Thanks for the well-wishes for my baby, everyone! And thank you, sincerely, for the reviews. I understand the oddness of a story like this in a fandom like TVD, but I'm truly enjoying writing this little piece. That said, please don't freak out if a pairing you don't like occurs at any one point. I strive for realism and some parallels to the show, even in an AU, with the most accuracy I can while still trying to create a new idea with our favorite characters. If you don't like any of them, that's fine! I don't mind. And I love feedback; I can't know what I'm doing right or wrong if I'm not told. Just... be constructive if you choose to express it. I likely won't change my mind on plot points, but I'm always open to the idea that something I'm doing isn't working. Either way, constructive criticism is always welcome!
Also, I did make this chapter extra long by almost a thousand words over my usual goal for this story, as promised. So. Enjoy!
When Klaus awoke, he felt as though he'd been pistol-whipped again. His head throbbed everywhere, and without opening his eyes he could pinpoint where the doctor had operated. Then again, who could forget a scalpel taken to their head with no anesthetic?
But he did open his eyes, and the sight he was greeted with could not have been more glorious.
"Good morning, Jeunesse." He inwardly cursed as he slurred a little.
"Evening," she returned. Apparently he had been out long enough for her to run some water through the grime in her hair and wipe her face. "You've been asleep for two days."
"Needed it," he murmured, closing his eyes again.
"No kidding." When he lifted a hand to feel the bandages, she firmly swatted it away. "Don't touch," she chastised as though talking to a small child. "Elena says you'll need to be extra careful for a while."
Elena must have been the doctor. Klaus rolled his eyes open, shooting Ms. Forbes an exasperated stare before he forced himself to sit up. She pursed her lips at him, refusing to be baited into aiding him since he'd already refused her.
"I'm quite surprised I wasn't murdered in my sleep."
Ms. Forbes raised a shoulder. How amazing she looked, he suddenly realized. With her hair cleaner, it looked like woven daylight against the dark glimmer of rock. The room was barely lit with a kerosene lantern, and yet he was mesmerized.
Distractingly, she said, "I owed you one. You know, for saving me back there."
"Yes, well."
She waited expectantly, but when he said nothing more, Ms. Forbes sighed and shifted from a crouch to a sitting position. She glanced around and Klaus followed her gaze. The others were asleep—all but for Damon, whose eyes seemed riveted to Klaus with cold fury.
"Your fiancé is charming," he said wryly, well aware Damon could hear.
"Ex," Ms. Forbes said shortly. "Just ignore him. I do."
"Stay classy, Caroline," Damon called from the short distance across the cavern.
"Not that hard next to you," she snapped.
His surgery-related headache only grew worse. Tersely, Klaus said, "Your idea of ignoring somebody seems to lack some essential elements. Such as the ignoring part."
If looks could kill, Ms. Forbes's would have been able to stab him twenty times, sever his spine in the process, and toss him screaming to a swarm of Apis. Rather than raise a finger toward him, she said primly, "The others went to get food and water. Asshole here is making sure we don't start a coup."
"Are we?" Klaus asked mockingly, sneering in Damon's direction. "I must have forgotten amongst all the drama of breaking half the bones in my body and getting shot."
"In the head," she agreed.
In the head, he echoed silently. The fact he had survived not just a plummet toward a hostile alien planet, but also a direct shot to the skull, told Klaus luck was astronomically on his side. For once. Where had all that luck been when his "father" had been destroying him physically, psychologically, and legally?
Across the cavern, Damon cleaned the shotgun the other woman had wielded days before and chose not to comment on their conversation. He did twitch a little, though. Klaus was viciously satisfied. Any fool who gave up Jeunesse was one who had never deserved her in the first place.
Then again, he was a tad biased.
Weariness began to seep into his tattered bones. Klaus shifted with a wince. Surgery was hard on the body, particularly without drugs. What he wouldn't give for a small dose of Percocet.
Ms. Forbes eyed him critically. "Maybe you should lie down."
