A/N: For all that angst I served up, you've now earned some sweet fluff to sate your sweet teeth. It's coming a bit later than I planned but that's the nature of the beast. Thanks for your patience and for sticking to my little fic.
Two years ago
Mystic Falls
"Klaus." Bonnie moaned, her fists clutching the bedsheets in a vice-like grip. She was lying on her side with her back was arched, bare breasts bouncing lightly with each thrust, legs spread open and hooked over the calves behind her.
She hadn't come here for this. At least that's what Bonnie told herself. He'd sent her a message after her study session with Matt at The Grille asking (demanding) that she come to the mansion with any new information she'd gotten on his mother's plans. What was supposed to be a stiff exchange of information and planning turned into the current activity after just a few minutes in the same room. It would have been hilarious if Bonnie wasn't so ashamed of herself.
After the first encounter in the woods, she'd carried on with a mixture of confusion and disgust in herself. Confusion because she wasn't quite sure how she could let herself be taken by Klaus of all people. Disgust because, well, she happened to enjoy sex in the woods with the person supposed to be her enemy. Their tentative alliance was held together by the mutual agreement that Esther Mikaelson needed to stopped at all costs. She'd told him that what happened was a mistake. She'd told herself too in harsh little mutters and chastising thoughts. Later she calmed down and decided to allow fairness in dealing with her guilt.
Everyone was allowed a once-off for stupid choices. Bonnie was allowed to make a mistake, wasn't she? As long as she learned from it enough to never repeat it, then what was the issue?
The issue was that, well clearly, she hadn't learned shit.
"Look at me," Klaus rasped. When Bonnie refused to obey by keeping her eyes squeezed shut, he grasped her chin forcing her to look at his lust-addled golden eyes. Her own green eyes were blazing with a molten desire that made him shudder along with something else he couldn't put his finger on. A cross between euphoria and fear. Miss. Bennett was a lot more fascinating than people gave her credit for. That good girl persona was just a suit for something much more interesting lurking beneath. Even if she didn't know it yet.
"Good girl," he purred against her lips. The way she shuddered and gasped made Klaus smirk in victory at his little test. Of course, the girl so easily forgotten by her friends until they needed her aid would swell beneath his praise. He could tell she was conflicted since it came from the big bad hybrid. His perverse enjoyment of her unnecessary anguish was so in character.
"Oh yes," she breathed. Her hands reached back blindly to grab onto him, her fingers digging little crescent moons at the back of his neck. He came hard from the sensation with a harsh groan.
She followed after with a series of pants and groans locking their tangled legs tighter together.
A moment of quiet bliss followed. Klaus savored it because he guessed that in a few moments the witch would begin her inevitable scampering and go through the motions of her annoying conscience tugging at her. Sure enough, Bonnie pushed away from his hold and reached for her discarded clothes on the floor.
"You should shower." Klaus laid languidly on the bed like a satisfied cat.
"I can shower at home." She buttoned up her shirt in a hurry.
"You're constantly around vampires and the odd werewolf. It might be harder to deny just who you've been with if one of the Salvatore brothers come sniffing about." He smirked. "Unless that's the point. I'd prefer the latter to be honest."
Bonnie glared at him but couldn't discount the truth of his words so she reluctantly began to unbutton her shirt. "Fine, can I use your shower?"
"All yours," he winked.
She rolled her eyes ignoring how her nether regions were tingling again as if they hadn't just collected a brutal workout from the hybrid minutes ago. Just to reassure herself, she added once again. "This is the last time we do this."
"If you say so, dear witch." Klaus couldn't deny that the complication they were adding made things much more interesting.
Eighteen months after prison world
New Orleans
Klaus didn't sleep much normally. His vampire physiology didn't require it. There were times during the day when his body felt heavy, almost what he remembered tiredness felt like. But the feeling was fleeting. Barely there. Perhaps just a small reminder of what the sensation felt like. He wondered if all vampires felt it. Felt that brief moment of strange human weakness. He certainly didn't go asking around that's for sure.
His lack of sleep finally came in handy for more than vigilant nights waiting for his hunter father to find him and torturous thoughts to plague his already heavy mind. Now there was a different reason altogether.
A sweet gurgle erupted from the crib near the king-sized bed. Bonnie was still sleeping deeply tucked beneath the covers and he didn't want to disturb her after the night she had. He quietly stood up from bed, bare feet brushing against the soft carpeted floor to the crib where the single inhabitant lay awake after a somewhat short slumber.
