Double Crossing

Part I

It has been two months since the break-up.

Two months since Olivia Mallon's boyfriend Nik walked through the door, sat her down and said, "sweetheart, I really don't think it's working anymore," when really he meant, "sweetheart, I'm in love with Caroline Forbes." Naturally, when Olivia had managed to pull the latter from him, she didn't react well. Let's be honest, what did Niklaus Mikaelson really expect?

The whole situation just got that little bit worse too. How could things get worse? Well here's an explanation in six clear points:

1. Olivia and Niklaus had been together for two years.

2. Niklaus met Caroline a year into their relationship.

3. This was because Caroline was dating Niklaus's younger brother, Kol.

4. Niklaus falls for Caroline.

5. Caroline falls for Niklaus.

6. Everything kind of goes to shit for Olivia and Kol.

Caroline, on the other hand, broke it to Kol in her apartment, across the other side of the river. Nik and Olivia lived in the quarter, and Caroline knew that it would take Kol some time to get there, giving Caroline enough time to warn Nik. Obviously, Kol was going to try and kill Niklaus; or even seriously maim him. They'd had quite the temperamental relationship before and this had not helped.

Anyway, Olivia is sat drowning her sorrows in a bar called Rousseau's. She's never been a big drinker (her partying days in college lasted exactly a year) and now at twenty-four, she's never really felt the need- or had the money- so mainly, it was a glass of red here and a glass of white there. However tonight, she started drinking vodka cranberry's; currently, it's just plain 'ole vodka. Safe to say, she's pretty drunk.

Kol Mikaelson walks into the bar (sounds like the start of a bad joke, right?) spots Olivia sat on her own, head lolling against her arm and a grimace sneaks its way upon his face. He's been avoiding her, merely because he knew they'd have to talk about it and he really, really doesn't want to. He likes Olivia, don't get him wrong; she's kind, intelligent, beautiful, but dear God, does she look drunk. Can he really deal with this tonight?

Too Late.

"Kol!" Olivia drawls out, her voice low as she cradles a half empty glass. "Come have a drink with me," she adds, laughing lightly as she crooks a finger towards her and pats the stool to her left. Good God, she is completely out of it, Kol thinks. He complies to her request regardless.

"Hey 'Livia," he says, leaning his elbows on to counter. "I see you're having fun."

Olivia gives him a one sided smirk, pulls her hair around her shoulder and shrugs. "Well, it's Thursday Kol. I love Thursday's," she says, before adding a, "don't I Cami?" to the blonde bartender who is wiping down the surface to the left. Cami turns her head and grins at the the pair.

"You sure do, Liv," says Cami, before acknowledging Kol. "Thursday is 2 drinks for the price of 1 day." The penny suddenly drops for Kol.

"So you're really getting your fill tonight, aren't you sweetheart?" he says and Olivia makes a face of disgust.

"Please... Don't call me that." Kol shrugs himself from his dark jacket and puts it on the bar top as Cami places a beer in front of him. He thanks her with a smile.

"Ah," he answers finally with understanding. "That what he called you?" With this, Kol establishes without really saying it, that they will not refer to Nik nor Caroline by name, but rather with he or she. Olivia seems to understand even when half out of it.

In reply, she tosses back the rest of her drink, adding a "yes."

Kol nods, taking a swig of the beer and leaning on his forearms, giving Olivia his full attention. "What would you prefer then?"

Olivia considers this a moment, humming lightly and amusing Kol to no end. "I don't quite know. He used a lot of pet names. I've started to hate every one of them now. He's probably calling her them now too."

Kol balks at the thought. He couldn't believe it when Caroline had told him. It was like every worst nightmare he could have ever had rolled into one. Nik had done some pretty shitty things- Kol knew it- and he knew that they'd hadn't always seen eye to eye; but they were still brothers and they did have their moments. It's like a code or something- you don't steal your brothers girl; especially when said girl was also friends with your girlfriend.

