Five To One

A chair crashing into the wall in the other room steals her attention from Finn, whose cheeks are beginning to feel warm again. She leaves him alone, wandering out into the hallway towards the noise. She doesn't know where her place is in this family drama yet, but she feels obligated to at least check on Klaus, even though she wouldn't be able to do much if he was in trouble.

"How can you possibly defend him, Elijah?! He's ruined our lives. Holed us up in those terrible coffins at the mildest of inconveniences." The voice is light and feminine, Rebekah's.

"You were irresponsible and likely to get all of us caught," Klaus refutes, ever justified in his logic.

"Laughable coming from you!" This one must belong to the youngest brother.

Kol has Klaus backed into a corner and he's actually afraid, his eyes silently begging Elijah to come to his defense. It's an odd thing, seeing him scared this way. He has the dagger pointed at Klaus, waving it threatening through the space between them. Elijah has grabbed a hold of Kol's tattered shirt to keep him from getting to Klaus and Rebekah is standing off to the side watching her brothers fight. Her dagger has been planted in Klaus's shoulder and she seems content with her effort.

Finn brushes past Elena and marches straight up to Klaus, burying his dagger into his outstretched hand until it pierces through cleanly. Kol takes the opportunity to rip free from Elijah to stab Klaus in the side. All of this anger and violence, but each wound is relatively artificial.

"Oh no," Rebekah complains loudly when she turns and catches sight of Elena. "Not another one of them. Is it even possible to be this predictable?"

"Don't touch her," Klaus grunts while fighting his brothers.

"Oh, I think I will though," she smiles and saunters over to Elena, her skirt sways and sparkles. "I'll do more than just touch her."

"Enough!" Elijah shouts out and then sighs, "All of you. Enough. Elena? Please, this is a family matter."

"She stays," Klaus insists.

"No, Niklaus. We have much to discuss. As a family."

"I'll just be downstairs, okay? Come find me when you're done." She backs out of the room feeling like a lamb that has just been saved from the slaughter.

She's keeping herself busy in the kitchen trying her best to put together breakfast while ignoring the shouting coming from upstairs when Bonnie calls her.

"Hey, Elena. Are you sitting?" Bonnie's voice sounds strained and rushed at the same time.

"Bon. Calm down. What's going on?"

"They found Matt," she manages to blurt out between sobs.

"What do you mean?" She hadn't given Matt much of a thought since Jenna's memorial. She had been angry and still wasn't eager to see or talk to him, but with everything else happening she just hadn't given him a second thought.

"Elena. He was found just outside of town. His heart was ripped out and Kl-" she pauses, "Someone wrote 'I'm sorry' on his chest. It's this whole scene. Damon and Stefan are taking care of it. Re-writing everyone's memory into something better, but…Elena."

"That's so terrible, Bonnie." Her voice sounded like an echo.

"It's not just terrible. Matt was our friend. This is devastating. That anyone could do this to him, it's unimaginable."

"He was, Bonnie," she said, finding it difficult to hold so many conflicting thoughts in at once. "And then he trusted the wrong person and left Jenna behind to die. I'm sorry he's dead, really I am. But – what do you want me to say?" She wasn't even sure what to feel never mind what to say.

"Klaus did this. You know it was him. Just say it."

"We can't know that." If she could hear the lie then she knew Bonnie could too. Of course it had to be him.

"Yeah we can. We were all there when you said you'd like to rip Matt's heart out."

"I didn't mean literally, I just…wanted him to know how I was feeling. I was mad."

"Does Klaus know that you were being metaphoric?"

"We haven't had a lot of opportunity to talk about that night. I've been kind of busy over here, fighting to stay alive. Not metaphorically."

"I know, but…"

"I'll talk to Klaus, but Bonnie? We've all done terrible things. Damon too. If he's done this," she pauses as Bonnie scoffs, "then I'll talk to him."

"Do better than just talk," her friend warns her.

It's an uncomfortable way to end a conversation with her best friend, admitting that the men they love are not bastions of sainthood. At one point, she might have cared, but she's too exhausted to dissect her feelings now. She's made her bed with the monster.

