AN: Sorry about the slow update! I've rewritten this chapter a few times now. I was unsure before of where I wanted this part to go, but I think I've got it figured it out now. This one's a bit of a filler, but still important. (:

Part Twenty-five: Common Knowledge

The apartment had been left in a hurricane of clothes, shoes, and various handbags, as always. Klaus stood in the middle of the living room, absentmindedly surveying the mess around him. He didn't dare touch anything, but he'd been there for about an hour already, just standing. It seemed to be organized in a sort of separated set of messes. There were handbags piled on the one armchair and clothes sorted by what looked like evening wear versus day wear in two different piles in the living room. He couldn't figure out the shoes, though. Maybe she'd just kicked them off wherever she wanted when she got home. He tried to imagine her stumbling in drunk in the slinky silver dress by the linen closet, or coming home from school in the jean shorts and White Stripes shirt by balcony door. Did she like them? Or did she just have the t-shirt?

The whole place smelled vaguely like marijuana and salad dressing. It felt strange to be moving as he walked into the bedroom, having stood still for so long. His reflection gazed back at him from the floor-length mirror on the bathroom door, surprising him with his own miserable expression. He hadn't realized how upset he looked standing in her apartment. Upon seeing his face, he was forced to question himself again. What, exactly, was he doing here? What was he waiting for?

With her gone, who would clean up this apartment? Who would take all the clothes? Who would live here instead?

There was no denying it. Something was going on here that Klaus hadn't expected and had no way of predicting. Rin was up to something, because there was no way he'd be having these thoughts unless she had done something to make him. On his own, he would never be contemplating keeping her alive and abandoning limitless power. It had to be her doing. She was a telepath – she could do that, right?

No, he would have known. It was always obvious to him when she was either draining him or affecting him. It felt like a sudden, inexplicable change – he hadn't even seen these thoughts coming. There was no way for her to control his thoughts. It was him. There was something wrong with him.

He paced closer to the bed, feeling more and more like an intruder, but there was something addicting about being in her space. It was like reaching new understanding of her. He could be near her without having to deal with the stress of handling her. The "organized mess" setup reminded him slightly of his attic – were they so different after all? She human, he a hybrid?

Yes, they were. This was where she invited people and spent time with her friends. With Damon. With Klaus, when he let himself in. Rin didn't have one room that she showed to others and one she kept locked away, riddled with her true self. Over the years, Klaus had grown to believe he had to hide himself away in the attic. Otherwise, he was vulnerable.

But Rin was neither hidden away nor vulnerable. She could be taken at face-value and still carried herself like she was indestructible. Maybe because she was – no one got under her skin. He'd almost killed her and he still didn't get under her skin. In fact, she seemed to get a kick out of people attempting to get under her skin. He was fairly certain that even in her dying moments, she would have that steely, invincible look in her eye. How did she do it?

A photograph on her bedside table caught his eye. Still refusing to touch anything, he peered down at it. It was a little girl. Her? No, though they looked alike, upon closer inspection, he saw that the girl in the photograph had green eyes. Otherwise, she could have been a younger version of Rin. Who could it be?

Now he was really snooping. Feeling guilty, he turned away from the picture and escaped through the window. As he hit the ground, he lost his balance slightly for the first time in years. Shit. It shocked him a little – he couldn't remember stumbling like that any time in the last few hundred years.

Brushing it off, he began the trek home. Walking at a human pace gave him time to think, and Rin was probably safely asleep in his room by now. Letting his mind wander, he tried to picture her curled up in his blanket, her silver hair covering one of the pillows. The sheets would probably smell like marijuana and salad dressing in the morning. Except the pillow – that would definitely have caught the kiwi scent of her shampoo.

Klaus frowned, stopping for a moment. He knew what her shampoo smelled like. Why did he know that? When had he gathered that useless bit of information? It was impossible to remember when, exactly, he'd picked it up, as if he'd known for a long while and it was now just common knowledge.

Do not go down this road, he told himself.

It was funny; after nearly ten centuries of life, Klaus still lacked the introspection to save himself from his own denial.

As he approached the house, he cut through the back yard and quickly climbed the tree outside the high attic window, taking extra care not to lose his balance again. On his way up, however, he heard a voice. Rin.

"Where you fucking waiting or something?!" After that, Kol. Of course she'd left the room.

"Stop. Before you drain me, I need to talk to you." Shit. "Wait, he's home." Rin raised a brow at him.

"He was gone?"

Klaus nearly flew in the window and out the door, and in mere moments he was in the stairwell. But Kol was nowhere to be found.

"Where the hell did he go?!" demanded Klaus. Rin was still processing what had just happened. Kol had basically disappeared – she'd never seen a vampire move so fast. And now Klaus was here, fully dressed. So he had been gone.

"I couldn't tell you," said Rin, exasperated. She'd been distracted from feeding by the prospect of Kol perhaps telling her Klaus' plan, but now Klaus was here instead, and she still hadn't fed. As she ran a hand through her hair, Klaus noted a sort of frustrated look on her face.

"Care to explain why you left the room?" Eyes narrowed, he ignored her frustration. He received a long, tired sigh as a response. "Well?!"

"I was starving. I didn't want to sleep; I wanted more energy. But I guess now I might as well," she said, obviously ticked off. She was getting cranky from lack of energy. The door slammed noisily behind her as she re-entered Klaus' bedroom and collapsed on his bed.

Despite whatever she'd just told Klaus, she still didn't want to sleep – there was too much going through her mind. Now she had to ponder when she could get Kol alone again along with the Klaus drama. This was way too much for her to ignore and just… go to sleep.

Klaus, meanwhile, lingered in the stairwell. Should he say something to her? What was there to say? No, he wouldn't say anything. There was no point. He would carry on as normal and ignore this issue until it went away.

Sighing, he sank to the landing and leaned his head against the cool, stone wall, still unsure. Five, ten, then fifteen minutes went by, and once again he found himself waiting around someplace unusual for something unknown. After some time, he found himself listening carefully to the sound of blood rushing through Rin's body in slow, even pumps. As her heart beat slowed, he drifted into his vampiric equivalent of sleep.