I do not own TVD or TO.
No Miranda cuteness here, but there is a badass Elena moment.
A few years ago she definitely would have jumped at his sudden appearance, but her senses had sharpened since then and in all honesty since the daggering incident she had developed a bit of a seventh sense where he was concerned. A part of her always seemed to know when he was near; his very presence brought a flood of warmth to her chest and made her heart skip a beat.
Miranda was her sixth sense.
She hoped she never lost either.
Anyone who looked at him would have expected soft hands – the hands of a man who had never known the toil of physical labour – but appearances were deceiving and while his touch was gentle his fingers were calloused. Those calloused fingers trailed over her arm, skimming the smooth skin in a barely there touch.
"Would you care to dance, Mrs. Mikaelson?" His cool breath stirred a loose curl near her ear.
"I thought you'd never ask." The shiver rolled down her back, coiling at the base of her spine.
She flipped her hand over, threading their fingers together.
"Would you excuse us Hayley?" Elena met the werewolf's eyes.
"Go have some fun," she gave Elijah a quick nod before turning her attention to her apple juice.
He pulled Elena out onto the dancefloor, settling his hand on the small of her back and she knew if Mrs. Lockwood could have seen them they would have been chastised for dancing so close together, but this dance was not about the near touch.
"So," her fingers slipped up from his shoulder to play with the little hairs at the back of his neck. "Who was that you were talking to earlier?"
"I feel as if I have spoken to everyone at this soiree," he chuckled, "with the exception of my lovely bride. You'll need to be a little more specific."
She cast her eyes around the room until she spotted the woman in the far corner, watching her with open curiosity. She tipped her head to indicate the woman in black.
"Her?"
Elijah followed her gaze. "Ah… her…" he spun her in a circle so her skirt flared out showing the sparkle of her shoes to the guests. He pulled her in close, smiling when she laughed.
"I hope you're not avoiding the question," her eyes sparkled. "I know she's taking the human seat with the factions. I just didn't catch her name."
"Francesca Guerrera," he bent close to her ear, "and I would never avoid your questions."
"But you would avoid Hayley," she arched an eyebrow when he remained silent. "I thought so; she's many things, and unobservant is not one of them. What happened?"
His eyes cut across the room to the pregnant werewolf; she leaned against a column talking to one of her werewolves.
"She didn't tell you?"
"She was decidedly silent on the subject," her feet moved without thought, leading her through the waltz he had selected.
"She alluded to something that I would prefer remain untrue," he glanced towards the stairs where Jeremy was ascending with Davina and Miranda. He should have known Elena would follow his eyes and recognize the emotion swimming there.
"She's safe here," her palm slid down to cover his heart.
"Is she?" He stared at her hand.
"As safe as can be," Elena nodded. "She surrounded by family. I do worry about Hayley though, out in the Bayou; I think she'd be safer here."
"On that we are in agreement," he nodded. "I don't think she'd react well to being told that, though."
"She's not exactly the sit back and knit booties type," Elena smirked. Her eyes cut across the room again and found Hayley gone; she quickly located her on the dancefloor with the werewolf she had been speaking to.
The bottle shook in her hands, sloshing dark liquid around and splashing the counter. Somehow she managed to get a sizable drink poured in her glass; that liquid coated her hand when Marcel appeared directly behind her.
"Easy," he held up his hands, glancing at her chest where her heart pounded, "breathe."
Cami took a deep breath and held out her half-filled glass. "Julep? Minus the sugar and mint?"
"You okay?" He took the drink, frowning when she nodded a little too fast. "I just saw Kieran and he's not going to try to hurt you again."
"I'm a little more worried about me hurting him," she frowned, remembering all too vividly the thunk when his head hit the bed.
"Well as long as you stay out of the attic you should be fine," Marcel placed the glass on the table. "I arranged for a little boundary spell."
"You got a witch?" Her brows rose, threatening to disappear into her hairline. "I thought they all hated you." The only ones that didn't would have been occupied with the wedding.
