𝟏• 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂 | 𝐓𝐕𝐃 ✓

𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

THE MORNING CAME QUICKLY, CREEPING ON AURELIA and her peaceful rest--much to her disappointment. Her and Kol had fallen asleep once again early in the night upon realizing that her body needed much more rest from the strenuous events of the previous day. She'd told him to spend the night next to her, finding it too much of a task to move to her room, but feeling sorry for taking up residence in his once again.

As she opened her eyes slowly, squinting at the light reflecting from the mirror into the entire room, she'd realized from the pale blue, the orange, and yellow, that it was still rather early.

In contrast to what anyone would've thought, they'd both decided that their closure was met with a simple kiss—considering Aurelia's sex drive, she was surprised herself that she'd allowed exhaustion to take priority over some cardio.

But she knew it wasn't the exhaustion, not in the slightest. It was for the better. They didn't need to risk turning back to their cycle once again. And they were mature enough to respect each other's space.

And that was how she found herself looking at him with a trace of ease that she hadn't felt before. He was sound asleep, the light in the room failing to disturb the heavy sleeper he was. Body turned on its back, she'd noticed a sense of peace on his expression she hadn't seen in a long time. It was often passion, rage, melancholy—but peace was rare.

Optimistically, it told her that the decision they'd made was the right one.

So she closed her eyes again, allowing herself to drift back into her rest, just to escape all the day's worries for a few more minutes.

When she fully awoke, it was with a stretch complimented a prolonged yawn, indicating that she needed that sleep. She'd always enjoyed the night, and never needed to sleep considering her immortality—but with cases such as magic, she never could predict the things she'd need to keep herself going.

"You almost hit me—" And she blinked her eyes wide open, turning her head to face Kol, who was sitting in the place he'd previously been sleeping with his arms resting on propped up knees. "Teasing. I was testing to see if you were fully awake or needed some more sleep."

"With what's been going on for the last few days, I don't think there'll come a point where I don't want to sleep." Aurelia mumbled, ignoring the slight rasp in her voice from her deep slumber. "Mm, what time is it? When did you wake up?"

"It's a little early in the afternoon." He answered, throwing himself back on the bed. "I feel like I want to sleep some more, too." She chuckled, shifting the sheets into a messy turtleneck. "It's warm out, you're wearing full sleeves, and you're letting this heavy blanket swallow you." He commented.

"Hey, you want to laze, too. Don't hate on me." They weren't over each other, of course—even if she was a little more over him than he, her. "I think I need to get to my room so I can freshen up."

"Ideally, I have several errands to run today, too." Kol sighed out, sprawled on the large bed. "Considering the recent break-up, do you think I should cocoon myself here and—what is it people do today? —eat some ice cream out of the tub?" Aurelia lightly hit him on the chest and sat up.

"What errands do you have? I should be responsible to get you up to go attend to them." With a loud sigh, Kol sat up once again, too.

"The whole Silas ordeal." He tried to be as curt as possible without withholding any information from her, and earned what he expected—a frown. "Aurelia, you know I ran with witches for a long time. I have all the reasons to believe he's real, and more."

"I know, Kol, but if there's so many more witches that dismiss it as nothing more than a fable." She argued, slipping out of bed in order to force herself to start her day. She had nothing urgent to attend to—other than check in on Caroline—but she didn't want to spend too much time in his bedroom. "Consider the possibility that you're worrying over nothing."