"Can't," he muttered. "Our coup will fail."
She snorted and hid her mouth behind her hand as she glanced away. The simple movement allowed the lantern to highlight her face with soft orange glows, dancing erotically as the shadows caressed her flesh.
How interesting that in the face of Apis they fought, yet in the face of her ex-fiancé they joined forces. Klaus allowed himself a dark smile. As much as he vacillated between wanting to comfort and wanting to antagonize her, his admiration for Jeunesse didn't dull and fade as he had assumed—and initially hoped—it would. He recognized how unhealthy his feelings toward her were. He wasn't an idiot. But he certainly wanted to pursue their interactions further, see which way they crystallized and grew.
Suddenly Ms. Forbes looked back to him, her smile gone and eyes all business. "So here's the deal," she said quietly. "Elena—the doctor—says it'll take a couple months for you to heal."
That wasn't much help, given they had no good way to account for the time passing. Klaus opened his mouth to say so, but the look she gave him promised worse pain if he interrupted.
"Hayley—crazy bitch—is from a women's death row back on earth. Apparently she manipulated a lot of people into an area so they could be slaughtered. Did you know they were sending death row inmates to space to fight the war? Freaking idiots. Unbelievable." Klaus wisely kept his mouth sealed. "Tyler—other guy—just joined the Marines. He was in Asshole's platoon coming in for a rescue mission. They almost got away, but the Apis swarmed them. They lost a lot of people. Hell, there used to be more here. But most of them are either dead or abandoned the group. So probably dead. Elena was here with Crazy and they were supposed to be rescued." She raised a hand in a defeated gesture, and then let it fall to her knee. "So that's who we're dealing with."
"Sounds like you make friends quickly," Klaus said.
She raised her eyebrows. "Jealous?"
"Hardly." He cast a sidelong glance toward her ex-fiancé. "Basically, we can't trust any of them."
"Not necessarily."
Oh, lovely.
Heedless of his thought, Ms. Forbes said, "Tyler's not half bad. He's a boot—" Marine slang for new blood, Klaus knew, "—but he's resourceful. He's basically their scout; keeps an eye on the women when they go foraging, amongst other things. And he's not bad in a fight." She smiled faintly. "Not as good as me, but not bad."
Unrighteous jealousy surged in Klaus. He stared ahead stonily, wondering what the hell had happened while he had slept.
"And Elena's a pretty good doctor. She stitched you up well." Annoyance filtered into her voice. "Apparently she's Asshole's conscience."
A loud sigh echoed through the cave. Damon shot them a long glare. "I can hear you, Barbie."
"I know," said Ms. Forbes sweetly.
Setting down the shotgun, Damon at last gave them undivided attention. "Look, for what little it's worth, I'm sorry your feelings are hurt."
"Oh, so after your new fling gives you grief, it finally occurs to you that I deserve an apology? And a piss-poor one at that?"
"Didn't say you deserved an apology at all."
"Well, you sure as hell deserve being stranded here."
"Likewise."
Klaus pinched the bridge of his nose in an unsuccessful attempt to stave off the impending migraine. And then there are the times she opens her lovely mouth, and I wonder if she's truly out of high school, he thought irritably. She had certainly chosen her ex-fiancé with the same discerning criteria of a young student.
In an aggravated, desperate attempt to change the subject, Klaus said loudly, "What were so many humans doing on the planet's surface?"
Both looked at him, Ms. Forbes in puzzled surprise and Damon with wary suspicion. "How long have you two been out of the loop?"
"About a month," said Ms. Forbes.
Klaus merely shrugged.
With exaggerated patience, Damon said, "We started small colonies a long while back. The Apis were supposed to have been killed off, but apparently they have a hidden nest somewhere. The bastards overtook us about thirteen months ago. I was supposed to be the last rescue mission for a certain bleeding heart doctor and her patients."
Klaus accepted the explanation with a short nod, but Ms. Forbes appeared horrified. "We laid claim to this planet?"
