Chapter Text
The brothers left early the next morning, waking me up as the car pulled out of the circular driveway. It would have catered for carriages once, but I supposed the Porsche probably made a good substitute.
I tugged at the hem of one of the silky night dresses I'd borrowed from Rebekah, not loving the sensation of it grazing the tops of my thighs as I wandered downstairs into the kitchen, hunting for some form of packaged blood. It still made me shudder when I really thought about it, but the ache in my stomach usually clouded my humane disgust enough now. On the island, where Klaus had been perched as I failed so spectacularly to prepare dinner last night, there was a note, folded in half and propped up.
It had my name written on it, so I figured it wasn't a Mikaelson secret that I'd be hissed at for examining closer.
Written inside, in scratchy lettering, it said: 'Ask Rebekah for blood, basement off limits. Left studio keys in my room under pillow - use studio as space from Bekah. Back soon, little wolf.'
I stared at it for a moment, reading it a few times.
It made me blush slightly, imagining myself strutting around Klaus' bedroom. However, it was quickly diminished by my frustration at being restricted from the basement, especially when I was so hungry. I elected to ignore that part of the note.
Still gripping my nightie, I found my way to the set of stairs leading to the basement. They were stone, cracked but remarkably not that dusty. The shadowy room that it led to had a door made of wood so dark it could have been mistaken for a void, had the silver handle not gleamed in the low light from upstairs. I barely noticed the cold air from the freezer full of blood bags next to me.
After checking to ensure I hadn't been followed, I reached out - before my fingers grazed the handle, a loud slam sounded and I was spun around to face the only other person in the house.
God, I was about to send Klaus a text saying thank you for the studio space. I had let out a scoff at the idea of needing somewhere to hide from her, but I'd never been so frightened in my life as being threatened by Rebekah Mikaelson.
"Breakfast?" She held up a blood bag to sway in front of my face, hypnotising me for a moment. I shook myself out of it.
"You know, I'm feeling a little smothered." I matched her stony glare.
"Excellent. Means I'm doing my job."
“What’s in the basement, Bekah?” I asked, smiling.
“Darling. Sunshine. In there is the sound of neck snapping and the welcoming abyss of your, honestly timely, death.” She smiled brighter.
Walking past her I snatched the bag from her hand and began to climb the narrow staircase. “You’re kind of a bitch. Anyway snapping my neck wouldn’t even kill me, I’d be back in a few hours. With a stake and my upbeat spirit.”
“I’m impressed, you’re listening to my brothers. I could never manage it for longer than a couple of days. But we Originals are fountains of knowledge and by far the best people to be around during a baby vampire’s transition.” She followed me up the stairs, a little too closely, definitely noticing my grim expression at the patronising statement and her obliviousness to my traumatic experience. She sat on the blue velvet couch opposite me in the lounge area, picking up a romance book from the table and settling happily into the silence between us.
I lasted about two minutes before asking, “So… Why didn’t you go with them?”
She rolled her eyes. “Niklaus said no.”
“Isn’t Elijah older?”
“Nik is stronger. And he doesn’t like babysitting, he’d prefer to be on the battlefield.” Her justification made sense, but it still made me shrink a bit. She rolled her eyes harder, throwing her head back to rest on the arm of the couch. “You know, normally people like Elijah much better. God knows either of my other brothers would have been better choices, so much less temperamental.”
“I don’t like either of them. Where are your other brothers?” I risked asking.
“Daggered.”
“Like you were? By Freya?”
“I’ll give her a free pass, if not only because I have too many brothers. Nik’s daggered me so many times I lost count.” She laughed at my wide eyed expression. “Oh please, like you thought he was a saint. And I can be a bother, although I know you’d never think it.”
“I’d never kill my brother. No matter how much he bothered me.”
“But he really is annoying.” I glared, even as I considered the truth in her tactless words. “Love and murder have a fine line drawn between them. You wouldn’t understand.”
“I really don’t think I want to.”
“You won’t. Heard you could have gone to Tyler’s aid, you could have saved him from his vampire girlfriend. But you didn’t. You just watched Caroline take him off on their little date, probably back to her house to-”
“Stop it. Just stop, I want him to be happy. And if that means being with Caroline then fine. Love and murder.”
“You’re a surprisingly good student, love. Maybe you will get there eventually.” She grinned like a wildcat and it was the last bit of her patronisation I could take today. I stormed upstairs, hearing her chuckle faintly with my heightened hearing.
