Hello, my lovely readers. I'm sorry about the wait it was taking longer than usual to finish the chapter but its here now. I'll try to double up on chapters sometime soon. Check out the Klaroline petition (for more information got to Klaroline magazine of ) and the Klaroline Buttons Project (through Klaroline magazine or Tumbler). Note, this is not an expectation. On with the show…
Chapter 25: Off Limits
"You are not to speak to Damon Salvatore. He is not welcome in our home. You will not attend any event in which he will be present. Do you understand me, Niklaus?" My father asked as he stood over me and I stared at my lap. "NIKLAUS!" My father yelled at me and I felt my eyes water.
"Yes, Father," I tell him.
"Speak up, son," Father told me and I look him in the eye.
"Yes, Father," I shout and then I run out of the room. I run into my room and slam the door, waking Henrick. He can be heard throughout the house although he's only two weeks old. It doesn't feel like Kol or Bekah were that loud. I clap my hands over my ears. "Shut your mouth, you little wanker." I shout and then I feel bad when he stops wailing. But then he begins again.
Ripping my door open, I stride into my parents' room and stare down at the helpless little man with his bald head and wide eyes. "Bugger off," I tell him and he coos at me. "What exactly is wrong with you?" I ask him, giving my most menacing look. He just blinks up at me.
Rolling my eyes, I start to leave the room when he wails. Turning on my heel, I glare down at the little man, who won't give me peace. Henrick stops wailing and stares up at me. Now, he's waving his arms about. Oh, nice. He must have sod himself. Why my accent deepens when I'm right pissed I have no idea.
Leaning over the crib, I pick up Henrick and to my surprise he isn't wet. And he doesn't smell. He's cooing again and grabs my nose. He's got nails on him. Scratched my nose. That hurt. I peel his fingers off and he grabs one of mine and sticks it in his mouth. Why do babies like to stick everything in their mouths? Damon would have an answer for that. Damon has an answer for just about everything.
Walking back to my room, I kicked the door closed. Now, they can stop wondering about where I went off to and wonder if Henrick went slugging his way off somewhere. Tike can't even crawl yet. He'd be like a slug sliding along the floor on his belly. Barely making any headway at all. Pointless. Like everything around here.
I no longer have a phone of my own so I can't call Damon. I'm probably going to have my classes switched so we can't be anywhere near each other. And what about Caroline? When she comes back, will they do the same thing to her? Will we be branded as a group of troublemakers and not be allowed to sort ourselves out?
No, we'll fight this thing. Somehow I would not lose my friends just because my Father was being a jackass. That's what Damon would call him. I can almost hear his voice. It's like he's so close. "Nik, open the damn window already. Are you deaf?" Then there's the sound of someone pounding on my window. I find Damon is there, banging on it and waving at me.
"Shit," I mutter and then I lay Henrick in the middle of my bed because he hasn't mastered the ability to roll over yet. "Just stay there, Henrick," I mutter. Then I hurry over to the window and open it. Holding out an arm I, help Damon through the window. Stefan piles in behind him and then I'm surprised to see Elena.
"What's she doing here?" I ask, staring at Lena suspiciously. She'll tell on us. I'm sure of it.
"Lena, wants to be learn how to be a tomboy," Damon told me, "It's the closest she can get to being the real thing. I'm teaching her and we're going to give her a haircut."
"What?" My eyebrows go up when Damon pulled out a bag and a pair of scissors.
"Okay, Lena, sit down," Damon orders Lena, who sits down with wide, nervous eyes. Damon grabs her ponytail and cuts it off in one go. And Elena looks at the hair in horror when Damon holds it out to her.
"I dare you not to scream," I tell her, seeing the panic flooding her features and she is about to do it. I can see it written all over her face and then she sucks in a big breath. Blowing the air out in a gasp, Lena looks at Henrick and focuses on making the baby smile while Damon cuts more hair off and I can only watch him.
When Damon's done, I'm sure Elena is going to scream when she goes into the bathroom and then she comes out again her legs a little shaky. "At least I don't look like Kat anymore," she tells us and we laugh in relief.
"What do we do now?" I questioned Damon as he flops down on my bed and stares up at the ceiling.