Nonplussed, Damon said, "Apis aside, it's a good planet for human life. We could grow here."
"No," she insisted, rising to her feet. "Bad enough we're in this war, but now we're displacing another species from their home? Where's the fairness in that?"
Klaus and Damon shared a brief, knowing moment of incredulity. "All aboard the Justice Train, heading straight for Moralityville," Damon called jeeringly. "No stops! All you can eat Self-Righteousness Finger Sandwiches!"
"Screw you," said Ms. Forbes in disgust.
"We didn't start this interspecies war," Damon snapped, his jovial tone displaced by fury. "But we're sure as hell going to finish it. What did you think you were signing up for?"
"I signed up to find you!"
"You're an idiot."
That last comment had come from Klaus, not Damon. Ms. Forbes whirled on him, surprise naked in her features. He stared back at her unapologetically and forged forth with brutal coldness. "You joined a war to find a lost fiancé. Perhaps altruism played a part, but it's plain to see what drove you to make the leap. I admire your work, Jeunesse, but that was foolishness of the utmost degree."
Damon threw up his hands in exasperation. "Finally. Apparently the only voice of reason was asleep the past couple days."
Klaus scowled.
Cheeks enflamed, Ms. Forbes grabbed a nearby object and threw it at Klaus. The agony in his head slowed his thoughts and reflexes to molasses, so when the dull end of a scalpel hit his surgery site, Klaus shouted and recoiled in fury. His first thought was to rise and smash her head into the rocks.
But he was injured.
So when he snatched the scalpel and slashed out, it occurred to him that Caroline—not Ms. Forbes, she'd just thrown a literally bloody knife at him—shouldn't have been surprised when he stabbed her leg. The shock of actually being struck flooded her face, and she just stared at him in mute horror.
Blessedly, Damon took advantage of the single breath of silence to come between them. He shoved Caroline back, shouting, "Are you insane? We already wasted medical supplies on him! Why the hell are you making it worse?"
"He stabbed me!" She still sounded more stunned than angry or hurt.
"And I'll do it twice should you ever bloody touch me again!" shouted Klaus. The pulsating pain and outrage made it a struggle to stay sitting up. His vision swarmed and tinged with red. "Get the hell away from me!"
Damon shook his head, but Caroline didn't seem to notice him at all.
"What the fuck is all this noise?" Hayley's voice shouted from the small opening not far from Klaus's makeshift bed.
Shaking his head with disgust, Damon stalked away from them without so much as a concerned glance toward Klaus. Well, that suited him just fine. He felt Caroline's eyes on him, but stubbornly stared well away from her.
Within minutes Hayley, Tyler, and Elena wriggled through the entrance. Almost immediately Elena let out a dismayed cry and ran to tend to Caroline. Within moments Caroline redirected her to Klaus's side, where she shone a light in his eyes and asked him questions. Klaus curtly responded in words that amounted more to where she could shove the flashlight than answers to her inquiries.
In turn, Tyler helped Caroline remove the scalpel and applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. Hayley hung back from it all, shaking her head in mocking amusement.
"See, Ty, I told you we couldn't leave the exes alone," she murmured.
"How is this my fault?" Damon demanded.
"Is it?" Elena shot back.
"No!" The two stared at each other, and Damon was the first to crack. "Maybe. A little. Not nearly as much as theirs."
Elena sighed.
Caroline apparently saw her opportunity, because she focused on Elena and said, "You were part of this alleged colonization process?"
"No, I was part of the medical team," said Elena with tired patience as she finished unwinding Klaus's bandage and gently inspected his scalp. He gritted his teeth through the pain, wishing everybody would just silence themselves for a few hours. Waking up had been a mistake, it seemed.
Unfortunately, Elena continued speaking. "If you're asking whether or not I approve, I don't. But my first and foremost duty has always been my patients."
"Your incessant arguing is trying my patience," Klaus growled.
Elena ignored him and set about giving him new bandages. "You're bleeding a little, but nothing seems to be swelling. Bet it hurt like hell, though."