Even on the upper floor I felt too close to Rebekah, like she was listening. I mean, I knew she was, but the air itself felt like my enemy. I paced for a while outside Klaus’ bedroom, willing myself to accept that it wouldn’t be sneaking in and I wouldn’t be staked for it.
Klaus Mikaelson’s room was brighter than I expected. There were tall windows with thin white curtains and a slim balcony area that I couldn’t imagine him spending much time on. The rest of the room matched the house for hard floors and dark oak cabinets, except his were probably filled only with Henley shirts. I thought about looking through his drawers, but the enormous bed on one side of the room caught my attention. I’d been raised in the Lockwood mansion, so I was no stranger to a comfortable bed, but this…
It was bigger than a queen-size, thick grey covers perfectly set over fluffy white pillows that were threaded with gold (likely real). A pair of PJ bottoms were neatly folded at the foot of the bed. The image in my mind made my cheeks heat; Klaus wandering around his room, mind racing as he pulled off the day’s clothes and sank into the mattress, bare shoulders finally releasing the weight of all that vampire-witch drama for a few hours. Sitting on the bed, I let myself breathe him in, like I had done when I wore his clothes on my first day outside as a vampire. Images of Klaus filled my mind and I allowed them to, my guilt ebbing as I let the thought of him comfort me.
Lifting up the pillows, I uncovered the key to his art studio. As I went to leave, I caught a glimpse of myself in his floor length mirror, shocked to see that I looked healthy, maybe even strong. Silently, I considered the silk nightie. I had chosen it myself and, although it lacked pockets or anything similar to discretion, I didn’t hate the confidence it gave me. Where I thought I’d never be able to let go of the memory of Kaleb’s hands on me, guiding me around college with an arm around my shoulders or a hand resting on my hip, I could find comfort and excitement in the images of Klaus that I finally seemed to let myself conjure.
I looked back at the room one last time. It looked largely unlived in. The sheet had been rumpled and a couple of shirts were thrown over a chair in a corner of the room - otherwise, empty.
A jolt of fear made its way through my bones as I realised how easy it would be to forget how he built his facades. How they all did. His room lured me in and held me securely enough that I could imagine Klaus as the good guy. But this wasn’t even his home.
My heightened senses caught me off guard as I walked through the hallway, distinctly aware of the mix of different Mikaelson siblings who had or did live here. I actually missed Klaus’ scent. I couldn’t trust him, not yet, but I needed to start accepting the intrigue I felt towards him.
~~~~~
I’d been contentedly locked up in the studio for hours, painting on a large canvas and ultimately lathering myself in multicoloured acrylics more so than the canvas itself.
A knock sounded dully in competition with the loud music I had blaring from a dusty old CD player I’d found stashed in the back of the studio. I wanted to ignore it. Oh, how I wanted to ignore it. Rebekah shouted something incredibly rude and distinctly British through the door.
I opened the door quickly, making her jump.
“Oh haha you’re hilarious.” She glared at me.
“Would you like to come in?”
“Only Nik can invite me in, the room’s spelled.”
“By a witch?” I asked, genuinely.
“ No, by a troll . Jesus.” She sighed. “But you’ve clearly sucked up to him enough that he’s opened the barrier for you.”
“Maybe the barrier only works on you, Elijah came in here once.” I grinned at her outraged face. “Look, this is fun, but I’d rather be on your good side. We had fun the other day, and if you’d stop being so goddamn defensive I’d like to be your friend. Truce?”
She looked at me blankly, then at the floor, then focused on my paint-covered shoes. “I’ll have to tell Nik that you're such a messy painter, he won’t want you wasting all his expensive stuff.”
“Aren’t you guys like… At least millionaires?”
“Not officially, no.” She sat on the floor of the hallway, blocking the door and looking up at me. “Truce. But I’m not very good at the whole friend thing. I don’t bite, but my brothers do, and my friends consistently all turn out to have secret evil agendas.”
“I promise, swear, and pinky something that I did not want to be here. I’m a college student on Christmas break. And that’s it.” I sat on the floor inside the studio.
“What do you study?”
“Art.”
“Of course you do.” She rolled her eyes, but I laughed and she smiled, genuinely.
“What has that extraordinarily loud music inspired you to paint, then?”
Standing up, I brought over the canvas I’d been working on. It was mostly sky, mid-afternoon, bright sun and full clouds. The beginnings of my college building had begun to take shape, but the focus was on the base of the painting, where on a grassy field two people lay next to each other, one pointing up at the sky, mouth open in conversation. The other was rolled to face away from her, and on his left was a packed bag.
