Blood Sisters • The Vampire Diaries [1]

XXXVI. SLIP UNDER MY ARMOR

The next morning, I got up early, deciding that I wasn't going to mope around and let what happened last night control my days. I was still upset, but laying in bed all day wouldn't help. If Damon wanted to push me away, even after I told him that I loved him - I didn't know what else there was that I could do.

I had to live my life.

I got downstairs, the smell of freshly brewed coffee in the air. I knew that Jenna had stayed over at Ric's last night, and I'd just spotted Elena upstairs, going into the bathroom, so who was up making coffee?

I heard the faint sound of the morning news playing from inside the room, before I walked in, to my surprise, finding John at the island, with a cup of coffee in his hand ; fingers stitched back in place.

"Morning." He simply greeted me.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned, crossing my arms over my chest. The last time that I'd seen John he'd tried to kill my friends, and he actually did kill Anna.

"Coffee?"

"What?" I shook my head. "No, w-what are you doing here?"

"I got in late last night." He finally answered. "Elena let me in."

I would've been upset that she hadn't told me about John being home, but I'd gotten home earlier than her, and had gone straight to bed to avoid everyone after what happened with Damon.

After what happened, I thought to myself, casually glancing down at the already healing slit along the side of my hand.

"I'm here to protect you and Elena." John briefly explained, to which I scoffed.

"Get in line..." My eyes darted over to the coffee machine, craving a cup. "I'll take you up on that coffee, though.."

He gave me a gentle smile, before moving to pour me a cup, as the sound of Jenna's voice came from the living room.

"Oh God, I'm late." I heard her complain, as usual, Alaric's voice accompanying her's.

"That's what you get for hitting the snooze three times!"

They both walked into the kitchen, and the look on Jenna's face was priceless when she found John and I. She went from giggling and giddy with Alaric, to stone cold and stoic.

"What the hell?" She blurted out, staring at John.

"Good morning to you, Jenna." He replied, handing me my cup of coffee, that I gratefully took, hands warming around it. "Alaric.."

"It's okay I'm confused, right?" She glanced between him and I. "Because we were not expecting you, like, ever."

"He got in late last night." I explained, repeating what he'd just told me. "Elena let him in."

"You know," Alaric awkwardly spoke up from behind Jenna as I took a sip of my coffee. "I'm uh, probably just gonna take off." He walked out, throwing me a confused look, before heading out.

"I'm still confused here." Jenna said, still staring at John, as my phone went off with a new text.

"I decided to come back and stay for a while." John explained, as I pulled out my phone to glance at it for a second.

Need your opinion on something, it read from Caroline. Come over, ASAP.

"Not here, you're not." Jenna pointed out.

"Actually, you can't stop me from living here."

"Actually I can, as legal guardian."

"Yeah, about that...um, Lyssa, you want me to explain the situation," John glanced at me, just as Elena walked into the kitchen, giving me an escape. "or would you like to do the honors?"