Klaus settled for glowering at the dark-haired woman. She shrugged at his lack of response, rising to leave the moment his head was sufficiently wrapped again.
In the wake of Klaus and Caroline both stewing, Hayley decided to give Damon a breakdown of their time on the surface. "So," she drawled, setting down a makeshift bag, "we had trouble finding water. But the good news is, we found a wreckage with a ton of supplies."
Klaus groaned knowing Caroline was about to pipe in.
Indeed, she said sharply, "Was that my ship?"
"Probably," Hayley said dismissively.
"What's ours is yours, and yours is ours," Tyler said quietly. "You have some good, intact stuff we can all use."
Caroline opened her mouth, appeared to reconsider, and then waved her hand. "Fine. Use it."
"Gee, thanks," Hayley said, her voice dripping with heavy sarcasm.
Klaus finally sank back to the poor excuse of a bed in resignation. He covered his eyes with the crook of his arm, grimacing when even the slightest touch aggravated his migraine. Only pure darkness and silence would help, yet it didn't sound as though this ridiculous cacophony would end anytime soon. He would have had better luck getting better by asking soft-spoken Elena to scream into his ears.
Once he was healed, these imbeciles were in for a world of hurt. Caroline not excluded.
The others unpacked the foraged supplies, including one of five small canisters meant for water. The pithy amount sloshing about sobered the room, a grim reminder of their ever-precarious situation.
For a time after that Klaus drifted in and out of sleep, his headache growing far worse before it got better. It seemed like several days passed before he could wake up and the dim lantern didn't make him dry-heave. By then he felt incredibly weak. Elena had refused to give him anything other than small morsels, insisting he was too likely to throw them up. Klaus suspected it may have been true, but also that it was equally likely the other five were attempting to ration out the portions amongst themselves while they had the chance. Once he began to recover, then the true ties would be tested.
Klaus learned how they tracked time. Once, through a dull headache, he grudgingly listened to Tyler just as grudgingly explain how using Earth time had almost driven them mad. As a result they had resorted to a simpler system. From the time this planet (which they tentatively called Apidomi, apparently upon Elena's suggestion months back) spun from the sun rising in the north to rising once more, roughly 60 hours passed. They figured approximately four Earth days passed when one did on Apidomi. So as four Apidomi days passed, ten would have on Earth.
Adjusting to Apidomi time was worse than his surgery. Humans had evolved to work to Earthly ideas of day and night. So when day bore on for twenty-seven hours and night was a torturous thirty-three, tensions rose high and Klaus and Caroline found themselves even snippier than usual. Not that the stabbing incident had helped—and how had it been dubbed "the stabbing incident" anyhow? She had thrown the first punch. Or scalpel, in this case. Klaus spent hours brooding over the injustice in rumpled disbelief.
On one of the days, Caroline came back with Tyler from a scouting event with her clothing torn. Klaus had his suspicions, but feared giving voice to them. Instead he took one look at her and stated, "Give me your suit."
She stared at him incredulously. "What? No." Tyler also frowned as though perturbed by the request.
Rolling his eyes, Klaus said tersely, "It's nothing I haven't seen before. Just give me your suit and something to sew with."
Caroline opened her mouth, then closed it thoughtfully. "I can patch my own clothes."
"Yes, I know, Jeunesse," he said impatiently. "And I realize you'd rather die than so much as permit me the slightest glance of your bosom. But you must realize that I am bored. Quite frankly, if I don't have something to do, I would be more than happy to stab your other leg."
Growling in disgust, Caroline stalked off to converse with the other women in quiet, harsh tones. As they waited, Klaus and Tyler found themselves staring at each other in a battle of silent wills. Klaus knew who would crack first.
Indeed, Tyler finally said, "You called her your friend when we found you."
"Your friend had a shotgun aimed at her," Klaus replied. "Referring to her as such built empathy with you."
Crossly, Tyler said, "You couldn't have known it would work."
