Disclaimer: Still the same.
A/N: Posting this sooner than I was going to, but it was done so why make you wait for feelings and other 'things'. ;) Reviews still make the world go 'round.
Who You Are and What You Could Have Been
Part 2: Chapter 2
"You're still wearing your dinner," her voice soft voice echoes throughout the dark foyer as Klaus closes the front door with a faint click. Kelsea is a blur of motion as she shoves him against the door, her hands fisting his shirt while the veins beneath her eyes darken and her fangs lengthen.
"Want a bite, love?"
At his words she steps closer, running her tongue up his neck where the blood had ran (as he sucked the girl dry). He cups the back of her head with his hand as she licks away the blood- until she sinks her fangs into his throat. Klaus growls and flings her across the foyer with a flick of his wrist. She skids across the floor on her hands and knees, coming to a stop in front of the staircase. He smells the salt from her tears and scowls.
Women.
He walks over and holds out his hand to help her up but she smacks it away. "Did you think she may have had a family?"
So that's what this is about. "Why should you care? She was just a human," he sighs.
"I was just a human! Henry is just a human!" she screams beating her fists against the floor. "What if that had been me? What if someone else with little regard for human life had come along before you and killed me?"
"There are too many 'what if's' in that sentence sweetheart." He brushes past her intent on the fully stocked bar in the living room. He needs a drink. She wants him to think, find the reason for his actions.
He doesn't need reason, he' a vampire, a monster.
"God! You don't understand!"
"What is there to understand? We are the predators they are the prey-"
"Prey with lives, just like yours and mine! Families like ours! Don't stand there and pretend that you wouldn't care if I was killed, I know you would. Pretend you're a monster all you want," she motions to his bloody neck. "But you're not!" The words seem to surprise her as much as they do him and Klaus speeds over to her, slamming her against the wall with his hand around her throat, his other resting in the valley between her breasts, over her heart.
Kelsea's eyes widen slightly but she stares back determinedly while the tears running over her cheeks drip onto his hand. "Do it." His eyes are yellow and his lips part slightly to reveal his fangs. She reaches out running the pad of her thumb over the veins beneath his eyes. "Be like Mikael." He drops her, stumbling back, the words like a punch to the gut.
Klaus runs his hand over his mouth as he lets out a sharp bitter laugh. Stalking into the living room, he grabs the closest fullest bottle of whiskey off the bar and a tumbler.
"You're going to walk away, keep up this fucking charade? Pretend to be the big bad wolf?" she yells at him, her voice echoing in the silence. He just wishes she would shut up as he downs the glass of whiskey and pours himself another. "You couldn't kill me permanently, even if you wanted to!"
Klaus speeds over to her (again) and grabs her arms, the force making her fall back onto the marble floor. He looms above her as she beats her fists against his chest… and he lets her. This is about so much more than him killing someone. He doesn't budge, just stares down at her (unable to bring himself to do anything).
One moment she's fighting him (pushing him away) the next she's kissing him (pulling him closer). It's enough to make his head spin. But it doesn't. She pushes his jacket over his shoulders and he pulls it the rest of the way off, never breaking the kiss.
Seven years of pent up aggression (him) and passion (her) all released in one kiss. Teeth and tongue, rough touches and grabbing, the bruises marring their bodies heal as quickly as they are made.
Klaus pushes the white nightgown up her thighs and quickly tears off her green cotton panties. Kelsea smiles into his mouth while grabbing the hem of his shirt and yanking it over his head when he sits up. He takes the shirt from her and tosses it into the shadows of the room.
Neither say a word when she reaches down and pulls the end of his belt from the buckle, cinching it tighter before slowly letting it release, her gaze never wavering from his. Klaus pushes her hands away to undo his jeans himself, the need to be inside her too great for her slow movements.
With their foreheads together, their lips barely touching, he enters her. Kelsea throws her head back not seeming to care as she smacks it on the floor, her mouth open in a silent scream, baring her throat to him. As she digs her nails into his shoulders, he presses a gentle kiss to her pulse point making her arch up to him.
Unable to control it, her eyes darken and her fangs lengthen. He pauses for a moment to run his thumbs over the veins beneath her eyes and she lets out a whine, wrapping her legs around his waist. He growls but she just sinks her fangs into his shoulder until he moves within her again.
She moans, writhes, and arches beneath him (for him).
Klaus pulls the straps of her nightgown down her shoulders, her breasts are nothing new to him (having seen them a fair few times before) but never like this, heaving before him aching to be touched. He rests his head between her neck and shoulder, heaving out a sigh, his teeth aching to sink into the soft skin of her throat.
There are bites that heal (hers) and bites that don't (his). Kelsea rakes her nails down his back, intent on leaving a mark, even if it's just for a short time in his very long life.
