He loves her.
He's never actually said it out loud to someone else. It's only said to her, usually during the moments when they're alone and together and it's whispered in her ear like a secret that only she gets to know (because it is a secret only she gets to know). And he can feel her smile before he moves his lips away or before he kisses or nibbles on her beautiful ear (and before he met her ears weren't beautiful they were used only for hearing and torturing).
But Klaus does love Bonnie.
And it's that love he is reminding himself of as he sits through this…hosh posh of a gathering of people he doesn't give a shit about on Christmas Eve. Well that's not fully true. He gives a shit about her. And his family that's in attendance, in varying degrees. But that's pretty much it.
'It's not a Christmas party per se,' Bonnie said and Klaus drifted out of her next sentences because there's a light in her eyes and he loves seeing that light. And since they were found out first sleeping with each other and then actually dating each other and finally being in a relationship with one another he hasn't seen that light as much. Especially if she's seen those miscreants she calls friends. All he wants is to tear every single one of their limbs off of their bodies while they watch for making that light go out but she apparently loves them so he doesn't. But that light is there and he wants that light to stay there so when there's a pause he said something about the party being here and there's more than enough room and before he knew it she was in his arms giving him one of those kisses that makes the blood rush straight to his lower extremities and they end up fucking right there on the sofa because why not.
So this is not a Christmas party but there's food and music that talks of sleigh bells and Santa Claus and silent nights and the mood is uncharacteristically light considering who exactly is here in his mansion and that light is in her eyes and he loves her so he will deal with it.
Klaus is standing a bit off to the side, against a wall, nursing his second drink of the evening when his brother stands next to him, nursing his first drink because Elijah Mikaelson has to be the honorable one and an honorable person (well vampire) would not get drunk at this thing that's not a Christmas party per se.
"Bonnie seems happy." Klaus grunts a response to his brother and continues his drinking. "Maybe her friends have finally seen what you, brother, mean to her." Klaus looks over to his brother, his older brother, and realizes that in the past year their relationship has gotten better. That he's a confidant now. That he's, well, a brother. And there's a part of Klaus that says finally and another bigger that hopes his older brother feels the same way.
"About time. The sacrifices she's willing to go through for them but they couldn't take our relationship. It was rather ridiculous."
"Yes it was brother. But it's not like you gave them no reason to doubt your intentions with Bonnie."
"Always taking everyone else's side aren't you Elijah?" But he doesn't say it with malice and there's a smirk on his lips that is returned and they continue to stand there on the fringes of this not a Christmas party sipping on their drinks.
At a certain point after everyone has eaten and danced with each other, even his family, the baby blonde vampire shouts 'Secret Santa!' and her and Bonnie start to reach underneath a tree she and his sister decided to put up and decorate where everyone had piled gifts when they came through the door and they hand them out. To his dismay he got the name Damon Salvatore for this Secret Santa thing that he doesn't quite understand but before he could comment Bonnie said to buy Damon some good booze and Klaus realized she knew he wouldn't want to do this so she picked someone for him that likes to drink as much as him to make it easier. They finish passing out the gifts and everyone starts to unwrap them and he focuses his attention on Damon. The gift isn't hard to decipher but he still watches the older Salvatore tear the wrapping paper off the bottle and watches his eyebrows rise as he reads the label on the bottle. Damon looks up and finds him and Klaus lifts his glass. Damon smirks and lifts the bottle to him and it's not something monumental but maybe it is because there seems to be a more than just a slight acknowledgement of one another, maybe it's an understanding that this group of people who have been trying to kill each other for almost two years now can get along.
Bonnie comes walking up to him and Elijah with two boxes in her hands. She looks like perfection as usual, covered in a green long sleeved sweater dress and gold high heels that make her taller but still Klaus could place his chin on the top of her head. She gives the long, thin rectangular box to his older brother and she kisses him on his left cheek.
"Merry Christmas Elijah," she says, a bit of a reserved smile on her face. She hasn't forgotten what Elijah did to her mother, nor has she forgiven, but she's gotten pass it. Bonnie knows Klaus would choose her if it comes to that but she doesn't want him to choose between her or his family. Elijah and her can be in the same room. They can sleep under the same roof. And she can give him a gift during Secret Santa and a kiss on the cheek and say 'Merry Christmas' and actually mean it. So it's something.
"Thank you Bonnie." Elijah looks from her to his brother and then excuses himself from them, taking both drinks with him. So now it's the two of them away from everyone else and she holds out the gift to him.
"For you." The smile she gives him isn't anything like what she gave to his brother. It's big and bright and a bit off center and it's become everything to him. Klaus can't help but smile as well when he sees it so he does so, freely, while accepting the gift. But he also pulls her in to him and wraps his arms around her and feels her doing the same with him while placing her head on his chest. For a brief moment they aren't the witch and the hybrid that's tried to kill each other, they are two people in a relationship not a Christmas party per se and getting caught up in the feel of one another.
"And here I thought you had forgotten me love." He feels the pinch in his back that does nothing in regards to pain (he's felt worst, she's done worst to him) but it gets the point across. She somehow snuggles in closer to him.
"I'd never forget about you," she replies back and pulls away from him a little so she's staring slightly up into his eyes. "Thank you. For this."