Klaus seems too pleased with himself and she knows that whatever happened upstairs must have been the outcome that best suited him. When she relays the information about Matt, his face falls for a fraction before he recovers his composure, but it's too late – she's seen the truth.

"Bonnie called just now. Matt was found dead on the road leading out to the highway. Know anything about it?"

"And if I say I do?"

"His heart was in his hands. Who else would have killed him in that very specific way?"

"You said yourself that you would if you could. Threatened to rip his heart out as he had yours. I want you to have everything you desire in life, Elena."

"I didn't actually mean it, Klaus."

"Ah well, be careful what you wish for then, love." He waves her off like the conversation is over, but she can't let him off that easily. It was one thing to kill Markos in retribution, but Matt didn't deserve that.

"You can't go around killing people in my name."

"Why not?" His question is so earnest that she doesn't know what to do with it. He really means it. He doesn't understand why he can't. "Are you angry the sheriff is dead? Do you miss him?"

"It's not easy to explain." His gaze is demanding and she considers her next words carefully. "I would have forgiven him eventually, but not forgotten what he'd done. I would have forgiven him for me and now that he's gone I won't have that chance."

"I took away your chance to grant forgiveness?"

"Yes and isn't that so much more powerful than death? To hold forgiveness over someone until they earn it?" He's considering her words. "If you kill every person who wrongs me then I don't get the opportunity to choose later if I forgive them or not. It's a powerful decision you've taken from me."

"I wouldn't want to take anything from you, sweetheart," he says, holding her close creating a single line between their two bodies. "I'll consult with you in the future should I feel the need to kill anyone on your behalf." She knows she'll need to process her feelings about Matt later, she's still in shock, but this is the best solution to get Klaus to understand. She almost has a chance to relax in her minor victory, but they are interrupted by Rebekah.

"What a romantic promise, Nik. That you'll communicate with her. My, how you have evolved since the twenties." Every word is stained with sarcasm. "Almost one hundred years, you've kept me in that box and I have to wake up to find that you've fallen in love with another of Tatia's look-alikes. Don't you or Elijah ever get bored of the same face?"

"Rebekah," Klaus warns.

"I'm not wrong, am I? Are you and Elijah both sharing her? Does she get a night off from you two?"

"I'm not with Elijah," Elena's voice is so small in comparison to Klaus and his sister, who have been trying to outmatch each other since she entered the room.

"You're only with Nik? Interesting choice. Sad choice really. Elijah has always been the best of us."

"Do you intend to keep this up for the rest of our lives? If so, then you may want to find a different place to stay."

"Oh! You'll let me leave? You won't just put me back in the bloody coffin again?! If that's a threat, it's a poor one. Let me leave and live my life the way I deserve?"

Elena grabs her coffee and sneaks off into the library, though brother and sister are so entirely engaged in their fight that neither take much notice to her leaving. She can still hear them, but the doors muffle the sound enough that she can tune it out.

"They'll be like that for a while, I imagine." She jumps at Kol's words, unaware of him hidden in the corner chair. His smile reminds her so much of Klaus, when he's trying to be charming.

"All siblings fight, right?"

"Even more so when they are immortal and indestructible it seems," he agrees.

"Do you like to read?" she walks around the room, taking a seat on the couch opposite of him.

"I'm fond of knowledge. Living forever has its downfalls in certain aspects. Life can become boring, but I find that learning abates that. Tell me, how did you and my brother begin your little affair?"

"Girl moves to Sicily. Boy finds her. Girl avoids being killed by boy. Romance?" she shrugs.

"Certainly an odd beginning." He leans forward with a singular intensity.

"Everything about me is an odd beginning," she tries to laugh it off because she's only just remembered that while Kol has been daggered, he's also been starving and he's looking at her like she belongs on a menu.

"What is it about my brother that drew you to him? Indulge my curiosity. Please? For a man re-born in a strange century." Kol shared a boldness with Klaus that she recognizes.

"Do you know what hydrangea are? My mom tried to plant some one year and it ended up overpowering her entire flower bed. Klaus is like that. He takes root and before I knew it, he'd grown too big to ignore."