"Yeah, well," he shrugged, a charismatic smile on his lips, "for you I found one that doesn't. Freya can be quite accommodating, and she happens to like you." His heart clenched when tears sprang up in her eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing…" she sniffled, a tear streaked down her cheek. "It's just that… you… you're the first person to really help me today. I feel like Elena and Freya have given up and if they haven't they will soon since Kol is pretty sure it's too late to save him…" her voice grew higher the more she talked and her knees buckled; she lowered herself into a chair, pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes. "He's the only family I've got left… I'm alone without him."
Marcel pulled out a kitchen chair next to her and took a seat. "If there's anything I can do, Cami, all you have to do is say."
Her mouth quirked up in a weak smile. "There is one thing," she reached behind them to the table for her bottle. "We're out of bourbon."
The reception, which had turned into a large scale party, continued on as Oliver made his way across the room to the bar; he had barely put his order in when a second figure approached, coming to a stop less than a foot behind him.
"Hey, wolf boy," Diego sneered at the drink Oliver picked up. "Should have had them put it in a bowl for you."
"Well, yeah," his returned smile was entirely manic, "if you want me to crush your skull with it."
Both men glanced to the left when a woman in a sleek black dress stepped between them. She placed a hand on either of their shoulders, a flirtatious smile on her lips and a stern look in her eye.
"Please, boys." A hint of warning laced her tone. "At least fight over something interesting. Me, perhaps?"
Diego met Francesca's eyes. "Nah, you don't want to get involved with his kind." His voice dropped to a growl. "See, they got this nasty little habit of going berserk and ripping innocent people to shreds."
"No, no, no," Oliver reassured Francesca. He held up one hand in a gesture of peace. "Okay? Look. If my people wronged you in any way, you have my condolences, okay?" His eyes looked Diego over from head to toe. "Though I'd be surprised my kin could choke them down, being half as ugly as him."
The snarl was the only warning Francesca got before Oliver was picked up and thrown across the courtyard.
Elena jumped, a startled shriek escaping her lips when a body whizzed through the air behind her, crashing into a table filled with full glasses of champagne. The crystal shattered on impact; liquid splashed over the cobblestones, staining the hem of her dress.
She was still too stunned to move when Diego sped past, but Oliver was fast getting to his feet and pinning him to the nearest wall that cracked under his spine. Elijah disappeared from her side, yanked Oliver back by the scruff of his neck, pushing him against a table.
"This ends now," Elijah growled low in his throat. "I will not ask again."
"Oh, we'll end it alright."
Elena looked at the same moment Elijah did to see Jackson pinning Diego to the wall with a makeshift stake aimed at his heart. They stared at each other, weighing the seriousness in the other's eyes.
"What's stopping you?" Hayley commanded everyone's attention from the staircase. "Kill him. Go ahead," her eyes found Elijah, "it's not like he doesn't deserve it…"
"We're you planning on intervening?" Caroline glanced out of the corner of her eye to Klaus. Her mother stiffened on her other side.
"Why would I do that?" He sounded genuinely confused. "The party just got interesting."
"I mean, it was Oliver who handed Rebekah over to the witches so they could torture her, but…" Hayley nodded to Jackson and Diego, "… then again, Diego was the one who led a werewolf massacre last month. And the witches," her eyes cut to Genevieve, "cursed the wolves, while the humans stood back and let it all happen. So, when you think about it, everyone here deserves to die. The only exceptions I see are Elena and Caroline, who many would say deserve it anyway by association."
"Are you approaching a point?" Elijah snapped. Part of him itched to tear Oliver apart, especially when he heard the faintest of sniffles from the second floor and the monitor that could only be attached to Jeremy's hip where he stood to the side, frozen from his dance with Davina.
"This is her point," Elena looked around the room. "Nobody in this room can get along for more than five minutes."
"And if we can't figure that out, if our families can't create some sort of community, then what's the damn point?" Hayley crossed her arms. "Let's just kill each other and get it over with."
Elena saw Elijah considering her words, weighing the ramifications. She knew he was thinking of the benefits of razing New Orleans to the ground, in that moment, and starting from scratch; she also knew the moment he recognized that Hayley was right; he let go of Oliver, but before Jackson could let go of Diego a few of the vampires snarled low and the next thing she knew they were lunging for the nearest wolves.