Frey Bennett Mikaelson kicked his legs up in glee and squealed at the sight of his father, chubby arms stretched forward eager to be lifted. Klaus chuckled softly, picking up his son and holding him to his chest. At nine months, he'd grown significantly from the tiny newborn Klaus was so afraid to touch without Bonnie's encouraging words to give him confidence.
Frey cuddled his father, tiny fist clutching his shirt tightly and drooling on his chest. He babbled lightly about what one could only guess were his dreams and whatever excitement he'd encountered since waking up in the crib.
Klaus brushed his son's brown curls unable to get used to how soft they were. They came directly from his mother. That and his light bronze complexion. Everything else, dimples, eyes, and smile, came from his father. Bonnie cried when she first saw those blue eyes. They were tears of joy since she wished more than anything for their child to have his eyes.
"Babababa," Frey babbled louder, eager to continue his tale. He was much compared to the previous night when his anguished screams made his mother nearly herself with worry. Cutting a new tooth was no small feat. Klaus stuck his little finger into the baby's mouth to feel the offending new dentition. Fully out and formed.
"Let's be a bit quiet, Frey. Wouldn't want to wake your mother, now, would we?" The hybrid whispered.
Frey nodded once as if he understood a word his father spoke. Mostly he was just entranced. Hearing Klaus speak was his favorite thing ever, they'd discovered. It likely came from all those times Klaus spoke to him when Bonnie was still pregnant. Words whispered to her belly that relayed his fears and excitement for his firstborn.
After Bonnie's release from the prison world, they went to New Orleans together. True to his word he was ready to drag her away from Mystic Falls kicking and screaming if that's what it came to. All his worries about her hesitance to go with him were mostly for naught because a year spent in solitude made her realize more than ever how much she loved him. That didn't mean their issues were done with.
There was the fact that he blabbed about their relationship to all her friends before getting her consent. She'd maneuvered for two years without having to tell them but the situation ripped away her choice in the matter. For that Klaus refused to apologize since he did it to save her.
They gave her the grace of her first night back from 1994 before Elena came demanding an explanation for it all. That led to a blowout fight between the two where Bonnie finally relayed all the resentment she felt towards the doppelgänger. The result was stone-cold silence which existed till the current day. Damon was surprisingly more sensible in his approach, starting with his long-overdue apology and promising to stay out of her way.
"Lucy was right." He looked off into the distance. It had been a long time since he witnessed dawn. His daylight ring meant he had no reason to fear it but it was something he considered eerily human to desire. "Saying sorry doesn't mean shit right now. Not when you didn't get it when you needed it the most."
It was just the two of them on the front porch. Elena went upstairs with Jeremy. As it was, Bonnie couldn't be alone in a room with more than three people at a time. Lucy was out in town getting some supplies of her own while Klaus was making their travel arrangements. He didn't want her to leave his sight but she made him understand she needed to do this alone.
"No, I didn't," Bonnie conceded quietly. "I'll be frank, my life would probably be a lot better away from this place. None of the good memories I had growing up will ever be enough to tide away from the bad stuff that happened afterward."
"I agree," Damon grunted in poorly concealed disbelief. "But Klaus? He's the one who'll make it all better?"
"He makes it tolerable." her tone was as tired as it was final.
Bonnie didn't discuss the particulars of their relationship and he didn't ask. She was owed that respect against intrusion at least. "For what it's worth, I don't regret our friendship in 1994. How we got there, all the shit you did to me isn't what I'll never forget. To be honest, I'm still not sure I can forgive you for all of that. But you were my friend in the prison world and I won't ever be able to forget that. "
"Neither do I." He gave a sliver of a smile and she gave one right back.
Their friendship wasn't going to be an everlasting thing. It would tide and ebb from the deliberate distance formed and past wounds that never quite healed correctly. Not after all the chaos, Damon brought to her world. The death of her mother among other things. But what they forged in the lonely walls of that prison world would always bind them together whether they liked it or not.
He was one of the few she told when they first learned of Frey.
Getting pregnant two months after leaving 1994 was not what many would call a smart move. Bonnie's mental state was still quite precarious. She couldn't be in any crowded areas for more than ten minutes before having a panic attack some days. Sometimes she'd have nightmares that she was back in there, that Klaus' voice was a hallucination and he never came back for her. Things were better now but she still had some ways to go. He did too. But their son couldn't be seen as anything other than a precious gift to be treasured despite the lack of planning.