"You're not really romantic, are you darling?"

"Would it be better if I said – Once upon a time, a girl ran away from a beast and years later that same woman found that she quite liked the beast?"

"No, I don't think so." Kol stood up, setting the book down in his place and slinked over to Elena stopping just in front of her. "I think the story should end differently."

"How?"

"A girl ran away from a beast and years later a woman infiltrated and softened the beast's heart until she convinced him to wake up his brother. And upon awakening the ill-begotten young man, the woman felt the lust grow between her…" Kol leaned down, inch by inch, as he spoke.

"One more word and I'll forsake the dagger completely and tear your to pieces with my bare hands."

"Elijah would stop you," Kol replied while keeping his eyes locked onto Elena's.

"In this scenario, I wouldn't be too confident in that."

Kol's fingers glided along her cheek. "You really are quite something, Elena. I can see why my brothers have both been infatuated by you and the yous that came before."

Klaus surprises her by standing still as Kol leaves the library, tracking him as he goes. Her heart rate returns to normal slowly as he comes to stand in front of her, tilting her face up to his own. "Try not to find yourself alone with Kol again, love. He's unpredictable."

"Are you worried about what he might do?"

He kneels before her, sliding her dress up over her knees and kissing up the length of her inner thigh. "I worry about what he would force me to do were he to try anything with you."

"Klaus." She looks around to the doors left open and pushes against his shoulder. He erases any concern she has about being so exposed in this room when his head disappears under her the thin cotton fabric, begging her to abandon everything but him. Afterwards, she'll wonder how much of it was for them and how much of it was a warning to his brother, but in the moment all she can do is focus on him.

Their dinner that evening is more informal, but Klaus is already preparing something extravagant he expects everyone to attend. Demands it. The rest of the siblings seem to have made up, for better or worse, and she hears them enjoying themselves downstairs. She hopes it's just drinks they are laughing over. She's talked to Klaus about using blood bags, but she has a feeling that is a battle she'll lose.

The idea of Finn missing another dinner pulls at her and she turns on her heel at the top of the stairs. She knocks lightly at the door, prepared for him to ignore her like he'd been ignoring everyone lately. Not that the rest of his siblings had exactly been doing much different.

"You may enter."

She takes a few steps into his room, still bare and void of any personality, and hovers at the entrance. "Staying in your room again tonight?"

"Why not? It isn't as if I'm missed." He reminds her so much of herself after she lost her parents, savoring seclusion like it was a delicate pastry.

"I've missed you."

"You hardly know me. It's like missing an extra appendage you never had in the first place. An impossible feeling."

"Alright then. I've noticed your absence." At this, he looks up at her. "If you let me get to know you, I think I would miss you."

"Your words can't be true and yet, you believe them."

"Does that mean you are up for dinner tonight?"

"Yes, I will remain upstairs this evening."

She stifles a laugh at his misunderstanding and sits next to him on his bed. "When you are ready to come downstairs and join the rest of us, I'll be there."

"What makes you think that matters to me? As if you could provide me comfort?"

"I'd like to try. We could get to know each other? I'll make some time every day and we can do anything you'd like. It's not good for you to sit in this room all day."

"If you insist."

"Actually I do. Klaus is planning a big dinner with our families and he'll want you there."

"Are you here on his behalf?"

"No, I'm here for you. I want you there as well and I'd like you to feel like you have a friendly face to seek out if you need one." His mouth twists into what she can only guess is his version of a smile.

Elena keeps to her word in the days leading up to the big Mikaelson family dinner. She and Finn take long walks together, winding through the property and often venturing into the woods. Slowly, he opens up to her. They bond over being the eldest sibling in their family and all the responsibility that comes with. She lets Finn vent over his frustration at Elijah trying to replace him in that role. He listens as she tries to explain her complicated feelings around Matt's death and Klaus's role in it.

Her efforts pay off and he begrudgingly agrees to attend the dinner but only if he gets to sit next to her, which she's confident she can arrange. It makes her hopeful that she can gain a foothold with Rebekah, who has still iced her out.