"Nik," Kelsea draws out his name (it sounds like sin on her lips) as she comes undone, clinging to him with enough force to break bones. It proves to be too much and he follows soon after with an animalistic growl deep in his throat.
The moment he's finished Klaus realizes this is not the way he intended to take her.
VV
Kelsea counts tiles on the ceiling above the foyer while Klaus lay above her, his head still nestled between her neck and shoulder while she traces random patterns up and down his back, her other hand tangled in the curls at the nape of his neck. He's getting heavy but she says nothing.
Neither say anything, they just listen to the others breathing while the allover warmth from her orgasm fades and the cold chill of the floor seeps into her body. She makes no move.
Klaus eventually shifts his weight and Kelsea flinches. He reluctantly sits up, kneeling between her legs and she sees the blood smeared across his chest. She looks down at her own and spots the un-healing bite on the underside of her breast. Klaus tilts his head to the side (like a dog) to watch her as he zips up his jeans. She holds her breath, praying that he won't be that cruel to her. Not after that.
He sits back on his heels for a moment still considering her before cradling her head in his hand, leading her up to his neck. Relief floods through Kelsea as she sinks her fangs into his throat drinking as much of his blood as she can before the wound heals. With a hand fisted in her hair, he pulls her head back to crash his lips against hers when she's had enough.
All possessive and demanding. Warm and protective. So very him.
VV
Klaus finds her the next morning at the park not far from their house. She's on the swing set, facing away from him, pumping her legs to go as high as she can before leaning back so the ends of her hair drag the ground, her body straight and her eyes closed.
She's still in her blood stained nightgown, hair sex tousled and her feet bare. It's the most beautiful thing he's seen in a while.
"I know you're there," Kelsea whispers but he still hears from across the park where he's leaned against a large maple that Henry climbed with Kelsea not too long ago. They had snuck out of the house (he heard) on a Saturday and climbed the tree when he walked around the corner of the park (he saw). He 'searched' for them and was headed back home when Kelsea giggled, giving them away. She never was any good at playing hide and seek.
Klaus sits on the swing beside her while she pulls herself up and drags her feet in the gravel to slow down.
"Got a cigarette?" Kelsea asks mischievously when she comes to a stop, eyeing the no smoking signs posted around the park. He reaches into the breast pocket of his jacket and pulls out a crumpled pack (from the last time the jacket was in style). "I was kidding."
Klaus pulls one out anyway to give him something to do with his hands. She reaches over, taking the last cigarette and the antique trench lighter from his hand, flipping it over to look at the initials etched on the bottom.
"J.C.E.?"
"I found it in the trenches during the First World War." She raises her eyebrow skeptically so he starts over, "I took it off the body of a soldier that I killed in the trenches during the First World War."
"I know what you are. I'm one too remember," she hands him back the lighter. "You don't have to censor yourself."
They fall into an uncomfortable silence, letting the smoke fill their lungs as the sun starts to peak just above the horizon bathing her in an ethereal light (forgiving her sins). The smoke from the cigarette is nearly invisible as is the blood staining her nightgown.
The sun. It takes him a moment (but the panic still rises in his chest) before he notices his old daylight ring on her thumb. He quietly breathes a sigh of relief. That reminds him…
"I haven't missed this." She holds up her cigarette, contemplating it, breaking the silence.
"Why did you leave?" he asks abruptly (finally) still unhappy about finding his bed empty after they fucked themselves to sleep.
"I needed to think."
"Why couldn't you think at home?" It sounded less petulant in his mind.
"You were there." He shoots her a scowl. "Naked," she adds turning it into a smirk. "And the only thing I could think about was fucking you since I'm so goddamn horny right now. And I needed to think, really think."
"Are you leaving?"
"No," she groans out, tipping her head back to look at the sky. "I'm not leaving. I just…I love you. I've loved you from the moment we met in the grocery store. You were true friend when I needed one the most and you've taken care of me and Henry, more than any friend should. Then you tell me you just wanted me around for Henry but now you don't want me to leave," she pauses taking a breath. "And you've never seemed to reciprocate my feelings before even though Rebekah, Elijah and even Kol told me that you loved me. I laughed them off thinking 'No Nik wouldn't drag it out for seven fucking years if he really had feelings for me'. Then the other night happened and last night happened and… I'm confused."
Leaning over to stub out her cigarette on a rock, he sees the tears running down her cheeks but she refuses to look at him and instead focuses her gaze on the rising sun.
This was not part of the plan. Her loving him was not part of the plan. But really, since when did his plans ever go right.
Klaus can't deny it now. He can't slip on rose colored glasses and pretend nothing has changed. Sure he could compel her to forget last night, the past few days, the past few years but he can't. As much as he hates to admit it, as much as he pretends not to care, he loves her. Maybe even more than he loved Tatia and he truly loved her.