The conception in itself wasn't that surprising. They theorized that unlocking his wolf side had something to do with it, coupled with the fact that being in a magical prison for a year meant she was behind on her Depo shot. When they first arrived in New Orleans, the plan was to take it slow and gently raise the dying embers of their former relationship. That plan was thrown out about two weeks in when Klaus made Bonnie dinner at the compound and they danced to his jazz records like old times then fucked like animals in front of the fireplace.
After that, it pretty much picked up where they left off. A few weeks later, Frey was conceived.
Bonnie was still fast asleep so Klaus crept out of the bedroom to his studio which was his favorite place to take their son. He sat on the bench, pushing the notebooks and pencils out of the way. Frey tried to grab a pencil but was deterred lest he pokes himself in the eye. He whined in displeasure that his daddy would dare ruin his fun.
"Not until you're old enough my little wolf. I've told you that before." Klaus soothed by bouncing him gently on his lap, one hand splayed on his stomach to steady him.
Frey didn't seem content with that answer and released a tiny huff. Klaus snorted a laugh. Just nine months and already such a character. The propensity for drama was all him though. Payback for his years of histrionics.
"Marcel is the same way. Just so dramatic," He lamented. Frey gave him a wide gummy smile at the mention of his older brother. Bonnie's arrival stirred up the witch community in New Orleans. A Bennett witch was no one to scoff at and one who was paired with the Original hybrid nonetheless. But Bonnie made it clear that she was not interested in their politics. Not everyone got that message though.
Marcel eventually managed to corner her on one of her weekly trips to her favorite bakery. She easily overpowered him but allowed him to speak his piece nonetheless. It shouldn't have surprised Klaus that the two got along despite his obvious resistance to their friendship. She prompted him multiple times to make up with his first son. Such promptings increased further when she got pregnant.
Their truce was a hard-won one. Marcel held on to the stubborn spirit he had never given up, and he was unwilling to admit his faults. But they both cared for Bonnie, and that's what drew them together. When she was about six months along, some unruly vampires not so fond of Klaus tried to kidnap her. Marcel slaughtered them all and brought her back to a livid but thankful Klaus.
"Don't give me that look. I know he sneaks you animal crackers when he visits." Klaus patted Frey's back. The baby just smiled, chewing on a chubby fist as though his dark secret wasn't just revealed. "You're lucky I don't tell your mother."
Frey adored Marcel and vice versa. His sire would no doubt defend Frey with his life if it came down to it. Klaus earned himself a good number of enemies so they'd need all the allies they could get. The baby was still known to just a few but it would be a matter of time knowing who his parents were and the gifts bestowed on him.
"Amba?" Frey babbled.
"Marcel," Klaus pronounced.
"Maba!"
He snorted. "Close enough I suppose."
No doubt those two would run him ragged in the years to come with all sorts of schemes. Deep down he looked forward to it. Frey looked around the room curious until his gaze settled on the large unfinished canvas near the door. He stretched his little fist towards it. "Eh, da?"
Klaus smiled noticing what his son was looking at. "Yes, that's your mother." It was a half-finished painting of Bonnie he started a few weeks ago.
His first word was mama. He spoke at seven months. Bonnie wept as she kissed his cheeks all over while Klaus looked on in astonishment. This was to be expected, according to his doctor and expert in Bayou magic. While the growth may not be uniform in all aspects, Frey would surpass most of his peers in certain percentiles. They already had confirmation that he was a wolf. Bonnie could feel his magic but he hadn't expressed it yet. Most kids didn't until 2-5 years of age. They weren't worried about that. He had plenty of time to be a regular baby. Well, as regular as a witch-werewolf hybrid could be.
Frey's eyes were peeled on the painting. She was lying down on the floor. He remembered the day he started it. It was unusually hot even for Louisiana. Bonnie complained all day until she undressed down to her tank top and underwear lying on the cold bathroom tiles. That was where Klaus found her. The image of his lover pouting on the ground like a toddler should have been hilarious but he found it enchanting, just like he found everything she did.
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" He took Frey's silence as agreement. "The most stubborn woman I've ever met. And I've met your Aunt Bekah. Did you know she wanted to name you Tree? Imagine that."
Frey squawked as if taken aback by the sheer audacity of his mother. His father nodded in agreement. "I know! Tree Bennett-Mikaelson. We might as well ask all the children to point and laugh. No son of mine deserves that."
