2016 March Collection

"Ric, please? You need to listen to me!" You had followed Damon to the storage unit, knowing that might be the stupidest thing you had ever done, but you needed to do it. You needed a chance to talk to the man you had loved, you actually still did love...
"I know you're in there, somewhere.. you just need to admit it as well..."

He had knocked out Damon, managed to best Rebekah, and you thought you could handle a vicious, Original vampire? The only think that would maybe make him spare you was the fact that you were human, just like he had been.
"Get out of here, Y/N..." The tone in his voice was threatening, scary, and you almost wanted to obey him.
"You side with vampires. That makes you just as guilty as they are."

"But so did you!" You didn't want to leave him that easily. "Damon was your friend. Please Ric... think back to who you were, not to what she has made of you..." You were mad at Esther, you didn't believe why she had to take Ric away from all of you, all for her revenge plan. Ric didn't deserve this. You didn't deserve this...

"So did I. Or at least, the man that died for that. He was a fool. I won't make that mistake again." He didn't yield. Maybe he was gone. Maybe all there was, was the monster Esther had created. Maybe the fact that he looked like Alaric was all there was left of him.

Something you refused to believe, so you walked over to him, trembling, afraid what he would do to him, and you took his hands in yours, as you had done so often. You stroked the palm of his hands with your thumbs, as you had always done, and you looked him in the eye.
"Look at me, Ric. Feel me. And tell me this doesn't mean anything anymore. Tell me you've forgotten this?"

He looked. And he felt. And he stayed silent. He didn't say it to you. In his eyes you could see a hint of recognition, a hint of the man he had been. Until he pushed you away.
"That part is gone, Y/N. It's not important anymore."

But you knew it wasn't true.

Not all was lost.