Chapter forty two
Good times
Elizabeth
Mystic Falls, Virginia
1864
I was sitting on the large bed in Klaus' bedroom reading. I rested my head on the pillow and focused on the book. I was alone in his house, though this wasn't new. I spent most of my time at the house Klaus had bought, even when he wasn't there. I didn't like being home- I didn't like my father and I couldn't stand Katherine. I missed my brothers, but they spent most of their time fawning over Katherine.
I sighed and closed my book. I wasn't much for reading, though I could read. I got out of the bed and began to look through Klaus' room. It didn't have a lot of the personal touches that made a bedroom a bedroom, though there were a few personal things in it- you just had to look hard enough.
On his desk, I found a stack of drawings. They were beautiful and I was careful not to tear the fragile paper. They were of places, people, and even a few animals. I sat down on his bed and looked through them.
"Snooping Elizabeth?"
Klaus appeared in front of me and I spared him a glance before looking back down at his drawings. If anyone else had been looking through his things, he would have been angry. But he seemed amused at my snooping.
"I did not know that you could draw," I said, a small smile on my lips.
Klaus shrugged and sat down next to me. "You never asked," he countered.
I rolled my eyes and looked back at the drawings. Suddenly, an idea popped in my mind, and I blurted it out without a thought.
"Can you draw me?"
I looked up expectantly at him, waiting for an answer. "I already have," Klaus answered, unabashed. He pulled out a sketchbook from a drawer and handed it to me. I opened it to find pictures of me.
They were all different- some showed my entire body, others just my face. They were all very good and everything seemed to be correct, but something was off. He echoed my thoughts out loud.
"I cannot seem to get your smile right- it either comes out a smile or a smirk, and yours is a cross between the two," he said.
"My nose is too long, too," I pointed out.
"In my defense, I've always worked from memory. I've never had the real thing in front of me while I drew," Klaus told me.
I smirked at him before stretching out on the bed. "Let us change that."
A small smile formed on his lips and Klaus kissed me gently on the lips before grabbing a pencil.
When I walked down to the living room in the morning, Stefan, Damon, and Lily were waiting for me. I found it hard to look at Lily and Damon and instead focused on getting myself coffee.
"So, who kidnapped you this time?" Stefan asked, choosing to ignore the awkwardness between Lily, Damon, and I.
I turned around to face them. "You knew that I was missing?"
Lily nodded. "You were missing for two days, Elizabeth. With your track record, we figured that you were kidnapped again," she said.
"We were looking for you, but whoever took you cleaned up very well after themselves," Damon said gruffly. "So who was it? Klaus again? Katherine? Poppy?"
"Poppy," I answered, pouring myself a cup of coffee.
"How did you get away?" Stefan asked curiously.
I took a deep breath. "Klaus rescued me," I admitted.
My family looked mildly surprised, though not as surprised as I expected them to be. Klaus had been saying that he cared about me, after all. "Did he kill Poppy?" Lily asked immediately. I knew that she wanted Poppy dead, but she was her sister after all. A part of Lily couldn't let go of Poppy and she never would be able to.
I shook my head. "She escaped before he could."
"Good with me, I call dibs on ripping her throat out," Damon growled.
I raised an eyebrow. "She's Lily's sister, Damon. You know Lily, your little sister's best friend-slash- the girl you're screwing," I said sarcastically, a little bitterness seeping into my tone.
Lily turned a deep red, Damon remained expressionless, and Stefan's eyes widened. "You know?" he asked.
My eyebrows shot up. "You knew? God, did everyone know before me? I mean, it's not like I mean anything to the two of you," I said sarcastically, a little angry.
Lily sighed. "Elizab-" she started to say, but I cut her off.
"Look, I'm not mad that you two are… together now. Freaked out and mentally scarred for life? Yes. Angry? No. I'm a little angry that I had to walk in on you two screwing to find out. You should've told me- it would've saved me from being scarred for life," I told them honestly.
"We wanted to tell you, Elizabeth, really-" Lily started, but Damon cut her off.
"I didn't," he said bluntly. "You made it very clear that you didn't want us together, Elizabeth. So why even try?"
I sighed. "It wasn't my place to do that. If you two want to hook up, go crazy- as long as you don't do it in my bed, I'm fine. I'm just worried about one of you screwing up-" I shot Damon a look. "-and it becoming really awkward. If one of your hearts gets broken, I'm going to break the other one's face just so we're all clear."