What did that matter? Klaus shot him a sideways glance but said nothing.
"What did you mean, anyway?"
"For what?" Klaus bit.
Black eyes that were amazingly, stupidly fathomable turned on him. "When you said you'd seen it all before."
To that Klaus merely smirked. Realization quickly dawned on Tyler, only proving he wasn't a complete fool. Klaus could admit to himself that he was pleased to see doubts flicker over the other man's face, as though reassessing what he knew of sweet little Caroline.
Off to the side, Caroline appeared resigned and ducked behind a sheet Elena had hung for the women to change behind. When she emerged, her tattered suit was in hand and a poorly made shift hung loosely from her body. It did nothing to flatter her figure. Damn her for being so radiant anyway.
"Don't screw this up," she said, dropping the suit into his lap.
"I'm not an amateur," Klaus replied. Without looking at her, he took the proffered makeshift needle and a small bit of thread that was slightly off-color. No matter; for most of it he could hide it within the seams. He could practically feel Caroline's surprise roiling over him as he began to work with meticulous accuracy.
Almost as though she'd forgotten why she was angry with him, Caroline knelt nearby so that her healing wound was hidden from view by the shoddy skirt. "Were you a tailor?"
Klaus graced her with a dirty look before going back to his work. "My mother owned several designer companies. I took a slight fancy when I was five."
Sardonically, Tyler said, "Kind of unusual for a little boy."
Klaus sneered toward the suit. "Yes, well, when one's alleged father looks at one in disappointment for preferring arts to maths, one tends to gravitate toward something mind-numbingly repetitive to take the mind off problems at home."
"So, you have daddy issues."
"What's your excuse for being a pathetic sell-out to the government after failing college?" Klaus retorted. Truly, in such cramped spaces, there were no secrets. That was why he was willing to divulge a little of his past prior to his so-called criminal history. Something worthless to whet their appetites.
Scoffing, Tyler stalked off. To Klaus's indignant fury, Caroline followed.
Pathetic sell-outs to the United World Government. The both of them, he decided heatedly. Klaus began redirecting his passion toward his work.
And for a few days, it did keep his waking moments tremendously occupied. While Jeunesse Blanchefleur was a world-renown designer, even she was silently impressed with his handiwork. Or so he assumed, since she didn't criticize any of the seams. Thus it fell upon him to mend what clothes were salvageable. When they ran out of those, he provided blunt instructions on what sort of materials to look out for when they attempted a foraging mission. Often what was brought back was not well, but Caroline hit the mark precisely 100% of the time.
Pity he couldn't share how pleased he was with her. Though she continued to give her ex-fiancé the cold shoulder, Tyler received some flirtation. Even Elena somehow managed to worm her sly little way into Caroline's graces. Only Hayley and Damon seemed content to remain aloof to the majority of the group.
When Klaus wasn't working or nibbling slightly larger morsels than he was given prior, he slept. In fact, he slept so often that the others began to grow careless and whisper things when they assumed no one else was listening. During one of the periods they delegated as nighttime, Klaus lay with his eyes closed but ears wide open. Caroline slept by herself a few meters to his right, while Tyler and Hayley were out canvassing the area for any Apis. So when Damon and Elena began whispering, they did it thinking he was well into slumber.
"Why didn't you say anything about being engaged?"
"Didn't see the point."
"She's hurt."
"She'll get over it."
"You really don't feel bad for her?"
"What, that she stupidly came after me when she had a wonderful life at home? That was her fault. Why should I feel bad?"
"It's called sympathy, Damon.
"No, it's called pity. She doesn't need it."
"But—"
"Seriously, Elena. You don't know her that well. I promise, on my brother's life, she's tougher than she looks."
Silence, and then: "That's not funny."
More silence.
And then: "I know you miss him."
"He'll be fine. You also don't know my brother that well. If any of them are going to survive, it's him."
"Tyler and Hayley say they haven't seen any signs of him."
"Good. Then neither will the Apis."
A soft sigh. "You don't have to be like that around me."