Continuing to stare at the ceiling, Damon looks thoughtful before he rolls his head to look at Henrick who gurgles at him. "Hey, there Mikaelson the tiniest. What do you think? Should we terrorize Bekah or take revenge on Papa Mikaelson for separating me and Nik?" Listening to Henrick's gurgles carefully, Damon nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Revenge on Papa is coming up."
"Okay, everyone I am about to give you missions," Damon announced when the door to my room opened.
"Niklaus," Elijah began and then stopped. He frowned deeply when he saw Damon. "Damon, what are you doing here?"
"Dare you not to tell," Elena called quickly as Kol shoved past Elijah into the room.
"Ha," Kol shouted when he saw Elena's hair. She placed a hand to her head and began to stare at the floor.
Elijah sighed and closed the door behind him. "What are you children up to this time?"
"We're going to take revenge on your father and you're going to help us," Damon informed Elijah as he gave him a defiant look.
"Why would I help you?" Elijah asked, folding his arms over his chest and shaking his head.
Kol was ignoring us as he walked over to my bed and began to play with Henrick's feet, making the baby squeal. "Stop that," Damon commanded. "You're going to have one of your parents up here." Picking up Henrick, he laid the baby against his chest and began to pat his back. "If we're lucky he'll go to sleep."
"Why were you never this nice to me?" Stefan complained, glaring at Damon.
"Because you're a pain," Damon snapped and then turned back to Elijah. "Think of something that your dad did that pissed you off and then you'll help us."
Elijah began to pace the room and then he whirled around to look at Damon, his lips turning upward. "He would not allow me to drive the car yet. He said I would have to wait until next year so that I could teach Finn who will be fifteen."
"Aren't you fifteen?" Damon asked slowly his eyebrows going up and his smile turning devilish.
"Yes, I am," Elijah announced. Then the door opened and Finn walked inside.
"What's going on and why is Damon in here," Finn called as he stood in the doorway.
"Shut the door, Finn," Elijah ordered his younger brother. "We have work to do."
Finn closed the door. "What are we doing and why?"
"We're plotting against Father," Kol announced, staring up at Damon unhappily. "And he's my brother. I shall play with him all I want. Why don't you play with your own brother?" Reaching for Henrick, the six-year old found empty air as Damon moved away with my baby brother securely wrapped in his arms.
Getting up, Damon walked with Henrick on his hip over to stand beside me. "He's staying with me until all of you do what I tell you to do."
"Why would I do anything for you?" Finn snapped as he walked toward Damon, reaching for Henrick.
Damon sidestepped behind me. "You have to have a reason to be angry at your dad. I dare you to tell us what it is."
Finn deflated as he stood in front of me. "He doesn't want me to go out with Sage anymore. He says that she's growing up too fast and we're going to make him into a grandparent before I'm sixteen. Sage isn't the word he used." Finn's expression darkened before he spoke again. "I'm in."
"What are we going to do?" Elena was practically jumping and down with excitement as Damon thought about it.
"We'll start with your Dad's clothes. My dad has this thing about his suits and his expensive shoes. So, we start there. Stefan, Elena, that's your bit," Elena grabbed the scissors that were used on her hair.
"Don't run with those things," Elijah told her as we walked out the door and snuck into my parents' room. I flung the doors open to my Father's closet and started to pull out expensive looking jackets, flinging them to the floor. Elena began to grab them and cut them up.
Stefan gathered up the shredded cloth and carried it away to Rebekah's room to hide the clothes inside her closet. "Why does she have such a big closet?" Stefan wanted to know when he returned.
"So she can live in it," Kol told Stefan and they began to laugh in a way that worried me. But I had other things to attend to as I threw ties and pants to the floor.
Damon pointed for Stefan to open the drawers. He pulled out a bra. "Is this your dad's?" Stefan stared at the bra in curiosity.
"No," I shouted and then clapped a hand over my mouth. When we didn't hear noise from other parts of the house I was relieved and Elena continued to cut up anything and everything that was thrown at her.
When that task was finished Damon declared that we needed to go down to my Father's study. Stefan picked the lock and I did not want to know how a seven-year old knew how to do that. "Okay, people," Damon called to us. "What we want is paperwork. Anything that looks important."
I walked over to my father's desk and began to pull open drawers. "What's this?" Elena asked me, staring with fascination at a machine.
"It's a paper shredder," I told her and Elena's eye glowed. She grabbed a piece of paper and threw it in.
