✗ | WATERCOLOUR EYES

━━ seven.

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ARAYIA HAD RECEIVED A CALL FROM DAMON, ASKING HER FOR A FAVOUR; TO WATCH ROSE FOR A LITTLE WHILE, THOUGH HE FAILED TO MENTION THE FACT THAT SHE HAD GOTTEN A WEREWOLF AND WAS EXPERIENCING EXTREME HALLUCINATIONS. Rose laid in Damon's bed as Arayia sat on the edge of his bed. Rose groaned in frustration. "I hate this. I'm a vampire. I haven't had a cold in five centuries!"

Arayia lightly chuckled as she looked around Damon's room. She was reminiscing on all the happy moments they'd shared together. Most of them were in bed, but it still counts. Nothing had changed since the last time she was inthe room. 

Rose's narrowed on her. "You've never been in Damon's room before, have you?"

"Oh, honey, him and I literally dated last year." she laughed. "I used to live here. I slept right where you're laying right now."

"Is that why you guys hate each other so much?" Rose asked the vampire, curiousness embedded on her features. "I'm sorry for prying. It's just that being on my deathbeds kinda made me curious."

"It's okay." Arayia nodded with a smile. "And I wouldn't necessarily say we hate each other. There's just a bit of tension, you know?"

Rose nodded as she fiddled with her hands. "You're really lucky, you know that? No one's ever loved me the way you're loved. Hell, you got Klaus Mikaelson to love you. The rumoured heartless vampire?"

"I doubt you've never been loved, Rose." she shook her head. "What about Trevor?"

"Trevor was my best friend. Nothing more. I spent all those years on the run from Elijah. I just never though it was a good idea to set up roots." Rose shrugged. "The whole idea of family is not exactly compatible with being a vampire."

Arayia nodded in agreement. "When I first turned, I was literally crushed when I found out that I couldn't have kids." she told Rose, looking down into her lap. "It was my dream, you know? To raise a big family like the one I grew up in."

"How did you even meet Klaus and all of them?" Rose asked her, furrowing her eyebrows. 

"Well, I grew up in a wealthy family in England, and my parents decided it would be a good idea to welcome them in. Because they reached out to our family, claiming that they had lost their family due to an animal attack," she began the story, panting sweat off of Rose's forehead with a wet cloth. "When they arrived, I grew smitten with all three of the brothers. Unknown of their little secret." 

Rose's eyes began to flutter shut. "I'm so tired." as she said that, Arayia nodded and pushed up to her feet. She was going to leave Rose alone so she could rest, but then Rose began to speak in her sleep. She stayed. Listening. "No, stop, wait. Tell them to prepare the horses. Trevor, don't be so stupid. You're never going to make it before the sun."

Rose's body shot up and  just by one look at her, Arayia could tell she was in pain. "Arayia, I need more blood."

"Yeah, of course." she quickly nodded, reaching to the side table and grabbing the glass of blood. She handed the glass to her. "Here."

Rose began to drink the contents, but nothing stayed down as she threw it all up. Arayia's eyes widened as she pushed back up to her feet and rushed to the bathroom to grab a towel. 

When she returned, Rose wasn't in the bed anymore. She felt someone grip onto her and before she  knew it she was pinned against the wall. "This is your fault, Arayia! If you hadn't asked Trevor to help Katerina we wouldn't have to be running."

Arayia rolled her eyes and she quickly removed Rose's grip from her neck. She pointed to the bed. "Get in the bed before I snap your neck to calm you down."

Rose looked at her with furrowed eyebrows, then slowly abided. She crawled under the covers and whimpered. "I want to go home." 

Arayia sighed. "Tell me about it."

"St. Austell, thirty kilometres south of London. With fields and trees and horses." as she spoke, there was a ghost of a smile on her face as she reminisced on her home. 

"It sounds beautiful," she looked to the empty glass of blood. "I'm gonna go get you more blood, okay?"

Rose nodded in response, feeling too weak to speak.

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Arayia walked down the stairs into the basement and dialled Damon's number. "Damon, you need to come back, she's too much for me to take care of. She attacked me."

He sighed on the other line. "Yeah, I'm already on my way home. Just give me 10 minutes and then I'll be there, okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded, reaching into the freezer and grabbing a blood bag. She hung up the phone, then made her way back up into Damon's room. She poured the blood into the cup and looked to Rose. "Damon's on his way back home now. So then you can be with him, okay?"

Rose slowly nodded. "I admire you, you know?" she told the older vampire with a sad smile. "You have lots of confidence, you're beautiful and you don't give a fuck about what anybody else thinks. I love it."

Arayia smiled as she wiped the sweat from Rose's forehead. "Thank you, Rose. I appreciate that. I admire you're courage, you know? How you called Elijah to your house even though you knew he could've killed you or done worse."

Rose gratefully smiled up at the older vampire as the bedroom door opened and Damon walked inside. Arayia turned to face him with a smile. "Hey," she greeted. "Um she has a full cup of blood, but just be careful, she puked it all up."

"Thanks for watching her." Damon said, offering her a sad smile.

"Yeah, of course." she nodded as she passed the Salvatore brother with a smile. "Call me if you need anything. I'm gonna be with Ty."

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Arayia sat in Tyler Lockwood's fathers study, next to Tyler with a bottle of her favourite vodka in her hands. She passed the bottle to him after she took a sip. "How are you feeling?" she asked him.

He sighed. "I'm still so sore." he complained with a slur. "Everything is like aching."

"I bet." Arayia grimaced. "It was hard to keep a straight face watching that. I bet it was even worse having to go through it." then she looked over at him with a smile. "I'm proud of you, though, Ty."

"Thanks, A." he smiled back at her. "I'm glad you were there to help me through it. Really. I don't think I could have done it without your help. Thank you."

"Of course," she nodded. "But next time we have to be a little bit more careful. A werewolf bite is lethal to vampires. It kills us. There's no cure." she paused for a minute, taking the bottle from Tyler and taking a big sip. "I watched Damon's new girlfriend suffer from one today. It was terrible. She couldn't even stomach the blood without puking it back up."

His eyebrows furrowed as she spoke. "That sounds terrible. But trust me, when I was a wolf, I had this weird sense. It's like I knew not to hurt you. I had this weird feeling like I knew you were my best friend."