"Like what?"
"Damon…."
"He'll be fine," repeated Damon tensely. "Stop bringing him up."
Apparently, this missing brother of his was somewhere on Apidomi. Interesting. Klaus briefly considered telling Caroline, but then decided he had not reached that level of gratitude with her just yet.
The only sounds after that were small rustles as the two shifted. After some time Damon said, in a rising mocking pitch little louder than a whisper, "I can't cuddle you to sleep if you don't sleep, dear."
"I'm sorry. I'm just worried."
"Yeah. I get that. Not sleeping won't help."
"I know in my heart he'll find us eventually. It's just… what if he ends up like Klaus? It could be months before we see him."
"Elena, stop."
"But—"
From the abruptly intense breathing, Klaus surmised Damon had silenced her with a kiss. Muffled protests emitted from Elena. Yet, quite suddenly, she returned the affection with ardor. They kept as quiet as any human could, but Klaus very distinctly heard the gentle, wet sounds of their passion. Since the conversation was over, he determinedly shut them out and did his best to sleep.
Strangely enough, the next morning Caroline was unusually pensive. She didn't return Tyler's flirting whatsoever, though she wasn't exactly rude. Klaus shot her several meaningful glances, which she at last returned one. Hers clearly said, Don't ask. Drop it.
So he didn't press.
Apparently that was enough for her to forgive him, because the next time she handed him a shirt to mend, she sat down to ask how he was feeling. Klaus shifted the leg in a new splint and said blandly, "It's healing."
Caroline nodded. "I heard. Elena says I did okay, and it should set just fine."
"Minus a possible limp."
She cringed. "Sorry."
Klaus shook his head and lowered his voice. "I'm not dead. It's no small favor you did me, Jeunesse."
Caroline shifted her weight onto her hand, making to stand, but abruptly reconsidered and leaned in close. "Why do you keep calling me by that name?"
"Because," he stated, "as of right now, I respect what you've done as Jeunesse more than what you've done as Caroline."
"Even though I saved your life?" she asked, pointedly annoyed.
"For which I am grateful, even though you threw a scalpel at me," he replied shrewdly. "But I do not respect your work as a Marine."
Caroline sighed heavily. "If you have so much contempt for Marines, why are you anywhere near the war?"
Klaus didn't want to acknowledge that. It would open up doors to the others. And even if she somehow kept her silence, he wasn't ready for her to know, either. Likely he would never be ready. Instead he handed back the shirt, focusing on her pursed mouth rather than her lovely eyes. "It's finished," he said.
Apparently as done with him as he was with her, Caroline snatched the cloth from his grip and stormed off.
Despite their little tiff, Caroline continued to gently dismiss Tyler's small advances for some time. The envy caught in Klaus's throat abated some. Yet she didn't come back to speak to him, instead preferring Elena's company. That is, when Damon was either preoccupied or off hunting for either food or Apis. Hunting was rough, Klaus overheard him converse with his lover once, since nothing sizable could fit through the narrow opening of their sanctuary. And even if he cut it to pieces the food would be dragged through dirt and rubble. With limited water they could not do much in the way of cleaning. Sometimes they made do, but usually it was silently agreed that the longer they could subsist off smaller prey, the better.
Some of Apidomi's animals could be turned into jerky. Others could not and were prone to rotting, so those had to be fewer hunted. They couldn't keep any leftovers, aside from the jerky, or the Apis could sniff them out. Supposedly that had been amongst the list of reasons former hideouts had failed.
More than once Klaus fell ill from eating. Others did as well, but he noticed over the passing weeks (months? Time rapidly became a blur in the desolate cavern) that it appeared to happen to him more often. Still he said nothing of it. Much as he wanted to rage, he was at a severe disadvantage.
At least until his leg and skull healed.
Most of his bruises and scrapes had vanished by the time Elena decided to check on his head. She prodded gently at the sore spot, using her scanner to check for any anomalies.
"You're taking pretty good care of yourself, considering," she murmured.