Bonnie was perusing some antiquated book of names during the early stages of pregnancy when she settled on Tree for some reason but Klaus put his foot down. He wasn't that pussy-whipped. She'd actually pouted and defended it stating it was a homage to her status as a servant of nature. Klaus retorted that he wasn't raising a child with a goddamned hippie. That got him a night on the couch but he found his way back to her graces the next day by way of a foot massage and some interesting nocturnal activities.
"At least it's better than what your uncle suggested. Atticus." He rolled his eyes at the memory of Elijah insisting it was a fine name.
His brother and Bonnie had an interesting relationship. Their cool, polite interactions were hilarious to witness if not a little saddening.
Elijah betrayed her once then orchestrated the ordeal which killed her mother so his witch wasn't eager to befriend him again. It didn't help that his brother hadn't exactly apologized for all of that. Klaus was certain he didn't care how they related at first but with Elijah being the only family member he was speaking with at the moment and Bonnie being the love of his life, he did catch himself longing for them to have a closer relationship. It disgusted him how much he cared.
Elijah did care immensely about his nephew which she respected enough to allow them have a relationship. The sentiment was wholeheartedly returned on the baby's side. Frey's eyes lit up whenever his uncle entered the room and even preferred him over his parents on some particularly troublesome nights when colic struck. Klaus feared he would come home to find his son in a tiny suit one of these days.
(A fear which was not unapproved though)
Frey swiped his cheek with a saliva covered fist and cooed. "You're getting hungry, aren't you? Hopefully your mother is awake by now."
He listened for any stirrings from the bedroom. There was the rustling of sheets. A yawn. He used his vampire speed to transport them back to the room which made Frey squeal in delight. His mother didn't like it but she was too groggy to scold him.
"Hey," her voice was raspy from sleep. Her adorable bed hair and mused appearance endeared him all over again. "Is my baby boy awake?"
"He is." Klaus smiled fondly as Frey reached forward to get closer into the arms of his favorite person after his daddy. Mommy was soft and warm and smelt all kinds of sweet which is what he wanted. Bonnie cooed carrying him and kissing his cute face all over.
"Mama." Frey buried his face in her neck.
She chuckled holding him closer. "Never gonna get used to hearing that."
Klaus got into the bed next to her. "Now my turn." She chuckled leaning over to kiss her big baby next. His hand curled at the back of her neck pulling her closer, her sweet taste filling his head all over. These moments were tucked in a private place in his memory to be untouched by other less murky experiences.
Frey decided enough was enough and all attention needed to be back on him by squeezing his mother's breast in protest.
"Frey, no!" Bonnie chuckled exasperatedly pulling his little hand away.
"Careful, those belong to Daddy," Klaus fake scolded.
She rolled her eyes. "Dude don't even. He gets that from you."
He kissed her shoulder tucking himself behind to hold his family close. "We both have a healthy obsession with you, my love. I'm glad he's inherited that from me." It was words like that which made those heavy days feel less gruesome. Klaus' adoration was never absent from his words and actions. During her pregnancy and after the birth of their son, Bonnie went through zig zags in her psyche that would have been hard for any other partner to deal with. But he was there for her every step of the way just like he promised.
"That's not all he got from you." She mused taking in her son's features. He was the perfect mix of the two of them. She was just as obsessed with him. "He also got your big head."
"Oi, he carries it with dignity mind you. That big head is a gift," He mumbled against her shoulder. His thumb stroked Frey's cheek.
"You weren't the one who had to push it out."
Klaus grinned. "And you have my eternal thanks."
Frey mumbled something cuddling closer to his mother's chest. Klaus thought he was hungry but it seemed he just wanted a cuddle with his parents. He'd have breakfast in half an hour or so. She sighed in contentment.
Calm.
It was hard to get used to when her world had been plagued by chaos for so long. The man beside her was the instigator of most of it. But he had given her peace she'd never known. Or even thought that she deserved.
"I love you both more than you'll ever know," he whispered with burning honesty.
She smiled leaning closer to him. "Ditto."
"Really? I pronounce my love and you reply me with the most inelegant response?"
He was such a drama queen. Bonnie loved him so freaking much. She yawned covering her mouth with the back of her hand then playing with the baby's soft curls. "I pushed your son's giant head out of me. Nothing else quite says I love you like that."
"Touche."
That's it. That's the end folks. Thank you for staying with me and being patient for the end of this fic. I enjoyed the journey and I hope you did too!