Both of them nodded and I sighed again. I didn't know if Lily and Damon were just friends with benefits or if they actually cared about each other. I hoped that it was the latter, because I knew from experience that friends with benefits never worked. Someone always ended up getting hurt.
It was cloudy enough that i could go outside without getting burned alive, so i decided that Lily and i would be going out. "Lily, we're going out for breakfast," I told my best friend abruptly, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her to the door. We had a lot to catch up on.
Mystic Falls, Virginia
1864
I was outside in the backyard of Klaus' house, a sketchbook in my hand. My lips were pursed as I struggled to draw the tree in front of me. I was trying to teach myself how to draw and was failing miserably.
"You are adorable."
I turned my glare from the tree to Klaus. He was looking down at me, clearly amused. I glared at the ancient vampire and he merely chuckled in response. "I am not adorable- I am beautiful and sexy," I corrected him, looking back down at my half-finished drawing.
"You are both of those things too, Elizabeth," Klaus agreed. "But you are adorable when you are failing miserably at something yet are too stubborn to admit it."
"You make drawing seem so easy." I sighed and dropped the sketchbook on the grass.
"Nine hundred years of practice, love," Klaus told me, before sitting down next to me.
I looked up at the sky; it was a bright blue and puffy clouds were floating lazily through the sky. "You have been to a lot of places, have you not?" I asked him.
Klaus nodded and I sighed before lying down on the grass and staring up at the sky. "I have never left this town," I told him. Even though I was a woman and meant to marry and raise a family, I wanted to see the world.
"You are still young, Lizzie. You have plenty of time to see the world," Klaus assured me, lying down next to me.
"Will you take me to see it?" I asked him abruptly, turning my head to face him.
"I will take you to where ever you want to go," he told me and I smiled at him before turning my gaze back to the sky.
"It must be lonely for you. You do not have anybody, do you?" I murmured suddenly.
Klaus shrugged. "I do not mind it," he told me, but I could tell that he was lying.
"Yes you do. Nobody likes being alone forever, Klaus," I told him.
I turned to face him again to find that his face was only an inch away from mine. "I will not let you be alone," I whispered, lightly touching his face.
"Promise?" he asked, suddenly seeming less like an original vampire and more like a lonely, broken human.
I nodded. "I promise," I told him. Then I sealed it with a kiss.
Lily and I sat at a booth in a small diner. I devoured my pancakes as Lily drank her coffee. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about Damon and me," she apologized.
I waved her apology away. "It's fine, Lily. I guess, in a way, I should've seen it coming," I said.
"I actually do care about Damon, Elizabeth. I like him, a lot. I'm falling for him," she admitted.
I smiled at her. "Good, I'm glad. After all the shit Katherine's put him through, he deserves a girl like you. I just hope that Damon doesn't do something impulsive and self-destructive," I said.
"I don't think that he'll cheat on me- the sex is really good," Lily said lightly.
My nose wrinkled and I covered my hands with my ears childishly. "Gross! No talking about sex with my brother, Lily!" I exclaimed.
Lily laughed at my expression, before sobering. "Speaking of sex, we never got to talk about how sex with Klaus was," she said, stirring her coffee.
I raised an eyebrow. "That was random."
She shrugged. "I'm just curious, that's all. Besides, he did save you from my sister."
I sighed and pushed my hair out of my face. What Klaus had done was seriously messing with my head. I had been thinking about our good memories all morning, the things that had made me fall in love with him. I had a deal with Elijah, yet I was questioning my decision to kill Klaus in the first place.
"Honestly? The sex was amazing," I admitted and Lily smirked.
"I bet it was. The few centuries that I did spend with him, he was a bit of a man whore. I figured that he had to be good in bed if girls kept sleeping with him."
"If you were curious why didn't you ask Poppy?" Lily raised an eyebrow.
"What? Poppy and Klaus never-" she cut herself off and cursed.
"I'm stupid. Of course they have. That's why Poppy kidnapped you in first place, isn't it?" she asked and I nodded.
"She was jealous so she decided to burn me alive." I pushed my empty place aside before taking a deep breath.
"I wasn't completely honest about going to New York, Lily," I blurted out suddenly. "I de-daggered Elijah."
Lily sighed. "I figured as much."
I raised an eyebrow at her. "Why didn't you try to stop me?" I asked her.
"Because Elijah is my friend and I think that he could help you kill Klaus," she answered.
