Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries.
"My hand searches for you/ In a dark room/ I can't find you/ Help me."
All Elijah and Rebekah had to do to get home after Niklaus' 'resurrection' was nudge him in the right direction and Niklaus had gone willingly. A little too willingly. And Elijah should have known that things would be more complicated than that, this was Niklaus they were dealing with, after all.
The siblings had no more than gotten through the threshold of the mansion when it all went to hell.
"I'm getting you more blood," Rebekah whispered, letting her hand rest on his shoulder. Elijah had just nodded in agreement, his hand still gripping Niklaus' elbow more to reassure himself of Klaus' existence than guide his brother.
Klaus whirled on Rebekah faster than lightning, "I don't need it! What I need is for you both to get out of my sight," he snarled, his face changing.
"Niklaus," Elijah warned silently. "You do need it. Let us help you, brother."
Elijah didn't miss the low growl in Klaus' throat but his comments were otherwise ignored as Klaus' anger stayed directed towards their sister.
"Leave. Both of you." Klaus snarled once more, staring down his nose at Rebekah in a menacing manner as he pointed towards the door.
"What?"
"Do not make me repeat myself, Rebekah." His voice wasn't loud. It was low and dangerous, like that of a hurt animal and both Rebekah and Elijah knew that a hurt predator was more dangerous and unpredictable.
"Nik, I don-"
"You say I need blood? You're right. I do," Klaus said with a short nod, "but not the blood that you have in mind. You ruined that."
Realization hit Elijah and Rebekah at the same time. Elena. Klaus knew of her transition and Rebekah's part in the doppelganger's death.
"What would you have done in my place? If you were faced with the choice to keep livi-" Klaus opened his mouth to interrupt but whatever words he tried to say were cut off by Rebekah's desperate scream. "I thought you were dead!" Rebekah paused, tears running down her face as she started toward Klaus. His glare held her in place so she reached out to him instead. "I saw you get staked," she whimpered, the memory of her favorite brother engulfed in flames still too much to think of.
Klaus growled once more as he turned away from Rebekah. "Get out," he snarled over his shoulder as he stalked away, leaving Rebekah and Elijah standing in the grandiose foyer.
Rebekah slowly sunk to the floor, a small hand covering her mouth as if to hold in her sobs and looked up at the eldest Mikaelson with pleading, teary eyes. Elijah closed his eyes and took a deep breath to compose himself. He regarded Rebekah once more with his lips drawn into a tight line before following his wayward brother.
He found Klaus sitting in front of a fire, drinking straight from a bottle of scotch. He silently observed as his brother stared somberly into the flames and in all the time Elijah had spent at his brother's side, he had never seen his brother look so lost.
"You're still here," Klaus said suddenly, his tone accusatory. "I thought you would have run off with your tail between your legs by now."
Elijah swallowed and ventured further into the sitting room, shoving his hands into his pockets as he decided to take his chances with Klaus' notorious rage. "And abandon you when we've just gotten you back from supposed death?" he asked, still studying his brother cautiously. "Where else would I be, Niklaus?" Elijah asked quietly.
Shrugging, Klaus scoffed and rolled his blue eyes in disbelief. "It wouldn't be the first time," he muttered, bringing the bottle back to his lips with raised eyebrows.
"Pardon?"
"Ah, nothing much. It just wouldn't be the first time that you've abandoned me," Klaus snapped, raising his gaze to Elijah's face.
Elijah heard the broken undertone and suddenly looked from the flames to his brother. The look on Klaus' normally composed face was utterly desolate and, thanks to the flickering flames, Elijah alone could see the glimmer of unshed tears in his little brother's far off, blue eyes.
The eldest Mikaelson sighed and, slowly, began to close the space between him and his brother. He reached Klaus' side and placed a gentle hand on the other man's shoulder, opening his mouth to speak, to try and tell Klaus everything he felt, how troubled he had been when presented with the information of Klaus' supposed death. But, the emotional tension in the room proved to be too much for Klaus to take and he stood up in a rush, shrugging Elijah's hand off roughly.
"If you're going to leave then do it, don't try to spare my feelings and wait around, making me believe that you're finally taking all the 'family above all' and 'always and forever' rubbish seriously," Klaus said, blue eyes boring into brown, frantically searching the eldest Mikaelson's face for some sign that he wasn't going to leave Klaus alone but he found nothing. Still processing the information he gathered from his brother's body language, Klaus made a move to brush past Elijah's shoulder and leave the room.
He needed to be alone. He wanted to be alone. It was not that he wanted it, per say, it just seemed that loneliness was Klaus' true curse. He had not had a true friend in his entire existence and every time he felt that he turned a corner with Elijah, something happened to make his older brother run off but as angry and frustrated and lost as he always felt in the aftermath, Klaus could never bring himself to chase Elijah down and shove the dagger in his chest in hopes that the man would come back sooner rather than later.
Klaus was no fool. He knew he needed his brother but he held Elijah at arm's length. He hated disappointment more than he was willing to let his brother, his only respectable father figure, completely into his life.
With all the thoughts and emotions raging inside his head, Klaus stopped in the foyer and looked around. It was empty and much darker in Rebekah's absence. He closed his eyes and let a single tear fall onto his cheek and allowed himself to hold onto hope as he remembered the overjoyed and relieved greeting his siblings gave him when he rose out of that blasted coffin.
And then he felt Elijah's hand squeeze his shoulder.
A/N: ugh, guys, I've been suffering from major league Original sibs feels. Like you really have no idea, lol. I just really want Elijah to be the one who takes care of Klaus when he gets resurrected or de-desiccated or de-body jacked, or a combo of all three. As much as I love Elijah, I really have started to blame him for a lot of Klaus' issues. I mean, its obvious that Klaus trusted Elijah most (besides Rebekah) so I think the way Elijah keeps running off really really screws with Klaus in a way that Mikael and Esther didin't. I dunno. Just what I think, lol. and I don't necessarily believe that we'll have a Klaus emotional break down in the first episode, I just sorta got carried away but I do sort of hope we see one this season at some point, even if it is a lil OOC.
Two songs for this chappie: 1) 'Need' by Hana Pestle (lyrics at the beginning) 2) 'Broken' by Lifehouse (chapter title)
Well, unless anyone has a suggestion or I come up with something else, that's really all the chapters I have planned for this. Thanks for reading and please review if you have a minute:)
