A/N: So this piece was just going to be Klaus and Hope fluff but I seem incapable of writing Klaus without throwing in Elijah too, thus this became Klaus, Hope and Elijah fluff. Ah well. So it goes.
Disclaimer: Still not mine. More's the pity.
Nightmares and Promises
The Mikaelson household was quiet, the hour late. Klaus and Elijah, however, long accustomed to the night time hours, were both still awake and sitting in a companionable silence, reading.
They were not so engrossed though that they didn't hear the pitter patter of little footsteps from the moment they touched the floor.
"What's she doing awake?" Klaus questioned, his eyes on the ceiling as he tracked the sound of his daughter's footsteps.
"We'll soon know," Elijah murmured, the soft smile that only his niece elicited from him on his lips.
"Daddy? Uncle Elijah?" Hope Mikaelson sniffled, appearing in the living room doorway, her eyes liquid and huge in her tear streaked face.
"What is it, littlest wolf?" Klaus asked, putting aside his book and opening his arms to her and immediately she snuggled into him.
"I had a bad dream," Hope whispered, her voice muffled in Klaus's shirt.
"A bad dream? What was it about?" Elijah questioned softly as Klaus stroked the little girl's hair.
"I don't remember," the four year old sniffled. "It was scary though and I woke up. Did you ever have bad dreams, Daddy?"
"Oh yes," Klaus murmured. "All the time."
"Did your daddy make you feel better?" Hope asked, her curiosity overcoming her lingering fear.
Klaus hesitated, unconsciously tensing, and over Hope's head he met his brother's gaze, the calm support he found there steadying him.
"No, I can't say that he did," Klaus forced himself to say after a moment and Hope titled her head, puzzled, hearing something in her father's voice that she didn't, couldn't, understand.
"Your mommy, then?" the little girl asked and Klaus couldn't stop his gaze from flickering to his older brother's again and this time Hope noticed and she too turned to her uncle, confused.
"Our mother was a sound sleeper," Elijah murmured and his eyes were full of the past but he smiled gently and reassuringly nonetheless.
Klaus was unsure whether it was for the child's benefit or his own.
A sound sleeper. It was certainly a polite way of saying their father would never have allowed their mother to comfort the likes of him.
"So no one made you feel better?" Hope gasped, blessedly unable to imagine it, looking at her father with compassionate horror.
"Actually, Elijah bore the brunt of most of my nightmares," Klaus said lightly. "My big brother used to let me sleep with him."
"Did Daddy really sleep with you, Uncle Elijah?" the little girl asked, giggling at the sudden lightheartedness in her father's voice, unaware of the shadow of Mikael both of the brothers felt.
"Indeed he did," Elijah confirmed, smiling softly.
"Oh yes. Poor Elijah had many sleepless nights because of me," Klaus told his daughter.
"They were, everyone of them, well worth it," Elijah murmured, meeting and holding Klaus's gaze, sensing his younger brother needed to hear it.
"Yes, well," Klaus said after a moment, clearing his throat and breaking eye contact, shifting his attention back to his daughter. "Do you want to know a secret?" he asked, lowering his voice to a theatrical whisper.
"What?" Hope asked eagerly.
"Your Uncle Elijah gives the very best hugs," Klaus whispered, raising his brows and gently nudging the girl, and, needing no further encouragement, she leapt into her uncle's lap to hug him.
"And you," Klaus murmured, picking her up when she was finished to take her back to bed. "You will always have someone who loves you to make you feel better. Isn't that right, Elijah?"
"Yes, that's quite right, Niklaus. Always and forever," Elijah answered without hesitation, the old promise falling easily from his lips and over the child's head their eyes met once more.
Always and forever.
His daughter would never know the pain he knew. He and his siblings would make sure of that.
Always and forever.
Family above all.
- End.