Klaus scoffed. "As though I can move much."
"You'll be up soon," she assured him, winding the old bandages back on. "Which is good. We could use the help."
"Who says I'll help?"
Elena smiled faintly. "You will. Don't worry."
He didn't exactly worry, but her tone warned him that her assurance was less friendly than it could have been. Klaus eyed her skeptically but, once more, kept his mouth shut. Instead he focused on his physical therapy, doing small, repetitive exercises to regain the muscle that had begun to atrophy. Something as simple as squeezing his hand into a fist twenty times per hour proved surprisingly exhausting. But while results were slow, they were to be had and not argued with.
In a move that was almost too blatant, Hayley constantly attempted to interrupt his physical therapy. It didn't matter if he was making a fist, kicking his unbroken leg into the air, or using gradually heftier rocks as weights. She intruded.
Klaus was in the midst of leg lifts when she sauntered over and plopped herself down. "So why the mysterious past?" she murmured.
He refused to look at her. "Yours isn't?"
"Not saying that. But it is why I'm curious," she admitted in her careful drawl.
Though she seemed too pretty to be true, especially in these conditions, Klaus was more than leery of her. "None of your business."
She rolled her eyes. "Well, duh."
"Eloquent," he muttered.
"I have moments of persuasion."
"Like getting the boot into your bed?" Klaus grunted. He fixated his gaze at a point on the ceiling, once again taken in by the quiet beauty of the stone around them. How the others failed to appreciate it was beyond him.
"The—? Ah. Tyler." She shrugged. "He actually persuaded me."
Klaus bestowed upon her a short, derisive laugh.
Somewhat defensively, she said, "He's cute enough."
"Certainly. A handsome lad," Klaus said between chortles. "And you yourself are a beautiful woman. Which is why this becomes all the more entertaining."
Hayley flashed a razor-sharp smile. "Yeees," she said with saccharine sweetness. "His good looks apparently appeal to Caroline, too."
Klaus's smile vanished.
"You seem more attached to her than she is to you," Hayley pointed out. And the conniving bitch must have known that each word sent a terrible thrill of jealousy coursing through him. "And you apparently told Tyler you lied about being friends… and yet," she added too-thoughtfully, her eyes wandering. "She doesn't avoid you like Damon. So you two obviously didn't date. Or at the very least, if you did, she wasn't feeling it."
Klaus gave up on his therapy. He sat up and turned his upper body to glower at her. "And?" he asked quietly; dangerously.
"There is no and," replied Hayley. She seemed pleased with herself. "Unrequited love is a bitch, isn't it?"
"Never said anything about love, sweetheart."
She waved her hand dismissively. "A crush. Whatever. Personally, I don't see what's so special, but hey, who said there was anything special about me?"
Her tone was flippant, yet Klaus detected a quiet clarity to it. Nobody, except for maybe his "father," was coarse or abusive for no reason. (And even with him he had some ideas.) Klaus pretended to find the state of his splints more interesting, but the wheels of thought were turning rapidly. A few theories came to mind. The foremost of which she, too, was jealous. Klaus surmised enough to know she and Tyler were fucking, but not necessarily exclusive. Before that had been meaningless, as Damon was clearly possessive of Elena and Elena quietly returned the favor. But now, with newcomers—and objectively attractive ones, if he were to be brutally honest—there was a threat.
He could give her advice. He could mock her. But Klaus grew weary of discussing interpersonal relationships, so he chose instead to say, "If you insist on annoying me, the least you could do is offer some assistance."
One of her sharp eyebrows rose. "You want me to hold your legs up for you?"
"Do I look like Tyler?" he sneered. "Get me to my feet. I haven't walked in some time now."
Surprisingly, she moved to do so without further question. He was far from steady—oh, balance, how he sorely needed it—but with her help he was able to limp in small circles for a few minutes. Once he grew tired it must have shown, because she led him back to the medical corner without asking. Getting down was harder than standing with his splint, and he was covered in a light sheen of sweat from his efforts. But he felt much better.
