Caring

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Carefully Kol parked the car in front of the High School where he wanted to pick up his new friend. The boy wasn't his friend actually, but Kol had to pretend that he would really care for the 16-year old. Niklaus had sent him here to Denver to make sure that he would still have everything under control if the Salvatores made a move to cross him.

So it was Kol who got sent to play his brother's wingman.

He leaned his head against the headrest, closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he opened the car door and got out.

He immediately caught the attention of some female students, who were casting him flirting glances and trying to smile seductively. Maybe later he could spare some minutes for them, Kol thought, before he went to stand next to a pillar from which stairs led to the entrance of the school.

In the distance he could hear a bell ring, which announced that lessons had ended for today. Only a few minutes later the entrance door opened and a huge swarm of students spread out, among them Jeremy Gilbert.

Kol put on the best smile he could manage and went to greet his friend.

'Hey Jer! Ready for training?'.

'Yeah sure! Nice to see you, man!', Jeremy exclaimed, giving a high-five to Kol.

For the doppelganger's brother he was "Cole Miller" who went to the local college and who liked to play baseball at the nearby playing field in his free time.

They strolled back to the car and Kol threw a can of cola from the backseat over to Jeremy.

'I bet, I'm gonna make a homerun today!'

'Dude, therefore you'll have to practice way much more!', Jeremy teased.

If he wanted to, he could make at least a thousand homeruns, Kol thought bitterly. It was a shame that he had to hold his real strength and skills back as Jeremy wasn't allowed to know that his new buddy was a vampire. And not an ordinary vampire, an Original one, for God's sake! Kol had to control himself before he would tear out the car door of its mounting.

Unnerved he let himself drop into the seat and started the car. It was not like he despised baseball. No, truth was he loved the sport since its humble beginnings in 1845. He had spent years of watching the game and playing with some of its former stars for fun. Unfortunately this had to end when Niklaus had decided that Kol was less than helpful and more of a threat and he was put into a box for a century.

After he had returned from his temporary death he first believed that Niklaus would try again to force his will onto him, but his older brother had behaved quite moderately.

'Hey man! Keep your eyes on the street!', he heard Jeremy exclaim nervously next to him.

'Don't worry!', Kol said amused, grinning over to the teenager on the passenger seat.

'Yeah, I'll try!', Jeremy answered exasperated, looking on the street with wide eyes and taking a deep gulp of his cola.

After only ten minutes they had reached the training field and as they put on their sportswear in the locker rooms, Kol couldn't help but to curse himself. He knew he should be more careful. He had never been a careful person, but if the boy got hurt, Niklaus for sure would come after him again. Yes, being careful should be Kol's No. 1 on his priority list from now on. It would also prevent him from other people trying to kill him over and over again. All he wanted was to have fun and a good time, but somehow others had another understanding of having fun. Something that made Kol wonder, as he had always seen himself as handsome and openminded. He just wanted to enjoy his undead life! But other people would translate this as arrogant, irrational and just caring for himself. Whatever, Kol thought, he wasn't here to give a damn about others, he had a job to do.

He put on the batting gloves, took his bat and handed over a mitt to Jeremy while going out.

'So, let's see how good you are as pitcher!', he said with a wide smile, swinging around his bat as he strolled over to the field.

They got into position and Kol tapped a few times with the bat on the base before him.

'Come on, Jeremy! Show me what you've learned since last time.`, Kol teased and Jeremy threw the ball over to him with all the strength he could manage.

Easily for Kol to hit the ball and sent it to the other end of the field.

'Out!', Jeremy cheered, running laughingly to get the ball.

'It's still within the markings!', Kol called after him, having to keep back his own laughter.

He enjoyed doing this. A fun job indeed!

'Hey man, why don't we switch positions? I think I'm not that fit today, sorry!', Jeremy came back gasping for air, holding his rips and trying to regain his condition.

'Okay! But please hit the ball before the tenth time I'd thrown it to you.', Kol smirked and handed over the bat to the younger one.

'You always pitch it too hard!', Jeremy complained, throwing the baseball over to Kol, which the latter one caught more in reflex than actually concentrating on the process.

I know I should be more careful, Kol recalled. Otherwise the boy would notice that there was something odd about his new friend.

As he had reached the marking and got ready, Kol couldn't help but wonder. He was about to pitch the ball as lightly as he could, so that Jeremy would actually have a chance to get it. Normally Kol wouldn't enjoy anything more than to hurt his 'opponent' by throwing too fast for the human eye to catch and later be still amused about it.

No, not this time, he reminded himself.

Jeremy hit the ball at the first try and it flew all over the place over to a group of other practicing teenagers.

'Yeah I got it! Did you see that? I got it!', Jeremy was more than pleased, but in the very next moment he fell silent.

A tall and very big boy came out of the group, seemingly with a swelling on his forehead and looking anything else than happy.

'Did you do this?', the boy shouted, pointing to his head.

'I'm sorry! My bad!', Jeremy tried to apologize, looking over to Kol, unsure what to do.

Gosh, what a fat pig, was all Kol could think. He was about to pull the bat out of Jeremy's hands and thrash it over the teenager, who now came closer. Maybe breaking his skull in the process, he rejoiced innerly. The guy shouldn't dare to threat his friend, he would make sure of this.

'Come here and tell this to my face!', the tall boy now called over to Jeremy, apparently out for a fight.

'Why don't you come over here entirely, hey? If you dare!`, Jeremy shouted back, but Kol could read in the way he hold his body, that his friend was actually about to run away.

'Okay, timeout!', Kol interfered and making the matching gesture with his hands. He slowly walked over to the guy and looked him up and down.

'And what do you want, you... snooty little git?`, the big one said angrily, but in fact intimidated by Kol's self-confident appearance. Kol came face to face with him.

'I want you to leave my friend alone and take his apology, understand?`, Kol compelled the teenager, who then looked over to Jeremy with blurred eyes.

'Yes, of course. I'm sorry too!', he said before turning around and toddling off to his clique, which had silently watched the quarrel.

'That was amazing! How did you do this?', Jeremy questioned, when Kol came back.

'Oh well, let's say I've a good hand in dealing with bullies.', Kol answered amused, putting an arm around Jeremy's shoulders.

Kol really had to admit that Jeremy was more than a job he had to carry out. Jeremy could also be happy, that he had a sister like Elena Gilbert, who would do anything for her little brother to protect him. Something Kol had sadly missed from his own family, as they thought he'd always pull through on his own. But now he was actually on a good way to find something of value... friendship.

The End

I hope, I got all the things right, that are concerning baseball. It's not a popular sport here in Europe and I'm not familiar with it at all! I had to look up the terms in online encyclopedias ;-)