Twisted

Yum, cupcakes!

The encounter with Caroline went better than Lana had hoped. She gave Caroline the balloons and the blonde just stared at Lana for a moment, then she shrugged and smiled brightly. Lana didn't know what to say, so she went with apologizing.

"Look, Caroline. I'm sorry about what I said the last time I saw you. Which was also the first time I saw you, which means that your first impression of me must suck. But see, I wasn't myself because I-" Lana babbled on, nervously looking anywhere but at the amused looking blond girl.

"Okay, stop. It's fine; Elena told me that you were some kind of Slayer who turned into a heartless vampire. All's forgiven." Caroline laughed. Lana liked her. She liked how straight forward Caroline was, anyone else would've tried to avoid talking about Lana's 'evil' side.

"Oh, thank goodness." Lana sighed and she helped Caroline hang the balloons. A few minutes later, Stephan arrived and then Caroline left with him mumbling something about finding a teddy bear in the woods. Lana stood there for a moment, wondering what she was even still doing in Mystic Falls.

She hasn't had any friends for at least ten years, now suddenly she's living in a mansion along with three other vampires and a Hunter. Lana knew that she'd have to leave sooner or later.

"Hello?!" A very familiar voice snapped Lana out of thought. She sighed deeply. Oh, no. Lana quickly moved towards the voice.

"Oooh, I forgot how massive this house was." Kai said just as Lana stopped right behind him. "Oh, yum, cupcakes." He then said and Lana sighed.

Her stomach cartwheeled; Kai still had the same effect on her as always. Lana fought the urge to run to him, into his arms. Luckily she remembered the way Luke had died, which wiped the smile right off her face. Kai wasn't the same sarcastic and talkative boy she remembered loving. He was different. But just look at how adorable he is. Shut up, Lana told herself.

"Sorry, am I interrupting something?" He then asked; he still didn't see Lana behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Damon's sounded pained.

"Funniest thing; I need your help." Kai all but pouts, holding up a white envelope addressed to Josette.

"Lana, did you tell him we'd help him?" Damon sighs, glaring at Lana. She just scowled at him and shook her head.

"Of course not." Lana said which caused Kai to look over his shoulder. Lana wasn't prepared for this.

Kai's blue-grey eyes widened when he saw her dressed in a light pink dress with a black leather jacket thrown on over it and black combat boots. Lana's now blond hair was hanging in loose waves over her shoulders. Kai felt a pang of guilt just looking at the girl.

"What's up, Lana Bear?" Kai smiled cockily at her, causing Lana's cheeks to turn rosy.

"What do you want, Kai?" Lana asked him, sounding harsher than she meant. She wanted to remind Kai that she was the Slayer, not some love-struck girl he could manipulate whenever he felt like it.

Kai winced; Lana wasn't sure how that was possible. She'd come to know the boy as a sociopath who didn't care for anyone.

***

"Why would we give a letter to Jo?" Elena asked irately, she was sitting with her arms crossed on a bar stool with Damon standing at her side.

"I haven't been able to find her using a locator spell," Kai said, munching on a cupcake. "And, you know, good honor. Because under normal circumstances, I'd be super jazzed to gouge out her bellybutton." Lana sighed at Kai's words. Kai was sitting on a table with his feet on the seat. He was wearing combat boots just like Lana was which made Lana scowl at how similar their taste in shoes was.

Lana was standing right next to Kai. It wasn't her choice, but she was standing there first when Kai decided it would probably be funny to torture her, so he sat right next to where she was leaning against the table.

"Why would we help you, Kai?" Elena asked as if she couldn't possibly understand why Kai would ever think they'd help him, now Lana was another story. Even Lana knew that with enough begging and puppy-dog eyes, she'd eventually break and help Kai.

"In case you haven't figured it out by now; I'm a sociopath." Kai took another bite of his cupcake. Elena faked a surprised look. "I know, shocker. I liked being a sociopath, you know? I'm not burdened by things like guilt, or love." Kai's eyes found Lana's for a split second before looking back in front of him.

"So then this merge happened with my brother Luke and I won; which was great, because I absorbed his ability to do magic. But now I can't stop thinking about how Luke died." Kai's voice trailed off, almost as if he felt guilty. "How Liv's life is ruined. For some horrible reason I can't shake how badly I feel about it." Kai breathed the last few words, as if laughing, but not really. He looked pained just saying the words.

"So, you feel bad, Kai?" Lana asked him, softening just a bit. Kai didn't sound like he was lying. But then again, how would she know?

"Yeah." Kai looked at Lana. "So when I absorbed Luke's magic, I must have gotten some of his qualities or something. Like, empathy," Kai made a face, "So I googled how to process emotional pain, and they said if you write everything down in a letter and burn it, you'll be healed." Kai went on.

Lana stepped away from the boy, to be able to see his face better. To find out if he's actually telling the truth. His eyes followed her until she stopped by the counter next to Elena.

"So I started writing and this water literally started pooling in my eyes." Kai motioned to his eyes. "Has that ever happened to you? Like water just oozing out of my eyeballs, like I'm some alien creature excreting fluids." It looked like Kai was embarrassed, which caused Lana to smile even wider. He glared at her, but smiled back slightly. Which of course was enough to make Lana feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"You mean you cried?" Elena asked him, clearly flabbergasted by his story.

"Yes!" Kai laughed. "And after that was done, I burned the letter. And the feelings? Oops, still there!"

Damon rolled his eyes and shook his head, he was so tired of Kai's nonsense, Lana could tell.

Kai smiled then, like he couldn't even believe himself. "So I really feel strongly that Jo needs to know how sorry I am. For destroying our family." He finished.

"But let's face it, guys, alright? I mean Elena, you of all people should be willing to look past the questionable things that I've done and see that there's good somewhere in me." Kai paused for a while, glancing at Lana for some support, but she just shrugs.

"You did it with Damon." Kai said and that was where Damon's finally had enough.

"Okay, I think we're done here. Come one-" He turned, but Elena held up her hand. Lana wondered what she was thinking.

"Actually, what if there's something that he could do for us in exchange?" Elena said; Lana knew exactly what she meant.