“Angsty,” Rebekah said. “I like his socks though, nice detail. Ex-boyfriend?”
Nodding, I explained to her what had happened, how Kaleb had been utterly perfect, our relationship flawless. And how he’d left without a trace.
Kaleb tip-toed, in his neon odd socks, past my sleeping roommate, dragging a blanket and two hot chocolates in paper cups. I took one as he snuck into my room, where he made himself comfortable in the duvet and pillow nest I’d built us.
Whispering, I asked, “Where did you get these, it's past 10pm?”
“Darling,” He drawled lowly, “I like being out at night, I’ve got a catalogue of stores that will serve us movie night drinks as late as we need them.” I snorted at that, getting snuggled up under the blanket he’d brought.
It took a few minutes to get my TV to work properly (I’d never been fantastic at technology, and neither was he), so we cheered when the netflix logo popped up, then hurriedly shushed each other for fear of waking up my friend.
“Alright, what are we watching?” He offered me an arm, which I pulled around myself as I leant on his shoulder. I loved how he always checked with me before invading my space. He suggested a few things, ending with Twilight .
“No way, the last time we watched that you totally ruined it pointing out all the mistakes in their vampire mythology lore. I’m not watching anything you can slate by being a nerd.”
“Dirty Dancing, then?” He beamed, irritatingly. Endearingly.
“Yes. A thousand times, yes.” He’d laughed at that and we’d settled in to watch the film.
It was about halfway through and we’d begun to get a bit hyper, singing along a little less quietly and dancing around my room. Badly. Although it was my fault, I had no coordination, whereas he might have been Patrick Swayze in another life.
My friend had burst in, yelling that she’d caught us and this was the last time she’d allow Kaleb to sneak into our dorm room. It had taken a while for me to convince her that we didn’t need a lock or a tie on the door, and that I’d just plan our meetups better. Total lie.
Kaleb could barely contain his laughter as she’d hurried him out of the front door, mouthing the words “ I love you ” in my direction before she slammed the door in his face. I’d laughed with her about it for a while and promised I’d do the laundry to make up for it.
I didn’t expect that to be it. He was gone the next day and I had no idea where. All of his stuff had been left in his dorm, but there was no note, no text. I’d left him countless, and since he lived alone, there weren’t too many people I could ask. It was a couple of weeks before I got a text back, simply reading ‘sorry, moved away.’
I’d been basically immobile for the rest of the month, only pulling myself together enough to travel to Mystic Falls for the holidays, in hope of finding some peace.
Ha.
Rebekah looked stunned and almost uncomfortable. Sheepish. I looked at her questioningly. She answered instantly.
“I just know what it feels like. To be left alone, tricked. You didn’t deserve that, but he sounds like a great guy. Maybe he just needed to take time to find himself. College boys do that.”
I huffed a laugh. “Well I’ve got your back now.”
She thought hard for a few moments, staring directly into my eyes like she was looking for any hint of a lie. “Normal stakes don’t kill us. But the daggers we have, they’re kept in the back of Nik’s wardrobe, along with the ash that poisons them enough to keep us down. We’re all a little bit crazy, especially Niklaus after all these years of paranoia and betrayal. I think you deserve to get back to Kaleb, and if, when we finally get home to New Orleans, my brothers want to keep you, if the plan doesn’t work… I won’t stop you from escaping.” After her speech, I gave her a second to breathe normally, and myself too, before standing up and walking outside of the barrier, sitting opposite her in the hallway.
“You’re a good friend Rebekah. I probably won’t dagger your family.”
“I’m a romantic. And I totally would.” Her smiles were becoming much less unnerving.
“Love and murder, right?” I said.
~~~~~
Klaus POV.
I couldn’t get the image out of my head. I’d heard her rushing to the window to watch me and Elijah leaving at sunrise, and she was an impatient little thing. I knew that she would have gotten up, hungry, and found my note, which she’d read with a red face and curiosity sparkling in her eyes. It wouldn’t take long for Rebekah to drive her upstairs, and, roughly speaking, now she would be standing in my bedroom, unable to stop herself from snooping around. Why didn’t it bother me more? She wouldn’t find anything condemning - I hid all of that in the locked and spelled basement - but I didn’t really mind if she did find something that made her see me more as a monster. I wanted her to trust me, maybe even desperately. Desperately enough that I’d let her into my space and wait to see if she’d decide I was still worth being around. Or simply to solidify that she preferred my scent to Elijah’s.