It reminds Kol of the Salvatores and all their drama; high school sweethearts, Stefan and Elena, so very much in love. Then Damon wanders into town for Stefan's birthday and now they are no more. It's now Damon and Elena who are so very much in love. Stefan is just left out in the cold (slightly dramatic, but you get his point). Rather, Kol worries that that's what will happen to him. Caroline and Nik will get married and he'll have to attend, like Stefan will have to attend Elena and Damon's wedding (not that they're engaged but he remembered Caroline saying how much Damon wanted to). He'll have to see them all of the time because of course, Elijah and Rebekah will side with him and Finn probably won't care enough to give his opinion. He knew if his mother were still alive, she'd side with him too; he always was the favourite of hers and they all knew it.

Kol knows he probably sounds childish but he believes he has the right. They are in the wrong, not him or Olivia.

Speaking of Olivia, Kol waits as she begins to list off the pet names Nik had for her and ones he most likely uses for Caroline.

"Well we had sweetheart, love, dear, angel," she lists, "he sometimes used to call me Olive which I fucking hated." Kol chuckles at this making Olivia laugh too.

"Come on now darling, it's not that bad," he answers and Olivia grins.

"Now that's a new one," she says and Kol nods.

"Well I call everyone darling," he answers with a smirk.

Olivia fake scowls. "I'm offended! I thought I was your one and only," she whines, but bursts into laughter. Her laughter soon dies down though as she turns to Cami and shouts her over. After Cami gives her another drink (not without muttering last one), Olivia turns back to Kol.

"I bet you think I'm pathetic." Kol tilts his head slightly and stares at her.

"And why would I think that?"

Olivia knows how she looks. She's drunk for fuck sake. It's not even like she's been getting drunk and crying over Niklaus Mikaelson every single day because no sir, she has refused to do that. Over the past two months, she's gone from good days to bad days. Positive to pessimist. Today is one of those days.

She'd been in work and everything was fine. For dinner, Olivia decided to go to this really nice deli in the quarter when she'd turned around and saw Niklaus himself in front of an easel, paint brush in hand whilst staring intently at the scene before him. She wasn't quite sure what he was painting because all she could see was his face and she started to panic. Just as Olivia thought she had gotten away with not being seen, he turned around; they caught eye contact and she saw him visibly freeze.

Nik's lips had parted and his hand with the paint brush halted and she knew she had to get away, so far away from him. So just has it looked as though he was going to call her name, she turned around and walked as fast as she could. And that is how she ended up at Rousseau's, pouring her heart out to Cami whilst consuming as much liquer as she could until closing time; it was now time for her to sob to Kol instead.

After Olivia explains what happened to Kol, he sighs heavily and takes a large gulp of his own drink.

"You know why I'm here?" he says and she shakes her head. "I saw her. Correction, I saw both of them. Their arms were around each other and they had their heads together, laughing and I felt the breath rush from me and I felt so empty."

Olivia nods, suddenly sombre. Jazz music plays softly in the background, as hushed voices litter the rest of the bar, but Olivia finally feels like she can speak to someone who knows exactly how she is feeling in this exact moment in time.

"It's the betrayal that hurts the most, right? God, it hurts so fucking bad, Kol," she answers, her voice cracking slightly as she drinks her glass dry. She leans her head against the marble top. "I just want it to go away!" Kol doesn't know what to say to this, as he can't make his own pain go away let alone someone elses, so he sips his beer and places a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently.

"Hey Liv?" he prompts after a moment and she lifts her head. "Do you wanna go get some pizza?" Olivia smiles at this, realising that she hasn't actually eaten anything because she ran away from the deli stand and that's probably why she is feeling quite intoxicated at the moment.

"Yeah. I think that's a good idea."