She had always been a reasonably level headed person, but that was the moment she snapped. A shriek she hadn't realized she was capable of tore through her throat as she brought her hands down in a decisive gesture and then threw her arms apart.
Glass shattered beneath bodies. Splinters of wood littered the floor. Around Hayley, Liz, Bonnie and Alaric there was a perfect circle where the debris had stopped before reaching their bodies.
Elijah glanced down at the ground where Diego had been sprawled and then over at Jackson where Oliver had been thrown. Finally his eyes lifted to his flushed wife.
"Alright," Elena's hair had tumbled loose with her magic outburst and she shook the waves over her shoulders, "I am willing to put up with a lot as evidenced by the family I just married into," she lowered her hands. In front of her there was nobody until Hayley at the stairs. "But I will not put up with a civil war being waged in my home, where my daughter sleeps, on my wedding day of all days. There will be no bloodshed in this house tonight." Her eyes cut to Diego when he glowered at Oliver. "Don't test me Diego; I am not in the mood tonight."
"Well," Klaus smirked, picking a shard of glass from his forearm, "I have to say I'm enjoying this backbone you've grown."
Liz leaned close to her daughter, but no matter how quietly she whispered the vampires nearby still heard. "What exactly have you gotten wrapped up in?"
"How was the wedding?" Josh gazed at the assortment of herbs and flowers on the shelves in the Lycee. "Did you dance with anyone cute?"
"I danced with Jeremy," Davina swung her leg back and forth on the stool and rested her chin in her hand. Her eyes lifted from the dead flowers on the table.
"He is pretty hot," Josh grinned.
"He's also a vampire hunter," she rolled her eyes, "and I'm pretty sure he's straight."
"Isn't forbidden romance supposed to make it that much better?" Josh sat, nudging her with his knee. "Could be bi."
"I'm not sure," she sighed, "you'd have to ask him." Her eyes never lifted from the dead flowers.
Josh followed her gaze. Reaching out he picked up a single long stem rose.
"You know," he mused, "I've only gotten roses once in my life." He pressed his lips together. "Didn't even get to keep them."
The admission caught Davina's undivided attention. "Why not?" She sat up.
"My first boyfriend- my only boyfriend, really- gave them to me for Valentine's Day senior year. Tried to hide them in my bedroom, but my parents found them. You may not know it, but roses will jam even the best paper shredders." He chuckled, but he sobered quickly.
"You know, I don't have a home to go home to, or a family to go home to. I used to hate myself for that, but the thing is, I don't really care what they think anymore. If your family doesn't like you the way you are, screw them!" He met her gaze. "You got Elena, Jeremy, me, and Cami... even Marcel. If you want," he added.
"Marcel used me," she sighed.
"He used you to fight the people who were trying to kill you," Josh bobbed his head from side to side. "And, you know, he also saved you from those people. Maybe he went a little power hungry, and you don't have to trust him, but deep down he does love you, and," he reached out to squeeze her arm, "so do I."
"Even if I don't have magic?" She smiled in spite of herself. "All the power I had before was from the other Harvest girls. I don't know what I have without it."
"You owe it to yourself to find out, don't you? You're a witch, Davina," he tilted his head, "you can't change your DNA any more than I can, so you might as well embrace it, and besides," he extended the hand with the dried rose, "you know it was enough for that bitch Celeste to practically kill Elena."
Davina licked her bottom lip, dragging it between her teeth. She plucked the flower from between his fingers and drew in a deep breath before closing her eyes and focusing on the feel of the stem in her hand. She whispered the words without really believing they would work.
"Belle la vie a cette fleur," she repeated the phrase five times, each time with a clearer infliction behind the words. Determination filled her; she wanted to give Josh something he could actually keep. "Belle la vie a cette fleur. Maintenent."
The petals flooded with red before her eyes and the space between them filled with the sweet scent. She held out her hand with a proud smile on her lips, returning the rose to Josh.
"Aww," he took it and smiled back at her.
"Just so I'm sure I've got this right," Caroline leaned against the wall, careful of the wet canvas near her legs, "you hijacked your brother's wedding – the wedding I spent a month planning – to broker a deal with the wolves."
