Chapter Thirteen
New Orleans
Ten Years Ago

It was dawn and Klaus found himself lying awake contemplating the ceiling above. Next to him was a sleeping Bennett witch. The two spent the night pleasuring one another as they had for the past several weeks. They couldn't get enough of each other and Klaus often wondered in secret if the witch hexed him in some way. Close to two months have passed and Klaus could admit he had never been happier. The heightened emotions that came with vampirism made it easy for Klaus to admit that he was infatuated. Bonnie was his match, his equal, and the first woman in his life who belonged to him and no one else. He didn't have to share her; she was his and if she allowed it, he was willing to be hers as well.

The latter thought scared the daylights out of him. Relinquishing control was never his forte and falling in love meant exactly that. He couldn't afford to give himself to one person in that capacity, but what he felt made him want to risk it all. He would never admit it aloud but she captured him, and Klaus couldn't explain how or when exactly it had happened. Perhaps it was the blood sharing or maybe her magic, but each time they fell into each other's arms their bond grew.

He tried not to think about it.

When it came to his emotions, he usually reacted first and didn't bother to explain things later. It was how he was able to walk into an antique shop and buy the most expensive ring he could find. Women loved grand displays of affection and as much as Bonnie teased others, he knew it would make her turn to mush.

It was cheesy, he was well aware, but he didn't care. The jewelry box he held housed an antique emerald ring with diamonds encrusted decorating the band. The moment he saw it, he was immediately reminded of Bonnie. The green of the emerald was no match for the green in her eyes, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

He pulled the ring from the box and gently held her hand in his. He paused when she stirred in her sleep and waited for her to settle before sliding the ring onto her finger. His undead heart skipped a beat when her eyes fluttered open. She smiled up at him, not at all startled by his closeness.

"What are you up to, Sneaky?" He grinned but said nothing as he kissed her lips tenderly, not fazed by her morning breath. His lips moved from her mouth to her jaw, to her neck as he sucked on it tenderly in an attempt to distract her.

"Just admiring you while you snore your life away," he teased. It was when she moved to slap his shoulder that she noticed the large ring on her hand. She jerked in surprise as she held her hand up to examine the new edition. Her startled eyes flitted to him and Klaus could only smile sheepishly. "Oh egads, where did that come from?" He teased. Bonnie chuckled.

"You know exactly where it came from," she chastised. Her heart fluttered as her mind began overanalyzing everything. She bit her lip as she admired the beauty of the ring, ignoring the panic rising in her chest. "What does this mean, Nik?" Klaus sighed. He'd thought about this and realized the only answer he had was an honest one.

"I don't know," he said truthfully. When their eyes met, Bonnie visibly relaxed in his arms. As he hovered over her, he stroked her hair, pushing it out of her face as he watched her squirm under his gaze. "I just want you for myself; me and no one else."

Bonnie didn't know what to say. In her wildest dreams, she wouldn't have been able to imagine the events which took place in the past month. This dream she was living was surreal and on occasion, she was tempted to pinch herself. Now, on top of all of it, Niklaus Mikaelson, her once sworn enemy, was practically proposing to her.

This was insane.

She was intrigued and terrified all in the same breath. She couldn't marry Klaus. Logically speaking, it was a prison sentence. However, emotionally, she found that maybe, it was something she secretly wanted. But what would everyone say? Of all people on earth, why would Klaus Mikaelson ever pick her? Maybe he was high on blood, or magic, or both? Maybe she was too. She had to be to even be considering this. As wrong as she knew it to be, everything about it felt right. For years, she wanted to be wanted. She wanted to be someone's first option. She thought she had that with Jeremy Gilbert but in the end she realized she was no one's choice—not his, not their friends, nobody.

Ironically, she was Klaus's.

Funny how that worked.

Bonnie wasn't sure what to do with a man—a being—like Klaus. He was way out of her league and yet he, the most powerful being on the planet, was willing to lay the world at her feet and had proven as much in the past several weeks.

Her self-esteem didn't know how to handle this.

"I want you too," she muttered, against her better judgment. She wasn't the girl who could afford to want things. What she wanted never mattered.

Until now.

Klaus smiled down at her. He wasn't sure what he was getting himself into but he also didn't care enough to dwell on it. What he felt was real, the details didn't matter. He held her hands in his and pulled her closer. Her wide eyes stared at him with anticipation and he felt the familiar flutter in his chest that hasn't gone away since she showed up on his doorstep several moon phases ago. He leaned in and kissed her passionately, ignoring every negative thought that popped inside of his mind. The passion on her end was returned and Klaus found himself lost in her once again.

"You have me, Love." He finally breathed against her lips. It was as close to a proposal as he could get. By the way Bonnie wrapped herself around him he knew, without question, she accepted.

-X-

New Orleans
Present Day

Since finding out about Bonnie and his brother's indiscretions, Klaus began to overanalyze every memory he had of each of them and realized that short of wiping them both off the face of the continent, he would never be satisfied with any resolution. For now, he settled for beating Elijah to a pulp. After chasing Elijah in wolf form for nearly an hour, Klaus shifted back into human form and the two began leveling the earth around them. As they fought, Elijah's strength began to wane. It had been months since he fed properly and even with the blood Bonnie supplied him with, he needed more to sustain himself.

Klaus used this to his advantage.