Kol Mikaelson doesn't quite remember how he ended up in Olivia Mallon's bed but some how, he did. Mind you, he's fully clothed minus his shoes and Olivia is the exact same, lying next to him, completely out of it. He remembered leaving Rousseau's, having pizza, talking about great eighties and nineties movies, arguing over bands and then drinking a shit load of wine when they finally headed to Olivia's new apartment. It was pretty unruly, as she had only moved in two weeks before, with unopened boxes and unpainted walls.

"I smashed up this painting Nik did of me when he confessed his undying love for barbie," he remembered Olivia admitting, "he was so angry. HA. I said, 'fuck you asshole. I hated it anyway. You got my chin all wrong.'" He also remembered laughing a lot about that.

However one big thing he found himself remembering was the plan of revenge they both came up with. Kol almost slaps himself in the face as it all comes back to him.

"You know what would really piss them off?" Kol suggusted with a grin, as they both lay on the couch.

"Pray tell."

"We should hook up," he replied and Olivia burst out laughing.

"That's not happening Kol!"

Kol merely rolled his eyes at the woman. "Fine! Let's fake it then."

"What do you mean?" Olivia questioned with furrowed eyebrows.

"I mean, let's fake a relationship. Pretend me and you are a couple. It'll piss them off so much. It's the perfect revenge, darling." Kol grinned at Olivia, waiting for her reply. Olivia looked confused, waiting for him to burst out laughing and say, "I'm taking the piss, you stupid sod!"

"Are you serious?" she said when Kol does not laugh nor call her a stupid sod.

Kol's grin got wider as he sipped his wine. "Why? Are you turning me down?"

Olivia laughed, shaking her head. He is absurd. "You can't be serious Kol."

"Of course I am darling. Think about it for a second."

So Olivia did. She turned it around her head a couple of times until she was nodding. It made sense yes and boy, did she want some revenge. She wanted Nik to understand how she felt, to feel the jealousy and rage burn in his chest. That's if it bothered him... But if they made it convincing, she knew it would. No matter how hypocritical it would make him.

"Okay then... But we have to make it believable."

Kol pumped his fist in the air in victory. "Yes! And we'll have to stop drowning our sorrows in bars alone, now won't we darling?" he added with a wink.

Olivia threw a pillow at him. "Fuck you."

"If you insist," he retorted, wiggling his eyebrows mockingly.

"Now now..." she answered, amused undertones in her voice.

"We have to make it believable, you said."

"Not that believable."

"We'll have to go on dates and kiss and look all lovey-dovey."

"Please don't say that again."

"I'm British, you'll have to get used to it."

Olivia paused a minute before reality set in.

"Oh god... I'm doing an Elena Gilbert, aren't I?" she groaned. "Or well, a Caroline Forbes."

"Ouch. I thought we agreed no name dropping?"

"Fine, sorry, fine. Everyone's favourite king and queen of New Orleans. Better?"

"Much," he said. "So- let's start on plan to dethrone them, shall we?"

And they did.

Kol groans; and groans again. He sits up and goes into the kitchen to grab himself a glass of water. His head is pounding and he can't believe they made such an elaborate plan and he also can't believe he remembers all of it.

If Kol was being honest, he was still completely down with it. He wanted his revenge. But would a sober Olivia? He wasn't sure. They'd have to be a fake couple, but make it look real. They'd have to essentially be a couple; in an actual relationship kind of couple. He goes back into the bedroom and leans against the doorframe, looking at Olivia. She really is beautiful, he thinks, before shaking it away. Nik is a stupid man, then pops into his head, before he shakes that away too.

Kol knows it will be difficult; to remove Olivia Mallon from under his skin if he lets her in. But if they got close, close enough to fool every one, to make their revenge believable, it would be so undoubtly, irrevocably worth it.

A/N:
Hope you guys enjoy this! Probably gonna be a three part one shot... Please bear with me with updating as exams start in a couple of weeks. Thanks for reading and hope you guys had a good break (for those who had one).

xx