her smile softened, her hand brushing against my cheek. "I've learned how to survive on my own."

"Well," I said with a smirk, "that's good to hear. But you're not going to be on your own anymore."

YN's eyes gleamed softly. "You sound so sure about that."

"I am." I brushed my hand through her hair. "You're home now. And no one's going to take you from us again."

Her gaze softened, her fingers curling against my chest. "Kol-" A single tear slipped down her cheek, and I brushed it away with my thumb.

"You're home," I said again, more fiercely this time.

YN's lips parted slightly. "Promise?"

"Always," I murmured.

She smiled through the tears, resting her forehead against my chest. And as my arms curled tightly around her, I knew I meant it.

Because after a thousand years of thinking I'd lost her - of believing I'd never see her face again - I wasn't going to let her go.

Not this time.