"Whatever do you—"
"Stop. I know this is the last thing you'd want to do, but you did it. For me. And I know we said no Christmas gifts but this, having this here in your home—"
"—our home," he interrupts her.
"Our home," she repeats after him, rolling her eyes, "means a lot to me. It means everything to me. Especially since I know you hate this."
"I truly am a martyr, little witch."
She rolls her eyes again at him but leans up and kisses him. It starts out as two, three pecks but then gets deeper, her mouth opening to let him inside, his tongue touching and tasting every surface available to him, his hand moving up from the small of her back to the back of her head and he grabs a bit of her hair and tugs and hears a moan involuntarily leave her and he smiles into the kiss. He flips them around where now she's the one with the back against the wall and he wants nothing more than to lift her where they're the same height and look into her emerald eyes while he rips her panties in two and swiftly enters her and watch her pleasure overtake her. But he doesn't.
Because they're at this not a Christmas party.
With people in the room.
Who have all gone quiet and, he presumes, is watching them.
He pulls back and looks at her blushing face and her swollen lips and her glazed eyes. He loves doing this to her. He fucking loves doing this to her.
"It was just a kiss you guys," she says loud enough so that everyone in the room slowly but surely goes back into the conversations they were having with one another. They look at each other for another moment and then he leans down and kisses her forehead.
"Go enjoy your friends," he says in a whisper he's sure is picked up by everyone in the room, minus the human male she grew up with who has stayed stubbornly human instead of being turned (and he has it on good authority from his baby sister that it's been offered to him several times). She gives him another tiny little peck and he sees that light in her eyes. That light that has made this night before a holiday that doesn't mean a lot to him but means a lot to her, this night where he's tolerated these people he doesn't care about at this not a Christmas party worth it.
Bonnie walks off and Klaus sees the gift that she gave him on the floor. It's more of a square shape than Elijah's was and he silently opens it while the talking in the room gains in volume and he can make out his sister teasing Bonnie and the baby blonde vampire asking for details. What's in the box is a black sweater. Like the hundreds of black clothing he has but surprisingly he likes it.
"You wear black a lot. I figured at the very least it's something you won't make too much of a fuss about when Bonnie makes you wear it at least once." He knows Stefan's voice almost like his own so it's without surprise he looks up and sees his old friend staring at him. He wants to retort something that'll get under Stefan's skin, but out the corner of Klaus' eye he can see Bonnie and she's dancing again with the baby vampire and the second doppelganger turned vampire and the human male and she's smiling and she looks at and sees him and mouths 'I love you' and he doesn't care about the retort anymore. So Klaus simply says, "Merry Christmas Stefan." And Stefan simply replies, "Merry Christmas Klaus."
BKBKBKBKBKBKBKBKBKBK
It's hours after the not a Christmas party but they haven't slept. They have been having sex all over the house, which is easy to do for once because his brother has "plans" and his sister leaves with the human male. They finally make it to their room and after a final round they're laying together on top of the covers naked, his head on her stomach while his hands gently trail up and down her legs. Her hands are in his hair, the charms from the bracelet his sister got her for the Secret Santa tangling with it every so often.
"Bonnie?" He whispers her name against her stomach and the fingers in his hair stills.
"Yes?"
"You, last night…I imagine that's how it used to be with your friends?"
"Yeah," he hears the smile on her lips.
"Do you ever regret it?"
"What?" Her fingers begin to move again and they tug his hair, like she knows what he's going to say before he says it.
"Regret…this," he asks hesitantly. "It would have made your life easier."
There is a silence after the question that unnerves him. For all he knows it unnerves her too. But he can't help but holding a breath that he doesn't need.
"Klaus, come here." She stops running her hands through his hair, expecting him to do as she says but he doesn't. So she grabs his hair and pulls up until he has no choice but to move in that direction. He eventually moves and places his body right next to her. She's on her side and staring at him and he's on his back staring at the ceiling.
"Look at me." Bonnie's voice is strong and commanding and Klaus loves it. He especially loves it when it's telling him just how to fuck her but that's not the type of thoughts he should be thinking right now he supposes. He turns to his side as well and they're looking at one another, blue eyes meeting green.
"My life stopped being normal when I was 16 and found out I was a witch and vampires were real. You didn't cause that." She moves closer to him and his hand automatically goes around her waist, pulling her into him.
"I've spent the last three years doing everything for my friends. Everything. Because I love them. And I do. I was willing to die for them." Her hands return to his hair and begin to run through the silky blond strands again.
"It hurt that they so dismissed our relationship at first. But I can't live for them anymore. I love them, but this is my life." Bonnie pulls him in for a kiss but it's not what Klaus is expecting. It's gentle, their lips barely touching but there's still electricity being passed from one to the other
She pulls back and he waits a few seconds before opening his eyes and seeing blue orbs looking directly at him. "It's not easy being with you Niklaus," he loves it when she calls him his full name, "but I don't regret a single second. Not one. I love you."
He rolls on top of her and stares. He knows she can see that there are unshed tears in his eyes. And he doesn't care.
"I love you too Bonnie." It's not a whisper said directly in her ear. It's powerful and strong and it's while looking deep into her green eyes.