Chapter 19

                                    

                                          
Marcel spent the night.
Andra didn't find out until the following morning when she'd crawled out of bed to brush her teeth and saw him having coffee with Ryan. She waved awkwardly, unsure why she felt so exposed. The panic attack had already happened; Marcel had seen her at a point close to her worst. The aftermath wasn't nearly as bad. 
"How are you feeling?" Marcel asked when she sat with them, reaching out for a cinnamon roll. 
"Okay," she admitted, tearing it into small bits. No sense in lying and pretending she was better in any way. It would take time to feel like anything was alright. "You?"
"I'm good. Ryan was telling me about his plans for ah... an ideal world."
"They certainly are great plans," said Ryan proudly, ripping apart his own cinnamon roll. (Honestly, Marcel didn't understand why either of them had to shred it so violently before consuming it.) "If it were up to me, I'd do anything to get rid of the Mikaelsons once and for all. They can be suitable allies in many instances, but they can never be fully trusted. They turn on their own as easily as a coin can be flipped, and unless you smarm up to Klaus, there's no guarantee you're safe in any way."
Andra made a face. "Are you being serious? You want to do that?"
"After last night's shitshow, definitely. I never liked Klaus but I like him a whole lot less now. Will I actually try to go through with it? Fuck no. We'll need them for a while longer, and it's not exactly going to be easy; dethroning someone like him can't happen overnight. But should an opportunity present itself..."
"Probably best we don't even talk like that. It's a risk to open our mouths knowing once something is said, it can come back to haunt us."
"Agreed," said Marcel. The last thing he wanted was for Klaus to misinterpret anything he heard them saying and for him to take it further than he already had. He wasn't sure how serious Ryan was being; it could just be a result of his anger after seeing how torn his sister had been. "I know it won't mean shit right now but I'm hoping that somehow, someway, in the future, amends can be made. Despite everything." He motioned to Andra, "You encouraged me to consider peace in the past."
Landon seemed to find this funny, gurgling as both golems considered this, neither appearing to be a fan of the idea. Marcel figured he should have expected that Ryan wouldn't give a flying crap about peace and that Andra was going to cling to other thoughts while she processed her grief. 
"Amends with who, exactly?" inquired Andra, hands clasping her mug and feeling the burn against her palms. "I'm going to help Freya, as I said I would. She was kind to me, and she gave me even just one day with Mikael where everything was the way it used to be. I'll never be able to repay her for it, never be able to do anything to give her that. Rebekah is the reason you found me yesterday, so her I am glad to get along with– not that our relationship was ever really fractured. She has her moments but she's been cooperative."
She unclenched her hands, watching as they reddened. "Elijah coddles Klaus far too much but is more reasonable. When it comes to Hayley and her issues with Klaus, I think he could be inclined to stand against his brother and though at the end of the day he will inevitably forgive him for everything— as I would with Ryan and Landon though I know they'd never do something so severe. Nevertheless, a tool that can be used... with the right amount of pushing. Kol is Kol,neither good nor bad at this present moment, a bit of a grey area, really, but he can be appealed to, I suppose. Prices can be paid and he will be like us, working for the highest bidder, except in this case we add a hint of salt... give him the attention his siblings didn't grant him and channel that bitter feeling that lingers..."