All I Need (Vampire Diaries/Captain America Fanfic)

1. The Vampires of Mystic Falls

Everything was a blur. I was barely keeping track of what city I was in, running like my life depended on it. The first time I stopped was when I reached the border.

'Welcome to Mystic Falls'.

From there it was easy. I ran to the house that I'd spent a lot of time in many years before, one of the only places that felt like home to me. The Salvatore boarding house. From what I'd heard, there were only two residents left.

I knocked the door, noting how weird it felt. Normally I'd come barrelling in without a second thought. But Mystic Falls had changed since the last time I was here. The house looked dark, dangerous, like it was falling apart. It was the kind of house that I'd stay far away from... if I was human.

I knocked again. And this time, the door opened immediately.

...

"Serena?" my brother Stefan asked, shock evident in his face. That kind of thing tends to happen when you haven't seen your family in 50 years.

"Brother," I said, waving my hand through the doorframe. Luckily, as no humans lived there, I didn't need an invitation.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, following me into the house.

"Is it so unheard of for a sister to visit her brother?" I asked, wandering around. Since I'd been gone, they'd added a television and a pool table, but apart from that, it was the same. Touching the walls and bookshelves made my heart ache, the nostalgia washed through me like a wave.

"When the sister is you and the brother is me... yeah. Pretty unheard of," he said. I rolled my eyes and ignored him, continuing my trip down memory lane. "How's James?"

Of course, Stefan would ask the one question I'd been dreading. Damon, our other brother, wouldn't care less.

"He died. Got any alcohol?" I asked in the same breath, following the smell of Damon's favourite bourbon.

"I'm sorry." He was still following me. "What happened?"

"What do you think happened?" I filled the glass and took a gulp. "He got old. Everything stopped working. He didn't want to be saved so I smothered him in his sleep."

He didn't say anything, but his disapproving look was enough.

"He would have gone to that place in Europe where they do it. I thought that he'd appreciate being killed by the love of his life. It was very 'Romeo and Juliet'."

"That's not what happened in 'Romeo and Juliet'," Stefan informed me.

"Remind me again why you went back to high school? Oh yeah, I remember. Her name's Elena, right?" I chuckled. The way Stefan described her, you'd think the girl could walk on water, or turn said water into wine. It reminded me of the way that I used to talk about James.

"Yes, Elena Gilbert. But you knew that, from the letters," he reminded me. The great thing about being estranged from a brother like Stefan was, the boy loved to write. Even if I didn't reply – which I never did – he would always let me know what was going on in his life. I knew his group of friends like the back of my hand and I'd never set eyes on any of them before.

"Right. So, I have a favour to ask," I started.

"You want to stay here?" my incredibly perceptive brother correctly guessed.

"Look, I've been in a bubble for the last... 5 decades. I want to join the world again. Mystic Falls has always been good to us."

"Yeah, it has," he agreed. "But it won't continue being good to us after you eat all the residents."