Something blared to life in my mind, a secret of her’s that I’d been pondering for a while. The ring she refused to remove. I had painted it, the silver indented with strange markings - almost definitely the work of a witch. Without stealing the ring from her finger, it was the easiest way to study it. In the end though, reading it didn’t matter all that much; I had a gut feeling about what it could be…
“Would you stop that?” Elijah spoke suddenly, eyes still fixed on the road in front of us. I stayed agonisingly quiet, smiling to myself. “This is too serious for you to be daydreaming like a child, Niklaus. I need you focused.”
“You truly are no fun, brother.” I chuckled.
“I’m merely reminding you that running away with your fantasies could completely upheave our plan. The plan that has taken excruciatingly long and caused far more damage than we intended.” He turned the car, continuing in silence until we crossed into North Carolina.
“She’s insane, really. She made me promise her that we wouldn’t kill Damon.” I’d been considering how else we might manage to get the cure from him, and I let the options rattle through my mind as Elijah remarked something damning about having to disappoint her. While some people are not cut out to become vampires, she seemed to be one of the unique cases that suited it well.
I knew the satisfaction that came from gaining so much strength. She didn’t speak often of her family, but I recognised the protective instinct, perhaps at odds with some hidden resentment, especially towards Tyler. I’d never liked him, and I was sure the Lockwoods weren’t a family that catered towards her artistic talents. But in the face of all of it, she would protect them; It was possible that to be truly free, you must know that you could rush to defend your family against any enemy.
That’s how I’d felt, at least.
Elijah spared me a stern glance. “Would you really do it to Kol? Better yet, you would unleash him upon the world, angrier than he’s ever been?”
“This was your plan, Elijah, not mine. I say we let him wear himself out.” I saw the way his brows creased and I got in before he could say something righteous, “If we had just waited for her to get back to college all of this could have been avoided.”
“And leave our brother, the one you daggered in a box for another month?”
“What’s a month for a vampire?”
“He hasn’t been one for years, Niklaus!” Elijah roared. “He had started to feel like a human, and we tore that away from him. We decided what was best for him, we put him back in his vampire body, we daggered him because he woke up hungry and beyond aggrieved, which I don’t blame him for. Then, in case you forgot, we kidnapped his girlfriend, in an attempt to calm him on our second go at bringing him back, and we accidentally transformed her into a vampire.”
“That last part really was all you.”
“You cannot attribute all of your blame to me. We all wanted Kol back, and in our arrogance we may have ruined our brother’s life. The very least we can do is save his girlfriend from eternity like this.” He gestured between us. Bristling, I grinded my teeth together to stop from snapping at him.
As we drove, my eyes trailed off the road to scan the forest we were passing by. It called to me, almost more than blood itself. I drifted off to the time that I had been running, faster than I thought possible, into the black between the trees. The full moon had always made me feel uneasy, my bones twitching. It had made me shudder to think of my first transformation, and for centuries I wondered if the experience would be more pain or peace. It was pain, initially, in its purest form. However, even as earth-shattering screams escaped me, I had craved the peace that I knew would follow more than ever. And when it was over and I was running, it was the first time in my life that I had possessed a quiet mind.
I had the choice now, to take my wolf form at will. Of course, I knew that I could not yet relinquish my human body, I still had far too much unfinished business that I would need my status to solve. And I would miss painting. Although I had begun to imagine my immortal life in a new way, when the dust had settled over the unbreakable empire I’d built. To run forever through the trees and never have to hear Elijah’s complaining again.
I let myself feel it, that freedom. Amongst it, in a clearing in the woods, was her. And I was once again mulling over the markings on the girl’s ring… The moonstone encased within.
“Do you have any idea how loud your inner monologue is?” Elijah asked. “It better not all be about her.”
“Dear Elijah, you don’t know my mind.”
“You’re obsessive, dear brother. Just bear Kol in mind.”
“I’d rather not. Actually, I think we’d all benefit from him staying in his basement coffin should he ever catch a glimpse of the images up here.” Elijah’s disgust made me chuckle darkly.
“Can you just look at the map?” He pointed at the booklet in my lap.
“I can. Has it ever crossed your mind that we should learn how to use the satnav on our phones?” I suggested. We exchanged a glance and, imperceptible to anyone else, laughed together.
It wasn’t long before we were pulling up to Damon Salvatore’s road.