Caroline was an obsession, a game that he lost. See how hard and fast he could get her to fall for him, the enemy. Prove Mikael wrong. He did truly fancy her though, but not love. Katerina once told Elijah that true love was not real unless it was returned, he sees that now. She would have never loved him, not truly.
After Caroline he resolved himself into believing that no one could ever love him.
But Kelsea does.
Klaus hates the thought of Kelsea leaving, not being a part of his life; it made him physically ache when he killed her. Kelsea makes everything better (brighter), she made his house a home, drew his family back together after all the hurt and pain he caused them, gave him Henry.
Made his life whole.
After a thousand years of searching for some semblance of real love, Klaus finds it with this girl, her friendly smile and genuine kindness captivating him the moment he met her (whether he admitted it or not).
He can't lose that.
Klaus crouches in front of her and takes her face in his hands, making her look at him as he wipes the tears from her cheeks. "Are you going to compel me?" Kelsea asks, her voice a whisper as new tears fall onto the back of his hands. Her eyes focus on his mouth, fiddling with the ring.
His eyebrows knit together, hurt that she would even ask that. "No, my love." Her eyes flick up to meet his, a small smile tugs at her lips. Kelsea gives him a chaste kiss and rests her forehead against his, her hands coming up to cup his face too.
"Say it again," she murmurs.
"My love."
VV
Kelsea is in the kitchen kneading bread dough on the butcher block counter of the island when Klaus comes home from town. She returned to a day schedule in the three days since Klaus turned back and feels far more comfortable with both him and Rebekah around to keep her from eating Henry (not to mention she has moved into Klaus' room). That is her biggest fear, eating Henry or anyone really. It irritates him, her denying her nature by drinking cold blood bags but he says nothing this is the way she chooses to cope (and he doesn't want her to eat Henry either).
She had also taken possession of his ring, allowing her to work under the glass ceiling of the kitchen (her sanctuary) for the first time in days.
Klaus takes off his coat, draping it over the back of a chair in the dining room on his way to the kitchen. He sits on a stool on the other side of the island and holds out a little black box.
"Really?" She holds up her dough covered hands in exasperation and Klaus flips open the box to reveal a beautiful lapis lazuli ring he had made for her at the (soon to be closed) jewelers a few blocks away. The silver band was made to look antique and the oval stone, nearly the same shade as Henry's eyes, is held in place with swirls of silver that look like vines crawling over the rock.
"Nik it's beautiful!" Kelsea comes around the island and pulls him into a hug as best she can with keeping her doughy hands off of him.
"A witch will be here soon to put a spell on it."
"Then I can walk in the sun with a ring that fits!" Kelsea sing songs as she nearly bounces to the other side of the island. He watches as she rolls the dough until it is smooth and puts it in a bowl, moving with such grace and fluidity around the kitchen (something he had never really noticed before). She shoves it into the refrigerator and washes her hands to swipe the box away from him. She slips the ring on her right ring finger to admire it.
"It's one of a kind, I made sure of that."
"What did you do?" Kelsea sighs, looking up at him in exasperation.
"Nothing…much," Klaus holds up his hands, feigning innocence. "The artist killed himself, what kind of vampire would I be if I had let his blood go to waste."
"You're kidding?"
He smiles, "I'm only half kidding."
"About which part?" His smile widens into a wolfish grin. "Are you going to kill the witch when she's done too?"
"Only if you want me too, my love."
VV
"Why do you have two sets of fangs?" she asks lazily tracing a line between the moles (beauty marks her mom used to call them) on his throat.
"Werewolf side," he states simply, pulling her hand away from his neck. She shoots him a dirty look and he smiles. Kelsea curls along his side, resting her head against his bare chest to listen to his heartbeat, wondering how many times in his life it has beat.
Somewhere she heard that the heart beats about three billion times in the average life time. Average life time is say…eighty. Klaus is about a thousand… Eighty into a thousand is…"Eight into ten…"
"One point two five," Klaus supplies for her, obviously having done the math before. "Times three is three point seven five. So about-"
"Thirty eight billion times- ish." He chuckles and she drops a kiss to his chest just over his heart.
VV
Elijah finds out when he comes home a few months after she is turned. He slips in the house early in the morning, with nothing more than a briefcase, when he knows everyone should still be asleep.
He was wrong.
The moment Elijah steps in the foyer he can hear Kelsea upstairs groaning, in pain he thinks.
He was wrong.
Afraid that Klaus has grown tired of playing family and is toying with his food before eating her, he speeds up the stairs and throws open the door to her bedroom only to find it empty and immaculate. She moans again and in the next second he opens the door to Klaus' room.
Found her.