Armed with a fallen tree branch, Klaus launched it at Elijah's retreating form and smiled with satisfaction when the branch impaled his brother into a nearby tree. Elijah grunted in pain as he struggled to get free.

In an instant, Klaus was behind him. He yanked the tree from Elijah's abdomen and forcefully slammed his brother into the ground, pinning Elijah beneath him. Elijah struggled against Klaus's hold and watched in horror as Klaus once again impaled him with the broken branch, this time, staking him to the ground. Satisfied with the sight before him, Klaus stood over his brother, glaring. Elijah could barely face him. The pain he caused was evident on Klaus's face.

"Bonnie, I can understand," Klaus began. Confusion etched itself on Elijah's face as he listened silently to his brother. "She cares too much for her own good; it's what I hate the most about her," Klaus continued, and it was true. Bonnie's compassion ground his gears, but he couldn't change that about her, only accept it. "But you," Klaus scoffed as his brother's betrayal replayed in his mind over and over again. "Every time I get something you seek to take it away from me. Why?" Niklaus stared down at his brother and waited for an answer.

"I'm sorry, Brother. Plea—" Not wanting to hear any more apologies, Niklaus placed his foot on Elijah's neck and applied pressure, unfazed by the sounds of him choking.

"I didn't ask for an apology, I asked for an explanation." It was hard sometimes to tell that Elijah and Niklaus were related, that is until it came to torture. The way Niklaus stood over him, jaded and unbothered, reminded Elijah of himself. Had he not been on the receiving end, he would admire his younger brother's tactics.

"I don't have an explanation, Brother," Elijah choked out once Klaus lifted his foot from his neck. Klaus glared down at his brother once more before moving away from him. Part of him wanted to end him right there and pull his heart from his chest but another part of him was beyond the point of revenge. The emotional energy he's exhausted in the six hours alone was taxing.

"So, you seek to destroy me without so much as a reason?" Elijah had no words. There was nothing he could say that would suffice.

"I never aimed to betray you, Niklaus. I thought I was doing the best thing by honoring Bonnie's wishes." Klaus growled as his eyes flashed gold.

"Your loyalty isn't to her! Your loyalty is with me! Always and forever, or did you forget?!" Klaus's voice echoed throughout the forest, causing several birds to flutter away quickly.

"I didn't forget! Niklaus, there is nothing I can ever say to you that would make things right. Day by day, for ten years, I thought I would get the nerve to tell you. I thought I would finally be able to go against Bonnie and tell you what was happening. I fought endlessly to find a solution that best served everyone and day after day I failed to do so. Each day, I found an excuse. When you shut off your humanity and murdered half the continent, I told myself that you were vulnerable and that then wasn't the best time because I thought that I was keeping them safe. When you seemed to finally be healing, I thought that then wasn't a good time either, because I didn't want to rip the bandages off a healing wound. I was caught in the middle of trying to save you from yourself that I didn't realize that I was the very thing standing in the way and for that, I am deeply sorry."

Elijah didn't like to yell. Mikael had spent most of their childhood yelling in their faces and thus, Elijah grew a disdain for raised voices; but the moment called for it. Elijah fell silent as Klaus stared blankly at him. Elijah wished he could read minds at that moment, to know what his younger brother was thinking—but he couldn't and it gnawed at him.

"Ten years, and you never once thought that my family would be the one that healed me?" Klaus's words tore down every bit of hope Elijah had of getting through to his brother. "You, who knew me best, didn't think that family would be what brought me to my knees? I've lived one-thousand years obsessing over a family that never gave a shit about me and when I finally had a chance at foraging my own, you took that away from me." Klaus didn't bother hiding what he felt. Each tear that fell, felt like a dagger in Elijah's heart.

"Though we still have our axes to grind, I understand why Bonnie ran. She's known me as a tormentor longer than she's known me as a lover and though what she did was fucked up, I can almost see the reason behind it. But you, Elijah, all I can see is malcontent. The only reason that makes sense to me is that you want what I have; always have. What you did was insidious. You purposely kept my family away from me and maybe you had good intentions in the beginning, but there is no excuse good enough to justify ten fucking years! The only excuse that makes sense is that you wanted Bonnie for yourself. Just like Tatia, just like Katherine. You wanted what was mine and until you admit it, you are dead to me." Klaus glared at Elijah, feeling somewhat vindicated by the startled look on his face.

"Brother—"

"You are not my brother." Klaus closed his eyes as pain swelled in his chest. Hearing those words made them all the more real. Tears pricked Elijah's eyes as Niklaus's pain became his own. Niklaus sobered long enough to discard the branch that kept Elijah pinned to the earth. Tossing the bloodied limb to the side, Klaus gave Elijah one final glance before turning his back to him. "You have twenty-four hours to say goodbye to the twins."

Elijah stared at the blank spot where his brother once stood, feeling the wind of his departure on his face.

A/N: Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this installment and I hope you all had a happy holiday season thus far. It seems that Elijah and Klaus are done with each other but surely there's more to their story. :) This is a part of the healing process which is a long ass journey for the three of them. I hoped the flashback shed a bit of light on how things were before it went south so quickly lol. Know that none of this was Bonnie's intention. It was a series of horrible ass decisions that brought them to this crossroad lol. Thank you all for reading and sticking it out with me. I'll try to update NCITW as soon as I can.