"Feel free to drop by anytime, if that's your attitude," he told her.
She flashed a coy smile before sauntering off to her own little area. Once there she only glanced at him a couple times as she pulled out an old, worn binding meant for writing in. Klaus couldn't recall seeing such a thing since primary school. Whatever it was she jotted down something; notes, thoughts, plots—Klaus could only guess, though he was confident in his assumption that it was less than rainbows and butterfly sketches.
He itched to draw. A different kind of envy took him then, and he realized it had been months since he'd been allowed something so simple as a paper and soft-tip pencil. Klaus forced his hands into work once more, but for once the mending failed to satisfy. There was much he was good at, but nothing was quite so freeing as putting pencil to paper, or paint to canvas.
Of all the comforts he missed most, it was creating art.
That was yet another thing he intended to keep close to the vest. But once the concept danced across his mind, Klaus found he loathed his surroundings. Everything was kept dim, so the Apis were less likely to find them. Compounded with the general darkness of the cave and lack of colors, imagining the smatter of vivid brightness upon a page was bound to drive him to madness. He found himself stealing more glances at Caroline just to admire her blonde hair, of which the color now made him think of sunlight.
If she noticed, she chose not to comment. In fact, once Hayley started coming around more, Caroline began avoiding him again. Not easy in such a small space, but she apparently had a knack for looking just past someone as though they weren't there. When the situation so suited her, of course.
Now, were Klaus a betting man (and sometimes he was), he would have been tempted to say she was jealous. But it didn't take long for him to realize her jealousy had nothing to do with him, and everything to do with Tyler.
Bloody hell. Tyler.
The confirmation struck him most on yet another night he lay quiet but awake. Listening. This time Damon and Hayley were scouting, Elena was happily asleep, and Tyler and Caroline were conversing in whispers.
"So you're saying you're not with Hayley."
"I'm saying I tried, and she turned me down. Said I was better for a lay than a relationship." Tyler chuckled in self-disdain. "Really can't argue on that one."
"Oh, please. You're pretty much the only reasonably nice guy here."
"Not really. On this planet, being nice means getting dead."
"Hey, I said reasonably."
"Thanks," murmured Tyler dryly. "For what it's worth."
"You're welcome."
"Did you really join the Marines to look for Damon?"
"Does it matter? Fighting for something meant a lot to me, too."
"Sorry, Caroline, but I'm pro-colonization."
A sigh. "Guess I'm the minority there."
"Not really."
"Then the minority in speaking her opinion."
"You definitely don't seem to have a problem with that."
A soft giggle made Klaus's blood run cold. It took an immense amount of inner strength and self-preservation not to grab the scalpel and chuck it at Tyler's head.
Their talk was otherwise nonsense, but the quiet laughter told him enough. Klaus wasn't certain whether he was jealous or disgusted. Was his Jeunesse truly so starved for affection that she would pursue a boot like Tyler? After Damon? He had to question her choices. And taste. And sense.
Again he thought: Bloody hell. What is wrong with this woman?
Yet he couldn't deny that at least some small part of that was envy. Some people seemed to find affection any which way they turned. From her budding something with the boot to her rapidly deepening friendship with Elena (honestly, how? Why?), Caroline just had a golden touch when it came to making friends and meeting new people.
Meanwhile, Klaus could barely count on his own siblings. And then only Elijah and, when it struck her fancy, Rebekah. Finn had hardly so much as looked at him in years, even prior to the beatings. Kol was so self-absorbed that one had to pick a fight just to garner his attention. And his so-called "father"…
Well.
Klaus shifted, only slightly as though he were still asleep, and opened his eyes away from where Tyler and Caroline sat. To his ire, Elena was also awake. Watching him. Looking almost sympathetic, if he were to believe such a concept existed.
Slowly, she put a finger to her lips. And then nodded twice, slowly, as though to say, I understand, and I'm sorry.
And even with that Klaus had never felt more alone.