A/N: This is a pathetic excuse for a chapter. I don't mean that I don't love this chapter, because I do! It's a great chapter, and it really sets up the next few ones. It's just short. I got so busy this past month, that I really haven't had time to write. And, I kind of got in a funk. I have a great vision for about three or four, maybe more, maybe less, chapters from now. I kind of let my excitement over those chapters cloud my inspiration for this chapter. I got this much written, so I wanted to give you guys a little bit to contemplate while I write the next chapter. My original plan was to have this be really different, and much longer, but I realized I haven't updated in over a month! So... BTW anyone who guesses which Shakespeare is mentioned in this chapter gets the distinguished honor of being my best friend! and of course, what kind of nerd would i be if i didn't put at least one Frozen reference into my fanfiction! i promise with absolute certainty that there will be many more updates once summer starts!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Five Months Later
I woke up to a kiss and Nik's voice saying, "We're here, love."
I grumbled, unwilling to awake from a very good dream. "Five more minutes. Having a good dream."
"Oh, really? What's it about?"
"You. It wouldn't be a good dream if it weren't about you." I said and then opened my eyes. I was leaning against Nik in a crowded airplane. I noticed the "Fasten Seatbelts" sign was off and the people in the row in front of us getting their bags from above.
"I must say I'm flattered."
"Good." I said as I gave him a quick kiss and got up. "Did I sleep the whole way?"
"Yes. Quite impressive."He put his book back in his backpack and got up to get our bags down.
"Thank you." I took a mini bow. "So, are you going to tell me what we're doing in Boston?" I said with a huge smile as Nik handed our bags down to me and I put them on the ground with ease. I put my hair in a ponytail after we have our bags down.
"Not yet. I want it to be a surprise." He chuckled.
"Oh, come on. Not even a little hint?" I laughed.
"Alright, fine. Boston is not our final destination." I flashed him a huge grin as we walked off the plane and into the airport which was deserted because we had gotten in so late.
"So mysterious." I said. "Alright then, Nik. Where to? Rental car? Another plane?"
"Rental car."
"Perfect."
And 'perfect' was exactly the word to describe it. Klaus and I had spent the last five months together. It had started when Klaus and I left the restaurant that Klaus took me to the day we saw Brody at the London Eye.
Nik and I walked out of the door of the restaurant he took me to. It was a complete dive, but it was one of the most amazing experiences I had ever had. It was a place where you cooked the food yourself. There was a grill in the middle of your table, and you ordered different meats and vegetables to cook. It was amazing. I hadn't stopped laughing all evening. I started laughing when we sat down, and asked him how he knew about this place. The subsequent story was so dirty it is not worth repeating. But, it made me laugh. That story launched into a full out competition into who had the dirtiest story. He ended up winning, but he did live through the seventies, so I was already at a disadvantage. Once our food came, we tried to throw food into each other's mouths from across the table. I was quite proud of myself. I caught most of the food he threw at me, and only hit the person behind him twice. Vampire senses help, but there is only so much they can do.
We ended up not even talking about the curse, or the fact that he wants to kill my sister and I wanted to help him do it. We just talked about ourselves. I told him about growing up in Mystic Falls, and so did he. Turns out that his family moved to Mystic Falls to escape the plague in Europe. We literally grew up in the same town. Although, his childhood was probably a little different than mine, given that it was over 1000 years before mine. Talking to Nik was the most normal and at home I'd felt since leaving Mystic Falls.
As we left, I realized we couldn't delay the conversation forever. We had to talk about the elephant in the room. "That was amazing, Nik. I had an amazing time."
"I'm glad you liked it." Whenever he talked, I would still get mesmerized by his accent. Will I ever get used to that? I hope not. I thought with a smile. Nik put on his jacket, and took my hand like it was the most natural thing in the world. And it felt like that. We had already walked to the end of the street before I even realized that his hand was in mine. And it felt so good I didn't mention it. Before I could say anything, Nik read my mind. "We should probably talk about the elephant in the room."
"We probably should." I sighed. "I guess the moment couldn't last forever."
"Who says?"
"Life, experience, every romantic comedy ever. Moments are just that. Moments. They are, by their nature, fleeting. Once we start talking about curses and doppelgangers and sacrifices, the ease of this moment is gone. I'm afraid we won't get it back. Eventually, you're going to say something and I'm going to hate you, or I'm going to say something and you're going to hate me. And I don't know which one is worse."
"Moments are what we make of them. It's true that either of those things could happen, but we shouldn't be..." He paused, searching for the right word. "handcuffed by that. Our relationship is between us. Not us and the universe."
"Niklaus riddles very prettily." I said, quoting Shakespeare, and hoping to make him laugh one last time before we talked about things I would rather avoid.
"Now much beshrew my manners and my pride."
"With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!" I suddenly realized that our faces were inches apart. Nik quickly closed the gap and pressed his lips to mine. We broke apart only for air. Still, we kept our foreheads pressed against each other. I dared not break the magic of the moment, but it had to be done. "No more stalling."
"You're right. I never thought I would be avoiding talking about this, but here I am, finding myself wishing the whole thing would just go away. I wish that I could just be Nik, and you can just be Ally. Not the hybrid and the vampire. Just two people; getting to know each other." This time, it was me who closed the distance between our lips. But, it was Nik who broke apart after what I felt was only a few seconds, but could have been much more in reality. I didn't exactly have the best internal clock when I was kissing Nik. "Before we burst the bubble of this moment, will you answer me one question?"
"I guess it depends on the question." I replied.