I was almost shocked to see that it existed. He and Elena lived above a well-polished bar. It wasn’t seedy or dark, but inviting and had people swarming in and out. The curtains were drawn mid-afternoon, which alerted me and Elijah to the possibility that they were out.
A faintly awkward silence filled the car while we waited, parked up on the side of the road.
“No one ever asked you, did they? If you would take it, given the chance.” I asked, bluntly.
“I have a feeling I was daggered in a coffin during the whole debate.”
“Bygones. Would you?” I wasn’t terribly interested, if I was being honest, but I wanted to fill the silence. I knew my pompous brother would have a lot to say about it.
“Yes. If there was nothing else in the way, no fight, no Rebekah, I’d take it in a second. And I would only have to survive 70 odd years before I could be laid to rest peacefully. I’d play the piano. Cook for myself. All those beautiful human things.” Elijah continued to watch the pavement for any sign of them returning.
“Our little sister would hunt you down.” I replied quickly, but I was surprised by his bluntness. Impressed. Somewhere in the righteous, passive aggressive, overprotective vampire was the man I knew as my brother, long ago in our fragile human village.
“I suppose it’s not worth asking you.” It was a statement, but he was right. I wouldn’t take it. Power was now the integral piece of Klaus Mikaelson’s character. Without it I wouldn’t survive long, not after all I had done in my extended life.
I’d be hunted and not just killed, but eviscerated as a human.
As if on cue, Damon and Elena rounded the corner in front of us. I squeezed my eyes shut in frustration, my fears confirmed.
They each held the hand of a little boy, who they were swinging into the air between them. He giggled every time, but Damon and Elena were letting it breeze over them like it was the most natural thing in the world. They maintained conversation, Elena grinning when he said something not at all funny. He looked smug and in love and it was like a hand had torn through my chest and had a grip on my heart, daring me to move.
Damon didn’t have the same senses he used to. I expected him to look up, maybe even hoped he’d realise we were sat here so I could pretend that he was the same vampire I’d once been at war with. But he didn’t. His human life consumed him.
And I was the very monster that I feared. Hunting him.
Her voice was also rattling around my head, and I wished I could scream at her to be quiet. ‘ Don't tear apart a family to meet your own ends. You're not a monster. ’ The last thing Klaus Mikaelson needed was a conscience. That would make me-
“We’ll have to drain him, there’s no other way to be sure that it will work.” Elijah looked at me expectantly. I kept watching the Salvatore family as they walked inside their front door, hurrying their son in first.
I may have to adjust my idea of what it meant to protect my family. I might even have to let it grow. Just a bit.
“You can’t seriously be considering not doing this, Niklaus. We need her to be there when Kol wakes up or he’ll go completely savage.”
‘ I don’t like Elijah ,’ she’d once said. Would it be different if I’d been the one who turned her? If she had woken up and been comforted by Elijah instead? Of course it would. Except… Well, he would have been too direct, for one. Tactless. His walls were harder to break down than any of our siblings, myself included. I was loath to admit it kept us safe. Maybe he wouldn’t have even been there when she woke up.
I had insisted on it, curiosity striking at the thought of seeing Kol’s long standing girlfriend for the first time. She wasn’t what I’d expected, messy and full of fire. I didn’t imagine that she’d be his type, but I recalled too that he’d shown little interest in anyone, unable to stop himself from sinking his teeth into any human within a mile radius. Deep set anger bubbled up at the thought of this actually working out. He might adjust better as a vampire with a vampire girlfriend.
One who he already loves. If he remembers her through the sudden bloodlust.
“We’re going home.” I said. Elijah let out a heavy sigh.
“ We will do no such thing. She needs to be there when Kol wakes up.” He repeated, only stoking the fire.
“No. She will be there, as things stand, however if we do this she will run. And she will be much harder to find than before.”
“You cannot mean that.” He gripped the wheel. “Where was this compassion when we needed it Klaus, or have you forgotten always and forever.”
“She is family. To Kol. And she will tell him what happened either way, except there’s a chance we could all make peace if we stop meddling and let her find a way to solve this with us. We have a chance to win her trust.” I looked into my brother’s eyes and waited as they softened.
I knew he had seen it. Guilt. Hope. I was letting him see it, because I knew it would change his mind. Elijah’s sighs were weighted enough for their own TV show and I thought I heard the beginnings of a growl rumbling in his throat.
He pulled away and we set off home.
Brothers, always and forever.