"Cool," Elena whispered as the paper was sucked in and chewed up.
Finn pulled down a painting from the wall and then began to open the safe. "How do you know the combination to the safe?" Elijah muttered loudly.
"Because Father was opening it in front of me one day," Finn called back and then opened the door. "Stocks and bonds. Contracts. And, yes, his will. Guess what Henrick isn't in it yet… Wait, neither is Bekah. That's bad isn't it, Elijah?"
Elijah took the paper and began to read it, frowning, "Yes, it needs updating. Here, Elena, take care of this."
Elena grinned happily and then placed the will in the shredder. "I'm going to ask my dad for one of these for Christmas."
After the shredding of many documents which caused many problems later on we headed out of the room. Elijah walked into the Great Room and we stood in the doorway as he snuck over to Father who was asleep with a drink next to his hand. Elijah walked over to him swiftly and closed his hand around the keys on the side table. Whirling around Elijah walked back out soundlessly with keys in hand. Smirking, Elijah jiggled the keys on one finger as we marched out of the house.
"It's time for me to learn how to drive," Elijah announced. "Damon, please, give my baby brother to Finn. Finn, take Henrick upstairs and put him in his crib. Then come back downstairs." Finn took Henrick and hurried away. Within minutes he reappeared.
We piled into Father's car and Elijah drove out of the parking lot with ease. "Ljiah, you drove before, didn't you?" I questioned my brother.
Elijah rolled his eyes to look at me in the rearview mirror. "Yes. Damon, where are we going?"
"To your dad's office. He has important memos to send out," Damon announced.
Since it was the weekend there would not be that many people in the office if anyone was there at all. Elijah used the keys to open the front door and then we walked toward the elevators. Getting on the elevator, we watched Elijah take a key and twist it in a lock to allow us access to the top floor.
Walking down a long hallway, Elijah opened our Father's office door and we entered the room. "Now, what?" Stefan asked as he looked around the room and then headed for the large window. "Whoa. We're up high," he stared downward with wide eyes, pressing his face to the glass.
Elijah walked over and placed a hand on the younger Salvatore brother's shoulder, pulling him away from the window. "Alright. Let's create memos for Monday."
"Everyone wear pink to work day," Elena called and then laughed.
"You're so not a boy," I muttered in horror.
"Everyone bring your kids to work day," Finn added with a laugh knowing it would drive our Father mad to be around that many children during work hours.
"We're building a daycare," Elijah announced.
"You're all getting a raise," Stefan yelled joyfully and we stared at him in shock. Stefan shrugged, "I saw that in a movie and people were really happy."
"Okay. Okay. That's good but there has to be better things that we can do," Damon called to us and then he began to open drawers to my Father's desk. Pulling out papers, he began to look them over. "Man, I think your Dad isn't paying his taxes."
"Why?" I called and came to stand beside him. Damon held out some papers with a bunch of numbers and then there were notices from the IRS. I didn't know anything about that but it didn't look good. "How do you know about this?" I asked Damon who blinked rapidly and then stared out the window.
"My Dad forgot to take care of his taxes when my mother died," Damon replied. "Then he was audited and he was not happy with all these people calling him all the time and men coming to the door. Then he had to go to their offices a lot and they came to his offices a lot. But it was okay. That was for one year. Or at least that's what he told me in case I ever had this problem when I was older."
"How bad is this?" I asked, looking at the deep pile of papers.
Elijah came over and began to read off dates and then he found tax papers from back when we were in England. Those were from before when Finn was born. "Oh, dear," Elijah groaned sitting down on the floor. "I do believe that Elena needs to find the shredder again." Looking around the room, he saw a larger version of our shredder at home and began to hand the papers to Elena who began to dispose of the evidence that we had found. Unfortunately, as we would find out shredding things does not change the outcome of events.
I hope it was worth the wait and you can begin the countdown to chapter thirty when Caroline returns. Until then I hope you still enjoy the story because I noticed a declined in reviews and general readership.
Thanks for the pineapples.
Guest: Andie was Damon's girlfriend, the reporter, during season part of seasons two and three.
Thank you ferrylis, WeasleysGroupie, sw33tp3a91, xXAncientBaneXx, Guest, klaorline4everlove, elijahlover, iheartfillintheblank and Guest.