"I have a deal with him. He's going help me kill his brother and I'm going to help him get his family back," I said.
"How are you going to do that?" Lily asked her eyes wide.
I shrugged. "With style and flare." I smirked at her.
Lily sighed and shook her head. "The messes you get yourself into Elizabeth…"
"Have you met all of the original vampires?" I asked her curiously.
"I never met Mikael and I'm glad that I haven't. From what I've been told he isn't a very pleasant man. All of his children are scared of him. I've spent a lot of time with Rebekah because she traveled with Elijah and Klaus. Kol is a flirt- he actually reminds me of Damon a bit. I've met Finn once. He absolutely hates what he is, what we are. I pitied him and his self-loathing. Really, they're a pretty dysfunctional family, and that's coming from the girl who had the most dysfunctional family in ancient France," Lily said.
"I can't wait to de-dagger them," I said sarcastically before frowning thoughtfully. "Do you think I'm stupid for trusting Elijah?"
Lily shook her head. "I trust Elijah," she said. "But I don't want to be there when you tell your brothers about your deal with him."
"I don't want to be there either. I also don't want to be there when Klaus finds out that Elijah's amongst the living again," I said.
"I think that I'm going to go find my old friend," Lily said, standing up.
Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. "Lil, were you and Elijah ever more than friends?" I asked her bluntly.
Lily frowned at me. "Believe it or not Elizabeth, but a man and a woman can have a friendship without there being anything romantic tied to it," she told me.
I raised my hands. "Hey, just wondering. I wouldn't blame you if you did, though- he's hot." I smirked at her. "But if you leave my brother for him, I'll rip out your spleen."
She laughed humorlessly. "Thanks for the warning, Elizabeth," she said sarcastically before leaving me.
I frowned in concentration as I paid the bill. I was doing the right thing, killing Klaus. I had to be. Jeremy, it's for Jeremy. That was becoming my mantra.
It was all for Jeremy, to get him back. But Jeremy was with Mallory now. They could get married and have kids and grow old together. They could have something that I could never give Jeremy. Would it be selfish of me to take that all away from him?
Mystic Falls, Virginia
1864
It was raining, down pouring on Mystic Falls. I watched the rain from the window of Klaus' house. I loved the rain. Klaus watched me curiously from a chair, his drawing pad in his lap.
Without another word, I stood up and walked out into the rain. I laughed out loud as it soaked my hair and dress. I spun around in a circle, not caring that I was sopping wet or that I looked crazy and stupid and childish.
"What are you doing, Elizabeth?" Klaus called from the doorway. He sounded amused- that man was amused by everything that I did. He had an eyebrow raised.
"Dance with me," I demanded suddenly.
"You are mad, Elizabeth." Klaus laughed.
"Yes, I am. Now dance with the mad human in the rain," I said, wiping the water from my eyes.
I didn't think that he would do it. I thought that he would roll his eyes and shut the door. But Klaus sighed before walking into the rain. His curls were soaked as he walked up to me and pulled me into his arms.
"You are absolutely mad," he repeated as we slow danced in the rain. Thunder rumbled in the sky and lightning lit up the clouds.
"You like it," I told him, grinning. I rested my head on his shoulder.
Klaus just shook his head and laughed slightly. I frowned suddenly, three words I hadn't uttered to him in two weeks popping into my head.
"I love you," I repeated, causing Klaus to stiffen. "Do not worry- I do not expect you to say it back. But I want you to know that someone does care about you, does love you. You may not have your family, but you have me. You'll always have me, Klaus."
Klaus closed his eyes and I stared meaningfully at him. He needed to hear that, I knew. His father never loved him. That was where all his problems stemmed from- his trust issues, his love issues. But I loved him and he believed that I did.
He opened his eyes and kissed my wet forehead. "Thank you love," he told me affectionately. Then he kissed me, his mouth cool against my warm one. I liked to think that he did love me, he just couldn't admit it to himself, and that he had let someone in long enough to fall in love with him. That was weakness in Klaus' eyes, and he wasn't weak.
I wanted to tell him that love wasn't weak, that it didn't make him weak to love me. I didn't, though. I just closed my eyes and settled for the soft, tender kiss in the rain.
~LMF~
A/N: thank you to: RainySmithCullenSalvatore X, Katerina The Von, purpleXorchid, Pickle Paige, Paris101, and Lady Syndra for reviewing!
Reviews are inspiring!
~Abby :)