"What do you see in me? Why are you even nice to me? Why are you even pleasant to me? I'm the devil. I have done many horrible things. I don't deserve redemption."
I thought about the answer for a minute before responding. "Ask me again after we've sorted out this mess. Think of it as incentive to stay after I am no longer of use to you."
"Ally Gilbert, even though I met you less then twelve hours ago, and barely know you, I can say with absolute certainty, that you will always be of use to me."
He pulled me against him, holding me tight. I rested my head against his neck and closed my eyes, feeling at home for the first time in forever.
I broke the serenity, again. "Business time."
"Right." He suddenly put his 'business' face on. God damn it, he makes his "business face" look sexy! "I think that we can be… mutually beneficial to each other. I want to be a hybrid; you don't want me to do so by killing your sister. I believe Elijah has come up with a solution to that."
"Yes, but it requires time. And I also…" I didn't get to finish my sentence because I noticed a man had just followed us down an alley. "I think that guys following us. I know the idea of him hurting either of us is laughable, let's see just for curiosity's sake." I whispered to Nik. He nodded his agreement with a devilish smile on his face. We walked down the alley, across the street, up the block and down another, smaller alley. The man still followed us. I gave Nik a look, and we both stopped.
"What do you want?" I turned around and asked.
The man got a hungry look on his face. I was about to take it for something unthinkable, when his eyes became blood shot, fangs grew in his teeth, and lines formed from the bottom of his eyes. I would have laughed out loud, if he hadn't pinned me up against the wall first. Nik didn't even wait a second. I blinked, and the man was on the ground, a gray corpse. In Nik's hand was my attacker's heart. I breathed in, and exhaled. I was starting to lose track of the number of times someone had me pinned against a wall by my throat. And I was sick of it. I need to do something about this.
"Are you okay?" Nik rushed to my side, and pulled me off the ground from where I had fallen. I fell into his arms, but didn't cry. Somehow, I managed to hold it in. I felt like I didn't know him well enough to just start balling into his shoulder, so I held it in.
"Yeah, I think so. Is he…?" I couldn't bring myself to say it. I realized that this was the first death I had actually seen. It was horrifying, but I couldn't look away from the body. For months, I had been doing the same thing this man had just done: cornering some random person in an ally and drinking their blood.
"Yes." Nik dropped the heart, and wiped his hand on the guy's pants. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine, it's just… that was the first death I've ever really saw."
"Oh. I told you I'm a monster." Nik looked somewhat dejected, but I could see in his eyes that there was a part of him that enjoyed being a monster, a part of him that enjoyed being the devil. I could also see that it was reflected in my eyes. I thought back to the fight, and the moments leading up to it. I had been eager for it. I wanted him to attack me. I wanted to prove that I was strong, that I was somehow better than the man attacking me. It was irrational, and involuntary. I couldn't help feeling that way. I had led Nik down that alley because I had wanted to fight him, wanted to show that I was stronger than this weak human. I had never felt that way before. Before I was a vampire. I had been a complete fail during that fight. I was pushed up against the wall in five seconds. And it was obvious that I was no match for a probably pretty new vampire. If he had been an older vampire, he would have known to check if he could hear a heartbeat before he attacked us. Although, it wasn't his fault he just happened to stumble upon the most powerful person in the entire world. I suddenly knew exactly what I wanted from Klaus in exchange for using my sister in the sacrifice, and saving her. The saving her part was the most important and the part that I would never compromise on.
"If you're a monster, then so am I." I said as Nik helped me up off the dirty ground. I had gotten a few cuts, but they were all gone now and the only thing left was a little blood on my clothes.
"What do you mean?"
"I told you to walk down this alley. I was thirsty, and I wanted a fight. I was so eager to fight. I have no idea why. I guess I wanted to prove something. All I proved was that I'm an idiot. And a weak one, at that. I couldn't even anticipate that he would attack me." I felt like an idiot.
"That doesn't make you a monster. Trust me, I would know. I have a little bit of experience with monsters. Let's just forget it happened. Okay?"
"Okay. You need new clothes, first." I noticed that his clothes were covered in blood. "And we still need to finish that conversation."
Half an hour later we were in his apartment. I could get a real look at it now that I wasn't running for my life to get out of there. It fit him. There were paintings all over the place. They were of different things, but each was very beautiful. It wasn't a huge apartment, but it was pretty big considering the posh area it was in. "These paintings are beautiful." I called out to Nik while he was getting a new shirt from his closet.
"Thank you." He walked out of the bedroom with the shirt in his hand, with nothing covering his chest. I couldn't look away. I was spellbound. It took all my will power to look away. I don't want to seem like an idiot. Again. Why is it that I can't look at him without losing my ability to speak? "It's always been a hobby of mine."
"I always wished I could paint. I can't even draw stick figures." It was true. My stick figures always ended up looking deformed.
He laughed. It was like that with him. Easy. Natural. I felt like I could just talk to him and be myself around him. I didn't even know who I was, but I knew that I liked who I was when I was with him. Nik put his shirt back on, much to my dismay. "It's partly an acquired skill."
"Then maybe there's hope for us all…. We should probably finish that talk." I said the words I was dreading. This talk was going to be hard, but it would be, hopefully, quick. "I want to amend my original… I don't want to say demands, so I'm going to say requests."
Curiosity flashed across his face. "You never cease to surprise me. What is it you want now that you didn't before?"
The next thing that came out of my mouth, I had actually been thinking about since I turned. I had been attacked countless times. By Damon, Katherine, Elijah, the vampire in the alley, and even Nik. I was tired of being the weak vampire. I was done with people underestimating me. "I want to be an Original."