"Is this the part where you deal out judgement?" Klaus stared at his canvas, considering the colours. "I've been waiting for it since we left the study. Should I be sleeping with one eye open?" He glanced over the painting as he reached for a brush.
"I want to know what you're thinking," she dropped to sit on the chaise that he had posed her on when he finally talked her into modeling nude. He was possessed of a very persuasive tongue when he saw the need to use it; she had obviously hidden the painting in a place where nobody would find it.
"I am thinking that this city needs to change," he dipped his brush into a pot of paint, "and all change begins with a plan."
"I sense a speech coming on," she rolled her eyes and kicked off her heels. She wondered what the odds were of talking him into a foot rub.
"The success of such a plan depends on several things…"
"Yup," she muttered, tucking her legs under her body, "speech time."
Klaus cut her a look, but otherwise continued listing the requirements for a successful plan: "depth of commitment, passion for one's cause, willingness to embrace a new path, determination to overcome any obstacle, and in some cases, even making unnatural alliances."
"Okay," she started unpinning her hair, "but you're half wolf, so doesn't that make this a natural alliance?"
"Perhaps partly," he returned to his painting.
Caroline watched him work for several moments and traced the determined line between his eyebrows with her eyes. She waited until he switched colours before interrupting again.
"Why?"
"I'm pretty sure I you know why," he slashed the canvas with his brush.
"I do," she hummed, "but I want to hear you say it."
He moved his hand in a short half circle, staring at the canvas. "I want this city safe for her. Elijah's peace treaty will never work, so I plan on making alliances that will."
"I'm midway between touched and pissed off," Caroline shook her hair loose. She needed blood to deal with the tension headache that had been present since the reception began. "I'm going to bed. Try to join me before the sun comes up," he smirked and she rolled her eyes, "that's not what I meant."
"You made a deal with Klaus Mikaelson?" Oliver stared, aghast. "I'd rather turn every full moon."
"If Klaus is right, this magic could do more than just stop us from turning." Jackson stepped closer, lowering his voice to a whisper. "We could finally control what we are! We could draw on all the strength, all the speed, the raw power of our werewolf form. Our bite would be lethal to vampires, 24/7. The humans who hunt us, the witches who curse us, the vampires who hate us- we wouldn't just be their equals." He paused and met Oliver's eyes, waiting a moment for his words to sink in. "We'd be their superiors."
"That's not quite how I imagined spending my wedding night," Elijah placed the signed treaty on the dresser, making a mental note to file it away after getting some sleep.
"At least everyone's signed now," Elena toed off her shoes.
"Including you," he came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Where did that come from earlier? You labeled yourself as a peacekeeper and one of the city's largest threats in one short moment."
"Yeah, well," she leaned back, resting her head on his chest; "I like to multitask."
"You do excel at it," he nuzzled her neck, placing a single kiss to the smooth column of her throat.
"Plus, you know," she kicked out a leg, forcing the skirt of her dress upwards, "white stains, and I really didn't want to get blood on my dress."
"But champagne is alright?" He inhaled slowly, breathing in her sweet shampoo.
"Easier to get out then blood," she smoothed her palms over his arms, holding him in place against her back.
"That's true," he propped his chin on her shoulder.
She looked down to the clean black lines of his jacket around her waist. "It's not quite how I imagined the night either."
"Well," he slipped one hand around her waist, up her back, "the night's not quite over."
She grinned as the zipper was undone, exposing the curve of her spine. A glance at the alarm clock showed it to be nearly four in the morning.
"Just remind me to kill Klaus later," she glanced over her shoulder.
"You may have to get in line," he chuckled.
"Good thing I'm immortal," she let her dress pool on the floor, "that line's going to take forever to get through."
"That it is," he agreed. With the tip of his finger he caught her chin, tipping her head up so he could brush his lips over hers in a kiss that she was more than happy to deepen.
Next chapters will be from Season 1 Episode 18.
Also I just posted a new AU called Siren Song. It's a mermaid AU, and right now the plan is for it to be ELEJAH, KENNETT and KLAROLINE. You should definitely check it out.