"Oh god!" Kelsea groans out, he's not sure if it his presents or the pleasure racking through her body as she lies with her head hanging over the end of the bed, Klaus' fangs deep in her breast. The blood fills the veins beneath her eyes and her fangs nick her bottom lip as she speaks. Elijah purses his lips in anger. He turned her. Klaus could never control his temper, given enough time he always broke his toys even as a child. Elijah was naïve to believe this girl would be any different.
All the bedding had been shoved to the floor save for a pillow beneath Kelsea's hips but she doesn't realize this and gropes around for something to cover herself with. "Nik!" she smacks at his shoulder but he just grunts in response, intent on finding his own release.
It reminds him of poor innocent Mary, the shyest girl in the village with the widest smile (ruined by their family). Niklaus had to have Mary (thinking he was in love) then soon grew tired of her after he already turned her (realized he wasn't) and foisted her off to whoever wanted her (Kol). But this one he really loves, Elijah just hopes he doesn't grow tired of her.
Klaus grabs a fist full of Kelsea's hair and tugs, making her arch up to him. She beats her fists against his chest and he captures both her wrists in one hand before sinking his teeth into her exposed throat. He growls low in his throat and his body goes rigid as he comes undone.
Elijah just watches as he licks the blood from her throat, their eyes meeting over her head when Klaus sits her up so her back is to Elijah (giving her the modesty she so desperately wanted). Klaus smirks as he sits back on his heels, unconsciously patting Kelsea's thighs, and still breathing heavy. He raises his eyebrows in expectation.
"Niklaus, a word." Elijah slips out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him, listening as all hell breaks loose in the bedroom.
"Goddamn it Nik! Why the fuck didn't you stop?"
"It's nothing he hasn't seen before, my love."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better? 'Cause it doesn't! Don't smile at me like that. Don't touch me either! I need your blood. Do not fuck with me Nik, I need it. Do you want me to die? Hmm? I told you not to touch me. No! Stop it! Fuck you!"
The door slams and Kelsea speeds into the study (pulling on one of Klaus' shirts) where Elijah stands flipping through one of the sketchbooks, the snapshots of their life documented by hand.
"Hello," she says shyly, plopping down on the leather couch and pulling out the neck of the shirt to watch the bites on her chest heal. It's a relief to him to find that she hasn't changed, hasn't turned it off.
"You have blood." He motions to his own face and Kelsea quickly wipes it away from the corner of her mouth with the pad of her thumb, blushing as she licks it off.
"How have you been?" Kelsea smiles playfully and he knows what she is doing so he humors her.
"I have been really well actually, and you?"
"Been better, been a whole lot worse too." He leans against the table facing her, saying nothing just waiting for her to break. He knows she will. "A few months… it's been a few months since I was turned." She stands and walks over to lay a hand on his arm. "We were going to tell you, I prom- that son of a bitch!"
She shoves him out of the way and takes a drawing in her hand, the one of her breastfeeding Henry and stares at it in open mouthed shock. "I can believe he fucking drew this!" Even for her harsh words she gently runs her fingers over the lines of the baby's face, careful not to smudge the charcoal.
"I was having a bitch of a time feeding Henry in the rocking chair, these hummers," she motions to her chest in annoyance, feeling the need to explain the drawing. "Were trying to suffocate his little face. He was crying and I was crying then Nik took me to his room, calmed us both down. At least me, Henry was starving. Then arranged his pillows on my lap and helped me position my boobs and Henry so it was easier for the both of us," Kelsea pauses fiddling with the hem on the shirt. "I think I loved him then, but it could have just been the hormones." She smiles slyly and glances at the ceiling, intent on provoking Klaus.
Elijah softly raps his knuckles against the table, tilting his head to contemplate her. "For many years Niklaus… and I, we did not believe in love, too much pain and resentment surrounding the word that we simply chose not to believe it existed, thought it made us weak to care…"
"But you were wrong."
"Very wrong." Elijah smiles and Kelsea takes his hand, squeezing tightly as if to comfort him. He understands what drew Klaus to her like a moth to a flame, the warmth and light (it drew him in also).
"He loves me… in his own sick fucking twisted way." The door upstairs slams open and she kisses Elijah's cheek before speeding out of the room, only to be caught a few seconds later judging by her laughing scream from the backyard.
Elijah shakes his head and closes the sketchbook on a picture of Kelsea sleeping beneath rumpled sheets, hoping Niklaus knows what he is doing with her.
VV
Kelsea stands on his bed (their bed) trying to read the framed letters above it, the scrawling cursive hard to read after so many years. The door creaks open and Klaus soon stands beside the bed watching her. She can't read his face but sees his eyebrows twitch slightly into a frown before smoothing out again.
"What are they?"
He pauses for a beat. "Love letters."
"To you?"
"No." Kelsea looks between him and the letters a few times. She opens her mouth to speak but at the look he gives her, promptly shuts it. Giving the letters one last look she steps off the bed and into his arms.
She'll get the story someday, she expects it.