Title: "Personal Effects"
Status: OneShot
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Pairing(s)/Character(s): Elijah Mikaelson/Niklaus Mikaelson; Finn Mikaelson, Kol Mikaelson, Rebekah Mikaelson
Disclaimer: Copyright CW and LJ Smith.
Rating: T
Genre: Alternate Universe – Canon, dysfunctional family, (past) slash
Warnings: (past) sibling incest
Summary: Elijah has had enough, a notion that sends Klaus reeling...
Personal Effects
"It's not always about you, Niklaus," Elijah shouts, voice ringing under the canopy of trees, in the silence of the forest all around them. "Or perhaps it is. What you have done this time, to our family, I can't forgive that."
Elijah pauses, deliberating, and Klaus thinks, for a moment, that his brother may still be swayed. As if reading his mind, he adds, "I won't."
Klaus recoils as if struck.
Even with his hand wrapped around his heart, feeling it flutter, Elijah had been ice-cold fury, never raised his voice. Even when they had fought for Tatia's hand, there had been no shouting, only thrust and parry, of wit and sword. Even when Klaus had pushed and taunted and broken his word, again and again, Elijah had been in control, temper kept tightly in check, their bond untouched.
Bending to Klaus' will, an inclined head, a courteous bow, stiff spine and narrowed eyes, never outright submission, but graceful giving, a brothers loyalty and trust and love and understanding. Always holding out hope, the first one to forgive, if not forget.
Now Elijah's chest is rising with ragged breaths he doesn't need, hair ruffled, muscles taut beneath his suit, eyes crimson in a veined web of black, fangs showing in a sardonic smile.
Worst thing of all is his look. Elijah never resembled their father, but now something bitter like bile rises in Klaus' throat, faced with a perfect mirror image of Mikaels' disgust and disappointment.
"Brother, please, I promise -"
"Your word means nothing," Elijah interrupts him. "And I've come to realize that there is no honor in keeping mine. It's disgraceful."
"Lijah..."
And then that horrible transformation is complete. Not so much the light dies in Elijah's eyes as Klaus does; dead to him. He turns around and leaves, not once looking back.
Klaus wants to rip something apart, put a dagger in his brothers heart, trap him in his coffin, scream his throat raw, provoke a fight, run after him. He wants to take hold of Elijah, kiss his eyelids, cheeks and mouth, with the tenderness of days long past, and beg his forgiveness, swear he will prove that he can change.
But he is Klaus. He is the Original hybrid, he does not plead, he will not. So he ends up doing nothing, stares after him until Elijah's silhouette has vanished into the night.
When he whispers 'please', like he must, it is far too late.
XXX
No contact can reach Elijah, no one knows his whereabouts, the witches are struck blind in their search and Klaus feels a panic he finds distasteful, like being trapped in his skin on a full moon when the urge to change is bound by his mother's curse.
(He needs his brother. Now there is irony for you.)
He wants Elijah back, and for once he realizes that using the leverage he has, the way he usually would, holds the potential of destroying everything.
So he starts by pulling the dagger out of Finn's chest. Leaving him in a warehouse in Chicago to wake alone after 900 years is cruel and petty, but Klaus never liked his hand being forced, not even now. Besides, he has no doubt that Elijah will know, as he always does, and come running to care for Finn as long as their brother needs it. Then he will give him a choice, to stay or leave as Finn sees fit.
A family is like a puzzle. Elijah never believed in needing to hold all the pieces to see the bigger picture; always and forever. Would never follow in Klaus' footsteps to try and force them to fit.
Kol will be next. Then Rebekah. Or make that the other way around, because Kol is and will always be, a little shit. Klaus has bait and he's willing to use it. He can always track them down and do it all over again, if he has to.
He waits.
The End
R&R